The Weekly Watch
Coups for Corporate Profit Define Our Foreign Policy
With all the distractions it is difficult for regular folks to see the steady move toward a disastrous war with Iran. We are well on the road to upsetting the social reforms and nationalized oil resources of Venezuela (as we discussed last week). Isn't it interesting how the terrorists and our existential enemies always seem to be where there is oil. Korea fired another missile...I'm sure our response will be bellicose, despite the fact the only request they have is for us to stop military exercises around their country. This week the health insurance conflict (it's not about health care) dominated the cycle. Russiagate perks along. T-rumps cabinet cleaning has been part of the media feeding frenzy too. So the firehouse sprays and the people are too overwhelmed to see what is obvious (like our idiotic Iranian policy) and what is hidden (like the arrest of Imran Awan).
Let's begin with the irony of Iran. Here's a one minute warning from Vijay Prashad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4qEkAp8tao
The entire conversation with Vijay Prashad and Paul Jay on Iran and the middle east is interesting. (40 min and transcript)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19620:%26%238203%3BVijay-Prashad%3A-Trum...
Informative conversation with Ervand Abrahamian, a retired professor of history at Baruch College, City University of New York. He is the author of several books, including "The Coup: 1953, the CIA, and the Roots of Modern U.S.-Iranian Relations." Great background and summary. 2 parts video and text
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/24/incoherent_policy_us_imposes_sanc...
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/24/newly_declassified_documents_conf...
How can we support the Saudis and oppose Iran? It blows my mind. Jimmy Dore's too. (7 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu7rap9jVqs
But there's no doubt about it, Iran is in our sights...
After a contentious meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this week, President Donald Trump instructed a group of trusted White House staffers to make the potential case for withholding certification of Iran at the next 90-day review of the nuclear deal.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/21/trump-assigns-white-house-team-to-ta...
We refuse to look at our own history, but we're no longer are hiding it. Tillerson's department of Exxon released the 1953 story of the Iranian coup we engineered. They used to deny this shit, and now they're advertising.
The Department of State recently released a long-suppressed volume of historical records documenting the role of the United States in the 1953 coup against the Iranian government of Mohammad Mosadeq.
https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2017/06/iran-frus-release/
The report makes no qualms...we instigated a coup primarily for corporate interest. I heard it suggested Tillerson released this report in order to piss off the Iranians. Western media ignores the report as the T-rumpeteers move toward war. From the preface:
This Foreign Relations retrospective volume focuses on the use of covert operations by the Truman and Eisenhower administrations as an adjunct to their respective policies toward Iran, culminating in the overthrow of the Mosadeq government in August 1953. Moreover, the volume documents the involvement of the U.S. intelligence community in the policy formulation process and places it within the broader Cold War context. For a full appreciation of U.S. relations with Iran between 1951 and 1954, this volume should be read in conjunction with the volume published in 1989.
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1951-54Iran/comp1
In over 1,000 pages of internal cables and letters released with little publicity on June 15, U.S. officials discussed western economic and political interests in Iran, as well as the tactics and viability of arranging a coup in the year leading up to Mosaddegh's eventual removal.
The plot was eventually successful, although knowledge that the CIA had been involved led to widespread popular anger that some have said laid the conditions for the Iranian Revolution of 1979, when the U.S. Embassy was occupied.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/New-Documents-Reveal-CIA-Motives-T...
The papers released this month show U.S. fears over the spread of communism, as well as the British desire to regain access to Iran’s oil industry, which had been nationalized by Mosaddegh. It also offers a cautionary tale about the limits of American power as a new U.S. president long suspicious of Iran weighs the landmark nuclear deal with Tehran reached under his predecessor.
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/us_state_department_document...
Jimmy Dore talks with Jordan Chariton about the media corruption (13 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YrfoRV-xHY
A complicit media helps prepare for war. A 10-minute film, titled “The Middle East’s Cold War, Explained,” is a textbook example of how US government propaganda pervades corporate media. With the help of a former senior government official and CIA analyst, the Vox video articulates a commonplace pro-US, anti-Iran narrative that portrays the violent conflicts in the Middle East as sectarian proxy wars between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
http://fair.org/home/vox-cia-iran-saudi-arabia-middle-east-cold-war/
It is the corporate media that provides us the opportunity to create the disasters like the one in Yemen http://www.alternet.org/world/yemen-worlds-largest-humanitarian-crisis?a...
The CIA control of the MSM is so complete today that every evil government action is immediately seconded, whether it be the lies about the Attacks of September 11, 2001, the wars against Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc., the coup in Ukraine, the downing of the Malaysian jetliner there, drone murders, the looting of the American people by the elites, alleged sarin gas attacks in Syria, the anti-Russia bashing – everything. The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, NPR, etc. – all are stenographers for the deep state.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/27/the-deep-state-now-and-then/
Jimmy Dore gives a specific example of CIA collusion with the Washington Post (19 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwMvNoq0NUA
Lee Camp discusses CIA head Pompeo plans to bring stability to the Middle East and fight terrorism with the same failing policies that have made lives of civilians there miserable and have turned them against America. (8 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqauyNSM51A
Venezuela votes today for representatives to a constitutional assembly. The coverage is all about the anti Maduro protests, but there are supporters too. Abby Martin interviews several. (25 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUYWrPiUeWY
Much of the international left has been misled about the violence in Venezuela, thinking that the government is the only one responsible, that President Maduro has declared himself to be dictator for life (when he actually confirmed that the presidential elections scheduled for late 2018 will proceed as planned), or that all dissent is being punished with prison (when a major opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, who was partly responsible for the post-election violence in 2014 was just released from prison, now under house arrest). If this is the reason for the silence on Venezuela, then the left should be ashamed for not having read its own critiques of the mainstream media.
http://therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/161-more-blog-posts-...
Medea Benjamin is so correct...
You would think it would be easy to form a united front with activists from different movements who want to redirect our tax dollars. Students fighting for free education should understand that stopping just one weapons system, the expensive and unnecessary Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets, would fund the education of all college students for the next two decades. Nurses fighting for universal health care should understand that if we cut the bloated military budget, we’d have plenty of money for a national health-care system like the Europeans have. Environmentalists paddling their kayaks to block oil-digging ships should understand that if we dramatically cut our military spending, we’d have hundreds of billions of dollars to propel us into the era of green, sustainable energy. Unions should recognize that the military is one of the worst creators of jobs in relation to money spent.
http://www.alternet.org/activism/mass-movement-stop-mass-killing?akid=15...
The department’s budget is awash in waste, as you might expect from the only major federal agency that has never passed an audit. For example, last year a report by the Defense Business Board found that the Department of Defense could save $125 billion over five years just by trimming excess bureaucracy. And a new study by the Pentagon’s Inspector General indicates that the department has ignored hundreds of recommendations that could have saved it more than $33.6 billion.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/10-ways-military-gobbles-your-...
Great conversations from the week.
The intercept podcast (with transcript) was good this week. Glenn filled in for Jeremy and covers the new cold war. Fox News’s Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald find something they can actually agree on (the Democratic establishment’s Russia hysteria), but diverge on Tucker’s coverage of immigration and crime. And Russian-American writer Masha Gessen explains how conspiracy thinking is a mirror of the leaders we put in power, and why it’s so tempting — and dangerous — to believe in simplistic reasons for Trump’s election.
https://theintercept.com/2017/07/26/intercepted-podcast/
Another podcast about the deep state recommended by Big Al
http://www.gunsandbutter.org/blog/2017/03/18/the-deep-state-as-fake-news
Great discussion with Chris Hedges and Eugene Puryear, the 2008 and 2016 vice presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation and author of “Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America”. They discuss the emerging radicalism among American youth and how to end mass incarceration. (25 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buWC8f88uL4
Journalist Joshua Green explains how Bannon took his hard-right nationalist politics from the fringes of the Republican Party all the way to the White House. (3 parts, video and transcript)
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/26/joshua_green_on_the_devils_bargain
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/26/joshua_green_on_how_steve_bannon
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/7/26/joshua_green_on_how_bannons_exper...
But what about T-rump? Don't you know he's always the focus of the News!
White-collar criminologist and economist Bill Black can't quit laughing at the absurdity of T-rump. There's a transcript but it is worth a short listen anyway. You'll find yourself laughing too.
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=767&...
The big deal has been the cabinet cleaning. Will Bannon be next...especially given his ideas?
Steve Bannon is represented as the grim reaper on SNL. Is he all bad or does he have any good ideas?
Top White House adviser Steve Bannon is pushing for tax reform to include a new 44 percent top marginal tax rate, hitting people who earn more than $5 million a year, with the revenue paying for tax cuts for the rest, according to three people who’ve spoken to him recently. Too bad he doesn't want to use the money for health care, education, and so on.
https://theintercept.com/2017/07/26/steve-bannon-pushing-for-44-percent-...
Tech companies like Facebook and Google that have become essential elements of 21st-century life should be regulated as utilities, top White House adviser Steve Bannon has argued.
https://theintercept.com/2017/07/27/steve-bannon-wants-facebook-and-goog...
It's not election hacking, but dirty money laundering that T-rump and Russians have in common.
A Guardian investigation has established a series of overlapping ties and relationships involving alleged Russian money laundering, New York real estate deals and members of Trump’s inner circle. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/24/jared-kushner-new-york-r...
The Democraps have plenty of problems too!
Forensic studies of “Russian hacking” into Democratic National Committee computers last year reveal that on July 5, 2016, data was leaked (not hacked) by a person with physical access to DNC computers, and then doctored to incriminate Russia.
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/24/intel-vets-challenge-russia-hack-e...
DNC fraud lawsuit proceeds despite threats to the attorney (16 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bmMl2OGVQ0
Have you heard about the Awan arrest?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0Kc3_NA3o4
George Webb and his wide ranging review of the Awan family and their business activities
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk4asQ_ztjg (23 min)
However Nina Turner was barricaded from delivering the platform with over 100,000 signatures to the DNC. (text and video)
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19640:DNC-Used-Barricades-To-Keep-Out-Ni...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CObAsBDM3zs&feature=youtu.be (11 min)
Well maybe World Chaos won't be our fault much longer. Perhaps Our Reign of Terror Wanes.
It is the beginning of the end of the American Empire. Alfred McCoy predicts that China is set to surpass the influence of the U.S. globally, both militarily and economically, by the year 2030. https://theintercept.com/2017/07/22/donald-trump-and-the-coming-fall-of-...
We're to the point where we openly admit we manufacture CIA coups to promote the profit of the petro giants. How crude that oil lubricates the machinery of war, and our enemies always seem to be where there's oil (or some other important resource). If we would embrace solar and wind energy we could eliminate our need for oil and the war perpetrated in the search of ever more profit. Eliminating the wars which we manufacture and maintain would create enough savings to do great public works. I can imagine a sane world, but overcoming the bullhorn of corporate media is the challenge to restoring sanity to the social system.
There's many stories I didn't cover this week. I hope you'll fill in the gaps in your comments below. Have a good Sunday!
Comments
Always way impressive Lookout
I read and read and watch and watch.
Good stuff always.
And.. A good morning to you.
I want a Pony!
Always a pleasure
for you to drop by. I hope you read or watch something from here you find worthwhile!
All the best.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Someone like Medea Benjamin can explain how addressing
U.S. imperialism and militarism would directly impact social and economic problems in this country while the so called progressive wing of the democratic party can deliver a "people's platform" that doesn't say a damn thing about war or imperialism or militarism.
It's hard to imagine at this point what they're thinking. Perhaps it's all a take from Sanders but then again, somehow they're just not getting it. Maybe it was the Obama effect who so skillfully wound war and murder together with hope and change.
At any rate, there's no more excuses for that. It clearly shows they're just as corporate as the corporates.
Actually I think the term "corporate" democrats is a deliberate play to convince the hangers on and would be's that there is room at the inn. There isn't.
Bernie never did attack the war machine
he did take on banks, but not the war which feeds their profit. The dems reject even a watered down peoples platform. They are next to worthless. Chuckie Wall Street is the perfect face for them.
Glad you dropped by!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
radical transformation
community evolution
Excellent
But so damn depressing.
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
How nice
We can enjoy the nature around us. My great solace comes from the natural world. Seems a little peace can be found in the growing living things around us.
It is human actions and activities that create the depressing reality of our existence. When it gets too much, it's time to take a walk. My strategy anyway.
Your earlier essay gets at the heart of the situation. Do the little things that move us forward. Have a great day and thanks for dropping in!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Good morning, Lookout. Thanks for the news and
commentary. I guess the question is how violent will our death throes be.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Hey
Maybe we'll die in our sleep and just wake up dead....after all most Americans are asleep.
Have a good one!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Now we are told that individuals doing their best
in saving energy, etc., is not enough. Yes, likely true, but don't dishearten us more than we already are. I am considering buying into community solar. My power plant on Cayuga Lake is currently mostly not operating (coal, not permitted to convert to fracked gas). I have no idea how electricity comes from wherever. There is currently a moratorium on a decision on two solar farms in the town. On farmland that lies fallow. Sigh.
I talked to my SIL yesterday who voted Trump. Still happy. Dumbed down. And pistol-packing, but she can't find it. Much the better. Lives in Utah but think Mormonism is weird.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Good to see you
I'm a believer in doing what you can. We have solar, capture rain water, grow much of our food, and so on. We do what we can. TPTB will do what they can to create roadblocks to real conversion because they profit from the current system.
So all we have left is to do what we can. Take care of yourself. Be safe.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
What a coinkydink
Those buggers always pop up whenever we want to *well plunder* their land.
*what an ingenious pun (choke)
Thanks
I hoped someone would catch that!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Remember when Obama went all out for TPP?
One of the things big corps wanted was ISDS. Here is an example of its use in action.
A MONSTER PAYDAY IN ARGENTINA SHOWS A FLAW IN TRUMP’S NAFTA RENEGOTIATION
what's the matter with corporate arbitrators
that can over rule national law? Things like this event from a year or two ago:
http://www.startribune.com/house-dumps-country-of-origin-labeling-for-be...
The corporate take over is complete. We have a corporation as a president after all, and an oligarchy for a cabinet.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
If we had a Supreme Court with guts and a citizen with same
then this NAFTA-ISDS give-away-our sovereignty bullshit could be taken to court, where by the words of the Constitution such agreements illegally nullify said constitution without necessary amendment to our founding document.
@DonMidwest
Nobody has, or could ever have, any right to betray their people by agreeing to offshore law into the hands of hostile self-interested agencies in order to 'legalize' looting, extortion and the poisoning-for-additional-profit of the people and country to whom the country belongs.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
A candidate for Hillary Scty of Defense
How about it guys? Selling surveillance weapons to a repressive state!
HACKED EMAILS SHOW UAE BUILDING CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH D.C. THINK TANKS THAT PUSH ITS AGENDA
at least they are protesting arms/drone sales in the UK
The Stop Arming Israel campaign group held a demonstration outside an arms company that supplies weapons to Israel today.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20170703-uk-protest-calls-for-stopping...
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I will read and watch videos
this afternoon instead of cleaning house.
See what you do with all this fantastic material you provide for us?
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Can't believe Nina Turner was barricaded from delivering
the platform with over 100,000 signatures to the DNC.
The Democrats complain about Trump's wall, but barricades are apparently OK.
Give 'em Hell, Nina
My thought...
is that the dems are beyond redemption and not worth the effort. I wish we could move on past them.
Thanks for the fun graphics.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I'm surprised DNC didn't put up barbed wire...
Which gives me an idea for a whole new Democratic slogan.
@LoneStarMike
Lol, brilliant! Only where are the stormtroopers in full riot gear, facing down with grenade launchers and stun grenades the unarmed grandma wearing the old Bernie T-shirt?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Re: Have you heard about the Awan arrest?
Oh yes, and it just keep getting more curious.
Debbie's Payroll -- Wasserman Schultz Seemingly Planned To Pay Suspect Even While He Lived In Pakistan
This is an article from The Daily Caller and boy does it bring up a lot of good points.
The reasoning behind the thinking is that his wife left on March 5, and she was taken off DWS's payroll on March 7, so obviously DWS knew she wasn't coming back.
But according to a statement from DWS' office, Imran Awan wasn't fired because the House Sergeant at Arms banned him from touching congressional computers. He was fired because he was arrested. So what if he hadn't been arrested?
To me, it's looking more and more like Awan has dirt on her and he was extorting money from her. It would been the first time he's been accused of extortion, either. His own stepmother has accused him of wiretapping and extortion
And then there's this:
That's a pretty good point. You'd have to have an IT person in your office that was actually permitted to access the House network and she didn't. And if she let Awan still access the House network, that would be very bad for her, and she could expect that there "will be consequences." /s
Hell, for all we know she might end up being arrested at Dullles Airport trying to flee to another country.
There's also this regarding that laptop she's fighting over:
Oh Hell, No!
And this does make it seem like it's her laptop and not one belonging to Imran Awan.
And that makes sense the more I think about it. When she had that little exchange with the head of the Capitol Police, she kept asking "If a member's (meaning a member of Congress) laptop is found and the member (her) is not under investigation, isn't the laptop supposed to be returned to the member?"
If it had been a laptop belonging to Imran, the head of the Capitol Police would have said that the person who the laptop belongs to is under investigation. He didn't say that, though. And since DWS isn't under investigation (yet) I think it must be her laptop.
it is a tangled web we weave
Many suggest they had access to many congress critters communications...it could get interesting. Stay tuned.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Well of course she fired IA
If DWS didn't fire him, she sure as hell would have been called in for deposition as to why she didn't since all the Awan shenanigans were exposed since early February. I hope she gets personally investigated for this, too.
Ooooh, delicious! Attacked on two fronts: DWS fraudsuit and Awan treason.
Debbie, you can always jump in one of your south Florida swamps but let me know in advance. I want to alert my cousins you're coming. P.S., are you all gristle or is their some meat on your crooked bones?
@Alligator Ed
She's probably pretty rancid... they might want a strong sauce to cover the taste, I'd expect.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
Reading Edward Curtin's overview of the CIA
(thanks for the link) at Counterpunch I find it amazing how much influence this clearly malign and amoral Agency manages to maintain over the USG as a whole. Consistently, over the course of more than half a century, its quasi-legal squads of hitmen, evil-doers and infiltrators have been given a license to engage in every sort of criminality and skullduggery, without any fear of punishment, or even official reprimand. Quite literally in legal terms, the CIA can do no wrong.
The fact that its tentacles now extend so deeply into the editorial departments of virtually all major US media outlets, is a truly deplorable and dangerous state of affairs. CIA's combined perrogatives of unregulated power and absolute secrecy can create a poisonous culture of treachery and deceit -- one that any democracy worthy of its name would have kept well and firmly in check. None of our politicians seem to have been able to do that, nor have many of them even tried.
native
The Deep State
There is a lot of coverage of The Deep State and I am convinced the M$M is an embedded propaganda took off the CIA. When I was reading the Mc Coy interview from The Intercept this paragraph jumped out at me:
It struck me that the Military Industrial Complex that Ike created and then warned about was the birth of The Deep State.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Nice going, Ike... thanks a lot.
Kindly Dr. Frankenstein creates this murderous monster, lets it escape, and then he comes to warn the townspeople: "Um, folks, I think y'all might want to keep your doors locked from now on..."
native
Happy Birthday Smedley!
Happy Birthday Smedley Butler! HT el and randntx
He was born July 30, 1881. He did his best to warn us, but his message was stifled.
I would suggest deep state has been around for a while...not exactly the CIA, but the oligarchs driving war.
What an interesting fellow involved in the veterans bonus movement, revealed a fascist grab for power from FDR, and worked against war.
Documentary podcast with bio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9OFRdCq56k
A reading of War is a Racket
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZZD4nc08uc
A real American hero!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
@Meteor Man I remember my Dad,
I remember my Dad, Army career guy telling me never to vote for any military person for public office because they are trained to say yes sir, follow orders, even Generals taking orders from the Commander in Chief.
My parents despised Ike.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
the cia does wrong every day
the problem is they are not accountable. I wrote this to the Jackson MI Citizens Patriot editorial 40 years ago. No one seems to care what the government does. It's an entrenched belief that we stand up for what is right. That meme is starting to get big holes in it. Maybe the collective will prevent that type of reasoning from becoming manifest? Collective evolution beyond the BS propaganda mind screw.
Reducing Pentagon Spending
Awesome aggregation Lookout. I totally agree that reducing Pentagon spending is the focus the left needs to rally around to achieve our common goals.
I read the Mc Coy interview at The Intercept. An exceptional analysis of our long descent into Imperialist Insanity.
Here are the headings of the topics covered:
We are experiencing the calm before the storm.
[Edit to add link]
https://theintercept.com/2017/07/22/donald-trump-and-the-coming-fall-of-...
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn