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-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

News and Opinion

When The Powerful Control Public Opinion, Elections Aren’t Real

I’ve been ignoring the US presidential race because the election is rigged.

When someone says US presidential elections are rigged, there are a number of things they could mean by that. They could be claiming votes are actively tampered with to ensure a particular outcome, as Republicans commonly claimed in the 2020 election. But that isn’t the claim I’m putting forward here — even though the US does have the most dysfunctional elections out of any liberal democracy on earth.

They could also be talking about how legalized corruption in the United States allows the wealthy to manipulate election outcomes and extract political loyalties via campaign donations. While certainly a well-established fact, that isn’t what I’m talking about here either.

They could also be talking about the fact that it doesn’t matter who wins the election since the US president is only a figurehead who pretends to run a country that is actually ruled by unelected plutocrats and empire managers in secretive government agencies. Again this is absolutely true, but that’s not what I’m talking about in this particular essay.

Actually, you could fix all the problems in the American voting system, and US presidential elections would still be rigged. You could fix campaign finance laws to the point where the wealthy are no longer able to use campaign donations to achieve desired political outcomes, and US presidential elections would still be rigged. You could give the US president all the actual government leadership powers you were led to believe he has as a schoolchild, and US presidential elections would still be rigged.

US presidential elections would still be rigged because mainstream political opinion would still be shaped by the wealthy and powerful people who control the sources from which Americans have been trained to get their information. So long as the rich and powerful can manipulate public opinion at mass scale through the corporate media, through Hollywood, and through Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, they can rig elections however they want.

There’s a quote attributed to Albert Einstein that’s been going around social media for years which usually goes something like, “There will come a time when the rich own all the media, and it will be impossible for the public to make an informed opinion.” Unlike most cool quotes you’ll see attributed to Einstein on the internet, this one is based on something the renowned theoretical physicist actually did say — except he wasn’t forecasting something happening in the future, he was talking about something that had already happened when he wrote about it in 1949.

In his essay “Why Socialism?”, Einstein wrote the following for Monthly Review (emphasis added):

“The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.”

It was true when Einstein wrote it 75 years ago, and it remains true today. It remains true today because Einstein wasn’t leveling his criticisms at the individual people and events of his time, but at the overarching societal systems which are still in place now.

In a capitalist system, those who control the capital control what ideas and information will be ingested by most people. In a democratic system of government — even one with a rock solid voting system and no money allowed in politics — this will always give the wealthy the ability to rig elections by manipulating public opinion using propaganda.

And they do. In addition to buying up entire media outlets and shareholder control over them, the wealthy pour money into shoring up narrative control by other means like think tanks, online information ops such as NewsGuard and Wikipedia, and the manipulation of algorithms by online megacorporations like Google. This gives them the ability to shape the worldview of a majority of the public, thereby ensuring elections will result in outcomes that bolster the status quo upon which the wealthy have built their fortunes.

This is true throughout all US elections of significant consequence, not just presidential elections, and it is true throughout the entire western world, not just the United States. We are being psychologically manipulated at mass scale from childhood on, our minds continually shaped by people who use their wealth to dominate our shared narratives about how things are going, what’s happening in the world, and what should be done about it. We are taught about our world by deeply indoctrinated parents and deeply indoctrinated teachers who grew up in the same status quo-enforcing information environment as us, and our indoctrination continues through all the screens in our lives until our dying breath.

You can fix everything else that’s wrong with your political system, but unless you also take away the ability of the capitalist class to psychologically manipulate the public into supporting a political status quo that has been artificially shaped by the powerful for the benefit of the powerful, nothing meaningful will change. The wars will continue, the oligarchy will continue, the inequality and injustice will continue, the exploitation and extraction will continue, the ecocide will continue.

That’s why I always place emphasis on the importance of narrative control and how it’s happening — because that’s where all our other problems arise from, and because until we address that problem we won’t be able to address the others.

Luckily, it is possible to address that problem. We ordinary people are at a disadvantage in that we can’t afford to buy up all the most influential outlets and platforms in our society to impose our political preferences like the plutocrats can, but we are at an advantage in that there are a whole lot more of us than there are of them — and in that we have truth and authenticity on our side.

None of us can single-handedly stand against the imperial propaganda machine, but together we can all wage an information war with the goal of debunking imperial narratives and discrediting imperial propaganda in the eyes of the public. We can do this by using every platform and medium we can get our hands on to wake people up to the truth at every opportunity so that they can help join in the fight. The more people realize they’ve been deceived their whole lives about what’s going on in their society, the more people there are to help weaken the grip of imperial narrative control.

All positive developments in human behavior are always preceded by an expansion of consciousness, whether you’re talking about humans as individuals or as a collective. This is no different. If you can seize every opportunity to help spread awareness of the truth and open up another pair of eyes to the reality of our situation, then you are using your energy to attack the empire at its weakest point in the most efficient way possible.

Win or lose, if you dedicate your life to this fight, you can definitely say in the end that you gave it your all.

UN Confirms Israeli FRIENDLY FIRE ON Oct 7

Israel and Hamas have both committed war crimes since 7 October, says UN body

A UN investigation has accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on and since 7 October, the date of Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel.

The allegations were contained in two parallel reports prepared by a commission of inquiry formed in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate human rights violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories, chaired by the former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.

The first report focused on crimes committed by Palestinian armed groups during the 7 October attack, while the second examined Israel’s culpability in the large-scale deaths of civilians in the subsequent Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

Pillay, a South African legal expert, is viewed with hostility by Israel for her previous criticism of Israel’s human rights record. The reports constitute the first in-depth investigation into the events since 7 October by a UN body.

The commission, which has no power to impose any penalties, described serious crimes committed by both sides in the conflict, including by Palestinian armed groups during the attack on Israeli communities near the border with Gaza on 7 October.

Prof. John J. Mearsheimer : Netanyahu In Trouble

Hezbollah fires big salvo of rockets at Israel after senior commander killed

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has launched its biggest salvo of rockets at Israel since the war in Gaza began in retaliation for the killing of a senior field commander, bringing the two sides closer to all-out conflict.

An Israeli airstrike on the village of Jouaiya in southern Lebanon late on Tuesday night killed three Hezbollah operatives as well as Taleb Abdallah, the most senior commander to be killed since hostilities began eight months ago.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said more than 170 projectiles had been fired from Lebanon by the Iran-allied militia in three barrages. “Approximately 90 projectiles were identified crossing from Lebanon,” it said. Several were intercepted but others struck inside Israel, causing fires in parts of the north. The initial barrage was followed by a second of about 70 projectiles and a third of about 10, the military said. It said the army struck several sites in south Lebanon in response.

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency medical service said there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Hezbollah said it hit a sensitive Israeli military factory and bases in Ein Zeitim and Ami’ad and an Israeli military air surveillance station in Meron, in each case firing dozens of Katyusha rockets, according to its statements.

Max Blumenthal : US Celebrates Israeli Bloodbath

Gaza Ceasefire Only Possible Once Israel Commits to Ending the War, Says Palestinian Diplomat

Hamas Responds to Biden’s Ceasefire Proposal, Wants Firm Timeline for Permanent Ceasefire

Hamas has submitted to Egyptian and Qatari mediators its formal response to a Gaza ceasefire proposal that was recently outlined by President Biden. The Palestinian group is seeking stronger assurances on a permanent ceasefire and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Under the initial proposal, the two sides would negotiate a permanent truce during the first phase and implement it in the second phase.

An official familiar with the talks told The Washington Post that Hamas’s response contained “amendments to the Israeli proposal, including a timeline for a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.” ...

Israeli officials are now accusing Hamas of rejecting the ceasefire proposal by asking for more assurances.

Israel Unmasked: A Serial Killer Society High On Hate, w/ Abby Martin & Rania Khalek

BRICS nations condemn ‘unprecedented’ Israeli violence in Gaza

BRICS nations have condemned Israel’s actions against the Palestinians in Gaza in a joint statement released on 10 June, pushing calls for a ceasefire and the unobstructed delivery of aid to the strip.

“The Ministers expressed grave concern at the deterioration of the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in particular the unprecedented escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli military operation that led to mass civilian displacement, death and casualties, and destruction of civilian infrastructure,” the BRICS ministers said in a joint statement.

The ministers demanded the implementation of relevant UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions and UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution 2720, which calls for the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. BRICS ministers also called for the effective implementation of UNSC resolution 2728, which calls for an “immediate, durable, and sustained ceasefire.” They further called for the immediate and unconditional release of all captives.

Ministers expressed grave concern over Israel’s increasing attacks on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying they “condemned the Israeli military operation in Rafah and its ramifications that directly impact the civilian lives, especially in view of the high density of Palestinian civilians in this location, and the humanitarian catastrophic results due to the suspension of the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side.”

“They acknowledged the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice in the legal proceedings instituted by South Africa against Israel,” the statement continued. “The Ministers expressed serious concern at Israel’s continued blatant disregard of international law, the UN Charter, UN resolutions and Court orders.”

Glenn Greenwald: Is it Permissible to Question U.S. / Israeli Claims Made About October 7th?

US Lifts Ban on Arming and Training Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade

The State Department announced Monday that it has formally lifted a ban on arming and training the Azov Brigade, an infamous Ukrainian neo-Nazi military unit.

The Azov Brigade celebrated the news, saying the “eligibility for US assistance will not only increase Azov’s combat effectiveness.” ...

US assistance to Azov was banned by an amendment to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. “White supremacy and neo-Nazism are unacceptable and have no place in our world,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said in 2018 when the bill became law. “I am very pleased that the recently passed omnibus prevents the US from providing arms and training assistance to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion fighting in Ukraine.”

The State Department claimed on Monday that Azov passed vetting under the Leahy Law, which prohibits military aid to military units that have committed human rights abuses. “After thorough review, Ukraine’s 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade passed Leahy vetting as carried out by the US Department of State,” the State Department said.

Rus Breakthrough Volchansk, Aggregate Plant Falls; EU Guarantees $50B Ukr Loan; US Sanctions China

Russia accused of ‘deliberate’ starvation tactics in Mariupol in submission to ICC

Russia engaged in a “deliberate pattern” of starvation tactics during the 85-day siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in early 2022, which amounted to a war crime, according to a fresh analysis submitted to the international criminal court.

The conclusion is at the heart of a dossier in the process of being submitted to the ICC in The Hague by the lawyers Global Rights Compliance, working in conjunction with the Ukrainian government. It argues that Russia and its leaders intended to kill and harm large numbers of civilians.

It has been estimated that 22,000 people were killed during the encirclement and capture of the city of Mariupol at the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Civilians were left without water, gas or electricity within days of the siege as temperatures fell below minus 10C.

Catriona Murdoch, a partner at Global Rights Compliance, said the aim of the research was “to see if there was a broader narrative” that amounted to a deliberate denial of food and other amenities necessary for life by the Russian military and its leadership, a strategy of starvation that could be said to amount to a war crime. ...

The ICC accepts third-party submissions although it does not necessarily act on them. Starvation and the denial of amenities necessary for civilian life are considered war crimes, but this remains a relatively new area of international law, and so far no alleged perpetrator has been prosecuted.

Pepe Escobar : Russia Readies War With NATO

Russian warships arrive in Havana in visit seen as show of strength

A fleet of Russian warships has arrived in the bay of Havana, in a visit seen as a show of strength amid tensions with the west over support for Ukraine. Four vessels, including the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan and the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, entered Havana Bay early on Wednesday, where they offered a 21-gun salute that was reciprocated from the battlements of La Cabaña, the fortress where Che Guevara once had his office.

En route to Cuba this week, the Gorshkov and the Kazan had conducted missile drills in the Atlantic, testing precision missiles at targets at a range of more than 600km (370 miles), according to Russia’s ministry of defence. ...

The visit was announced last week by Cuban officials who said that such visits from friendly countries were standard practice, that the Kazan carried no nuclear weapons and there was no threat to the region.

Havana is just 100 miles from Key West, Florida, and the timing of the visit suggests more than “standard practice”, said William Leogrande, a professor at American University.

“The visiting Russian warships are Putin’s way of reminding Biden that Moscow can challenge Washington in its own sphere of influence,” Leogrande told the AP.

Macron dissolves parliament: French imperialism marches to war and dictatorship

After a European election campaign in which he called to send troops to Ukraine for war on Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron dissolved parliament on Sunday night following large gains for far-right parties across Europe. This has triggered an explosive crisis. The political establishment is feverishly discussing far-right alliances, or, among factions historically linked to Stalinism, an electoral “Popular Front” to limit the far right’s expected gains in parliament. ...

Macron announced the dissolution of parliament in a perfunctory, five-minute pre-recorded video. After criticizing far-right parties as threats to military aid to Ukraine and EU bank bailouts, he proclaimed “confidence in our democracy.” He continued, “The sovereign people must speak, there is nothing more democratic than this.” He claimed the election outcome would be better than “all the stitch-ups, the precarious solutions. It is time for an indispensable clarification.” Macron’s invocation of democracy is a lie: He rules not for, but against the people.

Last year, he imposed a pension cut to finance a surge in defense spending despite overwhelming popular opposition and mass strikes, which police brutally attacked. He now aims to replace the current legislature, in which there is no stable majority, with a workable parliamentary majority to support a monumentally reckless escalation of the war against Russia and suppress the opposition of a vast majority of the population in France and across Europe.

The snap elections Macron called, ending July 7, fall just after the July 4 snap elections recently called in Britain, and just before the July 9 NATO war summit to be held in Washington to approve the Biden administration’s plans for NATO military intervention against Russia. Macron aims to have a more stable government so as to claim democratic legitimacy to implement NATO’s anti-democratic policy of war with Russia.

Significant factions of the ruling class expect that this will require bringing neo-fascists—primarily Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN)—into the halls of power. Amid a massive media campaign asking whether the RN is ready to play a responsible role, Le Pen and her assistant, Jordan Bardella, are giving interviews falling in line with NATO and the banks. Bardella stressed during the campaign that RN statements of sympathy for Russia years ago were a mistake, and yesterday he abandoned the RN’s call to rescind Macron’s pension cuts.

WikiLeaks' Assange Extradition Appeal to Be Heard Next Month

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's appeal against extradition from Britain to the United States will be heard next month, court officials in London said on Tuesday. ...

That appeal will now be held on July 9-10, a spokesperson for Britain's Judicial Office said.

Oklahoma supreme court dismisses lawsuit of Tulsa massacre survivors

A decades-long fight for justice and restitution came to an end on Wednesday afternoon, after the Oklahoma supreme court dismissed a lawsuit of the last two survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.

The suit, brought by Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, both of whom are centenarians, sought to force the city of Tulsa, along with other defendants, to pay restitution to the two women, who were children at the time of the racist massacre.

Brought under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law, the lawsuit argued that the Tulsa race massacre affects the city today and is responsible for Tulsa’s ongoing stratification between Black and white residents. Black Tulsans were never compensated for their loss.

The nine-member supreme court upheld a district court judge’s decision in Tulsa last year, in which the judge ruled that the plaintiff’s grievances were legitimate, but did not fall within the scope of the state’s public nuisance statute. The decision seemingly attempted to close the door to future fights for reparations.

US House votes to hold Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress

The House voted on Wednesday to hold the attorney general, Merrick Garland, in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified-documents case, Republicans’ latest and strongest rebuke of the justice department as partisan conflict over the rule of law animates the 2024 presidential campaign.

The 216-207 vote fell along party lines, with Republicans coalescing behind the contempt effort despite reservations among some of the party’s more centrist members.

“We have to defend the constitution. We have to defend the authority of Congress,” the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said at a press conference before the vote. “We can’t allow the Department of Justice and executive branch to hide information from Congress.”

Garland is now the third attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress. Yet it is unlikely that the justice department – which Garland oversees – will prosecute him. The White House’s decision to exert executive privilege over the audio recording, shielding it from Congress, would make it exceedingly difficult to make a criminal case against Garland. ...

Executive privilege gives presidents the right to keep information from the courts, Congress and the public to protect the confidentiality of decision-making, though it can be challenged in court.

RFK Jr BLOCKED! CNN Cooks Up DUBIOUS Debate Criteria To WEED OUT 3rd Party Candidates

Swiss lawmakers reject climate ruling in favour of female climate elders

Swiss politicians have rejected a landmark climate ruling from the European court of human rights, raising fears that other polluting countries may follow suit. A panel of Strasbourg judges ruled in April that Switzerland had violated the human rights of older women through weak climate policies that leave them more vulnerable to heatwaves. Activists hailed the judgment as a breakthrough because it leaves all members of the Council of Europe exposed to legal challenges for sluggish efforts to clean up carbon-intensive economies.

But the Swiss parliament’s lower house voted on Wednesday to disregard the ruling – with 111 votes in favour and 72 against – arguing that the judges had overstepped their bounds and that Switzerland had done enough. The declaration, which has been adopted by the upper house but does not bind the federal government, accused the court of “inadmissible and disproportionate judicial activism”.

“This is terrible from a rule-of-law perspective,” said Corina Heri, a law researcher at the University of Zürich, adding that “the whole system would fall apart” if lots of states started to pick and choose which rulings they complied with. “The term ‘slippery slope’ is overused, obviously, but it is a dangerous precedent to create.”

The KlimaSeniorinnen – or Swiss female climate elders – are a group of 2,400 women over the age of 65 who took the Swiss government to court for failing to do its fair share to stop the planet heating 1.5C (2.7F). After years of setbacks in regional and national courts, they escalated the case to Europe’s top human rights court and scored a partial victory. But in a fiery debate on Wednesday, Swiss politicians attacked the court and mocked the women. Jean-Luc Addor, from the rightwing populist Swiss People’s Party, the largest in the federal assembly, said: “These ‘climate elder’ are just a bunch of apparently healthy “boomeuses” [female boomers], who are trying to deny our children the living conditions they have enjoyed all their lives.”

Scientists have found that older women die at higher rates during heatwaves, which have grown hotter, longer and more common as people have pumped out pollutants that trap sunlight. A study from doctors and climate scientists found 60% of the heatwave deaths in Switzerland in summer 2022 were the result of climate change and that older women were hit hardest.

Rare birds at risk as narco-gangs move into forests to evade capture

Cocaine consumption is threatening rare tropical birds as narco-traffickers move into some of the planet’s most remote forests to evade drug crackdowns, a study has warned. Two-thirds of key forest habitats for birds in Central America are at risk of being destroyed by “narco-driven” deforestation, according to the paper, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Sustainability.

For 40 years, US drug policy has not reduced the global scale of the illegal networks, but instead driven the traffickers deeper into forests, researchers said. There, traffickers create landing strips and roads to move shipments, as well as cattle pasture to launder money and control territory.

The lead author, Amanda Rodewald, from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said: “That displacement is causing them to go into forests that tend to have the greatest conservation value and are disproportionately occupied by Indigenous peoples. It is affecting the most vulnerable human and non-human populations.” ...

Now, for the first time, researchers have calculated the effect that the loss of these critical habitats could have on bird populations. They found that 67 species of migratory birds that breed in the US and winter in Central America are at increased risk. Endangered golden-cheeked warblers are particularly threatened, with 90% of the population living in forests at risk from the narcotics trade. The paper found that 70% of golden-winged warblers and Philadelphia vireos also winter in these areas.

“We were surprised by just how high of a percentage of the global population was actually affected,” said Rodewald. Remote sensing by satellite shows that 15-30% of annual deforestation in Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala can be attributed to the movement of cocaine alone, the paper says. Half of Central America’s resident and migratory bird populations have fallen since 1970 and deforestation is a key driver of that decline.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Israel's Rescue Massacres Civilians and Censors Media

Give New York To The Mormons

Hamas & ‘Human Shields’

Patrick Lawrence: The Afterlives of Lies

US Is Shadowing Russian Warships Heading to Cuba

NYT Ramps Up Venezuela Propaganda Ahead of Elections

Türkiye Shows Renewed Interest in Joining BRICS

The Grayzone targeted in US govt-backed ‘enemies of Ukraine’ list

If Bosses Want At-Will Firing This Is What Is Required (The Good Society)

Voters to weigh in on whether tech billionaires can build new California city

‘The big story of the 21st century’: is this the most shocking documentary of the year?

Rare white buffalo born at Yellowstone prompts Lakota Sioux celebration

Morning Joe Goes FULL BIN LADEN Cheering Civilian Deaths

“Trump Is Going To Put Me In A Camp!” Says Rachel Maddow

A Little Night Music

Mance Lipscomb - Back Water Blues

Mance Lipscomb ~ Goin' Down Slow

Mance Lipscomb ~ Night Time Is The Right Time

Mance Lipscomb - Captain, Captain!

Mance Lipscomb - Willie Poor Boy

Mance Lipscomb - Which Way Do The Red River Run

Mance Lipscomb - You Don't Mean Me No Good

Mance Lipscomb - Tell Me Where You Stayed Last Night

Mance Lipscomb - Big Boss Man

Mance Lipscomb - Shake, Shake Mama

Mance Lipscomb - Buck Dance