The Corpo-Dems are running a political bustout on progressives.
I have never seen anything like the circus surrounding Charlottesville. The neoliberal corporate media is stoking the fires by letting both sides say outrageous things - the same way the police stoked the riots by standing aside and refusing to do their jobs. The two sides seem to be the standard far right and a newly minted FAKE far left calling itself antifa.
As far as I'm concerned, this is a disparaging umbrella term for anti-facists of all political persuasions (Jews, gays, anarchists, socialists), which (based on Google trends) had no real circulation before April 2017. Interestingly enough, most of the queries came from Germany, which leads me to belief that this term was coined there and the American alt-right just adopted it, rather than invented it
Here is more commentary on the fake-ness of ANTIFA from the real left (in fact, the website most heavily targeted by Google's algorithmic censorship):
While thousands of Berkeley students turned out to protest peacefully against Yiannopoulos, a reactionary provocateur who laces his speeches with Islamophobia, racism and right-wing nationalism, a minority of about 150 black-masked demonstrators organized under an amorphous coalition describing itself as ANTIFA, standing for anti-fascist, marched onto the campus and carried out acts of gratuitous violence that an overwhelming majority of the students at the protest opposed.
The ANTIFA contingent smashed windows, set fires, shot fireworks at police, assaulted the few Trump supporters in the area and vandalized local stores, buildings and ATMs. The intervention by these hooded vandals managed to turn a mass protest into a police provocation.
These actions were precisely what Yiannopoulos and his supporters desired, allowing them to drape their virulent anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant racism in the mantle of “free speech.” Trump responded with a threat to cut off federal funding to UC Berkeley, and the turmoil was seized upon by various politicians as a pretext for promoting laws to suppress genuine protests and strikes.
There has been a long experience with the violence of the so-called “black bloc,” anarchist and ANTIFA protesters, not only in the United States, but in Europe and around the world. The politics of these movements are thoroughly reactionary, based upon a visceral hostility to any struggle to mobilize the working class and youth in an independent political struggle against the capitalist system and for socialism. They attract demoralized and disoriented elements from the middle class, along with a sizable number of police provocateurs who hide behind hoods and masks and egg on the violence to provide an excuse for repression.
World Socialist Web Site comment on Berkely riots of February, 2017
The media gives as much free air time to antifa as they did to Donald Trump. They literally go to the bank on the controversy incited by over-the-top Antifa statements. Its all about riling up everyone while making the left (via Antifa) look as bad as the racist right. Just like Hillary wanted to run against Trump, TPTB want to run against the fake left. They want to reduce any public forum for politics to a riot so that they do not have to answer to the public.
The genuine left, the peaceful left, the thoughtful left - they are the victims of this political bustout[NOTE]. The bustout has embezzled the political credit of a century of progressive politics to publicize a bunch of grandstanding IdPol tools, leaving the real left to pay the bills of right wing reaction and inevitable media criticism for "extremism" as soon as Antifa has served its purpose of "dirtying up" the left.
The overreach of Antifa and other IdPol actors is creating a caricature of the left that corresponds to the worst nightmares of every right winger. The banning of people from webistes is a major escalation in the war on free speech; and it has been challenged by the Electronic Freedom Foundation (yeah, they are libertarian hippies, but they are on our side most of the time).
The blog post reflected years-long tension in Silicon Valley, where many company executives want to distance themselves from extremists but are concerned that picking and choosing what is acceptable on their platforms could invite more regulation from governments.
"Protecting free speech is not something we do because we agree with all of the speech that gets protected," Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote. ‘We do it because the power to decide who gets to speak and who doesn't is just too dangerous to hand to any company or any government.’”
"This Is Dangerous": Digital Activists Slam Tech Firms For Banning Neo-Nazi Websites
The temporary license given to the fake left by the corporate media is really like Chairman Mao's "Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom" campaign - i.e., give people enough rope and they will hang themselves and their political group. Witness some idiot from Missouri:
Democratic Missouri Senator: "I Hope Trump Is Assassinated!"
We seem to be in the middle of an orchestrated propaganda campaign that is simultaneously a provocation (turn loose rightwingers and fake left wingers), a strategy for repression (wait for the violence to get out of control and impose Draconian police tactics), and a distraction (sucks all the oxygen - no time for the budget ceiling, our obscene military, police, and prison policies, climate change and fracking, etc.) I'm surprised no one has been able to blame all this on Putin yet. But its hard to simultaneously say "Putin supports Trump", and "Putin is behind those undermining Trump".
----
Quite frankly, I give up. Even on this board, people (myself included, for one spin in the barrel, before I realized I was just playing the game they wanted me to play) are being divided and conquered over racism. That's really easy to do in an America that has never come to terms with slavery, Jim Crow, and the New Jim Crow. Discussing the treatment of the black population over the past three centuries (and its really hard to draw a line somewhere in that time period) is like Tasering the conversation. That's because the media, and the inevitable trolls, want this to be a fight, not a discussion.
What to do? Don't play. Work on and talk about anything but Charlottesville and all the other scripted-for-maximum-media-exposure terrorist attacks around the world. They want to paralyze us with fear and lobotomize us with hatred. My advice is to stay away from this topic. It does no one but TPTB any good.
NOTE:
Bustout - a confidence scheme in which an established business is taken over, a large stock of merchandise is purchased on credit and quickly sold, and the business is then abandoned or bankruptcy is declared
Comments
+100
Thanks, great essay!
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
More: removing statues is another patented neolib *gesture*...
not a real help to minorities struggling to survive economically while dodging the police state laws and repression targeted against them.
It is an emotional substitute for concrete action. But that is what IdPol has devolved to, from the days when Civil Rights legislation meant jobs and protection from being lynched.
Amen to that
Seems to be standard operating procedure now. Some white nationalist kills someone or someones, bash the confederacy. After all there is nothing more important to do than bounce the rubble on a war that ended almost 150 years ago, armed with a cartoonishly simplistic view of Civil War history. Racism was so rampant in that era that if we start destroying the statues of racist white supremacists, there will not be many left.
I think that's the
point. And as someone once said, if nothing else "it's a good start."
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
You spoke against "bashing" the Confederacy on another
thread where no one was "bashing" it. I thought that I had replied to you on that thread, but, instead, I had replied to Mark from Queens by mistake. https://caucus99percent.com/comment/287997#comment-287997
@arendt This makes me so angry I
This makes me so angry I've been raging all day. When I think what could have happened if this energy had been directed toward getting Black people--and, hell, poor white people too--clean water in Flint, or starting a Rolling Jubilee specifically for Black people, or calling for FBI and DHS and the NSA to bring out all their shiny surveillance technology and massive budgets and do an investigation of all the police departments in the country. They can take a break from monitoring what we say on websites, where we buy lamb chops, what library books we check out, and what we talk about in front of our TVs, stop harrassing ordinary people for a little while, and root out the white supremacists who have infiltrated police departments from sea to shining sea.
They are supposed to be either law enforcement or protectors of the security of our nation. I'd think infiltration of the police on a national level would be of interest to such.
What would have happened if the left had decided to make that demand?
It would have made the entire government profoundly uncomfortable. It would have put them on the spot. It would have been just as in-your-face in regard to white supremacists and Nazis as this statue thing is, and if you're going to square off with dangerous groups like that, shouldn't you make it for something truly important? Like, for instance, the problem that started your movement in the first place--the fact that the police as an institution are riddled with dangerous, destabilizing racist goons?
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Exactly
Exactly what I've been thinking, too, as I observe all of the "OMG Nazis are taking over America" hysteria.
In reality, what poses the greatest danger to people of color today in the US? Is it Nazis? Or is it the militarized law enforcement, who've been killing POC and getting away with it, with little pushback from anyone except BLM, who in turn have received much criticism, even some from so-called "leftists"?
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
I'm guilty of it too.
Was about to write a second essay today, and then realized...
There are much more important things. What's the status of those folks who were arrested at DAPL? Should look into that.
Wall Street's looking pretty business as usual... time to fuck with em, a bit.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI9KBLb_8ro]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Its proof of the power of emotional manipulation
You feel you must say something; but its like scratching chicken pox - not recommended by doctors.
Time for real progressives to put their eyes back on the ball.
----
You know, I never really felt this lyric until now:
Aaaand just realized...
That tons of corporations and politicians are scoring big PR points.
All by being "Not Nazis".
Lowest bar to clear EVER. Even Bush and Romney managed it.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
This is one of the things pissing me off most.
So AirBNB, OK Cupid, etc, were perfectly ok with taking white nationalist business before all this happened but now they're all rushing to the press trying to out anti-Nazi each other. Give me a break.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
@arendt Actually, I think there
Actually, I think there's one more essay I want to write about this, because there are some general principles that can be extracted from everything that has happened from the presidential campaigns last year to this recent crap.
It's time for a few general principles to be stated.
But after I do that, I'm not addressing this shit again.
I don't have to prove repeatedly with my words that I am against Nazis, racism, and murdering Black people because they're Black. This isn't a catechism, and I'm not in church. Nor am I interested in protecting myself from character attacks, because under conditions of irrationality and near-McCarthyism, there is no way to do so.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I appreciated your pointing out the "loyalty oath" nonsense.
This constant demand for proof reminds me of "The Great Loyalty Oath" campaign in Catch-22. In the book, to compete for the commandant's favor, everyone was demanding people sign loyalty oaths to do anything - to get their meal at the mess hall, to get their supplies at the PX. It was doubly absurd, since everyone involved was already under military discipline.
Now that I think of it, the whole IdPol thing has devolved into one big "loyalty oath" campaign. No one can make a statement that does not begin with a preface that expresses solidarity (loyalty) with (to) every IdPol group one can think of.
Your clarity in this matter is as great as Chief White Halfoat, who ended the entire GLOC by saying "Gimme eat".
@arendt Thank you so much!
Thank you so much! As someone who has read the book, I'm actually quite complimented!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Speaking of the DAPL protests
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
@snoopydawg Because this is a
Because this is a controlled event, and Standing Rock, like Occupy, was not.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Exactly.
I've been rummaging through the evidence supporting Charlotteville as a hoax or false flag, and it seems to be matching up.
A key is that the guy who provided all the footage and interviews to the MSM is Brennan Gilmore, who was a spook for the Clinton State Department and also an aide to a Virginian US congressman and also an aide to a Virginia governor. Some of the info on him has since been scrubbed but some youtubers saved off info before it got wiped.
There is also doubt as to whether the right wingers at the protest were genuine. One guy says he knows many in the militia groups and the protesters were way too clean cut, came prepared with helmets and bats for no apparent reason. I'm sure there were genuine protesters on both sides, but I believe they were supplemented as part of the psy-op. There is also evidence police were told to stand down. I think pretty much any time the cops play a minor role it's fake. When it's a real protest, like DAPL or Occupy, they bring out the jackboots, rubber bullets, pepper spray etc. That's pretty much how you can tell the difference, imo.
There's other stuff like the Fields/Flowers/Blossom and the weirdly coordinated license plate numbers between Fields and his mom's car, her rather flat affect when interviewed, even some attempts to prove the cops didn't die in a helicopter crash and neither did the girl. I dunno. You have to carry big bags of salt when you dive into the CT stuff, but the Brennan Gilmore info is sufficient evidence for me.
I call Charlottesville a psy-op designed to sow indignation, anger and division. Side benefit is it turns into a major blame attack on Trump.
Yeah, the neo-nazis in polo shirts...
straight out of the Brooks Brothers Riot costume shop.
I refuse to watch the videos, the same way that, after I saw it once, I refused to watch the 911 videos. I object to being brainwashed by repetition of any video. Video goes underneath rationality. It deals primarily in emotion.
But, thanks to you and others, I am learning who organized this bit of agitprop and how it was carried out.
Thank you for your service.
Duplicate. Removed.
Perhaps some assistance from those
who set up action scenes on television or in film? That's what the initial images looked like; carefully researhed costumes and gestures. "Call Rhoadies for a Mob."
"Crisis actors"
turned up some interesting things on youtube. One woman who was interviewed in four separate crisis incidents across the country. What an unlucky soul!
Another thing I found interesting about the phone video provided by Brennan Gilmore (others have not commented on this). When the film first starts people are screaming wildly, yet there seems to be no good reason. The car is traveling at normal speed with no people in the way for a bit before it actually becomes a weapon. Also the screaming is too much, IMO. In emergencies, people move first and screaming is more rare than people assume. You might scream when a loved one has been killed or injured, but not before the fact. I'm not much of a screamer so perhaps I am biased, but it still seems over the top to me in the vid.
I was going to say "crisis actors"
but, they have been widely demonized as CT.
My company was located within 500 yards of the Boston Marathon shootout, and we were locked down. I started to look into all the suspicious stuff - the mysterious Uncle Ruslan who just happened to work for an oil company, the fact that the older brother had been allowed to go to Chechnia (or some other -stan) by the FBI, the murder of the sparring partner of the older brother by FBI agents after a very unusual 5 hour interrogation in his Florida apartment. The whole thing had "false flag" fingerprints all over it.
All that led me to some website (which one, I'm not certain) that had a lot of video that really didn't smell right. It may be the one Paul Craig Roberts referred to:
The bleeding out fact is critical. You get your leg blown off, you die within minutes unless someone puts a tourniquet on you. The various behaviors shown in the videos are really suspicious. Of course, TPTB dismiss any deep analysis as CT.
Bottom line; I could definitely believe some crisis actors were involved.
Because DAPL protesters interrupted commerce
The job of the police is to protect capitalism
(Oil companies, pipelines, Wal-mart, the 1%, etc, yet citizens pay for the cops ...)
Nazis just threaten 'worthless' citizens
("Protect & Serve" is BS PR, see my comment below, their official job is to protect commerce)
I agree. Don't take the bait and stay away from this topic
I had been wondering when the Russian propaganda would poke its head up again and get back to being covered 24/7.
It took 6 days and this is a doozy of a conspiracy theory. This is from our favorite site.
I couldn't follow this because it's so long and convoluted.
Something about Putin funding the neo Nazis here and maybe in Russia and possibly Europe. Maybe the Martian neo Nazis too.
Apparently, people are much smarter than I am because there are lots of comments on this which I couldn't follow either.
Is anyone surprised about this?
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Not at all.
Ah man, just smoked a joint so this is like... woah...
It all makes sense now, Scoob...
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z25KVNwXVk]
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Simultaneously predictable and un-f'ing-believable.
Is America stupid enough to swallow this drivel?
Probably, yes. (What's the emoji for slitting your wrists?)
The democrats are trying to get traction from c'vile too
They want to capitalize on the anger of the protesters and get people to come back to the fold.
I'll try to find the article on this. I laughed when I saw that headline.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Maybe because that Russia thing is
getting harder to support, why not gin up some emotion about racism, which I totally admit got me. Gets me still, not always but oh well. But it sure sucked some oxygen away from a failing Russia-gate. And now they'll all talk about unity while they strip us of everything they can get their greedy amoral hands on, Together.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
sucked
Yes, it sure sucked.
No oxygen required!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Mueller is investigating Trump Jr
and focusing his meeting with the Russian lawyer (who apparently has ties to Putin himself).
This was the meeting set up by someone in Hollywood and the reason for the meeting was to get dirt on Hillary.
I'm not sure if that was illegal or not, but isn't that what other candidates have been doing since voting began?
So there were two diaries on the Russian ties to Trump himself.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
IIRC...
The lawyer is a woman with ties to the Moscow state government, not to whatever the Russians call the "Federal" (i.e., Putin) government. She met with Trump to peddle some crap about adoptions, which had gotten stopped by the Magnitsky Law here.
This has already been completely debunked in honest (i.e., censored on the internet) media, such as Consortium News and Counterpunch. Trump was told there was dirt. The lawyer showed up and said ZERO about dirt on Hillary. She simply lied to get an audience for her adoption pitch.
If this is what Meuller is investigating, it is utter codswallop.
@arendt Well said!
Well said!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Move over Kevin Bacon
All the Kool Kids play Six Degrees of Vladimir Putin.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
Goddammit! And I almost won that game!
When you actually work with Kevin Bacon, you win!
I'm gonna be stuck at a score of 2 forever...
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
lol
I knew that the Russian crap was going to come back up soon and wondered how it was going to framed, but tying the c'ville protests to Putin wasn't something I could imagine.
Heh, I wonder how long Putin had been planning that stunt. Maybe he helped them purchase their khakis and white shirts. I love how professional it made them look. I would have thought they would have chosen black, but I'm not a neo Nazi fashion expert.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
You have to be beyond stupid to buy this crap
You have to be a card-carrying corporate apparatchik, who is well paid for following the party line.
Heh... An Intellectual Consumer.
Consumption of political thought is what's going on right now.
Anti-Drumpf Liberals are complete consumers of political thought. That drivel above that a c99er couldn't read?
A consumer of thought could totally read that and assemble the "Big Idea" without even looking at the instructions.
We should identify the products, or social sectors, being sold:
Identity
Security
Health
etc.
In the brain, repeated experiences with nominal variances increase the size of the funnel for the eventual idea or emotion. Affect, I guess, but I'd like to stay away from the emotive aspect here and stick to the ideas, or the product that is being sold that we're sucking up with our massive funnels.
Drumpf is a Joke.
Drumpf is Bad.
Drumpf is uniquely bad.
Is Drumpf Evil?
Putin Helped Drumpf.
Drumpf & Putin are partners.
Drumpf is a Putin Stooge.
Drumpf is a Nazi.
Is Drumpf Evil?
That's a lot of shit, man, and I didn't even scratch the surface. But the funnel for people who traffic in this manufactured "intellectual" thought is HUGE. More and more shit gets sucked up by that funnel and worked down to the "Drumpf is Evil" spot.
At this point in time, for many people, the funnel is so wide that EVERYTHING falls into Drumpf is Evil.
The problem with this mass consumption of political thought is that introspection, historical perspective, or systemic examination becomes impossible to think of because the Drumpfen Funnel is so huge and powerful. It all boils down to: "Is Drumpf Evil?" And, let's be honest here, what kind of question is that... Of course he is.
I hope this makes sense. Kind of a weird perspective, probably should be an essay, but I'm a bit engaged right now...
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Consumers: pejorative. Boom! That's a Terrific Shortcut
for those fuckers.
Hillary fans? Consumers.
Drumpf fans? Consumers.
I think it might be a powerful pejorative throw away line that feeds an anti-corporate/anti-capitalist message.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
Absoutely, k9 -- and conformist consumers
@
one passel of conformists confronting another.
Like the ruts carefully cut in raw stone of the mountains in the Roman era so that carts would follow the horses even with the drivers asleep.
@snoopydawg Because you know how
Because you know how Russians love Nazis.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
What's Next? Putin IS a Nazi? nt
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
C99 too
By virtue of being an active member here at C99, not only am I a racist, alt left, Bernie bro, but now I am a Putin puppet too.
Damn, all of this is hard work keeping up with. 
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
@gulfgal98 I think it's
I think it's hysterical that they talk about us. And that they come here to see what we're saying and run back to report.
The less we talk about them, the happier I am--though, of course I understand people's need to vent and recover after leaving. It's like heaving up poison.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
Those passing the talking points through TOP have to see why and how the propaganda fails and figure out how to confuse the real issues and redirect the attribution, so of course they'll encourage lots of reporting and reframing from progressive sites to inform propaganda 'liberal' dissemination sites like TOP.
The fact that they focus on C-99 shows that we're on the right track and therefore concerning to The Psychopaths/Parasites That Be.
The most important time to speak out begins when you first find yourself hesitating to do so out of fear, because once you allow intimidation to make you stop, the opportunity is gone - and in this case, so is everything else, including life on the planet.
Says FF can't find he server at C-99 - will this double-post, or not post at all?
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.
Not sure which one is the bigger hysteric: BBB
or Black Max? Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Thanks.
I'm glad you can still force yourself to go Over There. It makes my head hurt and my feet sore, so I don't go there anymore. I wonder how they explain the neo-Nazi Ukrainian government and its hatred for Putin?
Easy. This was done by Obama and Hillary's BFF Nuland
so it's okay for them to support the neo Nazis in Ukraine which is right on the border with Russia.
Just like it was okay that Obama used drones on countries that had nothing to do with 9/11, the Libyan and Syrian wars and helping the Saudis commit genocide in Yemen.
You know, like everything that they used to be against when Bush was doing them.
Let's not forget that Obama prosecuted more people under the espionage act than all past presidents combined.
I would think that Russia would feel the way like the other European countries that were attacked by the Nazis. This was my first thought when I read the gist of the diary.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Good point.
Russians have no love for Nazis after WW2. Having 14 million civilians and 9 million soldiers killed by the Nazis did not exactly engender love.
@edg I think the actual
I think the actual total was something like 26 million.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
There's dispute about the actual numbers.
There's some evidence that the Soviets didn't want to reveal just how many soldiers and civilians were killed, so my "official government" number of 23 million and yours of 26 million could both be low.
@edg God help us.
God help us. Jesus, the cost of stopping that war machine...
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
The faked news is madness.
It's a spastic St. Vitus Dance of the mind.
I ran across an insane story from NPR:
Russian Cyberattack Targeted Elections Vendor Tied To Voting Day Disruptions
I traced the story all the way back to the NSA via Intercept. Not only is the NPR story about a false alarm but, there is not a scintilla of evidence that links this kiddie-code phishing scheme to Russia, let alone GNU as the NSA elaborately fabricates. The Deep State is going to have to kill all the top level academics, because they can see right through this bullshit.
The Russia-Nazi hysteria is a full-scale US epidemic now. It's even traveling down the food chain:
I believe this nation is about to embark on its inevitable lockdown, which was in the cards the moment the US spuriously invaded Afghanistan and began its 16-year slaughter. In case I don't get another chance to tell you, I have relished all your insightful comments.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Thank you, Pluto
for that kind statement. This is what I love about this site. There are so many great essayists that introduces the subject matter and then we commentators take it from there.
I haven't been to other websites to see if they are covering this.
It seems that TPTB want to start a war with Russia at any prove.
This is just beyond stupid because both countries have nuclear weapons. This has been a deterrent for decades, but apparently, Obama thought that risking it was a good idea for some damned reason.
And his bots are helping it along.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
@snoopydawg
They're counting on cyber-attacks to disable the defenses of targeted victims like Russia - and I think/hope they're outclassed in that area. While disabling the perceptions of their citizens with propaganda to keep them quiet long enough for them to destroy the world in their 'conquest' of it and become Lord Of The Cockroaches - although even they will likely not long survive this. The flies certainly won't.
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.
@Pluto's Republic I, too, believe this is
I, too, believe this is the beginniging of the end.
I love you all.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
@Pluto's Republic I don't think we're
I don't think we're quite there yet. If only because they surely want to let the race war and its side of ideological war rage for a while.
Too many people are not buying the Russia thing, still. They're not getting the buy-in they want.
As far as Charlottesville, that's a better propaganda job. Murder helps propaganda along. Violence in general does. And no doubt, a lot of people will be immediately throwing in with the, IMO, untrustworthy left wing. Untrustworthy perhaps because they are stupid, perhaps because they are irresponsible, perhaps because they are establishment moles/trolls.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Can you explain yourself on this statement?
Do you mean this in the physical sense? Lock people up if they step out of line with their protests or a lockdown by declaring martial law? Or maybe both?
I think it's going to be both. Republicans all over the country are writing legislation that will allow people to hit others with their cars if protesters are blocking the streets or freeways.
There have already been rules made that are close to not allowing people to protest.
This is the reason why there have been more outside agitators at the peaceful protests that people who identify themselves as liberals, progressives and the other names are doing.
"Sorry if this doesn't make sense. I'm having difficulties with making my comment clear."
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I see it mainly as locking down free speech
via the internet. It is already happening with Youtube demonitizing left leaning sites. In just one day this week, Tim Black and Niko House were both demonitized. I am sure there were others, but those were the two I was most aware of.
If net neutrality falls, then that will be the end of free exchange of ideas on the net. We are already being spied upon in every way possible via our phones, our appliances, our posts on line, our purchases in the stores, and heavens' knows what else. Next will come the banning of currency forcing us all to use credit/debit cards like they are doing in India.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Yes, that's it.
And one thing more. Travel in and out of the country will be severely restricted. Full spectrum surveillance of everyone's individual life along with AI to monitor them is already here. Americans will demand it so they can feel safe. There are thoughts one should not think. People like us will not fare well if we don't buy the lie.
Such intriques are nothing new. They are a favorite of playwrights and novelists and monarchies and dynasties. We just have better technology.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Well, if the US can
fund the neo-Nazis in Ukraine, why not? Turn about is fair play!
Not that I believe it...
A very low bar indeed,
"All by being "'Not Nazis'" -- yes, a low PR bar indeed
I was just gonna' comment on one of your lines I saw in the teaser, "... the same way the police stoked the riots by standing aside and refusing to do their jobs."
I recall studying a case where it was stated that the police have no duty to protect any individuals. In other words, 'to serve and protect' is just a motto, and is written no where in law. The cops are supposed to 'keep the peace,' which the courts have basically interpreted as 'prevent wide spread riots resulting in property damage.'
Therefor the courts have already created a precedent that the police are not required to prevent individual harm! The subtext being that the police are there to only protect private property [i.e. business interests] (and maybe arrest people after the fact, after violence has occurred.)
(Don't want to start an argument, but the police technically did do their job, based on case law. Now a sane city government might have required disarming marchers or keeping them separated from other civilians, or denying the permit based on the general public good outweighing the marcher's 'speech' needs, but that's a different topic.) [yeah, i'm that guy, i'll go back to lurking now ;-]
As to this
I too was wondering if these was more false flag attacks or real.
In the second attack, the police were either already there or they got there quickly after it happened and killed the attackers. The police knew who this group was and that's why the other members were quickly arrested.
The members of the attackers in the U.K. were arrested quickly because they all lived in the same area and the British government knew about them because they had let them come and go in Libya and they helped with the Gaddafi coup.
After the last attack in France, the government said that the emergency government surveillance would remain in effect until the threat level was better.
So even though the French government had increased its surveillance because of the threat level, the attacks still happened, therefore, the surveillance programs would remain in effect. How does this make sense?
Sigh
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
I believe Trump's response showed his moral weakness
We shouldn't have a President like that. I think people voted for him largely just to make their fellow Americans mad, which is a stupid reason to vote for the President of The United States. On the other hand we do need to be wary of the Clintonistas exploiting this for their own corruption and power. I think we all need to come together and spurn all the manipulators who play on hate and vindictiveness and vote for real people options in the next election.
Beware the bullshit factories.
I dunno.
The easy road for Trump would have been to denounce the KKK and Nazis specifically. Nobody would have objected and he could've gone on his merry Trumpish way. But criticizing both sides was bound to generate hair-on-fire reactions from the MSM. That was not the easy way out.
I think people voted for him because he lied about
many things while campaigning. He promised change, jobs, health care everyone could afford, etc. Should they have known he was lying? Probably, just like I should have known Obama was l a good actor and a liar, but I didn't.
@HenryAWallace
Think back to what their other permitted corporate-serving, public/country-sacrificing 'choice' was:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4dG0dpiMV0
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.
I couldn't agree with you more.
NCTim shared this in another essay.
Bannon was a crazy racist and no friend of business, war, or the deep state, and I prefer him there to not.
People on FB, some we know, are absolutely consumed by Cville. How dare anyone say tearing down lumps of metal in the shape of historic figures is a waste of time and probably shouldn't be done. Noam Chomsky gave an interview in which he said "what a gift to the right Antifa is".
You asked, how stupid are Americans? Really, really stupid.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
And emotional appeals do work best.
Our best advertisers know all too well, hit people in the emotions and you've made that sale.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Chomsky
I was just reflecting this afternoon on when I was first exposed to Chomsky some time in the 90s and how depressing it is that the same critiques he had then are even more valid today.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
He had the same critiques in the 1960s.
Nothing has changed in 50 years.
And his bottom line was vote for Hillary.
I said I respect him, not that i blindly follow him
In this case, I disagree. It is so easy to pretend Hillary was the "lesser" evil. To ignore that she would have started WW3 and privatized Social Security. It is easy because it is a hypothetical.
Lesser Evil is the product of the winner-take-all voting system. But, Trump vs neocon/neoliberal Hillary is not a lesser evil. Its the choice between different flavors of absolute evil.
It is "would you rather be hung or shot?". Either way you are dead. There is nothing "lesser" about being dead by one means or another.
I had the "good fortune" to live in a state where my vote did not matter. I voted Green, and I am proud I did.
@arendt The likelihood of
The likelihood of Hillary starting WWIII was not all that hypothetical, except in the sense that anything that hasn't happened yet is hypothetical.
She said that we should treat cyberattacks the same way we treat military attacks. She mentioned China and Russia as the culprits who were "hacking" us. After saying those two things, in the same speech, she said that her first priority as President would be to upgrade our nuclear arsenal so it would be "ready for any threats we might receive."
There aren't many things nuclear weapons can be made ready to do.
What she said is as close as an American politician can get to openly advocating nuclear war. Even "bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran," for most of the American populace, doesn't hold the threat of nuclear war, because they don't understand as well the relationship between Iran and Russia, and Iran, despite all the hullabaloo, doesn't have nuclear weapons.
As recently as 2008, if a speech like that had been made by a politician running for President, that person would immediately have been relegated to the fringe of American politics, and their chances of becoming President would have dropped to near-nothing. Because, odd as it is to remember, nine years ago we still debated whether or not any given war or foreign policy was justified, safe, or moral.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I meant hypothetical only in the sense of unknowable
We can't know for sure that she would have started WW3, because she lost.
I agree with you that there was every likelihood she would have; but short of her having been elected, any statement is hypothetical.
once upon a time we expected war to be declared by congress
as per constitution.
.
I live in a purple state
and I still voted Green. I could not make myself voted for the corporatist war monger over the idiot of the right. The Democratic party and the Clinton campaign created Trump. I refuse to be blamed for their failure to listen to the real problems of the American people and to actually do something when they had a chance. Their corruption was both blatant and anti-democratic. These are the things that led to Trump being elected.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
@arendt
If votes actually mattered and all of the more aware people had voted Green - better yet, if votes mattered and Bernie had won the Dem nomination - would we be in precisely this deep a world-wide mire, or would we at least have galoshes and maybe some way to start draining the Swamp?
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.
Thanks for the Chomsky link
I am amazed at the man's mental stamina. He has been slagged and villified for fifty years, and it all rolls off his back. He is 100 times smarter than just about all political commentators, but he has been blacklisted for fifty years. I would be furious; he is calm.
Glad to see him still on the job.
Why?
Because.
I just learned he's joining the U. of Arizona here in Tucson
He's been a fairly frequent visiting speaker for awhile; now they announced he's going to be teaching classes and doing public events at U of A starting next spring. Pretty excited to have him coming here!
Thank you for the essay. I've been saying how I felt suspicious and skeptical of these black-clad, masked, violent "antifa" ever since the Milo incident. Seems my gut feeling was right.
@dkmich Some Americans. We
Some Americans. We literally have no way of knowing how many are anxiously, quietly hoping this will not explode.
This is not a media system which showcases dissident views, to say the least.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
After all this time "I'm giving up"?
Nah, then you shudda gone to the farm in the country decades ago. It's never too late to go Amish... or Mennonite, your choice.
There's the key. Inform. Educate.
Things that make you go Puurrr...
When in doubt, send your friends to Big Al's Essay History on this site, and the Top if you dare.
Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!
Firesign Theater
Stop the War!
I'm giving up fighting about c'ville
I'm turning to other topics, like the political bustout being run on the progressives.
Somebody needs to say: this isn't us, this is a caricature of us being sold by Madison Avenue. Bernie drew too many working class crowds and votes with his real leftism. Gotta erase that image. Gotta sell those bubbas that all lefties are communist/globalist/pervert/pointy-heads.
communist
That is what they are calling them. They are out to destroy the reputation and credibility of Bernie and his socialist Democrats. I think he is going to run, and they can't have that. Get him know while they can.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Great Essay
Ever since the post-inauguration protests, I had a pit of my stomach feeling that things were going to get a lot worse for progressives. I seem to recall a desperate attempt to spin those events into some sort of far-left/Bernie-bro thing, though the actual facts didn't bear that out. They just didn't have the branding right, but every time they've tried to jab the knife in, they've gotten a little better at it. Hey, even Trump likes alt-left as a term.
I really feel the PTB (aka the Center) is trying to play the ends against each other. I really think as long as profits aren't touched, they don't care one way or another. It's just really sad that now we see issues progressives care about being cynically used as weapons against us. And because it's so emotionally charged, it's hard to keep from getting sucked into it. It's great to read an essay like this because I know I'm not the only one feeling this way.
Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.
The PTB have probably spent $10 T on war this century
Since 1980, they have probably stashed $20 T in overseas accounts.
You bet TPTB play both sides against the middle. Otherwise, someone might notice tens of trillions of dollars pissed away or stolen.
We are nothing to them. We don't rise to the level of chump change. Like all aristos, they think they own everything and how dare anyone ask for anything more than they are willing to let drop from their greedy fingers. They just hire someone to fool the masses into accepting this thievery:
Spending $0.1 T is well worth the effort. Besides a lot of that spending is paid out to stockholders and CEOs in the ad biz.
@Dr. John Carpenter
Disaster capitalists see nothing beyond profit, even while slaughtering the Golden Goose and the global life support system on which they also depend, rejecting the reality in which they can live - luxuriously - in the belief that money can buy them anything, even while they work to make that stolen wealth worthless in a ruined-for-maximized-billionaire-profiteering economy and world...
Can't find the C-99 server again? Or will this be a double-post?
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.
Silence is complicity as far as Nazis assholes goes
Ask me the Alt-Left and ANTIFA are constructs of the violent RWNJ's running the country. The Demorat's seem to have no problem blaming and vilifying the left. They are using this politically for all it's worth. Don't like the Nazis terrorizing your city? Well then vote for us. We may be psychos but we are not as overtly insane, vocally racist, sexist, offensive and evil. Blaming the left is the last Dem. straw for me.
I live blogged the white supremacist's rally here this summer in my Demoratic city, Portland OR. I saw with my lying eyes what the cops and der Homeland Security did to the protestors of these thugs. There was no violent militant left it was ordinary people who could not stomach the city allowing these thugs come here, from god knows where, to use this city to incite decent people. I should have gone to get my fair share of abuse but fear of bodily harm kept me safe at home watching the staged show.
So no I do not intend to ignore this scary sideshow. That's what the so called progressive Democratic 'moderates' want. FDR had a good point about fear. My tinfoil hat tells me that the so called black mask anarchists and violent actors on the fake alt-left are a modern version of COINTELPRO. In short provocateur agents who are deployed to reek havoc on legitimate and needed protests against the fascistic global nightmare we find ourselves living through. We all need to denounce these RWNJ's as well as the Demorat's who refuse to fight them using the prescribed remedies we used to call division of power 'the rule of law' or universal human and civil rights. Now it's not just the FBI who stirs the pot but every freaking spook alive.
Since when has there been no separation of powers, bill of rights, no justice or basic recognition of human and civil rights? Since 9/11? Partisan politics on both side of this duopoly has superseded any semblance of a nation of laws not men. If you expect the Demorat's to focus on restoring justice, the rule of law, equality or democratic representation forgetaqboutit. So why keep silent as the scary clown show progresses onward and the only relief we are offered is 'The Russians did it' or lefties are extremists. Count me out I'm going to a protest about what occurred in Charlotte Virginia this weekend. I will not sit back because politics and dueling partisan propaganda aside this is really about not being silent in the face of hate,fear, violence, killing grounds and fascism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
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