propaganda

The sociopaths rise to the top of power by clawing, bullying, intimidating, lying, charming, betraying their ways.

They rise to the top by being enabled by the bullied, the craven, the stupid, the naive, the opportunistic, the distracted, the brainwashed, and/or by crony bullies.

Colin Todhunter in “Psychopathy, Politics and The New World Order” writes: Read below the fold...

Lesley Docksey’s article “‘Fit for Purpose’ Cannon Fodder” in Dissident Voice is chilling and moving.

Its British context is easily relatable for Americans of conscience concerned about the recruitment and exploitation of our young people, particularly our most vulnerable, economically disadvantaged young people, to risk their lives for highly questionable and dangerous military operations -- as front line “cannon fodder.” Read below the fold...

One of the deepest (and most chilling) tenth anniversary Iraq War analyses is written by Gary Leupp, entitled: The Victory of the Noble Lie: The Neocons Won. Read below the fold...

In his 2000 work “Escaping the Matrix: Are You Ready for the Red Pill?” Richard Moore begins: Read below the fold...

Bill Van Auken in wsws in May wrote:

Washington’s closest allies in the Arab world, the dictatorial feudal monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, set up a $100 million fund to place FSA members directly on their payroll, while the US announced it was sending “non-lethal” aid to these same forces, including sophisticated communications equipment, night vision goggles and US intelligence.

None of this has had the desired effect. The FSA has barely put up token resistance to the Syrian military in most areas, and there is no sign of mass popular support for the Syrian National Council.

Read below the fold...

and not a movement? This is the question that Matthew Noah Smith makes in an essay titled "Living Politically" on the site to which Lambert recently directed us that had the essay "Occupy Philosophy".

He believes that Occupy was an important "event" in that it captured our imaginations more than other important protests such as the one that shut down the state government in Wisconsin. And the "why" of how it did that is important. Read below the fold...

I read a statement years ago that the 20th Century was the century of Freud. And with any luck, the 21st Century would be the century of Jung. Not sure who said it but it really resonated with me. My take on Jung was that he emphasized the idea that we are all a part of a whole, with each of us having individual gifts contributing to that whole. When we look at another, we see ourselves. In the BBC documentary “The Century of the Self”, Adam Curtis explores the use of Freud’s theories to direct people away from a communal way of thinking and into rampant mirror-gazing. Read below the fold...

As far as I am concerned, it is a time for celebration.

Cenk Uygur escaped this week with his soul and his scalp from MSNBC. One way of celebrating may be to take a sledge hammer to your television. Just a thought.

I so wanted to dig into an angry blog about MSNBC, its false-left propagandizing of the Trojan Horse for oligarchs, Obama, its demonizing of only half of the Congressional rabid rat bastard criminal political class in Washington, and its attempt to neuter Cenk of his search for and assertion of truth to power.

But, alas, I had totally stopped watching MSNBC when Rachel Maddow so heartbreakingly jumped the shark a serious while ago by becoming head cheerleader, part time sycophant, for Obama. Read below the fold...

(554 Obama-dumping days until 2012 election-Hugh's Obama's Scandals List)

Mike Whitney has one of the best takes I have read about Osama Bin Laden’s alleged demise. (For what it is worth, I didn’t think Osama was still alive. I still entertain this as a possibility, given the phenomenal degree of lying the Obama administration and military have committed.)

Whitney writes: Read below the fold...

It's interesting to see how class warfare plays out in our society. Sometimes it seems there is a general call out to the apologists of our Establishment kleptocrats that more material is needed. The reason I say this is that I start seeing articles on different subjects but with the same general premise. Such at any rate is the case with these two op-eds by Fareed Zakaria and Paul Krugman. Read below the fold...

One of the oldest excuses for war is that the enemy is irredeemably evil. He worships the wrong god, has the wrong skin and language, commits atrocities, and cannot be reasoned with. The long-standing tradition of making war on foreigners and converting those not killed to the proper religion "for their own good" is similar to the current practice of killing hated foreigners for the stated reason that their governments ignore women's rights. Read below the fold...

According to the Pentagon's lawyer, Martin Luther King Jr., if alive today, would view the US war on Afghanistan as both the act of a Good Samaritan and as necessary self-defense.

Jeh C. Johnson, the "Defense" Department's general counsel, said, on the one hand:

"I believe that if Dr. King were alive today, he would recognize that we live in a complicated world, and that our nation's military should not and cannot lay down its arms and leave the American people vulnerable to terrorist attack."

On the other hand, he also said this: Read below the fold...

Swanson has just published War Is A Lie.  This article originally appeared on TomDispatch.

To understand just how bad the 112th Congress, elected on November 2nd and taking office on January 3rd, is likely to be for peace on Earth, one has to understand how incredibly awful the 110th and 111th Congresses have been during the past four years and then measure the ways in which things are likely to become even worse.  Read below the fold...