Category Archives: Propaganda

Satan’s Little Republican Helper

Journalism, Liberty, Media, Propaganda, Republicans, Terrorism, The State

No wonder Republican Peter King ((R-NY) is gunning for former Salon journalist Glenn Greenwald, who facilitated Edward Snowden’s disclosures to the British Guardian about the NSA. (At the behest of Obama, the NSA has been eavesdropping on half the country with the aid of meta-data sweeps.)

Greenwald had done much to expose King as “one of President Obama’s most outspoken defenders and supporters,” when it comes to the violation of civil liberties (individual rights being the better term).

Via Jake Tapper (who credits his bare-bones report with being an “analysis”):

King told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Tuesday that he thinks the journalist should be prosecuted.
“If they willingly knew this was classified information, I think actions should be taken, especially on something of this magnitude,” said King.
“I think something on this magnitude, there is an obligation, both moral and also legal, I believe, against a reporter disclosing something which would so severely compromise national security,” said King.
In response, Greenwald tweeted, “Is it true, as I was just told, that Peter King on CNN called for criminal prosecution of journalists reporting the NSA stories?”

The real news here is that CNN alpha female Anderson Cooper has assented to covering some news, as opposed to camping at the site of a riot or a shooting or a natural disaster or a baby/dog/cat/horse rescue to solicit sob-stories.

Politicians And Their Aides Are ‘Paid Liars’? You Don’t Say!

Barack Obama, Democrats, Ethics, Politics, Propaganda, Republicans

Of course White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is a “paid liar.” So was Robert Gibbs, Carney’s predecessor at the White House. As was ditzy Dana Perino, who continues to shill for “The Shrub” on Fox News.

Politicians are “paid liars” by definition. Witness how Republicans are calibrating the Obama scandals for maximum political effect, not wishing to sound too alarmist, but sounding the alarm just enough to alarm.

Recoiling from so much as a hint of the truth (such as that Carney is a liar and that he is lying for Obama), the worst among the Republicans—you guessed it: John McCain—has even turned on Rep. Darrell Issa for aptly describing Carney as a liar.

Truth is immaterial to the Republicans—to the quislings from both parties. The game here is to retain political power or grab some more, as you safeguard your privileges as leech for life.

The latest kerfuffle Via HiffPo:

The Internal Revenue Service agents who inappropriately targeted conservative groups had been following orders from the Obama administration, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said on Sunday. And he called the administration’s top spokesman a liar.

UPDATE IV: Dying For Nothing Day (You’re For The Military, But Not For Liberty)

Bush, Classical Liberalism, Homeland Security, Just War, libertarianism, Nationhood, Propaganda, The State, War, Welfare

It is the habit on the Memorial Day weekend to thank uniformed men for their sacrifice. My sympathies go out to Americans who fight phantoms in far-flung destinations. I’m sorry they’ve been snookered into living, dying and killing for a lie. But I cannot honor that lie, or those who give their lives for it, and take the lives of others in America’s many recreational wars. I mourn for them, as I have from day one, but I can’t honor them.

I am sorry for those who’ve enlisted thinking they’d fight for their countrymen and were subjected to one backdoor draft after another in the cause of illegal, unjust wars and assorted informal attacks. My heart hurts for you, but I won’t worship at Moloch’s feet to make you feel better.

I honor those sad, sad draftees to Vietnam and to WW II. The first valiant batch had no option; the same goes for the last, which fought a just war. I grew up in Israel, so I honor those men who stopped Arab armies from overrunning our homes. In 1973, we came especially close to annihilation.

I can legitimately claim to know of flesh-and-blood heroes who fought so that I could emerge from the bomb shelter (in the wars of 67 and 73) and proceed with my kid life. I always stood in their honor and wept when the sirens wailed once a year. Every Israeli stops on that day, wherever he is, and stands still in remembrance. We would have died or been overrun by Arabs if not for those brave men who defended the homeland, and not some far-away imperial project.

But can we Americans, in 2013, make such a claim? Can we truly claim that someone killed an Iraqi or Afghani or a Libyan so that we can … do what? Remind me?

“What I learned growing up in a war-torn region is that a brave nation fights because it must; a cowardly one fights because it can.”

UPDATED (5/26): GIVE GOVERNMENT A LEG, RIDE WITH DUBYUH. Thomas DiLorenzo nails it:

That’s how emailer John D. describes the Marc Levin (“The Grate One”) radio show Friday night during which he “played nationalistic and patriotic music nonstop” during the third hour, motivating “a weeping veteran” to call in to say “thank you for all you do, Mark.” One envisions a “weeping veteran” who lost both legs or an arm or two in Iraq calling in to thank the neocon propagandist/shill for the military-industrial complex for making it all possible. It’s kind of like those old pictures of legless veterans with their new iron “legs” jogging with President Dub-Yuh and smiling away at the “honor”he bestowed on them.
Get ready for all the chubby chickenhawk neocons like Levin and Limbaugh, who never even tried on a military uniform, to produce an explosion of war propaganda tomorrow.

UPDATE II: “For The Love of A Brother-In-Arms, And ‘Big Brother’ Be Damned.” Robert Glisson was once asked by myself to write an op-ed for Barely A Blog about the “Patriot Guard Riders.” I prefaced his op-ed—which I entitled “For The Love of A Brother-In-Arms, And ‘Big Brother’ Be Damned”—with this comment: “I do not identify with the military mission, but who can fault the humanity of the effort?”

It’s a shame Robert failed to remember the distinction when engaging with boorish warmongers on my Facebook Timeline.

UPDATE III: DITTOHEAD DAY. The military is still a government job; a career path with huge risks. How fast the so-called small government types forget this immutable truth. From the appropriately titled “Your Government’s Jihadi Protection Program” (which the military has become):

“When Republicans and conservatives cavil about the gargantuan growth of government, they target the state’s welfare apparatus and spare its war machine. Unbeknown to these factions, the military is government. The military works like government; is financed like government, and sports many of the same inherent malignancies of government. Like government, it must be kept small. Conservative can’t coherently preach against the evils of big government, while excluding the military mammoth.”—ILANA (“Your Government’s Jihadi Protection Program.”)

UPDATE IV: IF YOU DON’T GET THIS; YOU’RE FOR THE MILITARY, BUT NOT FOR LIBERTY. From “Classical Liberalism And State Schemes”:

We have a solemn [negative] duty not to violate the rights of foreigners everywhere to life, liberty, and property. But we have no duty to uphold their rights. Why? Because (supposedly) upholding the negative rights of the world’s citizens involves compromising the negative liberties of Americans—their lives, liberties, and livelihoods. The classical liberal government’s duty is to its own citizens, first.
“philanthropic” wars are transfer programs—the quintessential big-government projects, if you will. The warfare state, like the welfare state, is thus inimical to the classical liberal creed. Therefore, government’s duties in the classical liberal tradition are negative, not positive; to protect freedoms, not to plan projects. As I’ve written, “In a free society, the ‘vision thing’ is left to private individuals; civil servants are kept on a tight leash, because free people understand that a ‘visionary’ bureaucrat is a voracious one and that the grander the government (‘great purposes’ in Bush Babble), the poorer and less free the people.”

Communism Is Conducive To Cannibalism. What’s New?

America, Colonialism, Communism, History, Political Correctness, Private Property, Propaganda

Is communism conducive to cannibalism? Of course. Immoral systems give rise to more of the same. Food shortages and starvation are byproducts of communism. The rest follows as sure as night follows day. Taboos fall by the way when one is starving. The Plymouth pilgrims, circa 1623, abandoned private property for communal ownership of the means of production. They starved.

CNN:

Archaeologists revealed Wednesday their analysis of 17th century skeletal remains suggesting that settlers practiced cannibalism to survive.
Researchers unearthed an incomplete human skull and tibia (shin bone) in 2012 that contain several features suggesting that this particular person had been cannibalized. The remains come from a 14-year-old girl of English origin, whom historians are calling “Jane.”
Photos: Cannibalism evidence Photos: Cannibalism evidence
Scholar: Settlers ate each other
Studying the history of cannibalism
Cannibalism in colonial America?
There are about half a dozen accounts that mention cannibalistic behaviors at that time, although the record is limited, said Douglas Owsley, division head of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian National Museum of National History.
The newly analyzed remains support these accounts, providing the first forensic evidence of cannibalism in the American colonies.

Good luck in finding a discussion of native culinary appetites and practices in the Americas. But now that archaeologists are implicating the Christian Jamestown settlers with cannibalism, you’ll never hear the end of it.

As was observed in “Rousseau’s Noble Savage – Not on this Continent”, “The Americas are scattered with archeological evidence of routine massacres, cannibalism, dismemberment, slavery, abuse of women and human sacrifice among native tribes. Why, the Northwest Territories Yellowknife tribe eventually disappeared as a direct result of a massacre carried out as late as 1823. …”

Still, I’d like to read a response to this news item from a real historian. Kevin Gutzman? Tom Woods?