Israel and US Media

Israel and US Media

This brief video, on a sparsely viewed website, goes right to the core of America's greatest problem: the manipulation of our information supply.

Sure, it's ostensibly about Israel, but in fact it goes much deeper, right into the heart of America's core values. This is because not only is the image of Israel distorted by the "filters" described, but there is a wholesale distortion of other values as well. Consider that not a single person has been put on trial for war crimes in Iraq, and the massive taxpayer robbery called the "bailout".

How is that possible? This country routinely and regularly jails people for a huge assortment of petty offenses, yet can't find it in it's spine to put people on trial for serious crimes?

This speaks of manipulation of our information supply, the so-called mass media. Just how deeply affected is this system by these 'filters'? Do most people spend hours on the Internet learning, of do they watch the "news" on TV and read the newspapers? While there is shift underway, it's obviously too slight and unorganized to make any difference at all.

Here's hoping the TV merges into the computer, and this happens before filters are applied to the Internet. Nothing less then our future is at stake.


Bill

The US Edges Closer to Invading Pakistan

The US Edges Closer to Invading Pakistan by Eric Margolis

Reframing the Iraq War by John Prados


Not even our leaders know why we are in Afghanistan By Gene Healy

Hey Michelle, Read My Book By Robert Scheer

Nuclear Armament Still Our Central Issue By William Pfaff


Bill

Overcoming AIPAC is Not Enough

Overcoming AIPAC is Not Enough By LAWRENCE DAVIDSON

"So you see that as we move ahead we must meld the liberation of the United States from AIPAC's wholly negative influence with the revival of U.S. national interests in the broader Middle East and Muslim world, and that in turn with the viable future of Palestine. All three must be promoted as an interlinked package. If they are not, Washington will certainly some day be free of AIPAC, but Palestine will left under the pernicious shadow of Israel. For this we will always be blamed and our interests will always suffer."

Peace Process to Nowhere By FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY

"Now we are again faced with the depressing spectacle of humiliation. President Obama, like his predecessors (Ike excepted), is allowing Israel to play him and the United States for the fool. But this time, the humiliation ought to be particularly galling to those of us who think of themselves as being proud to be Americans.

Why? Because the President of the United States is prostrating himself before the Israeli altar for nothing, I repeat, nothing -- except, perhaps, an ephemeral advantage in his own domestic politics. "

Bill

Today's picks

These articles caught my attention today:

Who Really Thinks We’ll Win in Afghanistan? By Eugene Robinson

The Real Democratic Whiners By David Sirota

'Born Illegal' -- Exploring the Powerful Advanced Psychedelics Invented by the Father of Ecstasy By Charles Shaw


Bob Woodward's Dark Side -- Famed Reporter Carries Water for the Pentagon By Russ Baker

Congress Has Plans for an Internet Blacklist in the Works -- Let's Stop This Now By David Segal and Aaron Swarz


Observation:

When you consider Carl Jung's description of human nature, essentially based on the "opposites", and you look back at historical accounts of the wars and conflicts that support this truth, and then you look at today's - and tomorrows - incredibly powerful weapons of destruction, you can't help but get the sense that either we learn to tame ourselves or we're destined to make war on a scale never seen before - and then we'll do it. Why not now?



Bill

Peace Process to Nowhere

Peace Process to Nowhere By FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY

"If, as is likely, this report is true, Israel has humiliated the United States once again -- a fact that will no doubt be deemed irrelevant by Israel’s shills on both sides of the aisle in Congress, not to mention the mainstream media.

...

In fact, Israel learned it could get away with murder and could treat the United States with utter contempt when (1) its air and naval forces not only attacked the USS Liberty -- a high priority US Navy signals intelligence ship -- on 8 June 1967 during the Six-Day War, killing 34 and wounding 171 US sailors, but (2) was able to secure a cover up of its perfidy by the highest levels of the US government, including President Johnson, Secretary of Defense McNamara, and most of the senior military officers in the Pentagon, despite the misgivings of Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State and Admiral Thomas Moorer, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (neither of whom chose to resign in protest, however)."

(I've added the link to the book on the attack of the USS Liberty to the quote above)


20 Signs that the Economic Collapse Is Already Upon Us By Michael Snyder

"Not that there is anything wrong with a safety net. But the "safety net" was never meant to hold 50 million people on Medicaid and 40 million people on food stamps. The number of Americans on food stamps has more than doubled since 2007. So do we just double it again as things get even worse?

...

Both political parties need a big wakeup call. There is a tsunami of poverty sweeping the United States, and somebody better wake up and do something about it. More handouts will help people get by in the short-term, but there is no way that the federal government can financially support tens of millions more poor Americans.

How long is it going to be before the "safety net" simply collapses under the weight of all this poverty?

...

How anyone can look at those numbers and think that things are about to "get better" absolutely boggles the mind.

It is time to wake up.

Things are not going to get better.

Things are only going to get worse.

The United States is rapidly becoming a nation where poverty is absolutely rampant.

As poverty continues to spread, crime will not be far behind.

Meanwhile, the international community wants to impose a global tax on us so that they can "redistribute" even more of our wealth around the world."

There are 2 related points to consider:

1. Israel's control over our information supply and BOTH parties in Congress produced not only produced the requisite support for the invasion of the Middle East, but also the drubbing of our middle class. A warmongering attitude and a contemptuous disregard for anyone who gets in the way of the mission are related.

There is a direct linkage between money and war. Among so many other things, it appears that our information supply has duped Americans into not seeing this otherwise totally obvious connection.

2. It's been clear from the beginning that Israel "firsters" (I call them "Soldiers of Israel" because Israeli or Jew or Zionist is debateable, which dilutes the attempt to assign a label for the entity we're dealing with, so something is needed) have bet our farm on their crusade for authority in the Middle East. It's been a long, slow burn, and now the chickens are starting to come home to roost.

Any serious student of what's happening in the Middle East knows that we're not winning, and that winning hasn't even been defined (who do we expect to sit down and negotiate a surrender with? Bin Laden?). No, it's a never-ending war, picked on with a religion with over a billion followers, something like 1/4 of the world's population.

3. Raise your hand if you see the connection between what happened behind the scenes of the greatest rip-off of all time, the "bailout" and the Soldiers of Israel who manipulated changes in laws that allowed banks to start gambling with taxpayer backed money? And gamble they did, and lose we did.

Now, add the cost of the "bailout" together with the cost of the invasion of the Middle East. What do you think about this kind of money?


Bill

Iraq's cost

Iraq’s Cost by Hendrik Hertzberg

"But it was also a reminder, gentle but pointed, that the war was a war of Bush’s choice—a choice that has left Obama with no good choices, only the responsibility of withdrawing in a way that mitigates, or at least does not needlessly extend, the harm this war has done to Iraq and its people and to American interests, American honor, and American power."

Here's the rub: The invasion of Iraq was an unmitigated disaster for America from the time the pump-up for war started, through the invasion, and now it's haunting us today - and it will continue to haunt us into the future - until some God-awful event happens that shakes people awake and into the reality of what happened.

Who to blame? There's lots of blame to spread around, but let's start with the Neocon-infested propaganda machine that stretches from Hollywood through the TV and into the newspapers - the machine that marched in lockstep to drum up support for the invasion and force-fed Americans daily appetite with the evils of Saddam and the urgent need to invade Iraq.

What to do? Let's start with putting Bush on trial for murder - and let the trial go where it must.

What if we do nothing? Suppose we stay the course and do nothing? What will happen in Iraq?

Well, nobody can predict the future, especially particular events, but one can see trends, and there's a "megatrend" at work with Iraq. The vast majority of Iraqi's want the occupier out, and those who have suffered at our hand hate us and no doubt many want revenge. Translated: I see Iraqi's working together to oust their common enemy, the occupier, before they get on with the business or re-organizing Iraq their way, probably with the separation of a Kurdish state and then the break-up of the rest between the Sunni's and Shite's, with the Shite south aligning with Iran.

Now think about that Green Zone, that cost more then a stack of bills reaching from here to the moon, and it's fate. How many rockets have to be fired at it from how many different directions before they realize that air power can't protect it - and trying is eating up and destroying the city around it.

Will Americans be pulled out of the Green Zone on helicopters? It's easy to see it coming to that.

Regardless, the cost to us for the invasion of Iraq is headed our way. It's time we woke up and realized that we have been massively duped - and do something about it.

Once again, I say support Mr Bugliosi's effort to put Bush on trial for murder. That's one that we can all agree on - now anyway.

Neocons in Retreat by Jack Hunter

Please read this article and especially the very informative reader comments.


Bill

Obama and Iraq: ‘Through a Glass, Darkly’

Obama and Iraq: ‘Through a Glass, Darkly’ By Scott Ritter

As you may be aware, Scott Ritter is the target of a smear campaign, similar to what's happening to Julian Assange (and anyone else taking a public stand against the Neocons). In both cases, all they had to do was raise the specter of some sex-related scandal in the "news", and walla, the target's reputation is dirtied and now everything they say is suspect. Works every time.

In this article, Scott summarizes the Iraq debacle, and notes that "The president and the American people will all too soon come to recognize that the quagmire in Iraq is far from over. In fact, one might say it has only just begun"

He's right, of course. We can't just wish away the criminal invasion and destruction of Iraq.

There are many bad things yet to happen in and around Iraq, culminating perhaps (I think likely) with our billion-dollar embassy becoming a modern incarnation of the Alamo.

And that's not all.

Surely you've noticed that it's been almost 10 years since any significant attacks have occurred here at home. I, for one, find this fact incredible. How is it possible, I ask, that we have millions of enemies out there, and none of them have been able to strike back? Is it because our many-billion dollar security apparatus actually works? Is it a matter of luck? Both? Or are our enemies just taking their time, putting together some sort of modern-day Tet offensive? I don't know, of course, like everyone else, but I have a very strong sense of foreboding for the future of America if we don't set ourselves straight, if we can at all.

I believe Vincent Bugliosi is right to call for putting Bush on trial for murder. I think this is the best action we can take, because such a trial will invariably expose the Neocons behind it all for their many criminal acts, most notably the invasion of Iraq, but also the corruption of our information supply.

The neocons own the narrative.

Where are the calls for putting Bush and his cronies on trial? Why isn't this a debate at the national level?

It's because the Neocons have effective editorial control over our information supply, and they exercise this control for certain issues, such as the culpability of people responsible for the criminal invasion of Iraq, the financial crimes committed by the barons of banking, and the sacrosanct treatment of Israel.



Bill