People and websites revision April 2018

I've noticed over the years that "whatever you can say has been said before", and all too often said better then I could say, especially with limited time.

Before the Internet, so much knowledge just wasn't available, but now it just takes some curiosity and a few keystrokes to gain considerable enlightenment on virtually any topic. For this reason my blog is loaded with URL links to online material. This lets me stand on the shoulders of giants.

Following are links to people and websites I favor

People

Chris Hedges
Ralph Nader
Andrew Bacevich
Amy Goodman
Ron Paul

... in progress

Websites

Daily, check for articles of interest

Drudge Report
CounterPunch
Alternet
Common Dreams
Antiwar
Huffington Post
Russian Times (RT)

If time permits ...

LA Times
VICE News
Reason mag
The Guardian
Truth-Out
Truth Dig
Daily Beast
Fire dog lake
Tom Dispatch
Slate
Rolling Stone
McClatchy

Democracy Now
mondoweiss
Consortiumnews


Minor interest

Infowars

Still reeling

Still reeling from Trumps election. Now it looks more and more like the worst case scenario I mentioned back in January is becoming more plausible by the day: Trump is removed and we wind up with Pense. It looked then, and more so today, that this was the plan all along. And, as the professional con artist likes to say, there's nothing like screwing people and having them thank you for it! To coin a new phrase: we've been "deeply conned"

Please see this particularly interesting article on Counterpunch on this topic. Be sure to read what Andrew Levine has to say about the Electoral College.

Bill

I'm astonished!

I was absolutely convinced, beyond a doubt, that the oligarchs had it all setup to get Hillary into office, even going so far as to help "arrange" the election so she would run against Trump. After all, people don't like her, but they like him far less.

And then "BAM", he won.

Certainly not to defend Hillary, but to look at one glaring truth out of the gate: the Electorial COllege corrupts the democratic process. Accepted that the founders instituted this device to guard the country from the uneducated masses. But today people aren't so uneducated. Albeit subject to the propaganda machine 24x7, many people I know have risen beyond the mass media's world view, and they never lost the gut feeling that America should stand for nasic human rights.

Back to Trump ... he won. Amazing!

But amazing in a bad way. I'm still reeling from this event, but every new consideration only serves to deepen the disappointment. It just gets worse and worse. It's already like "what's next?", and it's a scary line of thinking. It's like I don't to know what's next because I know it wouldn't be good.

Maybe there's a bigger plan at work, to get Mike Pense into the office? He's a right wing favorite who couldn't have won the presidential election, but could be seated by getting Trump out (like in a chess game). I don't think I'm overstating the case when I say that Trump will be removed before long. He'll make one to many unpopular decisions, the media will turn against him (like Nixon) and trump up a case for the American people to demand his removal.

No matter how you cut it, America is not going to be served well by Trump (or Pense or Hillary for the matter). We're fucked, to put it mildly. This is shaping up to be the worst chapter in America's history. Just thinking about what that buffoon can do in short order boggles the mind. Think the war in the Middle East is going well? Watch what happens with the Orange Lizard at the helm. Certainly he will not do what needs to be done (starting with putting Bush and the Neocons on trial for war crimes; apologizing and making amends to the people at home and in the countries we've attacked; taxing the 2%; climate change; energy, etc)

If Trump fails to stop the war and turn this massive ship towards justice, there is no other useful decision. He can pull out our forces from the ME or he can double down and raise the stakes. Neither of these courses will make things better. The real question is how much worse will they make things.



Bill

The farce of an election

The basic question is not who will win – we already know that. It is how a political system that purports to be democratic, that claims to deliver what people want, could offer up Clinton-Trump choices for November.

Andrew Levine Counterpunch article

I've thought exactly the same sentiment


Bill

The End of the American Empire

Please see this article: The End of the American Empire by Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr.

Mr. Freeman summarizes American foreign policy in a way that very, very few people can. What Amb Freeman does so brilliantly is arrange and summarize the most important facts in such a way that the reader comes away feeling properly briefed and the direction we should take is perfectly clear. If only every American could read this.

As it happens, he also bolsters the case for an internet based election system that will allow us to replace the whole rotten system. It can be done


Bill

My wish list

We need to use the Internet to build a publicly funded election system that allows us to develop the list of issues important to us; allows anyone to run for office with stated positions on our list of issues; helps us match our positions on issues to candidates. I've got a design for such a system to submit, but let the best design win.

My starter list of issues for our new election system

- bust up ownership of the mass media, from 6 players to 600 or 6,000, however many it takes to bring about competition and the free flow of ideas on all subjects.
- end foreign aid to all countries currently receiving it
- contribute heavily to the Red Cross and other relief organizations to help those in need around the world
- increase Peace Corp budget to put 1 volunteer (with a PC and the Internet) in every needy village in the world
- put Bush and the neocons on trial for war crimes. Necessary if America is to be a just country. Have Bush personally visit and apologize to every family that suffered a casualty in the invasion
- withdraw all American military forces from the Middle East
- reduce the size of the Military Industrial Complex to protect America only
- help the EU solve it's problems
- support the UN as the world authority for matters that must be handled at that level.
- tell Israel to settle with Palestinians within 6 months or lose our support
- pump new life into Post Offices by allowing them to do low-level banking functions and to serve as communities centers (as they once did)
- Medicaid for everyone as a minimum standard for health care
- free community college for everyone
- Constitutional amendment guaranteeing privacy
- convert the war on drugs from criminal to medical/mental health issues. See Portugal's example
- tax the top 2% to level the playing field.

This is not a definitive list, just what I believe to be representative of the America spirit if it's voice were heard through the din of the propaganda machine.


Bill

Mass media as propaganda machine

Please see this article: How Israel's Media Propaganda Dominates the American Mind

I've been harping on this issue for years, since working in my teens for a business that provided services to small town publishers on Long Island. At the time I couldn't help but notice the degree of Jewish/Zionist control over the publications we serviced. This sparked a curiosity that took years to sort out.

The issue is Jewish/Zionist influence on our information supply, the so-called "mass media" or MSM. You probably know most of the big players since there are only six or so left and virtually all of them are either in or support the club. Do a little googling and you can read all about who the big players are.

The current focus of this groups attention is the American invasion of the Middle East. They expedited it and have no interest in putting an end to it. Quite the opposite. They (that is, we) are in it to win, nothing less.

The problem this represents is much bigger than getting people to support wars in the Middle East, it reaches into our collective psyche, making us believe we are what we aren't and that we believe things we don't. Might is right, an eye for an eye, targeted assassinations, the ends justify the means, and others. Worst case is the killing, the murderous rampage, the countless murders committed throughout the Middle East by our country, in our name, and owing to the propaganda machine, our support. Of course, unless you're in the military, our support doesn't mean much, but however much support there is, it's welcome ammunition in the hands of skilled propagandists, who whip up (puff) the support to make it look far bigger then it really is. There are well over 300 million Americans, but it only takes a few hundred for the propaganda machine to spin up support for their war and their drones.

Just one current example is our support for the use of drones. Do you think a majority of Americans support the use of these robotic killers? And if so, it certainly would not be true if the one-sided, belligerent bias (repeated a million times) didn't exist. This matter is of great concern to us because we're been duped into a "manufactured consent" to deploy the drones that are terrifying the lives of countless innocent people. Try to imagine what it's like

There is so much that isn't right in America today, and a portion of these problems exist or have been exacerbated by the influence of this propaganda machine.

What can we do? We can write. We can talk to people, and we can use repetition for our cause. Sure, one person talking is a whisper, but get a hundred million talking and it's a roar. And we need that roar now.


Bill