support the troops? - no! ...

  .. that fantasy has now been put violently to rest[1] ...

    .. thanks, but "No, thanks!" to GWBush&Co

-=*=-

"Support the troops" is one of these 'framing' frauds, just as "Some of my best friends are..." and "Hate America, love Murkins."

My friends are friends on merit; I carry no dead wood.

Conversely, in a so-called democratic state, the voters are sovereign. If they choose - or even allow the 'non-choice' to be foisted upon them, to be turned into an ignorant mob - of sheople®, say, then that majority of voters, whatever their composition, are both collectively and individually responsible for any criminal acts perpetrated by their so-called 'leadership.'

No more 'free rides,' boys; whether troops or voters, if you can't restrain your 'mad George' types, or if you (troops, public 'servants,' bum-wipers) actually murder for spoil, or give orders to murder for spoil, or just not *actively, effectively oppose* murder for spoil, then all such types - troops, voters and/or bum-wipers alike are unequivocally condemned - and are utterly contemptible to boot. Murderers are, whose country murders. Prime examples: US, Israel (with UK poodle and Aus dag). We can extend this condemnation to any who cuddle murderers (i.e. those who assist them, even if by not opposing them), such as Sarkozy and Merkel, say.

Once again, I make no apologies for calling the mugs for what they are - i.e. sheople. If this makes the mugs all the more recalcitrant, well and good - because if all we ever get is 'more of the same,' then the greedastrophe® will arrive all that sooner - and the sorting can begin.

'Sorting?' - Yes. Evolution by survival of the fittest; we'll find out soon enough; is the predominant, surviving human characteristic to be some combination of vile greed and criminality, or will it be something a bit 'higher,' like cooperative peace and love, say?

-=*end*=-

Ref(s):

[1] «For the decade or two following the end of the Cold War, people might have been excused for believing that a new phase in the evolution of the international political system had been realized, one in which, while plenty of injustices would remain, at least the worst excesses of great power aggression seemed a vestige of twentieth century practice and eighteenth century mentality. That fantasy has now been put violently to rest, as the two greatest powers on the planet have returned to playing the great game with a vengeance, preying on lesser powers in pursuit of resources, strategic positioning or just plain national pride.»
[David Michael Green (G'day Bob)]

My comment: We've been conned - propagandised, by perpetrators via the venal corporate MSM, plus public broadcasters like the AusBC & SBS. I don't know from what worm-eaten woodwork these Judas Iscariot-types crawl, but they are in no way clever, merely commonly criminal. Although it may initially sound heretical, my accusations re: the AusBC & SBS are neither casual nor without proof. An 'easy' proof of AusBC culpability is the fact that for 60+ years they have portrayed Israel as a David heroically resisting an Arab/Muslim Goliath, with some 'extra' keywords like 'Islamo-fascism' thrown in lately, for 'framing' good measure. This portrayal is total bulls**t; the I/J/Z-plex dominating the Israeli regime and a horrendously large chunk of the US regime is in the criminal business of murdering for spoil (land and water), just as the US regime is concentrating on murder for resources, oil in particular.

As well as the D vs. G furphy illustrating the AusBC's culpability, it also proves that it's neither partisan (much!) nor accidental - because the AusBC behaves badly (and is biased, but not to the left as is usually alleged), more or less under both political stripes. Hmmm? Ergo, neither Lab nor Lib in their current guises can be our saviour, and the AusBC & SBS are shown to be conduits - even amplifiers - of filthy, propagandistic lies.

Then I hear someone say "So what? That's just the way it is." Typical of desensitized sheople, and again wholly illustrative of the problem.

Q: Why do the crims invest so much hubristic effort into their lying attempts at deception? Why does the venal MSM and AusBC etc. play along, echoing the lies?

A: Because if the sheople really knew, there'd be real trouble - and the crimes would be stopped - because the overwhelming majority of sheople are fundamentally honest, i.e. *not* criminal.

Sooo, how about it, sheople? Our future survival (or not) really is in your hands. Wanna help? If yes, then demand that your representative(s) start actively representing you.

death AND dishonour ...

  .. tangled webs, etc. - bloody lying murderers!

-=*=-

A couple of comments ago, I posed the Q: "Why do they lie?"

As I've previously pointed out, the basic crimes are lying, cheating, theft and murder; although some 'lawyer-types' may claim that one cannot legislate morality, it should be perfectly obvious (deploying a 'reflexive altruism' algorithm), that anyone doing any of those basic 'criminal' actions to someone would be doing actual harm - and that's precisely what none of us should do to any another. It's almost a tautology, but one that is so often violated, one really has to wonder Q: "Why?" - in a broader context.

A: In the widest context, because (some times, too often) crime can appear to pay. (Ooops!)

Funny (peculiar) - but certainly sad, and not what we (the moral ones) actually want. Note that it's not some 'moral high ground' - which both exists and yes, we the moral ones do occupy it, it's simple self-interest (i.e. reflexive altruism); we do not wish to be transgressed against, so we offer a 'deal,' whereby we'll leave you alone (nothing personal: the generic 'you'), if you leave us alone. Real world "Hello!!?" - in Utopia there are no police, but in the 'here and now' we need 'em - and honest ones.

We can sort the criminal class into two groups, the 'petty' criminals, the common or garden variety - who may rob banks, or occasionally bash the odd grandmother to death. Small-time crims, to be sure. The other sort, the truly serious offenders, we can find running entire countries, if not (somewhat fancifully - but nevertheless criminally) the world - Ta ra! The current US and Israeli regimes. (With assist from UK, Aus, say.)

This criminal class is a composite, a cooperative formed from part (shadowy) ruling élite, part 'elected' representatives, part military, part industry and finally, part media (the venal MSM).

Even then, this criminal class does not work 'in isolation,' it has its accessories, apologists and enablers. Lies are deployed, great rafts of them; I call this lie-collection the 'pushed paradigm.' The criminals themselves, the accessories and apologists do not intrinsically need the lies for their crooked 'business,' the lies are aimed at the enablers, who in a supposed democracy are the voters and who are (supposedly) sovereign.

Sooo, that's why they lie; on the one hand they try to give themselves some sort of excuse, and on the other hand, they feel that have to win in the court of public opinion - because otherwise they would be sure to face well-earned censure.

But: There is no excuse for crime; they conjure 'rationalizations,' we conclude that they (any criminal class) actually knows that they're being bad, but to avoid 'cognitive dissonance' within themselves, they invent things like "We will bring them democracy!" - when what they're actually doing is stealing resources; land, water and/or oil, say.

It's clear that the lies are to delude, to avoid otherwise rightful censure. And Q: How do we get these lies? Why, A: Via the corrupt and venal MSM, including big parts of the AusBC and SBS (boo! Hiss!) There's the pressure point, the weak link - in more ways than one.

The so-called ruling criminal class (US and Israel with accessory/apologists UK + Aus) lie because they're vulnerable, the sovereign voters could / should call them to account. That would require an active electorate (wake up sheople®!) and free and full information flows. Anyone actively contributing to the crimes is culpable, it means in the US, the Congress, the Pentagon, the CIA. Since Nuremberg, there is no excuse: equally guilty - without a single shred of honour - string 'em up! Same for all filthy war-profiteers. A special culpability and a special censure is reserved for the venal MSM (including bits of the AusBC and SBS, they know who/what they are); those who pass the lies on, especially those who *amplify* the lies, are nothing other than vicious, bloody traitors. Shame on the lot of 'em!

Stop the lies, let the censure pour forth.

Save our once jewel-like planet.

-=*end*=-

Fazit: Rationalizations[1] (particularly of criminal acts) may only be successfully achieved by people so disposed; those with a sufficiently deficient morality, the outright diseased - or any/all TV-comatosed sheople®. (As in "Der, I didn't think!")

Universal responsibility is required; justice via truth.

-=*=-

Ref(s):

[1] rationalize v. (also -ise) (-zing or -sing) 1 (often foll. by away) offer a rational but specious explanation of (one's behaviour or attitude).

erring ideologues ...

  .. sheople® vs. 'leaders' ...

    .. pragmatism: clever or corrupt?

-=*=-

Q (serious): Is GWBush a) part of the problem, b) a major part of the problem, c) almost the entire problem (me: no), or d) not much more than a cruel, supremely cynical joke on the sheople/voters?

Q (even more serious): Professor Julius Sumner Miller used to ask: "Why is it so?" I could extend this by adding "Does it have to be like this?" - and finally "Is it wrong?" (me: yes, but if it were not, Q: is there something wrong with me? A: no, therefore ...)

The problem/situation:

a) We live in a supposed democracy, but (1) the voters (sheople) are dumbed-down, partly by their own efforts - and/or lack thereof, (2) the candidates (Lab/Lib, Dummo/Repugs) are as good as clones who offer no real choice and worse - they do not properly represent the voters, rather they favour 'the big end of town,' and (3) the whole show is dominated by a venal MSM; we are deliberately misinformed (i.e. lied to), when not being outright propagandised.

b) The so-called capitalist system works largely to the disadvantage of all except those few who directly profit (the capitalists, investors and *management*); rather than a 'fair price,' they charge 'what the market will bear' - but worse, they 'fiddle' the system with oligopolies, monopolies, "Economic Hit Man" shenanigans including IMF scams and swindles and outright rip-offs, as an example of the last see the obscene 'resource-rents' in the mining-type sectors.

c) The epitome of both (a) and (b) is the US, the so-called leader of the 'free world' (or alternatively 'the West'), but just about the only way they lead is down and into criminality. The prime example of this criminality is the 2003 illegal invasion of Iraq, which has now been morphed into a brutal occupation: murder for oil. The US is not alone, it has a poisoned appendix (Israel), a minor associate (UK) and a sycophantic hanger-on (Aus); all together the wannabe hegemon, its illegal sprog and poodle with dag.

-=*=-

Recall my questions: is the above situation a problem (me: obviously), can we pin this problem on specific personalities (me: not so obviously), then finally, can anything be done and if so what? To answer the last: get rid of all the immoralities; no more lies, cheating, theft and murder. Far easier said than done, I know.

Once one realises that we are being lied to, actually being propagandised to 'enable' crimes to be committed (see my from A-bombs to Iraq (then on to Iran?), then one may see the world in an entirely different - and far darker - light.

My current fascination in this respect is the anthrax/bentonite psyop which was perpetrated in the US almost immediately after 9/11 in 2001; a story recently revived by Glenn Greenwald starting here (long story). Several letters containing powdered anthrax spores were received, notably by two Democrat Senator's offices and some other places including some more or less noteworthy MSM reporter's office, the net result being "Five people died, more than a dozen were sickened." It was quickly reported in the MSM that the anthrax was a) 'highly weaponized' and then b) for a period of five looong days, it was reported by the ABC(US), that the anthrax contained bentonite - pointing directly at Saddam/Iraq. At the same time as the ABC(US) bentonite reports, the WH was denying any presence of bentonite. (This is extremely odd, because the WH was otherwise actively seeking any possible reason to go after Saddam/Iraq.) It was later reported that the anthrax had been sourced in the US, and was identical to a batch held in Ft. Detrick - except that the letter-anthrax had been turned into a 'highly weaponized' powder, whereas the Ft. Detrick stock is in liquid form. This is significant because the FBI is now trying to pin the letter-sending on a 2nd Ft. Detrick employee (since suicided), the 1st 'suspect' having successfully sued the FBI for $5mio for 5 years' worth of false accusations. 'Evidence' released by the FBI recently is little more than fervid imaginings; nothing much 'better' than low-level circumstantial.

Note: Someone knows who put up the fake bentonite story; three then four "well-placed," "current and former government scientists" fed the ABC(US) the bentonite bumf - according to ABC(US). It (the psyop) could have been a, if not the key factor in swinging 'public opinion' behind the war; an emotional ground-swell: "Yeah. Let's get the bastard." As such, the ABC(US) played a critical role in a vile, vicious mass-murdering war crime.

I term it a psyop because it fits the definition[5]. There are 'better' sources for 'highly weaponized' anthrax, specifically where the US regime gets such stuff prepared[6]. IMHO, it is *highly unlikely* to have been carried out by any lone disgruntled vaccine worker, far more likely would be some sort'a team of psyop/black-op 'professionals.' It was just too slick - and deadly. One has to ask cui bono, and the answer is only the 'pro Iraq-War Party.' As for pinning the problem on any particular personalities - like GWBush, Cheney, the neoCon cabal - forget it. Could be rogue-CIA or some-such, though. That the ABC(US) 'played along' is far more likely than them having being 'played;' here more likely erring ideologue 'patriots' (aka knowingly criminal) at work, rather than blissfully ignorant incompetents - you get the drift from the sleazy way they've answered (or not) the challenges to their integrity.

*Someone* in the US consciously set out to misuse a deadly attack on US citizens to propagandise for war on Iraq, based on the deliberate bentonite lie. The attack letters themselves were as if from some enemy of the US (and Israel), the composite effect was as above: "Yeah. Let's get that Saddam bastard."

When we talk about erring ideologues, we see the same sort'a behaviour in those who have 'drunk the administration Kool-Aid,' and/or swallowed the Islamo-fascism/caliphate fantasy, and/or the Greater Israel/Zionism fantasy, and/or the main US fantasy, the hideous 'land of the free, home of the brave' jingoistic rubbish.

-=*=-

Fazit: our once jewel-like planet, with its delicately balanced ecosphere, is burning up as it's filling up; we are over-stressing it on the input side (resources, food & water) and on the output side (pollution, greenhouse gasses; CO2). We have neither the time nor the manoeuvring room left to do anything much more than feed our growing multitudes whilst desperately trying to save the planet. The US regime, leading warmonger and war criminal, is 'leading' the world astray as it rapes the planet for resources. Gotta be stopped, deflected, put on the right track. Away with lying, cheating, theft and murder: we all have to help each other now, rather than 'tolerating' outrageous thieves ripping ever more off on behalf of a few already obscenely rich fat-cat élite-types.

-=*end*=-

PS What's about 'pragmatism: clever or corrupt?' - Well, some people say one must be practical, others that one must accept the status quo, i.e. adopt a Realpolitik [3] and/or pragmatic[4] stance. The only people who can 'afford' such a pragmatic stance are either making a (crooked!) quid out of it (i.e. are corrupt), or have fundamentally misunderstood the situation (i.e. are living in a fool's paradise). I believe we can - and should - do better. Wouldn't it be nicer, to live in a world of peace and honour, rather than in this power/crime-dominated mess as now? Especially since the status quo is leading to probable and significant ecosphere destruction?

-=*=-

Ref(s):

[1] err
verb [no OBJ.] formal be mistaken or incorrect; make a mistake: the judge had erred in ruling that the evidence was inadmissible.
n [often as ADJ.] (erring) sin; do wrong: he had been as solicitous as an erring husband. [Oxford Pop-up]

[2] ideology n. (pl. -ies) 1 ideas at the basis of an economic or political theory (Marxist ideology). 2 characteristic thinking of a class etc. (bourgeois ideology).  ideological adj. ideologically adv. ideologist n. [French: related to *idea, *-logy]

[3] Realpolitik
noun [MASS NOUN] a system of politics or principles based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations.
ORIGIN early 20th cent.: from German Realpolitik ‘practical politics’.

[4] pragmatic adj. dealing with matters from a practical point of view.  pragmatically adv. [Greek pragma -mat- deed] [POD]

pragmatism n. 1 pragmatic attitude or procedure. 2 philosophy that evaluates assertions solely by their practical consequences and bearing on human interests.  pragmatist n. [Greek pragma: related to *pragmatic] [ibid.]

[5] Definitions of psyop on the Web:

psychological operation: military actions designed to influence the perceptions and attitudes of individuals, groups, and foreign governments
[princeton/wordnet]

[6] «The anthrax was military-grade, prepared using a top-secret recipe, most likely at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, or at the West Jefferson Ohio location, both of which are owned or managed by the large private contractor, Battelle Memorial Institute, that has previously partnered with the CIA and the DIA on biowarfare anthrax research, under the names Project Jefferson and Project Clear Vision, which was a secret program to mimic a Soviet dry powder anthrax bomblet.»
[Glenn Greenwald comments/CargoCult]

South Ossetia - Independence Struggle or Proxy War?

Fighting has erupted between Russia and Georgia over the region of South Ossetia. For a brief background see here. For a report on what is happening, see here.

From the NYTimes piece is an example of why the situation is not merely as local matter:

Russian officials said that strong ties to the United States had emboldened Mr. Saakashvili, who wants to make Georgia part of NATO, into sparking the conflict by trying seize back South Ossetia. But there were signs that Mr. Saakashvili was feeling the limits of how much American help he could expect after signing up as an ally in Iraq.

Pentagon officials said late on Friday that the Georgian government had officially requested assistance in airlifting home the approximately 2,000 Georgian troops now in Iraq. The request was under review, and standard procedures would indicate that the United States government would honor the request, officials said.

Chris Floyd on the matter - and follow the links. including those in the Comments.

From Pravda. This is provided as an example of how the Russians will be seeing things.

The above material is a starter to prepare people for what could be a dangerous situation for more than the Ossetians. There might well be a much larger and more dangerous game in motion.

from A-bombs to Iraq (then on to Iran?) ...

  .. via anthrax/bentonite and other such *filthy* lies

-=*=-

Today we commiserate the first grisly A-bombing, carried out by the US, and that on a predominately civilian 'target.'

  «The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945, roughly half on the days of the bombings. Since then, thousands more have died from injuries or illness attributed to exposure to radiation released by the bombs. In both cities, the overwhelming majority of the dead were civilians.»
[wiki]

It is a war crime to deliberately target civilians:

  «6. Status of Targets
A. Dr. Stearns described the work he had done on target selection. He has surveyed possible targets possessing the following qualification: (1) they be important targets in a large urban area of more than three miles in diameter, (2) they be capable of being damaged effectively by a blast, and (3) they are unlikely to be attacked by next August. Dr. Stearns had a list of five targets which the Air Force would be willing to reserve for our use unless unforeseen circumstances arise.»
[Los Alamos, May 10-11, 1945]

But that's exactly what they did (note: "large urban area," aka where people live[1]), and the outrage was repeated three days later, on a similar predominately civilian 'target.' The targets ("unlikely to be attacked by next August") were hardly militarily significant, all those had already come under US Air Force bombardment - and had largely been destroyed, they were in fact 'running out of targets:'

  «After six months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities, the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" was dropped on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed on August 9 by the detonation of the "Fat Man" nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. These are to date the only attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare.»
[wiki,ibid.]

Note: "After six months of intense firebombing of 67 other Japanese cities". One cannot justify these war crimes, but such guilty regimes propagandise (largely, sadly successfully) in attempting to deceive the sheople® and thus obscure their crimes.

(Until so-called 'revisionists' come along (beware; 'framing'), correcting the victors' history, aka lying record.)

One of the lies I've recently seen deployed is that Nagasaki was selected because it held a factory that modified Japan's torpedoes used in the attack on Pearl Harbour (a lie deployed to 'hook' emotions, it is a type of non sequitur); whereas the torpedo bit itself may be true, it is a lone fact used in isolation to obfuscate the true reason for selection (see "large urban area" above), and recall that both Hiroshima and Nagasaki ranked behind at least 67 other city-targets in military significance. And this, apropos the most egregious lie, must be neither forgotten nor ignored:

  "Competent testimony exists to prove that Japan was seeking to surrender many weeks before the atomic bomb came."

-=*=-

Intermezzo (brief):

Recall that Bernays morphed propaganda -> 'public relations.'

Which is deployed to manufacture demand (& consent!!?) - effectively 'sheople-izing' the voters.

That the corporate (venal!) MSM is up to such dirty tricks is understandable (in a way - they do it for $s - even though a) it's immoral & b) it's traitorous), but that publicly financed broadcasters are virtually indistinguishable (they retail the MSM lies as news aka 'truth') is utterly scandalous - and probably criminal; i.e. transmitting lies to us to 'justify' crimes, like Australia's participation in the (illegal!) invasion of Iraq.

-=*=-

Iraq revisited (brief):

After '9/11,' it was quickly decided to attack Afghanistan (actually already in planning well *before* 9/11); that attack was eventually morphed into an invasion/occupation. But even before that, when the smoke/dust from the *three* WTC buildings had barely cleared, we got the anthrax attacks. For a 5-day period, the public were panicked by near-hysterical stories associating the anthrax with Iraq/Saddam via bentonite. The association of bentonite with Iraq/Saddam was an outright lie; there simply was no bentonite. Full-stop; but the lies were broadcast frenetically, and non-stop. This is a vitally important story; once the fear had been generated, once the damage was done - well, we see the 'fall-out;' another illegal invasion, morphed into a brutal occupation (perhaps 1.25mio Iraqis dead, 2+2mio displaced + fled), mass-murder for oil.

Glenn Greenwald revived this issue here, with follow-up here. Jay Rosen has taken it up here and Dan Gillmor in a similar vein here. The blogger Larisa Alexandrovna is adding significant input here, here, here and here. Sorry - but not too sorry; it's a lot but vitally important; it perfectly illustrates the lies deployed, how the venal MSM operates, and the dreadful consequences of those lies - which we see in Afghanistan, Iraq and possibly Iran yet to come (but hopefully not.)

-=*=-

Iran ("All options!"):

Iran stalls on nuke demands
Posted August 6, 2008 05:10:00

  «The major powers say they fear Tehran wants to build an atomic bomb. But Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil producer, insists it is only seeking to master nuclear technology to generate electricity.
...
Tehran has repeatedly refused to halt its atomic work, prompting the UN Security Council to impose three rounds of penalties on Iran since 2006. The United States also maintains its own sanctions against Iran.
...
One Western official who had seen the letter said it added "absolutely nothing" and that no concrete proposals were made by Tehran to resolve the impasse.»
[AusBC]

Comment: The AusBC reports such stuff as fact, when it's full of lies and innuendo. The IAEA is all over Iran like a rash; Iran is 'playing by the rules;' there is no *highly* enriched program (would be needed for a bomb; no highly enriched, no bomb), and no possibility of one while the IAEA supervises so closely, as it does and will continue to do. Iran has the perfect right to enrich, 'Major powers' & 'the West' is code for the US bully plus its cowardly coerced quislings. The "world's fourth-largest oil producer" bit is as if to say "See? They don't *need* nukular!" - another type of non sequitur. In short, the article is propaganda, and the AusBC has no right to transmit same.

The whole ghastly story, plus the "All options!" etc. (like faked and hyped 'map-wiping') coming from both the existing regime & candidates for the next regime is sabre-rattling in the extreme (probably illegal under international law, which both the US and Israel snub/violate on an almost daily basis, so much for the UN); the ugly US élite wants to flatten - to dominate - Iran, for nefarious purposes ("Greater Israel" for their Lobby 'chums,' more oil-theft for themselves, see Iraq) - but they (the US; any and all such ugly élites) have got to be stopped from raping the planet and dragging us all down the greedastrophe® tubes.

-=*end*=-

Ref(s):

[1] urban adj. of, living in, or situated in a town or city. [Latin urbs city]

sheople, synchronicity & madness ...

  .. a Sakharov needed, or perhaps better, a Mahatma Gandhi

-=*=-

G'day Bob,

thanks for the great links (as usual), the Chris Floyd stands out here as well worth reading. Following are a few 'snips,' some with my comments added. But 1st, to sheople®; a contraction of sheep + people. I've been thinking about them recently (more accurately, thinking more about them), since I discovered the stuff on Bernays[1]. I developed the concept of sheople from my own observations some time ago now, prompted perhaps by a bit of detested Ameri-speak (spit!) - namely "dumbed down." It's obvious, of course, that the electorate has been dumbed down, and in my wonderings I concluded that TV was the culprit. Well, it is - but only in a way; it is definitely the preferred conduit for dumbing down, and benefits from a singular advantage: the sheople queue up outside the Hardly Normal's (even mortgaging their 1st born perhaps), to buy the wide-flat-screen mind-numbing monsters. Still, my sheople-theory was not well received, TV-viewers of all stripes crying "It's just a movie!"

Well, another of course, its not "just a movie" at all - the human 'audio-visual input system' has no effective filters, stuff pours in essentially un-edited - but worse and ta ra! - the programming is deliberately poisoned, by propaganda[2]. The propaganda is designed to create a warped world-view, not 'just' as an aid to crooked politicians (exactly like B, B & H, say.) Again, it's obvious - to those who look critically enough, that a lot of our news is so contaminated - I screech at the AusBC & SBS loud and long - but the really insidious stuff is better camouflaged; look no further than the TV show "24," say. Here, one can see (simulations of) torture, excused under the "if it saves lives" rubric, all presented as drama, i.e. imaginary. In this way, when the US actually tortures 'terrorist suspects' (including people who may be completely innocent, see Abu Ghraib), the sheople can (and apparently do) accept such torture being done, perhaps telling themselves "OK; if it saves lives (i.e. those of our side, but notably not them, the others')..."

My research into propaganda (aka 'public relations') was given an enormous boost by my discovery of Adam Curtis' award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self[3]. This is where the synchronicity[4] comes in; the electorate has been dumbed down by this (hideous, secret?!!) manipulation and, along with entrenched avarice (aka greed), is key to the madness sweeping the (Anglo + Israeli) world. Now to the 'snips:'

-=*=-

1. «And despite the deep unpopularity of the regime, there is still a widespread reluctance to recognize its true nature, and what it will require to restore our constitutional republic.»

(Me: The above refers to the hapless US. Here in Aus, we are rid of the Howard regime - but its replacement has yet to meaningfully differentiate itself in the respect referred to in this snip; we have only the ugly Lab/Lib twins to choose from, and neither properly represent us. The Lab/Lib twins 'ape' the equally ugly Repug/Dummocrat twins, all are (corrupt!) captives of their respective 'big ends of town' and/or M/I-plexes.)

«And truth to tell, there are a great many people uninterested in doing so. As long as the diversions keep pouring through the latest gadgetry, the monthly paycheck manages to cover the bills, and their own bodies are not subjected to the tyrant's evil, many people are happy to accept the authoritarian system. (This is not unique to Americans, of course; it is a constant in human history.) But even where there is an interest in discerning the reality of our times, and a yearning for change, again there is no broader movement to leverage an individual's dissent into a form large enough to thwart the tyrannical machine. And there is no American Sakharov on the horizon, someone to arise from the very centre of the machine to denounce its workings and call for genuine liberty, genuine democracy, genuine economic and social justice.»
[Chris Floyd/Adventures in the Poison Factory]

(Me: a) The sheople, TV-comatosed, do not care. b) Even if they did, there's no corrective mechanism available; our so-called democracies are stuffed. c) A true leader might do it, but there is none such anywhere in sight. Q: Any hope at all?)

2. (comment to Chris Floyd/War Without End) «LabDancer said:
 Good piece & timely Mr Floyd.

Juan Cole started posting something in the same vein a few weeks ago when Obama started increasing his theme of turning away from the Iraq fiasco in order to address the 'real front' in the GWoT- but then McCain started to move in the same direction & Cole's reaction has been to outsource his warnings to Professor Barnett Rubin- who now as Cole notes is blogging up a storm.»

(Me: Cole's remark here, Rubin's blog here.)

«I was barely into puberty when LBJ apparently decided to throw the Hawks of those days Vietnam as a device to placate them & buy some room & time for his domestic agenda [I have found Eric Alterman's thesis in When President's Lie compelling on this.]»

(Me: What's this? Vietnam war (50k US dead, millions of 'collaterals') as a bone to the M/I-plex?)

«To my mind that plus Russia's fiasco in Afghanistan & the possibly incomparable complexity that is Pakistan suffice to justify the concern of Rubin & Cole & of course now you, that Obama may fall into the same sort of morass as did JFK in Cuba- as did LBJ as above- as did Reagan in his mythological benign indulgence of Casey's crazed bumbling in the Middle East & Central America that showed up as Iran-Contra [merely the tip of Reagan's iceberg of state-sponsored muddling given the fumbling we've witnessed on Cheney's watch].»

(Me: This is a new perspective on 'the great game;' war as presidential routine - on the other hand, not really new at all.)

«But I'm not sure Obama is quite so vulnerable to the mind-softening effects of the Beltway Bubble bath as those of his predecessors. I also think he might be more like the first Bush & Clinton in his capacity to keep the lies coming out of his mouth from moving into his brain. The lesson from Carter is that honest rhetoric earns you an early ticket out of the White House. Like Carter in the wake of the sinking of Nixon Obama has come on stage during a serious ebb in the electorate's tolerance for imperialist adventures & reflexive xenophobia & of course an energy crunch- but as bright as was Carter [at least for a simple god-fearing peanut farmer from the South- who just happened to have advanced degrees & a huge fund of hands-on cutting edge experience with nuclear power] & as much as I am willing to concede the value of degrees from Columbia & a gold-medal juris doctorate from Harvard- there is nothing like 20 years of advanced education in Chicago politics for learning how to win at the game of POTUS.

I'll go Rumsfeldian briefly: Am I COUNTING on Obama having achieved the state of Nirvana for American presidents in being able to lie like a bandit yet keep his head out of the bubble? Nope- but it's up to folks like Rubin & Cole & you- and also me many many others- to hold him to that standard.»

(Me: This is 'our calling;' we the pro-truth & pro-justice bloggers.)

«If they- you- we succeed- then maybe US policy in Afghanistan will track more like what Rory Stewart is prescribing. There's no hope of that under McCain- but just about everyone who has spent any quality time with him says Obama listens- hears- synthesizes - & then seems almost invariably to make the smart move.»
[Chris Floyd/War Without End]

(Me: Hmmm. Know nothing about Rory Stewart, but this is a new perspective on 'all politicians lie;' here LabDancer is saying that Obama has not only to fool the sheople, but the (ruling) elite as well, to get elected and then save the world. A 'big ask,' as they say.)

-=*=-

Fazit: What a s**t system! Theory; that the voters are sovereign. Practice; that they are dumbed down - by their representatives via the venal MSM - amongst others, all over-lorded (warning: conspiracy!) by the purported (hidden!) rulers. It's a paradox; voters can't vote 'straight,' the representatives don't represent 'straight,' and the hidden rulers (the real criminals) laugh all the way to the bank. That is the current, US-led modern world. What a disgrace on humanity.

The last word: note that publicly financed broadcasters like the AusBC and SBS are virtually indistinguishable from the venal corporate conniving, lying and traitorous MSM; they all sing from the same song-sheet, 'faithfully' disseminating the propaganda.

-=*end*=-

Ref(s):

[1] Bernays' propaganda (aka 'public relations'):

«The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.»
[wiki/Propaganda_(book)]

[2] propaganda n. 1 organized propagation of a doctrine by use of publicity, selected information, etc. 2 usu. derog. ideas etc. so propagated.  propagandist n. & adj. propagandize v. (also -ise) (-zing or -sing). [Latin: related to *propagate]

[3] To investigate how the sheople are effectively deceived, one could start with a video "The Century of the Self" found here at ICH, a commentary from medialens 1st, 2nd and 3rd; here at informationliberation or here at wiki, the latter referring to an article at the guardian.

Then, if one wished to see some deception methods deployed by politicians, try The Political Mind by George Lakoff at NS.
[from 'failed noblesse oblige' in my 'the mortal danger of denial']

[4] «Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally inexplicable to the person or persons experiencing them. The events would also have to suggest some underlying pattern in order to satisfy the definition of synchronicity as originally developed by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.»
[wiki/Synchronicity]