Latest PsyWar Ploy Against Bradley Manning

Recent photos of U.S. Army political prisoner Bradley Manning indicate yet another creepy mind-manipulating ploy being used against him. News photos of Manning being led into "court" on the military base at Fort Meade, Maryland (which is also the main base of the National Security Agency, the giant Pentagon global electronic spying organization that strives to spy on all communications of everyone, everywhere) shows him being "escorted" by one soldier who looks like a twin of himself, only a head taller. Same receding chin, face, eyeglasses. Sort of a big brother. Obviously they searched through their personnel to find this guy, who Bradley would subconsciously trust and look up to, and presumably carelessly make self-incrminating statements to and/or items of intelligence value. The news media, while running these pictures, pretends not to notice. Or maybe they aren't very sophisticated. Obviously psychiatrists/psychologists are plotting against Manning along with the rest of the oppressive power structure Manning is trapped in, thanks to the secret police informer Adrian Lamo. Manning carelessly confided in Lamo, it is said.

 Here are three of the photos:

U.S.’ Saudi Pals Behead A Witch

What? Is that a satirical headline? Are we still in medieval times?  It is in Saudi Arabia, beloved ally of the U.S., bulwark against Iran, Shiite “extremism,” and “terrorism.” [This needs some translation: Al-Qaeda and its offshoots, the Taliban, the various Paki “militants,” etc. are Sunnis, not Shiites. As are the Saudis, who are the funders of Sunni terrorism and have been since the 1970s. Confusing, I know. You can’t analyze U.S. foreign policy and propaganda too closely because logically it’s incoherent. “Terrorism” in this context refers to enemies of Israel, mainly Hezbollah and Hamas.]

Anyway, the Saudis just beheaded a woman for “witchcraft” and “sorcery.” The provincial chief of religious police (sic) proudly announced the butchery.

I only heard this reported on Al-Jazeera, not on the BBC, or NPR, for example. Be interesting to see what kind of coverage it gets. (Of course, if Iran had done it, you’d be hearing plenty.)

Actually there’s a good reason for “the” media to ignore this story- it’s the 73rd beheading in Saudi Arabia this year. So it’s kind of like a dog bites man story, not really news! Much more important is which GOP Presidential aspirant made what catty remark about a rival. Or fires. Or crime stories. Lots of fires and crime stories in the local media in the U.S.

But hey, the Saudis have the U.S.’ back in the oil market, making sure the price never rises too high. You have to have your priorities straight. All that prattle about human rights has always been just so much guff anyway. (Look at U.S. history if you don’t believe it. Or look at the current police savagery against the Occupy Movement.)

Another story apparently only on Al-Jazeera (at least among broadcast media in the U.S.) is the murder of three Mexican students by the police in a protest against unsupportable prices to get an education. To be fair, that’s progress. In 1968 the Mexican government slaughtered at least 250 students in a sit-in, using army snipers, so the Olympics wouldn’t be “spoiled.” (It worked! The massacre-which was blacked out by U.S. media, which basically still blacks it out- in contrast to endless dredging up of Pan Am 103 downed over Lockerbie, say- didn’t spoil the Olympics, as apparently a student sit-in would have.) So this time the Mexican rulers only killed less than one one-hundredth the number of students they did in one day in 1968. Gotta give credit where credit is due.

The students had the effrontery to block a highway to demand a meeting with the Governor of Guerrero province. The Governor’s reply was sending an assassin to stand among the police with a rifle and gun down the students. That’s dialogue, authoritarian-style. (But remember, in the “Free World,” the word for “authoritarian” is “democratic.”)

jasonzenith.blogspot.com

taboo-truths.blogspot.com

17th Global Climate Change Conference Achieves Breakthrough!

Well, not really. At least I don’t think so, despite some media reports claiming a “breakthrough.”

What actually happened at the seventeenth (count ‘em, 17!!) conference of the “United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change” held in Durban, South Africa, was that nations promised to work towards a new treaty, which will supposedly be agreed to by 2020. In other words, they kicked the can down the road another nine years.

There was also a promise to create a fund to help poor nations adapt to climate change (a tacit admission that more warming is unavoidable, and not a “myth” as American reactionaries, including virtually all Republican politicians, and corporate rags like the Wall Street Journal, strenuously insist), but without any actual money amounts specified or pledged. Kind of like a “Have a nice day!,” an insincere expression of goodwill.

So that was the outcome of 72 hours of wrangling.

Under Obama, the U.S. still insists that “developing” nations like India, China, and Brazil shouldn’t get any special dispensation.

The European Union had wanted a “road map” spelling out the route to a legally binding treaty, but caved under Chinese and Indian pressure and U.S. fecklessness. Instead they had to settle for the sop of a vague promise of some future treaty or other that might or might not be actually ratified.

Recall that the moribund, ineffective Kyoto Treaty (which the U.S. always refused to sign, in part thanks to the utterly reactionary United States Senate, which unfortunately must ratify all treaties as per the U.S. “Constitution.”) was agreed to back in 1997, 14 years ago. So we’ll be into over 2 decades of stalling and foot-dragging, assuming there even is

an agreement in 2020.

Rabidly reactionary U.S. Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma (what is it with that state? Is it an open air insane asylum?) a fanatical, rage-filled climate science hater, gloated in a video to his demented followers about the failure of the conference to actually do anything.

The assessment of the climate change and energy “fellow” at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, an organization of top-level U.S. Brahmins, a guy named Michael A. Levi, was a bit on the gloomy side:

“It is difficult to avoid concluding that the Europeans ultimately blinked.” “The reality is that there is no more agreement on the future of the climate talks than there was when negotiators first convened two weeks ago.” [I.e. NO progress was made AT ALL.] “Europe will continue to insist on a full-blown legally binding agreement; China and India will continue to oppose one; and the United States, while leaving the door open to an agreement that is binding for all, will continue to be unenthusiastic as well. These positions are largely rooted in incompatible views of the future, and there is no reason to believe that more talking will change them.” I.e., no reason to think there will actually be a meaningful treaty by 2020.

Aww gee, Mike, why you gotta bring people down? Can’t you find a silver lining to focus on? How about this: they didn’t throw their shoes at each other. That’s something!

jasonzenith.blogspot.com

taboo-truths.blogspot.com

Israel Increases Repression of Media

Journalists in Israel are alarmed and up in arms over the latest attacks on free Israeli media. So far, a radio station the government doesn't like has been forced off the air, and the Knesset voted to shut down an investigative tv station in retaliation for exposes about the Likud-led government. (The pretext was unpaid "licensing fees" and "royalties" owed to the government.) Nasty Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is suing the station for $1.2 million for good measure for exposing misdeeds of his.

A new, extremely punitive "libel" law will quash investigative journalism, and also targets bloggers, making them extremely vulnerable.

So far the only reportage of this in the U.S. media, which glorifies Israel and presents only the propaganda vision of that country, has been in the American Jewish publication The Jewish Daily Forward.



jasonzenith.blogspot.com
taboo-truths.blogspot.com

Obama’s Jamaican Massacre

The Obama regime is behind a massacre of 73 civilians in the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica, on May 24, 2010, according to an article in The New Yorker. [Click on headline for link to article or go to http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/12/12/111212fa_fact_schwartz#ixzz1fmpNcq3Y A Massacre In Jamaica] The author spent eleven weeks in Jamaica researching the article. So far, the U.S. and Jamaican Governments refuse to explain their slaughter, who the victims were, or why they were murdered. Contrary to lying reports in the rest of the U.S. media, they were not “gunmen” working for a “drug gang” “killed in shootouts.” (The Jamaican state goons only claimed to have recovered 6 guns, belieing any possible “they were all killed in shootouts” claim.)

The massacre occurred because the U.S., once again arrogantly asserting its sovereignty over the entire globe and the supremacy of its “law,” demanded that a “drug lord” named Christopher Coke be handed over to the tender mercies of the its draconian legal system. (With over 2 million prisoners, the U.S. with its 50 states has more people locked up than any nation on earth, including China, which has over four times the population. And the U.S. has thousands of people who committed crimes as minors imprisoned for life without parole. In the U.S., thousands of prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for years, a form of torture. But there is no space to insert a book here about the horrors of the U.S. “justice” and penal systems.)

The raid was necessary because supplying the U.S. market with recreational substances is a major source of economic substenance in Jamaica, especially in the poor areas viewed with contempt by the local rulers. So in order to take out a person who was a pillar of the community, a military invasion was required.

The massacre occurred during a Warsaw Ghetto liquidation type raid on Coke’s neighborhood stronghold. Soldiers and police barricaded the entire neighborhood, and those men they didn’t kill were shipped off to prison camps. (Of course some of the murder victims were women.) The area has been under military occupation ever since. (Guns, bullets, uniforms, etc. helpfully supplied by the U.S. That’s called “aid to Jamaica.” The apparent definition of “Jamaica” being “our local stooges in power” and “aid” being “the repressive weaponry and technology so they can keep the Jamaican populace underfoot.)

During the massacre, the U.S. Department of “Homeland Security” (i.e. Domestic Repression, which apparently regards Jamaica as U.S. territory- what, the U.S. an empire?) flew a spy plane overhead and sent a live video feed of the extermination operation to U.S. and Jamaican state officials for their delectation. (What a rush they must get from the power to kill!)

This was very very important, as Jamaica is deemed responsible for a whole 2-3% or banned drugs entering the U.S. So it’s certainly worth the price in (Jamaican) blood that was paid. Now no more drugs will ever transit through Jamaica ever again, nor will the drugs simply transit through some other country. Of that you can be sure. (If you’re a fool.)

Thus another Great Victory in the War On Drugs is scored. Pretty soon now, no one in America will want to get high ever again.

Ironically, Coke wasn‘t even captured during the raid. Instead he turned himself in later, to avoid more massacres. The Evil Drug Kingpin, you see, cared more for the lives of Jamaicans than their “Government” does, and certainly more than the U.S. does.

Since the imprisonment of Coke makes absolutely no difference whatsoever in the consumption of banned substances in the U.S., one might fairly ask what is the root of U.S. fanaticism about this. It is very reminiscent of the irrational hatred of the Nazis for Jews, which also defies logical analysis.

This being The New Yorker, a haute bourgeois organ, naturally moral condemnation of this U.S. state crime is absent.  (I mean, it’s not like Russia or Iran or Cuba did it or something!) You’ll have to supply your own moral outrage. You’ll have to supply the obvious conclusions yourself too. Look, The New Yorker is owned by Conde Nast, and is a vehicle for luxury goods and “lifestyle” ads. They can’t be so “radical” or “extreme” as to denounce U.S. criminality. That would be “irresponsible.” But they provide a useful service by presenting the overwhelming facts. Shouldn’t be hard to draw the proper political and moral conclusions in such an obvious case for anyone who isn’t an imbecile. (Unfortunately too many people are, especially in America.)

Let me make sure I’m being clear:

Barack Obama is a murderer.

The puppet president of Jamaica is a murderer.

The DEA is a gang of murderers. (So what’s new?)

Now perhaps the Liberals can explain again why having a Republican for President is so much worse than having a Democrat. I keep forgetting the reason(s).

http://jasonzenith.blogspot.com

http://taboo-truths.blogspot.com

What You’re Paying For With AT&T Phone “Service”

That is, when you can even make a normal call on your cellphone.

One thing you’re paying for is millions of dollars for bogus, self’serving “advice” to the company boss from “investment bankers” (finance capitalist vampires) and corporate lawyers to tell him what he wants to hear, namely that buying T-Mobile is a slam dunk, no anti-trust problem at all, which is exactly what he wanted to hear, validating his own genius. (And generating fat fees for the advice-givers.)

Turns out that was dead wrong. The FCC is opposing the anti-competitive merger, and the “Justice” Department is suing under anti-trust law to block it. Oops!

Guess just because something is very very expensive, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s of high quality, including advice.

So here we have exorbitantly expensive “investment bankers” and corporate lawyers who provided a gold-plated vanity mirror to reflect Chairman and CEO’s Randall L. Stephenson’s brilliance back to his face.

But “consumers” never feel robbed by the extravagant wastefulness of corporations, or their stock buybacks, or dividends, or profits. And workers too accept their wages as “fair.”

But when it comes to taxes, somehow that is perceived as stealing. That’s “my” money that’s being taken.

Whose money is taken when you give it to a corporation? And it’s not as if you don’t get anything in return for taxes. You get a government. You get a fire department, a police department (a mixed blessing, to be sure). You get Social Security and Medicare (despised by the GOP and corporate media).

Point is, people are conditioned to see tax as theft, government as waste. As if the trillions of dollars corporations have amasses don’t come from the people too.

But the official ideology holds that the rich magically “create wealth.” Like magicians. Has nothing to do with workers working!

What’s Worse, Storming An Embassy Or Assassinating Scientists?

If it involves a hate-object nation like Iran, clearly mobs storming consulates is an outrage, worthy of condemnation by the UN Security Council and lectures by the President of the U.S. about responsibility. Assassinating Iranian physicists, however, is barely worth reporting in the papers. And when it is reported, it’s with the pretense that who’s doing it is a “mystery.”

UK PM David Cameron calls the overrunning of Britain’s embassy in Tehran by a mob  “outrageous” and “indefensible” and threatens unspecified “grave consequences.” Unlike any consequences the U.S. or Israel suffer for assassinating scientists inside another country. Or any that the UK and U.S. suffered for overthrowing the last democratic regime in Iran in 1953, imposing a vicious dictator, the “Shah” (“King”), who killed 250,000 Iranians during the course of his bloody reign. With the CIA’s help, his secret police, the SAVAK, did such a great job of torturing and exterminating anyone with a smidgen of progressive, democratic consciousness that when the Iranian people couldn’t take any more, only fundamentalist mullahs were left as an organized group to fill the power vacuum. So an oppressive, theocratic oligarchy is the legacy of the U.S.-UK coup. (During his quarter century reign, Amnesty International listed Iran as the world’s worst human rights violator.)

Now “international outrage” is the order of the day for trashing the British embassy. (No harm was done to any British personnel.) Murdering scientists? Don’t mention it. Take a guess what the reaction would be if Iran was assassinating people inside the UK or U.S.

There’s a history here, which the Western media assiduously blacks out so people won’t be aware of it. But people in Iran are aware of it. I suspect that is why, of all the countries with sanctions against Iran, the UK’s facilities were attacked. (The U.S. has no diplomatic mission in Iran.)

No, this doesn’t mean I’m on Iran’s “side.” I’m not. I’m objective. Something very rare.

By the way, Israel sacked the Soviet embassy in Beirut during their 1982 invasion of Lebanon. And the CIA had a plan to attack the Chinese embassy in Havana in the early 1960s, including killing Chinese diplomatic personnel. The Western media threw those bits of history down the memory hole. “History” in the West (and everywhere, unfortunately) is a process of selective “remembering” (often distorted or flat-out false) and convenient “forgetting,” driven by concealed political and ideological agendas, while feigning “objectivity.”

[After I wrote this, later in the day the BBC kindly illustrated my point about dishonest propagandists blacking out history.  The anchor on “World (Dis)Service” interviewed the BBC’s Jonathan Marcus, who “explained” Iranian behavior in terms of Iranian perceptions about British involvement in the region. No mention of the 1953 coup, or Britain colonizing the region by force, or dispossessing Palestinians in favor of Jews from Europe. Not that the Iranian regime is reasonable, or decent.  But painting it black and white, as in We the West are the Good Guys and Iran is Evil is clearly not journalism but propaganda. Propaganda designed to prepare public opinion for another war, in fact.]

Agents Of Financial Oligarchy Seize Direct Control Of Greek and Italian Governments

Without any vote by the people of those countries, agents of the top levels of global finance have seized direct government power in Greece and Italy. Their resumes, proudly put forth in the corporate media as superior qualifications justifying their anti-democratic imposition on the people, in fact are damning evidence of just who they are and what class they represent.

In Greece, the political bosses appointed Lucas Papademos, the former vice-president of the European Central Bank, as Prime Minister. Papademos demanded, as conditions for his deigning to take over Greece without the approval of the Greek people (this lifelong elitist never had to be elected to anything in his life to weird  power) that he have a term of six months, thus cancelling the promised February elections (that’s the second canceled chance to vote for the Greek people, counting Papandreou’s promise of a “referendum” on the onerous “bailout” deal, a promise he reneged on just 3 days after making it), so that he’d have enough time to cram the “austerity” “medicine” down the throats of the Greek people; total control over cabinet appointments, and sweeping powers. Oh, and he acts like he’s doing everyone a favor by taking over.

According to the London Guardian:

“The appointment of Papademos, who has never been elected to any public office but is considered one of Europe's foremost experts in macroeconomics, was met with relief.

“Politicians, pundits, economists, business and industry leaders all expressed the belief that, liberated from the constraints of "political cost", Papademos was the ideal person to navigate the country away from the shores of economic disaster.

"’The new government is the last hope for the Greek economy," said Dimitris Daskalopoulos, who heads the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises. "If Greeks allow the new prime minister to work, if they overcome party politics … it can become a government of national salvation.’"

Who likes him speaks volumes. Papademos was indoctrinated in the U.S. In his “acceptance speech,” he called for “unity” and “consensus;” i.e. unity of the political elite behind his draconian plan to make the Greek economy scream to pay off the bondholders.

Meanwhile, in Italy, the President, an ex-Communist Party member (!) named Giorgio Napolitano, anointed another financial plutocrat, one Mario Monti, senator for life. This to pave the way for his appointment (again sans any input from the people) as Prime Minister to replace the absurd, corrupt lothario Silvio Berlusconi. This eminence is described as a “free market economist” by the Wall Street Journal, which of course approves. Monti is an ex-European Commissioner, that is, a member of the permanent ruling class in Europe (unelected of course), the capitalist nomenklatura, if you will.

The euphemism for these guys is “technocrat.” This is totally disingenuous, a disguise of their true nature. “Technocrat” implies, and the corporate media “news” reporting often states explicitly, that these agents are non-ideological, neutral technicians, like economic engineers, and “economics” is some value-free science, like physics or chemistry.

 In fact, what they call “economics” is mostly an ideology with a specific class bias. The “technocrats” are political agents who represent the transnational financial oligarchy. Far from being non-ideological, they have an agenda to defend the class interests of the top levels of finance capital. Their ideology, falsely put forth as neutral, objective reality, makes the economic interests of the financial oligarchy paramount over everything else. This attitude is a given, and is paraded under the false premise of economic reality, like rock strata in geology. But this is not science, and these class interests are not an immutable reality. And the submission of all other interests and values to their hegemony is pure and simply a policy choice, not an unavoidable imperative of reality.

Euro Fetishism

The financial elites and their political frontmen are waxing hysterical over the prospect of Greece “leaving the Eurozone,” i.e. reverting to its own sovereign currency, the drachman. Understand, if this happened, Greece would still be part of the European Union, as the 10 members of that Union that don’t use the euro are. (There are 27 nations in the European Union, 17 of which abolished their national currencies and adopted the euro as a common currency.)

Why a tiny nation of 11 million people is crucial to the viability of the euro is a mystery. If the euro is really that fragile, it’s not a viable currency anyway.

Of course, as critics predicted, problems would result from a common currency and collective central bank, but individual national fiscal policies and separate economies with separate rates of growth, inflation, unemployment, etc.

Greece desperately needs to jettison the euro and bring back the drachma. The drachma will be worth less than euros. Greek exports will immediately become less expensive and thus more competitive, generating production in Greece. Greece will draw more tourists since it will be much cheaper to vacation there. And while this is called “inflationary,” probably Greeks will find lower prices. Every country that adopted the euro socked its people with higher retail prices. In Greece a bottle of water went from half a drachma to one and a half euros (about $2.).

High Speed Railroad Set Up To Persecute Occupy Wall Street Protesters

New York City is expanding a special court for the express purpose of “processing” the 900 protesters rounded up by the New York Police Department (NYPD) in the past few weeks. 

The special “court” dispenses with such niceties as juries or allowing defense attorneys enough time for preparation. (Bet you thought the U.S. Constitution “guaranteed” you a right to a jury trial That’s what it says, true, but words don’t always mean what they say, I guess.)

An enthusiastic NY Times article on the matter hails it as providing “swift justice.” Egyptian military “court” style, I’d say. [“Special Manhattan Court Trims Case Backlog, but Defense Lawyers See Drawbacks,” NYT, 11/3/11, p. A25. “Drawbacks” like the fact that the whole setup is skewed to favor prosecutors and produce convictions.Link to article on blogpost title.]

The Times gives an example of how the “court” works by citing the case of an African street vendor arrested for selling umbrellas without a permit. His lawyer asked for a ONE DAY delay in the “trial” so that a defense witness could appear.

The “court” said no. (Time is of the essence in such serious matters, you see.) Duly convicted by the “judge,” the African was fine $500 for the crime of trying to survive.

Next up, $500 fines for silly people who think the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution “guarantees” their freedom of speech and assembly. And if you don’t pay, they imprison you.

Of course, these being misdemeanor charges, defendant-victims can still be sentenced to jail for a year, say. But in a country where stealing a slice of pizza can get you life in prison, as happens in California, what’s the big deal about having a year of your life stolen? Quit your whining!

Euro Bosses Beat Back Threat Of Democracy Breaking Out In Greece

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou didn't even have the decency to wait half a week before reneging on his offer of allowing the Greek people to vote in a referendum on the economic holocaust being imposed on them. "Summoned to explain himself" (as all media reports phrased it) by his political superiors to the G-20 meeting site in lovely Cannes, France, he was handed an ultimatum to decide if Greece was in or out of the Eurozone (i.e. the euro currency bloc). Oh, and no more money until after that referendum.

Back in Greece, Papandreou revealed that all he really cared about was staying Prime Minister as long as possible. That's all that matters to him. But let him tell you. Here's what he said to the Greek Parliament:

"I will be glad even if we don't go to a referendum, which was never a purpose in itself. I'm glad that all this discussion has at least brought a lot of people back to their senses," he said in the text of his speech released to media. Can you get more nakedly cynical than that? He says it right out in the open.


All he wants is a "unity" government with his bourgeois opposition party. He wants to hang on to his pathetic job as underboss of Greece for High Finance. Facing a no-confidence vote tomorrow, his "referendum" offer was just a ploy to save his own job. What he wants is to force the opposition to sit in the same sinking boat he's in. The right wing opposition party wants early elections, which they will cynically win by pretending to seek a "better deal" from the financiers and political bosses of Greater Europe.


This is the trouble with bourgeois class dictatorships. There is actually no electoral choice in places like Greece and the U.S., where no real alternative is organized as a political party that can genuinely compete for state power.


The Greek people need to overthrow their current rulers and go the Argentine route: go back to their own currency and default on "their" debts- the debts run up by the misrulers who listened to the siren song of Goldman Sachs et al and piled up reckless, feckless, irresponsible debt. The "investment bankers" made a killing "financing" Greek government spending, and now the banks stuck holding the bag want bailouts and rescues. Once again Goldman conned the other financiers, just as it did when it peddled bum bundled junk mortgages as AAA investments to its suckers- I mean, "clients."

German-French Ultimatum To Greece

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is "summoned" to Cannes by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who demand that Greece make a snap decision whether it wants to stay in the Euro Zone or not.

He was told Greece won't receive more aid until after the January referendum on the latest economic squeeze ("austerity program") so creditors could see if the Greeks would accept the deal.

 "Europe cannot be kept waiting for weeks for the outcome of the referendum" sniffed French Prime Minister Francois Fillon to parliament. "The Greeks must say quickly and without ambiguity whether they choose to keep their place in the euro zone or not."


And Merkel made it clear that the dominant European powers were out of patience and wanted to bring matters to a head one way or the other. "We agreed a plan for Greece last week. We want to put this plan into practice, but for this we need clarity and the meeting tonight should help with precisely this," she said.

European Political Bosses Desperate To Head Off Greek Democracy

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s surprise stunt of calling for a referendum so the Greek people can finally have a say in the economic assaults being waged on them for the past two years (aka “bailouts” and “rescues,” although it’s bankers and other bondholders  who are the objects of concern) has European political bosses (called “leaders,” just as corporate bosses aren’t bosses, but are “leaders”) in a tizzy. Sarkozy of France, Merkel of Germany et al are insisting that the deal is done, and the Greeks just have to swallow it, no voting by the Greek people allowed.

The Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, was particularly blunt. He told his Parliament in no uncertain terms that the planned referendum was “very unfortunate” and “we have to do everything to prevent it.”

We have to do everything to prevent it. Some CIA goon couldn’t have said it better. God forbid the Greek people have a say in their own fate. God forbid decisions made by the rulers should be subject to popular approval. That would be…democratic!!!

“Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou was summoned to Cannes to explain himself…” to the other countries’ bosses. NPR actually said this today Nov 2 at 4:31 pm. Can you get more nakedly highhanded and arrogant? But I suppose that’s accurate. Various newspapers in the U.S. and Europe also used the verb “summoned” to describe the action.

Whiff Of Democracy In Greece Sends Markets Into A Tizzy

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou pulled a surprise today by announcing that he would put the latest "bailout-reform-austerity" deal to a vote of the Greek people- those who stand to suffer under it.

This threw the financial markets for a loop, with stocks in Europe and the U.S. down several percentage points. The financial elite and its various mouthpieces were all in a lather about this terrible idea. What right do the people who are losing their livelihoods have to weigh in on the plan the rulers have decided on for them?

Already the speculation on one voice of finance, Bloomberg Radio (owned by the same billionaire who is Mayor of New York City, the self-proclaimed "Greatest City in the World," or, as a Bloomberg Radio slogan has it, "The Financial Capital of The World," perhaps the same thing) is that Papandreou would either back down- or be ousted! Well, the masters of the world (or of "the universe," in their own megalomaniacal phrase) are good at ousting disobedient politicians. (Why not? They have professionals working for them, like the CIA and MI6, et al.) Click on the title of this post for a link to an example of finance hysteria.

Already on the same day another member of theso-called "socialist" party of Papandreou is whispering in the $ media's ears that the referendum is a nonstarter. We shall see.

If the so-called "cradle of democracy" won't allow its own people to have any say in their own fate, they need to overthrow that regime.

Oops! OMG! Now I'm guilty of "subversion"! I better not tell this to anyone else, because then I'll be guilty of "seditious conspiracy"! That's no joke, the U.S. still has such laws on its books- and it uses them. Would that apply to a foreign government? Well, Jose Padilla was convicted of "terrorism" for aiding Bosnian Muslims being slaughtered by Serbs in the Balkans. And Victor Bout is about to be convicted for "terrorism" in a U.S. court because the DEA tricked him into talking to some of its "informers" who were pretending to be from FARC- and Bout never set foot in the U.S. until the U.S. had the Thais arrest him and hand him over. And all those Colombian and Mexican and other "drug lords" who never were in the U.S. except when they were brought here in chains, their crimes were committed on foreign soil. U.S. writ extends over the entire planet. So who knows how they might interpret a "threat" against a friendly foreign government? People who send money for the social needs of Palestinians under Israeli blockade are imprisoned in the U.S. for "material aid to terrorism."

Obama just put Tim DeChristopher in prison for two years for bidding at an auction for oil drilling leases on Federal lands. Seriously, that's all he did.

The truth is, there is no limit to U.S. repressiveness. Insofar as I have received a death threat from U.S. secret policemen in the past, and they have assassinated American dissidents repeatedly over the years, you can't put anything past the evil bastards. Just hope the current crop of naive Occupy Wall Street protesters gets wised up soon about the ruthless nature of who they're up again. (The police are giving them a great education on that score with their vicious brutality.)

U.S. Ruling Class Determined to Prevent Arab Spring In America

Across the U.S., police have thuggishly tried to clear anti-establishment protesters occupying public spaces.
Obviously aware of the precedents in Arab nations, especially Egypt, our political masters have unleashed their uniformed (and otherwise clad) goons to do the usual dirty work on unwanted political expressions. We can assume the main domestic secret police agency, the FBI, is coordinating this. They also instigate violence, as they did in cases of police murdering Black Panthers, by sending out defamatory "intelligence bulletins" branding the activists as subversives, and "terrorists" (formerly the term of abuse was "communist").

The police also try to confuse their victims by blowing hot and cold, at times seeming to tolerate them, using "good" cops to strike up conversations and spy ("gather intelligence"). Ultimately, if waiting out the protesters doesn't work, the velvet glove comes off and the mailed fist is applied to the face.

In New York City, the "authorities," led by a billionaire financial parasite, Michael Bloomberg, may wait for cold weather to complete the job that mass arrests and brutal assaults, among other tactics, have failed to do. Apparently the local bosses in Oakland feel winter is too mild there to rely on to do the job, as they unleashed a vicious mass attack, almost killing a 24 year old war vet (Scott Olsen) by firing at his head pointblank with a gas canister or other "non-lethal" projectile. Because of his status as a veteran of two tours of "duty" in Iraq, this has created a P.R. problem for the police, who have responded with bare-faced lies (denying they fired flash-bang grenades at people attempting to aid the critically wounded Olsen, even though videos clearly show they did- not to mention that the word of the protesters is far more credible than cop bullshit- the chief of police has the gall to claim the explosions on audio recordings are protesters' firecrackers) and a promise to "investigate" themselves. I find it soooo reassuring when criminals investigate themselves, don't you?

Are The Libyans Already Off On The Wrong Foot?

Namely by taking guff off "the West"?

"The West" (in the persons of the various politicians, bureaucrats, and gasbag pontificators- excuse me, "journalists") is still at it, wringing their hands over Qaddafi's fate, and demanding "investigations."

Typical was NPR 10:02 am Sunday morning 10/23/11: Giles Snyder- “…international concern about how Qaddafi died.” (Best I can tell, the "concern" is limited to Western "elites." Who aren't concerned about the massive human rights violations of themselves. They celebrated the assassination by SEAL death squad of Osama bin Laden. That murder was simplicitly justified by bin Laden's evilness and unpopularity.  So how is Qaddafi different, bourgeois hypocrits? Just asking...)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (Queen Bee of the "Democratic" Party, which is anything but, as it is a collection of political hacks fronting for rich oligarchs) made the rounds of the Sunday morning "serious" TV shows, those platforms for official pronouncements and ideological boilerplate.

 “I think everyone would have hoped he could have been captured and brought to justice,” Clinton claimed. (Apparently I'm not part of the human race, since "everyone" excludes me. As well as excluding most Libyans. I guess she meant "everyone who matters," a much smaller and more select group.) Well, he was “brought to justice,” lady, just the way you “brought to justice” bin Laden (U.S. apparatchiks, including Obama, used that exact phrase to describe that hit), al-Awlaki, Samir Khan, and what, 600 others? And in bin Laden’s case, you could have captured him as your hitmen had him cornered in a room, unarmed, and took his corpse with them to throw it into the sea. No autopsy or independent investigation there! No finding out who shot him, or how. Those are State Secrets. Well Libya is a state. Are they entitled to state secrets? Guess not without the masters’ permission.

But Clinton had more rank hypocrisy to display. She also lectured that the new Libya has to start with “the rule of law.” With a straight face, no less. This from a nation that ignores international and even its own laws routinely, and cynically uses "law" as an instrument of political repression. [Currently police in various U.S. cities are attacking anti-Wall Street protesters. Turns out the Constitutional "guarantees" of freedom of assembly and political expression are limited to right-wingers, like Tea Partiers, who can menace even the President of the U.S. with arms.]

The chilling thing is these people repeat their bullshit so often, they probably really believe their own propaganda, and think of themselves as people of great moral rectitude. Where to start with U.S. contempt for law, domestic and international? That would full a number of books.

There is really no comparison between the killings of bin Laden and Qaddafi. The killing of bin Laden was premeditated murder ordered by the head of state, carried out by an organized military. The killing of Qaddafi occurred when a ragtag band of armed civilians happened to find him and acting on their own accord killed him. This is a loose group of people, not part of a hierarchical military organization acting under orders and subject to discipline. It might turn out that some commander said to shoot Qaddafi, but there is no real Government in Libya, and Jabril most certainly didn’t know what happened until after the fact.

“The West” kidnaps people, including its own citizens, holds them incommunicado in torture centers for years, denies them a judicial proceeding, and now they’re bent out of shape because Qaddafi didn’t get a trial? Oh SHUT UP. Just shut the fuck up.

The U.S. media is SO CONCERNED with Qaddafi’s body!

Let's briefly list assassinations by enlightened Western Governments that are so busy wagging their fingers at the bad Libyans- the U.S. assassinates dissidents (and their own President in 1963); the British have a horrible record of colonial assassinations of resisters, including in Northern Ireland up to just a few years ago;

the French assassinated hundreds of Algerians in Paris under DeGaulle- who knows why; the Germans assassinated members of the Red Army Fraction; the Spanish have assassinated ETA members and supporters; the Israelis, not content with kidnapping thousands of Palestinians and imprisoning them, often just assassinate them in raids, sometimes abroad, including in Europe, which cooperates. We could go on, but the point is made.

So “concerned” about how Qaddafi died! This from some of the greatest mass murderers who ever lived. They wanted Qaddafi to have a trial! (Like they always grant to their victims.)

This from the BBC, 10/23/11 Sun. 8:13 am.

BBC hack Stephen Sacker: “Is the new Libya going to be guided by vengeance, or justice?” That's his intro to his show, "HARDtalk" [sic].

Sacker confronts Libyan Interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jabril over the killing of Qaddafi, saying in a tone a tv prosecutor uses on a defendant that it looks like “vengeance.” Proceeds to grill him. The Jabril foolishly is on the defensive, instead of throwing bin Laden and al-Awlaki in Sacker's face- and the Brazilian electrician murdered on the metro by the British secret police, for that matter. (Don't remember him getting a trial.)

10/24/11 BBC replays attack on Libyan Interim PM Mahmoud Jabril by “HARDtalk” hack Stephen Sacker at 4 am, which Sacker introduced with the sole line, “Are Libyans more interested in pursuing justice? Or vengeance.” [Jabril, it turns out is “Western –educated,” which means indoctrinated in Western imperialist dogma.] Supposedly he was a “reformer” under Qaddafi.

Sacker calls Qaddafi’s killing “an unlawful killing.” BBC never said that about the cold-blooded execution of bin Laden. No one called for the SEAL hitman to be tried for a “war crime.” My point is the blatant double standard. And who made “the West” the Moral Arbiter of this planet? Oh, that’s right, they did. Which might be ok if they were really morally superior, but they most certainly are not.

Sacker attacks the PM’s story of what happened and the PM’s statements, bluntly implying he’s a liar. On the other hand, the various versions of the killing of bin Laden trotted out by U.S. officials, with their numerous contradictions and lies, were never dissected by the BBC. [Sacker takes a very different tack with representatives of U.S. Imperialism on his show, who he allows to lie through their teeth without contradiction. The BBC, like the British Government, is the lapdog of the U.S.]

Sacker bluntly declares to Jabril, speaking of Qaddafi, “He was executed.” He says it as a rebuke, of course, not a compliment, as I suppose he regards U.S. executions. “International voices are calling for an investigation,” he states to Jabril, and it’s a demand, not a question.  Speaking from his moral high horse, Sacker adds “It’s a question of holding the new Libya to a different standard,” presumably from Qaddafi's. Although ironically it's really a different standard from that "the West" holds itself to.

Speaking of summary executions, the British police do it all the time. They did it a few months ago to a man they claimed was killed “in a shootout,” who in fact never even drew his gun and was executed in a cab. They did it when they executed a Brazilian electrician on the metro who made the mistake of living in a “terrorist” house the secret police had under surveillance. (So I guess it was really the electrician’s fault.) In neither case- nor numerous others- are UK police murderers ever prosecuted, or fired, or even administratively punished. 

And Qaddafi was a mass-murdering dictator, not an electrician on his way to work. Just what standard does Sacker demand “Libya” live up to? It sounds like a much higher standard than the one Britain follows.

No matter, Sacker bluntly tells Jabril “Your Government is going to be held to a new standard.” Hey BBC, why don’t you try holding your own Government to a higher standard of humanitarianism some time?

Sacker sticks it to Jabril further by telling him that the White House (the masters of the universe- or at least planet earth) wants “a full accounting” of Qaddafi’s death, and has “major concerns.” (Global assassin Obama objects to the killing of Qaddafi- that’s rich!) The UN’s Human Rights Commissioner wants an investigation. Sacker demands that Libya submit its investigation to Western oversight. Why Jabril didn’t tell him to “sod off” at this point, beats me. I sure would have. It’s not like they need NATO’s warplanes anymore. Ominously, NATO says it intends to keep flying over Libya for the time being- for intimidation purposes, I guess.

10/25/11 Tuesday:  BBC still obsessed with Qaddafi’s body. Nothing else in Libya matters to them-like what’s happening with the survivors of his regime’s death throes, those maimed, those grieving the dead, those picking up the pieces of the wreckage, etc.

Jabril, instead of kissing Western Imperialists’ asses you should be telling them to Shove It. Instead he's squirming like a cornered mouse, putting out lame smokescreens like "a stray bullet may have killed Qaddafi" (love the lawyerly weasel-word, "may") or he was shot in "a crossfire."

The Libyans should say "We are disposing of Qaddafi's body in the approved U.S. manner, throwing it into the sea." And if the U.S. or UN or BBC or whoever are so desperate to do an autopsy, they can dive down and fish the corpse out of the ocean.

Or maybe Jabril knows what happens to leaders who cross the Boss of the World. They can end up badly, like Mossadegh, or Arbenz, or Saddam Hussein (for whom I have no sympathy) or Qaddafi, for that matter, who got what he deserved. Yes, it's better to have due process. But since the Most Powerful Country On Earth (and its various lackeys and stooges around the world) finds it impractical to try "terrorists," who are weak and basically defenseless, it has no business hectoring a country in a state of anarchy about holding trials for deposed tyrants. Let someone with moral standing give that lecture.

What's the Difference Between Killing Qaddafi and Killing bin Laden?

Killing Qaddafi is "vengeance," and killing bin Laden is "justice."
It seems that "the West" (the U.S. and its White Nation allies Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) can't go a week without putting on another stunning display of hypocrisy.

Osama bin Laden was shot dead on sight, an unarmed man (it took a few days and 3 or 4 different stories before the U.S. Government admitted that) and his body taken and thrown into the sea. This was called "bringing him to justice" by the President of the U.S., Obama.

The Libyans just captured and executed Qaddafi. This execution, unlike the one Obama ordered, was apparently a spontaneous act taken on their own authority by the citizen-fighters who captured him, and who have paid a terrible price for his die-hard refusal to accept the inevitable. Since Libya lacks a legal system, clear lines of authority, or a real government, this is certainly understandable.

The U.S. has no such excuses.

Yet now "the West," in the form of its various political "leaders" and media propagandists, and its UN lackeys, is demanding an investigation and proper accounting of how Qaddafi was killed. What gall.

On NPR Saturday morning( October 22), the hack propagandist and reliable Government stooge Scott Simon pitched the whiffleball questions to Ivo Daalder, the U.S.' ambassador to NATO. Daalder spoke down from his moral high horse the following words:

"We urge [the Libyans] to be as open and transparent as possible." [Like the U.S. always is. The U.S. won't even stop lying about the CIA executions of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr, and those were decades ago.] He also illustrated his own version of transparently, claiming that Qaddafi's convoy was bombed as it fled Sirte as part of the mandate to "protect civilians," and of course they had no idea Qaddafi was in the cars and were never targeting him. (We might find out eventually if that is true.)

There are all kinds of demands for autopsies to find out if he was executed. Well obviously he was. So? If it's ok for "the West" to execute its enemies, real and perceived, why can't some Libyans kill a tyrant?

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is bent out of shape. His official mouthpiece, one Rupert Colville, harumphed: “It is unclear how (Col Gaddafi) died. There is a need for an investigation.” He found the footage of the dead Qaddafi "very disturbing." (Such delicate sensibilities. Maybe he should check out some of the photos in Rolling Stone earlier this year of U.S. troops in Afghanistan showing off their trophy body parts, including a severed head, souvenirs from their war crimes.)

Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “It is unclear how (Col Gaddafi) died. There is a need for an investigation.”

Colville said that if the dead dictator had indeed been executed, then “That would raise issues that a crime had been committed and we would have to look at dealing with that. It is very clear under international law that summary executions are illegal." [Except, apparently, when the U.S. does it, or Israel, or Spain, or the U.K., or Germany, all of which have executed political enemies either inside or outside their borders, or both.]

“You can’t just chuck the law out of the window. Killing someone outside a judicial procedure, even in countries where there is the death penalty, is outside the rule of law.” [Again, cf. bin Laden, etc. etc. Or for that matter the 65,000 the U.S. assassinated in Vietnam under the Phoenix Program. And maybe the UN would like to look into prosecuting the military thugs who murdered 250,000 in Guatemala, or 30,000 in Argentina, or in Brazil, or Uruguay, or Chile, or Paraguay. Maybe they'd like to check out the ongoing murders of journalists by the Governments in Colombia and Honduras. No, I guess not.]

All this tut-tutting raises the possibility that rebel soldiers could be pursued for war crimes. Wouldn't that be a kicker.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, called for “a full, independent and impartial inquiry” into the circumstances of Gaddafi’s death. Maybe someday A.I will make a peep about the U.S.' political prisoners. Don't remember them squawking about the execution of bin Laden, or the hundreds of assassinations by drone.

Gaddafi’s wife, Safia, also called on the UN to investigate the death of her husband and her son, according to a Syrian TV station. [Of course she has a sterling history as a defender of human rights, so that is to be expected.]

I just get sick of the blatant double standard, and the Orwellian way everyone pretends not to notice. Like living in the nightmare world of 1984.

Stinking Hypocrisy and Double Standard of U.S. Hard Right Reactionaries and Their Corp Media Enablers

Thoughts upon glancing at the title page of an article in The New Yorker, August 29, 2011, Annals Of Law, “Partners,” by Jeffrey Toobin,  about Clarence Thomas and his mate Virginia, the reactionary fanatic political operative:

Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and all the Federalist Society moles planted in the U.S. Judiciary are totally dedicated to pushing their POLITICAL agenda, under the thin guise of “law,” They make up specious legal “doctrines” with pretentious names to claim Authority for their totally political legal decisions. They have no problem totally contradicting themselves from one case to the next- it’s all about results, outcomes, for them. They are not impartially applying abstract legal principles derived from Holy Writ, the U.S. Constitution, or from reading  the minds of long-dead “Founding Fathers,” or even at times invoking the Bible or “divine” law from their “God.” Those are all just heavy stones to use to pound people down and accept their diktat.

Meanwhile, on the “other side” of the bourgeois political ledger, the “liberals,” all those not part of this fanatical movement intent on cementing their control over America, that is, just non-ideological bourgeois people, are handcuffed from doing anything reasonable because they are immediately accused of being “political.” The epithet “activist judges” was invented and is hypocritically applied to any judge who dares not toe the neofascist line. And the “liberals” submit. Not because they are “liberal,” they aren’t. They’re just opportunists and careerists. Hence we should not be surprised that they seem to lack backbone. What principles are they defending? None. So they don’t spit back in outrage, “YOU’RE the ‘judicial activists,” for example.

Pleasant Surprise In Libya

The "rebels" (oppressed majority of the people) have taken Tripoli easily. Looked like was going to be murderous block by block fighting like in Misurata and other towns. Taking Qaddafi's last redoubt, and the largest city, could have been a disaster for the attackers. Instead Qaddafi's forces have evaporated over the past months of fighting. Great news.

Unfortunately now "the West" is demanding that the Libyans hand over Qaddafi [he hasn't been found yet] and his two captured sons to the "International Criminal Court" in The Hague so Western "justice" can be administered, namely prison terms in a cushy European jail. (ABy contrast, in the U.S. black activist prisoners are routinely imprisoned in solitary for years, even decades. Of course, blacks who refuse to bow are much more evil than murderous dictators!)

The gall of "the West," for setting itself up as the moral arbiter over the entire planet. These imperialists have butchered countless millions over the centuries. The Qaddafis need to be executed. That can't happen at the ICC, which is oh so civilized and advanced that it has no death penalty. (These are the guys who spent a decade wringing their hands and waxing "concerned" over the Serbs rampages in ex-Yugoslavia, and eventually meted out not even life sentences to vicious mass murderers. The henchman at the top, Slobodan Milosevic, was still being tried- a trial that already had dragged on for an entire year- until finally dropping dead of a heart attack before the Eurofops could even reach a verdict. And the asshole Serbs thought he was murdered.)

"The West" will no doubt use extortion to get its way, by threatening to withhold aid for rebuilding the wreckage of Qaddafi's mad refusal to let go of his malign power unless he's handed over to the ICC for "proper" "justice." I hope the Libyans resist. They should get the oil flowing first thing and use those revenues to rebuild.