It's a lovely, dystopian world

As the congress debates whether the US government should be allowed to propagandize its own citizens, this piece from the VOA has the stench of psyops already. The violence in Syria, as deplorable as it is, is in large part fomented by the US and its allies, but when it comes to self-serving palaver, Washington pulls out all the stops to vilify its enemies:

Is Syria’s Bashar al-Assad Guilty of War Crimes?: "The images from Houla in Syria had a sickening familiarity:  bodies wrapped in white shrouds, lined up in a large pit in the center of town while grieving relatives cried and wailed.  In all, a reported 108 people, all victims of last week’s Houla massacre, were being buried, 49 of them children.

The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights’ representative has said only about 20 of the victims were killed by artillery or mortar fire.  The rest had been shot in what appear to have been  summary executions.  Syria has denied its forces had anything to do with the massacre and says the killings were the work of “terrorists.”
The ditch reminded the world of others it has seen - in Nazi Germany, in the former Yugoslavia, in Cambodia, in Vietnam, in Libya and Iraq. In many cases, the atrocities committed there were ruled war crimes. But is what happened in Houla a war crime?  If it is, how can Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and others be held accountable?
"
On might just as well inquire as to whether the events during the unpleasantness in Iraq following the US invasion -- particularly in places like Fallujah with its scorched-earth, white-phosphorous christening -- would be considered a war crime as well. And if they were, are the authors of those atrocities and the wrecking of the entire nation guilty of war crimes, too?

Of course, we'll never hear such a verdict in a court of law in this perverted and debased epoch. Iraq was as plainly as one can ever be an example of a "war of aggression," and that's supposedly the supreme international crime. Iraq never threatened the US, but the Bush administration and its neo-con boosters, spared no effort to bring the invasion and ensuing bloodbath to fruition.

If Assad is a war criminal, and if the Liberian Taylor is a war criminal, then were's Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield, Rice, Wolfowitz and the rest of that hideous clique?

Well, perhaps it's because that the US is minting more depraved characters in its march of infamy, with the Nobel Laureate president himself now bringing especial distinction upon himself in the morbid circus with the revelation in the New York Times of his personal murder roster. Now, the President of the US is judge, jury and executioner in a most glorious, hi-tech horror, the likes of which the world has never seen!

Whatever the crimes of someone like an Assad, there are different degrees of infamy, and the current crop of defendants in the ICC are but tyros put up against the great mass-murderers of history -- among whom the recent presidents of the US will be enshrined in the pantheon of august turds.

Today's notion of heroism is debased by warmongers

That there's a manufactured controversy over this is the least surprising thing we've learned in the past 15 minutes. It seems a cable-TV personality has quite logically and legitimately asked a question that we should all be asking -- are we anointing today's war casualties as heroes in order to gin up enthusiasm for war and more war?

MSNBC host Chris Hayes says he has trouble calling fallen soldiers 'heroes,’ sparks controversy  - NY Daily News: "An MSNBC host is dodging attacks after arguing he was “uncomfortable” calling fallen soldiers “heroes.”
Chris Hayes made the remark on Sunday, the eve of Memorial Day, on his show, “Up With Chris Hayes.”
“I feel uncomfortable about the word hero because it seems to me that it is so rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war,” Hayes said.
He added that “there are individual circumstances in which there is genuine, tremendous heroism, you know, hail of gunfire, rescuing fellow soldiers,” but that “it seems to me that we marshal this word in a way that is problematic.”"

The story from the Daily News goes on to parrot the objections of veterans' groups, and then the lapdog "conservative" media establishment, to deflect any notion that the opinion-makers who set the tone and agenda for popular sentiment are doing so for manipulative and cynical reasons.

Face it: there are certain "truths" in the US that cannot be uttered. First among them, it seems, is that no one can question support for the troops or their sacrifices in any way. To demonstrate even the least doubt in the worthiness of their mission is to denigrate their service and expose oneself to charges of lack of patriotism.

Of course, this is noxious bullshit. The Pentagon and the Masters of War that keep us perpetually entangled in foreign "contingency operations" are conflating the troops' service with the validity of the conflicts into which they're thrust. If one doubts the cause is worthy, one is in effect decreeing that the troops died in vain -- invalidating their sacrifice.

We are, in effect, prohibited from questioning -- much less opposing -- the wars into which the US pours its treasure and its young fighting forces -- to do so is to dishonor the troops, and their sacrifice is beyond the scope of legitimate discussion.

It reminds one of the post-911 interdiction against asking why the US was attacked. To ask why "they" did this to "us" was to legitimize the attackers' motives in some way -- and so one must never bring the subject up. Indeed, there was simply one answer that was appropriate, which everyone learned by heart: they hate us for our freedoms. However lacking in seriousness that glib answer from GW Bush might be, that was the level of discourse that was to be tolerated, period.

So now, we're faced with a similar short-circuiting of thought or discussion about the US' current wars, and the meat-grinder system the government employs to keep feeding human Americans into the machine. The cause is just because the fighting men and women are heroes. We must not debase their sacrifice by questioning the legitimacy or purpose of the enterprise of war-making that the US now operates ceaselessly and without regard for opinions to the contrary.

The knee-jerk reaction to anyone even reflecting on this sordid system of chaos and destruction, and of the enormous waste of life and treasure that it entails. We. Must. Not. Question.

This Memorial Day, it no longer seems relevant to reflect on the sacrifices of those who gave their lives for their country, since to do so is to in effect bless current contingency operations that have neither the legitimacy of a declaration of war, nor the active engagement of the general population both through compulsory service (a draft) as well as the sacrifice impelled when taxation is extracted to finance hostilities.

In the US, we do neither any longer, so war simply seems like a far-away distraction, something to be tolerated from a distance or acknowledged when some Hollywood representation of our service members' tribulations are brought to the big screen. The troops, by their distance both physically and psychologically from the general public, are but an abstraction upon which the equally abstract notions of honor and valor and national salvation are played out on the 6 o'clock news.

Taps sounds, the 21-gun salute is given and the news presenter cuts to commercial, where against the backdrop of and over-sized US flag, the folks back home are enticed with the latest Detroit extravagance -- a gas-guzzling SUV which is the true symbol of the nation's sacrifice: which is no sacrifice at all.

The west's opinion makers are championing aggression

Here's from the FT, which seems to lay the onus for the failure of "nuclear" talks with Iran on the Iranians, when the real issue that needs to be addressed is casually ignored:

Iran’s intentions remain a mystery - FT.com: "If Israel is to be deterred from attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities, there needs to be a peaceful diplomatic solution to the crisis over Tehran’s atomic programme. But after two rounds of intense negotiations between Iran and world powers, there is still no certainty that such a bargain is possible.
Two days of fraught talks with senior Iranian officials in Baghdad last week left western envoys none the wiser as to whether Iran really wants a deal that can allay fears that it is building a nuclear bomb or whether the Middle East is heading for a big conflict. To describe the outcome of the Baghdad meeting as a setback would be a little strong. This is a complex negotiation in which several bargaining rounds remain. Still, the optimism that reined in western capitals after an earlier meeting in Istanbul has gone. It has been replaced by a nervous realism that securing a deal with Iran will be hard indeed."

The impression the FT's editors give is that Iran has crossed some invisible line with its nuclear enrichment program which is intolerable to the right-thinking, peace-loving members of the US hegemonic world order.

What should be under discussion is not the potential for Iran to breakout of its treaty obligations under the NPT -- which has never been conclusively proven, though it's frequently suggested in groundless leaks -- but rather how the US has ignored its treaty obligations, as well as the elephant in the room: Israel.

Under the NPT, the assistance that Israel recieved from the US in building its own nuclear arsenal are both matters that should be roundly criticized and condemned by international institutions. But the US owns those institutions, or commands "allied nations" as its puppets, so all we get is this constant game of confrontation played out in the media between the rulers and their belligerent adversary.

There's an even dirtier game going on here, though, and that's the incipient threat of aggressive war against Iran by Israel -- particularly by way of its more powerful proxy, the USA.

Under the Nuremberg doctrine, waging a war of aggression is the supreme international crime. Still, when the US has done this on a number of occasions -- particularly Afghanistan and Iraq, though the list is ever-expanding -- there has been no unified international condemnation or trials of the culprits for war crimes and crimes against the peace.

Now these same aggressors are positioning themselves for a new round of aggression against a nation that has not attacked them, nor violated their national sovereignty. Quite the opposite, in fact: the US and Israel, through the MEK terrorist organization, have both waged a low-level, asymmetric war against Iran -- which, were the shoe on the other foot, would doubtless be answered in the the harshest terms.

If Iran's nuclear program were such a real threat and problem, there would be more evidence that trace amounts of radiation detected here and there -- according to anonymous reports leaked to a propaganda-mongering, co-opted media establishment. The constant efforts to hype up a virtual nothing suggests that the hype is the point, and not any real threat.

Let's condemn the criminal regimes that foment war and strife between people, and do what is necessary to cut off the head of this Hydra of aggression that plagues our already troubled planet. We can't afford those who make war for profit to make this a miserable place for ever more millions of people.

U.S., Sunni Arab clients game situation in Syria

Now is the time for all US clients to come to the aid of their master: the US and its Zionist puppet masters are busily engaged in the process of creating a "humanitarian crisis" to which the UN and NATO can intervene on behalf of the west's preferred "freedom fighters" in the "Syrian" resistance.

This drama has been building in intensity for several months now, with the entertainment-minded western media circus presenting a formula scenario of white hats vs black hats -- the detested Syrian regime of Assad beset by freedom-loving partisans which secretly are on the payroll of the Turks and Saudis -- both of which are engaged in an indirect confrontation with the Shiite "threat" they perceive from Iran.

While the following dispatch from the AP sounds suspiciously like ass-covering from Damascus, it is at the same time a Hollywood script-writer's dream:

The Associated Press: Syria denies responsibility for attack killing 90: "DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The Syrian government on Sunday denied responsibility for a string of villages that left more than 90 people dead, blaming the killings on "hundreds of heavily armed gunmen" who also attacked soldiers in the area.
Friday's assault on the central area of Houla was one of the bloodiest single events in Syria's 15-month-old uprising, and gruesome images of dozens of children killed in the attacks prompted a wave of international outrage.
The U.N. said 32 children under the age of 10 were among the dead and issued a statement appearing to hold the Syrian regime responsible."

Behind the scenes, of course, is Washington, doing battle with the enemies of its friend and ally Netanyahu and the Likudniks -- the latter whose territorial ambitions and dreams of regional hegemony rely on the neutralization of any and all perceived threats. Washington bends to the will of its best friend in the region, while winning the plaudits of the freedom and democracy-loving regimes of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain -- a couple of swell friends of the West who love selling their oil for $$$ and protection from those same Shiite hordes that are on the rampage.

Follow the money, we're always advised by those who know. If you trace support for the Syrian "opposition" to the fountainhead, you'll find that abundant sewage flows directly from the international bankers' syndicate, whose hold on nations and resources is always strengthened by its proximity to the world's policeman, the USA.

Squandering money to kill poor people is US mandate

The Facebook co-founder who renounced US citizenship to avoid taxes on his windfall from the IPO has become a target of opportunistic politicians. How dare this beneficiary of the USA's wonderful opportunity society turn his back on us now?

U.S. senators take aim at Saverin over citizenship move | Webware - CNET: "Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin has angered two senators with his alleged decision to renounce his U.S. citizenship to save cash on taxes.
Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Bob Casey (D-PA) announced today that they'll be holding a special news conference at 8 a.m. PT to unveil a plan designed to stop people from renouncing their U.S. citizenship to avoid paying taxes. In addition, the plan will describe a new law that would bar "individuals like Saverin from reentering the country.""

A perfect opportunity to reflect on a number of things, really.

The US has elevated the cult of cash to a national religion. No amount, no matter how obscenely large, is sufficient when there's more to be finagled and extorted from the ignorant and easily led.

This guy took his Facebook millions and hightailed it back to Brazil, where it will be an even more princely sum.

This, in turn, really chaps the asses of politicians like Schumer and Casey, who are used to having their hands on the federal purse, in order to enrich the already flush with cash benefactors of their political campaigns. They'll gladly take this Brazilian's money and flush it down the militiary-industrial-security sewer, where it'll be used to kill and maim and destroy on an industrial scale that not even the Nazis could contemplate.

While we can't emphasize with Saverin and his filthy lucre, we can at least celebrate the fact that the ravenous government drones will have the loot unceremoniously snatched from the greedy little fingers -- at least this time.

Like all maggots, though, they'll buzz around and find a new body to infest and feast upon. This death and destruction business is the best!

Cracker alert: better get your asses busy

This late-breaking news has just come across the wire. You crackers have been slackers, and now the darkies are hot on your heels in the procration derby:

Census: Minority births top whites - Tim Mak - POLITICO.com: "For the first time, racial minorities now represent more than half of the children born in the U.S., according to new census figures
African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities made up 50.4 percent of U.S. births in the year ending July 2011, accounting for 2.02 million births, up from 37 percent in 1990, according to The Associated Press."

The big fear is about to be realized, as pure, white-bread Republicans are reaping the reward for subsidizing a couple of generations of mongrel procreation. Now, the parasite class is starting to outnumber the host, with horrifying results for the Aryan Nation.

Fat, stupid and obese, you would think the White race would be copulating like rabbits, and holding off the hoard. Alas, their indolence is rendering them impotent even to face this existential threat!

C'mon, boys, get those peckers up! Roll your concubine in flour until you find the wet spot, and then pork her.

We've got to stand up for God and country, since when Bark Obama got in the White House the blacks and taking over. And the Mexicans.

This deep philosophical analysis of the threat facing America is brought to you from the xenophobic morons of the GOP, who are always looking for an opportunity to miss an opportunity to fight the real enemy.

Why won't the Greeks do what's best for us?

Those stupid, greasy Greeks. We give them all the opportunities they could ever wish for to become ever more indebted to the international banking cartel, and they balk in their stupid election. In fact, when the error of their ways is pointed out to them from the worthies in the international media cartel, they still don't seem to get it.

New Greek Elections Loom - NYTimes.com: "ATHENS — With Greece hurtling toward new elections and a possible exit from the euro zone, President Karolos Papoulias prepared to make a last-ditch appeal on Monday for the country's sharply divided political parties to form a unity government even as his hopes for success all but evaporated over the weekend."

When will these Greeks learn that democracy is just a tool for them to effectively hand control of their economy to outside financial interests? In the interest of compounding interest, the choice is clear: add debt to debt until the mongol horde sacks the Parthenon and makes off with every tangible asset, and then they'll hang the Greek citizens out to dry.

It's a cynical game these banker cartels play. They simply apply increasing pressure on countries to submit to this austerity formula for wealth extraction, using the political puppets they control to work the levers of the system. This makes the wholesale destruction of civil society look like an economic necessity.

The only necessity is to remove the power of the banking cartel over nations and peoples. This rapacious pack of thieves will never relent short of full-scale revolution, and are removed from the scene by force. It's an ugly prospect, because social explosions never fail to leave wreckage in their wake.

Still, there is no negotiating with maniacs, so this will go all the way. If not this time, then soon.

U.S. pounds Russia for handling protesters as it does

Okay, the official stenographers' cartel doesn't put the US condemnation of Russia in quite so colorful prose, but the US state department announces it is "troubled" by the treatment of anti-government agitators at the hands of the Russian authorities:

U.S. Troubled by Reports of Russian Handling of Protests - Bloomberg: "The U.S. is “troubled” by reports of violence in Moscow in the wake of elections that returned Vladimir Putin to the presidency, a State Department official said today.
“We are troubled by reports of violence in Moscow during the protests on May 6th and by the arrests that have been carried out over the last three days,” spokesman Mark Toner said today. “We are disturbed by images of police mistreatment of peaceful protesters, both during the protests and after detentions.”"

Of course, this is Washington talking, the worldwide leader in hypocrisy and double-standards. You are free to consider the source and question the US' motives.

Since Russia is an world power in the energy markets, as well as strategically close to the Pipelinistan countries the Pepe Escobar describes in his columns at Asia Times Online, there is a bit of the old-school, cold-war rivalry still stirring of the embers of enmity.

The US would like nothing better than to see its gangster minions prosper in the former Soviet states, at the expense of the homegrown mafioso. The looting of the Yeltsin years is no doubt fondly remembered in the West's corridors of power, where the wealth of Russia could be carted off with impunity by the bankers' cartel.

Beyond that tired old rivalry, however, there's something even more galling about the DC hustle being run here: The national security state was in full-throttle police-state mode when the decision came down to silence the annoying Occupy movement across the country.

Homeland Security, in league with its corporate masters, put forth a coordinated, nationwide action to break up the encampments and reorient the movement from the streets to occupying the jails of the US' incomparable prison-industrial complex. Heads were busted and the protesters dispersed outside of the view of TV cameras -- with our celebrated "free press" taking the coward's way out and filling the airwaves with the usual celebrity patter instead of anything resembling the news.

Do as we say, not as we do, appears to be the operative principle of the police forces of freedom, democracy and progress, while the neutralize threats to power, like dissent.

FBI: Fighting for their right to wiretap you!

They're already doing it on the sneak tip: the feds are building a billion-dollar nerve center for big brother's umbrella of electronic surveillance of citizens under the rubric of "keeping us safe." It's already known that the government intercepts and plans to warehouse every shred of personal communications by and about people in the US and beyond -- so what's behind the FBI's request for a perpetual unlocked back door to every social media platform or communications device/service? Here's the story:

FBI Wants Backdoors to Facebook, Twitter Immediately: "According to CNET, the FBI general council's office has drafted a proposed law that requires social networking websites and providers of email, instant messaging and VoIP to alter their services with additional code to make them "wiretap friendly." However the requirement to add the FBI's code will only apply if a threshold of a certain number of users is exceeded."

If they're already sucking it harder than Hoover, what's up here?

Probably the still barely functioning division between the government's unlimited "national security" exemption from any limits on spying on people still prevents them from doing so on simple law enforcement grounds. The FBI, having proved its competence and professionalism over the decade since 9-11, wants to expand its license to abuse and violate citizens beyond even the paltry restrictions that still exist.

Search warrants and the various prohibitions against self-incrimination and cruel and unusual punishment are going down! These are simply niceties of a more quaint era, and now that the gloves are truly off, dissidents and critics of the government or its patrons in the corporate world are to be rounded up and silenced by any means necessary.

Just a few remaining prohibitions need to be negated in the name of the all-powerful one, the government that watches over us all, and protects us from all threats, foreign and domestic -- by oath!

Who would object to such a benign and beneficent government as we have today?

Panetta tells troops to behave as they destroy and kill

The mendacity of the US political leadership has descended to lows that before now would have been unthinkabgle. The norms of "civilized" behavior have been so debased by the throbbing corruption of the American empire that we have the example of the US secretary of aggressive war importuning the troops to mind their manners as they go about their malignant mission:

Panetta warns Afghanistan-bound U.S. soldiers on behavior | Reuters: "(Reuters) - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta urged a group of Afghanistan-bound soldiers on Friday to be on their best behavior when they reach the war zone, warning that thoughtless photos and actions can endanger their mission and their lives.
"These days it takes only seconds, seconds, for a picture, a photo, to suddenly become an international headline," Panetta told solders at Fort Benning, Georgia."

You couldn't make this up, of course, because before this time in history actions spoke at least to some degree louder than words. Now, however, with the mass-media megaphone that our "leaders" command, they simply bleat out the appropriate message for the folks at home, and no one pays any mind to a reality that is deficient in both morality and humanity.

Lest it slip anyone's mind, the US is engaged in a variety of wars of choice against far-off Muslim nations who either posses strategically important resources (oil, gas) or are situated in strategically important regions (the energy heartland of the planet). In the wars, the US uses its superior armaments to battle indigenous forces possessing only small arms and no sophisticated command-and-control capabilities. In short, they're vastly outgunned, and yet manage to fight the most sophisticated military force in history to a standstill.

To a fighting force hopped up on drugs and propaganda, this cannot but be supremely frustrating. US and allied troops, under the illusion that they fight for truth, justice and the American way, find themselves up against a determined adversary that they've derided as towel heads and sand niggers, and there seems to be no way out for our modern-day crusaders.

Hence, they are prone to behave badly. One would expect as much from a cohort indoctrinated redneck mercenaries from the Bible Belt who think it's god's will to kick some fuckin' ass and get revenge for 9-11. No one needs to teach them how to hate and how to kill -- and all they learn at Ft. Benning is how to do it more efficiently.

Now, under the cheerful demeanor of our Nobel prize-winning commander-in-chief, we are learning the troops how to smile as they kill, in John Lennon's famous formulation. We must murder with a glad heart and a warm smile, lest we give the folks back home the wrong idea about our beloved and misunderstood troops. They bleed for our money, they die for corporate profit, but they must never forget that in every ugly situation, a little PR and perception management goes a long way to smoothing out the bad vibes one creates while making collateral damage of the people who stand in the way of our imperial project.

The state of the "terrorist threat" in the USA

Heaven help us, if this is all the government can come up with the justify all the $$$ the US spends combating the terrorist threat. In the economic basket-case heart of the country, where jobs and prosperity are becoming as rare as ice in the Arctic, an assemblage of sad-sack types are the best the FBI can come up with as the vanguard of the revolution:

BBC News - Five arrested over 'plot to blow up Ohio bridge': "Five men, including three self-described anarchists, are being questioned over an alleged plot to blow up an Ohio bridge.
The FBI says the accused were part of a plan to attack a four-lane bridge 15 miles (24km) from central Cleveland.
The public was not in danger because the explosives did not work and were being controlled by an undercover agent, the agency added.
None of the suspects are associated with foreign terror groups.
The overnight arrests were the result of an undercover sting operation as part of an investigation launched in October 2011, an FBI affidavit said."

Here we go again, to quote on of the luminaries of recent US political life. The FBI's well-paid informants (probably one of the last truly great growth industries in the country) are scouring the landscape for inept and easily led rejects in need of a conspiracy in which to fall in with, wittingly unwitting fall guys who can be induced with a minimum of effort to join in some hair-brained scheme to destroy some unlikely landmark on the premise that they're making some bold statement -- which merely humiliating themselves and landing a long term in a high-security federal prison.

If they'd enlisted in the armed services, we'd recognize and reward them with bed and board, before dumping them out of the streets again with a cracked brain and even less regard for human life. But as it is, we have these chimpanzees dancing to the tune of their federal paymasters, but in a completely inadvertent way, as they fulfill a public-relations mandate from HQ to make fools of themselves for the greater glory of the national security state.

Bravo, you morons!

The messengers of slime

It's in the news: lots of lurid details about the nefarious plans of the diabolical terrorist mastermind, Osama bin Laden, on the anniversary of his elimination by US death squad.

Our faithful media lackeys are willing disseminators of the hideous melodrama that our "intelligence" agencies so lavishly propound, in the service of their goal of self-aggrandizement and perpetuation.

For all the years spent in his "compound," the sickly and impotent (progenitor of earth-shattering cataclysms, not progeny, of course) bin Laden cannot have hoped to have had the type of influence on events that his adversaries were concocting wholly out of their imaginations for the considered goal of terrifying a listless and disinterested population, quivering before the prospect of another iSomething.

Hence, these resurgent reports of the demonic nature and demented plots of the master of the underworld, trumped up by the scriveners of perpetual menace (though it comes from them, more than through them):

Documents show bin Laden targeted Obama, Petraeus: "Documents found in Osama bin Laden's compound detail a number of terrorist plots, including planned assassinations of President Obama and U.S. military commander David Petraeus.
NBC News reported that the Navy SEALS who carried out last year's mission against bin Laden recovered "five computers, 10 hard drives and more than 100 storage devices -- DVDs, discs and thumb drives -- that included between 10,000 and 15,000 documents and between 15,000 to 25,000 videos, including a large number of duplicate files.""

Every such report has a multiplier effect, in reinforcing the preposterous proposition that al Qaeda is a worldwide terrorist front that wages war on the freedom- and peace-loving majesty of the USA and its worldwide cabal of minions, clamoring for another big payday on the heels of these purported evildoers.

Indeed, the terrorist threat is the biggest game in a world of gamers, the ultimate honeypot for craven politicians and ravenous entrepreneurs whose addiction to the morphine drip of obscene profits that come by the wipeout off innocent non-combatants surpasses every legitimate trade ever devised by the merchants of death and destruction.

If your government is willing to lie to you, then is there any question they're willing to kill you as well? They killed Osama, who