Archive for the 'Indecent Plutocracy' Category

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11
Sep

HIDDEN WAGES OF WAR: How Many Dead? How Many Mad?

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: Obstinate Conscience, Indecent Plutocracy, Investigative Reporting, Zionist Footprints, Middle East, The Contemptible Media, Dispatch from Paris and Imperial Policy


Flight carrying badly injured soldiers out of Iraq.

BY SHAYNE NELSON

The Iraq War’s “hidden casualties” is yet another scandalous instance of media malfunction which somehow favors the warmongers amongst us. This post challenges the accuracy of the official tallies. What would the world do without citizens’ journalism?

Back in the Seventies a French journalist told me a not-so-hard-to-believe tale of the Vietnam war, from his days as a war correspondent in Vietnam for the French newspaper Le Monde. He said that every evening during that conflict, a huge jet full of dying soldiers took off from Saigon, headed to Japan. He said that war correspondents in Saigon called it ‘The Flying Coffin,’ since most of the soldiers aboard the plane, though still alive, were so badly injured that most of them would soon be dead. Continue reading ‘HIDDEN WAGES OF WAR: How Many Dead? How Many Mad?’

06
Sep

Ten Fallacies About the Violence in Iraq

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: State Crimes, Indecent Plutocracy, Capitalist Propaganda, Zionist Footprints, Middle East, Obstinate History, The Contemptible Media and Imperial Policy


The debate about whether Americans should stay or leave Iraq after four years of brutal occupation is surreal because it continues to be underwritten by enormous lies. Plain and simple, the US elites invaded Iraq to rob that nation at gunpoint of its major resource, oil, and all the current foot-dragging is simply to accommodate stateside politics to the ensuing debacle, while clinging to some “solution” that might provide a fig leaf for an indefinite US military presence in that region. The essay we reproduce below is an excellent dissection of the principal lies feeding the confusion, as usual with ample complicity on the part of the corporate media, which through shoddy work, or cynical collaboration, effectively prolongs the agony of Iraq. The evidence that the mass media are not doing their job is everywhere. Just consider for a moment the following astonishing facts—astonishing in their sheer obscenity when put in the context of so much want and misery in the world, and that most Americans never heard of them— collected by Doug Henwood for one of his remarkable essays, and published back in 2003:

“LIGHTNESS”

In the early days of the war, when things weren’t going so well for the “coalition,” it was said that the force was too light. But after the sandstorm cleared and the snipers were mowed down, that alleged lightness became a widely praised virtue. But that force was light only by American standards: 300,000 troops; an endless rain of Tomahawks, JDAMs, and MOABs; thousands of vehicles, from Humvees to Abrams tanks; hundreds of aircraft, from Apaches to B-1s; several flotillas of naval support - and enormous quantities of expensive petroleum products. It takes five gallons of fuel just to start an Abrams tank, and after that it gets a mile per gallon. And filling one up is no bargain. Though the military buys fuel at a wholesale price of 84¢ a gallon, after all the expenses of getting it to the front lines are added in, the final cost is about $150 a gallon. That’s a steal compared to Afghanistan, where fuel is helicoptered in, pushing the cost to $600/gallon. Rummy’s “lightness” is of the sort that only a $10 trillion economy can afford.

Wrap your mind around those little facts before you read the rest of the indictment.—Eds.
******************************************************************
BY JOHN TIRMAN, AlterNet
Posted on November 28, 2006, Printed on September 6, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/44771/ Continue reading ‘Ten Fallacies About the Violence in Iraq’

30
Aug

The War On Working Americans: Part II

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: Indecent Plutocracy, American Way of Life, Corporadoes and Imperial Policy

BY STEPHEN LENDMAN Dateline 8-29-7

Peter Coors (standing), scion to family of reactionary tycoons that has distinguished itself for its antilabor practices and support for the most extreme rightwing politicians in the land. He ran for a seat as Colorado’s senator, but lost to Dem Ken Salazar

See Part I at https://bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=241 on this same site.

This article was written to assess the state of working America in the run-up to Labor Day, 2007. Organized labor today is severely weakened following decades of government and business duplicity to crush it.

Part I reviewed the labor movement’s rise in the 19th century and subsequent decline post-WW II and especially in the last three decades. Hope arose for some change in the Democrat-led 100th Congress. A weak effort emerged, but Senate Republicans killed it. Continue reading ‘The War On Working Americans: Part II’

18
Aug

Bye-Bye Baghdad

By Greanville 12 Comments
Categories: Indecent Plutocracy, Obstinate Conscience, Zionist Footprints, The Contemptible Media and Imperial Policy

BY “ANONYMOUS” | Topical research associate: Auveline Robinson
As published on 8.17.07 by fraternal site, Truthdig

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Bloodbath is not a metaphor in Iraq, thanks to the Cheney/Bush war.

Editor’s Note: The author of this article is a contractor who has lived and worked in Baghdad. His identity is known to Truthdig’s editors, but he has written anonymously in order to offer an uncensored account.

I have been living and working in Baghdad for the past 16 months and will be leaving next week for good. I am one of those overpaid Department of Defense contractors, or, as some would call me, a “war profiteer.” Yes, I have profited. I am out of debt and have money saved. But it has cost me. I am a changed man. I have become hardened. I almost feel like a zombie. Continue reading ‘Bye-Bye Baghdad’

15
Aug

CUBA: The unforgivable revolution—1959 to 1980s

By Greanville 2 Comments
Categories: Indecent Plutocracy, Appalling Hypocrisy Annals, State Crimes, Middle East, Book Reviews, The Contemptible Media and Imperial Policy

BY WILLIAM BLUM
castro_afp_203b
President Castro addressing the Cuban people in Havana.

FROM OUR APPALLING HYPOCRISY ANNALS

The existence of a revolutionary socialist government with
growing ties to the Soviet Union only 90 miles away, insisted
the United States Government, was a situation which no self-
respecting superpower should tolerate, and in 1961 it undertook
an invasion of Cuba. Continue reading ‘CUBA: The unforgivable revolution—1959 to 1980s’

14
Aug

The SiCKO Controversy : Views From the Left

By Greanville 1 Comment
Categories: Bourgeois Democracy, Indecent Plutocracy, CINEMA REVUS, American Way of Life, Controversy, Corporadoes, The Contemptible Media, Capitalism for Dummies and The Left & Pseudo Left

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Moore speaking on health issues before sympathetic congresspeople.
C O N T R O V E R S Y

Michael Moore’s documentary Sicko (2007) has attracted its fair share of critics among the liberaloid guardians of the status quo, and, naturally, rabidly negative and mendacious reviews from the right. But a film of this importance, that has managed to touch off a desperately needed debate about the nature of the “health care” system in the US, and the grasping values underscoring it, has also elicited criticism from the left. In this series of posts we cover the more compelling arguments.

EXHIBIT 1
IN PRAISE OF “SICKO” BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE U.S. HEALTHCARE SYSTEM DIES?

By Carolyn Baker
Dateline: Sunday, 12 August 2007

It had to happen, but it took so long-indeed, too long, for a courageous filmmaker to rise up and put the abysmal U.S. healthcare system under a microscope in order to reveal how utterly pathological it has become. On one level, Moore repeated a blatant flaw in his craft so obvious in “Bowling For Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 911″ in that he almost always fails to fully connect the dots and take his work to the next level, and “Sicko” was no exception. Nevertheless, the film left me laughing, cheering, and crying and particularly gleeful regarding memos sent by management throughout the Blue Cross system warning employees of the possible side-effects of “Sicko” on their company’s image. Continue reading ‘The SiCKO Controversy : Views From the Left’

11
Aug

The Unseen Lies: Journalism As Propaganda

By Greanville 3 Comments
Categories: Presidential Tyranny, Indecent Plutocracy, Bourgeois Democracy, American Way of Life, The Contemptible Media, Toxic Culture and Imperial Policy

BY JOHN PILGER
DATELINE August 8, 2007

WITH A BONUS PIECE BY ERIC ALTERMAN (THE NATION)

journalism
The truth about most modern journalism: You first become a career media worker, you start climbing the ladder, and then you prostitute yourself. It’s as common as it’s straightforward.

The following is a transcript of a talk given by John Pilger at Socialism 2007 Conference in Chicago this past June:

The title of this talk is Freedom Next Time, which is the title of my book, and the book is meant as an antidote to the propaganda that is so often disguised as journalism. So I thought I would talk today about journalism, about war by journalism, propaganda, and silence, and how that silence might be broken. Edward Bernays, the so-called father of public relations, wrote about an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. He was referring to journalism, the media. That was almost 80 years ago, not long after corporate journalism was invented. It is a history few journalist talk about or know about, and it began with the arrival of corporate advertising. As the new corporations began taking over the press, something called “professional journalism” was invented. To attract big advertisers, the new corporate press had to appear respectable, pillars of the establishment-objective, impartial, balanced. The first schools of journalism were set up, and a mythology of liberal neutrality was spun around the professional journalist. The right to freedom of expression was associated with the new media and with the great corporations, and the whole thing was, as Robert McChesney put it so well, “entirely bogus”. Continue reading ‘The Unseen Lies: Journalism As Propaganda’

10
Aug

The Anti-Empire Report: Separation of oil and state

By ascetorix_ariz20 3 Comments
Categories: Indecent Plutocracy, Fascism US Style, Bourgeois Democracy, Toxic Culture and Imperial Policy

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BY WILLIAM BLUM \ DATELINE: August 10, 2007
Read this or George W. Bush will be president the rest of your life
Simulpost at author’s site: www.killinghope.org

On several occasions I’ve been presented with the argument that contrary to widespread opinion in the anti-war movement and on the left, oil was not really a factor in the the United States invasion and occupation of Iraq. The argument’s key, perhaps sole, point is that the oil companies did not push for the war.

Responding to only this particular point: firstly, the executives of multinational corporations are not in the habit of making public statements concerning vital issues of American foreign policy, either for or against. And we don’t know what the oil company executives said in private to high Washington officials, although we do know that such executives have a lot more access to such officials than you or I, like at Cheney’s secret gatherings. More importantly, we have to distinguish between oil as a fuel and oil as a political weapon. Continue reading ‘The Anti-Empire Report: Separation of oil and state’

10
Aug

Reviewing Marjorie Cohn’s “Cowboy Republic”

By Greanville 0 Comments
Categories: Fascism US Style, Presidential Tyranny, Indecent Plutocracy, Bourgeois Democracy, American Way of Life, Book Reviews, State Crimes and Imperial Policy

BY STEVE LENDMAN
Dateline: Thursday, August 09, 2007

bush_madcowboy

Marjorie Cohn is a distinguished law professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego where she’s taught since 1991 and is the current president of the National Lawyers Guild. She’s also been a criminal defense attorney at the trial and appellate levels, is an author, and has written many articles for professional journals, other publications, and for noted web sites such as Global Research, ZNet, CounterPunch, AfterDowning Street, Common Dreams, AlterNet and others. Her long record of achievements, distinctions and awards is broad and varied for her teaching, writing and her work as a lawyer and activist for peace, social and economic justice. Continue reading ‘Reviewing Marjorie Cohn’s “Cowboy Republic”’

06
Aug

Reviewing Ferdinand Lundberg’s “Cracks in the Constitution”

By Greanville 2 Comments
Categories: Indecent Plutocracy, Presidential Tyranny, American Way of Life and Book Reviews

BY STEPHEN LENDMAN
Dateline: Monday, August 06, 2007

declaration_independence

Ferdinand Lundberg (1905 - 1995) was a 20th century economist, journalist, historian and author of such books as The Rich and the Super-Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today; The Myth of Democracy; Politicians and Other Scoundrels; and the subject of this review - Cracks in the Constitution.

Lundberg’s book was published twenty-seven years ago, yet remains as powerfully important and relevant today as then. Simply put, the book is a blockbuster. It’s must reading to learn what schools to the highest levels never teach about the nation’s most important document that lays out the fundamental law of the land in its Preamble, Seven Articles, Bill of Rights, and 17 other Amendments. Lundberg deconstructs it in depth, separating myth from reality about what he called “the great totempole of American society.” Continue reading ‘Reviewing Ferdinand Lundberg’s “Cracks in the Constitution”’

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