Exclusive: The U.S. mainstream media continues to spread its own “fake news,” like the falsehood about an intelligence community “consensus” on Russia-gate “hacking,” as algorithms begin to marginalize dissent, reports Robert Parry.
By Robert Parry
It seems that The New York Times can’t let a good lie lie. Even after being pushed into running an embarrassing correction retracting its false claim that there was a consensus of all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia hacked Democratic emails and made them public to help Donald Trump defeat Hillary Clinton, the Times is back suggesting exactly that.
New York Times building in New York City. (Photo from Wikipedia)
The Times’ current ploy is to say the Russian hacking claims are the “consensus” judgment of the U.S. intelligence community without citing a specific number of agencies. For instance, on Friday, the Times published an article by Matt Flegenheimer about the U.S. Senate vote to prevent President Trump from lifting sanctions on Russia and deployed the misleading phrasing:
“The Trump administration has opposed the sanctions against Russia, arguing that it needs flexibility to pursue a more collaborative diplomacy with a country that, by American intelligence consensus, interfered in last year’s presidential election.”
So, instead of explaining the truth – that the Jan. 6 “Intelligence Community Assessment” was the work of a small group of “hand-picked” analysts from three of the agencies under the watchful eye of then-CIA Director John Brennan and beneath the oversight of then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper – the Times opts to give its readers the misleading impression that there was a “consensus” within the U.S. intelligence community.
In other words, unless a Times reader knows the truth by having read it at a non-mainstream media outlet such as Consortiumnews.com, that reader would continue to believe that all 17 intelligence agencies were in agreement on this foundational point in the Russia-gate affair.
Marginalizing Dissent
And the continuation of this willful deception comes as the Times and other mainstream media outlets make progress in their plans to deploy Internet algorithms to hunt down and marginalize what they deem “fake news,” including articles that challenge the mainstream media’s power to control the dominant news narrative.
A report by the World Socialist Web Site found that “in the three months since Internet monopoly Google announced plans to keep users from accessing ‘fake news,’ the global traffic rankings of a broad range of left-wing, progressive, anti-war and democratic rights organizations have fallen significantly.”
Google’s strategy is to downgrade search results for targeted Web sites based on a supposed desire to limit reader access to “low-quality” information, but the targets reportedly include some of the highest-quality alternative news sites on the Internet, such as – according to the report – Consortiumnews.com.
Google sponsors the First Draft Coalition, which was created to counter alleged “fake news” and consists of mainstream news outlets, including the Times and The Washington Post, as well as establishment-approved Web sites, such as Bellingcat, which has a close association with the anti-Russia and pro-NATO Atlantic Council.
This creation of a modern-day Ministry of Truth occurred under the cover of a mainstream-driven hysteria about “fake news” and “Russian propaganda” in the wake of Donald Trump’s election.
Last Thanksgiving Day, the Post ran a front-page article citing accusations from an anonymous Web site, PropOrNot, that identified 200 Web sites — including such Internet stalwarts as Truthdig, Counterpunch and Consortiumnews — as purveyors of “Russian propaganda.”
Apparently, PropOrNot’s standard was to smear any news outlet that questioned the State Department’s Official Narrative on the Ukraine crisis or some other global hot spot, but the Post didn’t offer any actual specifics of what these Web sites had done to earn their place on a McCarthyistic blacklist.
An Orwellian Future
In early May 2017, the Times chimed in with a laudatory article about how sophisticated algorithms could purge the Internet of alleged “fake news” or what the mainstream media deems to be “misinformation.”
Big Brother poster illustrating George Orwell’s novel about modern propaganda, 1984.
As I wrote at the time, “you don’t need a huge amount of imagination to see how this combination of mainstream groupthink and artificial intelligence could create an Orwellian future in which only one side of a story gets told and the other side simply disappears from view.”
After my article appeared, I received a call from an NPR reporter who was planning a segment on this new technology and argued with me about my concerns. However, after I offered a detailed explanation about how I saw this as a classic case of the cure being far worse than the disease, I was not invited onto the NPR program.
Also, as for the relatively small number of willfully produced “fake news” stories, none appear to have traced back to Russia despite extensive efforts by the mainstream U.S. media to make the connection. When the U.S. mainstream media has tracked down a source of “fake news,” it has turned out to be some young entrepreneur trying to make some money by getting lots of clicks.
For instance, on Nov. 26, 2016, as the anti-Russia hysteria was heating up in the weeks following Trump’s election, the Times ran a relatively responsible article revealing how a leading “fake news” Web site was not connected to Russia at all but rather was a profit-making effort by an unemployed Georgian student who was using a Web site in Tbilisi to make money by promoting pro-Trump stories.
The owner of the Web site, 22-year-old Beqa Latsabidse, said he had initially tried to push stories favorable to Hillary Clinton but that proved unprofitable so he switched to publishing anti-Clinton and pro-Trump articles whether true or not.
While creators of intentionally “fake news” and baseless “conspiracy theories” deserve wholehearted condemnation, the idea of giving the Times and a collection of Google-approved news outlets the power to prevent public access to information that challenges equally mindless groupthinks is a chilling and dangerous prospect.
Russia-gate Doubts
Even if the Russian government did hack the Democratic emails and slip them to WikiLeaks – a charge that both the Kremlin and WikiLeaks deny – there is no claim that those emails were fake. Indeed, all evidence is that they were actual emails and newsworthy to boot.
Couple walking along the Kremlin, Dec. 7, 2016. (Photo by Robert Parry)
Meanwhile, U.S. government accusations against the Russian network, RT, have related more to it covering topics that may make the Establishment look bad – such as the Occupy Wall Street protests, fracking for natural gas, and the opinions of third-party presidential candidates – than publishing false stories.
In some cases, State Department officials have even made their own false allegations in attacking RT.
The current Russia-gate frenzy is a particularly scary example of how dubious government conclusions and mainstream media falsehoods can propel the world toward nuclear destruction. The mainstream media’s certainty about Russia’s guilt in the disclosure of Democratic emails is a case in point even when many well-informed experts have expressed serious doubts — though almost always at alternative media sites.
See, for instance, former WMD inspector Scott Ritter’s warning about lessons unlearned from the Iraq debacle or the opinions of U.S. intelligence veterans who have questioned the accuracy of the Jan. 6 report on Russian hacking.
Perhaps these concerns are misplaced and the Jan. 6 report is correct, but the pursuit of truth should not simply be a case of grabbing onto the opinions of some “hand-picked” analysts working for political appointees, such as Brennan and Clapper. Truth should be subjected to rigorous testing against alternative viewpoints and contradictory arguments.
That has been a core principle since the days of the Enlightenment, that truth best emerges from withstanding challenges in the marketplace of ideas. Overturning that age-old truth – by today unleashing algorithms to enforce the Official Narrative – is a much greater threat to an informed electorate and to the health of democracy than the relatively few times when some kid makes up a bogus story to increase his Web traffic.
And, if this new process of marginalizing dissenting views is successful, who will hold The New York Times accountable when it intentionally misleads its readers with deceptive language about the U.S. intelligence community’s “consensus” regarding Russia and the Democratic emails?
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).
In total relation to “Google sponsors the First Draft Coalition” and “An Orwellian Future”:
An Open Letter to Google/YouTube: https://seaclearly.com/2017/08/04/an-open-letter-to-googleyoutube/
Why? Do you have a problem with individuals who focus on God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit? But no, since there are so many others who succeed on YouTube in the same vein it must not be that (as a core). Is it something else, like Politics (past and present)? Is it because of a ceasing of Advertising ($pending money) through AdWords for promotion? Is it connected to the First Draft Coalition? Or, is it all (Holy Trinity, Politics, and Censorship) working together?
Spies Seek to Control the Internet:
https://theintercept.com/2014/07/14/manipulating-online-polls-ways-british-spies-seek-control-internet/
The ability to manipulate the results of online polls, artificially inflate pageview counts on web sites, “amplif[y]” sanctioned messages on YouTube, and Censor Video Content judged to be “extremist.” “Ability to artificially increase traffic to a website” (GATEWAY) and “ability to inflate page views on websites” (SLIPSTREAM). “Amplification of a given message, normally video, on popular multimedia websites (Youtube)” (GESTATOR).
Our website (TWF.org) appears to be among those targeted by Google. July 2017 traffic was about 50% less than July 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7lq9znCWgg
Good article. “Fake news” always was a very poor substitute neologism for the accepted term ‘propaganda’ Counter-propaganda is apparently Google’s algorithmic definition of fake news. A perfect response by the propaganda system to its challenge from the web.
Thanks, but if I’m to be commended we have to call that piece parody rather than plagiarism. Remember that one man’s parody is another man’s plagiarism, juzt like one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter (AlNusra I’m looking at you). Since we are on the “wrong side of the tracks” here as supporters of “fake news” rather than properly government-approved patriotic “high confidence” news we have to be the bad boys is this game. Therefore I plagiarized rather than parodied the Gettysburg Address, and therefore need to be condemned rather than commended. I’m a bad boy and need to be waterboarded ASAP.
It seems Robert Parry and journalistic integrity, go hand in hand.
Excellent work Robert.
I love and appreciate Robert Perry’s life focus and conclusions. As usual, he is correct and frightfully truthful: The current Russia-gate frenzy is a particularly scary example of how dubious government conclusions and mainstream media falsehoods can propel the world toward nuclear destruction.
Please! Let us wake up, ardently defend the only home we’ll ever have, Planet Earth. Speak out, squeak out, let your view be heard, any way you can.
Can we “reach a consensus” on expunging the phrase “intelligence COMMUNITY” from the journalistic lexicon. Forever. They are not a community. They are possibly not even human. thanks
“Evil is wrought by want of thought as well as by want of heart” – Thomas Hood
I have had the thought – Should we even be using the terms ‘Deep State’ or ‘Deep State actors’? Seems to me that by doing so we risk – or are – unintentionally aiding and abetting some real live human beings – who are baddies – who have been allowed to rake far too much wealthpower – to use the power that comes from those overfortunes to do their worst to all the rest of us – – do we harm ourselves by helping them keep themselves “shrouded in mystery” – as if they were somehow unknowable or untouchable – as if they were not merely human beings who have gained so much wealthpower they can make human history be whatever they say it will be – by buying up media and governments – – or, maybe I’m wrong – maybe there are ‘deep state’ human beings with so much wealthpower it’s true nobody will ever know their names – because that’s the way they want it – maybe it’s true that for as long as wealthpower giants are allowed to form their power to hide their true identities and deeds will always exceed our power to discover and expose their true identities and deeds – – and thinking more – either way, whether the wealthpowerful can or cannot be known – and whether or not we aid them in seeming ‘”mysteriously untouchable” – – isn’t the only way to solve the problem to once and for all time murder the terribly self-harming idea to ever allow human beings to have an overfortune since tyranny IS where unlimited personal fortune is? Can we be anything but ignoble if we just blow off steam in the face of the colossal destruction of human and planet happiness/safety/survival? Shouldn’t we be instead focused like lasers on conducting a campaign of education until a majority is clear that the idea to allow overfortunes is obsolete genosadism, unsurvivable, has to go or we perish?
This is a classic “problem, reaction, solution” tactic to the freedom of publication which the internet provides.
The US DoD employs lots of sock puppets, and the CIA has insiders in the MSM. Bannon’s Breitbart news runs echo chamber ultra-right wing claims and assertions. And … VOILA ! Fake news emerges (evil spawn of “conspiracy theory” aka CIA tactic to counter distrust in the Warren Commission).
There is the problem — Fake News! Lets get everyone upset about that (or should I say, lets get the MSM to beat up the issue) so that we can implement a solution!
That solution? Censorship via search rankings.
Thanks for a good read.
Is the author of this article familiar with this other article on your site?
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/24/intel-vets-challenge-russia-hack-evidence/
When will the American people wake upbftom the msm hypnotic trance and fight for their rights as citizens to be protected …we need a referendum for the constituents to end the sanctions …or else the dystopian nightmare will continue till the world ends, not with a whimper but with a nuclear attack.
Wake up America and sing the song of peace…and truth…
When I try to tell people that most all media outlets that have are made available to the general public are outright propaganda or controlled opposition. I encourage them to seek out real news outlets, those that allow open discussion. Those mentioned above Counterpunch, Truthdig, and CONSORTIUM News are three highest on my list; of these CONSORTIUM ranks tops by virtue of the quality of the readers comments. I include my own site youtopia.guru.
I hope people have noticed that MSN homepage has suspended comments as they are ostensibly looking for a better way for readers to communicate. Yeah right! This censorship of truth has parallels in the demented Roman Catholic Inquisition, where independent thinkers were branded HERITICS and brutalized, tortured and burnt at the stake. I am a HERITIC and materialism/corporatism is the modern day CHURCH
Right on!
Sorry about the typos, is there no way to edit one’s posts?
Hi Lee-
You have 5 minutes to edit your post after you initially send it. Hit the page re-load button, and the edit screen will come up. Just click the save button when you’re done.
Let me get this right? I can fix a typo this way?
Yes! I just did it. I had misspelled ‘fix’ and now it’s right.
Thank you!
Lee Anderson, after you upload your comment, reload the page and you’ll have 5min to correct…
More media info at link below:
—————————————————————-
EXCLUSIVE: Saudi investor ploughs millions into liberal icon of UK media
Sultan Mohamed Abuljadayel gains ‘significant control’ of Independent alongside Russian media mogul Evgeny Lebedev
Jamie Merrill
Friday 28 July 2017 20:10 UTC
Last update:
Saturday 29 July 2017 14:18 UTC
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-investor-ploughs-millions-liberal-champion-british-media-712241658
I believe we could be called: The Prisoners of “Democracy.”
More info at link below
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/07/the-prisoners-of-democracy.html
Stephen J. – another excellent article. Thank you.
As the United States Republic was birthed, it failed under The Articles of Confederation with a redue with 13 states accepting the U.S. Constitution with amendments with certain freedoms insured though from time to time, null and void from the earliest days of the Republic foward. The great propagandist for the rebellion, Thomas Paine, gave away his rights to his “Common Sense” and other tracts in support of independence from Great Britain which he left, as a wanted man with a death sentence hanging over his head. Joseph Priestley departed from a similar wanting after having his library and laboratory burned to the ground and a seeking to lay him low. Most of the “founding” fathers were passionate land speculators in the take away and take over of native American lands West of the land sided boundaries of former colonies. Though General Washington declined the offer to be King after the The pretender to the British throne, Charles Edward Stuart–who believed in the “Divine Right of Kings”–turned down the offer as he preferred what became Italy, where he was born, Paine took to calling Washington “King George” as he became disillusioned with the American revolution and shipped out for France where he became “Citizen Paine” and as the revolution turned and he was jailed pending execution. Not losing his head, he became a supported of Napoleon and worked as an engineer in support of a French invasion of Britain. There was a falling out with Paine becoming a world class citizen, as a man without a country. Today’s lock jaw of communication over the Defense Department’s D.A.R.P.–Dynamic Active Routing Protocal–establishment, that became our world wide internet now serving up a Smorgasbord of culdesacs, disconnects, and disappearances and delayed connections willfully engaged on command. The late great journalist, A.J.Liebling noted in his life time, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those own one.” perhaps remembering those newspaper men who were also printers owning their own press and were run out of American frontier towns as their having their say was too painful for the ruling class of the communities that they rolled on past. Those that strangle the free flow of information continue to have it so, as Liebling’s other observation that is as true now as it was then: “People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers (watch on TV, listen to on the radio or intake over the internet) with news.”
Well said
Even Great Britain folk think American government has lost its mind…been chatting with them in London..
This divine right you refer to..even though nobody will admit it..I fear our founding fathers might have sought a sort of shadow divine right to pursue their prosperity under the auspices of the Declaration of Independence…and this demonstrates the inherent flaw, not of government, but of human kind
Our children should have history books that tell our history the way you just did. I enjoyed reading your comment Douglas. Joe
Douglas Baker – excellent post.
The corporate media cartels have even now gone so far as to state that the Russians were behind the Kennedy assassination. Not the Soviet Union, Russia.
AOL ran the headline: ”Newly released top secret documents may show that Russia was behind the assassination of JFK, on July 27th of this year.
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/07/27/newly-released-top-secret-documents-may-show-that-russia-was-be/23053146/
They never mentioned the Soviet Union, only Russia. The Silicon Valley Mafia that now controls the corporate press know very well that in the minds of many, if not most Americans, Russia is and was the Soviet Union. They hammer the lies home, like Otwell and Goebbels and Bernay understood, and people become osmotically fed.
The demonizing of Russia, with headline grabbers and lying propaganda is all part of softening up the American people for war. It is very reminiscent of the lead ip to WWI.
Never mind that this ‘theory’ was totally debunked by both the HSCA (Committee on assassinations), but Peter Dale Scott has exposed this story as falsely planted news to force Johnson to call for a Warren Commission to put forth the lone assassin theory.
All this history aside, the headlines from AOL on July 27th, 2017 says it all: equate Russia with the Soviet Union, dig up salacious, yet utterly false correlations and ‘newly released documents”,, thus confusing the American mind more with active corporate pollution and contamination.
The problem is that it works. History has shown it work from Bernay to Hitler. It’s Madison Avenue, baby and they know how to get you to want what you do not need, and need what you do not want.
Anyone who thinks Trump can or wants to stop any of this simply doe not understand how the corporate deep state works. Think Pinochet, think the Phoenix Program. It is all coming to American shores.
The World Socialist Website is a must for readers. Whether one subscribes to their Trotskyism or not, they have the best analysis of global capitalism around.
Do go to their website and sign the petition against Internet privatization, monopolization and outright memory hole creation.
Danny Weil – wow! These guys are going all out. Very scary.
I wrote the article below over 5 years ago. It is coming true today. Certain links are being censored:
—————————————————————
March 3, 2012
“The Internet Under Attack “
…
The “power elites” of this world do not like to lose control, or to have the masses having access to alternative media. The internet has seen a massive surge of alternative media and the mainstream media has seen a large decline in newspaper circulation. There are alternative TV news websites, Facebook and YouTube—these have enabled people to get their stories and pictures out that the corporate mainstream media has censored. But, censorship has raised its ugly head even on Facebook and YouTube and there has been some information censored. So the push is on, as I said earlier, to control or censor the internet….
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2012/03/internet-under-attack.html
I guess our intrepid American leaders got the idea from China. Remember how they used to get all lathered up about Chinese censorship of the internet within its borders, blocking inconvenient truths from its curious, intelligent people? Why, it was yet more proof that China was run by thuggish despots. They were right about that. But, the thing is, now they are emulating those Chinese policies by withholding information from internet users in the “free” world, or at least impeding its free and speedy flow.
If our “freedom-loving” masters are determined to keep tabs on all us potential troublemakers by shutting down sites like CN, they’d be very foolish. They spy on every keystroke traveling in either direction on this site. They’d lose tabs on all of our identities, what we think and what we plan to do. We are easy opposition research for them. All the alternative media is. Moreover, if we lost this outlet to blow off steam, we might actually take to the streets and cause real bother. So, I figure they will allow us to continue what they undoubtedly consider spewing empty words. But don’t expect to receive the broadcasting “seal of good practice” (those from the 50’s will remember that). We will always be held up as “fake news” in warning to the masses of what not to believe or even enquire about
.
Right, guys? I know you’re listening and watching.
Realist – I’ve often wondered if some sites out there weren’t purposely set up for that very reason, to let people blow off steam while keeping an eye on dissent. Most of the people on this site are pretty intelligent, and intelligent people aren’t usually a threat, not really. They certainly don’t present a physical threat.
But they’d be watching for others who might be more reactive, and this is where what intelligent people have to say makes a real difference because their words could entice a marginal-type person to act out. They want to limit those types of people getting access to the truth.
We’re all China now.
You reminded me of Kennedy’s speech in Berlin. He said the phrase in German, but it translated to “We’re all Berliners now”.
Kinda relevant to this since it had to do with freedom and self-government and was spoken in an era of tension between nuclear powers. I guess walls are going back up.
Dollars to doughnuts that the CIA puts up fake web sites to recruit terrorists, mercenaries, and false flag dupes. I can’t prove it, but it has been speculated upon by more knowledgeable people than myself. ISIS is known to use the internet to recruit its Jihadis, and ISIS IS CIA. So…
Stephen J. – “The internet is the last bastion of real freedom in the world today. But, I believe its days could be numbered. I believe the political puppets and their elitist advisers are working overtime to censor, control and tax it. These people do not like freedom of speech or freedom of expression, that’s why they brought in so-called “human rights commissions.” Now the internet is their next project for suppression of freedom. Make no mistake, the battle is on and we the people are their intended prisoners of a controlled information and spy system that they would like to impose. That is why the internet is under attack.”
Great article, Stephen. Thanks for posting about this very worrisome topic.
Mr Parry, Mightn’t we ask if our government would send anyone into space based on “highly confidant” reports from the respective government agencies? I don’t think so, yet we don’t seem to mind how possible it is that we might start WWIII based on those three weak reports.
Oops – the link about Soros should be this:
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1237
David Hungerford – thank you for that excellent link. George Soros is an absolute menace to society. It’s sounds awful, but I will not be sad the day he dies. Nobody should ever be allowed to wield that type of power.
National Public Radio receives funds from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations:
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/28/the-dawn-of-an-orwellian-future/
Propaganda works pretty well, until reality starts creeping up behind it. I note some have posted classic quotations from Hitler and Goebbels. Goering’s observations are interesting too. Propaganda was working really well. The Germans bought it when Hitler retook the Rhine Valley. They bought it when he organized the ‘Anschluss” of Austria. They cheered when he took back Danzig, and invaded Poland and the Czech Republic. The fall of France was undeniably a brilliant military victory. More cheering followed. Goering was always bragging about “my Luftwaffe this”, and “my Luftwaffe that”, and he claimed that no air force could ever succeed in bombing Berlin. “If that happens, you can call me Meyer,” he bragged. Apparently, “Meyer” implied something pejorative, a name not representative of the prowess of the “Master Race”. Berlin eventually did get bombed, and the incessant air-raid sirens came to be sarcastically referred to as “Meyer’s Whistles”, a slap at Goering’s hubris. The propaganda only goes so far. Europe ain’t gonna pay twice as much for American Natural gas just to snub the Russians. No real gain in employment opportunities has materialized. The stock market is still being “juiced” by cheap Fed money. There are still plenty of homeless people on the streets. Summer draughts promise a wet, cold winter. The Fed will have to raise interests rates sooner or later. It’s gonna be a lousy Christmas this year. Remember the “Bonus Army”? Everybody remembers that great General, Douglas MacArthur. They seem to forget that he was the guy who turned on all those starving, unemployed American Veterans camped out on Washington Mall. Those Veterans believed the propaganda. MacArthur set them straight. When the propaganda finally stops working…and it will…something much more effective will be rolled out.
The moment of truth stays hidden until it can’t help but be known. The truth is often painful, but dying believing in a lie, is like being killed twice.
F.G. Sanford – had an acquaintance whose father was a captain in the Luftwaffe. He was captured by the Russians. When the British came along and traded him for someone else, he said he got down on his knees and thanked the heavens above. He knew he would now live.
“When the propaganda finally stops working…and it will…something much more effective will be rolled out.” Yes, out will come the vice.
Thank you, Mr Parry, for speaking truth to power — the NYT, The Establishment. The many commentators here continued to expose the evils of Google, which I, too, witness.
Last week at a talk, the speaker turned out to be a walking advertisement for Google. Apparently he googled everything, spoke of and recommended googling to all who attended. During the Q/A, I questioned his use of Google and his use of the term googling all the time, and mentioned that I found Google censoring much of what I looked for on the internet. That I had tested it against other search engines and found it to limit my searches to its own biases. He seemed grateful that I had called him out on that, that it was an important point, but added that he had found Google addequate for all his needs. Apparently he doesn’t read CN, which, btw, Google tries to censor on my Android cell phone by warning me it’s a dangerous site. Google has the contract for Android phones, and it quickly disabled my Samsung search symbol requiring me to use chrome. With some effort I can still work my way around that most of the time.
Boy, Virginia, that’s interesting. Thanks for posting that information.
Since search engine and network giants think it ok to bias, filter, or effect unwanted results by algorithm, on the network, I suppose retaliation will eventually come, maybe from a high tech group like maybe Julian Assuage and his hackateers? Retaliation might take the form of blocking mainstream advertising from reaching its audience? Maybe by mixing up the ads: split two ads, merge the upper half on one to the lower half of the other, at each node as the ad traverses the network and as the user data is sent back to the stat gathering devices, it too is separated into many different parts so that when it arrives to its intended collection point, the data presented for each person has millions of false entries.. . by the time the ad reaches its intended audience, it might look like scrap paper. Maybe by setting millions of false user sites, and shutting them down, at inconvenient times, whatever!
I see real warfare coming.. to the net, AS A RESULT OF government and mainstream media teaming against justice and competition on the net. Block users from accessing open source and alternative media websites by any means is A DECLARATION OF WAR ON USERS, .
fudmier – “I see real warfare coming.. to the net, AS A RESULT OF government and mainstream media teaming against justice and competition on the net. Block users from accessing open source and alternative media websites by any means is A DECLARATION OF WAR ON USERS.”
I mentioned what my son had to say in one of my comments above. He also said what you just said, that if they ever tried to limit access, started dicking around, it would be WAR and they would lose. People would riot more over the Internet than anything else.
There are great computer/systems minds out there (even people like Snowden and Assange) who would go to war against these mother f’ers, either through setting up new search engines or creating havoc. Bring it!
Article of interest at link below:
—————————————————————————–
Media Mourn End Of CIA Killing Syrians And Strengthening Al Qaeda
If one only read corporate media reporting, you would likely think that the termination of the CIA program was an abject tragedy.
By Ben Norton | FAIR | July 28, 2017
http://www.mintpressnews.com/media-mourn-end-cia-killing-syrians-strengthening-al-qaeda/230288/
“…American intelligence consensus…”
Lies, more lies, more and more and more lies. From both sides of the aisle.
Perhaps we have entered an Age of Endarkenment? What did Cheney say about the “dark side”? How or will we ever come out of it?Thanks for shining a light, Robert.
If Hillary Clinton hold up a megaphone to the ear of the mainstream media, you will find that attached to the mouthpiece is not her mind, but another mouthpiece labelled CIA. Attached to the CIA mouthpiece is not the brain of John Brennan (if he has one) nor his successor, but a third megaphone labelled MIC Mindset. There, a cacaphony of voices meld into one that says one word, “Money”.
The word magnifies and reverbrates until the media hear it and the unified voice of greed and power are obeyed. That’s what has happened to the NY Times. Their interest was once the independant, searching, seeking journalism of the Robert Parrys until it became less important to them than the bankroll of their advertisers whose voices bear the mark of the Deep State mindset..They repeat what they hear from the megaphone. They rewrite government press handouts. Like childrens’ hyperactivity or the elderly’s forgetfullness, it has been given various names to cloud its real nature, but it is truly rather simple: intellectual sclerosis.
So the NYT has hired a small army who rabidly listen to Hillary’s megaphone, but lack the depth to understand that what they hear then write is the sclerotic mind of the Deep State that has eaten the American government as a child gobbles a chcolate bar when Mother isn’t looking.
This all part of classic fascism. Unlike the hyper child or the forgetful senior, there is not a panoply of doctors or medicines to help (phony or real – Psychology, too is about Money.) There is only one cure: revolution! But Americans of our time are about selfies and splintered little groups called victims of x, y, or z. Please, don’t point to 1776 or the Civil War. There were clear and vital issues rather than the diffuse blah blah of today. Sanders, vaguely revolutionary was slapped down and obeyed the word of the megaphone. Trump tried, too, and is getting slapped down.
Hopefully, before Eric Prince’s troops slip on jackboots and brown shirts, something will come along but there’s nothing on the horizon – if you discount unfounded hope and fantasy.
Pierre
Sorry, I clicked sumit before I proofed it.
Revolution is pretty heavy. Maybe I am crazy but I believe a Peace movement is the only answer to were we are at today. One thing I know for sure and that is 95 percent of its he people in this world want to get along. Love there partner,there kids there friends. YOU ALL HAVE A NICE PEACEFULL DAY
Peace movements are nice social events, but they don’t change much. THE peace movement in America was about Vietnam. There were demonstrations around the world and went on for years. Nixon ended the war when he and his cohorts found it no longer profitable nor winnable.
I was very active in NYC in the Occupy Wall Street movement. It was interesting, but gained nothing at all.
Protesters ideas & motivations are diffuse while the establishment is very focused and very armed. Unfortunately.
Bruce Walker – I agree that a revolution might get a whole bunch of people killed. A peace movement might work, but it probably had a better chance of drawing big crowds back when there was the draft (since your very life was at stake). Nowadays they`re using more mercenaries and proxies.
I think an economic boycott would be the easiest thing to do. Turn the TV off, stop buying newspapers, boycott all the large advertisers that keep the newspapers in business. Stop shopping and buying anything that`s not absolutely essential.
Boycott the corporations who feed the politicians. Just simply stop buying any of their products. It wouldn`t take long.
It is one of the ONLY things the public could do. Just bring them to their knees.
backwardsevolution: I agree with you on that. The whole economy is based upon consumption. This message of economic boycott has to be disseminated somehow to the public. It is the most effective weapon, and also a very good one. People will have more time for other useful activities, instead of spending all this time in the stores.
I fear my memory fails me. Can anyone think of a major boycott that made the whole nation change?
South Africa
Certainly the use of economic force should be part of any movement in its later stages when the fraction of society involved can have an economic effect. Getting to the point where we have enough supporters that economic boycott works, is the hard part. Also the economy of necessities is hard to boycott, and the luxury economy is not much supported by the working class.
Strikes, tax rebellions, road blockades, etc. are also economic measures, and will be met with force, but so be it. Getting to that point is likely to require a major military defeat (discrediting the MIC and probably the zionists) coupled with a major depression (discrediting the politicians and financiers). We have already had wage stagnation for ten years coupled with at least 100% inflation over that period in consumer prices, and hardly a peep on mass media about rapidly declining standard of living due to excessive militarism that does not serve the country, nor about financial regulation to prevent the coming recession.
I expect that multiple undeniable disasters will be necessary to wake up the population, to see at last that they are surrounded with lies. Maybe the sooner the better.
Nicely put Pierre.
At this point the Times should just move all operations to Tel Aviv.
No, to Jerusalem – in Tel Aviv, NYT would be put to shame by Ha’aretz.
Eric Schmidt of Google attends the annual Bilderberger meeting every year without fail, as reported by Daniel Estulin, who has followed Bilderbergers for years.
The reason Robert Parry focuses on the government censor and control issue is that it is worsening, quite considerably since the Obama years. Since the success of the middle class post WWII, the downturn was brought in the Reagan years and has worsened over time. So, conceptually saying it has been always thus is incorrect when reality factors in; the situation has gotten considerably worse over the past few decades, with more people and more people out of work. Control of unhappy people is necessity for Big Brother.
So ‘consensus’ is too strong a word? And Robert infers demons of Big Brother running the media from that?
Robert, the media has always served the moneyed interests. Operation Mockingbird gave control of the media to the CIA. The CIA is populated by the same Ivy elites serving the interests of Monetary Fascism.
The media has been corrupted for decades in the service of the Moneyed Masters who own this country.
And Mr. Parry is bent out of shape about the size of the consensus among Gov. Agencies re Russia Gate?
Google “Nafeez Amhed Google” for a series of articles that say the CIA funded Google’s startup
BTW yesterday I was pushed a message from Google Maps to the effect of How did you like the coffee shop you went to this am. The program needs to know my location to give me bus and driving information. I see *t is following me all the time
Paul, you can turn your location off on your phone. I do that, but in truth I still get the ads for the products I may have just glanced at in a store.
We commentators are always referring to our spell check. It seems clear to me that the algorithms are designed to bring up words that are hardly ever used — like ti for to, i for I, fit for for, etc. — and also a preponderance of foul words. Surely if we can send a man to the moon …!!!?!
That should be Nafeez Ahmed.
Russia Insider has a few articles on how the new sanctions against Russia will backfire on the US. China is not going to support them nor will the EU. Russia processes 45% of world uranium for power plants and also provides engineering materials used by US military, which Russia will cut off. So, these stupid, treasonous lawmakers will hurt Americans, and idiot Trump has no guts to stand up to them. This entire sorry episode lies squarely at the feet of Hillary Clinton, who has a blame book coming out in September, claiming Russia and Comey caused her loss.
What could Trump do?
/
?
Yeah Jessica — and Turkey too. Several weeks back work commenced in the Black Sea on a new pipeline, the so-called Turkstream, intended to pump Russian gas not just to energy-deprived Turkey but also onwards to neighboring Greece; from there up northwards to the rest of the Balkans; and perhaps even on westwards under the Adriatic to Italy and other parts of Southern Europe. Turkey is pretty pissed at the US right now — (1) because it sees its own economic woes during recent years as largely a product of chronic Wall Street manipulation; (2) because the US has stubbornly and tendentiously declined to extradite the CIA-sponsored Fetullah Gulen, indicted by Turkey as the very author of the attempted coup of a year ago; and (3) because of the US’s determined support of the Kurdish YPG party, creatively rebranded by the US military as the ‘Syrian Democratic Forces’. And now, although (still) a NATO member, Turkey has undertaken, controversially enough, and perhaps even spitefully enough, to purchase a massive new missile defense system, not from California but from Russia. —- It sure seems to me the US’s days are numbered here in this part of the world, where Putin’s Russia is perceived as reliable, honest, honorable, non-threatening, benign, moral, rational, and fundamentally sane (in other words, then, everything the US is not).
When you spit in the air; it can fall back on your nose !
All those idiotic Americans do not admit the fact than for the past 7O years American intelligences agencies have made troubles in élections all over the World. If interférences from Russia or any other countries are true. No big deal !
Another point of view on the war in Ukraine. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw43Y8YmjP2YwJ_jrBWqJAw
ask the new arbiter of truth, Google (pronounced with a hard G like gem) this simple question: What is the capital of Israel?
According to the charter which established that state, the answer can never be. And yet, there it is.
Go ahead and try Bing, too.
Now, let me hold your hand, while we come to the realization that the information war is over, and the truth lost badly.
SO, let’s look inward where some integrity still may exist. “A lie can be halfway around the world before the truth puts on it’s pants.”
Further examination, truth is lazy and doesn’t need to fight, because it’s right.
Stay golden, ponyboy.
It’s all makes sense when you understand that the Deep State believes that the only way they will preserve the American Empire is with a major war that the US prevails over….WW2 in redo…let’s call it WW3. They believe that like WW1 and WW2 that number 3 will be fought far away from American shores and that America will emerge unscathed in again in full control of the world economy. And under full cover of WW3 Israel will complete its takeover of all Palestinian lands as well as surrounding areas to create their security state of greater Israel…its a win win for the Neocons and zionists who operate Americas deep state. What these crazies do not understand is that Russia, who scaraficed 50 million souls in wars one and two, will do exactly the same in war 3 and that will result in the total annilation of the American homeland. These crazies do not understand that Russians will noose to die to preserve their culture…but that Americans will not. Once the first bomb explodes over American soil the American independent will to live to take over and no one will be willing to die for their masters….it will be come crystal clear that the only way that America will survive is by insurrection….and that is what will happen.
You apparently meant “Russians will CHoose to die to preserve…”
It’s a long time since Americans were revolutionary. Now they are scared of their shadows. If we take a few nukes it will be a good occasion to switch to martial law.
I have mentioned to my son on numerous occasions my concern re the elite trying to shut down the Internet, censor it. My son, who is pretty bright, always laughs and says, “You don’t ever have to worry about that. If they try to do that, other search engines will just start up. That will never happen. You’re worrying over nothing.” So says he!
I trust him on most things, as he’s proven me wrong on more things than I can shake a stick at. I’m often left wondering: “Who is the parent here?” Is he right about this?
He is right that new search engines can be started (with their own biases), but market share is a different problem. Google was one of the first, so has the largest facilities, reputation, and market share. To start another one just as large is about as likely as starting your own major newspaper or TV network: it can be done but growth would be slow. So the corruption of the largest search engines will always be a major concern.
This is not new just accelerated like all time is under the panoptic eye of the machine culture.
What is not much discussed but can be found in the book by Nicholas Carr,What the Internet is doing to our brain, is what the internet is doing to our brain. It is dummying it down, destroying attention spans, forcing the mind to not focus for long and more.
Part of the enslavëment we face now is the surge backward into a Digital Dark Ages where irrationality rages. I think we are there now but the point is that as part of this neo-feudal enslavement must come the embracement of the enslavement by the people themselves. Much like Huxley eluded to. You must want not to see.
The authoritarian mind, as understood well by the Frankfurt School after WWII, has two sides to it: a sadistic side, which loves to cause and see pain and a masochistic side that covets the worship and head patting of authority.
This is the type of person that will emerge and is emerging out of a failing American society where there is no thinking, nothing to think about. In this type of society we can begin to see Plato’s Cave and the images on the wall and the role of the puppeteer.
As Plato noted some 2,500 years ago:
“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.”
Danny Weil – “…what the internet is doing to our brain. It is dummying it down, destroying attention spans, forcing the mind to not focus for long and more.”
You’re probably right as far as people wasting their time on cell phones, Facebook, Twitter, on-line video gaming (although I would argue that this increases hand/eye coordination, forces you to focus on making the best possible move). But the people who waste their time and never learn/focus much are the same people who never learned much in school.
Some people are just more curious than others. They actually enjoy focusing, thinking. I know I do. Time to think is very important to me. I don’t own a cell phone, and you couldn’t pay me to go on Facebook or Twitter. The thing is that a lot of people “are” thinking. They’re just not thinking about the stuff we think about, the big questions. They’re interested in the smaller things: cooking, baking, crafts, woodwork, gardening, etc. We could argue that their focus is too narrow, but there is actually a focus there. I’ve gone on cooking sites and have come away thinking: how the hell do they know all that?
But you are absolutely correct in saying that the many who spend their time doing nothing more than spending their time on mindless Facebook crap are really being dumbed down. For them, there is no focus at all. The sad thing is that if they feel this is okay, then they pass this belief on to their children, and society gets dumbed down more.
A much-needed downturn would actually do these people a world of good. They might actually open their eyes to what’s going on, become more self-reliant/less dependent.
I don’t do Facebook either, and that’s because all I ever hear of what most people do on Facebook with each other, is they call each other ugly names, and petition without any intelligent debate to how right their side of the political spectrum they are on is. What a waste indeed.
This is why, on this sites comment board I like conversations to remain civil. Okay from time to time tempers flare, and trolls can be awful annoying, but on the whole we keep ourselves tame. I have even had, some good times arguing with comment posters who don’t see things the way I see them. On occasion comments have even changed my mind over certain issues. So no to Facebook crazy goings on, and yes to consortiumnews comment board.
Joe – you and I must be the only two people not on Facebook. That must be why we’re so brilliant :)
Joe, I’m with you and backwardsevolution, spending time of Facebook as people can do for hours seems to be a waste of “thinking time.” I’ve spent a long time on this article and comments, learning a lot and appreciating insights. How could twitter and facebook compare?
It’s a great honor to be included among the two of you, backwardsevolution and Rob Roy.
Danny,…if you substitute twitter for the internet I agree with you. After all. we are using the internet for a positive exchange of ideas…However, I suspect you mean texting and twitter.
…and yes, I would add Facebook as an inane application, but there are of course, positive aspects to the internet that I for one, am very thankful for.
There is no free internet. Do you know anyone who has free access? Access is through Internet Service Providers. The internet works like a two way cable TV stuff goes out as well as comes in.
But you just can’t get free cable TV. You have to pay for it. So too do you have to pay for access to the internet.
But the Internet Service Providers want to make money at both ends of the internet just like cable TV. They argue its the same thing and its not fair they can’t charge customers for access via a monthly fee and charge the people who want their websites to be searchable on the internet. I get it. From their end it makes sense.
But. The FCCs job is to serve the public interest and if we all agree that the current situation with cable news and the low quality information we get is a huge problem in this country and I am fairly sure all will agree that it absolutely sucks, then why would we want to duplicate the business model that has made cable news suck so bad and replicate it for the internet.
I would ask the FCC if that is really acting in the public interest especially since each time the FCC tries to end net neutrality or in other words you start paying if you want your website to be on Google’s search returns.
Because here is what is going to happen next and it is the same thing that has turned our mass media into corporate propaganda mouthpieces. Even if you have the money to pay, they can refuse if they think the content is not in their financial interest to provide at any price. The big networks do it now. There are a ton of people who can get interviewed all over the world but not here. Has Tim Robbins made any movies lately?
The higher ups in the corporation won’t stand for a Noam Chomsky or a person with a deviant point of view on their shows. Noam Chomsky had a story about how he was so excited after years to finally get an interview on NPR and just before it came on a technical malfunction led to 5 minutes of silence and when the audio was restored, his piece was over. The higher ups at PBS pulled the plug over fear that someone would get mad they that let him speak. On the other hand you can find lots of interviews with Noam Chomsky on the internet. Do you see any difference there at all? Just a tiny little bit more sunshine on the internet rather than the closed doors of the big networks?
But there are still places you can go for dissenting information once they start censoring the internet. Go visit a local college. Go to a library. Go to another country. See lots of choices. So your son is absolutely correct. But for those of us that like the free internet thing it sucks. For those of us that believe in free speech as it was intended by the founders it sucks. And if people don’t care about it now, they will miss it later on after it’s gone.
Robert Parry – excellent article. Thank you.
If Google is going to go after Consortium, we must make sure we get the link to this site out to as many people as possible. If you’re on Zero Hedge, place a link to this site there, and then do the same at other sites. If we can get even 1,000 more people reading this site (or at least coming over to take a look), then they might tell co-workers and family members and it just multiplies from there.
Sometimes I go on other sites (poor ones with really fake news and garbage articles!) in order to place a link to Consortium. The trolls go after me like crazy, but I just keep doing it. Even if I get two more people reading Consortium, it’s worth it.
Spread the word if you can!
Hi B.E.-
I’m one of those people that bore my friends and relatives with an annual “Christmas letter” that I put in my Christmas cards. Mostly I just catch people up on what I’ve been up to for the past year, but I usually comment on current affairs towards the end and make a plea for world peace. Anyway, I’ve mentioned Consortium News in my letter to try to tell as many people as possible that they’re being lied to by their TV sets. They mostly see me as a bit strange, but harmless. Dave P mentioned the Noble Savage from “Brave New World”, and I see a strong similarity there too. Mostly when I come to CN, I feel like I get to hang out with some folks who also took the Red Pill as opposed to the Blue Pill from the film “The Matrix”.
Oops. I mis-attributed the Noble Savage reference. It was LJ, not Dave P.
Good idea.
So depressing. Of all places, few years ago the USA looked to me the country that’ll embrace Orwellian model one of the last if ever. Thickening atmosphere of mass hysteria reminds me of what I’ve learned abut pre-War USSR and Germany. One needs to flee this country ASAP until it’s to late to be entangled in rigid social structure demanding mpossible moral choices and self censoring your own mind
Thanks for excellent piece
Funny this despicable action from internet search engines is attracting rightful condemnation here when it comes to geopolitics but not when it sidelines research that does not confirm the Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Change narrative…
Article of interest at link below:
——————————————————————————-
The Council on Foreign Relations’ American empire and its media mouthpiece
Swiss Propaganda Research
Fri, 21 Jul 2017 18:51 UTC
https://www.sott.net/article/357047-The-Council-on-Foreign-Relations-American-empire-and-its-media-mouthpiece
Excellent piece Stephen J. I’ll put that aside for future reference. Thank you.
Stephen J : Excellent information in the link you posted. Thanks.
We are often told “there are two sides to every story”, but in fact, there are many more sides that need to be seen for the truth to become evident.When a major news source talks about a” consensus” in government and the rest of the MSM agrees there is good reason to be on the alert.
The day should come when purveyors of slander and propaganda have their press credentials revoked.
Here is a devastating entry by Phil Butler at Journal NEO that describes President Bill Clinton’s continuation of President Bush’s policy in Yugoslavia that is the opposite of what I, for instance assumed.
https://journal-neo.org/2016/02/22/a-yugoslavian-fantasy-24th-versus-149th-place/
Thanks for this Bob. Shows how the breakup of Yugoslavia was a template for Iraq and Syria…how these things are planned out in think tanks. The entire article should be read, but I want to highlight the following excerpt:
“It is a fact, that after World War II, socialist Yugoslavia became something of a European success story. Between 1960 and 1980 the country had one of the most vigorous growth rates in the world: a decent standard of living, free medical care and education, a guaranteed right to a job, one-month vacation with pay, a literacy rate of over 90 percent, and a life expectancy of 72 years. To my knowledge, not one of the Balkans states that were created can claim half this prosperity. It was this prosperity which caused western interests to want to destroy Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia’s multi-ethnic citizenry also had affordable public transportation, housing, and utilities. The not-for-profit economy was mostly publicly owned, not exactly the poster child for western democratic love obviously. The county could not be allowed to compete with Germany, France, and especially Britain, and the London and Luxembourg bankers could not extract their billions in a socialistic system. Yugoslavia had to die, and the Reagans, Bushs, and Clintons helped make it happen.”
We just can’t have examples of governments that work on behalf of general populations…no, that won’t do.
Thank you. I am learning a lot from comments on this website. Sadly, everything I am learning-truth-is the antithesis of what I was educated / programmed to believe ,here in the Exceptional and Free (whatever that means??) United States of America.
I am extremely disturbed, worried and troubled by my country. And feeling very ashamed of it. So sad. I loved this country for so many years–and believed in it.
Hang in there Typingperson, your opinions and influences maybe more fruitful than you realize. Yes I’m giving you a pep talk, because maybe down the road you will need to give me one. There are I’m sure many who have read your comments, and yet never made you a reply. So, maybe just maybe, your words did give a reader a moment to pause, and think into what point you had made. Leaving links to articles also helps educate those, one by one. Just had to say that, so forgive me for the interruption, and the not asked for pep talk. Joe
Thanks, Joe. I always appreciate your thoughtful comments!
Oh–and good point about links. I found CN from a link in a comment at The Intercept. Glad I did!
I feel the same sadness Tyoingperson. Though I had been disabused of much “programming” before my discovery of CN, my educational horizon has deepened noticeably since that time. The journalistic integrity of Robert Parry has been a marvelous find, and I can’t do justice with words about the makeup and contribution of commenters here. To find a place where so many accomplished, experienced, mature, and intelligent people with a like-minded humanitarian “centering” frequent is a real blessing for someone like me who is not in a position to socialize as such.
I still love my country, or at least what it’s ideals are supposed to be. I honor the Constitution and am humble in the face of the history of so many nameless and famous Americans who have made remarkable contributions to human understanding, welfare, and progress.
But we are people like any other born of this Earth. Our “nationality” should never overshadow or neglect that truth. We should not only be responsible to each other as Americans, but we should be responsible to the greater human world as well. Pretty straightforward and simple to me.
Typingperson: I love the History of U.S., especially of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century. All these great leaders Payne, Franklin, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln . . . and many others. And all those memorable debates in the senate those days. FDR and Kennedy were great leaders though Kennedy unfortunately did not have much time. There is lot to love here.
I wonder sometimes that whether these current political leaders ever think of the history and those great leaders.
“He who controls the present controls the future. He who controls the past controls the present. Otwell
Nice one, Dave P — there is a lot to love here and I’m so glad to hear you say it. I so feel for Typingperson– I went thru that same crash in the Sixties when John F was shot and the lying liars that lied about and killed those who disagreed, and then the lying Bay of Tonkin, and the three freedom riders that were killed and the FeeBees lied about it, and Bobby was killed and the 68 democrat convention was a war fest. And then to me, worst of all Dr. King was killed and the medias shameful racist propaganda blamed the ” riots” on looters. I came battered out of the sixties but I was always proud of the millions who stood up to the empire and helped change history. And we can do it again. It only takes about one in a thousand to get it going– just doing what we can, where we can, when we can. It works–4 more years of this facist crap and we’ll start seeing the light.
What about the OTHER SIDE of that “Glorious” HISTORY????????
The Genocide of Native-Americans, the History of Slavery,
the History of Red-Bashing, the massacres of Working Class
citizens fighting for a their rights to live and work in a decent and
humane society???????? You guys are blind deaf and dumb when it comes to the History of the USA. What a shame !
Typingperson – have hope! The people of the United States are good people. It’s their leaders (and that would include all Western leaders) who suck. But everyone the world over knows this. They know it’s not the ordinary person who is doing this.
The only thing we can do is try to educate even one person, make them think, and then that person hopefully speaks to someone else and makes them stop and think. Have heart, and don’t give up yet. If you are educating yourself, you are doing a great thing. No need to feel any shame.
It is depressing. But it is also the theme of history. There really is nothing new under the Sun. We just repeat, repeat, repeat. It begins in early childhood education and we are fooled at every point after that. Generations who grow up who have been steeped in the corporate culture believe everything they see. They think the news is honest and truthful. They don;t see Fox’s incessant reminder that it is fair and balances as a brainwashing trick but merely repetition of what is obvious to them since they believe all of it.
Some folks early on see the glitch in the matrix. The tell tale sign that something is not right, Over time you at first go on a hunch or a gut feel and dig a little deeper into your nagging suspicion and the more you dig the further it goes.
I remember being troubled with the easy explanations for the coincidence that the Iranian hostages were released the day that Reagan was elected. I was not surprised however by Iran Contra. It was so obvious to me but the horrifying thing was that there was a complete uniformity in the coverage. Nobody in the media was asking questions. I believe according to his bio, Robert Parry had the same experience. Unfortunately as many reporters have found out,it made him a pariah. This website was founded on the principle that the truth must be told.
The horrifying thing is that while the media today still will never cover the story of the October Surprise and the truly treasonous and impeachable offenses conducted by Reagan and Bush to win, That was the beginning of the media and government slide. The age when facts and the real reasons for everything were replaced by fake reasons.and the sudden shift to the right by the MSM. Reagan had eliminated FCCs Fairness Doctrine” It meant the media was free to be as lopsided as they dared to be. Many other deregulations followed and we saw the consolidation of thousands of local radio stations be gobbled up by Clear Channel and begin spewing Rush Limbaugh all over America as we became “Ditto Heads”. The revolution of the mass control of media by the right was in full swing and it has not stopped. Net neutrality is again at stake but this time it might stick and the Orwellian nature of our future takes another leap forward.
If you’re educating yourself, you have to educate yourself about
History. The current situation didn’t just come out of nowhere.
The foundation of all the current horrors was built many many years ago.
Take the rosy-colored glasses off, and learn the truth about the
17th, 18th, 19th, & yes, the 20th Century !!!!!!
There was much to love, Typingperson. You must never forget that.
I almost did, during the depths of Iran-Contra. Then I met a young mother from Germany. Her husband had come here to work, and she was pleased and excited to bring her family to the United States. She had little confidence in her grasp of English, but soon became more outgoing and talkative. One day, she revealed to me why she was so eager to come here. Her father had been sent to the southern U.S. as a German POW during WWII. There, he planted crops and raised livestock, learned about American history, and became fascinated by inventions like the cotton gin and peanut butter. He loved peanut butter! When he was released after the war, local housewives gave him several jars to take home to his family. Later, he told his daughter how well he had been treated, and that this made him understand that the United States was a truly great country.
What a gift. She reminded me that we once had values that were reflected in the military code of conduct, and in the Geneva Conventions. We knew in our hearts then that we didn’t need to torture prisoners. That was our strength. Only when we return to those values (even when we fall short of them from time to time), will America be great again.
So, yes. Learn the hurtful truths, but never lose sight of the country you loved.
Diana your story here, should be front page news. To those who believe in torture, Diana the story you just told about the WWII German fellow is a priceless example of tortures alternative.
I suggest you all read about Hanns Scriff, and Sherwood Ford Moran.
Diana, a story that is a thousand times over, a story that must heard today. Joe
I am not American, of course, but generally, I believe that
It is an act of love of your country to duly criticise it
In the right way, loving your country is good
I would think that some aspects of earlier US history were not so great, as the Indian wars, slavery, the Monroe doctrine. Still, there were lots of fantastic things, and still are. Just my view!
I am saddened and ashamed – and worried – by Swedish conformism with US policy, I should add.
Diana–great story. But remember, this was during FDR and Elenor’s tenure. They set a classy, humane tone that gave voice to the best in the American people. During world war 1, the experience of Germans in the US was pretty bad– but we had that racist Wilson setting the tone then. It’s a democracy– our leaders are us. We have to make sure to get good people into office or we will continue on this reagan, bushwhacker, clinton mafia corporatist spiral. Remember that they started with the school boards back in the 70’s with a PLAN to take over the media, the house, the banks and they by devil did it. And now, the worm will turn.
How sweet ! Did the German soldier learn anything about SLAVERY IN THE SOUTH ? Was he aware of how horribly the Black citizens were treated? Did he learn about the LYNCHINGS ?????
My God, you are so naive ! Don’t EVER take off your Rosy-Colored Glasses, or you might actually see REALITY !!!
I feel exactly the way I feel. I came to this country after living 25 years under dictatorship. I loved my second homeland, I thought this country has the best system in the world which gave me opportunities to flourish. However, the downfall started not long after I became a proud US citizen. It escalated with 9/11 which I witnessed living in NYC at the time …. That was the start of all the lies we were served daily by the politicians, media. I don’t watch TV news, don’t have Cable, dont read any mainstream papers or anything else than CN and ICH.
Peter, this is a wonderful Country populated by a Great variety of people seeking Peace And Justice, and opportunity… We have been co-opted by a small but powerful element, they will, I’m convinced, soon fail.
Gregery Herr, The quote about Yugoslavia reminded me of Cuba, a success story partly because of US sanctions and isolation, and being an island. A revolution can happen and can do what it set out to do and not be taken apart by the USA. It’s a peaceful place to live.
Bob Van Noy: Thanks for the link to this very good article. I grew up in the heyday of Non Aligned Movement with all these great leaders: Egypt’s Nasser, India’s Nehru, Yugoslavia’s Tito, Ghana’s Nkrumah, Indonesia’s Soekarno, and Castro.
Dave P. We’ll learn how really great Mohammad Mosaddeq, Sukarno, Patrice Lumumba, were as Nationalists, Castro, Salvador Allende, Chavez, how tragic our interference has been but we can correct it still by understanding what has happened to us…
Bob Van Noy: Patrick Lumumba’s murder was very tragic. Like in the case of so many other Nationalist leaders of the independence of their countries who were killed, it was the work of The West.
I think that was the moment in JFK’s Presidency when he realized that things were worse than he could have imagined…
Bob Van Noy – thanks for that link. That was a very good article, especially how it points out the pattern of taking a government down. What a shame for Yugoslavia, Libya, Ukraine, Syria…..
To all above, I too love this country…It is extremely difficult to read this stuff. I have always felt Patriotic. I joined the military voluntarily at 18 in 1962 to “Buy the GI Bill and go to College”. We are Still a great Country, one that has experienced a Coup d’état (The Killing of President Kennedy). We’ll have to fight (hopefully an intellectual) battle, we’ll have to have a “Truth And Reconciliation” period but the great advantage that we have is that We Are The Melting Pot, we know how to get along. My two living best friends; one is Native American and the other is a Japanese American, I dearly cherish both of them. We can actually teach the remainder of the World how to get along, but not by Empiricism; that is our tragic mistake. We’ll have to own up to that, but Mandela has shown us how. It will be a deeply humiliating process for those of us who have always Loved America but we certainly can do it. Robert Parry has shown us the power of Great Journalism and I give him enormous credit for not crossing over to speak about politics but he cannot because he’s a Journalist.
We will endure, the truth is here and each Of has experienced the Power of it. We understand it, it Jumps off the Page. Embrace it, Embrace our magnificent Heritage and fight to keep sites like this one free and open…I truly love each of you…
To all above I love your country to and the 95 percent of Americans who are peac loving people, I have traveled this lovely planet of ours extensivly and interacted with people in at least 75 different countries one thing I know for sure is that 95 percent of the people o this planet are peace loving people they want a o love there partner, there children there neighbor. And just get along. For some reason which is unknown to me that 5 percent of the population who are warmongers seam to be in charge. If there ever was a time for a peace movement ,the time is NOW. Forget about which side of the fence you are on and become on the side of peace. YOU ALL HAVE A NICE PEACEFULL DAY.
Bob just know your words are relatable, and inspiring. Also your words are reaching people far and wide of your home. You may not know it, or believe this, but you are influencing people in an intelligent and good way, and that is a blessing to us all. Your words here, are words I wish I had written, but there yours, and you should be proud of the American you turned out to be….we need more Americans to be like you. It is people such as yourself, that makes this country, the land of the free. Joe
Thank you Joe, it means a lot to me.
WOW ! SO MUCH FLAD-WAVING !!!!!!!!!!!!
” A Tragic Mistake”?!?! The Horrors unleashed on the world since
the end of World War Two are not due to a “Tragic Mistake”.
They have all been deliberately devised by the Rulers of this Society,
to ensure that the citizens of the world do NOT decide their own destiny,
but remain servile victims of the “Exceptional” Nation and its Corporate/Capitalist/Imperialist Reign of Terror. C’mon, folks,
take off those ROSE_COLORED GLASSES !!!!!!
Haven’t you learned anything from Consortium News ??????????????
Good analysis worth reading, Bob; thank you for the link.
And eternal gratitude to Mr. Parry for his commitment to journalism and Consortium News.
Thank you Robert Parry. I hope as we go on that, at least, we will always have your flawless journalism as a reminder of a better world still visible in the past, because if we do, it will always seem possible again in the future…
Scott Ritter has produced a Syria assessment that I will link to because it seems accurate.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/say-goodbye-to-regime-change-in-syria-phasing-out-of-cia-train-and-equip-in-support-of-moderate-rebels/5601201
I will present a far more chilling post down thread about past deception in Yugoslavia.
Read that. Concise, maybe too concise.
President Bubba Clinton signed The Telecommunications Act of 1996 which started this process . What is happening now seems a logical outcome after GW Bush and the NeoCons put this nation on a constant War footing without any Declarations of War, except for the nebulous “War on Terror” . How can you keep this up without propaganda?. Constant propaganda. When Obama signed the NDAA of 2011 it contained riders that created an office of disinformation in the Pentagon to condition stories in the press so they were more favorable to aggressive Executive actions without Declaration of War. Constant Propaganda in Peacetime. Obama and all the Senators and Congressmen and women who agreed to this committed an act of treason in my opinion. Yes ,we are indeed on the verge of an Orwellian world at least with regards to the dissemination of information over the web. I’ve always felt a bit like the Noble Savage in Huxley’s Brave New World, another dystopian nightmare. Perhaps I’ll whip myself for good measure or maybe I’ll just quit reading news entirely. Probably neither. Peace in our times..
Yes, perfect intro to start with Clinton and his deregulation. Democrats are just as bad at supporting media deregulation as republicans. It goes back a bit further to The Fairness Doctrine which was eliminated under Reagan.
We need to understand this is a many decades long process and many deregulatory measures have gone down to get to where we are.
On the up side, Obama did regulate ISPs as Public Utilities which was a strong measure for preserving net neutrality.
On the bad side, the current FCC Proposed Rule euphemistically called “Restoring Internet Freedom” starts out with the following “The FCC has proposed to return the U.S. to the bipartisan, light-touch regulatory framework under which a free and open Internet flourished for almost 20 years. …” and Senate Bill with an equally disguised Bill titled the “Internet Freedom Act” will act to prevent the FCC from ever again being able to enact net neutrality laws.
I notice Ive seen a lot of this kind of rule making lately. The Russia sanctions bill stipulates that Trump will never ever have the authority to undo the sanctions….The Internet Freedom Act will prevent the FCC from ever never never never ever never again be able to enact net neutrality laws.
Basically, we are seeing institutions trying to destroy other institutions powers by passing laws that give them the sole authority to act and decide and which strip away the power from other competing institutions. The Congress is trying to strip the power of the president to act in foreign affairs, The Congress is acting to prevent the FCC from acting in regulating telecommunication companies.
These are warning signs. We are entering a new phase of our downfall. Internal power struggles and infighting immediately upon the election of a majority of republicans. Now that they have control, they turn on each other in a mad dash to lay claim to the realm. Brother kills brother, Father kills sons all in a mad dash for who will be the ultimate power in the land.
It is a story as old as creation and with a long sad trail of empire and woe. All to predictable and also predictable that not even the most astute sees what is coming. That is the lesson of history. The vast majority never saw it coming.
Some of us like me have seen it coming for decades. People think I’m nuts or simply cannot relate. Yet here we are. It has arrived. I feel like the crop duster pilot in the movie Independence Day who has been spouting on and on about aliens while the town people think he is touched in the head until one day the aliens show up proving he was right.
But that is not what I am. I am not some savant. I’m merely loose lipped. There are many others who would feel some reluctance to speak up or who prefer just to ignore the creeping fascism but they see it.
I started out by saying that the vast majority never saw it coming. But there is an alternate history. If all the episodes of history get to be rewritten by the victors then they perhaps the majority actually did see it coming and merely collectively did nothing about it until it was too late and later after they were defeated their reasoning was lost in the fog of victorious propaganda.
This is what a crumbling empire looks like. I’ve been saying this since 2008. Nine years now.
Typingp- I’m with you on the crumbling empire and hope to see it go before I croak, but i’m also aware that when an edifice falls, it hurts the “least of these” first and hardest. The rich will just scram, to Dubai or Hong Kong or even China, the next great imperial force. But the poor, the working class, the ethnic— they’ll pay the price for the rape and pillage corporations have committed in the last 2 centuries. I’d like to see us build a coalition that can mitigate the Fall Of The American Empire as much as possible. We got the resources for it, we just need the humane attitude for it.
Really good post. “The Russia sanctions bill stipulates that Trump will never ever have the authority to undo the sanctions.” Very troubling.
backwardsevolution: I would put most of the blame on Obama on what is happening now – Russia-Gate, Sanctions and all that. He, along with Clinton Mafia set this rolling since last summer in a big way. After all he turned out to be one of the likes of those Middle Eastern Sheikhs or African Dictators, puppet of the Oligarchy, Country lives under now.
It will take quite a few decades now for the relations with Russia to get normal, if ever it happens. And worst, the ultimate War may be in the cards.
Yeah, Dave, I agree. I hope you’ve been digging your underground bunker because war is certainly possible. We should let these warmongers know that their life will end if they cause a war, not by the enemy, but by us. Jail them all.
A US Corporate CEO “with standing” could take this sanctions bill to court because of harm to his company. That is plausible.
Way to go!!! We must remember the Zen ‘third way’ helps lift things to higher truths.
Virginia – The company might be paid damages, paid for by the American taxpayers, and the sanctions bill would still stand. If several companies did this, that could end up costing the taxpayers a lot of money, couldn’t it? So corporations are winners either way! Sanctions, no sanctions – they don’t care because they still end up being paid.
That would be via the US Court of Federal Claims, as corrupt as they come. Since 2001 they have reinterpreted the 1887 Tucker Act that created the court, claiming that it has almost zero jurisdiction when in fact it has broad jurisdiction in all claims against the US. I researched this and found that their arguments are utterly falsified: they have absolutely no legal basis for denying jurisdiction. They lie that only contract claims can be presented against the US.
Virginia, not just a “US Corporate CEO ‘with standng’.” How about whole countries who will be cruelly hurt by the sandtions’ effects on those countries…Germany, for one, will be punished to the tune of billions when they are told by the imperialist USA that they can’t get natural gas and oil from Russia, but, hey, good news, they can buy it for twice the price from the US. I think if all the EU and other countries decide together to dump the US’s decisions from having any bearing on those countries, refuse to sanction Russia and Iran and refuse to play the US game, then the blackmail can be stopped. They just have to have the nerve.
Whoever is in power simply continues doing everything that the guy before did, whether they are Democrats or Republicans. It is mandatory, not optional. Trump is finding that out. The presidency is merely an honorific title with no real prerogatives that the Deep State does not confer. No election winner keeps his campaign promises and the American people keep forgetting that detail every four years.
Yes we sail onward, along the same policy course setting, no matter who’s at the helm: Nixon; takes us off the fixed exchange rate, setting the stage for the Bankster Dictatorship to come. Ford; dirty from the Warren Commision; who’s co-pilot? Mr. World Bankster Dictatorship himself. Carter; “there’s a malaise across the land. Infrastructure is crumbling”, seemed to walk away from his re-election try, before California even came in. Left his Trilateralist Keepers behind. Would rather build houses for the poor, finally getting to do what he wants to do. Reagan;”morning in America. Government is the problem ( that is; gov’t of by for The People)”. Who’s his co-pilot? Mr DeepState/CIA himself, Mr. “New World (universal fascist) Order”. Clinton; “we need a new financial architecture”. Deep State to Clinton; “oh we’re going to have a new financial architecture alright. Just get FDR fixed exchange rates out of your head or we’ll impeach your sorry ass…we’ll do it anyway, just to show we mean business. Remember JFK…we mean business.” W; son of Mr. Deep State/CIA; who’s his co-pilot? Darth Cheney, Godfather to the neocons (reconfigured Straussians, who are themselves reconfigured Trotskyites, the dogs of permanent war, trained in Rome in the 80s, from EIR “Return of the Monarchs”). Obama; Mr. Hope and Change(the more things change the more they stay the same) Trump; DeepState to Trump”keep your hand off that steering wheel, if you know what’s good for you” confirmed by Mr. “Six ways from Sunday” Schumer.
Artfully orchestrated Brad. The current “co-pilot” is waiting in the wings if Trump gets a hand too close to that wheel. The throat slash gesture of Mr. Deep State himself comes to mind.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2GAUnnu2xEg/hqdefault.jpg
CitizenOne: Very good post. You are right. This downward slide has been coming for a very long now. It is here finally in full form now. But some of us still are naively hoping that some how it will disappear into the night, and everything will be all right.
I have, for a long time been blaming the media. Still do. The reason is they control the microphone and the megaphone in our propaganda state controlled by conservatives. As I said many times, there is no liberal press and all of the bloviating buffoons yammering on about the leftist liberal media are merely engaging is a straw man argument just to constantly push us all further and further to the right. They can be as lopsided as they want to be since the elimination of FCCs Fairness Doctrine. The telecommunications act saw diversity on the radio dissapear overnight. Read the story of How long time Bush friend and owner of Clear Channel bought up the independent radio stations. Total deregulation was avoided in 2003 when the FCC again went against the will of the people and opposite of their charter mission to completely deregulate ownership limits. Back then Congress overwhelmingly shot it down 420 to 11 in the HR. But again the disturbing thing was nobody I knew knew anything about it thanks to the media’s massive deception machine.
Campaign finance laws were changed under the cover of a media blackout as the Supreme court eliminated election reform laws designed to keep corporate money out of politics back to the turn of the century. The Tillman Act of 1907 was enacted after being proposed by Theodore Roosevelt specifically aimed at curbing the influence of big business on the government. But in 2010 they quietly ruled on Citizens United v. FEC to roll back campaign finance reforms and again in 2014 with McCutcheon vs. FEC to eliminate campaign financial contribution limits as well as protecting the anonymity of the donations as protected free speech. Thus our current state.
The media didn’t cover any of it and they are just as bad today. You will never hear bills introduced to reverse any of these terrible laws which basically allows a corporatocracy to be established.
Not to mention the financial plunders which were enabled to happen by the conservatives through deregulation of major industries starting with the financial sector and the deregulation of savings and loan banks and later the elimination of the Glass Steagall Act which has created an uber class of citizen we call the billionaire who can now donate 100 million dollars to a candidate through a PAC and keep it secret. This is why we have the issue of dark money and its unseen influence on elections.
Now they are again licking their chops for the chance to charge admission to host a website on the internet. Seems simple enough right? FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Act will do exactly the opposite. It will allow ISPs to filter the content of the web and present a one sided access only to those websites it deems serves its selt interest. How do we know this will happen? Just reread the post. It has been happening all along and most Americans are unaware of it just as they are probably not aware today about FCCs little plan to end the internet.
Blaming the Russians for interfering with the election is just more of the same deception to coverup their own culpability in influencing the election and to hide all of the reasons of how big money continues to hand itself ever greater power and control over what we watch, listen to and read to serve their agenda and turn us into puppets.
Now, a new threat. The media is coming to “save” us from fake news.
Surprise, surprise, they are picking on the sources that disagree with or point out their lies.
I have no doubt that there are a lot of people watching this website and wondering what is going to happen if the poodle gets out of the attic. They fear something as non-threatening as a poodle (this website) will turn into a nasty beast if it gets free. They fear the poodle will become a howling wind of change. They’re right. It will. The poodle is coming out of the closet and I and this website are helping to open the door and let it out. It will spread into a wind of change (I hope) and blow away the forces at work that are destroying this nation and our democracy and Constitution. Having said that, that is exactly why giant corporations want to limit the free discourse of the open internet. They have a government that is willing to give them the tools to do it.
So Thank you Mr. Parry. I believe these threats to diversity in the media are the mega issues. They are issues that affect all other issues. The issue of how we get information that is factual and of importance to us so we can make informed choices about other issues is an overarching issue. The lack of regulatory controls on the media, campaign finance, banking, Wall Street, etc have been made possible by a self serving and self censoring media monopoly and a conservative movement which seeks to dominate politics by any means at its disposal. Handing censoring rights to the same folks who already do it badly and commercializing internet access are just two more bad things that will make our situation even worse.
But don’t hold your breath. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are quietly supporting fake news. I find it incredible that Obama, Clinton and the Democrats would have Debbie Wassermann Schultz as the DNC Chairperson while she was being paid millions of dollars by big broadcaster lobbyists to support ending net neutrality. Now she is back in the news this time for giving access to top secret US documents to a Pakistani family of fraudsters which were eventually fired or fled the country. One was arrested. Hillary made her her campaign manager. It makes you wonder how the Clinton’s and Obama could have heaped praise and let her run their campaign. A woman who has been on a one woman mission to blow up the democratic party for years. Nope, no influencing the election there. Move along folks, nothing to see. Oh! look over there, is that a Russian Hacker! Banish them all and blame it all on them.
If you are concerned, call your representative and tell them to vote down the bill called “The Internet Freedom Act”. Ask them to support keeping the internet regulated like a public utility as it currently is.
I had a dream. More of a nightmare because it was scary and full of fear. I was with friends and so I felt brave and i demanded to see what was waiting behind the door at the end of the long narrow winding staircase which led to the attic. As I unlocked the lower door, the upper door to the attic opened and a white poodle with friendly eyes yet not wagging its tail slowly and ever so gracefully came down the stairs as if it was approaching me and I would pet it. But just as it approached, it bolted past me and out into the World where it turned into a running dirty shirtless man in tattered pants and then dissolved into blowing sand. I began to feel a wind which grew until it was a howling wind so strong that it blew sand in my face and at that point with the sand blowing in my face trying to blind me I woke up.
I wondered what it meant. I now know what it means. I must be brave enough to let the poodle out of the attic. We all need to face the fact that we cannot continue to view our government and our fake news like friendly poodles which hide in an attic where we cannot see what it is going on in secret.
As scary as it is, we must take that brave leap to let it out and expose it to the light of day. We all need to see it is not a friendly poodle at all. We need to see that it is the creator of wars and deaths around the world. We need to be horrified of our actions, But there will be a howling wind of blow back for those that let the poodle out of the attic and they will attempt to blind us by blowing sand in our eyes. They are doing it as we speak.
They may blind us but our eyes have already seen the coming poverty and destitution and refugee crises from the collapse of the ecosystem and the wars that are coming and we have woken up.
So keep on keeping on Mr. Parry! The sleepers must awaken and the poodle in the attic needs to be exposed to the light of day in full public view.
p.s. Wear goggles and a dust mask. It helps.
Ultimately the laws being written that you refer to are un Constitutional. The Supreme Court has its own problem but this forever and ever dreamland you refer to is never going to happen, it’s just a megalomaniacal fantasy. The US Government has entered into a decadent spiral which I believe is directly related to the extra Constitutional entrenchment of a 2 Party system. After 170 years of entrenchment the 2 parties, the DNC and RNC insiders and their rich donors, are not concerned with good governance but I think the clock is ticking for the people that hold office right now.. McCain Gone . Good. Feinstein will want to remain, not going to happen. Schumer? Who cares? Pelosi, McConnell? the only people they haven’t exhausted are the fools that they look at in the mirror. A change is coming and I do not see Millennials gunning each other down in the street in support of Trump or Clintons, Republicans or Demoxcrats. I just don’t see it . We Americans are not Germans and we are not Zionists. We are not Fascists. That is News Media Propaganda that Robert Perrryery is writing about when he refers to a dawning of an Orwellian Age. It’s bullshit. Billionaires and Bankers trying to keep control in a system where they don’t have to pay taxes and can buy all , ALL, the politicians. . Someday the little girl is going to point out that the Emperor is not wearing any clothes and everybody will laugh. Humanity will not change . The beat goes on.
LJ,
You seem awful optimistic that the Supreme Court will actually uphold the Constitution. I think their decision to sell our democracy out from under us kind of gives us an indication that they don’t really care about human people just the other kind.
You also sound accepting of a lot that is seriously wrong:
“That is News Media Propaganda that Robert Perrryery is writing about when he refers to a dawning of an Orwellian Age. It’s bullshit. Billionaires and Bankers trying to keep control in a system where they don’t have to pay taxes and can buy all , ALL, the politicians. . ”
So are you saying that billionaires and bankers buying up ALL the politicians is OK? Nothing to worry about?
We are living in a Orwellian state. Orwell rolls in his grave by what we have become. Sure it is by comparison not like a WWII Germany. Nobody said it was. But I prefer to be disappointed we are heading in the wrong direction rather than nonchalant since we have not reached the lows of WWII Germany.
I think he meant that the millennials cannot be brainwashed into goose-stepping behind any Oligarch and his bought-and-paid-for Authoritarians in office. They will not report to the recruitment stations, they will not shoulder arms, they will not man the ramparts, that this is all so old-school that they wonder at us sixty-somethings getting so worked up over something that will fizzle out due to lack of any support what-so-ever, witting or unwitting. I believe that’s what he meant. That they’ll resort to bicycles and scavenging from dumps and discards and goodwill, etc…to participating in such an evil enterprise the Oligarchs have cooked up. In the end, THEY(the Oligarchs) need us much more than we need them…THEY are, after all, the parasites living off of OUR labors.
WE’RE NOT “HEADING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION”,
WE HAVE ALREADY ARRIVED AT THE HORRIBLE REALITY
AND HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN IN IT FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW.
Guess again about the Supreme Court, our firmest opponents of constitutional rights, except for the rich. There is an essay examining US judicial corruption at https://www.counterpunch.org/2010/12/10/why-judicial-corruption-is-invisible/.
use duckduckgo.com its secure..
I think you’ve got the right idea. If Google is going to start introducing a political bias into its search results, then it’s time to start using a different search engine.
The question is, is duckduckgo that search engine? Is the performance as good as Google? Are the search results as relevant (modulo political bias)? This article suggests that it might not be a suitable replacement for Google, from a purely technical standpoint: http://notes.brianmayer.com/i-used-duckduckgo-for-a-week-and-had-to-switch-back
Also, from what I understand, duckduckgo relies on third-party providers for some of their search results like Yahoo and Bing. If these providers go in for all this “First Draft Coalition” nonsense, there’s no reason to expect DDG’s search results to be any better than theirs, to the extent that DDG relies on their content.
And there’s no guarantee that duckduckgo themselves won’t join the “First Draft Coalition” either, though their committment to user privacy suggests maybe they have too much respect for their users’ ability to decide for themselves what’s “disinformation” or “fake news” to do that.
Does anyone know if duckduckgo has taken a position on the “First Draft Coalition”?
Of course!
The Russian search engine yandex.ru is excellent, and using it as an alternative has a certain additional spice, I think.
Yandex.com will provide English search, but no advanced search found
I just tried out both DuckDuckGo and Yandex.com (which is in English).
It turns out that Yandex does have advanced search features, if you mean the ability to limit the search in terms of time period, language and so on. Just touch the controls in the right corner of the search box after a search is performed! :) Yandex should be a safe bet to counter Google.
I will be experimenting with DuckDuckGo too, didn’t know about it before. Thanks!
There is no encryption device that is secure from the deep state. All of this, tor etc. is a myth. If you can use it they can use it and they are more than we.
I don’t know about that.
Ed Snowden says properly implemented strong cryptography is one of the few things you can still trust. (I think that’s an exact quote.) I’m inclined to agree with him. I haven’t seen anything in the Snowden material that suggests otherwise.
Why do you think Clapper was complaining so much about people using encryption?
check out the wsws.org article. they demonstrate google’s ‘fixed’ searches.
between tracking, reading mail, and now ‘fixing’ its searches … the googleplex is doing nothing but evil.
yandex is now my default search engine. i pay for email services from posteo.de – 1 euro/month. google is just like the nsa, only worse. its said that google lawyers wrote the cybersecurity act of 2015 … passed at midnight without debate by the drones in congress.
And become a subscriber. Donate monies to activist group like this with a long history of socio-economic analysis.
God, this is really chilling. I’ve gotten used to the MSM being liars, and certainly learned in the 60’s the lengths the military would go to to cover its bloody, corrupt ass, but somehow, using fucking math to do the same thing gives me nightmares. Possibly it’s because the web is where I’ve turned to from the “nightly news propaganda”. And partly because Google has replaced radio, tv, newspapers, and magazines for me. If they start limiting or blocking truth dig, counterpunch and this amazing site, my search for truth will go….. Where? Keep punching Robert. You are the patriot they always sentimentally claim Maddow is.
Jessejean, I very much share your concern. With all these algorithms planned on google, it seems like Ruling Power Structure is aiming for total control of all avenues of information dissemination. Well, in the Soviet Union, there used to be underground press, confined to a few big cities. It may come to be the case here too very soon.
Dave P, You just stated why I worry a little that we here at CN have no known way of staying in touch. Maybe the least we could do is each of us give Robert Parry permission to share our email addresses in one big email to us all, in case of emergency. I’m thinking Mr. Parry is an investigative journalist who can’t spend his time trying to organize this body, but there must be a way. There’s much talent and genius among us. Whoever has the right idea, please step forward.
It is not likely that the CN site would actually be taken down: if it were, it could be hosted elsewhere and back up in days or weeks. The problem is extending the audience when mass media and search engines are controlled by the dark state.
On the shared email list, some may worry that extremists would get such a list and misuse it. Another possibility may be a signup for each commenter to list the other pen names who may share their email addresses. That could also be done on another website of one of the commenters here, if its software supports such a feature.
Dave P–I’m one of those oldie moldies that always thought I should hang on to the mimeograph machine “Just in case”. I almost wish I had. ?
“If they start…?” Obama signed legislation back in December authorizing a cabal of censors to implement full-blown censorship right about now on the calendar. Oh, didn’t the MSM protest that? or even mention it? No, Jessejean, this is not 1968 anymore. It’s 1984, and will remain so for quite some time to come, I fear.
Realist, I didn’t know that “Obama signed legislation back in December authorizing a cabal of censors to implement full-blown censorship right about now on the calendar.”
That’s very sad and very unAmerican. That’s why we will — do — need methods to always be able to communicate with each other.
Or you could try other searching engines. There’s plenty of them.
Jessejean
Kris Kobach’s so called commission’s use of ‘fucking math’ (the purposely faulty ‘Crosscheck’ algorithm) to disenfranchise voters gives me nightmares.
JM — indeed. The thing is with Kobach–everybody hates him and distrusts him and knows his record, so when he puts out a demand, people of conscience all over the country resist. With Google it’s different. People LOOOOOVE Google. Practically name their kids after it, or maybe their dogs. We used to think of it as the great equalizer and we turned massive amounts of personal power over to it. And now here it is, doing the work of the devil and I’m flummoxed as to how to stop loving it and start resisting it. I’m grateful to know there are other search engines but how do I get to them? Thru Google? I, like many my age, know little about how to manipulate the digital world.
Just type into the address box: duckduckgo dot com, and when there, mark that as a favorite.
Jessejean – I’ll ask my son and then get back to you.
You can try meta search engines that use other search engines. There are thousands of them. Some of them are still fairly usable. Just look at the history of web search engines or just the list on Wiki. I’m a little bit skeptical of DuckDuckgo.
A search engine has to make money somehow and if they are not getting it through advertising then they are probably selling your data. I trust the oldies but goodies. Firefox browser and dog pile search. BTW, Mozilla foundation is a huge supporter of net neutrality. I really like their take on a free and open internet. Go FireFox!
Search engines like Duck Duck Go generate revenue with ads, but unlike Google these ads are not based on your search and browsing history. That’s the difference.
What you report Mr Parry is of the upmost importance. As I said on another comment, garbage in, is garbage out. Without honest truthful reporting, the average citizen is at a loss to analyze any of our world’s current events, and there jumps on the wrong bandwagon. Thanks Robert Parry for keeping me informed. Joe
Yes, we are much indebted to Mr. Parry and ConsortiumNews for their essential counterpoint to the mass media propaganda.
Those who would like to petition the NYT to make Robert Parry their senior editor may do so here:
https://www.change.org/p/new-york-times-bring-a-new-editor-to-the-new-york-times?recruiter=72650402&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
While Mr. Parry may prefer independence, and we all know the NYT ownership makes it unlikely, and the NYT may try to ignore it, it is instructive to them that intelligent readers know better journalism when they see it. A petition demonstrates the concerns of a far larger number of potential or lost subscribers.
Well, we are lucky we discovered Consortium News BEFORE Obama signed the legislation to create the (let’s call it what it is) censorship board empowering Google, Facebook and others to screen out sites, such as this one, which they consider to be “fake news,” because it tells the inconvenient truth. If any new such truth-telling sites presently came on line, we would never find them through a simple Google search if they contradict the official narrative.
Word of mouth and independent search engines are the only ways left to get around the propaganda power structure.
Why use Google for anything when there are such wonderful alternatives, starting from DuckDuckGo.com for searches.
Personally I read RT. There is some bias, but in my judgment it is much less than the NY Times (I stopped reading the Times after WMD and Iraq).
Stevek9 Me too.
The only “bias” I see is that they get to explain their side of the issues. Aside from that they cover essentially the same world news as everyone else, are quite objective and actually give a lot of praise and credit to many American programs including NASA accomplishments and weapons development, which you might think they’d downplay. If, for example, John McCain is not currently saying crazy shit and being roundly condemned for it, they don’t say that he is. None of the Russian sites I read actually make shit up, though Russia Insider can be very snarky in how it phrases its commentary, allowing anyone with even a double digit IQ to discern American deceits and hypocrisies. Sputnik lays out exactly what American sources say about an issue and then gives its own take, calmly pointing out where the two sides differ. Like the courteous Putin, they are basically respectful of the American version of reality even if it is flawed. I suppose the NYT would take them to task for not prefacing every story with a header of “fake news” or “Russian Propaganda.”
RT reports on events, people, places, and things from multiple points of view, then allows the audience to form it’s own opinion. This is what has woken me up. The establishment’s misinformation media present opinions and pronouncements as news reports.
GOOGLE has become an arm of secret services. A search for the same keywords on DuckDukGo and Google shows a careful and pernicious filtering by Google of any information that could displease the US “deciders” – MIC and AIPAC.
Nice delineation of the affliction that infects the big G .. And well targeted too… Thanks for writing it…
Nice stuff Tater and concise too…
Bravo Realist. Everything you say is,100 percent accurate.
me three!
All thinking is biased. For all thinking is biased for what it believes, either consciously or unconsciously. Objectivity is thus mute. What critical thinking demands is that we look for bias in other points of view. Not all bias is bad. I am biased for ustainable energy, but is thi bad? What is necessary i that people begin to understand that objectivity does not exist, bias does.
So we look to ee thoe biaes, lay them out. Ask what asumptions drive them, what evidence do those who hold the bias have for their assumptions and how they arrived at their conclusions. We ask to see the origins of thinking, why people have this bias or that, what they might say to someone who disagres with them, what evidence they have for their own thinking and what consequences would arrive if we came to their conclusions.
But this is not taught and we are not born with critical thinking skills. So all this false and untruthful, for I do not like to use the word ‘fake new’it is attached to a corporate mantra created by the right, filters in depending on the meme.
We live in a Spectacle now. A very dangerous one but one, late French thinker, Guy Debord would understand. It is the reality of illusions and self deception, the deliquescence of reason and the destruction of rationality.
We live within a lie. And we have become part of this lie.
I too severed my life long attachment to that once august institution, after seeing tribal loyalty and religious exceptionalism there, skew its entire mission of printing all the news fit to print..And I took up antiwar.com as its replacement under the steady helm of Justin Raimondo and his Libertarian leaning site… The times really did become the yellow sheet of Neocon imperialism.. Dragging its fully owned indentured servitor the Boston Globe along for their ride down the dirty rathole of war, lawlessness and its dastardly racial/religious hated precipiate.
Fake “citizen investigative journalist” Eliot Higgins of the Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat disinformation site has been propagating the narrative that the April 2017 Khan Shaykhun incident was the result of an “air-dropped Sarin bomb”.
The conjectures of Higgins and fake “chemical weapons expert” Dan Kaszeta have been endorsed by the American, French and israeli governments, despite the fact that there is no actual evidence of an air dropped chemical bomb impact at Khan Shaykhun.
The available evidence points to a false flag Sarin incident perpetrated by the same Western-backed Al Qaeda terrorist forces who previously launched a Sarin attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in 2013.
Higgins has repeatedly attacked the reporting and analysis of veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, defense technologies expert Theodor Postol, and former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter.
Higgins’ latest screed at the Bellingcat blog:
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2017/07/28/khan-sheikhoun-seymour-hersh-learned-just-write-know-move/
Higgins and Kaszeta have a long history of mistake-filled reporting on both the Brown Moses and Bellingcat blogs. Higgins appears to be capable of little more than name-calling and citing his own erroneous reporting as “evidence” of his pro-NATO narratives.
It is testament to the perfidy of the media and neo-cons at the Atlantic Council (The Marketing Arm of the Military/Security Complex) that Higgins has an audience. By his own admission via Wikipedia:
“Higgins has no background or training in weapons and is entirely self-taught, saying that “Before the Arab spring I knew no more about weapons than the average Xbox owner. I had no knowledge beyond what I’d learned from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rambo.”[1] Higgins does not speak or read Arabic…….
Higgins has received significant praise and support from human rights groups, journalists, and non-profit organisations. “Brown Moses is among the best out there when it comes to weapons monitoring in Syria,” said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.[1] The New York Times war reporter C.J. Chivers said that fellow journalists should be more honest about the debt they owe to Higgins’ Brown Moses blog. “Many people, whether they admit or not, have been relying on that blog’s daily labour to cull the uncountable videos that circulate from the conflict,” he said.[1] Amnesty International said that the Brown Moses Blog was vital in proving the Syrian government was using ballistic missiles, information then used to send a research mission to Syria.”
Bouckaert is a fraud and I am losing faith in Amnesty. It and HRW have been penetrated.
I lost faith in AI a few years ago when AI USA chose a State Dept. hack to be its Executive Director. It’s been all down hill from there in terms of their obvious lack of independence from imperial interests.
I used to be very active with AI when they practiced a single standard for human rights.
Sadly, every US NGO, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, has been breached by creeps.
Typingperson: All these N.G.O’s, including Human Rights, White Helmets,and Amnesty International have been created and funded by The West to protect and impose their dominance – Military and Economic – in the World. So is the Court in Hague.
Indeed they have been
I lost faith in Amnesty and HRW when they immediately endorsed the Racak massacre story that was used to justify the Kosovo war. I was already skeptical of Amnesty for their rush to endorse the Kuwaiti incubator story used the justify the Gulf War. If these groups are sincere, they are incompetent and grossly irresponsible.
AI comes in on the side of Truth just often enough to attempt to keep us “sucked in.”
“On 21 August 2013 a series of chemical attacks were perpetrated in the Ghouta suburbs of eastern Damascus……Before the UN Mission had reported its preliminary findings Human Rights Watch (HRW) jumped the gun on 10 September with its own report written by Peter Bouckaert, the organization’s Emergencies Director. The report admits that HRW did not have physical access to the site and had based its study on Skype interviews with ‘More than 10 witnesses and survivors’ made over a period of two weeks between 22 August and 6 September. These were supplemented by video and photo footage and other data from an unnamed source or sources. It is unclear then, exactly how many exposed survivors were interviewed by HRW or who the other witnesses were.
In compiling the report HRW had also drawn on the technical services of Keith B. Ward Ph.D., an expert on the detection and effects of chemical warfare agents. However the organisation did not disclose that Dr Ward is employed by Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency of the United States government. The HRW investigation was also ‘assisted by arms experts including Nic Jenzen-Jones […] as well as Eliot Higgins […] who collected and analysed photos and videos from the attacks.’
Mr Jenzen-Jones’s LinkedIn profile does not list any training or experience with armaments……..HRW’s other expert, Eliot Higgins is an untrained analyst who was recently talked-up into some kind of expert by Matthew Weaver in the Guardian.”
The article makes fascinating reading:
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/is-human-rights-watch-is-manipulating-facts-about-syria/
Higgins is nothing more than an unindicted war criminal based on his spread of establishment disinformation and spurious claims of legitimacy.
Ahoy lads and lassies. Methinks it’s time for a wee bit of the ol’ plagiarism. What say ye?
One score and seven years ago our programmers brought forth on this internet a new web, distributed for liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all information is created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great information war, testing whether that web, or any web so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great arsenal of that war. We have come thanks to the dedication of a portion of this arsenal, as an ongoing meeting place, for those who here have given their time that that unfettered web might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate-we cannot consecrate-we cannot hallow-that infospace. The wise architects, living and dead, who RFC’ed there, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we write here, but it can never forget what they did there. It is for us, the inquiring, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who crafted there have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from those honored architects we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that those architects shall not have crafted in vain-that that infospace, under Providence, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that governments of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
John, you should be commended for your clever commentary.
Thanks, but if I’m to be commended we have to call that piece parody rather than plagiarism. Remember that one man’s parody is another man’s plagiarism, juzt like one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter (AlNusra I’m looking at you). Since we are on the “wrong side of the tracks” here as supporters of “fake news” rather than properly government-approved patriotic “high confidence” news we have to be the bad boys is this game. Therefore I plagiarized rather than parodied the Gettysburg Address, and therefore need to be condemned rather than commended. I’m a bad boy and need to be waterboarded ASAP.