The main problem for the so-called free press is that they are long past having destroyed their own credibility. They've made themselves irrelevant. It wasn't the Russians, it wasn't Trump; no, they have only themselves to blame.
On top of that, the internet came along and ate their lunch. Without lunch money, the big papers are increasingly obliged to rely on a sugar daddy, as in Amazon boss Bezos' purchase of the Washington Post.
The Boston Globe, where today's bit of grandstanding originated, is a money-losing black hole in financial terms. By the way, the top three news stories on their website the last time I checked were all about said grandstanding. That's what we need more of; newspapers writing about themselves.
In the good old days, owning a major paper was not only a cash cow, it was a sure path to power and influence. You'd be hard pressed to find, anywhere in the annals of US history, a time when politicians and news barons didn't forge alliances.
Because influence peddling is what our free press historically did. They're pouty now because they have very little influence left to peddle.
Here in Canada, we've had three examples of newspaper proprietors riding their bully pulpits all the way to the House of Lords in the mothership. If you read up on him, you'll find Max Aitken became one of the most powerful men in the British Empire in an era when that still meant something.
That's what the news business used to be about!
Now they're pretty much all circling the drain. They're hoping to extort a little sympathy, and perhaps a government bailout, with this rubbish about how they're the last line of defence for our beleaguered democracies.
Showing posts with label Washington Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington Post. Show all posts
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Friday, April 27, 2018
The perils of world domination
In the midst of near universal euphoria over the Amazon numbers released today, the LA Times chose to drop this stinkbomb.
Author Michael Hiltzig brings a little rain to the celebratory parade by pointing out that Amazon trades at a PE ratio ten times that of the S&P average. That's way whacked for a company that started out as an on-line bookstore.
But it's so much more than that now...
It's the biggest on-line bookstore, it's a CIA front. It's the biggest on-line grocer, biggest on-line retailer, biggest cloud computing player, it's a CIA front... did I mention the fact that the venture capital department at the CIA has been a big Amazon backer since the bookstore days?
Surely you don't believe that the fact this CIA front owns the Washington Post is mere coincidence?
There's big money to be made in world domination.
But...
Quite aside from a 250 PE being pure pie in the sky, there's other reasons to short Amazon.
Fantasies of world domination tend to end badly.
Author Michael Hiltzig brings a little rain to the celebratory parade by pointing out that Amazon trades at a PE ratio ten times that of the S&P average. That's way whacked for a company that started out as an on-line bookstore.
But it's so much more than that now...
It's the biggest on-line bookstore, it's a CIA front. It's the biggest on-line grocer, biggest on-line retailer, biggest cloud computing player, it's a CIA front... did I mention the fact that the venture capital department at the CIA has been a big Amazon backer since the bookstore days?
Surely you don't believe that the fact this CIA front owns the Washington Post is mere coincidence?
There's big money to be made in world domination.
But...
Quite aside from a 250 PE being pure pie in the sky, there's other reasons to short Amazon.
Fantasies of world domination tend to end badly.
Monday, December 25, 2017
Another hysterical anti-Trump headline disappears down the fake news bunny hole
Remember when Trumpenstein had his evil minions dictate to the Centers for Disease Control what words to avoid in their budget proposals? That Washington Post story from 15 December launched a thousand outraged op-eds.
Oh my God!!!... what's next in the barbarian's war on scientific inquiry?
Yes, the nightmare of 1984 is fully and finally upon us!
Or not.
You may have missed this headline from WaPo's sister publication Slate six days later; There is no ban on words at the CDC.
Oh, so what's the fuss then?
You would think that there are enough actual facts around with which to skewer the Trumpists without resorting to spinning scary stories based on hearsay from anonymous sources. This is the kind of misleading reportage that gives succour to those who believe our mainstream media outlets are shot through with "fake news."
Jon Cohen at Science counted the number of times the forbidden words showed up in the last three CDC budget proposals of the Obama admin compared to the 2018 Trump budget proposals. Based on his analysis, one could spin a headline about the exponential rise in the use of the words "fetus" and "entitlement" in the Trump era document.
You wouldn't be wrong, but your story would be just as misleading and irrelevant as that original Washington Post story.
If the MSM establishment want folks to stop squawking about fake news, they should stop publishing fake news stories.
Oh my God!!!... what's next in the barbarian's war on scientific inquiry?
Yes, the nightmare of 1984 is fully and finally upon us!
Or not.
You may have missed this headline from WaPo's sister publication Slate six days later; There is no ban on words at the CDC.
Oh, so what's the fuss then?
You would think that there are enough actual facts around with which to skewer the Trumpists without resorting to spinning scary stories based on hearsay from anonymous sources. This is the kind of misleading reportage that gives succour to those who believe our mainstream media outlets are shot through with "fake news."
Jon Cohen at Science counted the number of times the forbidden words showed up in the last three CDC budget proposals of the Obama admin compared to the 2018 Trump budget proposals. Based on his analysis, one could spin a headline about the exponential rise in the use of the words "fetus" and "entitlement" in the Trump era document.
You wouldn't be wrong, but your story would be just as misleading and irrelevant as that original Washington Post story.
If the MSM establishment want folks to stop squawking about fake news, they should stop publishing fake news stories.
Thursday, November 9, 2017
Change
I've always been a reader.
Got my start reading the funnies in the Guelph Daily Mercury in the late fifties.
Eventually got to the two Pauls, de Man and Feyerabend. I especially liked Feyerabend.
In the popular rendering of working class folks, we're a bunch of semi-literate yobs. There's an element of truth to that.
But there's always been a strong community of readers among us.
Like Johnny, who managed to get through most of the Globe and Mail crossword puzzle every day for thirty years. At work.
Or Andy, the pipefitter at Irving's shipyard in Saint John who happened to hold a degree in German Literature.
Or Dudley, who worked the pipe-bender at Kearney National during the week and partied with Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster on the weekend.
I'm still reading. Mostly I read stuff on my laptop these days, but I still indulge the luxury of the printed page from time to time. Like when the internet goes down.
Which is why I happened to pick up a copy of The New Yorker this evening and read about the legacy of the Sackler family. That legacy includes hundreds of thousands of opiod OD deaths and hundreds of millions in philanthropic gifts.
The two are intimately related.
That's the second time in a month I've read a mainstream take-down of the Sacklers.
And the mainstream has been busier than I could ever have imagined dismantling the legacy of Weinstein and his myriad fellow travellers.
Who ever imagined such a thing?
What's next?
A New Yorker critique of US foreign policy?
A NYT disavowal of capitalism?
A WaPo editorial slamming the occupation of the West Bank?
We are on the cusp of great changes.
Hold on to your hat... and keep reading.
Got my start reading the funnies in the Guelph Daily Mercury in the late fifties.
Eventually got to the two Pauls, de Man and Feyerabend. I especially liked Feyerabend.
In the popular rendering of working class folks, we're a bunch of semi-literate yobs. There's an element of truth to that.
But there's always been a strong community of readers among us.
Like Johnny, who managed to get through most of the Globe and Mail crossword puzzle every day for thirty years. At work.
Or Andy, the pipefitter at Irving's shipyard in Saint John who happened to hold a degree in German Literature.
Or Dudley, who worked the pipe-bender at Kearney National during the week and partied with Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster on the weekend.
I'm still reading. Mostly I read stuff on my laptop these days, but I still indulge the luxury of the printed page from time to time. Like when the internet goes down.
Which is why I happened to pick up a copy of The New Yorker this evening and read about the legacy of the Sackler family. That legacy includes hundreds of thousands of opiod OD deaths and hundreds of millions in philanthropic gifts.
The two are intimately related.
That's the second time in a month I've read a mainstream take-down of the Sacklers.
And the mainstream has been busier than I could ever have imagined dismantling the legacy of Weinstein and his myriad fellow travellers.
Who ever imagined such a thing?
What's next?
A New Yorker critique of US foreign policy?
A NYT disavowal of capitalism?
A WaPo editorial slamming the occupation of the West Bank?
We are on the cusp of great changes.
Hold on to your hat... and keep reading.
Friday, September 15, 2017
Brazil; a very stinky kettle of fish
Brazil.
The new corrupt government is putting the boots to the old corrupt government, but the corrupt supreme court seems to be putting the boots to everybody all over the place... because corruption in Brazil is universal?
Do not take umbrage, dear people of Brazil. Until very recently, "corruption" was more commonly known as "good governance."
But in spite of all that, there's been a couple of headlines that caught my eye.
Here's a killer headline from the Washington Post.
That is some nasty shit!
Up here in the northern hemisphere we'd go to jail for a long time for randomly killing Indigenous folks.
Those days are long gone.
Long gone up here, at least. We have to be way more subtle in how we kill the aboriginals...
But they're still way brazen about it in Brazil.
That's got to be a blot on a nation's record, wouldn't you think? I mean, who in the hell in the modern world brags about killing the natives?
Get the fuck outta here!
But wait a minute... here's a story from the New York Times that will lift your spirits.
Yup, it might be "bumpy times," but the hedge funds are booming!
That's Brazil.
A very stinky kettle of fish...
The new corrupt government is putting the boots to the old corrupt government, but the corrupt supreme court seems to be putting the boots to everybody all over the place... because corruption in Brazil is universal?
Do not take umbrage, dear people of Brazil. Until very recently, "corruption" was more commonly known as "good governance."
But in spite of all that, there's been a couple of headlines that caught my eye.
Here's a killer headline from the Washington Post.
That is some nasty shit!
Up here in the northern hemisphere we'd go to jail for a long time for randomly killing Indigenous folks.
Those days are long gone.
Long gone up here, at least. We have to be way more subtle in how we kill the aboriginals...
But they're still way brazen about it in Brazil.
That's got to be a blot on a nation's record, wouldn't you think? I mean, who in the hell in the modern world brags about killing the natives?
Get the fuck outta here!
But wait a minute... here's a story from the New York Times that will lift your spirits.
Yup, it might be "bumpy times," but the hedge funds are booming!
That's Brazil.
A very stinky kettle of fish...
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Is the mission of a free press to elucidate or obfuscate?
This story from the Washington Post (August 23) has found its way into my Sunday Star today, four days later. Only the title has been simplified for the benefit of the Canadian readership; Was the cost of defeating Daesh in Mosul too high?
Writers Kareem Fahim and Aaso Ameen Schwan never get around to answering their rhetorical question, because, by gosh, it's just too hard to figure out what the cost was. Nobody seems to know how many civilians have died in Mosul. We are provided with a reassuring quote from a US Army spokesman about "how we apply rigorous standards to our targeting process" and of course even one civilian casualty is too many.
The best estimate they can come up with is 1,429 civilian dead, sourced from the Iraqi military. Had they tried a little harder and spent five minutes with Google, they might have happened upon this story from PRI citing an Amnesty International report that came out a month and a half before their story, that claims 5,805 civilian casualties.
Or they might have stumbled over this story by Patrick Cockburn in The Independent. Citing Kurdish intelligence, Cockburn speaks of 40,000 deaths in Mosul.
PRI, Amnesty International, Patrick Cockburn, and The Independent are all legitimate (although Western) sources who are quoted without hesitation when their reportage suits the narrative we're trying to spin. When it doesn't, they can be safely ignored.
In a similar vein, a story by Ann Hui in the Globe and Mail last week included the audacious claim that China has more journalists in prison than any country in the world. Say what? Even a pot-addled hillbilly from the backwoods of Bruce County knows that's a crock of shit!
I fired off an appropriately miffed letter to the editor providing a link to more recent information than what their reporter apparently had access to. Within a few hours I got a reply from the Globe's "Public Editor," Sylvia Stead.
Well, by golly, the reporter had made an oopsie and mistakenly used statistics from December of 2015 for a story written in August 2017. That's an honest mistake of course; major news platforms use outdated stats all the time when it suits the narrative they're spinning. We must never be allowed to forget that China is a totalitarian state with no press freedom.
To their credit, they printed a correction of sorts the next day - China no longer had the most journalists locked up. They could have gone a little further and pointed out, given the latest available stats (and if I can find them, Ann Hui could too), there are currently about five times as many journalists in the prisons of our NATO ally Turkey (population 90 million) than in the Peoples Republic of China (population 1,400 million), but I guess that would be asking too much.
It would undermine the narrative. As we all know, NATO is a force for freedom and democracy while China is an evil dictatorship.
It's worth fudging the facts to preserve such an essential truth.
Writers Kareem Fahim and Aaso Ameen Schwan never get around to answering their rhetorical question, because, by gosh, it's just too hard to figure out what the cost was. Nobody seems to know how many civilians have died in Mosul. We are provided with a reassuring quote from a US Army spokesman about "how we apply rigorous standards to our targeting process" and of course even one civilian casualty is too many.
The best estimate they can come up with is 1,429 civilian dead, sourced from the Iraqi military. Had they tried a little harder and spent five minutes with Google, they might have happened upon this story from PRI citing an Amnesty International report that came out a month and a half before their story, that claims 5,805 civilian casualties.
Or they might have stumbled over this story by Patrick Cockburn in The Independent. Citing Kurdish intelligence, Cockburn speaks of 40,000 deaths in Mosul.
PRI, Amnesty International, Patrick Cockburn, and The Independent are all legitimate (although Western) sources who are quoted without hesitation when their reportage suits the narrative we're trying to spin. When it doesn't, they can be safely ignored.
In a similar vein, a story by Ann Hui in the Globe and Mail last week included the audacious claim that China has more journalists in prison than any country in the world. Say what? Even a pot-addled hillbilly from the backwoods of Bruce County knows that's a crock of shit!
I fired off an appropriately miffed letter to the editor providing a link to more recent information than what their reporter apparently had access to. Within a few hours I got a reply from the Globe's "Public Editor," Sylvia Stead.
Well, by golly, the reporter had made an oopsie and mistakenly used statistics from December of 2015 for a story written in August 2017. That's an honest mistake of course; major news platforms use outdated stats all the time when it suits the narrative they're spinning. We must never be allowed to forget that China is a totalitarian state with no press freedom.
To their credit, they printed a correction of sorts the next day - China no longer had the most journalists locked up. They could have gone a little further and pointed out, given the latest available stats (and if I can find them, Ann Hui could too), there are currently about five times as many journalists in the prisons of our NATO ally Turkey (population 90 million) than in the Peoples Republic of China (population 1,400 million), but I guess that would be asking too much.
It would undermine the narrative. As we all know, NATO is a force for freedom and democracy while China is an evil dictatorship.
It's worth fudging the facts to preserve such an essential truth.
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
The wily Erdogan meets his match
The Trump-Erdogan gab-fest was all but missed by the mainstream news purveyors today, mainly because they are busy having fake shit-hemorrages over Trump's supposed spilling of top-secret beans to Lavrov and the Russian ambassador last week. Another media-manufactured tempest in a teacup, but it's a good one, isn't it?
First Donny J fires FBI boss Comey to kill that investigation into his collusion with the Ruskies, and then he turns around and shares national secrets with those very same Ruskies!
Holy moly... this man must be stopped, at least if you take your cues from the NYT and the Washington Post!
Those commies... er, I mean Russians, obviously have Trump by the short and curlies.
Trump must be tempted to take a few tips from Erdogan on how to deal with pesky media. In America the Trumpists chant lock 'em up. It's a feel-good thing, much along the lines of chanting "go Leafs go!" In Turkey they're just locked up indefinitely, thereby proving that America still has something called a "free press."
Erdogan dodged a few bullets last summer, quite literally, when his former pal turned arch nemesis Fethulla Gulen launched a surprise attack on this government. Gulen has been cooling his heels a couple of hours north of CIA HQ for what, twenty years now? Does anybody really believe that this leader of a global socio-religious educational organization with millions of followers worldwide could enjoy US hospitality for that long without the express connivance of the highest levels of America's multi-faceted spook infrastructure?
The CIA may not have invented Gulen, but they've certainly nurtured him over the years. Had things gone to plan, the ornery and unpredictable Erdogan would have given way to the infinitely more pliable Fethullah Gulen.
The failure of the coup last summer was a bitter pill for the Deep State, a disappointment trumped only by the election of you-know-who in November.
The string-pullers must have been seething today, and the "free press" did their bit by ignoring the Erdogan-Trump shindig.
Shouldn't take more than a few days for the Times and the Post to front-page a list of state secrets Trump spilled to the Turks today.
First Donny J fires FBI boss Comey to kill that investigation into his collusion with the Ruskies, and then he turns around and shares national secrets with those very same Ruskies!
Holy moly... this man must be stopped, at least if you take your cues from the NYT and the Washington Post!
Those commies... er, I mean Russians, obviously have Trump by the short and curlies.
Trump must be tempted to take a few tips from Erdogan on how to deal with pesky media. In America the Trumpists chant lock 'em up. It's a feel-good thing, much along the lines of chanting "go Leafs go!" In Turkey they're just locked up indefinitely, thereby proving that America still has something called a "free press."
Erdogan dodged a few bullets last summer, quite literally, when his former pal turned arch nemesis Fethulla Gulen launched a surprise attack on this government. Gulen has been cooling his heels a couple of hours north of CIA HQ for what, twenty years now? Does anybody really believe that this leader of a global socio-religious educational organization with millions of followers worldwide could enjoy US hospitality for that long without the express connivance of the highest levels of America's multi-faceted spook infrastructure?
The CIA may not have invented Gulen, but they've certainly nurtured him over the years. Had things gone to plan, the ornery and unpredictable Erdogan would have given way to the infinitely more pliable Fethullah Gulen.
The failure of the coup last summer was a bitter pill for the Deep State, a disappointment trumped only by the election of you-know-who in November.
The string-pullers must have been seething today, and the "free press" did their bit by ignoring the Erdogan-Trump shindig.
Shouldn't take more than a few days for the Times and the Post to front-page a list of state secrets Trump spilled to the Turks today.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Nothing new about "fake news." Here's Carl Bernstein writing about CIA manipulation of mainstream media forty years ago
There seems to be lots of folks in the United States of Amnesia who believe "fake news" was discovered mere months ago by the mainstream stalwarts at WaPo and NYT.
That would be fake news. Carl Bernstein (among others) was writing about the manufacture of fake news by the CIA, in collusion with mainstream outlets like WaPo and NYT, forty years ago.
How odd that the two most influential purveyors of fake news post WWII would "discover" it at this late date!
And all thanks to those hacked emails that lifted the veil on Dem Party hanky-panky in their slimy sandbagging of the Sanders' campaign.
Putin was behind it, of course!
That's a fake fact regurgitated endlessly by the pointy-headed pundits at both of those esteemed outlets, without ever a whiff of proof being provided. From there it ripples out endlessly to "legitimate" news sites around the world. Nobody needs to provide proof because the Times and the Post already gave these fake facts their seal of approval.
That's why it's more than a little scary to read that Zuckerberg and his billionaire Silicon Valley cronies are all in for saving journalism. Facebook and Google are already busying themselves in their self-appointed role as censors of the internet and guardians of truth, and Amazon boss Bezos, who does hundreds of millions in business with the CIA, already owns the Washington Post.
They are truly doing God's work, because even W, steadfast truth-teller that he wasn't during his eight year reign of terror (at least from the perspective of millions of common citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq) has come out as a champion of truth in media.
A free press is the very cornerstone of our democracy, dontcha know!
Yes, it's time to push back against the fake news tsunami, and who better than Zuckerberg and Bezos to lead the charge!
What could go wrong?
That would be fake news. Carl Bernstein (among others) was writing about the manufacture of fake news by the CIA, in collusion with mainstream outlets like WaPo and NYT, forty years ago.
How odd that the two most influential purveyors of fake news post WWII would "discover" it at this late date!
And all thanks to those hacked emails that lifted the veil on Dem Party hanky-panky in their slimy sandbagging of the Sanders' campaign.
Putin was behind it, of course!
That's a fake fact regurgitated endlessly by the pointy-headed pundits at both of those esteemed outlets, without ever a whiff of proof being provided. From there it ripples out endlessly to "legitimate" news sites around the world. Nobody needs to provide proof because the Times and the Post already gave these fake facts their seal of approval.
That's why it's more than a little scary to read that Zuckerberg and his billionaire Silicon Valley cronies are all in for saving journalism. Facebook and Google are already busying themselves in their self-appointed role as censors of the internet and guardians of truth, and Amazon boss Bezos, who does hundreds of millions in business with the CIA, already owns the Washington Post.
They are truly doing God's work, because even W, steadfast truth-teller that he wasn't during his eight year reign of terror (at least from the perspective of millions of common citizens in Afghanistan and Iraq) has come out as a champion of truth in media.
A free press is the very cornerstone of our democracy, dontcha know!
Yes, it's time to push back against the fake news tsunami, and who better than Zuckerberg and Bezos to lead the charge!
What could go wrong?
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Shattering stereotypes about America's incarceration epidemic
I was idly perusing the Washington Post website when I ran across the above promise. Must say I was mightily intrigued!
Take a look.
Maybe prison life isn't that bad after all!
When I think prison stereotypes I think inhumane, degrading, dehumanizing. I think about some schmuck still paying his debt to society for a bad choice he made while on a booze binge forty years ago. I think about a kid who got life for lifting a bag of Doritos at the Seven Eleven in one of those "three strikes" states. I think about the teen, long since a man, and now a grandfather, who had the misfortune of being black while selling a narc a quarter ounce of weed.
But hey, it's not that bad, really! Apparently the inmates spend a lot of time cuddling bunnies, tickling turtles, and learning new skills that will help them integrate into society when they are finally paroled at age 85!
Thank you Washington Post for opening my eyes and shattering those stereotypes!
Take a look.
Maybe prison life isn't that bad after all!
When I think prison stereotypes I think inhumane, degrading, dehumanizing. I think about some schmuck still paying his debt to society for a bad choice he made while on a booze binge forty years ago. I think about a kid who got life for lifting a bag of Doritos at the Seven Eleven in one of those "three strikes" states. I think about the teen, long since a man, and now a grandfather, who had the misfortune of being black while selling a narc a quarter ounce of weed.
But hey, it's not that bad, really! Apparently the inmates spend a lot of time cuddling bunnies, tickling turtles, and learning new skills that will help them integrate into society when they are finally paroled at age 85!
Thank you Washington Post for opening my eyes and shattering those stereotypes!
Monday, October 12, 2015
Aunt Carole's brussel sprouts are a much anticipated staple at family gatherings
See?!
So I don't know what those elitists at the Washington Post are on about. They don't like liver either... get a life, food snobs!
So I don't know what those elitists at the Washington Post are on about. They don't like liver either... get a life, food snobs!
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
US gifts 250 armoured vehicles to Kurds - but holds back the armour!
Here's a howler from the Washington Post!
The Kurds are supposedly America's "boots on the ground" in the battle against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. That's why the US gifted the Kurds a fleet of 250 used MRAP armoured vehicles. You'd think that's the least you can do for our indispensable allies.
You'd be wrong. You can do less by having technicians go to the trouble of removing the side-armour before delivery. In the words of one former American officer, that makes riding in the MRAP in a battle zone akin to committing suicide.
Supposedly the rationale for this spot of idiocy is that the side armour is classified technology and might fall into the hands of the Iranians.
Meanwhile, ISIS, the bad guys America has been targeting relentlessly with over 9,000 air strikes in the past year, have their own fleet of MRAPs, and guess what?
Yup, the Islamic State's MRAPs sport the full side armour!
The Kurds are supposedly America's "boots on the ground" in the battle against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. That's why the US gifted the Kurds a fleet of 250 used MRAP armoured vehicles. You'd think that's the least you can do for our indispensable allies.
You'd be wrong. You can do less by having technicians go to the trouble of removing the side-armour before delivery. In the words of one former American officer, that makes riding in the MRAP in a battle zone akin to committing suicide.
Supposedly the rationale for this spot of idiocy is that the side armour is classified technology and might fall into the hands of the Iranians.
Meanwhile, ISIS, the bad guys America has been targeting relentlessly with over 9,000 air strikes in the past year, have their own fleet of MRAPs, and guess what?
Yup, the Islamic State's MRAPs sport the full side armour!
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
The downside of "normalizing" the US relationship with Cuba
Seems that everybody from the Castro brothers to WaPo editorial writers to the Pope have been wetting their undergarments with excitement over the the promise of normalizing the USA-Cuba relationship.
Not so fast!
Look around the neighbourhood...
Mexico has enjoyed "normalized" relations with Uncle Sam since the middle of the 19th century. Mexico trails Cuba on virtually any quality-of-life index. Mexico is for all practical purposes a failed state.
Then there's Honduras and Guatemala, both of them enjoying "normal" relations throughout the era of the Cuban embargo. How has that worked out for them? They too are failed states.
And how about Haiti? Haiti too has long enjoyed normal relations with the USA, and Haiti is the very embodiment of a failed state.
Cuba since the revolution has been a poor country, but with many success stories. All things considered, it is the very antithesis of a failed state.
So why all the jubilation over normalizing relations with the US?
Not so fast!
Look around the neighbourhood...
Mexico has enjoyed "normalized" relations with Uncle Sam since the middle of the 19th century. Mexico trails Cuba on virtually any quality-of-life index. Mexico is for all practical purposes a failed state.
Then there's Honduras and Guatemala, both of them enjoying "normal" relations throughout the era of the Cuban embargo. How has that worked out for them? They too are failed states.
And how about Haiti? Haiti too has long enjoyed normal relations with the USA, and Haiti is the very embodiment of a failed state.
Cuba since the revolution has been a poor country, but with many success stories. All things considered, it is the very antithesis of a failed state.
So why all the jubilation over normalizing relations with the US?
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
America's aristocracy of A-holes
Here at Falling Downs we're detecting the first signs of revulsion by America's mainstream opinion-makers at the excesses of the finance elite.
You know, the kind of folks who inspired us to speculate why the words hedge, fund, manager, shit, and bag are so often found in the same sentence.
The truly vomit-worthy antics of Martin Shkreli have garnered umbrage even from Bezos' Washington Post.
Shkreli, a former Jim Cramer protege, bought the rights to the prescription drug Daraprim, a staple in the drug regimen of many HIV/Aids patients, and promptly jacked the price 5,455%!
Because he could!
What a genius!
You know, the kind of folks who inspired us to speculate why the words hedge, fund, manager, shit, and bag are so often found in the same sentence.
The truly vomit-worthy antics of Martin Shkreli have garnered umbrage even from Bezos' Washington Post.
Shkreli, a former Jim Cramer protege, bought the rights to the prescription drug Daraprim, a staple in the drug regimen of many HIV/Aids patients, and promptly jacked the price 5,455%!
Because he could!
What a genius!
Saturday, August 1, 2015
Putin killed my puppy
The Putin haters are having a field day with the Litvinenko inquiry in London.
No one in London is safe from the Kremlin...
Indeed! Thousands of high-living Russian expats can't go to the grocery without constantly looking over their shoulders, because Putin's evil minions are EVERYWHERE!
In this particular case it's Yuri Felshtinsky sounding the alarm. Felshtinsky once wrote a book claiming Putin was a pedophile, thereby upping the ante on those mining the anti-Putin genre with tales of Putin's 40 billions or 400 billions squirreled away in secret Swiss bank accounts.
Or maybe it was 4 trillions...
It's a perennial favorite in the West, the anti-Putin trope.
Putin's perfidy...
Putin's aggression...
Those so-called punk-rockers Pussy Riot have milked the anti-Putin meme so skillfully they even got to share a stage with Madonna for a precious few moments!
Alas, all the hysteria doesn't seem to be making much of an impression in Russia. According to this recent story in the Washington Post, Putin's approval ratings are close to 90% among the folks he was elected by.
No wonder Cameron et al want us to hate him!
No one in London is safe from the Kremlin...
Indeed! Thousands of high-living Russian expats can't go to the grocery without constantly looking over their shoulders, because Putin's evil minions are EVERYWHERE!
In this particular case it's Yuri Felshtinsky sounding the alarm. Felshtinsky once wrote a book claiming Putin was a pedophile, thereby upping the ante on those mining the anti-Putin genre with tales of Putin's 40 billions or 400 billions squirreled away in secret Swiss bank accounts.
Or maybe it was 4 trillions...
It's a perennial favorite in the West, the anti-Putin trope.
Putin's perfidy...
Putin's aggression...
Those so-called punk-rockers Pussy Riot have milked the anti-Putin meme so skillfully they even got to share a stage with Madonna for a precious few moments!
Alas, all the hysteria doesn't seem to be making much of an impression in Russia. According to this recent story in the Washington Post, Putin's approval ratings are close to 90% among the folks he was elected by.
No wonder Cameron et al want us to hate him!
Monday, May 11, 2015
Canada sliding eyes-wide-open towards fascism
Definitions of "fascism" could easily fill a library. The great Marxist theorist Antonio Gramsci alone spilt tanker-loads of ink on the project of defining fascism.
In the interest of defining our terms we'll jury-rig an abridged definition right here and now; Fascism is what you're left with when the military-industrial complex of a nation-state dominates the levers of policy-making. There you go; short and sweet.
There is no more a perfect example of a fascist state in today's world than the state of Israel. But wait, is that not the "only democracy in the Middle East?" Sure, but that's got nothing to do with anything. Hitler was democratically elected too.
In Israel, the "security" of the state trumps all other considerations. Never more so than with the new more-rightist-than-ever Likud coalition government.
The security of the state is paramount. Anyone who questions Likud policies is a traitor. All criticism of the government is anti-Semitism. All government policy is designed to further marginalize the Palestinians, thereby guaranteeing instability in perpetuity. Instability equals insecurity, therefore we need a massively over-funded military machine, which is massively profitable for the usual war-profiteers, who are then able to fund their war-mongering Knesset pets to create more insecurity and more military spending ad infinitum.
Under the Harper gang Canada has been jockeying to become the single most slavishly devoted cheer-leader of the fascist Likud regime. And with considerable success!
What occupation?
What illegal settlements?
What apartheid?
What war crimes in Gaza?
The Alliance Church crowd around Big Steve is wilfully blind to everything that is so obvious to most of the world, and was obvious even to previous Canadian governments, both Liberal and Conservative.
Instead, we get FM Baird's embarrassing Toady Tour of Israel.
Big Steve's speech to the half-empty Knesset.
Our prime minister accepting a "World Statesman of the Year" award from an extremist Israeli lobby.
And on it goes, and now it has come to this.
Canada intends to use its hate-crime laws and the odious police-state Bill C-51 to criminalize criticism of Likud policy, no matter how racist and genocidal.
If you criticize the policies of the fascist mob that holds the reins in the Knesset, you are guilty of hate speech.
You are an anti-Semite.
Nevermind that the most cogent critics of that fascist mob have always been Jews. Chomsky. Finkelstein. Uri Avnery. Canada's own Michael Neumann.
Within hours of the CBC story appearing, the Washington Post, hardly an anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli platform, had an opinion piece up slamming the Harperite position and labelling it "very troubling."
And while I don't like to toot my own horn, we had the same story right here months ago.
How does this rabid cheer-leading for the most overtly fascist state in the Western world impact the popularity of the Harper gang?
Harper is leading in the polls a mere five months before the next federal election.
Eyes wide open...
In the interest of defining our terms we'll jury-rig an abridged definition right here and now; Fascism is what you're left with when the military-industrial complex of a nation-state dominates the levers of policy-making. There you go; short and sweet.
There is no more a perfect example of a fascist state in today's world than the state of Israel. But wait, is that not the "only democracy in the Middle East?" Sure, but that's got nothing to do with anything. Hitler was democratically elected too.
In Israel, the "security" of the state trumps all other considerations. Never more so than with the new more-rightist-than-ever Likud coalition government.
The security of the state is paramount. Anyone who questions Likud policies is a traitor. All criticism of the government is anti-Semitism. All government policy is designed to further marginalize the Palestinians, thereby guaranteeing instability in perpetuity. Instability equals insecurity, therefore we need a massively over-funded military machine, which is massively profitable for the usual war-profiteers, who are then able to fund their war-mongering Knesset pets to create more insecurity and more military spending ad infinitum.
Under the Harper gang Canada has been jockeying to become the single most slavishly devoted cheer-leader of the fascist Likud regime. And with considerable success!
What occupation?
What illegal settlements?
What apartheid?
What war crimes in Gaza?
The Alliance Church crowd around Big Steve is wilfully blind to everything that is so obvious to most of the world, and was obvious even to previous Canadian governments, both Liberal and Conservative.
Instead, we get FM Baird's embarrassing Toady Tour of Israel.
Big Steve's speech to the half-empty Knesset.
Our prime minister accepting a "World Statesman of the Year" award from an extremist Israeli lobby.
And on it goes, and now it has come to this.
Canada intends to use its hate-crime laws and the odious police-state Bill C-51 to criminalize criticism of Likud policy, no matter how racist and genocidal.
If you criticize the policies of the fascist mob that holds the reins in the Knesset, you are guilty of hate speech.
You are an anti-Semite.
Nevermind that the most cogent critics of that fascist mob have always been Jews. Chomsky. Finkelstein. Uri Avnery. Canada's own Michael Neumann.
Within hours of the CBC story appearing, the Washington Post, hardly an anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli platform, had an opinion piece up slamming the Harperite position and labelling it "very troubling."
And while I don't like to toot my own horn, we had the same story right here months ago.
How does this rabid cheer-leading for the most overtly fascist state in the Western world impact the popularity of the Harper gang?
Harper is leading in the polls a mere five months before the next federal election.
Eyes wide open...
Saturday, January 3, 2015
America still world's moral arbiter in Krauthammer's parallel universe
What Senate Torture Report?
CIA spokesman Charles Krauthammer rips into Obama for his imaginary "deal" with the communist regime in Cuba in today's Washington Post.
The Post has long been considered the semi-official house organ of the CIA. It's good to see this tradition is not threatened by the new ownership. Frankly, it's a little unsettling to see how these "new economy" billionaires like Bezos can so seamlessly slide into their supporting roles in the old power structure.
Krauthammer is pissy that Obama didn't come away with more concessions on this deal with the Castro brothers.
Come on, Charles... how "free" are elections in the USA?
America's political parties are independent? Really? Independent from the needs and wants and wishes of most Americans perhaps, but in this era of Citizens United and unlimited private finance in political campaigns, who are you kidding?
Yes, as long as you're speaking for big business and big money, America does remain a bastion for free speech. Otherwise, not so much.
Now, Cuba is obviously not a utopia. At the same time, they've managed to survive 50 years of punitive sanctions from their most logical trading partner. As far as I know, they've not been busy with serial invasions of other countries.
Nor do they operate an international network of torture centres.
Nor do they funnel billions of dollars to government run non-governmental organizations around the world to affect regime change of regimes they don't like.
Like Cuba's.
What Obama is doing is trying something different after fifty plus years of a failed policy.
Sometimes, Charles, you just have to accept reality and turn the page.
CIA spokesman Charles Krauthammer rips into Obama for his imaginary "deal" with the communist regime in Cuba in today's Washington Post.
The Post has long been considered the semi-official house organ of the CIA. It's good to see this tradition is not threatened by the new ownership. Frankly, it's a little unsettling to see how these "new economy" billionaires like Bezos can so seamlessly slide into their supporting roles in the old power structure.
Krauthammer is pissy that Obama didn't come away with more concessions on this deal with the Castro brothers.
Come on, Charles... how "free" are elections in the USA?
America's political parties are independent? Really? Independent from the needs and wants and wishes of most Americans perhaps, but in this era of Citizens United and unlimited private finance in political campaigns, who are you kidding?
Yes, as long as you're speaking for big business and big money, America does remain a bastion for free speech. Otherwise, not so much.
Now, Cuba is obviously not a utopia. At the same time, they've managed to survive 50 years of punitive sanctions from their most logical trading partner. As far as I know, they've not been busy with serial invasions of other countries.
Nor do they operate an international network of torture centres.
Nor do they funnel billions of dollars to government run non-governmental organizations around the world to affect regime change of regimes they don't like.
Like Cuba's.
What Obama is doing is trying something different after fifty plus years of a failed policy.
Sometimes, Charles, you just have to accept reality and turn the page.
Monday, December 22, 2014
WaPo offers Holder 7 tips guaranteed to inflame anti-cop prejudices
The Washington Post site has on view an opinion piece by Paul Cassell, a former federal judge, that purports to offer suggestions to "help prevent more police officers from being murdered."
1. Holder should send 30 government representatives to the funerals of officers Liu and Ramos. Why 30? Well, he sent three to Michael Browns funeral. This is a way of showing that a police officer's life is way more important.
2. Visit the officer's families. No reason given, other than to balance out the fact that he met with Brown's family.
3. Clear Officer Darren Wilson in a public report. Officer Wilson should stand trial; if a jury of his peers finds him not guilty, he'll be cleared. It's not up to Holder or Cassell or journalists to clear him.
4. Meet with Officer Wilson. How this would prevent police officers from being murdered we are not told.
5. Expedite the Garner investigation. When he says "expedite" he appears to mean "clear" the officers involved in his death. Again, those responsible for Garner's death have the opportunity to be cleared in a court of law, but they would have to be charged first.
6. Stop tolerating law-breaking by protesters. Apparently Ishmaaiyl Brinsley was motivated to drive from Baltimore to NYC and kill Officers Liu and Ramos because some anti-police-brutality protests turned violent.
7. Institute a national police appreciation day. Yes, that will make police officers safer. A former federal judge says so and the Washington Post published it.
To be sure, police officers in New York or Ferguson are not responsible for 400 years of systemic racism in America, but Cassell gives no indication that he is even remotely aware that there are millions of dispossessed Americans who are fed up with being on the dirty end of that deal. That is but one of the oversights in his seven useless suggestions.
America has evolved into a brutal winner-take-all society in which the marginalized are expected to know their place. When they get "uppity" the police are expected to refresh their memories. The marginalized see the police primarily as the protectors of the privileged. Having an annual "Hug a Cop Day" isn't going to change that.
While opportunists on all sides, from Al Sharpton to Rudy Giuliani, are busy trying to make political hay out of the NYPD tragedy, nobody has raised the question of why, in the wealthiest country in the world, a mentally ill man cannot be treated for his mental illness, but can be allowed to own a gun.
It also doesn't help that police forces across North America have become increasingly militarized over the past 20 or 30 years. There's been an odious trend toward sending senior police officials to Israel for training in how to deal with restive populations. While it's true that the law enforcement establishment in Israel has extensive expertise in dealing with violent protests, that's because they are essentially an occupation force. Who decided that makes them an appropriate role model for American law enforcement?
As long as you have millions of pissed off disenfranchised citizens, with no opportunity for improving their situation, no health care for their mental illnesses, no meaningful gun control, and police forces that increasingly look and act like an occupying army, the peope vs. the police is going to become an increasing common meme in America.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Al Jazeera now tithes the same corporate Gods as Wapo and NYT, so why should their stories diverge?
Why indeed? And they don't!
The Gulf protectorates that have thrown their lot in with this latest assault on Islam have nothing to lose. They are fake states, propped up by US military power, for the simple reason that they have oil and use their oil money to buy weapons from the US military-industrial complex.
All of them face seething discontent within their own populace.
None of them are even remotely "democratic."
These are America's latest allies in this war on the latest evil...
Here's Al Jazeera's latest take on this crisis; ISIL crisis, everyone's a winner.
Writer James Denselow informs us that everybody hates ISIS. Yes indeed, that is no doubt the reason ISIS has enjoyed exponential growth over the past year. Everybody hates it.
This is not journalism; it is seriously delusional propaganda.
The Gulf protectorates that have thrown their lot in with this latest assault on Islam have nothing to lose. They are fake states, propped up by US military power, for the simple reason that they have oil and use their oil money to buy weapons from the US military-industrial complex.
All of them face seething discontent within their own populace.
None of them are even remotely "democratic."
These are America's latest allies in this war on the latest evil...
Here's Al Jazeera's latest take on this crisis; ISIL crisis, everyone's a winner.
Writer James Denselow informs us that everybody hates ISIS. Yes indeed, that is no doubt the reason ISIS has enjoyed exponential growth over the past year. Everybody hates it.
This is not journalism; it is seriously delusional propaganda.
Friday, August 22, 2014
"Putin was right" - Washington Post
It's a bit of a climb-down when the Washington Post admits that US strategy in Syria has been a failure, and that perhaps things might not be as dire had we heeded Putin's advice and negotiated with Assad instead of creating ISIS to carry out regime change on our behalf.
Of course things would have been even better had we not meddled in Syria to begin with, but it's too late for that. At the time, however, heads were bloated by the stunning victory over Gaddafi - America's first since Grenada - and the war-mongers truly believed the US was on the verge of recovering some of the glory lost in the less-than-stellar Iraq and Afghanistan adventures.
The Washington Post opinion piece does couch its praise for Putin in concern for his "aggressive meddling" in Ukraine. They might want to reconsider that sooner than later. The infamous Nuland-Pyatt "election" of Arseniy Yatsenyuk as Prime Minister was certainly just as aggressive and meddlesome as anything Putin has done. In fact, throughout the made-in-Washington "Ukraine crisis" it has been Putin who consistently calls for peaceful dialogue, and Washington's flunkies in Kiev who consistently deploy the heavy hand of their military.
Perhaps in a couple of years, after thousands more unnecessary deaths, the Washington Post will inform us that Putin was right about Ukraine too.
Of course things would have been even better had we not meddled in Syria to begin with, but it's too late for that. At the time, however, heads were bloated by the stunning victory over Gaddafi - America's first since Grenada - and the war-mongers truly believed the US was on the verge of recovering some of the glory lost in the less-than-stellar Iraq and Afghanistan adventures.
The Washington Post opinion piece does couch its praise for Putin in concern for his "aggressive meddling" in Ukraine. They might want to reconsider that sooner than later. The infamous Nuland-Pyatt "election" of Arseniy Yatsenyuk as Prime Minister was certainly just as aggressive and meddlesome as anything Putin has done. In fact, throughout the made-in-Washington "Ukraine crisis" it has been Putin who consistently calls for peaceful dialogue, and Washington's flunkies in Kiev who consistently deploy the heavy hand of their military.
Perhaps in a couple of years, after thousands more unnecessary deaths, the Washington Post will inform us that Putin was right about Ukraine too.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
"Lucky" Gazans with acute injuries get life-line to Jordan hospitals- but it takes ten days
Yup, that's what you want to hear when you show up at the ER; see you in ten days.
These are the depths that the National Newspaper of Record (and, yes, most people who think and read still put the NYT ahead of the Washington Post; sorry Bezos) will sink to in their desperation to wring happy stories out of Israel's latest attack on Gaza.
But it will have to do, because there's not much to work with.
These are the depths that the National Newspaper of Record (and, yes, most people who think and read still put the NYT ahead of the Washington Post; sorry Bezos) will sink to in their desperation to wring happy stories out of Israel's latest attack on Gaza.
But it will have to do, because there's not much to work with.
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