Robert Parry: Existential Question – Who Can We Trust?
Commerce, Corruption, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency
The Existential Question of Who to Trust
Special Report: An existential question facing humankind is who can be trusted to describe the world and its conflicts, especially since mainstream experts have surrendered to careerism, writes Robert Parry.
The existential issue before us is whether – blinded by propaganda and disinformation – we will stumble into a nuclear conflict between superpowers that could exterminate all life on earth or perhaps leave behind a radiated hulk of a planet suitable only for cockroaches and other hardy life forms.
Phi Beta Iota: A full read is recommended — documents the deceit of all so-called experts, the prevelance of lies as the standard. This web site has been focused on information pathologies for some time.
See Especially:
Graphic: Information Pathologies
See Also:
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Disinformation, Other Information Pathologies, & Repression
Patrick Buchanan: Has Trump Abandoned His Base and Turned Foreign Policy Over to Neo-Conservatives and Their Captive Generals?
02 China, 02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Iran, 06 Russia, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence
WARS AND RUMORS OF WARS
Pat Buchanan on foreign policy: ‘What happened to the Trump of 2016?'
President Trump’s seeming renunciation of an anti-interventionist foreign policy is the great surprise of the first 100 days, and the most ominous. For any new war could vitiate the Trump mandate and consume his presidency.
Who is behind the seeming conversion of Trump to hawk?
The generals, Bibi Netanyahu and the neocons, congressional hawks with Cold War mindsets, the Saudi royal family and the Gulf Arabs – they are winning the battle for the president’s mind.
Paul Craig Roberts: The Looting Machine Called Capitalism
03 Economy, Commerce, Corruption
The Looting Machine Called Capitalism
The unambigious fact is that US capitalism is a mechanism for looting the many for the benefit of the few. Neoliberal economics was constructed in order to support this looting. In other words, neoliberal economists are whores just like the Western print and TV media.
Jon Rappoport: Senator Chuck Schumer is Afraid — Very Afraid
Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Media
What Chuck Schumer is revealing out in the open
Chuck Schumer is echoing what many of his colleagues—and far more powerful people—are worrying about. Their vaunted mouthpieces, the NY Times, the Washington Post, etc., are failing. They can’t carry the same old freight with impunity.
So Schumer “worries about the future of democracy.” What he’s actually worried about has nothing to do with democracy, and it certainly has nothing to do with a Republic, which was the form of this nation from the beginning. Schumer is worried about decentralization.
He’s worried that people are defecting from the authoritarian arrogant Castle of Truth.
And, given his position, he should be worried.
Eagle: The Trump Twist — When Madness Passes for Sanity [UK Worst-Case Interpretation]
Government, Idiocy
Donald Trump's first 100 days: The madder he gets, the more seriously the world takes him
Now the ‘flexible’ and ‘pragmatic’ US President is sending a naval battle group to threaten North Korea
The more dangerous America’s crackpot President becomes, the saner the world believes him to be. Just look back at the initial half of his first 100 days: the crazed tweeting, the lies, the fantasies and self-regard of this misogynist leader of the Western world appalled all of us. But the moment he went to war in Yemen, fired missiles at Syria and bombed Afghanistan, even the US media Trump had so ferociously condemned began to treat him with respect. And so did the rest of the world.
It’s one thing to have a lunatic in the White House who watches late night television and tweets all day. But when the same lunatic goes to war, it now emerges, he’s a safer bet for democracy, a strong President who stands up to tyrants (unless they happen to be Saudis, Turks or Egyptians) and who acts out of human emotion rather than cynicism.
CounterPunch: The Intelligence Dilemma — What’s Intelligence Worth When It is Both Right and Refused?
Ethics, Government
The Dilemma for Intelligence Agencies
Crooke notes that U.S. intelligence had raised doubts as to the Syrian government’s responsibility for the release of poison gas.
The American mass media nevertheless immediately blamed Damascus for an attack using chemical weapons. Trump, also immediately, believed the mass media. He is, after all, increasingly known as the Fox TV president. Taking his cue from the media, he paid insufficient heed to his own intelligence agencies’ doubts. As a result, as Crooke puts it, “the Tomahawks flew.”
All of this led Crooke to ask “whether Western intelligence agencies still retain an ability to speak-out to power.”
