Online Freedom: Are We Past the Point of No Return?
by Carla, therightsideoftruth.com, via The Sleuth Journal
Internet freedom is on the decline. It has been ever since companies began centralizing control over where users congregate, and things have only gotten worse with ever increasing government intervention. Some might see said claims as alarmist and will say things aren’t “that bad,” citing dictatorships such as North Korea as examples of true restriction of internet freedom. But this comparison doesn’t do justice to the extent to which online freedom is being limited.
Truly, the enemy is among us, and it has been for quite some time. Self-interested organizations including big record companies, movie studios and even the government have been slowing chipping away at individual freedom as they fear losing control over the economy and the people.
Beyond that, government organizations continue to tighten their grip as internet freedom threatens the status quo. The real question we need to be asking, though, is this:
Are we past the point of no return?
The Patriot Act
In the West, specifically in the US, the first serious threat to digital freedom came with the passing of the Patriot Act following the September 11th terrorist attacks. Immediate action was taken to increase surveillance on American citizens, but the National Security Administration didn’t stop there.
Spying on emails, chats and forums, the organization set out under the auspices of government officials to locate and track anyone with a dissenting viewpoint, terrorist or otherwise. Doing so makes it a lot easier to accuse someone of having criminal intentions.
On the bright side, this data gathering also resulted in more information than can possibly be processed—ever. The result is somewhat optimistic, in that the government can’t hope to deal with each and every voice with which they don’t agree.
Censorship and Digital Rights
Areas of censorship and digital copyright laws bring together an unholy alliance far worse than exclusive government interest—we’re referring to combined corporate and government interest, not dissimilar from fascism.
This happens on two fronts. The first, mediated mostly by companies, is geo-blocking content by country. A good example is how copyrighted content on YouTube can’t be watched in the US, but it can be in other countries. This can be circumvented to some extent by clever use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN), but an ongoing battle between companies and consumers continues to be waged.
The other instance of censorship is mediated by governments. From shutting down “illegal” websites such as ThePirateBay to flat out preventing citizen access to parts of the internet, governments are using their muscle to limit freedom and are showing no signs of slowing down.
In fact, it seems more likely this activity is increasing, with more and more countries preventing external access on a selective basis. Countries infamous for this include China, Iran and North Korea, but don’t be fooled—even Western countries engage in some degree of IP blocking when it suits their agendas.
WikiLeaks
One look at WikiLeaks and it would seem that online freedom is alive and well. But, is that truly the case? From time to time, we hear major stories about leaks related to political scandals or even celebrities. Some of these change our opinions, while others get ignored.
What we can tell you is politicians are not ignoring announcements made on WikiLeaks. To this day, we still have “wanted” notices out for known leakers such as Edward Snowden threatening life imprisonment or worse (though it’s worth noting Snowden’s actions are considered treason).
Those that choose to ignore the warnings and examples made of previous leakers on WikiLeaks can expect similar treatment. And if sharing inconvenient information online can result in criminal charges, exactly how free are we to share? Anonymity isn’t guaranteed online by any means, no matter how extensive our efforts might be.
Social Media
One place anonymity continues to erode is on social media. In an unprecedented shift from the older days of the net, nearly all users are encouraged to represent themselves online not as handles, avatars or screen names but as their real identities. A significant percentage of users have fallen in line with this new trend, and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of it stopping.
While you might argue that transparency online is a good thing, it doesn’t come without cost. Lack of anonymity means much more serious consequences for posting or sharing thoughts that go against common social mores or shared beliefs, no matter how flawed those beliefs may be.
This further erodes our freedoms online because it stifles dissenting voices that fear the backlash frequently associated with sharing different opinions. These fears aren’t baseless either; sharing unpopular views online can be political or career suicide if those ideas rattle the wrong cages.
On top of all these problems, social media giants such as Facebook are running new campaigns aimed at stopping “fake news,” which might help in some cases, but this ultimately serves as a move to quash opinions they don’t care to see online.
Danger! Point of No Return Ahead
For all the above points, the question still remains—is there any turning back? Can our online freedoms ever be truly secured and protected from outside intervention? By now you’ve most likely noticed there are plenty of factors and parties trying to ensure limitations to our freedoms.
But there is hope. While we may never return to the “wild west” of the internet, our combined vigilance can prevent things from getting considerably worse. By using our votes and dollars, we have the unique power to point things in a positive direction.
The cost, of course, is our time. If we collectively hope to maintain our online freedom, we can’t simply sit on the sideline and hope someone else will start a petition or write their government representative. You personally must do something. What that is will be up to you.
How will you make a difference?
Carla is a blogger that writes on topics ranging from online censorship to politics and the latest news. She regularly contributes to http://therightsideoftruth.com and enjoys a lively discussion and critical thought.
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I am a recent refugee from Truthout (no more comments, except some Buzzfeed) and an overhaul at Truthdig where I’ve been banned for researching the publisher Stacy Lyn “Zuade” Kaufman, an heiress in her late 60s.(Eli Broad’s neice)
I concur with theories describing the Web as a Frankenstein monster, no longer suitable to enable freedom of expression. As I was expelled from TD a kind person suggested Off_Guardian. I’ve never been a regular Guardian reader but I’m trying to get accustomed to your site. Thanks.
@ StAug:
“What revolution are you referring to? The only Revolution worthy of the term would be people, on a vast scale, opting out. It wouldn’t be “bloody”. People would just stop supporting The System by opting to stop being The System…”
To recognize the ‘fact’ that the system is rooted in violence (“. . . “money” is a game we all agree to play and “property” is an illusion supported by firearms”) and that a “revolution” would probably entail some blood is not “a call to violence.” It is merely a recognition of “fact.” The oppressors rule by virtue of the gun and military organization. That is the current state of affairs and will continue to be the current state of affairs until such time as the oppressors are “disarmed” and their “military organization” is disbanded or smashed.
What is an error is to call for active resistance to the force of arms without being effectively organized to counter the oppressive machinery of unaccountable rule and a widespread willingness to, as you put it, “opt out.” Both conditions will have to be realized before “action” of any kind stands a chance of becoming “sufficient.”
“Opting out” in the manner that you seem to be suggesting – which would be the preferred option if it were possible — is as impossible as defeating an army intent upon your destruction without guns of your own.
The situation in which we find ourselves would not be one of “enslavement” or “oppression” if “we” could all just “opt out” en masse. If that was the case, the “opting out” would have happened long ago.
The currently insoluble problem is precisely that we can’t “opt out” without becoming the targets of the monopoly on violence that the capitalists currently command. Modern warfare is not merely or primarily “against” other states competing for pre-eminence in so-called frontier regions of empire, but primarily to subdue recalcitrant populations (usually peasants) who would rather remain “outside” the system. People don’t choose to “opt in,” but rather it’s “opt in or we will murder you.”
That monopoly on violence which is the bedrock of capitalist exploitation IS what will have to be broken if “we” are ever to progress into an era of relative freedom from want and peaceful coexistence. If you are wondering where the guns to facilitate “our opting out” would come from, they would be provided when so many people absolutely wanted to “opt out” that the rank-and-file in the military would decide to align themselves with the majority of whom they are a part.
Mutiny among the ranks of any military organization is always met by the most ferocious brutality, treason being the highest crime, that is to say, the refusal of orders from one’s superiors or commanding officers. Consequently, blood will be inevitable, although the greater the number of soldiers (or police) who would mutiny in one fell swoop, the less extensive would be the inevitable violence. In other words, and as you yourself well recognize, the more people determine to rebel at once, the less violent and destructive would be the process revolution.
At any rate, one of the essential things to understand about “revolution” or “social transformation” is this: it’s messy and in no case could it ever be smooth and linear because the “masses” are not uniformly of one mind . Consequently, there are unavoidable advances and retreats, twists and turns. The point is not to lose sight of the goal and to keep pushing ahead in any way “we” can. Sometimes the push can only be “ideological,” as what happens in forums such as this; and sometimes the push is and must be “militaristic,” as what happens in those parts of the world where “peoples,” by whatever opportunistic means are at hand, confront the empire with the same means of violence as the empire would use to crush their resistance.
Hi Norman,
I’m glad you were able to understand why St.Aug went for my jugular, I couldn’t understand his wrath. I have responded and hope to hear from him, but you have put into words what I was trying to convey, much better and by example, what I could not.
I don’t want to see violence on the streets, it serves no purpose, except to anger the elites in charge and their policy enforcers. What I am hoping for is much more subtle than that. I am seeing a shift in perspective and perception and as you stated it, many are now coming to realize that they have been co-opted into accepting a thinking that is not their own(using nudge and mind control techniques)but that of those wielding power. When enough people realize and it affects the enforcers themselves, the people taking the brunt of the subjective policies and those who begin to worry that they will be the next target, will begin to produce more cohesive thinking. Should the TPTB fail to see the warning signs, the peaceful demonstrations will grow in their numbers and their determination to right their up ended existence.
I think St. Aug was misunderstanding my words regarding the wet works he referred to, namely that I condoned it. Re-reading my post, I don’t always put my thoughts across very well.
Having said that, if England starts being invaded by extremist white supremacists, I’ll be joining the underground resistance and I’ll fight rather than lie down and let them walk all over me. My choice and mine alone!
No wrath, M. Merely disagreeing with you and pointing out that people calling for “bloody” revolution are calling for the pointless deaths of the young, the weak and the unlucky among us. Wishing for the pointless deaths of your neighbors (in a romantic convulsion of macho-catharsis) won’t stop the deaths in “The Middle East”… it’ll just feed more flesh to the Monster.
“I don’t want to see violence on the streets, it serves no purpose, except to anger the elites in charge and their policy enforcers.”
That’s where you’re wrong, M: the “elites” are the opposite of “angered” by violence in the streets. Again: violence is their oxygen. Too many of us picture a “revolution” as “violence in the streets” precisely because the “elites” have been putting that image in our heads since we were children; it’s a big part of our toxic miseducation. Don’t fall for it.
PS When the Serfs (that’s us) UNDERSTAND that the power to change is in Opting Out: THAT is the Revolution. And when that understanding spreads to all or most Serfs (including, to reiterate, the military… which is overwhelmingly comprised of Serfs… and the paramilitary police… also mostly Serfs): Revolution. Not through a macho fantasy of “smashing” or “disarming” the Military, which is not only impossible but the attempting of which will trigger the Martial Law that will render any organized unification/ resistance infinitely more difficult for generations.
Like it or not, the change will only happen through the Lefty Radicals and the Righty Radicals finding common cause and rejecting the Brainwashing somehow… which is precisely why stirring Hate/Contempt between all Races/ Classes/ Genders/ Ages/ Ideologies is the biggest ongoing project of the “elites”. The songs/ TV/ films/ games we “love” promote disunity. Maybe the first goal should be to somehow neutralize that affect by creating a more vibrant Underground Counterculture…? (Before the Internet goes in two-tier lockdown…)
In any case, thinking should be done along those lines. Violence is a non-starter. Again: that’s precisely what they want.
@Norm; Mohandeer; StAug: defection of the military and paramilitary police may work on the periphery of Empire – but in its Heartland – I believe TFIC have a cunning plan. NATO have been stocking up on ‘non-lethal’ arms; and training in ‘urban warfare’ at a purpose built facility at Sachsen-Anhalt. If the shit hit the fan; I believe they would use a ‘Clause V’ deployment: the Turks in the UK; the Bundeswehr in Canada? If I’m right, defection of arms is not going to happen. America has its own counter-revolutionary strategy: lock up the entire (predominantly Black) underclass in the prison industrial complex – before they can reorganise into a Civil Rights movement: coupled with the overt threat of a collated mass data profiled PHEONIX; run by Erik Prince.
The ‘Revolution’ will not be televised, will not be live, because our incipient dissent has been profiled; our ‘mood’ and likely behaviour calculated; the response planned. That is the end the internet has been co-opted to. TFIC are way ahead of the game against both violent and non-violent revolution.
I posed the question below: what happened to targeted defunding, boycott, and sanction? Or General Strike, the reason why Labour Movements have almost universally been destroyed – because they work. Financialisation and rentierism are a supuration on the real economy – hit them where it hurts – in their free extraction of Proletariate wealth? I could go further; taxation and interest are usurious – and should be illegal under both the UK and US Constitutions. Many forms of personal debt are ‘odious’; and not a fair exchange of contract (most literally something for nothing)… There are avenues… And if they do resort to violent repression against non-violent (and pro-Constitutional means – why do you think that TFIC are so keen to suspend or rewrite the Constitution(s)???) – they lose the ‘moral right’ to govern – a veneer that TFIC have thus far been reluctant to remove…
The problem is, let’s face it, the argument is moot. A few million disparate people do not a revolution make. Reaching an effective threshold for real social change is possibly further away today than in Marx’s day. Cultural Marxism has been used against us to stratify an immiscible disunified counter-culture. Unity is a way off… but that could change rapidly… Lesbians of the world, unite!!! (with the environmentalists; anti-capitalists; vegetarians-vegans-animal righters; etc…)
I believe we are in a noetic struggle: intellectual right versus might. Cathartic re-education of us Proles might seem an insurmountable task; especially if it is individualised (virtually all higher education models have been co-opted toward myth continuation.) The means, the time, and the place will have to wait for the Will…
The ‘Monetary System’ (it’s not strictly limited to Capitalism any more) is inherently evil. There is no other word. “All human misery is a business model” [Ronald Bernard]: I’m inclined to agree with that. There is no person in their right mind who could continue to support such a system… Or so I have led myself to believe… ‘Opt out’ or expose the iniquity of the ‘System’ from within, it’s about the option left??? Thoughts?
At first blush, there is little I can disagree with in what you write, BigB. I think that we are all saying more or less the same thing if in a slightly different argot.
Let me make this clear, however: I am not “for” violent revolution. But I am “for” evaluating ‘reality’ as it is and “for” trying to find a way forward out this ‘historical period,’ however complex its structural imperatives may be and difficult the task.
While I agree with you that the establishment has enormous material and intellectual resources at its command, the fact remains that there is an ineradicable flaw in their “power structures,” to express it in the words of Nafeez Ahmed, form a piece to which you yourself alerted me (many thanks for that, btw!):
“. . . centralized top-down concentrations of power cannot overcome the power of people, their love of truth and justice, and their desire to share.”
If there is any chance of an egress out the barbaric conditions under which we currently live, it lies in that simple “fact.”
Empire cannot function without cadres of specialists and even non-specialists who are not honest and hence inculcated with a love of and thirst for truth, and since ‘oppression’ and ‘exploitation’ and ‘manipulation’ largely hinge on deceit, or as you put it, on “myth” (i.e. untruth), the possibility that people may awake to their condition of imprisonment is always ominously present and brooding.
I’m not saying that ‘mutiny’ will happen; I’m saying that because people are inherently capable of reflection and potentially able to collaborate and communicate with one another, ‘mutiny’ is always a possibility; I’m also saying that unless the rank-and-file who are the enforcers and guarantors of the privileges and prerogatives of ‘power’ do defect to the side of their class interests, since they are the overwhelming majority in the institutions of ‘power’ as well as recruited from the ‘majority’ in society at large, there will be no revolution, however bloody or peaceful or partial, and certainly no possibility of any “opting out” on a mass scale.
A shift in awareness must absolutely happen, and I know that it is possible because I myself have undergone many such shifts in the course of my own life. If it has happened to me, it can happen to others, and if a few million do not a revolution make, tens of millions or more possibly can, and a few million very much are a cultural potentiality that can grow to the tens of millions or more.
But I’ll re-read what you have written again later today and I’ll let you know if anything else comes to mind. On the whole, though, I think I’m much in agreement with what you’ve written, and of course with each and every “action” you recommend that I, as an individual, or in collaboration with others, should and can undertake in the circumstances.
Targeted defunding, boycott and sanction, or General Strike — by all means!
I know you know what I mean’t, but still:
Not: “Empire cannot function without cadres of specialists and even non-specialists who are not honest . . .”
But: “Empire cannot function without cadres of specialists and even non-specialists who are fastidiously honest . . .”
Either way, I believe it’s a multi-generational project. It took us centuries to get into this literal headlock and we aren’t getting out of it in a season. Silence, Exile, Cunning and Love-for-Life in the Non-Materialist Underground. Maybe we need Poetry again, for starters… poetry books hidden in hollowed-out TVs….
“I posed the question below: what happened to targeted defunding, boycott, and sanction? Or General Strike, the reason why Labour Movements have almost universally been destroyed – because they work. Financialisation and rentierism are a supuration on the real economy – hit them where it hurts – in their free extraction of Proletariate wealth? I could go further; taxation and interest are usurious – and should be illegal under both the UK and US Constitutions. Many forms of personal debt are ‘odious’; and not a fair exchange of contract (most literally something for nothing)… There are avenues… And if they do resort to violent repression against non-violent (and pro-Constitutional means – why do you think that TFIC are so keen to suspend or rewrite the Constitution(s)???) – they lose the ‘moral right’ to govern – a veneer that TFIC have thus far been reluctant to remove…”
I’ve long held that one of the first steps should be boycotting, say, the gas pumps for a week or month… a million people walking or biking to work for a spell. A dip in profits to get their attention and flex the demographic muscle of the cohort against the Wars. We could win back some of the ground we’ve lost in 40 years… one of the problems, I think, is that the Serfs have been far too docile for far too long… TFIC are openly contemptuous and very nearly flippant while snatching away Magna-Carta-type amenities left and right.
BigB
Essentially I agree with what you say. I have witnessed several “shifts” but none that survived passed the ballot box. What we are seeing all over Europe is a shift that although not seismic, does suggest an awakening.
Who would have thought that so many would flock to Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn and yet they did. The awareness, every now and then, blooms, as in the case of the Grenfall fire, it brought a huge response from the petite bourgoise to stand in unity with the “lower” working class in anger at the horror.
Perhaps we will see further escalation of unrest in response to the mindless and arrogant wealth orientated policies visited on the proles as though they were mindless idiots(because that is what TFIC think we are).
Both Sanders and Corbyn did succeed in making people aware of just how far down the road to mindless obedience and acceptance so many had trudged in their co-opted cathartic existence. The socialist view, as long as it is presented as basic humanitarian ideology, is palatable, while the right and faux left will be doing their best to label it as Trotskyist and Stalinist in order to herd the proles back in the direction they want them.
Basic values need repeating and also the means by which they can be seen as having been lost and how they can be regained is first priority, a route that makes it difficult for TFIC to refute or mock(which is their tendency)without exposing their immoral nature.
Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey.
It’s not going to happen overnight, but such is the state of national and global affairs as directed by TPTB, that more people each and every day are seeing through the smoke and mirrors and hopefully enlightenment.
The police and military are servants, just as the rest of us are, but they too, are being attacked by reductive policies and are not, by default, going to follow the battle plan without question, so TPTB are going to have to come up with ever more cunning plans to keep everybody in line. Given their propensity to regard their own thinking as superior, blind spots are likely.
I’m still hoping that if we give them enough rope they will hang themselves.
Sorted! So which bank do the four of us defund first? Barclays or HSBC? : -)
. . . if I owe more than I have on deposit, doesn’t that mean I’ve technically defunded my bank by the difference between what I owe and have on deposit? I think it does . . . especially if the plan is eventually to default . . . Oh, I know: it’s neither Barclays nor HSBC. Same brand of crooks, though. So I guess already “I’m in,” as they say . . .
Which reminds me: here is something perhaps to seriously consider if you don’t mind the inconvenience of having to be on the run for the rest of your life (perhaps you will remember the story):
On the Lam with Bank Robber Enric Duran
. . . oh, and a documentary to go with that particular story:
OK, Norm, you got me – I have no intention to go ‘dark’, or ‘off grid’. I’m a reluctant and minimal contributor to the ‘System’, I work for ‘the Man’… I can’t help but dream big, and like you, I’m just looking for a way… “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.””… Just like MLK.
Reblogged this on Worldtruth.
The tedium rolls on. Who shot down MH17? I don’t know and am getting a little tired of the ongoing self- righteous speculation. What the Russians might have gained from such a course of action in terms of their motivation seems implausible, and the fact that the flight path of the aircraft was directed by Kiev air traffic control to fly over a combat zone where several Ukrainian warplanes had already been lost, seems as though wanted a tragedy of this type to happen. Whatever. It was, without doubt, a crime against humanity
What is known, however, is that before accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes or dismissing the entire episode as a tragic fluke, it’s worth looking back at another doomed passenger plane—Iran Air Flight 655—shot down on July 3, 1988, not by some scruffy rebel on contested soil but by a U.S. Navy captain in command of an Aegis-class cruiser called the Vincennes. This was also a crime against humanity.
A quarter-century later, the Vincennes is almost completely forgotten, but it still ranks as the world’s seventh deadliest air disaster (Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is the sixth) and one of the Pentagon’s most inexcusable disgraces.
In 1992, four years after the event (and shortly after I moved on to a different beat), Admiral Crowe admitted on ABC’s Nightline that the Vincennes was in Iranian waters at the time it shot down the plane. Back in 1988, he and others had said that the ship was in international waters. It also came out that some other Navy officers had regarded Captain Rogers as “aggressive” and found it strange that he was moving his Aegis cruiser into those waters to pursue Iranian patrol boats—overkill at best, asking for trouble in any case.
Yes, those Iranian civil pilots brought this tragedy on themselves by using a flight path which was too close to the US warship, which was in Iranian waters.
Next time you go into a self-righteous blather about the evil Russians, Chinese, Koreans, Iranians tries looking at your own side. Even Trump blurted this inconvenient fact out on TV. As I recall his interlocutor stated that ‘Putin is a killer’. To which Trump replied, ‘there are plenty of killers … what you think we are so innocent?’ Actually, it was quite amusing to see the interviewer so completely flummoxed and speechless.
Your thinking is affective, child-like, messianic, lacking objectivity, factual analysis, long on speculation and short on facts.
I am a Russian and most people in my country falsely believe that a Ukrainian SU-25 shot down MH17.
“What the Russians might have gained from such a course of action in terms of their motivation seems implausible”
We did not gain anything. The fighters in E. Ukraine accidentally shot down MH17. If I accidentally hurt myself, can I blame my enemies, because they benefit? Of course not, since it was an accident.
“the flight path of the aircraft was directed by Kiev air traffic control to fly over a combat zone where several Ukrainian warplanes had already been lost, seems as though wanted a tragedy of this type to happen. ”
My government spread quite a bit of propaganda and lies about Ukrainian ATC “mysteriously” instructing MH17 to undergo a route deviation, with the insinuation that it was done on purpose. However, our own primary radar data shows no such deviations occurred – it was all a lie. Furthermore, the Ukrainians had imposed height restrictions on flights. because they knew the fighters had MANPADs, so the height restriction was such that the planes would be out of reach of said weapon. They did not know the fighters had access to a BUK. Many other flights had routinely flown that route. In fact, it would be incorrect to say Kiev “directed” that flight over the warzone, since that was MH17’s normal route. Nevertheless, I agree that they should have closed the airspace.
“What is known, however, is that before accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of war crimes or dismissing the entire episode as a tragic fluke, it’s worth looking back at another doomed passenger plane—Iran Air Flight 655”
If we are to look at historical air disaster responses by our countries, then don’t forget the Soviet Union shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the 11th worse air disaster in the world. How did the USSR respond? By claiming the incident was a “CIA false flag” to “blacken the Soviet Union’s image.” Various conspiracy theories were launched, including a mirror of the “strange flight route deviation” conspiracy theory propagated by our MoD about MH17.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007_alternative_theories#Flight_crew_awareness_of_deviation
Please read my below post for a list of my government’s lies, which, unfortunately, some naive Westerners have fallen for.
“Please read my below post for a list of my government’s lies, which, unfortunately, some naive Westerners have fallen for”
“Naive” because we believe that NATO (aka Washington) is deliberately and aggressively painting Russia into a corner and, after engineering a coup in Ukraine, is eager to use all of its favorite Propaganda Tools (False Flags among them) until Perception inverts Reality and the Russians look like the aggressors?
Uh: no.
The naive ones are the readers who think that you (who we’ll assume, for the sake of argument, are Russian) are an authority on the Reality of the situation merely because you’re “Russian”. The naive ones believe that the profoundly reprehensible Hillary “Lady MacBeth” Clinton lost the election because “Russians”… and that Moscow was persecuting the CIA-staged-and-supported, freedom-loving “Pussy Riot” and that Russia is backward and homophobic while the USA (which was so homophobic, until it decided to use homophobia as an anti-Russia tool, that closeted politicians could be blackmailed and Gay marriage was a raging big no-no until very recently and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was a thing, as was the “Twinkie Defense” (Google it)) is, of course, a shining beacon of Progressive Values. Unless, of course, you’re Black and Poor or Mexican and Poor or Muslim. Or just Poor.
The biggest, baddest, slickest Liar of them all is Uncle Sam, who has covered the world in Lies since the rise to Super Power status in the 20th Century. But the big difference between Uncle Sam’s Lies and everyone else’s lies (Stalin, you amateur! Goebbels, you hick! Pffft) is how good Uncle Sam’s Lies taste: the world LOVES them. From Disney to Gangsta Rap to Katy Perry to “American Sniper” to “Hope and Change” and “Evil Empire”… the steaming chunks of bullshit floating in a punch bowl of poison Kool-Aid and blood that the genuinely naive ones just love to drink. Judeo-Christian-Capitalist-Corporate-Anglo-American-Darwinian-Democracy-Porno-Puritanical-Blitzkrieg Exceptionalism for ALL! Or Death.
And you’re calling me naive?
St. Aug
Ha, ha, ha – well said, couldn’t be bothered with this anti Putin oik so dismissed him as a Navalny troll. Your response put into words everything I could have wished for, he’s beyond naive, just totally contemptible. To even start to disseminate the misrepresentations he gave us just wasn’t worth my time, since those who have followed the whole debacle that is the US prop and FF have moved on. He seems to think he is the only Russian and for that matter, Ukrainian, any of us communicate with and therefore, we are easily hoodwinked. I suppose on many sites he would be received well, but I for one, who follow Russian news and Russian activists, could never take him seriously any more than I could Higgins. There are apparently other Navalny and anti Putinists on the site but their numbers are likely to increase as the wealthy power backed CIA deploy ever more trolls to sites like OffG, we’ll just have to live with it.
So glad you put your considerable wordsmith talent to use on the I.K
Anti-Putin? I voted for the man. So now if a Russian DARES criticize Putin, Western useful id.iots like you can “dismiss” us?
My oh my, our government has brainwashed you well!
“their numbers are likely to increase as the wealthy power backed CIA deploy ever more trolls to sites like OffG”
How much of an overly-inflated opinion must you have of yourself and this website to assume the CIA would find you important enough to send an army of trolls your war?
How arrogant.
I.K.
I notice you failed to give the links pertaining the the many lies the UK Government related through our toilet rag MSM, or the lies the Danish govt. presented(as exposed by several Danish and Netherlands journalists NOT Russophobic, or the US lies.
In a sentence:
You have wholly misrepresented the debate on Mh17 by presenting one side only with a few links to anti Russian outlets.
That, matey, makes you a troll deliberately trying to hijack the comments section on an article exposing the way free speech is being manipulated to serve the interests of TPTB.
I would go so far as to say, you have demonstrated the point of the article’s veracity extremely well.
The fact that you seem to want to dismiss Treason May’s sneaky little secret law which has given permission for one in one thousand people using internet media to be targeted, suggests you are well behind the times of Cyber warfare and should reserve your insults for people who don’t use the internet, primarily because they will be the only ones not affected.
“How much of an overly-inflated opinion must you have of yourself and this website to assume the CIA would find you important enough to send an army of trolls your war?
How arrogant.”
How far removed from reality and the known universe are you, in failing to notice the close rapport MI5/6 have had with the CIA for over fifty years(long before it became the CIA, in fact)?
How naive.
You serve the interests of TPTB in an insidious and totally dishonest way, just as the article which you turned into a hate Russia discourse, suggested the clandestine response by snoopers would be. Because you are playing the tune of the anti Russian mob, you will never be closed down, but your fellow Russians(if you are indeed Russian) who are trying to deflect the hate mongers aligned against them, will be silenced. How cosy for you and intolerable for the.
I don’t need to call you names, my sentiments regarding you are obvious and I probably speak for 80% of Russians as well. Do your family and any loyal Russian friends you might have, know just how much ammunition you donate to the anti Russian propagandist machine animosity directed at them on a daily basis? With “friends” like you, the Russian people really don’t need enemies.
You have exposed your lunacy.
Out of all the garbage you wrote above, including your strawmen about NATO, PR, LGBT, etc. does anything to to address the issue of the Russian government’s lies about MH17.
Speaking of history, look up Operation INFEKTION.
“the CIA-staged-and-supported, freedom-loving “Pusy Riot”
You are mentally ill, brainwashed by my country’s propaganda and nationalist media websites. I’m no fan of Pusy Riot, but not even our most ardently pro-goverment brainwashed people claim Pusy Riot is a “CIA-staged-and-supported” group.
Now, go pretend imaginary SU-25s shot down MH17. And seriously, seek help.
My goodness, this is the first time I’ve ever triggered a hissy-fit in a troll! Laugh. (Not really). Bye-bye! It’s been (pointless) fun!
You believe Pusy Riot is CIA-controlled. ‘Nuff said.
Oh, good, back again…
I.K;
“My government spread quite a bit of propaganda and lies about Ukrainian ATC “mysteriously” instructing MH17 to undergo a route deviation…”
You are correct only in that it was Mh17 that requested
At 13:00 UTC the crew asked for a deviation of 20 nautical miles (37 km) to the left (north) of course, on airway L980, due to weather conditions. This request was also approved by Dnipro Control. The crew then asked if they could climb to FL 340, which was rejected as this flight level was not available, so MH17 remained at FL 330. At 13:19 UTC Dnipro Control noticed that the flight was 3.6 nautical miles (6.7 km) north from the centerline of approved track and instructed MH17 to return to the track. At 13:19 UTC Dnipro Control contacted Russian air control in Rostov-on-Don (RND) over telephone and requested clearance for transferring the flight to Russian air control.
Who are these Guardian Readers who voted you down? And why aren’t they busy reading the Guardian, instead?
The argument about anonymity is at its crux when human filth, posting anonymously use never-ending smearing of respectable parties. In a traditional society, you go and knock on someones door, inform their employer etc. You get to see who your opponent is.
How would you like false accusations of being a paedophile? Never ending lies about particular public policies you support? Never ending trashing of your integrity, you political position, all by mentally subnormal, hate filled ignoramuses you cannot go and face down directly?
It is one thing holding minority views, it is quite another printing statements which would see convictions in court if plaintiffs knew who to prosecute…….
If normal semi-peaceful paths are blocked, you hold a gun to the head of the website owner and demand the IP addresses upon pain of blowing their brains out……
Anonymity all too often appeases filth and causes suffering of decent people…..
rtj 1211
The point of this article is to show how the many are being attacked by the few as in the wealthy power backed MSM with their false agenda using propaganda and nudge tactics to silence those who would expose their lies and corruption.
There are indeed those who would shower abuse on people promoting lies and false propagandist views, in the case of powerful interests, the few have little recourse, in the case of the spiteful who make false allegations their victims do have recourse, but there are some who have been found out, often by their own misdeeds, who will be “outed” – they have only themselves to blame. (In the words of the police themselves: “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime”) so the internet is a powerful tool for justice as much as control – it depends who holds the power, doesn’t it?
Free speech should not and does not allow vitriolic hate speech, except when the powerful are the ones spewing it, for the majority, who are simply trying to put the truth to the lies, they should not be in fear of speaking those truths. As with most things in life, this is not a black and white subject, there are grey areas.
Perhaps you might like to expound on your comment in a more precise manner and offer an instance other than the vague broad brush strokes charge you offered?(“….How would you like false accusations of being a paedophile?”….the police can intervene as can the courts in defamation suits in which the defamed gets to silence their detractors.
“Never ending lies about particular public policies you support?….if their are lies about particular public policies then those speaking those lies can be exhorted,(but beware, the knife cuts both ways).
” Never ending trashing of your integrity,” one does not need state enforced protection from disparaging remarks, anymore than the above examples, as long as the “trashing” has no basis and the integrity is there in the first place.
” you political position”, “your” political position is always going to be under attack from someone, as most of us on this site can attest,
“all by mentally subnormal, hate filled ignoramuses” would that be the sort you assign such language against, who disagree with your thinking, be the foul mouthed sort or just those who oppose your thinking and let you know in no uncertain terms?
“you cannot go and face down directly?”, there is nothing stopping anyone receiving abuse from retaliating and stating the error of their abusers thinking and it is natural for people to respond to that which they do not like.
Unfortunately we have bigots (hate filled ignoramuses) in every walk of life and bigotry should not be tolerated and yet Channel 4’s “The Last Leg” allows for continued and unabated bigoted attacks against President Putin –
Charlie Hebdo promoted disgusting defamatory insults against Muslims – UKIP has based an entire political agenda on denigrating immigrants as the butt of all our woes – the Conservatives have based their political agenda on dehumanising the jobless and disabled, the Labour “Right” have cast not only aspersions but outright lies against their own Corbyn support base, the DUP have uttered publicly the most hate filled abuse against minority groups and the extremist Zionist Lobby have excoriated any and all who oppose the Apartheid regime that is Israel, including fellow Jews who dismiss Zionism.
We are assailed daily with this and yet this is promoted by the MSM, it’s in print and the only way those wishing to expose their lies and propaganda is by means of on line sites.
Are you suggesting that the voice of dissent be silenced, so that government and MSM lies are the only voices heard?
“Are you suggesting that the voice of dissent be silenced, so that government and MSM lies are the only voices heard?”
Don’t quite get who would down-vote this comment. Also: what’s going on at the OffGuard these days? The general tone is very strange of late…
Yes. I think there are a few trolls lurking in the wings who don’t want to post comments but like the idea of down voting. Don’t know how telling the up voting is either, but their are at least three trolls in hiding and others are obviously being contacted to flood the site.
The whole Mh17 post was probably nothing more than a misdirect in order to discredit Putin and Russia, we can expect to see more of this if OffG has been targeted. Who knows, they might get bored and move on, if not we can just ignore those we identify as trolls, the way we usually do.
You Westerners are lucky. Here in Russia, censorship is far, far worse. VPNs will soon be banned and countless normal websites have been blocked. In the U.S., not a single website has been blocked, unless it involves CP.
It’s even worse in China. Feel lucky, my friends. The West has the freest internet in the world.
The saddest thing? The vast majority (60%) of sheep in my country actually AGREE with the fact that censorship is necessary for “information security” – a term used by Pres. Putin.
“In the U.S., not a single website has been blocked…”
Har. We don’t call it “censorship” we call it a “Third Party Content Violation Takedown Notice”. We of the West are smooth like that.
Btw, where in Russia are you writing from…?
I’m from Tambov Oblast.
I know of no websites banned in the West, although I could be wrong. Piracy is another thing. Personally, I think it’s perfectly fine for copyright notices to be sent out. What gives someone the right to download someone else’s hard word for free? I try not to pirate myself, although services like Netflix may not be as cheap or even allowed in Russia very soon – the Russian gov is probably going to pass a law dictating that a certain % of shows offered be in the Russian languages.
Over 70,000 banned sites in Russia: https://reestr.rublacklist.net
Sadly, almost no one opposes this. They call themselves “patriots”.
As for political censorship, when the Surkov’s aides’ emails were leaked, no MSM outlets covered them. The press secretary even said they were all “fabrications”! Not even miss Hilary Clinton had the audacity to outright claim that all her emails were faked. And I will never forget my country’s lies about MH17, which some in the West actually believe.
Oh well, what can one person like me do?
“And I will never forget my country’s lies about MH17, which some in the West actually believe.”
What were these “lies”, then?
When Chavez was alive, an old friend of mine was posting (when I was still on Facebook) naked material about him. His “authority” came from the fact that he was getting all of his anti-Chavez “information” directly from Venezuela… from his friend. I had to remind him that there are all kinds of Venezuelans, left or right, rich or poor, pro or anti American. His friend was a conservative, white-skinned member of the bourgeoisie… of course he was anti-Chavez. His “insights” were not especially compelling.
And, again: here in “The West”, we like our Fascism sugar-coated and gluten-free; our censorship is here to “protect” us from having our feelings hurt. It’s a very clever tactic: people are less likely to try peaking behind the curtain.
erratum: peeking
erratum also: “nakedly propagandistic” (instead of “naked”… laugh… must remember to avoid typing while chatting with Wife)
St Aug: re – I.K: what part of Russia are you from… GCHQ? 😉
BigB! LOL as the kiddies say
MH17 is something that has gotten me into heated arguments with my family members, very sensitive topic in Russia. But the gov has told many, many lies.
When the incident first occurred, the gov concocted a story about an imaginary Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet shooting down MH17. It claimed the the holes in the cockpit of the Boeing were by 30mm machine gun fire, not a BUK.
On the July 21 2014 press conference the Russian MoD said an SU-25 approached MH17 (they pointed at radar marks showing falling debris of MH17 and claimed that was an SU-25):
“The Russian military detected a Ukrainian SU-25 fighter jet gaining height towards the MH17 Boeing on the day of the catastrophe. Kiev must explain why the military jet was tracking the passenger airplane, the Russian Defense Ministry said.”
Source: https://www.rt.com/news/174412-malaysia-plane-russia-ukraine/
However, two years later, the gov suddenly “found” raw primary data that it claimed it had earlier missed. The new findings were presented on September 26, 2016:
“There were no airborne side objects near the Malaysian airliner. Except for two commercial aircraft – No. 1775 and No. 4722. The first plane appeared long before the disaster, and the second was at a distance of over 30 km from it. There were no any side objects near the plane before its disintegration,” Viktor Meshcheryakov, deputy chief constructor from Lianozovo Electromechanical Plant, which develops radar station Utyos-T, said at a briefing in Moscow just two days prior to a new report to be released by a Dutch-led investigative team.”
Source (Russian): https://ria.ru/mh17/20160926/1477865136.html
You can see these two statements contradict themselves. First they claimed there was an SU-25, then they admit there wasn’t any, two years later, after much of the domestic populace believed the story. The SU-25 story was deliberate disinformation, to distract from the BUK theory.
Another lie:
On July 21 2014, they claimed MH17 made a strange route deviation. However, on September 26 2016 they showed some interesting radar images.
Here is the route of MH17 as shown by the Russia MoD at July 21 2014:
http://www.whathappenedtoflightmh17.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mh17track.png
Here is the route of MH17 as shown on the press conference at September 26:
http://www.whathappenedtoflightmh17.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mh17-track-donetsk.jpg
The September 26 screenshot clearly shows MH17 did not make a turn like the one indicated by yellow. The route of MH17 was just like the flightplan with a slight deviation towards the north to avoid weather. Thus, there was never a deviation.
The gov’s goal when it lied about MH17 undergoing “suspicious” flight deviations was to make people believe the conspiracy theory that all this was done deliberately by the Ukrainians.
Funny, because they used this same tactic 2 decades ago, when as the Soviet Union, we shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007_alternative_theories#Flight_crew_awareness_of_deviation
Another huge lie:
A few hours after MH17 was shot down, a Spanish guy named “Carlos” claimed on Twitter that he worked in Ukraine as an Air Traffic Controller (ATC). He claimed he knew an SU-25 shot down MH17. He was even given an interview by RT Spanish! However, discrepancies began to emerge in his narrative: he could not speak Ukrainian/Russian, his I.P. address when contacting various websites showed he was in London, foreigners can not work as ATCs in Ukraine, his Twitter history showed he was an “anti-Maidan” activist in E. Ukraine, etc. It’s clear he lied, but why would he lie? Most likely paid by my government as a propagandist.
And perhaps my most favourite lie of all:
Some time ago, a Ukrainian pilot claimed to have overheard a fellow pilot say he accidentally shot down MH17 with his SU-25. He then “defected” to Russia and was paraded around on state TV, robotically repeating his claims. However, this claim is in direct contradiction with the claim of the BUK manufacturer that admit it was a BUK (although it took years to admit this, after the SU-25 hoax was exhausted). Thus, someone in the Russian gov is lying: it was either an SU-25 or a BUK. Since it’s now accepted by us and the West that it was some sort of BUK, we can confirm that the pilot defector lied. Now, why would he lie? And do you think the Russian gov did not know he was lying? Of course they knew. The fact that the man left Ukraine and took his family to Russia over this means he was paid a hefty sum by my government. All he had to do was repeat disinformation about an SU-25.
A state poll that was taken last October shows the following results:
“Half of Russians (50%) think that the Malaysian Boeing was downed by the Ukrainian military attack over the Donetsk region. 14% blame Western special services.”
“Versions about the involvement of insurgents of the DPR and LPR as well as Russian special services are extremely unpopular: the shares of those who believe it is true are 4% and 1, respectively.”
Therefore, only 4% of my fellow citizens believe the DPR shot down MH17, while 14% literally blame “Western special services.”
Source: https://wciom.com/index.php?id=61&uid=1316
All these lies are not accidental.
The BUK left an obvious trail. Also, the only AA weapon in Ukraine capable of downing an airliner was a BUK, thus the Americans knew it was a BUK. Common sense. Only the Russian gov tried inserting “alternative” theories about an SU-25 to confuse people. The U.S. knew in mere hours it was a BUK. Russian gov tried to deflect from this by providing another story regarding the SU-25.
And then of course, the internet was full of strange conspiracy theories, including “false flags”, etc. A common talking point I witnessed online was this: “Russia had no motive to shoot down the Boeing. Since the West benefited from this, it must have been them.” I have never understood this, because it was clearly an accident, so of course Russia doesn’t benefit. The fighters in Eastern Ukraine thought they were shooting military jet, so they accidentally shot down MH17. If I drop a glass bottle in my foot and it starts bleeding, can I blame my enemies for doing this, since I don’t benefit from this and they do? Of course not, since it was an unforeseen, unplanned accident.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/full-transcript-russianbacked-rebels-ransack-the-wreckage-of-mh17-in-shocking-17minute-video/news-story/fa8f3e7c9c3296fba0013f8a29abfeb6
The above is a leaked video/transcript of the immediate aftermath. Notice how the fighters keep saying there was a “Sukhoi” that crashed. They claim they shot the Sukhoi down and that the 2 pilots who parachuted out had to be found.
First issue: no Sukhoi’s wreckage has ever been found there, or any pilots. This means the rebels shot at something they thought was a Sukhoi, and something came down. But since it wasn’t the Sukhoi, it could only be one thing: MH17. Also, if they tried shooting down the Sukhoi, they definitely had a long-range AA weapon. A MANPAD can’t reach a Sukhoi. So what could they have used? A BUK TELAR system.
There we have it then. Now we know where the SU-25 story from my gov comes from: it was from the mistaken belief of the rebels that they were shooting down a Sukhoi with a BUK, but actually shot down a Boeing.
Apologies for my English grammar and for my long rambling post. It’s a sensitive topic that’s gotten me denounced as a “traitor” sometimes even by my own family. Hyper-nationalism is toxic for democracy, heh.
PS: As I was browsing for the above sources, I came upon this disgusting article:
https://www.rt.com/news/395336-media-russia-china-simonyan/
Editor in chief of RT ignores her own network’s lies about MH17 and asks Chinese state journalists, from a country with heavy repression of free speech, to “fight information terrorism together”! Makes me feel sick to my stomach.
I.K. (if that really is your name): you and I both know that MH17 was a NATO attempt to frame Russia during the “color revolution” (installing NATO-friendly Nazis after a coup) in Ukraine. Obviously, the schedule is now slightly fucked up, since Hillary”Lady MacBeth” Clinton was squeezed out of her deal-making power-slot by a hapless baby Plutocrat who was probably put in place to scare the electorate toward Clinton (ooops). It’s far too late to come ’round here with your obvious “wit of the staircase” attempt at retro-spin. Did Russia “accidentally shoot down” MH370, too? And TWA Flight 800? And Pan Am Flight 103? Etc?
Now, mind you; I’m not saying I’m not slightly suspicious re: Putin and Polish Air Force flight Tu-154… but… no. Fuck off with the MH17 bullshit.
Not buying. Go knock on another door, mate… I mean, Comrade. Whatever.
erratum: “the Polish Air Force Tu-154”
(who’s down-voting my ‘erratum’? Laugh. I shouldn’t have corrected the error…? )
Anyone know this clip? Any way to know how valid it is…?
Er. No.
First on-site video of plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczyinski?
Quite why you have been down voted for posting a video clip and a question eludes me presently, but why are you interested in the Polish Presidents death?
He died in the crash of a Polish Air Force jet that occurred on a landing attempt at Smolensk-North airport in Russia. If any foul play was involved it was likely the Polish opposition, not Russia. (Of course if certain people like Harvey Kushner got involved it would definitely be Russia’s fault!(That goes without saying)
“Quite why you have been down voted for posting a video clip and a question eludes me presently, but why are you interested in the Polish Presidents death?”
The general topic of discussion was Realpolitik (dirty edition); NATO is trying to pincer Russia. You don’t think Russia is capable of playing that chess game in the proper idiom? To recognize NATO as a global Mafia should not mean that we have to think of their targets as choir boys and girls. It’s an interesting video: may or may not be faked. It appears to show a mop-up operation after the crash. Implausible? Maybe. Maybe not. I remain curious. One thing is for certain: in the course of the constant struggle to shift or maintain the balance of power, nations kill. We can’t be surprised by this.
@StAug: Bravo! Apart from the last bit (overharsh on Mohandeer???) – probably the most prescient comment I’ve read on this site. Hardly MLK, (laugh), but you may well have hit upon the only weapon of mass instruction: BDS TFIC!!! Violent revolution justifies the excessively violent repression that inevitably follows: and with the IDF or Academi style privateers becoming global trainers of the police – forget it. TFIC have planned the reprisal for nearly 60 years – a mass data driven Pheonix with Eric Prince in charge!!!!
Non-violent revolution may start out laudably, with the right intention – but before you know it CANVAS style agitprop agent provocateurs start handing out the ‘Gene Sharp’ manuals – and Soros is choosing a colour for you. And deliberately ‘unorganised’ and de-centralised ‘revolution’ worked well for the Occupy movement, n’est pa?
What happened to targeted defunding and sanction? It was all the rage when I was younger.
Not by way of criticism, because I agree with you – but if we break those numbers down: of the 7.5 billion humans; fully 6bn have been boycotted by the system already – left to eke out a survivalist non-existence between the rapings, burnings and state sponsored terrorist raids. Of the 1.5bn in the ‘system’ – only 8-10 families; and 8-8,500 ‘enablers’ truly benefit [based on the recent Ronald Bernard videos.] I wouldn’t like to guess what the split of ‘enfranchised’ and ‘disenfranchised’ is – but I would surmise that a supramajority of the ‘disenfranchised’ only want the system to be modified so that they become the new ‘enfranchised.’ That leaves me and thee; and maybe a couple a hundred thousand disparate and geographically dispersed folk! Viva la revolucion!! 🙂
Certainly the British Government under the far right have done their fair share of genocidal murder, so why shouldn’t countries trying to survive NATO genocidal murder(Donetsk from the NATO observed bombing, using US shells from the Paladin system)also be able to play their nasty game. There is no reason that NATO can justify denouncing such conduct when they themselves are guilty of same.
There are always the two basic Realities: what actually happens and The Show They Put On For The Serfs. But the whole system is essentially beholden to a trans-national network of professional killers, operating at various scales and skill-levels, for whom killing means nothing. Otherwise, try to imagine how different the World would both be and appear to be! “Even” multi-national corporations (think Pepsico or United Fruit in South America)… how could they “win” without the wet work? ( note the year of the following event, linked below)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_massacre
Whilst some “wet works” do indeed protect the security of the population as in the case of Jihadist recruitment by radicalisation, others such as the Banana massacre are nothing more than subjugation of the poor and genuine revolutionaries against a murderous state at the demand of the US to protect it’s interests, namely profit at the expense of the already poor and subjugated, such massacres are nothing short of crimes against humanity. I was particularly disgusted with the totally corrupt Colombian government as displayed by the communications:
The Dispatch from U.S. Bogotá Embassy to the U.S. Secretary of State, dated December 29, 1928, stated:
“I have the honor to report that the legal advisor of the United Fruit Company here in Bogotá stated yesterday that the total number of strikers killed by the Colombian military authorities during the recent disturbance reached between five and six hundred; while the number of soldiers killed was one.[8]”
The Dispatch from U.S. Bogotá Embassy to the US Secretary of State, dated January 16, 1929, stated:
“I have the honor to report that the Bogotá representative of the United Fruit Company told me yesterday that the total number of strikers killed by the Colombian military exceeded 1000.”[8]
That the correspondents deemed it honourable to brag about such murder pretty much says it all regarding the US attitude towards anyone who stands in their way.
In some respects, nothing has changed and until Russia and China smash the US foreign policy of elimination of all who stand in it’s way (and that has to include the war hungry Imperialist EU countries – the UK, France and Germany) this kind of murderous “wet works” will continue unabated.The only difference seems to be the level of murder in it’s sheer volume of dead, from 2-3,000 to half a million. Perhaps they count it as “inflation” much like the cost of food versus what people have to spend.
As for how it would be and appear to be – I don’t think the dead would quite see it that way, but of course they are no longer here to speak for themselves. It really is time for the culpable MSM to be brought low and the revolution to gather pace, in earnest. It’s going to be bloody, but so is the alternative of doing nothing(especially for the intended victims).
“It really is time for the culpable MSM to be brought low and the revolution to gather pace, in earnest. It’s going to be bloody, but so is the alternative of doing nothing(especially for the intended victims).”
What revolution are you referring to? The only Revolution worthy of the term would be people, on a vast scale, opting out. It wouldn’t be “bloody”. People would just stop supporting The System by opting to stop being The System… but first they would merely have to stop Believing. Any “revolution” in the sense of people running around smashing things and setting things alight is just more of the same limited catharsis that only causes, at best, deaths and/or injuries among Serfs and the destruction of Serf neighborhoods. It’s a macho-romantic 18th/19th century myth… a hold-over from a time before TFIC were in possession of technological fire power that the Serfs themselves can’t come close to matching. And, even then, when the playing field was almost level… the “revolutions” you’ve been sold as Serf vs Power Structure were really Emergent Power Structure vs Old Garde. Do you think TFIC would educate you about actual successful Revolution? The first thing to know about the “revolutions” you’ve been sold, in “history” books, was that they were extremely expensive; ie, they were supported by the George Soroses of the day. They were just like the “color revolutions” of now… they were exactly like the bullshit in Ukraine. Do you really think the essential methods have changed so much in three hundred years?
If TFIC were afraid of violence, there wouldn’t be Agents Provocateurs at every large-scale demonstration, trying their best to trigger violence. Violence is their oxygen. What they couldn’t cope with would be a large scale Serfy walk-out (which would have to include the police and as much of the military as possible). The very threat of a large-scale Serfy walk-out or Boycott is enough to get them to back off a little, ease up on the “austerity”… (before the Serfs were so brainwashed, this has happened; it was always called “prosperity”). The System cannot function without our willing participation. Violent “revolution” is a trap. All we need to do (one day a decade, or a generation or three, from now) is understand that “money” is a game we all agree to play and “property” is an illusion supported by firearms. Until the military/ paramilitary police consist predominantly of mechanical Robots, there is Hope: the police are Serfs, too: they need to Understand this. The key is a sudden Mass Understanding leading to a Global Refusal to Participate.
There are 7 billion of us and a few million of Them: that is the obvious-yet-elusive Reality. Don’t rush into getting a few thousand young people killed in pointless clashes with the centurions of The System just because the thought (of a limited Apocalypse) seems glorious: who taught you this notion? A phony revolution in which thousands of Serfs are killed is exactly the “cleansing” (getting rid of or imprisoning the most active “trouble makers”) that TFIC need to stabilize The System. Don’t fall for it. And stop disseminating that violent talk… you’re working for TFIC when you do that. Wake up.
@StAug: I left a reply for you, but I hit the wrong ‘Reply’ button – it’s above!
I wrote a long reply about MH17, and you did not address anything specific I wrote. What is incorrect about what I said? Swearing at me does not help.
I presented clear contradictions in what the Russian gov claimed about MH17. MH17 has nothing to do with NATO or anything else.
And I never blamed Russia for MH17. I blame the fighters in E. Ukraine, who accidentally shot down MH17.
As for the Polish AF Flight, that was a tragic mistake on part of the pilot, nothing to do with Russia.
Some people in the West fell for my government’s lies. This is quite fascinating to watch, I must say.
It’s weird: sometimes your use of the definite article is rock solid, other times… a bit wobbly. Top marks for your command of English overall, though.
Ah, my English isn’t perfect, but thank you for the compliment – I rarely post on English websites, so I’ve been using English less and less lately.
To reply to your post below, I just wanted to know whether you agree or disagree with the fact that my government has contradicted itself. It’s accepted that some sort of BUK took down the Boeing, which means the pilot, Spanish “ATC” and Russian gov/media claiming there was an SU-25 lied.
Everything points to it being a BUK missile shot by the fighters in E. Ukraine, who accidentally thought they were shooting at a Ukrainian military plane.
It is almost 2:00 AM and I have to go to sleep – good night everyone!
I wrote a long reply about MH17, and you did not address anything specific I wrote. What is incorrect about what I said? Swearing at me does not help.
I presented clear contradictions in what the Russian gov claimed about MH17. MH17 has nothing to do with NATO or anything else.
And I never blamed Russia for MH17. I blame the fighters in E. Ukraine, who accidentally shot down MH17.
As for the Polish AF Flight, that was a tragic mistake on part of the pilot, nothing to do with Russia.
Some people in the West fell for my government’s lies. This is quite fascinating to watch, I must say.
“I wrote a long reply about MH17, and you did not address anything specific I wrote.”
Indeed; you could post a “new twist” on the Gov spin regarding 9/11 and I wouldn’t do a point-by-point on that, either. Do you think I’m getting paid to rebut you? Laugh. Find someone else to work as a foil for your project, mate.
You seem dead set to reject any criticism on your views about MH17. Now I know how ignorant Westerners are. You are simply unable to rebut anything I said.
I pointed out that the Russian gov first claimed there was an SU-25 and then, two years later, admitted there were no military aircraft near MH17. I also pointed out that multiple people pretending to be ATCs or pilots from Ukraine claiming to have proof of an SU-25 shooting down MH17 were used by the Russian state media as propaganda tools.
It seems you lack the sufficient knowledge about MH17 and my government’s lies. Nothing wrong with admitting you fell for my government’s lies about MH17 – naive Westerners have always existed who believe anything critical of the West/U.S.
Still, I must say, this has gotten quite entertaining. Never in my life has someone completely refused to address my arguments in such a transparent attempt to hide their inability to accept something critical of their worldview.
My government shamefully lied about MH17 and tried spreading disinformation about it. Just like with Operation INFEKTION, a KGB disinformation campaign to spread the conspiracy theory that the U.S. government invented the AIDS virus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_INFEKTION
Thankfully, our leaders then were sane and honest enough to later admit to having executed this disinformation campaign and apologized for it. I doubt my government will do the same now, so I will do it myself:
I am sorry that my government and state media lied about MH17. By creating multiple, contradictory conspiracy theories about MH17, we have only lengthened the cruel suffering of the families of the victims of MH17. And ignore all the gullible Westerners – they are a lost cause, as is evident by the gentleman above.
“You seem dead set to reject any criticism on your views about MH17. Now I know how ignorant Westerners are. You are simply unable to rebut anything I said.”
Why argue with me? Find someone else. I don’t have time to re-hash every single theory that wants re-hashing, every day, all the time, as we forever start from Scratch (every new day is Day One) here on the Moebius Strip of Parapolitical Commentary. I have heard/read the theories (or variations thereupon) that
you are pushing; I have my opinion on them. Find someone who is new to this.
I.K is obviously one of Navalny’s supporters judging by the way he tried to defend him when I replied to his post.
Not quite, considering I voted for Putin before. Refuting a lie does not mean I support someone.
For example, one does not need to be a Navalny supporter to understand that this behaviour, by brainwashed sheeple, is wrong (watch with subtitles):
Many thanks for this “information”. I too often go to Elliott Higgins site at Bell End. Of course I have already read all this and all his other alternate “facts” as well – what a shame he can’t keep up with his own disinformation.
Anyone else wishing to visit Bell End and find out what else Higgins has been up to now that he has his funding can view all here:
https://www.bellingcat.com/tag/mh17/
the home of online investigations – because he has only his computer, his CGI and time on his hands(with appropriate funding of course).
None of what I said comes from that Bellingcat. I used state media and gov-sponsored polls as all my sources, which actually contradict each other.
Unfortunately, nobody has given a decent rebuttal to my above post.
From BILD:
“This revelation would be explosive. If it shows that the satellite image, if they are from the Russian Ministry of Defense, as reported in the newspaper report, was falsified, to blame the Ukraine for the death of 298 people.
However, it is not the Russian investigating agency itself, which published the report, but the “Kremlin-critical” newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”.
Note the obvious flaw in certain anti Russian President Putin Mainstream Media. Something which the BILD at least, was honest enough to point out.
I never claimed that, regarding the satellite image. Still, to be fair, the Russian media have done some funny things about MH17:
“Propaganda Watch: Listen to Two Russians Badly Impersonate CIA Spies to Pin MH17 on U.S.”
Dear I.K
We know “The Russians did it” and “Putin did it” we get it rammed down our throats every day from the fake news MSM. Britain as a consequence, hates Russians and in particular we are taught to hate Putin as representative of Russians, but here you are aiding and abetting these MSM liars and bigots with more reasons to ” hate Russians”. What kind of person betrays his own people by promulgating hatred of Russia and it’s President?
In a time when Russophobia has been escalated to the point where war could lead to the deaths of millions of Russians?
What the hell kind of person are you?
You and your posse can flood the site but you won’t stop those who want to end the chaos that is US Atlanticist war mongers and death merchants, so take a hint, traitors to their homeland and it’s peoples are as welcome as a plague of rats.
Your little scam has been exposed(please pass the message on to your confederates)and your legitimacy has just performed a face plant of biblical proportions. Never would I betray my fellow Brits to expose them to a holocaust in support of MSM sponsored propaganda to prop up the powerful wealth that controls so many destinies. That really would make me the lowest of the low.
Goodbye.
Oh and BTW, I was on a Russian site where several villagers in east Ukraine saw the big Boeing Airliner and two smaller jets “buzzing” it – were they all lying as well(considering this was before it was brought down, I can think of no reason why they would lie) and it wasn’t the Russian Govt./military that first stated that the passenger jet had taken a left towards the conflict zone – British MSM made that announcement the day after the incident was reported and Ruptly were behind the times in their reporting of what western MSM were saying and should have stayed clear until they had word from official Russian sources. Most of us here in Britain knew all about what “probably” happened – courtesy of our Russophobic MSM, who couldn’t get their stories straight either.
It seems you did not read my post: the Russian government admit last September that there were no fighter jets near MH17.
Quote from state media (September 26, 2016):
“There were no airborne side objects near the Malaysian airliner. Except for two commercial aircraft – No. 1775 and No. 4722. The first plane appeared long before the disaster, and the second was at a distance of over 30 km from it. There were no any side objects near the plane before its disintegration,” Viktor Meshcheryakov, deputy chief constructor from Lianozovo Electromechanical Plant, which develops radar station Utyos-T, said at a briefing in Moscow just two days prior to a new report to be released by a Dutch-led investigative team.”
Source (Russian state media): https://ria.ru/mh17/20160926/1477865136.html
Thus, the so-called “witnesses” are contradicting the Russian government’s own raw primary radar data and claims. I do not have to remind anyone of the unreliability of witnesses.
I.K
“Oh well, what can one person like me do?”
Try living at the receiving end of western lies and propaganda and their well paid trolls?
My friends and I like to make jokes about some Western stories about Russia. Ex: “Here comes the Russian hacker”!
Comedy is one way to deal with all this, but then, our government also lies. Nobody is innocent.
I.K
Our Governments in the west, with the participation of Google, F/B etc. have gone about shutting down the alternative news sites in utterly underhand ways because to do so overtly would expose them for what they are. Countless numbers of sites I visit have been attacked by various means in order to silence them.
Has your government banned or shut down any news sites? I would like to know about the specific websites.
Meanwhile, in Germany, there are now mass arrests going on, targeting ‘hate speech’. But soon enough, they’ll be defining every criticism of themselves as ‘hate’.
http://www.dw.com/en/german-police-launch-mass-raids-over-online-hate-speech/a-19398612
At least there is a decent cause behind that – shutting down Nazi websites is fine by me.
In Russia. all this is old news. “Extremist” content posters are punished.
Yeah, it’s a slippery slope but, on the other hand, the Nazties are alarming and I’m a little nervous at the idea of them gaining momentum. If their material isn’t banned, in Germany, it will be taken as a tacit wink from the Government… and that would be disastrous. The only reason I’m not seeing two or three (or more) “Seig Heils” a day, on the street, is because it’s illegal. Being illegal, it’s frowned on by most. Were it not illegal it might even become fairly common. The general populace is funny that way…. always looking for external clues as to what’s acceptable.
I.K
The US and UK have thousands, as do the terrorists they support, promoting unrest as they did in Syria. They are trying to destroy Russia “from within” (as per admission from UK Diplomat speaking to a journalist re. Syria) So unless you want the same treatment the Iraqi’s, Libyans and Syrians got, I suggest you be careful what you wish for.
Hugs and kisses to Navalny and hope he recovers soon(though quite how you recover from being a total asshole is beyond my ken) and I notice his blog has not been censored – well, well, well.
At some point, his blog https://navalny.com was indeed censored. Back in 2014, that blog and his LiveJournal blog were blocked.
And guess what happened today?
“Police search office of opposition figure Navalny in Moscow”
“Police said the operation is not related to Navalny’s activities but linked to alleged violations of the building’s lease.”
https://www.rt.com/politics/395512-navalny-office-search-police/
Tax evasion, lease violations, etc. When will they stop? After almost blinding the man and filming the attack live, the pro-Kremlin nationalist thugs then had a pro-government news agency actually blur the identity of the attacker! This prompted a big controversy in Russia, because it means the news outlet, Ren TV, colluded with the attackers. Thankfully, some internet sleuths were able to find an unblurred version of the video hidden in Ren TV’s website and identified the attacker. Photos were found online of him meeting several Duma members to discuss “anti-Maidan activities” (hmmm, I wonder which ones?), and it was revealed the organization he belonged to was responsible for organizing a “Russian Spring” in Eastern Ukraine.
The above information won’t be found on this website or other pro-government websites.
Nor are the Surkov Leaks mentioned here or on other pro-government media outlets. Or the fact that trolls in St. Petersburg were earlier found posting comments implicating the West for Nemtsov’s death. Do you remember reading them?
“Tax evasion, lease violations, etc. When will they stop?”
When they stop committing them?
Navalny has been up to all sorts – his latest escapade of trying to hijack a women’s demo – earned him a swift “get lost, you tosser” from the organisers and those taking part. He has his supporters, but the majority of Russians know exactly what kind of corrupt snake he is, which is why they despise him.
Almost no one here in Russia thinks of Navalny as being a “corrupt” snake. Various government-sponsored websites may claim that, but it’s propaganda.
Although he isn’t as well known as other opposition figures, he nonetheless is quite popular with those focused on anti-corruption efforts, since he often exposes the overseas mansions of various Kremlin figures and oligarchs.
Have you heard of the Surkov Leaks? They were banned for discussion in the state media and various, err, “independent” Russian news websites, some of which are listed on this website’s blogroll, also refused to cover these leaks.
St. Aug.
You wrote: ” [B]ut the whole system is essentially beholden to a trans-national network of professional killers, operating at various scales and skill-levels, for whom killing means nothing. Otherwise, try to imagine how different the World would both be and appear to be! “Even” multi-national corporations (think Pepsico or United Fruit in South America)… how could they “win” without the wet work? ( note the year of the following event, linked below)
I wrote: “Whilst some “wet works” do indeed protect the security of the population as in the case of Jihadist recruitment by radicalisation, others such as the Banana massacre are nothing more than subjugation of the poor and genuine revolutionaries against a murderous state at the demand of the US to protect it’s interests, namely profit at the expense of the already poor and subjugated, such massacres are nothing short of crimes against humanity. ”
I open my laptop this morning and you write:
“Don’t rush into getting a few thousand young people killed in pointless clashes with the centurions of The System just because the thought (of a limited Apocalypse) seems glorious:”
I did not, at any point, advocate that thousands of young people go about getting themselves killed in a clash with the powers that be, which could result in their demise . Workers taking striking action is not a revolution, it’s just workers taking a stand and holding out for better working pay and conditions. As an ex trade union rep. I see striking as a last resort, but certainly an option if justifiable.
“A phony revolution in which thousands of Serfs are killed is exactly the “cleansing” (getting rid of or imprisoning the most active “trouble makers”) that TFIC need to stabilize The System.”
The “revolution” I was referring to was in our thinking, not our actions. We are seeing a revolution in the way that more people are flocking to the socialist platform promoting a change in attitude and perception. Social unrest is spreading and certain power elites are frantically trying to hold back the tide with their implementation of laws prohibiting free speech and the backlash is people voting it down and condemning it for what it is.
If the petro dollar loses much more of it’s grip on power, the US, by necessity will try to promote more wars, which will be bloody, but people are awakening to their tactics and saying no – and their voices of dissent, now a global phenomenon, are being heard.
My post did not in any way condone the use of murder, so I don’t know why you set about me the way you did;
“Don’t fall for it.”
I would ask you what you imagine I have fallen for?
” And stop disseminating that violent talk… you’re working for TFIC when you do that.”
What violent talk? I responded to your account of the “wet works” as you referred to them(your words, not mine)of the Banana Massacre.
“Wake up.”
At what point did you believe I fell asleep?
“who taught you this notion? ”
What notion?
What happened between your posting of the link to the Banana Massacre and my opening my laptop this morning? What I say to piss you off this much? Why’d you suddenly turn on me? Please get back to me and let me know what you took issue with and why just in case it is a misunderstanding, one which we can put right?
Susan.
The advent of the Internet was the most liberating technological innovation in my Life, but individual liberation does not, by default, lead to a shift in Power Relations between TFIC* and the Serfs. “Knowledge is power” in an abstract sense, but only “Knowledge plus Efficacy equals Real Power” and how efficacious can we be? How many of “us” are there? Are we a well-organized movement or a loosely-affiliated cascade of idiosyncratic, late-capitalist splinters? If the trade-off was Total Surveillance for TFIC and More Access to Arcane Information for (a few of) Us, I think TFIC are still ahead in the transaction. Way, way ahead.
Anyone who thinks TFIC released The Internet to our hot little hands without the intellectual tactical oversight of one (or many) of their big-bucks Thinktanks… is being naive. Is a new flavor of “Coke” sort of randomly released in a “I wonder what will happen” way? Remember a thousand years ago (1985) when a “New Coke” was released and Duh Masses lost their minds, clamoring (for 79 agonizing days… laugh) for the return of the Original… and how the Coke Hegemony humbly (wolfishly) painted it as a misstep and went back to Same Old Coke… and, btw, to vastly re-invigorated market share? Do you really think that was a “misstep”….? And that was just a Soft Drink brand, fucking with us. Imagine what Gov gets up to.
Obviously, the last 20 years of InterWebness was the beta-test and quite a few of those “viral memes” were run as diagnostics to tweak the Control System. Remember that “what color is that dress?” “controversy”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress
Two (or more) different photos of a dress were circulating on The Web… each picture had had certain tonal values pushed to an extreme… but The Webz were treating it as though some people were seeing ONE photo of the dress as “white” while others were seeing it as “blue” … even special “experts” about the psycho/physiology of Perception weighed in. I suspect “we” were being tested there. I suspect we “failed” the test (aka, returned results that delighted and amused TFIC). Millions of people fell for it like total Rubes. “Flat Earth” is another such test/tool, I believe. After the beta test, the ACTUAL PRODUCT is what we’ll get. What will it be? It probably won’t appear to be as scary (at first) as it really is.
If you don’t have the resources to hire the sociopathic cream of the Harvard/ Yale/ MIT/Oxford/ Tuebingen graduating classes, every year, to work in ThinkTanks and Special Committees for the ongoing conceptualization of a perfect PSYCHO-TECHNO GLOBAL GULAG, don’t be so confident of the incompetence/ frailty of TFIC.
Swaggering smugly into a fight is always an ill-advised gambit. What we need are ThinkTanks of our own but scattered rhetorical tail-chasings and hair-splittings and daily Reset to Zero Buttons (we’re still arguing about what happened to JKF, ferfuxsake) and conspiracy-theory-as-a-parlor-game… and all that… it doesn’t count. TFIC are essentially Right Wing and the Right can unify (in a powerfully primitive way) around the shared principles of Money/Power. What can we unify over? We need to figure this out. Being “Free” really means having Power (to the extent that you cannot be enslaved. How?
Knowledge alone does not suffice.
*TFIC= The Fuckers in Charge
The ‘Intelligence Community’ that governs The Internet can and will suppress free thinking rebels, limit their impact, that the ideas never get viral
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The psychosis of the ruling class leaves no room for measured responses.
Their modus operandi is destroy first, ask no questions.
Questions breed doubt.
Doubt breeds activism.
Activism is intolerable.
Reblogged this on Susanna Panevin.
‘Peeping toms’ were once regarded as perverts … now they are our (so called) ‘ leaders’.
The author asks how we will make a difference? I suggest by not referring to 9/11 as “the September 11th terrorist attacks” – unless, of course, it is made clear that this was an example – perhaps the defining example – of state-sponsored terrorism i.e. that the “terrorists” were not those falsely accused, but in fact elements of the US and other governments and their agencies.
This is such a fundamental point that it really should not need to be addressed.
An interesting way to refer to 9/11 would be “the 9/11 bombings” because essentially the planes (or dressed-up drones or whatever) were a disguise for the bombings of the twin towers, WTC-7 and the Pentagon.
“The Cold Wars Baby”… Long before Tim Berners Lee created HTML, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) created ARPAnet – the Grandfather of the internet. It was set up to prevent ‘decapitation’ in the event of nuclear war; by spreading Military Command throughout communicable nodes across the USA. As such, it would have fallen within the remit of the ‘Doomsday Project’ or Continuity of Government planners – though this has never been officially recognised.
After 9/11, another DARPA project was the Information Awareness Office; with its Total Information Awareness project (since overtly discontinued.) However, through Snowden we know of PRISM, XKEYSCORE…
Through its venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, the CIA set up Google, Google Earth, Intellipedia… And also indirectly funded Facebook – which owns our data and sells it to 3rd parties…
Companies like Cambridge Analytica data mine Facebook ‘Likes’ to profile and microtarget our votes…
The Wikileaks ‘Vault 7’ ‘leaks’ – acclimatising us to Big Brother…
Big Brother is watching and profiling… you.
Was the internet ever free? Certainly the perceived freedom came with a hidden cost. It doesn’t seem like a tool for our evolution and emancipation to me: if it did not benefit TPTB it would cease to be. Now they are targeting end-to-end encryption. Given its genesis: to my cynical mind – the real question is – was the internet set up as a giant social engineering experiment; or was it just co-opted along the way???
Hi BigB
Whilst the US would like us all to believe it is superior in every way, we have to acknowledge that it’s f*** up’s are just a typical. I am of the opinion that the original concept was something they thought they could curtail (because they truly believe in their own superiority) and it gradually got away from them and their control. They could not have envisaged how so many ordinary people could grasp the technology and actually take it to a level the Deep State backers were unable to keep up with. Millions of kids from thirty years ago took to IT like so many youngsters adapt to a new language and that trend has bloomed exponentially beyond any money savvy and cunning “superior” minds ability to envisage. Now, too late, they realize they must silence what they can exert only retrospectively applied rules to. Those who thought they were going to make mega bucks have done so and the benefits it gave DARPA and a few other intel agencies along the way is now coming back to bite them in the arse.
Course I could just be talking out of my hat, but that’s my current take on it. At the moment that’s where I’m at, but new revelations can turn perceived opinion on it’s head and not for the first time, cleverer minds than mine have shed light on my own thinking.
🙂 Susan
Hi Susan: I think there is a lot of truth in what you say. If you look at parallel deep political developments in history – roughly 1960 to date – I’m certain that TPTB would not have set up something that could facilitate an information counter revolution or empower a civil rights movement. Not when they were employing deep, dark and nefarious means to prevent a real time social revolution (e.g. the FBI’s Agitator Index, Communist Index, COINTELPRO.) That the net took off in an unforeseen way is true: but even before 9/11, they are not only trying to put the genie back in the bottle; but also they want to hammer the cork in and encase the bottle in concrete!
Read this excellent expose of In-Q-Tel, the Highlands Forum, Massive Data Digital Systems, etc.
If you make the connection between TIA, John Poindexter, Iran-Contra, Rex 84 and the Shadow Government – I’m sure you’ll see where I am coming from.
Bildeberger globalist Peter Thiel (co-founder of Pay-Pal,funder of FB, friend of Trump) is one to check out – especially his mass surveillance company Palantir Tech.
DARPA and Google continue to cross-pollinate: as when Regina Dugan moved across in 2012. And then to FB.
Cass Sunstein’s (Sam Power’s better half) ‘Nudge’ applied behavioural psychology is one to watch. Applied to parking tickets it seems pretty innocuous – but in the hands of unscrupulous manipulators?
Treason Dismay (a soon to be gone unscrupulous manipulator?) recently passed (in secret, during the election) an amendment to the IP Bill; not only targeting encryption, but also requiring phone providers (internet linked) to enable real time surveillance for “1 in 1,000” users. As computing power doubles roughly every 18 months or so (Moore’s Law) – where do we think that is going???
If one peers through the mirror darkly – into the ‘Shadow Net’ – we’re into information warfare. My few examples show that we are completely outgunned – and mostly unaware of the net’s ‘Dark Side’. What was that about David and Goliath? 😉
I doubt that many Brits realize that our Cyber Security was handed over to Israel or that the Minister appointed to oversee and negotiate on our behalf is himself a Jew(though in all fairness I do not know his position with regards extremist Zionist ethology, but the very fact that he was chosen from among a Right Wing extremist party does lead to obvious conclusions).
Kitty Sue Jones of “Politics and Insights” has done several articles exposing the “nudge” tactics and how they can be and have been applied here in the UK and elsewhere in so many ways.
Have read some of Oliver North’s history in the Iran Contra Scandal and as far as I know, all of those involved got a free pass – no surprise there since it probably involved far too many upper echelon figures who would finger some of those hidden “assets” the US deep state would rather we didn’t know about.
Have recently told Pay Pal to get lost because of their unscrupulous dishonest and fraudulent actions against OffG, so gradually getting there, with a little help from my friends!
🙂 Susan
Hi BigB.
Went to Q Tel – brilliant and thorough, the closest yet to a definitive who’s who of malfeasance within the mass surveillance mobsters.
Many thanks,
🙂 Susan
Nafeez Ahmed entirely agrees with you, Susan, and incidentally proves the very point in doing so:
The thing about “humans” is they can all potentially “network” and “think” and thus potentially “pattern” the supremacists among us every bit as well as they can anyone else.
Now do mind your “sacred values,” lest you should leave yourself too emotionally open to all of that “morally-questionable behavior” that the neocons would have you unwittingly embrace through their all so subtle cross-cultural neuropsychological narrative framings.
Thanks for this Norman. I like Nafeez and usually re-blog anything he puts out from Insurge Intelligence. I think he wrote a book called Grasp the Nettle and another called Crisis of Civilization?(I might have that wrong – crap memory).
Don’t know if you’ve noticed(St. Aug certainly has) but we have been invaded by anti Russian down voters probably trying to close down discussion.
We can’t let them win though, can we?
🙂
I used to think that banning or ignoring trolls was the thing to do. But their tactics actually backfire as they end up stimulating and broadening discussion on issues that might otherwise not get aired though in need of examination.
Do you recall “Jerome” on 9/11? I think that if it hadn’t been for his persistence and dedication to his task, the discussion would have quickly petered out. As it was, because of his steady antics and nonsense, the discussion ranged more widely and in depth.
It took me a while, but I eventually came to appreciate his obtuse obstinacy, until, that is, it eventually became too tediously repetitive . . .
And if the trolls can troll, who says you can’t troll ’em back?
Sometimes (– within limits –) it’s fun being (a bit of) an asshole to a complete asshole — n’est-ce pas?
I intend to do far more than just troll back. I am composing a list of all the proven trolls and will make it know, in a name and shame format, of all the sites they visit and who they are so that other sites will know them for what they are. Outing them can lead to them being banned from a site, if they can be proven to be trolls. So far I have five avatars to check out on the comments section, one of which I know posts on the Daily Mirror and another on the Guardian. I’ll have my work cut out, but it is the only way to stop them turning a site like OffG into another MSM outlet.
Will post when I have gathered enough evidence that should serve as proof. The bastards can come after me, but they will regret it. I’m not easily intimidated as they will soon learn. Sticks and Stones…….
I checked out the top of post links and found an article about the assassination of JFK by Carla. I am interested in a propagandist’s thoughts on the attack on free speech. Her article incorrectly identifies JFK as the one who started the Vietnam war. The American president who got into the war against Vietnam (more than America has already been involved) was Eisenhower in 1955. And she dramatizes Johnson’s numerical escalation and is silent about JFK’s qualitative (but numerically smaller) escalation, turning Vietnam into a lab (the way Israel turns Gaza into a lab for weapons tests) for counterinsurgency (terrorist) operations, the most famous of which is Operation Phoenix.
Are we scouring the net for Camelot pushers now?
As I so often do, I meant to say that “I am not interested” rather than “I am interested.”
Arrby.
One propagandist is another’s MSM.
Just saying.
Even the most well meaning can get it wrong, the difference is total reversal and misrepresentation by deliberate intent and adherence to a totally corrupt agenda (the MSM).
Why are you so sure she is a mere propagandist, (presumably not just based on ineptitude in one article)?
Propaganda is propaganda. But you’re right. I am not an expert in this person who I don’t know. But facts are facts and propaganda is propaganda. She may be uninformed or uniformed about JFK, because of propaganda. But how does that recommend her? Also, It’s disconcerting the way these pro Camelot authors are starting to pop up here. I was very disappointed Kit gave us Edward Curtin’s (definitely deliberately) JFK propaganda piece. I visited Curtain’s site, commented about his failure as a public intellectual, and he simply disappeared my comment. I guess he could say I was being disruptive or something since I had nothing good to say about his article. But I don’t believe I’m that kind of person and absolutely would do it again. I intended to post something about his awful article – so anti-factual – but got sidetracked. I still intend to.
Arrby.
A fair response and a good example of when “disappearing” alternate opinion is not constructive. I have not done any research on either Carla or Curtin so am not in a position to judge the merits of any argument for or against. I will leave that up to you. I’m still undecided on the JFK “truths” because there are so many varying opinions and so-called facts that invalidate and contradict each other, so I’m still very open minded in this regard. It is not my history, since I am British, but his assassination had global repercussions and is, therefore, a matter for global consideration(and we are pretty global on this site).
Acknowledged.
Arrby.
Flaxgirl just posted a link to a JFK assassination (3.5 hrs long!) film by F.R.Connolly. Since you seem to be knowledgeable with regard that subject, wondered if you ever came across it and if you did, what your thoughts were.
Have watched several attempts at revealing the truth behind the events but never felt satisfied that their case was proven.
If you know of any further reading (that I don’t have to purchase) or video link, any chance you can post it(obviously not Carla’s.
🙂 Susan
Hmm. I don’t know what you don’t know. I feel no burning desire to figure out exactly who killed Kennedy. I am interested and of course its a big deal when any leader is assassinated. If we don’t know by now exactly who killed Kennedy, then I doubt that we’ll ever know (in this system of things).
I have read a lot, but my reading is general. It just happens that JFK came up often enough that I knew – which others can argue is faulty, which is fine – that JFK was not a good person. I’ve got quite a library of Noam Chomsky books. Noam does not equivocate about JFK, whose help with overthrowing Brazil’s government kicked started the turning of a number of SA states into police states (I don’t know all the details but I possess “Operation Condor” and “The Phoenix Program” and may learn details from those books once I get to read them. (Interestingly, When I peruse the index and check on the entries for JFK in those books, and even in my book about torture by Alfred McCoy, those authors have next to nothing to say about JFK, although he was a big believer in terrorism and played a central role in events they discuss!)
And Chomsky has his own book, “Rethinking Camelot,” which he personally clued me into. But it isn’t focussed on who killed JFK. It is a counter to the powerful Camelot propaganda that doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere any time soon. JFK is nothing more or less than an enduring ad meant to sell the American empire. As the late Tom Hayden noted, Hollywood (read Hollywood/Pentagon/CIA) knows how important imagery is. I just saw a TIME magazine special on JFK on the shelf in drugstore and had a quick look at it. When I realized that the whole issue was taken up with Camelot propaganda (much of which is pictures showing off the handsome and sexy JFK, which makes sense), I bought it. I’ve only had a chance to read one article and it is, as I expected, deficient. But I did find it interesting that some of the darkness around JFK was permitted to ‘shine’ through. But it’s presented in such a way as to make us yawn and not care. His womanizing and betrayal of Jacqueline is conveyed, but not the fact that JFK had venereal disease and must have passed it to dozens of women. You have to show a little dirt in order to be credible, but the vd might have been pushing it.
I have also read my fair share of assassination books, but much of that reading took place when I was much younger and not politicized. I retained nothing. I have also read a few books relatively recently. And I’ll point out that the vast majority of books on JFK are going to be by authors who are infected with Camelotism.
Then there are books, and articles, that deal with JFK tangentially. For example, John Pilger wrote the foreward for Joe Allen’s book on the Vietnam war in which he refers to JFK’s ‘terror bombing’ of Vietnam. For those interested in his assassination, I’d say that they are also important. The more background you get, the better able you will be to assess for yourself theories. For example, The Kennedy’s betrayed absolutely everyone! Therefore, Any group of persons could have wanted to kill him. But Seymour Hersh makes a good observation, and provides details to base it on, about the unlikelihood (yes and no) that the mob had anything to do with his assassination. Indeed, They wanted the same thing that the fanatical, murderous Kennedys wanted, namely a Cuba once more in the hands of American-based companies and mob-run businesses.
Sheldon Stern, who Chomsky has good things to say about, wrote “The Cuban Missile Crisis In American Memory” and completely lets JFK off the hook. He’s infected. Don’t read the book? By all means read it, but keep in mind that Camelot propaganda is powerful and even scholars like Stern (a former JFK Library librarian who listened to all of JFK’s audio tapes before others!) are not immune. If you’re seeking the truth, you will care about that.
For me, I have found certain areas that are looked at, but not in detail, in for example Hersh’s book, that I want to get more information on. I’m sure that there’s history books out there that will furnish me with those details (such as the training of Cuban exiles in Nicaragua and the rogue pilots who went bombing in Cuba ‘against’ Kennedy’s orders) even if they are by authors infected with Camelotism. But they won’t infect me. I’m inoculated. And others can be also.
I’m really busy, but I may have a look at that vid when I get a chance, although flaxgirl has already indicated that there’s a good chance that it’s not going to be perfectly factual.
Arrby.
Thanks for the reply. The Connolly video does indeed portray JFK as saintly “a good man” but that aside I found the whole three and a half hours exceptionally well put together from Prescott Bush being a Nazi collaborator and war profiteer and the inclusion of so many CIA “Buddies” from LJB to Nixon and all the behind the scenes mafioso crime syndicates) right through the whole corrupt system. At the end are revealed just how much money the Royals have in the UK(staggering but not a great surprise)and the incorporation of the MSM and all those with wealth who set about keeping the American (and the British) totally in the dark about who really rules the country and pulls the strings. I have been on some of the conspiracy sites but never found anything but hyperbole without evidence. Connolly(who is a bloody Geordie(as am I)actually takes us into the past before the 1st World War, through the rise of Hitler and to modern day, naming names and showing their connections to each other. It could not ever be a definitive account because all the facts are not in, but he backs up his work quite well for the most part and in terms of alerting the proles as to the connivance of wealth and the US government(as it is in England), it serves a decent purpose. There were obviously a few times when I thought that more should have been said about Kennedy – anybody who could outwit so many powerful enemies was no saint himself, something of their daddy obviously flowed through their veins. Some gruesome footage is shown, which was queasy stuff, but very good footage of the actual assassination showing how it had been doctored and all in all a good watch, if only for the historic point of view.
Thanks also for the Jon Pilger mention in his forward to the Joe Allen book and Sheldons Stern/Noam Chomsky reference to the Cuban Missile crisis, which Connolly pretty much refers to obliquely.
Will now save your response in my archives and print it off(because I lose everything in my Windows 10 “library”.
Many thanks,
🙂 Susan
Watched the first half hour and thought it was going to be a dead end, stuck with it and got rewarded.
Just two quick points. JFK got where he got because of his father’s push and pull and money. Joseph Kennedy, as Hersh points out, was once a Hollywood producer and he figured out that the surefire way to sell JFK was to market him like a movie star.
When Nixon saw the brutality, the deviousness and the daring of the Kennedys up close, it inspired him.
Cheers!
I suppose I haven’t really looked at anything else for comparison but I found the explanation by Francis Richard Conolly of JFK’s assassination in his 3.5 hour film JFK to 9/11 Everything is a Rich Man’s Trick extremely compelling. He tends to hagiographise him which is slightly disconcerting, however, that is nothing to do with the assassination story really. And the rest of the film is excellent too. It completely opened my eyes to how the world really works. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Qt6a-vaNM
Flaxgirl.
Thanks for the link, have yet to visit it but kept it for reference. Had to look up the word hagiographise (forgot about saints) and found that a bit of a worry(not the fact that I had to look up the word, but that F.R. Connolly is obviously biased in his admiration for Kennedy). That of itself, does not mean that his
investigation was also biased.If I get finished early enough today I might visit.
Best regards,
Susan
If you want comparison why not ask Arrby?
Flaxgirl.
Have just watched the Connolly video and will likely watch it again, just wish it were available as a DVD. Yes a lot was glossed over, but given the production was already 3.5 hrs long, they couldn’t put everything in.
Many thanks for this.
I noticed that I had bookmarked the video. I don’t remember watching it. I probably watched some of it and was turned off. I say that because I see that I had commented on it on YouTube, lol.
Rich Man’s Trick is several years old but is valuable. The simple overarching idea that war is necessary to maintain modern Capitalism is the hook. When Conolly shows all the concentration camps (mostly in Eastern Europe) and explains how they were low waged businesses fostered by US based oligarchs capable of feeding the Nazi war machine and still providing excess profits that’s the kicker. The rubric that master oligarchs would win WWII no matter who triumphed militarily sums up the argument.
Within this strong construct the Kennedys are mid-level players. Jack and Bob diverge from Daddy Joe over Mafia ties, and coincidentally the MIC racket (SmedleyButler). It’s hard to swallow the assertion that Jack and Bobby were as virtuous as Conolly claims.
As far as the assassination itself the two boyish shooters in the storm drain, Gordon Liddy shooting Tippet, the body switch on AF II are provocative theories. Was it 9 assassin shooters at last count? 14 bullets? It’s complicated. And there’s Poppy Bush standing on the steps debriefing.
9/11 as an Inside Job is touched upon briefly, and then we are referred elsewhere for the specifics.
Conolly is fixated on JFK as a ideal and this detracts from his presentation. Almost all he relates is presented better elsewhere, just not in this combination. It’s too much material to watch if you’re already processing these issues,
Hi Arrby.
Forgot when I last replied to you that just hours before I got a notification telling me I should go and see Kerry Cassidy and her Camelog (I consigned it to the trash). So soon after your comment in which you said “Are we scouring the net for Camelot pushers now?” and that arrived in my “In box”. Thought of you straight away. Some stuff on Camelot is actually useful, but not enough for me to subscribe. (it was being plugged by the Public Intelligence Blog(Phi Beta Iota etc.)
Acknowledged.