11.18.2018

Sunday

Americans... sheesh...

The Egregious Lie Americans Tell Themselves - The richest country in the world
"The social wealth of a society is better measured by the quality of its common lived environment than by a consolidated statistical approximation like GDP, or even an attempt at weighted comparisons like so-called purchasing power parity. There is a reason why our great American cities, for all of our supposed wealth, often feel and look so shabby. The money goes elsewhere. "

StoneKettle Station on worshiping the our military - Veteran's day - Read the whole thing.
Because after the wreaths are laid, and the flags are lowered, and the trumpets sound their final mournful call, then the politicians will return to the same old divisions, the tax bill, the latest pork barrel project, or how the other party is a bunch of unpatriotic un-American bastards.

Tomorrow they’ll remember us not at all – or at best, only as a way to further their own selfish agendas.

The talk show hosts will cry their crocodile tears, and wax self-righteous and angrily demand that their listeners honor veterans. They'll take people to task for not wearing an American Flag pin, or for not having a yellow ribbon on their cars, or for not serving in uniform, all the while hoping nobody calls them on their own service, of which, most have exactly none.

And tomorrow, as always, they’ll forget all about us and go back to telling Americans to hate each other.

The Great Patriots, those Americans who think love of country is a contest and who wave the flag as if it were the cheap symbol of their favorite football team, are going to drink a lot of beer and discount liquor and pontificate drunkenly at great length about how the country is going to hell in a hand-basket because of that son of a bitch in [insert: Congress, the White House, Wall Street, et cetera here] and how we should be doing better by our “Heroes.” All the while hoping nobody calls them on their own service, of which, most have exactly none.

And tomorrow, they’ll nurse their sullen hung-over resentment and go back to fearing that the men and women they honor today will knock on their door to take away their freedoms and liberties and guns.

Propaganda

Playing with Fire
As has been well documented, a huge number of people can no longer tell the difference between news and opinion, fact and fiction, when they read and watch each day. More disturbing is the fact that so few of them seem to mind or even want to know the veracity of what they’re consuming.

I get the feeling people who see Fox and the conservative media cult is the problem are beginning to fight back (well, at least bring it up). The WP, A David Brooks milquetoast attempt?A David Horsey example















'

Also,  Stochastic Terrorism

Trumps lies about coal. 2018 is the top year for coal retirements since 2015.

Surveillance capitalism and targeted advertising have become the norm on the internet, and it's hurting all of us
Using target marketing, big data, and social media to
  • trick us into buying crap we don't really need = good ??  
  • trick us into buying crap politics that we don't really need = bad ??

Israel vs Palestine

The "How to Steal Land" cookbook. A familiar invasion: Settlers take another mountain top, soldiers follow, and Palestinians demonstrate for their rights


Politics

Barack von Obamenburg, Herr Donald, and Big Capitalist Hypocrisy: On How Fascism Happens
"..the existing Democratic Party leadership is plainly trying to find ways to tap the bourgeoning energy [provided by the Bernie Sanders ‘democratic socialism’ insurgency] for purposes of increasing electoral turnout, while playing with the [Sanders] movement’s issues [single-payer and more] like a cat with a ball of yarn"
The R establishment played the same game with the wingnuts for a few years but eventually the crazy conservative class drove the more moderate, RHINO - R's out. 
Hopefully the D's establishment will be jerked to the left or thrown out too. The center is the problem. 

Why the D leadership needs to go and other thoughts from Jeffrey St. Clair......



















































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