Kafka-like Persecution of Julian Assange

In an era when powerful institutions demonize decent people – and the mainstream media joins in, piling on the abuse – legal proceedings have become another Kafka-esque weapon of coercion. Few cases are more troubling than the persecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as John Pilger describes. By John Pilger The siege of Knightsbridge is…

America’s Mindless Clamor

America has become a land of institutionalized noise – whether the clamor of a crowded restaurant or the more dangerous shout fests of TV “news” – both intruding on the ability to think and communicate coherently, writes Lawrence Davidson. By Lawrence Davidson Many of you must have experienced something like this: you and a companion…

Mideast Alliances Shift Again

Like shifting desert sands, the volatile Middle East is going through a new, though subtle, realignment of adversaries and allies, with Turkey’s political tensions shaking up one area while Saudi Arabia makes moves of its own, as recounted by ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar Some recent policy decisions by Middle Eastern…

A Clash Over Whose Lives Matter

A Twitter clash has broken out between people favoring #BlackLivesMatter or #AllLivesMatter, both protesting U.S. police violence against Americans but failing to take into account the hundreds of thousands of lives lost to the U.S. military as self-appointed global policeman, says Sam Husseini. By Sam Husseini The last several months have seen a debate, at times heated,…

Plans to Destroy a Palestinian Village

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is holding together his fragile parliamentary coalition by backing the demands of the aggressive settlers encroaching on Palestinian lands, with one dramatic case the plan to demolish the Palestinian village of Susiya, writes Alon Ben-Meir. By Alon Ben-Meir The pending order to demolish the small Palestinian village of Susiya in the…

Why Russia Shut Down NED Fronts

Exclusive: The neocon-flagship Washington Post fired a propaganda broadside at President Putin for shutting down the Russian activities of the National Endowment for Democracy, but left out key facts like NED’s U.S. government funding, its quasi-CIA role, and its plans for regime change in Moscow, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry The Washington Post’s descent into…

Sometimes it’s easier to care about dead lions than dead people

If you haven’t heard, apparently some guy killed a lion in Africa. Why should you have heard about this? You shouldn’t have. Why is it news? It isn’t. Why does it deserve the complete attention of the entire nation for two days? It doesn’t. So why has it gotten that kind of attention? Because people are confused and ridiculous in this culture. But for the longer answer to that question, read my latest piece here.

And, look, I like lions well enough. I wouldn’t invite one over for dinner, probably, but I’m cool with them. Still, a dead lion just simply isn’t headline news. A dead lion should not be the most talked about thing in the world. ESPECIALLY on a day when another Planned Parenthood video was released, showing the literal dissection of human children.

But what better illustration of our culture than this? Some dentist goes to Africa and accidentally kills an off-limits lion, and this becomes a national outrage, meanwhile, on the same day, video of the butchery and sale of children goes completely ignored.

Now this guy’s life is basically ruined, he’s forced into hiding, and millions of people are fantasizing openly about his demise. It’s the same old thing. The thing we’ve seen a million times before, where liberals take all of their pent up rage and righteous indignation — all of the moral outrage they’ve been storing up while finding new ways to justify the sickest and most perverse evils this world has ever seen — and unleash it all on some sad chump who, by chance, happens to win the Villain Du Jour lottery.

Rather than simply point out the absurd dichotomy, I want to try and explain it. It seems like a mystery at first glance. It’s hard to understand why liberals care more about dead lions than dead people, but if we look deeper, I think it all starts to make sense:

Click to read.

The post Sometimes it’s easier to care about dead lions than dead people appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

The Tom Brady Railroad

Exclusive: Powerful institutions – whether the U.S. government, the mainstream media or the NFL – can run roughshod over individuals, twisting facts in whatever direction is desired. The current railroading of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is a cautionary case in point, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry What I have learned in 35…

Obama’s Egypt Policy Breeds Terrorism

Exclusive: President Obama has gotten in line behind the Israeli-Saudi preference in Egypt for the brutal dictatorship of Gen. al-Sisi over the elected (but now deposed) Muslim Brotherhood government of President Morsi, a posture so shocking that even some U.S. neocons object, writes Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall Like a stopped clock, even rabid neoconservatives…

When Israel/Neocons Favored Iran

Exclusive: The modern history of U.S.-Israeli-Iranian relations dates back 35 years to a time of political intrigue when Israel’s Likud leaders and the Reagan administration’s neocons secretly worked to arm Iran’s radical regime, an inconvenient truth given today’s anti-Iran hysteria, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry After the July 14 agreement between six world powers…

Turkey’s Geopolitical Gyrations

The Obama administration is joining with Turkey in airstrikes against Islamic State targets in northern Syria – a shift from President Erdogan’s past tolerance and even support for Islamic terrorists inside Syria – but a more complex geopolitical game is afoot, writes ex-CIA official Graham E. Fuller. By Graham E. Fuller Turkish policies towards the…

Obama Buys False Iran Narrative

President Obama has fallen into the habit of accepting whatever “group think” is prevalent in Official Washington, which often falsely accuses some “enemy” of a nefarious deed, but Obama then tries to dodge the desired reaction: war. This risky pattern is playing out again over Iran, writes Gareth Porter. By Gareth Porter I’m glad that…

The Unreality of the Iran-Nuke Fight

Israel is throwing the full weight of its U.S. lobby to crush the Iran nuclear agreement, but there are other factors adding momentum to the opposition – partisanship among Republicans and money from Israeli backers to propagandize the American people, explains ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar An air of unreality pervades…

How ‘Adjunct’ Professors Are Exploited

While some “star” professors at major universities are very well compensated and college football coaches can make millions of dollars a year, “adjunct” professors are exploited as cheap labor, often needing other jobs and food stamps to survive, notes Laura Finley. By Laura Finley The workers’ rights movement has exploded in the last few years,…

Israel Clears the Bench in Iran Fight

Exclusive: Israel – in its desperation to kill the Iran nuclear deal – is exposing its often-denied influence over the U.S. political/media process. Israeli officials are even using football analogies to rally U.S. lawmakers while emptying the bench of friendly “experts” to mount a goal-line stand, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Israel’s Ambassador to the United…

NYT Enforces Ukraine ‘Group Think’

Exclusive: Determined to enforce the “group think” on Ukraine, the editors of The New York Times lashed out at Russia for urging an expanded inquiry into last year’s MH-17 shoot-down. But the Times won’t join calls for the U.S. government to release its intelligence on the tragedy, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry It’s good…

The Dangers of European Dis-Union

The “European Project” is under unprecedented stress from fissures both east-and-west (over the Ukraine crisis) and north-and-south (over the Greek and refugee crises) – and it’s unclear whether the Continent’s bureaucrats can keep the European Union from splintering apart, as Nat Parry explains. By Nat Parry The near collapse of the Greek economy and the harsh austerity…

Philippines’ Terror-Inducing ‘War on Terror’

A largely forgotten front in George W. Bush’s “global war on terror” has been the Philippines where military campaigns to crush various rebel groups and political activists have led to charges of extrajudicial killings, torture and other war crimes, reports Marjorie Cohn. By Marjorie Cohn After Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush declared the…

Planned Parenthood Proves That “Pro-Choicers” Hate Women

Yes, this is the third post about abortion in two weeks. The only apology I have for that fact is that I haven’t written more on the subject. The media is in full-on blackout mode over these Planned Parenthood videos, so I will do what I can, in my own humble little corner of the internet, to make up for their lack of coverage.

I refuse to accept or even respect any argument that there is any national issue more urgent than the continued mass slaughter of innocent children. Every conservative or Christian pundit, commentator, writer, talk show host, etc., ought to be focusing intensely on this subject. If they aren’t, they are failing their audience and their cause.

With that said, today I want to go a little deeper into the issue. We all know Planned Parenthood is evil and progressive abortion advocates are depraved, but what exactly makes the abortion movement so sick and depraved? Yes, it murders children. That’s enough already, to be sure. But it does more than that: it tries to murder the very nature of womanhood.

This is why it’s so laughable and insane when abortion enthusiasts claim to support, love, or care about women. It is delusional to think that the “pro-choice” side is also the pro-woman side. Nothing could be further from the truth. Progressivism teaches women to hate that which makes them women. It convinces them to violently reject their beautiful, nurturing, life giving capacity, and instead embrace the self-centered, callous, brutal ruthlessness on display in these Planned Parenthood videos.

“Pro-choicers” hate women. Truly, there is nothing they hate more:

Click here to read.

The post Planned Parenthood Proves That “Pro-Choicers” Hate Women appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Hillary Clinton’s Leftward Flip-Flops

Faced with a populist surge in favor of Sen. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton has tacked strongly to the left and – in so doing – is leaving in her wake many long-held positions on crime, trade, same-sex marriage, etc., to such a degree that it’s hard to know what she’d do as president, says Evan…

Trump, McCain and ‘Chicken-hawk-ism’

The fury over Donald Trump’s slur against Sen. McCain’s time as a Vietnam War POW has obscured a larger point about “chicken-hawk-ism,” how U.S. political/media insiders hail the soldiers for “heroism” but send them into harm’s way with little appreciation of their sacrifice, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar The sheer outrageousness of some of Donald Trump’s…

Obama Should Release MH-17 Intel

A year ago, the U.S. government issued a sketchy report on the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 shoot-down citing “social media” and other flimsy data implicating eastern Ukrainian rebels and Russia, but then – as hard intelligence became available – went silent. Now, U.S. intelligence veterans are demanding release of that intel. MEMORANDUM FOR: The President FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for…

Iran Deal Dooms ‘Full-Spectrum Dominance’

The international agreement to ensure that Iran’s nuclear energy program stays peaceful is not just a victory for non-proliferation but part of a more realistic realignment of U.S. policy toward the Mideast, finally recognizing the bloody futility of “full-spectrum dominance,” writes ex-CIA official Graham E. Fuller. By Graham E. Fuller Comments abound on President Barack Obama’s…

In Case You Missed…

Some of our special stories in June focused on the bloody crises in Ukraine, Syria, Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East — and on propaganda’s harm to democracy and fairness, from war to Tom Brady. “Neocon Fugitive Given Ukraine Province” by Robert Parry, June 2, 2015 “NYT’s New Propaganda on Syria” by Robert Parry, June 3,…

A Reminder about Comment Policy

From Editor Robert Parry: At Consortiumnews, we welcome substantive comments about our articles, but comments should avoid abusive language toward other commenters or our writers, racial or religious slurs (including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia), and allegations that are unsupported by facts. If we notice violations of this comment policy, we will take down such comments. If readers…

Learning from the Greek ‘Betrayal’

Europe’s defenders of neoliberal economics – favoring the market interests of wealthy elites over the social needs of average people – marshaled their forces to crush the Greek challenge to “austerity,” with Greek Prime Minister Tsipras betraying his supporters, John Pilger told Dennis J Bernstein. By Dennis J Bernstein Filmmaker and columnist John Pilger sees the capitulation of…

Hidden Origins of Syria’s Civil War

Exclusive: In the early months of the Syrian civil war, the West’s mainstream media presented the conflict as a simple case of good-guy protesters vs. bad-guy government, but the conflict was more complicated than that and the one-sided version only made matters worse, writes Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011,…

The US Hand in the Syrian Mess

Exclusive: Neocons and the mainstream U.S. media place all the blame for the Syrian civil war on President Bashar al-Assad and Iran, but there is another side of the story in which Syria’s olive branches to the U.S. and Israel were spurned and a reckless drive for “regime change” followed, writes Jonathan Marshall. By Jonathan Marshall…

The Risks of Rejecting Iran-Nuke Deal

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has told the U.S. Congress to reject the Iranian nuclear deal and the Israeli propaganda machine is fully in gear to back up his demands, but the deal’s opponents ignore the risks of their potential success, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar The first few days of argumentation…

Seeking War to the End of the World

Exclusive: Despite the disastrous Iraq War, neocons still dominate Official Washington’s inside-outside game, government policymakers coordinating with think-tank opinion leaders to keep world tensions high and money flowing to military projects, a process personified by Robert Kagan and Victoria Nuland, says Robert Parry. By Robert Parry If the neoconservatives have their way again, U.S. ground troops will reoccupy Iraq, the U.S. military…

Who Benefits from Iranian Business?

Exclusive: European and U.S. businesses are hoping for a bonanza once Iran is freed from economic sanctions, but the West must overcome decades of distrust from the Iranians, meaning that Russia and China may have an early edge in building commercial bridges to Iran, writes Andrés Cala. By Andrés Cala The nuclear deal between six…

Three Propaganda Techniques Destroying America

How Do You Change The Way People Think?

You start by changing the words they use, wrote John W. Whitehead attorney for the Rutherford Foundation, a non-profit civil liberties organization based in Charlottesville, VA.

This is a profound statement and one very similar to a statement that I wrote on almost the same day. “Words convey reality-the overthrow of accepted meanings of words inevitably results in the overthrow of the previous culture.”

Words and language are incredibly important. In fact, abusing and attacking the language of a culture creates the futile ground for tyranny. It is in a real sense where propaganda begins. 

Justice Scalia’s recently bemoaned that “words no longer have any meaning”, indeed the recent supreme court decision highlights the reality that the cultural elite have determined words can mean…whatever they want them to mean.

We are at a critical juncture here.

The term “gender” is being redefined incomprehensively as something fluid and malleable.

The term “marriage” is being redefined to include a union between two persons of the same sex even though that same-sex bond is incapable of producing life and therefore of a completely different order than a heterosexual union. 

In addition to this wholesale attack on language embodying traditional values, the freedom to express traditional ideas is being repressed and truncated by virtue of mockery and derision. Since the media is owned by a small monopoly of cultural elites. They can now decide who should be held up for ridicule and who shall be praised and honored. 

Dissent allows the free flow of ideas to be exchanged in society without fear of retribution. It provides protection from a monopoly of hand picked ideas uncritically force-fed to the masses. Controlling newspapers and media is a propaganda technique perfected by the soviets and the Nazis and one that we do not usually associate with America, nonetheless American propaganda is alive and well in the twenty first century.  

Paradoxically, protection from “hate” speech means giving up your right to free speech because the powers that be are now in control of the definition of “hate” through the media.

When the governments’ main responsibility has shifted from ensuring the first amendment right of free speech to protecting citizens from hurt feelings you know that the wheels are starting to coming off the train.

Propaganda Techniques

All in all there are three propaganda techniques that have been discussed.

1. Modifying the language to promote new philosophic values and upend traditional ones.

2. Controlling ideas and what is accepted as truth through mockery, derision etc in the media

3. Attacking free speech in the name of defending the hurt feelings of those members of the population given special protected status by the government

Read John’s article about the death of free speech below reprinted in full

The Emergence of Orwellian Newspeak and the Death Of Free Speech

“If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it…. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of ‘facts’ they feel stuffed, but absolutely ‘brilliant’ with information. Then they’ll feel they’re thinking, they’ll get a sense of motion without moving. And they’ll be happy, because facts of that sort don’t change.” ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

How do you change the way people think? You start by changing the words they use.

In totalitarian regimes—a.k.a. police states—where conformity and compliance are enforced at the end of a loaded gun, the government dictates what words can and cannot be used. In countries where the police state hides behind a benevolent mask and disguises itself as tolerance, the citizens censor themselves, policing their words and thoughts to conform to the dictates of the mass mind.

Even when the motives behind this rigidly calibrated reorientation of societal language appear well-intentioned—discouraging racism, condemning violence, denouncing discrimination and hatred—inevitably, the end result is the same: intolerance, indoctrination and infantilism.

It’s political correctness disguised as tolerance, civility and love, but what it really amounts to is the chilling of free speech and the demonizing of viewpoints that run counter to the cultural elite.

As a society, we’ve become fearfully polite, careful to avoid offense, and largely unwilling to be labeled intolerant, hateful, closed-minded or any of the other toxic labels that carry a badge of shame today. The result is a nation where no one says what they really think anymore, at least if it runs counter to the prevailing views. Intolerance is the new scarlet letter of our day, a badge to be worn in shame and humiliation, deserving of society’s fear, loathing and utter banishment from society.

For those “haters” who dare to voice a different opinion, retribution is swift: they will be shamed, shouted down, silenced, censored, fired, cast out and generally relegated to the dust heap of ignorant, mean-spirited bullies who are guilty of various “word crimes.”

We have entered a new age where, as commentator Mark Steyn notes, “we have to tiptoe around on ever thinner eggshells” and “the forces of ‘tolerance’ are intolerant of anything less than full-blown celebratory approval.”

In such a climate of intolerance, there can be no freedom speech, expression or thought.

Yet what the forces of political correctness fail to realize is that they owe a debt to the so-called “haters” who have kept the First Amendment robust. From swastika-wearing Neo-Nazis marching through Skokie, Illinois, and underaged cross burners to “God hates fags” protesters assembled near military funerals, those who have inadvertently done the most to preserve the right to freedom of speech for all have espoused views that were downright unpopular, if not hateful.

Until recently, the U.S. Supreme Court has reiterated that the First Amendment prevents the government from proscribing speech, or even expressive conduct, because it disapproves of the ideas expressed. However, that long-vaunted, Court-enforced tolerance for “intolerant” speech has now given way to a paradigm in which the government can discriminate freely against First Amendment activity that takes place within a government forum. Justifying such discrimination as “government speech,” the Court ruled that the Texas Dept. of Motor Vehicles could refuse to issue specialty license plate designs featuring a Confederate battle flag. Why? Because it was deemed offensive.

The Court’s ruling came on the heels of a shooting in which a 21-year-old white gunman killed nine African-Americans during a Wednesday night Bible study at a church in Charleston, N.C. The two events, coupled with the fact that gunman Dylann Roof was reportedly pictured on several social media sites with a Confederate flag, have resulted in an emotionally charged stampede to sanitize the nation’s public places of anything that smacks of racism, starting with the Confederate flag and ballooning into a list that includes the removal of various Civil War monuments.

These tactics are nothing new. This nation, birthed from puritanical roots, has always struggled to balance its love of liberty with its moralistic need to censor books, music, art, language, symbols etc. As author Ray Bradbury notes, “There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.”

Indeed, thanks to the rise of political correctness, the population of book burners, censors, and judges has greatly expanded over the years so that they run the gamut from left-leaning to right-leaning and everything in between. By eliminating words, phrases and symbols from public discourse, the powers-that-be are sowing hate, distrust and paranoia. In this way, by bottling up dissent, they are creating a pressure cooker of stifled misery that will eventually blow.

For instance, the word “Christmas” is now taboo in the public schools, as is the word “gun.” Even childish drawings of soldiers result in detention or suspension under rigid zero tolerance policies. On college campuses, trigger warnings are being used to alert students to any material they might read, see or hear that might upset them, while free speech zones restrict anyone wishing to communicate a particular viewpoint to a specially designated area on campus. Things have gotten so bad that comedians such as Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld refuse to perform stand-up routines to college crowds anymore.

Clearly, the country is undergoing a nervous breakdown, and the news media is helping to push us to the brink of insanity by bombarding us with wall-to-wall news coverage and news cycles that change every few days.

In this way, it’s difficult to think or debate, let alone stay focused on one thing—namely, holding the government accountable to abiding by the rule of law—and the powers-that-be understand this.

As I document in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, regularly scheduled trivia and/or distractions keep the citizenry tuned into the various breaking news headlines and entertainment spectacles and tuned out to the government’s steady encroachments on our freedoms. These sleight-of-hand distractions and diversions are how you control a population, either inadvertently or intentionally, advancing a political agenda agenda without much opposition from the citizenry.

Professor Jacques Ellul studied this phenomenon of overwhelming news, short memories and the use of propaganda to advance hidden agendas. “One thought drives away another; old facts are chased by new ones,” wrote Ellul.

Under these conditions there can be no thought. And, in fact, modern man does not think about current problems; he feels them. He reacts, but he does not understand them any more than he takes responsibility for them. He is even less capable of spotting any inconsistency between successive facts; man’s capacity to forget is unlimited. This is one of the most important and useful points for the propagandists, who can always be sure that a particular propaganda theme, statement, or event will be forgotten within a few weeks.

Already, the outrage over the Charleston shooting and racism are fading from the news headlines, yet the determination to censor the Confederate symbol remains. Before long, we will censor it from our thoughts, sanitize it from our history books, and eradicate it from our monuments without even recalling why. The question, of course, is what’s next on the list to be banned?

It was for the sake of preserving individuality and independence that James Madison, the author of the Bill of Rights, fought for a First Amendment that protected the “minority” against the majority, ensuring that even in the face of overwhelming pressure, a minority of one—even one who espouses distasteful viewpoints—would still have the right to speak freely, pray freely, assemble freely, challenge the government freely, and broadcast his views in the press freely.

This freedom for those in the unpopular minority constitutes the ultimate tolerance in a free society. Conversely, when we fail to abide by Madison’s dictates about greater tolerance for all viewpoints, no matter how distasteful, the end result is always the same: an indoctrinated, infantilized citizenry that marches in lockstep with the governmental regime.

Some of this past century’s greatest dystopian literature shows what happens when the populace is transformed into mindless automatons. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, reading is banned and books are burned in order to suppress dissenting ideas, while televised entertainment is used to anesthetize the populace and render them easily pacified, distracted and controlled.

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, serious literature, scientific thinking and experimentation are banned as subversive, while critical thinking is discouraged through the use of conditioning, social taboos and inferior education. Likewise, expressions of individuality, independence and morality are viewed as vulgar and abnormal.

And in George Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother does away with all undesirable and unnecessary words and meanings, even going so far as to routinely rewrite history and punish “thoughtcrimes.” In this dystopian vision of the future, the Thought Police serve as the eyes and ears of Big Brother, while the Ministry of Peace deals with war and defense, the Ministry of Plenty deals with economic affairs (rationing and starvation), the Ministry of Love deals with law and order (torture and brainwashing), and the Ministry of Truth deals with news, entertainment, education and art (propaganda). The mottos of Oceania: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

All three—Bradbury, Huxley and Orwell—had an uncanny knack for realizing the future, yet it is Orwell who best understood the power of language to manipulate the masses. Orwell’s Big Brother relied on Newspeak to eliminate undesirable words, strip such words as remained of unorthodox meanings and make independent, non-government-approved thought altogether unnecessary. To give a single example, as psychologist Erich Fromm illustrates in his afterword to 1984:

The word free still existed in Newspeak, but it could only be used in such statements as “This dog is free from lice” or “This field is free from weeds.” It could not be used in its old sense of “politically free” or “intellectually free,” since political and intellectual freedom no longer existed as concepts….

Where we stand now is at the juncture of OldSpeak (where words have meanings, and ideas can be dangerous) and Newspeak (where only that which is “safe” and “accepted” by the majority is permitted). The power elite have made their intentions clear: they will pursue and prosecute any and all words, thoughts and expressions that challenge their authority.

This is the final link in the police state chain.

Having been reduced to a cowering citizenry—mute in the face of elected officials who refuse to represent us, helpless in the face of police brutality, powerless in the face of militarized tactics and technology that treat us like enemy combatants on a battlefield, and naked in the face of government surveillance that sees and hears all—we have nowhere left to go. Our backs are to the walls. From this point on, we have only two options: go down fighting, or capitulate and betray our loved ones, our friends and our selves by insisting that, as a brainwashed Winston Smith does at the end of Orwell’s 1984, yes, 2+2 does equal 5.

– See more at: http://rutherford.org

The post Three Propaganda Techniques Destroying America appeared first on PropagandaGuard.

Making Excuses for Saudi Misbehavior

Exclusive: Saudi-Israeli apologists are doing back flips to justify why the U.S. interest in having peaceful relations with Iran should take a back seat to sectarian and regional desires of Riyadh and Tel Aviv, including that peace with Iran will cause the Saudis to misbehave even more, notes Daniel Lazare. By Daniel Lazare As the former publisher of the…

MH-17 Mystery: A New Tonkin Gulf Case?

Exclusive: In 1964, the Tonkin Gulf incident was used to justify the Vietnam War although U.S. intelligence quickly knew the facts were not what the U.S. government claimed. Now, the MH-17 case is being exploited to justify a new Cold War as U.S. intelligence again is silent about what it knows, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry…

Entering the Age of Nuclear Terror

As much as this year’s 70th anniversary of stopping the Holocaust was a moment to honor, the anniversaries over the next few weeks will mark the successful test of Trinity and America’s horrific atomic destructions of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, recalls Gary G. Kohls. By Gary G. Kohls Seventy years ago, on July 16, 1945, an…

US/Israeli/Saudi ‘Behavior’ Problems

Exclusive: In Official Washington’s latest detour from the real world, top pundits are depicting Iran as the chief troublemaker in the Mideast and saying the nuclear deal should hinge on Iranian “behavior.” But the real “behavior” problems come from Israel, Saudi Arabia and the U.S., writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry There is a madness in how…

Iran’s Long-Game Diplomatic Strategy

Iran has sought negotiations with the U.S. for two decades, but both Democratic and Republican administrations favored hostility demanded by Israel and Saudi Arabia. Finally, Iran found a track – sacrificing much of its nuclear program – to achieve a breakthrough, writes Gareth Porter for Middle East Eye. By Gareth Porter Now that Iran nuclear…

Coming Under ‘Fire’ at Korea’s DMZ

If you try to address controversial foreign policy issues these days – without chest-pounding belligerence – you can expect to be denounced by a well-funded cottage industry of “human rights activists” and “citizen journalists,” a phenomenon that Ann Wright confronted when crossing from South to North Korea. By Ann Wright When we began our project “Women Cross the DMZ,” we knew…

The Path Ahead for Palestine

Israel under Prime Minister Netanyahu is showing no inclination to resolve the long-festering conflict with the Palestinians who remain harshly repressed in an apartheid-like system as Jewish expansion continues into Palestinian lands, a crisis that PLO leader Mustafa Barghouti describes to Dennis J Bernstein. By Dennis J Bernstein The ongoing occupation and ethnic cleansing of…

The World Rebukes Netanyahu

Exclusive: Led by President Obama, six world powers ignored Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s harangues against Iran and agreed to a plan for limiting – not bombing – Iran’s nuclear program. But Netanyahu wields more sway with Congress and the mainstream media, which parrot his complaints, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry In a rare rebuke to his…

The Iran-Nuclear Choice

Many Republicans will oppose the Iran-nuclear deal to discredit President Obama and some Democrats will succumb to pressure from Israel, but the ultimate choice is whether politics and pressure will overrule the world’s interest in constraining Iran’s nuclear program, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar Completion of the agreement to restrict…

Planned Parenthood Sells Dead Baby Parts, And That Shouldn’t Shock You At All

Fair warning: this post contains, first of all, a very disturbing story. But it’s important, and whether you share my piece on the subject or someone else’s, you need to be sharing this story. Planned Parenthood, up at its highest levels, has been coordinating a criminal campaign to sell the body parts of aborted infants. Not only that, but they often abort the children in a certain way so as to preserve the more financially viable bits of the baby.

This is disgusting and revolting and an indictment on every pro-choicer in the country, politician or civilian. They all should be ashamed. They will also all answer to God, if not to the court of Man. And Christians who endorse this institution are in grave danger of eternal damnation. Better they confront it now and beg for forgiveness then go to their grave as proponents of genocide.

Second warning, my analysis on this subject is impassioned and maybe even insulting to Planned Parenthood and its supporters. Yes, I have committed the grievous sin of very explicitly and strongly condemning the butchers of infants, and those who condone it. I do not apologize for this, and I believe that Christ Himself would use similar language, if not stronger language. But if you don’t like it when I’m “angry,” you might as well skip this one.

I have several things I want to say on this subject. But first, it bears emphasizing that, although this revelation is horrifying, it isn’t actually shocking. What I mean is this: Planned Parenthood clinics are for-profit concentration camps. They are places where babies are killed and money is made. When we realize this fact, and comprehend all that it means, stories such as this become tragically predictable. Planned Parenthood has sunk to the lowest level of human evil, and once you’re down there, wallowing in the filth and the muck and the blood and the human suffering, there really isn’t any limit to the wickedness you’ll be capable of.

This is not shocking. It’s routine. And that’s precisely what makes it all the more infuriating.

Another point I elaborate on: Republicans need to use this story to defund Planned Parenthood. Period. No excuses. If liberals can manage to attack, sanction, and penalize private businesses for committing the crime of merely saying or believing unacceptable things, conservatives ought to be able to, at a minimum, withdraw the half a billion dollars a year we give them due to their heinous criminal activity, and the fact that they murder babies, which isn’t a crime but should be:

Click here to read.

The post Planned Parenthood Sells Dead Baby Parts, And That Shouldn’t Shock You At All appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

The Mess that Nuland Made

Exclusive: Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland engineered Ukraine’s “regime change” in early 2014 without weighing the likely chaos and consequences. Now, as neo-Nazis turn their guns on the government, it’s hard to see how anyone can clean up the mess that Nuland made, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry As the Ukrainian army squares off against ultra-right…

Touchy Issue: Talking with ‘Terrorists’

Official Washington often exacerbates foreign conflicts by shoving them into misshapen narratives or treating them as good-guy-vs.-bad-guy morality plays, rather than political disputes that require mediation. The problem is particularly tricky with “terrorist” groups, writes ex-CIA official Graham E. Fuller. By Graham E. Fuller I can’t believe that I’ve been outflanked on the Progressive Left by Fareed…

Struggling for Women’s Sports Equality

Exclusive: The huge crowds watching the U.S. women’s soccer team win the World Cup marked a moment of hope for Americans who lament the gross disparity between the support for men’s and women’s sports, but it’s still an uphill struggle for anything close to parity, as Chelsea Gilmour explains. By Chelsea Gilmour This year’s Women’s…

‘Secret’ History of the Greek Crisis

The past may be prologue, but it is first necessary to know what that past is, a growing problem in a modern age when so much is miswritten, misunderstood or forgotten. This dilemma of “secret” history is now a factor in the Greek debt crisis, says ex-U.S. diplomat William R. Polk. By William R. Polk After…

Fallout from Reagan’s Afghan War

In the 1980s, President Reagan funded and armed Islamic fundamentalists to defeat a Soviet-backed secular regime in Afghanistan. Now, one of those ex-U.S. clients is throwing his support behind the brutal Islamic State, a lesson about geopolitical expediency, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar In a blast from the past in Afghanistan,…

Obama’s Posturing Risks Iran-Nuke Deal

The Obama administration is risking the success of the Iran nuclear negotiations by playing some political theater to appear tough to its Republican and neocon critics in Official Washington, write Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett. By Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett As nuclear talks between the P5+1 and Iran in Vienna extend past yet…

Obama’s Deadly Cold War Legacy

Exclusive: President Obama is endangering his legacy by letting neoconservatives still set his foreign policy, including the creation of a new and costly Cold War with Russia that could have been easily avoided and that now risks spinning off into a nuclear showdown, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Whatever positive legacy that President Barack…

Risking a Jihadi Victory in Syria

Exclusive: President Obama’s “regime change” policy in Syria has rested on a hopeful fantasy about the existence of a “moderate” rebel force and a willful blindness toward the jihadists who actually stand to gain power – a dangerous mix of make-believe and denial – as Ted Snider explains. By Ted Snider Attempts at “regime change”…

Dear Oregon, Thank You For Protecting Us From The Scary Christians Bakers

Hopefully you’ve been closely following the case of the Christian bakers in Oregon. Much like Christian business owners across the country, they have been facing legal and financial penalties for declining to participate in a gay wedding. I think this case stands out from many of the others because, with the decision just handed down this week by the Oregon Labor Commissioner, the “guilty” Christians will be forced to pay a massive six figure fine.

They’ve already lost their brick and mortar store, forced to operate only online, and now face the prospect of an enormous financial penalty, and a lien on their home if they don’t pay. Not to mention, they are of course now prohibited from continuing to run their business according to their religious beliefs.

Obviously I think I speak for all of you when I say, “phew, thanks Oregon.” We really dodged a bullet on this one, didn’t we?

I mean, can you imagine what would happen if we didn’t have liberals around to protect us from the scary Christians with their challenging beliefs and strange moral convictions? Can you imagine the anarchy, death, and destruction that would surely unfurl across the land if Christian business owners had free speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of association rights? Can you possibly even conceive of the chaos that would plague this great country if homosexuals were forced to, I don’t know, go somewhere else for their baked goods?

I shudder at the thought.

So I thought I’d write this entirely sincere letter of gratitude to the Oregon labor commissioner, and indeed to all liberals, for passing this utterly proportional and necessary judgement down upon these mean people with their bad opinions and unsanctioned beliefs. Surely, SOMEONE has to do the job of regulating our expression and deciding which beliefs are acceptable and which aren’t.

What would become of this country without these liberals? Dear Lord, we might actually be free.

We certainly can’t allow that to happen. After all, we have feelings to protect:

Click here to read.

The post Dear Oregon, Thank You For Protecting Us From The Scary Christians Bakers appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

MH-17 Case Slips into Propaganda Fog

Exclusive: Almost a year ago, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine killing 298 people. Yet, instead of a transparent investigation seeking justice, the case became a propaganda game of finger-pointing, with the CIA withholding key evidence all the better to blame Russia, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry The Dutch investigation into the…

Time to Rethink US Mideast Policies

U.S. policy toward the Middle East carries an extraordinary burden of strategically outdated and politically overweight baggage, from oil deals with Saudi Arabia to emotional ties to Israel. What’s needed now is a thorough reexamination of what’s in the U.S. national interest, says ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar There is much…

The Iran Deal’s Strategic Payoff

A successful nuclear deal with Iran could mean an expanded Iranian role in blocking Islamic State advances in Iraq and Syria, but the potential U.S.-Iran cooperation alarms Israel and Saudi Arabia – which may explain President Obama’s silence on the topic, examined by Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett. By Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett…

The 51-Day Genocide

There’s palpable fear in Official Washington whenever anyone dares suggest holding Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinians. Instead there’s a rush to make excuses and to deny reality, a pattern challenged by a book by Max Blumenthal, reviewed by David Swanson. By David Swanson Max Blumenthal’s latest book, The 51 Day War: Ruin…

Inching Toward an Iran-Nuke Deal

Brushing aside political obstacles and applying creative diplomacy, Iran and six world powers appear to be closing in on a historic agreement constraining Iran’s nuclear program and lifting economic sanctions, writes Gareth Porter. By Gareth Porter As the U.S. and Iranian negotiators move toward completion of a historic deal in Vienna, the lifting of sanctions against…

Ukraine Merges Nazis and Islamists

Exclusive: Ukraine’s post-coup regime is now melding neo-Nazi storm troopers with Islamic militants – called “brothers” of the hyper-violent Islamic State – stirring up a hellish “death squad” brew to kill ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine, on Russia’s border, reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry In a curiously upbeat account, The New York Times reports that Islamic militants have…

US Still Won’t Confirm Israeli Nukes

Among the more absurd aspects of U.S. foreign policy is the persistent refusal to confirm that Israel has a nuclear arsenal, even as U.S. officials threaten and even attack other countries for allegedly harboring the intent to build a single bomb, hypocrisy that Sam Husseini dissects. By Sam Husseini Retired Gen. (and former CIA Director)…

Can Greece and EU Make Amends?

Exclusive: The after-shocks from the Wall Street crash of 2007-08 continue to rattle international stability, with Greece now rejecting never-ending demands for more belt-tightening and raising the specter of a splintered European Union, as ex-U.S. diplomat William R. Polk explains. By William R. Polk The Greek people have not only spoken; they have shouted. More than six…

Greek ‘No’ Vote Spurs Wider Resistance

Exclusive: Greek voters rebelled against Germany and the dominant powers of Europe by rejecting demands for more austerity, but the Greek resistance also is resonating across the Continent, emboldening other hard-pressed countries tired of Depression-like conditions, says Andres Cala. By Andrés Cala Despite an unprecedented fear campaign, brave Greeks plunged the European Union into a…

America’s Endless Air Wars

Like his predecessors, President Obama is relying heavily on aerial bombardment to wage war across the Mideast, but the vague notions of who is the enemy and the horrific civilian casualties have continued to generate an endless supply of new enemies, writes Nicolas J S Davies. By Nicolas J S Davies U.S. Central Command’s latest…

Whining White Southerners

Exclusive: Some brave white Southerners, including the son of segregationist Strom Thurmond, have spoken out against Confederate symbols like the battle flag, but many whites still react with fury at calls for retiring those symbols and other honors bestowed on Confederate leaders, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Whenever there’s a suggestion that the Confederate battle flag should be…

Trump’s Fixation on Rape and Color

Real estate and entertainment mogul Donald Trump has soared to the top tier of Republican presidential candidates after a rant about Mexican immigrant “rapists” – not the first time that Trump has mixed the explosive topics of rape and color, leading Jeff Cohen to ask if Trump is a “serial racist.” By Jeff Cohen It’s…

How Israel’s Gaza Blockade Backfires

Israel’s crushing blockade – and periodic assaults – against the 1.8 million people jammed into Gaza have led to the emergence of an Islamic State affiliate that is now challenging Hamas, an example of how extreme repression breeds ever greater extremism, writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar. By Paul R. Pillar The histories of many…

Info-War in the Iran-Nuke Talks

Information warfare — or “info-war” — is all the rage inside the Obama administration, which delights in distorting or misrepresenting facts as a “soft power” weapon to advance its international goals. Those games have reached into the Iran nuclear negotiations, reports Gareth Porter. By Gareth Porter A public diplomacy campaign by the Obama administration to…

Still Waiting for USS Liberty’s Truth

Exclusive: During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israeli warplanes and warships tried to sink the USS Liberty, killing 34 of the spy ship’s crew. Afterwards, U.S. and Israeli officials excused the attack as an unfortunate mistake and covered up evidence of willful murder, as ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern explains. By Ray McGovern Israel’s chokehold over…

Jeb Bush’s ‘Transparency’ Ploy

Exclusive: In an opening volley of a possible clash between two well-to-do political dynasties, Jeb Bush challenged Hillary Clinton by releasing more than three decades of tax returns,  both to quiet criticism of his own past business dealings and to highlight Clinton’s reputation for secrecy, writes Chelsea Gilmour. By Chelsea Gilmour Jeb Bush is campaigning on a…

Not Learning from Mideast Mistakes

Exclusive: The neocon strategy of “regime change” has proved financially costly and strategically disastrous – setting almost the entire Middle East on fire – but almost no lessons have been learned, no accountability assessed, and no relevant questions asked, writes ex-U.S. diplomat William R. Polk. By William R. Polk Apparently, the United States, perhaps Great Britain…

America Is Not Great

Happy Fourth of July. America is not great. Not anymore. America is a land where babies are murdered, the family is disintegrating, marriage is perverted, and every institution is dominated by nihilists and self-worshiping liberals. That’s America. It has betrayed God, and any true patriot should feel a deep and profound anger, not false confidence in our alleged greatness.

I think it’s time, particularly after this past week, that those on the right stop with the blind, frivolous “optimism” that leads us to constantly proclaim America’s “greatness” no matter how corrupt and sinful our culture has become. There is an arrogance in that declaration that, I assure you, does no please God. I doubt very much that God looks down on our culture and agrees with our assertion that we’re still super great and awesome no matter what.

I really want you to read this post to the end. I consider it one of the more important messages I’ve tried to convey. I’m often accused of not being “hopeful” enough in my writing, but there is hope here. Great hope. And if you don’t see it in this one, you didn’t read it carefully enough. If you don’t see the patriotism, you didn’t read it at all.

Yes, it’s almost the Fourth of July, and yes I have chosen this occasion to write a harsh criticism of this country. That’s because, for me, these patriotic holidays are becoming more reflective than they are celebratory. I feel like a divorcee on his wedding anniversary. I’m thinking about what once was, rather than rejoicing over what currently is.

So what I want to offer here is a sober assessment of our current state, a look at what is probably ahead, and then a few ideas about where our real hope lies, and how real greatness can be reclaimed. This might in fact be the most hopeful thing I’ve ever written. But you have to read it to understand why:

Click here to read.

The post America Is Not Great appeared first on The Matt Walsh Blog.

Offending Iran’s Dignity

America’s neocons are back at work demeaning an agreement to constrain Iran’s nuclear program – to keep alive the neocon dream of bomb-bomb-bombing Iran. And the insults are having an effect by offending Iran’s dignity and creating friction among the negotiators, writes Trita Parsi. By Trita Parsi There are few concepts as important yet as…

Behind the Greek Crisis

Exclusive: The usual narrative of the Greek economic tragedy is that the country is paying for its past profligacy, but there is deeper back story of political repression fueled by major powers intervening in Greece and contributing to a dysfunctional political system, recalls ex-U.S. diplomat William R. Polk. By William R. Polk Focusing exclusively on the…

How Zionism Corrupts Judaism

Judaism is a religion based on humanistic principles offering powerful arguments for social justice, but it has been hijacked by Zionists who have twisted it into an excuse for ethnic cleansing and mass murder, as Professor of Moral Theology Daniel C. Maguire describes. By Daniel C. Maguire Like the Palestinian people, Judaism is also suffering from siege and occupation.…

How to Eradicate Racism

The massacre of nine black churchgoers in Charleston and a rash of arson at other black churches across the South show that despite conservative self-serving claims – and liberal wishful thinking – about racism becoming a thing of the past, much more work needs to be done, says Lawrence Davidson. By Lawrence Davidson On the…

Hillary Clinton’s Failed Libya ‘Doctrine’

Exclusive: Libya remains a nation shattered by political chaos and bloody terrorism, a result of the U.S.-backed “regime change” in 2011 that Secretary of State Clinton championed and once saw as her crowning foreign policy achievement, even the basis for a “Clinton Doctrine,” reports Robert Parry. By Robert Parry Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fancied the…

The Right’s Made-up ‘Constitution’

From the Archive: Many Americans, especially Tea Partiers and Neo-Confederates, either haven’t read the U.S. Constitution or insist on distorting its plain language which established federal supremacy over the states and empowered the central government to “provide for … the general Welfare,” as Jada Thacker noted in 2013. By Jada Thacker (Originally published on July 6, 2013) The…

Toward a Rational US Strategy (Part 2)

Special Report: The ultimate madness of today’s U.S. foreign policy is Official Washington’s eager embrace of a new Cold War against Russia with the potential for nuclear annihilation. A rational strategy would seek alternatives to this return to big-power confrontation, writes ex-U.S. diplomat William R. Polk. By William R. Polk In Part One, I dealt at length with America’s…