Mainers Turn Out On Tax Day To Say NO $$ For Ukraine War

About 50 people and 2 dogs turned out April 15, 2023 (not all stayed for our group photo)

A slew of new people, many of them young and many of them first-time protesters, came to our tax day protest yesterday in Topsham, Maine. 

One told me they have family in Germany who see the Ukraine war as a reenactment of WWI with its trench warfare stalemate dragging on indefinitely. 

One told me they drove almost two hours to join us after seeing me the previous evening on the Jimmy Dore Show promoting the event. 

One told me they'd been reading my blog and looking for the next opportunity to get out and protest. 

One told me how excited they were to be joined by fellow members of the UU Church. 

 

And a group from the Party of Socialism & Liberation brought cool signs, a megaphone, and indicated they plan on returning each time we do this. 

Hooray!!

What I learned yesterday: there is a LOT of pent-up desire to resist supporting the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine. And many people don't know where or how to express it.

In some cases, this is because the groups they belong to don't object to this war in particular, or imperial wars in general (for example, Peace Action Maine is siding with NATO in the overture to WW3).

In some cases, they're individuals who engage on social media but for the first time came out on the pavement to communicate with the thousands of people who drove through the intersection.

Several people who may not be the expected audience for the Ric Tyler George Hale show listened to my interview there Friday morning, and felt motivated to join us.

It was great to see so many Veterans for Peace out with us yesterday, stalwarts of the resistance to imperial wars for decades now.

One lovely person I've been standing with for years observed that passing around the megaphone at our closing circle was a smart idea. They said,

"Some shaky voices spoke up for the first time. Today was a gust of fresh air!"

Democracy Then! Propaganda Now

Democracy Now!, legacy alternative media for the latte left, has been repeatedly exposed as biased in favor of the U.S./NATO empire. But most who watch DN! cannot tolerate the cognitive dissonance to acknowledge this shift.

Credit for the title of my post -- Democracy Then! Propaganda Now --  goes to "Diogenes" who posted a version of it commenting on this discussion between Max Blumenthal, Aaron Mate and Randy Credico on The Grayzone's YouTube channel. 

A shorter version of the video can be found attached to this Grayzone tweet, but the longer version (11 or so minutes) is worth watching if only to see Julian Assange lied about to his face as he repeatedly denies the false charge that wikileaks said Donald Trump would be less dangerous as president than Hillary Clinton. 

Count how many times Assange says "No, we didn't" while DN!'s guest talks over him.

Summary of The Grayzone's charges against Democracy Now!:

• John Pilger told Blumenthal he was banned from DN! because their funder the Lannan Foundation did not like Pilger's views
• DN! was wrong on wikileaks & Julian Assange, and has never apologized
• DN! was wrong on the Syrian war & the White Helmets
• DN! was wrong on Russiagate, which it heavily promoted
• DN! was wrong on alleged Uyghur genocide
• DN! is wrong on the Ukraine war origins & goals, and clearly biased against Russia

The propaganda of the U.S. empire is, as many have observed, outstandingly effective. 

It has split the antiwar movement in the U.S. by capturing many of their sources of information.

I once worked in marketing (for cars) and learned of the strong spending to build brand loyalty among college students. Because research shows that brand loyalties are formed when we are quite young and these loyalties are extremely resistant to change for most people. 

This is why it's effective to lure people into trusting a news outlet like Democracy Now! (or Common Dreams, or NPR, etc. -- those are posts for another day). Once trust has been established, the slow drift toward supporting the imperial narrative can begin. Much like the frog in that pot of slowly warming water, most won't notice and many will employ strong denial tactics to maintain  that they're not being boiled to death.

Some have identified the first sign of Democracy Now!'s rightward drift in their coverage of the unfortunate events of 9/11/01. Since the current nonstop warmongering of the U.S. kicked off using 9/11 as a pretext, that makes a lot of sense. But substantiating that claim would take more research than I have time for at the moment. 

Just something to think about.

Assange Can Be Extradited Rules UK Court While Press Freedom Dies A Lingering Death

Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States because that government has given assurances he will be treated humanely. 

So says the court in the UK which has seen Assange, his health broken and mental health in jeopardy, and turned away.

His crime? Revealing the truth about governments. For instance, what the U.S. government was doing in Iraq with our tax dollars in the now infamous "Collateral Murder" video i.e. gunning down Reuters journalists and shooting up a good Samaritan's van carrying children in Baghdad.

The U.S. government tortured Chelsea Manning at length for allegedly leaking evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq.

The UK government tortured Julian Assange by holding him captive in the London embassy of Ecuador for seven years as his health deteriorated.

On what legal grounds? In so-called "free democracies" the publication of truth is a protected right of journalists. Indeed, a free press is considered the cornerstone of democracy.

Trumped up charges of rape (i.e. nonconsensual condomless intercourse) in Sweden was the ostensible reason Assange was targeted for lawfare, but the Assange's accuser has now retracted his accusation. And the machinations behind getting her to make it in the first place have been revealed as bunk.

How Edward Snowden, NSA whistleblower, escaped the long arm of U.S. imperial power to suppress the truth makes for a thrilling documentary. Snowden remains a guest in Russia, and is now raising a family rather than returning to the U.S. to languish in prison himself.

Assange has a family, too, but his children are not permitted to know their father's care.

People who dare tell the truth about the most powerful government in history pay a harsh price. 

Their families pay a harsh price.

Meanwhile Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook accelerate censorship of dissident views. Sometimes on behalf of convicted pedophiles and their close friends in high place.

We all pay a harsh price as truth and real journalism subside into darkness.

In Sophisticated Propaganda, Even The Reverse Isn't True

 

On this inauguration day, as Democrats pretend that all will be well under a neoliberal regime headed by the very corporations that are killing the life support systems of our planet, and that empty promises are as good as kept, I'm worried. 

False dichotomy is a very effective tool for keeping the masses confused. The above meme claiming "the left" just won* the presidential election is not stupid, it is dangerous.

And we've lived through this before.

President Obama was constantly portrayed as a socialist or communist by propagandists and political enemies. Meanwhile, the banks got bailed out and the people got sold out on his watch. (And Occupy Wall Street encampments were violently evicted in a coordinated national effort.)

Also, Chelsea Manning and free speech martyr Julian Assange were jailed and tortured for revealing war crimes and financial crimes. Their fellow whistleblower Edward Snowden escaped the empire's grasp to go into exile in Russia; he was at risk of suffering their fate for revealing that the federal government was conducting illegal surveillance of us all.

And those who had opposed wars under George W. Bush mostly went to brunch rather than hold their handsome, articulate warmonger accountable.

Yesterday the Biden nominee for Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, (yet another recycled Obama administration hack) indicated a desire for the war in Afghanistan to continue indefinitely. He bemoaned the fact that the Obama administration overthrew the socilaist government of Libya without installing an effective replacement for Gadaffi, whom Hillary Clinton gloated about killing. 

Blinken not asked about most wars, not even Iraq, nor about his revolving door profiteering. He thinks Iran is evil but favors the agreement. He defends Libya war lies and war, arming Ukraine, freaking out over China. Asked how to rejoin the world he named 0 steps.

— David Swanson (@davidcnswanson) January 19, 2021

The inside job that allowed black clad men with zip ties to breach capitol security did not look like "the left" had any involvement. Someone who's paying attention told me Erik Prince and Blackwater -- or whatever he calls his band of mercenaries these days -- had their people inside.

The large number of clownish participants on January 6 tend to draw our attention, but let's not get distracted from what was allowed to happen -- and what it is being used to justify.

Photo: Leigh Vogel UPI/Rex/Shutterstock

In the 1970's my late father warned a teenaged me, "Watch for the U.S. to become a police state. It's already well underway." 

Let's not be distracted by the shiny surface of things, but instead keep our eye on the ball.

*A handy guide to know if "the left" ever comes to power in Washington DC: we'll get universal health care and guaranteed basic income.

Good News, Bad News -- Which Do You Want First?

Me, I want to get the bad news up front but appreciate the warning (bad news coming): Nancy Pelosi, an 80 year old multi-millionaire so clueless she proudly showed off her two luxury refrigerators full of gelato during the first pandemic lockdown, yesterday was re-elected to lead the House of Representatives for her corporate sponsors. 

This after presiding over a pathetic $600 one time payment to struggling taxpayers while other countries have been providing thousands per month so people could afford to stay home.

The really bad news for many was that the so-called Squad of progressive Democrats in the House caved and supported Pelosi even though their followers were calling en masse for them to withhold their votes in order to #ForceTheVote on the wildly popular brand of universal health care, Medicare for All.

The fact that any progressive in Congress generally gets co-opted within a couple of years and falls obediently into line on behalf of her career is not a new phenomenon. 

Most mysterious to me is why people continue being (acting?) surprised when this happens.

Worthy of note is that my representative did something really unexpected and unusual: he voted for a fellow war veteran who serves in the U.S. Senate. This taught me that the Speaker of the House does not have to be a member of the House (who knew?), and suggests that he could not bring himself to vote for corporate shill Pelosi. The statement explaining his choice shows that he and his staff get the sentiment that is abroad in Maine and throughout the land:

I am of the opinion that only a general strike will bring about universal health care in the U.S. 

Our corporate overlords have long since indicated that we can eat shit and die as far as they're concerned. Withholding the labor that builds all that wealth would be powerful -- and calls to do so are growing every day. Status quo upholders claim "that will never happen" to which I say: return to your history books and read up on what happened when elites had bled the working class dry in empires of the past.

Ok, ready for the good news?

A conservative judge who was expected to extradite journalist Julian Assange to face trumped up espionage charges in the U.S. did not do so. Her stated reason: mistreatment during his long imprisonment by the UK on behalf of the U.S. has rendered him a suicide risk, and District Judge Vanessa Baraitser does not believe the conditions in U.S. prisons are such that Assange could be prevented from killing himself in custody. 

According to AP:

“I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America,” the judge said.

(Wondering if she was thinking about Jeffrey Epstein here. Does anyone really believe he killed himself in prison?)

According to independent journalist Jeremy Scahill:

Undoubtedly a victory that Assange extradition blocked. He may well have died in prison if extradited to the US. The UK judge was correct about the horrid conditions in US prisons. But this ruling largely supports the dangerous US position on the Assange case. Far from over.

— jeremy scahill (@jeremyscahill) January 4, 2021

So this one victory does not mean the persecution of Julian Assange for revealing evidence of war crimes via Wikileaks is over. In order to stay up to date on the health of the free press canary in the corporate coal mine, we can't rely on the Associated Press or other corporate news outlets who ignore him whenever possible. Instead, we can use this handly list compiled by independent journalist Kevin Gosztola of other reporters who are consistently paying attention.

Because without real news, we're doomed to die in the dark.

Cloud Of Darkness Over Future Of US Still Led By Warmongers

"Cloud of darkness" was trending on Twitter when I got up this morning. It means one thing to gamers but this boomer couldn't help but feel it probably was a reference to our collective future governed by the president-elect's cabinet picks.

Putting female warmongers in prominent roles to please Democrats already trained to regard the warmongering Hillary Clinton as a desirable "leader" is absolutely unsurprising. What's only mildly surprising is the weak, insincere protestations sponsored on corporate media outlets like CNN and MSNBC. 

Cutting the mic of commentators who question the wisdom of appointing, say, Rahm Emmanuel, is entirely in character for these manufacturers of consent.

Did folks catch latest censorship from the Clinton News Network (CNN) where the new Congressman Elect Jamaal Bowman was cut ( technical difficulties) right when he started to criticize the possible selection of Rahm Emmanuel to Biden's right-wing cabinet. https://t.co/0TetVofEPB

— Ajamu Baraka (@ajamubaraka) November 25, 2020

Because if you're trying to spin neoliberals as progressives, muting the pushback is essential.

To get back to my original point, trying to spin corporate hacks who peddle weapons to Israel and Saudi Arabia while unwilling US taxpayers pick up the tab as feminists is laughable. Well, it would be laughable if it didn't fool so many liberals. Identity politics has been a potent management tool for keeping the brunch eating masses stupefied while the soul and treasury of the US is hollowed out by austerity to pay for endless wars.

Real feminist leaders like Kathy Kelly have been speaking out during this transition on the urgency of ending the 19 year war on Afghanistan.

link to video on YouTube if embed does not work for you

Here's she's joined by moderator Ann Wright, another peace leader, as well as Matthew Hoh, Rory Fanning, Danny Sjursen, and Arash Azizzada to discuss the prospects of this happening before Biden gets into the White House.

Democrats in Congress and generals at the Pentagon are putting up resistance, of course. If the cash doesn't flow to weapons manufacturers, how will the campaign contributions and/or cushy corporate posts flow?

When you're in the weapons business -- as the US government surely is -- endless wars is your go-to marketing scheme.

But the current occupant of the White House has shown less business acumen than some expected. Instead, he has appeared to focus on his image. Challenges like managing a public health crisis resulted in fatal damage to his persona as leader, but the remaining weeks do offer some opportunities for legacy repair.

Ending the war in Afghanistan (which Obama promised to do but never did) could be just the ticket. 

Pardoning Julian Assange, jailed in the UK for the crime of actual journalism on Obama's watch and since, would also be a winning move and, as an in-your-face to his rival and predecessor, likely to appeal to the outgoing chief executive.

Why The U.S. Government Is So Mad At Julian Assange And Chelsea Manning

Julian Assange is a journalist who changed the way journalism gets done. He was arrested in London this week at the behest of the U.S. government. Chelsea Manning is whistleblower who is back in prison for a second time, because she refuses to testify to a secret grand jury about Assange.

Their most famous revelation is probably this U.S. Army video of helicopter troops laughing and firing on Reuters journalists, a dad who went to their rescue, and the children riding in his van in Baghdad in 2007.



(If the embedded video doesn't work for you, see it here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0)

Wikileaks released the video with supporting documents on April 5, 2010 at http://collateralmurder.com.

Between the two, Assange and Manning have shone the light of public scrutiny on many dark dealings.

The U.S. government appears to be persecuting them, not because you can close Pandora's box, but as a lesson to other journalists and whistleblowers.

Stand up for Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange now, before there are no journalists left unmuzzled to stand up for them.

Free Chelsea Manning (again!) resources at Courage to Resist.