Imperial Power Centers: Divisions, Indecisions and Civil War

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Introduction

One of the most important outcomes of the Trump Presidency is the revelations describing the complex competing forces and relations engaged in retaining and expanding US global power (‘the empire’). The commonplace reference to ‘the empire’ fails to specify the interface and conflict among institutions engaged in projecting different aspects of US political power. In this essay, we will outline the current divisions of power, interests and direction of the competing configurations of influence.

The Making of Empire: Countervailing Forces

‘The empire’ is a highly misleading concept insofar as it presumes to discuss a homogeneous, coherent and cohesive set of institutions pursuing similar interests. ‘The empire’ is a simplistic general phrase, which covers a vast field contested by institutions, personalities and centers of power, some allied, others in growing opposition.

While ‘the empire’ may describe the general notion that all pursue a common general goal of dominating and exploiting targeted countries, regions, markets, resources and labor, the dynamics (the timing and focus of action) are determined by countervailing forces.

In the present conjuncture, the countervailing forces have taken a radical turn: One configuration is attempting to usurp power and overthrow another. Up to this point, the usurping power configuration has resorted to judicial, media and procedural-legislative mechanism to modify policies. However, below the surface, the goal is to oust an incumbent enemy and impose a rival power.

Who Rules ‘the Empire’

In recent times, executive officials rule empires. They may be prime ministers, presidents, autocrats, dictators, generals or a combination of them. Imperial rulers largely ‘legislate’ and ‘execute’ strategic and tactical policies. In a crisis executive officials may be subject to review by competing legislators or judges, leading to impeachment (soft coup d’état).

Normally, the executive centralizes and concentrates power, even as they may consult, evade or deceive key legislators and judicial official. At no point in time or place do the voters play any significant role.

The executive power is exercised via specialized departments or secretariats – Treasury, Foreign Affairs (Secretary of State), Interior, and the various security services. In most instances there is greater or lesser inter-agency competition over budgets, policy and access to the chief executive and leading decision makers.

In times of crises, when the ruling executive leadership is called into question, this vertical hierarchy crumbles. The question arises of who will rule and dictate imperial policy?

With the ascent of Donald Trump to the US Presidency, imperial rulership has become openly contested terrain, fought over amid unyielding aspirants seeking to overthrow the democratically elected regime.

While Presidents rule, today the entire state structure is riven by rival power centers.

At the moment, all of the power seekers are at war to impose their rule over the empire.

In the first place, the strategically placed security apparatus is no longer under Presidential control: They operate in coordination with insurgent Congressional power centers, mass media and extra-governmental power configurations among the oligarchs (business, merchants, arms manufacturers, Zionists and special interest lobbies).

Sectors of the state apparatus and bureaucracy investigate the executive, freely leaking damaging reports to the media, distorting fabricating and/or magnifying incidents. They publicly pursue a course with the goal of regime change.

The most visible and aggressive advocates of regime change are found in the militarist wing of the Democratic Party. They are embedded in the Congress and allied with police state militarists in and out of Washington.

The FBI, Homeland Security, the CIA and other power configurations are acting as crucial allies to the coup-makers seeking to undermine Presidential control over the empire. No doubt, many factions within the regional offices nervously look on, waiting to see if the President will be defeated by these opposing power configurations or will survive and purge their current directors.

The Pentagon contains both elements that are pro as well as anti-Presidential power: Some active generals are aligned with the prime movers pushing for regime change, while others oppose this movement. Both contending forces influence and dictate imperial military policies.

From their institutional vantage points, the coup-makers have initiated a series of ‘investigations’ to generate propaganda fodder for the mass media and prepare mass public opinion to favor or at least accept extraordinary ‘regime change’.

The Democratic Party congressional – mass media complex draws on the circulation of selective security agency revelations of dubious national security value, including smutty gossip, which is highly relevant for overthrowing the current regime.

Presidential imperial authority has split into fragments of influence, among the legislative, Pentagon and security apparatus.

Presidential power depends on the Cabinet and its apparatus in a ruthless fight over imperial power, polarizing the entire political system.

The President Counter-Attacks

The Trump regime has many strategic enemies and few powerful supporters. His advisers are under attack: Some have been ousted, others are under investigation and face subpoenas for hysterical McCarthyite hearings and still others may be loyal but are incompetent and outclassed. His Cabinet appointees have attempted to follow the President’s stated agenda, including the repeal of Obama’s disastrous ‘Affordable Care Act’ and the rollback of federal regulatory systems, with little success, despite the fact that this agenda has strong backing from the Wall Street bankers and ‘Big Pharma’.

The President’s Napoleonic pretensions have been systematically undermined by continuous disparagement from the mass media and the absence of plebian support after the election.

The President lacks a mass media base of support and has to resort to the Internet and personal messages to the public, which are immediately savaged by the mass media.

The principal allies supporting the President should be found among the Republican Party, which forms the majority in both the Congress and Senate. These legislators do not act as a uniform bloc – with ultra-militarists joining the Democrats in seeking his ouster.

From a strategic perspective, all the signs point to the weakening of Presidential authority, even as his bulldog tenacity allows him to retain formal control over foreign policy.

But his foreign policy pronouncements are filtered through a uniformly hostile media, which has succeeded in defining allies and adversaries, as well as the failures of some of his ongoing decisions.

The September Showdown

The big test of power will be focused on the raising of the public debt ceiling and the continued funding of the entire federal government. Without agreement there will be a massive governmental shutdown – a kind of ‘general strike’ paralyzing essential domestic and foreign programs – including the funding of Medicare, the payment of Social Security pensions and the salaries of millions of government and Armed Forces employees.

The pro-‘regime-change’ forces (coup makers) have decided to go for broke in order to secure the programatic capitulation of the Trump regime or its ouster.

The Presidential power elite may choose the option of ruling by decree - based on the ensuing economic crisis. They may capitalize on a hue and cry from a Wall Street collapse and claim an imminent threat to national security on our national borders and overseas bases to declare a military emergency. Without support from the intelligence services, their success is doubtful.

Both sides will blame each other for the mounting breakdown. Temporary Treasury expedients will not save the situation. The mass media will go into a hysterical mode, from political criticism to demanding open regime change. The Presidential regime may assume dictatorial powers in order ‘to save the country’.

Congressional moderates will demand a temporary solution: A week-to-week trickle of federal spending.

However, the coup-makers and the ‘Bonapartists’ will block any ‘rotten compromise’. The military will be mobilized along with the entire security and judicial apparatus to dictate the outcome.

Civil society organization will appeal to the emerging power configurations to defend their special interests. Discharged public and private employees will march as pensioners and schoolteachers go without funding. Lobbyists, ranging from oil and gas interests to defenders of Israel, will each demand their priority treatment.

The power configuration will flex their muscles, while the foundations of Congressional, Judicial and Presidential institutions will shake and shutter.

On the positive side, internal chaos and institutional divisions will relieve the mounting threat of more overseas wars for the moment. The world will breathe a sigh of relief. Not so the world of stock markets: The dollar and the speculators will plunge.

The dispute and indecisions over who rules the empire will allow for regional powers to lay claims on contested regions. The EU, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Israel will face off with Russia, Iran and China. No one will wait for the US to decide which power center will rule.

James Petras is a world-renowned public intellectual. He is a retired Bartle Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who has published extensively on Latin American and Middle Eastern political issues.

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PHILIPPINES: Western Media is Distorting Reality, People and Army Unite to Battle “ISIS”

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Crosspost with 21WIRE

Andre Vltchek with military leaders in Marawi, Philippines.

Special dispatch by Andre Vltchek
21st Century Wire

Covering the recent battle for the city of Marawi on Mindanao Island in the Southern Philippines, the Western media has been grossly exaggerating unconfirmed reports and rumors. It has been spreading twisted information and ‘facts’.

At the beginning of July, I visited Mindanao as one of only a few foreigners allowed inside the besieged city of Marawi and to its surrounding area.

General Rey, head of Joint-Task-Force, Ranao (Photo: Andre Vltchek)

I spoke to local people, to the IDPs – those who managed to escape the city taken over by the jihadists. I also managed to discuss the situation with the highest commanders of the military in charge of the combat, including General Ramiro Rey and Lt. Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera. I encountered many soldiers, civil servants, and relief workers.

My contacts in the capital informed me via text messages that I had been “red-flagged,” clearly, by the pro-US faction in the Philippine military. So before my presence was finally cleared from Manila, I was detained and held in a provisional military base in the city of Saguiaran. Here I was “softly” interrogated by military intelligence. A few steps away, a howitzer was firing artillery toward ISIS positions in Marawi, some 10 kilometers distant.

Marawi ground-zero. (Photo: Andre Vltchek)

“So you believe the United States is responsible for spreading terrorism all over the world,” I was asked late at night by one of the officers, point blank, while a local starlet was imitating old Chuck Berry’s hit “Johnny B. Goode” on TV, sound blasted all over the barracks. It was clear that someone ‘behind the scenes’ was busy studying my published work.

The Western establishment media and various servile NGOs (including those which are “defending human rights” in several rebellious and independent-minded countries) consistently demonize President Duterte, an anti-imperialist, progressive leader who enjoys well over 80 percent approval rating. It is no secret in the Philippines there are two distinct factions inside the military – one supports the president and his drive for independence from the West. The other, which is trained and often corrupted by Washington and other Western capitals, would love to see him go.

The pro-Western faction obviously wanted me out, detained, perhaps even disappeared. The other one that stands by its president wanted me to see the truth, even to be allowed into Marawi.

A final decision was made late at night in Manila. I was released and granted permission to work in the besieged city. But even when the top commanders personally called the camp, there was, at least for a while, apparent reluctance to let me go.

My first reaction after visiting the Marawi front was one of shock and outrage. What I witnessed was fundamentally different from what has repeatedly been said by most of the Western mass media outlets, as well as pro-Western local news channels broadcasting from Manila.

It is evident, right from the start, that Marawi is not “totally destroyed,” as has been reported. Most of it is standing and standing firm. I would estimate that only between 20 and 30 percent of the houses and buildings, (most of them in the wealthy core center of the city) have sustained heavy damage.

Driving through Marawi ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

It was explained to me during the presentation by top army commanders that the ISIS-related jihadists began their offensive on May 23rd 2017 and their plan was to take full control of the town by the time Ramadan was to begin (May 26th). The military spoiled their plans; it counter-attacked and managed to contain the terrorists in just one neighborhood, retaining or regaining control of all the other ‘barangays.’

Marawi City and its people ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

Undoubtedly there were heavy losses, and, because of the palpable sense of fear after tremendous brutality unleashed by the terrorists, a substantial movement of IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons). But it was never 400,000 people escaping the area, as reported in the West, but approximately 200,000 (the number once peaked at about 300,000 for a short time).

There has been no “indiscriminate bombing” of the civilians. I witnessed both incoming and outgoing howitzer fire and also very limited bombing from the air; it was all targeted and mostly precise, aiming at the position of the terrorists. As in all other war zones where I have been working, I refused any protection, including helmets and bulletproof vests. That allowed me to remain more mobile. I did manage to come ‘very close’ to the front. It was clear the fighting and bombing were strictly contained to one area, no more than one-kilometer square. Even there, the mosques and almost all other buildings and houses were still standing, as is demonstrated on my photographs.

Anti-Duterte NGOs and many Western governments claim that they ‘worry’ about the martial law imposed on Mindanao Island. I was told that in and around Marawi (or anywhere else on the Island), the martial law carried no brutal consequences. Even the curfew (9PM-5AM) is laxly implemented.

Brigadier General Ramiro Rey (head of the Joint Task Force Group, Ranao) explained to me in Marawi City:

“The difference between this martial law and those that were imposed during the reign of Ferdinand Marcos is that now the military is mainly doing real fighting while providing assistance to the civilians. I absolutely don’t interfere with the work of local elected government officials. I’m actually encouraging them to do their job as before, asking them to contact me only when my assistance is needed. I never took, and I don’t intend to take, control of the area.”

Local government officials and volunteers working for various relief agencies and NGO’s operating in the area have confirmed what General Rey said.

Old lady in Marawi City. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

During my work in the conflict zone, I detected no fear among the residents. The relationship between the army and civilians was clearly friendly and cordial. As the military convoys were moving between the cities of Illigan and Marawi, both children and adults were smiling, waving, some cheering the soldiers.

In the camps housing the IDPs, there was almost unanimous consensus: while many citizens of Mindanao Island in general and the Marawi area in particular would most likely welcome more autonomy from Manila, during this ongoing and brutal conflict almost all local people have been supportive of the military and government efforts.

“We hope that both Filipino and foreign jihadi cadres would soon be crushed,” was an almost unanimous statement coming from the local people.

The Military Perspective

Soldiers preparing to head to the front. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

In the cities of Illigan and Marawi I was shown detailed maps clearly indicating positions of the ISIS and the military.

Both Lt. Colonel Jun Abad from Ranao Camp and the commanding officer, Gen. Rey, gave me a clear and detailed briefing. As of July 3rd, the Agus River represented the ‘borderline’ between the ISIS-held area and the zone liberated and controlled by the army.

General Rey explained during our meeting in the Municipality of Marawi City (now the complex is also serving as the headquarters of the war theatre):

“The ISIS wants to establish their state on the island of Mindanao – an Islamic caliphate – right here in the Province of Lanao del Sur.”

General Rey updating. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek)

But that’s not what the majority of local people want. Before President Duterte came to power little over one year ago, the social situation in many parts of Mindanao was desperate and therefore there was at least some support for radical ‘solutions’. Since then, however, things changed dramatically. Healthcare, education and public housing are improving. Indiscriminate mining by multi-national companies has been deterred. People here; as well as in almost all other parts of the Philippines finally feel hopeful and optimistic about their future.

This converts into great support for both the government and the military.

There is no doubt the entire city will be freed, soon, most likely in July or August. The only reason why it did not happen yet is that the terrorists are using hostages, both Christians and Muslims, as human shields. President Duterte, General Rey, and other civilian and military officials are trying to avoid unnecessary human losses.

Cultural topography’ of the area is also very complex. Near the front line I was told by one of the top commanding army officers:

“We could take the city in just one day, but there would be great civilian casualties. The houses in this area are very sturdy; they are 2-3 stories high and fortified, as there are constant and brutal family feuds, called’ rido’, raging here, and have been for centuries.”

But to delay the liberation of Marawi is also very dangerous.

Major Malvin Ligutan. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

“The terrorists began using captured women as sex slaves,” explained Major Malvin Ligutan, standing in front of a temporary military base in Saguiaran.

Despite all the horrors of the Marawi war, the army refused to use brutal tactics, even after it found out that various local citizens clearly miscalculated and before the conflict began, offered substantial support to the ISIS-related terrorists.

Captain John Mark Silva Onipig clarified:

“These people belonging to the ISIS are not only terrorists, but they are also criminals. They were dealing in drugs… And some local people knew that… Actually, locals knew quite a lot; they knew about the presence of the terrorists in the area long before all this started, but they never reported it to the authorities.”

“How did the terrorists get hold of so many weapons?” I wanted to know.

“In the Philippines, those who have money can buy as many weapons as they want on the black market.”

The situation is extremely sensitive as there is clearly the involvement of foreign fighters. On June 30th, in Saguiaran, Major Malvin Ligutan admitted, hesitantly:

“In one of the safe houses, we found passports issued in Indonesia, Malaysia and several Arab countries.”

A month ago I wrote an essay exposing the complex network of Western-sponsored terrorism in Asia (“Washington Jihad Express: Indonesia, Afghanistan, Syria and Philippines”). I argued that in the 1980’s, Indonesian and Malaysian jihadists, indoctrinated by the Southeast Asian brand of extreme anti-Communism, went to fight in Afghanistan against the socialist governments of Karmal, and then Mohammad Najibullah, with the ultimate goal of destroying the Soviet Union.

Hardened and further brainwashed, they returned home to Southeast Asia, participated in several ethnic strives and pogroms (including those in Ambon and Poso), and then, in order to ‘bridge the generational gap’, embarked on the coaching of a young generation of terrorists, who eventually ended up fighting in Syria and recently in the Philippines.

My essay was full of facts, and I put into it various testimonies of Southeast Asian academics, thinkers, and even of one active and prominent ‘jihadi cadre’ who is now living in Jakarta.

Prof. Iman Soleh ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

In the Indonesian city of Bandung, Prof. Iman Soleh, a professor at the Faculty of Social and Political Science (University of Padjadjaran- UNPAD) offered his take on why the West is now so obsessed with destabilizing and smearing the Philippines and its current rebellious administration:

“Since World War Two, the U.S. was afraid of so-called ‘domino effects’. Among other things that are now happening in the Philippines under president Duterte, the government is curbing activities of the multi-national mining conglomerates, and the West cannot accept that. The Philippines are putting its environmental concerns above the short-term profits! For the millions of left-wing activists here in Indonesia and all over Southeast Asia, President Duterte is a role model.”

It is no secret that the West punishes such ‘bad paradigms’ brutally and decisively.

Prof. Soleh continued:

“I think all that is happening is not just to ‘destabilize’ the Philippines, but also because the country has conflict areas that could be ‘nurtured’. The best example is the predominantly Muslim island of Mindanao, vs. the rest of the Philippines, which is predominantly a Catholic country…”

The West is regularly using ‘jihad,’ directly and indirectly, to destabilize socialist, anti-imperialist, and just patriotic countries and governments. In the past, it managed to ruin countries like Afghanistan, Indonesia (1965) and Syria. Many believe that the Philippines is the latest addition to the ‘hit-list.’

The China & Russia Connection

As Drei Toledo, a prominent Philippine journalist, educator and pro-Duterte activist, originally from Mindanao, explained:

“The reason why the West is hostile toward President Duterte is simple: he is working hard to reach a peace agreement with China, a country that is seen by Washington as its arch-enemy. Another ‘adversary of the West,’ Russia, is admired by Duterte and increasingly by his people. Recently, Russia and the Philippines signed a defense agreement. The president is also forging close ties with Cuba, particularly in the area of health… Before Duterte became our President, poverty by design in Philippines was restored and perpetuated by the U.S. and Malaysia-controlled Cojuangco-Aquino clan.

Foreign and local entities that have long benefited financially from Philippines being a weak state are now threatened overwhelmingly by President Duterte’s unifying agenda to create a socialist system in the Philippines.”

Ms. Toledo pointed her accusative finger at Malaysia:

“Malaysia benefits from Mindanao being in a perpetual state of chaos and conflict because this means we can never reclaim oil-rich Sabah.”

She also doesn’t spare Indonesia and its sinister political (anti-socialist and anti-Communist) as well as economic interests:

“As exposed by Rigoberto D. Tiglao, a Filipino diplomat and writer, Indonesian magnate Anthoni Salim, not only does have total control or substantial stakes in local mainstream media papers and networks, his conglomerate in Philippines is also based on telecoms, power, water distribution, and other public utilities.”

Or more precisely: it is based on making sure that ‘public utilities’ will never become truly ‘public’, remaining in private hands. Salim’s ‘empire’ already brought great damage to India, particularly to West Bengal where, some argue, because of allowing it to operate and to implement its brutal feudal-capitalist practices, the CPI (M) (Communist Party of India – Marxist) managed to thoroughly disgust local voters and to lose power.

The Human Cost

Marawi. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

Nobody could deny the gravity of the situation.

I witnessed exhausted glances of the people from Marawi, now living in a rescue center built on the land of the town hall of Saguiaran.

“Yesterday two infants died,” I’m told by Amer Hassan, a student volunteer from Mindanao State University (MSU).

The reason was “different water, malnutrition, exhaustion…”

I wanted to know more, and Amer continues:

“People are still in shock… They can’t believe what is happening. Especially those whose houses were destroyed; those who lost their relatives, everything…”

While the West is constantly criticizing, does it provide help? Amer just shrugs his shoulders:

“There is no foreign help coming… Almost all that we have here comes from Manila, either from the government or local agencies. Duterte is working very hard, helping our people.

She escaped with her two babies. ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

A family of three, Camal Mimbalawag, his wife Ima and one-month-old baby Mohammad, is squeezed into a tiny space at the center. Their memories are bleak. Ima gives her account almost mechanically:

“We were in Marawi during the first stage of the attack. I was pregnant, ready to give birth. We were in the city hall when ISIS attacked… They erected checkpoints; divided people into groups… they pointed guns at us… They asked: ‘Muslim or not?’…and ‘If Muslim, then recite ‘Shahadat.’ If cannot, you get killed or taken as a hostage… We saw corpses of those killed, eaten by dogs under the burning sun…”

The battle for the city of Marawi is raging. I face it from the highest floor of the building, destroyed by ISIS snipers, a place where an Australian reporter was hit just two days earlier.

It is not Aleppo, but it could have been, if not for the heroic counter-attack of the army.

Marawi is just one new chapter in the already long book of horrors of brutal religious terrorist acts, most of them directly or indirectly triggered by Western imperialism. In the first wave of its fight again the secular socialist Muslim governments, the West destabilized Iran, Egypt and Indonesia. Then came the Afghanistan ‘gambit’, followed by the arch-brutal destruction of Iraq and Libya. Then it was Syria’s turn.

‘Jihad’ is consistently used against Russia, China as well as the former Central Asian Soviet republics.

All this I described in my 840-page book: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire”, but one can never write fast enough and fully catch up with the crimes committed by the West.

It is often easy to pinpoint Western involvement in the religious conflicts, particularly in such places as Afghanistan and Syria. In the Philippines, the link is still indirect, well concealed, but it certainly exists.

To rebel against the Western Empire is always a costly and bloody affair. It often leads to coups sponsored by Washington, London or Paris, and even to direct military conflicts, interventions and full-scale wars.

But by now, the people of the Philippines have had it ‘up to here’. They had enough of being submissive; enough of being plundered while remaining silent. They are assembling behind their president. Duterte’s popularity is still around 75%. The army is clearly winning the war against the hardened local and foreign jihadists. Relief operations are effective and well organized. Things are just fine.

In only one year, the country has diametrically changed. To break the spirit of the liberated masses, to force people back onto their knees would be difficult, perhaps almost impossible, even if jihadi terror is unleashed brutally.

Almost 100 soldiers already lost their lives. Just one day before I encounter General Rey, six of his men were injured. It is said that 800 or more civilians died. Nobody knows exactly how many terrorists were killed. It is real war: tough and merciless as all wars are, but in this case, the ‘newly independent’ country is clearly winning.

Fillipino soldier wearing second-hand US helmet ( Photo: Andre Vltchek )

It is an incredible sight: some soldiers, patriotic and determined, are still wearing those helmets with the US flags engraved into them, or some old Israeli bulletproof vests. But have no doubts: this is a real, new country! Totally different Philippines and Marawi is one of the first and toughest tests it will have to endure.

The war united people and the army. No matter what the West and local corporate media are saying, most Filipinos know: this is their struggle; this is their president and their military fighting against something extremely foreign, violent and dreadful.

***
An previous version of this story was published on July 18, 2017.

About the Author

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Three of his latest books are revolutionary novel “Aurora” and two bestselling works of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire” and “Fighting Against Western Imperialism”. View his other books here. Andre is making films for teleSUR and Al-Mayadeen. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo. After having lived in Latin America, Africa and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and the Middle East, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website and his Twitter.

Mail Feces: Bernie wants to help Democrats elect progressives

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•MAIL FECES•
"Amazing Message from Bernie!"

Their latest salvo speaks for itself, same charlatan outfit, TrainDemocrats.org
These phonies never quit.

Suckers are born every second in America, and the media makes sure the supply is always abundant and fresh.

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A Lottery Nobody Will Want to Win

MAKE SURE YOU CIRCULATE THESE MATERIALS! BREAKING THE EMPIRE'S PROPAGANDA MACHINE DEPENDS ON YOU.

“Here's an interesting form of murder we came up with: assassination. You know what's interesting about assassination? Well, not only does it change those popularity polls in a big fucking hurry, but it's also interesting to notice who it is we assassinate. Did you ever notice who it is? Stop to think who it is we kill? It's always people who've told us to live together in harmony and try to love one another. Jesus, Gandhi, Lincoln, John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, John Lennon, they all said, "Try to live together peacefully." BAM! Right in the fucking head. Apparently we're not ready for that.” ― George Carlin

Unfortunately, harmony and love are unprofitable, will not be tolerated, and constitute a death sentence for those who loudly and publicly advocate their widespread use. Deep within the rancid belly of the Beast of Empire, singing songs of peace automatically puts you at deadly odds with the powers that be. Apparently, assassinations, bombings, chemical attacks, genocides, holocausts, and Holocausts are necessary ingredients for the continued and unsustainable growth of the cancer we call capitalism. Placing flowers into gun barrels has never been an effective deterrence to state violence, and never will be.

A half century ago, when I petitioned my local U.S. Military Draft Board for a Conscientious Objector Deferment, I was summarily refused and sent on my way to await my call for induction into the Vietnam Death Squads. The reason given was that I was not raised a Christian, did not claim to be a Christian, and therefore could not possibly have a conscience, nor any qualms about murdering strangers in strange lands at random. Only recently have I come around to believing that the enlightened ones who sat in judgment at the Phoenix Draft Board were right. Although I do conscientiously object to nearly all murder, I now believe that, in some cases, homicide is justifiable, appropriate, and even necessary, if we are to survive as a species.

Recently, Australian journalist extraordinaire Caitlin Johnstone wrote an article titled: "Please Just Fucking Die Already", in which she argues that U.S. Senator John McCain is a war monger/criminal/profiteer, and that his death by brain tumor would be a most welcome event. Since half of my years have been lived in Arizona, I've watched Johnny McBomb in action for a long time, and have always said that they never should have let the son of a bitch out of his cage. Hoping, praying, wishing him dead isn't likely to expedite the event, but unplugging his life support, or gently placing a pillow over his face just might. That would, of course, be homicide. But it would be justifiable.

The Beast of Empire hasn't declared war on another nation since 1941, therefore it is my contention that all military actions taken since World War II have been cases of illegal, international mass-murder. Armed robbery with victims numbering in the millions, tens of millions, billions. I've heard lots of figures, but who's really counting the casualties? And who cares? Certainly not The Military-Industrial Complex, about which Eisenhower warned us, and which has grown into a multi-trillion dollar industry. An industry with no conscience, no morals, and no goals other than a continual orgy of war profits for all those involved at the highest level. A sinister, synergistic love affair which binds C.E.O.s of big banks, weapons manufacturing corporations, oil companies, and fake media outlets, with U.S. Senators, Congressmen, and top brass in the military and intelligence communities.

Buddhists believe that murder is justified if those being murdered are committing, or intend to commit murder themselves. Killing the killers saves not only the lives of the victims, but stops the aura of bad karma from following such slayers into their graves and throughout all future reincarnations. Similar ideas vindicate the use of capital punishment (an eye for an eye), and the decriminalization of murder if it appears to save innocent victims from being slaughtered. Laws vary from state to state, and I'm not a lawyer, so don't run out and start snuffing C.E.Os or congressmen, but unless I'm way off base, there's every reason to believe that there should be open season on the jackals who own and operate the Empire's War Machine. We owe it to their future victims. We owe it to their past victims (an eye for an eye). We owe it to the mass-murderers themselves, for no human deserves the bad karma that must plague these human vermin 24/7. Their wars are illegal and immoral, they must be stopped in their tracks, and to do so cannot possibly be seen as anything other than justifiable homicide.

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ack in the mid-90's, I was Snarlin' Dick Cheney's wine consultant in Jackson, Wyoming. He was between gigs: No longer the first Bush's Secretary of Defense, and not yet the second Bush's Vice President. Likely he was already at work, scheming with his fellow neocons at The Project for a New American Century (PNAC), and planning for a never-ending succession of world-wide wars. At the time, Wyoming's biggest Dick was just "Dick" to me. A humorless bastard, who was hooked on $40 a bottle chardonnays. He bought them from me by the case. Corton-Charlemagne, Iron Horse, Chateau Montelena. He didn't really have much of a pallet for vino. He'd buy dog piss, as long as it was expensive. Dick loved it when I talked about wine, using words like oaky, buttery, hints of citrus, and a long lingering finish. Occasionally he'd crack a smile and nearly break his face.

In retrospect, if I'd known then what I do now, I would have had a golden opportunity to change the course of history. How many hundreds of thousands, how many millions of innocent lives would have been saved if somehow Cheney's skull had collided with a wine bottle down the back aisle of the store, and out of sight of any witnesses? Preferably, in the interest of irony, a four dollar bottle. But that's water under the bridge, and now bad karma will haunt the poor bastard until the end of time. Arguably, if Cheney had croaked prematurely, somebody just as caustic would have stepped up to the plate and overseen the continuation of the slaughter of innocents, but Snarlin' Dick would be a hard act to follow.

Once upon a time Madeleine Albright famously announced that the deaths of a half million Iraqi children was a price worth paying for U.S. control of Iraq's oil supply. Life is cheap to the jackals who guide Empire's War Machine. Deadly economic sanctions kill just as surely as bombs or bullets. It's all blood money in their pockets. McCain, Cheney, Albright, Bush, and their ilk have slaughtered hundreds of millions, without shedding a tear. Those of us who work every day to put an end to the bloodletting of war would be well justified in orchestrating a mass-assassination of all the war mongers. For the sake of ending the bad karma. An eye for an eye. Justifiable homicide, since the wars they wage are illegal murder by international standards. But what if we could stop the war machine by exterminating just a few of the worst offenders at the top of the stinking war-profiteering pile? Say 100...or so?

The Anti-Massacre Lottery

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ssassination is the language of the enemy, and I've come around to believing that, if we're going to get the enemy's attention and halt his deadly march, we'll need to communicate in his native tongue. To kick start The Anti-Massacre Lottery, we'll need to put together a list of the world's most notorious war criminals and profiteers. C.E.O.s of big banks, the oil industry, the C.I.A.-controlled media, and weapons manufacturers. Politicians supported largely by the aforementioned fat cats. Top intelligence and military brass who guide the rockets, bombs, and bullets. World leaders from The U.S. Empire's lapdog nations. Their names will be inscribed upon little slips of recycled paper, and placed in a big fishbowl. These are the unlucky participants in The Anti-Massacre Lottery.

Next we'll enlist the assistance of a half dozen skilled assassins. Disgruntled ex-C.I.A. perhaps. Professionals. Executioners. Military-trained hitmen. Soulless, cold, hired guns. Then, via WikiLeaks, we'll turn over the Anti-Massacre Lottery List to all major media outlets worldwide, along with the following announcement:

"War criminals beware. You are now enrolled in The Anti-Massacre Lottery. Each month 10 names will be drawn, and those unlucky souls will be executed, eliminated, liquidated, slaughtered, slain. The Lottery will continue until the warfare ends, and Empire's war-based economy ceases its operation. If your name is on the list, you have two alternatives: Either change your evil ways, or put your final affairs in order and prepare to meet your maker. The Anti-Massacre Lottery begins now. The choice is yours. Choose wisely."

Ten fat cats take a dirt nap the first month. A senator, two congressman, the president of a NATO-participating country, two top brass from the U.S. Military, a leader of one of the U.S. Intelligence Agencies, and C.E.O.s from the banking, oil, and armament industries. Madeleine Albright didn't think twice about snuffing a half million innocent children for economic control of the resources in foreign lands. How many children is a senator worth? How many months of terror will the war profiteers endure before waving the white flag? Stay tuned for the answer.

Helluva good movie idea, huh? Or...

About the Author

JOHN R. HALL, Senior Contributing Editor John R. Hall is a street-trained agnotologist with an advanced degree in American Ignorance. Other hats include: photojournalist, novelist, restaurateur, mountaineer, grocer, nurseryman, and janitor. He’s written three novels which have been read by almost nobody: ‘Embracing Darwin’, ‘Last Dance in Lubberland’, and ‘Atlas fumbled’. An untrained writer and college drop-out, he began his short career in journalism writing the ‘Excursion’ column for The Jackson Hole News & Guide. More recently he penned the ‘Left Column’ for The Molokai Island Times; appropriately on the island once known as a leper colony. John currently resides, writes, and protests injustice in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and walks among the spirits of those who once occupied the 79 Disappeared Pueblos. Read more John Halls’s articles.

The Beast of Empire hasn’t declared war on another nation since 1941, therefore it is my contention that all military actions taken since World War II have been cases of illegal, international mass-murder. Armed robbery with victims numbering in the millions, tens of millions, billions. I’ve heard lots of figures, but who’s really counting the casualties? And who cares? Certainly not The Military-Industrial Complex, about which Eisenhower warned us, and which has grown into a multi-trillion dollar industry. An industry with no conscience, no morals, and no goals other than a continual orgy of war profits for all those involved at the highest level. A sinister, synergistic love affair which binds C.E.O.s of big banks, weapons manufacturing corporations, oil companies, and fake media outlets, with U.S. Senators, Congressmen, and top brass in the military and intelligence communities.

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Which do you trust: CNN, or Tass?

BE SURE TO PASS OUR ARTICLES ON TO KIN, FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES

On Tuesday July 25th, Russia’s official Tass News Agency bannered "Diplomat blasts US media reports on Russia's alleged arms supplies to Taliban: The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman says a misinformation campaign is underway in the US media.” Tass reported:

...

CNN has become a propaganda instrument in a US misinformation campaign about Russia’s alleged weapons supplies to the Taliban in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday.
..

Foreign Ministry slams accusations over Russia's alleged support for Taliban as absurd
..

"We have repeatedly said that a misinformation campaign is underway in the US media alleging that Russia is supplying weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan and so forth. CNN is a reliable propaganda instrument used by relevant American structures in this game," she told the Govorit Moskva radio station commenting on CNN’s allegations that it has evidence proving arms supplies to the Taliban from Russia.

More insidious CNN fake news against Russia. Now the claim is that Moscow is—of all things—supplying the Taliban with weapons, a politically risky move for Putin if it were true, given existing Russian sentiment against any involvement with the Afghan jihadists, let alone tactical help. Besides, where is the evidence? There a zillion photos of Afghan tribal people that can be staged and photoshopped in any way imaginable, and the CIA maintains vast repositories of Soviet/Russian-made weapons, precisely to use in such false flags. We live in a world of often manufactured reality.

Earlier in the day, CNN’s headline had been "Videos suggest Russian government may be arming Taliban”, and their reporter in Kabul interviewed anti-Russian officials from the U.S. and Afghan governments. The printed news-report opens as follows (and I add boldfaces here, to highlight the questions that are behind CNN’s headline-word “suggest” — the possible dubiousness of those alleged sources and assertions):

The Taliban have received improved weaponry in Afghanistan that appears to have been supplied by the Russian government, according to exclusive videos obtained by CNN, adding weight to accusations by Afghan and American officials that Moscow is arming their one-time foe in the war-torn country. US generals first suggested they were concerned the Russian government was seeking to arm the Afghan insurgents back in April, but images from the battlefield here corroborating these claims have been hard to come by.

CNN’s report continues:

Gen. Joseph Votel, chief of US Central Command, told a congressional committee in March he believed the Russians were seeking influence in Afghanistan. "I think it is fair to assume they may be providing some sort of support to (the Taliban) in terms of weapons or other things that may be there," he said.

The CNN International video that automatically accompanies or comes on at this written online news-report, presents U.S. General John Nicholson (at 1:23 in that video) alleging some nation (but CNN International’s video of him speaking starts right after he has named the alleged country) is “arming belligerents” and that this “is not the best way forward to a peaceful reconciliation.” The CNN reporter then comes on and asks someone else about the alleged indications that Russia is arming the Taliban against the Afghan government and U.S. troops, “There’s no smoke without fire, is there?” The interviewee answers “Absolutely.”

Supporting evidence to back up their allegation, that’s supplied by CNN, consists only of one Taliban fighter, from a Taliban faction that is said by CNN to be fighting against another Taliban faction. This man there accuses Russia of having been the source of the other faction’s guns. As the printed news-report puts this: “‘The Russians are giving them these weapons to fight ISIS in Afghanistan, but they are using them against us too,' he said.” If that allegation by the man is true, then Russia has been trying to help a Taliban group to kill ISIS in Afghanistan — not to kill Afghan government troops, or U.S. troops, there (such as the CNN report claims to be discussing). Moreover, if that man is telling the truth, then the Taliban faction against which his group is fighting is itself fighting against ISIS. The question as to whether that man’s own group supports ISIS in Afghanistan, was not raised there by CNN’s reporter. But, in any case, if that Taliban member’s allegation is true, then it wouldn’t be Russia against the Afghan and United States governments, such as the CNN headline is conveying and the CNN reporter claims to be discussing, but instead it would be Russia against ISIS that is the issue here. CNN’s headline instead presents Russia as being pro-Taliban, not Russia as being anti-ISIS (which — if the interviewed Taliban person is to be believed — was what had actually happened). And that is the only evidence CNN’s report provides.

reported that Al Qaeda’s Syrian organization, Al-Nusra, “has by far taken the lead among the jihadist groups in executing suicide and other complex attacks against the Syrian military [Assad’s government]. The terror group is known to conduct joint operations with other Syrian jihadist organizations.” The next day, Roggio reported that “29 Syrian opposition groups have signed a petition” saying “‘we are all Nusrah,’ and [it] urges their supporters to raise Al Nusrah’s flag (which of course is al Qaeda’s flag).” He linked there to a news-report in Britain’s Telegraph, which provided the English translation that Roggio was quoting from (the document itself having been in Arabic). On 17 April 2014, Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books reported that the Obama Administration was arming Al Nusra, but that it was taking measures to hide the fact by sourcing the weapons from stockpiles of second-hand arms in other countries. This arrangement was subsequently confirmed to be true, in Jane’s Defence Weekly, on 8 April 2016, headlining “Details of US arms shipment to Syrian rebels revealed”. All of those published sources — the Telegraph, London Review of Books, and Jane’s Defence Weekly — were non-U.S., but U.S.-allied (British, specifically). Then, on 2 July 2017, the Bulgarian newspaper, Trud, bannered in English, "350 diplomatic flights carry weapons for terrorists”, and presented there photos of transit documents on some of these weapons, which the Syrian government had just discovered in a warehouse in east Aleppo after the Syrian government had ousted Al Nusra from there recently. This Bulgarian article also described and documented the means that the U.S. government had gone through in order to veil the source of these weapons; some of the documents were U.S. government documents authorizing these arms-shipments to terrorist groups in Syria.

So, the question is whether it is CNN that is reporting credible news, or whether it is Tass that is doing so — or, perhaps, neither. (But, Seymour Hersh, Jane’s Defence Weekly, etc., are, in any case, documenting that the U.S. government supplies arms to Islamic terrorists, even if not to ISIS ones.) CNN’s report insinuates that Russia is arming Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan; it’s not alleging that Russia arms Islamic terrorists in Syria.

Tass is saying that CNN is a propaganda organization, and that Russia is not arming and never does arm Islamic terrorists. However, if Russia does arm terrorists (and is doing so not merely to fight against ISIS in Afghanistan), then would that be any different from what the U.S. is, in fact, doing? So, even if CNN’s reports do have a foundation in reality, what would then be the supposed difference between the two governments, which CNN seems to believe exists?

CNN and Tass disagree on a lot that they report, and the current example is representative of their disagreements, showing the typical differences between CNN and Tass, even if not necessarily differences between the two nations’ governments — though maybe that too.

About the author

They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

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