KIM PETERSEN—I grant that Chomsky is indeed a polymath, but is he an expert on military operations? Scott Ritter and Brian Berletic (The New Atlas channel), on the other hand, are Americans steeped in militarism. Berletic is a former US marine and Ritter is a former intelligence officer for the US marines. Both of them explain the Russian strategy in shaping the battlefield. The reason for this is to minimize Russian casualties and Ukrainian civilian casualties. This is unlike American Shock and Awe warfare where “collateral damage” (as killing of civilians by US military is trivialized) is accepted to attain US military objectives.
CELEBRITIES
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CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—This kind of thing happens so often because within an empire that is held together by propaganda, capitalism and mass military violence, those who are elevated to prominence within that empire have a symbiotic relationship with those things.
Someone who is worth a quarter billion dollars is unlikely to support the end of capitalism and the elimination of vast wealth inequality. Someone whose wealth and status come from Hollywood is unlikely to oppose the imperial propaganda machine of which Hollywood is a crucial part. Someone who benefits from status quo politics is unlikely to promote meaningful opposition to them.
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Bill Clinton Makes a Pathetic Attempt to Retroactively Justify His Decision to Expand NATO
64 minutes readJEREMY KUZMAROV—With the Ukraine war expanding and the threat of nuclear catastrophe rising, Bill Clinton has written an article in The Atlantic magazine trying to defend what many see as indefensible: his administration’s support for the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in March 1999 into Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic against a pledge by the Bush administration to Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO would not expand “one inch eastward.”
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THE JOYS AND SORROWS OF BEING A CELEBRITY FAN: JAMES DEAN, JERRY LEE LEWIS AND MICKEY MANTLE
50 minutes readBRUCE LERRO—Unlike movie stars and musicians, it is possible not to be charismatic and be a professional baseball player. Charisma is not a major factor that draws fans to a particular player. In addition, the Frankfurt School theory about celebrities being a form of social control for capitalists definitely has truth in relation to sports. Noam Chomsky famously puzzled over the fact that so many people in the United States were ignorant about politics, social class, and economics. Yet these same people could make very sophisticated comments about their favorite teams’ strategies and tactics, in addition to knowing the player’s batting average, runs batted in and homeruns. Sports is definitely a diversion.
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MOA—Amazon, Bezos’ main company, also gets billions in subsidies and does not pay taxes. Bezos, Musk and other billionaires are errors in our economic-political systems. They should be eliminated. I am fine with subsidizing Bezos’ or Musk’s flights to space. But don’t make it round-trip tickets.