Politics is done in the darkness audio for 5/19/17

https://johnyorks.tumblr.com/post/160891307813/j-politics-is-done-in-the-darkness-51917

Politics is done in the darkness for 5/4/17

https://johnyorks.tumblr.com/post/160301280858/like-to-do-things-different-ways-sometimes-so-for

Good analysis from CounterPunch on the "Resistance"

The "resistance" is really the neo-liberal establishment. They were clever to pose as a "resistance" when the ones resisting are the "deplorables" resisting impoverishment due to the neo-liberal agenda. But, in the end, as Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, I am "a man without a country." Neither side in this two-sided debate represents my interests correctly, and if truth be told, the nationalist anti-globalization Trumpsters have a better argument than the faux neo-liberal left. Still, we must continue to point out neither of the two really represents the interests of the majority of people.
Link

Did Trump avert war with Russia to start war with Iran?

From the American Conservative: Link

From CounterPunch on Syria

"It is a flagrant and ubiquitous omission to talk about the Russian military intervention in Syria without mentioning the American threat that preceded it." link

Ike Farewell Address

As the current president readies to give a farewell address, here is video of the very famous and important address given by a former president, at least in part.

Dr. Morris Berman: Welcome to Trumpland and the Post-American World

(S)election 2016 briefly

Haven't posted here in a while, and thought this was the place for a brief post about the upcoming elections. We are in big trouble. And, in spite of the overwhelming conventional wisdom that has Clinton as the lesser evil, that likely is not the case. As Assange stated, "A vote for Hillary is a vote for endless, stupid war." While Trump at least wants to get along with Russia, Clinton wants to establish a no fly zone over Syria, which will mean direct confrontation with Russia. This is very dangerous.

And Trump is a disaster in every other way..... We the people, no matter the outcome, have already lost this election.

James Corbet on R2p

This one was really good. And it is true that both Amy Goodman and Chomsky were terrible on the Libyan war....

politics is done in the darkness podcast #7

After far too long, here is the 7th (I think) politics is done in the darkness podcast.

Ellen Brown says "print the money"

This comes form information clearinghouse. Ellen Brown says she agrees with, of all people, Trump, at least when he says, "print the money." I used to be completely on the other side of that debate, but Ellen Brown and others have changed my mind a little bit.

For instance, and this a bit tangential, for too long Hamilton has been portrayed as the villain, and Jefferson the hero - but is that really so? Probably not.

On Carroll Quigley

Good overview of Quigley's very big book.

x22 report on the continuing war agenda

Very good x22 report podcast with plausible analysis on the latest events in Belgium, and the war in Syria.

The saga of the pre-selected 45th president continues

This from, of all people, Glenn Beck, only further reinforces my belief the American presidential elections are rotten to the core. From the writings of Webster Tarpley we learn that there has been a plan for sometime to make Sen. Ben Sasse the 45th President of the US. If this third party comes to be, I will no longer vote in the presidential elections of my country, as I will understand just how corrupt these elections are.

Articles about "Deep State" reach mainstream

Below are links to two articles that mention the "deep state" by name. The first is from Pat Buchanan, who oddly enough I agree with from time to time, especially on foreign policy from about the 90s on. The second actually appeared in the New York Times. Written by Philip Giraldi, this article seems more interested in the US connection with other countries who also have a "deep state." But it does mention "the establishment" as a stand in for our "deep state."

"The Sea Island Conspiracy"

"America's Establishment has Embraced Deep States"

A Lady Pole like feeling.

Sometimes, when I attempt to explain anything pertinent to our politics, I feel a bit like the character Lady Pole from the novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.  Whenever she would try to explain to people about the harm caused to her by the evil faerie prince, she was compelled to speak a kind of gibberish instead. This was because of the spell the faerie had her in.

Outside the land on Faerie, and more specifically, in the United States of today - there are many possible reasons why our political discourse can turn into gibberish. These reasons range from the mundane to the incredible. By "incredible," I mean that which is often relegated to the realm of "conspiracy theory"

A simple reason we might be inclined towards political nonsense is because we are constantly exposed to political nonsense. Mass communications, often one-way communications (with the possible exception of the internet) fill our minds with fantasy. What has become the mass media, including television, radio, and the internet to some extent, assaults us with the greatest illogic  history has ever known.

So far, I have been speaking of the mundane, which should be fairly obvious to most. Moving beyond the mundane, into the realm of ideas often relegated to "conspiracy theory," there is much to consider.

Let's start with one that is a little less controversial. For decades, we have known about the potential for subliminal messages to alter thought and behavior. Some would say the potential is exaggerated. For instance, it has been claimed that for one to be motivated to buy a soda at the drive-in movie, one first had to be truly thirsty. And, there is some quibbling over how "subliminal" is really defined.  The above link makes the case that sometimes we mean "supraliminal" rather than "subliminal."

To move further into the realm of "conspiracy theory," There are allegations that, whether this counts as subliminal or not, the US government has technology to broadcast audio messages directly to a single individual.   In fact, here is a video that shows a private individual demonstrating the technology allowing him to do this very thing.

Of course, there is much more, and I haven't even mentioned things like MK Ultra and Project Mockingbird. There certainly are cases when fact is stranger than fiction, but at least it is still unlikely that one could be manipulated by a faerie prince.

Lack of Democracy

Sometimes, when I'm motivated to write in this blog, I literally don't know where to start. I've probably used this next quote in other posts. I am often reminded of it. When George Carlin was on the Keith Olbermann show several years ago, at one point he told Olbermann very plainly, "This country is finished."   I would have to agree with Carlin if he meant the country is/was finished as a democracy. In fact, there have been scholarly studies suggesting just that. 

It could be argued that this concept is not new, as we have had academics tell us similar things even decades ago. For example, C Wright Mills wrote, The Power Elite in the 1950s. And I'm sure that some variation of the idea about the powerful elite of business, finance, and military interests dominating political life - of course with the help of the more staid media - has likely been with us for eons.

However, I would argue that in the US today (possibly other countries), things have gone way beyond that basic concept. It is such a big topic, and one is likely to have the scornful label of "conspiracy theorist" placed upon the one's self for even considering that our democracy might be corrupt beyond just the corruption of ordinary manipulation of opinion, and powerful persons having too great an influence on policy.

I tend to believe that at some point, I don't know when exactly, the very mechanics of our electoral democracy became corrupted. The first investigation into this that I am aware of was a book called, VoteScam: The Stealing of America. This book was written by two brothers, who having the experience of knowing some of the more radical politically minded people of the 1960s, decided that they should try to run an election campaign, just to record their experience. It was a way of testing whether they, two rather regular guys, could find the value, or lack thereof, of doing so.

According to them, they found out quite a bit more than they originally hoped to discover - namely that our elections are hopelessly corrupt. What was supposed to be a project to possibly write a book turned into a lifelong journey for them.

As they point out in the book, they believe they discovered sort of the pilot project for American democracy. Since then, as James Collier (one of the brothers who wrote the book) points out in various interviews, it has only gotten much worse.

I can't even recall if the electronic voting machines were introduced within the period covered in the book. Yet, at some point during the 1990s, these machines began to turn up in American polling places. The first time I remember reports of them appearing in the news was the election featuring Bush vs. Gore. For example, there was the voting machine that counted backwards.   By the time of the 2004 election, a great number of people had become suspicious of these machines, and believed they were being used to deliver elections to Republican candidates. Whether that is true or not, the machines are design in away that would allow either party, or potential outsiders, to basically rig an election.

In fact, those who were concerned with election integrity around this time were almost able to force a Republican tech consultant to appear in court in order for him to tell whatever he might know about alleged tampering with the 2004 election. Notice the circumstances of his not appearing in court.

At any rate, it would seem that the election result could be anything the machine says it is. I don't believe we select the president anymore, and I'm uncertain how much say we have in the lesser offices. Put this together with the work of people like C Wright Mills, and there is very little democracy regardless of the election results. This is truly a time of universal deceit.

Politics is done in the Darkness podcast # 6

I've decided to continue my "Politics is Done in the Darkness" podcast/ audio-cast, but as audio only, so not something with an accompanying YouTube video. I will still be making the "My Two Cents" videos, which I think of as specifically for YouTube, and also via blogs and such.

This latest covers topics such as the peace agreement in Syria, the ongoing tragedy of what the west did to Libya, and some open-ended thoughts on the level to which our votes count, or do not count.

The possibility of the predetermined presidential election

More than a year ago, because Webster Tarpley began talking about it on his show, and on other internet radio shows, I became aware of a politician called, Ben Sasse. The interesting thing about Ben Sasse is that there are those who claim, as far back as Sasse's college days, he would tend to introduce himself as the 45th President of the United States.

For a time, I didn't think too much about that story. After all, there was no sign of Ben Sasse on the radar as a candidate for president.

The days and weeks went on, and Trump became the front runner in the campaign on the Republican side. Suddenly, a low rumble began. One might just make it out coming through the media cacophony. It was the leader of the opposition to the Trump Republicans, Ben Sasse, gaining notoriety. Then came the movement to draft him into a third party, and run him as a candidate for president. As of this writing, he claims he would never do that.

Will he run for president after all? Will he become president? I don't know. I do know this video of Tarpley explaining the story about these allegations of a man who introduces himself as the 45th president long before the election campaign for that position is interesting to say the least.

Strange Geopolitical Relationships Continue To Unfold

Iran and Turkey call for joint efforts against terrorism Press TV tells us. What? Wait, were they not on opposite sides of the fence regarding the situation in Syria?

As an aside, but still relevant to the point,we are constantly told that Russia and Iran are, more or less, allies of of a sort. But is this true? After all, there were several times it was reported that Russia would sell the s-300 anti-aircraft system to Iran, but then didn't. It has recently been reported that the Russians will now fulfill the contract to provide the s-300 to Iran. Or, depending on which story one is to believe, perhaps they already have.  These things are hard to know with any certainty. The point is, the Russians had been dragging their feet regarding the s-300 sale to Iran for a very long time. Would they do this if they were such great allies?

Does it make sense that at the time Turkey is literally sending artillery shells into Syria, an ally of Iran, and Russia is at odds with Turkey as a result of the Turkish government's decision to down a Russian military plane several weeks ago, that Iran would discuss "joint efforts against terrorism?"

But maybe it does make sense in a way, as both Iran and Turkey, at various times and to various degrees, have had conflict with the Kurds.  After all, the Syrian Kurds are the ones that Turkey is mainly shelling.

But wait, now we see we must put Azerbaijan into the mix. Azerbaijan? It is a tangled web that is weaved as politics make strange bedfellows during the age of declining American power, and the rise of the multi-polar world. Who is on the side of whom?

(*note: This article captures what I tried to convey about the s-300 deal.)