NATO is Psycho — A Preliminary, Unofficial Diagnosis

NATO IS PSYCHO — A PRELIMINARY, UNOFFICIAL DIAGNOSIS
Posted December 4, 2018, revised Dec 5, 17, 2018
Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C (c) 2018, All rights reserved

I see that NATO ministers of Foreign Affairs met in Brussels, Belgium from December 4-5, 2018. While NATO wasn’t the focus of the agenda, an earlier meeting in Brussels referenced NATO from a very different perspective. I’m referring to the 12th European-Russian Forum held in the European Parliament in Brussels on November 26, 2018. Gilbert Doctorow, a Brussels-based political analyst and author, reported on the forum. Doctorow says the forum, “brought sobering realism to bear on the questions of whether we are headed into war with Russia, whether it can be limited in destructiveness and regional in scope or will quickly escalate to the global level with nuclear exchanges, and appraising what kind of outcomes we may anticipate.”

​With the West’s relations with Russia at an historic low, and military tensions at a dangerous new high, it’s important to ask how we got here. What went wrong? Doctorow’s report was clear as to where forum speakers laid the blame.

“There was a near consensus of all speakers regarding who is to blame for the deterioration in Russia’s relations with the West ever since the halcyon days following signing of the Paris Charter in November 1990 that formally ended the Cold War. This deterioration has moved with particular speed over the past decade bringing us today to the lowest point in relations since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

We heard from speaker after speaker that the US was and is to blame, starting with NATO expansion to the East in the mid-1990s and running through the US-managed coup d’état in Kiev on 22 February 2014 that installed an aggressively anti-Russian government in Ukraine. That crossed all of Moscow’s red lines and precipitated the re-incorporation of Crimea into the Russian Federation the following month, leading in turn to the Western response we see to this day: sanctions, nonstop information war and exacerbation of conflicts in Europe and in the Middle East, where Russia and the West have been backing proxies that are in conflict.”(1) 

The record shows that NATO, the so-called “system of collective defence” (2), has been playing offence, violating the Gorbachev-Reagan agreement and poking the bear. But why? Patrick Armstrong, former analyst in the Canadian Department of National Defence specialising in the USSR/Russia, attempts to psychoanalyze NATO. He concludes the alliance “demonstrates a dangerous level of ‘confirmation bias.'”  

He points out the brazen pro NATO New York Times propaganda and nature of NATO news speak. 

Could there be a better illustration of the truth of Kennan’s percipience than this headline from the New York Times in July 2017: “Russia’s Military Drills Near NATO Border Raise Fears of Aggression“? The chutzpah of the headline is hard to swallow: Russia hasn’t moved anywhere. “The troops are conducting military maneuvers known as Zapad, Russian for ‘west,’ in Belarus, the Baltic Sea, western Russia and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.” Belarus is an ally of Russia, Russia has a Baltic coastline of more than 400 kilometres, Kaliningrad is part of Russia. So what exactly is the reason what Russia can’t do whatever military things it wants to at home? Imagine the reaction if Moscow dared question an American military exercise in the USA. But this reversal of truth is now the propagandistic norm.” (3)  
 
In a subsequent article, Armstrong takes his analysis a step further. After examining the scope of fanciful and conflicting pro NATO war rhetoric (propaganda) regarding Russia, he concludes members are suffering from something more serious than simply confirmation bias. He states:  “There is a striking schizophrenia among NATO’s members: Russia is, at one and the same time, so weak it’s “doomed” and so strong that it’s demolishing NATOLand.” (4)

Another Canadian, lawyer-author, Christopher Black, also examined NATO behaviour. In short order, Black calls out NATO “saviour of democracy” propaganda, its diabolically inverted mission and the psychopathy of the leaders of the nations behind it.
 
“The US and its NATO allies treat international law with contempt, use intense propaganda on their own peoples to brainwash them to support this criminality, and try to intimidate them with their ‘war on terror’ as they savaged civil liberties. Law means nothing to the psychopaths who rule these nations and whose slogan is ‘peace through strength’ or, to penetrate the euphemism, ‘peace through war.'”(5) 
 
I’ve also attempted to make sense of the inexplicable behaviour of the organization known to many of its critics as the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization. It’s clear that one NATO propaganda tactic is psychological projection. It resembles that employed by antifa activists who are fond of aggressively  threatening any who oppose them and then branding their opponents as “haters” and “Nazis” among other things. It’s a style not unlike that of the playground bully who approaches and then repeatedly pushes the skinny kid wearing glasses while shouting “don’t touch me.” The bully then promptly leverages his own aggression by accusing the skinny kid of “hiting” him, thus justifying a beat down.
 
In a satirical essay on US foreign policy called Why can’t Sam learn?, I argued:
 
“… the NATO gang should be immediately broken up and each of its members given a similar assessment. Their aggressive behaviours and their enabling of (Uncle) Sam’s intimidation and bullying suggest that some of them may also suffering from a similar condition (psychopathology). To some extent however, they are also Sam’s victims. (Canada, is no exception.) (6) 
 
It’s sometimes said in management circles that the pathologies of organizations are the pathologies of their leadership. So we shouldn’t be surprised that NATO is demonstrating psychopathic behaviour. Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist is a useful diagnostic tool. The checklist describes one of this condition’s essential characteristics as “selfish and unfeeling victimization of other people.” Substitute “foreign nations” for “other people” and it is descriptive of NATO. At a glance, 15 of the 20 traits on the checklist are further descriptive of NATO ethos and conduct. They are:

  • glib and superficial charm (we’re your humanitarian rescuers bringing democracy)
  • grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
  • need for stimulation
  • pathological lying
  • cunning and manipulativeness
  • lack of remorse or guilt
  • shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
  • callousness and lack of empathy
  • parasitic lifestyle
  • poor behavioral controls
  • lack of realistic long-term goals
  • impulsivity
  • irresponsibility
  • failure to accept responsibility for own actions
  • criminal versatility (7)  

And in an essay entitled: Prayers for Canada’s Pogo Moment in 2017, I  argued that it was time for Canada to review its membership in NATO, considering the following questions: 
Which of our current NATO obligations predispose our acting, now or in the future, in ways at odds with Canadian values and our vision for the future?

In what ways has Canadian participation in foreign conflicts as a NATO member contributed to or exacerbated conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world?
 
In what ways has Canada as a NATO member with the backing of the military industrial complex, contributed to a more dangerous and less secure world? 
 
It what ways does our participation in NATO undercut our understanding of what is essential for the long-term global good and our desired contribution to it? (8) 
 
Do we need another reason to rethink our NATO commitment beyond that of its criminal pathology?. How about its incompetent management? The seventh anniversary of Gaddafi’s murder and a NATO-assisted regime change was October 20. If NATO practiced the most basic form of project management, it would have evaluated the Libya “democracy” intervention. The actual  result was that a prosperous and stable state was reduced to a chaotic and divided country with a depressed standard of living. I could add that some analysts also attribute the uncontrolled flood of North African migrants to Europe to the collapse of a strong central Libyan government. So the damage from that military escapade is still mounting.

​I have to conclude there was no honest evaluation of the Libya project and its rippling consequences. If there had been, it’s unlikely an intelligently-managed organization, supposedly dedicated to the good of humanity, would have plunged ahead with another disastrous regime change project in Syria (9). Again, the damage estimate associated with NAT0’s involvements in the Syrian war is still being tallied. So, from the an organizational management standpoint, NATO is an abject failure. I might add that in another world, one where international justice prevailed and NATO was accountable for its performance, NATO countries would be paying war reparations to both Libya and Syria to name just two recent victims of the alliance’s war crimes.   

Canada has other good reasons to re-evaluate its contributions to military spending and NATO in particular. This country spent $32 billion on military spending in the last year (10). Mark Taliano contends that this was “largely to bolster US imperialism abroad, to the detriment of humanity.” And Canada did this while running a deficit and lacking sufficient funds for infrastructure renewal, health care and other social programs. So here’s a modest suggestion. Why don’t we limit our “defence” expenditures to those items which are genuinely matters of Canada’s defence, tell the armaments industry lobbyists to take a hike and redirect precious resources to more peaceful and productive purposes. I promise you, it would generate a much “healthier” return than our current investment in the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization. 

Note: Add the name of one more of us (Jan Oberg) who thinks NATO has a serious psychological problem.
https://transnational.live/2019/04/02/nato-at-70-an-unlawful-organisation-with-serious-psychological-problems/
 
References:
1. Experts and activists offer a sober evaluation of the risks of a major war between Russia and the West, Gilbert Doctorow, Anti-War Blog, Nov 30, 2018, https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2018/11/30/experts-and-activists-offer-a-sober-evaluation-of-the-risks-of-a-major-war-between-russia-and-the-west/

2. NATO, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO

3. Psychoanalyzing NATO, Patrick Armstrong, Strategic Culture, November 9, 2018, https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/07/03/psychoanalysing-nato-projection.html
 
4. Psychoanalyzing NATO: Schizophrenia, Patrick Armstrong, Strategic Culture, December 15, 2018.https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/12/15/psychoanalysing-nato-schizophrenia.html

5. On capitalism and eternal war: NATO as “world government,” Christopher Black, Global Research, October 3, 2018,
https://www.globalresearch.ca/on-capitalism-and-eternal-war-nato-as-a-world-government/5656113

6. Why can’t Sam learn? Futurescapes21C, November 22, 2017, http://www.futurescapes21c.com/blog/why-cant-sam-learn

7. Encyclopedia of mental disorders forum, Hare’s psychopathy checklist, http://www.minddisorders.com/Flu-Inv/Hare-Psychopathy-Checklist.html

8. Prayers for Canada’s Pogo moment in 2017, Futurescapes21C, January 32, 2017, http://www.futurescapes21c.com/blog/prayers-for-canadas-pogo-moment-in-2017

9. Anniversary of Gaddaffi’s death and the current situation in Libya, Yuriy Zinin, New Eastern Outlook, October 18, 2018, 
journal-neo.org/2018/10/18/anniversary-of-gaddafi-s-death-and-the-current-situation-in-libya/https://

10. NATO economic straightjackets: Military spending drains public coffers, triggers collapse of social programs, Mark Taliano, Global Research, November 26, 2018. https://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-economic-straightjackets-military-spending-drains-public-coffers-triggers-collapse-of-social-programs/5660995?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles

Gaslighting — Psychological Manipulation that Breaks Your Will to Resist

GASLIGHTING — PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIPULATION THAT BREAKS YOUR WILL TO RESIST

Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C 2018, All rights reserved, Original written 9/28/2018, Posted October 1, 2018 rev. October 8, 2018

Overall, the main reason for gaslighting is to create a dynamic where the abuser has complete control over their victim so that they are so weak that they are very easy to manipulate.” — Alex Miles

Those who call evil good and good evil are as good as dead, who turn darkness into light and light into darkness, who turn bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter.” (Isaiah, 20: v) 

Apathy in the face of evil
Perhaps you can be excused if you didn’t know that you have been the target of information warfare. And you might not have heard that a legislative amendment in 2013 which allowed the powers that be (PTB) to propagandize US citizens. And borders aren’t impervious to propaganda. But, you’ve been busy, right–  cultivating a career, growing a business, raising a family, serving your community and watching sports on TV and perhaps preoccupied on social media.

The problem is the powers that be, the elite, the high level movers and shakers, the puppet masters, the illuminati, whatever you wish to call them, have been exploiting your inattentiveness. They have successfully inverted the natural  order — reality as we knew it. We’re completely disoriented to the point that we’ve become partners in their pathological schemes, like conducting endless war. Inattention has now become complicity. But hope springs eternal, and there remains a chance that you haven’t become totally inured to the deceptions of Machiavelli’s disciples. 

Do you ever wonder how the the citizens of the American Empire and its trusty ally, Canada, are so easily persuaded, time and time again, to consent to the Empire’s foreign military aggressions? It’s no small matter. In fact, the numbers boggle the mind. One source estimates that the US is directly and indirectly responsible for more than 20 million to 30 million deaths “in 37 victim nations since WWII.” Let that number roll around  in your head for a moment. This astonishing number is attributed to two types of military action. The first is direct action and it accounts for “about 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and Vietnam Wars and the two Iraq Wars. The Korean War also includes Chinese deaths while the Vietnam War also includes fatalities in Cambodia and Laos.”

Add to this number the death count from the Empire’s “proxy” wars. (These are wars waged at arms length where the US equips, trains funds otherwise assists non-American forces (mercenaries, para militaries, jihadists) to carry out its dirty work.) These assaults account for “between nine and 14 million deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan.” (1)

Conducting a proxy war
For the American Empire, the proxy war, a model employed for decades in South America and  currently employed in the Middle East and North Africa, has much to recommend it. Importantly, its arms length nature affords the US sufficient distance that the average citizen is unlikely to search out its connection to the conflict. Thus, the US can adopt the position of interested, or even concerned observer looking for ways to address the problematic situation and thus giving new meaning to the word, disingenuous. Second, it avoids the public discomfort and resistance which inevitably develops when the public wearies of seeing young American soldiers coming home in body bags. 

UK journalist, Vanessa Beeley explains the basic steps in the process of conducting a proxy war.  

“The ubiquitous dictator, the oligarch who threatens to destroy all that the US and her allies represent which of course is, freedom, equality & civil liberty all wrapped up in the Democracy shiny paper and tied with the exceptionalist ribbon.Next the false flag to engender fear, terror and to foment sectarian strife. The support of a “legitimate” organic, indigenous “revolution” conveniently emerging in tandem with US ambitions for imposing their model of governance upon a target nation. The arming of “freedom fighters”, the securing of mercenary additions to these manufactured proxy forces.  All this is sold in the name of freedom and democracy….” (2)

The author of the study on US-caused military deaths notes that “Virtually all parts of the world have been the target of U.S. intervention.” That’s apocalyptic. If the situation were attributable to a pandemic — resulting from the spread of an exotic virus, it would be a case of all hands on deck in the search to develop a treatment or means of control. In this case, however, the citizens of the US and the West remain remarkably silent and seemingly unmoved. It’s business as usual and our and silence is interpreted as consent by the predatory military industrial complex. 

We the sheeple?
To what should we attribute this strange ability to detach ourselves from uncomfortable realities unfolding elsewhere in the world, including those orchestrated by our own governments in our name? Political analyst, Paul Craig. Roberts attributes the apparent blindness of fellow Americans to the criminality of their government and its leaders as insouciance or indifference. Others explain our inability to confront the evil aggressions of the military industrial complex as attributable to the constant “bread and circuses” distractions manufactured under the rubric of entertainment. I wonder if we’re not  at the point now where, Kardashian is synonymous with mindless distraction? In fairness, the list is much longer including “the Royals” and innumerable other personalities populating the vast entertainment complex.

Journalist, Caitlin Johnstone believes that Christianity tends to cultivate passivity in the face of earthly evil. Johnstone contends that In the Christian worldview, justice is dispensed in the the next life, giving tyranny a pass in this one. She may have a point regarding Christian passivity. But discernment may also be an issue. When exactly should we be forgiving and turn the other cheek as Christ did? And when should we be unleashing the righteous indignation Christ did when he upset the operations of the temple money changers? Or is it a matter of a lack of street smarts and strategy; knowing how to combat the evils of our day, again considering military industrial complex example.

I could add that often, it seems, we’re excessively deferent, and on other occasions, wary of earthly nastiness. Sometimes, we’re just plain gullible. Conservative Christians readily fall for the latest Netanyahoo/Israeli ruse, whereas their progressive brethern eagerly lap up Neoliberal delusions like mother’s milk. As a Christian, I’d like to believe otherwise, but there’s too much evidence to the contrary for me to challenge the assessment of author, Michael Hoffman regarding the underwhelming resolve of the brethern/sistern to combating enemies.

“In a (sic) general, the supporters of the lies of the Overlords wage spiritual and psychological warfare with far more dedication, commitment and self-sacrifice than the purported allies of God’s truth. The Cryptocracy’s defenders are 24/7 militants resolved to contend with their perceived foes with every ounce of their being. Whereas on the side of Christian conservative renewal, with honorable exceptions, I find mainly armchair warriors and folks so enormously distracted by the choices offered by the Internet’s deluge of words and images, that they are nearly paralyzed by the spectacle.” (3)

In general, “we the people” not only fail to understand the nature of the big game and the rules by which it is played, but we also vastly underestimate our adversaries’ capabilities and our vulnerability to their manipulative schemes. My dad used to describe those afflicted with such debilitating naiveté as “babes in the woods.” Moreover, the opposition isn’t hampered by such concepts as fair play and honesty. Have you ever seen the merchants of death engaged in selling us war on a regular basis commit to fair play and transparency? As the expression went in our parents’ day, “All is fair in love and war.” When it comes to war, the corollary of war- makers is “The end justifies the means.” And for war-makers, winning is everything. 

As useful as these various explanations are in accounting for our collective passivity, there appears to be something more subtle and more malevolent at play. Recognizing it is complicated by the fact that most people find it difficult to acknowledge that they have been deceived. Some sage has wisely said that it’s easier to fool someone than it is to convince that person that the or she is being fooled. But what if, ultimately we are being subjected to a devious form of psychological abuse?

Psychological warfare — gaslighting
Caitlin Johnstone, explains our capitulation to the Empire’s bloody wars in part as the result of propagandizing by corporate mass media.  

“The mass media has given a few elites the ability to effectively turn a false story that they themselves invented into an established fact so broadly accepted that anyone who doubts it can be painted in the exact same light as someone who doubts the roundness of the Earth. The illusion of unanimous agreement is so complete that blatant establishment psyops are placed on the same level as settled scientific fact, even though it’s made of little else but highly paid pundits making authoritative assertions in confident tones of voice day after day.”

Johnstone describes this as a form of psychological abuse called “gaslighting.”(4) She directs readers to an essay by Vanessa Beeley on the origin of the term and its modern day application. Beeley contends that the populace is first “preconditioned” or “tenderized” as she puts it, through a lengthy  campaign of fear mongering. Then, the populace is subjected to  gaslighting. The victim of gas lighting is incapable of rational thought and reason. 

“The majority of Americans accept mass murder under the pretext of the right to protect, because their ability to form rational and reasoned opinions has been engineered out of them.  This is now the definition of US exceptionalism.  It is their ability to manipulate the world into accepting their lawlessness and global hegemony agenda.  In seeking to impose its own image upon our world the US has drifted so far from its founding principles, one wonders how they will ever return to them.  They have employed a recognised form of torture to ensure capitulation to their mission of world domination which entails the mental, physical and spiritual torture of target civilian populations.”

There are three stages in gaslighting. The the first stage hinges on the trust and reliance we have developed in our leaders/abusers. Trust is cultivated through (paternalistic) self promotion and what Beeley calls “ingratiating propaganda.” Once trust has been granted, the abuser subtly begins to undermine it. The result is the victim begins to doubt their own judgement and surrender to the reality of the abuser. By stage two, the victim is suffering from something akin to Stockholm Syndrome and identifying with their captor/abuser. The third stage is “depression.” At that point she says, “The process is complete and the victim has been reduced to a willing accomplice in the abuser’s creation of a very distorted reality.” (5) 

Note: The famous case of newspaper heiress-turned SLA terrorist, Patrician Hearst, is illustrative. (6)

I wonder what stage of gaslighting are the citizens of the US and its vassal states now in? Is it possible that the majority are in Stage Two and Three and at a point where they have become “willing accomplices of a very distorted reality” as Beeley puts it?  Can they be awakened and escape the matrix of lies? Or, are the rewards of serving Big Brother too addictive to overcome? Let’s hope not.

Fighting back
A significance percentage of the population likely retains some awareness of their situation. But what can people do in the face of such powerful oppression? In a 2015 TedTalk, Ms. Ariel Leve describes her gaslighting as a child by her narcissist mother. 

“When I would confront my mother with things that she had said, or things that she had done, she would say I was making it up, that it was a lie. When I confronted her with facts, they were batted away. So it wasn’t just that my reality was canceled, but that my perception of reality was overwritten.” 

Leve opens her presentation with an ominous assessment: “Right now, the world is experiencing what I experienced every day as a child. There is chaos, there is confusion; everything is upside down. Reality is being cancelled and nothing means anything.” 

She has four pieces of advice to those now experiencing gaslighting at a societal level.  
1. Remain defiant
2. Never expect accountability
3. Let go of the wish for things to be different
4. Develop healthy detachment. (7)

What other measures may be important in protecting your health and well-being in our dystopian world? Caitlin Johnstone recommends we exercise “extreme skepticism” regarding any establishment narrative and learn to truth our own judgement. She adds that you should “have full confidence that your conclusions, however imperfect, are always superior to those of known liars and manipulators. Don’t let them gaslight you.”

A family member works in the field of mental health, but somehow, I suspect her colleagues aren’t yet talking about the dangers of gaslighting. The cognitive dissonance associated with that possibility is a powerful natural deterrent. So for many, it would simply be too alarming to contemplate. But it’s time we did, and it’s time people took steps to safeguard their mental and emotional well-being from government and military-inspired psychological assaults. It’s time to resist our collective gaslighting. The creation and operation of this website dedicated to exposing the deceptions of propagandists is my personal act of defiance. What’s yours?

Sources:
1. The US has killed 20 million people in 37 victim nations since WWII, James A. Lucas, Global, Research, November 27, 2015, https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-has-killed-more-than-20-million-people-in-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/5492051

2. Gaslighting: State mind control and abusive narcissism, Venessa Beeley, 21st Century Wire, May 26, 2016, https://21stcenturywire.com/2016/05/26/gaslighting-state-mind-control-and-abusive-narcissism/

3. On the censorship of Michael Hoffman’s books by Amazon, Information Clearing House, September 14, 2018
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50261.htm

4. How the establishment propaganda machine gaslights us into submission, Caitlin Johnstone, Medium, February 11, 2018
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/how-the-establishment-propaganda-machine-gaslights-us-into-submission-312ffde16e56

6. The heiress who turned terrorist, Fraser Coast Chronicle, February 26, 2018, https://www.frasercoastchronicle.com.au/news/patty-hearst-its-no-secret-that-i-was-abducted-rap/3345990/

​7. How to resist gas lighting, Ariel Leve, YouTube, May 15, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4P2Qwh1QCU

Exposing the Empire of Lies (Part A)

EXPOSING THE EMPIRE OF LIES (PART A)

1/16/2018

Exposing the Empire of Lies (Part A)
Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C 2018 All rights reserved, written May 23, 2017 draft, rev May 29, January 16, 2018
 
“But the America we celebrate is an illusion. It does not exist.”  – Chris Hedges
 
In this essay, I will pull back the curtain on the American Empire. You will get a glimpse of the real America minus the Madison Avenue hype, Hollywood mythology, Vegas glitz and cultivated sentimentality. It won’t be a pretty picture. As you may have heard, the truth, as freeing as it is, brings its own misery.
 
Author Chris Hedges states that the America you thought you knew, no longer exists. For some who have long been faithful to cherished myths, like America the Beautiful, the weight of these revelations could be too much to process at one sitting. For this reason, I have broken my analysis into two parts. I’ve also done my best to forewarn and prepare you for what you are about to discover. It would be also helpful to intersperse the heavy reading with some long walks.
 
The good news is that escaping a delusion can be immensely freeing. It’s not unlike emerging from the blur of a dense fog or the choking smoke of a forest fire. For the first time in some time, perhaps ever, you will be able to see the world more clearly. Pursuing a more accurate understanding of the real America doesn’t make you disloyal. Nor does it mean the end of the world, just the end of a personal delusion. You may have already glimpsed cracks in the facade. You may have had doubts about the lavish claims made in the advertising. And if you suspected that you were being deceived, you’re right and likely to a far greater degree than you ever thought.

Bill Willers tells of an encounter with a Brussels protester at a 2007 demonstration in Brussels, who after 30 years of living in the US had returned to Europe. The protester said he had returned, because, after 30 years of living in the US, he didn’t like what he saw happening to is citizens.
 
They’ve been taken hostage for the past 20 years by a group of people who destroyed them physically, spiritually and intellectually, and now they’re trying to do the same thing in Europe.” Willers asks, How many lies over the years does it take before a society comes to its senses and realizes that its overriding worldview has been crafted largely by manipulative lies?1
 

Good question: “How many lies does it take?”

An imaginary democracy
American author, Chris Hedges declares that democracy in America is a “useful fiction.” A closer look reveals that what may have once resembled democracy has given way to an oligarchy or a corporatocracy with totalitarian features. I first awakened to this reality when I stumbled across a study by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page. The two concluded that: “over the past few decades America’s political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.” Drawing on data from over 1,800 policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, they concluded that: “…. rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters.”2
 
These findings resonate when one considers how unelected powerful influencers now shape the policies of the US government. We have learned, for example that Obama’s 2008 cabinet was for the most part picked by Citibank. Clearly, this in itself would predispose the legislative agenda and policy focus for Obama’s first term.3
 
The number of lobbyists in Washington at any given time could range from 15,000 to more than double that number because thousands aren’t registered. Registered and non-registered lobbying is estimated at $9 billion per year. Many lobbyists have previously served in the federal government and are highly skilled in the art and science of bending politicians’ ears and will.4 They bring a single-minded focus on their clients’ interests, with a number of them even happy to write the new legislation for the legislator.5
 
Author and political theorist, Sheldon Wolin, describes the American system as “inverted totalitarianism” or a “managed democracy” at best. Significantly, in Wolin’s conception of inverted totalitarianism, the economic order trumps the political order.
 
There is no national institution left that can accurately be described as democratic. Citizens, rather than participate in power, are allowed to have virtual opinions to preordained questions, a kind of participatory fascism as meaningless as voting on “American Idol.” Mass emotions are directed toward the raging culture wars. This allows us to take emotional stands on issues that are inconsequential to the power elite.6
 
Considering Wolin’s analysis, it’s not difficult to understand why middle class American citizens feel disconnected from their governments and their elected leaders. One the one hand, they see the trappings and participate in the rituals of a democracy, but on the other, decisions in Washington yield the same predictable results, irrespective of which party assumes power. Author and political analyst, Paul Craig Roberts paraphrases Vladimir Putin’s description of America’s imaginary democracy.
 
In the West, voters cannot change policies through elections, because the ruling elites control whoever is elected. Elections give the appearance of democracy, but voting does not change the policies that favor war and the elites. Therefore, the will of the people is impotent.
 
People are experiencing that they and their votes have no influence on the conduct of affairs of the country. This makes them afraid, frustrated, and angry, a combination of emotions that is dangerous to the ruling elite, who in response organize the powers of the state against the people, while urging them with propaganda to support more wars.
 
Roberts highlights the entrenchment of America’s status quo establishment, despite the many promises of change which bring successive administrations to power. Obama promised to get America out of Afghanistan and reverse the police state created by George W. Bush. Ultimately, he increased America’s military entanglements and expanded the police state. The title of an article by Roberts tidily sums up his assessment: “American democracy: A dead man walking.”7
 
An unelected, Deep State government 
The best explanation for the death of American democracy lies in the fact that the country is ultimately governed by the Deep State. Wikispooks defines the Deep State as:
 
…(loosely synonymous with the shadow government or permanent governmentis in contrast to the public structures which appear to be directing individual nation states. The deep state is an intensely secretive, informal, fluid network of deep politicians who conspire to amplify their influence over national governments through a variety of deep state milieux.8
 
Author and founder of the Rutherford Institute, John Whitehead describes the parallel covert operation and extensive reach of this hybrid, public-private entity. 
 
As Lofgren reveals, this state within a state, “concealed behind the one that is visible at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue,” is a “hybrid entity of public and private institutions ruling the country according to consistent patterns in season and out, connected to, but only intermittently controlled by, the visible state whose leaders we choose.
 
The Deep State not only holds the nation’s capital in thrall, but 
it also controls Wall Street (“which supplies the cash that keeps the political machine quiescent and operating as a diversionary marionette theater”) and Silicon Valley.9
 
It’s often been pointed out that both presidents. Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy, warned Americans regarding the growing threat of the Deep State. Eisenhower specifically named the growing military industrial complex as a potential threat to America’s democracy. Kennedy’s November 12, 1961 speech to the American Newspaper Publisher’s Association, while more nuanced, warned of “a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence…”10 This could have been a subtle reference to the Deep State influences, which, according to some analyses, had him assassinated in November 1963.11
 
Until now, the Deep State has largely been submerged alligator-like below the water of the swamp. The US presidential election of 2016 and, seemingly a post election political struggle have riled the water and brought the alligator to the surface. Professor and attorney, Rahul Manchanda contends that we can now make out the identity of the players and the characteristics of Deep State actors that distinguish them from average American citizens.
 
The first of his seven defining characteristics is “an overwhelming desire to start WWIII”. The last is “a deep commitment to the Stasi-like police state with its attendant social engineering, manipulation of the judiciary and the courts, and complete and total control over the legislative (Congress and Senate), and if possible, domination and infiltration of the Executive Branch.”12 In a subsequent article, Manchanda elaborates on his point regarding Deep State control of the judiciary.
 
Many long-term surviving judges have reported that the Constitution intended that only elected lawmakers be permitted to create law, yet federal and state judges routinely and daily create their own law in the judicial system based on their own activism, personal opinions, corruption, bribery, and bias.
 
…The Deep State Plutocrat/Oligarch Elite control these financial purse-strings, and exercise this power on a daily basis, so that our body of law and jurisprudence is today, and at once, totally unrecognizable from the visions of the Founding Fathers and our first American courts.13
 
Seemingly, American assumptions regarding the integrity of their justice system are like that of the Empire itself, cherished illusions. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that that American Justice has become something of a marketplace where favourable verdicts may be bought or can be crafted to suit the occasion by artisan judges shaping verdicts as they are inclined.
 
Ironically, it is those who have been on the receiving end of the brute force of American imperialism who understand the Empire best. Syria’s President Assad describes the power of the Deep State and its control over US presidents in particular.
 
The American President has no policies. There are policies drawn by the American institutions which control the American regime which are the intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, the big arms and oil companies, and financial institutions, in addition to some other lobbies which influence American decision-making. The American President merely implements these policies, and the evidence is that when Trump tried to move on a different track, during and after his election campaign, he couldn’t. He came under a ferocious attack. As we have seen in the past few weeks, he changed his rhetoric completely and subjected himself to the terms of the deep American state, or the deep American regime.14
 
That pretty much sums it up doesn’t it.

Note: Some analysts differentiate between the Deep State and the more permanent and powerful structure of the Shadow Government.

Treasonous, (war) criminal presidents
Treason, simply defined, is the betrayal of one’s country. A closer look at official and hidden US history reveals that the country’s leaders have betrayed the country time and time again. It’s a pattern that continues to the present. Some expect that full disclosure of the events of 9/11 will reveal the US was betrayed by the country’s leaders. The 9/11 attack should be viewed as a pivotal point in US history for more than one reason.
 
Among other things, it provided a pretext for the so-called “war on terror” and an open-ended series of US-led regime changes abroad. It also provided the impetus for a shift of power from Congress and “the people” to the office of the president. The implications of that power shift continue to play out in both US domestic and foreign policy today.
 
George Bush’s Patriot Act (October 26, 2001) significantly expanded state and presidential powers. Among other things, the act provided the ability to detain immigrants indefinitely and to search homes and businesses without the owner or occupant’s knowledge or permission. And while Obama’s Freedom Act (2015) placed some constraints on NSA surveillance, the broad trajectory of national legislation has been toward a major expansion of government powers to spy on American citizens. These powers extend to the ability to monitor electronic communications with little oversight and to seize the business records of telecom companies.
 
Journalist, John Pilger contends that Obama’s most historic achievement was brining the war on democracy “home to America.” Pilger explains how anti-terrorism legislation puts American citizens, once considered innocent until proven guilty, at risk.
 
Obama’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) granted the Pentagon “the legal right to kidnap both foreigners and US citizens and indefinitely detain, interrogate and torture, or even kill them. They need only “associate” with those “belligerent” to the United States. There will be no protection of law, no trial, no legal representation. This is the first explicit legislation to abolish habeas corpus (the right to due process of law) and effectively repeal the Bill of Rights of 1789.”
 
Pilger points out that President Obama can start wars abroad “at will” and engage in virtually any other activity whatsoever without any permission from Congress. This power extends to “arranging the forced landing of a plane carrying a sovereign head of state over foreign territory.“15 It sounds almost god-like, doesn’t it?
 
Loyal citizens of the empire cling desperately to their collective delusions regarding America’s moral superiority. The pretense is unsustainable, however in the face of the apparent criminality of America and its leaders. Paul Craig Roberts indicts four successive American presidents:
 
Our country has had four war criminal presidents in succession. Clinton twice launched military attacks on Serbia, ordering NATO to bomb the former Yugoslavia twice, both in 1995 and in 1999, so that gives Bill two war crimes. George W. Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and attacked provinces of Pakistan and Yemen from the air. That comes to four war crimes for Bush. Obama used NATO to destroy Libya and sent mercenaries to destroy Syria, thereby committing two war crimes. Trump attacked Syria with US forces, thereby becoming a war criminal early in his regime.16
 
A footnote on the subject of war crimes committed by US presidents is that on September 22, 2000, the district court in Belgrade handed down guilty verdicts against government leaders of NATO countries for war crimes. The defendants, including Tony Blair, Robin Cook, George Richardson, Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and nine others, were each sentenced to 20 years in a Yugoslav prison.17
 
In his 2005 Nobel speech, Harold Pinter comments on the relative silence regarding America’s criminality. He attributes the silence to America’s bold deceptiveness. And he notes, it has also enabled by the unthinking passivity of American citizens. 
 
The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. … Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words ‘the American people’ provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don’t need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties, but it’s very comfortable.18

The hypocrisy demonstrated by America’s political leaders is mind-warping. Even as their crimes are exposed to the world, they continue to point condemning, holier-than-thou fingers at the failings of foreign leaders who dare to object to America’s demands. Look more closely and you can detect the odour of the regime change propaganda is in the air. The nakedness of the emperors is increasingly apparent.
 
Compromised puppet politicians
You may have heard the cynical assessment to the effect that America has the best government that money can buy. You may have wondered how otherwise intelligent individuals can be turned into puppets. And, you might also have wondered if it’s a classic case of a few bad apples or something more systemic. Then there are the questions of who pulls the political strings and how? 
 
There are different kinds of strings and a variety of string pullers controlling Washington’s puppets. One string is Gulf Petro dollars. Investigative reporters with the New York Times and the Nation have reported, “the Saudis, UAE and Qatar have been flooding the nation’s capital with greenbacks.”19 In June of 2016, Prince Mohammed of Saudi Arabia was quoted as saying that his country had financed 20% of the cost of Hillary Clinton’s election campaign.20 These funds no doubt went some distance in buying US support in the country’s war with Yemen and silence regarding its war crimes.
 
Turkey also has its fingers on the strings. It’s been described as the poster child when it comes to creating foreign lobbying opportunities for former members of both political parties. In recent years, Turkey has hired and “army of lobbyists” including a former house speaker, a former director of the CIA, former house members and former representatives.21
 
And when it comes to puppet masters, there is perhaps none more effective than Israel’s lobby group, AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Phillip Geraldi describes AIPAC as a 1,600 pound gorilla.22 Could this be one of the reasons that Ariel Sharon, in 2001, was able to boast that, “We, the Jewish people, control America, and America knows it.”23 Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu also boasted about the pliability of America. He is quoted as stating: “I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction.”24
 
The boast perhaps derives in part from the fact that AICPAC influence can end political careers, something that keeps a lot of members of congress attentive to Israel’s interests. But the controls are more elaborate than that. Former Georgia Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney was the first to publicly describe how the Israel lobby used one of its strings to control members of Congress.
 
According to McKinney, candidates in both the House and the Senate were asked to sign pledges of support for Israel. The pledge committed the signatory to vote to provide consistent levels of economic support to the Zionist state. The pledge also included a vow to support Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel. And, there were consequences if a candidate didn’t sign. (She explained that the tactic changed after she made this one public.)
 
You make a commitment that you will vote to support the military superiority of Israel—the economic assistance that Israel wants, that you would vote to provide that…
 
Every candidate for Congress at that time had a pledge, they were given a pledge to sign…If you don’t sign the pledge, you don’t get money.25
 
Israel may have even more powerful tools of persuasion at its disposal. Former US army officer, Jaochim Hagopian explains in some detail how billionaire Jeffrey Epstein frequently flew high profile politicians and lawyers on his private Jet, the “Lolita Express” to his Caribbean resort, “Lolita Island.” Some of those high profile people who came to the island to fulfill their sexual fantasies may not have realized their activities were video recorded. The videos serve as leverage to blackmail and extort these now-compromised individuals. This is a long standing CIA-Mossad run system designed for controlling powerful politicians.26
 
Multiple alternative media sources have described a connection between pedophilia and the political impotence of Washington politicians. One report by an individual identified as an anonymous Department of Homeland Security employee suggested that one out of three electors are compromised. The leaker explained the perverse relationship between pedophilia and a politician’s career success, saying that, “Politicians who have pedophile tendencies are groomed for power, because they can be later extorted and controlled.”27 The “one out of three” is consistent with an estimate provided by an anonymous on-line FBI leaker. This leaker stated that 30% of Washington DC’s politicians is compromised because of their links to elite child pedophilia rings.28
 
If these reports are accurate, they would certainly explain a lot of things that defy logic like the pathological desire to put Israel’s interests before America’s interests on the part of some members of Congress. See John McCain and Lindsay Graham dance.
 
Note: This is a probably a good juncture for some deep relaxation breathing, a walk outdoors or some playtime with the family pet. 
 
A police state variety of policing 
Suppose for a moment, that you read that somewhere, citizens who dared to resist the police or question an order were “being subjected to all sorts of government-sanctioned abuse ranging from forced catheterization, forced blood draws, roadside strip searches and cavity searches, and other foul and debasing acts that degrade their bodily integrity and leave them bloodied and bruised.” And reading further you learned the children, “as young as 4 years old are being leg shackled, handcuffed, tasered and held at gun point for not being quiet, not being orderly and just being childlike—i.e., not being compliant enough.” You would probably conclude that these were reports of police abuses occurring in some third world dictatorship. And you’d be wrong. These are abuses reported to be occurring daily in America.2
 
Here’s how Norm Stamper, former Seattle police chief described the state of policing in America today.
 
Policing is broken… It has evolved as a paramilitary, bureaucratic, organizational arrangement that distances police officers from the communities they’ve been sworn to protect and serve. When we have shooting after shooting after shooting that most people would define as at least questionable, it’s time to look, not just at a few bad apples, but the barrel. And I’m convinced that it is the barrel that is rotted.
 
There are several ominous signs and symptoms pointing to the emergence of an American police state. John W. Whitehead, author of Battlefield America: The war on the American people (2014) contends that policing in America has departed from the principles embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. One ominous sign that something’s wrong with policing is simply it’s expanding size. The police force in America has grown into what reporter David Feige describes as “a vast army of 800,000 people with general arrest powers and increasingly armed with automatic weapons and automatic vehicles” to enforces its will.30
 
This isn’t the only number that should raise concerns. Here are a few other numbers supportive of Whitehead’s assertion that a police state has emerged.
 
50,000: the number of people admitted to emergency each year for treatment of injuries inflicted by the police.31
 
5,000: The number of Americans killed by cops since 9/11.32
 
963: The number of people killed by police in 2016.33
 
70: That’s how many times the US police-related deaths are higher than any of the other first world countries.34
 
There are several explanations for the current “broken” state of policing in America, including its increasingly brutal nature. The most plausible reason is police force mindset/culturetraining and weaponry. As to the first, a strict “law and order” mentality absent accountability has contributed to what has been described by some critics as a war against the people. Journalist, Daniel Biers believes that inevitably when cops are told over and over that they’re “in a war, under siege or under attack and the citizens are the enemy, it will give rise to an atmosphere of fear, tension, and hostility, it’s going to turn out badly for citizens.”3
 
Paul Craig Roberts offers another explanation. Roberts cites the training of US police by either Israelis or Americans trained by Israelis. He points out that the practices of Israeli soldiers come from occupying a hostile Palestinian population unwilling to accept the theft of their land and isolation in what Roberts calls “ghetto enclaves.” 36 Certainly, the intimidating practices of an occupying army are not consistent with the fifties motto of the LAPD police department: “To protect and serve.”
 
Whitehead flags the role the federal government in the militarization of policing, specifically as it relates to the use of military equipment. In Whitehead’s assessment, the federal government has turned the police into extensions of the military by distributing “billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment to local police agencies” enhanced by federal grants for militarized training and SWAT teams.
 
Radley Balko, writing in the Washington Post, goes farther and suggests what ultimately lies behind the brutality of police tactics.
 
We’ve reached the point where state actors can penetrate rectums and vaginas, where judges can order forced catheterizations, and where police and medical personnel can perform scans, enemas and colonoscopies without the suspect’s consent. … In most of these cases, they were suspected only of possession or ingestion. Many of them were innocent… But these tactics aren’t about getting drugs off the street… These tactics are instead about degrading and humiliating a class of people that politicians and law enforcement have deemed the enemy (author’s italic).3
 
Looking ahead, I see no sign that the relentless march toward a police state model of policing will be halted soon. To borrow a familiar phrase, it’s likely going to get worse before its gets better. For one, the mechanisms for bringing about increased accountability on the part of police forces are apparently out of order. Second, those in positions of power and able to demand change appear to be unconcerned, and in fact, see the situation in very different terms. It’s said that President Donald Trump’s Attorney General, Jeff Sessions sees no problem with policing in America. And Trump, rather than being alarmed about the abuses, refers to a “dangerous anti-policing atmosphere” in America as wrong and has vowed to “end it.”
 
This analysis is at odds with the fact that statistically being a cop in America is safer than it has ever been. According to Newsweek, “it’s safer to be a cop than it is to simply live in many U.S. cities… It’s safer to be a cop than it is to be a fisher, logger, pilot, roofer, miner, trucker or taxi driver. It’s safer to be a cop today than it’s been in years, decades, or even a century, by some measures.”38
 
What’s going to hold back the tide of an advancing police state when the country’s leadership sees the expanding police force as a victim rather than the perpetrator of crimes against the American people?  It doesn’t sound like it will be the Trump administration.
 
Extreme surveillance 
In the dystopian world described by George Orwell in his classic book, 1984, the eyes of Big Brother see everywhere. There are helicopters hovering in the sky, “telescreens” in homes and offices listening to every conversation, and hordes of thought police reporting the slightest signs of resistance. The image of Big Brother on the back of a coin prompts some reflection on the part of Winston, the story’s main character, “Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you…. Nothing was your own except a few cubic centimeters in your head.”39
 
It’s a haunting thought. As chilling as it is, I wonder if the citizen’s the Empire today are either surprised or troubled by this image of total state surveillance. If they aren’t, I suspect they are ignorant or cowed by the convenient dictum that those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear.
 
Big Brother America has been rapidly ramping up surveillance capabilities since 9/11, all in the name of preventing terrorism of course. I speak here of a terrorism that is mostly of the Empire’s invention. Some of the Empire’s “achievements” in the realm of surveillance include drones the size of bees, an immense database of citizen images useful for facial recognition purposes and the ability to track every keystroke of a an individual’s computer. Then there’s the much-heralded smart home. Someone has darkly joked that in the future, our refrigerators could provide critical evidence that could convict us of a crime. But, I’m not laughing. Add the fact that research work is underway to figure how to hack human consciousness, and you have the makings of a dystopian future even more oppressive than the harried existence of Watson portrayed in 1984.
 
Recently, sixteen year Congressman, Dennis Kucinich offered this analysis regarding the significance of the leak of the contents of Vault 7.
 
It is bad enough that the government spies on its own people. It is equally bad that the CIA, through its incompetence, has opened the cyberdoor to anyone with the technological skills and connections to spy on anyone else. The constant erosion of privacy at the hands of the government and corporations has annihilated the concept of a “right to privacy,” which is embedded in the rationale of the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It is becoming increasingly clear that we are sliding down the slippery slope toward totalitarianism, where private lives do not exist.40
 
The march toward total surveillance of citizens’ movements, communication, commercial and financial activity has been unrelenting, despite critics’ concerns. It’s noteworthy that the expansion of government access to private information continued right through Obama’s last days in office.41 The next assault on our privacy is on the horizon. It’s been reported that US border agents have demanded access to the computers and social media accounts of visitors affected by President Trump’s limited travel ban. And on a related note, the head of the Department of Homeland Security has proposed forcing all “non-U.S. citizens to surrender their web browsing history, devices, and social media passwords before entering the country.”42
 
Among its peers in the West, Britain leads the way in imposing the most intrusive of surveillance systems on it own citizens. Seemingly, the government has assumed it has the right to monitor and surveil the live communication of British citizens at will. Legislation was passed in April of 2017 that enables police to shut down mobile phone communications at will of anyone even suspected of being associated with a crime. Graham Vanbergen, contributing editor at TruePublica.Org (UK) contends civil liberties and human rights are being systematically dismantled in his country under the false pretext of improving security.43
 
Such intrusions have consequences. Kali Holloway, writing in AlterNet, describes the measurable effects of increased surveillance of Americans. She reports that a Washington Post researcher, Jonathon Penny found that traffic to Wikipedia pages dealing with terrorism declined markedly after the Snowden files revealed the extent of NSA spying on Americans. The researcher concluded that ordinary citizens are less likely to engage in perfectly legal activities for fear of drawing unwanted government attention. The same chilling effect can be seen in the practices of professionals. It appears that journalists and lawyers are increasingly adopting methods of communicating with their sources that are less likely to leave a digital trail.
 
All the indicators are pointing to declining freedom in America. Professor Elizabeth Stoycheff points out that America now ranks 49th globally in press freedom, according to Reporters Without Borders. Ponder the fact that Burkina Faso and Niger scored higher. Stoycheff’s research on the impact of government surveillance on citizens reveals that in general people holding minority opinions are less likely to speak out on-line if they held minority opinions.
 
Holloway’s troubling conclusion is that government surveillance tamps down personal expression, squelches dissent and promotes groupthink.44 It’s not exactly what the world needs now.
 
So there are concrete reasons then why democracy is dying. It’s not just that extreme surveillance that has hobbled our curiosity, suffocated political discourse and herded us into the corral of groupthink. There’s been a concerted effort by the PTB to constrain dissent. And, as you may recall, Robert Parry attributed the loss of professional objectivity and the decline of trust to careerism. Based on what I’ve seen so far, it’s a powerful and deadly combination.
 
Canada, the US, Britain, Australia and New Zealand are members of an international spies club, the Five Eyes Alliance (FVEY). Edward Snowden leaked documents in 2013 which revealed that the FVEY had been spying on one another’s citizens and sharing the information with each other. This was a way of getting around domestic regulations that limited an agency’s spying on its citizens.45
 
Canada’s spy agency, CSIS was rebuked by the federal court, in 2016, for illegally retaining since 2001, what is called “associated data.” This is data from people not linked to particular investigations. CSIS obscured details of its operations from the court on two previous occasions.46 Critics suggest that the ruling demonstrates that CSIS is largely unaccountable. On a somewhat related note, it was reported in November 2016  that police in the Province of Quebec had secretly tracked the phone calls of at least six reporters in 2013.47 Scratch beneath the surface and you are likely to find spy and policing cultures are equally susceptible to the seductive of the “end-justifies-the-means” thinking.
 
There’s a general pattern that seems to play out in the testy relationship between security agencies and their government overseers. The agencies breach their boundaries, are caught, appear penitent and commit to play within their sandbox. Some time elapses, the incident fades in the public memory and then the cycle repeats itself with the agency pushing the boundaries out farther each time.
 
We once had a dog that played a game like this like on the farm. When he was rarely allowed in the house, he was restricted to the kitchen. When the family went to the living room, he naturally wanted to follow. But he was smart enough to strategically position himself half way across the threshold of the door to the living room and ever so gradually inch his way forward when no one was looking. When he was spotted, he would inch back but never quite go back to his starting point. Two inches forward and one back. That’s the formula.
 
This pattern has been playing out for decades. In 1975, a committee chaired by US Senator Frank Church investigated intelligence abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).48 Senator Church prophetically warned that at some future point, the security apparatus of the state could turn on the American people.
 
[The National Security Agency’s] capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is their capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide.49
 
To address the concerns surfaced by the committee, the US Congress enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978. The Act was intended to provide oversight of covert intelligence activities while providing the secrecy necessary to protect national security.
 
Blogger, Scott Alfred describes the erosion of the protections provided to American citizens by FISA. Among other things, the NSA compromised Fourth Amendment protections in the name of combating terrorism. In recent years, the evidence has emerged that the NSA has engaged in “over collection” of domestic communications of Americans. While previous evidence suggested the surveillance was incidental, the NSA’s new wiretapping and spying was described by officials and briefed lawyers as “significant and systemic.”
 
An amendment to FISA in 2008 formally allowed the NSA to eavesdrop on phone calls and emails of ordinary Americans without properly justified warrants. And companies that co-operated with the government were absolved from liability. This meant that telecommunications companies could grant the government access to their private records of customer data with impunity.
 
In 2013, Americans learned that the NSA forced Verizon to release all phone records on an “ongoing, daily basis.” It was shortly after, news of the NSA’s PRISM, a program  designed to tap companies for extensive email and electronic communication records, became public.50
 
In retrospect, it’s clear that 9/11 was a gift to Big Brother, if not a false flag of its own orchestration. The presumed terrorist attack provided fresh justification for an expansion and intensification of domestic surveillance. The very concerns outlined by Senator Church have now been realized. The protections of the FISA have been stripped away, and America’s security apparatus has turned directly on the country’s citizens.
 
You might be wondering if there are honest men and women employed by these agencies. Undoubtedly, there are. The routine partitioning of assignments given to those working in the lower ranks of these services effectively means they are blind to the causes they are serving. Increasingly, those that are aware their efforts are being stalled and stymied by superiors, are leaking information to the independent media. They see where the figurative train is headed and they don’t like it. It may be that or in some cases, the individual has had a pang of conscience. These folks are the allies of truth seekers in the truth revolution. If America and the world is to enjoy a peaceful and secure future, the rogue elements of the security complex must be exposed and confronted. The evidence provided by the whistleblowers and leakers is indispensable in this mission.
 
Rigged elections
Ah, but you may be thinking, at least, US citizens can have some confidence in America’s electoral process. Unfortunately, that’s not the case, but the mythology persists.
 
When it comes to electoral integrity, the US was ranked dead last among developed nations in a report from the Electoral Integrity Project. The report compiles the assessments of experts called upon to evaluate “the perceived integrity of 180 national parliamentary and presidential contests held between July 1, 2012 and December 31, 2015 in 39 countries worldwide.” The United States scored 62 in comparison with Estonia (79) Rwanda (64) and the Republic of Korea (77)51
 
Political analyst and independent journalist, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts contends that rigged, and thus stolen, elections are in fact an American tradition. He adds that electronic balloting makes it easy. Roberts cites some examples.
 
Elections are stolen at every level—state, local, and federal. Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley’s theft of the Chicago and, thereby, Illinois vote for John F. Kennedy is legendary. The Republican US Supreme Court’s theft of the 2000 presidential election from Al Gore by preventing the Florida vote recount is another legendary example.52
 
Investigative reporter, Robert Parry, highlights some of the more flagrant political maneuvers and fraudulent election activities in US history starting with the enactment of the US constitution. 
 
1787: Enactment of US constitution: Slaves counted as three fifths of a person.
 
1800: Votes of Southern slave owners like Thomas Jefferson counted for more than the votes of Northern slave owners.
 
Post civil war: blacks given right to vote but whites in Confederate states concocted subterfuges to keep blacks away from poles, a factor until 1965.
 
1972: Richard Nixon’s Watergate break-in.
 
1960 election: challenger creates foreign crisis to create advantage over incumbent.
 
1968: Richard Nixon conspired to sabotage Johnson’s Viet Nam piece talks.
 
1980: Reagan covertly made deal with Iran to not release hostages during Carter’s bid for re-election.
 
2000: Citizen’s judgment overturned by judges to give a win to George Bush versus real winner, Al Gore.53
 
Parry concludes that contrary to popular belief, the US political process is “not democracy’s “gold standard.” He adds that the failure to honestly face up to its failures and to impose accountability on the cheaters ensures more of the same.
 
Finally, no account of the abuses of US electoral politics is complete without some reference to the impact of the 2010 Citizens United court decision on campaign funding. The US Supreme Court ruled that freedom of speech prohibited the government from restricting political expenditures by companies, labor unions and certain types of non-profit corporations. It appears that this decision opened up the financing of US elections, to a large degree, to US oligarchs. According to some observers, one of the most significant developments was a reported surge of “dark money” – secret cash funneled into US elections via politically active non-profit organizations.54  
  
Thus far, our analysis of the state of the Empire has revealed that beneath the surface of the Empire, there is evidence of advanced corruption and decay. Thus, the reference to an Empire of Lies.” To summarize, this investigations has revealed:

  • An imaginary democracy;
  • An unelected Deep State government;
  • Treasonous, war criminal presidents;
  • Compromised puppet politicians;
  • A police state variety of policing;
  • Extreme surveillance; and
  • Rigged elections.

 
It may not be apparent on the surface, but thus far the evidence reveals a “conquered” American Empire. A thinly-disguised totalitarian order masquerades as democracy. America has been sold out by compromised, treasonous leaders. Like a once healthy, but now sickly tree, it is severely infested by powerful parasitic interests and in an advanced state of rot. The invaders are slowly but surely killing the host. Paul Craig Roberts, who served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, punctures the “America” illusion. 
 
 “America is a lost country. The total corruption of every public and private institution is complete. Nothing remains but tyranny. And lies. Endless lies.”55

It’s time to take a long walk.
 
 Endnotes:

1 Fabricating the American worldview, May 15, 2017, Counterpunch, http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/15/fabricating-the-american-worldview
 
2 Princeton Study: U.S. no longer a democracy, TPM Livewire, April 18, 2014, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy  
 
3 Citibank chose Obama’s 2008 cabinet – Wikileaks, October 31, 2016, http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2016/10/31/1010556-citigroup-bank-chose-obamas-2008-cabinet-wikileaks/ 
 
4 Where have all the lobbyists gone, The Nation, February 19, 2014, https://www.thenation.com/article/shadow-lobbying-complex/  
 
5 Banks lobbyists help in drafting financial bills, Dealbook, May 23, 2013, https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/banks-lobbyists-help-in-drafting-financial-bills/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130524
 
6 Can Capitalism and Democracy co-exist, Interview with S. Wolin, The Real News, YouTube, October 21, 2014, http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9175.html   
 
7 American democracy: a dead man walking, Paul Craig Roberts, Institute for political economy, May 2, 2017, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/05/02/american-democracy-dead-man-walking/
 
8 Aristocracy deceive public about Deep State, Strategic Culture, February 23, 2017, http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/02/23/aristocracy-deceives-public-about-deep-state.html
 
9  The path to total dictatorship: America’s shadow government and its silent coup, The Rutherford Institute, October 24, 2016, https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_path_to_total_dictatorship_americas_shadow_government_and_its_sile
 
10 JFK: The last president to tell the truth about Illuminati, YouTube, February 26-12, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JdrhJKfNq0
 
11 JFK was murdered by the Deep State, LewRockwell.com, October 3, 2014, https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/10/no_author/jfk-was-murdered-by-the-deep-state/
 
12 Deep State members and their agents are slowly revealing themselves, Veterans News Now, April 1, 2017, http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2017/04/01/deep-state-members-and-their-agents-are-slowly-revealing-themselves/
 
13 Deep State control of American courts and judiciary, Veterans Today, January 2, 2017, http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2017/01/02/deep-state-control-of-the-american-courts-and-judiciary/ 
 
14 Syria’s Assad just explained how the U.S. really works,
Information Clearing House, May 27, 2017, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47138.htm
 
15 The world war on democracy – John Pilger, TruPublica, March 26-16, http://truepublica.org.uk/global/world-war-democracy-john-pilger/
 
16 A government of morons, Paul Craig Roberts, Institute for political economy, April 15, 2017, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/04/15/a-government-of-morons/
 
17 Lawyers serve indictment on NATO leaders for war crimes, The Global Politics, May 13, 2017, http://global-politics.eu/2017/05/13/lawyers-serve-indictment-nato-leaders-war-crimes/ 
 
18 Fabricating the American worldview, Counterpunch, May 15, 2017, http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/05/15/fabricating-the-american-worldview/
 
19 Stop taking Saudi money, Washington, Observer, September 29, 2014, http://observer.com/2014/09/stop-taking-saudi-money-washington/
 
20 Saudi Arabia has funded 20% of Hillary’s presidential campaign, Saudi crown prince claims, Zerohedge, June 14, 2016, http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-13/saudi-arabia-has-funded-20-hillarys-presidential-campaign-saudi-crown-prince-claims
 
21 Want to be a ‘foreign agent’? Serve in Congress first, Politico, February 10, 2015, http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/congress-foreign-lobbying-228982  
 
22 AICPAC vetoes UN resolution on Israeli settlements, Veterans Today, February 23, 2011,  http://www.veteranstodayarchives.com/2011/02/23/philip-giraldi-aipac-vetos-u-n-resolution-on-israeli-settlements-u-s-casts-the-actual-ballot/   
 
23 Israel control of USA (and Canadian) government, http://whale.to/c/israel_control_usa.html
 
24 Netanyahu in 2001: ‘America is a thing you can move very easily, Huffington Post, July 16, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/16/netanyahu-in-2001-america_n_649427.html
 
25 Cynthia McKinney drops bombshell: Candidates to sign pledges of support for “Israel”, ronaldwederfoort, November 19, 2012, https://ronaldwederfoort.wordpress.com/2017/02/07/cynthia-mckinney-drops-bombshell-candidates-to-sign-pledges-of-support-for-israel/
 
26 Power, pedophilia and the US government, Veteran’s Today, February 7, 2015, http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/02/07/power-pedophilia-and-the-us-government/
 
27 Huge interview with DHS insider, talks about #PedoGate and much more (with transcript),  The Event Chronicle, February 17, 2017, http://www.theeventchronicle.com/breaking-news/breaking-huge-exclusive-interview-dhs-insider-talks-pedogate-much-transcript/# 

28 27 FBI: 30% of Washington DC part of elite pedo ring, The Event Chronicle, February 6, 2017,  http://www.theeventchronicle.com/cabal-exposed/fbi-30-washington-dc-part-elite-pedo-ring/  

29 Run for your life: The American police state is coming to get you, Strategic Culture Foundation, April 22, 2017, http://m.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/04/22/run-your-life-american-police-state-coming-get-you.html
 
30 The iron jaws of the police state, Trump’s America is a constitution free zone, Newsbud, April 27, 2017, https://www.newsbud.com/2017/04/27/the-iron-jaws-of-the-police-state-trumps-america-is-a-constitution-free-zone/
 
31  US emergency department encounters for law enforcement-associated injury, 2006-2012, The Jama Network, April 19, 2017, http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/article-abstract/2619243
 
32 Ferguson: No justice in the American police State, Paul Craig Roberts, August 21, 2014, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/08/21/ferguson-justice-american-police-state-paul-craig-roberts/
 
33 Fatal force, The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/police-shootings-2016/
 
34 American cops just killed more people in March than the UK did in the entire 20th Century, The Free Thought Project, April 6, 2015, http://thefreethoughtproject.com/american-cops-killed-people-month-march-uk-entire-20th-century/
 
35 The iron jaws of the police state: Trump’s America is a constitution-free zone, Newsbud, April 17, 2017, https://www.newsbud.com/2017/04/27/the-iron-jaws-of-the-police-state-trumps-america-is-a-constitution-free-zone/
 
36 Police murder because they are trained to murder, Paul Craig Roberts, Institute for a political economy, July 11, 2016, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/07/11/police-murder-because-they-are-trained-to-murder-paul-craig-roberts/
 
37 If this is freedom and democracy, what is tyranny, Paul Craig Roberts, Institute for political economy, April 20, 2017, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/04/20/freedom-democracy-tyranny/
 
38 The iron jaws of the police state: Trump’s America is a constitution-free zone, The Rutherford Institute, April 25, 2017, https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/the_iron_jaws_of_the_police_state_trumps_america_is_a_constitution_fre
 
39 1984, George Orwell, Penguin Books, 1949, P. 29.
 
40 16 year congressman: CIA leak shows we’re “sliding down the slippery slope toward Totalitarianism, where private lives do not exist, Blacklisted News, March 9, 2017, http://www.blacklistednews.com/16_Year_Congressman%3A_CIA_Leak_Shows_We%E2%80%99re_%E2%80%9CSliding_Down_the_Slippery_Slope_Toward_Totalitarianism%2C_Where_Private_Lives_Do_Not_Exist%E2%80%9D/57232/0/38/38/Y/M.html
 
41 Obama expands spy agencies’ access to private data – just in time for Trump, Common Dreams, January 13, 2017, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/13/obama-expands-spy-agencies-access-private-data-just-time-trump  
 
42 Homeland security chief wants US visitors to surrender passwords, Vocativ, February 8, 2017, http://www.vocativ.com/400896/trump-homeland-security-passwords/
 
43 Britain’s intrusive surveillance system. Threat to civil liberties and human rights, Global Research, May 9, 2017, http://www.globalresearch.ca/britains-intrusive-surveillance-system-threat-to-civil-liberties-and-human-rights/5589275
 
44 The nefarious surveillance state dangerously inhibits self-expression and a healthy democracy, AlterNet, May 21, 2016, http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/nefarious-surveillance-state-dangerously-inhibits-self-expression-and-healthy       
 
45 Five Eyes, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes
 
46 In scathing ruling, Federal Court says CSIS bulk data collection illegal, The Globe and Mail, November 3, 2016, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/in-scathing-ruling-federal-court-says-csis-bulk-data-collection-illegal/article32669448/
 
47 Six reporters spied on by Quebec provincial police, CBC News, November 2, 2016, http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-journalists-police-spying-1.3833507
 
48 Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, (the Church Committee), United States Senate, https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/investigations/ChurchCommittee.htm
 
49 Senator Church’s prophetic warning, Washington’s Blog, April 22, 2012, http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/04/influential-senator-warned-in-1975-the-national-security-agencys-capability-at-any-time-could-be-turned-around-on-the-american-people-and-no-american-would-have-any-privacy-left.html
 
50 NSA domestic spying: A history of abuse. FreedomWorks, October 7, 2013, http://www.freedomworks.org/content/nsa-domestic-spying-history-abuse
 
51 The electoral integrity report, New year in elections report, 2015, https://sites.google.com/site/electoralintegrityproject4/projects/expert-survey-2/the-year-in-elections-2015
 
52 Rigged elections are an American tradition, Paul Craig Roberts Institute for political economy, October 21-16, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/10/21/rigged-elections-are-an-american-tradition-paul-craig-roberts/
 
53 The modern history of “rigged” US elections, Consortiumnews, October 27, 2016, https://consortiumnews.com/2016/10/27/the-modern-history-of-rigged-us-elections/
 
54 12 ways ‘Citizens United’ changed politics, Moyers and Company, January 22, 2015, http://billmoyers.com/2015/01/22/12-ways-citizens-united-changed-politics/
 
55 America destroyed, Paul Craig Roberts, Institute for Political Economy, July 3, 2016, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/07/03/america-destroyed-paul-craig-roberts/

Futurescapes21C, 2018 All Rights Reserve

Exposing the Empire of Lies (Part B)

EXPOSING THE EMPIRE OF LIES — PART B

1/22/2018

Exposing the Empire of Lies (Part B)
Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C

original written June 3, 2017,  first posted January 23, 2018, All rights reserved
 
In the previous essay (Part A), I offered seven internal signs or symptoms of a decaying America. This essay, (Part B) provides further evidence of its deteriorating state. You may be thinking ahh, but you are missing so much good in America. Yes, of course, there is much good in America. But, unfortunately the good is captive of the dark forces. The point isn’t that there is yet some residue of decency and goodness remaining in America. It’s that the virtuous is being systematically destroyed by devious powers that be (PTB) holding the country captive.
 
There’s absolutely nothing to be gained then in continuing the pretense of “America the Beautiful,” or any variant of such veneer a minute longer. The illusion has already prevailed for far too long. And it has only served the purposes of the PTB. With each passing decade, the deceptions and atrocities have only become more outrageous. So let’s be clear. My intent is to expose the parasitic forces consuming America from the inside out. I suspect that when we turn the light of day on these entities, they will, like shadows projected on the wall of Plato’s cave, quickly shrivel and lose their power over us. 
 
Frankenstein security agencies
The United States has more than 17 security agencies. There are 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies working for the federal government on issues of domestic and international intelligence in 10,000 locations with over 854,000 people holding top-secret clearances.1 So, the average American could be forgiven for assuming that this vast complex would be sufficient to protect the country and fellow citizens from all varieties of foreign and domestic threats.
 
This vast intelligence apparatus is reason enough for any thinking individual to question the official 9/11 narrative. And if that in itself doesn’t invite a rethink of the narrative, then the failure of this vast network to bring the perpetrators to justice for the crime of the century should be more than enough. The failure of the PTB to provide America and the world with a truthful version of events and those behind it is the real conspiracy.2
 
The betrayal of US citizens at the hands of “their” own security agencies presumably guarding the nation challenges the imagination. I described earlier some of the predatory surveillance activities of the National Security Agency (NSA). In this essay, I will focus on the two best known of the “alphabet” security agencies, the CIA and the FBI. In short, these are deeply corrupted organizations. And while monetary corruption is a key feature of their operation, I’m really talking about corruption of their intended purpose, guiding principles and management. Both are characterized by divided loyalties and rife with competing interests.  Each operates  to a large degree, as a law unto itself.
 
The citizens of the Empire of Lies are also victims of their own naïveté. It’s as if they take the  vanilla textbook depictions or the “good guy” movie portrayals of their institutions at face value. Consider this rather benign Wikipedia description of the CIA.
 
The CIA is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the United States federal government, tasked with gathering, processing and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT). As one of the principal members of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the President and Cabinet.
 
It sounds nice in theory; but the reality is something far different. The central issues are transparency and accountability. So while the above description says the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), it simply means that the DHI is charged with oversight of the CIA. It doesn’t mean that the DHI controls the CIA. The Anonymous Patriots, writing in The Millennial Report, contend that the CIA has positioned itself to be a higher authority than Congress, the president or the citizens of the United States and act in secrecy in all its affairs.3
 
As to its nefarious roles, I have already described the long-standing role of the CIA in infiltrating corporate media (Project Mockingbird) and engaging in the propagandizing of American citizens. I have also alluded to its lengthy history in orchestrating conflict and regime change around the world.  And, we have referenced the CIA’s obsessive spying on ordinary citizens as revealed in The Vault 7 leak. While we have grown accustomed to seeing the CIA meddle in the affairs of other countries, the public is now seeing more clearly than ever before, signs of its meddling in the political process in America.
 
Patrick Lawrence, writing in The Nation in February of this year, wonders in an article of the same title: if America is witnessing a coup operation against the Trump Whitehouse? He is struck, in particular by the succession of treasonous activities that the Trump Whitehouse has been convicted of by CIA-controlled media including The Times. He cites the description of the agency given by Tom Wicker, a former Times reporter. In Wicker’s analysis it is a “Frankenstein monster no one can fully control.”4 In light of what is transpiring in America and abroad under its influence, it’s an apt description.
 
Gordon Duff, the controversial senior editor of Veterans Today, would likely agree with the “Frankenstein” label. He describes another realm of CIA activity that is less discussed than its propaganda and regime change activities; specifically, its dealings in drugs.
 
As CIA director, in 1977 George Walker Bush sent his son Jeb to Venezuela to take over banking relationships between that nation and Colombia. George H.W. and son Jeb were key players in the creation of the drug cartels in Colombia and played a critical role in establishing the CIA connection. The Colombia connection was all about controlling the world’s cocaine.
 
Simultaneously, the CIA under Bush established strong connections with the narco-tribes of Northern Afghanistan. The CIA built a narcotics empire there based on heroin. It took 9/11 to give George W. Bush a chance to exploit it. The CIA subsequently took over world heroin production as well.
 
Duff offers more nauseating details regarding the Bush connection to Afghanistan war and its opium production.
 
The family that brought crack cocaine to America’s school children now delivers Afghani heroin at even lower prices. When the farce of 9/11 led to two invasions, to Afghanistan to put the drug lords of the Northern Alliance in position to kick out the anti-opium Taliban and to loot Iraq’s oil resources, there was no independent CIA left.5
 
CIA history is replete with other examples of its anti-human behaviour. Middle East analyst, Vladimir Platov writes that we used to think that conducting cruel and inhuman experiments on human beings was something restricted to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. Increasingly, we’re learning that such experiments are conducted in by US intelligence agencies on what are often unsuspecting citizens. Platov chronicles some of the ill-conceived, reckless and illegal research activities carried out by the CIA during the 20th and the 21st century.

  • The study of syphilis in African Americans in Tuskegee Alabama (1932 to 1972). The availability of antibiotics was hid from patients.
  • Nuclear tests conducted at Bikini Atoll in 1954, exposed people of the Marshall Islands to radiation resulting in a doubling of their rates of miscarriages and stillbirths and increased cancer rates.
  • A variety of biological and chemical weapons experiments in the 50s and 60s were conducted using American citizens of guinea pigs.
  • Thousands of individuals were subjected to the abuses of the CIA’s secret MK Ultra mind control program experiments that led to serious mental disorders in some cases.
  • CIA Director, George Tenet, authorized employees to conduct illegal research on humans in prison from 1997-2004. 
  • The CIA conducted experiments on the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan 2004-2009.6
  • During the George W. Bush era “war on terror”, Iraqi prisoners were subjected to such enhanced-interrogation methods as “waterboarding, “rectal rehydration,” weeks or months of nakedness in total darkness and isolation, and other techniques.”7

 
The fact that no high level official has been held accountable for such abuses confirms that the rogue CIA has a host of enablers and collaborators within the Deep State justice system shielding it from public accountability.
 
The FBI it seems, has similarly found justification in the war on terror for shifting its focus and expanding its repertoire. Trevor Aaronson’s book, The Terror Factory (2013)8 exposes FBI involvement in manufacturing terrorism. His investigative work reveals that not only is the majority of terrorism, “false flag,” but that creating and curing the “disease of terrorism,” has become one of the biggest rackets in the world.
 
According to Aaronson, the FBI has recruited more than 45,000 counter-terrorist informants with most of them not “on the books,” and unaccountable. He reports that many are criminals, “cooperating with authorities to avoid prison or to be allowed to continue their criminal enterprises, some unfettered by law enforcement, many in full partnership.”
 
Aaronson describes the devious methodology used by the FBI to “prevent” terrorist attacks.
 
Informants report to their handlers on people who have, say, made statements sympathizing with terrorists. Those names are then cross-referenced with existing intelligence data, such as immigration and criminal records. FBI agents may then assign an undercover operative to approach the target by posing as a radical. Sometimes the operative will propose a plot, provide explosives, even lead the target in a fake oath to Al Qaeda. Once enough incriminating information has been gathered, there’s an arrest-and a press conference announcing another foiled plot.
 
Such sting operations have been employed in many cases that made headlines, including: the Washington Metro bomber, the New York subway plot, the plot to blow up the Sears Tower, the plot to bomb a Portland Christmas tree lighting. According to Aaronson, each of those plots, and dozens more, was managed by “an FBI asset.”
 
Many such terror strikes or supposedly disrupted attacks have something else in common. The individuals targeted are the “mentally ill, feeble minded, the homeless and easily influenced individuals.” (See the Nuttall case in British Columbia, Canada.)
 
Since 9/11, hundreds of arrests of terrorist suspects and 158 prosecutions were reported in the US. The punch line is that of all the reported “major terror plots,” only three could not be tied to terror suspects who were directly recruited, trained and supplied by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Gordon Duff adds that there are doubts about those three exceptions.
 
Aaronson offers his assessment of what’s been transpiring and the devious role of the FBI. He concludes were witnessing COINTELPRO operations, “the long discredited program that ran for nearly 50 years organizing church and synagogue burnings, lynchings, bombings and assassinations through infiltration of ‘radical groups,’ often anti-war or civil rights organizations, have not only continued but expanded to the point they are, in fact, the primary function of the FBI.”
 
Seemingly, there’s no business like the booming terror business. Apparently, the Department of Homeland Security has its own program. In one of them, Operation Fast and Furious, the DHS supplied “thousands of military weapons to criminal groups operating throughout Mexico and the US.”9 Aaronson’s TED talk on the subject of how the FBI is creating US-based terrorists can be found YouTube.10 So much for helping make America and its citizens more secure.
 
Aaronson isn’t alone in his finding that the vast majority of false flag terrorist strikes in the US were government orchestrated. Former Marine Corps intelligence officer, Robert David Steele contends that in the United States, “every single terrorist incident we have had has been a false flag, or has been an informant pushed on by the FBI.”11 He adds that situations have now arisen where citizens are taking out restraining orders against FBI informants trying to incite terrorism.
 
Steele may be one of those former employees of the security complex who has had enough and has turned to exposing its deceptions. Those who visit his website will find among other things, an article entitled: Draft List of 63 Orlando false flag anomalies.12
 
It’s important to keep in mind that this section on Frankensteinian security agencies offers a mere sample of the madness being orchestrated by America’s leading so-called “security” agencies. The sad irony is that they have become agencies of insecurity, deception and death. So, instead of helping bring peace and security to the citizens of the Empire, they bring confusion, chaos and suffering.
 
Let me state the obvious. Elements of America’s foremost security agencies have gone rogue. They are to some extent at war with American citizens. They have, as feared by JFK, turned on their host. The reality is that the foremost of America’s security agencies with a mandate for protecting the country are actually contributing to Americans’ insecurity. And the ultimate terrorists are those posing as our protectors. It doesn’t get much more diabolical than that.
 
It’s not surprising that we’re hearing critics call for a wholesale scaling back and in some instances, a disbanding respectively of the FBI and the CIA. The foremost of America’s security agencies are no longer accountable to the elected government. They are traitors. 
 
Government-orchestrated terrorism and fake terrorists
To understand the devious role of the FBI in the so-called “war on terror” it’s important to consider the role “the boogeyman.” A “boogeyman is simply defined in the on-line free dictionary as “a terrifying specter.” Honest politicians have long acknowledged the significance of the boogeyman in politics. You could say it’s the secret ingredient in their political sauce. And when politicians didn’t acknowledge it, honest journalists (rare these days) pointed it out.
 
In a 2006 article, Blake Fleetwood, a former reported for the New York Times provided this somewhat satirical analysis of the prospects of George Bush securing a second term.
 
For Republicans to have any chance at winning the mid-term elections, Bush needs a boogeyman with a “Big Bomb” to scare the bejesus out of the electorate.
 
The term that Fleetwood uses to describe the relationship between politicians and boogeymen is “symbiosis.” He concludes: “they need each other.”13 Today, the boogey man of choice is the terrorist. And historically, it has some well-known advocates as pointed out in a Washington Blog post.  
 
Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death”. – Adolph Hitler
 
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. – Hermann Goering, Nazi leader.
 
“The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts of terror. [The public] will clamour for such laws if their personal security is threatened.” – Josef Stalin
 
Terrorism is commonly packaged and presented to the unsuspecting public in the form of false flag theatre. Despite the fact that the term is just entering the mainstream, the false flag has a lengthy history in the West. The Washington Blog article lists 42 admitted false flags carried out between 1931 and the present day.14
 
Wikipedia’s defines of false flag as follows:
 
False flag operations are covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is, flying the flag of a country other than one’s own. False flag operations are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been used in peace-time; for example, during Italy’s strategy of tension.15
 
It’s as Machiavellian as you can get, but Hitler, Goering and Stalin were right about the effectiveness of false flag terrorism. When it comes to government use of false flags, state-managed terrorism has the multi-purpose utility of a Swiss Army knife. Among other things, it keeps the members of the public confused and psychologically dependent. British author, George Orwell understood this tactic stating that the minds of confused people are malleable and thus inclined to submit to the will of Big Brother. Orwell states, “When a public is stressed and confused, a big lie told repeatedly and unchallenged can become accepted truth.”16
 
A false flag also provides a handy pretext for foreign intervention and a rationale for attacking “them” before they attack “us.” And, a terrorist threat provides the military industrial complex with a justification for demanding ever-larger budget allocations. A third motive can be to provide a pretext to “enact draconian laws in the name of national security” as pointed out the Washington Blog article.
 
Finally, one can make better political sense of state sponsored false flags when you put them in the context of the initial step in the cycle of actionreactionsolution approach of the PTB. When, there’s an attack, the public becomes scared and angry, and then the Deep State can introduce “the solution” that it had planned from the outset. This may be a military invasion, a bombing campaign or new laws restricting some aspect of human activity such as gun ownership. Suffice to say, the state finds fake terror to be a very useful political management tool.
 
Researcher, Dr. Richard Dolan, explains that false flags really came into common use after World War I to the point where today, staging them is a sophisticated science. He adds that if an Olympics of false flags were held, Britain would win bronze, Israel silver, and the USA would win gold. (Cue chant: “We’re number one, we’re number one!”) Dolan describes false flags as the “ultimate tool in the propaganda tool kit.”17
 
In 2013, Canada’s RCMP, in me-too fashion, attempted to imitate its American cousins in at least one well-known instance. Thankfully, however, a judge saw it for what it was and intervened. B.C. Supreme Court judge, Catherine Bruce concluded the Mounties entrapped two Surrey BC drug users (The Nuttals) into plotting a terrorist attack they were incapable of carrying out on their own. As a result, their convictions for conspiring to commit murder and possessing explosives were overturned in 2016.18
 
I cited earlier (Frankenstein Security Agencies) the insights of former Marine Corps Intelligence officer, Robert David Steele regarding the orchestration of terrorism. False flag analysts in the alternative media are getting quite good at discerning a false flag. Their list of suspected false flag attacks includes: the Orlando nightclub, Charlie Hebdo (France), Sandy Hook, San Bernardino, and the Boston Marathon bombing, the Paris attack, and it continues.
 
Within hours of its occurrence, false flag analyst, Dr. Kevin Barrett had exposed the suspicious aspects of the Manchester bombing (May 22, 2017), highlighting a number of the now standard features of false flag. Here are a few of them:

  • Illuminati style numerology (Man 22, kills 22 on May 22.);
  • The perpetrator’s ID conveniently located on the scene;
  • strategic timing politically (in this case favouring the election of Theresa May over Jeremy Corbyn);
  • suspension of security procedures — pat downs at entrance prior to the attack;
  • the convenient death of the perpetrator (not one to question);
  • a presumed terrorist said to be known to the authorities; and
  • the prior staging of a practice terror drill in the vicinity.

 
Barrett goes on to point out that false flag expert Ole Dammegard, predicted the Manchester bombing which just happened to fall “on the fourth anniversary of the fake beheading of Lee Rigby”.19
 
Let’s look more closely at the subject of fake or “manufactured” terrorists. In an RT interview, FBI whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds, describes how government propagandists, as a matter of effective marketing, periodically update their terrorist narrative in order to keep the public engaged.
 
“…the ISIS is what is the U.S. media and the propaganda creators behind the media decided to create. I mean, tomorrow or 3 months from now we will start hearing another name that we’ve never heard of, and within a month they can make that the world’s greatest or the most dangerous threat.
 
And, again, that is the main concept here, and I know the Western media… they have been playing it as such, but they did exactly the same thing with Al-Qaeda. I mean, Al-Qaeda was hundred people, or 100,000 people, or ten million people… Another interesting perspective in this is that I referred to the brand-change, and sometimes you have to switch the brand for the marketing purposes…”20
 
Edmonds analysis should resonate with anyone paying attention to the parade of super villains that have been featured in our news over the last 16 or so years. The Empire’s boogeyman hall of fame includes: the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Assad, Al Nusra. Yes, the terrorism marketing division is alive and well. At Edmonds suggests, it’s not difficult to see the mindset of marketing specialists behind the parade and the tales of their villainy.
 
Periodically, however, someone spills the bean. Back in 2005, former British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook revealed the Al Qaeda and ISIS fabrication. Cook was reported to have died at age 59 while hill climbing in Scotland the same year. Perhaps he was too honest for the system as he had the integrity to resign from Cabinet on the eve of the Iraq war. 
 
“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al-Qaeda, and any informed intelligence officer knows this. But, there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an intensified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive TV watchers to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the United States.”21 
 
More recently, Canadian economist, Dr. Michael Chossudovsky, offered this explanation for the rise of Islamic terrorism.
 
“We are dealing with a criminal undertaking at a global level . . . and there is an ongoing war, it is led by the United States, it may be carried out by a number of proxy countries, which are obeying orders from Washington . . . The global war on terrorism is a US undertaking, which is fake, it’s based on fake premises. It tells us that somehow America and the Western world are going after a fictitious enemy, the Islamic state, when in fact the Islamic state is fully supported and financed by the Western military alliance and America’s allies in the Persian Gulf.
 
. . . They say Muslims are terrorists, but it just so happens that terrorists are Made in America. They’re not the product of Muslim society, and that should be abundantly clear to everyone on this floor. . . . The global war on terrorism is a fabrication, a big lie and a crime against humanity.”21
 
It seems that plans for the introduction of fake enemies, or a succession of them, has been in place for some time. Aaron Russo, told of how he was invited by Nick Rockefeller to join the NWO. Russo declined, but learned from Rockefeller that the elite had planned false flag attacks, a terrorist boogeyman and a global war on terror long before 9/11 occurred. Dr. Carol Rosin, former Corporate Manager at Fairchild Industries, (aerospace) tells of conversations with Nazi/NATO insider Werner von Braun. Braun told her that the long game plan included a series of fabricated threats to humanity — fake communism, fake terrorism, fake third world country “crazies,” fake asteroids and the last card to be played, an extraterrestrial invasion.22
 
You have been warned – when the enemy du jour, the human terrorist, is no longer spooky enough to give the citizenry goose bumps, brace for the next new one. It’s likely to could be from outer space.
 
Machiavellian foreign policy 
Mark Taliano describes the fakery in the US-NATO led invasions and wars justified as “humanitarian” interventions. Taliano explains that the latest example of a coercive strategy is that employed against the Syrian Arab Republic. The strategy features the following elements. 

  • Destroying hospitals and infrastructure
  • Starvation
  • Disinformation campaigns/erasing “history”
  • Balkanization/partitioning
  • Bombing civilian populations

 
He warns that the end game is “to de-populate and to destroy target countries and to subjugate the remaining population.” So, if we just take the time to scrape the veneer off the Empire’s cynical pretense of humanity, we discover colonial greed and selfish geopolitical ambitions.23
 
Novelist, philosopher and investigative journalist, Andre Vitchek explains how the Western powers crush nations under the cover of a fake morality and pretense of goodness.
 
All conquests, all genocides, all plunders have been eternally rationalized, painstakingly justified. Grand bogus concepts of charity, of ‘altruism’ have been erected. Subjugated nations have always been ruined in the name of some higher principles, in order to save them from themselves. For centuries, the West has portrayed itself as a sacrificial lamb, as a hand chosen by some divine power, as the greatest civilization that is continuously and altruistically liberating the world.24
 
Nowhere is that bogus concept of self-sacrificing altruism more apparent than in the justifications for NATO presence on foreign soil.  NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was formed in 1949 as a system of mutual, collective defence against attacks by an external party (Wiki). With the collapse of the Soviet Union, came calls for its dissolution, since there was no major threat to defend its members from. Those calls were ignored, and NATO has grown into an ugly regime change monster dubbed the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization by its critics. Its intervention in Libya was justified on the basis of its so-called “responsibility to protect” (R2P).
 
R2P was intended to allow for international intervention in a foreign country where its own government was deemed incapable of protecting its citizens against, genocide, war crimes and human rights abuses. The United States and NATO perverted that moral justification to serve their own imperialistic goals. Today, Libya is a mess, thanks to the R2P intervention.25
 
Policy analyst, David Rieff comments:
 
“For those of us who feared that R2P was just a warrant for war, our fears have been vindicated,” said Rieff to the Economist at the time of the NATO intervention in Libya.”26
 
Western foreign policy, deceptively coated in the morality of humanitarian interventions, is highly selective. Obama threatened Syria’s Assad regularly for defending his country against US-backed foreign invaders while conveniently ignoring Saudi Arabia’s war crimes in its war with Yemen. Thus, US foreign policy conveniently packages the US’s enormous sins of both commission and omission into a single virtue. It could not secure the permission of the citizenry, of course, without the services of the MSM in manufacturing public consent.27  
 
CIA-corrupted media peddling propaganda
In George Orwell’s 1984 (1949) Big Brother government cultivates fear and war hysteria in the population of Oceana using manufactured boogey men and pervasive war propaganda. One day, the two central characters, Winston and Julia, get into an argument about which country theirs was at war with four years ago. Was it Eurasia or Eastasia? Finally, in exasperation, Julia responds: ‘Who cares?’ It’s always one bloody war after another, and one knows the news is all lies anyway.’ 28
 
Julia, a character created in 1949, could have just as easily been commenting on the real world situation in 2017. War is a constant enabled in large measure by the fabricated justifications served up by the MSM. We have grown up believing that a free and independent media, the fourth estate, is a vital pillar of a healthy democracy. As this pillar has crumbled, it’s left the entire democratic construct teetering on a failing foundation.
 
Six major corporations control about 90% of the media in America. This degree of consolidation confers unprecedented ability upon this oligarchy to shape the thinking, if not the reality, of the citizens of Empire. We have known about the warped role of corporate media for some time. Noam Chomsky and co-author, Edward Herman characterized the role of the mass media in their revealing book, Manufacturing Consent: The political economy of the mass media, in 1988.”2
 
Recently the release of 12 million declassified CIA documents has shed new light on what Shawn Helton describes as “the symbiotic relationship between the CIA and American media.” This relationship dates back more than half a century. Shelton notes that the CIA to ran a program in the fifties called Operation Mockingbird. The mission was to propagandize the American public through the news media and various student and cultural organizations and magazines as front organizations.30
 
So, when it comes to the recent “fake news” uproar, it should be clear which side in the battle (the MSM versus independent media) that’s the more reliable source for those seeking the truth. The alternative media has also been infiltrated by those engaged in disinformation,  so discernment is always required. Author and attorney, John Whitehead, founder of the Rutherford Institute, states that one of the biggest propagators of fake news is the US government.

In the midst of the media’s sudden headline-blaring apoplexy over fake news, you won’t hear much about the government’s role in producing, planting and peddling propaganda-driven fake news–often with the help of the corporate news media—because that’s not how the game works.31
 
Jonathan Cook has analyzed how the US government, collaborated with the MSM to secure public support for the invasion of Iraq. It was achieved based on the lie advanced by an individual the CIA knick-named “Curveball.” Curveball provided the convenient lie that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, the justification for invasion.
 
Cook explains how the illusions of a naive public on the one hand, intersect with those perpetuated by transnational elites. These illusions are fused together into a narrative or worldview. Three illusions from Cook’s list of examples are:
 
“… we, in particular (consumers), and the global workforce in general are the chief beneficiaries of the corporations’ wealth creation.”
 
“… the corporations and the ideology that underpins them, global capitalism, are the only hope for freedom.”
 
“… there are groups, called terrorists, who want to destroy this benevolent system of wealth creation and personal improvement.”
 
The complicity of the media is defined is relation to the worldview knit from these illusions.
 
The job of sanctifying these assumptions — and ensuring they are not scrutinised — falls to our mainstream media. Western corporations own the media, and their advertising makes the industry profitable. In this sense, the media cannot fulfil the function of watchdog of power, because in fact it is power. It is the power of the globalised elite to control and limit the ideological and imaginative horizons of the media’s readers and viewers. It does so to ensure that imperial interests, which are synonymous with those of the corporations, are not threatened.32
 
This then is the role of the Empire’s media magicians — ensuring these assumptions are not scrutinized. And there’s no end of distractions at their disposal. Some Hollywood trivia can always be readily inflated or some identity politics conflict easily ignited. Should awakened individuals “go off the reservation,” the corporate media has techniques for neutralizing them. A favourite tactic is to discredit the source by smearing their reputation or otherwise undermining their credibility (digital assassination). And the MSM can always deploy counter narratives provided by reliable puppets like “war hero” John McCain. All one has to do is question the wisdom of some humanitarian intervention (regime change) and you are immediately smeared as a tool of the enemy du jour, a role assigned to Russia at the moment.
 
The hypocrisy of the MSM knows no bounds. Even as example after example of its fake news output was exposed in 2016, it distracted and deflected the puck. In late 2016, in a display of unmatched chutzpa, the MSM attempted a ju jitsu move against its alternative media opponents. It presented the members of the MSM as the faithful guardians of the truth and pointed an accusing finger at independent media as untrustworthy purveyors of fake news. Beyond this, it has blacklisted specific independent media sources and proposed various schemes to vet fake news stories on behalf of the public.  George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth is alive and well.
 
The trend toward censorship is unmistakable. Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter announced plans in December of 2016 to launch an Internet censorship database in 2017. The intent is to scrub anything labelled “extremist content.” This should set off alarms for free speech advocates. Governments have long censored political information that has nothing to do with extremist content. And it wasn’t that long ago that Japan, for example, banned news regarding its Fukushima earthquake. The EU and US governments have pushed for separate legislation to crack down on what the establishment calls “fake news.” The EU takes the suppression of political information farther threatening to take “non-legislative” action (punitive fines) if Facebook, Twitter and YouTube do not censor what it considers to be “illegal” online content within 24 hours.33
 
Awakened individuals in the US at least will have noticed that the level of propaganda has intensified significantly in recent years. There’s a reason why this is the case. The average citizen might have assumed that their government reserved propaganda campaigns for external military enemies. It’s not the case, however. On July 2, 2013, lawmakers amended the National Defense Authorization Act removing the protection that the Smith-Mundt Act provided American citizens from propagandization.34
 
The power of propaganda shouldn’t be underestimated. It has, and it continues to change the course of history. Usually, it’s not for the better. John Whitehead illustrates the danger in terms of how a false flag (with the aid of the media) was used to trigger the Viet Nam war.
 
… in August 1964, the nation’s leading newspapers—including the Washington Post and New York Times—echoed Lyndon Johnson’s claim that North Vietnam had launched a second round of attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. No such attacks had taken place, and yet the damage was done. As Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon report for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, “By reporting official claims as absolute truths, American journalism opened the floodgates for the bloody Vietnam War.”31
 
Increasingly with the assistance of public relations, advertising and political operatives and actors, theatre and fiction is overtaking reality. As Chris Hedges explains, pseudo-events and richly orchestrated productions have the capability to appear real even though we know they are staged. And fictional events can become accepted as truth. Ominously, Hedges observes, “Truth is irrelevant.”
 
Reporters, especially those on television, no longer ask whether the message is true but rather whether the pseudo-event worked or did not work as political theater. Pseudo-events are judged on how effectively we have been manipulated by illusion. Those events that appear real are relished and lauded. Those that fail to create a believable illusion are deemed failures (Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, 2009.)35
 
And where is the resistance? Where is the outrage? There was a notable instance during Obama’s term in office when the MSM objected. Since then, it appears that the media has succumbed to fulfilling the role of echo chamber for the State Department.36
 
Author and political analyst, Paul Craig Roberts cites the May 2017 issues of Newsweek and Time as examples of “presstitutes” serving the National Security State with propaganda designed to fuel conflict. The front cover of Newsweek features a picture of Putin and the headline, The Plot Against America: Inside Putin’s Campaign to Destroy Democracy in the US.  Roberts responds by saying that US democracy was destroyed by special interest groups, and by a phony war on terror that destroyed the US Constitution. The image on the Time cover implies with a splash of red brush strokes that Trump is converting the White House into the base for the Kremlin and Saint Basil’s cathedral. Roberts laments that this “extraordinary propaganda” seems to be accepted by the majority of Westerners.3
 
There’s an old maxim that you (can expect to) reap what you sow. A recent statistics suggests that if you seed sufficient lies and deceptions, you will in time reap the distrust of those you propagandize. According to the findings of a May 2017 Harvard-Harris poll, two thirds of Americans believe that “there is a lot of fake news in the mainstream media.” The breakdown on this statistic is 80 percent of Republicans, 60 percent of independents and 53 percent of Democrats. Eighty-four percent of voters said it is hard to know what news to believe online.
 
The troubling conclusion reached by Harvard-Harris co-director Mark Penn is that much of the media is now “…just another part of the partisan divide in the country…Every major institution from the presidency to the courts is now seen as operating in a partisan fashion in one direction or the other.”38
 
Clearly, the propagandizing of US citizens has earned the MSM the well-deserved distrust of is audiences. There’s a larger tragedy here too. It’s the tragedy of a once united nation fragmenting into the divided peoples of America. And If Hedges is correct in his assessment that falsity has triumphed over truth, then a corollary must also be considered. It’s the liklihood that the Magician has triumphed over the Truth Teller. 
 
Fake heroes
Not surprisingly, the Magicians of the Post-Truth era have given the citizens of the Empire fake heroes. The latest has arisen amidst the Syria conflict and the accompanying blitzkrieg of war propaganda served up to gullible citiizens. It’s the Nobel Prize nominees and Netflix movie heroes, the White Helmets. Awakened patriots might well ask how a UK and US-funded PR agency managed to turn associates of Al Qaeda in Syria into folk heroes.
 
The campaign will go down in history as a demonstration of the power of PR over factual reality. In 2016, I received an email from one of Canada’s opposition parties encouraging my support for the nomination of the White Helmets for a Nobel Prize. It was bad enough that the US and Canadian governments were resolutely insisting that Saudi Arabia, the global epicenter of jihadist ideology was a friend and an ally. But, now A Canadian opposition party was encouraging support for the associates of Al Qaeda. The circle of delusion in government was complete. I bit my lip and politely suggested to the latest groupies of the White Helmets that these pretend humanitarians weren’t worthy of the adoration.   
 
The White Helmets were trained by British ex-military officer, James Le Mesurier who would like us to believe that they are group of ordinary citizens – taxi drivers, bakers and teachers moved to serve their countrymen. The Ron Paul Institute describes these ordinary citizens differently.39
 
We have demonstrated that the White Helmets are an integral part of the propaganda vanguard that ensures obscurantism of fact and propagation of Human Rights fiction that elicits the well-intentioned and self righteous response from a very cleverly duped public. A priority for these NGOs is to keep pushing the No Fly Zone scenario which has already been seen to have disastrous implications for innocent civilians in Libya, for example. 39
 
Independent journalist, Vanessa Beeley, who has regularly reported from Syria throughout the conflict, describes them this way.
 
Like many other ‘NGOs’, the White Helmets have been deployed by the west to derail the Syrian state, first by undermining existing civic structures and by disseminating staged PR to facilitate regime change propaganda, through western and Gulf state media outlets. Despite the fact that they were started, and are still generously funded by NATO members states, particularly from the US and UK, the White Helmets’ official statement still claims categorically that they are somehow “fiercely independent” and “have accepted no money from governments, corporations or anyone directly involved in the Syrian conflict“. This is both farcical and deeply misleading.
 
So, the White Helmets, lauded by the West, are terrorist-promoting imposters. Beeley points out that the real Syria Civil Defence was founded in 1953, “some 63 years before the White Helmets were a glimmer in the eyes of CIA and MI6 operatives.” The real Syria Civil Defence is a group of 150 volunteers who live and serve under constant threat of being targeted by an assortment of up to 22 terrorist brigades. This threat includes the phoney White Helmets supported and celebrated by the West. A member of the real Syria Defence describes the White Helmets this way:
 
They are terrorists, not rescuers.  They stole our ambulances and three of our fire engines. They don’t do any rescue work.  They drive round with guns in the back of their car like any other terrorist.  Some are from East Aleppo, some are from Syria but not from Aleppo and some are even coming in from abroad.40
 
So which is it? Are our government leaders just extremely naïve, profoundly ignorant or deviously complicit in such deceptions? Think about it. National governments use tax payer funded offices and assets to propagandize the very citizens that they are supposed to serve. It’s every bit as devious and nausea-inducing as the daily goings on in the fictitious Oceana of George Orwell’s creation.  
 
Think tanks that can’t think
Washington’s policies, particularly its foreign policy, are often birthed and developed by the country’s so-called think tanks and universities. The problem is many can’t think straight to begin with, because they are beholden to their founders, donors and/or clients. In other words, while they may have the outward appearance of disinterested, independent third parties offering unbiased analysis and policy proposals, they are no such thing. They are often intended to serve a narrower set of private interests and must carefully colour between established lines. In short, they are compromised.
 
There’s nothing like hearing it straight from the figurative horses mouth. New Yorker correspondent Connie Bruck reported that Haim Saban, “a hawkish Israeli-American” billionaire speaking at a 2009 conference in Israel, described the “three ways to be influential in American politics” as donating to political parties, creating think tanks, and buying up influential media.41
 
Did you catch that? An Israel-focused American (by his own admission) informs us that one of the three best ways to influence American politics is by creating think tanks. It goes without saying that such think tanks are predisposed to advance a particular point of view. Their billionaire sponsors have such think tanks on a leash. Promote the right policy ideas or suddenly, your funds dry up. Think tanks know it’s unwise to bite the hand that feeds them. It’s hard to imagine for example, the Heartland Institute, a recipient of Koch Brothers money, recommending actions against climate change, something that could have economic consequences for their patrons.
 
It’s not just domestic interests that have created captive think tanks. Foreign players are getting into the think tank business. Writing in 2014 in the Observer, Nina Burleigh reports that some of the major think tanks are partially owned subsidiaries of the petro states. One think tank, The Center for Strategic Studies, accepted a million dollars to help build a new headquarters near the White House. And Brookings Institute was the recipient of a four year $14.8 million donation from Qatar.
 
Burleigh explains what happens when liberal institutions team up withwhat she calls “regressive rich petro states”. In short, something has to give. She reports that Saleem Ali, a former visiting fellow at Brookings, Doha, was informed during his job interview that he couldn’t take positions “critical of the Qatari government” in his papers. Ali commented that while a member of Congress using Brookings reports may not be getting a false story, but they will not be getting the full story.42
 
Put another way, this doesn’t sound like the a policy research group dedicated to go where the evidence takes them.  
 
Turkey, under an increasingly authoritarian Recep Erdogan, was awarded the title of  “the poster child when it comes to foreign lobbying opportunities for former members of both parties” by Politico in the fall of 2016. One of its many friends in Washington in the Atlantic Council, is a pro-NATO think tank. What lubricates that friendship? It’s reported that the Atlantic Council’s top financial supporters include “no fewer than five major Turkish government and business organizations, along with Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and other large military contractors”.43
 
Knowing that, it’s not hard to guess the flavour of the policy proposals likely to be advanced by the Atlantic Council is it? If you want to hear a case for bulking up on armaments to ward off imagined Russian aggression, you know where to go. When the New Republic examined the partnerships of the Atlantic Council, the two authors concluded that the Council, “…– like so many other Washington think tanks – has a definition of “intellectual independence” that differs from typical scholarly institutions.”44
 
I might add that some of those scholarly institutions, the universities have themselves been taken captive by the ideology du jour, including recently, cultural Marxism. Nor have they proven themselves particularly interested in the open, rigorous intellectual debate. Follow the money; they too have rich and powerful benefactors they don’t wish to alienate.
 
Compromised think tanks are part of the reason for the persistence of Washington group think. It’s group think that produces a chorus of voices calling for an arms build-up and more not less aggression. Washington think tanks are brains on a leash. A number have been born out of the same deceptive appearance and motives as “astro turf” non-profits with a political bent. Again they would like us to believe that they are independent thus conferring on them the authority of independent expertise. It’s one more reminder that a sign of a dying democracy is a campaign to reduce a nation’s capacity for divergent thinking in subordination to groupthink. Of course, politicians must excel in double speak in order to maintain the illusion that Big Brother encourages divergent thinking. 
 
Weaponized weather
You may not have realized it, but there are “military dolphins.” They are described as “oceanic dolphins trained to rescue lost naval swimmers or to locate underwater mines.”  Apparently a dolphin named K-Dog performed mine clearance work in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War.45 When I first learned that the American military had militarized dolphins, it occurred to me that the Empire demands the militarization of everything. Nothing is sacred. Nature, too must submit to the indignities of war-making. And true to form, the Empire has also militarized the weather.
 
Climate scientists, geo-engineering specialist and Rutgers University professor, Alan Robock explains the potential consequences of weaponizing weather.
 
Some countries might try to create clouds and send them toward an enemy, for example. Or there may be disputes over the “right” temperature, setting off what’s been dubbed “the Thermostat Wars” — if Indonesia wants cooling to avoid sea level rise and Russia wants warming to increase agricultural production, for instance.
 
Robock points out that the US already has a history of using weather in hostile ways, citing the seeding of clouds over Ho Chi Minh trail during the Vietnam War “to make the major supply route for North Vietnamese foot soldiers too muddy to pass” as well as over Cuba “to make it rain and ruin the sugar harvest.”46
 
If past performance is the best predictor or future behaviour, we have every reason to suspect that weather warfare technology has advanced considerably beyond such small scale applications. The Air Force assessment of its potential is just too upbeat to think otherwise. The US Air Force document AF 2025 Final Report reads in part, “Weather modification offers the war fighter a wide range of possible options to defeat or coerce an adversary’ and, it says, they “extend to the triggering of floods, hurricanes, droughts and earthquakes.”   
 
The forward looking language of the report leaves little doubt as to the importance weather modification will play in the future of military conflict.
 
Weather modification will become a part of domestic and international security and could be done unilaterally… It could have offensive and defensive applications and even be used for deterrence purposes. The ability to generate precipitation, fog, and storms on earth or to modify space weather, … and the production of artificial weather all are a part of an integrated set of technologies which can provide substantial increase in US, or degraded capability in an adversary, to achieve global awareness, reach, and power. (US Air Force)47
 
Western governments have been discussing the military applications of weather modification capabilities for some time. On 5 February 1998, the EU’s Parliament’s Subcommittee on Security and Disarmament held a hearing the subject, which included it’s the US’s HAARP operations in Fairbanks Alaska. The project and its military capabilities were described as follows:
 
HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Project) is run jointly by the US Air Force and Navy, in conjunction with the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Similar experiments are also being conducted in Norway, probably in the Antarctic, as well as in the former Soviet Union.(22) HAARP is a research project using a ground-based apparatus, an array of antennae each powered by its own transmitter, to heat up portions of ionosphere with powerful radio beams. The energy generated heats up parts of the ionosphere; this results in holes in the ionosphere and produces artificial ‘lenses’.
 
The report had more to say about the military application of HAARP.
 
HAARP can be used for many purposes. Enormous quantities of energy can be controlled by manipulating the electrical characteristics of the atmosphere. If used as a military weapon this can have a devastating impact on an enemy. HAARP can deliver millions of times more energy to a given area than any other conventional transmitter. The energy can also be aimed at a moving target which should constitute a potential anti-missile system.48
 
As far back as 2010, some observers were citing evidence that the US has already used its HAARP microwave technology as an “earthquake weapon.” They cite two earthquakes in particular as the result of the military use of HAARP technology, the Fukushimo earthquake and tsunami and possibly the 2008 Chile earthquake (a 7.8). It’s also speculated that the Haiti Hurricane was the result of a test gone wrong with devastating consequences. The Chinese and Russians may also possess some capabilities in the realm of weather weapons.49
 
Geo-engineering researcher, Dane Wigington, speculated in his blog in December 2014, that “weather warfare assaults” might have been made on several countries that had incurred the wrath of the Empire. He cites a devastating ice storm in Slovenia (Feb, 2014); record flooding in Pakistan (2010); a devastating flood in Thailand (2011); an ice storm in Hungary (2014) and a record strength typhoon in the Philippines (2013). Japan’s Fukushimo tsunami (2011) and Haiti’s quake (2011) also made the list. It’s a fascinating analysis in that in each case, Wigington describes specific interests or tension between the target country and the US in play at the time.50

It isn’t just the military applications of weather modification that concern Wigington. He has stated that the number one threat facing humanity is “extreme weather modification to cool the planet.” The method being used is climate geo-engineering, and critics in the alternative media have long stated that the most obvious evidence of this is chemtrails in the sky. Another symptom of ill-advised geo-engineering is what Wigington calls “weather whiplash.” He cites an example when New York weather went from record-breaking high to snow in less than 24 hours.
 
So why aren’t national governments putting this subject on the table for discussion with their citizens? Why isn’t this subject being discussed in association with climate change discussions and national strategies? And why aren’t any existing international agreements among nations, being disclosed? It’s not as if we all don’t have a shared interest in the future of our atmosphere and its importance to the health of earth’s ecosystems. The agriculture and agrifood industry alone has a vital interest in the risks which weather modification in all its forms could present. It’s just one more case where the silence on the part of our leaders is deafening.
 
Let’s sum up what we’ve learned about the state of the Empire in Parts A and B of Exposing the Empire of Lies. This investigation has revealed the following:  
 
Part A

  • An imaginary democracy;
  • An unelected Deep State government;
  • Treasonous, war criminal presidents;
  • Compromised puppet politicians;
  • Police state variety policing;
  • Extreme surveillance; and
  • Rigged elections.

 
Part B

  • Frankenstein security agencies;
  • Government-orchestrated terrorism and fake terrorists;
  • Machiavellian foreign policy;
  • CIA- infiltrated media peddling propaganda;
  • Fake heroes;
  • Think tanks that can’t think; and
  • Weaponized weather.

 
I could go on. My files contain a great deal more evidence of even more fakery and fabrication. It’s not necessary, however, as I have shed light on the decaying state of the American Empire via 14 different evidential windows. Collectively they reveal an America that is compromisedcorruptcaptive and controlled. Beneath the many layers of veneer we have found corrupt institutions infested with treasonous leaders and parasitic domestic and foreign interests. Collectively, they are killing the host.  

The parasites have invaded the brain of their host and turned it into a dangerous, out-of-control monster that’s bringing death and destruction throughout the world in its wake. This  monster endangers us all.   

We also find enslaved and deluded citizens. The trusting and distracted citizens of the Empire have provided plausible explanations for the implausible, glossed over the anomalies and lies, ignored their gut and given the benefit of the doubt where it wasn’t warranted. Thus, they are complicit in constructing and maintaining the walls of their own prison.
 
But when will the tyranny end? It will end when an awakened populace rejects the Empire’s hypnotic illusions. It will end when we, like the young boy on the edge of crowd in the Hans Christian Anderson tale, dare to call out the claims of our delusional Emperors. When we dare to tell the truth, the teetering Empire of Lies, Humpty-Dumpty-like, will all come crashing down. 
 
Now, it’s time for another long walk.
 

1 Three factions of the CIA that control the world, Veterans Today, January 16, 2017, http://www.theeventchronicle.com/editors-pick/three-factions-cia-control-world-recommended/
 
2 Lt. Col. Bowman: “Who were the 9/11 Conspirators?”, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Ls6sifFJo 
 
3 Exposed: CIA – The Swamp Monsters, The Millennial Report Exclusive, January 14, 2017, http://themillenniumreport.com/2017/01/exposed-cia-the-swamp-monsters/
 
4 Are we witnessing a coup operation against the Trump Whitehouse?, The Information Clearing House, February 24, 2017, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46532.htm
 
5 The nasty truth about the CIA, New Eastern Outlook, April 4, 2017, http://journal-neo.org/2017/04/04/the-nasty-truth-about-the-cia/  
 
6 The CIA and human experiments, July 7, 2015, http://journal-neo.org/2015/07/07/the-cia-and-human-experiments/
 
7 The CIA tortured humans and it experimented on them, Paul Craig Roberts, Institute for Political Economy, May 17, 2017, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/05/17/cia-tortured-humans-experimented/  

8 The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s manufactured war on terrorism, Trevor Aaronson, Ig Publishing, 2013, https://www.amazon.com/Terror-Factory-Inside-Manufactured-Terrorism/dp/1935439618
 
9 FBI terrorism and the false flag war, Veterans Today, February 19, 2013, http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/02/19/fbi-terrorism-and-the-false-flag-war/
 
10 Trevor Aaronson: How the FBI strategy is actually creating US-based terrorists, TED Talks, YouTube, June 4, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGG97dDfZ7E
 
11 EX-CIA agent: Every terrorist attack in US was a false flag attack, YourNewsWire, September 22, 2016, http://yournewswire.com/intelligence-officer-every-terrorist-attack-in-us-was-a-false-flag-attack/
 
12 Robert Steele, Draft list of 63 Orlando false flag anomalies, Public Intelligence Blog, http://phibetaiota.net/2016/06/robert-steele-draft-list-of-56-orlando-false-flag-anomalies/ 

13 Bush needs a Boogeyman with a big bomb, HUFFPOST, September 28, 2006, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-fleetwood/bush-needs-a-boogeyman-wi_b_30456.html
 
14 42 admitted false flags, Washington  Blog.com. February 9, 2015, http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/41-admitted-false-flag-attacks.html
 
15 If we learn our history, we’re NOT doomed to repeat it, Washington Blog.com, September 6, 2012, http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/09/false-flag-2.html
 
16 The psychology of soft slavery, Philosopher’s Stone, January 14, 2017, http://www.philosophers-stone.co.uk/?p=17397
 
17 False flags, a history of deception, Richard Dolan, August 18, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Gy-Dr50j4&t=74s
 
18 Judge overturns convictions of John Nutalll and Amanda Korody in connection with plot to bomb B.C. legislature, The Georgia Straight, July 29, 2016, http://www.straight.com/news/746076/judge-overturns-convictions-john-nuttall-and-amanda-korody-connection-plot-bomb-bc
 
19 Manchester false flag: Man 22, kills 22 on May 22, Veterans Today, May 23, 2017, http://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/05/23/man22/
 
20 U.S. wants to revive terror scare in order to keep up the terror war industry – FBI whistleblower, RT, Daily Motion, October 14, 2014, http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x27vhjc_u-s-wants-to-revive-terror-scare-in-order-to-keep-up-the-terror-war-industry-fbi-whistleblower_news

21 British Labour Leader tells the world who’s really funding ISIS, Collective Evolution, February 2, 2016, http://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/02/02/another-politician-speaks-out-british-labour-leader-tells-the-world-whos-really-funding-isis/ 

22 About Carol Rosin and the late Werner Von Braun, http://www.collective-evolution.com/2016/02/02/another-politician-speaks-out-british-labour-leader-tells-the-world-whos-really-funding-isis/
 
23 US- NATO “Humanitarian Interventions” have resulted in “Crimes against Humanity”, Global Research, March 9, 2016, http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-nato-humanitarian-interventions-have-resulted-in-crimes-against-humanity/5524140
 
24 The entire world is “fake news”, New Eastern Outlook, January 6, 2017, http://journal-neo.org/2017/01/06/the-entire-world-is-fake-news/
 
25 The destruction of Libya: US-NATO Crime against humanity, March 18, 2015, 21st Century Wire, http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/03/18/the-destruction-of-libya-us-nato-crime-against-humanity/
 
26 Responsibility to protect justified imperialist goals in Libya, March 18, 2017, http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Responsibility-to-Protect-Justified-Imperialist-Goals-in-Libya-20170318-0015.html
 
27 Pentagon heads toward escalating genocide in Yemen Global Research, March 27, 2017, , http://www.economist.com/node/18709571
 
28 1984, George Orwell, Penguin Books, 1949, p. 161.
 
29 Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media, Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, Pantheon Books, 1988, https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/manufacturing-consent-edward-s-herman/1100011970
 
30 Mockingbird Mirror: Declassified docs depict deeper link between the CIA and American media, March 1, 2017, 21st Century, http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/03/01/mockingbird-mirror-declassified-docs-depict-deeper-link-between-the-cia-and-american-media/
 
31 When it comes to fake news, the US government is the biggest culprit, Rutherford Institute, November 21, 2017, http://www.theeventchronicle.com/fake-news-agenda/comes-fake-news-u-s-government-biggest-culprit/ 
 
32 An Empire of Lies: The CIA and the Western media, Global Research, February 28, 2011, http://www.globalresearch.ca/an-empire-of-lies-the-cia-and-the-western-media/23432
 
33Internet censorship database announced by Google, Twitter, Facebook and Microsoft, HNN, December 6, 2016, http://alexanderhiggins.com/internet-censorship-database-announced-google-twitter-facebook-microsoft/
 
34 US government funded domestic propaganda has officially hit the airwaves, SF Gate, July 16, 2013, http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/US-Government-Funded-Domestic-Propaganda-Has-4668001.php
 
35 The Praetorian’s Bodyguards, (Of the Empire’s Liars), PoxAmericana, May 13, 2017,
http://poxamerikana.com/2017/03/13/179539/
 
36 Censorship: 38 Journalism groups slam Obama’s ‘politically-driven suppression of news’ Patriot Rising, September 7, 2014, http://patriotrising.com/2014/07/09/censorship-38-journalism-groups-slam-obamas-politically-driven-suppression-news/
 
37 Truth has become Un-American, Paul Craig Roberts, Institute for Political Economy, May 23, 2017, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/05/23/truth-has-become-un-american/
 

38 Poll: Majority says mainstream media publishes fake news, The Hill, May 24, 2017, http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/334897-poll-majority-says-mainstream-media-publishes-fake-news
 
39 Syria: The propaganda ring, the Ron Paul Institute, August 27, 2015, http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2015/august/27/syria-the-propaganda-ring/  

40 Exclusive: The real Syria Civil Defence Exposes fake ‘White Helmets’ as Terrorist-linked imposters, 21st Century Wire, September 23, 2016, http://21stcenturywire.com/2016/09/23/exclusive-the-real-syria-civil-defence-expose-natos-white-helmets-as-terrorist-linked-imposters/
 
41 Israel lobby pays the political piper, Consortium News, May 21, 2017, https://consortiumnews.com/2017/05/21/israel-lobby-pays-the-political-piper/
 
42 Stop taking Saudi money, Washington, Observer, September 29, 2014, http://observer.com/2014/09/stop-taking-saudi-money-washington/
 
43 Roll call of contributions, Atlantic Council,  http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/support/supporters
 
44 Chuck Hagel’s think tank, its donors, and intellectual independence, New Republic, February 12, 2013, https://newrepublic.com/article/112398/chuck-hagels-atlantic-council-foreign-donors-and-independence
 
45 Military Dolphin, Fandom, http://military.wikia.com/wiki/Military_dolphin
 
46 Climate researcher claims CIA asked about weaponized weather: What could go wrong?, Computerworld, February 16, 2015, http://www.computerworld.com/article/2883763/climate-researcher-claims-cia-asked-about-weaponized-weather-what-could-go-wrong.html
 
47 Chemtrails – the secret war, The Event Chronicle, Dec 2014, http://www.theeventchronicle.com/study/italian-chemtrails-secret-war-free-film/
 
48 Report, January 14, 1999, European Parliament, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security, and Defence Policy, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A4-1999-0005+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
 
49 Are we in a HAARP “earthquake war”?, Before it’s news, May 5, 2010, http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2010/05/are-we-in-a-haarp-earthquake-war-20951.html
 
50 Are weather warfare assaults devastating noncompliant countries around the globe?, GeoEngineering Watch, December 9, 2014, http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/are-weather-warfare-assaults-devastating-noncompliant-countries-around-the-globe/
 
 (c) Futurescapes21C, 2018 All rights reserved

Truth-tellers, Court Jesters and an Emperor’s Wardrobe Malfunction (Part B)

TRUTH TELLERS, COURT JESTERS AND AN EMPEROR’S WARDROBE MALFUCTION — PART B

Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes 21C, Posted June 11, 2018, rev. June 12, 2018. All rights reserved 

Feet of clay
It’s April 2018, and Canada’s once-adored Emperor is losing his magic.  He still proudly wears the George Soros brand of Neoliberal Identity Politics. But, things just aren’t the same. His devout fans remain enthralled or course, but the sheen is gone. A panel of political analysts probes the possible explanations for his decline in the polls. Why was the popularity of “Sunny Ways” Emperor Selfeous now lagging what it had once been?
 
The pundits saw several possibilities. There had been a trade trip to China that produced negligible returns.1 And there had been a bruising encounter with the small business sector over proposed tax changes?2 Had his violation of multiple sections of the Conflict of Interest Act concerning a family vacation at an island retreat belonging to the Aga Kahn contributed?3 And what part had his  finance minister’s failure to fully disclose his financial interests played?4
 
There were still other possible explanations. One panelist cited the Emperor’s endless haranguing Canadians regarding political correctness. More recently, a rather disorganized trade trip to India had been labeled a “disaster” by the media. Trade relations may have been the pretext, but analysts saw other more superficial motives on Selfeous’ part. 
 
Barbara Dutt of the Washington Post reported that an anonymous Indian government official said regarding Canada’s glorious Emperor, “He seems more much more convinced of his own rock-star status than we ever were.”
 
As for her part, Dutt commented:
 
I confess, from afar, I used to be a Trudeau fan-girl. But after this trip, I’ve changed my mind. Trudeau has come across as flighty and facetious. His orchestrated dance moves and multiple costume changes in heavily embroidered kurtas and sherwanis make him look more like an actor on a movie set or a guest at a wedding than a politician who is here to talk business. Suddenly, all that charisma and cuteness seem constructed, manufactured and, above all, not serious. 5
 
The consensus among observers, like Dutt, concluded the trip was designed to score points with Canada’s large Sikh community. It’s all about the optics with Emperor Selfeous. 
 
A dissenting voice in the crowd 
While the majority of Canadians remained forbearing, a contrarian voice in the crowd was making itself heard. It belonged to University of Toronto psychology professor, Jordan Peterson. When the Canadian government prepared to pass legislation requiring Canadians to use an expanding lexicon of activist-designated gender pronouns, Peterson objected. This was an Orwellian violation of the principle of freedom of speech with authoritarian overtones.6 Peterson, the refusenik, publicly stated he would not comply with the dictates of the government in the realm of prescribed speech. He went so far as saying he would go to jail in defense of his free speech. 7
 
Nor was Peterson impressed with the Emperor’s glib “It’s 2015” fuzzy math calculation for the 50:50 male-female composition of his cabinet. Pederson pointed out that achieving gender party would only have required Selfeous appoint the same percentage of males and females to cabinet as male and female MP’s elected to public office. 
 
Douglas Murray, writing in The Spectator, describes Peterson’s rise.
 
In 2016 he made a stand against the Canadian government’s introduction of a law that aimed to make it a crime not to address people by their preferred gender pronouns (regardless of chromosomes). The issue of ‘gender pronouns’ may sound a strange springboard to international attention. But Peterson did something a decreasing number of people in our societies are willing to do: he stuck his head above the parapet. He politely but firmly objected to officials telling him or anyone else what words to use or to define for him what the meanings of words should be. 
 
There was an outcry. His classes were disrupted by often riotous protests. There were serious efforts to force him out of his university position. For a moment, it looked as though the social justice mounties might get their man. But for once it didn’t work. In fact it badly backfired. Not only did a lot more people discover a counter-cultural (or counter-counter-cultural) hero who was willing to say what almost everybody else thought. They also discovered someone with not only humanity and humour, but serious depth and substance. 9
 
The silence heard around the (Western) world
In 2018, Professor Peterson went on tour in Europe to promote his new book, “12 rules for Life: An antidote for chaos.” While in England, he was invited to participate in an interview with Cathy Newman of Channel 4, a BBC subsidiary. If Peterson was expecting a friendly conversation about the contents of his book, he was mistaken. Newman, an ardent feminist, was determined to impale Peterson on every point of presumed feminist victimhood. Her style was combative replete with talking over her guest, virtue signaling, straw men premises and misleading accusatory thrusts, “so what you’re saying is that….”.
 
Peterson repeatedly parried with “no, I’m not saying that…” offering reasoned explanations that drew on the research literature, insights from his clinical practice, his work as an executive career coach and common sense. He remained pleasant throughout, patiently untangling the false premises and conflated issues Newman posited. The interview built to a climax as Newman shifted to frame the male-female pay gap as a patriarchal conspiracy against women. 
 
But you’re going to put all those hurdles in their way as has been in their way for centuries…and that’s fine” you’re saying that’s fine. The patriarchal system is just fine….”
 
Peterson: “No I’m not saying that …that’s just silly…”
 
Peterson responded that the pay gap is explained by a combination of factors including a greater readiness of a small percentage of very ambitious males to sacrifice everything for  career. It was a choice that rising, equally talented female executives declined in favour of a more balanced lifestyle.
 
Then Newman shifted the subject to transgender “rights.”
 
You cited freedom of speech in that; why should your right to freedom of speech trump a trans person’s right to not be offended? 
 
Peterson: Because in order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive. I mean look at the conversation we’re having right now. You’ know like you’re certainly willing to risk offending me in the pursuit of the truth. Why should you have the right to do that? It’s been rather uncomfortable. 
 
Newman: Well I’m very glad that I put you on the spot.
 
Peterson: But you get my point,…no, but you get my point, you get my point. It’s like you’re doing what you should to do…which is digging a bit to see what the hell is going on. And that is what you should do. But you’re exercising your freedom of speech to certainly risk offending me, And that’s fine. I think more power to you as far as I’m concerned.
 
Newman: Except you haven’t sat there and…(pause)
 
Newman: (as she sighs and looks upward into space )… I’m just trying….. I’m just trying to work that out…(more silence)…
 
Peterson: (jokingly) “Gotcha….”10
 
Newman continued with her questions 10 or 12 seconds later, but in a very real sense the interview was over. This was the silence heard around the world. The last time I checked, one You Tube video excerpt of the interview had well over 10,000,000 views.  Jordan Peterson had deftly shattered an imagined transgender “rights” construct of third wave feminism.  And, as in case of the fall of Humpty Dumpty, the crash was such that it was unlikely anyone could ever reassemble the pieces.
 
It bears repeating: “Because in order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive.”  (He could have added, “and in order to converse and interact as human beings, you have to risk being offensive.”) The delusion was so completely destroyed, it left the viewer wondering what other fragile feminist fabrications were about to fall.  
 
Assessing the damage 
The significance of the Newman-Peterson debate shouldn’t be underestimated. It was an unplanned, albeit landmark battle in the long running culture war, or more accurately, assault on conservative thought. There were two obvious outcomes. The first was the defeat of fallacious feminist arguments regarding transgender “rights” and enshrined victimhood. The second was it confirmed the striking contrast in tone and style between militant feminists and traditionalists like Peterson.   
 
It leads to the obvious conclusion that third wave feminism relies heavily on bullying and intimidation and evidence-free assertions. Its adherents aren’t genuinely interested in “a conversation” about issues of the day. Their use of use weaponized language with the implicit smear that if you disagree then you are morally repugnant (“misogynist,” “homophobe,” “hater,” “racist,” etc.) is a old tactic of authoritarians intent on silencing criticism.
 
Because the Newman stance represented neoliberalism and its abusive identitarian politics, the Peterson interview permanently damaged the entire brand and all its adherents. This includes one of its foremost champions, Emperor Selfeous. The divisive issue-creation, sanctimonious assertions of moral superiority and implicit smearing of critics will no longer go unchallenged in the war against conservatives. The protective neoliberal cloak failed spectacularly. Its cheap, synthetic fabric frays quickly in the sunlight of reason, biology, serious science, timeless truths and common sense. It was as if Professor Peterson had opened a window and let some sunlight and fresh air into the room. The neoliberal delusions that enthral the masses may be losing their hold. Some on the political Left are defecting, and resistance is growing.
 
Peterson’s courageous stand on free speech has captured the attention of many in Canada, the US, Europe, and beyond. His book, sold-out speaking engagements, media appearances and YouTube lectures have birthed a large and growing following. Pederson’s message has a particular appeal among young men who have showed up at his public lectures in droves.  Remarkably, some are crediting him with restoring family relationships and saving their lives.
 
The dangers inherent in neoliberal identity politics
The pathologies of the globalist brand of neoliberal identitarian politics should be evident to the discerning by now. It is destroying the footings from which people derive their identity (gender, faith, family, country). And, simultaneously, it is destroying the links that bind us together in common cause. Thus, it is foreclosing on the societal commons.  
 
Operationally, there are both winners and losers. The winners, in the short term at least, are the imperious powers that be and their minions keen to exploit the magical powers it confers  on those intent on controlling the unsuspecting masses. Then, there are its unconscious compliant victims, unaware of their cult-like reality. How can their mute submission be explained? It appears to be the result of a misguided quest for and claim to righteousness reminiscent of that of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day.
 
Journalist, Shadi Hamid, sees, in this vein, a desperate search for a religion in its absence. 
 
In the longer term, the effects of identity-driven discussions become even more pernicious. As I recently argued, basing our positions on who we are rather than what we believe is polarizing precisely because identities are more fixed than ideas.
 
This is why identity politics can sometimes seem like a new sort of political theology. Belief and conviction are good things, but only if there’s something to believe in. Identity politics and the virtue-outbidding it necessitates often signal the absence of religion in search of religion—with followers mimicking its constituent elements: ritual, purity, atonement, and excommunication.11
 
Herein lies the explanation for both the religious zealotry of social justice warriors and their willing compliance with the tenets of their cult. In virtue bidding/signaling, SJW’s publicly demonstrate righteousness and adherence to the “faith.” This ensures continued membership. On the other hand, those tempted toward independent thought risk discipline – potentially doxing and excommunication.  
 
Looking forward
A brave man within the ranks of the largely cowed and compliant Canadian populace has struck a blow for freedom. His disruptive influence is akin to that of the young boy who called out a naked emperor in the Hans Christian Anderson tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes. The now transparent political wardrobe of our dear Emperor leaves him similarly exposed. The torn and threadbare tenets of neoliberal identity politics are increasingly apparent to thoughtful observers in the crowd. Some Canadians have awakened from their trance. Some have even joined the ranks of the resistance. Are Canada’s leading proponents of imperial neoliberalism likely to pause and reflect on the dangers in their doctrine?
 
The realistic answer is, “No, it’s not in their nature.” I expect the Emperor to continue strutting about in his transparent political attire. As the resistance grows, he is likely to wrap himself even more tightly in his demonstrably frayed wardrobe. The power it yet confers over his yet unawakened subjects is too addictive. But as noted earlier, it is no longer sufficient to repulse the advance of the resistance to the reign of neoliberal dogma in Canada and elsewhere in the West. 

I anticipate the political establishment to reinforce a four-fold strategy of: “smogging,” “smearing,” “sidelining” and silencing.
 
Smogging: In the bigger picture, we can expect a continuation of the on-going information warfare being conducted in concert with Western allies and other members of the NATO alliance. It means facilitating and amplifying real and imaginary terrorist and military threats. In the political playbook, nothing is as useful as fear when it come to keeping the masses compliant and conforming to the will of the government.  
 
Smearing: This means continuing to smear Canada and Canadians by declaring them and their beliefs deficient in some respect. Thus, problem definition as pretext sets the scene so that the officialdom can intervene and impose its planned solutions to imagined problems when the opportunity presents itself. The current smear is Canada is “racist.” Studies are planned which will provide the necessary cover for some state- imposed solution to the presumed problem. (One can conclude that earlier in our history, the powers that be determined that Canadians were insufficiently feminist and insufficiently culturally diverse.)  Regular smearing by those presumed to know emboldens social justice warriors to attack dissenting individuals, branding them “haters,” “racists,” “bigots,” and “Nazis” and dox them as required.
 
Sidelining: This is a process of discrediting and discounting dissenting groups or political adversaries by campaigns that regularly demean their motives and devalue their views and beliefs. We have seen this approach to dealing with Evangelical Christians opposed to the Emperor’s pro-abortion and transgender agendas. (It’s the political expression of “my way or the highway.”) Over time, groups subject to this treatment by government are effectively ostracized and their influence neutralized.
 
Silencing: Ostracized groups may still be able to make their voices heard. For this reason, one can expect a strategy of further silencing or de-platforming these challengers. There are a variety of direct and indirect approaches. In post-truth, post-democratic England, silencing was accomplished in the case of conservative activist, Tommy Robinson, by denying him a lawyer and the media the right to report on his case and charging him and sending him directly to jail.
 
A variety of indirect means are also currently being used throughout the West by the powers that be. Conservative citizen journalists are being silenced daily by social media giants (Think Facebook, Google, YouTube). These corporate powers now brazenly employ such methods as censure (in the form of warnings to citizen journalists), direct banning of certain Website content, shadow banning, demonetization, censorship, and search suppression. It works to the extent that some independent on-line citizen journalists are already self-censoring. And with this approach, the Corporatocracy does Big Brother’s dirty work for him. The usual pretexts are the oft-stated need to eliminate or control the imagined scourge of “fake news” and the need to protect minorities against “hate speech.”
 
Not one of these four “S” Orwellian post –democracy strategies will come as a surprise to Canadian patriots or truly independent citizen journalists. These methods define the new Orwellian normal. I can only add, be prepared, there’s more to come.  
 
Summing up, an ideologically-driven Emperor has come to power and imposed a divisive George Soros brand of neoliberal identitarian politics on Canukaland. The deconstruction of Canadian society as we know it is now well underway. Most of the manufactured tensions that are tearing American society apart at the seams are now at work in Canada.
 
Modern day equivalents of the outspoken child who exposed a naked emperor in the  Hans Christian Andersen tale, have appeared. They are shredding the doctrine of third wave feminism and bringing some sunlight to bear on identitarian politics. Jordan Peterson’s stand is exemplar as it has fostered something of a political awakening and reinvigorated the resistance. It can’t stop here, however. To truth-tellers everywhere I say this is your call to arms. The lie of the Emperor’s “Sunny Ways” slogan notwithstanding, we shall, with God’s help, overcome.
 
Endnotes:
1 Bonokoski: Trudeau’s trade deal with China turns into an embarrassment, Toronto Sun, December 5, 2017, http://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/trudeaus-trade-deal-with-china-turns-into-an-embarrassment
 
2 Small business tax backlash tops agenda for Liberal caucus retreat, CTV News, November 4, 2017, https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/small-business-tax-backlash-tops-agenda-for-liberal-caucus-retreat-1.3575126
 
3 Trudeau ‘sorry’ for violating conflict of interest laws with visit to Aga Khan’s island, CBC News, December 20, 2017,http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-ethics-aga-khan-1.4458220
 
4 Finance minister, Bill Morneau waited 2 years to disclose company that owns his French villa to ethics watchdog, CBC, October 13, 2017, http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/morneau-company-france-ethics-1.4351933
 
5 Trudeau has himself to blame for disastrous India trip, Hamilton Spectator, February 23, 2018, https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/8149797-trudeau-has-himself-to-blame-for-disastrous-india-trip/
 
6 Toronto professor. Jordan Peterson takes on gender-neutral pronouns, BBC News, November 4, 2016, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37875695
 
7 Watch: Fire me, fine me, jail me. I won’t back down to speech police, says U of T professor, LifeSiteNews, October 28, 2016, https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/watch-fire-me-fine-me-jail-me.-i-wont-back-down-to-speech-police-says-u-of
 
8 Watch Jordan Peterson react to Justin Trudeau’s teliing a woman to say ‘Peoplekind,’ The Steam, February 7, 2018, https://stream.org/watch-jordan-peterson-react-justin-trudeaus-telling-woman-say-peoplekind/
 
9 The curious star appeal of Jordan Peterson, https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/the-curious-star-appeal-of-jordan-peterson/
 
10 Watch: Cathy Newman’s catastrophic interview with Jordan Peterson, The Spectator, January 17, 2018, 
https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/watch-cathy-newmans-catastrophic-interview-with-jordan-peterson/
 
11 Barri Weiss and the Left-Wing infatuation with taking offence, The Atlantic, February 17, 2017, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/bari-weiss-immigrants/553550/?utm_source=feed

(c) Futurescapes21C 2018, All rights reserved

Truth-tellers, Court Jesters and an Emperor’s Wardrobe Malfunction (Part A)

Truth-tellers, Court Jesters and An Emperor’s Wardrobe Malfunction – Part A

Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C, April 7, 2018 All rights reserved


Once upon a time…
When I was a small child growing up on the farm in the fifties, and it was time for bed, my parents had two sources of bedtime readings. One was a “best of” compilation of iconic bible stories and the other a treasury of classic folk tales. This was my introduction to the Hans Christian Andersen fable, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” 1
 
Over the course of my youth and lengthy career, my influences and inspiration have come from an eclectic mix of the mythical and the real, the living and the dead. The nameless boy in the crowd in the Andersen tale stands tall among my heroes. In fact, my appreciation for his role in awakening a town to the nakedness of their vain emperor has continued to grow over the years. 
 
Wikipedia captures the essential elements of this instructive 1837 Andersen fable. 
 
A vain emperor who cares about nothing except wearing and displaying clothes hires two weavers who promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is either unfit for his position or “hopelessly stupid”. The emperor’s minister cannot see the clothes themselves, but pretend that they can for fear of appearing unfit for their positions, and the emperor does the same. Finally, the weavers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him, and the emperor marches in procession before his subjects. 
 
The townsfolk play along with the pretense, not wanting to appear unfit for their positions or stupid. Then, a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all, and the cry is taken up by others. The emperor suspects the assertion is true but continues the procession.2
 
 A strange, long term kinship
The essence of a good fable is that its value, like that of gold and wisdom, endures. The best fables come to life and inspire. This one certainly had that effect on me. This mythical kid’s influence has been life-changing. I often wondered about the fate of this outspoken truth-teller in my adult years. After he was hustled home from the public square by his mother and father that day, what happened? Did his parents reward his honesty with a pat on the back or some serious paddling on another part of his anatomy?
 
It’s not a trivial matter. Let’s pretend for the moment that such an event, involving real life characters, actually occurred. An affirming pat on the back and “thanks, son” could have inspired a life of bold truth-telling. The lad could have grown into a young man with an unshakable commitment to reason and courageous truth-telling. Harsh punishment followed by days of lecturing about the importance of conforming to official pretence would have encouraged a different response and pathway. The young man might well have concluded that self-deception and equivocation would be a far safer approach.
 
I’ve secretly hoped that the parents wisely encouraged their son’s honesty despite their initial nervous embarrassment. Perhaps I needed that outcome. Over the course of a forty-year plus career, one needs well-anchored mentors with their eyes clearly fixed on the horizon in order to resist dangerous tides. Without them, we are likely to become disoriented and drift. When the clamour of the crowd engulfs us, the voice of wisdom recedes and then we are unable to resist even a self-imposed delusion?
 
The thought of what might have happened were it not for the kid’s outburst that day is troubling. The emboldened scam artists would have continued to pursue more outrageous cons. The emperor’s insecure advisors would have continued to enable the scam. The Emperor’s vanity would have kept him a captive of an illusion perhaps leading to a descent into a fantastical never-never land. And the enthralled towns folk would have remained obedient prisoners of state-promoted delusions. Meanwhile, the real business of the kingdom would have suffered from neglect leading to further social and economic decline. In short, bold truth- telling averted catastrophe.
 
So, I shamelessly drew upon this mythical example of uncomplicated, objective truth-telling throughout my consulting career as an analyst and futurist. Ultimately, it’s probably the most important contribution a consultant can bring to organizational analysis, planning, decision-making and strategy development. And there can be any number of occasions when it’s of vital importance. Managers are vulnerable to organizational group think disguised as virtue and myth-making. It was on such occasions that I summoned the spirit of the Emperor’s nemesis.
 
Candidly, my record was mixed. There were occasions when, still smarting from my last experience as an unwelcome messenger, I relented. Concerns were understated or placed in a lowly footnote. There were certainly times I yielded to the old maxim concerning the need to choose carefully the figurative “hill” that I was prepared to “die” on. And there were times I deferred to the feel good call for team solidarity. 
 
There were other occasions, however when I deliberately ignored the pressure and the temptation to “tell ‘em what they wanta hear.” I insisted on presenting a “warts and all” analysis and let the proverbial chips fall where they may. Despite its claims to the contrary, there are times management reveals a distinct lack of appetite for harsh truths. And there are times when organizational cultures, corrupted with the virus of political correctness fall prey to dishonesty. Employees are urged to “keep things positive.” My overarching philosophy was a commitment to tough love. Why should those paid the highest salaries and granted the most influence need to be protected from unpleasant realities? They are adults and dare to call themselves leaders. So they should be expected to resist the lure of the latest idol and lead. Sometimes, telling truth to power means overcoming the apprehension of colleagues. On at least one occasion, I recall being encouraged by colleagues to “dampen down” my analysis as management wasn’t prepared for so quite so much reality.
 
The decline of the court Jester 
The mythical lone boy in the crowd is an archetype of the court Jester, or fool, a role whose importance is vastly underestimated in today’s political establishment. More than sixty years after first hearing the Andersen tale, my desire to “keep it real” hasn’t abated. If anything, my sense of calling as it relates to exposing the deceptions of our time has strengthened. Perhaps it’s a reflection of family history or it’s in my genetic heritage. 
 
There’s some evidence that in the ninth century, our family served as bards in ancient Ireland. I don’t know if their duties encompassed the provocative duties of court jester, but I’m happy to ponder the possibility. Perhaps that job requirement was encompassed with a footnote at the bottom of the job description, “including other duties as assigned.”
 
Here’s some background on the ancient role of the European court jester.
 
An individual court jester in Europe could emerge from a wide range of backgrounds: an erudite but nonconformist university dropout, a monk thrown out of a priory for nun frolics, a jongleur with exceptional verbal or physical dexterity, or the apprentice of a village blacksmith whose fooling amused a passing nobleman. Just as a modern-day television stand-up comedian might begin his career on the pub and club circuit, so a would-be jester could make it big time in court if he was lucky enough to be spotted. In addition, a poet, musician, or scholar could also become a court jester.

The recruiting of jesters was tremendously informal and meritocratic, perhaps indicating greater mobility and fluidity in past society than is often supposed.
 
Court Jesters in Russia were accorded an essential freedom according to this account. 
 
A man with the right qualifications might be found anywhere: in Russia “they were generally selected from among the older and uglier of the serf-servants, and the older the fool or she-fool was, the droller they were supposed and expected to be. The fool had the right to sit at table with his master, and say whatever came into his head.”3
 
That was then, this is now, and I can’t help but wonder where all the jesters have gone.  I’m talking about those dedicated and courageous enough to expose deception, fakery and dangerous royal illusions. Some readers are likely to counter that they are alive and well in the media and entertainment sectors and in opposition party politics. That too is an illusion.

You see, the fourth estate was declawed and neutered decades ago.4 Yes, a few brave comics risk their careers and program sponsors and skewer the powers that be. But Hollywood is suspect, largely because of its willingness to serve as a propaganda machine.5 What about political opposition parties? It’s not uncommon today to find more commonalities than differences in policy positions between the two main political parties that take turns governing Canada and the US. Critics in the US note that for decades until now at least, voting Democrat or Republican made little difference in terms of foreign policy. In this regard, establishment Democrats and the GOP blend into a single political entity, a Neocon-inspired “war party.”6
 
Today the role of genuinely critiquing the Emperor or the political establishment largely falls to a brave few independent analysts and independent and citizen journalists in the alternative media. And it’s limited to only those who aren’t afraid of offending Twitter, YouTube or its advertisers. Their courage notwithstanding, the risk of digital censorship, hangs like a sword over their heads.7
 
The emperor lives
As I’ve said, the more memorable fables are timeless. One hundred and eighty one years after it was published, Andersen’s tale can be easily applied to our current social-political context. It seems that our society is in the midst of a dangerous descent into a valley of dark untruth.  Author Ralph Keyes’s 2004 book, The Post Truth Era described the trajectory of our drift more than a decade ago. He described an era characterized by dishonesty and deception. He goes farther and warns of the risks inherent in this path.
 
Post truthfulness builds a fragile social edifice based on wariness. It erodes the foundation of truth that underlies any healthy civilization. When enough of us people peddle fantasy as fact, society loses its grounding in reality, Society would crumble altogether if we assumed others were as likely to dissemble as tell the truth. 
 
Keye’s continues: We are perilously close to that point.8 

Fourteen years later, this analysis is about as sobering and prescient as it comes.
 
There are other parallels between Andersen’s fable and our current post-truth society. Most, if not all of the key characters are present. We live in an era of irrepressible political con men (some masking as PR consultants) keen to exploit the baser instincts of those governing us. Spineless political operatives and bureaucracy-dwelling yes-men and women are legend. We have our share of vain emperors and empresses (called Prime Minister, President or Chancellor) intent on imposing their reified delusion on their unsuspecting subjects. And, the sheeple remain every bit as suggestible to the imaginings of their emperor as those in the fable, if not more so. What about courageous truth tellers? Until recently, I was doubtful that there were any suitable representatives of this figure. But I’ve changed my mind on that score in the last year.
 
A version of the Andersen fable is playing out in real time in Canuckaland (Canada) under the reign of Emperor/Prime Minister Selfieous. I imagine a scene in 2015 when the PM was outfitted with his metaphoric political attire following his electoral victory. Picture a small group from the PM’s inner circle including two of his key advisors and his tailor assembled in a room at 24 Sussex Drive for the occasion.
 
The room is abuzz with excitement. PM Selfieous commissioned his two key advisors (“Bee” and “Tee”) to search out a reliable supplier of Prime Ministerial political attire. Bee and Tee have returned from their mission with a rack of suits and a rack of casual attire for the PM’s consideration.
 
Now, it’s time for an unveiling. The PM’s tailor rolls a rack of rather expensive looking suits and casual wear into the room. The PM is clearly excited as he strongly believes that 21st century politics is 95% optics and 5% policy substance. “The stage” may have been the thing in Shakespeare’s day; today it’s the costume. 
 
PM Selfeous: Whoaa …so what have you got to show me?
 
Advisor Tee:  Well, Prime Minister… Hmmm…“Prime Minister”… that sounds good doesn’t it…
I think you’re going to be very impressed with what we have to show you. We are going to present the very latest in PM attire styled exclusively for you by the House of Rothschild. It’s crafted from their Soros Globalist line of Neoliberal Identity Politics.
 
PM Selfeous: Alright…. tell me more.
 
Advisor Bee: These items are made from a high performance synthetic fabrics indistinguishable from older natural fabrics. House of Rothschild clothing is stylish, highly functional and extremely durable.
 
PM Selfeous: I see, but what what do you mean by, uh… “highly functional”?
 
Advisor Tee: Well PM… on the one hand these fabrics are capable of repelling even the strongest political critique coming from opponents…
 
Advisor Bee:  ….and when it comes to deflecting controversy, let’s say, at the risk of sounding old school, they are seriously “teflon-like”… you will be nearly bullet proof. 
 
PM Selfeous: I like the sound of that.
 
Advisor Tee: … and, as you can see, these fabrics are also very eye-catching, in part because of their reflective sheen. So this makes them highly conducive to virtue-signalling and dog whistle communication with select special interest groups… like your feminists, Islamists, LGBT++ activists, and aboriginal constituents, for example. 
 
These fabrics also are highly resistant to any charges of employing doublespeak that may be levelled at you by dissenters. 
 
PM Selfeous: Really?…that’s amazing. Give me a few minutes. I’m going to try some of these  on.
 
Advisor Tee: Sure. Let’s let our tailor do her work.
 
Advisor Bee: The applications vary with the particular constituents of course, but ultimately this kind of political apparel confers a high degree of moral superiority with a social justice vibe. Any Evangelical Christians and traditionalists challenging our progressive programs will  come off sounding positively primordial by comparison. This means that they can be easily be discounted and quickly side-lined in any political debate.
 
PM Selfeous: Admiring himself in the mirror. This is uh, uh…almost too good to be true. Are you sure?
 
Advisor Tee: You can bank on it PM…the manufacturer tells us that this is the most advanced political attire on the planet. The fabric has only been made available to a very select clientele. And, in a country like this, this clothing will be comfortable irrespective of the political climate rain, snow or sunshine.
 
PM Selfeous: I’m impressed.
 
Advisor Tee: There’s one more surprise feature. If you look closely, you can see the jackets and pants have breakaway panels, allowing for super quick wardrobe changes.
 
So, let’s say you’re meeting with a group of manufacturers at 10:00 am and then rushing to a meeting with your multicultural advisory committee at 12:00 noon. You can easily change from bespoke suit to casual pants and jacket in a matter of seconds. You’ll be every bit as much of a quick change artist as  theatre performers and Hollywood actors.
 
PM Selfeous: Anything else?
 
Advisor Bee: Let’s just say that you will be Canada’s first PM to wear a fully weaponized political wardrobe.
 
PM Selfeous That’s fantastic. Good work Tee and Bee. I’m going to get our tailor to do some adjustments on some of suits so we can have them ready to wear next week.
 
And, let’s have my media advisor set up my calendar of public appearances so I can uh… test drive these babies. I don’t know if you thought about it, but this wardrobe is going to complement our Sunny Ways theme very nicely.
 
Advisor Bee: Consider it done, Prime Minister.
 
PM Selfeous: Thanks… job well done.
 
Two weeks later, PM Selfeous proudly showcases his corps of new MPs with a triumphant Sunny Ways-themed walk to Parliament Hill. It’s a glorious day and he is looking resplendent in his Identity Politics power suit selected for the occasion.  
 
In subsequent weeks and months, the PM and his photogenic family are celebrated in a variety of glossy magazine puff pieces. It’s magical. Mesmerized fans bask in the reflected splendor of their beloved leader’s fame. His Liberal backers and political advisors ponder the dizzying possibility of securing a lock on power. From the vantage point of PM’s office on the Hill, the political landscape in Canuckaland never looked better.
 
Endnotes:
1 The Emperor’s New Clothes, a translation by jean hersholt, The Hans Christian Andersen Centre, http://andersen.sdu.dk/vaerk/hersholt/TheEmperorsNewClothes_e.html
 
2 The Emperor’s New Clothes, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_New_Clothes
 
3 Fooling around the world: The history of the jester, Fools are everywhere, Beatrice K. Otto, http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/640914.html
 
4 The CIA and the Media: 50 facts the world needs to know, 21st Century wire, September 10, 2015, http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/09/10/the-cia-and-the-media-50-facts-the-world-needs-to-know/
 
5 Why Hollywood war propaganda like ‘American Sniper’ is so effective, Carey Wedler, Anti-Media, January 26, 2015, http://theantimedia.com/hollywood-war-propaganda-like-american-sniper-effective/
 
6 The war party marches on. Chuck Baldwin, Russia Insider, The Daily Coin, October 30, 2017,  https://thedailycoin.org/2017/10/30/war-party-marches/ 

7 Censorship archives, 21st century wife, (January 13, 2018 to December 14, 2010, http://21stcenturywire.com/tag/censorship/
 
8 The Post-Truth Era: Honesty and Deception in contemporary life, Ralph Keyes, Saint Martin’s Press, 2004, Amazon, https://www.amazon.com/Post-Truth-Era-Dishonesty-Deception-Contemporary/dp/0312306482
 
 To be continued….(c) Futurescapes21C, 2018. All rights reserved 

Confronting Godzilla (The Corporatocracy) (Part B)

CONFRONTING GODZILLA (CORPORATOCRACY) — PART B

Confronting Godzilla (Corporatocracy)  – Part B
Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C,

Original written October 2, 2017 rev, Oct 3-17, Posted February 5, 2018. All rights reserved

“Governments come and go, candidates come and go, and political movements come and go, but the Corporatocracy remains in charge.” – Charles Smith1
 
In Part A, we examined the birth and growth of the corporatocracy and the means of its conquest of government. It also revealed the enabling role that governments themselves play in the invasion of corporatocracy and the latter’s darker tendencies. But we have yet to consider the depths of the corporatocracy’s lust for power and destructive capabilities. One needs a greater understanding of how the criminality of corporatocracies endangers citizens, customers, employees, organizations and the world before taking them on. And only when that understanding in turn generates sufficient outrage to mobilize an informed resistance, is there any chance of countering the creature I’ve dubbed “Godzilla.”  
 
The implications of the corporate coup described earlier have been enormous. Author, Marianne Williamson contends that the result of corporate totalitarianism is “total control by corporate interests.” And she explains what the alarming consequences of “total control” are.
 
If they want a war, they get a war. If they want GMOs, they get GMOs. If they want fracking, they get fracking. If they want big banks to control our monetary policy, big banks control our monetary policy. If they want a tax break, they get a tax break. If they want the TPP, they get the TPP. If they want to deregulate to the point of complete irresponsibility to our children and to the earth, they deregulate as much as they care to. And if they see a way to profit from the vulnerability of the old, the disadvantaged, the poor, the young, or the sick, then they are given the right to do so. 2
 
If Williamson has it right, total control predictably degrades into something else. As the maxim goes, Absolute power corrupts absolutely.3 And there’s certainly no shortage of evidence that many of the best known of the transnational corporations (TNCs), the real super powers of the 21st century, are chronically corrupted.  
 
The Hall of Shame (HOS) — Corporate corruption and criminality
Corruption and abuses of power take many forms. Author, Robert Gore charges that large corporations, with the cooperation of the government, routinely abuse the public trust and skirt the law. It’s one thing to be found guilty of one-time ethical lapses or errors in judgment. A pattern of continuing and systematic corporate deceit, bullying cheating and abuse of the public trust is a sign of something else, however. It points to a soul sickness, a corrupted culture with a criminal predisposition. So, to be clear, Gore isn’t talking about isolated instances then; he’s talking about a modus operandi, a way of doing business. He describes it this way:
 
In the quiet obscurity they relish, regulators and regulated get down to doing what they do best: bending the law to their joint benefit. Business, whose P&L’s can be powerfully affected by regulations, hire armies of lobbyists and lawyers in a never ending effort to tilt the playing field in their direction, and improve bottom lines, stock prices, and executive bonuses. The return on such investment is far higher than on old fashioned expenditures like research and development, plant and equipment, and job-creating expansion.4
 
Graham Verbergen’s criticisms of the corporatocracy are no less serious. Verbergen cites rampant banking criminality (fraud, rate rigging, insider dealing and money laundering); epic financial crimes monumental tax evasion, industrial scale ecological damage and endless illegal wars.5 In response, I propose the creation of a Hall of Shame where miscreants (of either corporate or government parentage) can be recognized for their crimes and abuses of the public interest.
 
Undoubtedly, I will be accused of being subjective and arbitrary, so in the case of individual organizations, I invite the reader to apply an important test of integrity. It’s simply this: Did the company act in ways consistent with its stated values and vision? Did it, in effect, walk its talk? Beautifully crafted mission and values statements can be uplifting to read and at the same time, disarming. But they are not enough. The high moral tone and stated commitments are  only meaningful when borne out in corporate policies and practices day to day, in what is both seen and unseen by the public eye.

Finally, one can only view this research as exposing the surface of something much bigger and more complex. It is merely illustrative of a growing, dangerous and powerful phenomenon intent on remaking the government-corporate relationship in its own image. It’s course will not be easily reversed.
 
Big Finance
I alluded earlier to Matt Taibbi’s indictment of Goldman Sachs (“the squid”) itself worthy of a Hall of Fame nomination. In 2012, he provided his assessment of the record of the Bank of America. Here Taibbi provides sufficient bases for nominating on the B of A for Hall of Shame recognition. (Rolling Stone, March 14, 2012) 
 
In sum, Bank of America torched dozens of institutional investors with billions in worthless loans, repeatedly refused to abide by contractual obligations to buy them back, evaded hundreds of millions in local fees and taxes, pushed tens of thousands of people into foreclosure using phoney documents, ignored multiple court orders to stop its illegal robo-signing, and exploited President Obama’s signature mortgage-relief program. The bank fixed the bids on bonds for schools and cities and utilities all over America, and even conspired to try to game the game itself – by fixing global interest rates! 6
 
Consider that one of Bank of America’s values or guiding principles is: Act responsibly. This is explained as follows:
 
We believe that integrity and the disciplined management of risk form the foundation of our business. We are aware that our decisions and actions affect people’s lives every day. We strive for decisions that are clear, fair, and grounded in the principles of shared success, responsible citizenship, and community building.7
 
It sounds reassuring – disarmingly so, doesn’t it? But the question must be asked, “What does Taibbi’s indictment tells us about the banks commitment to act responsibly?
 
My next nominee is HSBC. A Reuters headline reads: HSBC to pay $1.9 billion U.S. fine in money laundering case. In terms of background, HSBC Holdings Plc agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion in fines to U.S. authorities for allowing itself to be used to launder a flood of drug money flowing out of Mexico and for other abuses. The US Treasury Department said that Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and Colombia’s Norte del Valle cartel combined were able to launder $881 million through HSBC and a Mexican unit. Rolling Stone notes that despite the monstrous criminality involved, not one executive paid a single dollar or spent a single day in jail.8 9  It’s time for the HSBC values test.
 
Stated HSBC values: We believe in acting with courageous integrity (This statement is broken down into three elements: “dependable, open to different ideas and cultures, and connected to customers, communities, regulators and each other.”)10
 
Well’s Fargo has also earned Hall of Shame nomination honours. Rated the world’s second largest bank by market capitalization, the bank is reported to have charged 500,000 customers for auto insurance they didn’t need or ask for. Last year it admitted to creating 2.1 million unwanted customer accounts without customer consent. It seems that the actual number of fake accounts is 3.5 million. The part that frustrates affected customers is that while the bank has paid fines, no member of the executive has been held accountable. A coalition of 33 groups is demanding new Congressional hearings to hold the company accountable.11
 
Wells Fargo’s values statement is particularly pertinent. Would it surprise you to learn that one of Wells Fargo’s core values is: Ethics — What’s right for customers. The statement reads, “Honesty, trust, and integrity are essential for meeting the highest standards of corporate governance.”12
 
As I noted earlier, this writing represents just a sampling of corporate misdeeds in selected sectors. A thorough evaluation of the entire Big Finance sector is likely to find an entrenched criminal predisposition. And its record is more than sufficient to justify an industry nomination to the Hall of Shame for Big Finance.
 
Big Pharma
Big Pharma is a strong contender for Hall of Shame honours. Consider that Delaware County, the SE Pennsylvania constituting some of Philadelphia’s western suburbs filed a lawsuit on September 21, 2017 against 11 pharmaceutical companies “regarding the overwhelming opioid epidemic…” The County’s law firm filed the suite against the companies and medical doctors who advised the companies regarding misinformation provided by the drug makers to physicians and others. Delaware’s attorney says the lawsuit will show Big Pharma funded companies which created disinformation to hoodwink and convince doctors that opioids weren’t addictive. In the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem, township leaders are working on filing a “huge” civil lawsuit against four pharma companies. Nuisance, fraud, negligence and breach of contract will be some of the charges filed.13
 
It appears that a Hall of Shame nomination for Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, is overdue. The company was caught illegally marketing Bextra, a pain killer taken off the market in 2005 because of safety concerns. In short, promoting drugs for unapproved uses or “off-label” promotion is against the law. Internal company documents reveal that Pfizer and Pharmacia used “a multi-million dollar medical education budget to pay hundreds of doctors as speakers and consultants to tout Bextra.”1Integrity is one of Pfizer’s core values. In Pfizer’s words, We demand of ourselves and others the highest ethical standards, and our products and processes will be of the highest quality.15
 
Joachim Hagopian, former clinical psychologist and mental health therapist, describes the distinction that sets Big Pharma apart from its counterparts in the constellation of super power industries in the US. The distinction is it outspends all others on lobbying to keep government (and parliaments) and its US federal regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on side. Between 1998 and 2013, it’s reported the industry poured  $2.7 billion into its lobbying activity. That’s 42% more than the next biggest spender, the insurance industry.  
 
It takes a lot of lobbying to cover over Big Pharma’s crimes and abuses of the public interest. Hagopian’s list of abuses, a lengthy one, more than qualifies its for an industry nomination.

  • suppressing promising cures for cancer, AIDS and other terminal illnesses;
  • squelching knowledge regarding low cost natural treatments or medications;
  • marketing of medications with severe side effects that injure and kill;
  • turning millions of its customers/patients into addicted hard core drug users;
  • making medical errors that kill nearly a quarter million annually;
  • recklessly endangering children and pregnant women with toxic levels of mercury contributing to brain damage and death;
  • dictating what is being taught in North American medical schools (several years ago, medical students and faculty at Harvard revolted.)
  • buying off US politicians;
  • targeting vulnerable segments of the population with “invented” health conditions (“disease mongering”);
  • repackaging and rebranding old meds at higher prices (e.g rebranding Prozac as Serafem);
  • taking over the FDA.

 Hagopian’s conclusion is that big pharma is a criminal racket.16
 
Big Ag and Food
Big Ag and Food has also produced some serious contenders for Hall of Shame recognition. Monsanto may be in a class by itself. Its notoriety is such that it has inspired an annual public March Against Monsanto 17around the world for the last five years. Its performance also inspired the establishment of an international tribunal, described as an “international society initiative” to hold the company accountable for human rights and environmental abuses. Judges heard testimonies from victims and experts and rendered a decision in the Hague on April 18, 2017. The tribunal concluded:
 
Monsanto’s activities have a negative impact on basic human rights. Besides, better regulations are needed to protect the victims of multinational corporations. Eventually, international law should be improved for better protection of the environment and include the crime of ecocide.1
 
While Monsanto supporters sneered at the exercise and its findings, accusations of corporate bad behaviour are many and frequent. Colin Todhunter alleges in Soil, Monsanto and the Agribusiness Giants that the history of Monsanto and a Big Ag peer demonstrates a pattern of bribery, smear campaigns, faking data, co-opting agencies and key figures, subverting science and other abuses.19
 
Space limitations mean that I must restrict this look at Monsanto’s candidacy to a couple incidents. In September 2012, Food and Chemical Technology (FCT) journal published a study conducted by G. E. Seralini. It found that rats fed Monsanto’s GM corn small doses of Round-Up herbicide and corn soaked in its pesticide Round-Up developed liver and kidney toxicity and tumours. Monsanto set out behind the scenes to secure retraction of the study. In 2013, following the appointment of a former Monsanto scientist to the editorial board and following what was described as a “non-transparent review process by unknown individuals,” the journal’s editor retracted the study.
 
Internal Monsanto emails subsequently revealed the furtive efforts by Monsanto to have the study retracted, including leveraging an employee’s relationship with the editor of the journal. It did this while feigning complete independence from the process.20 This is the kind of behind-the-curtain manipulation that has helped Monsanto earn the on-line title of world’s most hated corporation on more than one occasion.
 
More recently, the agribusiness giant went to battle with the state of California. The issue is the finding by the International Agency for Research on Cancer that glyphosate used in it best-selling herbicide, Round-Up, is carcinogenic. Under Proposition 65, the State of California is required to list those substances identified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). Monsanto argued that adding glyphosate to the state list based on the World Health Organization’s decision was unconstitutional.21
 
The courts have given the public a rare glimpse of Monsanto’s behind-the-curtain machinations to discredit unfavourable analysis and criticism. Take some time to review The Monsanto Papers: MDL, Glyphosate, cancer case, documents and analysis. It is very revealing when it comes to exposing the lengths Monsanto is prepared to go to keep the cracking veneer on its image intact. The introduction to the site in itself suggests how difficult this task is. It reads in part:
 
More than 250 lawsuits are pending against Monsanto Co. in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, filed by people alleging that exposure to Roundup herbicide caused them or their loved ones to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and that Monsanto covered up the risks. … Additionally, at least 1,100 plaintiffs have made similar claims against Monsanto in state courts.22
 
To get a better sense of how Monsanto operates, you could start with a couple interesting articles posted at the site including: Monsanto was its own ghostwriter for some safety reviews. The subtitle explains: Academic papers vindicating its Roundup herbicide were written with the help of its employees. The story, Why Forbes deleted some Kavin Senapathy articles is equally interesting. Overall, the court-driven exposure of the Monsanto Papers provides unique insights into the behind-the-curtain fakery Monsanto is famous for. Do you understand it plays the game? It’s basically about manipulating people and regulatory institutions and buying fake advocacy from so-called experts prepared to pimp their credentials on behalf of the company while feigning independence.  For more on the dubious history of Monsanto, see: The complete history of the world’s most evil corporation.23
 
And now the Monsanto values test…
 
Stated Monsanto values: Integrity, respect, and transparency are core values, and acting as good corporate citizens in each country where we operate is at the foundation of our work.24
 
So, is what integrity, respect and transparency look like? If that’s your philosophic foundation, it is apparent that your organizations has wondered far from it. 
 
Another ill-behaved member of the Big Ag family has also been making headlines. According to an article by D. Steve Pieczenik (MD), Mosaic Mines of Minnesota has earned a figurative nomination for its performance in the category of gross mismanagement of natural resources. Legal actions taken against the company are revealing. Mosaic Mines is required to pay a $2 billion penalty to settle a federal lawsuit in order to clean up hazardous waste in six Florida and two Louisiana sites. The EPA has accused Mosaic of “improper storage and disposal of waste from the production of phosphoric and sulfuric acids, key components of fertilizers at Mosaic facilities in Bartow, New Wales, Mulberry, Riverview, South Pierce and Green Bay in Florida and two sites in Louisiana”.
 
An outraged Pieczenik reports that, as a result, desperate homeowners have been forced to take action in an effort to preserve their life and health.
 
Central Florida homeowners have sued over TOXIC RADIATION. The Lanier Law Firm has filed a class-action Lawsuit on behalf of the homeowners of Central Florida, charging that operations of phosphate mines failed to warn them about dangerously high levels of radiation” [Dr. Terry Brant, MD,JD]. There is clear evidence from scientists, environmentalists, physicians that the poor inhabitants of various Florida counties were exposed to such toxic contaminants that they developed all types of cancers, goiters, genetic malformation and specifically increased cancers in children.
 
Pieczenik suggests Mosaic’s conduct meets the Patriot Act definition of a terrorist and labels the company an American Corporate Terrorist. Pieczenik’s is equally outraged by the seeming indifference of Minnesota Senators Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar. It’s axiomatic that a corporatocracy thrives when both the citizen-government and government-corporatocracy links in the chain of accountability fail. This case is a classic illustration of the pathology of a corporatocracy.25 I’ll have more to say about the Big Ag fraternity later in this chapter.
 
Big Telecoms and Big Info Search
The new stars of the corporate super power universe are the big telecoms like Apple and Facebook and information search giant, Google. These companies and their peers occupy the position of corporate oligarchs in the global communications universe. So, it’s deeply troubling when Facebook or Google for example is found to be tilting the playing field or table in favour of the politics du jour, something I described in Part A of this chapter.
 
Tony Cartalucci outlines his concerns with state-sanctioned censorship under the guise of fighting “fake news” in an article entitled: “The West’s war on free speech”. Facebook installed its fact-checking tool before the Dutch election in March and the first round of the French presidential election in April. It also removed 30,000 accounts in France that had shared fake news. Cartalucci contends that if foreign government-linked tech companies were purging tens of thousands of accounts before elections, in Thailand or Russia for example, Western media would be shouting “censorship.”
 
As explained in the New York Times article, the filtering system will compare the content in question to the content of a database of “verified articles.” Carlucci sums up the problem this way. In other words, “fake news” is determined by comparing it directly to narratives presented by establishment media platforms like the New York Times, the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and others who have notorious track records of “serial deception, false reporting, and even war propagandizing.”
 
Nowhere does the New York Times explain how these “verified articles” have been determined to be factually accurate, and instead, it appears that all these algorithms are doing is ensuring all media falls in line with Western narratives.
 
If media in question coincides with Western-dominated media platforms, it is given a pass – if not, it is slated for expunging…26
 
Once again, Big Brother happily partners with corporate oligarchs to shape our reality as they see fit. Aren’t you relieved to know that the foxes will be guarding the chickens once again. It’s classic Orwellian 1984 redux. As to its core values, the closest Facebook’s comes to an ethical principle is implied in build social value 27 while Google’s Value No. 6 reads:   

  • Do the right thing; don’t be evil (subsequently revised)
  • Honesty and integrity in all we do
  • Our business practices are beyond reproach
  • We make money by doing good things 28

 For their on-going efforts to curtail freedom of thought and expression, I am nominating Facebook and Google for joint Hall of Shame recognition.
 
Big Disease Management
Cronyism, rule bending and data fakery aren’t limited to private sector TNCs. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) has been accorded god-like status by corporate media when it comes to matters concerning disease control. And, with such status comes big responsibility to employees and the public. It appears that CDC scientists have, in effect, nominated their employer for an HOS award. One on-line headline reads: CDC – Scientists on the inside slam agency for selling out to corporate interests.29
 
On August 29, 2016, a group called SPIDER, an acronym that stands for CDC Scientists Preserving Integrity, Diligence and Ethics in Research, submitted a letter to the office of the Director of Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta). The letter listed a litany of lapses in professional conduct within their agency including efforts to hide unfavourable data from Congress. The letter also cited the cooking of data to make results look better than they are, suppression of findings from an internal review, attempts to obstruct an inquiry and the inappropriate ties of a staff member to Coca Cola and ILSI representatives. The authors added that they are often directed to do things they know are not right.30
 
And now for a look at CDC’s vision: To create a workplace environment that reflects diversity, inclusion and equity and that ensures (our) employees are valued, respected and supported in their efforts to accomplish the Agency’s public health mission.31
 
The text speaks directly to the matter of respect for employees and support for their work. And yet, CDC’s own scientists are protesting its unethical and unprofessional conduct.
 
At first glance, you may have wondered if the criticisms levied by Williamson, Gore and other critics of rapacious corporations and co-opted governments were overstated. I suggest that they don’t. In fact, this brief review and analysis understates the “iceberg” proportions of criminality of the corporatocracy.
 
So, it clearly remains the fashion of the day is to advertise your organization’s committment to transparency, integrity, fair play, respect, responsible corporate citizenship, world peace and the protection of puppies (satire). What is less clear is the how the leaders and organizations cited can justify the abandonment of their stated vision and values. Is it a case of defective or damaged corporate consciences? Or is it simply an implicit “understood” feature of their corporate cultures. How else can you justify subordinating the interests of customers, citizens, suppliers, the environment, and even their employees to the interests of shareholders, friends, investors, and top management?
 
These are not victimless crimes. We all pay for the crimes of the corporatocracy. Consider the implied costs in the oft-cited ability of the banksters to privatize profits while socializing risks. The next time you are tempted to give credence to a beautifully-crafted statement of corporate values, remember that the distance between values stated and values lived can be immense. So, as the Brits often say in a physical context, mind the gap.
 
I have a finishing touch for my Hall of Shame. It is a slogan to be prominently displayed over the entrance to these hallowed halls. It is one that I’ve borrowed from the world of professional league baseball, but couldn’t be more appropriate. It reads: If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’
 
Government as enabler and collaborator
One would have thought that by now, vigilante political leaders and governments would have awakened to the devastating outcomes of the corporate coup and set about reversing course. They haven’t. In fact, they remain willing collaborators and enablers. Governments themselves, in many ways, invite corporate abuses. Sometimes, it’s a matter of looking the other way or neglecting to enforce regulations. In the US political context, the government permits elected federal representatives to leverage revolving door careers.
 
In Washington, there is an established pattern wherein Congressional member leapfrog from government service to lucrative jobs in the global banking sector or other corporate sectors. Today’s Congressman or women with their store of insider knowledge is tomorrow’s high paid lobbyist working diligently to advance the interests of the X, Y or Z industry. Critics often cite the example of Monsanto’s chief lobbyist, Michael Taylor, who ping-ponged between Monsanto, the Food and Drug Administration where he served as Deputy Commissioner, and the USDA.32 Another example cited by critics is the career move of Monsanto’s corporate lawyer, Clarence Thomas, to the U.S. Supreme Court bench where he has presided over Monsanto cases on more than one occasion.33
 
Politically colonized and compromised governments in the US, UK and EU continue to surrender power to Godzilla. There’s a pattern of handing the chicken house keys over to the proverbial foxes. Christine Berry, principal director of Policy and Government with the New Economics Foundation laments the UK government’s surrender to corporate control. Like Ralph Nader, she points to the corporatocracy’s inversion of accountability. Berry offers some examples illustrative of how the public interest is being subordinated to those of big business.

Corporate lobbyists and trade associations have been given public money to ‘review’ how enforcement operates in their area – including a review of livestock farm inspections led by the National Farmers’ Union, and a review of imports of fresh produce led by the Fresh Produce Consortium.
 
Government departments seeking to introduce new rules must have estimates of the cost to business ‘validated’ by the Regulatory Policy Committee – an unelected body dominated by business interests whose members include an Alderman of the City of London Corporation and a chairman with extensive paid interests in the energy industry.
 
Whole areas of regulation have been taken out of the hands of independent watchdogs and replaced with ineffective voluntary schemes overseen by industry-dominated bodies – such as the ‘public health responsibility deal’, which has handed efforts to reduce salt and sugar in food to a group including Tesco, Mars and the Advertising Association.
 
Berry concludes: “This is the ultimate privatisation – that of policymaking itself. Just as with the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), democracy is being made accountable to corporations, rather than the other way around.” 34
 
American citizens have expressed growing concern regarding the excessive power and influence wielded by elites and large corporations. A January 2013 issue of HuffPost reported a Pew Research Center finding that 77 percent of Americans agreed that too much power is concentrated in the hands of a few rich people and large corporations. The same article reported the results of a poll by Time Magazine, indicating that 86 percent of Americans said Wall Street and its lobbyists have too much influence in Washington. It added that 80 percent of Americans spread across the political spectrum opposed Citizens United, the pro-corporate Supreme Court ruling.35  
 
And yet, despite public concerns, John Light of Moyers and Company reports on the quiet efforts to further weaken campaign financing rules in the August 3/17 issue of Truthout.
 
And so it is with the House’s appropriations bill, which includes riders that would further pare back campaign finance rules that have already been decimated over the last decade, in large part through Supreme Court decisions such as Citizens United and McCutcheon v. FEC.…
 
The riders attached to the appropriations bill take aim at how the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) enforce campaign finance law. 36
 
It should be clear by now that the towering TNCs and their friends in government can’t hear the voices of the Plebs. And if they can, they aren’t concerned about the reservations of citizens, British or American, regarding their growing influence over electoral politics or regulatory systems. The Godzillian Corporatocracy has even bigger things on its mind. World conquest isn’t beyond its imagination.  
 
In pursuit of global dominance
The corporatocracy’s fusion of geopolitics and geo-economics is what makes it the most devastating force threatening the worldIn 1935, Major General Smedley Butler warned in his book by the same name, that war is a racket. In his post-military life, his public reflections made it very clear that it was the corporatocracy that he had been serving.
 
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.37
 
The old axiom about the cost of failing to learn from history is borne out once again in our generation. It is as if, the world has never grasped the painful truth of Butler’s confession. The corporatocracy wage wars through a variety of means of course – some subtle and some not so subtle. John Perkins, a self-described former Economic Hit Man (EHM) offers a personal perspective on how the Corporatocracy wages economic wars in the international arena.
 
Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign “aid” organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet’s natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder.
 
Perkins, believes that the corporatocracy’s grip on the world today is even tighter today than it was during his days in its service in the 80’s. Look beneath the veneer of corporate responsibility and you’ll find a variety of covert schemes that characterize the “real globalization.”  
 
“…subterfuges range from money laundering and tax evasion in luxurious office suites to activities that amount to economic war crimes. Real globalization is based on a system of deception, extortion, and rampant violence—from IMF officers slashing education and health care programs to mercenaries defending European oil interests in Nigeria to executives financing warlords in Congo to secure supplies of coltan ore.38
 
My parents used to say, Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. The finger of shame now clearly points at America’s gullible citizenry. How many times has it bought into the lies justifying America’s foreign aggressions? No, these wars were never primarily about exporting democracy or providing humanitarian protection nor, in the vast majority of cases, even acts of self-defense. Godzilla had bigger things in mind. The US-backed Ukraine coup was a planned undertaking to fulfill the political and economic interests of the American Empire.3441
 
Freelance writer, Madonna Gauding described the dual motivations behind the Ukraine coup.
 
For some time, the U.S. has had Ukraine in its crosshairs with the intention of installing a corporate friendly government that would boost bottom lines, while serving to further isolate and weaken Russia. Toward that end, the Obama administration has spent $5 billion of your taxpayer money to fund a Ukrainian, anti-Russian opposition…
 
What is happening in Ukraine is not about supporting “freedom,” “independence,” or democracy.” It’s not about making the lives of the people in Ukraine better. It’s not about furthering world peace. It’s about making Ukraine another profit center for Wall Street.” 42
 
Freelance journalist, JP Sottile, states that the economic interests of giant corporations from Cargill to Chevron were behind the US-backed coup. According to Sottile, they viewed the country as a potential gold mine of profits from agricultural and energy exploitation.” He concludes:
 
In the end, the U.S. meddling in the affairs of Ukraine, its financing of a coup to overthrow a legitimately elected government, and its support of a neo-nazi regime in order to serve the interests of Cargill, Monsanto and Chevron, is yet another sordid, and dangerous, chapter in U.S. foreign policy. 43
 
Some observers see an ag tech element in Monsanto’s investment in the Ukraine s pointing to the fact that while the law of Ukraine forbade GMO production. Canadian freelance researcher/writer, Joyce Nelson quotes the president of the Ukrainian Grain Association Volodymyr Klymenko. In a Nov. 5 (2014) press conference in Kiev, Klymenko states that, “We could mull over this issue for a long time, but we, jointly with the [agricultural] associations, have signed two letters to change the law on biosecurity, in which we proposed the legalization of the use of GM seeds…”.4
 
Yes, the TNCs like Cargill, Dupont, Monsanto, John Deere and Chevron have all staked out their claims in the Ukraine, but the matter of how much of the wealth they generate will benefit average citizens of the Ukrainian or the country as a whole is an open question. Paul Craig Roberts, the former US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury believes that it’s a case of “Greece all over again.” In a March 2014 article entitled, The looting of the Ukraine has begun, Roberts points out that the 11 billion euros the Western media calls “aid” from the EU is really a loan. And one of the strings attached is an IMF austerity plan bringing cuts to services, education, layoffs and devaluation of the currency, thus raising the price of imports. Ukraine’s agricultural lands, he adds, will pass into the hands of American agribusiness.45
 
Jim Dean, managing editor of Veteran’s Today struck a similar tone in an August 3, 2016 article in the New Eastern Outlook.
 
Ukraine has joined the growing list of Western rape and pillage victims, intended victims or collateral damage ones under the guise of spreading freedom and democracy…like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen. The recent NATO meeting in Warsaw saw the lipstick being handed out as party favors in the continuing attempt to paint Ukraine’s problems on “Russian aggression”.46

If the critics have it right, the outlook for the Ukraine and its people is grim indeed. Candidly, it is now caught between the political rock and a hard place of competing global powers. It appears the country is likely to remain a sickly ward of the American Empire in a perpetual state of economic and political dependency. And its citizens are likely to suffer the interminable fate of the Greeks, living in the despair of poverty and perpetual government austerity.
 
Godzilla’s appetite is insatiable, and the Ukraine will not suffice. There must be new conquests. It looks like Venezuela is next, and the charge is being led by Exon-Mobil. (a global leader in the production and export of natural gas.)
 
The goal has both geopolitical and geo-economic dimensions aimed at forging a fundamental pillar of a new political, economic and financial configuration of the continent. 
 
… the U.S. oil company aims to make the Caribbean dependent on the United Sates both politically and in terms of energy by using its natural gas surplus while at the same time lining up its batteries against Petrocaribe to regain geopolitical control of its key maritime and commercial position, placing a barrier to stop Chinese and Russian capital from investing in areas not only in the energy sector but also infrastructure and transport. 47

Let’s not forget Afghanistan. Some observers may wonder why, after sixteen years, the US and its NATO partner aren’t yet ready to withdraw their troops. It’s because the corportocracy isn’t yet finished feeding on that country. Michael Chossudovsky at Global Research suggests the real reasons can be found in the Corporatocracy’s overlaid geopolitical and economic objectives. Chossudovsky describes the Empire’s geopolitical posturing and real motives. The publicly stated mandate of course is counter terrorism — pursuing the terrorists du jour — Taliban, Al Qaeda and ISIS. At the same time, one needs to keep in mind that the US covertly supports these groups.
 
Under the Afghan-US security pact, established under Obama’s Asian pivot, Washington and its NATO partners have established a permanent military presence in Afghanistan, with military facilities located within proximity of China’s Western frontier.  The pact was intended to allow the US to maintain their nine permanent military bases, strategically located on the borders of China, Pakistan and Iran as well as Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
 
This analysis lends some clarity to the geopolitical motivation behind bolstering the US presence is Afghanistan. The US has its sights firmly fixed on China and Iran in particular. Chossudovsky turns to the US’ multiple economic motives for negotiating a permanent presence in Afghanistan.
 
In addition to its vast mineral and gas reserves, Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the World’s supply of opium which is used to produce grade 4 heroin.
 
US military bases in Afghanistan are also intent upon protecting the multibillion narcotics trade. Narcotics, at present constitutes the centerpiece of Afghanistan’s export economy.
 
The heroin trade, instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979 and protected by the CIA, generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year.48
 
So, peel back the layers of PR-coated propaganda regarding its noble commitments to delivering democracy to the world and fighting terrorism and what do you have? It’s the naked self-interest of the American Empire. Fighting terrorism is a convenient pretext for invading and setting up camp in any region of the world, it should be clear why terrorism will never be defeated. For the Empire at least, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. General Smedley Butler must be tossing in his grave.
 
Confronting Godzilla
Our look into the dark nature and ambitions of corporatocracy reveals a deep-seated pathology. It’s one rooted in ruthless ambition, narcissism, greed and an insatiable desire for global control. As the saying goes however, power doesn’t cede power willingly. So we’re left with the question of how to re-capture Godzilla before it brings about complete planetary destruction. It’s time to face the monster.

Speaking out against a monster of his day, slavery, Frederick Douglass stated: “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”49 The central question of our time then is, how much are we prepared to endure? Some resistors focus attention on the failures in accountability inherent in Corporatocracy. Carolanne Wright, for example suggests that when it comes to sustainable development, two vital links, corporate accountability to the government and government accountability to the public, are broken. She suggests that until we have accountable governments, unrestrained corporations will on the environmental front, “pillage local economies and ecosystems”, stripping resources and selling them to the highest bidder. For Wright, Trump’s decision regarding Standing Rock confirms that the will of the people is meaningless.50
 
David Korten also focuses attention on the matter of the people-government-corporation chain of accountability. Korten argues that any entity created by government should properly be considered a public entity accountable for serving a public purpose and obeying the law while staying out of electoral politics. In fact, Korten declares that the “purely private purpose corporation is an “illegitimate entity”.
 
… it is the sovereign right — and obligation — of we the People to demand that stateless corporations be broken up and the pieces restructured as national public-purpose legal entities prohibited from engaging in electoral politics and each owned by and accountable to living people who are citizens of the country in which it is chartered to do business.51
 
The ETC Group, in a paper entitled “Who Owns Nature” (November 2008) reveals that in developing world settings, peasant farmers are leading the resistance to corporate hegemony and developing strategies for social control of technology.
 
At the same time, there is vast and growing resistance to the dislocation and devastation caused by the agro-industrial food system. Millions of people are struggling for locally controlled and socially just food systems (“Food Sovereignty,” as defined by Via Campesina, is what others have called a global repeasantization movement). Peasant farmers, civil society and social movements are actively creating alternative food and health systems built on resilience, sustainability and sovereignty.
 
The article outlines some important truths that often elude my former colleagues serving the industrial agriculture industry. They are:

  1. Big Ag corporations do not have a monopoly on innovation and knowledge, and
  2. the vast majority of the world’s food is produced in local food economies by peasant farmers, fisher folk, pastoralists and indigenous peoples.

 
The paper also calls attention to the stifling invasiveness of technological imperialism, something with practical implications for both of the above.

And, as it was with biotechnology, the new technologies don’t need to be socially useful or technically superior (i.e., they don’t have to work) in order to be profitable. All they have to do is chase away the competition and coerce governments into surrendering control. Once the market is monopolized, how the technology performs is irrelevant.52
 
This could certainly be said of Monsanto’s GMO-glyphosate system of crop production. Monsanto continues to pursue what appears to be an objective of global domination even as the negative environmental and human consequences of widespread adoption become clearer and public resistance grows. In the larger scheme of things, TNCs appear intent on securing monopoly control of nature itself or what the paper terms “the commoditization of life.”51  In light of this, the goal of the Resisters, acquiring social control of major technologies for the well being of the planet, becomes all the more important. In the inverted world of corporatocracy, however, government becomes the servant of corporations, not the people. And even questioning the value of dominant technologies, as I have pointed out, can be career limiting for government employees. Such is the nature of technological imperialism.
 
Bruce E. Levine, writing in AlterNet, offers his 10 steps to defeat the corporatocracy.  Levine begins by saying that simply knowing we are ruled by a corporatocracy isn’t enough to free us from its grip. Too many of us, he argues, “have become pacified by corporatocracy-created institutions and culture.” Interestingly, his first proposal is: Heal from corporate abuse and battered people’s syndrome to gain strength. Moving beyond denial and admitting we are subjugated people is one aspect of this. My sense is that while for many it is unconscious, increasing numbers of citizens of the Empire are awakening to this tyranny.
 
Among his other proposals, Levine suggests that populists unite in rejecting corporate media’s political divisions. He concludes with the observation that every truly transformative revolution demands “guts” and “solidarity.”53
 
Ralph Nader’s book sees hope in elevating political consciousness and action:
 
…it takes one percent or less of the people to be politically conscious and engaged to change conditions or policies, so long as they represent a majority opinion. 
 
He also sees the possibility of a left-right alliance on several fronts.
 
Citizens need to expand and refine what they want from Congress, keep the focus very personally on each Senator or Representative, and strive to build a left/right alliance on as many contemporary redirections as possible.

Nader lists 24 area of convergence in his book, Unstoppable: The Emerging Left/Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State.54
 
Sarah van Gelder proposes a variety of means whereby American citizens could hold the Corporatocracy accountable. Her list of measures includes:

  • starting state banks;
  • localizing food and energy production;
  • demand state governments revoke the charters of corporations operating in a reckless or lawless manner;
  • implementing electoral recalls; and
  • advancing a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United.

 
Gelder strikes an optimistic note with her assertion that the Corporatocracy is losing its legitimacy.55 While I hope it’s true, it can be difficult at times to maintain a positive outlook given the immensity of the forces arrayed against the public and the Resistance.
 
David Korten’s assessment rings true. The fusion of the interests of mega corporations and government has produced a dangerous and destructive monstrosity. And it has impaired every aspect of the healthy functioning of our society. We have, in my view, reached something of a pivotal “Martin Luther” moment in history. The crimes and abuses of a tyrannical corporatocracy stink to high heaven. Resisters may find some encouragement in Gelder’s reminder that the monstrosities of South Africa’s apartheid and the Soviet Union, memories today, once appeared unbeatable. They may also take some encouragement from the fact that that bloated tyrannies often die of their excesses, and this one is clearly characterized by excess. But we can’t count on it.
 
The critics of a dangerous and destructive Godzilla-like Corporatocracy have ignited the sparks of revolt. But they have not yet been fanned into flames capable of a revolution. The heat of growing public outrage is required to ignite a sustainable revolution. Are you at least mildly outraged by the betrayal of the public interest by your leaders and successive governments? Are you angered by the criminality of your subjugation to Godzilla? If not, I must ask the pivotal question: how much are you prepared to endure?
 
 Endnotes
1 Charles Smith, Of Two Minds, Governments change, the Corporatocracy endures, July 5, 2016, http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly16/corporatocracy7-16.html
 
2 Corporate totalitarianism, or not, HuffPost, Marianne Williamson, March 2, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-williamson/corporate-totalitarianism_b_9361826.html  
 
3 Brainy Quote, Lord Action, https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/power_corrupts.html
 
4 The Corporatocracy, Robert Gore, The Daily Coin, April 29, 2017, https://thedailycoin.org/2017/04/29/the-corporatocracy/
 
5 The rise of the corporatocracy, Graham Vanbergen, Information Clearing House, June 21, 2016, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44929.htm
 
6 How Occupy Wall Street plans to take down Bank of America, and how you can help, Truthout, April 9, 2012, http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/8418-how-occupy-wall-street-plans-to-take-down-bank-of-america-and-how-you-can-help  
 
7 Bank of America website, Our company, our values, https://about.bankofamerica.com/en-us/who-we-are/values-and-principles.html – fbid=IgvrqjFHGxY
 
8 HSBC to pay $1.9 billion U.S. fine in money laundering case, Reuters, December 11, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-probe/hsbc-to-pay-1-9-billion-u-s-fine-in-money-laundering-case-idUSBRE8BA05M20121211
 
9 Gangster Bankers: Too big to jail, Rolling Stone, February 14, 2013, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/gangster-bankers-too-big-to-jail-20130214
 
10 HSBC, Our Values, HSBC website, http://www.hsbc.com/our-approach/our-values
 
11 Wells Fargo caught with another 1.4 million fake accounts, will anyone ever get jailed, Blacklisted News, September 6, 2017, http://www.blacklistednews.com/Wells_Fargo_caught_with_another_1.4_million_fake_accounts,_will_anyone_ever_get_jailed%3F/60717/0/38/38/Y/M.html
 
12 The vision and values of Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo, https://www08.wellsfargomedia.com/assets/pdf/about/corporate/vision-and-values.pdf
 
13 Will opioid lawsuits by county officials against Big Pharma set legal precedent to sue vaccine makers?, Activist Post, September 22, 2017, https://www.activistpost.com/2017/09/will-opioid-lawsuits-county-officials-big-pharma-set-legal-precedent-sue-vaccine-makers.html   
 
14 Feds found Pfizer too big to nail, CNN, April 2, 2010, http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/02/pfizer.bextra/
 
15 Pfizer’s core values, Pfizer, https://www.pfizer.com.cn/(S(i2hqxz45buqpynva52xhe355))/about/pfizer_s_core_values_en.aspx
 
16 The Evils of Big Pharma exposed, Joachim, Hagopian, Global Research, April 20, 2017, https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-evils-of-big-pharma-exposed/5425382 
 
17 March against Monsanto, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Against_Monsanto 
 
18 International Monsanto Tribunal, http://www.monsanto-tribunal.org/
 
19 Soil, Monsanto and the Agribusiness giants: Conning the world with snake oil and doughnuts, Colin Todhunter, Global Research, August 24, 2017, https://www.globalresearch.ca/soil-monsanto-and-the-agribusiness-giants-conning-the-world-with-snake-oil-and-doughnuts/5605487
 
20 Monsanto secret documents show massive attack on Seralini study, Sustainable Pulse, August 1, 2017, http://sustainablepulse.com/2017/08/01/monsanto-secret-documents-show-massive-attack-on-seralini-study/ – .WbaoHdOGOlM
 
21 Monsanto attempt to block glyphosate from California cancer list tossed by judge, Blacklisted News, March 13, 2017, http://www.blacklistednews.com/Monsanto_attempt_to_block_glyphosate_from_California_cancer_list_tossed_by_judge/57319/0/38/38/Y/M.html
 
22 The Monsanto Papers: MDL Glyphosate cancer case key documents and analysis, US Right to Know, https://usrtk.org/pesticides/mdl-monsanto-glyphosate-cancer-case-key-documents-analysis/
 
23 The complete history of Monsanto, the world’s most evil corporation, E. Hanzai, Waking Times, June 22, 2014, Global Research, September 15, 2016, https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-complete-history-of-monsanto-the-worlds-most-evil-corporation/5387964
 
24 Our pledge, Monsanto, https://www.monsanto.ca/whoweare/Pages/monsanto-pledge.aspx
 
25 Mosaic Mine is a big loser and a predator in Florida!, Dr. Steve Pieczenik, Pieczenik Talks, August 26, 2017, http://stevepieczenik.com/mosaic-mine-is-a-big-loser-and-a-predator-in-florida/
 
26 The West’s war on free speech, Tony Cartalucci, Global Research, June 6, 2017, https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-wests-war-on-free-speech/5593606
 
27 Facebook’s five core values, http://blog.deliveringhappiness.com/blog/facebooks-5-core-values-for-success-at-work 
 
28 Google Core Values, SCRIBD, https://www.scribd.com/doc/44700112/Google-Core-Values
 
29 CDC corruption: Scientists on the inside slam the agency, ANH USA, October 25, 2016, http://www.anh-usa.org/cdc-corruption-scientists-on-the-inside-slam-the-agency/
 
30 August 29, 2016 letter to Ms. Carmen S. Villar, Chief of Staff, Office of the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/CDC_SPIDER_Letter-1.pdf
 
31 Mission, Vision and Goals, Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/eeo/aboutus/mission.htm
 
32 Michael R. Taylor, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_R._Taylor
 
33 Monsanto, big guy on the block when it comes to friends in Washington, OpenSecrets.org, February 19, 2013, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/02/monsanto/
 
34 Revealed: How corporations captured our democracy, Christine Berry, Sodium Haze, October 12, 2015, http://www.sodiumhaze.org/2015/10/12/revealed-how-corporations-captured-our-democracy-christine-berry/
 
35 Corporate rule is not inevitable, HuffPost, March 24, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-van-gelder/post_2881_b_1220463.html
 
36 House spending bill would decimate campaign finance rules, John Light, Truthout, August 3, 2017, http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/41491-the-latest-sneaky-attempt-to-increase-corporate-political-power
 
37 War is a Racket by Major General Smedley Butler, ratical.org, https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html
 
38 Rise of global corporatocracy: An interview with John Perkins, Monthly Review, Vol 64, Issue 10, March 2013, https://monthlyreview.org/2013/03/01/rise-of-the-global-corporatocracy-an-interview-with-john-perkins/
 
39 New video evidence of America’s Coup in the Ukraine — -and what it means, Washington Blog, February 8, 2015, http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/new-video-evidence-americas-coup-ukraine-means.html
 
40 “The Snipers’ Massacre” on the Maidan in Ukraine, Ivan Katchanovski Ph.D., School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Presented at the Annual Meeting of American Political Science Association, San Francisco, September 3-6, 2015, https://www.academia.edu/8776021/The_Snipers_Massacre_on_the_Maidan_in_Ukraine
 
41 Ukraine’s president Poroshenko admits overthrow of Yanukovych was a coup, Zero Hedge, June 22, 2015, http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-22/ukraine’s-president-poroshenko-admits-overthrow-yanukovych-was-coup 
 
42 Corporate interests behind US backed coup in Ukraine, Madonna Gauding, Occasional Planet, March 24, 2014, http://occasionalplanet.org/2014/03/24/corporate-interests-behind-u-s-backed-coup-in-ukraine/
 
43 Exposing the corporate interests behind the Ukraine coup, JP Sottile, Alternet, March 19, 2014, http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/exposing-us-corporate-interests-behind-ukraine-putsch
 
44 Monsanto and Ukraine, Joyce Nelson, Blacklisted News, August 27, 2014, http://www.blacklistednews.com/Monsanto_and_Ukraine/37544/0/38/38/Y/M.html
 
45 The looting of Ukraine has begun, Paul Craig Roberts, Institute for political economy, March 6, 2014, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/03/06/looting-ukraine-begun/
 
46 Western Coup in Ukraine an on-going disaster, Jim Dean August 3, 2016, https://journal-neo.org/2016/08/03/western-coup-in-ukraine-an-ongoing-disaster/
 
47 US occupation has already begun and is being conducted by ExonMobil, Mission Verdad, June 27, 2017, http://misionverdad.com/mv-in-english/us-occupation-has-already-begun-and-is-being-conducted-by-exxonmobil
 
48 “The war is worth waging”: Afghanistan’s vast reserves of minerals and natural gas, Michael Chossudovsky, June 16, 2010, https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-war-is-worth-waging-afghanistan-s-vast-reserves-of-minerals-and-natural-gas/19769
 
49 Frederick Douglass, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress,” BlackPast, http://www.blackpast.org/1857-frederick-douglass-if-there-no-struggle-there-no-progress
 
50 How the power imbalance between corporations, governments and people prevents sustainable solutions, Carolanne Wright, The Event Chronicle, March 27, 2017, http://www.theeventchronicle.com/news/north-america/power-imbalance-corporations-governments-people-prevents-sustainable-solutions/
 
51 Forget more regulation: Make corporations serve the public interest, David Korten, Yes Magazine, November 2, 2016, http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/forget-more-regulation-make-corporations-serve-the-public-interest-20161102
 
52 Who owns nature? Corporate power and the final frontier in the commodification of life, ETC Group, November 2008, http://www.etcgroup.org/sites/www.etcgroup.org/files/publication/707/01/etc_won_report_final_color.pdf

53 10 Steps to defeat the corporatocracy, Bruce E. Levine, Alternet, May 20, 2011, https://www.alternet.org/story/151018/10_steps_to_defeat_the_corporatocracy
 
54 Breaking through power: It’s easier than we think, Ralph Nader, The Nader Page, March 1, 2017, https://blog.nader.org/2017/03/01/breaking-through-power-its-easier-than-we-think-2/
 
55 7 signs the corporatocracy is losing it’s legitimacy and 7 tools to help shut in down, Sarah van Gelder, Alternet, January 29, 2012, https://www.alternet.org/story/153933/7_signs_the_corporatocracy_is_losing_its_legitimacy–and_7_tools_to_help_shut_it_down
 
(c) Futurescapes21C 2018. All rights reserved 

Confronting Godzilla (Part A)

CONFRONTING GODZILLA (Corporatocracy) (PART A)

Confronting Godzilla (Corporatocracy) — Part A
Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C

Original written September 5, 2017, Posted January 29, 2018. All rights reserved
 
The truth today, however, is that the United States is neither a democracy nor a republic. Americans are ruled by a corporatocracy: a partnership of “too-big-to-fail” corporations, the extremely wealthy elite, and corporate-collaborator government officials. – Bruce E. Levine1
 
DAPL and Standing Rock
Is it a case of life imitating art or art imitating life? In the long running cartoon TV series, The Simpsons, the sinister Charles Montgomery (“Monty”) Burns is the embodiment of the dark instincts of corporate America. Mr. Burns, a shriveled specimen of a human being who bears a striking resemblance to Nathan Rothschild, is the owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and Homer Simpson’s boss. A trademark Burns response to perceived threats is ordering his assistant to “release the hounds” allowing his vicious guard dogs to attack intruders, enemies or even invited guests. As to his modus operandi, Burns “uses his power and wealth to do whatever he wants, usually without regard for consequences and without interference from the authorities” (Wikipedia).
 
Some encounters between the two sides in the Standing Rock – Dakota Access Oil Pipeline standoff were ominously Burns-esque in natureThe protest was launched against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), by a reported 500 Native American tribes. They considered the project to be an assault on sacred ancestral sites and environmental threats to the Missouri River.
 
Even though the US Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit for building the pipeline under the Missouri River last November, an executive order signed by President Trump the following January instructed the army corps of engineers to “review and approve” the project “in an expedited manner.” After the final easement was granted in late February of this year, “the move was enthusiastically greeted by Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline’s developer.2
 
In September of 2016, the Monty Burns-Simpsons parallel at Standing Rock was complete with its “release the hounds” moment. Protestors complained that in one clash with the security firm employed by Energy Transfer Partners, they were pepper sprayed and bitten by their guard dogs.3 
 
It’s been 30 years since the publication of Our Common Future offered the world a more enlightened approach to economic development.4 We were led to believe that we had entered the era of Sustainable economic development, one that would see a more judicious integration of economic objectives with social and environmental priorities. Are we supposed to believe that the “resolution” of the DAPL-Standing Rock dispute in some way fulfilled the promise of Our Common Future? Or, did it merely expose the willingness of the federal government to subordinate social and environmental interests to those of Big oil and its financial partners?
 
In weighing this question, consider among other things, that the CEO of Energy Transfer Partners donated $100,000 to the Trump Campaign, the Republican National Committee and State Republican Parties.5 And, Kinder Morgan reportedly paid $115,000 to Massachusetts state police to stop protests against the DAPL pipeline.6 More recently, the Dakota Access Pipeline developer has sued Greenpeace and a number of other environmental groups. Energy Transfer partners alleging the group, engaged in “racketeering and defamation that increased the cost of construction by at least $300 million.”7
 
The tyranny of corporatocracy
There’s hard evidence that US citizens have lost their influence over American politics and policies. A Princeton-Northwestern Universities study examined1,800 US policies enacted between 1981 and 2002 and compared them to the expressed preferences of average Americans. The researchers found that an economic elite dominates America.
 
… economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.8
 
The DAPL-Standing rock outcome wasn’t surprising in the least. What it did do was confirm the stark reality that a corporatocracy governs the American Empire. A corporatocracy is defined as “the rule by an oligarchy of corporate elites through manipulation of a formal democracy”9 Robert Gore sees it as more than a matter of large corporations exercising undue influence over the government. He argues that America’s large corporations and its government have merged. Gore adds that while the two retain their own distinct legal structures and managements, it’s no longer possible to separate them or delineate their individual contours.
 
Gore struggles to find adequate descriptors of the product of this forbidden marriage, settling on “big,” “rapacious,” “intrusive” and “conjoined blob.”10  It’s reminiscent of the language Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone Magazine used to describe the investment bank, Goldman Sachs. In Taibbi vernacular, it is “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.”11 The commonality mirrored in these two descriptions is the concern that large corporate entities interests are preying on America.
 
The analysis of American author and lecturer, Marianne Williamson is no less blunt. She labels this new form of governance as “corporate totalitarianism.”12 Political philosopher, Christopher Wolin differentiates this form of totalitarian from its Stalinist and Nazi predecessors, and describes it as “inverted totalitarianism.” As he explains, this is a system where corporations have corrupted and subverted democracy and economics trumps politics.
 
Inverted totalitarianism is different from classical forms of totalitarianism. It does not find its expression in a demagogue or charismatic leader but in the faceless anonymity of the corporate state. Our inverted totalitarianism pays outward fealty to the facade of electoral politics, the Constitution, civil liberties, freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary, and the iconography, traditions and language of American patriotism, but it has effectively seized all of the mechanisms of power to render the citizen impotent.13
 
Ultimately, Wolin’s inverted totalitarianism, Williamson’s corporate totalitarianism and Gore’s corporatocracy imply the same kind of governance. The forbidden marriage of government and corporate interests has birthed something ugly and oppressive. As we come to better understand the psychology and appetites of this beast, we will discover it is every bit as dangerous as the fictitious out-of-control freak of nature, Godzilla.
 
A slow-motion coup
So what happened? How did it come about that a political Godzilla rules the American Empire? Graham Vanbergen contends that the “creeping colonization of public life” by corporations resulted in a “slow motion coup d’etat.’ He adds that globalization has continually compounded corporate power and consolidated its influence on global governance.” Government for its part, ignored signs an advancing coup. The warning signs that should have prompted corrective action appeared in a year 2000 study by Corporate Watch, Global Policy Forum and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). The study found:

  • 200 of the approximately 40,000 worldwide corporations had global reach and influence;
  • The top 200 companies were bigger than the combined economies of 182 countries and wielded twice the economic influence of 80 per cent of all humanity;
  • As worker wages stagnated, corporate profits soared and wealth concentrated; and
  • Corporate concentration was greatest in the trading, banking, automotives, retail and electronics sectors.14

 In 2011, three Swiss mathematicians published the results of their efforts to map the network of connections between transnational corporations (TNCs). Their goal was to gain insights into the structure of economic power. Working from a database of more than 43,060 TNCs, they isolated a “super-entity” of 147 tightly- knit companies at the core of the TNC network. This super entity controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. All but one of the top 50 within this node were financial institutions.15
 
For its part, the financial sector, made a determined effort to free itself of its regulatory chains in the mid-nineties. Susan George describes the campaign. 
 
From the mid-1990s, the largest American banking, securities, insurance and accounting transnational corporations joined forces and, employing 3000 people, spent $5 billion to get rid of all the New Deal laws passed under the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s – the very laws that had protected the American economy for over sixty years. Through this collective lobbying push, they won total freedom to remove any money-losing assets from their balance-sheets and move them into “shadow” banks that appeared nowhere on their balance sheets. They became free to create and trade hundreds of billions worth of toxic derivative products, such as bundles of sub-prime mortgages, with no regulation whatever. 1
 
A “liberated” banking sector has come to wield enormous political influence in recent years. Consider for example, the Wikileaks revelation that Citigroup bank chose Obama’s 2008 cabinet.17 Goldman Sachs is considered to be even more of a political powerhouse. Katherine Fisk describes Goldman Sachs’ reach into the Oval Office. 
 
They are the power in the Oval Office, where what Goldman says determines policy. The financial advisors behind the Vatican. The funders of fast track to get the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement through Congress. They are the hand that pulls the strings on both the Democratic and Republican nominees for US President, who is just the next “crisis actor” that will sit in the White House, while He Who Would Be King steers from behind.17
 
Wall Street’s dominance of the White House didn’t end with the Obama era. Despite Trump’s criticisms of Wall Street throughout his campaign, he promptly surrounded himself with Goldman Sachs alumni once elected.18
 
The mega corporate invasion and ascent to governance finds something of an equivalent in a viral infection. The corporate virus first invades and acquires control of its government host, and then, once established, systematically feeds off public resources. The US government’s annual bill for corporate welfare is $100 billion. It comes in many forms – grants, tax credits, bail-outs and other types of assistance. The arguments for and against aside, it’s noteworthy that Corporate welfare disproportionately favours big business.” Of an estimated $18 trillion awarded between 2000 and 2015, 99 per cent went to large companies and 78% went to 12 large US and foreign banks.19 Now that gives new meaning to the phrase “taking care of business,” doesn’t it?
 
It can be difficult for members of the public to follow the machinations of the ruling corporate powers behind the coup. Typically, they are drip fed the news an issue at a time, which makes it inherently difficult to grasp the big picture. Those seeking critical analyses must penetrate the fog of corporate PR, journalistic puffery, censorship and disinformation. And the wall of secrecy that screens the public eye from the dealings of government with their corporate friends further impairs their scrutiny.
 
Government’s long retreat
As the term, slow motion coup d’etat implies, the conquest of government didn’t occur over night. Ralph Nader, in an interview with Chris Hedges, suggests the creeping coup began around 1970. He links it to a decision by the Democratic Party to aggressively compete with Republicans in the electoral fund raising competition for corporate dollars. From that point on, the Democrats were more intent on courting the favour of big business than putting the brakes on its excesses.20
 
It should also be said that the coup wasn’t completely a matter of the raging ambitions of big banks and other TNCs. Government was a facilitator of the coup. Looking back on my own career, much of it of working with various levels of government, it’s clear how trends in government management opened the doors to corporate encroachment. Five of the most popular and enduring management trends in government over the past thirty five years have been:

  • Recurring drives for increased operational efficiency frequently leading to reductions in public resources assigned to delivery of services, the monitoring of industry activities and regulatory enforcement;
  • Pursuit of private sector-public sector partnerships (“Triple P) in service delivery and infrastructure development;
  • Privatization of government programs (widely celebrated and “sold” in Maggie Thatcher’s day) 
  • Recurring de-regulation campaigns with some aimed at industry self-regulation with a stated intention of fostering increased innovation and international competitiveness; and
  • The shifting of scientific research once financed and carried out in the public sector to private sector corporations.

The effect of the widespread adoption of these management approaches and strategies over a period of decades is obvious. Government’s regulatory role eroded as responsibilities and resources were shifted to the private sector. In reality then, government leaders and public servants were respectively, champions of and collaborators in the power shift. Whether they clearly demarcated and enforced limits on corporate encroachment is another matter. When it comes to the management of natural resources, for example, Colin Todhunter challenges the idea that profit-driven transnationals have a legitimate claim to be custodians of natural assets.
 
“There is the premise that water, food, soil and agriculture should be handed over to powerful and wholly corrupt transnational corporations to milk for profit, under the pretence these entities are somehow serving the needs of humanity.
 
Todhunter argues that these natural assets (“the commons”) belong to everyone and their stewardship is a matter of the common interest. As such they should to be managed by local people “assisted by public institutions and governments acting on their behalf.”21 When governments fail to protect the commons, preferring instead to serve corporate interests, we get the DAPL-Standing Rock kind of outcome. This brings us to the pivotal matter of accountability.
 
The broken chain of accountability
One can think of healthy democracies as systems characterized by a continuous chain of accountability linking “the people”, governments and corporations. When that chain is broken,  it has far reaching consequences. David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World, puts it this way:
 
The healthy function of society requires that governments be accountable to the electorate and that corporations in turn be accountable to democratic governments. Our ability to deal with every other issue of our time — from climate disruption to inequality to violence — depends on that accountability.22
 
Neither governments nor corporations appear to be particularly concerned about the problem. So even as concerned citizens call for more accountability and transparency from transnational corporatations (TNCs), the corporatoracy acts to reduce both further and slam the shades down. In June 2016, Vanbergen reported efforts in the EU parliament to criminalize whistle blowing.  
 
Just a few weeks earlier, we discover that the European Parliament voted in favour of the “Trade Secrets Protection Directive – a law that gives corporations alarming new superpowers to prosecute and criminalize whistleblowers, journalists, and news organizations that publish leaked internal documents.23
 
This EU parliament’s move to criminalize whistleblowing reminds me of the attempts by the US livestock industry to do the same in several US states using what’s were dubbed by critics as “ag gag” laws. Such legislation is designed to criminalize undercover investigations of livestock abuse. Three states introduced ag gag laws in 2011 and 2012 and a flurry of other bills followed in other states in the years following.24 A battle that started in the nineties regarding the issue of public transparency continues in 2017 producing both wins and losses for animal welfare activists.25
 
David Korten explains how the globalization of the operations by TNC’s made it even more difficult to hold them to account. In some respects globalization untethered TNCs from national allegiances and regulations.
 
The lack of corporate accountability is amplified when a corporation sheds its allegiance to any place, person, or public interest. It may be chartered in the United States, park its profits in Bermuda to avoid taxes, contract with sweatshops in Bangladesh, sell its products in France, and be a subsidiary of a parent corporation headquartered in Brazil. In effect, it is stateless and operates as a power unto itself, and has no concern for the interests of any people or place.26
 
Transparency and accountability are areas where PR double speak prevails. While governments and corporate powers talk a good game in terms of their commitment, but their actions say something else. There have simply been too many counter moves like those described earlier to take the jive talk seriously. And the oft stated concern for the protection of whistleblowers is an equal pretence. There are simply too many stories of whistleblowers whose careers were terminated and their lives turned into a living hell, or worse yet, ended under suspicious circumstances to believe the official party of those corporations vested in   the corporatocracy game.
 
Godzilla’s delusions
One of the things that makes the corporatocracy particularly dangerous is its delusions. There are troubling signs that Godzilla suffers from some kind of narcissistic personality disorder. The grandiose “feeding the world” sloganeering of Big Ag transnationals, for example, suggests they are either misguided, propagandizing or suffering from a kind of god complex.27 Here’s a reality check.

  • More than 50% of the agricultural exports to its top 20 importers were for animal product or meat;
  • 2.3% of the world’s most undernourished countries’ diet comes from exports from the United States; and
  • Less than 1% of US agricultural exports went to the world’s 19 most hungry or undernourished countries.28

And then there’s the fertilizer manufacturer, JR Simplot, who thinks that it is “Bringing earth’s resources to life.”29 Really? Now there’s a serious god complex! Someone should tell the brain trust at Simplot that 1 square metre of rich soil can harbour up to a billion living organisms. I won’t even bother with Big Pharma which appears to be pretty busy inventing imaginary health conditions.
 
The marketing mavens at Coke also occasionally drift off into la la land. Author Jill Richardson flagged an ad featuring a young girl who harbours a desire to grow a garden for the world. She grows up and goes to works for Coca Cola and says that she’s fulfilling that dream. How does that work? Richardson provides the reality check. First choosing to drink Coke isn’t helping the poor. At best, Coke is a sugary drink that provides no nutrition. People may drink it because they enjoy the taste.30 That’s it.
 
There are also clear signs of co-dependency in the government-Big Ag/Agribusiness- industry marriage. The most telling sign is the tendency on the part of government to serve as an enabler and defender of corporate ag’s abuses of the public trust. It’s a deeply disturbing development with a chilling effect on public employees wishing to do the right thing as good stewards of the public trust.
 
A survey of 1,300 USDA scientists in 2017 found that nearly 10% of them believe superiors have tampered with their work. The research of one USDA scientist revealed that a lucrative pesticide might be harming pollinators such as bees. When this researcher published a report cautioning against use of department-approved pesticides, he found his career began to fall apart.31 In short, questioning the official, corporately-approved narrative can be career-limiting.
 
Canadian scientists could identity with their USDA counterparts. During the administration of former PM, Stephen Harper, many Canadian scientists took to the streets to protest their muzzling under restrictive media relations policies aimed at message control. A number of specific examples are cited in a paper entitled: Muzzling Civil Servants: A Threat to Democracy?.32
 
Godzilla’s god complex has taken on new and alarming dimensions of late. Major Corporations are now becoming arbitrars of public morality. Peter Hassan cites the example of the domain hosting company GoDaddy.com which booted neo-Nazi website, Daily Stormer from its servers on August 13, 2017 in the wake of a deadly antifa-alt right confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia. GoDaddy decided that a Daily Stormer article trashing the victim of the clash was offensive.             
 
Sometimes it’s a case of telecoms or on-line media services responding to pressure from an aggrieved political faction seeking to extract some form of “justice” in response to a perceived wrong.
 
Fox News cancelled “The O’Reilly Factor” in April after advertisers pulled their money from the show amidst a slew of sexual harassment accusations against host Bill O’Reilly. The advertisers pulled the ads following an intense pressure campaign from left-wing activists who claimed the advertisers had a moral obligation to defund “The O’Reilly Factor.”33
 
The dangers of corporatocracy-sanctioned censorship by monopolistic telecoms should be readily apparent. The mechanisms for suppression of free speech by Google and Facebook in favour of the politics du jour, for example, are in place and being applied with new rigour. Jordan Peterson is a professor at the University of Toronto, who has dared to challenge the fascistic tendencies of post-modernism inherent in Canada’s gender legislation, among other things. In August 2017, he was surprised to discover that Google had arbitrarily blocked him from his YouTube account with no explanation. Peterson rightly finds the treatment worrying.34
 
He’s not alone. It appears that Google is now censoring videos deemed “too politically incorrect or not advertiser friendly.” Once Google demonetizes a targeted YouTube site, the uploader cannot make money from its content. Former US Congressman, Dr. Ron Paul and his YouTube Analysis Channel, the Ron Paul Liberty Report was abruptly targeted. Julian Assange of Wikileaks suggests Dr. Paul was punished for his recent criticism of Donald Trump for sending additional troops into Afghanistan. He labels this “economic censorship.”35
 
Graham Vanbergen’s article: “The truth war is being lost to a global censorship apparatus called Google” is disturbing. The article describes how social media has become a tool of the CIA, and how Google has become a global censor, skewing searches toward politically correct sites. The stench of corporately administered censorship is discernible in an April 25/17 statement by Ben Gomes, Google’s VP of Engineering. Gomes stated that Google’s update of its search engine would block access to “offensive” sites, while working to surface more “authoritative content.” Vanbergen estimated the loss of traffic to just 13 non-mainstream web sites following the changes in Google’s search evaluation protocols.
 
…these losses of readership in the last six months, from highs to lows amounted to a colossal 30.4 million unique visitors a month. I can’t vouch for other websites but at TruePublica the average visitor reads 1.84 pages per visit. At this calculation over 55 million pages of content a month are being withheld from just the 13 websites listed above. It is not possible to come to any other conclusion that Google has blatantly been involved in an act of global censorship.36
 
Big Brother giveth and Big Brother  taketh away. Once upon a time, Google enlarged our world through its powerful search service. Now, the Ministry of Truth has declared the boundaries of our world of information shall be reduced in accordance with Big Brother’s political preferences. Are you getting claustrophobic yet?
 
Godzilla’s anti-democratic tendencies
One of the more serious charges against corporatocracy is that it’s anti-democratic in nature. Ralph Nader contends that today’s international trade agreements are, in effect, democracy-reversing.
 
[Free trade agreements] are trade agreements that don’t stick to trade…they colonize environmental labor, and consumer issues of grave concern (in terms of health safety, and livelihoods too) to many, many hundreds of millions of people – and they do that by subordinating consumer, environmental, and labor issues to the imperatives and the supremacy of international commerce.  
 
Nader argues that this is exactly the reverse of how democratic societies have advanced. Specifically, they subordinate the profiteering drive of companies to such things as higher environmental health standards, abolition of child labour, and the right of worker to fair labour standards. In a truly democratic system, the onus would be corporations to demonstrate that they weren’t harming consumers with monopoly powers, damaging the environment or compromising the rights of workers. But that order has been turned upside down.
 
…its workers and consumers and environments that have to kneel before this giant pedestal of commercial trade and prove that they are not, in a whole variety of ways, impeding international commerce…so this is the road to dictatorial devolution of democratic societies…3

Julian Assange of Wikileaks has added his voice to Nader’s, regarding the TTP. Assange affirms that the TPP, the largest international economic trade agreement goes ever far beyond trade.
 
Only five of the 29 chapters are about traditional trade. The others are about regulating the Internet and what information …Internet service providers have to collect. …It’s about regulating labor, what labor conditions can be applied, regulating, whether you can favor local industry, regulating the hospital healthcare system, privatization of hospitals. So, essentially, every aspect of the modern economy, even banking services, are in the TPP.3

The negotiation process for international trade deals remains remarkably deaf to citizens’ interests and concerns. Verbergen recalls that Cecilia Malmstrom, the leading EU trade commissioner for TTIP trade negotiations was asked why she continued to promote the deal in the face of massive public opposition. Her response was telling: “I do not take my mandate from the European people.”39 Meanwhile, US opponents of the TTP were dismissed as “protectionists” for their opposition. There’s some irony in that charge as opponents were concerned that elements of the deal would “undermine the free flow of goods and services by expanding some protectionist anti-competitive policies.” Doctors Without Borders, for example, was critical of the monopoly protections and patents the deal would create for big pharmaceutical companies and their products.40 Now who is being protectionist?
 
In this chapter, we have pulled back the curtain and looked the beast in the eye. As a result of a corporate coup in the mid-nineties, the American Empire is now ruled by a monstrous corporatocracy. The prevailing myth however, is that America is a model of democracy to the world. The corporatocracy perpetuates the delusion, of course as a cover for its operations. This predatory shape-shifting creature is dangerously unaccountable and out of control. Its reach is global,  it’s nature instinctively controlling, its operation parasitic and its mental health unstable.
 
There’s more to learn about the corporatocracy named Godzilla. In the next chapter, we will examine the criminal nature of the Corporatocracy and where its insatiable appetite for power and profits has taken us geopolitically. And then we will turn to the urgent matter of how Godzilla can be recaptured.

Endnotes
1 The myth of US democracy and the reality of U.S. corporatocracy, Huffington Post, May 25, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-e-levine/the-myth-of-us-democracy-corporatocracy_b_836573.html
 
2 Dakota Access Pipeline protest site is cleared, CNN, February 24, 2017 http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/22/us/dakota-access-pipeline-evacuation-order/index.html
 
3 Dakota Access Pipeline company attacks protestors with dogs and mace, Common Dreams, September 24, 2016, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/04/dakota-access-pipeline-company-attacks-protesters-dogs-and-mace
 
4 Our Common Future, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Common_Future
 
5 Trump’s greenlighting of Keystone and DAPL is a powerplay that won’t pay create jobs, The Slatest, January 24, 2017, http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/24/trump_s_green_lighting_of_keystone_and_dapl_is_a_power_play_that_won_t_create.html
 
6 Kinder Morgan paid $115,000 to Mass. State police to step protests against pipeline, Blacklisted News, August 21, 2017, http://www.blacklistednews.com/Kinder_Morgan_Paid_%24115,000_To_Mass._State_Police_To_Stop_Protests_Against_Pipeline/60447/0/38/38/Y/M.html
 
7 Dakota Access Pipeline owner sues Greenpeace for ‘criminal activity’, NPR, August 22, 2017, http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/22/545310247/dakota-access-pipeline-owner-sues-greenpeace-for-criminal-activity
 
8 The US is an oligarchy, study finds, The Telegraph, April 16, 2014, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10769041/The-US-is-an-oligarchy-study-concludes.html
 
9 Corporatocracy, Urban Dictionary, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Corporatocracy
 
10 The Corporatocracy, by Robert Gore, Straight Line Logic, April 28, 2017, https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/04/28/the-corporatocracy-by-robert-gore/
 
11 The Great American Bubble Machine, Rolling Stone, April 5, 2010, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405
 
12 Corporate Totalitarianism, or not, Huffington Post.com, March 2, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-williamson/corporate-totalitarianism_b_9361826.html
 
13 Sheldon Walin and inverted totalitarianism, Chris Hedges, Truthdig, November 2, 2015, https://www.truthdig.com/articles/sheldon-wolin-and-inverted-totalitarianism/
 
14 The rise of the corporatocracy, Graham Vanbergen, Information Clearing House, June 21, 2016, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44929.htm
 
15 Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world, New Scientist, October 19, 2011, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354-500-revealed-the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world/
 
16 The rise of the corporatocracy, Graham Vanbergen, Information Clearing House, June 21, 2016, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44929.htm
 
17 Citigroup chose Obama’s 2008 cabinet, Wikileaks document reveals, Global Research, October 1, 2016, http://www.globalresearch.ca/citigroup-chose-obamas-2008-cabinet-wikileaks-document-reveals/5551327
 
17 How Goldman Sachs rules the world and gets away with it, Veterans Today, March 21, 2016, http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/03/21/how-goldman-sachs-rules-the-world-and-gets-away-with-it/
 
18 List of Goldman Sachs alumni in Donald Trump’s administration, Heavy, January 5, 2017, http://heavy.com/news/2017/01/donald-trump-goldman-sachs-drain-swamp-steve-bannon-steven-mnuchin-gary-cohn-jay-clayton/
 
19 Corporate welfare: How big business lives off government subsidy, Blacklisted News, August 14, 2017, http://www.blacklistednews.com/Corporate_Welfare%3A_How_Big_Business_Lives_Off_Government_Subsidy/60316/0/38/38/Y/M.html
 
20 Chris Hedges and Ralph Nader: History of the corporate coup d’etat, Dandelion Salad, November 3, 2015, https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/chris-hedges-and-ralph-nader-history-of-the-corporate-coup-detat/
 
21 Soil, Monsanto and the Agribusiness giants: Conning the world with snake oil and doughnuts, Global Research, August 24, 2017, http://www.globalresearch.ca/soil-monsanto-and-the-agribusiness-giants-conning-the-world-with-snake-oil-and-doughnuts/5605487
 
22 How the power imbalance between corporations, governments and people prevents sustainable solutions, Wake Up World, March 28, 2017, https://wakeup-world.com/2017/03/28/how-the-power-imbalance-between-corporations-governments-and-people-prevents-sustainable-solutions/
 
23 The rise of the corporatocracy, The European financial review, June 20, 2016, http://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/?p=6074
 
24 2013 was the year bills to criminalize animal cruelty videos failed, The Salt, npr, December 27, file://localhost/2013, http/::www.npr.org:sections:thesalt:2013:12:19:255549796:2013-was-the-year-every-new-ag-gag-bill-failed
 
25 Judge overturn Utah’s ‘ag-gag’ ban on under-cover filming at farms, The two way, npr, July 8,
2017, http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/08/536186914/judge-overturns-utahs-ag-gag-ban-on-undercover-filming-at-farms
 
26 How the power imbalance between corporations, governments and the people prevents sustainable solutions, The Event Chronicle, March 27, 2017,

27 Why Big Ag won’t feed the world, The Atlantic, January 20, 2010, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/01/why-big-ag-wont-feed-the-world/33666/
 
28 Does Big AG “Feed the World”, or are such slogans just clever public relations?, The Farmarian, November 4, 2016, http://www.farmarian.com/does-big-ag-feed-the-world-or-are-such-slogans-public-relations/
 
29 Simplot.com, http://simplot.com/  
 
30 Soda doesn’t ‘feed the world’, Jill Richardson, Other Words, http://otherwords.org/soda-doesnt-feed-the-world/
 
31 Some USDA scientists say their work has been tampered with – Bangor Daily News, August 31, 2017, http://bangordailynews.com/2017/04/21/news/nation/some-usda-scientists-say-their-work-has-been-tampered-with-maybe-for-political-reasons/maybe for political reasons,
 
32 Muzzling civil servants: A threat to democracy, Environmental Law Clinic, University of Victoria, Clayton Greenwood, February 2013,
http://www.elc.uvic.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Muzzling-Civil-Servants_2012-03-04_2013Feb.pdf 

33. The O’Reilly Factor: cancelled; Tucker Carlson Tonight to replace Fox News series, TVseriesfinale, April 19, 2017 https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/oreilly-factor-cancelled-fox-news-channel/

34 “I’m very worried” Tucker Carlson and Jordan Peterson discuss Google, YouTube suspension, YouTube, August 24, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQmjuptpDsA
 
35 YouTube “economically censors” Ron Paul, labels videos “not suitable” for all advertisers. Zero Hedge, August 27, 2017, http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-27/youtube-economically-censors-ron-paul-labels-videos-not-suitable-all-advertisers
 
36 The truth war is being lost to a global censorship apparatus called Google, Global Research, August 27, 2017, 
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-truth-war-is-being-lost-to-a-global-censorship-apparatus-called-google/5602578?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles
 
37 Ralph Nader quotes, Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/47237.Ralph_Nader
 
38 Julian Assange on the Trans- Pacific Partnership: Secretive deal isn’t about trade, but corporate control, Democracy Now, May 27, 2015, https://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/27/julian_assange_on_the_trans_pacific
 
39 The rise of the corporatocracy, The European Financial Review, June 20, 2016, http://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/?p=6074
 
40 More than 50 groups call on US Congress to stop TPP, the worst trade deal ever for access to affordable medicines, Doctors Without Borders, April 12, 2016, http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/more-50-groups-call-us-congress-stop-tpp-worst-trade-deal-ever-access-affordable-medicines

(c) Futurescapes21C, 2018 All rights reserved

Our Dizzying Descent into a Post-Truth World

OUR DIZZYING DESCENT INTO A POST-TRUTH WORLD

Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C,

Original written May 12, 2017, Posted January 7, 2018, rev. January 10, 11, 2018, Aug 17, 2023 (c) All rights reserved

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” (often attributed to George Orwell)
 
Untruth in US politics
There have been many signs over the years that our society’s grip on the truth was weakening. The Mitt Romney- Barack Obama election campaign of 2011-12 represented a new low water mark in terms of our collective embrace of objective truth. The truth-deficient negative campaign ads elevated half-truths, backhand smears, and innuendos to an art form. At some point, the truth-twisting and distortion became a subject of discussion and debate in the main stream media.
 
I randomly stumbled across a radio interview circa 2012 with a leading PR specialist. The interviewer invited his perspective regarding his profession’s handling of truth. The truth, in his view, was something that could be approached creatively as one ingredient in shaping the desired communication product. While that was pretty consistent with the post-modern view that truth is a social construct versus objective reality, it was no less troubling. Nor was I alone in my assessment that truth-twisting had reached a new extreme.
 
Robert Loevy, a political science professor at Colorado College, said the level of truth-stretching and distortion in that campaign was “the worst” he had ever seen. At the same time, he doubted the fact-checkers would have much influence on undecided voters. Nor did it seem to me that there was any attempt by voters to punish abusers of the truth. Perhaps they simply concluded that there was a moral equivalency wherein the sins of one were balanced by the sins of the other political party.
 
Loevy was right in that campaign officials for both Romney and Obama were undeterred by the fact checkers. Romney’s pollster told ABC news that his campaign “won’t be swayed by outside complaints of inaccuracy. Fact-checkers come to this with their own sets of thoughts and beliefs, and you know what? We’re not going let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” he said.” He almost sounded heroic, as if he were resisting some kind of facts-mad tyranny.
 
Obama’s campaign manger was a bit subtler, introducing the audience to a concept that would reappear years later in the Trump era, the concept of “alternative facts”. As he put it:  “We look at the facts. We vet what we say. We really do try hard to get it right… So there are some times when there are different sets of facts out there. The campaign highlights a set of facts. You may find a different set of facts and make that point.”1
 
Truth-twisting in Canadian politics
US politics isn’t unique in its disregard for truth. Federal politics in Canada also had its practitioners of truth- management. A Canadian journalist recalled his own experience with the aversion toward inconvenient facts; the kind that don’t fit the political narrative. He happened to be standing off stage where a government communication specialist was briefing a cabinet minister about to give a public statement in his campaign for re-election. Overhearing the minister seizing on a statement to the effect that the opposition party was proposing to introduce an abhorrent new tax, the journalist spoke up. He told the two that he could confirm that the opposition had flatly stated that no such tax was being considered. Alas, It didn’t matter, the show must go on and no opportunity to smear the opposition could be wasted. 
 
The incident reminded me of a speech given by Canadian pollster Allen Gregg who also witnessed the decline of political authenticity. Gregg observed an accompanying lack of self-awareness on the part of those engaging in performance politics.
 
“For most of my adult life, I have worked with political and business leaders and have never ceased to be amazed at how different they can be in private compared to their public personae. Time and time again, I have witnessed otherwise funny, thoughtful, caring men and women walk from the wings of the auditorium to the podium, only to be transformed into nothing less than a big, blustering (well, there isn’t a polite way of saying it) bullshitter – in effect, offering up a ‘performance’ and a caricature they think they should be playing.
 
Typically, these performances range from pillorying opponents with hyperventilated allegations of failings; feigned outrage at what others would consider modest grievances; taking exaggerated credit for accomplishments that are better shared; and avoiding any direct and honest engagement of difficult subject matter that has the potential to cause media controversy.
 
What made these performances unbearably grimace-making however, was not the content of the remarks so much as the speaker’s complete lack of self-awareness or appreciation that they were the only person in the room who found their narrative believable.
2
 
While there were lots of rationalizations for the phenomenon of truth manipulation, I hear little discussion regarding the longer-term implications for society. Aren’t politicians engaging in gratuitous fabrications aware of what they were doing? Don’t they realize that their indulgences in spin and untruth amount to poisoning the public well of confidence in politics and government? Don’t they realize that their peeing in the pool of public trust has now come back to haunt them, and ultimately all of us far into the future?
 
The corrupting influence of post-truth thinking
Over the course of a forty years plus career of in various public and private sector settings, I have had multiple perspectives on the decline of truth and authenticity in professional and organizational circles. For a part of my career, I held communication, marketing and PR roles. In other instances, I worked in close proximity with marketing, communication and PR professionals. Neither of these perspectives revealed  a trend toward more responsible stewardship of objective truth or accountability in this regard. It’s certainly not in fashion today. Communications and PR professionals remain remarkably inured to the habits of an industry which treats truth as an ingredient in communications messaging, one to be employed when it suits the purpose. 
 
In time I began to wonder if the public relations profession had a hole in its soul. It was the “fake Kuwaiti nurse” war-making incident that led me to this analysis. When it comes to war-making, it’s understood that securing the consent of the citizenry requires a powerful emotional hook. The case of the Persian Gulf War was no exception. Some kind of atrocity was needed to arouse sufficient public outrage that American citizens would consent to military intervention.
 
The daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, coached by a major US-based PR firm, and masquerading as a nurse offered the perfect atrocity. She testified that she had witnessed invading Iraqi soldiers tossing babies from their incubators to die on the cold floor of her hospital.3 The naive among us expect communication professionals to hold to an enduring standard of objective truth. But somehow this hired gun PR agency could justify manufacturing a deception that would directly lead to the authorization of warfare and the untold death and destruction that inevitably followed. It seems that selling out on your profession for war profits is a completely survivable crime. The firm continues to do a thriving business. I wonder how providing this kind of “service” aligns with the agency’s stated core values and presumed commitment to making the world a better place. Perhaps its mission statement should read: Deceiving millions to bring death and destruction to humanity. 
 
The see-no-evil syndrome
The Gulf War sell-out is far from an isolated case. You don’t have to look very hard to see the not-so-invisible hand of the corporate mass media and PR agencies in selling other  wars in the 20th century. And, as illustrated, this partnership continues to profitably manufacture public consent for war-making in the 21st century. As I write, there are hired gun PR agencies cashing in on lucrative contracts to paint lipstick on war criminals, demonize foreign governments targeted for regime change by the West and manufacture pro war propaganda.4 I may have missed it, but I haven’t yet heard of any high profile PR agencies being blacklisted, ostracized or excommunicated from professional PR associations for their abhorrent crimes against humanity. 
 
The PR profession itself may be the last to express outrage or call the war-makers within its ranks to account. A “see no evil” mindset seems to prevail. When, on occasion, I so much as called attention to the pervasiveness of PR spin and marketing excesses, I encountered three types of responses. They ranged from silence to resignation as in that’s just the way it is and the third, self-righteous denial to the effect that no communication professional worth his or her salt would ever engage in such a thing. 
 
The see-no-evil syndrome also prevails among my agriculture industry peers. They appear to be even less aware and less concerned with the manipulative use of corporate propaganda by members of the “Big Ag” and the “Big Food” sectors. They certainly appear oblivious to its negative consequences among conscious consumers who see corporate PR whitewash for what it is. Rather than call out the corporate abusers of consumer trust, professional “aggies” tend to run to their defense. As a result,  the more conscientious members of the agriculture and agrifood sectors (and ag producers themselves) are left to absorb any reputational damage resulting from consumer blowback.
 
Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) has distinguished itself as “the world’s most hated corporation” and in some respects, among the least trusted when it comes to its product claims and conduct.6 In the past, even as its PR-coated machinations were being exposed, agricultural professionals dutifully defended it. It seems the unofficial code of conduct governing this relationship is “solidarity forever,” or in this case, unblinking ag industry advocacy forever. Is it not disingenuous to relentlessly advocate on behalf of the industry and its members and then go silent or play dumb when obvious abuses of public or consumer trust occur? Surely, something more than the reflex: “We take this matter very seriously…” line is required.

The best explanation that I can find for the predictable “see no evil” syndrome afflicting  professionals and their industry allies comes from Upton Sinclair who explained: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”7 Unfortunately, willful ignorance has become an inherent part of the unspoken code defining the relationship between business professionals in the service sector and their industry customers often referred to as value chain “partners.” 
 
Robert Parry would agree with Sinclair as he attributes the failure to speak truth to power within the professional class to careerism. And careerism dangerously begets groupthink.
 
“In other words, many professionals who are counted on for digging out the facts and speaking truth to power have sold themselves to those same powerful interests in order to keep high-paying jobs and to not get tossed out onto the street. Many of these self-aggrandizing professionals – caught up in the many accoutrements of success – don’t even seem to recognize how far they’ve drifted from principled professionalism.”8
 
There is a price to pay for self-imposed blindness. One is the cost to the reputation of your profession. I recall an incident during the E. coli outbreak at XL Foods in Brooks, Alberta in 2012. The agriculture minister was in the process of answering questions from reporters about the situation. The exchange was abruptly cut short by one of his communications advisors intent preventing him from going further off script. The intervention wasn’t appreciated by at least one observer who in a subsequent story referred to the minister’s communication handler as a ‘”junior fart catcher”. On the scale of reputational rankings, I’m guessing that junior fart catcher falls significantly below that of used car salesman.
 
More recently, during the Trump campaign, a war broke out between mainstream corporate media and independent media. It centres on the issue of their respective trustworthiness and competing claims to truthful reporting of the news. The lengthy history of mainstream media (MSM) infiltration by and collaboration with the CIA and the controlled nature of news reporting had now became a central issue of the day.9 In the wake of its exposure as CIA infiltrated, the MSM attempted a kind of figurative jui jitsu  declaring itself the guardian of the truth on behalf of a public assaulted by “fake news.” Even if fakes news was a real problem,  such nanny state paternalism has no place in a democracy. Foxes so love guarding chicken houses.
 
Around the same time, a secret group, PropOrNot and some academic institutions generated lists of alleged publishers of “fake news”.10 This was followed by smearing and censoring  targeted members of the independent media on their list. The outrage within the ranks of the independent media still boils. Critics of propagandizing members of the MSM now refer to the latter as “presstitutes” and media “whores.”11 In a similar vein, CNN was derisively named the “Clinton News Network” for the obvious political bias it demonstrated throughout the presidential campaign. 
 
Dangers in propaganda excesses
The oft named “father” of public relations, Edward Bernays was more forthright about the manipulative nature of public relations and its excesses than his modern day disciples. Bernays observed in his book, Propaganda (1928):
 
“In World War One it was the propaganda of our side that first made “propaganda” so opprobrious a term. Fouled by close association with “the Hun,” the word did not regain its innocence—not even when the Allied propaganda used to tar “the Hun” had been belatedly exposed to the American and British people. Indeed, as they learned more and more about the outright lies, exaggerations and half-truths used on them by their own governments, both populations came, understandably, to see “propaganda” as a weapon even more perfidious than they had thought when they had not perceived themselves as its real target. Thus did the word’s demonic implications only harden through the Twenties, in spite of certain random efforts to redeem it.” 

While he was clearly dedicated to his craft, it seems that even Bernays suspected that continued exploitive use of “lies, exaggerations and half truths” on the citizenry could backfire at some point as the population became better informed. He once remarked: “The only propaganda which will ever tend to weaken itself as the world becomes more sophisticated and intelligent, is propaganda that is untrue or unsocial.”12 Perhaps he was naive as he appears to suggest that “propaganda that is untrue” can be objectively defined and filtered out. That problem aside, modern day PR practitioners and their business customers, however remain largely indifferent to the reality of growing public cynicism. 
 
Unsurprisingly, recent survey numbers tell us that the trust of Americans in government and trust in themselves has reached a new low. According to a September 2016 survey:

  • 42% have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in political leaders;
  • 56% trust American people to make decisions under democratic system; and
  • trust in both groups is down about 20 percentage points since 2004, new lows in Gallup trends.13

 A September 2016 survey found that Americans’ trust and confidence in mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” had dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history. Thirty-two percent said they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the media (down eight points from last year).14
 
The making of a trust crisis
The numbers fail to tell the larger story of a trust crisis of global proportions. Leaders cannot endlessly mine the reserves of public trust. Nor can they callously engineer public deceptions like false flag psy ops in support of policy objectives without consequences. They can’t lie forever with impunity. And they can’t forever paper over their deceits and fabrications with ever more generous applications of “PR solutions.” But they haven’t stopped trying.
 
It’s all coming to a head, and the real world implications are sobering. In article entitled, “The existential question of who to trust”, Robert Parry describes the life or death implications of the trust crisis.
 
“The looming threat of World War III, a potential extermination event for the human species, is made more likely because the world’s public can’t count on supposedly objective experts to ascertain and evaluate facts. Instead, careerism is the order of the day among journalists, intelligence analysts and international monitors – meaning that almost no one who might normally be relied on to tell the truth can be trusted.”15
 
In 2016, the deception-friendly characterization of our times became official. That year, Oxford Dictionaries selected post-truth as the word of the year. It was also the year that the Trump-Clinton campaigns and their media allies took lying and deception to new heights. The post- truth diagnosis came from author, Ralph Keyes who in 2004, asked, “Have we now reached a stage of social evolution that is “beyond honesty?” (Keyes credits Steve Tesich with coining the term.) Keyes flatly states, “Honesty is on the ropes.” One of the signs of the truth malaise described by Keyes is our dishonesty about our dishonesty. People don’t say they “lied”, they say that they “exaggerated,” or “misspoke” – something Keyes calls “Euphemasia.”16 Prevarication and equivocation are equally defining features of the Post-Truth era. 
 
There’s a tangible sense of relief that comes with receiving a long awaited diagnosis. Perhaps it’s the assurance that the pain you have been experiencing is real, not a figment of your imagination. But at the same time, the identification of a health condition also raises new concerns. What additional symptoms are likely to develop? What’s the prognosis? Is there a cure or  recommended treatment? These are all legitimate questions regarding our ailing society’s post truth-trust crisis.
 
To get to the larger implications, I start from the premise that truthfulness and trust are fundamental requirements of a healthy society. The acknowledgement that we have entered a post truth era suggests that there will be growing tensions straining our social fabric. Our once shared common ground is shrinking. The ties that bind us together in common cause are fraying. In the wake of the November 2016 US presidential election, I confided to my family that it wasn’t at all clear to me that the divides in America would heal in the foreseeable future. The trust divide may be too wide.
 
My sense is that differing segments of our society have begun a spiralling descent into truth-deficient parallel universes. Declining truth and trust is likely to give way to further degradation. 

  • Decline of truth = destruction of trust
  • Destruction of trust = erosion of social cohesion
  • Erosion of social cohesion = isolation
  • Isolation = collapse of community 
  • Collapse of community = rise of a survivalist ethic and deception as a means of coping.

 Keyes sees similar dynamics at play weakening community connections and eroding the fabric of society.
 
“Keyes acknowledges a link between post-truthfulness and the loss of community. “When it comes to post-truthfulness, the fraying of human connections is both cause and effect. Not feeling connected to others makes it easier to lie, which in turn makes it harder to reconnect. Eroded communities foster dishonesty. Dishonesty contributes to the further erosion of communities. As communal bonds wither, unfettered self-interest is unleashed.17
 
There are lines in William Butler Yeats’ poem, “The Second Coming” that eerily resonate with darker future scenarios one can envision.
 
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
18
 
In summary, the dynamics of a downward spiral are in play. Untruth and deception are fuelling distrust; growing distrust in turn, is fostering disconnection and isolation; which in turn creates conditions conducive to more lies and deception. Truth has always had its enemies and deceit its loyal friends. But only the most naive would conclude we arrived at this point as a society by happenstance.
 
Beware the hidden hand of the PTB that subtly guides the the naive and well-intentioned into the seductive grasp of “the end justifies the means” thinking. Can we now see the outlines of a new dark ages taking shape in the fading light? The shadows have always served the purposes of the PTB well, providing cover for their enormous crimes against humanity. Darkness keeps their captives fearful, uncertain and susceptible to manufactured illusions. Like sheep, we can be easily led down precipitous side paths to war or other destinations of our faux shepherds’ choosing. The PTB’s mastery of the art and science of perception management means that they can now sell us anything, including our own destruction. 
 
It will likely be some time before we see the light of new dawn. The appetite for truth is too small, and the power of enforced massive untruths overwhelming. There are too few brave souls resisting the tides of the post truth era. That said, the truth remains a threat to the elites governing our inverted Orwellian world. Consequently, they must hunt it down, capture it and ultimately destroy it. 
 
This isn’t a time for despair, however; it’s a time for new resolve of the calibre of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, the resilient Russian author and survivor of the Gulag Archipelago. It’s time for a revolution. This is a call for a generation of bold truth-tellers, freedom fighters of the Post-Truth Era. Our revolution begins with our rejection the hypnotic illusions and lies of the PTB and defiant truth-telling capable of exposing their deceptions. We can be light amid the darkness of the Post-truth era.  
 
“Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of the light.” (John 12:36)

Endnotes
1 Politics and truth: Uneasy partners, easy enemies, Yahoo News, September 6, 2012, https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics-truth-uneasy-partners-easy-enemies-222056435–election.html
 
2 A short history of the erosion of trust, the 2011 Gordon Osbaldeston lecture by Allan R. Gregg, http://allangregg.com/on-authenticity-%E2%80%93-how-the-truth-can-restore-faith-in-politics-and-government/
 
3 How PR sold the war in the Persian Gulf, Excerpted from Toxic Sludge is Good for You, Chapter 10, PR Watch.org, http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html
 
4 The Pentagon paid a PR firm $500 million for top secret Iraq propaganda, Mint News, October 3, 2016, http://www.mintpressnews.com/the-pentagon-paid-a-pr-firm-500-million-for-top-secret-iraq-propaganda/221035/
 
5 Saudi’s hire world’s biggest PR firm to push ‘Muslim Nato’, Middle East Eye, April 26, 2017, http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pr-firm-draws-criticism-over-saudi-deal-represent-muslim-nato-1485534964
 
6 Monsanto, the world’s poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit, GMONews, March 26, 2017,
http://www.gmo.news/2015-08-20-monsanto-the-worlds-poster-child-for-corporate-manipulation-and-deceit.html
 
7 Upton Sinclair quotes, Brainywords.com, http://www.brainywords.com/authors/upton_sinclair-quotes.html#l0TqJKm53F2FHPdq.99
 
8 The existential question of who to trust, Strategic Culture Foundation, May 1, 2017, http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/05/01/existential-question-who-trust.html
 
9 Declassified CIA documents show agency’s control over mainstream media and academia, collective evolution, May 11, 2017, http://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/05/11/declassified-cia-documents-shows-agencies-control-over-mainstream-media-academia/
 
10 Harvard’s fake guide to fake news sites. America’s 21st Century  “Index Librorum Prohibitorum”, Global Research, March 14, 2017,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/harvards-fake-guide-to-fake-news-sites-americas-21st-century-index-librorum-prohibitorum/5579697
 
11 Paul Craig Roberts: Mainstream media in total collapse, SOTT, March 20, 2017, https://www.sott.net/article/345952-Paul-Craig-Roberts-Mainstream-media-in-total-collapse
 
12 Propaganda, 1928, Edward Bernays, History is a weapon, http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/bernprop.html
 
13 Americans’ trust in political leaders, public at new lows, Gallop.com, September 21, 2016,
http://www.gallup.com/poll/195716/americans-trust-political-leaders-public-new-lows.aspx
 
14 Americans’ trust in mass media sinks to new low, True Pundit, September 15, 2016, http://truepundit.com/americans-trust-in-mass-media-sinks-to-new-low/
 
15 The existential question of who to trust, The Strategic Culture Foundation, May 1, 2015, http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/05/01/existential-question-who-trust.html
 
16 The Post-Truth Era: Dishonesty and Deception in Contemporary Life, 2004, Ralph Keyes, as quoted in “Welcome to the Post-truth era – Welcome to the age of dishonesty, Albert Mohler, July 19, 2005, http://www.albertmohler.com/2005/07/19/the-post-truth-era-welcome-to-the-age-of-dishonesty/
 
17 The Post-Truth Era – Welcome to the Age of Democracy, Albert Mohler, July 19, 2005, http://www.albertmohler.com/2005/07/19/the-post-truth-era-welcome-to-the-age-of-dishonesty/
 
18 The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), potw.org, http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html
 
 (C) Futurescapes 21C, 2018. All rights reserved

Storm Preparation

Storm Preparation

November 14, 2017, rev. Nov. 20, 2017, Dec 6, 2017
© Futurescapes21C

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. (Matthew 16:3)

Growing up on a farm, you learn to read the signs of coming storms. And when you have had a succession of hot dry July days and you see dark clouds building in the West, you hurry to prepare for the fury of wind and hail. You hustle from the field, park equipment inside sheds, ensure livestock have access to shelter and secure anything that could be blown away. Those who were good at reading the signs of what nature had in store and adapted accordingly were less likely to suffer crippling losses and ultimately better farmers. My guess is that the same could be said of those people capable of anticipating and adapting to social-political storms. Preparation and readiness count in farming, ranching and in life. Looking back, I wonder if it was those childhood lessons regarding the importance of readiness that inspired my career in foresight.

US President, Donald Trump recently made a sly reference to “the calm before the storm” that’s has triggered a great deal of speculation.1 No one is entirely certain what he was alluding to at this point. But it could be a hint that something big is coming and if so, some preparation may be in order.  Some suspect it points to war. But the meaning of the comment is opaque. 

A disruptive event of some kind could well be coming. The American Empire is in a dire state. Social and political divisions abound.  America’s political leaders are corrupt, compromised and controlled by foreign and corporate interests. Big Brother is terrorizing citizens with false flags psy ops. And America’s foreign policy has made it the world’s foremost threat to peace. It all points to the need for a revolution. So the suggestion that a storm is on the horizon isn’t surprising. And it would be entirely consistent with my analysis that 2017 was to be a year of Deception and Disclosure.

This isn’t mainstream research or mainstream news. The controlled corporate media is, just that — controlled and indicative of a need for a revolution. It’s a bit different story in the independent alternative media. And while it has also been thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated, truth sometimes trickles through. Some sources in the alternative media and conspiracy research community have been describing a long running covert struggle between forces loyal to the US Republic ( “the Alliance”) and the ruling powers that (“Illuminati, Deep State, Cabal”). They believe that the struggle is approaching a tipping pint, and the Alliance now has the upper hand. Based in part upon anonymous insider leaks, these sources point to a recent series of events as indicators that the tide of the battle has turned.

They include:

  • recent filings of an inordinate number of sealed indictments in US federal courts (said to be in the thousands as of Dec 10-17);
  • the alleged criminality of the Podesta Brothers and announcement the PD lobby group was shutting down;
  • Donna Brazilie’s book exposing Hillary’s dirty election campaign dealings;
  • the resignations of three top leaders at the Federal Reserve;
  • the arrests of dozens of princes, billionaires and officials and seizure of 100’s of bank accounts in Saudi Arabia;
  • the call for an investigation of Hillary Clinton’s “Uranium One” deal;
  • seizure and analysis of the contents of Anthony Weiner’s lap top;
  • the exposure of Hollywood’s pedophilia problem; and
  • the release of the JFK files.

Other’s give no credence to the notion of a corp of “White Hats and a benevolent global Alliance of patriotic forces. It’s hard to say what is real and what is disinformation regarding the so called “coup-counter coup” narrative, but some kind of struggle seems to be playing out. In any case, there certainly is a sufficient real world bases for a storm of incriminating revelations and criminal charges. Whether this will follow isn’t clear. Sometimes in nature, the wind redirects the storm clouds and they blow over, leaving us unscathed. You can’t bank on that however. Preparation, even if it amounts to no more than practice, is a good thing.

But what constitutes preparation? One alternative media source suggests followers “prepare, pray and stay out of the way.” I’ve also encountered a couple of sources that recommend that folks stock up with some additional food and water and have some cash on hand in the event things get tense in the US.  It is difficult to predict how an already anxious and divided US citizenry might react to a series of arrests involving key public figures, for example. Would there be widespread civil unrest and riots in the US? It’s hard to say how harried US citizens would react to political disruptions of this nature. The fact that trust in politicians and the government is at a low ebb wouldn’t help. And the maladaptive responses of Hillary Clinton supporters to her election loss tells me that there are good reasons to be concerned.

In a way, her followers were set up. The corporate media conditioned Hillary supporters to expect a win. It was Hillary’s turn after all. By the time the final week of the campaign rolled around, it was time for Hillary to measure the drapes before her ascendency to the Oval office.2 And then, suddenly, it wasn’t. She lost and the cognitive dissonance was acute and tangible. The weeping and wailing continued for days and weeks. In fact, one year after the event, I read that resisters were encouraged to meet outdoors on the anniversary of the election to howl their displeasure at the skies. So it’s clear that many partisans haven’t yet come to terms with their reality. It seems that the coping skills of these folks, some perhaps social justice warriors needing colouring books, puppies campus safe spaces, aren’t good. The shock an abrupt  change of storm proportions could be significantly greater, however. And once again the mainstream media (MSM) has set folks up for a shock.

This potential shock factor associated with a major unanticipated development of the kind discussed above could register a 6 or 7 on the figurative human Rector scale. If the speculations are correct and crimes such as treason, child trafficking and corruption were involved, a takedown of the criminals would infect a large swath of US members of Congress on both sides of the isle. Because such crimes are international in scope, the reverberations would be world-wide, (see Israel, Saudi Arabia and beyond). The aftershocks could continue for years. Beyond this, rogue elements of the FBI and CIA are likely to be implicated in such crimes. The controlled corporate media may have misdirected the citizenry again. Trump’s enemies allied with the Cabal expect that Mueller’s investigation will incriminate Trump and impeachment will follow. At this point, however, it isn’t clear that Mueller has Trump in his sights. 

The geopolitical order has been shaken and likely will continue to be. My sense however is the public is ill-prepared for world-shaking political storms. One doesn’t sit down and reconstruct their worldview in a day, even when presented with new realities. Disruptions can unleash a powerful combination of emotions: anger, fear, disappointment, surprise, and embarrassment. It can be psychologically overwhelming. I recall that within days of Hillary’s defeat, an author who diagnosed himself as suffering from “Post Trump Stress Disorder,” died.3

I was fortunate. Growing up on a farm teaches you that disruptive, even catastrophic events, whether it’s weather-related like a hail storm or it’s a prairie fire, can destroy crops and possessions in minutes. In time, you either learn resilience or your are beaten into submission and defeat. And my Dad didn’t candy coat his world view either. He alerted me to the fact that the world wasn’t necessarily what it appeared to be. The powers-that-be running the Big Show didn’t have the best interests of humanity in mind. We talked at length about the Illuminati, the Rockefellers and Rothschilds, and the latter’s control over the world’s banking systems and thus entire nations. He alerted me to the fact that the Federal Reserve, unlike its name, was not a US government institution, but a private entity. I guess you could call it a different version of the facts of life. 

I’ve explained in an earlier commentary how the observations of U.S. Colonel Andrew Bacevich opened my eyes to the hard truth regarding America’s tyrannical foreign policy.4 Once the surface of the popular perceived reality is scratched and you get past the initial shock, it gets easier. You can grab hold of its edges and pull it back as you would remove a layer of worn  linoleum covering an oak floor. In the process, you discover that a faux reality sometimes hides a hard reality beneath it. At that point, one can engage in denial and replace the linoleum, but it won’t erase what has already been seen. So for those unprepared for disruptive storms, whatever their nature, here are a few protective measures I have adopted for my personal well-being in The Age of Deception (c). If even one helps, this commentary will have served its purpose.

Put your faith in God, not people. Even if admired leaders are given god-like status in government, business, entertainment, religious institutions, or on the international stage, the simple truth is their feet are made of clay. Flaws are a given.

Place the highest value on the truth versus material things. Is there anything that matters more in life than The Truth?

Empower yourself with a mandate for bringing light to darkness and telling the truth “in love” in a way you never have before.

Grant trust carefully, exercising discernment. The con artists, imposters and fake messiahs abound and they specialize in telling people what they want to hear. It depends on what is at stake of course, but when it comes to granting trust to people, it’s a bit like that hand-written sign that was hung next the cash register in rural businesses. Anticipating customer requests for credit, it read: “In God we trust; everyone else pays cash.”

Remember that not everyone has conspired against the truth and well-being of humanity. There are millions of honest men and women working in compartmentalized roles for corrupt institutions for the leaders of the Cabal without any idea what goes on at the top. They only become complicit if they choose to ignore the evidence.

Accept the reality of Evil. There comes a point when the crimes occurring in the dark can only be explained by the fact that Evil is a part of our reality. Satan hasn’t retired. He and his devotees are very busy.

Ally yourself with other truth seekers and truth tellers. Seek out wise people who aren’t influenced by mainstream media narratives or flavour of the week distractions. These are wise people who have their priorities in order and feet firmly on the ground.

Guard your heart and mind. There’s an intense battle raging for hearts and minds. Guard yours keeping in mind that ultimately, as Dylan said, “you gotta serve somebody.” It’s a question of whom you wish to serve.

Resist the propagandizing and mass mind control. Some observers have compared our current political environment and the endless propagandizing to that portrayed in Orwell’s classic, 1984. You can resist the mind-warping effect of relentless propaganda and disinformation by hitting the “off” button and developing new information sources.

Educate yourself as to the ways of the shadow government and the deep state. This means learning the history of Gladio and how psy ops and false flag are used to instil fear and shape the will of the population. 

Forgive yourself. Let’s face it; we have all been fooled. The powers that be are masters in the art and science of perception management, and they have a lot of tools in their tool kit. It’s the Illuminati that are the manipulative criminals.

Cultivate a healthy skepticism when leaders or the media imply we need to just trust them. Cultivate courage, critical thinking, intuition and discernment regarding the truth.

Reaffirm to yourself and your family what it is that really matters. It’s probably not the next episode of The View, the next football game or the irritating employee at work. You can become purposeful and powerful. It’s been said that the most powerful people in the world are those who want nothing.

Avoid the snakes. The Cabal’s servants are constantly seeking new recruits to join their ranks promising as “Hollowood” does, fame and fortune. No thanks.

Expect casualties. Sadly, some folks will be psychologically and spiritually overwhelmed by the tide of change and the inversion of a reality they became attached to.

Be patient in the sense-making process. In time, the truth will become known.

Transcend the false dichotomy of traditional, partisan left-right politics.

Spend time outdoors celebrating the endless beauty and wonder of creation. It can be powerful therapy.

Brace for cognitive dissonance. Coming to terms with the collision between two versions of reality, while knowing only one is authentic, can be painful. I recall the account of feminist author, Naomi Wolf, who told an audience about her shock at first learning that her own US government was staging (false flag) attacks and terrorizing US citizens with “theatre.” Wolf had to go for a walk and have a good cry. In effect she was grieving the passing of a cherished illusion – that of a benevolent government. 

A social-political storm may be about to erupt. If it does, as many in the  conspiracy research or “truther” community expect, the reverberations will be far reaching. Among other things, it could demand a lot of rethinking of what we thought we knew. Some some mental preparation (“stress testing”?) for the impact and aftershocks of such a storm could be worthwhile. Right now, the skies are overcast. But it’s likely to get darker. I wish you peace amid any coming storms, irrespective of their nature. 

1 Trump’s odd and ominous “calm before the storm” comment, not really explained, Vox, October 7, 2017, https://www.vox.com/2017/10/7/16441232/trump-calm-before-storm

2 Remember when Hillary Clinton was the “inevitable” candidate?, Frontpagemag.com, September 1, 2016, http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/264041/remember-when-hillary-clinton-was-inevitable-daniel-greenfield

3 Author dies after diagnosing himself with “Post-Trump Stress Disorder,” The Washington Times, November 25, 2016, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/25/jeff-gillenkirk-author-dies-after-diagnosing-himse/

4 The ‘Global Order’ myth, Colonel Andrew J. Bacevich, The American Conservative, June 15, 2017, http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-global-order-myth/