Jesse — Remembering Ed Schultz, Kind Of - This Is the World That We Live In Now

Remembering a patriot and champion of workers driven out and then degraded by the corporate culture. Sad, and a warning that difference and dissent won't be tolerated if it gains power and voice.

Jesse's Café Américain
Remembering Ed Schultz, Kind Of - This Is the World That We Live In Now

Jesse

See also

The Intercept
MSNBC Does Not Merely Permit Fabrications Against Democratic Party Critics. It Encourages and Rewards Them.

Glenn Greenwald

See also

Former MSNBC host Ed Schultz has broken his silence on his final months at the network, stating that MSNBC president Phil Griffin told him to not cover Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary.

YouTube

Caitlin Johnstone — Wikipedia Is An Establishment Psyop

As we discussed last time, the only real power in this world is the ability to control the dominant narrative about what’s going on. The only reason government works the way it works, money operates the way it operates, and authority rests where it rests is because everyone has agreed to pretend that that’s how things are. In actuality, government, money and authority are all man-made conceptual constructs and the collective can choose to change them whenever it wants. The only reason this hasn’t happened in our deeply dysfunctional society yet is because the plutocrats who rule us have been successful in controlling the narrative.

Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. This has always been the case....

Push is coming to shove.

Caitlin Johnstone — Rogue Journalist
Wikipedia Is An Establishment Psyop
Caitlin Johnstone

Caitlin Johnstone — The Friendly Mask Of The Orwellian Oligarchy Is Slipping Off

Another good rant.

Caitlin Johnstone — Rogue Journalist
The Friendly Mask Of The Orwellian Oligarchy Is Slipping Off

Caitlin Johnstone

Moon of Alabama — The Media War On Truthful Reporting And Legitimate Opinions - A Documentary

Bringing down the curtain of censorship in US media.

Moon of Alabama
The Media War On Truthful Reporting And Legitimate Opinions - A Documentary

b

Related

Tony Blair redux? It worked the first time around.

Consortium News
Another Dodgy British Dossier: the Skripal Case
Gareth Porter

Addison dePitt — Presstitutes raise the temperature on social media giants to join the campaign to stamp out free speech and all political dissent

Zuckerberg’s auto-da-fé before the Congressional inquisition is designed to send a message to his tech industry colleagues, as well as provide official cover for the future enforcement of draconian rules against deviants from the official script. “Misuse of social media!” cry the new Inquisitors. But who decides what constitutes “misuse”? Isn’t that what the First Amendment is all about?….

The suppression of free speech in the US and the rest of the “capitalist democracies” (a glorious oxymoron) is a systemic bipartisan plot that long precedes Trump, the result of the establishment’s realisation —brought to a boil with the upset election of Trump—that they are losing control of the main narrative—the truth is getting through, so to speak— and the holes must be plugged. The gargantuan echo chamber dedicated to lies 24/7 that is the mainstream media and supporting institutions must be kept safe from further erosion and eventual dismantlement by that pesky little thing some people still quaintly call, “just the facts.”...

The Greanville Post

Presstitutes raise the temperature on social media giants to join the campaign to stamp out free speech and all political dissent

Addison dePitt

Craig Murray — On Being a Dissenting Voice in 2018

The site is just back up at 16.42 on 21 March having managed to slip like the Tardia into another dimension and thus dodge the massive DOS attack we are under. over 50,000 separate IP addresses simultaneously throwing up millions of hits. The attack has not actually stopped and does seem to have a human intelligence changing terms and directing it, which could make for an interesting afternoon. Once our excellent techs get a minute from fighting it, we will post the cloudfare graphs as evidence.

I just thought I might give you a little taste of what it means to your personal life to express dissent from the government line in the UK in 2018. Let me start with this combined effort from the UK’s most popular website, Guido Fawkes, which fanatically supports the government, and the Blairite crew at “The Guardian”....

Taking down dissent. A fine "liberal" tradition.

Craig Murray Blog
On Being a Dissenting Voice in 2018
Craig Murray, formerly British ambassador to Uzbekistan and Rector of the University of Dundee

James Carden — Russiagate Is Devolving Into an Effort to Stigmatize Dissent

An amicus brief to a lawsuit filed against Roger Stone and the Trump campaign raises troubling questions over the right to political speech.

Intimidation.

...as of this writing, the Russia-Trump collusion narrative is fast devolving into an effort to stigmatize and marginalize expressions of dissent, with the overarching aim of short-circuiting and stifling debate over US-Russia policy.

The Nation
Russiagate Is Devolving Into an Effort to Stigmatize Dissent
James Carden | executive editor for the American Committee for East-West Accord

Edward S. Herman — Fake News on Russia and Other Official Enemies: The New York Times, 1917–2017

It has been amusing to watch the New York Times and other mainstream media outlets express their dismay over the rise and spread of “fake news.” These publications take it as an obvious truth that what they provide is straightforward, unbiased, fact-based reporting. They do offer such news, but they also provide a steady flow of their own varied forms of fake news, often by disseminating false or misleading information supplied to them by the national security state, other branches of government, and sites of corporate power.

An important form of mainstream media fake news is that which is presented while suppressing information that calls the preferred news into question.…

Controlling the narrative.

Monthly Review
Fake News on Russia and Other Official Enemies: The New York Times, 1917–2017
Edward S. Herman

Edward Samuel Herman (April 7, 1925 – November 11, 2017) was professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania and a media analyst with a specialty in corporate and regulatory issues as well as political economy. He also taught at Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. He is probably best known for developing the propaganda model of media criticism with Noam Chomsky. Wikipedia

See also

Recent revelations have simple, credible explanations that are overshadowed by conspiracy theories and hype.

Bloomberg View
Simpler Explanations Are Usually Correct. Even on Russia.
Leonid Bershidsky

Caitlin Johnstone — I’ve Been Banned From Facebook For Sharing An Article About False Flags

The censorship saga continues

In a corporatist system of government, corporate censorship is state censorship. When there’s no meaningful space between corporate power and government power, it doesn’t make much difference whether the guy silencing your dissent is Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Sessions. America most definitely has such a system.

If they’re going to get us locked down and propagandized into their vapid brain boxes, this will be how they’ll do it. Not by government censorship, but by corporate censorship. Government can’t make an overt attempt to stop a dissenting voice from speaking, but the corporations who own the venue of their speech can.

Corporations working with government on policy has a name — corporate statism aka fascism aka transnational corporate totalitarianism.

"It can't happen here."

Looks like it is already in gear and shifting up.

Medium
I’ve Been Banned From Facebook For Sharing An Article About False Flags

Caitlin Johnstone

Robert Parry — Russia-gate Breeds ‘Establishment McCarthyism’

In the past, America has witnessed “McCarthyism” from the Right and even complaints from the Right about “McCarthyism of the Left.” But what we are witnessing now amid the Russia-gate frenzy is what might be called “Establishment McCarthyism,” traditional media/political powers demonizing and silencing dissent that questions mainstream narratives....

It's about Establishment control of the narrative that establishes consensus reality.

Consortium News
Russia-gate Breeds ‘Establishment McCarthyism’

Robert Parry

Justin Raimondo — The Campaign To Rein In the Internet

It’s part and parcel of the “Russia-gate” hoax.…

The Powers That Be have always hated the internet, and now they’re finally making some progress in their campaign to have it reined in. Using the “Russia threat” and Hillary Clinton’s loss to appeal to those who used to be called “liberals,” they’re teaming up with neoconservatives like Bill Kristol and foreign-funded (!) outfits like the Alliance to Secure Democracy to achieve their longtime dream of regulating internet content. And they have powerful allies in the Legacy Media, which has suffered huge losses due to competition from free internet media.

The Russia-gate hoax has many uses – providing cover for a politically bankrupt and intellectually dishonest Democratic party: restarting the cold war; promoting the “liberal”-neocon alliance. Yet paving the way for content controls – i.e. censorship – to be imposed on the internet has got to be the clearest and most present danger of them all.…

Just the latest iteration of dupe the rubes to extend power by controlling the narrative and suppressing dissent. Liberal democracy or plutocratic oligarchy?

AntiWar
The Campaign To Rein In the Internet

 Justin Raimondo

See also

WSWS
The new McCarthyism and the suppression of political dissent
Andre Damon

Rolling Stone

Latest Fake News Panic Appears to Be Fake News

Matt Taibbi

SouthFront Thousands Protest In Barselona Over Police Violence During Catalan Independence Referendum

State fascism rearing its ugly head again in Spain?

SouthFront

Thousands Protest In Barselona Over Police Violence During Catalan Independence Referendum

lkb22

Independent
Spanish anti-separatists in Madrid protest with fascist arm salutes while singing far-right song

Natasha Salmon

Reuters
Serbia accuses world of double standards over Catalonia and Kosovo

More paradoxes of liberalism.

GEFIRA — The creepiest EU initiative yet: registering dissent as “Russian propaganda” under Soros’ direction

The EUAS officially branded researchers and journalists as fraudulent, unpatriotic and dishonest without any notification. There is a small disclaimer on the list that states that ”disinformation review cannot be considered an official EU position”. Yet it was created by the European Council, is part of the ”diplomatic service” of the EU, hence funded by it, uses its symbols and institutional addresses. So, it is part of the EU and yet does not represent its official position? The statement seems to have been made for the express purpose of dishonestly dismissing concerns raised by citizens.…

Back to the list. There are three regular contributors. East Stratcom Network, part of EUAS, the already mentioned Kremlin Watch and finally a Ukrainian website called “StopFake“, supported again, it’s unclear how, by Open Society Foundations.7) 

The reports normally focus on the Russian media like TASS, Sputnik, RT. The same issue no. 52 also lists Zero Hedge for reblogging Ron Paul’s criticism of the “fake news” crusade, and Paul Craig Roberts’s one. In the Soros version of European values, criticism and democratic debate are fake news! Past issues include the conservative outlet Breitbart, 8)and even The Guardian. 9)

It’s also rather interesting to note how Mr. Soros interprets European “liberal values”. Free press is normally listed as a key one, and yet Soros wants proscription lists of anyone who disagrees, something for instance adopted by Turkish President Erdoğan following the last year’s failed coup and widely criticized by the EU itself. Another key liberal value is fair trial. Yet Soros’ own Kremlin Watch is judge, jury and executioner in one. Who does the EU belong to and serve, anyway? Its people or its financial oligarch? Perhaps Israel and Hungary are right: Mr. Soros is a threat to democracy.10)

Another instance of liberal paradoxes.

GEFIRA — Global Analysis from the European Perspective
The creepiest EU initiative yet: registering dissent as “Russian propaganda” under Soros’ direction

Daniel McAdams — Russia Sanctions and The Coming Crackdown on Americans

"It can't happen here." Famous last words.

Paranoia?

Ron Paul Institute
Russia Sanctions and The Coming Crackdown on Americans
Daniel McAdams

Two contrasting views of Liu Xiaobo

Was Liu a" human rights champion"? (Pei)  Or a Westernizers trying to overthrow the sitting government? (Karlin)

The 61-year-old Liu, a former literary critic and high-profile champion of human rights and non-violent resistance, spent the last eight years of his life behind bars on trumped-up charges of “subversion.” His real offense was to call for democracy in China.

Project Syndicate
Did Liu Xiaobo Die for Nothing?

Minxin Pei | Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College, non-resident senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and author of China's Crony Capitalism.

For what my views are worth – which is very little, especially in China - I am always for freedom of speech.

That said, it’s worth clarifying that the late Liu Xiaobo was much more a Western nationalist than a genuine humans right activist.…

(Liu quotes follow showing this.)

His closest equivalent in Russia would probably be someone like Valeria Novodvorskaya, authoritarian neocon “liberals” who in net terms set back the cause of liberalism and human rights rather than advance them because of the negative reactions their Western cargo cultism and photo ops with John McCain provokes amongst the patriotic toiling masses....

Contra Alt Right rhetoric, China is one of the least nationalist entities on the planet. What other country legally restricted the birth rates of its indigenous majority while letting minorities have second and third children to their hearts’ content? Even Sweden has yet to “cuck” itself that hard.

Netizens on the Chinese Internet constantly lambast the PRC for its limp-wristedness in responding to foreign provocations.

However, not even all this was enough for Liu Xiaobo. So far as he was concerned, only unequal treaties, only hardcore.

The Unz Review
Liu Xiaobo, Chinese Neocon

Anatoly Karlin

Adam Johnson — Mass Arrests of Protesters: Outrageous in Russia, Barely Worth Mentioning in US

Comparison of suppression of dissent in the US and Russia. The US "wins" big time. And Occupy is not even mentioned, let alone Standing Rock, or Ferguson, or .…. But Putin is an ex-KGB thug anyway.

FAIR — Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Mass Arrests of Protesters: Outrageous in Russia, Barely Worth Mentioning in US
Adam Johnson

Alleen Brown — Standing Rock Documents Expose Inner Workings Of “surveillance-Industrial Complex”

Occupy redux. Protesters encounter the might of the corporate state apparatus operating secretly.

Another paradox of liberalism involving where and how to draw lines.

America has not seen this level of intensity since the Vietnam anti-war movement.

The Intercept

Standing Rock Documents Expose Inner Workings Of “surveillance-Industrial Complex”

Alleen Brown

Alleen Brown — Leaked Documents Reveal Counterterrorism Tactics Used at Standing Rock to “Defeat Pipeline Insurgencies”

A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures, collaborating closely with police in at least five states, according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept.

The documents provide the first detailed picture of how TigerSwan, which originated as a U.S. military and State Department contractor helping to execute the global war on terror, worked at the behest of its client Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, to respond to the indigenous-led movement that sought to stop the project.

Internal TigerSwan communications describe the movement as “an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component” and compare the anti-pipeline water protectors to jihadist fighters.

"It can't happen here," morphs into "It can't be happening here, can it?"

Warning: SCARY.

The Intercept
Leaked Documents Reveal Counterterrorism Tactics Used at Standing Rock to “Defeat Pipeline Insurgencies”
Alleen Brown

Sputnik International — Charges Dropped Against RT Reporter Arrested on Inauguration Day

You knew this was coming. It was transparent intimidation and harassment. Authorities regularly do this as projection of power even in a "free country."

Felony riot charges against three journalists arrested while covering the Inauguration Day protests in Washington DC, were dropped by the US Attorney’s office on Monday.

Among those who were cleared was Alexander Rubinstein of RT whose charges included “incitement of riots,” independent journalist Matthew Hopard, and documentary producer John Keller....

Sputnik International
Charges Dropped Against RT Reporter Arrested on Inauguration Day

Jon Hellevig — EU's Infowar On Russia - Putting In Place A Totalitarian Media Regime And Speech Control

... while Russia has been identified both in the EU and the US as the supposed adversary against whom these states are supposedly protecting, the real target of their crackdown is internal dissent. Their scandalous calls to an infowar against Russia is actually a red herring intended to conceal the much more sinister aim of establishing a totalitarian media regime and speech control with all-out propaganda and censorship internally in the EU states.

Obviously the EU and USA have very little to fear from Russia's quite limited media resources. Russia has no propaganda reach over the West and based on my observations has not even been engaged in any such attempts. Russia has, however, increased its legitimate reporting in English with an aim at Western and other global audiences. These are quite insignificant operations and reach only a very limited audience. Hereby, there is no need for Russia even to try to do anything called propaganda – in the sense of trying to push false narratives by subterfuge. The Western propaganda machine is the one that takes care of producing the propaganda content, and Russian and other alternative media sources need not do anything else than sit there and refute the Western propaganda narratives 24 hours a day, as well as report the real news.

For sure, this is annoying enough for the West, but their real concern is yet much more baleful. They have a need to enact a totalitarian media regime and speech control in order to continue unhindered in their geopolitical new world order machinations and in their endeavors to establish a World Government with its political and cultural agenda....

That the European mainstream media had been converted into a totalitarian propaganda machine should have become clear to the most lazy observer by the latest in 2013/2014 with the jaw-dropping anti-Sochi propaganda and the massive propaganda support and whitewashing of the Ukrainian coup and the atrocities in its wake - which clearly were perpetrated by people and groups that openly displayed their adherence to fascist and Nazi ideologies – on the Maidan, Odessa, Mariupol and its war of terror on the population of Donbass. The Western propaganda war on Syria in support of jihadists and Western mercenary terrorists labeling these groups “moderate rebels” should have come as final proof for those who still wanted to give the Western media the benefit of the doubt. – Now, they want to remove that doubt once and for all by the introduction of a totalitarian media regime and speech control.

Jon Hellevig's Blog
EU's Infowar On Russia - Putting In Place A Totalitarian Media Regime And Speech Control
Jon Hellevig, founder, Awara Group