Michael Hudson — Orwell at the UN: Obama Re-Defines Democracy as a Country That Supports U.S. Policy

Obama gives UN speech in double-speak instead of English.

Incidentally, this was my impression of the speech, too.

Bush was just blunter about it when he announced, "You are either with us or against us." That's empire speaking.

Counterpunch
Orwell at the UN: Obama Re-Defines Democracy as a Country That Supports U.S. Policy
Michael Hudson

See also

Video and transcript

Democracy Now!
Noam Chomsky: The United States, Not Iran, Poses Greatest Threat to World Peace

Amy goodman interviews Noam Chomsky

Yves Smith — Tom Engelhardt: Edward Snowden vs. Robert Seldon Lady Shows How Our One-Superpower World Works

Yves here. Tom Engelhardt’s latest piece discusses how, as he puts it in his setup:

Retired CIA agent Robert Seldon Lady, convicted in absentia in Italy for a rendition/kidnapping operation, is picked up in Panama on an Interpol warrant, hits the news for a day, and then is allowed to fly back to the U.S. where he disappears — and despite the Edward Snowden case, the Washington media doesn’t even blink.

Astonishingly, not only did this story come and go with remarkable speed, but there has been nada in the way of follow-up. Until now, where Engelhardt’s piece delves into how and why Lady has been disappeared in order to escape from justice in Italy.

Double-standard and Orwellian double-speak. The US government is shown up as an imperial regime bent on maintaining global hegemony through superpower status. Now there is not longer any pretense about it. There goes US soft power. RIP.

Naked Capitalism

Tom Engelhardt: Edward Snowden vs. Robert Seldon Lady Shows How Our One-Superpower World Works
Yves Smith

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act Rebrands Constitutionally Protected Behavior as Terrorism

On Monday, June 22, the Center for Constitutional Rights appealed the dismissal of a federal lawsuit that bears my name, Blum v.Holder and challenges the constitutionality of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA). Last March, Judge Joseph L. Tauro dismissed the case because, he said, the plaintiffs “have not alleged any specific, actual harm suffered.” But I have been deeply harmed. The AETA explicitly punishes causing an “animal enterprise” to lose profits, and I have spent years living in fear that the more persuasively I tell the truth about the animal suffering that underpins so much of our daily lives, the more likely I am to get thrown in jail.

The ruling by the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts offers one very narrow interpretation of the statute and a hollow promise that the AETA will not be used to prosecute those engaging in first amendment protected speech - but I am not relieved. If the AETA exists only to prosecute activists who engage in criminal activity, as the court claims, then it needn't exist at all. Ample state and federal laws already exist to prosecute those who damage property or engage in harassing or threatening behavior. What did not exist until the AETA was a way to rebrand effective advocacy on behalf of animals as terrorism. The court's ruling allows the AETA's labeling of nonviolent civil disobedience as a terrorist act and punishes those who trespass on factory farms and illegally liberate animals from horrific conditions orders of magnitude more severely than someone who steals or damages property for reasons other than animal rights.

Who are the actual terrorists here?

Truthout | Op-Ed
The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act Rebrands Constitutionally Protected Behavior as Terrorism
Sarahjane Blum

Torture is "enhanced interrogation." Kidnapping is "rendition." Aggression against a sovereign nation that has not attacked is "pre-emptive defense." Ignoring habeas corpus is "indefinite detention." Whislte blowing is "espionage." Abrogating human and civil rights is "patriotism." Civil disobedience in protest is "terrorism." Dictatorship and empire are "freedom" and "democracy."

Orwellian.

Yves Smith — Michael Hudson Shreds Obama’s Orwellian Speech on Middle Class Prosperity

Michael Hudson was so incensed by what he called a “Blairesque” speech by Obama on Wednesday that he took it upon himself to comment on its all-too-frequent sleights of hand and outright fabrications. However, you’ll also notice that the speech contained so much bullshit (in the Harry Frankfurter sense of indifference to the truth) that eventually Hudson’s comments thin out a bit.

The original speech is in black. Hudson’s remarks are in red. You’ll see he took mercy on you and edited the speech down a bit and also bolded some of the, erm, remarkable parts. I’ve added a few observations, in blue. I hope readers in comments will join in the fun by extracting sections or phrases from the speech and explaining what they really mean.

The worst is that Obama apparently plans a series of Big Lie speeches on his “vision for rebuilding an economy that puts the middle class — and those fighting to join it – front and center.” That’s at best an afterthought, since he’s given the economy over to an at best indifferent and at worst predatory elite that have no interest in giving it back.

Naked Capitalism
Michael Hudson Shreds Obama’s Orwellian Speech on Middle Class Prosperity
Posted by Yves Smith