http://edwardcurtin.com/war-or-images-of-war/
War or Images of War?
Experienced foreign policy analysts such as Ray McGovern, Scott Ritter, and Pepe Escobar, while agreeing that the Biden administration is clearly guilty of provoking Russia over Ukraine, are divided over whether it will lead to war. All agree that Russia has no intention of invading Ukraine and that it is clearly justified in demanding safe borders by insisting U.S./NATO withdraw troops and missiles from the countries surrounding it, stop NATO’s “open door” policy, stop putting nuclear weapons in Europe, etc.
Clearly such demands are consonant with the U.S.’s own historical demands for safe borders, evidenced most clearly in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 when the world nearly suffered a nuclear war over Soviet missiles in Cuba. And equally obvious is the fact that the American posture today is hypocritical in the extreme and can only be accepted by propagandists and those ignorant of history. The Biden administration must assume that most people are ignoramuses and that its obvious belligerence and blatant propaganda will pass as some sort of defense of freedom, even when the U.S. engineered a Ukrainian coup d’état in 2014 in support of Neo-Nazis when Biden was President Obama’s vice-president. But that was nearly eight years ago, which is an eternity in a country of amnesiacs.
Whether this U.S. persistent aggression is a propaganda charade or not, it is a most dangerous game. In December 2021, Russia claimed that the U.S. was preparing a false flag event to provoke a Russian response. This was dismissed or ignored by the western media as absurd. Recently, however, the Biden administration has been pounding the message that it is Russia that is preparing a false flag event to blame on Ukraine in order to justify a Russian invasion. The western press, led by The New York Times, CNN, The Guardian, and the Washington Post – stenographers for the CIA, British intelligence, and the Pentagon – have become more hysterical by the day pushing this lie without any evidence whatsoever. It is sardonically comical. If evidence doesn’t exist, of course, it can be manufactured, as with “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, etc. It’s easy as pie. To call these media the Yellow Press is an understatement.
When Russia accuses the U.S. of using “information terrorism,” it is of course correct. For we are living in a MKULTRA mind control operation with multiple facets. Ukraine, Covid, economic warfare, etc. – a hydra-headed monster whose goal is total control of regular people, who are treated as morons incapable of reason and the most basic logic. Toward confirming and strengthening this premise, the media provide a daily menu of mixed and contradictory messages meant to confuse, confound, and mess with people’s sense of their own ability to understand the world.
If the public is to be convinced that the Russians have started a war, it will be attempted not so much through words as through images, as Gustave Le Bon predicted long ago in his book, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. In analyzing the “crowd mind” in 1895, he was addressing the anxiety the middle class was feeling because of popular unrest. The fear of popular unrest, such as the truckers Freedom Convoy in Canada and the Yellow Vests in France, is today a major factor in the propaganda war waged by the elite press. Call it class warfare.
Le Bon argued that the crowd thinks in images, not words, and it is through images that the rulers can control them. Freud agreed with his basic premise that people in groups occupied an “hypnotic state,” while adding that this was also true for individuals who craved illusions. Pessimistic as it was, Le Bon’s point about the crowd thinking in images – “The image itself immediately calls up a series of other images, having no logical connection to the first” – was picked up by all the influential propagandists, including the American father of the euphemistically named “public relations” industry, Edward Bernays. Today it is all about images, still and moving ones.
Thus, one can expect to see the media using photos and film to create an emotional response in the population to convince it that Russia, not the U.S. is the villain in this standoff. Yet again, it may not be a standoff, for it is possible that the Biden administration is really intent on war because they have become completely untethered from reality and think such a war is winnable. Perhaps they think they can entice Russia to take their bait and do something that can be spun as an “invasion” of Ukraine. This would run counter to Russia’s longstanding, patient diplomatic efforts to resolve these matters and to convince the U.S./NATO that the unipolar era is over and now that it is a multipolar world there must be an end to the encircling of Russia with U.S./NATO troops and weapons.
We shall see. I don’t know whether there will be a major war or not, but I know how it will be managed. I’ll give you six guesses, as does The New York Times with its newly acquired word game, Wordle. The Grey Lady also knows the answer. It’s not “censor,” for that’s six not five letters and they’ve censored the words already. It’s not “slave,” for they have prohibited that word since some people might find it offensive or get the idea that censorship is used to create slaves to the lie. It is, as required, five letters and begins with the letter “I”.
Try to picture it. It’s easy if you try.
Comment to article:
" Well there’s a lot of subterfuge going on here. The back story is a complete reset of the global financial system. The “pandemic” was to progress with that agenda under cover, and now this saber rattling maneuver.
The Biden administration is at least partly on board the WEF Reset agenda. The US has exceeded $30 trillion in debt (combined national and household). The American people will revolt when they can’t eat; and they can adapt to that if it happens over a long period of time. (Functionally, the reset began long ago, and over that time Americans have shown a propensity to rename it “progress”.)
The system is demanding a complete reset if it is to continue to the elite’s vision of status quo. They’re in it to concentrate power and wealth (not money); to essentially own the world.
If the Russians are of such concern than why (from Whitney Webb) this:
From “Event 201” to “Cyber Polygon”: The WEF’s Simulation of a Coming “Cyber Pandemic”
Last year, the World Economic Forum teamed up with the Russian government and global banks to run a high-profile cyberattack simulation that targeted the financial industry, an actual event that would pave the way for a “reset” of the global economy. The simulation, named Cyber Polygon, may have been more than a typical planning exercise and bears similarities to the WEF-sponsored pandemic simulation Event 201 that briefly preceded the COVID-19 crisis.”
Biden’s “build back better” came directly from the WEF. The US economy has been smoke and mirrors (much like SARS-CoV-2), bolstered only by debt. It has amassed a huge number of weapons of war, much of which are junked and readily outdated given US manufacturing and lack of a competitive purchasing power parity, China has (and Russia comes very close) a PPP well exceeding the US capacity (spend away America. The jobs program is all you’ve got from the MIC).
Since Brentton Woods the US dollar and power has reigned supreme. That’s gone, and much of the EU is underwater as well. This collapse is likely to lead to chaos and a major depression.
WEF is trying to rescue with its RESET/4IR/Smart Cities/Centralized Global bank/trans-humanist population management, but it means an end to sovereignty and any notion of some sort of faux democracy. If they have their way, much like a corporate acquisition; what remains that hasn’t already been hollowed out, will be caput. The US, in the state it’s in, can’t build back better; just look around. For the elite this is a multi-million square miles of real estate.
I’ve yet to witness one protest that accomplished anything (other than postpone).
There are certain signs this reset, at least an attempt, will happen much sooner than anticipated.
We’ll see…
The US has lost virtually all its war engagements (93% of US history has been consumed by these) since WWII, and Russia made that happen. The US just pulled out with its tail between its legs in Afghanistan (should never have gone in); and now it’s threatening the 2nd largest nuclear nation whose demonstrated its competency in Syria. The US is all hired hands. Russia would be defending the mother land. Come on Joe…Joe…Joe… are you still there Joe? "
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https://www.oftwominds.com/blogfeb22/winter-discontent2-22.html
The Winter of Our Discontent: Hubris Is Ascendent
We're constantly assured everything's on the mend but this trying-too-hard marketing has the opposite effect: it confirms everything's unraveling. We're told inflation is transitory (you mean like terminal cancer is "transitory"?), the economy is opening up and growing smartly.
None of this is remotely persuasive. OK, we get it: the pandemic shutdown crushed supply chains and demand, and then trillions of dollars, yen, yuan and euros of monetary and fiscal stimulus boosted pent-up demand which then snarled creaky supply chains. Inflation is transitory because the effects of this massive stimulus is temporary and the global supply snarls will all be unkinked shortly.
But this happy story only accounts for a thin wafer of global supply issues. Yes, a few items may be restored to low-cost production and shipping, but all this rah-rah ignores the primary dynamics: all the cheap, easy-to-get resources have been extracted and consumed, and labor costs, crushed for the past 45 years, have reversed: after being stripmined by capital for the past 45 years, labor is now demanding some modest restoration of decades of diminished purchasing power, not just in the U.S. but in China and other production nodes in global supply chains.
Capital's screams of agony are laughable, as the top tier of capital has added trillions in wealth at the expense of the bottom 99.5%. The wealth of the few has metastasized into hyper-wealth--$100 million yachts and villas barely scratch the surface of the billions gained by gaming financialization and the Federal Reserve's financial fentanyl.
Although nobody benefiting from the Fed's financial fentanyl seems to have noticed, hyper-wealth has extinguished democracy and destabilized the economy and society. With trillions gushing into the wealthiest families and corporate insiders, "democracy" has been reduced to an invitation-only auction of political favors.
If you didn't get your desired favors, then increase your bid. Big Pharma, the "defense" (heh) industry, Higher Education, Big Ag, Big Tech, et al. are all willing to pony up millions in bribes--oops, I mean "donations"-- to multi-millionaire politicos profiting from insider trading (cough, Pelosi, cough). Revolving doors ensure the right people get fat speaking fees, cushy do-nothing slots in philanthro-capitalist foundations, etc.
The decay caused by hyper-wealth is systemic: the moral decay of a thoroughly corrupted "leadership," a sham facade of "democracy" (vote for whomever you want, the ownership of power doesn't change), an economy dominated by profiteering cartels and quasi-monopolies, a class system in which privilege is hidden in plain sight, a society of haves who have broken the rungs of the social-mobility ladder, leaving the have-nots unaffordable housing, unaffordable higher education, unaffordable healthcare, unaffordable childcare, etc., all to be paid out of wages that have lost purchasing power for decades and continue to lose ground as "transitory" inflation is embedded in essentials and fripperies alike.
Meanwhile, back in the wintry real world, everyone facing a dime in higher costs is jacking up their price by a dollar. "Inflation" is a handy cover for jacking up prices just to see how much the panic-hoarding, desperate consumer will pay: hmm, a used truck costs more than a new truck cost two years ago? I'll take it! A mattress-in-a-box has doubled in price? I'll take it! A fast-food burger is now 50% more? Give me four, and charge it to my credit card.
Oh, but wait--everything is being fixed by speculative bubbles that enrich everyone who bought assets long ago. That's obviously a solution that benefits everyone, right? So the newly enriched can buy overvalued assets from other newly enriched, all funded by the Fed's financial fentanyl.
Yes, it's time to distribute victorious wreaths to the purveyors and profiteers of financial fentanyl. Hubris is ascendent just before the fall.
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https://stephenlendman.org/2022/02/16/freedom-v-tyranny-in-canada/
Freedom v. Tyranny in Canada
Canadian truckers and supporters are profiles in courage at a time when ruling regimes throughout the West are going all-out to eliminate what remains of free and open societies worldwide.
Days earlier, Ottawa-based free lance journalist Rupa Subramanya spoke to scores of truckers.
“(N)ot one of them sounded like an insurrectionist, white supremacist, racist or misogynist,” she explained.
Husband and wife Ukrainian emigres said they “came to Canada to be free, not slaves,” adding:
Yet under Trudeau regime rule, “we’re now fighting for our freedom.”
Freedom Convoy spokesman BJ Dichter said he “ha(s) family in mass graves in Europe.”
Yet Trudeau regime propaganda considers him and likeminded truckers “white supremacist(s) (sic).”
Protesters are in Ottawa and elsewhere across Canada for restoration of lost freedoms.
Pompously arrogant Trudeau refused to meet with their representatives to hear what their freedom-fighting activism is all about.
One protester told Subramanya that the unjabbed are “treat(ed) like garbage lying on the streets.”
Another said they’re “treated like second-class citizens.”
A “growing divide between haves and have-nots” in Canada is another polarizing issue.
Member of Trudeau’s Liberal Party, MP Joel Lightbound, said its rule “stigmatizes and divides people.”
Canadian freedom-fighting truckers have millions of supporters nationwide and abroad.
Growing numbers of Canadians are fed up with all things related to draconian flu/covid mandates — wanting normality in their lives restored.
The same sentiment applies throughout the US/West and elsewhere.
According to a Canadian Freedom Convoy statement in late January, organizers said what began with 1,600 truckers grew to around 50,000.
Claims by the Trudeau regime and its MSM press agents about hundreds or a few thousand “fringe” elements involved are defied by reality in Ottawa and elsewhere in Canada nationwide.
En route to Ottawa and elsewhere, thousands expressed support along the way and after arrival at their destinations.
Since arriving in Ottawa on January 28, trucker activism has been peaceful according to the rule of law.
Claims otherwise reflect Trudeau regime propaganda to demean and undermine their freedom-fighting mission.
Last week, undemocratic New Dem party leader Jagmeet Singh falsely called freedom-fighting truckers an insurrectionist attempt to “overthrow the government (sic),” adding:
Protesters are “getting funded by foreign interference (sic), and we need to investigate and stop that (sic) – stop the flow of that foreign interference (sic).”
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is a Trudeau Liberal Party member.
On Tuesday, he repeated Singh’s bald-faced Big Lie, saying:
“(T)his movement is a very small, organized group that is driven by an ideology to overthrow the government (sic).”
No evidence exists to suggest it or that any freedom-fighting truckers are armed.
Yet according to Mendicino, the Trudeau regime “seiz(ed) a significant number of illegal firearms by a group that is very committed to the cause is something that we need to be very sober about (sic).”
The RCMP falsely claimed that protesters have a “willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade (sic).”
Evidence on the ground debunked the bald-faced Big Lie.
Yet the RCMP said they arrested 11 individuals at the Coutts, Alberta border-crossing to the US.
If armed elements were arrested in Coutts or anywhere else in Canada, no credible evidence links them to law-abiding, freedom-fighting truckers.
According to Canada’s National Post, the RCMP “seized 13 long guns, handguns, multiple sets of body armor, a machete, a large quantity of ammunition and high-capacity magazines.”
If the above report is accurate, did the Trudeau regime orchestrate it to falsely blame truckers as part of its attempt to discredit their activist cause?
Ottawa protest organizer Chris Barber said “(a)ll we want is (the) remov(al) (of flu/covid) mandates.”
“There’s never been a case for trying to overthrow the government” violently or in any other way.
Spokeswoman for Ottawa protesters Tamara Lich, said the following:
“We will hold the line. There are no threats that will frighten us.”
A Final Comment
According to new Maru Public Opinion poll results:
Nearly half (48%) of Canadians said Trudeau is “not up to the job” of serving as prime minister.
Over half of respondents (53%) called him weak, 44% saying he “inflamed” things by regime actions against truckers.
Only 16% said they’d vote for him ahead — compared to 63% expressing opposition.