Pronoun Usage

While the US is bombing 7 countries and destabilizing many more, Americans are distracted and entertained by arguing over next year's election or proper pronoun usage for each other.

We are now being told that we must ask everyone what pronouns they prefer. What? Why should people be allowed to regulate our language, even when they are not physically present?

Obviously, the pronouns "I" and "you" are gender neutral, so the demand that we must self-police our language while there is no chance of "literally" hurting someone with "violent" language, when they are not there to hear it, is bizarre.

If a tree falls in a forest....? and so on. (The answer is "No". If you use the "wrong" pronoun when speaking of someone who is not there to hear it, it is not "literal violence".)

And we are now being told that we are to introduce ourselves including the phrase..."Hi. My name is _____. I use the pronouns she/her"
Who uses third person pronouns to refer to themselves? I have never heard anyone do that, although I have heard people refer to themselves by their own name, which is uniformly weird. This is taking it a step further, forcing weird and disturbing language use upon everyone, under threat of legal action, or social media banning. Yes, people have been fired, removed from Twitter and had the police visit them, for using the "incorrect" pronoun.


What difference does it make? This blog post explains it well...Update: the blog post has been censored. Logic is not allowed these days, and Medium censors posts frequently.

"Forcing our brains to ignore the evidence of our eyes, to ignore a conflict between what we see and know to be true, and what we are expected to say, affects us.
USING preferred pronouns does the same. It alters your attention, your speed of processing, your automaticity. You may find it makes you anxious. You pay less heed to what you want to say, and more to what is expected of you. It slows you down, confuses you, makes you less reactive. That’s not a good thing."

George Orwell, in the book 1984, had Winston Smith break down under torture and say what Big Brother told him to say, denying what he saw with his eyes, and conforming to the "proper" use of words.
"
'Just now I held up the fingers of my hand to you. You saw five fingers. Do you remember that?'

'Yes.'

O'Brien held up the fingers of his left hand, with the thumb concealed.

'There are five fingers there. Do you see five fingers?'

'Yes.'

Language is important to humans. Our brains develop with language and our language helps shape our world view. If our owners can force us to say that we see a woman, when we know that we are seeing a man, they have forced us to submit in a new and more powerful way. They already have most people convinced that War is Peace, and Ignorance is Power, but Man Is Woman? That is a power grab unprecedented in our history.

Truth, Power and Julian Assange

Lefties frequently claim that "speaking truth to power" is a revolutionary act.

But, of course, it isn't at all. Power already knows the truth. It is the powerless that don't know, because the Power owns the means of disseminating lies, half-truths, titillating stories and propaganda, 24/7.

Speaking truth to the powerless is more revolutionary, although usually futile.

But, if you speak truth about Power to the powerless, that is when you get slammed.

And as they crucify you, the powerless will crowd around and jeer and cheer, because they believe what Power tells them. Same as it ever was.

Julian Assange is screwed.

Capitalism

"Capitalism isn’t about free market, fair competition, business opportunities for everyone, let along democracy, freedom, liberal values, or whathaveyou.

Capitalism, foremost, is about maximizing the profits. And whether you achieve it by improving the recipe at a small bakery you own to make your bread more popular among local community, or by developing a total monopoly over the weapons market, buying off the media, fusing with the government and installing a dystopian quasi-fascist regime that kills off all potential competitors through mass repressions and then launches a war against half of the world is of secondary importance."


Quote from Denis Churilov

Americans Who Pay Attention, 9-11 Edition

Most Americans believe what the media tells them to believe, but they also talk about what the media tells them to talk about.

For some years after 9-11, Americans talked about those events a lot, focusing on the areas that the media told them to, i.e. how to properly get revenge.
Should we just kill Afghan villagers, or should we also invade and destroy Iraq?
What about the military budget? Was it enough to double it, or was it best to triple it?


How about the Bill of Rights? Was it enough to give up the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments, or should we also give up the Magna Carta?

Any questions about physics, of course, were verboten, as were any questions about the massive national security apparatus already in place, which appeared to have failed miserably. And why were the people in charge that day not court martialed? Why were they given medals and promoted, instead?

The media didn't ask those questions, so neither did most Americans.

And now, of course, questioners are sternly told not to "live in the past".

Instead, we all are supposed to talk about the 2016 election.

There are still Americans who pay attention to the events that turned us down this road of revenge, repression and ruin, however. Props to them.

This is a Guns and Butter interview with four Americans who are suing to force the FBI to give evidence in their possession to Congress, thereby obeying a 2014 law passed. I didn't know there was such a law, or that the FBI hadn't complied, or that Americans were paying attention and working to make it so. These are the kind of people that make up for the rest of the herd, imo. Big props to them.

Freedom, American Style

Americans, raised on Nazi movies, now consider anything less than death camps as freedom. Except for the parts of the movies where the Nazis demand - "Papers, please", which is carefully ignored, since we are now required to show ID to anyone in a uniform, (or anyone at a doorway, who blocks your way and demands ID, for that matter).

But, never mind that, as long as people are not personally in prison labor camps, they think that they are free.

And lining up to be groped before they travel? Having their fingerprints and DNA stored in massive data bases? Having all of their communications monitored? Being forced to stand and salute the flag at sporting events? Having websites and TV networks shut down? Knowing that you must submit to police or be shot? Having your children sent to schools in which there are armed police?

That's Freedom™, baby.”

Washington DC Police Explain Why They Are Restricting the Rights of Americans

This is surreal. The Washington Metropolitan Police explain to a lawyer, that they are stopping Americans from walking down a public sidewalk, because they are "protecting" them from being assaulted by right wing Venezuelan thugs.

The lawyer points out that the proper thing to do, when the Venezuelans assault Americans, is to arrest the assaulters, not the victims. (We already know that the police arrested the Americans, not the Venezuelans, when the Venezuelans assaulted them on previous days.) They refuse to address their previous dereliction of duty, instead insisting that they will prevent further assaults by the violent thugs, by stopping peaceful Americans from walking on public property.

Meanwhile, the Americans inside the embassy have no access to food, and now have had their electricity and water shut off, while the police allow the right wing Venezuelans to set up tents on the sidewalk, as part of their medieval siege. And then forbid Americans to walk on the sidewalk, to "protect" them.

This is quite Orwellian.

The Medieval Siege of the Venezuelan Embassy

The criminals who control the US government have now shut off water to the Americans inside the Venezuelan Embassy.

This is a health hazard and a crime. This is also an unprecedented breach of international law, which governs the proper relations between governments and their embassies, around the world.

At first, the US outsourced its attack on the defenders of the embassy to the right wing Venezuelan immigrants who have surrounded the embassy and are laying siege to the Americans inside, cutting them off from food and other supplies by physically attacking Americans who come to the embassy to bring necessities.

Even then, though, the police and the Secret Service aided and abetted the right wing barbarian immigrants, by standing by and allowing them to attack the Americans, and then arresting the Americans, each time.

But clearly, a ragtag band of Venezuelan fascists, although able to intimidate and threaten Americans, does not have the power to turn off the electricity and water to an embassy.

That is all on the American ruling class. They seem to have dropped all pretense of adhering to the law, not just international law, but also national and local laws, which govern mundane things like eviction and utility supply.

In the service of illegally overthrowing a sovereign government abroad, they are illegally turning off utilities at home.

Think globally, act locally, seems to be their new motto.

Happy Victory Day

Living in the USA, you would not know that today is the 74th anniversary of the surrender of Nazi Germany to the USSR and its allies. There is no mention in the media, no parades, no flags flying...nothing.

It's almost as though the US no longer wants to remind its citizens that we once fought against fascism. I wonder why that is?

This is nothing new. In 2015, on the 70th anniversary of the victory, the US and its flunkies (who the US calls "the international community") refused to attend the anniversary celebration in Russia. Of course, the USSR lost 27,000,000 people defeating the Nazis, while the Americans lost 90,000, so we can see who actually defeated Nazi Germany. Still, it was nice of the Russians to invite the West, and churlishly rude of the Americans to not only refuse to attend, but to strongarm their flunkies into also staying home. That was under Obama, not Trump, so you can see that US policy remains the same no matter which puppet is in the White House.

And there is a Allen Dulles Airport in the capital of the USA. Allen "Ratline" Dulles, the man who single-handedly saved thousands of Nazi war criminals, and helped them into new lives in new countries, as well as back into power in West German politics.

I wonder why we name anything after fascist war criminals, let alone an airport in the capital of the nation. That seems odd, to anyone brought up on a steady diet of war propaganda that implied that Americans are against fascism.

And the police of the capital city of the USA are now helping Venezuelan immigrants put a medieval siege on Americans holed up in an embassy. No food is allowed in, the US Postal Service employees are stopped from doing their job delivering mail, no person is allowed in or out, the electricity was illegally cut off, and last night the police stomped on and arrested a veteran of the US military, for trying to throw a cucumber throw in the window, for the besieged Americans inside to eat. They hauled off the veteran who tried to feed Americans, along with another person who tried to throw an orange.
You would think that the media of this country would be all over these outrages. You would be wrong.

It's almost as though the owners of this country want to prove to the citizens that they have no special fondness for us, that they will help to try to starve Americans into submission, just like they do citizens of other countries.

Happy Victory Day.

Extinction Rebellion

I grew up in Los Angeles, and knew, from choking on the smog, that internal combustion engines and factories were bad. I could see land being paved over to build more houses and freeways. I saw that more and more people added to the population made for crowding, annoyances and road rage. I lived through fires and floods caused by humans building in the mountains. I saw dead animals on the side of the road every day.

I knew, on a gut level, that destroying the environment in service of humans was bad. I think that most people have been through similar experiences, and that the reaction to the environmental destruction after WW2 was an uprising of angry Americans, which led to the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the EPA and the Endangered Species Act.

Clever, then, of our overlords, to change the emphasis to the invisible, instead of the visible, with the overwhelming emphasis on climate change, and to tell us that the financial sector can fix it, instead of laws which outlaw the razing of forests, the vacuuming of the oceans, the manufacture of plastic and herbicides and pesticides, and other very visible effects of human destruction on our planet.

Let us argue about an invisible gas, instead of the very visible island of plastic in the Pacific, and hedge all claims about weather events, while orangutans in Indonesia are burned to death, so that humans can plant palm oil trees. Let us stop talking about the Amazonian rainforest being burned, and a million species being wiped out, and oil spills and dead zones in the ocean, and start talking about how Wall Street will protect us from capitalism.

Clever, indeed.

Rachel Maddow Goes Full Neo-Con

Picture the scene...Rachel shows up for work and her handler informs her that she is now going to ally with John "We know where your kids live" Bolton, in the Venezuelan coup, against Trump and his statement that the US would not use the military to overthrow the elected government of Venezuela.

"WHAT!" screams Rachel. "You want me to ally myself with an insane evil war criminal?! That is going too far. I don't care how much you pay me."

"Ah, but you do care, Rachel. You care very much about your salary" explained her handler. "That is why you are going to do your job, which, let me remind you is to scream about Russia, blame Putin for all of America's problems, and to 'name and shame and threaten and counter Russian government involvement in Venezuela while sabre-rattling about how everyone better get out of the way because the US is really mad about it'. And you had better do your job, or else.
If it helps, just try to think of John Bolton as a human being. If you think of him as a human being, and know that his job, like yours, is to name and shame and threaten Russia, then you can feel compassion for him. He wants a war, and Trump backed down, and that made him feel really bad. So your job, besides the usual attacks on Trump and Russia, is to make other people also feel bad that poor John Bolton isn't going to get his war in Venezuela."

I think that this is the only explanation for Rachel Maddow's bizarre rambling on her show last week, where she tried to get people to think of John "All international laws are invalid" Bolton as a human being deserving of respect and sympathy. She failed, but the attempt was a disturbing insight into the pathology of those who own this country and are pushing for full spectrum dominance of the world.

Liberal Double Think

The social media giants have stomped down in another massive censorship sweep, especially targeting Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Infowars host Alex Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos and Laura Loomer, and Paul Joseph Watson, claiming that their ideas are hateful and they are personally "dangerous", (although dangerous to who and how, was not made clear).

This action, one of series of censoring and banning since the Democrats responded to the election of 2016 with loud cries of outrage, accusing Russia of giving information to the American people that the Democrats didn't want them to have, seems to be cheered on by those same "liberals", the kind that once donated to the ACLU, but now insists that the only way to have a True Democracy is to make sure that Americans are kept in the dark and fed nothing but bullshit.

Yes, it seems pretty clear that these are the same liberals who felt that freedom of expression was SO important (before the election) that a man who owned a small bakery (with competing bakeries available) should be forced to write a message on a cake that he didn't want to write. Because....freedom of speech.

And now these same liberals are sternly lecturing free speech advocates that private ownership of the means of information and opinion sharing trumps any concerns about censorship of said information and opinion sharing, because, all of a sudden, they are supremely subservient to the rights of capitalist ownership. "It's a private corporation and they can do whatever they want!" they insist.

And the fact that the platforms are now the main way that humans around the planet communicate with each other is also blithely blown off by the liberals, who tell you "If you don't like it, create your own platform". Yeah, that seems feasible. Just create your own platform that hosts 2,000,000,000 people, and then that platform can allow free speech. You can't expect to insist that the existing platforms remain as free and open as they were until 2016, that is unreasonable.

The fact that the owners don't produce or pay for the content they host, but act as facilitators, (like a phone company, which isn't allowed to listen to your conversations and then ban you from having a phone if they don't like what you say), is also irrelevant to the liberals, who seem to assume that their owners consider them Special People who will never be banned, so they don't really care about people whose opinions they don't like.

They don't understand the concept of the commons, or public utilities, or the idea that public space belongs to everyone, not just the favored few. This gives them a lot in common with traditional reactionaries, doesn't it? You know, the people they claim to hate and fear and support banning.
It is ironic that they want to censor those with which they have so much in common.

Pushing Civil War in the USA

"Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others. For example, a person who is habitually intolerant may constantly accuse other people of being intolerant. "

    Much of US foreign policy pronouncements incorporate this mechanism.  Thus we saw Iraq, systematically disarmed throughout the 90s, accused of having WMDs in 2002.  We see Russia accused of "invading other countries".  We see China accused of "entrapping 3rd world countries into debt".

   And, since 2016, we see the bizarre spectacle of the US accusing Russia of "interfering" in the elections of other countries, especially the US.   The accusations continue, even as the US appoints a president of Venezuela,  arm-twists 50 other countries to go along with it, and threatens to invade Venezuela if their elected president doesn't step down and allow the US-appointed president to take over.

   Yeah, but Russia bought Facebook ads!

   The newest claim is that Russia is trying to divide Americans and make us fight one another.

   Is CBS part of the plot?   They recently aired a full-on call for violence in the streets of America, and urged people to sucker punch anyone who disagrees with them politically.

  Twitter post containing clip from CBS call for violence.

Pompeo Speaks

Pompeo, last week:

“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole."

Pompeo, yesterday:'

"Maduro had a plane ready to fly him to Cuba, but the Russians wouldn't let him."

Who would believe that Maduro announces his travel plans to Pompeo?

Only the willfully gullible or the terminally stupid.

Update: Today’s MoA posits that the Three Stooges, Pompeo, Abrams and Bolton, got punked by Venezuela.

If true, I find it absolutely hilarious.

I thought that Bolton tweeting out open and transparent threats and bribes was just another example of his clueless thuggishness, but what if it was the outraged response of a jilted lover?

I thought that Pompeo’s claim about Russia stopping Maduro from flying to Cuba was just a tutorial on how to ”Lie, Cheat and Steal”, from his CIA classroom days, but what if he really thought that Maduro was going to run?

lol, they got snookered.

Venezuelan Traitors

Leopoldo Lopez sought refuge in the Chilean Embassy, and 25 military deserter/traitors sought refuge in the Brazilian Embassy, when their attempted coup in Venezuela fizzled yesterday.

No way they are going to be stuck there for 7 years, like Julian Assange was, in UK. Only the best for US merecenary proxies.

Looks like Miami is going to get 26 more upstanding citizens, to add to the motley collection of deposed dictators, drug runners and death squad leaders that the US has already folded into its embrace, and stashed in that sinking city.

Give me your tired, your poor, etc.