“Good night and good luck.” – Edward R. Murrow
The Washington Post – I should say, Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post – ran an article last week which featured a report from an organization called “PropOrNot” which claims it used “a combination of manual and automated analysis…in order to identify (“red flag”) [actual quote from the site, verbatim] the following as Russian propaganda outlets.”
Hmmm…”red flag” as in, “Red Scare?” In what is a bona fide rebirth of McCarthyism, PropOrNot claims to be “an independent team of concerned American citizens with a wide range of backgrounds and expertise” that is currently “volunteering time and skills to identify propaganda – particularly Russian propaganda…”
Seriously, is this some kind of joke? Is this the same group of “professionals” who devise the “seasonal adjustments” used to brew up Government economic reports? Has anyone vetted this organization? Apparently Jeff Bezos is unable to answer any of those questions or, as a responsible purveyor of “independent” journalism he would have dispelled these questions by disclosing the credibility of this group up front.
You’ll note that I specifically single out Jeff Bezos. Bezos was quietly appointed by the Secretary of Defense to the Defense Innovation Advisory Board in July. The Board was formed in March 2016 to “focus on new technologies and organizational behavior and culture.” The Board has been asked to “identify innovative private-sector practices and technological solutions that the DoD could employ in the future.”
Clearly this is straight out of Orwell’s playbook. It has behavioral modification and thought control seeping from every pore. It is a Deep State operation and Jeff Bezos is now part of the Deep State fabric.
This is Orwell’s Thought Police. The new “advisory board” is headed up by Google’s Eric Schmidt. Recall that right after the primaries if you typed “Presidential election” in a Google search bar the first item that popped up was picture of Hillary Clinton standing in front of the Presidential seal. It was eventually removed.
This blog was listed as one of the 200 websites that “reliably echo Russian propaganda.” I’m quite honored to be listed among many of the well-respected sites on “the list.” Several readers emailed me to say that “you must doing something right” to be included on that ridiculously absurd “Red Scare” list.
The two gentlemen who should be most offended are David Stockman and Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, both of whom stick out prominently on the list. Stockman and Dr. Roberts are former high-level Government officials. Both were, among a long list of prestigious and patriotic accomplishments, members of Reagan’s Cabinet. The accusation that they are conduits for Russian “fake news” is not only absurdly idiotic, it’s libelous terrorism.
This development is yet another move down that slippery-slope to Totalitarianism on which the United States Government is sliding. In the 1950’s a Senator named Joseph McCarthy implemented a raging Congressional witch-hunt for “communists.” The inquisition featured more than a month of televised hearings that began looking for communists in Government. For over two years McCarthy was allowed to conduct inquisitions which extended beyond Washington DC and which eventually pointed the finger at prominent writers and famous Hollywood personalities. He singularly destroyed highly successful people in all areas of society. It was an absolute tragedy and a complete disgrace to this country.
Fortunately, Edward R. Murrow featured a report that undermined McCarthy’s Red Scare witch hunt. McCarty was eventually censored by the Senate and, even more fortunately, died in 1957.
Unfortunately, American journalism no longer has the likes of an Edward R. Murrow – or even Woodward and Bernstein. Corporatism and the Deep State has succeeded in eradicating unbiased and truthful mainstream journalism. The Alternative Media – like the sites featured on the PropOrNot Red Scare list – represent a bona fide attempt to present the truth to the public.
I predict this PropOrNot movement, sponsored by the likes of Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt, is going to succeed in shutting down the one ray of hope left for this country. Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post has taken the lead in this modern version of a McCarthyism “witch hunt” and the WashPo exemplifies the amount of political power and wealth being directed at suffocating the truth. It is Orwell’s playbook unfolding in front of us.
Good night and good luck.
https://theintercept.com/2016/11/26/washington-post-disgracefully-promotes-a-mccarthyite-blacklist-from-a-new-hidden-and-very-shady-group/
I think amazon and google along with all the other corporations should stay out of politics.
The government is just using them so they can get some kind of gigantic tax break.
bribery
The fusion of corporatism and Government is the definition of “Fascism”
What are your feelings about private corporate entities operating in the jurisdiction of outer-space ?
Do laws and treaties covering weapons and warfare in space apply to private entities?
Are PRIVATE entities formed by the interlocking boards of directors of International Corporations deploying and positioning robotic weapons across the earth and in the sky?
Great. Maybe they can find a place to go live far away from here – all of them.
Hi Dave,
Not sure if this means anything but at work today ”they” blocked acces to many sites. Both Dutch and American like yours, the saker, sgtreport and then some more (even ones that did not make it to the list). ”Normal” sites I could still acces. If more see this happen to them, a signal that more action is taken on that list.
Regards, Hugo
In McCarthy’s defense he warned us about a communists infiltrating the government and changing American values, tick tock time passes and now we have Hillary, Obama, propagandized news organizations, education by socialist / communist sympathizers. I think he may have been on to something. We certainly don’t have the same types of messaging or moral compass that America was once known for.
I’d argue they are more like Neoconservatives than commies.
The only people that backed McCarthy’s rant’s were Capitalists that saw FDR’s reforms during the Great Depression as a Communist conspiracy to attack on their ability to freely pursue any profit making venture regardless of weather it benefitted America or not ! A typical example of this was Prescott Bush, the patriarch of the Bush Family, openly cutting deals with Adolph Hitler through his New Your Bank that profited from various economic activities extended to the NAZI regime. Bush wasn’t alone in his unregulated efforts to achieve higher profits, major Corporations like GM were also working with Hitler to set up manufacturing operations, such as the Opel division that still exists today, in Germany that would later be modified to build various war machines and companies like Bayer Pharmaceuticals who received the contract to produce the gas that was used to exterminate seven million Jews and various decadents ! Bush’s New York bank was one of the few Capitalist enterprises that actually paid a price for their actions, companies like GM and Bayer continue to operate virtually unregulated today !
When you say neoconservatives or neoliberals, just say what you really mean – war mongering jews hell bent on controlling the world. Not sure why everyone is so afraid to say the truth.
Trump can crush amazon and the rest of the scam companys by outlawing stock buybacks. End that and theyre toast, along with WaPo and the rest of the propaganda outlets that are funded by this swindle.
Not just Jews – Rockefeller, Bill Gates, Bush family, Buffet, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Clintons, etc. Be careful about generalizing. It dilutes the argument and people tune out if they think the proponent of an argument is stereotyping.
Bezos probably hates Amazon being called out for what it is – a money incinerator. Which is why IRD probably made it to the top 200 list. To call a website critical of the government is one thing but to call it a stooge of a foreign government is utter bs!
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/11/28/dear-president-putin/
“…McCarthy was allowed to conduct inquisitions which extended beyond Washington DC and which eventually pointed the finger at prominent writers and famous Hollywood personalities. He singularly destroyed highly successful people in all areas of society. It was an absolute tragedy and a complete disgrace to this country…”
~~
I notice you dont claim the “personalities” and “highly successful people” were innocent.
The real tragedy and disgrace was and is the smear compaigns waged against people like McCarthy, Snowdon, Assange, and many others.
We are still infested by vipers in high places; nothing changes while nothing remains the same. Today’s gun-grabbers are a chip off the old block memorialized in Wadsworth’s poem The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere:
“On the 18th of April in ’75, Hardly a man is still alive; Who remembers the famous day and year, Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere…”
and it goes on the tell of the British attempt to sneak into Concord & Lexington, to confiscate the weapons, powder, and shot stashed there by the Colonials. That was 15 months before the Declaration of Independence was inked.
Rant over, and returning to the point of this comment — your comment concerning McCarthy falls way short of the truth and common sense.
Thanks for dialoguing, yo….
kenn