The Free Press Is Very Far From Here

There is no true free press in the United States, when 5 corporations own 90% of the news media.

One of those five who own 90% of the media is the 5th largest corporation in the nation, and all the other top contenders are oil baron enclaves, except one.

The lack of freedom is especially noticeable when the government wants to suppress the free speech of those who oppose government opinions, and the 90% of the "free" press "willingly" oblige.

It is not that way in all countries, however, for there are some good examples of a true and more free press out there.

One of the largest newspapers, the Asahi Shimbun (the national newspaper with a daily circulation of over eight million) is an example.

Asahi Shimbun has something in common with the Canadian CBC, they do not have to fear their governments like the press in the United States does.

At least when it comes to "conspiracy theories" that is.

The U.S. government has hired people to infiltrate and disrupt certain movements they do not want you to know about.

So, they are pulling the wool over your eyes with your tax dollars, if there is any left over after giving it to those poor needy too-big-to-fail banks.

Yes, propaganda became a world wide effort of the U.S. military during the Bush II years, according to the CEO of the Associated Press.

Too bad he did not know about a site that would have helped him not become a tool of propagandists.

"Movements" According To MOMCOM

We recently discussed Science According To MOMCOM.

Today we take a look at what MOMCOM thinks a great political movement is, focusing on the "T"-party (Republicans), whether astroturf or actual grass roots, who have caused a twinkle in the eye of the nostalgic MSM.

The press, a.k.a. MSM, tinkers with an explanation of the practice of "letting off steam" as if it was the industrial revolution deja vu all over again.

The great convention where Sarah Palin spoke, and poked "hopey changey" fun at the center and left (composed of performers in an election that carried 9 Bush II states away from the right wing, away from her) garnered a whopping 1,100 souls.

That is fewer zealous participants than the first day of shopping after Christmas mob that literally tramples people to death with "excitement".

That shopping movement happens every year in good political times and bad in many malls around the country.

Nevertheless "the T movement" is being touted as a major movement by MSNBC and other "neutral" news media. But not the venerable Fox News of course (hehe).

The MSM portion of MOMCOM is trying to have a baby by saying there is a lot of unrest in the country.

Ok so they are aware of that reality. Good. So is everyone else.

But they want to paint a false scenario by saying that this unrest is totally encapsulated in the far right frustration with losing the last big elections big. Bad. Nobody really believes that.

Thus, as Bart Simpson says, someone needs to tell the MSM that they are only going to have a cow with this strategy.

Both the left and the center are just as frustrated as the right.

The major frustration emerges from one good thing and one bad thing.

When the voters reject "W" with their votes, a good thing, they want it rejected by those they elected.

The major frustration also comes from a bad thing: politicians don't get it or don't care about the vote of the people after the election.

Are we going to have a generation of frustration, because the "W" compass is the only one they sell in Washington, no matter how the people feel about it?

The slow train that runs on that steam is a different kind of slow:

People starving and thirsting,
grain elevators are bursting

Oh, you know it costs more to store the food
than it do to give it.

They say lose your inhibitions,
follow your own ambitions,

They talk about a life of brotherly love,
show me someone who knows how to live it.

There's a slow, slow train comin'
up around the bend.

(Slow Train, Dylan). That train is harder to stop, once it gets going, than it is to get it going at first.

Playing with the toy T movement as if it was the real one is a fools errand and playing with fire.

Nation Building - The Will Of The Wind

The view from the tallest building in the world looks down on the flats that are, at the highest, 52 feet above sea level; the building they like to call the Burj Khalifa.

The sea port within sight is called Jebel Ali, and is alleged to be the largest sea port.

So, they took the oil out of the ground and converted it into buildings with a port at sea level.

One interpretation of a Dylan song mixed in with some climate change science renders a picture the UAE probably doesn't want to see or think about:

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

(The Times They Are A Changin'). If Edgar Cayce or Nostradamus had written those lyrics there are some who would have said it is a vision of the future.

But Dylan would not have agreed, instead he would have grumbled something about the power of metaphor.

Be that as it may, the waters around us have grown, and in a worse case scenario could rise 30 feet.

That would change the view and the times considerably.

The disruption would start 20 years before the most serious destruction started.

The buildings and facilities nearest to the water front would flood or be impaired at only 5 feet of sea rise, about 17% of the maximum, which would cause an economic catastrophe of sorts, because the investment community would balk and walk away.

Why did the sheiks, the rulers of Dubai, for more than a hundred and fifty years now, not see it coming?

Did the oil barons from MOMCOM tell them global warming is a hoax like they did with Sarah Palin's pals?

Will all those people be angry with MOMCOM when they have to start swimming or sink like a stone?

I also wonder if the sailboat hotel they made was a form of thumbing their noses at the environmental scientists.

Scientists who said, like Dylan, that the waters around them were going to grow if they did not stop peddling the number one drug in the world?

One thing is for sure, it will look more and more like a boat as the waters rise.

They may have to change its name to the mother of all water worlds or something like that.

It may turn out to be one of the wonders of irony of the world in our life time.

In the mean time in the U.S. lots of homes, businesses, jobs, and hopes are underwater in a different sort of way.

To help "us", the U.S. government sent money to Dubai because there was a little mist in the air over there.

Professor Lessig of Harvard, meanwhile, says congress is to blame for these problems.

To the contrary, I think the problem, for Dubai and for us, is our ideology.

After all, here in the U.S. we have recently changed congress and the presidency in a major way, at least in the abstract, the theoretical.

However, if our ideology, our compass, endures through each election cycle and everyone we elect has one, we will only be putting more stewards into office who follow the compass of our unchanging ideology.

A compass which has a "W" on every point, which only leads to the failing status quo infecting our culture, is what really has to change.

Like the Simon and Garfunkle song says, "They have all gone to look for America", but the "W" direction does not go there.

The Empire Strikes Back - 2

This is a follow up to the post The Empire Strikes Back, to show why they strike back.

One of the top 50 people who influence public and social discourse is a "9/11 Truther".

He is number 41 of the 50, which means that whatever he is doing or has done is getting traction.

Notice what a left leaning British magazine has to say about his efforts:

Conspiracy theories are everywhere, and they always have been. In recent years, one of the most pernicious global myths has been that the US government carried out, or at least colluded in, the 11 September 2001 attacks as a pretext for going to war. David Ray Griffin, a retired professor of religion, is the high priest of the "truther" movement. His books on the subject have lent a sheen of respectability that appeals to people at the highest levels of government - from Michael Meacher MP to Anthony "Van" Jones, who was recently forced to resign as Barack Obama's "green jobs" adviser after it emerged that he had signed a 9/11 truth petition in 2004.

(The New Statesman). Some U.S. periodicals wonder why in the world the British press folks put him in the top 50, and attempt to explain why it could be a valid 41:

One of these choices, however, is beyond surprising - it is astounding.

I refer to the person in the 41st position: David Ray Griffin, a retired professor of philosophy of religion and theology who, in 2003, started writing and lecturing about 9/11, pointing out problems in the official account of the events of that day. By the time the New Statesman article appeared, he had published 8 books, 50 articles, and several DVDs. Because of both the quantity and quality of his work, he became widely regarded as the chief spokesperson of what came to be called “the 9/11 Truth Movement.” It was because of this role that the New Statesman included him in its list, calling him the “top truther” (the “conspiracy theorist” title went to Dan Brown, who was placed in the 50th slot).

(Global Research). Cass R. Sunstein, one of the government's theorists about how to neutralize Dr. Griffin and others, points out in his theory that popularity of the movement will dictate when the government should intervene by:

(1) Government might ban conspiracy theorizing. (2) Government might impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories. (3) Government might itself engage in counterspeech, marshaling arguments to discredit conspiracy theories. (4) Government might formally hire credible private parties to engage in counterspeech.

(The Empire Strikes Back). Sounds a bit Orwellian no? If they ban conspiracy theorizing many criminal prosecutions will be stopped, since they happen every day in the courts of the land (prosecutors use conspiracy theories: "they conspired to" do thus and such, which is considered to be good law).

Perhaps Obama's privacy official means banning conspiracy theories that are not official government conspiracy theories?

Where are we going when government officials advocate and teach torture, then are promoted to the highest levels in the judicial part of government, but others can not have conspiracy theories?

Some of these guys, like Cass, teach constitutional law at Harvard Law School? They evidently would not have to know the 4th or 1st Amendment now would they?

Here are some of the other people besides Dr. Griffin whose free speech they will be banning if they get all patrioty mavericky and go rogue:

Major General Albert Stubblebine, U.S. Army (ret) – Former Commanding General of U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, 1981 - 1984. Also commanded the U.S. Army’s Electronic Research and Development Command and the U.S. Army’s Intelligence School and Center. Former head of Imagery Interpretation for Scientific and Technical Intelligence. 32-year Army career. Member, Military Intelligence Hall of Fame ...

... or Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, PhD, U.S. Air Force (ret) – Director of Advanced Space Programs Development under Presidents Ford and Carter. U.S. Air Force fighter pilot with over 100 combat missions. (PhD in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering, Cal Tech). Former Head of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering and Assistant Dean at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology. 22-year Air Force career. Also taught Mathematics and English at the University of Southern California, the University of Maryland, and Phillips University.

(The Patriots). Both of those intellectuals have literally fought to protect the First Amendment right to be a 9/11 Truther, and both are 9/11 Truthers.

Like Conservative Republican Richard Gage, an architect.

MOMCOM "Momma" Cass, I think that you have bitten off more than you can chew. Time to get real. You can't demonize liberals and conservatives at the same time so as to ban their First Amendment rights.