Early on in the life of Dredd Blog, we began with a focus on one of the largest enterprises in American culture.The first post in this series, "The Deceit Business", focused on the vast enterprise we call the propaganda arm of MOMCOM, the mass media.
Here is that post revisited:
Two scientists who are well respected by their peers were interviewed about the subject matter of deceit.
Deceit is defined as "concealment or distortion of the truth for the purpose of misleading; duplicity; fraud; cheating".
One of the two who participated in that interesting interview is a world renowned professor of linguistics at MIT:
"Noam Chomsky: One of the most important comments on deceit, I think, was made by Adam Smith. He pointed out that a major goal of business is to deceive and oppress the public.(Origin of Deceit, emphasis added). But if you have read most anything, you will know that Chomsky is a persona non grata in establishment propaganda circles.
And one of the striking features of the modern period is the institutionalization of that process, so that we now have huge industries deceiving the public — and they're very conscious about it, the public relations industry. Interestingly, this developed in the freest countries—in Britain and the US — roughly around time of WWI, when it was recognized that enough freedom had been won that people could no longer be controlled by force. So modes of deception and manipulation had to be developed in order to keep them under control"
He is dismissed as an intellectual. In other words he is "not real".
After the people had looked at the matter, first in the form of a grand jury, then later in the form of a criminal petite jury, they convicted a well known business person in a very large US company of deceit and conspiracy to deceive the public.
This week a Federal Appeals Court affirmed the conviction:
"Enron crashed into sudden bankruptcy. An initial investigation uncovered an elaborate conspiracy to deceive investors about the state of Enron’s fiscal health. That conspiracy allegedly included overstating the company’s financial situation for more than two years in an attempt to ensure that Enron’s short-run stock price remained artificially high."(U.S. v Jeffrey K. Skilling, U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, Case #06-20885, Jan. 6, 2009, emphasis added).
Hey, it is official. Noam Chomsky is an intellectual and he is very, very real.
Since that post we have isolated the meme complex which the deceit business belongs to: MOMCOM.
And we have identified the father of MOMCOM, who had the seeds of deceit within and those seeds eventually evolved into the universe of spin, taking America to dizzying heights.
All empires that have taken the neoCon red spin pill end up running from their people, running from every reality, and then finally running into the wall.
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
The guys who print MOMCOM's money are working overtime, because the plunder barons can't get enough of them sugar crisps: Washington's Blog
ReplyDeleteTalk about spin and damage control. The NFL has these two nuggets to deal with on Super Bowl "hangover day:"
ReplyDeleteChristina Aguilera flubs lyrics to national anthem before Super Bowl
Stadium bungle leaves 400 without seats for the big game
The National Anthem thing was barely noticeable the first time through, simply because I was cringing at the "stylistic rendition" that these over-hyped media stars always bring to the occasion. Why can't they just sing the song? Upon replay however, it was painfully obvious that Aguilera - who looks and sings like a drunken whore - had indeed mangled the lyrics as well.
Five-time Grammy winner Aguilera muffed the fourth line of the anthem, warbling: "Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, what so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming."
The correct lyrics are: "Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming."
The seating fiasco was all about pure greed and chutzpah on the part of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who wanted to set a Super Bowl attendance record at the expense of safety and common sense.
Dallas Cowboy owner Jerry Jones tried his damnedest to set a record, and he did -- for the worst fumble in Super Bowl history, a monumental screw-up that originally left 1,250 ticket-holders without seats.
In his quest to set an all-time Super Bowl attendance record, the ego-driven Jones and the NFL sold tickets for hastily constructed, temporary seats at Cowboys Stadium that wound up being incorrectly installed and deemed unsafe just hours before kickoff.
About 850 of the unlucky fans eventually were given other seats to watch the Packers down the Steelers, 31-25 -- but 400 were left out in the cold. A section of seats that had already been sold to fans is cordoned off in Cowboys Stadium during last night’s Super Bowl after they were deemed unsafe just hours before the game.
"I got to my seat, which was row 33, and guess what? There was no row 33," said a furious Jim Sass of Milwaukee, who spent $12,000 on a package that included tickets for him and daughter Tammy to celebrate her 29th birthday.
Sass told The Post that when he looked around for help, "Some smart-ass from the NFL told us, 'Hey buddy, don't bother me. You're just going to have to stand somewhere and watch the game.'
The correct response? Spread those 400 people among the owner's and other luxury boxes and then take the heat from the high rollers as well for what is otherwise a huge slap in the face for the "little people" who got jerked around in this fiasco.
With any luck, this shameless exhibit of corporate greed and excess and a looming player lockout in March will signal the permanent demise of the NFL and pro sports in this country. Who know, in ten years the new Cowboys Stadium might stand as a monument to the excesses of 21st century global capitalism and be reviled rather than celebrated accordingly. One can only hope.
Have to laugh I guess at my current home-state's misfortunes vis-a-vis natural gas (NG) shortages. My employer, the largest by far in northern NM, had to shut down completely Friday and partially today due to NG shortages, all due apparently to other electrical problems in west Texas or other such shit.
ReplyDeleteNot to laugh at poor people's misfortunes (or, in this case, some fairly rich one's as well), but the fairly obvious idiocy of all this interconnectedness would SURELY occur to a bright 12 year old. One has to ask, especially given all the considerable salaries at stake, WHY weren't such questions asked up front, AND, PERHAPS MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHY AREN'T SAID SALARIES STILL AT RISK?
Just sayin'.
Wow! This post really says it all about the NFL and the "Super" Bowl:
ReplyDeleteAfter a bloated Super Bowl in Dallas, it's time to reign in big game
Everything you need to know about the future of the NFL could be seen in the gloriously decadent stadium that hosted this Super Bowl. As NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pointed out, "Quite frankly, that's our stage." It was the cleanest, safest, nicest stadium anyone has ever visited. It was also the most extravagant and economically stratified. It cost double what Jerry Jones said it would, and taxpayers financed about a quarter of it, yet its innermost marble interiors are totally inaccessible to the average fan.
A tipping point was reached with this Super Bowl, for me. It was the screwed-over anger of those 1,250 people without seats that did it. Those travel-weary, cash-whipped fans paid small fortunes to go to the game, only to discover their stubs were no good, because fire marshals declared some sections unsafe. All of a sudden the whole thing seemed offensive. It was just too much.
For absurdity, how about those four Navy F-18s flying over the stadium - with its retractable roof closed? Everybody inside could only see the planes on the stadium's video screens. It was strictly a two-second beauty shot. Know what it cost taxpayers? I'll tell you: $450,000. (The Navy justifies the expense by saying it's good for recruiting.)
...
But in the end, this Super Bowl taught me a lesson: Luxury can actually be debasing. The last great building binge in the NFL was from 1995 through 2003, when 21 stadiums were built or refurbished in order to create more luxury boxes, at cost of $6.4 billion. Know how much of that the public paid for? $4.4 billion. Why are we giving 32 rich guys that kind of money, just to prey on us at the box office and concessions? The Dallas deal should be the last of its kind.
When an owner grows tired of a facility and leaves, guess who picks up the tab? New Jersey still owes $110 million on the old Meadowlands home of the New York Giants and Jets, and when both teams moved to their new $1.6 billion, privately financed stadium, they got a huge tax break. According to the Wall Street Journal under their old agreement they paid $20 million a year in tax revenues; now they will pay only about $6 million a year. Know what New Jersey's deficit is? I'll tell you: $36 billion
Indeed.
Randy's link to Washington's blog has this:
ReplyDelete"Dylan Ratigan says that the Fed is printing money to cover enormous theft by the big banks, and that money printing is leading to food inflation worldwide. (Bad weather and speculation on commodities are obviously also contributing to rising food prices)."
Food shortages and food prices looks to be the major economic story this year and for who knows how long thereafter. And food shortages DO breed revolutions.
ReplyDelete