Mysteries Surrounding the GOP Race, MSM, CNN and the CBC

I didn’t think I’d really care about what happens with the GOP (Republican) race in the US, but the reality is that there is one candidate that makes sense to me: Ron Paul.

And there’s something that doesn’t make sense to me: the coverage (or lack thereof) of this candidate and the other candidates being presented as the most likely to win.

How did Gingrich win South Carolina when he couldn’t even ‘pack’ a staged event?

The mainstream media wants to pretend he doesn’t exist and the GOP is engaging in vote fraud (what else is new, Bush 2000, Bush 2004) to ensure that either Gingrich or Romney win the Republican title.

Here are some examples of this disturbing trend:

CNN in the US has completely dropped Ron Paul from the list of Republican candidates, possibly because some of the people with CNN are married to the military establishment, but possibly because Ron Paul simply sends a message that they don’t like.

In a CNN poll buried along the right-hand column of the same news page, there’s a poll. Here were the results yesterday afternoon, with more than 250,000 people answering the question:

Ron Paul is the leader, fighting it out with Romney. Gingrich is a distant third.

If you don’t like these numbers, how about a little comedy from Jon Stewart:

What’s important is the lack of fair coverage with the likes of CNN. The question is why? Why would they risk any journalistic integrity that they purport to have and avoid coverage of this viable candidate.

Follow the money. Many of the key players are the establishment that Ron Paul wants to do away with. Anderson Cooper, ex-CIA, is also a member of the prestigious Vanderbilt family which, along with JP Morgan, Rockefeller and others, pushed the US into reviving the Federal Reserve.

Under Ron Paul, many supporters hope that the military would face severe cuts (although this remains to be seen). CNN reporter Gloria Borger is married to Lance Morgan, influential employee with Tate Powell, a lobby group in Washington. Tate Powell also happens to represent the US military, US Chamber of Commerce and dozens of other organizations that wouldn’t be in favour of big cuts to the pork-barreling politics that is the US government today.

Now, I don’t really care about all of this, but I feel it’s important for people to understand that there are bigger things at play when it comes to what’s happening in US politics.

What I am truly bothered by is how the CBC trundles along with all of this crap and reports on how Ron Paul is a nobody and he’s ‘fading’. If you look at the poll above, Paul is IN THE LEAD with popular vote, not fading.

Why would the CBC ‘shape news’ like this for Canadians when they have nothing to gain from it?

The only clue available on the links above is that the story is regurgitated from the Canadian Press, Canada’s for-profit propaganda source owned by Bell and others. Perhaps they have everything to gain from unending war from the US?

A Brief History of Plutocracy

Plutocracy = rule by the elite.

From ‘the Rothschild Model’ to the ‘Rise of Corporations’ as methods by which we are all fueling perpetual war.

This is 26 minutes well spent.

Of course, not all of it should be taken as gospel, but we need to understand his last comments as they relate to the ‘market’. There is a supra-national group of organizations that are not subject to any democratic input.

I also like the solution: don’t fight the beast. Stop feeding it.

Global Research ’2011 Year of the Dupe’: An Awesome Read

Global Research has released their 2011 Year of the Dupe article and it’s well worth reading for anyone that wants to know about what really happened in 2011.

The essence of the article addresses America’s expansion around the world and extension of hegemonic corporate powers universally.

It explores the deceit that’s being used to fool us into believing that a revolution is happening worldwide, while it also exposes the abyssmal coverage of the #occupy movement that occurred in North America and elsewhere.

Go ahead. Click through, print off and grab a coffee and enjoy some truth for the holidays!

Media Messaging – Using the ‘Right’ Terms

While this is not the first time I’ve heard about ‘structuring language the ‘right’ way,it is a nice summary of the ways in which members of different conservative camps manipulate language.

Think about the use of these terms the next time you see something on Fox, Sun or the CTV.

Replacement words for conservatives:

Capitalism Free Market Economy

Tax Reform Tax Simplification

Drilling for oil Exploring for energy

School choice (ie. privatization of education) Equal opportunity in education

So … what would be an appropriate language for progressives or lefties? Don’t forget that people like the NDP have even tried euphemisms like ‘social democrats’ to replace ‘socialists’, with partial success and don’t forget that the word ‘socialism’ strikes fear into most people that are even moderately conservative as they pull up images of Bob Rae plunging the Ontario into massive and unprecedented deficits.

Or do we even dare use language that is only used with the intent to mislead or manipulate or do we try to encourage people to use honest and frank language that spells out our issues and concerns with ‘government’ (or should I say ‘the people’s chosen ones’) today?

Media Madness & Politics

It’s falling apart, but as the Rupert Murdoch media empire goes supernova, expect it to take a LOT of people with it.

First, start with the 10 questions that no one in Britain will ask Rupert Murdoch this afternoon. This is because it seems like ALL of the British establishment is tainted with a disease known as “media madness” that has been rampaging their corridors for decades.

Which begs the question: does Rupert Murdoch really give a shit about an inquiry?

Probably not.

‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone’, some dude in a desert once said. It’s more true today than ever.

Taint. It’s an ugly word.

The disease runs deep and the cure is not going to be pretty.

To appreciate what I’m talking about, we have to go back.

It all begins with commercial media getting more crass and useless since the dawn of the age of television. Yes … that far back. One might argue that the symptoms go back even further into the early days of print (example: William Randolph Hearst), but the level of magnitude and collusion really hit stride in the 1960s when TVs quickly became a way of our lives.

Example: John F. Kennedy won the 1960 Presidential election because he knew (or at least someone did) that TV would expose how unattractive Richard Nixon was.

The taint begins en masse. Mass production became a no-brainer in the early days of mass communication because we all trusted the advertising that came with media because we all trusted the people within the media.

Flip forward to today.

Rupert Murdoch has his fingers in many pies.

And these are just the media companies. We need to know (but will never know the truth) about things like the relationship between media and the police and the politicians that they’re protecting. Or exposing. How close are these relationships and what’s the true meaning of this for all of ‘lay people’ who just want to get on with our lives?

In Canada, our ‘mainstream media’ has become very tainted by the same symptoms: supporting those that throw our money at them. The taint continues. For the last half decade, it’s been the Conservatives, but the Liberals are equally tainted.

They nosh and rub elbows with the media elite in order to get buy-in from the editorial staff.

The reward: billions in ad spend. The taint runs deep.

Time and time again, the federal government tends to be one of the biggest buyers of media. Canada’s ‘Economic Action Plan’ diverted nearly $500 million in advertising dollars to the big media companies in the past few years and it probably won’t stop any time soon.

With this kind of close relationship, Canada may be in a similar media minefield as Murdoch and the folks in Britain.

For example, who ‘exposed’ the story about Jack Layton supposedly getting a ‘massage’ just days before the election date? Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone has the stones to really find the answer to this question, including myself. The cost is too high and the secrets too close.

However, there’s no doubt here: as Murdoch media madness evolves into something bigger and uglier, the citizens of the world need to ask why we let ourselves get into this mess.

More importantly, how do we get out of it?

News of the World Whistle Blower Found Dead

In an astounding update to the News of the World scandal, Sean Hoare – the man who blew open the phone hacking scandal related to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire – has been found dead.

The ‘media’ – the so called truth tellers that we should stop trusting – have quickly put out stories that it’s purely coincidental and accidental.

Good. I believe that.

By the way, did anyone ever see ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ where a reporter for the Guardian gets gunned down because he was talking about ‘Blackbriar’ on his cell phone?

Media Matters Petition for Congressional Review of Murdoch

I got this note earlier today from Media Matters. Please consider signing the petition.

The charges against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper, News of the World, have gotten so bad in recent days that people are being arrested and the entire newspaper was shut down. The Murdoch-owned tabloid, already under fire for allegedly hacking thousands of people’s phones, reportedly hacked into the voicemail of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, potentially impeding a police investigation and giving her family false hope by deleting voicemails. Reports have also emerged of News of the World allegedly hacking the phones of families of fallen soldiers and the father of a victim of a July 2005 terrorist bombing.

And why should we care about what’s happening over there?

Simple: Murdoch’s media empire includes Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post. Murdoch has enormous political and cultural influence over our media. In fact, Murdoch’s hand-picked selection to run the Wall Street Journal was longtime loyalist Les Hinton, who oversaw News Corp’s British newspapers during the height of News of the World’s alleged hacking activity. Hinton twice testified to the UK parliament that he had conducted a rigorous inquiry into the papers he oversaw and claimed hacking was limited to one reporter. That’s right: Hinton, who ran the show for Murdoch as phone hacking became standard operating procedure, is now publisher of the one of the largest newspapers in the U.S.

For years, with your help, we’ve tracked the lies and deceit coming from Fox News. Now it appears that it’s not just Fox that’s the problem. The pattern of News Corp’s misbehavior goes much deeper–and even into illegal behavior. The British government is investigating and now the Australians are also calling for an investigation of Murdoch’s papers there.

Americans also need to know whether our privacy was violated by Murdoch reporters searching for a good scoop to sell news. Ask Congress to hold hearings to see just how far this scandal goes — and whether News Corp’s record of breaching the public trust has affected us.

Join our call for Congressional hearings here.

We can’t rely on News Corp, with its record of mismanagement, to address the problem. We must take proactive steps to address protect our privacy from News Corp’s mismanagement. Murdoch’s cover-up is falling apart, with serious consequences for hacking victims and News Corp shareholders alike.

Join our call for Congressional hearings here.

Thank you for your support. Holding the media accountable is a full time job–and we couldn’t do it without you.

Matt Butler
President and CEO
Media Matters for America

New Market Models

We desparately need a discussion about new market models that will actually work in the wake of the post-20th century debt crisis.

Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and now maybe even the US all teeter on the brink of economic ruin in the wake of debt piled on debt piled on debt.

When defaults are finally declared, the resulting cost spiral will inflate the price of everything from shoes to corn to electricity to books to wheels for your car. The shock may be moderate at first, but eventually we’ll all have fewer dollars in our pockets just as we try to survive.

Most of this debt has been accumulated for one thing: the security state.

The security state consists of several expenditures:

to finance the act of unnecessary wars;
to fund the monitoring and control of all people with baseless crimes so that fees and levies can be imposed at a whim; and to
to punish and incarcerate citizens when these most basic crimes exceed a even more basic level of tolerance according to our dictators.

In Canada, we’re spending anywhere from $50 to $100 billion PER YEAR on the security state and military infrastructure, and yet we’re officially only fighting in one ‘war’ (Afghanistan). Why are we wasting so much money – OUR taxpayer dollars – on something that’s so incredibly unproductive?

Iceland seems to have gone in the right direction by telling bankers and the IMF to go F*** themselves.

Ultimately, we need a new approach to new market models.

Eric Blair of alt-market.com interviews Brandon Smith in this piece on Alternative Markets at Activist Post where he shares some of these ideas. The basic definition of an alternative market:

… it is essentially any method of trade outside the establishment-controlled economy. It could be based on the barter of goods and skills, or the proliferation of precious metals to break our dependence on the fiat dollar (or Federal Reserve Note), etc. It could be a network of people across a county or state, or, an agreement between two friends.

And some thoughts about why alternative markets are labeled as underground or black markets around the world:

They are desperate, and I do mean DESPERATE, to keep us from developing our own private economies. If we are successful, we will no longer be in the position of dependency on the dollar or the sham economy. When it implodes, we will be relatively unfazed, and certainly not tearing each other apart. Meaning, their rationalization for martial law goes straight down the drain. The thought of that possibility really pisses them off…

But would alternative markets be enough when our governments are out of control, paying their friends and military buddies off with our money?

Probably not. So we will also need a Declaration of Debt Independence. It’s a basic concept that’s about to catch on like wild fire as everyone who’s not in control feels the effects of ‘austerity measures’: you write into your Constitution (assuming you have one) that the government is not allowed to issue debt exceeding a certain percentage of your GDP (which should be redefined to capture the cost of environmental degradation and other borrowing from future generations), but to also identify that no government would ever be allowed to spend more than 3 or 5% of their GDP on defense, security and military spending (I would also suggest that this include prisons and other forms of incarceration).

At no point should any citizen’s government be borrowing money from bankers when they should be living within their means. We should be investing in services for our children, not borrowing from their future in a failing effort to cork our insatiable desire for crap.

Public budgets should be for public good: education, health, parks, trees, the environment, investment in the future, regulation and a sturdy and reliable justice system.

Another alternative market model would be extremely feasible if we owned the Internet, but we’re at risk of losing that too under the guise of security, protection from make-believe hackers and terrorists and porn sharks and other freaks that apparently lurk on every digital corner. At some point in the future, we should expect the ‘Wild Internet of the West’ to be shut down in favour of a controlled Internet that’s no more illuminating and accessible than TV is today.

This would take a lot of work but more importantly, money. I’ve been advocating some form of fund-raising effort for some time and would still be at the front of the line if someone were to say they were ready as well.

I can’t do it alone.

If we move on any of the above – and we really have to – hard times will be on their way, but we must stop living beyond our means and we have to shake off the bonds that are being placed our basic rights to communicate, participate and emancipate our day-to-day lives.

So … who’s on board?

Facebook: A Giant Snitch?

Here’s a simple prediction: Facebook will collapse within the next 24 months.

If you’ve watched ‘The Social Network’ – a movie that could be seen as a documentary about the origins of Facebook – you’ll know that the intent of this popular tool is less than noble.

In the mere 7 years of existence, Facebook has shattered all records with respect to volume of new users, but also carelessly thrown away all respect for privacy and personal information.

Correction: Facebook isn’t really doing any of the above. They’re enablers, giving users the ability to sell themselves out just so that they can connect with an age-old ex-girlfriend or like a company for a chance to win a prize.

They’re gaming us into surrendering everything we know about ourselves.

This information is being manipulated in unprecedented ways for the benefit of marketers, but also the security establishment.

If you don’t believe me, check this out:

And therein lies the challenge to everyone that use any popular social platform: even the slightest activity designed to oppose, contradict, challenge or debate the policies of the governments that are leveraging Facebook will be exposed by Facebook.

Yes, it reeks of paranoia, but it also exposes the raw reality that we all need to reconsider our conversation tools in the digital universe before they’re decided for us.

It’s this process of changing our behaviour that may prove to be an uphill battle at first, but then prove to be very refreshing once it gains momentum. People will terminate their account and commit ‘Facebook suicide’ in droves in order to avoid the creepy feeling that they’re being watched 24/7.

Once this trend begins, Facebook WILL collapse.

The Cause of Colony Collapse for Bees?

This story’s dated (Dec 2010), but it’s a reminder that there seems to be something more at hand than just a simple ‘mystery’ about why we’re getting what’s called ‘Colony Collapse’ in bee colonies.

According to the article, it’s alleged that the US EPA knowingly ignored warnings about the use of a pesticide called clothianidin, a product developed by Bayer of Germany.

According to the original document,

Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long-term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects.

Wow. It’s astounding what some companies and organizations will do in order to make a buck.

Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Category Archives: media