William Blum
The Anti-Empire Report #142
By William Blum - Published January 8th, 2016
33
New Years Eve 2016
I stayed up about two hours past my usual bedtime to watch the New Years Eve
celebration in Times Square.
For one reason only.
To see happy people.
A year like 2015 can do that to you.
The sight of many thousands of young people standing in the cold for hours,
hugging and kissing, screaming and laughing, was very precious.
Also a bit unnerving. What's wrong with them? Don't they know what kind of
world they're living in? Don't they know that their celebration is a prime
target for terrorists?
Well . nothing happened . thank you God that I don't believe in . try and
keep that up .
Christopher Hitchens, in 2007, in response to conservative columnist Michael
Gerson's article: "What Atheists Can't Answer", wrote: "How insulting is the
latent suggestion of his position: the appalling insinuation that I would
not know right from wrong if I was not supernaturally guided by a celestial
dictatorship . simply assumes, whether or not religion is metaphysically
'true', that at least it stands for morality. . Here is my challenge. Let
Gerson name one ethical statement made or one ethical action performed by a
believer that could not have been uttered or done by a nonbeliever."
Gerson, great champion of morality, it should be noted, was a speechwriter
for George W. Bush. God help us. And pray that Bush and Cheney remain alive
long enough to hang.
Dear readers . think . just imagine . What if THIS is the afterlife?
Happy New Year.
Vulgar, crude, racist and ultra-sexist though he is, Donald Trump can still
see how awful the American mainstream media is.
I think one of the main reasons for Donald Trump's popularity is that he
says what's on his mind and he means what he says, something rather rare
amongst American politicians, or politicians perhaps anywhere in the world.
The American public is sick and tired of the phoney, hypocritical answers
given by office holders of all kinds. When I read that Trump had said that
Senator John McCain was not a hero because McCain had been captured in
Vietnam, I had to pause for reflection. Wow! Next the man will be saying
that not every American soldier who was in the military in Vietnam,
Afghanistan and Iraq was a shining hero worthy of constant media honor and
adulation.
When Trump was interviewed by ABC-TV host George Stephanopoulos, former aide
to President Bill Clinton, he was asked: "When you were pressed about
[Russian president Vladimir Putin's] killing of journalists, you said, 'I
think our country does plenty of killing too.' What were you thinking about
there? What killing sanctioned by the U.S. government is like killing
journalists?"
Trump responded: "In all fairness to Putin, you're saying he killed people.
I haven't seen that. I don't know that he has. Have you been able to prove
that? Do you know the names of the reporters that he's killed? Because I've
been - you know, you've been hearing this, but I haven't seen the name. Now,
I think it would be despicable if that took place, but I haven't seen any
evidence that he killed anybody in terms of reporters."
Or Trump could have given Stephanopoulos a veritable heart attack by
declaring that the American military, in the course of its wars in recent
decades, has been responsible for the deliberate deaths of many journalists.
In Iraq, for example, there's the Wikileaks 2007 video, exposed by Chelsea
Manning, of the cold-blooded murder of two Reuters journalists; the 2003 US
air-to-surface missile attack on the offices of Al Jazeera in Baghdad that
left three journalists dead and four wounded; and the American firing on
Baghdad's Hotel Palestine the same year that killed two foreign news
cameramen.
It was during this exchange that Stephanopoulos allowed the following to
pass his lips: "But what killing has the United States government done?"
Do the American TV networks not give any kind of intellectual test to their
newscasters? Something at a fourth-grade level might improve matters.
Prominent MSNBC newscaster Joe Scarborough, interviewing Trump, was also
baffled by Trump's embrace of Putin, who had praised Trump as being "bright
and talented". Putin, said Scarborough, was "also a person who kills
journalists, political opponents, and invades countries. Obviously that
would be a concern, would it not?"
Putin "invades countries" . Well, now there even I would have been at a loss
as to how to respond. Try as I might I don't think I could have thought of
any countries the United States has ever invaded.
To his credit, Trump responded: "I think our country does plenty of killing,
also, Joe, so, you know. There's a lot of stupidity going on in the world
right now, Joe. A lot of killing going on. A lot of stupidity. And that's
the way it is."
As to Putin killing political opponents, this too would normally go
unchallenged in the American mainstream media. But earlier this year in this
report I listed seven highly questionable deaths of opponents of the Ukraine
government, a regime put in power by the United States, which is used as a
club against Putin. This of course was non-news in the American media.
So that's what happens when the know-nothing American media meets up with a
know-just-a-bit-more presidential candidate. Ain't democracy wonderful?
Trump has also been criticized for saying that immediately after the 9-11
attacks, thousands of Middle Easterners were seen celebrating outdoors in
New Jersey in sight of the attack location. An absurd remark, for which
Trump has been rightfully vilified; but not as absurd as the US mainstream
media pretending that it had no idea what Trump could possibly be referring
to in his mixed-up manner.
For there were in fact people seen in New Jersey apparently celebrating the
planes crashing into the World Trade Center towers. But they were Israelis,
which would explain all one needs to know about why the story wasn't in the
headlines and has since been "forgotten" or misremembered. On the day of the
9-11 attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked what the
attacks would mean for US-Israeli relations. His quick reply was: "It's very
good. . Well, it's not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy (for
Israel)." There's a lot on the Internet about these Israelis in New Jersey,
who were held in police custody for months before being released.
So here too mainstream newspersons do not know enough to enlighten their
audience.
Russia, as explained to Russians by Americans
There is a Russian website [inosmi = foreign mass media] that translates
propagandistic russophobic articles from the western media into Russian and
publishes them so that Russians can see with their own eyes how the Western
media lies about them day after day. There have been several articles lately
based on polls that show that anti-western sentiments are increasing in
Russia, and blaming it on "Putin's propaganda".
This is rather odd because who needs propaganda when the Russians can read
the Western media themselves and see firsthand all the lies it puts forth
about them and the demonizing of Putin. There are several political-debate
shows on Russian television where they invite Western journalists or
politicians; on one there frequently is a really funny American journalist,
Michael Bohm, who keeps regurgitating all the western propaganda, arguing
with his Russian counterparts. It's pretty surreal to watch him display the
worst political stereotypes of Americans: arrogant, gullible, and ignorant.
He stands there and lectures high ranking Russian politicians, "explaining"
to them the "real" Russian foreign policy, and the "real" intentions behind
their actions, as opposed to anything they say. The man is shockingly
irony-impaired. It is as funny to watch as it is sad and scary.
The above was written with the help of a woman who was raised in the Soviet
Union and now lives in Washington. She and I have discussed US foreign
policy on many occasions. We are in very close agreement as to its
destructiveness and absurdity.
Just as in the first Cold War, one of the basic problems is that Exceptional
Americans have great difficulty in believing that Russians mean well.
Apropos this, I'd like to recall the following written about George Kennan:
Crossing Poland with the first US diplomatic mission to the Soviet Union in
the winter of 1933, a young American diplomat named George Kennan was
somewhat astonished to hear the Soviet escort, Foreign Minister Maxim
Litvinov, reminisce about growing up in a village nearby, about the books he
had read and his dreams as a small boy of being a librarian.
"We suddenly realized, or at least I did, that these people we were dealing
with were human beings like ourselves," Kennan wrote, "that they had been
born somewhere, that they had their childhood ambitions as we had. It seemed
for a brief moment we could break through and embrace these people."
It hasn't happened yet.
Kennan's sudden realization brings George Orwell to mind: "We have now sunk
to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of
intelligent men."
Holocaust Deniers
It's easier to deny the existence of God than to deny the existence of
certain aspects of the Holocaust. And not as dangerous. In Europe "denying
the Holocaust" is illegal in 14 countries.
Ken Meyercord, who lives in Virginia, has long been a researcher of this
phenomenon. He writes that the debate over the Holocaust boils down to three
principal issues:
1. How many died?
2. Was the "Final Solution" really an extermination plan or was it a
plan to deport Europe's Jews?
3. Were there actually gas chambers?
He's prepared an 11-page e-pamphlet on the subject, "Did the Holocaust
really happen the way we've been told?" It can be obtained by emailing
iconohead@xxxxxxxxx.
It's a good thing the United States doesn't have a law against reporting on
the American Holocaust. I'd have been put away long ago, for the sum total
of US foreign policy can well be described by that infamous word beginning
with an "H"; indeed, my first website carried the name "American Holocaust".
However, in California there is now a proposed ballot initiative which would
restrict "Holocaust Denial". The Holocaust Denial Speech Restrictions
Initiative (#15-0073) is an initiated constitutional amendment proposed for
the California ballot on November 8, 2016. The measure would prohibit any
speech in any state-funded school, museum or educational institution that
claims Jewish, Armenian or Ukrainian Holocausts did not exist. It would also
prohibit Holocaust denial organizations from distributing information or
conducting activities at these state-funded locations.
In case you're wondering what the Ukrainian Holocaust was, it's something
left over from the Cold War - charges of widespread famine caused by the
Soviet Union amongst the people of Ukraine. But I believe that such charges
must be approached with some caution, given, amongst other reasons, the
documented campaign by the Hearst Press in the United States to squeeze out
every drop of anti-communist blood they could from the historical events.
You can read about this in a book by Douglas Tottle, "Fraud, Famine and
Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth From Hitler to Harvard" (1987),
available free online.
William Blum
The Anti-Empire Report #142
By William Blum - Published January 8th, 2016
&&&&&&&&&&&& Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Error! Hyperlink reference
not valid.
New Years Eve 2016
I stayed up about two hours past my usual bedtime to watch the New Years Eve
celebration in Times Square.
For one reason only.
To see happy people.
A year like 2015 can do that to you.
The sight of many thousands of young people standing in the cold for hours,
hugging and kissing, screaming and laughing, was very precious.
Also a bit unnerving. What's wrong with them? Don't they know what kind of
world they're living in? Don't they know that their celebration is a prime
target for terrorists?
Well . nothing happened . thank you God that I don't believe in . try and
keep that up .
Christopher Hitchens, in 2007, in response to conservative columnist Michael
Gerson's article: "What Atheists Can't Answer", wrote: "How insulting is the
latent suggestion of his position: the appalling insinuation that I would
not know right from wrong if I was not supernaturally guided by a celestial
dictatorship . simply assumes, whether or not religion is metaphysically
'true', that at least it stands for morality. . Here is my challenge. Let
Gerson name one ethical statement made or one ethical action performed by a
believer that could not have been uttered or done by a nonbeliever."
Gerson, great champion of morality, it should be noted, was a speechwriter
for George W. Bush. God help us. And pray that Bush and Cheney remain alive
long enough to hang.
Dear readers . think . just imagine . What if THIS is the afterlife?
Happy New Year.
Vulgar, crude, racist and ultra-sexist though he is, Donald Trump can still
see how awful the American mainstream media is.
I think one of the main reasons for Donald Trump's popularity is that he
says what's on his mind and he means what he says, something rather rare
amongst American politicians, or politicians perhaps anywhere in the world.
The American public is sick and tired of the phoney, hypocritical answers
given by office holders of all kinds. When I read that Trump had said that
Senator John McCain was not a hero because McCain had been captured in
Vietnam, I had to pause for reflection. Wow! Next the man will be saying
that not every American soldier who was in the military in Vietnam,
Afghanistan and Iraq was a shining hero worthy of constant media honor and
adulation.
When Trump was interviewed by ABC-TV host George Stephanopoulos, former aide
to President Bill Clinton, he was asked: "When you were pressed about
[Russian president Vladimir Putin's] killing of journalists, you said, 'I
think our country does plenty of killing too.' What were you thinking about
there? What killing sanctioned by the U.S. government is like killing
journalists?"
Trump responded: "In all fairness to Putin, you're saying he killed people.
I haven't seen that. I don't know that he has. Have you been able to prove
that? Do you know the names of the reporters that he's killed? Because I've
been - you know, you've been hearing this, but I haven't seen the name. Now,
I think it would be despicable if that took place, but I haven't seen any
evidence that he killed anybody in terms of reporters."
Or Trump could have given Stephanopoulos a veritable heart attack by
declaring that the American military, in the course of its wars in recent
decades, has been responsible for the deliberate deaths of many journalists.
In Iraq, for example, there's the Wikileaks 2007 video, exposed by Chelsea
Manning, of the cold-blooded murder of two Reuters journalists; the 2003 US
air-to-surface missile attack on the offices of Al Jazeera in Baghdad that
left three journalists dead and four wounded; and the American firing on
Baghdad's Hotel Palestine the same year that killed two foreign news
cameramen.
It was during this exchange that Stephanopoulos allowed the following to
pass his lips: "But what killing has the United States government done?"
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Do the American TV networks not give any kind of intellectual test to their
newscasters? Something at a fourth-grade level might improve matters.
Prominent MSNBC newscaster Joe Scarborough, interviewing Trump, was also
baffled by Trump's embrace of Putin, who had praised Trump as being "bright
and talented". Putin, said Scarborough, was "also a person who kills
journalists, political opponents, and invades countries. Obviously that
would be a concern, would it not?"
Putin "invades countries" . Well, now there even I would have been at a loss
as to how to respond. Try as I might I don't think I could have thought of
any countries the United States has ever invaded.
To his credit, Trump responded: "I think our country does plenty of killing,
also, Joe, so, you know. There's a lot of stupidity going on in the world
right now, Joe. A lot of killing going on. A lot of stupidity. And that's
the way it is." Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
As to Putin killing political opponents, this too would normally go
unchallenged in the American mainstream media. But earlier this year in this
report I listed seven highly questionable deaths of opponents of the Ukraine
government, a regime put in power by the United States, which is used as a
club against Putin. Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.This of course was
non-news in the American media.
So that's what happens when the know-nothing American media meets up with a
know-just-a-bit-more presidential candidate. Ain't democracy wonderful?
Trump has also been criticized for saying that immediately after the 9-11
attacks, thousands of Middle Easterners were seen celebrating outdoors in
New Jersey in sight of the attack location. An absurd remark, for which
Trump has been rightfully vilified; but not as absurd as the US mainstream
media pretending that it had no idea what Trump could possibly be referring
to in his mixed-up manner.
For there were in fact people seen in New Jersey apparently celebrating the
planes crashing into the World Trade Center towers. But they were Israelis,
which would explain all one needs to know about why the story wasn't in the
headlines and has since been "forgotten" or misremembered. On the day of the
9-11 attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked what the
attacks would mean for US-Israeli relations. His quick reply was: "It's very
good. . Well, it's not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy (for
Israel)." There's a lot on the Internet about these Israelis in New Jersey,
who were held in police custody for months before being released. Error!
Hyperlink reference not valid.
So here too mainstream newspersons do not know enough to enlighten their
audience.
Russia, as explained to Russians by Americans
There is a Russian website [inosmi = foreign mass media] that translates
propagandistic russophobic articles from the western media into Russian and
publishes them so that Russians can see with their own eyes how the Western
media lies about them day after day. There have been several articles lately
based on polls that show that anti-western sentiments are increasing in
Russia, and blaming it on "Putin's propaganda".
This is rather odd because who needs propaganda when the Russians can read
the Western media themselves and see firsthand all the lies it puts forth
about them and the demonizing of Putin. There are several political-debate
shows on Russian television where they invite Western journalists or
politicians; on one there frequently is a really funny American journalist,
Michael Bohm, who keeps regurgitating all the western propaganda, arguing
with his Russian counterparts. It's pretty surreal to watch him display the
worst political stereotypes of Americans: arrogant, gullible, and ignorant.
He stands there and lectures high ranking Russian politicians, "explaining"
to them the "real" Russian foreign policy, and the "real" intentions behind
their actions, as opposed to anything they say. The man is shockingly
irony-impaired. It is as funny to watch as it is sad and scary.
The above was written with the help of a woman who was raised in the Soviet
Union and now lives in Washington. She and I have discussed US foreign
policy on many occasions. We are in very close agreement as to its
destructiveness and absurdity.
Just as in the first Cold War, one of the basic problems is that Exceptional
Americans have great difficulty in believing that Russians mean well.
Apropos this, I'd like to recall the following written about George Kennan:
Crossing Poland with the first US diplomatic mission to the Soviet Union in
the winter of 1933, a young American diplomat named George Kennan was
somewhat astonished to hear the Soviet escort, Foreign Minister Maxim
Litvinov, reminisce about growing up in a village nearby, about the books he
had read and his dreams as a small boy of being a librarian.
"We suddenly realized, or at least I did, that these people we were dealing
with were human beings like ourselves," Kennan wrote, "that they had been
born somewhere, that they had their childhood ambitions as we had. It seemed
for a brief moment we could break through and embrace these people." Error!
Hyperlink reference not valid.
It hasn't happened yet.
Kennan's sudden realization brings George Orwell to mind: "We have now sunk
to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of
intelligent men."
Holocaust Deniers
It's easier to deny the existence of God than to deny the existence of
certain aspects of the Holocaust. And not as dangerous. In Europe "denying
the Holocaust" is illegal in 14 countries.
Ken Meyercord, who lives in Virginia, has long been a researcher of this
phenomenon. He writes that the debate over the Holocaust boils down to three
principal issues:
1. How many died?
2. Was the "Final Solution" really an extermination plan or was it a
plan to deport Europe's Jews?
3. Were there actually gas chambers?
He's prepared an 11-page e-pamphlet on the subject, "Did the Holocaust
really happen the way we've been told?" It can be obtained by emailing
iconohead@xxxxxxxxx.
It's a good thing the United States doesn't have a law against reporting on
the American Holocaust. I'd have been put away long ago, for the sum total
of US foreign policy can well be described by that infamous word beginning
with an "H"; indeed, my first website carried the name "American Holocaust".
However, in California there is now a proposed ballot initiative which would
restrict "Holocaust Denial". The Holocaust Denial Speech Restrictions
Initiative (#15-0073) is an initiated constitutional amendment proposed for
the California ballot on November 8, 2016. The measure would prohibit any
speech in any state-funded school, museum or educational institution that
claims Jewish, Armenian or Ukrainian Holocausts did not exist. It would also
prohibit Holocaust denial organizations from distributing information or
conducting activities at these state-funded locations. Error! Hyperlink
reference not valid.
In case you're wondering what the Ukrainian Holocaust was, it's something
left over from the Cold War - charges of widespread famine caused by the
Soviet Union amongst the people of Ukraine. But I believe that such charges
must be approached with some caution, given, amongst other reasons, the
documented campaign by the Hearst Press in the United States to squeeze out
every drop of anti-communist blood they could from the historical events.
You can read about this in a book by Douglas Tottle, "Fraud, Famine and
Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth From Hitler to Harvard" (1987),
available free online.
http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer142.html
