Podcast Roundup

A number of podcasts have been released in the past week that are extremely relevant and would be of interest to people across a diverse spectrum of worldviews.

8/29/13: A short but perceptive discussion on Syria from James Evan Pilato and James Corbett posted at MediaMonarchy.com.

8/30/13: An interview by Klint Finley and Chris Dancy with Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author of The Distraction Addiction: Getting the Information You Need and the Communication You Want, Without Enraging Your Family, Annoying Your Colleagues, and Destroying Your Soul on the Mindful Cyborgs podcast.

9/1/13: Modern mystic Neil Kramer shares his unique and uplifting spiritual insights in a conversation with Greg Carlwood and Kyle Prindiville on The Higherside Chats.

9/2/13: The always on-point veteran Panther Larry Pinkney speaks out on Syria and what we can do to affect positive change with host Guillermo Jimenez on Traces of Reality Radio.

9/3/13: Clyde Lewis interviews former intelligence agent and whistleblower Frank G. Ford on Ground Zero.

9/4/13: Henrik Palmgren leads a discussion with independent scholars Joseph Atwill and Ryan Gilmore on the topic of religion as a psychological weapon and its connection to modern war propaganda on Red Ice Radio.

“All Wars Are Based on Deception” – Sun Tzu

I’ve been thinking of Sun Tzu’s line from “The Art of War” a lot lately because of the blatant lies about Syria currently being pushed by U.S. government officials and the corporate media. The quote is just as true today as it was in ancient China. Another quote that applies to our current situation is “Those who don’t know history are condemned to repeat it.” (Edmund Burke). There’s much truth to that, but it’s only part of the story. I would add that those who profit most from major historical events such as wars and stock market crashes are motivated to recreate the conditions to repeat them. And those who only learn the winner’s version of history and are ignorant of the truth are more likely to be okay with it and let it happen. That’s why I encourage everyone to read an important article by Michael Rivero called “Fake Terror – The Road to War and Dictatorship”. It outlines how lies and deception were used to start wars from 70 BC Rome to America in the 1990s (though the lying has ramped up quite a bit since then) . Even wars we think of as being “good wars” like World War 2 are not exempt, as explained in this excerpt from the article:

Roosevelt needed an enemy, and if America would not willingly attack that enemy, then one would have to be maneuvered into attacking America, much as Marcus Licinius Crassus has maneuvered Spartacus into attacking Rome.

…The first step was to place oil and steel embargoes on Japan, using Japan’s wars on the Asian mainland as a reason. This forced Japan to consider seizing the oil and mineral rich regions in Indonesia. With the European powers militarily exhausted by the war in Europe, the United States was the only power in the Pacific able to stop Japan from invading the Dutch East Indies, and by moving the Pacific fleet from San Diego to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Roosevelt made a pre-emptive strike on that fleet the mandatory first step in any Japanese plan to extend its empire into the “southern resource area”.

…To enrage the American people as much as possible, Roosevelt needed the first overt attack by Japan to be as bloody as possible, appearing as a sneak attack much as the Japanese had done to the Russians. From that moment up until the attack on Pearl Harbor itself, Roosevelt and his associates made sure that the commanders in Hawaii, General Short and Admiral Kimmel, were kept in the dark as much as possible about the location of the Japanese fleet and its intentions, then later scapegoated for the attack. (Congress recently exonerated both Short and Kimmel, posthumously restoring them to their former ranks).

But as the Army board had concluded at the time, and subsequent de-classified documents confirmed, Washington DC knew the attack was coming, knew exactly where the Japanese fleet was, and knew where it was headed.

On November 29th, Secretary of State Hull showed United Press reporter Joe Leib a message with the time and place of the attack, and the New York Times in its special 12/8/41 Pearl Harbor edition, on page 13, reported that the time and place of the attack had been known in advance!

The much repeated claim that the Japanese fleet maintained radio silence on its way to Hawaii was a lie. Among other intercepts still held in the Archives of the NSA is the UNCODED message sent by the Japanese tanker Shirya stating, “proceeding to a position 30.00 N, 154.20 E. Expect to arrive at that point on 3 December.” (near HI)

Read the complete article here: http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ARTICLE5/index.php

Putin on Syria

Putin, like all world leaders, has done his share of morally dubious actions, but on the issue of Syria he has shown more integrity and wise judgement than U.S. heads of state.

Via: Veteran News Now :

He pulled no punches calling US foreign policy “very dangerous (in its) uncontained hyper-use of force – military force – in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts.”

US imperialism “overstep(s) national borders in every way.”

“(U)nilateral illegal actions have not resolved any single problem. They have become a hotbed of further conflicts.”

“We are seeing increasing disregard for the fundamental principles of international law.”

“No one feels safe! Because no one can feel that international law is like a stone wall that will protect them.”

“Of course, such a policy stimulates an arms race. The dominance of force inevitably encourages a number of countries to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”

Putin addressed America’s responsibility for a “unipolar world.” He called it one “in which there is one master, one sovereign.”

“And at the end of the day, this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within.”

“We are constantly being taught about democracy. But for some reason those who teach us do not want to learn themselves.”

America deplores democracy. It does so at home and abroad. It’s intolerant of what it claims to support.

“As far as this incident is concerned,” he added, “it is well-known that the Syrian government turn(ed) to the world community with a request to inspect, what it thought (were) cases of using chemical weapons against civilians by militants.”

“Unfortunately, that did not happen.”

“Any unilateral use of force without the authorization of the UN Security Council, no matter how ‘limited’ it is, will be a clear violation of international law, will undermine prospects for a political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict in Syria and will lead to a new round of confrontation and new casualties.”

Syria Timeline

Author and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds gives an overview of coverage from her website Boiling Frogs chronicling the buildup for the current campaign against Syria. As a former CIA insider she was able to access trusted sources from different political factions to confirm facts that corporate media at the time refused to look into. Among her findings from November 2011:

Col. Riad al-Assad has been in Turkey, working with U.S. & NATO, right inside the US Incirlik Base in Turkey, to do exactly what he vehemently denies: smuggle US weapons into Syria, participate in US psychological and information warfare inside Syria as the middle-man whom Syrian protesters tend to trust, and help with funneling intelligence and military operators across the border and night-time drop offs by air.

The joint US-NATO secret training camp in the US air force base in Incirlik, Turkey, began operations in April- May 2011 to organize and expand the dissident base in Syria. Since then, in addition to Col. Riad al-Assad, several other high-ranking Syrian military and intelligence officials have been added to operations’ headquarters in the US base. Weekly weapons smuggling operations have been carried out with full NATO-US participation since last May. The HQ also includes an information warfare division where US-NATO crafted communications are directed to dissidents in Syria via the core group of Syrian military and Intelligence defectors.

Read the full story here: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2013/08/29/bfp-syria-coverage-track-record-what-when-we-exposed-and-the-msm-quasi-alternative-culprits-who-fought-our-exposes/

Also recently posted on Boiling Frogs, a short but to-the-point analysis of the situation in Syria from Andrew Gavin Marshall on the Boiling Frogs podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/sibel-edmonds-boiling-frogs/id342959601


Col. Riad al-Assad has been in Turkey, working with U.S. & NATO, right inside the US Incirlik Base in Turkey, to do exactly what he vehemently denies: smuggle US weapons into Syria, participate in US psychological and information warfare inside Syria as the middle-man whom Syrian protesters tend to trust, and help with funneling intelligence and military operators across the border and night-time drop offs by air.

The joint US-NATO secret training camp in the US air force base in Incirlik, Turkey, began operations in April- May 2011 to organize and expand the dissident base in Syria. Since then, in addition to Col. Riad al-Assad, several other high-ranking Syrian military and intelligence officials have been added to operations’ headquarters in the US base. Weekly weapons smuggling operations have been carried out with full NATO-US participation since last May. The HQ also includes an information warfare division where US-NATO crafted communications are directed to dissidents in Syria via the core group of Syrian military and Intelligence defectors.

– See more at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2013/08/29/bfp-syria-coverage-track-record-what-when-we-exposed-and-the-msm-quasi-alternative-culprits-who-fought-our-exposes/#sthash.mJve8FPg.dpuf

Manufacturing Consent Through Race

Excerpt of an astute and incisive op-ed from former Black Panther Larry Pinkney on Intrepid Report:

The pathetic and subservient U.S. corporate-stream media (including MSNBC, FOX, CBS, PBS, NBC, and ABC, etc.), along with the corporate-owned politicians of the Democrat and Republican parties are deliberately stifling free speech and the open and honest free flow of information and informed debate by covertly and/or overtly playing the color card against the common interests of the everyday people of this nation. Make no mistake about it—they are in fact reinforcing hypocrisy and racism.

… The peoples of Mother Earth need us and we need them and each other and our precious Mother Earth! In the words of Malcolm X, “I am for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” Like his predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama and his Democrat and Republican minions are war criminals and consummate prevaricators, and should be dealt with accordingly—irrespective of their pigmentation or gender!

The peoples of Mother Earth need us and we need them and each other and our precious Mother Earth! In the words of Malcolm X, “I am for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” Like his predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama and his Democrat and Republican minions are war criminals and consummate prevaricators, and should be dealt with accordingly—irrespective of their pigmentation or gender! – See more at: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/10601#sthash.R9PpT453.dpuf

Read the full article here: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/10601

It’s an important reminder that the tactic of “divide and conquer” is repeatedly used by people in power because it works. Through the use of a part-black spokesperson, military/industrial interests more effectively consolidate power by slandering and delegitimizing opposition to their policies.  Pinkney also offers solutions to overcome such strategies (ie. promoting unity and raising political consciousness).

The very fact that those who lodge legitimate and strong criticism of drone man, ‘kill list,’ NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA spy master Barack Obama are labeled as being racist is, in itself, perhaps the strongest indicator of just how deeply embedded hypocrisy and racism continue to be in U.S. society.

Somehow the U.S. constitutional rights to free speech and the free flow of information, etc., allegedly enjoyed by the struggling everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation, have been made null and void, because a colored, partially black man, is in the White House as chief executive and commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces. The reality of this psychological and political enslavement and repression is in fact hypocrisy and so-called political correctness on steroids.

The pathetic and subservient U.S. corporate-stream media (including MSNBC, FOX, CBS, PBS, NBC, and ABC, etc.), along with the corporate-owned politicians of the Democrat and Republican parties are deliberately stifling free speech and the open and honest free flow of information and informed debate by covertly and/or overtly playing the color card against the common interests of the everyday people of this nation. Make no mistake about it—they are in fact reinforcing hypocrisy and racism.

– See more at: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/10601#sthash.4ZLCe9Ry.dpuf

The very fact that those who lodge legitimate and strong criticism of drone man, ‘kill list,’ NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA spy master Barack Obama are labeled as being racist is, in itself, perhaps the strongest indicator of just how deeply embedded hypocrisy and racism continue to be in U.S. society. – See more at: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/10601#sthash.4ZLCe9Ry.dpuf
The very fact that those who lodge legitimate and strong criticism of drone man, ‘kill list,’ NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA spy master Barack Obama are labeled as being racist is, in itself, perhaps the strongest indicator of just how deeply embedded hypocrisy and racism continue to be in U.S. society. – See more at: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/10601#sthash.4ZLCe9Ry.dpuf
The very fact that those who lodge legitimate and strong criticism of drone man, ‘kill list,’ NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA spy master Barack Obama are labeled as being racist is, in itself, perhaps the strongest indicator of just how deeply embedded hypocrisy and racism continue to be in U.S. society. – See more at: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/10601#sthash.4ZLCe9Ry.dpuf
The very fact that those who lodge legitimate and strong criticism of drone man, ‘kill list,’ NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA spy master Barack Obama are labeled as being racist is, in itself, perhaps the strongest indicator of just how deeply embedded hypocrisy and racism continue to be in U.S. society. – See more at: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/10601#sthash.4ZLCe9Ry.dpuf
The very fact that those who lodge legitimate and strong criticism of drone man, ‘kill list,’ NSA/CIA/FBI/DEA spy master Barack Obama are labeled as being racist is, in itself, perhaps the strongest indicator of just how deeply embedded hypocrisy and racism continue to be in U.S. society. – See more at: http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/10601#sthash.4ZLCe9Ry.dpuf

War on Terror in Perspective

Video

A couple weeks ago Obama was interviewed on “The Tonight Show”. In response to a question from Leno about whether it’s safe for Americans to travel abroad in light of a heightened terror alert, he replied “The odds of dying in a terrorist attack are a lot lower than they are of dying in a car accident, unfortunately”. While he probably meant it’s unfortunate that the rate of car accident fatalities is so high, it could also be his conscience (if he has one) admitting the actual threat posed by terrorism is so far less than car crashes and other causes of death, it is indeed weak justification for vastly disproportionate government spending. Regardless of interpretation, he was actually telling the truth.

According to Reason.com, in the period after 9/11 from 2001 to September 2011, only 30 Americans were killed in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Data from the 2013 edition of the AFL-CIO’s “Death on the Job” report, shows 70,664 workplace fatalities in the U.S. from 2001 to 2011. According to a Wiki page on U.S. motor vehicle deaths, from 2002 to 2011, 392,760 Americans were killed in car crashes. So in a similar time-frame the number of Americans killed in terrorist attacks were about .04% of the number of Americans killed in work related incidents in the U.S. and .008% of Americans killed in car crashes. Americans are 2,355 times more likely to die on the job and 13,092 times more likely to die on the road than from a terrorist attack.

Of the U.S. government’s $3.5 trillion total expenditure budget for fiscal year 2012,1.4 trillion was defense-related. So military spending is at least 40% of the U.S. budget (a conservative estimate not including black budget projects) for a terror threat that is miniscule compared to actual dangers that kill far more Americans.

Of course one is unlikely to learn this from corporate-stream news because the focus and priorities of corporate media and government spending tell us whose interests they promote and protect. By keeping citizens in a state of ignorance and fear, countless taxpayer dollars can more easily be diverted from essential public services and infrastructure in the name of “homeland security” and “defense” but with a tacit effect of consolidating power and weakening opposition. Rather than make us safer and more secure, U.S. government response to terrorism has had the opposite effect. Now more than ever we must overcome fear and raise awareness of the agenda at the root of the world’s worst problems through self education, questioning corporate media, organizing, strategic actions (or inactions), etc. We also need to start expanding alternatives to the current system (ie. worker owned cooperatives, small local farms and permaculture). The dominant top-heavy political and economic institutions will inevitably have to collapse or transform not only because they may be irreparably corrupt, but are socially and environmentally unsustainable.