Something to bear in mind re: Iran.

One rather suspicious thing about the most recent Wikileaks leak is how much it is getting America's favoured message that Iran will imminently have nuclear weapons (or indeed that there is any evidence they are developing nukes at all.)

An international panel of experts recently stated Iran WILL NOT have nuclear weapons in the near future.

And now; some Propaganda Model news.

A hagiography was originally a biography of a saint listing all their positive virtues and painting them in the best light possible, subsequently it has come to mean a highly positive portrayal of a person, usually in print.

The propaganda model would suggest that if an event that is negative to US interests occurred and it could not safely be ignored then it will be belittled, diminished and "spun" to lessen its' impact on US policy as much as possible.

The Wikileaks document release last week was just such an event and I betcha can't guess what happened. It is consistently fascinating to me (though unsurprising) that the NYT is held up as an example of extremely liberal journalism when it is such an obvious and blatant establishment supporter. The reasons for things being such is simple and twofold: 1)It is to keep the Overton Window (do note the depressing fact right wing uber shill Glenn Beck has tried to co-opt the term just as he has tried to co-opt Martin Luther King's actions) in the very right wing place it is currently, American political discourse will stay right wing as long as people think what the NYT offer is in any way left wing. 2) To people who want to be left wing and suchlike but aren't that well informed (what with how subservient the US media is and all) will read the NYT and unknowingly consume right wing propaganda.

Glenn Greenwald while at no point referring to the propaganda model (Chomsky is Haraam in American mainsteam political discourse) does a very good job of showing how the reaction to this release of information by Wikileaks is a case study of just how the propaganda model works. Greenwald draws some solace from the fact people are questioning just how in the pentagon's pocket the NYT writers were and I suppose to an extent it is. But if nearly of ample evidence of just how blatantly Burns and his ilk lied about Iraq and Afghanistan is only now drawing some criticism rather than hair teared out outrage it would seem that the Propaganda Model is functioning well enough for the elite and US interests.

Sometimes the unfairness of the world makes me very angry.

This is one of those times:


(apologies about the MS Paint highlighting that was put on before I got it)

thanks jonny

Its a good thing submarines look like dildos...

...because Caroline Wyatt sure as hell wants to get intimate with HMS Astute. I really hope for Ms Wyatt that all she is doing is printing verbatim a Royal Navy press release because otherwise she really is getting overly enthusiastic about £3.9bn a killing machine that has no real role or purpose in the modern world other than to maintain the delusion Britain still matters on the world stage. It is great to know that while other government departments face cuts of up to 25% the Ministry of Defence can still buy white elephant war toys.

Details of Pentagon's new anti-child soldier initiative leaked.

Combat paedophiles have been discovered at the pentagon.

Well at least thats the only interpretation I can put on the revelation a number of people have been downloading child porn while at the pentagon. Still the US Military's principal concern seems not to be the horrific sexual abuse of children child porn entails but instead how it affects national security. Heck some of the kids in that porn might not even have been American so n great shakes.

This throws up two pretty obvious problems. Firstly it brings up serious questions about vetting procedures at the Pentagon, as the article mentions the people convicted had been accessing overseas child porn sites. If they can access illegal sites of that nature pretty sure sites that threaten US national security could've been accessed without the vetting procedure realising either. In addition some of the people charged had been using government computers to do it but an investigation was required to catch them suggesting they weren't initially caught doing that on government computers.

Secondly it raises an ugly spectre of what people with lots of security clearance and influence at an organisation that controls troops all over the world, often in warzones with lots of vulnerable people in them. The potential for abduction for child prostitution or porn creation is worryingly strong in such positions. Enhanced by the fact any questionable behaviour can be dismissed as classified, for national security or whatever. In light of the fact the intelligence industry alone is now nearly a million strong the potential for misuse of this power to abuse children and commit all sorts of other crimes is overwhelming.

Socialism works.

Ok so this article is actually about how how pervasive the pentagon system is in our every day lives (anyone who thinks this just affects America is a prize fool) but while we probably weren't it was quite as pervasive as it is we did know GE owned NBC and so on, the corporations run the world.

No no lets take something positive from this, it is clear that substantial state funding is essential for a "capitalistic economy" to function. This offer to very slim hopes for the future, firstly if people were able gain back some power from the elite, as happened during the last depression this socialism for the rich could be directed more towards the poor and secondly, hey at least now you have evidence for libertarian assholes that the free market doesn't work.