Memory-Hole.

An extract from the article, The Mass-Media Memory Hole.  

          Knowledge that sheds light on how the world operates politically and economically is kept to a minimum by the ‘mainstream’ media. George Orwell’s famous ‘memory hole’ from ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ signifies the phenomenon brilliantly. Winston Smith’s work for the Ministry of Truth requires that he destroys documents that contradict state propaganda:

‘When one knew that any document was due for destruction, or even when one saw a scrap of waste paper lying about, it was an automatic action to lift the flap of the nearest memory hole and drop it in, whereupon it would be whirled away on a current of warm air to the enormous furnaces which were hidden somewhere in the recesses of the building’.

(Orwell, ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’, 1949, Penguin edition, 1982, p. 34)

The interests of power, hinging on the domination of an ignorant population, are robustly maintained:

          Australian political analyst Caitlin Johnstone noted recently that:

‘Arguably the single most egregious display of war propaganda in the 21st century occurred last year, when the entire western political/media class began uniformly bleating the word “unprovoked” in reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.’

          Pointing out that the West ‘provoked’ Russia is not the same as saying that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was justified. In fact, we were clear in our first media alert following the invasion:      

  ‘Russia’s attack is a textbook example of “the supreme crime”, the waging of a war of aggression.’

        As Noam Chomsky pointed out, the 2003 invasion of Iraq was totally unprovoked, but:

        ‘nobody ever called it “the unprovoked invasion of Iraq.” In fact, I don’t know if the term was ever used; if it was, it was very marginal. Now you look it up on Google, and hundreds of thousands of hits. Every article that comes out has to talk about the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Why? Because they know perfectly well it was provoked. That doesn’t justify it, but it was massively provoked.’

         Bryce Greene, a media analyst with US-based Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), observed that US policy makers regarded a war in Ukraine as a desirable objective:
        

‘One 2019 study from the RAND Corporation—a think tank with close ties to the Pentagon—suggested that an effective way to overextend and unbalance Russia would be to increase military support for Ukraine, arguing that this could lead to a Russian invasion.’

          The rationale was outlined in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by John Deni of the Atlantic Council, a US think tank with close links to the White House and the arms industry, headlined ‘The Strategic Case for Risking War in Ukraine’. Greene summarised the logic:

            ‘Provoking a war would allow the US to impose sanctions and fight a proxy war that would grind Russia down. Additionally, the anti-Russian sentiment that resulted from a war would strengthen NATO’s resolve.’

        Greene added:

         ‘The consensus among policymakers in Washington is to push for endless conflict, no matter how many Ukrainians die in the process. As long as Russia loses men and material, the effect on Ukraine is irrelevant. Ukrainian victory was never the goal.’

          As Johnstone emphasised in her analysis:  

     

  ‘It’s just a well–documented fact that the US and its allies provoked this war in a whole host of ways, from NATO expansion to backing regime change in Kyiv to playing along with aggressions against Donbass separatists to pouring weapons into Ukraine. There’s also an abundance of evidence that the US and its allies sabotaged a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine in the early weeks of the war in order to keep this conflict going as long as possible to hurt Russian interests.’

She continued:      

"We know that western actions provoked the war in Ukraine because many western foreign policy experts spent years warning that western actions would provoke a war in Ukraine.’

         But you will search in vain for substantive reporting of such salient facts and relevant history – see also this piece by FAIR – in ‘mainstream’ news media.

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Not Stupid.

 

Image courtesy of Youtube.

 

           The war in Ukraine, call it what you will, U$A proxy war, Russian invasion of another country, but one thing is clear, we in the West do not get the full facts of the situation. We are never informed of where the rumblings of the conflict started, what factors were at play that erupted onto the bloody conflict we are witnessing now. We are treated as stupid by our lords and masters, and their mouthpiece the mainstream media. To them it is preached as good and evil, we of course are the good, Russia is the evil, we are supposed to swallow this simplistic explanation of a complex situation of power and resources, of world domination and the supremacy of the West 

 

Image courtesy of The Communist.

 

         Two interesting comments from Anarchist News shows the disparity of explanations of this bloody conflict in which, as usual, the ordinary people pay the price in blood and suffering, while the power mongers gather the blood soaked benefits.

Submitted by Wayne Price (not verified) on Tue, 08/01/2023 - 14:44

            This Anon reduces the issue to that of the inter-imperialist conflict, "the geopolitical interests of their local ruling class." It doesn't seem to occur to them that the Ukrainian people (mostly workers and farmers, not just their "local ruling class") are fighting for their lives, their existence as a people, their language, and their freedoms (limited as these are in a capitalist democracy), against an invading enemy which is smashing their villages and cities, blowing up their infrastructure, massacring their people, raping their women, and kidnapping their children. To them it is not simply a matter of the Ukrainian rulers not of the imperialist states from which they have gotten arms. Most of the anarchists of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarusia can see this, even if you can't. reply

 Their lives? their existence
Submitted by anon (not verified) on Tue, 08/01/2023 - 19:56

Their lives? their existence as a people?
          The Russians are not a horde of Orcs out to rampage and murder indiscriminately Wayne, it's a political war for the control of territory and resources, and in a large sense it's a civil war, as a bulk of the so-called "Russian" forces are actually so-called Ukrainians, scared kids who were forcefully conscripted from the donbass region to fight other scared conscripted kids. The ethnic/genetic differences between "white" russians and ukrainians is absolutely negligible, almost everybody has close relatives from both countries.

Their language?
           The bulk of the devastation is unfolding in territories where the populations are majority russian speaking and culturally russian. These were regions that voted against leaving the USSR and later became footholds of the "pro-russian" federalist Party of Regions. All the major industrial infrastructure in these regions date back to the soviet times. Since the Maidan coup in 2014 the Ukrainain state has been openly belligerent against its "own" civilian populations in these regions, intermittantly bombing residential areas and carrying out terror campaigns led by Banderist, Right Sektor and Azov neo-nazis. Some western-ukrainian nationalist politicians and TV commentators have openly called for making an ethnic purge and population replacement the whole region, citing that they are unambitious an not productive enough. Almost 300 children were killed by ukrainian bombs, bombs launched by their "own" nation before the outbreak of the russian intervention.

Their freedoms? democracy?
        There is no political freedom. Since the outbreak of the war the Ukrainian state has outlawed all left-wing parties and indefinitely suspended elections. Because of general conscription males are forced to hide or flee if they do not want to become cannon fodder for the defense of the current regime. Soliders and police patrol the streets hunting for evaders. It's cool the Zelenskyy wants to legalize weed though I guess.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Subterfuge.

        By stealth, subterfuge, and smoke and mirrors, that is how most states function. They pump out a phoney statement with innocent sounding misnomers, but the intention is slithering into place, and the powers that be hope it will not be noticed until it becomes an accepted fact and is too late to reverse. It has been the opus operandi for states across time and the planet. Sadly the result is usually horrendous bloodshed, death and destruction for the innocent. However, this fate is not heaped on the perpetrators of this callous, brutal deceit. When will we ever learn, the state is the enemy of the people, equality, peace, justice and freedom. Its demise is our only hope of a better world for all. 

From Struggle La Lucha.

July 31, 2023 Gary Wilson 

 

          

           U.S. troops in Poland, near the Ukraine border. In July, President Biden authorized an addition 3,000 reservists to join more than 12,000 troops in NATO countries surrounding Ukraine. Is this troop build up in preparation for “boots on the ground” in Ukraine? Newsweek reported that in July NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced a support package for Ukraine that would “result in the U.S. eventually sending soldiers to fight in the war against Russia.”
            U.S. troops in Poland, near the Ukraine border. In July, President Biden authorized an addition 3,000 reservists to join more than 12,000 troops in NATO countries surrounding Ukraine. Is this troop buildup in preparation for “boots on the ground” in Ukraine? Newsweek reported that in July NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced a support package for Ukraine that would “result in the U.S. eventually sending soldiers to fight in the war against Russia.”
        The Pentagon has approved hazard pay for U.S. troops serving in Ukraine, paving the way for a possible expanded presence. Military Times reported July 27 on the new hazard pay policy.
         Troops who qualify will get back pay as far back as April 24, 2022.
         “Grier Martin, who is temporarily serving as the Pentagon’s top personnel official, approved the change in a July 13 memo, which was posted to the unofficial ‘Air Force amn/nco/snco’ Facebook page,” Military Times says.
         The approval of hazard pay is seen as a sign that the Pentagon is preparing for a possible expansion of the U.S. military presence in Ukraine. The Biden administration has steadily increased the number of special forces “advisers” and trainers in the country. While calling them advisers and trainers, they actively participate in the war.
        Washington has a long history of entering wars this way, from Vietnam to Central America to Afghanistan. The U.S. initially claimed it was not sending “boots on the ground” to Vietnam, but eventually, there were over 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam. The U.S. also claimed that it was not sending troops to El Salvador, but eventually, over 500 U.S. special forces were operating in El Salvador, commanding the Salvadoran military dictatorship.
        Washington won’t say that it is directly involved in combat in Ukraine. It can be expected to stick to euphemisms (advisers or security details) to describe its activities. The euphemisms are its way of expanding involvement, hoping no one will notice the increasing numbers of troops on the ground.

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info     

Ukraine.

 

          Russia is the largest country in the world, it is a land rich in resources, more so than any other country on the planet. It has abundant supplies of oil, natural gas, timber and valuable minerals, such as copper, diamonds, lead, zinc, bauxite, nickel, tin, mercury, gold and silver. The value of these resources is probably immeasurable. America has long had its eye on these resources and has worked hard to bring about the demise of Russia, and hand those resources to the dollar corporate empire. The latest U$A endeavour to bring about the fall of Russia is to fight a war with Russia without useing American troops. The U$A and its puppets will fund the war and supply intelligence and hardware, the Ukrainians can supply the blood and misery. Unfortunately in wars the manpower gets depleted, so all the sophisticated weaponry becomes useless if you don't have the manpower to use them. This is what is happening in Ukraine today. Ukraine is losing a vast amount of troops and that is unsustainable, of course Russia too is losing vast numbers of its troops, but there is a vast population difference between these two countries. This bloodshed will rumble on to the inevitable end, Ukraine will be obliterated, or America and its band of puppets will send in the cavalry and turn the world into on vast blood bath. Only if sanity returns and a vast anti-war movement forces some sort of negotiated settlement, will this mayhem cool down.

The following from Arrezafe.

          Put these four things together: tremendous and unsustainable losses of soldiers; terrifying and indefensible asymmetries of military power; inability to stock up on even conventional defensive weapons; and support completely reduced to that of its main sponsors.
         Sounds like the formula for winning a war? Obviously not. It is the formula to lose it, which is why Von der Leyen, Macron, Scholz and Blinken are already preparing the exit. The tide is turning out for Zelensky. 

 Source: Robert Freeman , We've Reached Peak Zelensky. Now What?

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