Author: Mark Tokarski

Just a man who likes to read, argue, and occasionally be surprised.

Still skeptical about Snowden

If any are curious about whether the Edward Snowden is the real deal or a “limited hangout,” here is evidence of the latter: 20130624_600 .

Real deals do not get such favorable exposure. Time Magazine is not now, was not ever, a subversive journalistic enterprise. It’s a hack news operation that almost always supports the National Security State, reporting or not reporting as the situation demands.

Case in point: Do you know of the Strange Case of Barrett Brown? He’s a man who faces life imprisonment for messing for real with NSA and corporations like Stratfor who are in-bedded therein. Not a word in Time Magazine about him.
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Footnote: Naomi Wolf, who has also suggested that Snowden might not have actually left NSA employment, and so endures ridicule now from liberals, makes an interesting point that has not escaped me either:

But do consider that in Eastern Germany, for instance, it was the fear of a machine of surveillance that people believed watched them at all times — rather than the machine itself — that drove compliance and passivity. From the standpoint of the police state and its interests — why have a giant Big Brother apparatus spying on us at all times — unless we know about it?

Could it be that by doing his big reveal of what was already known, that Snowden is merely reinforcing a regime of fear?
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imageOne more footnote: Time Magazine covers are like Playboy’s, each a cultural comment, one without big tits. This is my favorite of all time. It was 1999, Serbia was resisting Wall Street penetration, all kinds of behind-the-scenes manipulations were going on (including a 1996 plane crash that killed numerous US corporate executives and commerce secretary Ron Brown). In the propaganda system, to prepare the US public for an attack, it was necessary to put a face on the new enemy, and that of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic was chosen. Time, performing its role as servant of the state, ran the cover shown here. Please notice, and it is no accident, that the “I” and the “M” in the word Time form horns on the poor slob, who was later imprisoned, and when found to be very effective in defending himself in court, was found dead in his cell. (OK, maybe you don’t think Time put horns on the enemy du jour, but I gotta ask: Why the blue face?)
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(Thanks for link, BFA)

Twenty-one minutes

I long ago stopped suggesting that people read books that I have read – why would they anyway? There’s an element of “should” in there, as if one person’s work has more merit than others based on my judgment which must therefore be superior to that of others. There is an objective reality and we are all trying to find it in some fashion, but our own view of that reality is deeply mired in our own emotions and values. It’s difficult, takes time and effort, and each person’s path and effort produces a different outlook. Some are worthy, others nonsensical.

With that in mind, I humbly suggest that the reader might enjoy the podcast linked here – a twenty-one minute lecture by the late Christopher Hitchens. You get to use your own judgment about the worth of his words. My only thoughts are that the man had a well-developed mind and a sharp wit, that the talk was very entertaining, and that I miss him.

He went there

la-me-michael-hastings-20130619-001I bought a used pickup last December, and due to other preoccupations, among them laziness, I have yet to give it a thorough cleaning on the inside, top to bottom, capping it off with a little stinky cardboard pine tree. Recently, while looking for something else, I found a spent shell casing on the floor in front the driver’s seat. My mind immediately thought “Warning!”

We can all pause here and do what I did – laugh at me. It obviously belonged to the former owner, who loved outdoor activities including hunting. If I were to think that shell was meant specifically as a warning for me, I would indeed be paranoid. But I do not matter. I get to live a happy life of privilege without fear of attackers. I have no enemies capable of violence. If I die in a fire, I probably left the stove on.
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The greatest generation

Clueless generation
Clueless generation
In 1914 the German Army marched through Belgium on its way to France, and snipers were shooting at soldiers who had believed the stories of glory and fame. Rather than fighting a noble cause, they were falling in the mud like peasants. The German propaganda arm saw value in this, and so began to fashion a stereotype for their public of Belgians acting as barbarians. All is fair.
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Miscellany

I had a bit of time on our trip home to listen to podcasts and review Thoreau’s thoughts on civil disobedience. People are calling for Edward Snowden’s head due to “treason,” but I don’t see it. What he disclosed is already known. It’s “legal” in the sense that a congress with a gun at its head passed it in a mindless time. That was part of the intent of the 9/11 attack. We need, at this time, not some spook coming out from the shadows to tell us what vigilant citizens already know, but rather a popular movement to remove the people from office who gave us USAPATRIOT and the people behind them who gave us 9/11, and that is not going to happen. Rather, we move forward.
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Obama send me no more drones …

It’s hard to keep up with events while traveling the Interstate and being NPR-dependent. We do get some BBC, and while Official Secrets prevents BBC from reporting on Britain, they do a better job reporting on the US than American news media.

That in mind, it appears that the Executive is diverting news attention to Syria and away from NSA spying. BBC says that US believes Syria has crossed the “Red Line,” a perception management device that will be used to justify full-scale attack on Syria. It’s only been a matter of creating a false-flag incident that doesn’t cause the rest of the world to gag laughing. But BBC says that Americans will only be sending “small arms.” Since Americans are already doing that and god only knows what else, it is safe, I think, to conclude that this is a mere attention-diversion tactic.

They still have to solve the Russian problem in Syria. Since Syria must be removed from Israel’s northern flank before an attack can be unleashed in Iran, it is safe to say that we are at peace for one more day. It’s a good thing. Americans are famous for bombing wedding parties in Afghanistan. Our daughter is getting married tomorrow. We don’t want no stinkin’ Obama drone attacks.

Thought control in a free society

Class assignment:List ten reasons why this might not be real.
Class assignment:List ten reasons why this might not be real.

  • Americans get their opinions from television, and younger ones rely more on Internet but use the same sources.
  • Any image can supply only a tiny fraction of a larger whole.
  • The voices that accompany images are authoritative sounding, and encourage us to imagine all that we cannot see.
  • So in essence, we see perhaps less than 1%, and imagine the other 99%.
  • So the key to opinion management is to influence our imaginations to fill in the other 99% as our leaders want it filled in.
  • That’s easy. It’s done via suggestion.

So, they showed you a guy in a wheel chair with his legs missing. Fill in the blanks! You did. It never occurred to you to question the photo, because it was right there on your screen.

That’s how it’s done. That’s why public opinion does not matter in our society. It’s easily managed.

Rats on the alert

  • Very suspicious! Edward Snowdon is a low-clearance guy with access to very highly secret documents.

  • Hiding in plain sight? I sort of get this, that by telling everyone where he is at, he can’t be secretly killed.
  • Good timing! In the wake of the Boston hoax, people are in a high state of tension, angry and scared. This spying system will not be dismantled.

It smells like a PSYOP to me, the National Security State telling is that we are being watched. They have emerged from the shadows, the velvet gloves taken off. It’s a little bit warmer now in our pot of water.

There are no “terrorists” of any note outside of FBI, Langley, Military Intelligence, Mossad and MI5 and 6. If they were worried about terrorism, they’d bomb Washington, Tel Aviv and London, do Hari Kari, make honorable exits, leave us alone, stop scaring the shit out of us.

It’s about us. We are the enemy. It is the people who smell a rat that the rat is watching.
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Russia is “ready to consider” offering Snowdon asylum, according to Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary. That’s one notch on the “this could be real” side.

Glenn Greenwald tweets “We are going to have a lot more significant revelations that have not yet been heard over the next several weeks and months.”
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If anyone is wondering why NSA is doing this, it is simple: They can. No one stopped them after 9/11, and now no one can. Even if we have some mass organizing movement to put a halt to this, how can we ever be sure. Everyone one is vulnerable now. No one has looked specifically at your or my information, but it is accessible. That’s the whole point, a gun that can be loaded at any time.

Imagine if they can store and access information on millions of us, how easy it is for them to corner a few hundred members of congress their staffs, media personalities like Anderson Cooper or even your local talking head. Information is power. Then perhaps you can understand why William Colby can say that “the Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.” Owning did not necessarily come about by purchase.

Take it a step further – how did we Learn that Anthony Weiner was sexting? How did we learn about John Edwards’ affair? Every one of them are being watched, and most have something – an extramarital affair, drug habit, “secret” bank account. Even if they are clean, they can be framed easily enough.

There’s nothing that can be done. It happened right under our noses because of 9/11, a false flag attack done specifically for this purpose. We did not investigate it, we believed the lies, we allowed them to pass and keep USAPATRIOT. The republic was already stressed, not having had a worthwhile president since JFK, so it’s hard to point at 9/11 as a red line. If there was a time that brought about the repression we now live under, it would be the ‘1960’s’, or that period from 1965-75 when we had information, organization, freedom of expression, movement politics. That scared the shit out of the overlords, and it has been downhill since. We’ve been dumbed down, kids are saddled with inescapable debt, jobs are now prisons and even essential to get access to health care.

The word gets bandied about, but people do not know what it means: “Freedom.” We cannot have it without fighting for it, and Americans long ago forgot what it was and how to fight. There will be no uproar over this, certainly no uprising. We’re too scared.

If anyone knows a way out of this problem, keep it to yourself or write it down on a piece of paper. Otherwise, your information is being shared with the National Security State.

It goes back to the Powell Memo. Worth a read.

Stereotypes

So we are sitting in a brew pub in Squamish, BC, and I look around at the crowd. I see polite young people speaking quietly, even as music in background is very loud. All are trim and fit. There are five TV sets, and at the head of the room is a huge one showing a hockey game. But of the hundred or so people there, not one is watching hockey!

I ask the waitress her opinion. I said that my stereotype of Canadians was that hockey was very, very big. She said that these were not Canadians, but rather Americans, up for the weekend from Washington. Over at the bar, she said pointing, are the few Canadians in the place, and they were intently absorbed in the game.

So many preconceptions messed up and affirmed at once!

But this one is affirmed: There is hardly any police presence up here, and people are left alone to mind their affairs. Clerks are friendly and chatty, probably the result of security. They have access to education and health care, and a high minimum wage protects them, as do unemployment benefits. Ordinary people have good lives!

The result: A relaxed country with a healthy distribution of income. The average Canadian household is wealthier than its southern counterpart. Worries are few.

British Columbia had a strong presence by the Conservative Party, but it’s agenda of intolerance of dissent and arrogant know-what’s-best-so-shut-up attitude rankled people. The recent election results: Zero seats for Conservatives. Zero! The party doesn’t exist in this province.

That, folks, is a responsive political system! Voting matters here! In the States people get frustrated with one party, turn to the other and get the same soup with a different label.

Marathon bombing is now settled history. What next?

Posting will be light here in the coming days, and if I write again about Boston, shoot your monitor.

The Boston Marathon bombing was a staged event, and many questions linger. But another event will be along soon, so this one needs to go on the shelf. Maybe fifty years from now some young participant will write in his memoirs how well it worked. Keep in mind Karl Rove’s* words as recounted by Ron Suskind,

…the aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” … “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

A few concluding thoughts:

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