sparrow chat

For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him. ~ Karl Marx

The US media really loves to hype up a non-story and milk it for all it’s worth. Take the latest sordid little escapade to hit the headlines this week – some guy working as a college football coach is caught touching up little boys in the showers and NBC Nightly News runs with it for five nights in a row as its main story.

Not content with over-reporting the story, NBC arranged a lengthy interview with Jerry Sandusky (the accused coach), asked him leading questions, then broadcast it to the nation.

In the once-Socialist country of my birth, such an act would be considered sub judice and any person or organization attempting NBC’s little stunt would be held in contempt of court, and heavily fined or imprisoned.

Not so in America, where the “First Amendment” takes precedence over justice.

Proving Sandusky guilty or innocent should never be the responsibility of the media. Today, the big corporations who own the TV companies use them as instruments of propaganda; a means to sway the populace to their view. Focusing on stories like this one allows Americans the opportunity to ‘tut-tut’ and express their righteous indignation (which they possess in abundance), while more vital and disturbing news issues are swept under the corporate media carpet.

Many of us have lived our lives in awe of the great naturalist and wildlife presenter, Sir David Attenborough. In his native Britain he is almost an institution.

Now eighty-five years of age, his latest epic series, “Frozen Planet”, is presently being screened on British television. It runs for seven episodes, and records the seasonal changes for animals and fish in both the Arctic and the Antarctic continent.

Despite his advanced years, Sir David was keen to make the series. He saw it as a historic record of an area of the planet that was rapidly changing. He knows, like many scientists, that the ice sheets and the life they support may well be gone in another fifty to one hundred years.

The last episode, “On Thin Ice”, deals extensively with the effects of global climate change. The Discovery Channel is screening the series in the US, but it will be exercising censorship and not broadcasting the last episode. It’s excuse: “scheduling issues”.

How can the Discovery Channel possibly have “scheduling issues” when ninety percent of its programs are repeats, and repeats of repeats?

Britain’s newspaper, the Daily Mail, suggests another reason:

An episode of the BBC’s Frozen Planet documentary series that looks at climate change has been scrapped in the U.S., where many are hostile to the idea of global warming.

British viewers will see all seven episodes of the multi-million-pound nature series throughout the Autumn.

But U.S. audiences will not be shown the last episode, which looks at the threat posed by man to the natural world.

It is feared a show that preaches global warming could upset viewers in the U.S., where around half of people do not believe in climate change…In the U.S., Frozen Planet is being aired by Discovery. They were involved in the joint-production of the series. Yet they are still refusing to accommodate Frozen Planet in its entirety…The timing of a one-sided global warming programme could be particularly sensitive in the U.S., where climate change is an issue in the presidential race.

GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry accuses climate scientists of lying for money.

A poll earlier this year found that the majority of Americans believe that if climate change does exist, it is not caused by humans.

Fifty-three per cent of Republicans say there is no evidence of climate change, while the number is far higher among Tea Party supporters, with 70 per cent saying the theory is ‘junk science’ pushed by groups with a vested interest.”^[1]

The Daily Mail has got it partly right.

The truth is that corporations have spent millions of dollars convincing the US public that climate change is not happening. They’ve used their media outlets, like NBC, to great effect. They’re not going to have all their hard work undermined by some trumped-up British knight who just happens to know what he’s talking about, and can voice it very persuasively.

Consequently, US viewers will be allowed to view images of cute creatures doing their thing, for six episodes. They will be deliberately prevented from hearing and seeing what will happen to those same creatures, and many others elsewhere on the planet before the end of this century, as climate changes destroys their habitat, because those who own and manipulate the Discovery Channel don’t wish them to know.

Apparently, the First Amendment doesn’t cover, ‘Freedom to See and Hear’.

^{[1] “Climate change episode of Frozen Planet won’t be shown in the U.S. as viewers don’t believe in global warming” Daily Mail, November 15th 2011}

Filed under: Brainwashing

Take a tour round the NBC Nightly News website, or suffer thirty minutes of their evening program, and you’ll be left with more questions than answers. For twenty minutes of the show Brian Williams will display to you all the nasty things currently occurring in or around America. But the last short segment always praises some lone US individual doing something ‘good’ or unselfish, even if usually irrelevant, for some other lone US individual, or small group of US individuals. It’s all designed to make you feel it’s ‘Making A Difference’, even if, in the great scheme of things, it’s making absolutely no difference at all.^[1]

Have you noticed how, whenever the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protestors come up in the media, (or, are deigned to be noticed by right-wing politicians) one of the key questions raised is: “What do they want?”

Recently, NBC Nightly News drew on the services of an ‘expert’ in the field to assess the potential impact of this large group camping out in a New York park, and elsewhere around the country. His assessment was that, ‘they needed to identify what it is they want’. They all seem, he said, to want different things.

What the f**k! No, they all want the same thing. They all want a fair and just society. They all want to stop being shafted by greedy wankers whose sole purpose in life is to rob the ordinary people of their hard-earned cash, so said greedy wankers don’t have to do a day’s honest labor in their lives.

They all want back their tax money that was given away, first by George W Bush and then Barack Obama, as so-called ‘bail-outs’ to a load of stinkingly-wealthy bankers whose immediate reaction was to pay themselves and their buddies obscene amounts of said tax money as ‘bonuses’ for doing sweet F.A., while congratulating themselves on how bloody clever they’ve been at swindling the government into giving them so much of other people’s cash.

They all want an end to the blatantly immoral practices of price-hiking and profiteering that puts profits before people.

Tonight, NBC Nightly News ran a segment explaining how a congressional investigation had revealed shortages in vital cancer drugs, caused by certain companies buying up these drugs at cut-price ($12 per phial), pushing up the price by creating a shortage, then selling them to cancer centers and hospitals at highly inflated prices ($950 a phial).

It doesn’t just happen with cancer drugs, such practices are prevalent throughout America and condoned by politicians, many of whom are happy to assist in pocketing the profits. It’s become ‘clever’ to make a buck (or, maybe, a million) at someone else’s misfortune.

“Fuck you, Jack, I’m alright.” I think I’ve written about that before.

One piece of ‘cheering’ news tonight, according to NBC, was recent action by the government to force cell phone companies to ‘inform’ their customers when they’re about to go over their monthly ‘limit’. Now, they’ll have to let you know if you’ve texted your boy/girl friend too many times, before charging you horrendously for daring to use their product too frequently. Anchor Williams was fairly brimming with public bonhomie as he cheerily passed on this news. Nowhere was there any suggestion the cell phone companies might, perhaps, simply lower their grossly inflated charges. Oh, no, that wouldn’t be American.

The good people occupying a New York park have had enough. They want an end to it. They all want an end to it. They want to live in a decent, fair, society. They want back their houses that the crooked bankers stole from them with worthless mortgages; they want some of the debt repaid that greedy finance houses imposed on them with credit card rates in excess of twenty-five percent, when the bank rate was 2% or less; they want to visit a doctor or a hospital without having to bankrupt themselves; they want to go to college and university without a lifetime of debt hanging over their heads; they want back the income stolen from them by racketeers and pension fund managers who bought out their workplaces for a quick profit then closed them down, or the corporates who sacked them and moved their factories to cheap-skate China.

Most of all, they want back the America, and its values, their fathers and grandfathers fought and died for in World War II.

What part of that does NBC and its ilk not understand?

^{[1] NBC Nightly News (No need for any date – it’s the same every night!)}

Filed under: Hear no sense, see no sense, speak no sense

Pay a visit to the ’100-Acre Wood House’ and savor some more titbits of rural life on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s only a ‘click’ away.

I’d love to meet the Chinese gentleman whose only identity, to those of us in the West, is ‘L22′. I’d love to kick his sorry butt all around the Oriental workplace where he’s employed as a quality control inspector.

‘L22′ works in a Chinese generator factory. He must have been taking a nap when ours came along. Though, he woke up just long enough to slap his sticker, “Inspected by: ‘L22′,” on it as it passed him by…

Read more…

The protesters who make up “Occupy Wall Street” are ‘scum’, a ‘mob’, ‘the great unwashed’ …and similar, according to many right-wing politicians and media companies.

The ‘Tea Party’ has called comparisons between itself and ‘Occupy Wall Street’, “…insulting”.

Perhaps, it’s just a question of perspective?

New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, was quoted recently in the Wall Street Journal, as saying:

The bottom line is – people want to express themselves. And as long as they obey the laws, we’ll allow them to. If they break the laws, then, we’re going to do what we’re supposed to do: enforce the laws.”

Note: “…as long as they obey the laws, we’ll allow them to.”

How nobly arrogant of you, Mayor Bloomberg. So long as people are law abiding, you’ll allow them to go about their business.

Isn’t that their right?

The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law…prohibiting…the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

It makes no mention of any time factor. It does not state that they should all go home within one hour, or after three days, or, whenever.

Therefore, Mayor Bloomberg, for you to state you will allow them to express themselves is to suggest you, personally, are above the US Bill of Rights, that you have the power – should you choose to exercise it – of negating the Bill of Rights.

The truth, of course, is that you are one of the ’1%’.

You, Mayor Bloomberg, are as much a part of the ‘Wall Street’ these people seek to occupy, as any of these goons:

In case any readers are unfamiliar with these fine, upstanding, individuals, they are Brian Moynihan (CEO Bank Of America), Lloyd Blankfein (CEO Goldman Sachs), and Jamie Diman (CEO JPMorgan Chase).

Mayor Bloomberg’s fortune (now estimated at $18.1 billion dollars) was initially accrued when he was sacked from the Wall Street investment bank, Salomon Brothers (later, part of Citigroup) in 1981, with a $10 million dollar pay-off. He used the money to start a new company, Bloomberg L.P..

Merrill Lynch was his first customer.

So the ’1%’ are graciously “allowing” the other 99% to continue their peaceful protests in New York, provided, of course, no law is broken in the process.

One is left wondering when Diana Taylor, Mayor Bloomberg’s domestic partner, and herself the former New York State Superintendent of Banks, will turn to him and suggest that, “they can all eat cake.”

Filed under: Goontown Rats

I have to smile at the antics of some US politicians as they mutter the despised “S” word into their microphone. Only last week Rick Perry declared it was “a downward spiral to disaster”, and last night on the Daily Show Ron Paul casually linked Socialism and “Authoritarianism” like they were one and the same.

Americans have heard this crap repeated so often the majority are now firmly convinced it’s true. The Cold War and the Vietnam War, between them, cemented the idea that Socialism and Communism were synonymous. They fail to recognize that many of the major players on the world economic stage would be labeled ‘Socialist’ according to the criteria of US politicians; countries like the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, and Japan all have social welfare programs regulated by the government, and of course, universal healthcare.

While many Americans would argue that these countries (with the possible exception of Germany) are suffering economically right now, it really has nothing to do with government social welfare programs. A serious breakdown of capitalism and monetarism are the reasons for the economic crises afflicting both sides of the Atlantic, coupled with the incompetence of inept and often corrupt politicians lining their bank accounts by ass-licking the wealthy and powerful. Social welfare programs are about caring for those who are sick, or fall on hard times. They are paid for by taxation and have little or no effect on national economies.

Sadly, for many in America, the “Stuff everyone else, I’m all right,” syndrome is alive and well and living in Arizona, Texas, or South Carolina.

It’s truly amazing that, given the state this nation is in, there are still those who believe Ron Paul (substitute Perry, Palin, Bachman, or whosoever you personally believe holds the magic wand) has the answer to all this nation’s woes. Come 2012, provided they’re elected to high office, all will be made right. America will hold its head high once more, everyone who wants to work will have a job, kids will get a decent education, their parents will have tons of money to send them to college, every citizen will be able to afford that $150,000 heart by-pass, and only the criminally idle will die in the gutter from disease or starvation.

Yes, the American Dream has always been about looking after Number One, and to hell with the rest. If they make it, too, that’s fine. If they don’t, well – tough. It doesn’t take a mathematics professor to calculate the high percentage of the populace who have to not make it, just so one person can.

You came to America, worked hard, got the breaks, and founded a small company. You employed people. They worked hard for you, and the business grew until you had seven factories and a workforce of thousands. You became wealthy. Then the Chinese offered to make your product for half the cost, so you closed your seven factories and moved production to Zhejiang Province.

Your business boomed. You became a multimillionaire. You joined the Republican Party and ran for political office. For you, the American Dream finally became reality when you stood at the dais during a presidential debate, and declared, “Capitalism is the only way forward. Socialism leads to authoritarianism and is a downward spiral to disaster.”

Not for one moment did you pause to consider those thousands of workers in your American factories, without whom you would be living where many of them are now – in poverty, after you stole their jobs and cast them adrift without a second thought.

Well, perhaps, after all, you managed to spare them one thought………

“Stuff them, I’m all right!”

Filed under: I’m alright, Jack!

On September 7th the Russian ice hockey team, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, was all but wiped out when the aircraft they were traveling in burst into flames and crashed shortly after take-off. Twenty-seven of the team died in the crash. There were only two survivors: a member of the crew and one of the players.^[1]

Despite eleven foreign nationals being on board the aircraft, including the team’s Canadian coach, in America yesterday evening NBC Nightly News failed to mention the accident. Brian Williams was too busy preening himself for the Republican presidential-hopefuls debate to be concerned with what was happening in Russia.

Far more important to NBC News was the circus of clowns cavorting on the rostrum of the Reagan Library that evening. Anybody who was anybody was there. Even Air Force One was in the audience.

There was a time when America was a great country. Some of its major politicians were actually honorable. Yet, it only took one glance through the posse of weirdos straddled across the rostrum of the Reagan Library on Wednesday evening to realize how low this nation has fallen.

The only two remotely sane candidates were a Libertarian has-been who wants to do away with government, and yet another Mormon from Utah intent on abolishing a woman’s right to control her own body.

Man, you can sure spot a Mormon by his smile!

The rest were a bunch of pseudo-Christian ideologues intent on forcing their own crazed agendas down the throats of the American people. He who was labeled, “the one most likely to succeed”, and is supposedly ahead of them all in the polls, is a Christian Dominionist who denounces the science of climate change as a charade, believes fervently in creationism, the absolute truth of the Bible (except for those parts he doesn’t believe in i.e. “Thou shalt not kill”, “Love thy neighbor”, etc), and that he has been ‘called’ by God.

On April 21st this year he instigated three days of prayer to, “heal our land [Texas]” and bring an end to the drought.”

According to Wikipedia:

The drought became worse after the Days of Prayer. While only 15-17% of the state was undergoing exceptional drought during the Days of Prayer, the percentage grew to 50% a month later, and by late June, more than 70% of the state was experiencing exceptional drought conditions, a level at which it has stayed up to August 18, 2011.”^[2]

Indeed, it could be construed that this particular politician is well out of favor with the Almighty, who appears to be playing games with him. Two recent storms, Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, may have somewhat relieved Texans of their drought, had they stayed on track. Despite the ‘three days of prayer’ both storms veered away from Texas and dumped their rain on the east coast instead.

Overall, the outlook for America is dim. The incumbent president is hellbent on emulating the late Neville Chamberlain, no other Democrat appears willing to challenge his position, and the American people have a history of voting for the ‘other side’ whenever the party in power appears to fail them.

Perhaps, after all, it was understandable that Brian Williams and NBC News didn’t mention the loss of life in the Russian air disaster. They were too busy reporting the train wreck on their own doorstep.

^{[1] “Russia’s Lokomotiv ice hockey team in air disaster” BBC, September 7th 2011}

^{[2] “Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas” Wikipedia}

Filed under: Slowly sinking in the West