Ignorance is Bliss; Until You Are Incinerated in a Nuclear Exchange

[truth2power]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article42262.htm




Nuclear War, brought to you by neocon idiots and corporate media.

June 27, 2015 "Information Clearing House" - The purpose of corporate “news” media is to dull your mind and insure you are sufficiently dumbed down and distracted from the real issues, by feeding you pointless irrelevant social trivia. As long as you are distracted, you are unable to organize, get involved, or seek change, which is exactly what corporate media wants, and is exactly where they have you. Don’t think so? Answer the following questions:

We have been at war in Afghanistan for over 13 years; why? What are we fighting for? Who are we fighting? Where is Afghanistan and why can’t most Americans even find it on a map after 13 years of war?

more...

And this:

Since anything that isn't Corporate Media approved demonization of Russia and/or Putin is generally shouted down here; so much for critical thinking -

How about Russia? Most Americans do not have a clue that we are now very close to a war with Russia, but then again most folks never saw World War I coming either. Why do we now have troops in the all the Baltic States on the border with Russia? Why are we installing missiles on Russia’s border? Where is the Ukraine in relationship to the US? Where is the Ukraine in relationship to Russia? How many military bases does Russia have outside Russia?** How many military bases does the US have outside of its borders?*** What was the Kennedy’s reaction when he found out that Russia had installed missiles in Cuba? Why is the US having “war games” less than one mile from the Russian border? How many foreign nations has Russia invaded since the end of WWII? How many nations has the US invaded or bombed since the end of WWII? Why does corporate media depict Russia as militarily aggressive? (Asterisks added).

**Approx. 10. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Russian_military_bases_abroad I am sure one can dispute this, one way or another, but, in no case does it approach 662.


***Approx.662+ Source: http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175338/ " According to the Department of Defense’s 2010 Base Structure Report, the U.S. military now maintains 662 foreign sites in 38 countries around the world."

[Xipe Totec]

1. Tom Lehrer - We Will All Go Together When We Go

[truth2power]

2. LOL!

Grim humor, there. I guess one has to laugh instead of cry.

[bvf]

11. Always glad to see Lehrer's stuff get posted here.

A high school classmate introduced me to his work back in the early seventies, and I was completely hooked.

Even today, he's unequalled. Amazing that his somewhat brief side-career in performing started out with a few risqué ditties written for friends.

/OT

[Jefferson23]

3. Highly recommend. n/t

[KoKo]

4. NYT’s Orwellian View of Ukraine--We aren't supposed to think for ourselves

Exclusive: In the up-is-down Orwellian world that is now The New York Times’ editorial page, there was no coup in Ukraine in 2014, no U.S.-driven “regime change,” no provocation on Russia’s border, just Moscow’s aggression — a sign of how propaganda has taken over mainstream U.S. media.

In George Orwell’s 1984, the leaders of Oceania presented “Two Minutes Hate” in which the image of an enemy was put on display and loyal Oceanianians expressed their rage, all the better to prepare them for the country’s endless wars and their own surrender of freedom. And, now, in America, you have The New York Times.

Surely the Times is a bit more subtle than the powers-that-be in Orwell’s Oceania, but the point is the same. The “paper of record” decides who our rotating foreign enemy is and depicts its leader as a demon corrupting whatever he touches. The rest of us aren’t supposed to think for ourselves. We’re just supposed to hate.

As the Times has degenerated from a relatively decent newspaper into a fount of neocon propaganda, its editors also have descended into the practice of simply inventing a narrative of events that serves an ideological purpose, its own version of “Two Minutes Hate.” Like the leaders of Orwell’s Oceania, the Times has become increasingly heavy-handed in its propaganda.

Excluding alternative explanations of events, even if supported by solid evidence, the Times arrogantly creates its own reality and tells us who to hate.

In assessing the Times’s downward spiral into this unethical journalism, one could look back on its false reporting regarding Iraq, Iran, Syria or other Middle East hotspots. But now the Times is putting the lives of ourselves, our children and our grandchildren at risk with its reckless reporting on the Ukraine crisis – by setting up an unnecessary confrontation between nuclear-armed powers, the United States and Russia.

https://consortiumnews.com/2015/06/22/nyts-orwellian-view-of-ukraine/

[truth2power]

5. Good article. The american people need to know

the extent to which they're being subjected to what can only be described as Orwellian propaganda regarding Russia and Ukraine.

Here's a link to an interview of Stephen Cohen by Sophie Shevardnadze. He explains the backstory of the events in Ukraine. It's from 2014 but still topical.

[cprise]

6. REC'd because of the references

[KoKo]

7. ...!

[swilton]

8. K&R

Thanks for posting!

[Doc_Technical]

9. Weird Al Yankovic- Happy Birthday

[Mike_SMO]

10. Blast from the Past; maybe 1962.

Such Capitalist aggression against the poor people of Rodina. Lordy.

The only missiles that I recall hearing about were anti-ballistic missile defense batteries designed to block possible missiles from Iran (possibly using weapons purchased from North Korea, or some such). Those missiles are useless for attacking Russia. Russia has so much landmass that defense missiles based in Europe can do nothing if Russia wants to take a run at North America or Europe with its land-based weapons. And that is ignoring Russian submarine based missiles and the Russian strategic air force capability. Those American troops "on Russia`s border" are a "tripwire" in case Russia decides that it wants a land-bridge to its base on the Baltic Sea like it did for the Crimean facilities. The size of the US force there is too small to threaten Russian territory. They are mostly a statement that the US is still in NATO. They could also help if there is a northern outbreak of the "green men" that sprung up in the Ukraine (uniformed military forces with no identifying unit insignia). Are the Baltic states far away? Yep. They are NATO members and ALL of NATO (Europe) is far away from the US and Canada and very close to Russia which has had some very aggressive actions of late. Europe is also full of friendly democracies who are important to the US and world economy. Europe has no interest in a nuclear war since (from memory) their cities and towns are only 15 kilotons apart. The US doesn`t want a nuclear exchange either in Europe, at sea, or in North America. There is only one nation rattling its offensive missiles; Putin`s Russia.

The OP rant does make me feel sorta young; I was a child when the "friends of the Soviet Union" were doing this same song and dance about poor beleaguered Russia. It was crap then and no better today.

Cheers.

[truth2power]

12. You need to do more reading.

Start with Stephen Cohen's interview, above.

[Mike_SMO]

13. The Russian Burden of "protecting" all its colonists.

Russia is using the excuse of protecting the ethnic Russians that it installed during the last century from the depredations of Europe and the Church of Rome. Why should good Russians suffer under the "corruption" of foreigners when there is such a surplus of corruption in the Rodina theme park. Besides, that "heroic" quest is a good cover for the re-conquest of the Crimean and Baltic warm weather ports.

How is Putin expected to threaten Sweden if his best Baltic port is "under siege" by the Europeans and the "primitive" Balts? Team Glasnost really blew it on the warm water bases.

[Blue_Tires]

14. Information Clearinghouse?

Yeah, sure, bro...Whatever you say...

Some of these useful idiots need to emigrate to Russia, since they think Putin is such a peachy keen guy...

[truth2power]

15. Pointing to the source and adding a little smilie is not an argument, for or against..

It would rate a zero in any high school English class in terms of analysis, evaluation, discussion etc.

It's used all the time on DU to substitute for any critical thought. You would think some people could get better material.

[Mosby]

16. infoclearinghouse is about as stupid as infowars

or rense or ifamericansknew or whatreallyhappened....


eta most DUers seem to understand this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016126130

[truth2power]

17. Re: the link you provided..

"...disruptive, hurtful, rude..."etc. is a general term applied to every alert. What was the alerter's specific complaint - if you know?

4 out of 7 people certainly is "most" in terms of that sample, although hardly a mandate; But in terms of the entire population of DUers it's meaningless.

Learning how to analyze and/or evaluate the argument in textual material is a component of the language arts curriculum in high school. Some students sleep through it, though.


Oh, yeah..and Guilt by Association.

[truth2power]

18. Stupid? Partial list of those with some cred on DU

whose work has been posted, numerous times for some, on ICH in the past few months:

Ted Rall
Naomi Klein
Dmitry Orlov
Medea Benjamin
John Pilger
Tom Engelhardt
Prof. Richard Wolff
Pepe Escobar
Matt Taibbi
James Galbraith
Chris Hedges
David Swanson
Thom Hartman
Robt. Fisk
Cenk Uygur
F. Wm. Engdahl
Charles Pierce
Ray McGovern
Joe Stiglitz
Yan Varoufakis - Greek Finance Minister
Chelsea Manning
Democracy Now!
John Kiriakou
Arundhati Roy
McKlatchy News

I haven't seen such stupidity, all in one place, in living memory.

[Blue_Tires]

19. I've posted critical analyses about the Russian situation

too many times to count...Go find them, genius

You'd fail any high school/college assignment related to research or critical thought if this is what you consider a "valid source" -- So I seriously doubt you've even attended university, much less graduated with an accredited degree...

Unless you say you have attended college, in which case I would ask why your ignorance is willful instead of unintentional...

Don't get cute with me genius, this is a game you'll lose and you know it