<\/a>I\u2019m one of those \u201ccord-cutters.\u201d I’ve also given up all mainstream media news. Even though I can still watch and read it\u00a0online, I mostly choose not to. The lies and distortions are reaching full on lunacy, and if I do catch a headline, or watch a clip, or read a few paragraphs of what the \u201cvoices of empire\u201d have to say about Syria or Ukraine, it just ruins my day. I get\u00a0depressed\u00a0knowing that most Americans believe the\u00a0false narratives spun by the White House and State Department, narratives that go unquestioned\u00a0by the “journalists” who\u00a0report them. These stories are designed\u00a0to get the country\u00a0on board with the administration’s expensive, illegitimate\u00a0wars that drain resources away from the many to enrich the few.. Unfortunately, most Americans\u00a0feel\u00a0that If CNN or the New York Times<\/em> says it\u2019s true, it must be true.<\/p>\n In case you haven\u2019t noticed, the U.S. government uses the media to demonize the legitimate heads of state in countries\u00a0it wants to overthrow\u2014most recently Muammar Gaddafi, Bashar al-Assad, and Vladimir Putin. When the demonization starts, you know that country is in the\u00a0crosshairs of the United States. We pursue \u201cregime change\u201d if a country refuses to bow to U.S. hegemony, is making economic alliances with other countries that threaten U.S. economic interests, or if it has resources we want, such as oil. We also destroy\u00a0countries that\u00a0bypass the dollar on trade settlement, as\u00a0Libya was intending to do. Gaddafi was in the process of starting a gold backed pan-African bank that would serve, rather than exploit, the countries on\u00a0the\u00a0African continent. That\u00a0was unacceptable to Wall Street and international banking cartels. Gaddafi was assassinated, and Libya, once the most\u00a0prosperous country on the continent, is now a completely destroyed, failed state.<\/p>\n How do we invade without deploying troops? We have\u00a0NATO do our dirty work,\u00a0we impose\u00a0economic and financial\u00a0sanctions, we impose “no fly zones,” we\u00a0use mercenaries, we use NGOs to stir up internal unrest and opposition, we send in \u00a0CIA-backed fighters\u00a0like al-Nusra in Syria, we recruit and train jihadists to destabilize our target countries in the Middle East, and we get in bed with corrupt oligarchs and neo-Nazi\u2019s in countries like Ukraine.\u00a0We steal resources, destroy\u00a0economic competition, and preserve, or restore, the primacy of the dollar as reserve currency.\u00a0Most Americans\u00a0have a misguided view of the United States as\u00a0some sort of benign force <\/span>keeping the peace and taking out “bad guys<\/span>.” \u00a0Actually, we are the bad guys.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Have\u00a0a look at this moronic Newsweek<\/em> cover. This is what propaganda looks like. There are deranged Neocons infesting the Obama administration, like Victoria Nuland at State, and Ashton Carter at the Pentagon. And in the DC media, you have people like\u00a0Richard Cohen at the Washington Post.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0They drool\u00a0over the idea of assassinating\u00a0Putin, installing another U.S. puppet, like the late, drunk, Boris Yeltsin, and making Russia, with its vast landmass and resources, into a vassal state. This image of Putin as a crazed power hungry “pariah” is\u00a0the\u00a0false narrative\u00a0they want you\u00a0to buy. Neocons are elitists who don’t believe in democracy. They\u00a0have no problem manipulating and lying to the American people, as they did going into the Iraq War. They feel the destiny of the United States is nothing less than full-spectrum world dominance.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I love humor, especially when it\u2019s used to expose a devastating truth about current events. So, in the spirit of John Stewart, John Oliver and the venerable Onion<\/em>, I bring you Gary Leupp,<\/strong> professor of History at Tufts University. By mocking\u00a0current news coverage on Syria, Leupp points to\u00a0what’s\u00a0not <\/em>true in what we\u2019re hearing and reading. Here\u2019s an edited excerpt of his post \u201cA Useful Prep-sheet on Syria for Media Propagandists<\/a>\u201d, (emphasis mine<\/strong>). You\u00a0can read the rest of his wickedly insightful commentary at Counterpunch.<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m one of those \u201ccord-cutters.\u201d I’ve also given up all mainstream media news. Even though I can still watch and read it\u00a0online, I mostly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":32655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1383,77,265],"tags":[2497],"yoast_head":"\nHumor\u00a0to the rescue, or, “if I wasn’t laughing I’d be crying”<\/h2>\n
State Department talking points on Syria for cable news anchors:<\/h2>\n
\n