Shooting the Messengers

It’s over. It’s done. That’s it. The party is over.

If anyone had any doubt whatsoever that the US regime and its paranoid and schizophrenic state security apparatus have lost their minds, this should no longer be a question after the utterly disgusting way in which they have dealt with Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden.

These two brave men blew the lid off the secret and vicious world of US government deceitfulness and criminality.

From exposing US military atrocities in Iraq, diplomatic backstabbing and secret but illegal eavesdropping by the NSA on millions of people inside and outside the US, these two individuals have exposed the the ugly reality of US behavior which was hidden underneath a carefully-crafted mask of benevolence.

What Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden gave us is the most rank hypocrisy and deceit ever exposed. From covered up war crimes committed by the US in Iraq, to embarrassing and mean-spirited and two-faced diplomatic intrigues to mass-surveillance of peoples’ digital lives. It also exposed a shameless and bat-shit crazy US government so devious and arrogant that they even spied on foreign heads of state during international conferences.

These three individuals have done more damage to US credibility than all the Al Qaedas and terrorists out there could never do. And the punch line is that they did nothing more than tell the truth.

That’s the bottom line about all these revelations: They are the plain albeit ugly truth about how comical and farcical the US regime and its policies have become.

While America’s vassal state governments in the EU have been whining about the fact that they have been spied on by the NSA, they brought all this upon themselves by getting too cozy with US intelligence and military apparatus over the decades. Any such cooperation should have been nixed after 1991 and Europe should have never looked back.

And these dumbasses are allowing the NSA to build huge monitoring centers right on European soil! Are these EU governments bi-polar or something? They are only inviting even more abuses.

Of course, the US government spin machine, together with the pathetic mass-media in this country, have gone into full-on and relentless damage control. They have tried to desperately justify these eavesdropping programs by insisting that they stopped some terrorist attacks (without providing evidence, of course, because its secret) and have also tried to deflect attention from the obvious US government wrong-doing by demonizing and slandering Edward Snowden and by calling him a traitor and a thief. They have also issued threats against any country which tries to give him refuge.

Now let’s reverse the situation.

If a Russian intelligence analyst fled to Canada seeking asylum, with laptops full of classified Russian intelligence, Canada would grant it to him immediately and the US, as well as all the US vassal states in the EU, would do so as well.

None of these countries would have any second thoughts or be worried about "ruining relations with Russia" by giving him asylum and protection regardless of what Russia says. Plus, the US would demonize Russia incessantly day and night for trying to demand the return of the leaker and for doing anything to block him from traveling. For doing so, Russia would be constantly slandered by the US government and the worthless US media as an undemocratic country which still behaves like a Stalinist dictatorship.

There would be no end to it. Pathetic cretins like Senator “Insane” McCain, LOUSY Graham as well as pro-US/Israel talking shitheads like Alan Dershowitz, Charles Krauthammer and other neo-con subhuman filth would go into spastic orgasms trying to vilify anything Russian.

If Russia dared to threaten any country with sanctions or violence for sheltering a Russian dissident, it would be pilloried and embarrassed at the UN and internationally isolated.

Such is the hypocrisy that rules the day in the good ole’ US of A.

Russia has recently granted Ed Snowden temporary 1-year asylum. This decision has got the US regime fuming. From the start they have embarrassed themselves and served as their own worst enemies by engaging in public temper-tantrums and foot-stomping whining worthy of a petulant and spoiled child who did not get that second scoop of ice cream at the state fair.

Ever since, US State Dept. and assorted congress clowns have been wagging their fingers at Russia and threatening it with “consequences” and some possible sanctions. They also attempted to have US Attorney General Eric Holder try to play the proverbial good cop by writing a letter to the Russian government promising not to torture Edward Snowden if Russia extradites him and that he will get a fair trial.

Yeah. They won’t torture him.

Just like they didn’t hold Bradley Manning in solitary confinement for two years under degrading conditions and try to force him to falsely implicate Julian Assange and make him into some sort of Al Qaeda’s PR guy (unlike those US government officials who as I write this propagandize and support Al Qaeda-linked rebels with money, training and weapons in Syria); and just like they did not keep Jose Padilla in solitary confinement and under psychological torment for years, and just like they did not set Assange up with false rape charges to force him out so he can be extradited, for committing no crime against the US!

I think that the main reason for the anti-Russian whining coming out of US government officials mouths is that it is bad PR for the US that Edward Snowden chose Russia as a refuge. Doing so makes Russia look good. It invalidates years of US propaganda that Russia is a country lacking democracy and human rights and ran by a dictatorial regime which does not care about international law.

But the US has unwittingly applied those anti-Russian stereotypes to itself by its abhorrent behavior towards Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers.

If there is only one lesson to be learned from all these intelligence leaks, it is that American promises are worth their weight in used toilet paper.

But at least Mr. US Attorney General admitted that the US tortures people, or else he would have not made this promise regarding Edward Snowden.

Russia did the right and honorable thing by sheltering Snowden and Russian officials from President Putin on down need to stop with ridiculous self-doubt and self-recrimination. It is a waste of time and only clouds good sense and judgment they have. It is the US that deserves to feel embarrassed.

And this brings us to the most important point of all.

The bad guy in this entire Edward Snowden affair is not Edward Snowden. The bad guy is the US government.

The US government illegally eavesdropped, and continues to eaves drop, on electronic and voice communications of millions of people worldwide, including the US.

Edward Snowden did not decide on his own volition to use his abilities to “hack” peoples’ computers and phones and then took that information. The US government ordered him, and many others like him, to do this.

Edward Snowden exposed government wrong-doing; he did not initiate it.

So therefore, it is the US government that is the guilty culprit, and it must be the target of people’ ire and condemnation, not the messenger who told the world the truth and exposed a horrible wrong.

Anyone who tries to defend this blatantly illegal US government eavesdropping, and criticizes the whistleblowers who bring this illegality into public light, is a fascist whore with less than zero percent credibility. They are nut cases who should be kept from any and all positions of authority anywhere.

People who punish and torment whistleblowers in the US, from Obama on down, are shaming themselves and every person who lives here. They are also shaming and contradicting the constitution they swore to uphold, but which they violate by engaging in this mass-surveillance.

The amount of vitriol, hatred and primeval thirst for revenge Obama and other officials of the current US regime have shown for whistleblowers and truth-tellers like Julian Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden would make the most hardened Stalinist cringe.

It’s one thing to torment truth-tellers in your own land, but when a country becomes so arrogant and spiteful that it demands and threatens other nations for refusing to hand over someone in their custody, orders them to ground planes of foreign heads of state based on mere suspicion that the plane may be carrying a dissident, forcing people to be holed up in embassies indefinitely for fear of being arrested and tapping the phones and computers of millions of people, that is just a sign of unaddressed major psychological problems, deep insecurities and overwhelming but hidden guilt.

The US government has gotten so used to breaking the law during the last thirteen plus years that it now automatically expects other countries to disregard their laws to accommodate US demands, no matter how disgusting and illegal these demands are.

To the US, the only law that exists and matters is that others must do what the US wants. Those foreign governments who do not are breaking the law in the eyes of the imperial US government.

Whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange are heroes. They have sacrificed their freedoms so everyone knows the facts. For this they deserve the gratitude of every decent and civilized person on this earth. These three individuals are also political prisoners of the west.

But I have a feeling that more interesting things will come to light in the coming years about US criminal behavior as more whistleblowers will be inspired to come forward, as the US state collapses under the full weight of its hypocrisy and contradictions and economic, political, military and diplomatic failures.

This Snowden affair has left the US regime with a whole carton’s worth of eggs on their face.

The only weapons of diplomacy the US now has left in its arsenal are bribery, threats of violence and violence.

It is now going to be harder for the US to get anything from other nations because the credibility of the US, and the trust in it, has been shattered. This may force the US ruling establishment to back off, if just a bit.

Even the worst tyrant is not invincible.

The Degenerate Republic

The recent weeks have shown the depravity of the US unseen thus far.

From NSA wiretapping and total disregard for its own laws, to the supporting of terrorist groups in Syria (who recently beheaded a Christian priest in public) with weapons and training, the true ugly nature of the US is coming into the foreground.

The bizarre contradictions are so revealing that it begs the question why would any sane government out there still dare to follow the US and its criminal policies?

Don’t other countries see the embarrassment and the liabilities that come with being a lackey of the US?

Are these weak-willed countries looking for a hand-out? Or are they just scared that if they do not cooperate with the evil US empire that they will get the Iran and North Korea treatment? Or have they become IMF and World Bank debt slaves and have to keep their mouths shut or else their debts will be called in, resulting in economic strangulation?

The way I see it, there are three types of countries in the world today: the US, countries that kiss the ass of the US, and countries that are being severely punished for not kissing the ass of the US.

Russia and China seem to be the only ones powerful enough not kissing America’s ass and getting away with it. But these are the only two exceptions.

The US government has been throwing juvenile temper tantrums for some years now because their 1st place in line globally is being challenged.

Now how dare any other country supersede the US economically, militarily or strategically on the world stage?

After all, the US has invested decades and trillions of dollars and the greasiest and disgusting tactics to keep itself on top in every way. 

It has killed and maimed millions, carpet-bombed entire countries, committed countless war crimes and crimes against humanity, and developed arms-twisting techniques that would make the most psychopathic mafia boss squirm in order to keep anyone weak and stupid enough in line.

All that work is now supposed to go down the drain for some other country to chime in line in front of Uncle Sam? Oh the horror of it!

The recent NSA leak fallout has once and for all ripped off the mask of fake benevolence, eternal goodness and the myth of “American Exceptionalism” from the evil, twisted and slimy face of the true America.

The US is a broken, degenerate country.

Its so-called principles of democracy, freedom, self-determination and adherence to the rule of law now ring hollow, in a hollowed-out failed experiment in republican government.

The ruling US establishments, past and present have sold themselves out for personal material enrichment.

They have allied with, and subordinated themselves to, the creepiest creatures from the feces-ridden underbelly of the corporate/banking cartels and their crap-filled stable of moneyed benefactors.

The entire government has basically prostituted itself out to the billionaire pimps of the banking and war industries. They no longer hold domestic law sacred, let alone international law. 

The US regime does not care about laws, unless it sees a material and strategic benefit for itself in doing so.

It points fingers at other countries for not “following the law” but hypocritically ignores its own transgressions. 

When someone else points back, the US regime starts regurgitating its number-one excuse in its arsenal: the War on Terror.

This is used as the one-shot way to kill off all dissent and criticism of US policies and actions, no matter how cruel and inhuman they are.

That the “War on Terror” is just a cover for US economic, strategic and military domination of the world, and that it has done more damage than any terrorist group could ever do, is lost on the US public.

Most people will say that the US is an immoral country because of the evil it does in the world. But I would say that the US is amoral.

An immoral country goes along doing evil and does not point fingers at others who do the same thing.

But the US goes along, itself doing great harm while condemning others when they do the same.

The US does not care about whether its actions are good or not.

The US regime is not concerned about what is morally right or wrong. It has exorcised such considerations from its policy formulations, politics, decisions and actions a long time ago.

The US only cares about its status as the wealthiest and most militarily powerful state on earth. Whatever it takes to maintain this status is allowed in the eyes of US government officials.

If hundreds of thousands of people have to be killed to achieve this (i.e.-Syria), so be it.

If an entire country has to be bombed wholesale, like Afghanistan and Iraq, fine.

If foreign leaders and nationals have to be overthrown, assassinated or smeared with the most virulent lies and propaganda, it will be done.

If the entire US and other nations populations have to be snared into an illegal clandestine electronic spying operation to steal information that may be valuable to US businesses and to further the US security state’s continued paranoid crusade against any dissenters and critics, it will be done. 

If a foreign economy, or the economy of the world has to be crashed and ruined in order to keep others down and the US on top, so be it.

Nothing is off-limits. Nothing is sacred anymore, except the US ruling establishment’s need to stay on top by hook, crook or mass-murder.

There is no attempt at self-criticism in the US government, media and populace.

They are scared to death of it because if the US truly dared to confront its true self, the fake and illusory mental image of itself as the good and indispensable and well-meaning nation would immediately crumble into dust.

Such an attempt at introspection would undoubtedly result in mass-hysteria and a collapse of the nation.

This is why fictitious enemies and scapegoats must be found in order to justify the inhuman and uncivilized policies and actions of the US.

The US always finds someone else to blame. First it was the Indians, then the Mexicans, then the Spaniards, Germans, Russians, and now Arabs and Muslims.

It’s always someone else’s fault.

If the US firebombs a village in Iraq, it’s the fault of the Iraqis; not the invaders who traveled thousands of miles to initiate an illegal invasion of the country.

The same ugly self-denial is on full display against Edward Snowden, the NSA leaker.

From the very beginning of this whole affair the US government’s and the media’s focus has been on how Edward Snowden “violated” US laws, is a traitor, aided the enemy and other slanders and demonizations uttered against him by the US media and think tank whores in order to discredit him, and divert the US public's attention from how badly their own government has f***ed them.

What the media should be talking about are the revelations themselves.

Here we have the US government exposed as illegally eavesdropping on the electronic communications of millions of people worldwide!

Instead of focusing on this ultimate betrayal of people and its supposed allies by the US government, these cretins are condemning Edwards Snowden, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning?

This is absolutely disgraceful and craven behavior by the media. They have decided to shoot the messenger instead of focusing on the message.

This just goes to show that the media in any country will instinctively toe the government’s party line, regardless of whether this line is right or wrong.

Blaming Edward Snowden, or any other individual who exposes US criminality is like rear-ending another car on the road and blaming that car for being on the road. 

The US now is in full dementia mode. On the one hand they are demanding Russia hand over Snowden to them immediately or face “consequences.” The US is also by impulse daring to smear Russia by smugly suggesting that if Snowden is so concerned about truth and transparency and freedom, Russia is the wrong country to be in.

The US government’s attitude about Snowden is hypocritical as well.

Back during the cold war days, the US jumped with joy every time some Soviet dissident military official, diplomat, or KGB agent defected to the west and spilled the beans on the atrocious inner workings of the Soviet Union. 

And when such defectors made it to the west and the Soviet authorities demanded that they be handed over, the western governments just laughed in the Soviet Union's face.

And do not forget that Putin, as well as many other current top Russian government officials were around 30-40 years ago and remember each and every instance when a Soviet defector was taken in and sheltered by the west, and how Russia was ignored regardless of how many times its government demanded their hand-over.

But now that the shoe is on the other foot, the US does not like it. The US is whining constantly about how Snowden’s revelations will result in death and try to justify the illegal eavesdropping by saying that it stopped some fifty terrorist plots. Of course, the US government refuses to provide any evidence for this.

Hasn’t it occurred to the US, looking back from the present perspective, that maybe the Soviets also had legitimate security interests? That they also had to do things which were unpleasant but necessary to keep their interests and nation safe? 

This is the big secret to US successes over the years: UNFAIR ADVANTAGE.

Spying on its own people and allies without their knowledge is what gave the US the edge. 

Now that the cat is out of the bag, it is doubtful that this edge can be maintained.

One thing has also become very evident when taking into consideration the despicable US actions since WW2.

Even though it has taken a long time to come to light, it is clear that throughout the cold war, and up to today, it is the US that has turned out to be the worse party, not Russia.

To the US, other countries are “bad” when they spy, eavesdrop on people and repress dissidents, and their reasons for doing so are always unacceptable to the US (unless they do so in cooperation with, or on the orders of, the US itself) Only the holy US is excused, because it is fighting a “war on terror" or trying to stop some imaginary Iranian nuclear weapons.

This arrogant behavior shows how behind the times the US is. It still thinks it is all-powerful and that everyone will just bow down to them on everything.

But those times are gone. No one is going to take America’s shit lying down anymore.

US propaganda is no longer that effective, and really has been weak to begin with. That propaganda only works when the audience is cowardly, naive and subordinate to the US for whatever reason. This propaganda got the US through the cold war and beyond but is losing its power.

When the audience is not naïve and has courage, US propaganda falls flat dead immediately. This could be seen on full display when Russian PM Putin dressed down British PM David Cameron at the 2013 G8 conference in N. Ireland by daring to disagree with, and criticizing him for his stance, on the Syria issue. Cameron did not have a come-back. He fell flat dead on the floor intellectually and diplomatically.

Simply put, the US has done too much bad in the world, and no amount of eloquent tirades, hypocritical excuses and morally-bankrupt justifications uttered by Obama or any other US politician, or US citizen, whether in Berlin or anywhere else, is going to fix the blood-stained American image.

The US wrongly thinks that the entire world is its personal playground and if it wishes to take something from anyone, it just does. This is why the US is so hated.

Compare this with the Chinese method. When they want something from another country, they send in men in suits to negotiate and make deals. No bullets are fired and no one gets killed.

When the US wants something from another country, it sends in men in uniforms with guns and takes what it wants by force.

This is why Chinese investment in Africa has surpassed America.

So what does the US do in the face of this Chinese uppity-ness?

It sets up AFRICOM, a military command dedicated to strong-arming African countries into giving it up for Uncle Scam, or else.

I swear, when you look up the word hopeless in the dictionary, it should have a picture of the US next to it! 

Another disturbing phenomenon has been rearing its head in popular discourse, the rehabilitation of George W. Bush.

I’m hearing more talk from unrepentant bumpkin right-wingers about how they “wish Bush was back” and are posting pictures on the internet with Dubya with quotations like, “Miss me yet?”

The twisted rationale of these nutcases seems to be that just because Obama is a worse criminal who has made the mess in this country even bigger, that somehow the filthy war-criminal Dubya is off the hook.

It must be made clear to everyone, that any attempt to clean up Dubya’s blood-stained legacy of lies, gross incompetence, murder, war crimes, horrendous violations of human rights and every law of civilized behavior in existence, is tantamount to defending Adolf Hitler, Stalin or Pol Pot and whitewashing every single one of their crimes!

There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for Bush’s behavior, none whatsoever! He paved the way for the further horrors of Obummer.  

To me, these cretins are praising Bush because Obummer has outdone him on the level of depravity.

But let’s remember that there were many people, including republicans, who during the darkest days of Dubya’s misrule also pined for the “good ole days” of Bill Clinton,  himself a liar par-excellance and a filthy war-mongering scumbag.

The point is that it’s not that the last president was better, but that the next one is always worse. Hasn’t this fact been made crystal clear enough already?

After each presidential election, the behavior of these presidents becomes worse and worse. 

But they are all low-life lying criminals who, in a normal and truly just world where law and order and decency rules, should all be currently languishing in the Hague in solitary confinement.

The only difference between them is the degree of evil they engage in, and any attempt to rehabilitate their blood-soaked legacy is itself a crime against humanity.

 
In conclusion, it must be said that the US currently is a failed state.

Its ruling cadre, from the president on down, is thoroughly corrupt.

The US government does not abide by any law. It betrays and lies to its own people and the world, it is two-faced, it steals and murders with disregard, and it bullies other nations for not putting US interests above their own.

It is a psychopathic nation which up to know has killed, maimed, bombed and made destitute more people than any other country throughout history.

The US is not the "shining city on the hill," but more like the dark and creepy castle on the hill covered with perpetual tufts of dark clouds and lightning, with a desolate landscape all around it.

The best thing would be for the US to isolate itself from the rest of the world so that the world can recover and heal from the craziness and degeneracy emanating from this continent.

And contrary to the self-professed, the deluded and 100% not true fantasy prevalent in inside the US, the US is NOT the indispensable nation. It does NOT need to be leading anyone or in charge of anything beyond its own troubled borders.

The world does not need US “leadership” because US leadership has failed in every way imaginable, and in fact has been detrimental to world peace, development and progress.

I also do not believe in the paranoid doomsday prediction that without the US leading the world everything will descend into chaos; as if US leadership has not been chaotic enough!

The world was here and progressed along for thousands of years without the US around.

The notion that the US, a country just over 230 years old, is the glue that holds the world together is sheer delusion and the height of arrogance and hubris.

To suggest so is also a slap in the face of every other country (most of which have been around for hundreds or thousands years more than the US) because it conveys the message that the rest of the world is incompetent and inferior.

The US can disappear tomorrow. At worst, there will be some short-lived chaos, but it will even itself out. Intelligent and pragmatic people will straighten things out quickly.

Some people may read this and say that if I hate America so much why don’t I just get the hell out and go to Russia or North Korea.

My answer is: No, I will not get the hell out.

I will stay here and keep on writing, criticizing and speaking out against the stupidity and evil done by this inept US state establishment. 

I do not hate America. I hate its government's rotten, hypocritical and criminal policies.

To hate America is too general an accusation. How can I hate Americans who agree with me? How can I hate those Americans who put their freedoms, lives and safety on the line to tell the world the truth? How can I hate those Americans who are my friends? How can I hate the nice places in America that I enjoy going to?

So you see, this "you hate America" line is an empty accusation, uttered by ignorant and intellectually-challenged cretins. 

No one hates America. They hate the bad policies of the American government, and the people who enact them.

Some may even ask: Why are you not criticizing Russia, Iran and North Korea? Their governments are not all good either.

First, no country is entirely good. If anyone in this world thinks their country is all good and does the right thing 100% of the time, then they are deluding themselves.

Second, you criticize the country in which YOU live first and foremost, not some other one far away.

Being a responsible citizen means holding your own government to account in every way, first and foremost. Let the citizens of other nations worry about holding their governments and systems to account. Don’t interfere.

I know there are many Americans who share my views and who are decent and intelligent people who, if given the chance, could fix this dilapidated republic. It is still possible to do so.

But this cannot be done if the rest of the populace is in a materialistic smart-phone induced stupor and mesmerized by cheap reality shows like the Kardashians and the banal and shallow trash TV talk of Joan Rivers and all the other pop-culture false prophets and low-life freaks.

It cannot be done if most Americans stubbornly cling to the false, deluded and discredited view that America is the best and freest and most democratic country in the world; a country that has done no wrong and only means good. 

It cannot be done as long as the current two-party circus prevails and 3rd party candidates are being deliberately treated as oddities by the mainstream media, kept away from public eye and barred from presidential debates by the two wings of the same business party.

It cannot be done as long as the government along with the media, academia and private interests deliberately limit the scope of issues which can be openly discussed and keep many other subjects outside of public consideration.

But one thing is certain: the present American infection cannot continue.

For a more in-depth look at all this, click here.

Spying and Elections

 Today we shall cover two recent major developments.

First, will be the NSA leaks release to The Guardian newspaper by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The second is the Iranian presidential elections and the cynical US propaganda and demonization of Iran’s electoral/political system

The mass leaking of NSA information by Edward Snowden, now a fugitive-in-hiding somewhere in Hong Kong, have for the 3^rd time since Julian Assange’s Wikileaks revelations about American diplomatic dirty tricks and back-stabbing, and the collateral damage video and other damning Iraqi war data exposed by PFC Bradley Manning, have one again given us a glimpse into the twisted and demented world of US foreign policy.

US politicians and various spook agency bosses have been falling over themselves to deny and justify the massive surveillance operation know as PRISM which has been going on since George W. Bush administration.

The operation involved the warrantless and illegal interception of phone calls, emails and other digital data from various websites and electronic services without the knowledge of congress (supposedly) and the public.

It looks like the constitution and the Bill of Rights are dead documents. 

Of course, the government is falling over themselves to explain how this mass-surveillance program helped prevent fifty acts of terrorism and how it is in the end a good idea.

While the average person can understand the need for surveillance of communications used by a nefarious person who is clearly conspiring to commit a crime, and there is clear evidence given to a judge that there is reasonable amount of suspicion about the target, to blindly canvass the entire nation and other parts of the world is sheer lunacy.

No “war on terror” or obsessions about “security” can ever justify the warrant-less mass-surveillance of millions of people without evidence of wrong-doing. Heck, if there are millions of terrorists out there, then there is no hope and mass surveillance will not do a damn thing to stop them!

If there is good evidence that someone is up to no good, present it to a judge and then get a warrant!  What is so hard about that?

There is no excuse for warrant-less surveillance and eavesdropping, period!

This recent revelation of mass-surveillance by the NSA and other miscreants shows the level of depravity and far-out paranoia ingrained in the US state security establishment.

The NSA revelations also threw the lid off US spying on allies during the G20 conference back in 2009 and US surveillance of foreign nationals. This has infuriated foreign governments.

It speaks volumes about the mentality and aberrant personalities of the people who devise, manage and carry out these programs.

It also shows the ineptness and laziness of these intelligence agencies if they have to sweep up millions of people into their surveillance net. This is a total lack of professionalism.

More than one psychotherapist would have a field day with any of these people employed by the NSA or CIA and other security establishment critters. It would be quite sobering and interesting to see what lies in the minds of these tormented individuals.

What is their problem? What compelled them to enlist their time and efforts in such a murky world of deceit and disregard for any law?

Were they abused as children? Are they untreated bi-polar paranoiacs, sexual deviants, closet perverts who have a elementary school bus stop kid fetish? What’s the deal? Why would you want to work in a job where you illegally eavesdrop on what people say or do or think? What shortcoming or issue are they trying to make up for?

I’m acquainted with a person who used to work for the Dept of the Navy. This person had the misfortune of interacting with the NSA types and found them unappealing and freakish. I was told these people do not take NO for an answer lightly, and will exact revenge if rejected.

Only a psychopath would want to work for these agencies. Normal people don’t get jobs at the NSA or CIA. And spare me the lectures about how these people are serving their country and are trying to keep us safe. That’s just PR for the idiots out there.

It is obvious that the proliferation of these digital mobile technologies, smart phones, GPS devices and social networks since the middle part of the last decade has coincided with the rolling out of this illegal mass-surveillance.

This begs the question, why were these technologies even invented?

Was the whole idea of these resulting products, simply an innocent and spontaneous brainchild of talented private minds, albeit one which has been obviously co-opted/high-jacked and exploited for illegal government surveillance of the US and foreign populations,

Or

Was the whole idea of thse resulting products deliberate government creations from the very beginning, which were/are meant to be used for mass-surveillance purposes since inception, and were just dressed up to look like cutesy and friendly  technologies owned by “private companies” who are in reality government spook agency fronts,

Or

Were these technologies rotten and unruly children born of Donald Rumsfeld’s wet dream called Total Information Awareness, but their implementation was outsourced to private individuals to cover up government involvement, and unfettered access to these creations was given to the government as part of the multi-million/billion-dollar deal with the private individuals and companies?

These are questions which seriously must be asked and investigated, because I have a feeling there is much more to this whole surveillance scandal than meets-the-eye.

But one thing is certain when it comes to the colossal crimes and deceptions committed by the US since 2001. Anyone who still sees the US as the good guy in the world is a stupid, corrupt coward. No decent person will ever go along with US policies and actions.

The Iranian Election

The recent Iranian elections have resulted in the election of moderate cleric Dr. Hassan Rohani.

Of course, the US and western media spared no opportunity to demonize and vilify Iran and its electoral system as being not up to a democratic standard, unfair and not free. This is the standard and canned anti-Iranian fare, which is more hyperbole and propaganda than truth

They point to the vetting process where over six-hundred candidates were disqualified by the Guardian Council. 

But what the western media fails to explain is why there were so many candidates to begin with.

In Iran, unlike in the US, anyone can apply to be a presidential candidate. This naturally created a pool of people who had no experience or education or knowledge of government and what it means to be a president.  Naturally the vast majority of these people were disqualified.

In the US, very few people can apply as candidates for president since the US electoral laws are more restrictive and the applicants themselves must pay a good chunk of money to be a contender, something the majority of Americans cannot afford.

Second, the US media loves to point out that Iran’s electoral system is repressive and controlled by a group of people who pre-select safe candidates to run who are part of the Islamic establishment and anyone who is outside of it is never allowed to run.

But the western media is being both hypocritical and unfair towards Iran by making these accusations, because every nation has some kind of a vetting process for which presidential candidate will be allowed to run, with the US being no exception.

The only difference is that in Iran this vetting process is plainly visible, whereas in the US or other western countries it is done behind the scenes.

In Iran, the clerics hand-pick the candidates that will perpetuate and protect the current system and put Iran’s core interests first.

In the US, the democratic and republican parties internally vet ”viable” candidates according to the whims and wishes of their donors in the corporate/banking/military-industrial world. 

Plus, whereas Iran had six candidates which were presented to the people on an equal footing and all took part in official debates, the US allows only two parties in the presidential debates, where the range of subjects to be debated is tightly controlled by a privately-owned corporation ran by democrats and republicans, as are the questions to be asked.

Yes, there were five other candidates who ran in the US presidential elections of 2012 but they were ignored by the media and not allowed to attend the debates by the two main parties.

Plus, in the US the electoral college, not the popular vote decides the candidates, and people must vote in their assigned districts. In Iran, people can vote in any part of the country.

 And last but not least, after the debacle of the 2000 election, where Al Gore had more votes but Bush was selected by the Supreme Court in what was a sham election, the US has lost the right to criticize and condemn any other country’s elections or electoral systems.

If the US is so concerned about democracy and free elections and peoples’ rights, then it should start with itself first and foremost, as the US political and electoral systems are corrupt and rigged for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful elites, who manipulate the populace and give them pre-selected corporate yes-men as choices.

Then it should call for democracy and free elections in countries who are US allies. It can start with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, where there isn’t even a fake pretense at democracy of any kind.

What does the US and the American public expect from Iran? That it allows some pro-US/western candidate that will sweep away the present system, arrest its clerics and bow down to every western /Zionist demand, and put foreign interests before the interests of Iran?

Would America ever elect a president or senator or congressman who wants to sweep away the current US political, economic and social system and replace it with a system to the liking of Iran or Russia or China, and submit to the control and interests of foreign countries and presidents above the interests of the US?

If the answer to this is NO, then how can anyone expect the Iranians to do the same? 

The bottom line is that any candidate for public office in any country must submit to the present political, economic and social system. If they do not, they will not be elected, for the job of elected officials is first and foremost to protect and perpetuate the current system and its traditions.

Iranians may have grievances and be angry with their current leadership about some policies and issues, but this should never be construed by the US or the Zionists as some kind of a repressed subconscious yearning to be “liberated” by the west.

After all, 72.2% of voting-age Iranians voted in these elections, so the Iranians certainly do see their current system as legitimate and the best representative of their interests. And contrary to US propaganda, this Iranian election was a defiant slap in the face by the Iranians not against their current establishment, but against the illegal US/western sanctions and policies.

It all comes down to a basic misunderstanding of what democracy is, and means. It is not a one-size-fits-all free-for-all system defined by some foreign country and culture according to their interests or what they think is best.

It is a system in which the people of a particular country are free to elect leaders within the official internally-based scope of their best interests, culture, and customs, who ensure that their national culture and sovereignty will be maintained and survive into the future, without foreign interference or control.

US and western countries do not understand this. They are hell-bent on defining democracy according to their own internal cultural, economic, political and strategic interests and then foist these US/western-centric systems upon other nations, in total disregard of those nations nest interests, aspirations, cultures and norms.

This results in corruption, contradictions and the disregard of popular will in favor of another nation’s interests. This is why democracy has been a mixed bag and generally not working out very well in many countries.

A foreign version of democracy foisted upon a nation is nothing less than a virus, which threatens their future survival.

Again, the US/west must seriously consider the results of this latest election in Iran, because 72.2% is a high number. This number effectively means that the policies of sanctions, virulent propaganda and lies and ill-treatment of Iran by the west have failed, and are having the opposite effect, which resulted in Iranians hunkering down and closing ranks in solidarity with their government.

Now compare these results with barely 50% of voting-age adults who turned out to vote in the US elections last year. This is an embarrassing and pathetic statistic for a country which hails itself as the greatest democracy on earth.  This inconvenient fact may also be why the US/west went into overdrive with trying to de-legitimize the Iranian political and electoral system in the run-up to the elections.

For all Iran’s economic troubles, they know that the US deserves most of the blame, and they definitely will never elect someone who bows down to foreign interests instead of Iranian ones, even if the clerics allow anyone to run freely without any vetting of candidates.

Unfortunately, the US and their western slaves will most likely fail to comprehend the obvious message from the Iranian election results.

Instead of rapprochement and a loosening of sanctions, more anti-Iranian propaganda and sanctions will follow, because in the sick and demented world of US/Zionist politics, the recent election results in Iran simply mean that not enough anti-Iranian propaganda, threats and economic strangulation are being applied on Iran.

The absolute worst thing that can be said about the Iranian electoral system is that it is no worse than the US or any other western one.

Missing the Soviets

 Anyone who follows the events in Syria can see US imperial criminality hard at work trying to support Al Qaeda-linked terror squads in order to overthrow the secular government of Bashar Al Assad.

I have predicted more than a year ago that the longer this fake western-sponsored 'rebellion" in Syria continues, the more people will see the ugly and fiendish nature of the so-called freedom fighters, who have degenerated into death squads intent on killing, raping, massacring, hacking up, summarily-executing, and lately, cannibalizing (literally) the bodies of dead Syrian army soldiers.

This on top of a recent report released internally by NATO, from data gathered by humanitarian organizations in Syria, that the Syrian government retains the support of roughly 70% of the population.

This is the big elephant in the room, so to speak. And it is that for any rebellion to be successful it must have genuine grassroots support from the majority of the population. This is the number one requirement for a successful revolution. Look at successful revolts which have survived intact in other countries and you will see this very fact.

This is the main reason why the so-called rebellion in Syria has not succeeded, and will not succeed, because it does not have popular support. The western media can lie, omit and obfuscate and ignore reality and facts, but this will do no good. The only reality that matters is the reality experienced in the hearts and minds of the Syrian people, and their hearts and minds are against this fake revolutions, and rightly so.

The west is trying to force upon Syria a group of corrupt and inept Syrian puppet expatriates who are unknown by the Syrian people and have no support whatsoever. Plus, some of them are actually ex-officials of the Syrian government who were sacked for corruption years ago by Assad.

Russia is also waking up from it's western-induced coma of the nineteen-nineties. President Putin has reasserted Russia's power and is working to reestablish Russian influence in old client states and some new ones. He has shipped S300 anti-missile batteries to Syria and may reverse course with supplying these to Iran as well, since the US has recently said that the S300 was not part of the UN sanctions against Iran, that the US recognizes the S300 as a defensive weapon, and that Russia's decision not to supply the S300 to Iran was Russia's own decision.

This was a major betrayal by the US and Russia is fuming. This is why the time when the US can run amok wreaking havoc on the world is over. In Syria and Iran the US empire will grind to a halt. Russia will not allow these two very red lines to be crossed.

Whatever one may think of the Soviet Union and their policies, one fact is indisputable: the presence of the Soviet Union was a stabilizing factor.

This is why the end of the Soviet Union was not such a good thing. The Soviet Union's foreign policy was assertive and naturally, and rightly so, suspicious of US and western intentions. The US has committed a lot of atrocities and horrible acts of violence, theft and murder in the post-war period, but without the Soviets there, the US would have committed even worse crimes. There NEEDS to be a counter weight to US power, that is why I'm glad to see Russia and China rising.

These two latter countries are certainly no angels and I disagree with them on some of their policies, but pound-for-pound, the US has both of these countries beat when it comes to the amount of misery, death and cruelty committed on the world by all three.

This is why I miss the old Soviet Union.