What is a Deep State? The U.S. Deep State is unlike any other, in
that there is no other global superpower bent on world domination. (Washington’s
political posture is also unique; no other nation claims to be
“exceptional” and “indispensable” and thus not subject to the
constraints of international law and custom.) Indeed, the U.S. is so
proudly and publicly imperialist that much of what should be secret
information about U.S. military and other capabilities is routinely fed
to the world press, such as the 2011 announcement that the U.S. now has a
missile that can hit any target on the planet in 30 minutes, part of
the Army’s “Prompt Global Strike” program. Frightening the rest of the world into submission -- a form of global terrorism -- is U.S. public policy.
However, arming and training Islamic jihadist terrorists to subvert
internationally recognized governments targeted by the U.S. for regime
change is more than your usual variety of covert warfare: It is a policy
that must forever be kept secret, because U.S. society would suffer a
political breakdown if the facts of U.S. and Saudi nurturing of the
international jihadist network were ever fully exposed. This is Deep
State stuff of the highest order. The true nature of U.S. foreign policy
in the 21st century, and the real character of the current
wars in Syria and Iraq, must be hidden from the U.S. public at all cost.
An alternative reality must be presented, through daily collaboration
between corporate media, corporate universities, and the public and
covert organs of the U.S. State.
What part of the New York Times coverage of the war against
Syria is a lie? Damn near all of it. What role does the Deep State play
in crafting the lies dutifully promulgated by the corporate media?
That’s impossible to answer, because the Deep State is a network of
relationships, not a clearly delineated zone or space or set of
organizations. The best way to describe the imperial Deep State is:
those individuals and institutions that are tasked with establishing the
global supremacy of the corporate ruling class. Such activities must be
masked, since they clash with the ideological position of the ruling
class, which is that the bourgeois electoral system of the United States
is the world’s freest and fairest. The official line is that the U.S.
State is a work of near-perfection, with checks and balances that
prevent any class, group or section from domination over the other. The
truth is that an oligarchy rules, and makes war on whomever it chooses
-- internationally and domestically -- for the benefit of corporate
capital.
Glen Ford, "The U.S. Deep State Rules – On Behalf of the Ruling Class" (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).
Monday, March 20, 2017
Truest statement of the week II
Last week Physicians for a National Health Care Plan released a press
statement declaring the Republican plan to replace Obamacare “a
re-branded and far meaner version” of the 2010 Affordable Health Care
Act. This ought to raise a pertinent question: If all Republicans have
to do is “re-brand” and tweak Obamacare, was it really much good to
start with? The fact is that Obamacare was written by and for insurance
companies in the first place, and from the beginning it left out roughly
half the black uninsured, who lived in states where Republican
legislatures and governors were able to block Medicaid expansion. For many
of those who did receive coverage, high deductibles, co-insurance and
co-pays made using your new Obamacare policy unaffordable.
So why are Democratic special election candidates like Georgia’s Jon Ossoff whining that they want to work with Republicans to “fix what’s broken” in Obamacare, when the entire premise of trusting for-profit insurance companies to deliver health care is bankrupt and useless? The answer is that this is what Democrats do.
Bruce A. Dixon, "The Bright Lines: Who Will Fight For Medicare For All, Who Will Stand Against Militarism and Austerity? Not John Ossoff or Our Revolution." (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).
So why are Democratic special election candidates like Georgia’s Jon Ossoff whining that they want to work with Republicans to “fix what’s broken” in Obamacare, when the entire premise of trusting for-profit insurance companies to deliver health care is bankrupt and useless? The answer is that this is what Democrats do.
Bruce A. Dixon, "The Bright Lines: Who Will Fight For Medicare For All, Who Will Stand Against Militarism and Austerity? Not John Ossoff or Our Revolution." (BLACK AGENDA REPORT).
A note to our readers
Hey --
Another week.
First, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And what did we come up with?
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I
Another week.
First, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And what did we come up with?
- Truest statement of the week
- Truest statement of the week II
- Editorial: They wanted to stop a war?
- TV: IRON FIST, TRIAL & ERROR, THE MARVELOUS MRS. M...
- Know the Constitution
- Tweet of the week (international)
- Did We?
- Tweet of the week (domestic)
- They can't be honest
- This edition's playlist
- Sacramento teachers square off with district
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I
Editorial: They wanted to stop a war?
03/19/2003
It's the 14th anniversary.
And where are the people speaking out?
Certainly, Iraq Veterans Against the War must be speaking out, right?
It's their whole purpose, right?
Wrong.
Here are their Tweets from today:
- IVAW RetweetedThe signs say it all! In face of Trump's attacks on voting rights, NY must pass early voting & auto. VR. #easyvoting
- IVAW Retweeted5 years later - we celebrate vibrant national community, grassroots activism, and community transformation http://bit.ly/2nSPlYg
- IVAW RetweetedWe must realize that long after we are gone, nuclear waste will live on and persist in harming people and our planet
A million hoodies, how sweet that must sound to the Iraqi people.
IVAW became the most disgusting organization in the US back in the summer of 2008. They've never recovered their guts or their brains from that embarrassment in Denver.
Even the pathetic UPFJ (United Pathetic Fools and Jesters) waited until the day after the 2008 election to shut down.
They're back -- in all their pathetic splendor.
No one's really sure why.
Maybe Leslie Cagen's not able to patrol The Cubby Hole and pick up dates on her past anymore.
Maybe she and the other Pathetics needs something a little more current to look hip.
So they regroup but forget Iraq.
Don't doubt us -- check out their weak ass home page.
Today is the 14th anniversary of the 2003 US/British invasion of Iraq.
Millions dead and displaced with a death toll still rising.
So few remember, so many forget.
They pretend they wanted to stop a war but the reality is that if they wanted to end the Iraq War, they wouldn't have taken 8 years off to provide cover for their blessed Barack.
The reality is that they're full of it.
The reality is that they should get down on their knees in public and beg the Iraqi people for forgiveness.
TV: IRON FIST, TRIAL & ERROR, THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL
The useless Water Cooler Set basks and wallows in its own uselessness.
That came across loud and clear.
Two shows occupied all their attention: IRON FIST (NETFLIX) and TRIAL & ERROR (NBC).
And they couldn't even get those right.
The worst offender had to be the idiot Ben Child who wrote, for the British periodical THE GUARDIAN, "The origin story for Marvel’s high-kicking hero, reproduced faithfully here, features all the classic elements of the mighty whitey trope: Danny Rand (Finn Jones) is the blond, blue-eyed fellow who is taught all the mystical intrigues of kung fu and predictably becomes more skilled than any of the locals."
Apparently British television is so dull and boring that idiots like Ben Child have to write about American television.
Ben Childs (in an unoriginal criticism echoed by many other fools in The Water Cooler Set) is offended that the comic book hero onscreen is like the comic book hero as originally written.
Well, he's offended that the character is White.
As feminists with a long body of work here, we have called out White male aspects of many projects. We called out the lack of women anchoring network news and the lack of color in the same anchors. We called out repeatedly developing one White-male led show after another on THE WB and now THE CW. We've repeatedly pointed out that White-male is not the norm, just the default position of executives.
IRON FIST is a tight and complex action adventure series. All 13 episodes are miles ahead of ABC's MARVEL AGENTS OF SHIELD (an intensely boring show which should be condemned for it's White male perspective that allows capons like Patton Oswalt and Clark Gregg to strut around like monuments to manhood), FOX's GOTHAM or any of THE CW's embarrassing programs.
Some reviews have wrongly stated that Rosario Dawson's past involvement in the MARVEL NETFLIX shows is not noted. It's repeatedly noted -- even by Madam Gao (Wai Ching Ho, even stronger here than in DAREDEVIL).
Others whine that all the villains are people of color.
Huh?
Who are the heroes?
Iron Fist is one.
But who else?
Jessica Stroup's Joy Meachum frequently does the right thing -- after first doing the wrong thing to her old friend Danny. More to the point, she's supposed to get an award for feeling bad that she screws over children with cancer -- when her company caused the cancer?
How is she, Anglo-White, a good character?
And she's the 'nicest' of the Meachum clan -- Harold (David Wenham) and Ward (Tom Pelphrey) are flat out evil.
Carrie-Anne Moss returns to the NETFLIX Marvel franchise as Jeri Hogarth and Moss is great but her character is about the almighty dollar and not about compassion or caring.
Besides Danny (Iron Fist), the only good characters are Rosario's Claire, Sacha Dhawan's Davos and Jessica Henwick's Colleen Wing -- none of whom, by the way, are Anglo-White.
Some can't accept that Jessica Henwick's Colleen is a good character. VOX's Alex Abad-Santos especially struggles with understanding the character:
Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing suffers from the same inconsistency syndrome. One minute she’s fully weighing the consequences of helping Rand. Later, we find out she’s been battling in underground cage matches while teaching teens the balance of restraint in martial arts. The next minute, she’s spouting off about the samurai way of life, and is really down with killing people. Iron Fist doesn’t really understand how to use Wing in a way that makes sense.
It's called complexities, layers. It's not inconsistency.
Colleen lectures a student who is doing the cage fighting that you dishonor yourself when you fight for money. Her business is going under and she finds herself forced to make money by entering the cage fights. Once she does, she doesn't just win, she finds a satisfaction that troubles her. Down with killing people? When it's her or them -- this is out of the cage fights -- yes, she is 'down with it.' But when it's not her or them, she's repeatedly the one arguing against killing.
They've picked their filter -- White man lead evil -- and they invent crap to back it up.
IRON FIST is a strong contribution and a great NETFLIX series. It's also the only one we didn't need a break from. We loved JESSICA JONES, DAREDEVIL and LUKE CAGE. But we needed breaks with those shows. With IRON FIST, the endings of each episode were like the best moments of the end of a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys chapter and we were grabbing the remote, not willing to wait even 12 seconds for the credits to finish and a new epsiode to start.
All these shows will lead in THE DEFENDERS later this year on NETFLIX.
That's an important point.
For example, we're really sick of the latest Levis commercial and its emphasis on the young female's ass. But we're remembering the previous one that emphasized the (very flat ass) of the boy-man blond. So we're grasping this isn't sexism so much as just using sex as a marketing tool -- regardless of gender.
By the same token, those having hissy fits that Iron Fist is White (like he was in the comics) might want to take note of THE DEFENDERS.
Those wanting Danny to be Asian might take comfort in the fact that Elektra Natchios (played by Elodie Yung) will be a member of THE DEFENDERS. And, in the comic books, that super group had a member Valkyrie -- a blond Norse goddess who will be played by African-American Tessa Thompson in the next Thor movie.
Point being, MARVEL's done a great deal of casting that's gone beyond the obvious so you'd think they'd have built up enough good will that IRON FIST wouldn't be dealing with this non-issue currently.
Ben Child -- who, by the way, is a White-Anglo male (who also happens to be bald) -- seems to believe he's writing the world for Bruce Lee who didn't get the lead in KUNG FU, the ABC TV show that debuted in 1972.
The Water Cooler Set's main characteristic is its extreme stupdity.
Bruce Lee never stood a chance at the role.
He had starred in ABC's GREEN HORNET which was not a ratings winner and which did not win him any friends at the network. NBC gave Jerry Van Dyke two shots as stardom in the sixties -- and that was because his brother was Dick Van Dyke. After two flops, that was it -- and again, he was the brother of a TV star.
TV then wasn't like today. Today, they'll settle for niche ratings.
Grasp that the lowest rated episode of Nell Carter's GIMMIE A BREAK still got at least 10 million more viewers than the highest episode of GIRLS.
The lowered expectations -- all around -- appear to have helped TRIAL & ERROR which got surprising praise throughout last week.
The single-cam sitcom stars a faltering John Lithgow. When you have a theater-trained actor like Lithgow in the lead role, why the hell wouldn't you film in front of a studio audience? Why wouldn't you gear the show to your lead's strength?
The Water Cooler Set couldn't stop inflating this so-so show. Some compared it to the French mini-series SOUPCONS (THE STAIRCASE) -- most of whom couldn't even name the French title. Others wanted to pretend it was MURDER ONE.
What is it really?
A rip off of COMEDY CENTRAL's THE KROLL SHOW. That hilarious show starred Nick Kroll in numerous roles including Dr. Armond who eventually is being charged with killing his wife. If you've seen those episodes, you've seen a funnier version of TRIAL & ERROR. In fact, Nick Kroll should sue NBC for theft.
How The Water Cooler Set missed that? Because they're so deeply stupid.
There's not much to praise here. Sherri Shepherd is, in fact, the only aspect worthy of praise. She triumphs over the material, in spite of the material. This is the sixth sitcom she's triumphed in. Exactly when are they going to build one around her.
And that's actually the criticism that should have been launched of both TRIAL & ERROR and IRON FIST. The latter is a strong show. But why is the fourth MARVEL series for NETFLIX also the third one starring a man?
And why are we the only ones pointing that out?
Exactly what purpose does The Water Cooler Set serve?
Again, IRON FIST is a great show. And we're not saying the character should have been turned into a female. We are saying it's past time that NETFLIX offered another female led action series.
And watching it, were we the only ones who noticed how great a Wonder Woman that Rosario Dawson would have made? Or that, with the claw weapons she used in IRON FIST, maybe she needs to be starring in HELLCAT? Maybe Claire needs to be the new Hellcat who, by the way, was also a member of THE DEFENDERS comic book.
It's funny how women make up 50% of the population but no one ever thinks they should have that same percentage of shows revolving around them.
It's not at all funny that AMAZON's doing yet another pilot season where the best show is the one with a female lead (THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL) but you just know that, yet again, AMAZON will ignore the women and pick yet another substandard piece of crap to greenlight.
Amy Sherman-Palladino's THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL stars Rachel Brosnahan and it's like nothing else TV has to offer. But by all means, let's listen to a lot of boys who mistake their drool and cum stains for actual critiques.
That came across loud and clear.
Two shows occupied all their attention: IRON FIST (NETFLIX) and TRIAL & ERROR (NBC).
And they couldn't even get those right.
The worst offender had to be the idiot Ben Child who wrote, for the British periodical THE GUARDIAN, "The origin story for Marvel’s high-kicking hero, reproduced faithfully here, features all the classic elements of the mighty whitey trope: Danny Rand (Finn Jones) is the blond, blue-eyed fellow who is taught all the mystical intrigues of kung fu and predictably becomes more skilled than any of the locals."
Apparently British television is so dull and boring that idiots like Ben Child have to write about American television.
Ben Childs (in an unoriginal criticism echoed by many other fools in The Water Cooler Set) is offended that the comic book hero onscreen is like the comic book hero as originally written.
Well, he's offended that the character is White.
As feminists with a long body of work here, we have called out White male aspects of many projects. We called out the lack of women anchoring network news and the lack of color in the same anchors. We called out repeatedly developing one White-male led show after another on THE WB and now THE CW. We've repeatedly pointed out that White-male is not the norm, just the default position of executives.
IRON FIST is a tight and complex action adventure series. All 13 episodes are miles ahead of ABC's MARVEL AGENTS OF SHIELD (an intensely boring show which should be condemned for it's White male perspective that allows capons like Patton Oswalt and Clark Gregg to strut around like monuments to manhood), FOX's GOTHAM or any of THE CW's embarrassing programs.
Some reviews have wrongly stated that Rosario Dawson's past involvement in the MARVEL NETFLIX shows is not noted. It's repeatedly noted -- even by Madam Gao (Wai Ching Ho, even stronger here than in DAREDEVIL).
Others whine that all the villains are people of color.
Huh?
Who are the heroes?
Iron Fist is one.
But who else?
Jessica Stroup's Joy Meachum frequently does the right thing -- after first doing the wrong thing to her old friend Danny. More to the point, she's supposed to get an award for feeling bad that she screws over children with cancer -- when her company caused the cancer?
How is she, Anglo-White, a good character?
And she's the 'nicest' of the Meachum clan -- Harold (David Wenham) and Ward (Tom Pelphrey) are flat out evil.
Carrie-Anne Moss returns to the NETFLIX Marvel franchise as Jeri Hogarth and Moss is great but her character is about the almighty dollar and not about compassion or caring.
Besides Danny (Iron Fist), the only good characters are Rosario's Claire, Sacha Dhawan's Davos and Jessica Henwick's Colleen Wing -- none of whom, by the way, are Anglo-White.
Some can't accept that Jessica Henwick's Colleen is a good character. VOX's Alex Abad-Santos especially struggles with understanding the character:
Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing suffers from the same inconsistency syndrome. One minute she’s fully weighing the consequences of helping Rand. Later, we find out she’s been battling in underground cage matches while teaching teens the balance of restraint in martial arts. The next minute, she’s spouting off about the samurai way of life, and is really down with killing people. Iron Fist doesn’t really understand how to use Wing in a way that makes sense.
It's called complexities, layers. It's not inconsistency.
Colleen lectures a student who is doing the cage fighting that you dishonor yourself when you fight for money. Her business is going under and she finds herself forced to make money by entering the cage fights. Once she does, she doesn't just win, she finds a satisfaction that troubles her. Down with killing people? When it's her or them -- this is out of the cage fights -- yes, she is 'down with it.' But when it's not her or them, she's repeatedly the one arguing against killing.
They've picked their filter -- White man lead evil -- and they invent crap to back it up.
IRON FIST is a strong contribution and a great NETFLIX series. It's also the only one we didn't need a break from. We loved JESSICA JONES, DAREDEVIL and LUKE CAGE. But we needed breaks with those shows. With IRON FIST, the endings of each episode were like the best moments of the end of a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys chapter and we were grabbing the remote, not willing to wait even 12 seconds for the credits to finish and a new epsiode to start.
All these shows will lead in THE DEFENDERS later this year on NETFLIX.
That's an important point.
For example, we're really sick of the latest Levis commercial and its emphasis on the young female's ass. But we're remembering the previous one that emphasized the (very flat ass) of the boy-man blond. So we're grasping this isn't sexism so much as just using sex as a marketing tool -- regardless of gender.
By the same token, those having hissy fits that Iron Fist is White (like he was in the comics) might want to take note of THE DEFENDERS.
Those wanting Danny to be Asian might take comfort in the fact that Elektra Natchios (played by Elodie Yung) will be a member of THE DEFENDERS. And, in the comic books, that super group had a member Valkyrie -- a blond Norse goddess who will be played by African-American Tessa Thompson in the next Thor movie.
Point being, MARVEL's done a great deal of casting that's gone beyond the obvious so you'd think they'd have built up enough good will that IRON FIST wouldn't be dealing with this non-issue currently.
Ben Child -- who, by the way, is a White-Anglo male (who also happens to be bald) -- seems to believe he's writing the world for Bruce Lee who didn't get the lead in KUNG FU, the ABC TV show that debuted in 1972.
The Water Cooler Set's main characteristic is its extreme stupdity.
Bruce Lee never stood a chance at the role.
He had starred in ABC's GREEN HORNET which was not a ratings winner and which did not win him any friends at the network. NBC gave Jerry Van Dyke two shots as stardom in the sixties -- and that was because his brother was Dick Van Dyke. After two flops, that was it -- and again, he was the brother of a TV star.
TV then wasn't like today. Today, they'll settle for niche ratings.
Grasp that the lowest rated episode of Nell Carter's GIMMIE A BREAK still got at least 10 million more viewers than the highest episode of GIRLS.
The lowered expectations -- all around -- appear to have helped TRIAL & ERROR which got surprising praise throughout last week.
The single-cam sitcom stars a faltering John Lithgow. When you have a theater-trained actor like Lithgow in the lead role, why the hell wouldn't you film in front of a studio audience? Why wouldn't you gear the show to your lead's strength?
The Water Cooler Set couldn't stop inflating this so-so show. Some compared it to the French mini-series SOUPCONS (THE STAIRCASE) -- most of whom couldn't even name the French title. Others wanted to pretend it was MURDER ONE.
What is it really?
A rip off of COMEDY CENTRAL's THE KROLL SHOW. That hilarious show starred Nick Kroll in numerous roles including Dr. Armond who eventually is being charged with killing his wife. If you've seen those episodes, you've seen a funnier version of TRIAL & ERROR. In fact, Nick Kroll should sue NBC for theft.
How The Water Cooler Set missed that? Because they're so deeply stupid.
There's not much to praise here. Sherri Shepherd is, in fact, the only aspect worthy of praise. She triumphs over the material, in spite of the material. This is the sixth sitcom she's triumphed in. Exactly when are they going to build one around her.
And that's actually the criticism that should have been launched of both TRIAL & ERROR and IRON FIST. The latter is a strong show. But why is the fourth MARVEL series for NETFLIX also the third one starring a man?
And why are we the only ones pointing that out?
Exactly what purpose does The Water Cooler Set serve?
Again, IRON FIST is a great show. And we're not saying the character should have been turned into a female. We are saying it's past time that NETFLIX offered another female led action series.
And watching it, were we the only ones who noticed how great a Wonder Woman that Rosario Dawson would have made? Or that, with the claw weapons she used in IRON FIST, maybe she needs to be starring in HELLCAT? Maybe Claire needs to be the new Hellcat who, by the way, was also a member of THE DEFENDERS comic book.
It's funny how women make up 50% of the population but no one ever thinks they should have that same percentage of shows revolving around them.
It's not at all funny that AMAZON's doing yet another pilot season where the best show is the one with a female lead (THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL) but you just know that, yet again, AMAZON will ignore the women and pick yet another substandard piece of crap to greenlight.
Amy Sherman-Palladino's THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL stars Rachel Brosnahan and it's like nothing else TV has to offer. But by all means, let's listen to a lot of boys who mistake their drool and cum stains for actual critiques.