http://www.freepress.net/propaganda/
In March 2005, the New York Times ran a front page article documenting widespread government efforts to create official video news releases that are cloaked as real news and broadcast to millions of unsuspecting Americans. At least 20 federal agencies have used this tactic distributing hundreds of government-produced news segments via local TV outlets...
A Sept. 30 report by the Government Accountability Office found the White House violated federal law by buying favorable news coverage in advance of the 2004 elections. This is the fourth time the GAO has uncovered the White House's illegal use of taxpayer money to produce "covert propaganda."
These violations may just form the tip of the iceberg. The administration has more than doubled its public relations budget, tapping more than 1.6 billion in taxpayer dollars in the last three years alone. And while the report is damning, the GAO doesn't have enforcement powers to reveal the full extent of the abuse.
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DOUG
All this money, and Bush is still at a 39% approval rating? Imagine how little the American people would think of him if the news wasn't slanted in his favor.
Bush Spends 1.6 BILLION on Domestic Propaganda
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Doug
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Bush Spends 1.6 BILLION on Domestic Propaganda
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Hogeye
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Most people are unable to break out of the ubiquitous statist framing. When people start saying "them" instead of "us" when referring to US rulers and policy, then the breakup is nigh. It will probably take a major crisis, such as hyperinflation, to rid the masses of statolatry.Betsy wrote:Okay, here's a very simple question. How is it that all this stuff comes out about Bush and the Bush administration and there isn't a revolution going on in this country?
"May the the last king be strangled in the guts of the last priest." - Diderot
With every drop of my blood I hate and execrate every form of tyranny, every form of slavery. I hate dictation. I love liberty. - Ingersoll
With every drop of my blood I hate and execrate every form of tyranny, every form of slavery. I hate dictation. I love liberty. - Ingersoll
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Barbara Fitzpatrick
One of the reasons we're not having a revolution is the myth of left wing media - of the people who are paying attention at all, & most are not, the most vocal RWs don't believe it because if the media tells you something bad about Bush, it must be a lie. The other is pretty much what Hogeye said - revolutions are economically based - when the money is no good, there's a revolution. (Ours wasn't really a revolution, it was a civil war that was won by the instigators.)
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Doug
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DOUGHogeye wrote:It will probably take a major crisis, such as hyperinflation, to rid the masses of statolatry.
That wouldn't do it. The Germans had hyperinflation after WWI and they became ultranationalists. I suspect the same would happen here.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Barbara Fitzpatrick
Our money will be toilet paper at any point there stops being "full faith" in the U.S. government-backed dollar. China cashing in could do it, especially if we default on the loans.
In a sense, Germany's hyperinflation did lead to revolution - Hitler's government was not the government set up after WWI, and that change was made possible by results of hyperinflation. To a certain extent, that hyperinflation was, if not the start, then a significant event on the road to global depression (just because our stock market didn't fall until 1929, doesn't mean it didn't start earlier elsewhere - including in our own rural states, like AR, LA, OK, etc), which itself led to radical change, if not overthrow, of existing governments in Italy and Japan, amongst others - so could also be said a major milestone on the road to WWII. - and we are already well on the road toward the kind of ultranationalist, jingoist, fascism that became Nazi Germany (the U.S. has always tended farther right than left) - except our scapegoats are Muslims instead of Jews.
However, my basic point is revolution follows economic crash (i.e., both the French & Russian Revolutions), and fiat money economies are easier to crash, since they are based only on trust in the government's economy.
In a sense, Germany's hyperinflation did lead to revolution - Hitler's government was not the government set up after WWI, and that change was made possible by results of hyperinflation. To a certain extent, that hyperinflation was, if not the start, then a significant event on the road to global depression (just because our stock market didn't fall until 1929, doesn't mean it didn't start earlier elsewhere - including in our own rural states, like AR, LA, OK, etc), which itself led to radical change, if not overthrow, of existing governments in Italy and Japan, amongst others - so could also be said a major milestone on the road to WWII. - and we are already well on the road toward the kind of ultranationalist, jingoist, fascism that became Nazi Germany (the U.S. has always tended farther right than left) - except our scapegoats are Muslims instead of Jews.
However, my basic point is revolution follows economic crash (i.e., both the French & Russian Revolutions), and fiat money economies are easier to crash, since they are based only on trust in the government's economy.
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Guest
Doug, you make a good point that, after the German hyperinflation, the Germans opted for dictatorship. To butress your point, I might add that after the famous French hyperinflation, they also opted for the dictatorship of Napoleon. So I agree, that after dollar hyperinflation one of two things will happen: either the US will break up much like the old USSR (I hope, I hope), or the USAmericans will opt for dictatorship. It's my job, as an anarchist, to make sure the libertarian memes are out there, to maximize the chance that Ozarkia will choose freedom.
For the optimist: Americans have an anti-statist streak, that Europeans just don't have. We also have, already in place, a relatively decentralized system to fall back on - states and counties and cities and wards. So I foresee the US breaking up into 50 or 60 ministates with some city states like San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, and such. Once political entities are small enough that people can switch cheaply and easily, we have de-facto anarchy. The entities start bidding competitively for taxpayer-customers, and evolve into PDAs. (So I see anarchism being achieved by evolution rather than revoltion.)
Barbara, we have the same take on hyperinflation. The Chinese (and Japanese and Asian generally, and Russian to a lesser extent) central bank is effectively funding the massive US debt by buying treasury notes. What happens when they stop? And cash in? Hyperinflation. But this is complicated by the fact that the Chinese bankers realize they're holding tons of worthless paper, and would of course rather cash out subtly rather than start a panic and lose most of it. Barbara probably knows, but other maybe not, that a major motivation for the US to attack Iraq was Saddam's threat to price oil in Euros (or gold) rather than dollars. Even the US rulers know that their "dollar hegemony" Ponzi scheme is in danger. It's easy to predict that, when China tries to collect the promised (by rulers) debt and spend those dollars, they will be villified as "trying to buy up America" and "engaging in economic warfare."
Recommended reading for anyone interested in hyperinfation: Andrew Dickenson White, "Fiat Money Inflation in France" (Unfortunately, I don't see it online.)
For the optimist: Americans have an anti-statist streak, that Europeans just don't have. We also have, already in place, a relatively decentralized system to fall back on - states and counties and cities and wards. So I foresee the US breaking up into 50 or 60 ministates with some city states like San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, and such. Once political entities are small enough that people can switch cheaply and easily, we have de-facto anarchy. The entities start bidding competitively for taxpayer-customers, and evolve into PDAs. (So I see anarchism being achieved by evolution rather than revoltion.)
Barbara, we have the same take on hyperinflation. The Chinese (and Japanese and Asian generally, and Russian to a lesser extent) central bank is effectively funding the massive US debt by buying treasury notes. What happens when they stop? And cash in? Hyperinflation. But this is complicated by the fact that the Chinese bankers realize they're holding tons of worthless paper, and would of course rather cash out subtly rather than start a panic and lose most of it. Barbara probably knows, but other maybe not, that a major motivation for the US to attack Iraq was Saddam's threat to price oil in Euros (or gold) rather than dollars. Even the US rulers know that their "dollar hegemony" Ponzi scheme is in danger. It's easy to predict that, when China tries to collect the promised (by rulers) debt and spend those dollars, they will be villified as "trying to buy up America" and "engaging in economic warfare."
Recommended reading for anyone interested in hyperinfation: Andrew Dickenson White, "Fiat Money Inflation in France" (Unfortunately, I don't see it online.)