Spicer Uses what George Orwell Called Duckspeak

Nice take on the reductionist meaning of what the administration says about what it does.  Not to belabor the "1984" thing but Todd Gitlin's piece is kind of fun to read (in a dark Orwellian sort of way.)

One could to some degree expand this concept of the reduction of language to Doubleplusgood terms albeit a bit broader used in mainstream news reporting -- a 24/7 mind numing splattering of words from the pudits ...

a member called upon to make a political or ethical judgment should be able to spray forth the correct opinions as automatically as a machine gun spraying forth bullets….

Perhaps for another time

Spicer Uses what George Orwell Called Duckspeak | Alternet:



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Dangerous Discourse: When Progressives Sound like Demagogues

By Norman Solomon | Common Dreams
Had enough Russia baiting -- Read this article

Dangerous Discourse: When Progressives Sound like Demagogues | By Norman Solomon | Common Dreams:

State Department Flak Reveals Key Pillar of Saudi Arabia's Dictatorship: U.S. Silence | Alternet

Lots of good little facts about Saudi Arabia and the US in this brief article written on the occasion of Trumps photo op and pledge of support in that country.  Trumps policy is bad but not different than Hillary, Democrats nor most administrations going back 38 years to the arming of the Taliban in Afghanistan.  Essentially we have been in league in the creation of armed Jihadist groups ever since. Aljazeera has created a US-Saudi relations: A timeline document for further reading.  Big time weapons sales that facilitate the Saudi's horrific and illegal war in Yeman not only arm the Saudis but supply the illicit back channel pipeline that feed all side of the conflict in the middle east. A Stockholm study in February shows once again the US is the top arms purveyor in the world. Yes I think silence if a rational policy when you are this guilty.  Watch the starkly obvious video clip embedded in the link below if you are unclear about how difficult it is for our state department to explain our relationship with Saudi Arabia.



State Department Flak Reveals Key Pillar of Saudi Arabia's Dictatorship: U.S. Silence | Alternet:

Author Jefferson Morley is a bad pundit that is sometime no so bad.


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What's the big deal on education

Michael Moore's video on Finland's schools
Thank you to Salley Denman sharing this

Trump: Totalitarian or Authoritarian?

This is an excellent article about mass movements of the type that is now led by Trump that disdain everything but "his tribe" and hate all other political parties, movements and people.  This article is an analysis of Kathleen Jone's writing (and others) and is deeply rooted in Hannah Arendt's work yet very up to date.

 President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Louisville, Ky., March 20, 2017. Trump is facing two lawsuits stemming from a 2016 event in Louisville: one filed by a black woman who was pushed toward the exit, and another by the white nationalist who tried to remove her. (Al Drago/The New York Times)

Speaking of the 1930's European "masses"drawn to fascism:

 She quoted Arendt's comment that these masses "remained unequivocally hostile to all existing political bodies. [Their] general mood was far more rebellious and [their] leaders were far more adept at revolutionary rhetoric."
    Jones explained that although the goals of the masses were vague and subject to frequent change, they consistently identified a conspiracy of enemies -- foreigners, especially Jews -- who they viewed as having fractured the social fabric of "the nation," and embraced an ideology of "enlarged tribal consciousness" and a movement to achieve its inchoate goals.
    According to Arendt, a vaguely defined ideology and a loose movement was "quite enough in a time which preferred a key to history to political action, when men in the midst of communal disintegration and social atomization wanted to belong at any price [emphasis added]."

The concept of the democratic party reaching Trump voters in this context (usually by moving to the right) is thus an suicidal mission.  Stopping the outward expressions of fascism and hate at town halls, public squares, schools, police forces and the halls of government that feeds the hate lust that builds the movement  is however absolutely necessary.  Deep and broad efforts to build a movement that addresses the root causes of "communal disintegration and social atomization" and the attendant political and economic disenfranchisement should be our principle goal. Just days after the stabbing murder of two Portland men defending a Muslim woman on a train by a white supremist. The regional GOP chair came out with this incredible and dangerous example of doublespeak suggesting that his "tribe's" right to to free speech is the victim and may need the protection of security provided by right wing militias at future rallies. This is indeed frightening and illustrates how everything and everybody outside their movements box is the enemy.

We of course have been sliding toward authoritarianism for many years (my first thoughts of leaving this country before it became a police state began ironically in 1984 -- it's why I now live in the North Bay on the left coast.)  I do not think this is going to stop. I have little faith in the American left and less in media. The established political group think and the mainstream media's obsession with  disparaging Trump while providing a 24/7 stage does nothing but move it forward.

 If I were to predict -- rather a very ugly collapse is in store for us before this is over.  Cheer up life is wonderful despite this insanity and reading quality writing such as this journalism gives me hope.  Speak truth to power.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40743-trump-totalitarian-or-authoritarian

The US Is Waging a Massive Shadow War in Africa, Exclusive Documents Reveal

Nick Turse has succeeded in scaring the shit out of me.  Destabilization of the African continent is certain to accelerate as if it needed help.  This policy will insure war forevermore as if the mid east is not enough. This article include the full text of war plan.



FOCUS: The US Is Waging a Massive Shadow War in Africa, Exclusive Documents Reveal:

See You at the Barricades! Three Books That Revive the Memory of the Paris Commune

A little history for you.

"For socialists and communists of over a century, the Paris Commune was a defining event. From March 18 to May 28 in 1871, following the collapse of the French Republic and the Prussian siege of the capital, the Communards swore to defend Paris until they were overwhelmed by the French army itself. Karl Marx himself called the temporary self-government of the population the "dictatorship of the proletariat."
It will come as a surprise to many Irish enthusiasts, in the aftermath of the global centenary commemorations of the Easter Rising of 1916, that martyred socialist leader James Connolly carefully studied the urban warfare of the Paris Communards before launching the blow that unseated British confidence in their future rule of Ireland. For Connolly's generation, the temporary triumph and lessons of the Paris Commune of 1870 and 1871 were close in time and thought."

See You at the Barricades! Three Books That Revive the Memory of the Paris Commune:



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