When perpetrator of terror attack is muslim, attack receives 5X more media coverage

From the U.K. Independent:

Terror attacks carried out by Muslims receive more than five times as much media coverage as those carried out by non-Muslims in the United States, according to an academic study.

Analysis of coverage of all terrorist attacks in the US between 2011 and 2015 found there was a 449 per cent increase in media attention when the perpetrator was Muslim.

Muslims committed just 12.4 per cent of attacks during the period studied but received 41.4 per cent of news coverage, the survey found.

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Insanity in every corner in these times of needless war

We have reached unprecedented levels of dysfunction on both the political right and the political left. I agree with each of these conclusions by Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept:

1. New wars will always strengthen Trump: as they do for every leader. 2. Democrats’ jingoistic rhetoric has left them no ability – or desire – to oppose Trump’s wars. 3. In wartime, US television instantly converts into state media. 4. Trump’s bombing is illegal, but presidents are now omnipotent. 5. How can those who view Trump as an Inept Fascist now trust him to wage war? 6. Like all good conspiracy theories, no evidence can kill the Kremlin-controls-Trump tale. 7. The fraud of humanitarianism works every time for (and on) American elites. 8. Support for Trump’s Bombing Shows Two Toxic U.S. Conceits: “Do Something” and “Look Strong” 9. Obama’s refusal to bomb Assad hovers over everything. 10. None of this disproves, obviously, that Hillary Clinton was also a dangerous hawk.

Continue ReadingInsanity in every corner in these times of needless war

On Reverse-Engineering a Soldier’s Death to Justify More of the Same

From Glenn Greenwald, of The Intercept:

While there is certainly truth in the claim that Trump’s use of the suffering of soldiers and their families is politically opportunistic, even exploitative, this tactic is hardly one Trump pioneered. In fact, it is completely standard for U.S. presidents. Though Trump’s attackers did not mention it, Obama often included tales of the sacrifice, death, and suffering of soliders in his political speeches — including when he devoted four highly emotional minutes in his 2014 State of the Union address to narrating the story of, and paying emotional tribute to, Sgt. Cory Remsburg, who was severely wounded by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.

George W. Bush also hauled soldiers wounded in his wars before cameras during his speeches, such as his 2007 State of the Union address, where he paid tribute to Sgt. Tommy Rieman, wounded in Iraq.

There are reasons presidents routinely use the suffering and deaths of U.S soldiers and their families as political props. The way in which these emotions are exploited powerfully highlights important aspects of war propaganda generally, and specifically how the endless, 15-year-old war on terror is sustained.

. . .

By dramatizing the deaths of Americans while disappearing the country’s victims, this technique ensures that Americans perpetually regard themselves as victims of horrific, savage, tragic violence but never the perpetrators of it. That, in turn, is what keeps Americans supporting endless war: These savages keep killing us, so we have no choice but to fight them.

Greenwald points out that our natural sympathy for family members of brave dead soldiers is consciously reverse engineered at events such as President Trump's recent speech, such that the heroism of the soldier appears to make the war a worthy war and the President a worthy President.

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Lee Camp: U.S. Prepares to Attack Iran to Assure Dominance of the U.S. Dollar

There are many illegitimate reasons for the U.S. to have begun killing people in the Middle East.  They include bigotry, control of oil and a Middle East country's resistance to U.S. imperialism.   Lee Camp offers another reason, the dominance of the U.S. dollar.  He argues that this factor has been behind the U.S. attacks of Libya and Iraq, and it is the reason the U.S. is now posturing to attack Iran.  See the first 11 minutes of a recent episode of Lee Camp's Redacted Tonight. One might wonder how difficult it would be to drum up a fake excuse to start a war in the U.S. It's not difficult, once the President decides to go to war behind closed doors.  This is a time-tested prescription, addressed in the video "War Made Easy." Chris Hedges discusses the intoxicating attraction of war:

The enduring attraction of war is this: Even with its destruction and carnage it can give us what we long for in life. It can give us purpose, meaning, a reason for living. Only when we are in the midst of conflict does the shallowness and vapidness of much of our lives become apparent. Trivia dominates our conversations and increasingly our airwaves. And war is an enticing elixir. It gives us resolve, a cause. It allows us to be noble.

Therefore, it's not going to be difficult for the U.S. to publicly justify a war with Iran, especially given the detached electorate, given the U.S. public's distaste for all things Muslim and the warmongers President Trump has gathered as his primary advisors.

Continue ReadingLee Camp: U.S. Prepares to Attack Iran to Assure Dominance of the U.S. Dollar

MLK’s anti-war message often overlooked

Martin Luther King vociferously objected to U.S. imperialism accomplished by military violence, but this important part of his message is often overlooked, as pointed out by the U.K. Guardian:

The civil right achievements of Martin Luther King are quite justly the focus of the annual birthday commemoration of his legacy. But it is remarkable, as I've noted before on this holiday, how completely his vehement anti-war advocacy is ignored when commemorating his life (just as his economic views are). By King's own description, his work against US violence and militarism, not only in Vietnam but generally, was central - indispensable - to his worldview and activism, yet it has been almost completely erased from how he is remembered.

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