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| Today Messages Are More Sophisticated |
Taking the idea of trying to influence a vote to even a higher level, just prior to Britain's vote on Brexit then sitting American President Obama visited the country and warned, or you might say even threatened, that a vote to exit the Euro-zone would result in moving Britain to the "back of the line" when it came to negotiating a new trade agreement with America. The fact that few Americans felt or indicated his statements were totally out of line added to the appearance that America is more than a little hypocritical considering our history of meddling in the affairs of other countries.
Currently, a propaganda war rages with many Americans hellbent on convincing the rest of us Putin is a thug and a bully. Putin is and has been the focus of those busy creating an enemy for America for without an enemy warmongers and fearmongers cannot thrive. Ironically when President Trump bombed Syria he garnered the praise of both the neocons and liberals who believe in intervention. It seems the group least impressed were those who actually put Trump in office hoping things would change and he would put to an end America's policy of constantly involving itself in conflict after conflict.
Yes, psychological warfare and propaganda are real weapons and have become as powerful as bombs. Psychological games which are related to the mental and emotional state of a person and geared to undermine or shape opinions. The problem is this sector of the government and economy has grown bigger and stronger and by its very nature, it wants to take more control. We have every reason to be concerned and worried considering revelations of just how big the government intelligence agencies have grown since 9-11 and how unlimited their spying and surveillance operations have become. As an example look at the part of this apparatus known as the NGA.
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| New NGA Facility Under Construction In St. Louis |
Throughout history, spies have always drawn suspicion. Conspiracy theories and "false flags" are everywhere and we have good reason to be suspicious because governments across the world often aided by an easily manipulated bias mainstream media are full in when it comes to generating propaganda by spreading vague unproven speculation and quoting unnamed sources. The contemporary term false flag describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that activities appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them.
The man responsible for bringing much of what we know about the size of what is sometimes referred to the "deep state" and for giving us an indication of what it does is Edward Snowden a former National Security Agency contractor. Snowden has become a polarizing figure, some Americans consider him a whistle-blower who sacrificed his career and freedom to inform the American people of government intrusion into their private lives, and others view Snowden’s motives as less than noble. Those in the latter camp believe that, intentionally or not, his actions benefited the intelligence apparatus of adversary nations and that he should be tried as a traitor and suffer harsh consequences for his actions.
It is not unexpected that those running different divisions of this colossal spy network would be a little miffed at Snowden and want his head on a stick because articles then reported how the surge in CIA resources funded secret prisons, a controversial interrogation program, the deployment of lethal drones and a huge expansion of its counterterrorism center. One of the better places to get an idea of what is being spent, and where, is to explore the top-secret funding of the Black Budget operations in a site put out by the Washington Post. This is where you will find details of the $52.6 bn request for 2013 by America's 16 spy agencies. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/national/black-budget/ Sadly, most of the information we have only looked at expenditures through 2013 when Snowden gave us a look into the size of this hidden empire.
Still, the overriding question is, when have we gone too far? While we are constantly reassured the main goal of these clowns is our protection it is difficult to forget the words of Lord Acton who back in 1887 wrote, Power tends to corrupt and absolute power tend to corrupt absolutely. This tends to make it difficult for those of us who have grown distrustful of those in power to think they always do the right thing or that false flags have not become a common weapon in trying to embarrass your enemies. With this in mind and the warnings of writer George Orwell lingering in our minds about the ability of governments to morph into police states, we should be aware of the potential of abuse and that we may all be well on our way to becoming no more than slaves to those we have empowered to serve us.
Footnote; We all know in life on occasion a need for secrecy exist. In an attempt to be humorous I find I want to add one final thought, a little more accountability would be nice, however, if they told us more they might have to kill us. A few of the articles from the archives related to this post can be seen below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2015/02/ukraine-was-and-is-failed-state.html
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/06/governments-spying-on-their-citizens.html
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2014/07/when-propaganda-and-surveillance.html
People always have secrets, which is perfectly normal. And those in power always have secrets and like to meet in groups who have more secrets, and accumulate more power. But they don't want anyone else to have secrets like they do.
ReplyDeleteBut at no time in history, has such a small group in the world, exerted so much power and intrusive surveillance on the public as our modern governments, which includes the US, Russia, China, etc, etc, etc.
Govt's have too much technological and militaristic power. Yes, in the US, we have perhaps 200 to 300 million fire arms in the hands of the public. But while that's somewhat of a deterrent on the small local scale, it's nothing against the national scale, because those weapons would not protect against a military onslaught on a particular region. Only military refusing orders or outright rebelling and supporting the public would give them any hope. In the US, I would put out hope that the military would refuse such orders, and would in fact depose the political leaders who would order something like that. But other countries with less of a freedom history would likely have no issues with military action against their own people.
A more recent post about Ukraine as a financially failed state focuses on its massive oil and gas reserves. By all rights these should belong to the people and used for their benefit. The IMF, however, points out that Kiev needs billion in loans and grants just to stabilize its economy after more than twenty years of massive levels of corruption.
ReplyDeleteThe article below contends the war in Ukraine is about America wanting to sell LNG to Europe and seems willing to start a war to make it happen. Also, what happens to the reserves is at stake. This is a sign the war may not be about than Russian aggression.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2018/04/ukraine-war-is-about-money-energy-and.html