MSNBC opinion columnist Zeesham Aleem just penned the latest in what’s become a parade of hit pieces from mainstream outlets directed at me and other independent journalists. Even by the low standards of the genre, “How the populist left has become vulnerable to the populist right” is a humorous standout. It argues that after I spent a month detailing how the FBI, DHS, DOD, CIA and other agencies built a system for mass delivery of censorship requests to firms like Twitter and Facebook, I helped fuel a subculture that “could funnel people from leftism to authoritarianism.”
On MSNBC and “Authoritarianism”
Tag: revolving door
The “Nation Rebuilding Industry” Salivates Over Ukraine
American taxpayers must prepare to foot the bill.
The powerful military-industrial complex, with generous campaign contributions funneled via K-Street lobbyists to both parties, celebrated a huge victory yesterday. By getting overwhelming majorities in both chambers to approve a whopping, unprecedented $856 billion Pentagon bill, America’s defense industries are assured of continued prosperity for years to come. Pentagon budgets are rarely cut year after year and generally only rise with time.
The “Nation Rebuilding Industry” Salivates Over Ukraine
[2011] The Tyranny of Defense Inc.
In 1961, Dwight Eisenhower famously identified the military-industrial complex, warning that the growing fusion between corporations and the armed forces posed a threat to democracy. Judged 50 years later, Ike’s frightening prophecy actually understates the scope of our modern system—and the dangers of the perpetual march to war it has put us on.
The Tyranny of Defense Inc.
Inside the Trilateral Commission: Power elites grapple with China’s rise
Inside the Trilateral Commission: Power elites grapple with China’s rise (original)
Each new candidate for Commission membership is carefully scrutinized before being allowed entry. As a rule, members who take up positions in their national governments — which is uncannily common — give up their Trilateral Commission membership while in public service. Those include U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
This revolving door between the commission and senior government ranks has always been fodder for conspiracy theorists. Its first director in 1973, Zbigniew Brzezinski, later became U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser. The very existence of the commission, meanwhile, seems predicated on the question of whether governing should be left to the people. It is a question the commission itself has tackled head-on since 1975: Is democracy functioning? Or does someone need to guide it?
That year, three scholars — Michel Crozier, Samuel Huntington and Joji Watanuki — wrote a report for The Trilateral Commission titled “The Crisis of Democracy.” In it, Huntington wrote that some of the problems of governance in the U.S. stem from an “excess of democracy.”
Related:
Health Insurance Whistleblower: Medicare Advantage Is “Heist” by Private Firms to Defraud the Public
Many of the nation’s largest health insurance companies have made billions of dollars in profits by overbilling the U.S. government’s Medicare Advantage program. A New York Times investigation has revealed that under the Advantage program, health insurance companies are incentivized to make patients appear more ill than they actually are. Some estimates find it has cost the government between $12 billion and $25 billion in 2020 alone. We speak with former healthcare insurance executive Wendell Potter, now president of the Center for Health and Democracy, who says Medicare Advantage will be recognized in years to come as the “biggest transfer of wealth” from taxpayers to corporate shareholders, and blames the lack of regulation over the program on the “revolving door between private industry and government.”
Health Insurance Whistleblower: Medicare Advantage Is “Heist” by Private Firms to Defraud the Public
Related:
‘The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions (archived)
Corruption Caught On Tape
During a televised hearing, a Wall Street-friendly GOP lawmaker thanked a bank CEO for hiring his top aide.
Corruption Caught On Tape
Serbian Analyst: How war in Ukraine resembles past conflict in Yugoslavia
Interview by Adriel Kasonta, Asia Times, 9/24/22
Dragana Trifković is the general director of the Center for Geostrategic Studies in Belgrade, Serbia.
On September 8, a session was held in the UN Security Council on the topic of arms delivery to Ukraine by the West.
In the introductory part of the session, Trifković spoke about the weapons that were delivered to the battlefield during the war in Yugoslavia, comparing it to the current situation in Ukraine.
In the following interview, Trifković elaborates on that point for Asia Times.
Serbian Analyst: How war in Ukraine resembles past conflict in Yugoslavia
Why Is Amnesty Apologizing for Telling the Truth About Ukrainian War Crimes?
Allowing only one side to be criticized for its crimes – reinforcing the loaded western political narrative of good guys versus bad guys – is likely to fuel the war rather than resolve it
Why Is Amnesty Apologizing for Telling the Truth About Ukrainian War Crimes?
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Manufacturing Consent: How the United States Has Penetrated South African Media
The CIA has played a role in controlling South African media from the days of apartheid to the present.
In recent weeks, South African public discourse has been focused on concerns about alleged Chinese influence in the country’s media landscape. However, these conversations have tended to overlook the already existing spheres of influence within South African media. Politically motivated sponsorship of prominent South African media outlets by the United States dates back decades to the apartheid era. According to internal U.S. government documents, the aim of these operations was “to counter the strong Marxist campaigns” in the country. This funding was circulated by the National Endowment for Democracy, an organization created by the Reagan administration in order to re-brand U.S. covert operations that were previously carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency. Today, as Washington becomes fixated on combating Beijing’s influence around the world, the National Endowment for Democracy and its private sector partners continue to penetrate large swathes of the South African media ecosystem. This web of influence has caught major publications, including Mail & Guardian newspaper and amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism.
Manufacturing Consent: How the United States Has Penetrated South African Media
The Centre of International Insecurity
The Biden administration is no longer in charge of the White House. Relying on a select network of think-tanks and their corporate proxies, the Big Defense is. What it wants, it seems to get.
The Centre of International Insecurity
Related:
Scott [Horton] is joined by Dan Steinbock to discuss an article he wrote about the network of Democratic organizations running American foreign policy. Steinbock has dug deep into the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and WestExec Advisors, two organizations that have allowed top foreign policy officials to make money cycling between government, think tank and advisory roles. Steinbock also takes a step back and examines how these organizations are connected to weapons companies, Wall Street and technology firms.
6/27/22 Dan Steinbock: How Hawkish Democrats Make Money Pushing War
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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