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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe're getting played.
The Gulf Cooperation Council urges intervention to rescue Syrians
http://news.yahoo.com/gulf-urges-intervention-resc...
The GCC consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia -- the bloc's heavyweight, has been pushing for a US-led strike on Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
So, the Sunni Muslim countries join together to call upon us a *Christian/oh, f'ck no* nation to get rid of the one secular nation still standing in the region. We're getting played.
from a comment at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/09/07/open-thread-42/#comments
msongs
(67,381 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)EXCERPT...
The political machine they built is broad and comprehensive, covering every aspect of the political fight. It includes right-wing departments and chairs in the nations top universities, think tanks, public relations firms, media companies, fake grassroots organizations that pressure Congress (irreverently known as "Astroturf" movements), "Roll-out-the-vote" machines, pollsters, fax networks, lobbyist organizations, economic seminars for the nations judges, and more. And because corporations are the richest sector of society, their greater financing overwhelms similar efforts by Democrats.
Besides creating foundations, the CIA helped organize the business community. There have always been special interest groups representing business, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, and the CIA has long been involved with them. However, after 1973, a spate of powerful new groups would come into existence, like the Business Roundtable and the Trilateral Commission. These organizations quickly became powerhouses in promoting the business agenda.
Their efforts clearly succeeded. With the 1975 SUN-PAC decision, corporations persuaded government to legalize corporate Political Action Committees (the lobbyist organizations that bribe our government). By 1992, corporations formed 67 percent of all PACs, and they donated 79 percent of all campaign contributions to political parties. (20) In two landmark elections 1980 and 1994 corporations gave heavily and one-sidedly to Republicans, turning one or both houses of Congress over to the GOP. Democratic incumbents were shocked by the threat of being rolled completely out of power, so they quietly shifted to the right on economic issues, even though they continued a public façade of liberalism. Corporations went ahead and donated to Democratic incumbents in all other elections, but only as long as they abandoned the interests of workers, consumers, minorities and the poor. As expected, the new pro-corporate Congress passed laws favoring the rich: between 1975 and 1992, the amount of national household wealth owned by the richest 1 percent soared from 22 to 42 percent. (21)
The CIA also helped create the conservative think tank movement. Prior to the 70s, think tanks spanned the political spectrum, with moderate think tanks receiving three times as much funding as conservative ones. At these early think tanks, scholars typically brainstormed for creative solutions to policy problems. This would all change after the rise of conservative foundations in the early 70s. The Heritage Foundation opened its doors in 1973, the recipient of $250,000 in seed money from the Coors Foundation. A flood of conservative think tanks followed shortly thereafter, and by 1980 they overwhelmed the scene. The new think tanks turned out to be little more than propaganda mills, rigging studies to "prove" that their corporate sponsors needed tax breaks, deregulation and other favors from government.
Of course, think-tank studies are useless without publicity, and here the CIA proved especially valuable. Using propaganda techniques it had perfected at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, the CIA and its allies turned American AM radio into a haven for conservative talk show hosts. Yes Rush Limbaugh uses the same propaganda techniques that Muscovites once heard from Voice of America. The CIA has also developed countless other media outlets, like Capital Cities (which eventually bought ABC), major PR firms like Hill & Knowlton, and of course, all the Agencys connections in the national news media. (22)
CONTINUED...
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-overclass.html
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Third Way, New Dems, etc.
zeemike
(18,998 posts)And yes they set up ones on the "left"...or infiltrate the legitimate ones to control them...that is why you see so many that are ineffective and just seem to be interested in raising money for the cause.
The shills provide easy targets for them to attack and direct out attention away from the important things to them and toward the things they don't care about.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)I like the shill-game analogy.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)The "official" acceptable "left".
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)I see the think tank voices on C-Span's Washington Journal every single day. They give them more credence than anyone outside of the Wall Street Journal. I suspect C-Span was created to serve as a mechanism of misinformation too.
MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)it's those Saudi bastards.
HardTimes99
(2,049 posts)down in Cairo while U.S. soldiers "liberated" their potentate back during Gulf War I.
kenny blankenship
(15,689 posts)famous humanitarians all, and renowned for their love of democracy!
polly7
(20,582 posts)when their treatment of their own people is so backward and brutal .... especially when we're supposedly 'liberating' people nation by nation from secular gov'ts that have provided social programs and at least a semblance of equality .. for women, especially.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)Isreal has been putting pressure on Obama for a long time now. It looks like it is working.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)Hmmm. Almost all of the countries on our side are Sunni Muslim countries.
Yeah, no civil war here.
tavalon
(27,985 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)"Climb up on my knee , Sunni boy"
Octafish
(55,745 posts)There won't be much mercy from the oppressed for the rOil familes anywhere. The non-royal "subjects" of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates have seen how their betters spend the oil revenue. Casino IOUs, private 747s and yachts the size of Jerry Jones' ego are not much for improving the quality of life for the locals.
MNBrewer
(8,462 posts)And have killed lots more Americans
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)...Big Oil is the biggest game there is. Even bigger than war, seeing how annual oil sales are more than what all the world's governments spend, combined, each year.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)tavalon
(27,985 posts)Given that all of the hijackers who destroyed the Twin Towers were Saudi Arabian and given that the person taking credit for the atrocity (also a Saudi) was known to have fled to Afghanistan, which country do we attack?
A) Saudi Arabia
B) Afghanistan
C) Iraq
I feel like I've seen this movie before, only last time, it had the silverspoon sociopath George W. Bush as the aggressor and Colin Powell as his lackey, lying us into war. This time, it has the Constitutional scholar Barack Obama as the aggressor and John Kerry is playing his lackey, trying to lie us into war.
polichick
(37,152 posts)HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)...and he's in high gear right now.
enough
(13,255 posts)He sounded pretty excited about it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics-live/liveblog/the-houses-syria-hearing-live-updates/?id=e68f139f-e012-476c-876e-2467ba30e5e3
Thanks to unhappycamper who posted this story in the Foreign Policy forum yesterday. I'm still taking it in.
Secretary of State John Kerry said at Wednesdays hearing that Arab counties have offered to pay for the entirety of unseating President Bashar al-Assad if the United States took the lead militarily.
With respect to Arab countries offering to bear costs and to assess, the answer is profoundly yes, Kerry said. They have. That offer is on the table.
Asked by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) about how much those countries would contribute, Kerry said they have offered to pay for all of a full invasion.
In fact, some of them have said that if the United States is prepared to go do the whole thing the way weve done it previously in other places, theyll carry that cost, Kerry said. Thats how dedicated they are at this. Thats not in the cards, and nobodys talking about it, but theyre talking in serious ways about getting this done.
Jesus Malverde
(10,274 posts)If nobody is talking about it, how can he be so sure.
enough
(13,255 posts)Hard to see how we're supposed to swallow this.
Little Star
(17,055 posts)mick063
(2,424 posts)The price of gasoline went up again.
I'm urging intervention by the Gulf Cooperation Council to address this. We need to "rescue" the poor in America.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)tavalon
(27,985 posts)missing only the Mission Accomplished banner, which, if we allow ourselves to played like this again, should show up around the mid terms.
I thought at least this shit would go away when the silverspoon sociopath and his handlers did.
HardTimes99
(2,049 posts)tavalon
(27,985 posts)I've been using it for so many years, I can't remember who I stole it from.
pscot
(21,024 posts)felix_numinous
(5,198 posts)I really wish that were not so, and most adults, especially after waking up to this don't want to think about it because it is SO insulting.
I WANT to respect and trust leadership and in practice do, but with increasing reservation each time the truth comes out. It's a fking game to them.
Uncle Joe
(58,328 posts)Thanks for the thread, kpete.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Little Star
(17,055 posts)snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)Cleita
(75,480 posts)weaponizing the rebel factions. Maybe even calling them on what you said might shame them into compliance. Russia, China and others need to agree to stop selling weapons to Assad as well. You can't fight a war without artillery.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)rebels got the CW they used in March.
This isn't a Civil War, it is a regional war and we are the 'hired enforcers' it seems.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)I would rather we treat with the Russians and agree not to arm either Assad or the rebels. We can decide what we want from each other to stop this. Disarming these factions is the first step to stopping what are atrocities being committed all around. There are no good guys in this conflict.
Sand Wind
(1,573 posts)Motown_Johnny
(22,308 posts)Assad has lots of enemies
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)enforcement' machine we have built up?