Regime Change

Who Will Blink in Syria? Russia? Or the US?

The first to die will be US troops. Russians will be made to appear as the killers, but the agents will probably be ISIS, Al-Qaeda (aka al-Nusra), Turks, or the Americans themselves. I’m not ruling out that the Russians might actually do the job, especially if the Americans order their 50 soldiers to the most likely Russian bombing targets and then dare the Russians to hit them. But most likely, the US will do the job itself and not take a chance that the Russians might miss.

ClandesTime episode 061 – Homeland Season 5 ep. 4

From ClandesTime:
In this conversation Pearse and I took a few detours and rambled all over the place, but mostly talked about the concept of hyperreality – the condition of a consciousness that cannot distinguish between the real and the simulated.  We show how Homeland does this but also consider the question of why: why would the CIA be interested in using this effect that shows like Homeland have on their audiences?  What is the advantage for the CIA in hyperreality?

Porkins Policy Radio episode 39 Homeland Season 5 ep.3

Tom and I are back again with another Homeland review show. This week we begin by exploring Homeland’s blatant sexism and misogny. We focus first on Carrie and her characters return to bi-polar nymphomaniac, and how the show has routinely made Carrie into an awful female character that we all hate. Tom and I discuss our theories for why the producers have continued to make Carrie into a monster and how this translates into a larger picture of how we view the CIA through Carrie.

The Demonology School of Journalism

The major influential western print media are engaged in a prolonged, large-scale effort to demonize Russian President Putin, his politics and persona. There is an article (or several articles) every day in which he is personally stigmatized as a dictator, authoritarian, czar, ‘former KGB operative’ and Soviet-style ruler; anything but the repeatedly elected President of Russia.

Destabilization, Inc.

Once during the Q&A session of a lecture, Noam Chomsky was asked when it was okay to trust one’s own government. Without a moment’s hesitation, he replied that you could and should never trust one’s government. Never. At the time, I thought perhaps the great dissident had for once overstated the case. But the more one learns about the intrigues of Washington, the more apt his radical precept seems.