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TechnoratiWhy Do We Keep Letting the Politicians Get Away With Lies?
How on earth do they get away with it? Let's start with war between Hizbollah and Israel - past and future war, that is.
Back in 2006, Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers from their side of the Lebanese frontier and dragged them, mortally wounded, into Lebanon. The Israelis immediately launched a massive air bombardment against all of Lebanon, publicly declaring Beirut's democratically-elected and US-backed - but extremely weak - government must be held to account for what Hizbollah does. Taking the lives of more than 1,000 Lebanese, almost all civilians, Israel unleashed its air power against the entire infrastructure of the rebuilt Lebanon, smashing highways, viaducts, electric grids, factories, lighthouses, totally erasing dozens of villages and half-destroying hundreds more before bathing the south of the country in three million cluster bomblets.
After firing thousands of old but nonetheless lethal rockets into Israel - where the total death toll was less than 200, more than half of them soldiers - Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's leader, told a lie: if he had known what Israel would do in revenge for the capture of two soldiers, he announced, he would never have agreed to Hizbollah's operation.
But now here comes Israel's environment minister, Gideon Ezra, with an equally huge whopper as he warns of an even bigger, more terrible war should Hizbollah attack Israel again. "During the (2006) war, we considered the possibility of attacking Lebanon's infrastructure but we never (sic) resorted to this option, because we thought at the time that not all the Lebanese were responsible for the Hizbollah attacks... At that time, we had Hizbollah in our sights and not the Lebanese state. But the Hizbollah do not live on the moon, and some (sic) infrastructure was hit." This was a brazen lie. Yet the Americans, who arm Israel, said nothing. The European Union said nothing. No journalistic column pointed out this absolute dishonesty.
Yet why should they when George Bush and Condoleezza Rice announced that there would be peace between Israelis and Palestinians by the end of 2007 - then rolled back the moment Israel decided it didn't like the timetable. Take this week's charade in Jerusalem. The moment Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni announced that "premature" efforts to bridge gaps in the "peace process" could lead to "clashes" (Palestinians, it should be remembered, die in "clashes", Israelis are always "murdered"), my friends in Beirut and I - along with a Jewish friend in London - took bets on when Condi would fall into line. Bingo, this was Her Holiness in Jerusalem last week: "It's extremely important just to keep making forward progress rather than trying prematurely to come to some set of conclusions." "Some set", of course, means "peace"'. Once more, US foreign policy was dictated by Israel. And again, the world remained silent.
So when the world's press announced that Barack Obama's new running mate, the silver-haired Joe Biden, was "an expert in foreign policy", we all waited to be told what this meant. But all we got was a reminder that he had voted for the 2003 Iraq invasion but thought better about it later and was now against the war. Well, Goddam blow me down, that certainly shows experience. But "expertise"? No doubt in government he'll be teemed up with those old pro-Israeli has-beens, Madeleine Albright and Martin Indyk, whose new boss, Obama, virtually elected himself to the Israeli Knesset with his supine performance in Israel during his famous "international" tour.
As one of the Arab world's most prominent commentators put it to me this week, "Biden's being set up to protect Israel while Obama looks after the transportation system in Chicago." It was a cruel remark with just enough bitter reality to make it bite.
Not that we'll pay attention. And why should we when the Canadian department of national defence - in an effort to staunch the flow of Canadian blood in the sands of Afghanistan (93 servicemen and women "fallen" so far in their hopeless Nato war against the Taliban) - has brought in a Virginia-based US company called the Terrorism Research Centre to help. According to the DND, these "terrorism experts" are going, among other subjects, to teach Canadian troops - DO NOT LAUGH, READERS, I BEG YOU DO NOT LAUGH - "the history of Islam"! And yes, these "anti-terrorism" heroes are also going to lecture the lads on "radical (sic) Islam", "sensitivities" and "cultural and ideological issues that influence insurgent decision-making". It is a mystery to me why the Canadian brass should turn to the US for assistance - at a cost of almost a million dollars, I should add - when America is currently losing two huge wars in the Muslim world.
But wait. The counterinsurgency school, which claims links to the US government, is reported to be a branch of Total Intelligence Solutions, a company run by infamous Cofer Black, a former director of CIA counterterrorism, and Erik Prince, a former US navy seal. Both men are executives with the Prince Group, the holding company for Total Intelligence Solutions and - and here readers will not laugh - a certain company called Blackwater. Yes, the very same Blackwater whose mercenary thugs blithely gunned down all those civilians on the streets of Baghdad last year. So Canada's soldiers are now going to be contaminated by these mercenary killers before they head off to the Muslim world with their unique understanding of "the history of Islam". How do they get away with it?
On a quite separate matter, you might ask the same of Conrad Black, languishing in a Florida prison after his business convictions. Responding to an enquiry from Murdoch's grotty New York Post into body searches and other appalling humiliations at the jail, Uncle Conrad, as I like to call him - for he is among the rogues I would love to have interviewed (others include the younger Mussolini and the older Yeltsin) - responded that the Florida facility was not oppressive, that "many of the people here are quite (sic) interesting" but - AND HERE IT COMES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! - "if saintly men like Gandhi could choose to clean latrines, and Thomas More could voluntarily wear a hair shirt, this experience won't kill me".
Now when Uncle Conrad likens himself to the assassinated Mahatma, the apostle of India, that is mere hubris. But when he compares himself to England's greatest Catholic martyr, a man of saintly honour if ruthless conviction, this is truly weird. "I die the King's good servant but God's first," More reportedly said on 6 July 1535, before they chopped off his head on Tower Hill. And many are there among Uncle Conrad's enemies who might wish the same fate for the former owner of The Daily Telegraph. After all, Henry VIII didn't let Thomas get away with it.
53 Comments so far
Show AllScientists have a very popular theory about what allowed Homo sapiens to become the surviving hominid line.
They discovered the lie.
This one skill allowed us to manipulate and dominate other hominid lines.
Fire was also one of our primary survival tools.
Fire (war) and Lies (politics), hmmmmmmmm......the height of empires domain?
hmmmm....the sapiens; "wise" hominid? Does fire and lies equate amongst the humans "wise"
Evolution......could it be any slower?
I can't believe some of the weasals who persist with the same
explainations/excuses for the lesser of two evils voting brow-
beat every election cycle.
If one wishes to vote for Nader, McKinney or anyone other than
the two-party duapoly, that is their right as voters. When cri-
tics start using the race card toward those who see obama as
the that's okay, federal, state, and local chieftons. Demolish
labor laws and the right to organize with globalization and free
trade. I call it free to get fucked in the ass, without the cour-
tesy of a reach around. They show their cowardice.
Call the Iraq occupation a "flawed execution" of a murderous ad-
ministration and that explains everything to conformists. They do
so to protect their social standing and demonstrate to the masser
that they good little house slaves and won't anger the masser.
If one can't show the courage to call bush a racist amoung other
justifiable labels, than you haven't the right to call anyone a
racist. Oh! I get it. These caitiffs can make you disappear, so-
cially, economically, and most importantly phsyically from this
world and get away with it. Hiding behind laws whose only purpose
lies in control the crude masses.
What word is ahead of sophistication in the dictionary? Sophistry.
Dog Leg is right. There is no reason whatever for the government to subsidize ANY religion, and when outfits as rich as the Catholic Church or any of these ecclesiastical TV empires pay ZERO taxes guess who makes up for their share?
All churches should be taxed, from the pope down to the little store front Baptist.
.
‘I would rather vote for what I want ...and not get it,
than vote for what I don’t want ...and get it.’
Eugene Debs
Vote Nader/Gonzalez 2008
.
Truth? I wonder if Fisk still gets his checks from MI6?
How do you stop them?
How do you tell a scared lion that you mean no harm?
Biden "had voted for the 2003 Iraq invasion but thought better about it later and was now against the war. Well, Goddamn blow me down, that certainly shows experience."
Biden does not oppose the continued occupation of Iraq. He supports Obama's redeployment plan (which advisers say will leave behind our bases and 60-80,000 troops). With that in mind, you can't say Biden is now against the war.
America is a country of people who fear the truth, led by those who loathe it.
p.s. -
On a slightly related note, everyone invest in straw — and quickly. The upcoming Repugnant convention is going to be the world's largest straw-man building festival. And they'll be torn down as quickly as they're created, to roars from an approving public.
When it comes to politics, Americans love lies. George Washington and the cherry tree. Richard Nixon's secret plan to end the Vietnam war. I did not have sex with that woman. Americans demand lies from their politicians. Americans do not want to hear the truth.
We may find out if Palin is lying about the birth of her last child. It may be her grandson! How well was she veted? No one should have to go through the torture her family is about to endure. But if their lying about the kid?
We have lying, and no one to complain about the falseness of the lies, going back thousands of years. The Caesar was officially a god. Who would tell the truth? Who would vouch for the truth? All such people would be killed.
Early Christianity told the truth, at least until Christianity became the Roman emperor's state religion. Then, Christianity was the truth, except talking about the wrong parts of Christianity was again punishable.
We achieved "Democracy" where the landed gentry voted in the U.S. The free press was usually a tool so that the landed gentry could keep an eye on the other landed gentry. Early on, the press learned the power of telling bad tales about their opponents. The Devil was a popular figure to draw with opponents.
Poor white men got the vote. Women got the vote. Southern blacks got the vote, OK, only half of them have the vote even today. Still, the idea of a "free press" depends on people vetting or not vetting their media sources. Do parts of the press still lie? Yes, duh.
Politicians lie because the biggest media always has been bought by the same people who buy politicians. Every media outlet calls itself "impartial" and smiles.
Our economics is all political fluff. Our history is written by the military victors. This is no science, it's just pleasing the rich patron.
You are surrounded by real stooges. Sorry to say this. They buy into their wealth-owned news and information sources, who are true in all little things that don't count and lying thieves when it counts. Always look who the advertisers are.
Yeah ~SUE~, hard to not be sarcastic with politicians anymore.
You take good care Okay.
~Kem P~
commoner3
Mr Fisk asked:
"Why Do We Keep Letting the Politicians Get Away With Lies?"
That is really a very dumb question from an intelligent and knowledgeable man
like Mr. Fisk.
They Get away with it because the liers control the news media and the pulbishing
houses and they have an army of bull-shit artists working for them.
And the answer my friends is Fascism!
If THEY don´t destroy OUR planet in WWIII (some may say WWIV) we will study in schools how how ignorant the people of the US really have been. Bush is Hitler but you all let it happen. Not to say that people of any other country would have been able to see it coming but for the last 60 years you have bragged about how great you all are and so the irony is stunning. Americans are the most in your face, over confident bunch and not to mention great cheaters at just about everything (war, olympics, shools, real estate, etc). In a sick way it is funny to see such a smug bunch take it in the ass like you are now. Unfortunately the rest of the world has to go down with you.
WAKE UP! RISE UP! REVOLUTION!
From the day a post World War II UStatesian baby is born they are lied to constantly through advertising and marketing on TV. Teachers lie to their students. Textbooks lie. Main stream media lies. Talk show hosts lie. Preachers and priests lie using ho-hoccum in supposed sacred books that have the unerring word of God even if one part of "God's book" contradicts another. Politicians lie to people as do insurance companies. Military recruiters lie. Few people keep their word. People lie on their resumes. So then, why do we keep letting politicians get away with their lies? Because we have been lied to so often, so long, so ubiquitously that we accept the lies as normal. Is anyone today surprised, for example, that politicians lie? Of course not. It's normal. This is the status quo condition in the USA. So when someone like Ralph Nader comes along and speaks truth we question it. It is after all abnormal to our being and psyche to hear no lies. Even though Nader is saying the things we belief in, and we agree with his positions, there is an air of oddness about it all since our dominant cultural environment, i.e., the expectation that he is lying kicks in. This is an addiction. The best way to break the addiction is to go cold turkey. Dump the candidates of the two lying, war making, sack-of-you-know-what, corporate parties and vote for Ralph Nader, or Cynthia McKinney. If enough people do that then we might not need articles that ask, "Why Do We Keep Letting the Politicians Get Away With Lies?"
I KARE: I'm fine, watching the hurricane trajectories like other Floridians. Your comment was sarcastic, I take it?
I hope you come through alright....I would not wish a storm that magnitude on anyone
Thanbk goodness we have presidential candidates this time who are truthful.
Hi Sue, howzit goin?
Great comments: CADAWA & COUNT COUP & WEB WALK.
COUNT COUP: I'm glad you brought the evangelical TV hucksters into it, as the cognitive path is cut for deception by centuries of religious programming. Note that in America, a high percentage question evolution. The "faith based" and basis in faith when used to further nationalism and/or wars of aggression is the most sinister combination possible for subsuming a people and its intellectual reach, its capacity for informed judgments.
The Dems needt o DUMP the "faith based" crap--the Convention was constantly interrupted by other religious grousp to pander to!Its unconstitutional and offensive--atheists asked to speak--they werw denied --they should be. NO RELIDIOUS OR ANTI_RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IN POLITICS!
We lie to ourselves to maintain the image of ourselves that pleases us.
We lie to each other and pretend to believe each other's lies. It's called courtesy.
Politicians know what lies we want to believe, like to hear, and accept.
The excuses for not voting Obama demonstrate creativity. When you get into that voting booth and hear the N word float up from your own subconscious, try to remember who the real liar is.
The 'N' word being Nader, of course!
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Beautiful
Replies like this really help bvuild a "broad progressive coalition". Way to win people over! You know, maybe the "racism is al of it" stuff worked before he got so many votes and caucuses--it isjust not valid anymoe. He capitulated on levery level I can think of and took true liberals, working class whitess zand otherrs totally for granted. Most of he workng clas is NOT racist--only 1 out of 5 in W. Va. said racer was a faqctor--if you assume some a lying (Why?? IN W. Va??), mayvbe one if 4. Thats still pretty damn good in the "whitest state" in the UNion! What happened? He refused to address the sexism thaat awas oging on, he declared a very fav sonof the south (Clintot) a racist (you are talking about winning right? not just amking a statement?) , and , as soon as he was nominated--he ran to the right! He had a very good chance to prove he was diff. with FISA. He's not. With AT&T sponsoringhte convention--what wer they thinking?? Todo his acceptance speech in a small, place, where he could reach out to people--he comes off very cold and calculating. When he's on the stump--his inexpericne shows. Now, this is from someone who wouod mUCH rather have Obama win--if you want to blame me, if it makes yo feel better--go ahead. I am NOT the enemy, just because am poor and white.And, when you imply that I am a racist, 2quite frankly, it reall pisses me off.Stop t. And talk to/look at your candidate. Do you watn to win or just make astaement
Man, you've got to slow down and use spell-check. And you might want to reality-check your content. You idealists turn so quickly to self-righteous cynics. Obama has all the limitations pointed out by you and all the other self-flattering idealistic bleaters on these sites. But reality says simply that he's a big improvement over what we've had and the alternative right now. The only thing your bitter attacks can achieve is another 4 years of these Neo-con fascists.
Nietzsche's point is so true. That Obama is not perfect, or nearly perfect is so obvious, but he's such a step up from the alternative, and really so inspiring in the way he ran his campaign, etc. And yet lots of 'progressives', and other normally natural Democrat voters come up with the most creative reasons why they won't vote for him. Some--possibly you--are just too ridiculously idealistic and are bitter that he's turned out not to be the perfect revolutionary who would have made deep radical change and make everything alright (as if!?).
But lots of others are simply hypocritical racists who compound their 'sin' by dredging up creative rationalizations for voting for a dangerous, dumb, war-mongering Bushalike.
You mean like Zbigniew Brzezinski who is behind Obama?
Getreal, I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments. The reality of the situation, is that Obama is the lesser of two evils. Whichever party is chosen to lead the US in the future, there is only one thing for certain - they will be controlled by lobby groups and commerce. Barak Obama has at least said that he will talk to other nations, John McCain does not even know where these nations are on a map. I just cannot believe, that former Hilary Clinton supporters would defect to the Republican party out of spite, but then the modern World seems to be full of people who regard individuals and image, to be more important than the bigger picture.
I would say that even the independents such as Nader would be corrupted, if they ever got into power, because corruption and lies are the very bedrock of Capitalism.
Fisk should not let his indignation get in the way of his ability to read English. Bl;ack did not LIKEN himself to Gandhi, he CONTRASTED himself to Gandhi.
Sam Abrams, Rochester NY
Biden not only voted for the invasion of Iraq, he enabled it. He was chairman of the Senate Hearings that ended in Congress granting Bush extraordinary powers and a blank check.
He refused to allow testimony by Scott Ritter and other experts who disagreed with the White House's manufactured intelligence and actively supported members of the administration who said it would be quick, easy and cheap.
As for Americans letting politicians get away with lies, most Americans are victims of the "State sponsored media".
The ones that do understand are shut out or shut down. Millions of people have protested, confronted their members of congress and they are ignored.
The corrupt Speaker of the House is not only a Zionist but very corrupt. She has single handedly changed the relationship of Americans to their government by refusing to impeach.
Rumor is that she cut a deal with the White House; if Bush would keep the DOJ off her back and her family's back (Bayview Hunter's Point land grab et al.) Democrats wouldn't impeach. So far both seem to have kept their promises. The fact that Congress has 9% approval ratings is telling. Americans do understand that they are not being well served.
Today elections only work to preserve the status quo. The nominating process is controlled by a handful of corrupt Party leaders and the amount of money needed to run a modern political campaign excludes many qualified, honest candidates. Our elections don't meet international standards for fairness and transparency.
Every week another flaw in the election system is revealed and no action is taken.
Short of a national strike and/or armed revolution, Americans have little power to effect change. I don't think we are quite at the level of pain that produces either of the above outcomes.
No, Americans have "....suffered enough pain yet"
And, to help matters along ALL Americans should re-register as, "non-partisan" voters.
Therefore, most all politicians would really face a quandary...they wouldn't really know where their constituency was and would have to spend more time "listening" instead of, "bloviating."
(Like we will see shortly with Biden)
Most of the neoliberals like Robert Rubin, Madeline Albright, Zbig, will be advisors or will have high level postions with Obama....And the likes of that moldy person, Phill Gramn with McCain....Phil Gramn's wife as head of the Labor dept has virtually scandalized the relations with labor in this country...
With Obama we have a, "....choice of wars."
With McCain we will have "war in perpetuity."
With Obama we will re-open to build more Nuclear Power plants with no way to dispose of the waste.......
With McCain we can drill, drill, drill; bomb, bomb, bomb!
We have no choice whatsoever.
Change your political registration ASAP!
Out here in "dumbass crackervile" we are--do you guys have any idea how many people are out here just waiting for someone to speak to them?! LIke they MATTER?! To stand up for thenm to the big govt corporateinterests? If we're going to die anyway , from a lack of universla health care, no housing, and no job but the military--lets have at it!
Well, as you note, our "system" is very much broken and corrupt.
One can only hope that there will be some brave patriots who will come forth with HARD evidence of all the lies and deception of BOTH political parties over the past seven and one half years. One thing is sure, and that is Obama will not rock the boat in any meaningful way to provide the TRUTH to America.
there's nothing at all sure about that
Saila
As always, Fisk mixes truth with half-truth, and some lies. To start, he claims, without proof:
“…Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's leader, told a lie: if he had known what Israel would do in revenge for the capture of two soldiers, he announced, he would never have agreed to Hizbollah's operation.”
How could anyone in the world predict what the enemy may do in a war, or what the outcome of a war would be? I doubt if Israel would have attacked Lebanon had it known beforehand that it would be defeated, neither could Mr Bush predict the tough resistance in Iraq.
Fisk uses his pen the way the wind blows. His credibility with me has long gone with those winds.
Saila, I agree that Fisk has gotten a bit full of himself and 'reaches' a bit. But he has such amazing experience (since the 70s, interviewed everybody and stuck his nose everywhere) that he's not off the mark by much, it seems to me. In the example you mention, there's no way of really knowing what is exactly in the mind of another person, but reality speaks pretty loudly in some cases.
Nasrallah and Hizbollah prepared to fight Israel brilliantly (obviously...look at the results) and provoked a fight that would likely (they had reason to believe) be a huge strategic and public relations victory for them. That's how it turned out and Nasrallah was declared by everybody to be a hero and his popularity went through the roof, even being featured on the cover of prestigious international magazines, etc. A huge personal victory for him. And he would have willingly passed on all that success and personal glory had he known that Israel would react as it did???!!! Taking him at his word is like taking a bank robber at his word that he only wants the loot to help poor people. Fisk is not out on a limb on that one.
Fisk didn't "lie."
You don't get it...
Nasrallah was doing what comes natural: CYA (Covering his own)
Answer: Because Americans love a good lie, and the liar that delivers it.
Because Americans, from the earliest age are fed a steady diet of lies, and distorted concepts about themselves, their history, their self image as a nation and they avoid at all costs; the truth. They would rather hear a well phrased lie, than an ill phrased truth.
They celebrate holidays that are forged from lies about themselves and their history and deny the truth for fear that they cannot live up to the task of being a world leader. That would require a cleansing of the record with revelations of the past generations hypocrisies.
Even though they can muster the courage to admit that slavery was a crime against humanity, they cannot do the same for the injustices of an illegal war.
They supported recent presidencies that brought the labor movement to its knees and made it almost powerless to champion the causes of the labor classes. They supplanted it with illegal immigrants that are being exploited daily with the twenty first century version of slavery. Now the slaves are not being maintained by the master as in the past. Now the slave's labor is exploited just long enough to supply the needs of the master, then the slaves are turned over to the "state" as criminals, to be deported AFTER they serve their time as criminals, while their families qualify for medical and social services that citizens do not qualify for.
The United States has one of the worlds highest infant mortality rate; income disparity,crime and poverty rates while "mega church bible thumping preachers" live almost tax free high lives with corporate jets and life styles that movie stars are jealous of. CEO "compensations" that match the preachers. Movie stars and others of influence that extol the short comings of other nations, while reflecting blindness of their own nations many short comings.
The United States, once a proud supplier of manufactured goods of the highest quality, now exports jobs that supply the opposite, to its population of cradle to grave consumers.
They go to insane lengths to seek answers to the problems they most often create themselves; outside of themselves. If they are not "waiting for a Messiah"; then, Hillary, or Obama, or John, or Sarah, Ralph, Superman, Batman, or ____________(fill in the name you want) is "gonna save us". From us.
Because it is easier to maintain a lie, than to muster the courage to live the truth.
countcoup,
Among your known good points, there is "...and poverty rates while "mega church bible thumping preachers" live almost tax free high lives with corporate jets and life styles that movie stars are jealous of."
My enduring question, since the Constitution says freedom of religion, without any other qualifier: Why aren't they taxed?
As an athiest, a natural born citizen, etc., who is being devalued by my own government, I see no Constitutional tax free ride for religion corporations, in fact, I find it to be a violation of Constitutional civil rights. Furthermore, the recent funding from the feds using public, tax payer money, makes it all the more repugnant.
Anybody want to start class action suit with me, or offer support?
Jeevee
Bravo, countcoup! Only, please be more careful of your punctuation. Your writing will be much more effective if you do.
In my dream world...
The presidential "debates" not only includes Nader and McKinney, but are moderated by a panel of questioners including Robert Fisk, Amy Goodman, Scott Ritter, and Seymour Hersh.
Then maybe we wouldn't see so many lies pass and pass and pass... but we really don't have anyone allowed to publicly challenge politicians about their lies.
And it don't seem like We the People are about to break out of our mind cages...
Would you panel also include Gore Vidal, Dr. Vandanna Shiva, Dr. David Suzuki and Cindy Sheehan?
Walk in peace.
Again the truth from Fisk - thank you. Could some politicians not be lying as much as just being stupid. I wonder if Biden did his homework before voting for Iraq war and if not, then just went along with the flow. Kucinich obviously did his homework and voted against the war.
Dems not want to hear the truth kept Carter from speaking at convention. Could deliberately blinding oneself be a worst sin than lying??
Correction: DK played his part and siphoned the anti-war energy (and money) that O didn't get. Now he's back, shuckin' & jivin' with his REAL pals. (Sorry he took your money and dreams, but thats how it works during the primary)
Bullshit!
Scratch Open A Cynic And You Will Find An Angry Idealist.
America's Merchants of Death will continue to arm and support Israel until America is finally destroyed.
Well, one reason is that many are blinded by celebrity. So for example, a number of Democrats colluded to block the great ex President (probably the only decent ex president ever) Jimmy Carter from speaking out at the DNC last week.
On that basis alone Obama is not qualified to lead this country out of the mess we find ourselves in (not all of us, the elites benefit from the mess).
Barack Obama was for single payer before he came out against it.
Jeevee
One wished that Jimmy Carter was as great as you think he is. Yes, he is now into good works, but have you forgotten how he smilingly signed into law the U.S.A.'s peer mission to its arms merchants to send arms to "both sides" of the world: the "developed" countries who are hell bent on controlling the world and the poor, struggling "developing" countries who want their share of the world's lucre? Remember the ancient saying: "Ye cannot worship both mammon (money) and God!" This is an eternal truth. The consequences are no more evident than in the present world, where the rich are consumed by greed so pervading that the destruction of Nature and of the following generations means nothing to most of us!
Why do politicians get away with lying? Very simple, an informed and active electorate is absolutely necessary to keep rascally politicians in line. Can that be written or said about the electorate of the USA, for example? (Its' a rhetorical question)
True, NateW. Most Americans are willfully ignorant, not just of current events but also of the nature of, well, almost everything.
Politicians lie because we keep letting them. Some of us believe them, others know they are lying and throw up their hands in disgust and just vote and then keep silent. I can understand the former (well, not really), but the latter, I have a problem with.
If we have a choice between two candidates with a chance of winning, then that is our choice. However, the problem is that most of us choose (or don't) and then throw up our hands in disgust. What is required is what far too few Americans understand - we have work to do before, during, and most importantly, after the election. I am simply amazed at how much ink and energy is expended on the pony show of the election while so little is spent on the work that should ensue every other day of the year. We simply must keep up the heat on our candidates and elected "leaders." It is the ONLY thing that will make a difference - unless we want money to be the only thing, as it currently is.
As I've said ad nauseum: It's up to us. It's always been up to us. Hopefully, it will always be up to us.
Most Americans have no appreciation for what Mr Fisk writes
because most Americans rely on the major media outlets for
news. Major media outlets are controlled by a distinct group
that has NO interest in providing factual news. This is how the USA came to bomb Serbia, which fought the Nazis in WWII, and to support the Croats, who supported the Nazis. Most Americans simply have no desire to get to the truth. And, most Americans find it easier to be kept in the dark and fed --it.
This way, they do not have to face reality. The internet is the only hope for getting to actual facts. And this is shaky, as there is a strong movement on the part of VERY wealthy people to gain some sort of censorship over the internet.
Because the MSM repeats them without challenging them !!!
Because the police won't let us duct-tape their lying jaws shut...
Walk in peace.