Month: February 2015

Little Oligarch Gone Wild – Paris Hilton’s Brother Yells: “I Will F*cking Own Anyone on This Flight; They Are F*cking Peasants”

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Screen Shot 2015-02-03 at 4.44.07 PM“If you wanna square up to me bro, then bring it and I will f*cking fight you,” he allegedly said as well as, “I am going to  f*cking kill you. I will f*cking rip through you,” and “I will f*cking own anyone on this flight; they are f*cking peasants.”

“I could get you all fired in 5 minutes,” he reportedly said while grabbing a flight attendant’s shirt at one point during the incident. “I know your boss! My father will pay this out. He has done it before. Dad paid $300k last time.”

– Conrad Hilton on an international flight

The reason I often use the terms “serfs” and “plebs” when referring to the American masses is not to insult the less fortunate; rather, it is to hammer in the fact that the oligarchs running American society see the unwashed masses as useless peasants. Naturally, they will never admit this publicly, but every now and again one of them slips up and what they really think becomes abundantly clear. Enter Conrad Hilton, Paris Hilton’s brother, and serf-master in training.

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The Dissident Dad – What One Son of Liberty Can Do, So Can Another

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Screen Shot 2015-02-03 at 2.22.33 PM“Every heart beats true ‘neath the Red, White and Blue, where there’s never a boast or brag. But should old acquaintance be forgot, keep your eye on the grand old flag.”

I remember proudly singing this as a child at school, pounding my heart with a closed right fist as we sang that verse. I remember learning about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and about the Sons of Liberty. British colonists who were mad as hell about a distant central government taxing their income between 1% and 2%, plus additional taxes on sugar trade and tea.

These Americans wanted liberty. They wanted self-governance.

Not without their flaws, like all of us. They still had slavery, but certainly, during a period of history where everyone was merely a subject to the king, these guys were taking a giant step in the right direction. Unfortunately, that America, the one we are sold on and sing to as school children, is dead.

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An American Sniper Responds to Hollywood’s “American Sniper”

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Screen Shot 2015-02-03 at 11.17.52 AMNo single service member has the monopoly on the war narrative. It will change depending on where you serve, when you were there, what your role was, and a few thousand other random elements.

For the past 10 days, “American Sniper” has rallied crowds and broken box office records, but if you want to understand the war, the film is like peering into a sniper scope — it offers a very limited view.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking the hit movie captures the truth of the Iraq conflict. I should know. I lived it.

– Garett Reppenhagen, Cavalry Scout Sniper with the 1st Infantry Division in the US Army

I haven’t seen the Hollywood blockbuster, “American Sniper,” so I can’t really critique the movie itself. Nevertheless, from what I’ve read, I think its immense popularity reflects extremely poorly on our culture as well as our ability to face hard facts about the war in Iraq.

Rather than face the truth that our government lied us into a devastating war that forced countless naive kids to go halfway across the world and murder people that did absolutely nothing to them, we happily celebrate the story of the most lethal military member in history, who achieved this feat during what was one of the most illegitimate and pointless wars in American history. We are in effect collectively celebrating what should be seen as a tragedy, and the fact that this is lost on so many people is downright terrifying to me.

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Meet the 77th Battalion – The British Army is Mobilizing 1,500 “Facebook Warriors” to Spread Disinformation

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Screen Shot 2015-02-02 at 3.38.47 PMThe British Army will revive one of the most contentious special forces units of the second world war, the Chindits, as a new generation of “Facebook” warriors who will wage complex and covert information and subversion campaigns.

– From the recent FT article: Army Revives Chindits as ‘Facebook Warriors’ for Smart Battle

Get ready, social media is about to get far more treacherous than it already is. Be extra careful jumping to conclusions, always think for yourself and use your best judgement. Government psy ops are about to go into overdrive.

Gizmodo reported the following:

A new group of soldiers, referred to as “Facebook Warriors” will ” wage complex and covert information and subversion campaigns,” according to the Financial Times. This unit will be named the 77th battalion, whose number also has a historical significance. FT says:

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The Golden Age of Black Ops – In Fiscal 2015 U.S. Special Forces Have Already Deployed to 105 Nations

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Screen Shot 2015-02-02 at 1.38.59 PMDuring the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2014, U.S. Special Operations forces (SOF) deployed to 133 countries — roughly 70% of the nations on the planet — according to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Bockholt, a public affairs officer with U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM).  This capped a three-year span in which the country’s most elite forces were active in more than 150 different countries around the world, conducting missions ranging from kill/capture night raids to training exercises.  And this year could be a record-breaker.  Only a day before the failed raid that ended Luke Somers life — just 66 days into fiscal 2015 — America’s most elite troops had already set foot in 105 nations, approximately 80% of 2014’s total.

Despite its massive scale and scope, this secret global war across much of the planet is unknown to most Americans…”We want to be everywhere,” said Votel at Geolnt. 

– From Nick Turse’s article in the Huffington Post: The Golden Age of Black Ops

The following article is one I’ve wanted to highlight for over a week, but the news has been so overwhelming I simply haven’t had a chance. Until now.

As someone who spends much of his time trying to understand the world around him, I’m always astounded to be floored by something I read. While regular readers of this site are well aware of how aggressively and irresponsibly the U.S. empire deploys military assets abroad, I think some of the following information will still shock you.

From the Huffington Post:

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The Face of the Oligarch Recovery – Luxury Skyscrapers Stay Empty as NYC Homeless Population Hits Record High

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Screen Shot 2015-02-02 at 11.20.14 AMNowhere is the fraudulent and criminal “oligarch recovery” more on display than in my hometown of New York City. Despite benefitting more than any other community from an enormous taxpayer bailout of the industry that destroyed the economy, financial services, the vast majority of the wealth has been allocated to a handful of oligarchs.

To make matters even worse, American public policy, if you can even call it that, has been to encourage overseas oligarchs to park billions of dollars in U.S. real estate that largely sits uninhabited. Manhattan is a perfect example of this unproductive behavior and misallocation of capital. I covered this theme last year in the piece, Introducing Ghost Skyscrapers – NYC Real Estate Goes Full Retard, where it was noted that:

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Here’s What Happens When the U.S. Embassy Spokesman in Moscow Asks Twitter if RT or The Economist is More Trustworthy

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This is brilliant. Will Stevens is the spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The following needs no further commentary.

The latest in a long line of establishment Twitter fails.

For related article, see:

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