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Best of the Web: Orwell's 1984 no longer reads like fiction. It's the reality of our times

Robert Bridge
RT
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 16:06 UTC
1984
© Getty Images / gremlin
70 years ago, the British writer George Orwell captured the essence of technology in its ability to shape our destinies in his seminal work, 1984. The tragedy of our times is that we have failed to heed his warning.

No matter how many times I read 1984, the feeling of total helplessness and despair that weaves itself throughout Orwell's masterpiece never fails to take me by surprise. Although usually referred to as a 'dystopian futuristic novel', it is actually a horror story on a scale far greater than anything that has emerged from the minds of prolific writers like Stephen King or Dean Koontz. The reason is simple. The nightmare world that the protagonist Winston Smith inhabits, a place called Oceania, is all too easily imaginable. Man, as opposed to some imaginary clown or demon, is the evil monster.

In the very first pages of the book, Orwell demonstrates an uncanny ability to foresee future trends in technology. Describing the protagonist Winston Smith's frugal London flat, he mentions an instrument called a 'telescreen', which sounds strikingly similar to the handheld 'smartphone' that is enthusiastically used by billions of people around the world today.
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Attention

Best of the Web: Memo to Trump: Trading out Bolton for Tulsi would be a smart move

Patrick J. Buchanan
buchanan.org
Fri, 28 Jun 2019 14:42 UTC
tulsi gabbard
"For too long our leaders have failed us, taking us into one regime change war after the next, leading us into a new Cold War and arms race, costing us trillions of our hard-earned tax payer dollars and countless lives. This insanity must end."

Donald Trump, circa 2016?

Nope. That denunciation of John Bolton interventionism came from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii during Wednesday night's Democratic debate. At 38, she was the youngest candidate on stage.

Gabbard proceeded to rip both the "president and his chickenhawk cabinet (who) have led us to the brink of war with Iran."

In a fiery exchange, Congressman Tim Ryan of Ohio countered that America cannot disengage from Afghanistan: "When we weren't in there they started flying planes into our buildings."
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Evil Rays

Best of the Web: The 5G Dragnet: Backbone of Totalitarian Surveillance

James Corbett
The Corbett Report
Fri, 21 Jun 2019 00:00 UTC
5G Dragnet
Telecom companies are currently scrambling to implement fifth-generation cellular network technology. But the world of 5G is a world where all objects are wired and constantly communicating data to one another. The dark truth is that the development of 5G networks and the various networked products that they will give rise to in the global smart city infrastructure, represent the greatest threat to freedom in the history of humanity.

For those with limited bandwidth, CLICK HERE to download a smaller, lower file size version of this episode.

For those interested in audio quality, CLICK HERE for the highest-quality version of this episode (WARNING: very large download).


Watch this video on BitChute / DTube / YouTube or Download the mp4
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Bullseye

Best of the Web: The economic entrails at the heart of the 'deal of the century'

Alastair Crooke
Strategic Culture
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 20:46 UTC
trump netanyahu
© Flickr/israel-mfa
It is nothing new to say that the 'Deal of the Century' is - and always was - in essence an economic project. Indeed, it seems that its political ramifications are viewed by the White House as little more than the ineluctable consequences to an a priori economic architecture, already in the process of being unfolded.

In other words, it is the economic facts on the ground that are intended shape the political outcome - an attenuated political landscape that anyway has been minimised by Trump's pre-emptive removal of key pieces of any Palestinian negotiating leverage.

The financial squeeze on the Palestinians is well attested. On the one hand, the Palestinian Authority (historically dependent on Saudi subvention) is gently slipping into bankruptcy; whilst Gaza is held in virtual abject dependency through the drip-feed of subventions channelled into Gaza by Qatar, with Israeli permission - the size of this latter monthly 'lifeline' subvention being carefully adjusted by Israel according to what it judges to be the norms of (generally Hamas) 'good conduct'.

Comment: See also:

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NPC

Best of the Web: Paul Joseph Watson on Modernity

Paul Joseph Watson
Summit News
Sun, 16 Jun 2019 21:11 UTC
miley cyrus abortion cake
VICE said my distaste for modernity is borne out of me being a "deeply bitter bully" who "derives no pleasure whatsoever from his life".

Here's my response.

The end of the world as we know it.

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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Goad, threaten, backtrack: Trump & Bolton's Iran policy is confusing, dangerous & achieves NOTHING

Igor Ogorodnev
RT
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 17:44 UTC
trump and bolton
© Getty Images/Sean Gallup
Washington's fuzzy and high-drama "maximum pressure" approach to Iran has no realistic endgame - but is good for making the world a more unstable place for both America's adversaries and allies.

National Security Advisor John Bolton's Tuesday claim that US diplomats are "surging" across the Middle East in search of a "path to peace" only to encounter "deafening silence" from Tehran might have ordinarily seemed merely mendacious.

But considering the extraordinarily rich array of pronouncements and actions from the White House in the past week, most are no longer sure if Bolton is playing the diplomat, gaslighting us or actually believes his words. If - surely, like many of the world's foreign ministers - you are struggling to keep up, here is the timeline since Thursday, when Iran admitted shooting down an American drone:
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Attention

Best of the Web: American Pravda: NY Times admits it sends stories to US government for approval before publication

Ben Norton
The Grayzone
Tue, 25 Jun 2019 14:13 UTC
New York Times, subway
© Getty Images North America / Ramin Talaie
The New York Times casually acknowledged that it sends major scoops to the US government before publication, to make sure "national security officials" have "no concerns."

The New York Times has publicly acknowledged that it sends some of its stories to the US government for approval from "national security officials" before publication.

This confirms what veteran New York Times correspondents like James Risen have said: The American newspaper of record regularly collaborates with the US government, suppressing reporting that top officials don't want made public.

Comment: Nice that the NYT decided to come clean about its relationship to the intelligence community. But the proof was there all along.

As the quote attributed to George Orwell goes:
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations."
or propaganda . . . .

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Bullseye

Best of the Web: Starvation sanctions are worse than overt warfare

Caitlin Johnstone
Medium
Mon, 24 Jun 2019 20:38 UTC
Trump Pompeo
"We are putting major additional Sanctions on Iran on Monday," President Trump tweeted today. "I look forward to the day that Sanctions come off Iran, and they become a productive and prosperous nation again - The sooner the better!"

Iran's economy is already floundering due to the steadily mounting sanctions that the Trump administration has been heaping upon it since its withdrawal from the JCPOA last year. Crucial goods are four times the price they used to be, sick Iranians are having difficulty obtaining life-saving medicine, and life in general has been getting much more difficult for the poorest and frailest Iranian civilians.

For this reason, it is a very safe bet that there have been Iranians who have died because of the sanctions. Being unable to obtain enough life-saving medicine will inevitably increase mortality rates, as will inadequate nutrition and care for those whose health is at risk. There's not really any way around that, and it's only going to get worse.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Confessions of an Economic Hitman: Interview with John Perkins

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Chess

Best of the Web: Explaining Russia's position on Idlib

Ollie Richardson
The Saker
Tue, 04 Jun 2019 12:00 UTC
putin assad idlib
© AFP PhotoRussia has troops on the ground around Idlib province in northwest Syria.
Over the past five years my work in the information space has been consciously aimed at explaining why the Russian military does and doesn't do certain things, whether it be in relation to Ukraine, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela, etc, and why demanding that Putin bombs everything in sight is exactly what the CIA wants so-called "pro-Russians" to say. Yet I haven't exhausted (maybe I never will exhaust it?) this topic because it is so vast and, ultimately, complex. And it is because of this seemingly insurmountable complexity that questions like "Why doesn't Russia liberate all of Ukraine", "Why doesn't Russia save Donetsk and Lugansk in the same way it saved Crimea?", "Why doesn't Russia boot America out of Syria?", etc are asked on social media.

But one statement that I haven't really addressed (until now) is "Why doesn't Russia liberate all of Idlib in one fell swoop?". Many "geniuses" like to say that Putin is in bed with the "Ottoman butcher" Erdogan and has thus "betrayed Syria", similar to how shaking hands with Netanyahu means that Putin is a Zionist and has "betrayed Syria", or even that a visit of the Saudi King to Moscow means that Putin has the blood of Yemen on his hands.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Israeli-French Deception Downs Russian Spy Plane Off Syria, US Escalates 'Regime Change' Against Iran

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Black Magic

Best of the Web: Pepe Escobar: Brazilgate is turning into Russiagate 2.0

Pepe Escobar
Consortium News
Thu, 20 Jun 2019 20:00 UTC
Moro
Brazilian Judge Sergio Moro gestures as he leaves the house of Brazilian President-elect Jair
The Intercept's bombshell about Brazilian corruption is being ludicrously spun by the country's media and military as a "Russian conspiracy," writes Pepe Escobar

It was a leak, not a hack. Yes: Brazilgate, unleashed by a series of game-changing bombshells published by The Intercept, may be turning into a tropical Russiagate.

The Intercept's Deep Throat - an anonymous source - has finally revealed in detail what anyone with half a brain in Brazil already knew: that the judicial/lawfare machinery of the one-sided Car Wash anti-corruption investigation was in fact a massive farce and criminal racket bent on accomplishing four objectives.

Comment: See also:

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