Nothing Beyond Bad Taste – Moon of Alabama

December 7, 2013

Nothing Beyond Bad Taste

In 2008 the United States Air Force promoted the slogan “Above All”. The slogan and the design of accompanying logo looked like they were derived from the Nazi German slogan “Über Alles”. The slogan and logo were soon quietly discarded.

The United States Office of National Intelligence just launched a rocket with a new spy satellite. The National Reconnaissance Office Launch 39 (NROL-39) has this mission logo.

An octopus covering every part of the world – with one tentacle especially touching Iran – and the attached slogan reads: “Nothing is beyond our reach.”

An octopus embracing the world has been used in earlier graphics.

This Nazi-time cartoon depicts Churchill as the squid, nothing beyond his reach, with the Star of David hovering above his head.

Given the ongoing global uproar about unlimited NSA spying the NROL-39 slogan is certainly somewhat tone deaf. Using the octopus covering the world symbol adds some exceptional bad taste.

Posted by b on December 7, 2013 at 13:00 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Karen Furgerson, a spokesperson for the National Reconnaissance Office, says:
NROL-39 is represented by the octopus, a versatile, adaptable, and highly intelligent creature. Emblematically, enemies of the US can be reached no matter where they choose to hide. ‘Nothing is beyond our reach’ defines this mission and the value it brings to our nation and the warfighters it supports, who serve valiently (sic – RB) all over the globe, protecting our nation.

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Dec 7 2013 13:58 utc | 1

When I saw first saw this, I thought it was The Onion or a prank. But apparently not.
The line between satire (irony, sarcasm, etc.) and being straight forward, genuine, literal is sometimes hard to make out as it depends on culture and on format. Think of the Mohamed cartoons that created a firestorm: in the West the cartoon, remember Punch! is a permitted form of extravagant satire. Saying with a picture what cannot be said with the more serious text.
However, emblems, logos, standards (like flags), visual icons (the signs on the doors of toilets for ex.) are not amenable to this procedure, as they must be simple and immediate. Plus, of course, they are not produced by satirists but by some body who sets out to figure the essence of something, usually in a positive way, such as in a company logo, flag, symbol for an association, etc. They may use negative images (e.g. skull) but these are to be interpreted literally or almost so – skull icon to signal poison or danger.
Could this logo be self-satire? Breaking the rules for attention and fun? Overtly pointing to what should not be represented? Unheard of for a Gvmt. agency?…I doubt it.. Nor can it be the production of some wag who figures that his prank will go unnoticed by his community, as the imagery used is blatant, well-known.
So one is left with in-your-face provocation? This is who we are, this is what we do, take it or leave it, in your face, get over it? (see Rowan above, which I had not read while typing this out.)
Or something in-between satire and provocation?
Such examples do exist, and don’t (afaik) occur for emblems, logos, but for more elaborate material. The People’s party in CH is known world-wide for its posters – racist, ugly, demeaning, disgusting, etc. They aren’t taken seriously here, are drawn at impressive expense by a top cartoonist (he says he favors Nazi colors for these posters and keeps it simple!), anyway they play with different dimensions.
just one ex: “Yes to banning minarets”
http://www.udc-valais.ch/images/minaretsoui.gif
P.S. logos and the like can contain secret references / signs for the in-crowd, but that is a different story.

Posted by: Noirette | Dec 7 2013 14:12 utc | 2

If nothing is beyond the reach of the Pentagon then there is no national sovereignty. Either countries allow the US free access to their territories and citizens, or they prevent them, militarily, from “reaching” as they choose.
This is a declaration of war against humanity.
The good thing is that such decisions are taken at very low levels. Now that the Constitution has been dispensed with and the US has agreed that its armed forces should be allowed free rein, the decision to inform the United Nations that the US has formally decided to advertise its hegemony, is left to a graphic artist and a semi-literate desk warrior to make.

Posted by: bevin | Dec 7 2013 14:53 utc | 3

No new satellites or Bitcoins will help them. It is meaningless.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Dec 7 2013 15:06 utc | 4

“British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in China saying he would advocate a multi-billion-dollar free trade deal between Beijing and the European Union, stoking tensions with the EU executive which condemned the move as premature.”
“Yanukovich flies to China, Russia”
Common destination: China

Posted by: neretva’43 | Dec 7 2013 15:40 utc | 5

Freudian slip? IMO, no doubt.

Posted by: ben | Dec 7 2013 15:54 utc | 6

must have been sabotage.

“The neurological autonomy of the arms means the octopus has great difficulty learning about the detailed effects of its motions. The brain may issue a high-level command to the arms, but the nerve cords in the arms execute the details. There is no neurological path for the brain to receive proprioceptive feedback about just how its command was executed by the arms; the only way it knows just what motions were made is by observing the arms visually, i.e exteroception.[26]”

and

“Due to having numerous arms that emanate from a common center, the octopus is often used as a metaphor for a group or organization which is perceived as being powerful, manipulative or bent on domination. Use of this terminology is invariably negative and employed by the opponents of the groups or institutions so described”

Posted by: somebody | Dec 7 2013 16:04 utc | 7

This theme is deliciously amusing on a number of levels. Here’s 3 but there are plenty more.
1. Lots of 3rd Reich refugees finished up in America – whizz-kid Werner von Braun being but the best-known and minimally Nazified.
2. Iran is a bridge too far for the dumbass Yankees (and their “Israeli” friends).
3. Given the underhanded sneakiness and pathetic cowardice of Americans, is it really all that surprising that they’d adopt tentacles as symbols of power projection instead of testicles?

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Dec 7 2013 16:24 utc | 8

Octopus
First what is comes to my mind is James Bond’s movie Octopussy and, of course, mysterious and evil organization.
Poor, beautiful marine animal. We, humans use this kind of metaphors (spineless) and comparison (the tentacles of octopus) when we want to justify our own behavior and ostracize “them”. It has become cliché word, and by definition propaganda at its worst.
In 1898, the Woman’s American Baptist Home Mission Society (WABHMS) published an eight-page pamphlet entitled The Mormon Octopus:

Mormonism is an ecclesiastical and since statehood, a political Despotism. Like a huge octopus, the Mormon hierarchy is fastening its tentacles throughout the Rocky Mountain States, and is sapping the very life-blood of American freedom.”

The Mormon Octopus
Hunting season on Mormons began:
1902 Sherman H Doyle, The Octopus:

“Like a huge octopus, the Mormon hierarchy is fastening its tentacles throughout the Rocky Mountain States, and is sapping from its devotees the very life-blood of American freedom”

The Elders’ Journal in 1916, complained about the image of the “inky-black demon”.
Frank Norris used the metaphor 1901 in its novel The Octopus, where he depicted struggle between farmers against railroad cartel.
All this couldn’t escaped a Nazis watchful eyes and mind. With the Russian pamphlet The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the French’s Dreyfus affair the terrain – dehumanized “them” – has been set for a disaster. The only unknown was who is going to be executioner: Americans, French, German… How it’s ended we all know.
Mat Taibi and some of the US congressman used this metaphor too.
Whatever a purpose is of that symbol is as per Noriette’s post, it is not well intended and are indeed very dark.
Hidden references on this theme are present today in the Government’s media outlets, language is somewhat different: deranged, detached, etc., i.e. “sophisticated” and with subliminal messages, in accordance with time that we are living in.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Dec 7 2013 17:27 utc | 9

One thing missing: the octopus should be shown spurting out a thick jet of tax payers money into the wastes of outer space (and/or the bulging pockets of some fattened defense contractors):
“FIA has been called by The New York Times ‘perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects.'”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Imagery_Architecture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Compare_images.JPG
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Burnt_Frost
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chinese_anti-satellite_missile_test

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 7 2013 18:02 utc | 10

Octopus!
First what’s comes to my mind is James Bond’s movie Octopussy and, of course, mysterious and evil organization. Poor, beautiful marine animal. We, humans use this kind of metaphors (spineless) and comparison (the tentacles of octopus) when we want to justify our own behavior and ostracize “them”. It has become cliché word, and by definition propaganda at its worst.
I was interested in this “thing” and did some research in the origin?
In 1898, the Woman’s American Baptist Home Mission Society (WABHMS) published an eight-page pamphlet entitled The Mormon Octopus:

Mormonism is an ecclesiastical and since statehood, a political Despotism. Like a huge octopus, the Mormon hierarchy is fastening its tentacles throughout the Rocky Mountain States, and is sapping the very life-blood of American freedom.”

The Mormon Octopus
Hunting season on Mormons began:
1902 Sherman H Doyle, The Octopus:

“Like a huge octopus, the Mormon hierarchy is fastening its tentacles throughout the Rocky Mountain States, and is sapping from its devotees the very life-blood of American freedom”

The Elders’ Journal in 1916, complained about the image of the “inky-black demon”.
Frank Norris used the metaphor 1901 in its novel The Octopus, where he depicted struggle between farmers against railroad cartel.
All this couldn’t escaped a Nazis watchful eyes and mind. With the Russian pamphlet The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the French’s Dreyfus affair the terrain – dehumanized “them” – has been set for a disaster. The only unknown was who is going to be executioner: Americans, French, German… How it’s ended we all know.
Mat Taibi and some of the US congressman used this metaphor too.
Whatever a purpose is of that symbol is as per Noriette’s post, it is not well intended and are indeed very dark.
Hidden references on this theme are present today in the Government’s media outlets, language is somewhat different: deranged, detached, irrational, etc. it is “sophisticated” and with subliminal messages, in accordance with the time that we are living in.
It is one’s country affair and cultural phenomenon turned into propaganda used to showdown with perceived enemy. There is a lot of mythology in it, a mythology that has (probably) origin in religion and the holy book, its creators did not want to use the book from probably sacral, and political connotations, reasons, than they use creature such as Octopus.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Dec 7 2013 18:25 utc | 11

Amusing??? Such arrogance of power is surely the death rattle of this nation. Think back to the insane utterings of that asshole Rumsfeld, or the purposely deceptive bile that Powell vomited forth with before the United Nations. Is such a logo suprising?? Not at all. But amusing??? Hell no.
One can only shake one’s head in awe that these “leader’s”, (military, and/or political), can so blatantly telegraph sinister policy and intent. Not only does the logo mimic the marketing of past evils, so too do the actual modern day policies of these pieces of shit steering our nation’s course.
If nothing else, at least this logo is honest.

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Dec 7 2013 18:32 utc | 12

When you scroll through the pictures of the launch, they are quite beautiful. The complex technological masterpieces basking in multicolored lights out in the California desert. The perfectly painted, untold tons of shaped steel and aluminum, slowly hauled up by robotic, computer controlled heavy lifters – the mass of technology that surely no other county can manage to put together and maintain – on such a vast scale and for now, anyway – all to heave this multi-billion dollar achievement out into space on a stream of super hot gas for a multi-year mission circling the globe…
and compare all of it to America’s rotting bridges, dank, 70 year old housing projects, failed healthcare system, desperate unemployed, wandering homeless, and that impenetrable wall-of-whimpers emanating from our congress-creeps “WE’RE BROKE!”
Something is wrong with this picture.

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 7 2013 18:37 utc | 13

“and compare all of it to America’s rotting bridges, dank, 70 year old housing projects, failed healthcare system, desperate unemployed, wandering homeless, and that impenetrable wall-of-whimpers emanating from our congress-creeps “WE’RE BROKE!”
You forgot to mention the deplorable condition of the vast majority of our public education facilities. Most of our youth will be lucky if they can competently launch an order of french fries, much less a rocket.

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Dec 7 2013 19:04 utc | 14

but they have iPhone.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Dec 7 2013 20:08 utc | 15

Here is an anecdote: a friend who was a very poor student, some years ago, said while we were watching fireworks above the university where we were studying (forgot what they were celebrating): “Look, it’s your money they are burning in the sky”. She said it all. It reminds me today of a line in Albert Cossery (an Egyptian writer whose family originated from al-Qusayr, in Syria) where a character says to his mates in Old Cairo on the day of the Hiroshima bombing: “You don’t know what is the atomic bomb? It is the bomb that destroys everything! But don’t worry, it’s too expensive for them to use it on people like us”. (Albert Cossery, Proud Beggards)

Posted by: Mina | Dec 7 2013 20:15 utc | 16

This Karl ReMarks does have a sense of humor…
http://www.karlremarks.com/2013/12/p-is-for-party-secrets-of-hezbollahs.html

Posted by: Mina | Dec 7 2013 20:47 utc | 17

“but they have iPhone”
Assembled offshore.

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Dec 7 2013 21:01 utc | 18

“but they have iPhone”
Assembled offshore.
Well, American multi-national co. (GE for example) makes more money overseas than domestically.
You cannot have it both ways.

Posted by: neretva’43 | Dec 7 2013 21:23 utc | 19

Speaking about the arrogance of power…..
Rep. Hunter: US Should Use Tactical Nukes on Iran if Strikes Become Necessary
The US should consider using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran if war appeared likely, according to a House Republican.
WASHINGTON — A hawkish US House Republican says the United States should use tactical nuclear weapons to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities if war with the Islamic republic becomes necessary.
House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., threw down that bold gauntlet Wednesday morning during a C-SPAN interview in which he also suggested Middle East “culture” fosters dishonest negotiators.
Asked if war with Iran is inevitable, Hunter replied: “I sure as Hell hope not.”
But if push came to shove and US officials deemed strikes necessary, Hunter turned hawkish.
He said any American strike would be a “massive aerial bombing campaign,” adding that such a mission should not feature any “boots on ground.” Then, Hunter said the US should use its “tactical nuclear weapons” on Iranian targets.
The B61 is America’s primary tactical nuclear weapons, experts say.
Notably, Sheldon Adleson, the top political donor to Republican candidates, also recently called for the US to nuke Iran.
Continues……
http://www.defensenews.com/article/20131204/DEFREG02/312040017/Rep-Hunter-US-Should-Use-Tactical-Nukes-Iran-Strikes-Become-Necessary
Nice, huh?? Nuke ’em and let God sort ’em out, eh Duncan?
Tell ya what, if these crazy right wing mother fuckers like Hunter manage to plant one of thier drooling compatriots in the Oval Office……
And its possible. Santorum. Rand Paul…..God help us. Bad enough, this posturing fraud Obama. But at least he’s not advocating using nukes offensively.
Octopus??? Really, that logo oughta depict a rabid babboon defecating on ‘ol Mother Earth. That would pretty well cover ALL our policies, not just our spying.

Posted by: PissedOffAmerican | Dec 7 2013 22:15 utc | 20

@8, 4. They’re describing themselves as grasping creatures with their noses in everyone else’s affairs. It’s not like Nazis satirizing Brits, but Nazis! It’s like they’re acknowledging the world’s hatred and mistrust, and embracing it! Instead of glamo(u)rous birds soaring aloft bearing Liberty and Truth; they’re bottom feeders, dwelling in darkness, sneaking up on the unwary. And that’s just fine. It’s mind-boggling.

Posted by: ruralito | Dec 7 2013 22:40 utc | 21

The interview with Hunter is incredible. He is insane. But then he is not without precedent. We know Barry Goldwater who almost became President, or Sheldon Adleson, that putrid scumbag who would fight for the dominance of the tiny Vanity State of Israel to the last US penny, and the last drop of American blood both have suggested launching nuclear strikes on our “enemies”. It is the favorite game of the Great American Chicken Hawk. When it actually did come to pass where we might do so – during the Cuban Missile Crisis – it took the words of wiser men who know what war is to bring the foolish imbeciles who populate the American power structure to their senses:

Department of State Telegram Transmitting Letter From Chairman Khrushchev to President Kennedy, October 26, 1962
…What would a war give you? You are threatening us with war. But you well know that the very least which you would receive in reply would be that you would experience the same consequences as those which you sent us. And that must be clear to us, people invested with authority, trust, and responsibility. We must not succumb to intoxication and petty passions, regardless of whether elections are impending in this or that country, or not impending. These are all transient things, but if indeed war should break out, then it would not be in our power to stop it, for such is the logic of war. I have participated in two wars and know that war ends when it has rolled through cities and villages, everywhere sowing death and destruction…

http://microsites.jfklibrary.org/cmc/oct26/doc4.html

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 7 2013 22:43 utc | 22

more…

…Armaments bring only disasters. When one accumulates them, this damages the economy, and if one puts them to use, then they destroy people on both sides. Consequently, only a madman can believe that armaments are the principal means in the life of society. No, they are an enforced loss of human energy, and what is more are for the destruction of man himself. If people do not show wisdom, then in the final analysis they will come to a clash, like blind moles, and then reciprocal extermination will begin.

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 7 2013 22:53 utc | 23

It would be nice if there was more than one PissedOffAmerican.

Posted by: DM | Dec 7 2013 22:59 utc | 24

A 21th century Samuel Clemens of expletive and master of incisive invective. Sorry. Probably only one per generation.

Posted by: juannie | Dec 7 2013 23:45 utc | 25

Note that for some reason, although the MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) BETWEEN THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL SECURITY SERVICE (NSA/CSU) AND THE ISRAELI SIGINT NATIONAL UNIT (ISNU) takes the star of David out of the realm of the NAZI fantasy and – in the form of the Israeli national flag – puts it squarely in the picture presently … it is, somehow, conspicuously absent from the gleeful celebration of National Reconnaissance Office Launch 39.

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 8 2013 2:43 utc | 26

DM 23
trouble is, five min into surfing the net u’d come to a typical pissmeoffmurican
just the other day, one of this species, while commenting on the sino jap spat at huff post, had this to say…*china has been attacking japan for hundreds of yrs !*
!@#$%^ !
can someone tell me wtf r these clowns smoking these days ?
future historians would shake their collective heads , marvelling at how did the motherland of *it* become the hotbed for mushrooms…kept in the dark n fed bushit all day !
p.s.
gagged by huff post.

Posted by: denk | Dec 8 2013 5:12 utc | 27

One should notice that even while it’s attempting to give a black look, the octopus simply looks completely drunk (especially because of the strangely designed stars all around). It may have been mentioned also that in Europe, the octopus is usually associated with the Mafia (la Piovra, in Italian). So the drawing shows just what the US became: a drunk mafia trying to ever expand. I would send the subversive author of this logo to Guantanamo for rehab…

Posted by: Mina | Dec 8 2013 11:15 utc | 28

Thanks for the links to Khruschev in ’62 guest77.

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 8 2013 12:25 utc | 29

“Nothing is beyond our reach” reminds me of a column I once read, and have never forgot, on Phao Siriyanon.
Phao’s line was “there is nothing under the sun that the Thai police cannot do”.
The occasion of the column was the resurrection of that same line by Thaksin Shinawatra, egging on the Royal Thai Police to eliminate ‘slow payers’ and deadbeats among their clientele in the drug business during Thaksin’s ‘War on Drugs’ in his first term, some ten years ago now.
Lots of people think that the USA is responsible for the shape Thailand is in today. The country certainly has a superficial US cast, but the absolute depravity exhibited by the ‘elite’ in both countries is much more than skin deep. It’s generic human greed and ruthless depravity, bad to the bone.

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 8 2013 13:34 utc | 30

Such arrogance of power is surely the death rattle of this nation.
POA at 11.
Yes, because it represents a show of power -symbolically- that should be kept covered, hidden. Not because flaunting or even exaggerating strength is in itself a bad move (tactically) but because US power works thru propaganda, false narrative, dissimulation, ‘soft’ power, cultural indoctrination, behind the scenes economic arm-twisting, etc.
As guest77 post at 12 points out, the launch is a techno feat, it is beautiful, it represents achievement for mankind (harking back to the moon landings..), man over nature, etc. evidencing US superiority, leadership, of the scientific and thus ‘benevolent’ kind.
The octopus logo is in total contradiction with that projected image.
To take up a now creepy but trad. image (snake), imagine if the World Health Organisation logo,
http://tinyurl.com/ofg4kgl
showed the serpent biting a patient or the staff used to beat one?
Origins of the staff and serpent:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius
Or if the mostly sober and neutral NASA insignia,
http://www.logodesignlove.com/nasa-logo
showed menacing satellites, big ears, and weapons, rays, or aliens threatening Earth from outer space?

Posted by: Noirette | Dec 8 2013 15:15 utc | 31

I found the following lengthy article on Thailand (posted in naked capitalism daily links some time ago) to be both very interesting and informative.
http://www.zenjournalist.com/2013/10/กลียุค-thailands-era-of-insanity/

Posted by: Eureka Springs | Dec 8 2013 18:00 utc | 32

Yeah, Marshall’s article was interesting. He’d done a lot of work in other articles he’s written, a lot of which appeared in ‘insanity’ … the referenced stuff. But he added all the unreferenced royalist rumour that runs around Bangkok and keeps the ‘royalist’ crowd buzzing this time. I imagine there’s a market for the same wherever they still have royals.
I found it ‘interesting’ too, at first. All that utterly unverifiable ‘inside’ talk on the royals was titillating. I’d never read it before. But it’s all just rumour.
The stuff he furnishes references on is good though.

Posted by: john francis lee | Dec 9 2013 13:00 utc | 33

I’ve been looking for an opportunity to share this poster from the 1930s and now is EXACTLY the moment. It couldn’t be more ironic –
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-JYCgfOM_ENA/UqXG5gOHqKI/AAAAAAAAcgE/aHtgMoSk0q0/s800/6558058417_1e2d79d22f_o.jpg
France shall not be a colony of America…..

Posted by: paulym | Dec 9 2013 13:38 utc | 34

paulym at 34 I hadn’t seen that one, thx. ha ha ha. plus the graphics are good.
France now is a colony of the US.

Posted by: Noirette | Dec 9 2013 15:48 utc | 35

I just noticed that the Star of David above the Churchill headed octopus looks like it was drawn in pencil, and is not symmetrical, unlike the octopus and globe. They are drawn with a darker black and have dimension, churchill’s head is oriented upright, the star is out of alignment with the top of the head. I suspect it was added later.
What is that substance leaking out of the places where the tentacles are dug in? oil? It’s a colored drawing, and the liquid is not red.

Posted by: shekissesfrogs | Dec 13 2013 17:56 utc | 36

8) so history changes :-))
1. Lots of 3rd Reich refugees finished up in America – correct
whizz-kid Werner von Braun being but the best-known and minimally Nazified -wrong
the correct description is “leading Nazi rocket scientist who continued his career in the US”

Posted by: somebody | Dec 13 2013 18:45 utc | 37

One of them is to avoid negative influences. These should be observed from all aspects, including people who are close to us. Even if it is someone close to you , as a family member or close friend , you should not tolerate their bad behavior . Try to stay away from it as much as possible. Choose your friends carefully and only do things that you are comfortable with instead of trying to impress others. Glenn Menke

Posted by: Glenn Menke | Dec 14 2013 17:18 utc | 38

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