Al-Qaeda Gets An Oscar
Hollywood is all about fake. That is what movies are - fake depictions of a fake reality that only exist in the mind of scriptwriters, directors and a usually gullible audience. (Disclosure: I do like some movies.)
Hollywood has never been shy of plagiarizing. Every idea, tale of cinematographic trick that made a splash somewhere - and is thereby a potential money generator - will get copied again and again. Every successful make gets a remake. And another one.
In 2015 the promoting host of the Miss Universe franchise "misread" the name of the winner. He announced "Columbia" when the chosen winner was "Philippines". After he few minutes he "corrected" himself. That "mistake" brought a lot of additional media attention - and financial value - to the event owner.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the U.S. marketing and lobby organization of the movie makers, hands out some yearly rewards arranged to promote specific movies or persons in the movie business. The academy award ceremony is a rather boring event but it gets a lot of hype and media attention (and thereby generates lots of advertisement revenue).
To further increase its value this years event plagiarized the idea of the Miss Universe promoters. One of the hosts announced the wrong winning movie for some category and then reversed himself to announce a different "real" winner. It was a "mistake" just as surely as Hollywood's latest movie was a description of real life.
Those without memory went into the desired frenzy, the insiders yawned. "Oh, that clumsy fake again."
One of this years prices went to a fake "documentary" about a fake "rescuer" group which makes and distributes fake videos, staged photos and fake victims of the war on Syria. These al-Qaeda propaganda sidekicks, the White Helmets, are a British disinformation operation that is financed by more than $100 million of U.S. and UK taxpayer money. Its general task is to convince the "western" public that the war on Syria is justified because of the "cruelty of the Syrian government" which the fakes intend to establish in the mind of its consumers.
Hollywood never was shy of taking government money to promote war on this or that country or "enemy". The Pentagon's liaison office in Hollywood finances many movies. If there are some tanks needed and military heroes in a script the Pentagon will organize the props, real tanks and soldiers, at no cost - provided of course that it can read and "correct" the script the way it sees fit. The makers of "Top Gun" need planes, air craft carriers and lots of explosions? No problem at all and at no costs to the producers. In exchange military recruitment staff will wait to trap moviegoers when they leave the theaters. Congress will happily pass the money for more useless planes.
An Academy Award reinforces the message a production carries and gives the people behind the message additional value. The marketing companies that create and run the "White Helmets" will surely receive a few extra millions for yesterday's Oscar promotion.
Hollywood is all fake. The wrong winner is announced and al-Qaeda gets an Oscar. "No harm done," the promoters of such fakes might say.
Except to the people of Syria. For them the destruction and death promoted by the fancy people in Los Angeles is all too real.
Posted by b on February 27, 2017 at 15:49 UTC | Permalink
next page »Hollywood for news and glycophosate for food, all washed down with coke. Basic necessities for the american way of life
Posted by: Peter AU | Feb 27 2017 16:17 utc | 2
Ah.... If only Hollywood would suffer the fate of Aleppo.
Outstanding rant, b! I second it wholeheartedly!
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 27 2017 16:19 utc | 3
Well, duh, what do you expect?
There is an interesting article at Counter Punch about the repuglikins impeaching tRUMP. The dimicrats are designated as being 'ball-less' and the Oscars may prove the point? Ya know: if you can't defeat them, insult them.
Posted by: rg the lg | Feb 27 2017 16:26 utc | 5
White Hats are to humanitarianism
what the DNC is to democracy
Posted by: librul | Feb 27 2017 16:31 utc | 6
At least the big gaffe - whether deliberate or not - made this tedious self-referential self-congratulatory "show" somewhat more interesting. Duly note the ageism involved in that Warren Beatty and Fay Dunaway are too old and addled to figure out that they were handed the "wrong" envelop. Nifty deflection.
Posted by: RUKidding | Feb 27 2017 16:37 utc | 7
- and yet , the occasional snippets get through the tsunami of propaganda . Five years back 'the Guardian carried the comment that a day before she died Dawn Lake ( at 98 years ) admitted that she had organized the assassination of Patrice Lamumba by British intelligence in the Congo .
Posted by: ashley albanese | Feb 27 2017 16:50 utc | 8
The Deep State Media is continuing the siege against our unconventional president, but really they aren't merely the "Fake News". It turns out that all the "media", from the affluent educational administrators to the newspapers to the TV news to Hollywood has now finally shown its hand!
And this is big! MUCH bigger than Trump himself. The Deep State has emerged for all to see like Godzilla. It's gonna take a hell of a lotta psy-ops to make this disappear!
Posted by: blues | Feb 27 2017 17:02 utc | 9
The only thing faintly entertaining about the Oscars is the fact that these are the people from whom Trump most craves acceptance. You thought it was a laid off auto worker in Lansing? The fact that they ridicule him and dismiss him for the bigoted ideologue that he is is perhaps the program's saving grace.
Posted by: peter | Feb 27 2017 17:08 utc | 10
The Duran has an excellent article including much video proving beyond doubt what we already know--White Helmets are terrorists in drag, http://theduran.com/oscar-documentary-short-goes-isis-al-qaeda/
Also published there is an excellent article explaining why Trump was correct in avoiding the Correspondents Dinner, http://theduran.com/donald-trump-piles-pressure-media/
I wonder how many websites--liberal/conservative--will publish the truth about the White Helmets if they haven't already done so.
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 27 2017 17:10 utc | 11
#10: Oh PUH-leeze. Trump doesn't crave their approval. He's trolling them BIGLY. Winning hearts and minds along the way. Sucking all the oxygen from every room. They can't get away from Trump. They are drawn to him like moths to the fame. And eventually. Sooner than later. They will fly too close. And be consumed by the fire. It's coming. Be ready.
Posted by: Take Me | Feb 27 2017 17:25 utc | 12
And Khaled Khatib's visa to the US to accept the prize was cancelled due to US DHS discovering "derogatory information" about him. (source: aljazeera) What derogatory information? Khatib tweeted that the WH leader Saleh could not leave Syria due to air strikes (... and heroically producing more propaganda). Khatib issued another statement saying he could not leave because "his passport was cancelled by the Syrian regime" although he and Saleh were earlier issued visas to attend the ceremonies (source: Vox). Confusing stories. No details on adverse information. Typical for propanda.
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 27 2017 17:28 utc | 13
argh. propaganda.
karlof1
Our media will NOT tell the truth about White Helmets. They might mention the accusations that they fake their videos but that's it.
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 27 2017 17:31 utc | 14
thanks b... hollywood bullshit is one of my pet peeves... just another propaganda outlet for use to wash a few more empty brains..
meanwhile, i note the presence of no white helmets and msm telling us of the horrors facing the inhabitants of mosul.. humanitarian crisis can never happen when the usa is supporting the same process of getting rid of what they have created in mosul.. msm will not touch it and white helmets will be missing in action.. money does a lot of things and hollywood is one more of them..
Posted by: james | Feb 27 2017 18:00 utc | 15
From The Power of Film website:
https://www.poweroffilmandmovingimage.com/hollywood-propaganda
Posted by: Stephen M Potopa | Feb 27 2017 18:00 utc | 16
My all time favorite UK Column News.
Published on Feb 27, 2017
Mike Robinson and Vanessa Beeley with today's UK Column News, including the White Helmets Oscar award, BBC's Saving Syria's Children, NATO expansion and George Osborne's latest attack on national sovereignty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjiRSIYmt2I
Posted by: OSJ | Feb 27 2017 18:08 utc | 17
very synical hit piece on the innocsense of the hollywood innocents.
the folks in hollywood are hard working liberwool and very nice and modest types my life already.
steeeeped in a babylonian talmood isms
nobody does more for syriana turk israeli traded genie oil futures.
nobody reninvests more of libya and iraqs sovreig wealth fund monies via lionsgate films.
nobody shows the arab irainians in his true light more than finklestein and goldfarb inc.
nobody trades more hearts spleens and kidneys than hollyweird via dinner corpse security group.
let hollywood pizza B
eye say
Posted by: menchem golani | Feb 27 2017 18:34 utc | 18
This brings to mind the California governors race of 1934 and Upton Sinclair's candidacy. "newsreels" was the only mechanism for video news in those days. Louis B Mayer was the Hollywood heavy weight then. He produced a series of newsreels that were staged by actors and contained totally fabricated news stories about Sinclair which were shown in theaters across California in the last two months of the campaign. They were very effective. The Smithsonian magazine describes the story.
Posted by: ToivoS | Feb 27 2017 18:37 utc | 19
Oh PUH-leeze. Trump doesn't crave their approval. He's trolling them BIGLY.
...
Posted by: Take Me | Feb 27, 2017 12:25:23 PM | 12
He sure is. A BBC report a few hours ago showed a reporter (vainly) polling a crowd for someone who disagrees with Trump's Fake News meme. Crooked Hillary was clever but Fake News struck a chord with almost everyone on the planet.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 27 2017 18:43 utc | 20
I was shocked to see how excited and happy the producers of that terrifying documentary were when they heard they got the award. They were jumping like kids who won free pizzas!
How can anyone decent show so much joy in exploiting war, death and misery to get fame?
Syrian War Propaganda at the Oscars
Posted by: virgile | Feb 27 2017 19:26 utc | 21
@ashley albanese 8,
I think you meant Daphne Park, not Dawn Lake. Park was an MI6 officer in the Congo at one point in her career.
I just read the new second volume of John Newman's new multivolume series on the JFK assassination. The second volume is entitled "Countdown to Darkness". It covers the period from 1959 to the early months of 1961. In it, Newman, a former Army intelligence officer who at one point was the special assistant of the Director of NSA, persuasively argues from U.S. government documents that Eisenhower authorized the assassination of Lumumba in the summer of 1960, and Americans in the Congo organized Mobutu's coup that dislodged Lumumba from power at the time. He was not in the end assassinated until January 1961, shortly before JFK's inauguration. If MI6 did the dead, they may well have been doing the bidding of Eisenhower and/or the CIA.
Posted by: lysias | Feb 27 2017 19:44 utc | 22
Trump's travel ban guaranteed an Oscar for the documentary.
Please put the rant where it came from.
Posted by: Bardi | Feb 27 2017 19:48 utc | 23
lysias @22--
Thanks for the hat-tip to Newman's work. More evidence confirming the idolization of Ike as someone against the CIA and the goal of global domination as a fool's effort, and his "warning" speech dealing with the very entity he fed and allowed to grow.
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 27 2017 20:10 utc | 24
I cannot take credit for the Oscar, but as we are celebrating, maybe it is appropriate to take credit for connecting the White Helmets to al-Qaeda. I wrote this on Facebook on October 8, 2016. The links give credit to Rick Sterling, Cory Morningstar, Vanessa Beeley, and Eva Bartlett.
HOW WE EXPOSED THE WHITE HELMETSAl-Qaeda's propaganda wing the #WhiteHelmets did not win this year's Nobel Peace Prize, despite the massive propaganda campaign by Western sponsors of terror. The prize would have been vital if the United States were to attack Syria in support of their proxy terrorists. I am not at all sure the Norwegian Nobel Committee can act independently. They will serve the Empire's interests when pushed to. Crucial to the outcome may have been the effort to expose the White Helmets and their war propaganda. I will link bellow to some of the people who have been most vocal in bringing the truth out.
This is the discussion that first brought the White Helmets to my attention. ACLOS was working on solving the Sarmeen gas attack hoax of March 2015. I believe the White Helmets are involved in actually murdering people to produce their propaganda for war. The photo above may show one of their victims.
Al-Nusra Font (Jabhat al-Nusra) is the official franchise of al-Qaeda in Syria and works closely with the White Helmets.
Petri Krohn - 27 March 2015 (03:21 UTC):
- The same original content from the first attack has been distributed on YouTube with two different logos. One logo is the al-Nusra logo that is also seen in these three videos distributed by Coordinating Srmin. The other logo is blue and yellow and is also seen on the ambulance and the back of the medic. This means that the Coordinating Committee, al-Nusra, and the ambulance team and their propagandists are all tied closely together. This calls into question the neutrality of the reporting and the videos.Charles Wood - 27 March 2015 (03:31 UTC)
- I've seen a group calling themselves "White Helmets" who are active on twitter and have some link to the alleged gas attack videos. I think they are Civil Defence? Or at least say they are. Links to Jabhat al-Nusra tends to say they aren't neutral.Petri Krohn - 2 April 2015 (02:23 UTC)
- The White Helmets claim to be a civil defense force specializing in digging up victims from bombed out buildings. They may in fact be a US State Department funded infowar operation for intervention and a war of aggression in the name of a "No-Fly Zone" to protect civilians.Caustic Logic (Adam) - 2 April 2015 (12:58 UTC)
- Here's their site: https://www.whitehelmets.org/ Good news, they're "unarmed and neutral." Their issue is barrel bombs, often filled with chlorine, and they don't mention the weird type of chlorine with unusual symptoms... and how there's a neutral need for a "no fly zone." Linked to by an activist video compilation I left a helpful comment at (if it remains)Oh, and it specifies "the Syrian Civil Defence - known as the White Helmets." They're the ones with the blue and yellow logos, and I presume the black-and-yellow blankets. Maybe they're like a new non-neutral replacement for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, who continue cooperating with the government and won't even need to try operating in areas like this. I wonder if there are any issue with the SARC that would lead to such a replacement plan?
Charles Wood - 2 April 2015 (23:47 UTC)
- Their website looks like it came out of some smart New York or London Advertising Agency. In fact it did. It's an obvious branding exercise using the iconic white helmet as the easy to remember visual key.I've done some basic snooping and it's associated with The Syria Campaign. I guess the idea is to move up Google rank by cross-linking the sites.
'white helmets' itself is a product of 'Purpose' a Brooklyn based organisation with offices in London and Rio de Janeiro. Their 'Team' shows what they are - an upmarket media communications company. The Purpose Team
Certainly no Syrians were involved in creating the White Helmets!
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Feb 27 2017 20:25 utc | 25
So how does the orange turd fit in with the Oscars then and his most excellent speech about how "America must win wars Again!" (tm) - and will he sell silly little red hats with that slogan, cause as he is only campaigning and not presidenting , he gets to keep the money form the merchandise.
So dear people, is 'America winning Again! (tm)
Posted by: Sabine | Feb 27 2017 21:01 utc | 26
In honor of the late President Ronald Raygun I have a tee shirt that reads
WE WON THE COLD WAR AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY TEE SHIRT
Now there was a guy who could act. The 'Don' seems to be stuck on The Apprentice mode and at times seems out of touch without a few dominatrix babes at which he can oogle?
Just meopinion
Posted by: ALberto | Feb 27 2017 21:16 utc | 27
27
Yeah, Grenada, they won the fuck out of that one. Not too many since.
Posted by: peter | Feb 27 2017 21:38 utc | 28
The irony is that Beatty co-wrote, co-produced, directed the anti-establishment movie Bulworth.
Posted by: Erelis | Feb 27 2017 21:47 utc | 29
I agree that the MIC and Hollywood have an arrangement, whereby Hollywood glorifies war, and propagandizes military heroism and patriotism. This is why I rarely watch military/war films. Zero Dark Thirty and American Sniper, and Eastwood's recent WWII films I didn't bother with either on the big or small screen, and I only watched Hurt Locker when it came on the small screen - I wish I hadn't. Even when they move to the small screen I usually ignore them because the propaganda pisses me off so much. (I've seen Apocalypse Now, the Killing Fields and the Deer Hunter, and Black Hawk Down btw.)
Secondly, the Holocaust industry also have an arrangement with the film industry in the U.S.; U.K. and France more specifically. Where do I start? I ignored all the recent ones although I have seen Schindler's List and Life is Beautiful(and that's when I believe I maxed out on this genre). I also saw the Pianist and the Reader however didn't pay to watch them in the movie theater. But I ignored Inglorious Bastards and others since the 4 I mentioned even on the small screen. Just when you think that every film on the Nazis and the Holocaust theme that could possibly have been made was made - they come up with yet another obscure related story to milk the subject example, Woman in Gold. Oh and I try to stay away from all films dealing with Mossad exploits, that really piss me off, example, really regret seeing Munich, although I'll admit I've seen some relating to the CIA mobsters and geopolitical intrigue, but needed to shower to feel clean afterwards (snark). Did see Syriana and others less recent like The Falcon and the Snowman. Refused to see Argo.
Also, politics and the film industry are closely entwined; movies on Kennedys, Johnson, Nixon, Bush, Clinton and many previous presidents (Lincoln). I did see Frost/Nixon, Oliver Stone's JFK, and All the President's Men.
So what do I prefer? Films that are fictional but superbly well-made or realist and try to stick to the truth. I'm a sucker for court-room drama (Mississippi Burning, the Firm, Philadelphia, the Paper Chase, Nuremburg, To Kill a Mockingbird, Twelve Angry Men, the unjustly accused, and prison films (like Shawshank Redemption; The Hurricane, Midnight Express, Return to Paradise, Papillon and Cool Hand Luke), suspense/mystery (most Hitchcock films and the Silence of the Lambs-but only the best in this genre). Films about societal marginals, the Cooler, Leaving Las Vegas, Sling Blade, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the Hustler, epics: Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth, Malcolm X, a Man for all Seasons and older epics. Some well-made crime/mob films i.e. the French Connection; Heat to name some and outstanding drama or comedy where music is involved. And comedy/drama like Terms of Endearment only because many of us lived the tragic side of it; I unfortunately have, or if you haven't, chances are you will.
My point: good film that is real art and made with passion and heart inspired by life is a gift to help endure it as with every other art.
Posted by: Circe | Feb 27 2017 22:00 utc | 30
Just remember what happened to Wim Wenders's "Buena Vista Social Club" at the Oscars.
Posted by: Cortes | Feb 27 2017 22:03 utc | 31
even journalist stephen kinzer agrees
Stephen Kinzer @stephenkinzer 8h8 hours ago
Congratulations to al-Qaeda and Syrian jihadists for the #Oscar given to a film about their PR outfit, the White Helmets.
Posted by: brian | Feb 27 2017 22:06 utc | 32
An Oscar for a film promoting terrorists? How openly degraded the west has become.
Posted by: Yonatan | Feb 27 2017 22:22 utc | 34
Circe @30
We are disgusted by the White Helmets because it is war-time propaganda and cover for war crimes.
That's quite a bit different than romanticizing war itself.
Do you understand the difference?
Giving them the Oscar is dancing on the graves of innocents. In that context, your self-absorbed description of movie preferences is repulsive.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Feb 27 2017 22:32 utc | 35
#6
"White Hats are to humanitarianism what the DNC is to democracy"
oh, that's a good one, librul!
Posted by: michaelj72 | Feb 27 2017 22:55 utc | 36
The last honest film about the Middle East and the United States was Syriana. 90% of the world's cheap easy-to-extract oil is in the Middle East. There's plenty of the expensive, hard-to-get oil but it's only profitable if oil prices rise to above $60-$80. So these wars are all about controlling the production of and cash flows from that oil. From Bush Senior to Bill Clinton to GWH Bush to Barak Obama, that's been the game. Prop up corrupt dictators, crush pro-democracy movements, disrupt and disable and slaughter, finance ISIS, sacrifice thousands of US soldiers, do whatever it takes to prevent the region from escaping from under the thumb of neocolonial control. Clearly detailed in this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhM-jitLSgI
There have been a few other movies that touch on the ugly reality of U.S. foreign policy, for example Lord of War, about the hidden hands behind the clandestine arms trade (when the U.S. government doesn't want to be seen selling arms to unusually psychotic regimes or to ISIS, etc, they turn to third party contractors, such as Israeli firms and Saudi middlemen), but by and large it's been nothing but propaganda out of Hollywood for over a decade now. This would seem to reflect consolidation in the media empire world; don't go against the party line, apparatchiks and functionaries, if you want to get more work.
As far as the White Helmets, here we have the very height of liberal hypocrisy with supposedly "independent liberal non-profit media" outlets like Democracy Now and the Intercept regurgitating the official propaganda line:
The White Helmets: As Syria Death Toll Mounts, Meet the Rescue Workers Saving Thousands of Lives, Democracy Now, Oct 13, 2016Syria's White Helmets Risk Everything to Save the Victims of Airstrikes - The Intercept, Oct 1, 2016
What the hell is that all about? One point is this: while the CIA used to run propaganda operations like this directly, after their many scandals they began relying more and more on various fronts, from USAID people within the State Department to elements within so-called "NGOs" from Amnesty International to Human Rights Watch, to private foundations controlled by cooperative billionaires (see the Omidyar Network and USAID in Ukraine before the coup, or the Ford Foundation, a long-time backer of Democracy Now!, say). See for more:
. . .2012/04/17/how-the-cia-operates-through-non-governmental-agencies/
Posted by: nonsense factory | Feb 27 2017 23:03 utc | 37
nonsense factory @37.
Nothing new about the CIA using USAID. They've been doing it for decades. They were already doing it in the sixties.
Posted by: lysias | Feb 27 2017 23:28 utc | 38
Oscars Viewership Tumbles To Second Lowest In History:
It appears that taking a scripted show in which overpaid millionaires pat each other on the back, while turning it into a platform to voice their coordinated political grievances and lash out against the elected choice of a plurality of America's voters may not have been the best idea to boost viewership: according to Nielsen, the 89th Annual Academy Awards brought in an average of 32.9 million viewers on Sunday night. According to ABC, that was the second lowest viewership in Oscar history and is down from the 2016 broadcast, which brought in 34 million viewers. Perhaps the show's producers should have previewed the "shock" twist at the end in order to boost viewership.
Posted by: lysias | Feb 27 2017 23:30 utc | 39
Circe likes Mississippi Burning. Uses words realist, truth, and art to describe it.
Why is this person here?
Posted by: Oldhippie | Feb 27 2017 23:38 utc | 40
b, 'The academy award ceremony is a rather boring event but it gets a lot of hype and media attention ...'
at moa, as well as at the daily news.
the white helmets mistake - i haven't seen it or read about it elsewhere, i take it someone opened an envelope and said 'and the winner is the white helmets' ... and then someone else said '... no, wait, it's someone else'? - is the equivalent of tying the porkchop around the ugly kid's neck so that at least the dog would play with him ... and sure enough, the dog played with him. hollywood, like trump, does know how to play its detractors.
Posted by: jfl | Feb 27 2017 23:38 utc | 41
I think this is appropriate.....Kinks - Celluloid Heroes...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTJVclgwS5g&index=7&list=FLtJpKWFqbQJljD11RKfY-0Q
Posted by: notlurking | Feb 27 2017 23:47 utc | 42
The BBC caught off guard and humiliated on Syria,Yemen, Iraq, and Iran:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vcbtklvoIlw
Posted by: Peter | Feb 28 2017 0:02 utc | 43
#43 thanks for the video link, that was something! (and a keeper)
Posted by: librul | Feb 28 2017 0:37 utc | 44
I tried to deflect the discussion to something that actually matters. So much for being serious on MoA today.
Sigh ..............................
Posted by: rg the lg | Feb 28 2017 0:45 utc | 45
Not to be deterred, there is this: http://empireexposed.blogspot.com/ "Pizzagate Turned PedoGate Leads to Momentum Surge in Busting Global Child Sex Trafficking Rings"
Let's see how many politicos and Hollywood types are exposed as this unfolds.
Just curious, but are any of you concerned about being caught up in this mess? Ya do know that confession is good for the soul - yours too, if you have one?
Posted by: rg the lg | Feb 28 2017 0:51 utc | 46
Posted by: nonsense factory | Feb 27, 2017 6:03:09 PM | 37
Cash flow. Ensuring that world oil cashflow is in US dollars is the name of the game. Can't make amerikkka great again if oil cashflow is other than US dollar.
No matter the elected or appointee head of the US's personal preferences.
Posted by: Peter AU | Feb 28 2017 0:54 utc | 47
One of my pet peeves is the casual way that white hats and black hats are handed out by our media. It's literally all it takes to gain sanction to kill 100s of thousands, all fuelled by western narcism (see "virtue signalling.")
It's trite but I'm still gob-smacked that the high-octane "white" in "White Helmets" causes no comment. It's a sick and quite brilliant PR move.
In the end though "wearing a white hat" CLEARLY inhibits perception and therefore "situational awareness." Deadly in a battlefield.
I trust that, eventually, that lesson will be learned good and hard.
Posted by: Oddlots | Feb 28 2017 1:00 utc | 48
What is really sad is that most Americans believe that so called "historical films" are true. As a historian and a former school teacher, I cringe at the fiction that Hollywood claims is reality. No wonder that Americans are so misinformed.
Posted by: Karl Schulze | Feb 28 2017 1:17 utc | 49
@49
I'm always surprised by how much westerners' views of history are molded by fictional media. As a major 20th century history geek, it floors me how many Americans believe WWII was won at Normandy, WW1 was about Nazism, think the Russia revolution happened during the cold war, etc etc.
At least watch Come and See, or Cross of Iron, or even Apocalypse Now yanks. For a nation that salivates over war to such a degree, their average choice of war movie are so awful. Their knowledge of warfare pre 1990 is atrocious as well. Hollywood war movies always sucked for the most part, but since 2001 they've been much much worse.
I swear sometimes I believe the internet makes people stupider and stupider. Shame people never pick up a non fiction book anymore. The death of literacy was embraced with open arms I swear.
Posted by: FecklessLeft | Feb 28 2017 1:29 utc | 50
Great piece b. Absolutely spot on. A splash of an event perfect for a segment of the American population who are indeed in " La La Land ". An event by the way, aimed at placating much of the minority population.
Posted by: ben | Feb 28 2017 2:27 utc | 51
Wait for the movie, "Bitter Harvest". It's a winner.
Posted by: David A Lemire | Feb 28 2017 3:06 utc | 52
@38 lysias.. what is perhaps more 'new' in the full post from @37 nonsense factory, is the fact that the intercept, or democracy now also runs with that same propaganda bs.. usaid has been on the gravy train for quite some time.. it is depressing to see these others in the same boat.. thanks nonsense factory..
@50 fecklessleft.. ditto your last sentence...
Posted by: james | Feb 28 2017 3:26 utc | 53
"And the Oscar for Best Documentary Short goes to…”ISIS – Al Qaeda”
From Global Research:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/and-the-oscar-for-best-documentary-short-goes-toisis-al-qaeda/5577036
Posted by: ben | Feb 28 2017 3:40 utc | 54
The theory that the Oscars mistake was fake doesn't make sense. It is not seen as a failure of Academy Awards personnel but rather the failure of the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers which was contracted to handle the envelopes. It is not logical to think that the auditing firm would agree to a scheme to hurt its reputation. PricewaterhouseCoopers "has tabulated results and monitoring the awards distribution for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for 83 years" so it really is nonsensical to think that they would conspire in a fraud which makes them look bad and hurts their credibility.
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Feb 28 2017 5:26 utc | 55
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Feb 28, 2017 12:26:25 AM | 55
You could be right about Price Waterhouse but you could be wrong, too.
Who would have dreamed that Standard & Poors, Moody's and Fitch, would collude to accept hefty bribes in exchange for fudging the value of bundled sub-Prime Mortgages?
And worse still, who would have believed that not one person from S & P etc, or the sub-prime banksters, went to Jail, and they all got to keep the money?
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 28 2017 8:26 utc | 56
the torture never stops
Al-Qaeda Gets An Oscar
Hollywood gets an enema
Posted by: john | Feb 28 2017 10:35 utc | 57
(Will I get rebuked for feeding money to Hollywood?)
The day after the Oscars (yesterday) my wife and I went to see La La Land.
We are both puzzled as to why it received awards.
My wife was particularly disappointed in it.
The movie was: meh
Should I elaborate? Probably, but the movie doesn't motivate me enough to want to.
The steady beat of a parade of auditionees is punctuated by a well known word, and I chose that word to sum up my recommendation for this movie:
Next
Posted by: librul | Feb 28 2017 12:18 utc | 59
White Helmets get an Oscar; this has got to be the sickest irony of this century.
May the gods help the Hollywood sycophants and faux elites.
We're definitely, well into the Twilight Zone...
Posted by: V. Arnold | Feb 28 2017 12:20 utc | 60
Trump proposes an Israeli Arab alliance against Iran.
The wars have just begun.
Posted by: somebody | Feb 28 2017 12:42 utc | 61
Peter 43
The BBC announcer sounds like some here in the US. If one tries to make good points or thwarts the agenda, they get very annoyed and rude. The first time I really noticed it was at Fox News but others do this nowadays, too.
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 28 2017 14:58 utc | 62
So this is the age of fake news ?
Surely not within the mainstream media :-)
What they wouldn't do for a little extra buzz.
Prizes given to the wrong...
...band
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37875220
...artist
http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/turner-prize-2016-documentary-bbc
...singer
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jan/19/katy-perry-rihanna-award-mixup
Posted by: Stephane | Feb 28 2017 15:03 utc | 63
Trump talks as if increasing the defense budget will allow the U.S. to avoid further military defeats like those of recent years. But those recent defeats have not been the result of scarce or defective weapons.
Posted by: lysias | Feb 28 2017 15:09 utc | 64
librul 59
We all feed the various monsters including Hollywood. A couple of years ago, an NYT reporter spent a week watching various Russian TV feeds. It was primarily anti-Putin, pointed out how low quality the content was, and tends to drive people to drink. But the US throws more money at its media-entertainment than any other country. We have the slickest content anywhere. The bad is how easy it is to shove propaganda at people. Meanwhile the media with all due hypocrisy points to others and call them fake news or propaganda.
NYT">https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/magazine/out-of-my-mouth-comes-unimpeachable-manly-truth.html?_r=0">NYT vs Russian TV
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 28 2017 15:14 utc | 65
sorry about goof of link in last post
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/magazine/out-of-my-mouth-comes-unimpeachable-manly-truth.html
AI analyzed British history via media. It pointed to trends in technology and gender usage. But I wonder if they looked for evidence of Deep State actors and their effects on policy.
https://phys.org/news/2017-01-big-years-british-history.html
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 28 2017 15:32 utc | 66
Lock up England in Jail or an Insane Asylum!
by Andre Vltchek / February 22nd, 2017
Here it goes again! The same old tired and predictable tune, the same recognizable chorus. Once again the world is told what to think and what to believe. The world is also given both rhythm and leitmotif, so the grotesque and crooked dance could begin...
http://dissidentvoice.org/2017/02/lock-up-england-in-jail-or-an-insane-asylum/
Posted by: ex-sarajlija | Feb 28 2017 15:55 utc | 67
Thanks for the article, much truth there-in, but, the modern day record for pure propaganda rests with a consortium of nations with-in what is now a global corporate empire spear-headed by U$A/NATO, with global corporate dominance being the goal.
Posted by: ben | Feb 28 2017 16:13 utc | 68
Pepe Escobar's latest includes "X"'s reasoning as to why Flynn was axed, along with a few other nuggets. My comment was: "Pepe says: ""X" is fundamentally correct when he stresses Trump was supported by the Masters to reorient/reorganize/reboost the whole Empire of Chaos project." But just what is that project? It's the attempt to attain Full Spectrum Dominance over the planet and its people--the same "game" since GHW Bush declared the New World Order in 1990 as spelled out in Global Vision 2020, which is still the primary imperial policy document of the Outlaw US Empire. Trump has NOT repudiated its goals, and through his admin's actions clearly continues its pursuit." https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201702281051113778-backstage-trump-deep-state-cage-match/
Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 28 2017 16:45 utc | 70
......by more than $100 million of U.S. and UK taxpayer money - b
Let’s not forget Canada (in my previous post on the WH I linked to the official Canadian records - one million iirc.) In several vids/interviews the WH do particularly thank Canada. And Japan, which donates heavily not to WH but one of its sister/founding orgs. (Which then imho donates to WH. These humanit. orgs are in a huge financial ring, and donate massively to each other all the time.) I’m sure France donates as well but I couldn’t find an official trace, takes too long…not my job.. (Btw, Charles Ortell (goog) has done a good job on the Clinton Foundation.)
Note that on all sites like WH the appeal to the public to donate which is always bang right in your face, is also fake. They are just part of the pretense of ‘being a charity’, and the shilling for funds, the PR, etc. is there to give the impression they are desperate for cash, which serves to cover up the true nature.
France, vid, eng subs:
http://globalnews.ca/video/3010935/french-parliament-honours-syrias-white-helmets
HuffPo: “7 charities helping Syrians that need yr support more than ever” is a good list of the usual suspects. (Save the Children is extremely dodgy..)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syria-donate-how-to-help-charities_us_5852ade3e4b02edd4115f85a
Denmark (official site but blurby news, read down to find full contrib sums):
http://um.dk/en/news/newsdisplaypage.aspx?newsid=fdf0b78d-aaaf-4924-9188-ba5d8166d95c
Germany and the Netherlands also contribute as the WH themselves say.
rg the lg @ 46, most can't go there.
Posted by: Noirette | Feb 28 2017 17:06 utc | 71
Posted by: lysias | Feb 28, 2017 10:09:52 AM | 64
My worry is that he is preparing the reasoning for trying again ...
Posted by: somebody | Feb 28 2017 17:20 utc | 72
@59 librul... i really liked lalaland for a whole whack of reasons.. obviously we can't all like the same movies!
i also agree with @37 nonsense factory - syriana - the movie - was quite good.. not sure if it was the honest film on the middle east, but perhaps..
@65 curtis - true your first sentence.. bears repeating..
@71 noirette.. sure would like to know why the white helmets thanked canada... are they getting money from plan canada or something? i don't doubt your comments, just wish i knew the basis for wh saying that..
Posted by: james | Feb 28 2017 17:23 utc | 73
Here is top Army General threatening Russia with the Granada treatment, then 8,000 US military personnel from all branches defeated the Granada [population 90,000] 1000 security guards and the US awarded 5,000 medals for merit and valor. John Wayne eat your heart out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvVrQqU1Gwc I think the men in white coats should take this idiot away.
Posted by: harrylawh | Feb 28 2017 18:27 utc | 74
James — all is terribly confused and only a professional comprehensive audit could sort it out …my posts only little pointers to this or that…about Canada I might re-post, don’t have the thanks to hand.
One sister org. which feeds the WH.
“ARK is a research, conflict transformation and stabilisation consultancy that supports local communities in conflict and fragile areas.”
ARK is registered in the United Arab Emirates. Canadian contributions for over 2 million dollars.
http://w05.international.gc.ca/dg-do/index.aspx?dept=1&lang=eng&p=4&r=36&c=6995
“With initial funding from the U.S., the U.K. and Japan, a consulting firm called ARK began organizing training for the rescue teams in neighboring Turkey in March 2013.” (Time Magazine.)
http://time.com/syria-white-helmets/
—————————-
other.
Heh, here the WH caught out planning fakery as 'normal fun contests'
Posted by: Noirette | Feb 28 2017 19:17 utc | 75
@ circe 30
Trying to be nice by giving us a list of your favourite movies? How big does do your ego get? You think we are the least bit interested in your little personal predilictions? Who the fuck do you think you are?
Posted by: Lochearn | Feb 28 2017 19:45 utc | 76
The best movie of the last 15 years Team America World Police
Not only predicted our behaviors as a nation but told us to watch out for Bolsheviks Michael Moore and Matt Damon among others. Theme song link follows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1mlCPMYtPk
sorry b this is real art and the obscenity is only used to make a point.
Posted by: ALberto | Feb 28 2017 20:17 utc | 78
@ 71 Noirette
Unfortunately Canada has become a total vassal of America and it's citizens, for the most part, still believe they represent some sort of peaceful cooperative international ideal. As an ex-pat I can attest their citizen spend their time moaning about America and "tut tutting" other countries while engaging in blind Russophobic policies, supporting the Wahabis, Ukro-Nazi, White Helmuts, and being the kinder gentler face of free trade that guts local economies. Canada is the poster child for vicious neo-liberal monsters wearing a happy mask, but most of their citizens are too immersed in their own lies to bother thinking beyond the rubbish spewed by their state controlled media. It's not the country I grew up in, not by a long shot.
Posted by: Sad Canuck | Feb 28 2017 20:23 utc | 79
@75 noirette.. thanks. it seems there is no shortage of (propaganda) money to throw at these horrific world events that continue to come under the hammer of these same forces wanting to dominate others in merciless ways.. it must be a pretty ugly feeling for those who participate in it by receiving blood money, while maintaining the facade of wanting to 'do good'... people are easily deceived.. i suppose it has always been this way...
Posted by: james | Feb 28 2017 20:48 utc | 80
@79 sad canuck.. just seeing your post now, as i neglected to hit the refresh button.. i agree with you... i am not sure if it ever was the country that we grew up in, but it certainly isn't now.. i was born in the 50's.. it is fun to entertain some positive attitude about one's country, but wide swaths of it doesn't connect with reality.
Posted by: james | Feb 28 2017 20:50 utc | 81
We're all rather dumb on the whole because we refuse to understand that the institutions we grew up with were lying to us. Mainstream media, government, basic education, and etc.. The more we cling to the notion that any of these institutions are (even somewhat) truthful, the more ignorant we are.
I know some very intelligent and learned people that continue to believe much of what they read in the NYT and much of what is presented to them on various tv programs.
Until these can understand that they're inundated with fabrications and bullshit...
Posted by: fast freddy | Feb 28 2017 21:49 utc | 82
So yes, there's a lot of propaganda and lies in wartime. Bismarck said something like that 130 or so years ago. Nothing new under the sun.
The interesting question is whether the old tricks still work. Sometimes I get the impression people have grown pretty numb and treat wartime 'news' the way it should be, i.e. as propaganda. Sometimes...
Posted by: smuks | Feb 28 2017 23:31 utc | 83
Ever wonder why Obama did so much for the banksters and the rest of the 1%? Record-breaking auction for Obamas’ book deal tops $60m: Two memoirs by former president and first lady kick off blockbuster bidding war.
Posted by: lysias | Feb 28 2017 23:40 utc | 84
Why did Robert Hannigan resign as head of GCHQ on Jan. 23? Is There More to the Flynn Story? A strange resignation in a UK intelligence service suggests U.S. partners may have been involved.
Posted by: lysias | Mar 1 2017 0:04 utc | 85
#56: Wow! A kindred spirit. Back in the day I worked in the "industry" analyzing CDOs and other non-prime (PC title for sub-prime) securitized assets. A TOTAL clusterfuck. Then I watched Hank Paulson pull the plug on the ONLY two entities who's balance sheet wasn't crammed with nuclear waste. And bail out his TBTF cronies with stolen GSE monies. After assuring small main street shareholders to "not worry". Whilst telling his Wall Street buddies to short the shit outta the GSEs.
O yeah. Heads on pikes. Looking mighty good. Tick-tock.
Posted by: Take Me | Mar 1 2017 0:08 utc | 86
lysias 84
I thought it had something to do with Goldman-Sachs $1mill bundled contribution in 2008 but it's much bigger than that considering he took on much of Clinton's economic team or shifted a couple of Bush holdover foxes to guard our economic hen houses. And then you have the cabinet list sent to him from Citibank. There is some kind of dejure partnership of the Dems and Wallstreet that they pretend is not there. The book deal must be payback (payoff) for him talking the talk but not walking the walk during that first meeting with the banksters. Even they were shocked that he did not take them to task. Why should Americans (or our FED credit card) fund these guys' retirements?
Posted by: Curtis | Mar 1 2017 1:00 utc | 87
Sad Canuck @ 79, James @ 81:
Much the same can be said for Australia since the mid-1990s when the hopeless John Howard became Prime Minister and set about taking the country farther down the neoliberal path at accelerated speed. The groundwork had been laid by the Labor government (under PMs Bob Hawke and Paul Keating) but after the switch from the Australian Labor Party to the Liberal-National coalition, the social / cultural / economic deterioration started to become more entrenched. Even after Australia switched back to Labor in 2007, the general neoliberal trend just didn't stop.
BTW have you guys seen this news about the Canadian Brazilian jiujitsu championships in Montreal? - they've been postponed after the sport was declared "illegal" as it had been listed as a combat sport not recognised by the International Olympic Committee (as an Olympic sport, one presumes) on an internal legal memo.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/jiu-jitsu-cancelled-1.4002070
Posted by: Jen | Mar 1 2017 1:24 utc | 88
@James 81
I was born in the 60s and a reasonably independent Canadian foreign policy seemed to last up until NAFTA was proclaimed in the early 1990s, even though it was severely damaged under the conservative governments in the 1980s who sold out the country and it's interests. After NAFTA it didn't seem to matter much which party came to power. Globalization had replaced internationalism, war making replaced peacekeeping, and identity politics replaced class consciousness. The current PM, a B grade actor riding on his father's name and mother's looks, is illustrative of the change. He's utterly bereft of substance and blithely supporting genocide with a happy face smile, just like Obama, and all the while most Canadian's think he's "cute". It's not a very appealing picture and I can't say I'm terribly proud of my homeland these days.
Posted by: Sad Canuck | Mar 1 2017 2:00 utc | 89
@ lysias who wrote: "They also bought off Bernie Sanders with a book deal."
While OT, I am as jaded as the next but you have to give Bernie some credit for standing up to Israel as much as he does.
bernie-sanders-said-israel-must-end-50-year-occupation-palestinian-land
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 1 2017 3:02 utc | 91
would have been a more interesting post if b had added some insight into the class-based pranks (aka class prejudices of the US elites) of the kimmel, like noted here:
"Kimmel ported over to the Oscar broadcast a favored shtick from his nightly show, which is the “pranking” of everyday slobs. Vile enough in its nightly incarnation, this mockery of uncool out-of-towners reached a zenith of Creepy last night when he arranged for a busful of tourists to be led into the auditorium unawares, so that they suddenly found themselves onstage at the Academy Awards. I give this “prank” full points for surrealist invention; there is a certain cruel, tedious genius to it. But the point of this kind of joke is always the same one: there are two classes of people, the puppeteers and the puppets, and we in show business—the men, specifically, the ones who wear the tuxedos–are always the ones whose fingers will make you dance. The fact that these “tourists”—ha! they sign up for organized tours! they come from places like Oshkosh and Utica! they don’t dress good like us!—responded to the prank with good humor did nothing to mitigate the ugliness of it...."
Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 1 2017 3:02 utc | 92
@88 jen - i imagine this has happened in all the western puppies, canada, australia, europe and etc.. all following the same script, just like they have become important outlets for the same propaganda too.. sorry to hear that.. julian assange has made a dint in it all and he is an aussie! i was unaware of the story you shared from cbc.. i tend to not follow that kind of info.. seems weird..
@ 89 sad canuck.. i have to agree with you again! it saddens me to say it, but i would echo @82/83 fast freddy and smuks... this shit has been going on for a long time and most people continue to be duped, or pay more attention to trivial irrelevant crap like how the young trudeau is good looking.. fashion replaces substance essentially.. welcome to the world of hollywood, mass propaganda and vacuous talking heads, whether political leaders, or whatever.. image trumps substance, and when you get behind the facade, one is confronted with the real wizard of oz - a frightened impotent waste..
Posted by: james | Mar 1 2017 3:30 utc | 93
lysias @85: Hannigan - Flynn connection?
I agree with the commenters at the end of the article. This 'speculation' seems to be pure mis-direction. The Trump dossier was an embarrassment for the British because the guy that produced it had extensive and high-ranking connections in MI-6.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Mar 1 2017 3:34 utc | 94
Sanders is part of the problem:
Sanders, who is Jewish and spent time in Israel during his youth, said it was necessary to establish a "Democratic homeland for the Jewish people."
Nobody even knows what "Jewish People" means? Are European Jews related to the ancient Propets? The only thing that makes a Jew a Jew is his parents who told him, and their parents who told them and so on...into the mists of ancient Lithuania?! And what if they are? What if tiny pieces of Isaiah's genetic matter is bouncing around inside a Jew? Now he needs his own special Homeland? It doesn't matter, because as of now they are Americans, Canadians French etc. Nobody is discriminating against Jews. Nobody is refusing to give Jews a job. Nobody is gassing Jews. The only sensible solution to the Jewish Problem is for Jews to assimilate and become like the rest of humanity.
Posted by: ruralito | Mar 1 2017 4:27 utc | 95
Isnt this supporting terrorism? Can they be taken to court and be jailed for this??
Posted by: Youngest | Mar 1 2017 4:53 utc | 97
@ ruralito who wrote that Sanders is part of the problem.
I never said he wasn't.
Your insisting that Jews assimilate and become like the rest of humanity without being entitled to their own homeland seems a bit over the top. Us asshole Americans even gave the Native Americans some tribal lands.....except when we take them back again.
I try to be very clear in my position about needed change. We don't need and shouldn't attack groups of people but need and should attack the social rules of organization. Rules like those that allow private finance to control world economic interchange and inheritance that keeps those that own private finance in control of our world and how we live our lives.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 1 2017 4:57 utc | 98
Posted by: Sad Canuck | Feb 28, 2017 3:23:59 PM | 79
(Old vs Utterly Modern Canada)
Most Western politicians are bribed (and therefore "owned" by Special Interest groups). The funds available for this purpose exploded exponentially when Libya was destroyed a few years ago. The looting of Libya's gold and cash reserves, by FRUKUS + Canada, yielded a sum comfortably North of One Trillion US dollars. Steve Gowans (What's Left) headlined his article about that crime with a reference to Al-Qaeda's Air Force - an epithet uttered by an Officer in the Canadian Air force as they flew in (as a NATO member) to begin the destruction of Libya.
Since that looting, the deafness of Western Politicians to the Will of the People has escalated noticably, along with their cock-sucking compliance with Neocon and neoliberal (Privatise Everythng!) policies.
I'm still waiting for someone to wake up to the fact that smearing the leader of a country, and persuading the rubes that the smears have a factual basis, is till not an excuse for bombing a prosperous and functioning country back to the Stone Age.
There are no poverty-stricken politicians in the West. In Oz most of them own several rental investment properties. One owns almost 40 such properties.
R2P my arse.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Mar 1 2017 6:34 utc | 99
Robert McMaster 99
Good idea. And then add slogans like they did to GI helmets in Vietnam like "Born to kill." Or better yet the al Qaeda logo/flag for a more honest version based on who they represent (like the jackets for congressmen with corporate logos).
Interesting thing about US DHS cancelling the visas for Khatib was that the details of the derogatory information were not given. Why not? The media minimizes the issue by suggesting it's related to passports which they claim were denied by the Syrian Govt. But what if the derogatory information is their work with al Qaeda? If the US revealed this, it would say the US has been supporting terrorists. Is that why the media accepted and pushed the passport thing so that they don't also get egg on their faces for pushing a false story for so long?
Posted by: Curtis | Mar 1 2017 13:57 utc | 100
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Wag the Dog - celebrating the successful campaign
http://cdn.funcheap.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/wag-the-dog-250x200.png
Posted by: Curtis | Feb 27 2017 16:11 utc | 1