Nobody Cares: PRS

[Katheryne Helendale]

So, like, growing up in a house full of smokers?

Yep, pretty much. It seems some genius in the valley air resources board decided today was a good day to allow burning agricultural rubbish. Seems they forgot about this thing called an inversion layer, which traps all the crap in this bowl we call a valley.

Seriously, stay safe.

 

[Myficals]

So, this is happening in my neck of the woods. I'm glad I work indoors:

I feel you. With all the fires raging across the Sydney basin right now, I think there's been three days in the last fortnight where it hasn't smelled of smoke and you could actually see the sky.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

The US Army started its own rare earth mining and processing supporting branch/corporation.

Exclusive: U.S. Army will fund rare earths plant for weapons development

The U.S. Army plans to fund construction of rare earths processing facilities, part of an urgent push by Washington to secure domestic supply of the minerals used to make military weapons and electronics, according to a government document seen by Reuters.

www.reuters.com

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Unicorns are real!

 

[Free]

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Spicy

 

[Amelia Freund]

I feel you. With all the fires raging across the Sydney basin right now, I think there's been three days in the last fortnight where it hasn't smelled of smoke and you could actually see the sky.

This was us here on the mid north coast a few weeks ago!

I wish I could say this pic has a colour filter applied but it doesn't.

The smoke has been bad here too for a while, since that peat fire started on and off in July, then we had massive fires in every direction other than east.

 

[Rose Karuna]

I can't imagine how difficult it must be just to breathe in all that.

 

[Cristalle]

The media silence on this report is deafening. Maybe it's because the defense contractors regularly buy ads on the networks.

 

[Essence Lumin]

Where Is the Outrage Over the War in Afghanistan?

A new Washington Post report proving the longest war in American history has been sold on lies for 20 years causes barely a ripple.

In 1971, The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers, leaked documents of a massive internal review by the US military of the history of American intervention in Vietnam. The Pentagon Papers were an epochal event, demonstrating that top policy-makers, both civilians and military leaders, consistently lied about the war for decades by grossly overstating the likelihood of success and downplaying evidence that it wasn’t going well. Publication of the leaked documents played a major role in undermining not just the support the American public gave to the war but also their faith in the honesty of their government.

 

[Anya Ristow]

Where Is the Outrage Over the War in Afghanistan?

And yet, unlike the Pentagon Papers, the Afghanistan Papers are not making a splash. Released during the week the Democrats were finalizing impeachment, the series barely registered as news. Adam Wunische, a fellow at the Quincy Institute who covers Afghanistan and the Middle East, told me, “When the Afghan Papers came out on Monday, I was checking social media for ‘Afghanistan’ and ‘Afghan war.’ None of that was trending at all. It’s very easy for the public to just not pay attention. It’s not a pressing issue, especially with all the other exciting news that’s going on in politics these days.”

1. There is no real anti-war sentiment in the USA these days. In fact, it's considered un-patriotic to oppose war. That was also true during Vietnam, but the bar for acceptance of this stance has been lowered by the media. In fact, the media itself is complicit.

2. War isn't particularly dangerous for Americans these days. Even at the height of US military campaigns, the number of body bags is small compared to Vietnam. The article mentions that we don't currently have a draft. And I think the perception is that Afghanistan is a minor skirmish that is just taking a very long time.

3. The motivation of the media has changed in the last 50 years, and this is really big. It used to be that timeliness, accuracy and thoroughness were how news outfits distinguished themselves and earned money. These days, "news" is a tiny portion of the media empires. "News" is more a mechanism of control than of business necessity. Almost a loss leader. There's money in the control of information and the management of perception, but it is less direct than viewership, advertising and subscriptions.

Note that it is WaPo that is breaking the "Afghan papers". WaPo isn't part of some media empire. They, too, have perceptions to manage for the plutocrats, but maybe with the CIA diversifying its technical contracts, Bezos isn't motivated any more to carry water for the MIC?

In an ideal world, or even a simply money-motivated one, Rachel Maddow would collect tonight's $30,000 paycheck railing against military deception with the same fervor as she did the possibility of Russia turning your electricity off on the coldest day of the year, but the empire that pulls her strings doesn't want that of her.

 

[Anya Ristow]

The media silence on this report is deafening. Maybe it's because the defense contractors regularly buy ads on the networks.

The ads aren't really advertising. Even the pharma ones aren't really advertising. I mean, if they get you to spend money on something you wouldn't otherwise have, then that's a bonus, but that's not the objective. The purpose of the ads is a simple money transfer in exchange for favorable coverage, or no coverage at all. It's like paying $270,000 for a twenty minute speech. The speech (the ad) isn't worth the money. The point is to get that $270,000 into the hands of someone who can do something for you, in a way that looks on the books like real business.

 

[danielravennest]

someone who can do something for you, in a way that looks on the books like real business.

Speaking of books, you know when when a politician writes a book, it frequently makes the best-seller list? I suspect buying lots of copies is a way to funnel money to them "legally".

 

[Anya Ristow]

Speaking of books, you know when when a politician writes a book, it frequently makes the best-seller list? I suspect buying lots of copies is a way to funnel money to them "legally".

It's possible that the number of copies sold matters not at all, financially, to the politician.

Say I publish your memoirs and give you a $1M advance toward your $3 per-copy royalty. Someone buying 10,000 copies is benefiting *me*, not you. Until we sell a third of a million copies. That's when you "earn out" and it starts to matter, to you, how many copies sell.

The Obamas received a $65M advance for two books. How many copies need to sell before they "earn out"? Reportedly, the president actually writes well and his book may, in fact, become a classic. But it will be years before he "earns out", if he ever does.

That advance may or may not be a favor to the politician. Beyond that, anything done to manipulate the book's standing is harder to quantify. Until he "earns out".

It's possible that the favor involved multiple parties, and the 10,000 copies was part of an arrangement with the publisher before the advance was even bid.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Note that it is WaPo that is breaking the "Afghan papers". WaPo isn't part of some media empire. They, too, have perceptions to manage for the plutocrats, but maybe with the CIA diversifying its technical contracts, Bezos isn't motivated any more to carry water for the MIC?

For me the more interesting question is this: what would have been if Amazon Web Services did win the cloud contract with the Department of Defense instead of Microsoft? It did not get this contract because Trump personally vetoed against it, because he means that the WaPo is only writing "fake news" about him. Would the Washington Post still then have published these papers, or not?

What is going to happen if Amazon suddenly would get this contract due to unforseen complications, e.g. court rulings?

 

[Anya Ristow]

What is going to happen if Amazon suddenly would get this contract due to unforseen complications, e.g. court rulings?

It might occur to a cynic that the publication of the Afghanistan papers was the uncooperative phase of game theory being played out

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Speaking of books, you know when when a politician writes a book, it frequently makes the best-seller list? I suspect buying lots of copies is a way to funnel money to them "legally".

Don Jr. tops NYT bestseller list - but someone is buying it in bulk

A dagger appears next to the listing indicating some of the sales were 'bulk'. A spokesman for Don Jr. told the DailyMail.com the claims were 'ridiculous', 'silly' and 'another excuse to pick at him'.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Cristalle]

Congress Learns Pentagon Wasted $1 Trillion, Promptly Gives It Bigger Budget

Hours after learning that the Pentagon lied to taxpayers while wasting their money in Afghanistan, Congress awards the DoD a $22 billion budget hike.

nymag.com

Way to resist.

 

[Beebo Brink]

This is How a Society Dies

America and Britain are Textbook Examples of a New, Gruesome Phenomeon: Rich Nations Self-Destructing Into Poor Failed States

eand.co