Truth, Lies, & Intention
By MarkGB
Mark GB shares his insights of the people we need to listen to.
“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men” — George Orwell
“But by their fruit you will know them” — Matthew 7:16, Aramaic Bible in Plain English
In 2003, the US & UK went to war in Iraq on the basis of a pack of lies: Iraq was not involved in 9/11, there was no connection between Saddam & Al-Qaeda, and the UN inspectors had found no evidence of WMDs. George Bush & Tony Blair knew all this. The war narrative was a concoction used to mask their true intention — to remove the government of Saddam Hussein — a government that refused to kowtow to the commercial and geo-political interests of ‘Washington’.
I say ‘Washington’, rather than ‘the US’, because the majority of Americans have no desire for war, and little say in the actions of their government…as evidenced by the fact that they have repeatedly elected Presidents who promised a ‘non-interventionist’ foreign policy, only to commence bombing someone within a few months of taking office. Washington is a bribe-taking political circus, run for the benefit of banks, weapons manufacturers, global corporations, and foreign lobbyists — notably those of Israel and Saudi Arabia.
In 2007, when Wall Street Banks saw the inevitability of a crash in sub-prime housing debt, they packaged up the ‘toxic waste’ and sold it to their most gullible clients — people referred to in-house as ‘muppets’. It was their intention to protect themselves by screwing their customers, and they did just that. As the crisis gained momentum, however, it became obvious that they could not save themselves by their own devices, ethical or unethical. What did save them was a trio of charlatans named Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson & Timothy Geithner, who went ‘cap in hand’ to the financially illiterate & morally bankrupt George W. Bush…who agreed to put a net under Wall Street & throw the tax-payer under the bus. This ‘crime’ continued unabated on the arrival of the newly elected ‘man of the people’ — Barack ‘Yes We Can’ Obama…who now openly boasts of his ‘achievement’ during his highly paid soirees on Wall Street.
What conclusions can we draw from this?
- Governments & powerful ‘elites’ concoct a narrative based upon their intention. The truth is of secondary importance, and when it contradicts the intention, it is viewed as the ‘enemy’
- There is no need for elites to lie about everything. Lies are used to mask those intentions that are morally unacceptable to the majority of the population
- Imperial warfare and financial fraud are very…morally unacceptable to the majority of the population, and therefore require very big lies
Clearly, we ‘ordinary’ human beings need to improve our ability to discern the intention behind the narrative we are being sold, before the deed is done. This is entirely achievable for an individual. To persuade a critical mass of people to ‘wake up’ is an entirely different challenge.
For an individual to…technical term… see through the bullshit, there are a number of factors involved. Knowledge of history & recognition of patterns is important. Likewise, asking the question ‘Cui Bono?’ — ‘to whose advantage?’ But there is absolutely no replacement for ‘ PAYING ATTENTION’. This works to the advantage of those spinning the lies, since the simple fact is that people DON’T. They are too busy; too naive; too apathetic, too whatever. Since history can be rewritten, & inconvenient events may be flushed down the ‘memory hole’, this is problematic:
For example, have you noticed the re-invention of George W. Bush from ‘discredited warmonger’ into ‘respected role-model’…the latest winner of both the ‘Liberty Medal’ and the ‘Lincoln Leadership Prize’…the guy who Michelle Obama now calls ‘that beautiful man’?
Or take Tony Blair (please do). I am sure that I’m not the only one who recognised Blair as a ‘narcissistic little shit’, long before he decided God wanted him to kill a million Iraqis. Frankly, if the ‘hand of destiny’ spiel at the conclusion of the Good Friday Agreement’ didn’t provide you with a clue, you really need to get out more. And yet…despite the fact that he is now widely despised in the UK, and would undoubtedly face a citizen’s arrest if he walked the streets without a posse of tax-payer funded ‘coppers’, he is still regularly invited by the BBC and others to pontificate on Europe, the Middle East and who should NOT be leading the Labour Party. Yes — there is a resurrection attempt underway…again.
In short, our very own ‘Butchers of Baghdad’ are being ‘re-varnished’ at a time when the war lobby — a totally bi-partisan collection of ghouls — are inching us towards armed confrontation with Russia, Iran & China…how convenient.
There may be truth in what a human being says, there may not be…but there is always intention. When it comes to governments & powerful vested interests, that intention may be the acquisition of power, the avoidance of blame…or, on very rare occasions, the pursuit of justice. Of these, justice is the only motivation that is concerned with truth.
Neither truth nor justice were the priority of George Bush, Tony Blair, or Wall Street. Nor are they the priority of the current crop of warmongers in Washington, the arms pedlars in Whitehall, or the latest little Bonaparte in Paris.
Of course, there are some individuals who are motivated by truth, who do seek justice…but very few are to be found in positions of power. Neither will they be found in the columns of the Financial Times, the Guardian or the Washington Post. If mainstream ‘journalists’ started revealing the truth about what our ‘elites’ are really up to…or if they started asking some ‘awkward’ questions…they would quickly find themselves with nobody to talk to: they would lose access to the insiders.
The consummate insider, Larry Summers, expressed this quite openly in some ‘friendly advice’ he gave to Elizabeth Warren in 2009:
“Larry leaned back in his chair and offered me some advice…I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People — powerful people — listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule: They don’t criticise other insiders” — Elizabeth Warren
Given that statement, why would you ever trust a word spoken or written by Larry Summers? Clearly, his intention is to protect & advance the interests of the elites. His master is ‘power’…not ‘truth’. He writes in the FT & the New York Times…
No — those concerned with the truth will be found, by virtue of their predilection, and through necessity — on the outside. They will be ignored if possible…however, when they achieve a certain level of influence, or when they get dangerously close to revealing something damaging to the establishment — they become the enemy of those on the inside. This enmity is demonstrated through censorship, marginalisation, and ‘smears’, both in mainstream & social media.
There are a number of these people that I want to acknowledge here; to draw your attention to them if you’re not already aware of their work, and to celebrate them if you are. In 2018, they did more for ‘honesty’ & ‘objective reality’ than the entire population of the mainstream media added together. Come to think of it, the sum total of the latter would be a large minus figure, so it’s perhaps not the right compliment to give them.
These people deserve respect for the work that they do, for the crap that they have to deal with from an assortment of crooks, hacks, & morons…but more importantly, they deserve to be HEARD
From left to right: Andrei Nekrasov, Vanessa Beeley, Piers Robinson, Richard Werner, Caitlin Johnstone.
In my opinion, you should pay close attention to what they say in 2019 …but also what is said about them — both will be informative. This is what they shed light upon:
Andrei Nekrasov: @antiputinismus
Andrei Nekrasov is the Russian filmmaker who made ‘The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes’, along with his Producer and co-writer Torstein Grude. At the outset of the project, Nekrasov had planned to make a docudrama of the story that Bill Browder had reported to the US Congress; the narrative that neocons like McCain used to promote legislation authorising the US government to sanction anyone it designates as a ‘human rights offender’ — freezing their assets & banning them from entering the US.
Whilst Nekrasov was making the film, describing how 36-year-old ‘whistle-blower’, Sergei Magnitsky was arrested, tortured and murdered by Russian authorities for exposing a $230 million tax fraud scheme — he discovered a number of glaring inconsistencies and blatant inaccuracies that led him to question the integrity of the narrative, and the intention behind it. The result is a film that documents the unravelling of the official story, exposing it as an attempt to deflect from the tax fraud charges that Browder faces in Russia.
Since the film was released, Browder’s legal team has arranged for it to be banned in many countries, and had it taken down from the internet on a number of occasions. It is a brilliant piece of work that exposes a total ‘cock ‘n bull’ story designed to frame Russia, in particular Vladimir Putin. In my view, if Bill Browder had an honest bone in his body, it would sue for divorce. Judge for yourself — watch the film: http://www.magnitskyact.com
Vanessa Beeley: @VanessaBeeley
Vanessa Beeley is an independent UK journalist who has spent the past four years reporting on Syria. During that time she has investigated the activities of the so-called civil defence organisation known as ‘The White Helmets’. They have won numerous awards in the west, including an Oscar for the ‘documentary’ they made about themselves. The work done by Vanessa, along with other remarkable journalists such as Eva Bartlett, has shown clearly that they are not the ‘heroes’ they are portrayed to be. The photo above is a more truthful representation of who and what they are. Look at it closely: two guys standing on the corpses of dead Syrians, giving a victory sign in celebration of their murder. Vanessa has gathered & published countless photos, videos and civilian testimonies which show a reality you will not see in the mainstream media.
The White Helmets are a NATO funded ‘psyop’ designed to put a humanitarian face on terror. Essentially they provide governments with the propaganda necessary to persuade a gullible public that western intervention in Syria is a noble effort to support brave ‘rebels’ in their struggle for democracy against the brutal dictator Assad…as opposed to what it actually is: a proxy war to take down a sovereign government and break up a country that refuses to kowtow to the US and Israel. The brave ‘freedom fighters’ are predominantly jihadists & mercenaries shipped to Syria from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and a host of other countries. If these ‘rebels’ were to win this war, they would turn Syria into a Jihadist hellhole. Christians, Shias, and Alawites would be oppressed and murdered, as they have been in ‘rebel held areas’ prior to liberation by the Syrian Arab Army.
Vanessa has exposed this for westerners willing to think the unthinkable…though God knows why it is still unthinkable: “Perhaps my government is not telling me the truth?”
For a summary of Vanessa’s work in her own words, watch the following film. This is the video-link testimony that she gave to the United Nations, during a meeting on the White Helmets which took place on December 20 th2018 (her testimony starts at 39:33).
Piers Robinson: @PiersRobinson1
Professor Piers Robinson is Chair in Politics, Society and Political Journalism at Sheffield University. He is co-director of the ‘School for Propaganda Studies’ and convenes the ‘Working group on Syria, Propaganda, and Media’.
Piers has a number of unfortunate behavioural traits that seem to upset powerful people & their poodles, particularly those in the media. Here are a few of those traits:
- He has a nasty habit of asking awkward questions
- He looks at geo-political situations from multiple perspectives, without the pre-supposition: “Our intentions are automatically ‘good’; everything we say is free from hidden agenda…their intentions are automatically ‘bad’; everything they say is riddled with evil intent”
- He is an ‘analyst’ who understands ‘propaganda’; something that is terribly infuriating to propagandists pretending to be analysts
- He responds graciously and rationally, even when showered with pedantic spittle from insecure & mediocre hacks like Oliver Kamm at the Times, or NATO shills like Scott Lucas at Birmingham University
Piers challenges the official narrative on issues that underpin the drive towards war. He sheds ‘light’ on matters that powerful people would prefer to be kept ‘dark’:
- The role of the White Helmets in providing ‘evidence’ to support NATO allegations that Assad uses chemical weapons on his own population
- Inconsistencies in the UK government’s explanation for the ‘chemical attack’ in Salisbury in April 2018
- The activities of the UK Government funded ‘Integrity Initiative’, a group whose activities look remarkably similar to the thing they claim to be countering -disinformation and smears
- Gaping holes and unanswered questions in the official narrative surrounding the events on 9/11, and the need for further analysis & enquiry. This has recently…and finally…been referred to a Grand Jury. Long overdue
I recommend that you visit Piers page at Sheffield University, and take it from there. In 2019 I think his comments will be increasingly sought by those interested in revealing the truth, and increasingly attacked by those interested in keeping it hidden. I am pretty sure that he’s well aware of this.
Richard Werner: @scientificecon
Dr Richard Werner is a Professor of Banking & Finance, and a member of Linacre College, Oxford.
In 2003, and again in 2005 Werner warned of the danger of credit bubbles, and in 2014 he published the first empirical proof of something that few people realise, and even fewer understand the ramifications of — banks create money when they issue loans.
Banks create credit out of ‘thin air’, more accurately by computer keystroke, which is then lent to borrowers at interest…effectively providing the banks with a constant return on the productivity of the entire system…in exchange for…bookkeeping entries.
“Ah, but they are taking the risk that the borrowers will not repay them” someone says…
“Yes of course, you mean like in 2008”, I reply, “like that time when the taxpayers bailed them out & they celebrated their triumphant survival effort by paying themselves huge bonuses…privatisation of profits & socialisation of losses…socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor”
But putting Wall Street money grubbing aside for a moment; Professor Werner has shown that over time, as the leverage in the system has expanded, the % of credit issued for productive activity has diminished, the % issued for non-productive & speculative activity has expanded. The result is a financialised economy, controlled by the banks — the book-keeping tail is wagging the productive dog. This, in effect, is usury…or if you prefer…theft by sleight of mind.
But the thing that I most admire about Richard Werner is not his technical expertise. It’s his ethics. His integrity. He is not the only economist to realise that the banking system is a gigantic scam…what sets him apart from insiders like Krugman and Summers is this…he is willing to talk about it. He wants to change it…so that the system works for people. He wants the dog to wag the tail.
Here is a former classmate of Krugman, Professor Lietaer at the University of California, briefly talking about Krugman’s attitude towards the subject:
Now, here is Professor Werner discussing the banking system with Ross Ashcroft on Renegade Inc’s: “The Finance Curse”, from May 2017:
This is a conversation that has been ‘off the table’ for far too long. My respect goes to Richard Werner for having the balls to put it ‘on the table’ — where it belongs.
Caitlin Johnstone: @caitoz
Caitlin Johnstone is an independent Australian journalist & writer. She is intense, insightful, and courageous — three qualities I love in a writer. She sees through the bullshit to the essence of a situation, and she doesn’t pull her punches. I’m going to let her speak for herself:
“Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. Understand this key point and you’ll understand why plutocrat-controlled media outlets are constantly smearing Julian Assange, why they never fail to fall in line to support a US-led military agenda, why they pay massive amounts of attention to some political candidates while completely ignoring others, and why they put so much energy into keeping everyone arguing over the details of how the status quo should be maintained instead of debating whether it should exist at all. The unelected power establishment uses its control over politics and media to determine what the public believes about what’s going on in their world in order to keep them from rebelling against a status quo which does not serve them; without the ability to effectively propagandize the masses in this way, they cannot rule. I therefore concentrate most of my energy here in attacking that propaganda machine and weakening the unearned trust that the public has placed in the mass media”
Caitlin Johnstone — ‘Who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do here’
Sometimes Caitlin’s work leaves me with the thought: “I wish I’d written that”. Here is an extract from one such piece:
“Every single person who has served in the US military since the end of the second World War has protected nothing other than the agendas of global hegemony, resource control and war profiteering. They have not been fighting and dying for freedom and democracy, they have been fighting and dying for imperialism, Raytheon profit margins, and crude oil.
I just said something you’re not supposed to say. People have dedicated many years of their lives to the service of the US military; they’ve given their limbs to it, they’ve suffered horrific brain damage for it, they’ve given their very lives to it. Families have been ripped apart by the violence that has been inflicted upon members of the US Armed Forces; you’re not supposed to let them hear you say that their loved one was destroyed because some sociopathic nerds somewhere in Washington decided that it would give America an advantage over potential economic rivals to control a particular stretch of Middle Eastern dirt. But it is true, and if we don’t start acknowledging that truth lives are going to keep getting thrown into the gears of the machine for the power and profit of a few depraved oligarchs. So I’m going to keep saying it”
Caitlin Johnstone — ‘The best way to honour war veterans is to stop creating them’
In short — If you haven’t read Caitlin Johnstone yet — do yourself a favour — go to her website https://caitlinjohnstone.com
In Conclusion… the world is being edged towards a major war…by sociopaths. The financial system is a house of cards built on a mountain of unsustainable debt — a system that, one way or the other, will have to be replaced.
Don’t expect truth from governments, ‘elites’, or from the mainstream media — they are too heavily invested in the system. Pay attention to ‘cui bono’ and look for the intention that underpins every action, irrespective of what comes out of the mouth of snakes.
Originally published at Renegade Inc. on January 1, 2019.
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