Tom Rocheexcellent
Where did ethics come from? Philip Pettit tells an 'as if' story about the birth of ethics that is designed to illuminate what ethics is and why it evolved on this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.
We are grateful for support from the Marc Sanders Foundation and from Patreon donors for this episode.
Tom Rochererun
Photo:A European bronze medal from the period of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror, 1481
Costanzo da Ferrara - www.nga.gov : Home : Info
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire; Mehmed II (Mehmed the Conqueror) (1432-1481).
Public Domain
File:Mehmed the Conqueror (1432 –1481).jpg
The Fall of the Ottomans: 9 of 12: The Great War in the Middle East. by Eugene Rogan
"To have written a page-turner as well as an accurate and comprehensive history of the Ottoman struggle for survival is a remarkable achievement." --Wall Street Journal
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.
Tom Rochererun
Photo:Calligraphic writing on a fritware tile, depicting the names of God, Muhammad and the first caliphs, c. 1727[185]
Gavin.collins - Own work
Arabic writing on a fritware tile, depicting the names of God, Muhammad and the first caliphs. Istanbul, Turkey, c. 1727. Islamic Middle East, room 42, Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Museum no. 1756-1892 [1].
Public Domain
File:Tile with Calligraphy.JPG
Created: 27 February 2010
The Fall of the Ottomans: 8 of 12: The Great War in the Middle East. by Eugene Rogan
"To have written a page-turner as well as an accurate and comprehensive history of the Ottoman struggle for survival is a remarkable achievement." --Wall Street Journal
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.
Tom Rochererun
Photo:Mehmed the Conqueror and Patriarch Gennadius II
18th century Greek iconographer - Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
Gennadios Scholarios with Mehmet II
Public Domain
File:Gennadios II and Mehmed II.jpg
The Fall of the Ottomans: 7 of 12: The Great War in the Middle East. by Eugene Rogan
"To have written a page-turner as well as an accurate and comprehensive history of the Ottoman struggle for survival is a remarkable achievement." --Wall Street Journal
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.
Tom Rochererun
Photo:Ottoman miniature painters
Ottoman miniature painter - Badisches Landesmuseum
Painting atelier of the Sultan. The miniature shows the author, probably the court chronicler Talikizade, caligraphist and miniature painter working on the "Shahname" for Mehmet III (ruled 1595-1603). The painter on the left is Nakkaş Hasan, who is working on a scene of the capitulation of Eger Castle. Ottoman miniature painter. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Istanbul (Inv. 1609/74a).
Public Domain
File:Ottoman miniature painters.jpg
Created: between 1595 and 1603 date QS:P,+1500-00-00T00:00:00Z/6,P1319,+1595-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1603-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
The Fall of the Ottomans: 6 of 12: The Great War in the Middle East. by Eugene Rogan
https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Ottomans-Great-Middle-East/dp/0465097421/ref=sr11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524072317&sr=1-1&keywords=rogan+ottomans
"To have written a page-turner as well as an accurate and comprehensive history of the Ottoman struggle for survival is a remarkable achievement." --Wall Street Journal
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.
Tom Rochererun
Photo:Miniature from Surname-i Vehbi showing the Mehteran, the music band of the Janissaries
Abdulcelil Levni - Badisches Landesmuseum
The music band of the Janissaries called mehterhane. They accompanied the company into battle and would play music according to the rhythm of the battle. The music was also used as a way of communication, such as retreat or attack. Ottoman miniature painting, from the "Surname-ı Vehbi" (fol. 171b). Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Istanbul.
Permission details
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less. You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States. This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain". This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details.View more
Public Domainview terms
File:Surname 171b.jpg
Created: 31 December 1719
The Fall of the Ottomans: 5 of 12: The Great War in the Middle East. by Eugene Rogan
https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Ottomans-Great-Middle-East/dp/0465097421/ref=sr11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1524072317&sr=1-1&keywords=rogan+ottomans
"To have written a page-turner as well as an accurate and comprehensive history of the Ottoman struggle for survival is a remarkable achievement." --Wall Street Journal
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.
Tom Rochererun
Photo:Enjoying coffee at the harem
painter unknown (French School) - Pera Museum
Enjoying Coffee; oil on canvas, 112 x 101.5 cm.
Permission details
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or less. You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States. This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.View more
Public Domainview terms
File:Enjoying Coffee Pera Museum 2 b.jpg
Created: first half of the 18th century
The Fall of the Ottomans: 4 of 12: The Great War in the Middle East. by Eugene Rogan
"To have written a page-turner as well as an accurate and comprehensive history of the Ottoman struggle for survival is a remarkable achievement." --Wall Street Journal
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.
Tom Rochererun
Photo:Turkish women baking bread, 1790
François-Marie Rosset - Bibliothèque nationale de France
Femmes Turcs turques de Serquin, leur manière de faire leur pain - Syrie
Public Domain
File:François-Marie Rosset - Femmes Turcs turques de Serquin, leur manière de faire leur pain - Syrie - 1790.jpg
Created: 31 December 1789
The Fall of the Ottomans: 3 of 12: The Great War in the Middle East. by Eugene Rogan
"To have written a page-turner as well as an accurate and comprehensive history of the Ottoman struggle for survival is a remarkable achievement." --Wall Street Journal
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.
Tom Rochererun
Photo:Istanbul observatory of Taqi ad-Din in 1577
Anonymous Ottoman artist 1577 - Cahiers de Science et Vie No114
Istambulobservatoryin_1577
Public Domain
File:Istambul observatory in 1577.jpg
Created: 31 December 1576
The Fall of the Ottomans: 2 of 12: The Great War in the Middle East. by Eugene Rogan
"To have written a page-turner as well as an accurate and comprehensive history of the Ottoman struggle for survival is a remarkable achievement." --Wall Street Journal
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.
Tom Rochererun
Photo:Ottoman wrestlers in the gardens of Topkapı Palace, in the 19th century
anonymous Greek artist, ca. 1809 - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O916908/gures-or-a-greased-wrestling-watercolour-anonymous-greek-artist/
A game of oil wrestling (Turkish: güres) in the gardens of the Topkapi Palace
Public Domain
File:Oil wrestling match in the gardens of the Sultan's Palace.jpg
Created: circa 1809 date QS:P,+1809-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
The Fall of the Ottomans: 1 of 12: The Great War in the Middle East. by Eugene Rogan
"To have written a page-turner as well as an accurate and comprehensive history of the Ottoman struggle for survival is a remarkable achievement." --Wall Street Journal
By 1914 the powers of Europe were sliding inexorably toward war, and they pulled the Middle East along with them into one of the most destructive conflicts in human history. In The Fall of the Ottomans, award-winning historian Eugene Rogan brings the First World War and its immediate aftermath in the Middle East to vivid life, uncovering the often ignored story of the region's crucial role in the conflict. Unlike the static killing fields of the Western Front, the war in the Middle East was fast-moving and unpredictable, with the Turks inflicting decisive defeats on the Entente in Gallipoli, Mesopotamia, and Gaza before the tide of battle turned in the Allies' favor. The postwar settlement led to the partition of Ottoman lands, laying the groundwork for the ongoing conflicts that continue to plague the modern Arab world. A sweeping narrative of battles and political intrigue from Gallipoli to Arabia, The Fall of the Ottomans is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the Great War and the making of the modern Middle East.
Tom Rochepart 1 @ https://www.democracynow.org/2019/3/15/anand_giridharadas_college_bribery_scandal_highlights
Tom Rocheexcellent, including capsule history of Vietnam 1787-1954
This week we investigate the role of Japan in laying the groundwork for Vietnam's wars against France and the United States. How did Japan's occupation of Indochina create the groundwork for the Viet Minh? And why did some Japanese soldiers, given the choice to return home in defeat or stay behind and fight on behalf of a country other than their own, take up the Vietnamese cause?
Tom RocheCinzia Arruzza[1] and Tithi Bhattacharya[2], authors (along with Nancy Fraser) of Feminism for the 99%[3], on a truly transformative feminism • Sam Stein[4], author of Capital City[5], on bourgeois urban planning, with an emphasis on NYC
[1]: https://www.newschool.edu/lang/faculty/Cinzia-Arruzza/
[2]: http://www.tithibhattacharya.net/
[3]: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2924-feminism-for-the-99
[4]: https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/samuel-stein
[5]: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2870-capital-city
Tom Rocheexcellent as usual. pullquotes:
> Those last two tweets – using video footage to debunk the lies spread by Marco Rubio, CNN and the U.S. Government – happen to be from a correspondent with RT America [Dan Cohen]. Please tell me: who was acting here as lying propagandists and agents of State TV, and who was acting like a journalist trying to understand and report the truth?
...
> But because those people are generally skeptical of the U.S. Government’s claims and critical of its foreign policy, they were ignored and mocked and are generally barred from appearing on television, while the liars from the U.S. Government and their allies in the corporate media were, as usual, given a platform to spread their lies without any challenge or dissent, just like the manual for how to maintain State TV instructs.
...
> To the extent they were acknowledged at all, it was to defame them as Maduro apologists – for telling the truth – just as those who tried to combat the propaganda of 2002 and 2003 were smeared as being pro-Saddam. Only Rubio, Bolton, Pompeo, and various other U.S. officials were permitted to spread their lies without any challenge.
...
> And the next time claims are made about Venezuela designed to fuel regime change and wars, the independent journalists and analysts who were absolutely right in this instance – who recognized and documented the lies of the U.S. Government weeks before the New York Times did – will again be ignored or, at best, mocked. Meanwhile, those in the media and Foreign Policy Community who uncritically amplified and spread this dangerous lie will be treated as the Serious People whose pronouncements are the only ones worth hearing. With rare exception, dissent on Venezuela will continue to be barred. That’s because the U.S. media, by design, does not permit dissent on U.S. foreign policy, particularly when it comes to false claims about U.S. adversaries.
...
> That’s not because U.S. media stars are ordered to do this. They don’t need to be ordered. They know propaganda is their job. More to the point, they are über-patriotic jingoists who revere U.S. officials and thus do not possess a single cell of critical thinking in their brain. That’s why they have TV programs in the first place. If they weren’t this way, they wouldn’t be on TV, as Noam Chomsky put it to the BBC’s Andrew Marr so perfectly
see 3-min clip (Feb 1996--Marr looks *much* younger) @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLcpcytUnWU or the full 30-min interview (from BBC program title='The Big Idea' episode title='Propaganda') @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjENnyQupow
A charred truck that was part of a humanitarian aid convoy attempting to cross into Venezuela sits parked on the Francisco de Paula Santander international bridge in Cucuta, Colombia, on Feb. 23, 2019, on the border with Venezuela.
Photo: Fernando Vergara/AP
This was exactly the tactic used on February 23, when the narrative shifted radically in favor of those U.S. officials who want regime change operations in Venezuela. That’s because images were broadcast all over the world of trucks carrying humanitarian aid burning in Colombia on the Venezuela border. U.S. officials who have been agitating for a regime change war in Venezuela – Marco Rubio, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, the head of USAid Mark Green – used Twitter to spread classic Fake News: they vehemently stated that the trucks were set on fire, on purpose, by President Nicolas Maduro’s forces.
Each of the trucks burned by Maduro carried 20 tons of food & medicine. This is a crime & if international law means anything he must pay a high price for this. #23FAyudaHumanitaria https://t.co/IrGzrOUX09
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 23, 2019
Masked thugs, civilians killed by live rounds, and the burning of trucks carrying badly-needed food and medicine. This has been Maduro’s response to peaceful efforts to help Venezuelans. Countries that still recognize Maduro should take note of what they are endorsing. pic.twitter.com/KlSebd2M5a
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) February 23, 2019
.@SecPompeo: We denounce Maduro’s refusal to let humanitarian assistance reach #Venezuela. What kind of a sick tyrant stops food from getting to hungry people? The images of burning trucks filled with aid are sickening. https://t.co/zzFNYVly2c
— USConsulateFrankfurt (@usconsfrankfurt) February 24, 2019
#Maduro ordering the firing on and burning of trucks filled with
humanitarian aid & attacking volunteers is unconscionable. I condemn the killings & human rights abuses committed by Maduro. Violent attacks against life-saving aid for #Venezuela is despicable. #EstamosUnidosVE https://t.co/BOSuVP1mTL— Mark Green (@USAIDMarkGreen) February 23, 2019
As it always does – as it always has done from its inception when Wolf Blitzer embedded with U.S. troops – CNN led the way in not just spreading these government lies but independently purporting to vouch for their truth. On February 24, CNN told the world what we all now know is an absolute lie: that “a CNN team saw incendiary devices from police on the Venezuelan side of the border ignite the trucks,” though it generously added that “the network’s journalists are unsure if the trucks were burned on purpose.”
Other media outlets endorsed the lie while at least avoiding what CNN did by personally vouching for it. “Humanitarian aid destined for Venezuela was set on fire, seemingly by troops loyal to Mr Maduro,” The Telegraph claimed. The BBC uncritically printed: “There have also been reports of several aid trucks being burned – something Mr Guaidó said was a violation of the Geneva Convention.”
That lie – supported by incredibly powerful video images – changed everything. Ever since, that Maduro burned trucks filled with humanitarian aid was repeated over and over as proven fact on U.S. news outlets. Immediately after it was claimed, politicians who had been silent on the issue of Venezuela or even reluctant to support regime change began issuing statements now supportive of it. U.S. news stars and think tank luminaries who lack even a single critical brain cell when it comes to war-provoking claims from U.S. officials took a leading role in beating the war drums without spending even a single second to ask whether what they were being told were true:
This is just evil https://t.co/kDOJBZ48td
— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) February 23, 2019
But on Saturday night, the New York Times published a detailed video and accompanying article proving that this entire story was a lie. The humanitarian trucks were not set on fire by Maduro’s forces. They were set on fire by anti-Maduro protesters who threw a molotov cocktail that hit one of the trucks. And the NYT’s video traces how the lie spread: from U.S. officials who baselessly announced that Maduro burned them to media outlets that mindlessly repeated the lie.
While the NYT’s article and video are perfectly good and necessary journalism, the credit they are implicitly claiming for themselves for exposing this lie is totally undeserved. That’s because independent journalists – the kind who question rather than mindlessly repeat government claims and are therefore mocked and marginalized and kept off mainstream television – used exactly this same evidence on the day of the incident to debunk the lies being told by Rubio, Pompeo, Bolton and CNN.
On February 24, the day the lie spread, Max Blumenthal wrote from Venezuela, on the independent reporting Grayzone site, that “the claim was absurd on its face,” noting that he “personally witnessed tear gas canisters hit every kind of vehicle imaginable in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, and I have never seen a fire like the one that erupted on the Santander bridge.” He compiled substantial evidence strongly suggesting that the trucks were set ablaze by anti-Maduro protesters, including Bloomberg video showing them using Molotov cocktails, to express serious doubts about the mainstream narrative. On Twitter, in response to Marco Rubio’s lie, he wrote:
I did not see any Venezuelan government forces set fire to US aid trucks on the Colombian side of the border. And neither did you. Actually, the evidence so far is pointing in the other direction. https://t.co/AVBPYtFMiR
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 24, 2019
This video found by @graffitiborrao appears to show the moment when an opposition guarimbero throws a Molotov cocktail on a truck loaded with US aid: pic.twitter.com/Z4Bg6dL4BR
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 24, 2019
Meanwhile, others – who use their brains to critically evaluate what the U.S. Government says when it’s trying to start a new war, rather than mindlessly recite those claims as Truth, as U.S. media stars do – used the exact same evidence cited by the NYT last night to show that it was anti-Maduro protesters, not Maduro troops, who set the trucks on fire. But they were able to do it in the hours immediately following the incident, not three weeks later – but, needless to say, they were ignored by U.S. media outlets:
Here's the moment when the trucks caught fire from a molotov coming from the Colombian side. https://t.co/vlZKzJpbRu
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) February 24, 2019
The reports that say the Venezuelan Army (GNB) set humanitarian aid trucks on fire by shooting tear gas canisters at them from afar are a falsemedia stunt. Tear gas will not light anything on fire.
Also- look at where the trucks were vs where the GNB line was. pic.twitter.com/y7tyugOXXj
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) February 24, 2019
You have no evidence of who set the aid truck on fire and these photos indicate your guarimberos had a hand in it. pic.twitter.com/VsvMDo2XaS
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) February 24, 2019
.@marcorubio’s lie debunked: This video shows an opposition protester throwing a Molotov cocktail at the aid truck on the Francisco de Paula Santander bridge connecting Venezuela and Colombia. pic.twitter.com/4IgTt2u4pJ
— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) February 24, 2019
Those last two tweets – using video footage to debunk the lies spread by Marco Rubio, CNN and the U.S. Government – happen to be from a correspondent with RT America. Please tell me: who was acting here as lying propagandists and agents of State TV, and who was acting like a journalist trying to understand and report the truth?
So everything the New York Times so proudly reported last night has been known for weeks, and was already reported in great detail, using extensive evidence, by a large number of people. But because those people are generally skeptical of the U.S. Government’s claims and critical of its foreign policy, they were ignored and mocked and are generally barred from appearing on television, while the liars from the U.S. Government and their allies in the corporate media were, as usual, given a platform to spread their lies without any challenge or dissent, just like the manual for how to maintain State TV intructs.
Indeed, none of the people questioning the original claim about the burning trucks, or citing this evidence to argue that the U.S. Government and its Venezuelan ally Guaidó were lying, ever made it onto national television to present their dissent. They weren’t allowed on. To the extent they were acknowledged at all, it was to defame them as Maduro apologists – for telling the truth – just as those who tried to combat the propaganda of 2002 and 2003 were smeared as being pro-Saddam. Only Rubio, Bolton, Pompeo, and various other U.S. officials were permitted to spread their lies without any challenge.
That’s particularly notable since the Russian Government, a long-time ally of the Maduro government, themselves published the evidence showing this was a lie. Claims from the Russian or Venezuelan governments deserves as much skepticism as the claims of any other government, but they at least deserve to be heard. But the corporate U.S. media – precisely because it is State TV even as it is loves to accuse others of being that – never airs the views of governments adverse to the U.S. Government except in the most cursory and mocking way:
#HandsOffVenezuela Footage from the Venezuela-Colombia border incident has emerged showing US-backed opposition throwing Molotov cocktails at the @USAID trucks + "opposition activists" openly preparing incendiary devices – https://t.co/UIMYNEjAnV. Do you believe:
— Russia in RSA ?? (@EmbassyofRussia) February 25, 2019
It should be noted that this is not the first time outrights lies were spread by the U.S. Government and the U.S. media to inflame regime change against Venezuela. A photograph of a bridge between Colombia and Venezuela was broadcast all over the world as proof that Maduro was blocking humanitarian aid.
But the CBC – to their great credit – published a long apology noting that they, too, had fallen for this propaganda by publishing the photo of the bridge to support this narrative when, in fact, that bridge had been closed years earlier due to tensions between the two countries. Few, if any, of the U.S. media outlets that spread that lie offered a similar correction or apology.
Equally false is the widespread, popular media claim that Maduro has refused to allow any humanitarian aid to enter Venezuela. That, too, is an outright lie. The Venezuelan government has allowed substantial amounts of aid into their country from countries that have not threatened to overthrow the President with an external coup; Maduro has only blocked trucks and planes from entering that come from those countries (the U.S, Brazil, Colombia) that have been threatening Venezuela. something any country would do.
Indeed, both the Red Cross and the United Nations expressed concerns about “humanitarian aid” from the U.S. on the ground that it was a pretext for regime change and would politicize humanitarian aid). Even NPR recognized that “the U.S. effort to distribute tons of food and medicine to needy Venezuelans is more than just a humanitarian mission. The operation is also designed to foment regime change in Venezuela — which is why much of the international aid community wants nothing to do with it.”
That concern is obviously valid given the history of Elliott Abrams, the envoy leading U.S. policy in Venezuela, of exploiting “humanitarian aid” as a scam to smuggle weapons and other tools to overthrow Latin American governments he dislikes – another fact rarely if ever mentioned in U.S. media reports.
If you want to watch vintage "State TV," watch this clip: a reporter embedded with US military, uncritically spouting every line from the US Government's regime change effort, omitting key facts (like Elliott Abrams previously used humanitarian aid pretexts to smuggle weapons): https://t.co/T6NOiqMWRr
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 17, 2019
What we have here is classic Fake News – spread on Twitter, by U.S. officials and U.S. media stars – with the clear and malicious intent to start a war. But no western proponents of social media censorship will call for their accounts to be cancelled nor call for their posts to be deleted. That’s because “Fake News” and the war against it is strictly a means of combating propaganda by U.S. adversaries; the U.S. and its allies maintain extensive programs to spread Fake News online and none of those anti-Fake News crusaders call for those to be shut down.
And the next time claims are made about Venezuela designed to fuel regime change and wars, the independent journalists and analysts who were absolutely right in this instance – who recognized and documented the lies of the U.S. Government weeks before the New York Times did – will again be ignored or, at best, mocked. Meanwhile, those in the media and Foreign Policy Community who uncritically amplified and spread this dangerous lie will be treated as the Serious People whose pronouncements are the only ones worth hearing. With rare exception, dissent on Venezuela will continue to be barred.
That’s because the U.S. media, by design, does not permit dissent on U.S. foreign policy, particularly when it comes to false claims about U.S. adversaries. That’s why skeptics of U.S. regime change in Venezuela, or dissenters on the prevailing orthodoxies about Russia, have largely been disappeared from mainstream media outlets, just as they were in 2002 and 2003.
That’s not because U.S. media stars are ordered to do this. They don’t need to be ordered. They know propaganda is their job. More to the point, they are über-patriotic jingoists who revere U.S. officials and thus do not possess a single cell of critical thinking in their brain. That’s why they have TV programs in the first place. If they weren’t this way, they wouldn’t be on TV, as Noam Chomsky put it to the BBC’s Andrew Marr so perfectly in this short clip from many years ago (the whole three-minute context, well worth watching, is here). This tells the whole story of this sordid affair in Venezuela:
The post NYT’s Exposé on the Lies About Burning Aid Trucks in Venezuela Shows How U.S. Government and Media Spread Pro-War Propaganda appeared first on The Intercept.
Tom Rochesee original video (for whole talk ~58 min) and slides @ https://www.oxfordclimatesociety.com/videos-of-past-events.html
Tom Rochehttps://www.npr.org/2019/03/07/701052337/the-white-house-and-its-shadow-cabinet-of-fox-news-tv-hosts archived @ https://web.archive.org/web/20190308095456/https://www.npr.org/2019/03/07/701052337/the-white-house-and-its-shadow-cabinet-of-fox-news-tv-hosts
Tom RocheRichard Walker, geographer and director of the Living New Deal project, on what the original can teach the Green one • Aziz Rana, author of https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/02/left-foreign-policy-internationalism-security-solidarity , on the need for a left internationalism
Tom Rocheexcellent episode, esp Immerwahr interview (2nd half)
Tom Rocheexcellent
Tom Rocheexcellent
Dan's guest is long-time organizer Jonathan Matthew Smucker, the author of Hegemony How-To: A Roadmap for Radicals. The book is both a critique of the radical left's traditional style of politics and a how-to guide to fighting and winning, from nuts-and-bolts organizing methods to theory. What is wrong with the world and how to change it are two different categories of knowledge, and effective organizing requires that we master the latter.
Thanks to Verso Books. Check out their huge collection of left-wing titles at www.versobooks.com
Please support us with your money at Patreon.com/TheDig
Tom Rocheoriginal article/transcript by Daniel Immerwahr @ https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/15/the-us-hidden-empire-overseas-territories-united-states-guam-puerto-rico-american-samoa (archived @ https://web.archive.org/web/20190303212124/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/15/the-us-hidden-empire-overseas-territories-united-states-guam-puerto-rico-american-samoa )
Tom Rocheexcellent
In a Classic Album Dissection, Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot examine The Stooges' Fun House record from 1970. The album brought together garage rock, rhythm and blues and free jazz, setting a template for the punk revolution to come. Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton talks about the album as well as producer Don Gallucci, whose unorthodox studio technique is credited with capturing the singular sound of The Stooges.
Tom Rochevery excellent! just too short
In this public News Brief we review the media coverage of Sanders and Clinton in 2016 and how this past is being written and rewritten to set the narrative for 2020. (1000 apologies for the edited swear word, iTunes doesn't allow you to say bad words in show titles).
Tom Rochesee original video (for whole talk ~58 min) and slides @ https://www.oxfordclimatesociety.com/videos-of-past-events.html
Tom Roche404s as of 26 Feb 2019, and also not visible @ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qy05/episodes/downloads (goes from 'Surveillance' to 'The Class Ceiling')
Tom Rocheexcellent! and only the 1st of a 4-part series, none of which is quite as good as this but all are close: see https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002824/broadcasts/upcoming . gotta find more work by Tom Craine and Henry Paker
Tom Roche> If the labor market remains tight, it is reasonable to believe that gains in productivity growth will lead to higher wages, as promised in the tax cut induced investment story. The problem is that we aren't seeing the promised investment and productivity growth.
The Washington Post had a rather confused piece that complained that investment encouraged by accelerated depreciation, which was a provision of the Trump tax cut (also the Obama stimulus), is "helping companies replace workers with machines." This is reported as though it is some sort of scandal, when it is in fact precisely the point of this provision.
The stated goal of the Trump tax cut was to promote investment. This was their rationale for having the bulk of the tax cut go to businesses. Their argument was that a lower tax rate would provide businesses with more incentive to invest. More investment would lead to more rapid productivity growth. If workers got their share of gains in productivity, then they would benefit from having higher wages.
The key question in this story is whether the tax cut actually led to more investment. The evidence to date is that it has had at most a minimal effect on investment, with investment running slightly higher in 2018 than before the tax cut in 2017. There certainly has been no boom. There also is zero evidence that it led to any uptick in productivity growth, as productivity growth remained very slow through the year. So, by their own standard, the tax cut seems to be failing badly.
However, if we did see more investment and productivity growth, it would mean displacing workers. Higher productivity means more output can be produced with the same number of work hours, or alternatively, the same output can be produced with fewer work hours. (Fewer work hours doesn't have to mean fewer workers. In other countries, much of the gain from higher productivity has been realized in the form of shorter work years. Workers have 5–6 weeks a year of vacation, paid family leave, paid sick days, and other forms of paid time off.)
Tom Rochepullquotes:
> major news outlets, like the New York Times, seem to go out of their way to deny the incredible harm done to euro zone economies and to the lives of tens of millions of people in these countries, as a result of needless austerity. [... But] since then we have far more evidence on the impact of deficit reduction in the context of an economy coming out of recession. There have been numerous studies, most importantly several[1] from the International Monetary Fund’s `research department[2][3], which show that lower deficits in this context slow growth and raise unemployment.
[1]: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2011/wp11158.pdf
[2]: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/31/Expansionary-Austerity-New-International-Evidence-25021
[3]: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2013/wp1301.pdf
> [The New York Times] has repeatedly told readers that policies that undermined the welfare state and redistributed money upward, were being done for the purpose of revitalizing the economy. This was especially the case with Emanuel Macron in France[4][5][6]
[4]: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/business/france-economy-macron.html
[5]: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/business/economy/mcaron-popularity-tax-cuts-working-class.html
[6]: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/business/france-labor-muriel-penicaud.html
> While the blame for Europe’s economic problems over the last decade can very clearly be laid at the doorstep of its leaders who have insisted on austerity, the media consistently ignore evidence that is as clear as day. They instead treat the problems facing Europe’s workers as being mysterious in origin or due primarily to an overly generous welfare state and excessive regulations that protect workers. This is some seriously biased and/or misinformed reporting.
(This post first appeared on my Patreon page.)
It’s not uncommon to read new stories that quite explicitly identify economic mismanagement. For example, news reports on the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe routinely (and correctly) attribute the cause to the poor economic management by its leaders. We will see similar attributions of mismanagement to a wide range of developing countries.
One place we will never see the term mismanagement, or any equivalent term, applied is in reference to the austerity imposed on the eurozone countries by the European Commission, acting largely at the direction of the German government. In fact, major news outlets, like The New York Times, seem to go out of their way to deny the incredible harm done to eurozone economies and to the lives of tens of millions of people in these countries, as a result of needless austerity.
A decade ago it would at least have been an arguable point as to whether austerity, meaning budget cuts, in the wake of the Great Recession, was reasonable policy. There was some research suggesting that the boost to confidence from lower budget deficits could spur enough investment and consumption to offset the impact on demand of reductions in government spending.
However, since then we have far more evidence on the impact of deficit reduction in the context of an economy coming out of recession. There have been numerous studies, most importantly several from the International Monetary Fund’s research department, which show that lower deficits in this context slow growth and raise unemployment.
Furthermore, they show that periods of high unemployment have a lasting impact as a result of workers losing skills and companies and governments foregoing investment in a downturn that they would have undertaken if the economy were closer to its potential level of output. This means that insistence on deficit reduction not only led to one-time drops in output and employment but could reduce potential output by trillions of dollars over subsequent years.
Tom Roche*Windows* executables
In this tutorial, we will explore the conversion of Python scripts to Windows executable files in four simple steps. Although there are many ways to do it, we'll be covering, according to popular opinion, the simplest one so far.
This tutorial has been designed after reviewing many common errors that people face while performing this task, and hence contains detailed information to install and set up all the dependencies as well. Feel free to skip any step, if you already have those dependencies installed. Without any further ado, let's start.
cURL provides a library and command line tool for transferring data using various protocols. We need it to download the pip package manager in the next step. Many of you would already have it set up, which you can check by running the following command:
$ curl --version
If the command above returns a curl version, you can skip the next instructions in this step. As for the rest of you, you can install curl by following these three steps:
However, this means that you can only use the curl command in that particular folder. In order to be able to use the curl command from anywhere on your machine, right-click on curl.exe, click on "Properties" and copy the "Location" value. After that, right-click on "My PC" and click on "Properties". In the option panel on the left, select the option "Advanced System Settings". It has been highlighted in the screenshot below.
In the window that appears, click "Environment Variables" near the bottom right. It has been highlighted in the screenshot below.
In the next window, find and double click on the user variable named "Path", then click on "New". A new text box will be created in that window; paste the "Location" value of the "curl.exe" file that you copied earlier, and then click on 'OK'.
cURL should now be accessible from anywhere in your system. Confirm your installation by running the command below:
$ curl --version
Let's go to the next step.
In this step, we will install pip, which is basically a package manager for Python packages. We need it in the next step to install the pyinstaller library. Most of you would already have it set up, to check run the following command:
$ pip --version
If the command above returned a pip version, you can skip the next instructions in this step.
As for the rest, you can install pip by running the following two commands in the command prompt:
$ curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
$ python get-pip.py
That's it. Pip has now been installed to your local machine! You can run the following command for confirmation:
$ pip --version
Before moving to the next step, you need to repeat what we did for curl.exe so that you can access the pip command from anywhere in your machine, but this time we'll be doing so for "pip.exe".
Hit the Windows key and search for "pip.exe", then right-click on the first search result and click on "Open File Location", it will take you to the folder in which that file is located. Right-click on the "pip.exe" file and then select "Properties". After that, copy the "Location" value and paste it in the Path variable just like we did in Step 1.
In this step, we'll install pyinstaller using pip. We need pyinstaller to convert our Python scripts into executable (.exe) files. You just need to copy paste the command below into your command prompt and run it:
$ pip install pyinstaller
Again, to confirm your installation, run the following command:
$ pyinstaller --version
Note: If you've Anaconda installed in your system, then you're probably using conda package manager instead. In that case, run the following commands below, in sequence:
$ conda install -c conda-forge pyinstaller
$ conda install -c anaconda pywin32
This step marks the end of all installations. In the next step, we'll be converting our Python files to an executable with just a single command.
This is the last step. We'll use pyinstaller to convert our .py files to .exe with a single command. So, let's do it!
Open up the command prompt and navigate to the directory that your Python file/script is located in. Alternatively, you can open that directory using File Explorer, right-click + shift and then select "Open Command Prompt in this folder". Before converting your file, you should check that your file works as expected. For that purpose, I have written a basic Python script which prints the number 10 when executed.
Let's run the script and see if it works fine before converting it to an executable file. Run the following command on your command prompt:
$ python name_of_your_file.py
In my case, the filename was 'sum.py'.
To create a standalone executable file in the same directory as your Python file, run the following command:
$ pyinstaller --onefile <file_name>.py
This instruction might take some time to complete. Upon completion, it will generate three folders. You can find the executable file in the 'dist' folder. Please note that the "onefile" argument tells pyinstaller to create a single executable file only.
Let's now run our executable file to see if the procedure worked!
Ta-da! It worked just as expected.
A little tip, if your executable file closes too fast for you to notice the output, you can add an input() line at the end of your Python file, which keeps the prompt open while waiting for using input. That is how I was able to take a screenshot of my output as well.
Also note that if your executable depends on any other executable files, like phantomjs, you need to keep them in the same directory as your Python file's directory so that pyinstaller can include it in the executable.
In this tutorial, we discussed in detail the conversion of Python scripts to executable files using Python's pyinstaller library in four steps. We started by installing cURL, followed by pip and pyinstaller. Lastly, we converted a sample Python file to executable to ensure that the procedure works on Windows.