Corruption, 'Deep Politics', etc.

[version]

I think it's time we have a separate thread for this sort of thing as sticking everything in the conspiracy thread immediately tars it all with the same brush, a brush that's increasingly being used to shrink the field of acceptable debate and group proven conspiracies and more plausible unproven ones with the kind of tripe people like David Icke come out with.

So, yeah. None of Luka's silly YouTube videos (I know I'm tempting him to bombard the thread with them by saying this, but exercise some restraint... ) or Alex Jones or anything like that in here. Let's keep it to the proven and/or plausible, e.g. older stuff like Gladio and MKUltra and current stories like the "Pandora Papers".

 

[version]

The Pandora Papers is an interesting one as it should be a scandal, but it feels as though the Paradise and Panama Papers came and went and this will be more of the same,

Pandora papers: biggest ever leak of offshore data exposes financial secrets of rich and powerful

Millions of documents reveal offshore deals and assets of more than 100 billionaires, 30 world leaders and 300 public officials

www.theguardian.com

I do get the impression people are angry about this sort of thing, but I also get the impression it's a weary anger at something that isn't sexy enough to make much of an impact, something the bulk of the media are somewhat reluctant to spend too much time on and something which has become so routine and which happens on such a scale there isn't much to do but tut, sigh and add it to the ever-growing list of problems.

That a lot of the stuff that comes out in these leaks isn't necessarily illegal obviously clouds things too. There's also the uncanny way the machine rebuilds itself in the wake of any shocks or setbacks,

Some clients of Mossack Fonseca, the now defunct law firm at the heart of the 2016 Panama papers disclosures, simply transferred their companies to rival providers such as another global trust and corporate administrator with a major office in London, whose data is in the new trove of leaked files.

Asked why he was migrating the new company, one customer wrote bluntly: “Business decision to exit following the Panama papers.” Another agent said the industry had always “adapted” to external pressure.

 

[Clinamenic]

So where do you draw the line, in terms of the diligence in fact-checking and the trust in the actors and institutions that play roles in information circulation?

 

[Clinamenic]

I think the notion of corruption maybe projects too much ethics onto the interplay of organisms. I think much of the "corruption" and "systemic racism" are borne from 1) financial self-interest, which can thrive irresponsibly in the clouds, i.e. the 2) blindspots of public policy.

One example to me of a suspicious blindspot is what I understand of the ruling of Citizen's United v Federal Election Committee, namely that the ruling allows unlimited private expenditures on public election campaigns, expenditures of individuals as well as corporations. I guess the winning case argued that such restrictions would be violations of free speech.

 

[luka]

 

[luka]

 

[william_kent]

The foundation text of Deep Politics is Peter Dale Scott's Deep Politics and the death of JFK, which is where the term is first posited as a more useful term than "parapolitics" ( which he also coined ):

"...parapolitics, which I defined (with the CIA in mind) as a ‘system or practice of politics in which accountability is consciously diminished.’... I still see value in this definition and mode of analysis. But parapolitics as thus defined is itself too narrowly conscious and intentional... it describes at best only an intervening layer of the irrationality under our political culture’s rational surface. Thus I now refer to parapolitics as only one manifestation of deep politics, all those political practices and arrangements, deliberate or not, which are usually repressed rather than acknowledged."

Lobster magazine used the term "parapolitics" to describe their content, although after the departure of Stephen Dorill some of the articles veered into crank territory - the early issues were good for breaking stories about covert operations in Northern Ireland, the murder of Hilda Murrell, etc

Peter Dale Scott:

"My notion of deep politics... posits that in every culture and society there are facts which tend to be suppressed collectively, because of the social and psychological costs of not doing so. Like all other observers, I too have involuntarily suppressed facts and even memories about the drug traffic that were too provocative to be retained with equanimity

I like Peter Dale Scott - Noam Chomsky absolutely loathes him

 

[william_kent]

Gary Webb's The Dark Alliance is another good example of an early Deep Politics text - Iran/Contra, CIA swapping weapons in exchange for drugs, CIA coke flooding the US market, etc

edit: correcting autocorrect

 

[william_kent]

A precis of the entire book, an analysis of the hidden mechanisms behind the exercise of real power in the Western World.

 

[luka]

i love the idea of Peter Dale Scott but any time ive tried to read anything of his it just sounds like pure fantasy.

 

[luka]

which it is almost certainly is. my way of looking at things is the world is run by pedo satanists. if you keep that in mind you wont go far wrong.

 

[luka]

 

[william_kent]

I love Peter Dale Scott's JFK books - no boring analysis of bullet trajectories, no pretence of being qualified as a coroner, in fact Dallas hardly features, and instead there are stories about Mexican car-theft rings in cahoots with US Military Intelligence, Oswald doubles, etc., - fun stuff dressed up in pseudo-academic talk - reads like an avant-garde thriller

 

[william_kent]

I have to admit I'm underwhelmed by the Pandora Papers - rich people evading tax is hardly news is it?

as @luka suggests, why they were leaked is probably more interesting

 

[WashYourHands]

Mood is different during a pandemic, you’d think it would add ballast to something but it won’t

As a species we‘re thick as fuck too, so bribery is as endemic as stupidity

 

[WashYourHands]

The Vatican still operates a sigma pedo cult

Look how many wars and deaths that institution survived. The scale of abuse. How rooted it is in public life and politics is part of its success



The Empire Never Ended, to quote Phil

 

[version]

I have to admit I'm underwhelmed by the Pandora Papers - rich people evading tax is hardly news is it?

as @luka suggests, why they were leaked is probably more interesting

Yeah, this is the thing. They're coming from a D.C.-based organisation and there are seemingly no important Americans named...

 

[version]

I like Peter Dale Scott...

He's just published a big three-part thing on 9/11 with a couple of other people. I haven't gotten round to it yet, but might be of interest.

The Twenty Year Shadow of 9/11: U.S. Complicity in the Terror Spectacle and the Urgent Need to End It - CovertAction Magazine

Part 1: How the U.S. Used Radical Islam and 9/11 to Advance Imperialism and Override the Constitution.

covertactionmagazine.com

The Twenty Year Shadow of 9/11 (Part 2): Why Did Key U.S. Officials Protect the Alleged 9/11 Plotters?

This failure resulted from previous FBI, CIA, and NSA protection for al-Qaeda members connected with the plot. Before examining the details of the 9/11 plot, it is worth noting the extent to which …

covertactionmagazine.com

Stepping out of the Shadow of 9/11: Start by Ending the Post-9/11 States of Emergency

In reflecting on 9/11 and the preceding terror attacks, it is clear that the security services’ long-entrenched practice of withholding and compartmentalizing information has had disastrous consequ…

covertactionmagazine.com

 

[william_kent]

I've got his 9/11 book but it's in the "Gravity's Rainbow" pile...

 

[version]

Those "suicides" that appear in the news now and then where the official explanation is so ridiculous you can't help but come up with an alternate explanation are interesting, e.g.

MI6 spy found dead in bag probably locked himself inside, Met says

Three-year investigation by Scotland Yard concludes Gareth Williams probably died as a result of a tragic accident

www.theguardian.com

I can't remember the specific case atm, but someone once showed me a story about some guy in the US who was involved in something shady who allegedly killed himself by doing something like shooting himself in the head seven times with a rifle...