A quick programming note before we start dispensing the Daily Ghion water. Our regular segment “This Week’s Recap of Corporate Media Bullcrap” was delayed by one day, the article will be posted in a couple of hours and it promises to be a barn burner. A quick preview, it has something to do with the neocon/neoliberal obsession with Iran while ignoring the human rights violations that takes place in a country that has reconstituted ethnic apartheid. One last note, the Daily Ghion Water is our attempt to give our readers and the general public access to independent media and non-corporate voices instead of being dependent on the yellow press propaganda that is peddled by mainstream media.
We encourage our readers to disseminate the Daily Ghion Water like you our other articles and do so by encouraging others to follow the work of true journalists who are honoring notion of a free press. Lastly, use this space (as well as on other article) to start commenting below so that you can engage with other readers of the Ghion Journal. We have built up a robust readership of free thinkers and people who put ideas above ideologies, I’m certain that once the discussions start taking place in this space between readers, people will come to love the exchanges of ideas. Now, without further ado, on to the Daily Ghion Water.
Neocon and Neoliberal Watch (they are the same thing)
Once the Democratic and Republican conventions rolled around, both parties’ draft platforms contained nearly identical language promising arms to Ukraine. The arms transfer had been a personal priority of Hillary Clinton, a top recipient of weapons industry cash, since early 2015. Only hours after the Republican National Convention rang its opening bell, however, a Donald Trump foreign policy adviser named J.D. Gordon ordered the RNC to alter its pledge for “lethal weapons” to a call for “appropriate assistance” to the Ukrainian military. Though Trump said later that he was unaware of the change, Gordon claimed the candidate had demanded it to conform to his stated support for detente with Russia. [from Truthdig]
Crumbling City on a Hill
In the US commuters and travelers use trains less than the Japanese, but US passenger train lines have suffered five major wrecks that killed or injured passengers over the past decade, including the recent derailment of an Amtrak passenger train that killed three people and injured more than 50 others in DuPont, Washington on December 18. Among the dead were two active members of the Rail Passengers Association, a group that pushes for greater access to passenger rail services. A “constellation of factors” contributed to this spate of deadly train accidents, including train companies’ habit of cutting corners to save money and a national failure to fund railroad and transportation infrastructure, according to Railroad Workers United, a national union representing railroad workers. [from Truthout]
Clinton Global Extortion
Of primary interest to the FBI is likely the Uranium One deal, which would grant the Kremlin control over 20 percent of America’s uranium supply, as detailed by author Peter Schweitzer’s book Clinton Cash and the New York Times in 2015. The scheme allowed Russia to buy its way into the U.S. atomic energy business using the same Clinton Foundation pay-for-play relationship used by 16 countries, including Saudi Arabia – which received a 143% increase in weapons sales over the previous administration after donating to the foundation. [from Anti-Media]
War is Always a Racket
The current president has surrounded himself with Iran hawks from the very beginning of his administration, from James Mattis, who once listed America’s top three concerns as “Iran, Iran, Iran,” to Mike Pompeo, who recently promised to make the CIA into a “much more vicious agency” (God knows how). Many of my Trump-supporting readers are keeping the faith that this won’t be another instance like Syria despite the many glaring similarities, but please don’t keep faith in the CIA. That is never, ever a reasonable thing to do. [from Caitlin Johnstone]
Because Some Are More Equal than Others
The internet, widely seen as a highway where everyone could communicate and share ideas freely, is actually a toll road that is increasingly managed by a group of very large corporations that, when acting in unison, control what is seen and not seen. Search engines already are set up to prioritize information from paid “sponsors,” which come up prominently but often have nothing to do with what material is most relevant. And the role of intrusive governments in dictating to Facebook and other sites who will be heard and who will be silenced should also be troubling, as it means that information that would benefit the public might never be seen, particularly if it is embarrassing to powerful interests. And speaking of powerful interests, groups like the ADL with partisan agendas will undoubtedly be able to dictate norms of behavior to the service providers, leading to still more loss of content and relevancy for those who are looking for information. [from the Fifth Column]
“Democracies Die in the Dark” (the ironic tagline of the Washington Post)
He and his group believed essentially that they needed to do better propaganda than the Soviets did, and one of the ways that they thought they could do it better was to do it subtly and, you could say, secretly. So when this program is threatened with exposure in ‘64, ‘65, ‘66 and ‘67 through various sources like Ramparts and The New York Times, this privilege of secrecy that they enjoyed was not something that they were willing to give up. So you have something that is described as relatively benign, this funding of culture through the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a funding of student movements through the National Student Association, the funding of labor unions that would be less communist-influenced than the communist-dominated ones that they presumed were out there. These were seen as benign answers. [from the Mint Press]
From the YouTubes
This Day in History
Quote of the Day
“One who rushes to take credit is usually the first person to run from adversity.” ~ Teodrose Fikre
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Merry Christmas (Melkam Gena) to all Orthodox Christians celebrating Christmas today.
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