[Cross-posted with the Unz Review]
Once a year I like to pretend like my blog is some kind of “respectable” mainstream outlet and I engage in the (admittedly totally silly!) exercise of nominating some “man” (sorry, “person” is unbearably politically correct and once you go down that route you end up calling mentally deranged freaks “ze/zir/zee/etc” and the like). Hey, if you cannot get the kind of financing AngloZionist propaganda outlets get, let us at least pretend like we are fighting on an even playing field once a year, no? So once a year I pretend like I am not a lonely “deplorable” and I chose my own heroes of the day and that sort of makes me feel the “momentary equal” to propaganda outlets like Time mag or The Economist :-)
FYI – past nominees have included “the Syrian solider” (2013), “the Russian solider” (2014), “the Russian Airmen in Syria, Major-General Qasem Soleimani and Alexander Zakharchenko” (2015), “the American basket of deplorables” (2016) and “all those who gave their lives for Syria” (2017).
(Now please pretend like you hear a dramatic drum-roll…..)
Ladies and gentlemen, the 2018 “Saker man of the year” award jointly goes to: (in alphabetical order)
The American “Dissidents”: Stephen Cohen, Bonnie Faulkner, Paul Craig Roberts and Ron Unz
Here are the reasons for my choice:
For all the empty talk about freedom of speech, diversity, pluralism and the like, the sad truth is that the USA is not a democracy, but a rather authoritarian plutocracy with strongly expressed elements of a totalitarian regime. True, nobody (that I know of) got sent to a labor camp (yet!) or shot in a cellar (yet!) for daring to speak up to power, but we must also remember the joke which says that “a totalitarian regime is one that commands you to “shut up!” whereas a liberal democracy simply says “keep talking!“. There is much truth to this. As an experienced anti-Soviet activist who opposed and fought against the Soviet regime, I can attest that it was much less effective at stifling dissent than the US regime. Furthermore, I am also sure that the Soviet regime had far more popular support than the current US plutocracy.
[Sidebar: it is important to note here that with a few very important, and now sadly forgotten, exceptions (such as Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Igor Ogurtsov, Leonid Borodin and a few others), the vast majority of the so-called “Soviet dissidents” were not Russian patriots at all and many of them were, in fact, rabid russophobes, Furthermore, both the West and the Soviet regime treated the Russian patriotic opponents (they should not be called or associated with “dissidents”) much worse than the russophobes. In the West, Russian patriots were called “authoritarian monarchists” and, of course, “anti-Semites” while the pro-West dissidents were given full support on Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, the BBC Russian Service and the rest of the western propaganda outlets. As for the Soviet regime, it is also interesting to see how it differentiated between patriotic opponents and the pro-western, russophobic, “dissidents”: the former typically got harsh sentences under Article 70 of the Penal Code of the RSFSR (Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda – 3 to 10 years) whereas the latter typically got sentenced under the much more lenient Article 190 (Distribution of knowingly false fabrications, discrediting the Soviet state and social system – up to 3 years). Finally, a lot of money was given to the russophobes, while the anti-Soviet patriots could only count on the help of the rather small patriotic Russian anti-Soviet resistance inside the USSR and abroad (including yours truly). It is even sadder that nowadays in Russia the Russian patriotic anti-Soviet opponents are either forgotten or, worse, assimilated to the russophobes by people who have never read much of Solzhenitsym or Ogurtsov or Borodin, but who categorically state that “show me an anti-Soviet activist and I will show you a russophobe” (which, by that definition, would also include me…). I understand that this is the inevitable “return of the historical pendulum” after decades when the anti-Soviet propaganda vastly exaggerated the evils of the Soviet regime (whose evils were very real, but not nearly as immense and evil as mistakenly accepted by the anti-Soviet activists, very much including myself, to my great regret). Right now the pendulum is way too far out towards quasi total whitewashing the evils and crimes of the Soviet regime, but with time it will reach some kind of fact-based equilibrium, at which point the anti-Soviet patriotic opponents will be recognized for what they really were and not lumped together with the russophobic dissidents]
The truth is that the level of education, including political education, was FAR HIGHER in the USSR than today in the USA and that the Soviet propaganda machine was (comparatively) rather benign and wholly ineffective and clumsy when compared to the multi-billion dollar AngloZionist propaganda machine of the Empire. The Soviet official ideology, by the way, was much more pluralistic and the Soviet media much more diverse than the western corporate media (I know, I used to read both for a living for a few years). So, as a result, while western dissidents don’t get physically oppressed (at least not yet!!) their struggle is, in some ways, much harder and a much more lonely one. We can see that in the life of my four nominees (again, in alphabetical order):
Professor Stephen Cohen
Already during the Cold War, Professor was a (then recognized and hailed) world class expert on the Soviet Union and a respected voice of reason. The liberals especially loved him for his views. When Putin came to power, however, Stephen Cohen did not fall into the russophobic trap of the US liberals and he dared to speak up openly, taking a position diametrically opposed to that of many of his (now former) supporters. For that he was vilified, copiously insulted, and called stuff like “Putin’s American Apologist“, “Putin’s Pal“, a “Desperate Putin Apologist“, and even a “Pathetic Putin Dupe“! This goes to show that while the English language does not yet (yet!) have the equivalent of the “wonderful” German expression “Putinversteher“, the level of intellectual intolerance of the US liberals is just as rabid as the one of their German colleagues. The exact same phenomenon happened with Alexander Solzhenitsyn who initially was the West’s darling for criticizing the Soviet regime, but as soon as his critique turned to the West, he was immediately shunned and vilified (by the exact same folks who are now smearing and vilifying Professor Cohen, by the way).
Bonnie Faulkner
Bonnie has been a hero of mine for many years already. Her show Guns and Butter was one of the most interesting and original radio show ever and for a lone while it was truly the flagship of the Pacifica Public Radio Networks. Bonnie, one of the very best interviewers of our times, regularly invited fascinating and unique guests and conducted wonderful, open-ended, and absolutely fascinating interviews with them. Then Bonnie committed her first “crime”: she dared to doubt the official 9/11 fairy tale. This *almost* got her banned the first time around. Then Bonnie did something even “worse” – she did not buy into the entire official “Putin is a monster” cum “the Russians did it” fairly tale. Even worse, crime of crimes, Bonnie has now been officially labeled a “Holocaust denier” by KPFA General Manager. For all these “crimes” her show was simply terminated (until Ron Unz decided to host it on the Unz Review!). The most sickening part of it all is that Bonnie got censored by those who desperately try to impersonate some kind of “progressive” movement whereas in reality they are just your garden variety intolerant russophobic Trotskyists hiding under a new cloak of pseudo-liberalism.
Paul Craig Roberts
Yet another story of a “fall from grace” – this time from the conservative Right who used to admire Roberts for his conservative values until he too dared to challenge the official narrative about Putin and Russia and, instead, denounced every step taken by the leaders of the Empire which bring our planet closer to a global nuclear war. Like Cassandra, Roberts has been an indefatigable voice in the (quasi total) “desert” warning us of the immense danger which is facing us all as a result of the sick messianic and imperialist ideology of the leaders of the AngloZionist Empire. For that he has been ridiculed and insulted, but none of that hateful ad hominem propaganda has succeeded in silencing him. Roberts clearly fears nobody and his voice remains one of the most powerful ones in our peace movement.
Ron Unz
Ron Unz’s struggle for the future of the USA (because that is exactly what this is) is not as centered on Russia as Stephen Cohen’s or Paul Craig Roberts’ one, but like Bonnie Faulkner Ron Unz dedicated his talent and life to preserving true, as opposed to fictional, free speech in the USA. The Unz Review has now become the de-facto leader of free speech in the USA hosting a who’s who of political dissidents, opponents of the Empire and assorted “crimethinkers” (including yours truly) and a very wide spectrum of anti-Empire views ranging from paleo-libertarians (like Ilana Mercer), to what I would call a paleo-progressives (like Michael Hudson), to paleo-conservatives like (Pat Buchanan) to anti-Zionists (like Norman Finkelstein) and many, many, others. Not only that, but Ron has embarked on an amazingly courageous and most interesting series of articles entitled “American Pravda” in which Ron Unz exposed more sacred cows and unspoken taboos than any other public figure in recent memory. I highly recommend that you read every single one of these amazing texts and see for yourself how intellectual honesty and courage can be combined to achieve what I think will be recognized as a truly historical feat for intellectual freedom.
Better than just dissidents: “children of God”!
Stephen Cohen, Bonnie Faulkner, Paul Craig Roberts and Ron Unz are all true heroes whose struggles all have one thing in common: they are all struggles for peace. Thus, the words of Christ “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt 5:9) fully apply to them all. They are also shining examples of what I call “the other West”, a West which far from constantly binging on messianic hubris (like the all the “official” intellectuals across the political spectrum do), seeks to make the USA a normal, healthy, sane country in which intellectual freedom and freedom of speech are not just vapid slogans. Cohen, Faulkner, Roberts and Unz do not necessarily share the same views, and neither do I necessarily always agree with everything they might say, but that commonality of purpose, their common desire to achieve true freedom through peace and their immense personal courage is what, I think, unites them and makes them ideal models and examples of a much larger, if hidden, reality: there are a lot of people who struggle for freedom and peace in the USA and elsewhere. The four that are selected are all shining examples of this “other West”, but they are also the trip of a much bigger iceberg of resistance to empire, beginning with the beautiful 9/11 Truth movement but also many, many other “resisters” (I think of Ron Paul, Chris Hedges and even, possibly, Tulsi Gabbard).
Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Even in our post-Christian world (which actually looks very much like Sodom and Gomorrah did), most of us probably remember how Abraham begged God not to destroy the righteous with the wicked (Gen 18:23) Cohen, Faulkner, Roberts and Unz are very good examples of the kind of righteous people for the sake of which we can hope that God will spare the West, and the rest of the world, from destruction (which is where the Neocons are going to bring us unless we stop them). Cohen and Roberts are rather well known in the Runet (Russian Internet), Faulkner and Unz less so, but I hope that with time they will all be remembered and recognized as people who did not just look away or remain silent, but who followed their conscience and took action.
I want to conclude here with a beautiful poem written by Bobby Sands which, I think, applies to all those today whose righteousness and courage might well earn us God’s mercy.
The Saker
The Rhythm Of Time
There’s an inner thing in every man,
Do you know this thing my friend?
It has withstood the blows of a million years,
And will do so to the end.
It was born when time did not exist,
And it grew up out of life,
It cut down evil’s strangling vines,
Like a slashing searing knife.
It lit fires when fires were not,
And burnt the mind of man,
Tempering leadened hearts to steel,
From the time that time began.
It wept by the waters of Babylon,
And when all men were a loss,
It screeched in writhing agony,
And it hung bleeding from the Cross.
It died in Rome by lion and sword,
And in defiant cruel array,
When the deathly word was ‘Spartacus’
Along the Appian Way.
It marched with Wat the Tyler’s poor,
And frightened lord and king,
And it was emblazoned in their deathly stare,
As e’er a living thing.
It smiled in holy innocence,
Before conquistadors of old,
So meek and tame and unaware,
Of the deathly power of gold.
It burst forth through pitiful Paris streets,
And stormed the old Bastille,
And marched upon the serpent’s head,
And crushed it ‘neath its heel.
It died in blood on Buffalo Plains,
And starved by moons of rain,
Its heart was buried in Wounded Knee,
But it will come to rise again.
It screamed aloud by Kerry lakes,
As it was knelt upon the ground,
And it died in great defiance,
As they coldly shot it down.
It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.
It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants’ eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing ‘cross the skies.
It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is ‘the undauntable thought’, my friend,
That thought that says ‘I’m right!’
poem by Bobby Sands (1954-1981)
Peace, Freedom and Heroes—truly a Christmas gift tied nicely with the Bobby Sands poetry as bow.
We must cherish all the Heroes who fight for Righteous Virtues.
Saker, I second your selection of 2018 American Dissidents for Honors.
They each are standing in front of the tanks, planes, missiles and bombs of the Empire.
Unlike the Tiananmen Tank Man on Chang’an Avenue 1989, we know their names and their life’s work.
They are no less solitary and singular and heroic.
Excellent!
We are fortunate to be cared for by such brave souls.
As a dissident of sorts myself I say be wary the machinations of hidden rulers. I am reposting my comment from an earlier article…home that is ok.
The yellow vests are a sponsored phenomena.
Evidence for this was published on the 2017 Economist magazine cover on which can be viewed in the picture segment entitled ‘The Hermit.’ In the hermit segment can be seen yellow coloured protestors carrying placards emblazoned with messages like eg No Nato, No EU, No TTIP, No TPP. The image shows Alsace-Lorraine severed from France…the EU seat of Strasbourg. Also you will see in the image that France is joined to the UK so that they act as one entity. The English Channel is shown dryed out in the image to inform those woth knowledge that France and UK are together leaving the EU and shaking the entire globe.
https://ukshop.economist.com/products/the-world-in-2017?redirect=International
Here is link to The Economist 2017 magazine cover.
Take a look at the little globe atlas in the bottom right hand corner of ‘The Hermit’ portion of the cover image. You will find that the land being severed from the EU is none other than France. And that the UK and France are joined together in this split. Take a look at a map of Europe and see that the outline of the state struck by lightning corresponds to the borders of modern France. Note the adjoinment of the UK with France.
The so called Yellow Vests are a sponsored phenomena.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/suspicious-strasbourg-shootings/5662809
Yellow vests are for marshal law and dictatorship
Saker,
On eschatalogical matters…
After death of Alexander his kingdom was divided amongst his four generals…one of those was named Ptolomey Macron. Macron joined forces with Antiochus Epithanes… and he is regarded as the first version of the antichrist.
Not Roberts .Paul Craig Roberts contributed to the successful demonization of Milosevic , making him largely responsible for the Yugoslav wars. Roberts contributed to one of the great propaganda triumphs of our era. . Roberts like the mainstream Western media, demonized the Serbian people and helped open the door to the breakup of Yugoslavia, invasions of the Middle East and North Africa. Why? Like many Western Liberals he was duped by the “humanitarian intervention” propaganda that people like Parenti saw. which Roberts did not see that this was an ant Serb crusade in order to eliminate the barrier for the Empire so they could partition the remnants of Socialism in Europe and achieve its objectives in the Balkans and beyond.
Vuki, while I agree with what you say, I think perhaps you should give Dr Roberts credit for what he has said and done since then. I recently reached the age of 70, and for the first 55 or 60 of those years I was solidly trapped in the Matrix – in spite of being raised in an enlightened and toleranty home and going to a good school and university. I just believed what the powers that be, the media, and other influencers told me. (I still believe in the Moon landings, and that Australia exists!) Then I gradually began to see the light.
Please cut Dr Roberts a break.
“To err is human, to forgive divine”.
“Let him that is without sin cast the first stone”.
“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance”.
I did not awaken from the thrall of my imperial schooling until 1990, having been born in 1949. It has taken me nearly thirty years to fully emancipate myself from its hold. If I may mix my metaphors, it is like the process of removing shrapnel from an old, nearly mortal wound; thinking to have gotten all of it out, a deeply buried piece festers up unexpectedly. Let us be patient with those who are moving toward freedom but who have not quite yet freed themselves from the chains of imperial bellicosity.
I’m impressed. Remaining asleep during the entire Vietnam War is a bit of an accomplishment. But still, better late than never is a good saying, and very true. Welcome to the opposition!
Yes I can do that . I read Roberts regularly but lets call a spade a spade.
Its a standard American technique to seize on one or two things from a person’s past and then to relentlessly attack the person for that.
There was probably a point in our lives when I was marching in protest in Washington against the Reagan administration and in favor of the No-Nukes movement, while Mr. Roberts was probably looking out of a window at the US Treasury and cursing us as a bunch of dang hippies. And I also disagree with Mr. Roberts on most of what he currently writes about Putin and the way Russia treats relations with the USA.
But, I do still recognize that Mr. Roberts is a very useful critic of general American policies, especially in the financial areas where he is expert. I am quite happy to see him on this list.
Well said.
Tom Welsh – agreed.
As many of us see in most of our acquaintances, it’s nearly impossible to overcome the propaganda we’ve grown up with, and one’s current understanding is much more important than one’s position decades ago.
Saul of Tarsus effectively demonstrated that.
Vuki, Criticizing politicians is fair game. However, in the case of Milosevic , PCR has actually supported him:
“Are the false war criminal charges brought against former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic an example of the fake news that google is going to suppress? Every Western presstitute, the corrupt Clinton regime, and Washington’s servile European puppet states demonized the innocent Milosevic as a war criminal and sent him off to The Hague to be tried by the War Crimes Tribunal. Milosevic died, or was murdered, in his cell while awaiting the verdict. The Tribunal pronounced him “not guilty,” and now eleven years after his death has again found him not guilty. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/12/07/hague-tribunal-exonerates-slobodan-milosevic-again.html”
Personally, I am not a fan of Milosevic, so it is far more meaningful to me that PCR has been outspoken about the unjust attack on our people, our country, our civilian infrastructure.
I therefore I think he is a great choice for Saker person of the year.
No problem everyone is entitled to change their mind. When the bombs were falling he was supporting the bombers while Herman and Peterson were not and neither did UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Lord David Owen, General Michael Rose, Canadian General Lewis MacKenzie and the British joint intelligence committee. He ignored the Rambouillet Diktat , Tokaca statistics, Spanish conclusions on Srebrenica and many others. If Milosevich was responsible why were Muslims and Croats fleeing for safety to Serbia from Bosnia. Milosevic was guilty of one thing and that is attempting to protect the unity of Yugoslavia. Cheney the US war criminal once said “we create reality which you are now discussing and that will be quickly forgotten as we have moved on to create new realities”.
I totaly agree with your assessment of P. C.Roberts actions in participating in furthering US hegemony upon the earth,
And for those past actions they are between he and the Creator.
He rose up to a position of wealth through aiding the growth of US belligerance upon worlds militarily and economicly poor until he reached a level that those once supporters and the PTB said he was not and could not be any longer of use to them,
And while today he but points of the extremes of American system he is but a part of the “Loyal Opposition” and remains within that same system, not outside of it.
Vuki,
All of us commenting here had our “epiphany moment” at some point in our lives. Paul Craig Roberts is no different. In the 1999 blockbuster, The Matrix, you have the famous “What if I told you” dialogue between Morpheus and Nero. The key to escaping virtual reality referred to as The Matrix, is to choose between a “blue pill”, which allows the character to continue living in ignorance of their status, and the “red pill”, which wakes the character up to their true condition. That condition is invariably far less compelling than the life of comforting illusions he left behind.
I would have liked to see the late William Blum (1933-2018) on Saker’s list above. Apparently he had his “red pill” moment in the mid-1960s, long before most of us.
We need to re-read “The Mask of Anarchy:” Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester
By Percy Bysshe Shelley to see that not much has changed.
‘Horses, oxen, have a home,
When from daily toil they come;
Household dogs, when the wind roars,
Find a home within warm doors.’
http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/PShelley/anarchy.html
Yes Blum would be a good choice
Thank you Saker for this list. I also thank you for even noting the great Solzhenitsyn in you article. I just read his Harvard speech. I was floored. I suggest all to read it.
I second that, a great article all round. That Bobby Sands knew what he was doing.
Thanks, Saker.
Journalist praising journalists, Hollywood actors praising other Hollywood actors. Nothing new, follow the money trade.
Dear Saker, dear readers,
I have so much respect and admiration for the four people mentioned in this article.
As someone in my late 30s, I am wondering how are these people attacked or made to pay for being truth seekers on a daily basis by others in their country ? So what is the price they have to pay for being honest and speaking out the truth ?
Also these people are either in retirement age or near retirement age. How are people that are more younger in the West able or encouraged to become truth speakers like the people mentioned above ? How do younger people actively speak out without losing their jobs, effecting their families, etc. ? Is their perhaps a certain strategy one can follow, like being self-employed, etc. ?
Here an interesting recent interview with Dimitri Orlov:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8oHtd7An4MI#
Harry_Red, yes, there are younger people but the style is different. Check out for example Lee Camp with his show, Redacted Tonight. https://www.youtube.com/user/redactedtonight
You will find those on youtube and on RT.
Check out Abby Martin … a documentary maker and good artist. You can follow her work from her twitter feed: https://twitter.com/empirefiles?lang=en
Take a look at Luke Rudkowski from WeAreChange (some controversy but nowadays the real story) https://www.youtube.com/user/wearechange
That is quick off the top of my head – there may be more.
Good selection you’ve made . I would like to add to that Jimmy Dore, who in the last 2 years has built a following because of his ability to explain events by exposing the lies and obfuscations in a unique way. He only does youtube and covers a broad range of topics. His background is a comedian and occasionally uses salty language though I notice he has tamed down quite a bit in the past few months Most of his shows are less than 30 minutes and are on recent topics. Here is what I think is one of his best…. and it speaks to the failure of the MSM as only Jimmy can present it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O2TRzA2ezk I will add that I also follow PCR’s and Prof. Cohen.
Caitlin Johnstone is another young, strong voice of dissension through prose and poetry on her website! Love these choices too Saker.
very nice list – would have included “S-300 man” – whoever got those sent in response to the shoot down
I guess technically he is not at a “labor camp”, but he has definitely spent most of his life in an American Prison.
Mumia Abu Jamal
American political prisoner, associated with the MOVE movement in Philadelphia which holds an apparent distinction as being the American dissident group to be officially aerially bombed by the American government.
His life is currently under threat even though he’s been removed (officially) from death row since he is denied proper medical treatment.
http://www.freemumia.com/who-is-mumia-abu-jamal/
And of course, we have the documented assassination of political dissident Fred Hampton.
https://www.democracynow.org/2014/12/4/watch_the_assassination_of_fred_hampton
A part of what America does is to try to make the world forget the crimes it has committed. The above is a very incomplete list quickly compiled.
For all the empty talk about freedom of speech, diversity, pluralism and the like, the sad truth is that the USA is not a democracy, but a rather authoritarian plutocracy with strongly expressed elements of a totalitarian regime. True, nobody (that I know of) got sent to a labor camp (yet!) or shot in a cellar (yet!) for daring to speak up to power, but we must also remember the joke which says that “a totalitarian regime is one that commands you to “shut up!” whereas a liberal democracy simply says “keep talking!“.
You could add Michael Hastings to this list of honorees, who was known for his critical articles on Gen. Stanley McChrystal, America’s wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and the National Security Agency … but he is dead, killed in a curious car “accident.”
And you could also add Gary North to the list, who wrote about American involvement in the Latin drug trade, which led to the crack cocaine epidemic in US inner cities. But he is also dead from a “suicide.”
The point is, yes, the Land of the Free persecutes journalists and dissidents and probably kills them. But it is able to get away with them by disguising state-sponsored assassinations as accidents, suicides, etc al.
In fact, you could argue that the real dissidents in the USA end up dead (like Hastings); or in exile (like CIA whistle-blower Phillip Agee and Black Panther Assata Shakur in Cuba); or imprisoned (like Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Geronimo Pratt, or Dhoruba Bin Wahad).
Let us not forget them down the American MemoryHole.
Also, check out the history of the US government’s COINTELPRO operation, which (officially) lasted throughout much of the Cold War as part of America’s war on dissent–even as the it claimed to be fighting “Communist totalitarianism” in this same time period!
FBI COINTELPRO: The U.S. Governement’s War Against DIssent
https://www.noi.org/cointelpro/
https://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/Black%20Liberation%20Disk/Black%20Power!/SugahData/Government/COINTELPRO.S.pdf
The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States
https://www.amazon.com/COINTELPRO-Papers-Documents-Against-Classics/dp/0896086488
Agents of Repression: The FBI’s Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement
https://www.amazon.com/Agents-Repression-Against-American-Movement/dp/0896082938/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=P6M06DCV3G5WBVFV5M2C
Well, The Saker might be right that nobody as yet has been sent to a US labor camp, but I would like to remind him that years ago FEMA has indeed built such camps, to be used in case of a national emergency, like the collapse of the dollar or huge social unrest.
For Man of the Year, I vote for Dr Paul Craig Roberts. I do not always agree with his analysis of the situation in Russia, but his analysis of the situation in the West has been first class. Also, he has a very broad mind. Pity not all Americans are like this. I suppose this has something to do with the fact that he is a southern gentleman.
I was once concerned about the alleged FEMA “concentration camps”. The maps of their locations around the United States was easily available. I was surprised to find one located about 50 miles from my present home in Missouri, near a town in Arkansas where I once lived. I drove to the area where the FEMA camp was supposedly located and spent a day driving around exploring this semi rural area. What I found was only a small two room FEMA office in the small downtown area. Those old FEMA fear stories, like the one about “hundreds of railroad boxcars with guilotines waiting in railroad sidings to kill dissidents” were just right wing fear “porn”. During several of the terrible hurricanes in Mississippi and Louisiana, FEMA supplied many hundreds, if not thousands, of trailer/homes to house hurricane victims who lost their homes. The federal government apparently has no FEMA camps to put the immigrants in at the southern border. If I remember correctly, they were poorly housing children in empty WalMart stores. I’m a dissident but don’t expect to be dragged off kicking and screaming to any FEMA camp. That story has about the same “truth” as the stories we Americans hear that “Putin is a monster”.
Barry
Debatable. I have even seen photographs of these FEMA camps, including heaps of plastic coffins to be used in case of an emergency.
Bravo Dear Saker!
Us Orthodox love a book called Prologue of Orchid, and in the current readings they talk about righteous Lot being led out of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was the only righteous guy there, and the angels of God led him and his family out. I truly think that God is sparing the West from a nuclear holocaust because of the righteous praying here. I think the righteous are few today, but there still are some.
I thank God for you, PCR and Professor Cohen. I view the group of you as the prophet Jonah calling out to the Ninevites (the West).
May the good and gracious God who is about to be born (Christmas!) have mercy on us and the rest of the west. May we heed the call of the prophets and come to our senses!
For those of you who are harsh towards PCR I say “calm down”. I have many relatives who were stuck in the Matrix their whole lives, and they are just beginning to see the light. From 9/11 to the current facist Anglo Zionist Empire people are beginning to wake up, but it is a slow process. The Saker is right that the media propaganda machine is SO STRONG most people are deluded. But, they are waking up, AND If each of us can wake 5 to 10 people up around us it will make a difference.
Case in point to the above – I was having drinks with a friend the other day. We talked about a potential war with Russia. My friend (a high school teacher) said “Going to war with Russia would be the worst thing that ever happen to them as the United States would kick their asses.” After choking on my beer I explained to him for the next 30 minutes how insane a war against Russia would be, and I talked about all their new weapon systems and capabilities. I also explained about what really happened in World War 2. I think most American people (like my friend) have no clue – they grew up playing video games and have been told that the American soldier will kill anyone (search Call of Duty video game). We are the best, we invincible, etc. etc. We all need to do our part to wake up people like my friend.
Love to all!
I’m sorry, it was a genuine question: Why is Andrei Martynov scathing of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn?
That you need to ask Andrei, not me :-)
The Saker
@Martynov scathing of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Probably out of prudence. Don’t forget where is he speaking from.
D’oh! Don’t I feel daft. Sorry.
E
“Andrei Martynov scathing of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn?”
Where? I’m curious what he was wrote.
Check his blog http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/ and his contributions at the Unz Review.
http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2018/10/first-order-of-business.html
“Solzhenitsyn stole many things, such as massive parts of his GULAG Archipelago being a direct steal from Varlam Shalamov’s diaries, which Shalamov categorically forbade to be exposed to Solzhenitsyn–he knew already then what “Genius of the First Spit” would do. But the truth is, before a humanistic and noble idea of preservation of Russian people was, as always wrongly, attributed to Solzhenitsyn, just couple hundred years before him a true Russian genius Mikhailo Vasilievich Lomonosov wrote his famous treatise On Preservation and Procreation Of Russian People. So, can we stop finally crediting a shallow mediocrity and plagiarizer as a writer and an ambitious falsifier of Russian history Solzhenitsyn with things which were simply beyond the grasp of his feeble mind? If the trend continues, who knows, somebody will credit him, in the end, with invention of the wheel and writing War and Peace.”
Growing up and going to school in Canada we were inundated with propaganda that they called education. Pictures of Russian women in our school books never showed the likes of Maria Sharapova. I visited Russia with a group of students and on our return through Helsinki we were treated to a huge banquet of fruit, dairy products, and everything under the sun which even a sixteen year old could see was an attempt to tell us look how bad things were in Russia. In our school books Marx’s writings were ignored and not studied and if mentioned the ideology was blamed for anti colonialism rather than blaming colonialism and its exploitation of the underdeveloped world. When workers rebelled or demanded rights this was followed by huge anti Communism campaign begins which in reality was nothing more than an anti union campaign. Democratic socialism was equated with dictatorship and anyone supporting Socialist views was labelled a commie love.
McCarthy Witch Hunts attacked anyone who questioned o promoted democracy. Books such as Animal Farm, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovic, George Orwell’s 1984 required reading disguised as novel study in English classes at school. Hollywood movies and TV was inundated with anti Soviet propaganda such as I Spied for the FBI, Rocky IV , Dr. Strangelove and hundreds of others.. Our education was nothing more than indoctrination.
Shalamov is the real fiction writer about the GULAG. He was glamorized in the West specifically to oppose him to Solzhenitsyn (he was also a Trotskyist), whose guilt is that he wrote “200 years…” and the “Red Wheel” cycle, books banned in the West, because he points the finger at the real perpetrators of the ‘Revolution’. You can’t expect a writer who wants to see his books published expressing any appreciation for Solzhenitsyn. It would be a carrier killer.
vot tak
I was referring to his truly excellent book, which the Saker put me onto when he reviewed it. I highly recommend it. There are some passages, however, that are over my head, about the various dissidents post war. Also, as an aside, he touches on the current state of research on the body count in Stalinist times. Even with the archives briefly opened, scholars have been coming up with markedly different accounts. Andrei Martynov gives a couple of good references. My rusty Russian precludes further research. (It is startling how bookshops here in the UK stock only propaganda masquerading as history. I only noticed quite how prevalent the problem is when I read a few rightly dismissive comments by the Saker about Western “scholarship”. I have yet to find a proper alternative.)
EM
Thanks for the reply.
“you end up calling mentally deranged freaks “ze/zir/zee/etc” and the like”
It’s not necessary. English has full powers to describe all combinations namely ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’ or sheit when all are merged together.
Chris Hedges should have been among them. His analyses are right to the point. This kind of American journalist you rarely see, he is a gem.
B
Have you seen this piece:
The Film the Israel Lobby Does Not Want You to See
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-film-the-israel-lobby-does-not-want-you-to-see/
One of those articles one wishes every English speaker read, and was translated into every other language so everyone else could read it. The same regarding the film he talked about – “The Lobby”.
Yes I saw that one, both the film and the piece. He is very clever, just in case a lazy reader is not willing to see the film, he literally dedicates more than half of his piece to the direct quotes from the film. He is an ideal leftist in my eyes, not embroiled in identity or gender politics, an anti-corporatist. He is down to the point when saying that the Democrats are actually central rightists now, and Republicans are wandering at far-right corners. A very good interview of him can be found:
https://theintercept.com/2018/11/07/chris-hedges-on-elections-christian-fascists-and-the-rot-within-the-american-system/
How good is this analysis of him about alt-right movement?
One hell of a dedicated journalism on Al Jazeera side by the way. Another name that comes to mind is Jeremy Scahill. These kinds of journalists truly leave their colleagues in MSM in shame.
“Her show Guns and Butter was one of the most interesting and original radio show ever and for a lone while it was truly the flagship of the Pacifica Public Radio Networks. Bonnie, one of the very best interviewers of our times, regularly invited fascinating and unique guests and conducted wonderful, open-ended, and absolutely fascinating interviews with them. Then Bonnie committed her first “crime”: she dared to doubt the official 9/11 fairy tale. This *almost* got her banned the first time around. Then Bonnie did something even “worse” – she did not buy into the entire official “Putin is a monster” cum “the Russians did it” fairly tale. Even worse, crime of crimes, Bonnie has now been officially labeled a “Holocaust denier” by KPFA General Manager. For all these “crimes” her show was simply terminated (until Ron Unz decided to host it on the Unz Review!). The most sickening part of it all is that Bonnie got censored by those who desperately try to impersonate some kind of “progressive” movement whereas in reality they are just your garden variety intolerant russophobic Trotskyists hiding under a new cloak of pseudo-liberalism.”
Back in the 70s I was an irregular listener to kpfa, mostly their excellent nightly news then. During the 80s and first half of the 90s, I was a regular listener. The quality of their news and other programming declined throughout that later period. Mainly due to an individual named david salnicker and the zionazi-gay sewage he brought with him to pacifica.
They gradually converted a very useful community resource into another zionazi divide and disillusion psywar tool, like the rest of their media propaganda machine. The 1970s Pacifica was cutting edge, now it is npr/democracy now.
who is Cassandra?
Hey!
Check out Krista Wolf’s novel of that name. It’s a fictional biography of the Trojan prophetess who warned not to take in that wooden horse.
She is a priestess of Apollo in Greek mythology. She is cursed with being able to see the future but never being believed by anybody. Now next you look up my nick name :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra
Real heros! Real leaders!
Happen to be reading The Old Testament and (in french Les Actes des Apotres) and these people are following the traces of the prophet Jeremye or Saul(Paul). Quite inspiring indeed.
Harfang67
Since we’re talking people who impress and your candidates of 2018 are “All Stars” I’d like to suggest an Honorable Mention to Caitlin Johnstone. She’s a truth teller and she’s fearless. Someone to reference and to read. A simple search should find her blog.
Best for 2019!
X-spex
I thought Chris Hedges was an easy choice. Why didn’t you?
Also an excellent choice would be Jeremy Scahill.
And Caitlin Johnstone is fearless and prolific.
I totally agree with your choice for dissident of year 2018. Including you, they are all heroes to me. I am sure there are many people in the US who wish you all end up like Kashogui or at least like Assange or Snowden. Keep up the wonderful job
It is so refreshing to find an article written by someone not lost to the sea of ignorance, hostility, and near illiteracy that has made life in most of Western Civilization, and especially the part of it that I live in, the United States, much like being in an inescapable madhouse. Our leadership seems to revel in inflicting violence upon people everywhere motivated solely by unbounded evil. Our population, for the most part, seems indifferent to everything having any significance with respect to even their own well being, let alone the effect for generations to come. Every day when my work is done I look for Paul Craig Roberts’ articles, and those whose articles are listed in the footnotes. There, and in the small group of people that I belong to whose goal it is to restore constitutional government, and at least as much honesty as possible in government, I can escape for a few moments of truth amid the sea of lies that has prevailed over truth for longer than I care to remember. I was born in 1933, was schooled, have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, but consider myself to be self educated. I’m sure that most who now still have a respect for truth, besides being schooled, are of necessity, self educated as well. All of you, including the presenter, are worthy of the highest degree of praise for your efforts to bring truth to light about the den of iniquity that seems poised to overcome all decency or simply end all life as by the wrath of God.
Very fitting Mr. Saker.
I started out listening to Dr. Roberts back in 2007 mostly in the progressive blog space. Always at the forefront of reason and truth, a hero of mine too. I have been reading ever since.
America is now a weird place to be. People are being sent to jail. (Butina from Russia and Meng from China) Even during the Bush W years, I can’t recall this level of intellectual rigidity. It’s a whole new level of censorship (and self-censorship) being leveled at anyone who doesn’t tow the neo-liberal/neo conservative line hawking for war.
Unspeakable levels of evil are leading us to the possibility nuclear war and the average Joe six pack doesn’t even speak of it in public.
A call to arms; a call to tend to the tree of liberty; a challenge for us all, and to the powers that be . . .
Wondering now, what are the actionable/tangible threats to the tyrant state? — the ones that result only, in a speedy compliance: denouncement, dishonor, and death; but not likely, in that exact order. From this blog, must agree that the principle threat of Russia, is not other than ‘civilizational’: as a distinct model of another way to life; one that directly confronts and undermines this particular ‘Gomorrah’ — however satisfied we yet may be — hence the ongoing discrediting attacks; hence the open deceptive deceit perpetrating against us Americans personally — as the potential purveyors of truth — as to the principle underlying motive for this ‘hybrid’ style of warring.
Populist rings a bell. Other posters have said as much, and Sands was certainly of this category ultimately. But why is populism an active threat; and not likewise the discontented, or disenfranchised, or deeply despairing detractors (Oh, my)? Why is a contrapositive populist a threat, and the unpopular contrarian is not? Is it because actions speak louder than words; and the words needn’t always be right, as long as the spirit is engaging? It seems this very question speaks to our most inner, passionate nature as men . . . and then ultimately, begs the question: what indeed do we live for?
Pat Buchanan has also been good. A consistent critic of US military adventurism.
Check this list…
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-wtpA2NomEj35bbVe1-iHX7rt4YzahPINm5w9A-SkcQ/edit#gid=0
It doesn’t look as if this has been posted hear yet ….
“Honor Beyond Honor” by Paul Craig Roberts
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/12/14/honor-beyond-honor/
“The Saker just bestowed the highest, placing me in the company of Stephen Cohen, Bonnie Faulker, and Ron Unz. Talking about knowledge, integrity, and courage, the world has never seen the like of it.
The Saker himself is a remarkable personage. He deserves Person of the Year himself.”
Roberts is a Trump apologist and recently joined the Climate Change Alarmist parade.
My list includes Ron Unz, Michael Hudson, David Griffin , Ed Asner, William Engdahl and Judy Mikovitch
As a lover and admirer of poetry itself, but I much more admire the minds of the few that write poetry that enlightens the hearts, minds, and souls of man, and this Sands poem is one of those rare examples.
I care not one whit of politics and those who participate, nor for those who today profess to be messengers of Hod.; nor do I care a whit anout those who worship a flage or natoonalism of “My Country Right or Wrong.
Nor do I care about those who worship at the alters of Genrals and soldiers heroic hero warriors All. that that have lost their conscience ability to distingiish between Right or Wrong, as they personally commit acts of death and destruction.
Those I care most for are the few that speak of truth as fact and are if afraid or not have the inner conscience that demands of their self to Honor their conviction to free other of mankinds souls, and speak out.
Left out in those I most care about is that of my and others decemdents futures, and not of any personal ability to reach greatess of written words, expressions through art or vocal presentations I save those expressions ofvothers and pass them on through my own decendents.
Who knows but some day within a future darkness, they may welll have the ability to enlighten mankind.
I thank all those who have enriched my life by their Homorinh Truths.
I would like to add William Blum to the list. A great anti-imperialist who died recently. I’ll miss his emails in my inbox.
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2018/12/14/oliver-stone-remembers-anti-imperialist-journalist-william-blum-chronicler-of-cia-crimes/?fbclid=IwAR24trwp1aSDCzBCg_YS264p7ZGZCLtHArbeIkgnrk5n9EgbUo7sXaB0rBs
Gods mercy eh! I don’t think I will ever be that fortunate. I don’t believe anyway so if there is one IT wont be kind to me for that fact alone. there is of course much more.
sufficient as that may be I never expected the Saker to be in the man of the year sweepstakes..an elitist thing in my estimation. interesting!
However I do respect PCR and UNZ greatly..their contributions to the general understanding of truth and the progressive perspective sound and large
Thank you Mr Saker.
Dr. PCR is a fine analyst & commentator, I subscribe to his brave but pessimistic site.
He has one curious blind spot: the global warming/climate change fraud.
I say curious because this was the scam that woke me up.
For a start there’s been no significant warming for over 20 years, which is,of course, why the fraudstars changed to climate change: a totally safe bet as the climate is always changing. “Yeah, for about 4.5 billion years”, as Buzz Aldrin correctly said.
Climatologist Dr. Tim Ball reveals all & names names in his little gem of a book:
Human Caused Global Warming, The Biggest Deception In History
Only 121 pages.
He exposes the Bankster Rockefellers & their multibillionaire cronies as the main culprits. George Soros, Ted Turner & Maurice Strong, & many more. & their evil motives.
I cannot recommend this book too highly.
Website: http://www.drtimball.com
John Doran.
Do you mean Dim Tim?
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Tim_Ball
I can only subscribe to The Saker choice of personalities for his award. Those persons do really lead in a way or another the resistance to the empire.
Outside the anglo world, we do have in France some very influential dissidents, but whose work is only in french. The most prominent would be Alain Soral, leader of the “Egalité et Reconciliation” association he created, who:
– is forbidden in all medias
– has seen his Facebook, instagram etc accounts closed
– has seen the Facebook, instagram etc accounts of his organization closed
– is de facto denied the right to have a bank account (as well as his organization)
– has been expelled from paypal and other electronic payments means
– is regularly condemned to heavy fines for publications on his internet site
– has been condemned to various jail sentences for publications on his internet site, still pending
– has seen his family threatened
– has been physically beaten various time, and lives with a bodyguard
https://www.egaliteetreconciliation.fr/
The two Americas, Latin and South and also Cuba have now had Bolton’s gauntlets’ strike.
“Evildoers” are rabid and cannot get well.
The named “heros” are definately lodestars for all we the genes of altruism.
Those whom are the worst of our species do not have higher consciousness.
Expect the “new middle east wars without end” to continue in the other two Americas and Cuba too. How else to keep the boots stepping on the once called LIBERTY, an “enlightenment”?!
Indeed critical mass criminally insane.
GREAT CHOICES!!
Listen to almost any 5 min segment of Ian Masters, the CIA’s geriatric at Pacifica, given full drive-time blare every weekday at 6pm on Pacifica KPFK, and you will come to understand who runs Pacifica, complete with their “mystery” donors :-) and Hyman Minsky’s son.
Its literally hate-speech, as they pathetically trip over themselves for breadcrumbs.
– Shyaku
Your premise is incorrect! Western dissidents are tortured frequently for life, and then killed if they cannot be convinced to kill themselves, or the country they live and work in so hard cannot be convinced to kill the dissidents as a favour to the all-power US/UK Deep States. I know this as, at a finally healthy 82 years, still writing daily, I have lived through the top secret FBI, J. Edgar Hoover file on me the year my first son was born in 1960. Hoover, at the time was an old, very powerful ,very gay man who became 100% carefully corrupted by his own before he died. Our most famous writer comes to mind who finally did (or may have) kill himself after years of incisive examination how to produce his self annihilation, The Old Man of the Sea was just about the last articulate gem he gave all of us.
Saker, the World Socialist Website of the Socialist Equity Party are indeed Trotskyites. Whether you agree with them or not politically, they are definitely not Russophobic.
Would like to see an essay on the Financial policies of National Socialism.