Consortium News piece on the Administration's promises of transparency

[marmar]

Though President Obama promised “transparency” and “openness,” he has slipped so far from those goals that some wonder how many sides of his mouth he can speak through. He has surely not broken from the longstanding pattern of presidential deceits that have eroded the Republic, as Jason Hirthler writes.

By Jason Hirthler


If the American public knew what was being perpetrated in its name, it might put an end to the slow-motion coup d’état of the United States by corporate wealth. But it is kept in the shadows, pinioned by a harness of half-truths that underwrite its ignorance and enable its indifference.

The public will likely remain in this state until it hears the whole truth, and not the abridged version peddled by an unscrupulous administration, its Pavlovian Cabinet, our obsequious Congress, and the sycophant media (those dutiful court stenographers of state power). Until this confederacy of knaves is exposed at scale, the Janus-faced narrative streaming from the lips of the Commander-in-Chief — whomever he or she may be — will neither change nor falter. Ringing in a New Year will not matter.

Let’s take a look at a few of the key storylines in foreign policy. Note how each is fundamentally incomplete. Key facts are elided. Context is erased. Ulterior motives buried. American action is thus cast in the lambent light of good intentions. From the administration’s standpoint, the fundamental goal of selective storytelling is to portray offensive acts of aggression as defensive acts of nobility, the backbone of the myth of American exceptionalism.

Defending Ukrainian Sovereignty

Perhaps the story of the year in 2014 was Ukraine. President Barack Obama has roamed the world declaiming on the sacred rights of our dear Ukrainian friends in Kiev. As Obama has it, these freedom-loving patriots have suffered multiple injustices this past year: When their former Crimean province endured the indignity of annexation by the Russian bear. When they were forced to bravely face down a savage uprising in the East — where Moscow infected the people with failed ideas and false hopes.

.....(snip).....

Maybe our values were once noble, and perhaps those of the average American still are, but the government has long veered off on a path of its own, its habitués corrupted by the clichés of power, empowering cronies for all manner of criminality. For peace, they’ve substituted violence. For transparency, intrigue. For economic equality, lawful pillage. For consensus, conclave. For participation, exclusion. For representation, a price tag. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: https://consortiumnews.com/2015/01/09/obamas-narrative-of-deceits/

[xchrom]

1. du rec.

[msanthrope]

2. "Obama's Narrative of Deceits" defending both Russia and North Korea. Written by a

guy who likes to call the President "The Chosen One?" (which I've only seen on winger sites, fyi.)

What.....was the RT website down?

[marmar]

3. "What.....was the RT website down?"

What brilliant (and not at all tired) repartee.

[msanthrope]

5. Seriously---did you miss the North Korean defense? You agree with a writer who uses the racist

"The Chosen One" with regards to the President? That is a fit source?

And tell us why you didn't use the actual article title????????

[marmar]

6. Do you have anything to add about the lack of transparency?

Or is this just the standard deflection tactic?

[msanthrope]

7. You know, you seem to have it backwards here....first, an OP should post a credible source, and THEN

expect that the readership of DU will give them the courtesy of debate.

Are you honestly suggesting that a writer who uses the racist term "The Chosen One" is worthy of my time?

[marmar]

8. Consortium News is quite the credible source. A healthy portion of the "readership" of DU knows that

I don't really know what you consider worthy of your time. And I get the feeling that "debate" isn't the primary objective here, but whatever.

[msanthrope]

9. Your writer, who has used the racist "The Chosen One" is not credible. And why did you obscure the

article's title?

Finally--the defense of North Korea in this article is simply mind boggling, and frankly, worthy of only one banned troll DUer---Hannah Bell.

[nationalize the fed]

10. +1

Consortium News is quite the credible source

Yup- especially when compared to the crap that spews forth from the likes of MSNBC, CNN, FOX etc.

And I get the feeling that "debate" isn't the primary objective here

More and more of this. Divert, focus on the messenger not the message etc.

“how shall I manage a case where both the law and the facts are dead against me?” “In that case,” replied the old lawyer, “talk around it, and the worse it is, the harder you pound the table”

As Robert Parry and his website go under the bus--

Robert Parry is an American investigative journalist best known for his role in covering the Iran-Contra affair for the Associated Press (AP) and Newsweek, including breaking the Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare (CIA manual provided to the Nicaraguan contras) and the CIA and Contras cocaine trafficking in the US scandal in 1985. He was awarded the George Polk Award for National Reporting in 1984. He has been the editor of Consortium News since 1995.

One day the only sources allowed will be the ones that never ever tell the truth. Soon maybe.

[msanthrope]

13. Robert Parry's Consortium News is a regular on Alex Jones' Infowars....

http://www.infowars.com/whistleblower-u-s-satellite-images-show-ukrainian-troops-shooting-down-mh17/

Like I said--I guess the RT website was down....

[FSogol]

14. Consortium News is NOT a credible source.

PS. I'm completely healthy.

[Doctor_J]

11. Hillary and GWB and I think JEB have been called The Chosen One on DU

Your claim that it is some sort of racist code is idiotic. Consortium News is one of the few unbiased sources for news on the internet. Have you read Perry's writings on the Bush crime family??

Your passionate love for the president seems to have taken you out of reality and into some fantasy land.

[msanthrope]

12. You are conflating DU posters with professional writers. Which professsional writer uses The Chosen

One? Wingnuts....that's who.

Who the hell is Perry?

[msanthrope]

4. Here's where your source defends Syria's use of chemical weapons.....

http://www.countercurrents.org/ziabari210913.htm