Propaganda and the Engineering of Consent for Empire

Posted on June 7, 2016 by abby

It’s been estimated that an average American living in cities sees up to 4,000 ads a day. This toxic culture of mindless consumption exploits our innermost insecurities and desire to meet impossible standards. The corporate PR machine is enormously successful due to model created by a man named Edward Bernays nearly a century ago.

The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays is considered the father of modern propaganda, or public relations. An Austrian aristocrat, Bernays first contribution to the United States was helping President Woodrow Wilson sell the idea of World War I as a noble mission to spread democracy in Europe. In order to create the engineering of consent, Bernays argued, you must appeal to the unconscious mind.

And on behalf of numerous corporate clients, Bernays helped perfect the tools of manipulation and conditioning that are used today. To understand more about the history of propaganda and the collusion between the U.S. Empire and the fourth estate, Abby Martin sits down with Professor of Media Studies at NY University, Mark Crispin Miller, who wrote the intro to the new edition of Bernays 1928 seminal book, Propaganda.

Propaganda and the Engineering of Consent for Empire with Mark Crispin Miller

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Used & Betrayed – 100 Years of US Troops as Lab Rats

Posted on May 27, 2016 by abby

On Memorial Day, politicians will speak at ceremonies all over the country and repeat their favorite mantra: “Support the troops.”

This pledge is hammered into the American psyche at every turn. But there’s a hidden, dark history that shows that the politicians are in fact no friend to service members–but their greatest enemy.

An easy way to prove this is to look at how they so quickly betray and abandon their soldiers after purposely ruining their lives, and even after using them as literal lab rats.

In this disturbing chapter of The Empire Files, Abby Martin documents decades of experimentation on unwitting US troops—from nuclear tests to psychotropic drugs—as well as knowingly exposing them to deadly poisons, from Agent Orange to sarin gas.

Most infuriating is that the hundreds of thousands of veterans seeking help from the government for the side-effects of these tests are always met with lies and denial. Be prepared to be armed with info and pissed off about how veterans are really treated in the US Empire.

Used & Betrayed: 100 Years of US Troops as Lab Rats

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Hillary Clinton’s Business of Corporate Shilling & War Making

Posted on April 29, 2016 by abby

As the circus of the 2016 presidential election grinds on, Hillary Clinton has posited herself as the candidate of the people. But not many “candidates of the people” have vacation homes in the Hamptons that cost $200,000 per month, or hang out with the world’s billionaires.

It’s hard to know who she is really–while once being a proponent of Donald Trump type positions, like building a wall at the Mexican border, supporting torture, and opposing same-sex marriage until 2013, today she presents herself as the anti-Trump, anti-Republican candidate.

There’s been a lot of outrage about the impression that the establishment has already anointed her as the Democratic nominee, and has carved out her path to the presidency.

But like in 2008, her guaranteed seat on the throne is being derailed by the unpredictable moods of the masses, and millions of young progressive voters. She continues to play her shape shifting game, morphing her positions to try to capture the support for her opponent, but the real Hillary is still inside.

In fact, every layer of Hillary’s career shows why, far from being a candidate of the people, she’s the top pick by corporations to do the real job of any US president: CEO of the Empire.

Digging deep into Hillary’s connections to Wall Street, Abby Martin reveals how the Clinton’s multi-million-dollar political machine operates. This episode of The Empire Files chronicles the Clinton’s rise to power in the 90s on a right-wing agenda, the Clinton Foundation’s revolving door with Gulf state monarchies, corporations and the world’s biggest financial institutions, and the establishment of the hyper-aggressive “Hillary Doctrine” while Secretary of State.

Abby Martin Exposes What Hillary Clinton Really Represents

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How the World Runs on Looting the Congo

Posted on April 29, 2016 by abby

KIDS MINING

Ten years ago, the US Empire honed its sights more intently on a profitable region of the world–the continent it once ravaged as a captain of the slave trade.

A new massive military command, AFRICOM was born. Its footprint includes an array of drone bases, camps and compounds, carrying out the American tradition of training and arming proxy militaries responsible for flagrant human rights abuses, and a variety of black ops. Far from a low-intensity war on the continent, AFRICOM averages several missions every single day.

Every Empire has longed for ownership of Africa for the same reason: it’s unimaginable treasure of minerals and raw materials. Much of that buried wealth is concentrated in Africa’s south, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Taking into account it’s untapped minerals, it’s considered the richest country in the world, with reserves worth $24 trillion dollars. The DRC has 10% of the world’s copper, 30% of the world’s diamonds, and 70% of the world’s coltan. And it produces over 50% of the world’s cobalt.

Among Congolese who literally risk their lives working in cobalt mines, tens of thousands are children, working 12 hours a day for one dollar. Paying local militias to illegally dig, Western mining giants make millions off this criminal, enterprise, including Adastra Minerals and Bechtel Incorporated.

On this episode of The Empire Files, Abby Martin is joined by Kambale Musavuli, spokesperson for Friends of the Congo, to look at the DRC’s resource curse and how empires have pillaged the region for over a century.

How the World Runs on Looting the Congo

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Pres. Candidate Dr. Jill Stein & Abby Martin – Symptoms of a Sick Society

Posted on April 29, 2016 by abby

Although the US Empire deems itself the greatest democracy on earth, its election system is rigged so people are given a choice between only two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans.

Despite their differences, both are united around the interests of Wall Street and militarism, working to maintain a system that churns out disaster at home and abroad. Restrictive ballot access, bias corporate media coverage, and pay-to-play campaigns all let this two party dictatorship put a stranglehold on the process by making it nearly impossible for third parties to run.

Having evolved from a coalition of left wing groups in 1984, the Green Party provides one alternative to the status quo, with a program of social and ecological justice. Since 2012, Dr. Jill Stein has spearheaded the party’s presidential campaign–fighting to establish a bottom up movement for real change. While practicing medicine she authored critical scientific studies about environmental toxicity. Witnessing a broken medical system, she became a community advocate for just and equal health care.

In 2002, Stein ran against Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney under the Green Party ticket. She continued to elevate in local government until being chosen to run as the Green Party nominee in the most impossible election of all–president of the united states.

Because the media establishment keeps third-party candidates hidden from all election coverage, I sat down with Dr. Stein to find out why her voice is such a threat.

Presidential Candidate Dr. Jill Stein & Abby Martin – Symptoms of a Sick Society

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WATCH // YouTube.com/EmpireFiles