MEDIA ROOTS– In George Orwell’s 1984, Britain is depicted as a totalitarian police state that is ruled by the Party, or Big Brother– an enigmatic, ubiquitous elite that controls society through heavy surveillance, nationalist propaganda and historical revisionism. The concept seems like a far-fetched portrayal of a Democratic nation’s demise into totalitarianism, but in America’s “post 9/11” climate of fear, the United States government has been building a comprehensive grid of surveillance and control that bears frightening similarities to Orwell’s fictional narrative.

The glaring difference between the two is that Orwell’s dystopian society is overtly totalitarian. America, conversely, operates under a “soft fascism” – an insidious, systematic method of preventative action and corporate top-down control over society’s media, economy and politics – while maintaining the necessary illusion of personal choice and freedom. A populous with little to no concept of their subjugation makes them the perfect subjects to rule.

Many Americans might not feel the government’s hand or Big Brother’s watchful eye directly in their lives. However, with the use of GPS, cell phones and the Internet, every move we make can be tracked, cataloged and divied into demographics that are used to increase corporate advertising efficiency and to create a “chilling effect” throughout our culture, stifling dissent and diminishing activism.

During times of war, governments are notorious for capitalizing on their ability to suppress dissent and manipulate the masses. In the wake of 9/11 hysteria, the Bush administration enacted several controversial pieces of legislation that severely curtailed Americans’ freedoms under the pretext of “security” and “protection”. With the help of a consistently compliant and unquestioning media, his administration also instituted a legal framework to circumvent citizens’ civil liberties and target their free speech. Bush’s cabinet adopted Orwellian rhetoric and Nazi style propaganda to litigate sweeping measures that further eradicated liberty: The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act’s (USA Patriot Act) warrantless domestic wiretapping, and the Homegrown Terrorism Act & Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act’s criminalization of thought and peaceful activism.  

Nine years after 9/11 and two years into Obama’s reign, the vague threat of terrorism still hangs in perpetual balance as the justifying cliché for the administration’s continuation of such Bush-era policies. Obama has followed the same Bush trends of illegal detention, rendition, wiretapping, spying, state secrets, demonization, persecution and fear mongering against the population. Obama has aggressively cracked down on whistleblowers exposing military corruption as well as given a green light to assassinate US citizens abroad without due process of law. One of the most disturbing trends in the ever-expanding police state are the new Z Backscatter vans, vehicles that are giant X ray machines, designed to discreetly scan through people’s houses and cars without their knowledge – a surveillance tool that blatantly violates fourth amendment rights.

Like Orwell’s portrayal, the US government’s expanding power structure relies on nationalist propaganda to manufacture and cultivate the fear of an enemy. Although the War on Terrorism has consumed the political climate for almost a decade, the chances of actually dying in a terrorist attack in the United States are statistically insignificant. This little mentioned fact undermines the current administration’s justification for their extension of state powers and secrecy in order to protect the country’s “national security”.

It’s critically important to create dialogue about America’s covert slide to fascism. Absolute power corrupts absolutely– our politicians and their corporate puppeteers will continue their greedy power grabs unabated unless our society starts speaking out against the dehumanization and the unconstitutionality of the emerging police state.

Writing and Photography by Abby Martin

Do We Know the Truth about 9/11?

MEDIA ROOTS- In recent months, much has been made of the ‘withdrawal of US combat brigades from Iraq.’ The language used implies that a great benchmark has been reached in the march toward peace for our country.

 Since the public was told that the combat soldiers are gone, there seems to be a consensus washing over the national consciousness that the Iraq War is nearly over. The truth is, despite the hype, little has changed in the nature of our mission or the geo-political situation. Our politicians and leaders seem to believe that all it takes is shifty worded rhetoric to change the game in the eyes of the public.

The idea of an ending war is encouraged by reports of ‘non-combat’ troops replacing combat brigades. Yet, there is no such thing as a non-combat soldier. There are non-combat jobs within the Army, but every person who dons the uniform, with the exception of a chaplain, who must remain unarmed under Army regulations, is expected to take up a weapon and dodge bullets when the going gets tough. In a war zone where the enemy attacks our presence indiscriminately, any file clerk or staff officer could end up under fire and returning it. When we have a 50,000-strong military presence in a country, conducting patrols, manning guard posts, taking fire and facing bombings, we are, by definition, in a state of combat. The Army leadership and Commander-in-chief know this.

According to Joshua Keating of Foreign Policy, on August 3^rd–

And of course, as Gen. Ray Odierno, the outgoing U.S. commander in Iraq, recently pointed out, “as we moved away from combat operations, the enemy has not.” Even if the U.S. combat role has been reduced, U.S. facilities and patrols will still come under attack and need to be defended. The threat of insurgent attack certainly distinguishes the “noncombat” garrisons in Iraq from those in South Korea and Germany. (Thankfully, U.S. troop fatalities are now down to below 10 per month from a high of nearly 70 in 2007.)

So while the next stage of the Iraq war may be, as Obama described it, a transformation from “a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats,” the actual mission of the remaining troops will stay largely the same: building the capabilities of the Iraqi military and rooting out the extremists.

The scope of that mission will certainly change as troop levels continue to decline, though of course this isn’t the first time a president has declared an end to “combat” in Iraq.

I have a friend in Iraq who just began his deployment, serving as combat infantry. The stated mission is to train and support the Iraqi forces. However, we know this is how Vietnam began, with “military advisors” to the South Vietnamese Army, who soon were in full combat. Regardless of the drawdown, we have soldiers in harm’s way on foreign soil, taking casualties every month from enemy activity. When General Odierno acknowledges that combat isn’t over, the Administration’s announcement to the contrary becomes a mockery of itself. After all, it was two days following Obama’s announcement that our combat role had ended in Iraq that American blood was spilled.

Remember President Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech, and the declaration of the “end of major combat operations”? That was in 2003, and by the 2006-7 Iraq surge, pundits and people at large were mocking that rash and incompetent gesture. This year we’ve been told all “combat” troops are leaving, and as the year ends, the Secretary of Defense is forcing the window back open.

According to a recent AP article Gates: US open to request from Iraq to stay–

The United States is open to the idea of keeping troops in Iraq past a deadline to leave next year if Iraq asks for it, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.

“We’ll stand by,” Gates said. “We’re ready to have that discussion if and when they want to raise it with us.”

Gates urged Iraq’s squabbling political groups to reconcile after eight months of deadlock. Any request to extend the U.S. military presence in Iraq would have to come from a functioning Iraqi government. It would amend the current agreement under which U.S. troops must leave by the end of 2011.

“That initiative clearly needs to come from the Iraqis; we are open to discussing it,” Gates said.

I won’t disobey a lawful order from the Commander in Chief, but I also don’t have to buy bullshit. And I certainly won’t buy it in bulk.

The Iraq War is not over, and the soldiers know it. Our friends back home need to know it too. No place on earth where US soldiers are killed in violence on a monthly basis is a non-combat zone. We cannot take the Executive branch at its word on this. While the media feeding frenzy around the “withdrawal of combat troops” did not last long, it served as a propaganda piece, a pittance to the civilian population yearning for an end to the war. I won’t say whether staying or leaving is wrong, but deliberate doublespeak from the White House is wrong. Implying that we’re coming home when we so clearly aren’t, then leaving the door open for further involvement, is not only dishonest, but also a betrayal of the President’s campaign promises.

The reality is that our 2008 Presidential “choice” was between a Republican who wanted to keep forces on the ground indefinitely, pending certain goals; and a Democrat who would keep forces on the ground to avoid a disastrous (and embarrassing) collapse of the Iraqi nation, while accepting a Peace Prize for his non-existent peace achievements. I’d guess Alfred Nobel wants his money back.

We shouldn’t forget what the President had to say in August, on the heels of his acclaimed withdrawal of “combat” troops: “Like any sovereign, independent nation, Iraq is free to chart its own course. And by the end of next year, all of our troops will be home.

Make it so, Mr. President. An open-ended offer to the Iraqi government to extend our military presence does not meet that goal.

Our Chief Executive is trying to take credit for ending a war his administration is continuing. He cannot expect to blow both hot and cold without stoking the anger of the American people, and paying the price in votes.

I challenge the same Americans who came out in force against Bush’s War, on the streets and at the polls, to do the same in defiance of Obama’s War. Americans have voted in a trend for change in 2006, 2008, and 2010. Incumbents have been hemorrhaging from both parties for four years. Are we realizing now that change doesn’t come from just one pull of a lever?

Malcolm

I am a junior enlisted man in the US Army and serve as an aviation mechanic. I have never been deployed. My unit is currently slated for an Afghanistan deployment in the not-too-distant future, but this is subject to change. I care about our country’s future because, well, we live there, and because our Constitutional government is/was the pinnacle of human achievement in the centuries-old struggle between freedom and tyranny. We’re losing it, and that would be a crime against all those who labored and died for it, and against the billions of our children who will live with the consequences if we fail.

Photo by the US Army on flickr

MEDIA ROOTS– An age-old question among activists and the media is how to grab an audience’s attention and hold it. In a society accustomed to twitter feeds, sound bites and news that serves to either placate viewers with entertainment or alarm them beyond reason, knowing how to engage people on serious issues can be quite the challenge.

In order to reach a culture that is over saturated with sensationalism and new technology, one thing though, is for sure– you have to be creative.

Many people would rather be mindlessly entertained than learn about depressing news. So why not use entertainment to inform the masses?  Inspired to combine music and news-room journalism, two European expatriates living in Australia combined their powers of lyrically creative brilliance, comical acting and historical and political knowledge to form the eccentric character Robert Foster– host of Rap News.

From the initial looks of it, Rap News appears to be a one-man show with a series of goofy wigs and costume changes that turn Hugo Farrant from anchorman Robert Foster into multiple other entertaining characters featured in each episode. Yet, upon closer listening, the creativity of the report’s content and lyrics reveal the wit and intellect of Giordano Nanni, the composer, editor, director and researcher who co-writes the episodes with Hugo.

As a team, Hugo and Giordano take on important issues facing the world and critically frame them with ingenious, cutting lyrical verse, all the while using humor to relay their message. For example, their latest episode Rap News vs. News World Order, in which Wikileaks’s Julian Assange made a live debut, Robert Foster wrapped up the show with these words- 

It seems, journalism’s become a dangerous profession

Risking ostracism, extradition

To provide a clear picture of the world we live in

But without truth, history will certainly repeat.

The same wars, in this time of universal deceit,

Telling the truth has become a revolutionary act

So I salute those who disclose the necessary facts.

Some of our other favorite Rap News lyrics are from Obama Wins the Nobel ‘War is Peace’ Prize–

Any serious examination leads to the raw truth

This isn’t a price for Obama, it’s a prize for George Bush

Nobel’s message seems to  be War is Peace and it’s all well

When all is war, and didn’t we read that in Orwell?

Well, From the depths of doublethink and newspeak

This is Robert Foster, for Juice Media

Have a double plus good week. 

Julian Assange thinks these guys have got it right and so do we. Inspired by the duo, Media Roots reached out to the minds behind Rap News to learn how they started, what inspires them and what the future has in store for Robert Foster. 

MR: Who are you both? What are your backgrounds?

Hugo: I’m an exile from the UK who left to find greener pastures, both creatively and socially, here in Australia. My background is in teaching, but my passion is rhyme writing and performance.

Giordano: I’m an exile from Italy who came to Melbourne about 8 years ago. My background is history—having studied and written on colonial history—but my various projects and activities embrace music, theatre, indy-journalism and film-making, etc.

MR: What caused your political awakening? What led you both to Australia and ultimately to finding each other?

Hugo: I wouldn’t describe myself as politically awakened. More politically curious, but lacking in discipline, and someone like Giordano has the requisite knowledge to satisfy my curiosity. I was always into bands like Rage Against the Machine back in the day, so I was aware of the potential of music to deliver political messages.

I was keen to participate in that style of art, but absolutely didn’t want to be another rapper complaining about things without the academic clout to back up the arguments. Giordano and I found each other through a mutual rock musician friend, and immediately bonded over shared interests in media, movies, music, conspiracy theories and Medieval Italian poetry.

Giordano: I think one of my first ‘political’ awakenings occurred when I was 18 or so; one of the (few) great teachers I had at University suggested I read Hidden Agendas by John Pilger. It shocked and blew me away at the time. It was one of the first books which sparked my awareness of what was happening in the world, and which alerted me to the vital importance of journalism therein.

But the awakenings have been ongoing since then. Relatively recently, during the 2008 presidential campaign I discovered Ralph Nader—thanks to the Internet and YouTube—not thanks to TV, interestingly enough. Hearing him speak was a real awakening, in the sense that I had long since given up placing any faith in the political process. Nader has taught me that politics can be a noble profession; it’s not that all politicians are bastards, but rather that most Americans seem to vote for the bastards rather than honest ones!

MR: I agree about Nader. How did Rap News come into fruition and why did you choose this approach?

Giordano: Rap News was born in late 2009 but its roots go back a bit further.

Hugo: It came about through resurrecting a ‘music journalism’ project, which Giordano had previously worked on—an audio precursor to Rap News. I heard about this and liked the idea, and asked if I might get involved. Once we sat down and planned, and decided that I would rap all the characters, it became clear that trying to be serious while wearing so many stupid wigs was probably unrealistic, so the comedy element came to the fore.

Giordano: Yeah, as George Bernard Shaw said, “If you’re going to tell people the truth, you better make them laugh; otherwise they’ll kill you”.

The news-room has become such a powerful and globally recognized icon of knowledge and information: everything is offered daily, to millions of viewers, as ‘the truth’. Rap News appropriated this device but tries to shine a little light on some of the unspoken premises that prop up the cultural fictions regurgitated daily by the mainstream news networks. Back in the days when I still bothered watching TV news, I often felt an irresistible urge to shout back at TV set in frustration. Now Robert Foster provides a channel for that outlet! I guess this also inspired our approach to delivering the news.

MR: Hugo is an extremely good rapper and the rhymes in Rap News are incredibly informative, intelligent and cutting. Have you always used hip-hop as a form of poetic expression and when did you begin incorporating political commentary into your rapping? How long have you been performing publicly?

Hugo: Thanks for your feedback! The informative and intelligent nature of the rhymes comes from Giordano. He provides the ‘juice’ of the dialogue, the research to back it up, and is responsible for all the most cutting elements of each episode. Rumsfeld saying, ‘We’ll write the history books’ as a prime example.

My job is to make the thing rhyme and flow, and put in a bit of puerile humor, as well as over-act! My own rap persona is much less popular than Rap News, but yes, I do perform at festivals and venues in Australia, both with Treats­—an excellent DJ—and with the rising live band ‘Dub The Magic Dragon’, touring India, March 2011.

My stage name is Hugo, but political listeners will not find much juice there—now that I am involved with Rap News, I prefer to wax philosophical, comical and spiritual in my solo work, and leave the political content to a properly researched forum such Rap News.

Giordano: Hugo is being characteristically modest: He is in fact very well known, and highly appreciated, in Melbourne, for rocking audiences and making a real impact on people’s lives through his art. 

MR: Your two latest videos seem to have a more professional production than your first couple—the lower third text scroll, the Fox news graphics, etc. Are more people offering to help or are you just refining your skills together?

Giordano: Ever since we launched Rap News, people have offered to help us by offering to donate their talent and skills to the show. Probably one of most rewarding results has been witnessing all this willingness to contribute. As suggested to me by someone who truly understands this—Julian Assange—this willingness to contribute is one of the benefits of promoting a shared value. People want to lend their skills and play a part in it.

Ironically, however, we’ve never been too concerned with trying to look pro: the bedroom-studio-feel being a faithful reflection of the means and time at our disposal—a reminder that anyone can potentially do this.

We started off simply by borrowing cameras and making do with what we had at hand. Our backdrops were bed sheets and the lighting rig comprised an array of six, tenuously balanced desk-lamps. We incorporated new stuff gradually—like the green-screen background—and I am slowly getting a lot better and faster at editing, even though I’m really still just hacking it.

But to answer your question: we decided to call upon reinforcements for the latest News World Order episode because we really needed to replicate that familiar ‘official newsroom’ environment—saturated with useless information, artificially enhanced by fancy graphics, logos and slogans which distract and sedate and constantly blur the line between fact and fiction, information and entertainment. Such visual mayhem couldn’t have come about without the help of some skilled artists: Melbourne-based artist, Zoe Tame, in particular, worked hard to create all the images, replica logos and overlays; while others helped with tickertapes, animations and advice.

Oh and Zoe also designed the kick-ass website: www.TheJuiceMedia.com. So yeah, Hugo and I still do the vast majority of the work, but we’ve also benefitted immensely from the help of other people.

MR: What does the creation process of rap news look like? How long does it take to produce one video—from the idea to the lyrics to the costumes, editing and graphics? How many people are involved in the production and what are their roles?

Hugo: A realistic minimum length of production is two weeks. That includes initial meetings and brainstorming, about 24 hours of writing—spread over a few days, and with several drafts winging back and forth between me and Giordano—recording is generally done in two sessions, we source the costumes from fancy dress shops, and the most fun day, as far as I’m concerned, is filming day, when we get to bring the audio to life on screen, and horse around. Then the real work begins in Giordano’s lab, where it all gets edited and tweaked until it’s ready to be unleashed.

MR: Are your videos getting viral just because they kick so much ass or are you getting some outside help with promotion and coverage?

Hugo: We try to keep the ass-kicking level to the highest degree.

We’re not affiliated with YouTube’s partner program, and so we never get ‘featured video’ status. We are regularly offered the opportunity to opt in for ‘revenue-sharing’, i.e. advertizing, but the prospect of earning a bit of money this way is outweighed by the desire to keep the Juice Media Rap News channel free of ads for our viewers

Having said that, we have managed to attract many excellent fans to the show, and they, along with some great contacts in the indy-media world, are responsible for spreading the clips far and wide. We really do feel very grateful to everyone who watches, comments, gets in touch, shares the link, and of course to the numerous people who have donated through the website since episodes 4 and 5 hit the sites.

MR: You incorporate many facts that are under reported by the mainstream, like the 1,000,000 dead Iraqis figure, and Obama’s continuation of Bush-era policies. Where do you guys go to for your information—what media outlets and organizations out there do you think are doing it right? I am assuming Democracy Now is one of them—with the product placement and all.

Giordano: There are many indy-news outlets which do a fantastic job—Media Roots being a good case in point—but there are very few large news organizations which I know about, that are doing it right.

As you’ve deduced so perceptively from Robert Foster’s choice of coffee mug, Democracy Now is definitely one of them. After years of following this show, I am still thrilled about what it does. I really feel a sense of responsibility for how much (and how little) I know about the world around me; so I really value this portal of information. For the past 2 years I’ve had them as my computer home page.

Amid the wasteland of mainstream journalism, Amy Goodman and the DN crew have set a proper standard for how ‘news’ ought to be delivered and debated. It’s an hour-long show, with in-depth interviews that truly elucidate subjects, which are not given anywhere near the attention that is due to them in the mainstream media. And, above all, they don’t waste broadcast time reporting on sports!! They are not entertainers and media hacks; and, most importantly, they are independently funded. I can trust them.

Other than this, I rely on links to website, articles by indy-journalists, and random bits of information that come my way.

MR: I couldn’t help but notice the play on the phrase “New World Order”. A lot of people think that the New World Order is an elite group of globalists embarking to take over every aspect of life on this planet. Others think it is simply a powerhouse of ideas and groups of people for the purpose of control and profit maximization. What do you guys think the New World Order is and why did you choose to portray O’Reilly/Fox as part of it?

Giordano: It’s a good question Abby.

We tend to think that many popular understandings of the ‘NWO’ are falsely premised on an externalized source of power. This is appealing, since it evokes that basic paradigm of good versus evil—and sure enough, we always identify as the goodies.

But let’s look at it this way: The two descriptions you provided for the NWO—‘a group of globalists embarking to take over every aspect of life on this planet’ and ‘a powerhouse of ideas and groups of people for the purpose of control and profit maximization’—could well apply to the general behavior of western/westernized society over the past six hundred years—some sections of that society of course benefitting more than others!

In this sense we are virtually all beneficiaries and patrons of the ‘NWO’ in one way or another; which makes the prospect of defeating it somewhat paradoxical—or hypocritical. It’s a fascinating issue and it goes to the very heart of what we’re trying to say. We’re actually planning an episode, which will focus precisely on this subject; hopefully it will make more sense expressed in rhyme! But it’s probably not going to be what most people expect to hear.

MR: I love the Wikileaks endorsement of Rap News. Did Assange reach out to you after seeing your work? How did you get him in the flesh for your recent video?

Giordano: Julian really loved the first Rap News episode we did on Wikileaks, Wikileaks v. The Pentagon, in which Hugo impersonated Assange as a quirky, matrix-like trickster.

Subsequently, ahead of Wikileaks’ latest historic disclosure of 400,000 documents relating to the Iraq war, Julian made contact with us and invited us to take a sneak peak at some of the Iraq War Logs in view of informing the content of a new episode.

Of course, we jumped at the opportunity and were aboard planes within a fortnight. We arrived in London only two weeks prior to the scheduled launch of the Iraq War Logs, on October 23, which meant that we faced the absurd and terrific challenge of writing, recording and filming an entire episode in under 4 days—a stunt we pulled thanks to the invaluable help of two awesome Wikileaks crew-members, and thanks to our friend and supporter back in Melbourne, Asher—aka Mama Wolf.

As for the cameo, we asked Julian straight up, thinking that his appearance might be a historic and comedic event—not just for Wikileaks and Rap News, but for that demographic of the internet community which has been so avidly following what’s going on with Wikileaks. Despite a couple of initial raised eyebrows, Julian was totally up for it. We didn’t pull any punches on the gags, either. Thankfully the man has a great sense of humor.

MR: Awesome! What issues today are of greatest concern to you both?

Giordano: I wouldn’t know where to start; all the seemingly separate issues, which I could list, are really interconnected. I am deeply concerned about environmental issues, but I don’t think it’s just about energy use.

If I had to choose one central issue, I’d point to the ongoing treatment of, and attitude towards, ‘Indigenous’ cultures on this planet, which represents an ongoing war on alternative philosophies of life. I think there’s a strong correlation between this war and the multiple problems we face today—especially the devastation of our environment. 

Hugo: For my part, modern humanity’s general belief in separateness is probably my over-arching concern. We have spent centuries alienating ourselves from the planet, which gave birth to us, and separating ourselves from each other, along barely relevant racial and cultural lines. We now face the dramatic, inevitable consequences of our desire for separateness. But if reading philosophy has brought me any concrete conclusion at all, it is that ultimately, and in a very real sense, as Neil deGrasse Tyson asserts, ‘we are all connected’. By perceiving our connectedness, even to the aspects of life we judge as negative, I strongly believe that true lasting evolution can take place. Rejecting and excluding those aspects only leads to their perpetuation.

MR: What are some of your biggest musical, poetic and political inspirations?

Hugo: Too numerous to mention, but in terms of comedy, certainly the great, great Bill Hicks, the guys behind South Park and Team America, Chris Morris for his incredible work on Brass Eye and The Day Today, and of course, the 90’s BBC comedy The League of Gentlemen—if we could get access to their make-up department, I’d be one happy over-actor.

As for hip hop, my top inspiration is now-defunct but never surpassed French outfit Saian Supa Crew, and from Australia, close friends and personal heroes, DJ Treats, Julez, Mantra and Elf Tranzporter.

And as far as literature goes, it’s all about Dante Alighieri and Jonathan Swift. Gulliver’s Travels is a satire broader than any before or since, and is the benchmark against which all such work must be measured.

Giordano: My mind has been blown, and my soul nourished, by many more powerful and precious sources of musical and poetic inspiration than I can even mention—from William Blake and Leopardi, to Pink Floyd, Roger Waters in particular, to Rage Against the Machine; from comedians Bill Hicks and George Carlin—who saved my life by revealing the comedy of it all—to writers like George Orwell, Jorge Louis Borges and Herman Hesse, who have been guiding lights.

As for political inspiration, I listen carefully to what Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader have to say these days, while they’re still with us.

MR: Do you hope to team up or collaborate with any other political or media players in the future?

Hugo: The beauty of the project is that we don’t really need to. If we want someone in the show, like Donald Rumsfeld, we can just come up with a poor impersonation of him and get some laughs out of the hokiness of it. Nevertheless, we’re always open to offers, and when the possibility of that episode 5 cameo was mooted, we jumped at it. So the answer is, ‘definitely’; but in the meantime, we’ll just keep doing the bad wig, bad accent, bad hand gestures thing.

MR: What else is in store for Juice Media and Rap News? Are you planning any other projects or just focusing on these segments for now?

Hugo & Giordano:  We’re really going with the flow here, working during the glitches of our less-adventurous lives. TheJuiceMedia will continue it’s less glamorous but highly valuable purpose of broadcasting Indigenous, Aboriginal Australian voices to a wider local and international audience. We’ll keep developing Rap News, exploring the vastness of topics and narratives, which are out there begging to be translated into rhyme and reason. We hope that Robert Foster’s voice might one day become an important one. Stay tuned.

***

Rap News vs News World Order ( Wikileaks and the War on Journalism)

Rap News: Obama Wins Nobel War is Peace Prize

Check out more about Juice Media and Rap News at http://thejuicemedia.com or find them on Facebook.

Lyrics: http://www.reverbnation.com/rapnews

Downloads: http://www.reverbnation.com/rapnews

Written by Abby Martin and Alicia Roldan

MEDIA ROOTS- “In yet another sign of the times, 85% of college graduates surveyed have reported that they will be moving home after they get their degrees: Stubbornly high unemployment – nearly 15% for those ages 20–24 – has made finding a job nearly impossible. And without a job there’s nowhere for these young adults to go but back to their old bedrooms, curfews and chore charts. Meet the boomerangers.

“This recession has hit young adults particularly hard,” according to Rich Morin, senior editor at the Pew Research Center in DC. So hard that a whopping 85% of college seniors planned to move back home with their parents after graduation last May according to a poll by Twentysomething Inc., a marketing and research firm based in Philadelphia. That rate has steadily risen from 67% in 2006.” –Marc Slavo, Oct 17th

As a member of this generation, I feel confident in asserting that ten years ago, most college-bound teens were hoping for, if not expecting, some general circumstances by the benchmark age of thirty.

Most of us were nurtured in the belief that by obeying the law, staying in school and working hard, we would soon have our careers on track, make a decent living wage, be able to purchase a home and raise our families with a standard of living comparable to the middle class during the 1990s.

Instead, what we see today is 15% unemployment among 20-24 year-olds, and a substantial number of “underemployed”, working part-time jobs in retail or settling for far lower salaries than they were told to expect in their fields.

Young aspirants in the workforce have always had an uphill battle to fight, but no era in recent history has presented such a dark horizon. The Great Depression ended after a World War and accompanying industrial explosion; but in an America with most of its manufacturing jobs exported and factories closed, the greatest historical wealth machine has ground to a halt. This has left bartending, store-clerking and the like as some of the only options for many trying to find their place in the world.

The money isn’t coming in, it’s only going out, or circling the drain as it passes from one employee of a service “industry” to the next. If we add 150,000 jobs to the domestic economy every month until 2020 (double what we’ve been doing), we will only maintain the current unemployment rate, barring any further calamities. This is why things will undoubtedly get worse before they get better. However, there are socio-political repercussions to these ugly numbers that have begun to manifest themselves, and may crescendo in the near future. 

History shows that large numbers of educated, unemployed youth living in troubled nations often become the catalyst for revolution. In a decade that has seen more than two-thirds of American college graduates move back in with their parents in the face of a credit crunch, bleak jobs market and housing crisis, many in this generation see their American Dream washed out to sea. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16% of bartenders have at least a Bachelor’s degree, as do nearly 25% of amusement and recreation attendants. Half a million college graduates are working in customer service, 300,000 more as waiters. Not all of these people will be content with mediocrity forever.

While the 25 year-old Marketing major may wince at the thought of moving back in with Mom, he’ll maintain his good humor as he heads off to another shift at the nightclub. At 35, the same man, now stocking shelves at Wal-Mart to feed his child, won’t likely be singing “Que Sera” with the same zest.  Some of the frustration building in America’s youth will manifest itself politically. Arguably the first result of this political manifestation was the election of President Barack Obama in 2008, when he took in 66% of the under 30 vote. What did Obama promise during his campaign? Honest diplomacy, an end to the foreign wars, money for education, a revitalized economy, and the vague slogans of “hope” and “change”. Of course he was able to enthrall the pie-in-the-sky left, but his campaign’s ability to mobilize the long politically apathetic, disillusioned youth around these more practical issues was astounding.

Fewer than two years into this administration’s reign, and the lapdog Congress that was ushered in along with it, people are hopping mad. Economically, there are no signs of real improvement. The wars have not ended. College has not become more affordable, and even if it had, there are no jobs to take up once the degree is earned. Discontent is back in a big way, and we see many young people involved again, running against incumbents, carrying Rand and Ron Paul to celebrity status, backing dissent from all sides. Abused, deceived and growing desperate, the American people are sick of both major parties, as they ought to be, and are abandoning one while attempting to foment a revolution in the other.

This is the time to appeal to that discontent, because it arises from valid grievances. The causes of the current malaise run deep. There can be no more pandering, and no more half-measures against our problems. Time is just about up to deal with our fiscal, economic and civil crises, and if most of the people don’t know it, they feel it. The well of discontent will not stay closed- we have a real chance to awaken people to the issues and put them into context. The political opportunists are well-versed in the art of hijacking grassroots movements and offering false solutions. We can’t let them do it to us this time. This is why I want to speak for the truth, for the Constitution that protects us from the usurpation of life, liberty and property, and for the rights of individuals to choose their own destinies.

There was little mention in Obama’s rhetoric about the importance of adherence to the Constitution, individual responsibility, or grassroots local government; but these are the real solutions, born of our free tradition, that connect with voters. The Constitution in Article I section 8 lays forth simple and direct war powers that have been abused and perverted over the decades in order to bring us war. Diplomacy, as envisioned by George Washington, left America without “entangling alliances” and left us free to follow our best interests. Education and health care are now made more expensive and are complicated by government control. Our economy might still be the juggernaut it was in 1949, when we help more gold in our treasury than any other nation on earth, had we not been betrayed by suicidal trade agreements, excessive taxation and regulation, and the hijinks of the unconstitutional Federal Reserve. There is a window of opportunity to set the scales equal again by empowering the people, not with false promises, identity politics or government programs, but with knowledge and the courage that grows with individual freedom and personal responsibility.

If the free-thinking patriots of this country can bring that message rationally and even-handedly to mainstream voters, without cheesy taglines and Soviet-style propaganda posters, the fight might yet be ours to win. If the swelling ranks of America’s unfulfilled young generations can be awakened, they will prove a potent political force for whatever cause stirs them. Realistic goals, honest dialogue and courageous defense of our liberties and economic power could bring them out for the good.

Malcolm

I am a junior enlisted man in the US Army and serve as an aviation mechanic. I have never been deployed. My unit is currently slated for an Afghanistan deployment in the not-too-distant future, but this is subject to change. I care about our country’s future because, well, we live there, and because our Constitutional government is/was the pinnacle of human achievement in the centuries-old struggle between freedom and tyranny. We’re losing it, and that would be a crime against all those who labored and died for it, and against the billions of our children who will live with the consequences if we fail.

Photo by Mike Licht

Dystopia, Collage & Acrylic on Matte Board, 11” x 14”

To check out more of Abby Martin’s art go to www.ABBYMARTIN.org