[Peace-discuss] News from Neptune on UPTV for 25 July 2014

[C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBmu8jB2MzY&list=UUmBGzD97keBfCjV80jShRQQ

{INTRO} ~ Good evening, & welcome to News from Neptune for the 30th week of 2014. 
~ For more than twenty years, this program has been "a spontaneous & unrehearsed discussion of the news of the week and its coverage by the media" - first on a so-called "community radio station" - and, when censored & locked out of there - welcomed, I'm happy to say, by the good people at Urbana Public Television.
~ I’m Carl Estabrook. My discussants tonight are David Green & David Johnson.
~ Our program's name, News from Neptune, was chosen to honor Noam Chomsky, who has been talking sense about American politics for twice the quarter-century we've been on the air. 
~ Chomsky has said that in the American media, “either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.”Our format is to take turns suggesting stories that have been ignored or misreported (occasionally even innocently) and then having our colleagues comment on them. 
~ Previous programs are archived on YouTube and posted to the facebook page for News from Neptune, where you’ll also find comments from viewers (not all unadulterated praise) and some answers from us. I also can be reached at <carl at newsfromneptune.com>; I'm happy to receive your comments.

~ If we think of US foreign policy in the terms of American mafia mythology, the USG plays the role of the capo di tutti capi - the Godfather. But it employs several notable underbosses, or capos: “A caporegime or capodecina ... is a term used in the Mafia for a high-ranking made member of a crime family who heads a ‘crew’ of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization. Caporegime is an Italian word, which is used to signify the head of a family in Sicily, but has now come to mean a ranking member, similar to captain or senior sergeant in a military unit. In general, the term indicates the head of a branch of an organized crime syndicate who commands a crew of soldiers and reports directly to a boss or godfather.”
~ For the US today the leading capos are Israel and Saudi Arabia (Iran was, 1954-79); but also the new government that the US put in place in Ukraine; and Obama’s pivot to Asia means that the administration is working hard to turn Japan into an Asian capo.
~ There’s another connection: in the German WWII concentration camps, a kapo was a prisoner functionary (German: Funktions-häftling) who was assigned by the SS guards to supervise forced labor or carry out administrative tasks in the camp. You can see the analogy to what America’s client states do.

So you’re watching News from Neptune, The US Capo Edition, where we consider the US godfather’s leading thugs today, the government in Tel Aviv and the government in  Kiev. (All those v’s may not stand for victory; perhaps for vendetta...)

{Rallies world-wide connect Israel & Ukraine. An Italian friend writes, “Sunday, July 27 at Rome: The proceeds of the evening will be donated to project Light for Gaza and the ‘Fondo Donbass’. (In addition, throughout the day, from 17.00 to 24.00, will be the collection of humanitarian aid for the civilian population of Donbass.}
[NB: The Donets Basin, known commonly as the Donbas (Ukrainian: Донбас) or Donbass (Russian: Донба́сс), is a historical, economic and cultural region of eastern Ukraine and southwest Russia. A coal mining area since late 19th century, it has become a heavily industrialised territory suffering from urban decay and industrial pollution. The Donbas Euroregion covers the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine, and also Rostov oblast of the Russian Federation. Donbas is currently the most densely populated of all the regions of Ukraine (excluding the capital city of Kiev). The city of Donetsk is considered the unofficial capital of Donbas.]
The USG is supporting and perhaps even directing the Keiv government's attack on the people of Donbas, who wish to maintain their independence. More than 1,000 have been killed.

{OUTRO} You've been watching News from Neptune for the 30th week of 2014. This has been The US Capos Edition.
~ I'm Carl Estabrook: my discussants tonight have been David Green and David Johnson. Hear David Johnson's programs on WEFT and UPTV. Our thanks to UPTV, especially Jake, Jason, & Dan.
~ Inshallah we'll be back next week with a new edition of News From Neptune, to remind you - in the words of Edward de Vere -

"...what's past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge."

~ In the meantime, confusion to our enemies, and a good night to you. 

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