'Lying for the paycheck': money sways public opinion, laughs at democracy

Steve Poikonen, the host of AM Wake Up and Slow News Day joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour to discuss Caitlin Johnstone’s article, in which she suggested that US presidential elections are rigged because mainstream political opinion is shaped by the powerful and wealthy.

“Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers - people who are just smart enough to run the machine and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation,” said Poikonen.

Johnstone writes that even with a well functioning voting system and no money in politics, capitalism will always allow the wealthy the ability to rig elections by manipulating public opinion. And Sputnik’s Garland Nixon suggested that democracy does not exist when those who vote aren’t informed.

“That was the plan, the deliberate dumbing down and oversaturation with counter reinforcing propaganda, which has become in the era of cable news, certainly now in the digital age, a 24-hour a day, seven day a week onslaught [on] our ability to think critically or rationally about any given situation,” the show’s guest added.

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On Israel, White House lives in ‘parallel reality’

“[With] the statements from the White House officials, they seem to live in a parallel reality from everyone, including Israeli officials,” Esteban Carrillo, a Beirut-based journalist and the editor of The Cradle, told Sputnik’s Fault Lines.

On Tuesday, US special envoy Amos Hochstein said that Hamas needs to “just say yes and accept” the ceasefire deal outlined by US President Joe Biden nearly three weeks ago. Those comments are part of a trend among high-ranking US officials that Israel has accepted the ceasefire deal and only Hamas is preventing a pause in fighting.

Israel has refused to say if it will accept it and promised to keep fighting until Hamas is defeated. Israeli officials have also refused to confirm if the ceasefire deal presented by Biden was their creation, as US officials claim.

“Just today, a top Israeli negotiator told the Israeli media that there would be absolutely no room to negotiate any of the amendments that Hamas asked for in response to the ceasefire proposal,” Carrillo explained, adding that the negotiator said the war will continue after the Israeli assault on the southern city of Rafah is completed. “These are their words. This is not anybody putting words in their mouth.”

An estimate by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said that they expect the war to continue until 2026 and that a full-scale war with Lebanon will begin in September.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah released drone footage of Haifa, highlighting critical Israeli military and civilian infrastructure, including weapon depots, military bases and sea and airports.

Haifa, about 17 miles (27km) from the closest Lebanese border, is Israel’s most active port. Its importance has increased since the Ansar Allah (Houthi) movement in Yemen successfully shut down the Port of Eilat through its blockade of Israel in the Red Sea.

More than 60,000 Israelis have been ordered to evacuate from communities near the border with Lebanon, and many of the towns have been virtually abandoned since October.

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