#Unification Media Group

[whatisonthemoon]

How the Moonie Media Apparatus Bought Chris Matthews’ Soul for a Pittance (2007)

WIOTM note: The following is a post from the Scooby Davis blog about the Unification Church (source)

"[Jack] Welch sincerely believed that all liberals were phonies. He took great pleasure in "buying their leftist souls", watching in satisfaction as former Democrats like Russert and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews eagerly discarded the baggage of their former progressive beliefs in exchange for cold hard GE cash."(quote found via Mercury Rising).

Being someone who follows the media, I knew that Welch had an influence on Russert's political views. I didn't realize he got his rocks off by buying the souls of people on the left. I seriously doubt that Welch reads this blog, but if he did, he might be sad to find out that Chris Matthews's media whoredom cherry had been popped a long time before he was supposedly corrupted by Welch. By the time Welch got to Matthews, Tweety's soul had been bought and paid for by Sun Myung Moon for a pittance. Sometimes I wonder which is worse: someone who never had principles (e.g., Karl Rove) or someone who once acted like a human being and then lost his way when the price was right. When I look at the Moon controversy, there are a number of people who initially took a principled stand against the anti-American megalomaniac but who changed their tune because either, 1) Moon dumped billions of dollars to help the American right; or 2) because they wanted to line their pockets. An example of the former is former Senator Robert Dole. In the 1970's, Dole was justifiably troubled about Moon's activities and his attempts to corrupt the American political system. In 1976, Dole held a public forum in Washington in which survivors and the families of victims of the Unification Church spoke about their nightmarish experiences with the cult. In February 1979, Dole held congressional hearings on the threat of cults in which discussion of Moon's pernicious activities were a prominent feature. Carlton Sherwood, a prominent paid apologist for Moon, credits Dole with setting into motion the investigations that led to the imprisonment of the cult leader for tax evasion:

For all practical purposes, this one letter [that Dole sent to the IRS calling for the investigation of the Unification Church's tax exemption] set into motion all subsequent events which, five years later, would result in the conviction and imprisonment of Moon." (Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, pg. 53)

That all changed in the 1980's. After attempts to evangelize America in the 1970's were an abysmal failure, Moon pretty much figured that his messianic vision didn't play in Peoria (or anywhere else in the United States) so he kept a low profile and dumped a few billion dollars into a right-wing media empire. Apparently,

Dole knew which way the wind was blowing because he let bygones be bygones and lent Moon credibility by appearing at the Messiah's "Tear Down the Cross" Washington prayer breakfast in 2003

Moon and his underlings have covered their bases with a two-pronged media strategy: 1) Subverting journalism by becoming part of the media with the Washington Times, UPI, and Insight magazine; 2) Undermining media independence with Moonie front groups that give large conference fees to mainstream journalists.

The 1992 Frontline documentary on Moon addresses this:

Narrator: Besides paying for his own media, Moon sought to influence legitimate press outlets. One vehicle was the World Media Association. [Moon's right hand man Bo Hi Pak]: " And the founder is Reverend Moon, who is deeply concerned for the world media, particularly in the battle against communism all over the world; who sees that the role of the media is so vital and so important for the salvation of our civilization." Narrator: The World Media Association sponsors all-expense-paid conferences and junkets for journalists all over the world. As Bo Hi Pak told public station KQED in 1984, the Unification Movement used the association as a weapon for a larger crusade. Pak: "But is a total war. Basically war of ideas. War of mind, the battlefield is the human mind. This is where the battle is fought. So in this war the entire thing will be mobilized, political means, social means, economical means and propagandistic means, and basically trying to take over the other person's mind. That is what the third world war is all about--the war of ideology."

The upshot is that the Moonies received journalistic legitimacy by becoming part of the media and by transferring vast amounts of money to the media elite through Moonie front groups. One of those corrupted by this easy Moonie money was Chris Matthews. To Matthews’ credit, when the Moon-owned Washington Times was established in 1982, Matthews--who was then the assistant to then-Speaker Tip O'Neil--refused to grant the Times any legitimacy by not credentialing their operatives (reporters). Matthews quipped at the time, "We work hard enough responding to legitimate press inquires." It was a principled move.

To Matthews' discredit, when he had the chance to pocket Moonie money by according the Moonie media apparatus undeserved legitimacy, Matthews took the money. Fast forward to 1989 (after Matthews left government service and was Washington Bureau Chief of the San Francisco Examiner). The Unification Church paid Matthews $2500 to speak at a conference for the Moonie front group, the World Media Association. Mathews' descent into media whoredom is recounted by James Whelan, the former editor of the Washington Times (who resigned as editor of the Times in 1984 after Moon reneged on his promise not to impose his sectarian agenda on the Times) at a conference that addressed cults and the media (click here and watch 57:35 to 1:00:25 for Whelan’s take on Matthews). To show how Matthews did a complete 180 regarding the Moonie media, the Washington Times--the rag that Matthews had previously dismissed as pseudo-journalism--began running Matthew’s syndicated column in the 1990's. Matthews was a consummate media whore by the time he met up with Jack Welch.

Addendum: James Whelan on journalists who are paid to go on Moonie junkets (click here and go to 1:09:37)

They (the Moonies) are subverting our political system. They're doing it through front organizations--most of them disguised--and through their funding of independent organizations--through the placement of volunteers in the inner sanctums of hard-pressed organizations. In every instance--in every instance--those who attend their conferences, those who accept their money or their volunteers, delude themselves that there is no loss of virtue because the Moonies have not proselytized. That misses the central, crucial point: the Moonies are a political movement in religious clothing. Moon seeks power, not the salvation of souls. To achieve that, he needs religious fanatics as his palace guard and shock troops. But more importantly, he needs secular conscripts--seduced by money, free trips, free services, seemingly endless bounty and booty--in order to give him respectability and, with it, that image of influence which translates as power.

Related articles and notes

From WIOTM note on Inside Moon’s Washington:

The relationship between Jesse Jackson and the Moonies began in 1976, when Jesse Jackson wrote a column in the Moonies NY-based newspaper ‘The News World,’ the year it launched. That said, through the 80s, the Moonies/CARP actively protested events that Jesse Jackson was involved with, including pro-Sandinista rallies. By 1989, as this article expounds on, Jackson was paying the Moonies for marketing for his campaign at Global Image Associates.

Quote from Robert Parry in ‘Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq’:

"In 1976, Moon's search for growing influence in the United States seemed to be following the KCIA script. Moon started a small-circulation newspaper in New York City that featured a column by civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. Moon promoted the anti-communist cause through front groups which held lavish conferences and paid speaking fees to academics, journalists and political leaders.

On Arnaud de Borchgrave, Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Times and Friend of Gladio Terrorists Washington Post: Church Spends Millions On Its Image (1984) Moonstruck: The Reverend and His Newspaper

[werewolfetone]

have quite literally been waiting to see your comment on the new Irish unification meme that's going around. save me communist Irish historian. Communist Irish historian save me etc.

Well if you want my actual opinion on that article rather than just incandescent irritation I would say to the general tumblr community that one must remember 2 things: one, that people have been saying that Ireland is about the reunify for real this time since NI was created. 25 years ago they were saying this, 50 years ago they were saying it, 75 years ago they were saying it. Particularly when it comes to statements from groups like Sinn Féin, as cynical as it is, it's important to keep in mind that they and groups like them are political parties who want support and ultimately people's vote. In order to get these things, they tell people that their main reason for existing will be accomplished, no matter how far fetched some of their claims are, and, as noted above, this has been going on for a long time. I was reading just earlier today about articles published in the 30s with the same general message as this new thing going around and I think it's pretty clear what happened as a result of those lmao.

The second is that not only does not everyone in NI or even in the ROI want reunification, the bloc of people who really really really really don't want it is powerful enough in the north that any steps towards Irish reunification would not happen without death. People would die. It doesn't matter how much social media users who don't know a damn thing about the situation want it, the current political reality means that reunification would be paid for in a great deal of blood, because Irish people who are not hard-line republicans, and I cannot emphasise this enough, exist. Hence why it's kinda ridiculous to assume that anything will happen just because some guy said that Irish reunification is once again closer than ever. lol lmao l + ratio + talk to Northern Irish people + read Irish history + be realistic

[beardedmrbean]

Recently surfaced North Korean footage has captured the North Korean government's crackdown on citizens, including teenagers, for consuming banned South Korean media.

The footage, obtained by South Korean production company KBS Media, shows a public denunciation session where a group of young girls, including a 16-year-old student, are publicly humiliated and arrested for the offense.

Pyongyang maintains tight control over the flow of information within its borders, forbidding citizens from accessing foreign music, films, and TV series. Those caught violating these restrictions face severe penalties, including public shaming, imprisonment, and in some cases, execution.

The Kim Jong Un regime views South Korean media as a direct threat to its ideological purity and legitimacy, heightening crackdowns on such content in recent years.

The footage shows a young girl identified only as Choi, breaking down in tears during a public denunciation session—a form of organized group criticism employed by communist regimes such as North Korea, the former Soviet Union, and China under former Chairman Mao Zedong.

"I made the mistake of listening to and distributing impure published propaganda," Choi said into the microphone during the hearing, according to KBS's translation. The footage then shows her being led away in handcuffs.

Though such public punishments are commonplace, a North Korean defector surnamed Jang who fled the country in 2020 expressed shock at the public punishment of someone so young.

"I've never seen school students punished like this before," she told KBS. "The fact that they were handcuffed is really shocking to me."

The video is part of over 10 recordings obtained by KBS, most of which were produced after May 2021.

North Korea closed its borders in early 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The country finally reopened its borders to returning citizens in August 2023.

Video under the cut

North Korea's rigid control over media intensified in 2020 when Pyongyang enacted what has been dubbed the "evil laws" as part of its crackdown on perceived external threats to ensure loyalty to the regime.

These laws target foreign cultural products, including media and also South Korean slang.

"The North Korean authorities have been policing and cracking down on foreign culture for over a decade now, but the three new laws formalize and strengthen the draconian punishment for the offenders," Ethan Hee-Seok Shin, a legal analyst for Seoul-based NGO the Transitional Justice Working Group, told Newsweek.

Shin pointed out that the degree of punishment is linked to the gravity of the offense.

"The distributors are generally more harshly punished than the consumers," he said. "Similar to how other countries would deal with narcotics-related crimes."

The South Korean Ministry of Unification's 2023 report on human rights abuses in the North highlighted testimonies from defectors who witnessed public executions of young adults simply for watching K-dramas and listening to K-pop.

Pyongyang earlier this year amended its constitution to label Seoul as its primary enemy.

Despite the harsh punishments, South Korean media continues to penetrate North Korea, often via activists in the South who send USB drives filled with dramas and music into the North using balloons.

USB drives filled with South Korean media sent north by activists in the South have further inflamed tensions. The North has retaliated by sending balloons south laden with trash, and in some cases human waste.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson previously told Newsweek that Washington, DC advocates human rights and the free flow of information in and out of North Korea and condemns the country's three "evil laws" and "draconian punishments and youth targeting."

The North Korean embassy in Beijing, China, and U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to written requests for comment.

[itsclydebitches]

"No one put all the pressure on Ruby!" Ruby did. She's the one who's put the burden upon herself. You're a fucking idiot. Every single one of your posts is complete fucking idiocy. You are the most incompetent and brainless and media-illiterate 'critic' I've ever seen. You cannot put two and two together of an incredibly simple story. Get a life, you loser. One that doesn't revolve around kissing the asses of lowlifes who can't stand women in cartoons.

Ruby: I can't do this anymore

The Story: Okay. Then don't

Ruby: I have to. The world depends on me

The Story: It literally doesn't? Your career is really popular with numerous, powerful fighters all working to protect Remnant. Even your Silver Eyes have been seen in three other characters, one of which was supposedly The Best Huntress Ever

Ruby: I'm trapped fighting this impossible war, never ending...

The Story: Didn't you leave home, like, four months ago? You haven't even tried to come up with a solution to Salem's immortality and, last I checked, you're not the one reincarnating into innocents due to a God's curse

Ruby: All the responsibility is on my shoulders

The Story: There was an established, secret group of incredibly powerful huntsmen fighting this war before you were even born

Ruby: So much pressure... I don't know what to do...

The Story: Look, kid, this is gonna sound harsh, but you need the truth, not more reassurance that's going to feed your fantasies: that pressure is 100% coming from you. Is that an awful problem you're struggling with? Yeah, let's snag you a therapist, but in the meantime the narrative solution is not to have you rediscover how to keep going despite this war being "forced" on your shoulders. We don't need more scenes where people pat you on the head and tell you that you're doing your best, reasserting this idea that you really are Remnant's One True Savior, Forced By The World to Suffer Endlessly and it's totally fine that your ignorant choices had devastating, world-wide consequences because you simply "had" to take the initiative. Given that you're not a Chose One, the solution here is to acknowledge that this war does not revolve around you. Your view of the situation is incredibly warped and until you acknowledge that this is a problem of your own making - that you actively chose this responsibility at every turn, tore it from others, and have created additional problems through your mistakes - you're never going to make any headway with your mental health or the war. This has been going on for centuries, Ruby. Remnant doesn't need a teenager to solve this impossible problem in six months time, it needs you to put aside your ego and decide how you're going to help. Not fix everything because you want to be the hero of an epic story! But just help.

Ruby: How can I possibly save all of Remnant?

The Story: Oh boy, weren't you just telling the world that they need to unify? Come on, let's go look up the word "unification" and discuss how that clashes with individual responsibility.

[luxe-pauvre]

Every person offers immediate social signifiers with their clothing. Sometimes this is obvious: clothing covered in logos with a certain designer’s name, outfits comprised of attention grabbing colors or loud patterns, garments and uniforms associated with particularly career paths. Even the person picking their smelly sweatpants off the floor and hastily pairing them with a wrinkled t-shirt is offering a social signifier, either I do not care what other people think of my clothing or I want people to think that I do not care what people think of my clothing. It would be ridiculous and ahistorical to claim that there was a time in modern fashion where clothing didn’t function as a form of social exchange or that social identity has ever been extricable from consumption. But our contemporary understanding of identity, by way of these “niche aesthetics”, are not social identities later commodified. They begin with consumption, any sort of cultural or philosophical unification is a latter addition. A single, branded item becomes the basis for a group identity; one does not need to own this item, simple aspire towards what it represents and place themselves in a network of like-minded consumers. The structures of social media heavily reenforce commodity-based niche aesthetics. Certainly, influencers, celebrities, and socialites have always influenced people into purchasing things or adopting specific trends and styles. What is unique to our contemporary media landscape is the role in which algorithms play in building our consumer identities: Tik Tok’s main feature is its endless, algorithmically generated For You page. Instagram has continually increased its focus on suggested content, both in the Explore page and on its main feed. Specific objects become units of data, like a geotag or hashtag, which can be analysed and promoted based on a user’s previous interaction history. Without any human involvement, a social media algorithm can notice that some users who enjoy content about female-driven coming-of-age movies will be receptive to fashion videos that feature iced coffee in glass mason jars and platform oxford leather shoes. The algorithm then promotes content that synthesizes the most trend-friendly images, ideas, and products. In this way, contemporary social media does not reenforce niche identity groupings but actively creates them, selecting the exact products and commodities that can be grouped together to target and captivate specific markets.

charlie, Personal Style Is Dead And The Algorithm Killed It

[zoguy1]

So. Every June, I try to challenge myself by posting something for Pride Month. For the past couple years, it's been ships with cute little pride flags. This year, the priority focus will be on the Trolls Summer Gift exchange. But at the very least I'd like to show ya'll the ones I've made in the past.

2022 bundle:

Bi Hiccup x Gay Jack. Fun fact: This was the first gay couple I've ever laid my eyes on as a young child. I saw this ship and thought "I want that kind of relationship."

Bi Tony x Gay Rudolph Watching the 2017 movie, these two reminded me of Luca and Alberto so much.

Aro Merida You get it? Cuz she's an archer. It's funny. Laugh.

Bi Nan Fang x Ace Fu Yao The headcannon was based off of a fanfic I read a while ago.

Demi Ace Xie Lian x Gay Hua Cheng. I sevearly enjoyed the series. I occasionally eat fics of these two as comfort foods.

Pan Xu Xuan x Trans Xiao Bai White snake was basically 2 hours of "What you are doesn't matter, it's who you are that matters", THEE Pansexual anthem, and then the second movie Turned Blanca into a guy? This is cannon.

Ace Liu Qingge x Bi Shen Yuan Imma be honest. I didn't like SVSSS very much. Yandere's are not my cup of tea. And I was really hoping Shizun would have gotten with Liu-shidi instead.

Gay Luca x Gay Alberto I'm so glad Luberto was actually confirmed to be somewhat cannon. Though Nowadays I see Luca as bi, cuz if we're counting the concept art as apart of the lore, then Luca had a crush on both Alberto and Giulia.

Gay Jade x Gay Katie. Kate is the first character I actually felt scene as a queer person.

Genderfluid Shi Qingxuan I freaking love them so much. Easily my favorite character.

Aro Nezha This kid knows chaos and only chaos.

Pan Adam x Gray Ace Freddy I saw this crossover on DA and thought they made so much sense together. Adam the literal personification of nature, and Freddy the unification of humanity and animals.

Non-Binary Merz x Lesbian Alice These two are OCs of mine.

Aro Lesbian Isabela and Aro Lesbian Elsa. I ship this in a sort of queer platonic way. Like a "we don't really want to date people, but everyone thinks we're dating, and we just don't care enough to correct them." kind of way.

Genderfluid Camilo I want the ability to shapeshift so badly.

Pan Ao Bing x Bi Xiao Jiu Ya'll get brownie points if you know which Ao Bing this is and double points if you know who Xiao Jiu is. Lol. It was a random crossover ship I made because the company liked to crossover their medias for advertisements, and we see the adults interacting and having fun, and Nezha joins them. But we don't see the two teenagers interact at all.

Bi Verta x Bi Li Yunxiang Another crossover ship I made up cuz I didn't see a lot of Nezha Reborn and White Snake crossovers. Which surprised me, especially after Green Snake.

Gay Jiang Ziya x Gay Shen Gongbao These two lived in the same house together for 10 years and adopted a daughter together. I am convinced these two are a married couple.

Bi Mirabel There was a little bisexual rainbow on her dress. That's proof enough for me. Lol.

Lesbian Amaya x Lesbian Janai I loved seeing their dynamic in the show.

Non-Binary Kazi I love them. I'm glad they got more attention in the show.

Lesbian Susie x Trans Noelle "Why does Noelle have antlers. Is she trans? The Null the Null the Null the Null..."

Non-Binary Kris I love them. They literally never said a word, and I love them.

AroAce Krel Based on a comic I made.

Aro Blaze Another OC.

Aro Douxie Idk why, but I get that vibe from him.

2023 Pack:

Furry Omni Toby x Furry Demigirl Darci The moment Darci said she didn't want people to like her just because she was a girl, I felt that in my soul.

Bi Steve x Pan Aja I am not convinced Steve is straight.

Pan Simon x Gay Ao Bing This ship was inspired by a youtube video that had a list of crossover ships, this being on of them. And I freaking love it.

AroAce Sun Wukong and AroAce Tang Sanzang In Monkey King Reborn, out of everyone in the friend group, you can just tell that these two cared about each other the most. And I think that's just sweet.

Fuck. I can only have 30 images per post. I'll reblog with the rest of the 2023 pack.

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Unification Church in tough position two years after Abe shooting

July 7, 2024

As Monday marks the second anniversary of the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Unification Church finds itself in a difficult position as the incident shed light on the religious group's controversial practices, such as collecting massive donations from its followers.

The controversy was fueled by media reports that the shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, 43, cited his personal grudge against the Unification Church as a motive for the attack. He reportedly believed Abe had ties with the group, to which his mother is said to have donated at least ¥100 million.

Since November 2022, the culture ministry has repeatedly exercised its right to have the group respond to its inquiries. And in October last year, the ministry asked the Tokyo District Court to issue an order to dissolve the group, alleging violations of the Civil Code.

On the case, the district court heard the views of both the government and the religious group for the first time in February this year. The hearing was held behind closed doors. The group claimed that it had received donations as part of its religious activities, and argued that the government seeking its dissolution, as Yamagami wanted, is an abnormal situation.

Discussions have continued in writing, but the case looks certain to be prolonged. A Unification Church source said that the hearing process has not even reached the halfway point.

To prevent the Unification Church from moving its assets before a court decision, the ministry in March designated the group as a religious corporation subject to stricter asset monitoring. The same month, the district court found that the group had refused to respond to the ministry's inquiries without proper reasons, and ordered it to pay a penalty of ¥100,000.

Meanwhile, the Unification Church has filed a series of defamation lawsuits against lawyers, journalists and others who made remarks critical of the group, but the lawsuits have been dismissed.

On a lawsuit in which a daughter of a former follower is seeking ¥65 million in damages over the group's solicitation of donations, the district court ruled in favor of the group in 2021, and Tokyo High Court upheld the ruling in 2022.

But the ruling may be overturned by the Supreme Court. In June, the top court's First Petty Bench held a hearing on the case, a necessary procedure if it is to override the lower court ruling.

The focal point is whether the top court will find a memorandum between the former follower and the Unification Church to be valid. In the memorandum, the former follower promised not to file a lawsuit for a refund from the group.

The district and high courts ruled that the memorandum was valid. But if the Supreme Court overturns the view in its ruling scheduled for Thursday, it could have implications for similar cases.

[gayrobos]

Thirteen Primes masterpost!

I’m posting designs for the Thirteen Primes as in-universe religious iconography, and this is where I’m collecting information on the project and links to all of the pictures.

The basic premise is that the Thirteen are not real people (or, you know, as confirmably real as religious/mythical figures on Earth), so their qualities come from religion and folklore rather than history. Lots of people swear by them, and governments pay a certain amount of ceremonial respect to them, but very few people are dedicated to them. Those who are are generally part of groups loosely based on ancient Greek mystery cults--closed societies with private rituals who may believe more strongly in the mystical powers of their deities. I didn’t do any research on this FYI. These mystery cults are also not limited to Primes; a few other mythological figures have dedicated cults as well.

Primus has a kind of super-prime status, in that people really really think it is real and beneath our feet and responsible for the creation of new life. Expeditions to investigate it never come back.

Religious iconography changes with the times, so I’m intending to take a snapshot of Cybertronian culture at a particular point in history (loosely based on the fic I’m writing with armcontrolnerve right now). The Autobot and Decepticon empires control nearly the entire planet since unification efforts started about four hundred years ago, holding roughly the north and south hemispheres respectively; neither the Prime in Iacon nor the Prime in Kaon possesses the Matrix of Leadership, which has been lost for several million years. Contact is just about to be reestablished with off-planet colonies, and space bridge technology will get big in a couple decades. Indentured servitude is the default for laborer-class Cybertronians, but functionism and ratioism have cultural rather than legal influence. It’s a bad time for the arts. Film and other narrative media are put through the censors to make sure they’re appropriately patriotic.

I’m writing in-character as a kind of clueless religious scholar who doesn’t quite get the extent to which peeling back the layers of historical revisionism on depictions of deities is a political act. In short, their book is deeeefinitely not getting past the censors.

Finished designs:

Solus Prime  -  Prima  -  Alpha Trion  -  Vector Prime  -  Onyx Prime  -  Alchemist Prime  -  Fallen Prime  -  Liege Maximo  -  Micronus Prime  -  Nexus Prime  -  Amalgamous Prime  -  Quintessa Prime  -  Logos Prime  -  Prime Regnant

[hannahhook7744]

Glauco White Headcanons;

His full name is Glauco Huxley White.

He is the son of Snow White and Prince Florian.

Which makes him the prince of Charmington.

He has a few nicknames such as White the Knight, G.H, G.W, Glaucy, 'Lauco, Gla, Goofy Glauco, Glauco the Gent, Glaizer, and Glauco the Genuine.

Glauco is 19 years old by the time the events of the pocketwatch roll around.

He and Danny are teammates on various teams which has made them both bestfriends and Auradon Fighting Knights (Team name).

He has a pet horse named 'Breezy'.

He also has a pet parrot that he not so jokingly refers to as his brother named 'Polly'.

Glauco's favorite colors are red, white, dark blue, and gold.

He has blonde slightly curly hair, skin pale as snow, and green eyes.

He thinks bow ties are cool and usually wears one or a tshirt with a fake one on it.

Glauco loves dancing, playing sports, baking, cooking, and archery.

Unlike his mother, he can't sing.

His favorite royal media is InstaRoyal.

He hates ZapChat, though.

He finds the Auradon Bedtime podcast soothing and listens to it before he goes to bed every night.

His favorite isle business is Hearts Salon, Dr. Facilier's arcade, and Shan Yu's Dim Sum.

His favorite Auradon business is Evie's 4 Hearts and Tiana's Palace.

His favorite game is Go-Go Ballroom Dancing.

His least favorite game is Crown of Castle.

His favorite band is, ironically, The Dragon Slayers.

His favorite song is 'Take back the knight.'

He is apart of the school news paper and had nearly been picked out of it several times alongside Red because of their antics.

His least favorite class is smiling because he thinks (privately) that is an unnecessary and even rude class. Hadie likes to tease that it's because he knows his smile sucks.

His favorite class is jousting.

Glauco's favorite sports are Tourney, Foulball, jousting, horseback racing, and Doomball.

His least favorite sport is Swords and Shields because he is no good at swordfighting.

His favorite drink is Eggnog.

His favorite food is Pizza.

His favorite candy is Dwarf Gems.

His least favorite candy is Posion apples for obvious reasons.

When he was little, he had a blue and red flannel baby blanket and a stuffed deer that he named 'Blue'.

Which is ironic considering he has hated Christmas ever since the evil queen turned him into a Christmas tree as a toddler. Something he still has nightmares from.

Glauco's favorite teacher (other than Coach Jenkins) is his biology teacher, Abigail.

His least favorite teacher is unsurprisingly, Mr. Deley.

His favorite book is 'Tales of the Peculiar'.

His least favorite holiday is King Beast Honorary Holiday and unification day.

He collects fossils and rocks.

Something that still gives him nightmares to this day.

Glauco is allergic to Shellfish and Calms.

His favorite dance is the Beast flop because of the name alone.

Out of the group, he gets along with Hadie the least. Considering that Glauco is extremely friendly, that isn't saying much.

The blonde can be described as the following: Shy, impulsive, friendly, athletic, and protective.

He is very close to both of his parents.

He and Chloe are cousins via their dads.

Glauco grew up being babysat by Chad, Evie, Doug, and the other dwarf's kids.

He does his best to steer clear of apples and apple flavored things.

His first word was 'Mama'.

Glauco wants to be a reporter, a professional tourney player, or a detective when he grows up.

Because of his want to be a reporter, he has become very good at lying and acting.

Other clubs he is in include the cooking and sewing club, and the debate team (which Red dragged him into claiming he needed to get better at standing his ground if he wanted to be a Detective or reporter).

The reason he is so shy and anxious is because once when he was little, he joined the annual singing competition. He was so bad that no one let him live it down, so now he finds it hard to find the courage to do things like that and to open up to new people.

He is dating Shan Deja.

[pr1ncesspopstar]

As of tonight I have watched/read/played every piece of media in relation to the base story of Persona 4 and here is just a random grab bag of thoughts from that experience. Spoilers abound, mostly for the animation and manga.

-the best way to experience the story outside of just playing the game, if you want to do what for some reason, is reading the manga then watching the Golden anime. The OG anime is a lot of mediocre to bad with pockmarks of good, not worth a full sit down.

-that said if you want to watch some of the OG anime go with all the episodes up to Yukiko being saved (1-4), mitsuo’s dungeon and the summer vacation duology right after (11-14), the justice and hierophant focused episode (18), and then all of endgame (21-26).

These episodes either do a really good job expanding on what was already there, introduce new ideas and scenarios definitely not possible within the constraints of a video game, do a super solid job covering and even improving upon iconic and memorable moments in ways only the medium of an animation retelling can provide, or just have fun or funny bits. My fave is def episode 13, where Nanako becomes a little detective trying to investigate Yu’s hectic life.

-I really appreciate how each version of Yu is wildly different in these medium’s. P4A Yu is kind of a dick and lame at many points, but has the capacity to be open hearted. Manga Yu starts as cold and distant but eventually becomes an emotional and expressive individual that fights for his feelings. And P4GA Yu feels the ‘manliest’ of the bunch with very strong convictions and a level-head with no fear to speak his mind or thoughts. A lot of tiny differences to enjoy.

-there is the consistent fear of abandonment and loss of friends in Yu’s character each series captures so differently but uses nonetheless. P4A Yu also abandons the truth because of his fear and even develops a shadow that represents that. Manga Yu goes between acting rashly and angrily or withdrawing and hiding his hurt when confronted with the possible loss. P4GA Yu gets emotional and trapped in the idea of what’s the point if he risks using everyone, feeling a burden of needing to protect those bonds at all costs.

-also the fact Yu is 100% ride or die for any wild scheme, even the ones he knows won’t work is a trait I’m glad exists in every version of him. He’s just happy to be involved.

-Also Adachi, the supplementary material really made me finally appreciate Adachi as a character. After interacting with him in the game I was never too sure how to feel about him, but the anime(s)/manga finally helped me grasp his character and how I feel about him. As well as why I see the various interpretations of him that I do.

-Marie being included in more things in the Golden animation was sorely needed and a welcomed addition. When the Investigation Team was saying how Marie is also their friend I could not help but think how the team as a whole had only met Marie around 5-6 times at most through her social link. By putting her in more major scenes this actually made her feel like an unofficial member of the group and I believed they were friends.

-I very much enjoyed the way P4GA handled the unification of Izanami’s two halves. I’m probably just a sap but I very much love concepts of accepting the rage and hate-filled parts of yourself and that binging them joy and peace, quelling that fury. Izanami can be quite the tragic character from interpretation to interpretation, so to see them take a stance where it’s not a fight but a comforting hug given by Marie to Izanami that defeats her, I’m a sucker for it.

-Yu needing to free Marie from a bamboo forest and the ultimate Persona associated with Marie being Kaguya is Good Symbolism and Foreshadowing™.

-while it was definitely only done for cool factor in the manga/anime, but within the context of game mechanics Adachi being able to control and get aid from multiple Reapers in his dungeon is mortifying.

-I have come to the conclusion Yukiko and Rise are mini-gremlins in two different fonts. Yukiko will do and say the silliest to the wildest things because it brings her joy. Rise is attention seeking in a pampered cat kind of way. I cannot expand on this sadly but I hope the vibes can be expressed.

-Naoto being very perceptive but socially oblivious and one track minded is actually quite funny and charming. This is best illustrated in the Christmas episode of which I will say no more, it’s a fun little experience.

-the ‘ame-no-sagiri’ in shadow Teddie’s head’ contributed nothing to the plot/story though. Kinda actually takes away from shadow Teddie tbh but that’s more a nitpick than anything.

-the anime shadow fights are good, but they are GREAT in the manga. They feel so much more personal and productive than ‘beat the thing so it goes back to normal so you can accept it,’ while also carrying they same wonderful flow and dynamics you can see in the animation.

I might post more thoughts if I have any later. I could do an analysis but tbh I would just be repeating what a lot of people have already gone over. I’d rather focus on my own projects because this means now my research is done and I can start writing my fanfiction! I’ll talk about that more later. Can’t wait to share it~

[youthculture2b]

The power of your style

Ana Luíza Porchat

Have you ever stressed out over the outfit you would wear to a party and started screaming that you have nothing to wear? Couldn't you wear your cool top that you have been planning in your head despite the weird looks you would get in school? Have you asked for a friend's opinion on your gear? If you remember how life was as a teenager you probably went through at least one of these situations. Young people have a bigger tendency of considering they have to prove themselves, in spite of having lower confidence. The influencer and fashion blogger Monique Meads says "they believe that they need to fit in somehow. By copying the fashion trends around them, they can feel like they belong to the world. Teenagers use fashion to hold friendships and boost their self-esteem by “mirroring.”". Based on that, is why talking about the establishment of fashion trends and its reflection on youth culture since the 60s is such a fundamental topic.

Since the beginning, clothes were highly associated with social interactions and most of the trends signify a safe space for youth. Fashion recently became an echo of teens' mood, personality and self-esteem. In addition, nowadays young people are the most style-oriented and construct different aspects of their lives based on appearance. The influence of social media on the process of establishing certain fashion trends of the youth intensifies the unification in fashion. Social media has facilitated the amplitude of reach of the different trends, making it easier to purchase and copy clothes. "There is a generation that, since birth, has lived with another powerful media, the Internet. In front of the new devices, these young people don't maintain the same passive attitude that their parents and grandparents had towards the means of communication available to them" (from the book Cultura da Rebeldia: a juventude em questão). This constant access to the internet world plays an important role in establishing fashion and not only did social media make it catch on as fast as it did, technology improved the likeless of the fads to switch as much as they do now (Fashinnovation).

Starting in the 60s, young people were included in a category called "youth". When the industries began to notice they were "capable of setting trends and spreading fashion",  this decade became a synonym of a change in attitude, a youthful revolution. According to  Elle magazine's fashion history post, teenagers had specific clothing (more colorful and casual, contrasting with adult ones), being strongly influenced by tv shows and music. Looking back to each one of the past decades or even years, we're able to recognize specific trends that characterize the social environment and, in consequence, the young people that grew influenced by each one of them. Punk, rock, groove, indie, hippie,... All of them have distinct soundtracks, hairstyles, makeup, jewelry and, mostly, clothes. Even comparing the early 2000s fashion to the 2010s' you'll notice a gigantic difference, because the popular culture and styles that were trending can drift very quickly.

Youth culture is a very broad term, having the mission to englobe all the different categories that young people create. The recent change in fashion trends influence the youth and end up suppressing the diversity of youth culture. Even though there are different trends happening simultaneously, fashion has always been used to manifest which group you belong to. Furthermore, it becomes more than your identity, because the different singularities are quieted by peer pressure and trying to fit in. Nobody wants to stand out, making it difficult for those with a unique personality.

In conclusion, when we talk about fashion we refer to it as a reflection of the different categories of your life, like your age, group or culture. The various fashion trends are a way to manifest those aspects related to the social background the youth grew up in over the past 60 decades specifically. Many things might influence how a person chooses their style, however the role of social media is essential to consolidate mass fashion. Evolving through the years, the identities and attitudes have shifted together with fads, creating a bigger generation gap. The representation of youth culture through fashion became today a symbol of broader group characteristics, hiding individual personalities. Considering the ideas presented here, shouldn't we reflect if what we wear is simply our style or are we mirroring different concepts through our outfits?

[beardedmrbean]

SEOUL, June 25 (UPI) -- North Korea sent some 350 trash-filled balloons toward South Korea overnight, Seoul's military said Tuesday, as back-and-forth provocations continue across a tense inter-Korean border.

As of Tuesday morning, around 100 balloons carrying trash and waste paper had landed in Seoul and the northern part of Gyeonggi Province, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a text message to reporters.

An analysis of recovered balloons found they did not contain hazardous materials, the JCS said.

The latest launch marked the fifth time in the last month that North Korea has sent balloons filled with debris and even excrement, according to South Korean officials.

Seoul's Unification Ministry told local media on Monday that parasites, such as roundworms and threadworms, believed to have originated in human excrement, were detected in earlier balloons.

South Korea briefly resumed anti-Pyongyang loudspeaker broadcasts at the border earlier this month in response to the launches. On Tuesday, the military said it was prepared to begin the transmissions again at any time.

"Our military's psychological warfare broadcast against North Korea is ready to be implemented immediately and will be implemented flexibly depending on the strategic and operational situation," the JCS message said. "This depends on North Korea's actions."

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol mentioned the North's balloons during an address to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Korean War in the southeastern city of Daegu on Tuesday, calling their launch "despicable and irresponsible."

Yoon also slammed the defense treaty signed by North Korea and Russia last week during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Pyongyang.

"Last week, [North Korea] signed a 'Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty' with Russia, which started the war in Ukraine, and promised to strengthen military and economic cooperation, in direct violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions," Yoon said.

"It is an anachronism that runs counter to the progress of history," he said.

The North's launches appear to be a response to the longstanding practice of North Korean defectors floating balloons with anti-Pyongyang messages across the border.

Activist group Fighters for a Free North Korea said it sent 20 balloons carrying some 300,000 leaflets, USB drives containing South Korean media and U.S. dollars across the border last week.

On Friday, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued a statement in official media condemning the launch by "disgusting defectors" and warning of possible retaliation.

North Korea has reacted with fury to the activists' balloons in the past. In June 2020, Pyongyang severed all communications with Seoul and blew up an inter-Korean liaison office over what it called South Korea's failure to rein in the defectors.

The demilitarized zone that has separated the two Koreas since fighting halted in the 1950-53 war has also been the site of multiple border incursions in recent weeks, with North Korean troops crossing the military demarcation line three times since June 9.

On each occasion, the South Korean military fired warning shots and the North's soldiers returned to their side of the border.

JCS officials said the crossings appear unintentional, as the North has been ramping up activity in frontline areas of the DMZ since withdrawing from an inter-Korean military agreement in November.

North Korean soldiers have been observed clearing land, laying mines, reinforcing tactical roads and installing structures that appear to be anti-tank barriers at several locations, the JCS said.

[whatisonthemoon]

Hitler’s Shadow Reaches toward Today

https://consortiumnews.com/2014/05/14/hitlers-shadow-reaches-toward-today-2/

From the Archive: The key role of neo-Nazis in Ukraine’s U.S.-backed coup is denied by the mainstream U.S. press, which can’t believe the U.S. government would collaborate with such unsavory characters, but that isn’t the real history, as Robert Parry reported in 2010.

By Robert Parry (Originally published on Dec. 17, 2010)

The U.S. government protected Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie in the years after World War II and later unleashed the infamous Butcher of Lyon on South America by aiding his escape from French war-crimes prosecutors, according to a report issued by the National Archives in 2010.

The report, entitled “Hitler’s Shadow,” concentrates on the decisions by the U.S. Army’s Counterintelligence Corps to use Barbie and other ex-Nazis for early Cold War operations, but other work by investigative journalists and government investigators has shown how Barbie’s continued allegiance to Nazi ideology contributed to the spread of right-wing extremism in Latin America.

▲ Nazi SS officer Klaus Barbie.

With his skills as an intelligence operative and his expertise in state terror, Barbie helped shape the particularly vicious style of anti-communism that dominated South America for most of the Cold War. He also played a role in building a conduit for drug proceeds to fund right-wing paramilitary operations, including Ronald Reagan’s beloved Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

In 1980, Barbie used his perch in Bolivian intelligence to organize an alliance of military leaders and cocaine barons to overthrow Bolivia’s democratically elected leftist government in a bloody coup. Though fitting with Washington’s distrust of left-wing populist governments in South America, the so-called Cocaine Coup had other long-term consequences for the United States.

Bolivia’s coup regime ensured a reliable flow of coca to Colombia’s Medellin cartel, which quickly grew into a sophisticated conglomerate for smuggling cocaine into the United States. Some of those drug profits then went to finance right-wing paramilitary operations, including the CIA-backed Contras, according to other U.S. government investigations.

Barbie reportedly collaborated, too, with representatives of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church as they worked with Bolivia’s Cocaine Coup regime to organize anti-communist operations in South America. By then, the region had become a center for Moon’s global money-laundering operations. In 1982, Moon began pouring hundreds of millions of his mysterious dollars into the right-wing Washington Times newspaper to influence U.S. politics.

Eventually, as Bolivia’s corrupt Cocaine Coup government crumbled and Barbie’s identity became well known, French authorities finally secured Barbie’s return to France to face a war-crimes trial in 1983. (He died in 1991.)

The Butcher of Lyon’s role in these South American anti-communist activities caused brief embarrassment for Moon’s church and some right-wing Americans. But the Nazi collaboration didn’t draw much attention from the U.S. news media, which was already shying away from critical reporting on the Reagan administration’s unsavory alliances in Central and South America.

A Long Continuum

Indeed, the Right’s growing dominance of Washington opinion circles can be viewed as a continuum dating back to those days right after World War II, when U.S. priorities switched quickly from prosecuting Axis war criminals to seeking their help in crushing leftist political influence in Western Europe and Asia.

Suddenly, U.S. intelligence agencies were freeing Nazi and Japanese war criminals from prison and exploiting their talents to neutralize labor unions, student groups and other left-wing organizations.

Though the National Archives report deals with ex-Nazis in Europe, a similar program was underway in Japan where war criminals such as right-wing yakuza gangsters Yoshio Kodama and Ryoichi Sasakawa were freed and allowed to become important political figures in Japan and later internationally by supporting a global crusade against communism.

In the 1960s, Kodama and Sasakawa joined with Rev. Moon and two right-wing dictators, Taiwan’s Chiang Kai-shek and South Korea’s Park Chung Hee, to create the World Anti-Communist League (WACL), which also brought in right-wing leaders from Latin America and Europe, including ex-Nazis and neo-Nazis, according to authors Scott and Jon Lee Anderson in their landmark 1986 book, Inside the League.

So, with the Cocaine Coup in 1980, Barbie not only closed the circle, bringing together death-squad commanders, ex-Nazis, neo-Nazis and various sociopaths from around the globe, but he helped ensure that drug proceeds would be available to fund right-wing causes in the future.

“Hitler’s Shadow,” in effect, tells the first chapter of this right-wing restoration as U.S. intelligence agencies turned to former Nazi officials and SS officers to counter the perceived greater threat from the Soviet Union and Communist groups in Europe.

“Gestapo officers, who also held ranks in the SS, were in the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps’s automatic arrest category after the war,” the report said. “Later, CIC used former Gestapo officers to garner useful intelligence for the postwar period on everything from German right-wing movements to underground communist organizations. Intelligence officers often overlooked the significant role Gestapo officers played in the murder of Jews, POWs, and the political enemies of the Nazis.”

The report notes that “approximately 1,200 newly released files relate to the penetration of German Communist activities and specifically to ‘Project Happiness,’ the CIC’s codename for counterintelligence operations against the KPD,” the German Communist Party.

Though Barbie notorious for personally torturing French partisans during the war may be the best known ex-Gestapo officer recruited by the CIC, others had similar histories.

For instance, Anton Mahler was the chief interrogator of Hans Scholl, a leader of the White Rose, a Munich-based student organization that secretly passed out leaflets urging Adolf Hitler’s overthrow and decrying German apathy in the face of Hitler’s crimes. Hans and his sister Sophie Scholl were convicted of high treason and beheaded in February 1943.

Mahler also served in Einsatzgruppe B in occupied Belarus as the group slaughtered more than 45,000 people, most of them Jews, the report said. Nevertheless, CIC deployed Mahler as an informant starting in February 1949 and soon made him a full-time employee.

Regarding Barbie, the report builds on a 1983 investigation by a Justice Department investigator who confirmed suspicions that U.S. intelligence had worked with and protected this hunted war criminal who was accused of executing 4,000 people and shipping 7,000 Jews to concentration camps.

“In the spring of 1947 a CIC agent named Robert S. Taylor from CIC Region IV (Munich) recruited Klaus Barbie, the one-time Gestapo Chief of Lyon (194244),” the new report said. “Barbie helped run a counterintelligence net named ‘Büro Petersen’ which monitored French intelligence.

“In 1948 Barbie helped the CIC locate former Gestapo informants. In 194950, he penetrated German Communist Party (KPD) activities in CIC Region XII (Augsburg). He continued to work for the CIC in return for protection against French war crimes charges.”

Ratline to Bolivia

The story of Barbie’s escape to South America with the CIC’s collaboration was addressed in the 1983 report by Allan A. Ryan Jr., head of the Justice Department’s Nazi-hunting Office of Special Investigations. Ryan’s 218-page report said that in 1951, the CIC helped Barbie evade French authorities and flee over a “ratline” to Bolivia.

Ryan said that a half dozen CIC officers participated in the cover-up of Barbie’s identity and excused their actions by claiming that the French arrest of Barbie could jeopardize the security of other CIC operations. To get Barbie to Bolivia, the CIC officers used a ratline run by a Croatian priest, Father Krunoslav Draganovich, Ryan wrote.

Ryan said the Central Intelligence Agency later rebuffed suggestions that Barbie be reactivated in the 1960s, but Barbie using the name Altmann held an official position with a state-owned shipping company that allowed him to move freely and even to travel to the United States. [For more on Ryan’s report, see Time magainzse, Time magazine, Aug. 29, 1983]

More significantly, Barbie became a figure in Bolivian intelligence and used that perch to coordinate with other right-wing intelligence services around the continent that were engaged in Operation Condor, a program of assassinating suspected subversives and other dissidents.

In the 1970s, these intelligence agencies had teamed up to give their assassination squads regional and even global reach, including the murder of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier and an American co-worker on the streets of Washington in 1976.

For the Cocaine Coup in 1980, Barbie recruited Argentina’s feared intelligence service along with young neo-Nazis from Europe. The World Anti-Communist League arranged support from Moon and other Asian rightists.

For years, Moon had been sinking down roots in South America, especially in Uruguay after right-wing military dictators seized power there in 1973. Moon also cultivated close ties with dictators in Argentina, Paraguay and Chile, reportedly ingratiating himself with the juntas by helping the regimes buy weapons and by channeling money to allied right-wing organizations.

“Relationships nurtured with right-wing Latin Americans in the [World Anti-Communist] League led to acceptance of the [Unification] Church’s political and propaganda operations throughout Latin America,” the Andersons wrote in Inside the League.

“As an international money laundry, the Church tapped into the capital flight havens of Latin America. Escaping the scrutiny of American and European investigators, the Church could now funnel money into banks in Honduras, Uruguay and Brazil, where official oversight was lax or nonexistent.”

Moon expanded his network of friends when Barbie helped pull together a right-wing alliance of Bolivian military officers and drug dealers for the Cocaine Coup. WACL associates, such as Alfredo Candia, coordinated the arrival of some of the paramilitary operatives from Argentina and Europe who would help out in the violent putsch.

Barbie, then better known as Altmann, was in charge of drawing up plans for the coup and coordinating with Argentine intelligence. One of the first Argentine intelligence officers to arrive was Lt. Alfred Mario Mingolla.

“Before our departure, we received a dossier on” Barbie, Mingolla later told German investigative reporter Kai Hermann. “There it stated that he was of great use to Argentina because he played an important role in all of Latin America in the fight against communism. From the dossier, it was also clear that Altmann worked for the Americans.”

The Cocaine Motive

As the coup took shape, Bolivian Col. Luis Arce-Gomez, the cousin of cocaine kingpin Roberto Suarez, also brought onboard neo-fascist terrorists such as Italian Stefano della Chiaie who had been working with the Argentine death squads. [See Cocaine Politics by Peter Dale Scott and Jonathan Marshall]

Still a committed fascist, Barbie started a secret lodge, called Thule. During meetings, he lectured to his followers underneath swastikas by candlelight.

On June 17, 1980, in nearly public planning for the coup, six of Bolivia’s biggest traffickers met with the military conspirators to hammer out a financial deal for future protection of the cocaine trade. A La Paz businessman said the coming putsch should be called the “Cocaine Coup,” a name that would stick. [See Cocaine Politics]

Less than three weeks later, on July 6 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, U.S. undercover drug enforcement agent Michael Levine said he met with a Bolivian trafficker named Hugo Hurtado-Candia. Over drinks, Hurtado outlined plans for the “new government” in which his niece Sonia Atala, a major cocaine supplier, will “be in a very strong position.” [See Levine’s Big White Lie]

On July 17, the Cocaine Coup began, spearheaded by Barbie and his neo-fascist goon squad which was dubbed the “Fiancés of Death.”

“The masked thugs were not Bolivians; they spoke Spanish with German, French and Italian accents,” Levine wrote. “Their uniforms bore neither national identification nor any markings, although many of them wore Nazi swastika armbands and insignias.”

The slaughter was fierce. When the putschists stormed the national labor headquarters, they wounded labor leader Marcelo Quiroga, who had led the effort to indict former military dictator Hugo Banzer on drug and corruption charges. Quiroga “was dragged off to police headquarters to be the object of a game played by some of the torture experts imported from Argentina’s dreaded Mechanic School of the Navy,” Levine wrote.

“These experts applied their ‘science’ to Quiroga as a lesson to the Bolivians, who were a little backward in such matters. They kept Quiroga alive and suffering for hours. His castrated, tortured body was found days later in a place called ‘The valley of the Moon’ in southern La Paz.”

To DEA agent Levine back in Buenos Aires, it was soon clear “that the primary goal of the revolution was the protection and control of Bolivia’s cocaine industry. All major drug traffickers in prison were released, after which they joined the neo-Nazis in their rampage.

“Government buildings were invaded and trafficker files were either carried off or burned. Government employees were tortured and shot, the women tied and repeatedly raped by the paramilitaries and the freed traffickers.”

The fascists celebrated with swastikas and shouts of “Heil Hitler!” Hermann reported. Col. Arce-Gomez, a central-casting image of a bemedaled, pot-bellied Latin dictator, grabbed broad powers as Interior Minister. Gen. Luis Garcia Meza was installed as Bolivia’s new president.

The victory put into power a right-wing military dictatorship indebted to the drug lords. Bolivia became South America’s first narco-state.

Moon’s Throne

One of the first well-wishers arriving in La Paz to congratulate the new government was Moon’s top lieutenant (and former KCIA officer) Bo Hi Pak. The Moon organization published a photo of Pak meeting with the new strongman, General Garcia Meza. After the visit to the mountainous capital, Pak declared, “I have erected a throne for Father Moon in the world’s highest city.”

According to later Bolivian government and newspaper reports, a Moon representative invested about $4 million in preparations for the coup. Bolivia’s WACL representatives also played key roles, and CAUSA, one of Moon’s anti-communist organizations, listed as members nearly all the leading Bolivian coup-makers.

Soon, Colonel Luis Arce-Gomez, a coup organizer and the cousin of cocaine kingpin Roberto Suarez, went into partnership with big narco-traffickers, including Cuban-American smugglers based in Miami. Nazi war criminal Barbie and his young neo-fascist followers found new work protecting Bolivia’s major cocaine barons and transporting drugs to the Colombian border.

“The paramilitary units conceived by Barbie as a new type of SS sold themselves to the cocaine barons,” German journalist Hermann wrote. “The attraction of fast money in the cocaine trade was stronger than the idea of a national socialist revolution in Latin America.”

A month after the Cocaine Coup, General Garcia Meza participated in the Fourth Congress of the Latin American Anti-Communist Confederation, an arm of the World Anti-Communist League. Also attending that Fourth Congress was WACL president Woo Jae Sung, a leading Moon disciple.

As the drug lords consolidated their power in Bolivia, the Moon organization expanded its presence, too. Hermann reported that in early 1981, war criminal Barbie and Moon leader Thomas Ward were seen together in apparent prayer.

On May 31, 1981, Moon representatives sponsored a CAUSA reception at the Sheraton Hotel’s Hall of Freedom in La Paz. Moon’s lieutenant Bo Hi Pak and Bolivian strongman Garcia Meza led a prayer for President Ronald Reagan’s recovery from an assassination attempt.

In his speech, Bo Hi Pak declared, “God had chosen the Bolivian people in the heart of South America as the ones to conquer communism.”

Flush with Cash

In the early 1980s, cocaine kingpin Suarez his coffers now overflowing with cash invested more than $30 million in various right-wing paramilitary operations, including the Contra forces in Central America, according to U.S. Senate testimony in 1987 by an Argentine intelligence officer, Leonardo Sanchez-Reisse.

Sanchez-Reisse testified that the Suarez drug money was laundered through front companies in Miami before going to Central America. There, Argentine intelligence officers, including Sanchez-Reisse and other veterans of the Cocaine Coup, trained the fledgling Contra forces.

But by late 1981, the cocaine taint of Bolivia’s military junta was so deep and the corruption so pervasive that U.S.-Bolivian relations were stretched to the breaking point. “The Moon sect disappeared overnight from Bolivia as clandestinely as they had arrived,” Hermann reported.

The Cocaine Coup leaders soon found themselves on the run, too. Interior Minister Arce-Gomez was extradited to Miami and was sentenced to 30 years in prison for drug trafficking. Drug lord Suarez got a 15-year prison term. General Garcia Meza became a fugitive from a 30-year sentence imposed on him in Bolivia for abuse of power, corruption and murder.

SS veteran Barbie was returned to France to face a life sentence for war crimes. He died in 1991 at the age of 77.

But Moon’s organization suffered few negative repercussions from its role in the Cocaine Coup. By the early 1980s, flush with seemingly unlimited funds, Moon had moved on to promoting himself as a key friend of the new Republican administration in Washington.

A guest at Reagan’s First Inauguration, Moon made his organization useful to the new President and to Vice President George H.W. Bush, who would later become a paid speaker for Moon’s organization. Where Moon got his cash was not a mystery that American conservatives were eager to solve.

“Some Moonie-watchers even believe that some of the business enterprises are actually covers for drug trafficking,” wrote Scott and Jon Lee Anderson.

While Moon’s representatives have refused to detail how they’ve sustained their far-flung activities including many businesses that insiders say lose money Moon’s spokesmen have denied recurring allegations about profiteering off illegal trafficking in weapons and drugs.

In a typical response to a gun-running question by the Argentine newspaper, Clarin, Moon’s representative Ricardo DeSena responded, “I deny categorically these accusations and also the barbarities that are said about drugs and brainwashing.” [Clarin, July 7, 1996]

Nevertheless, Moon’s organization did its best to disrupt the work of U.S. investigative reporters and government investigators looking into the connections between the drug trade and right-wing paramilitary operations such as the Nicaraguan Contras.

In the mid-1980s, for instance, when journalists and congressional investigators began probing the evidence of Contra-connected drug trafficking, they came under attack from Moon’s Washington Times. An Associated Press story that I co-wrote with Brian Barger about a Miami-based federal probe into gun- and drug-running by the Contras was disparaged in an April 11, 1986, front-page Washington Times article with the headline: “Story on [contra] drug smuggling denounced as political ploy.”

When Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts, uncovered additional evidence of Contra-drug trafficking, the Washington Times denounced him, too. The newspaper published articles depicting Kerry’s probe as a wasteful political witch hunt. “Kerry’s anti-contra efforts extensive, expensive, in vain,” declared the headline of one Times article on Aug. 13, 1986.

Despite the attacks, Kerry’s Contra-drug investigation eventually concluded that a number of Contra units were implicated in the cocaine trade.

“It is clear that individuals who provided support for the contras were involved in drug trafficking, the supply network of the contras was used by drug trafficking organizations, and elements of the contras themselves knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers,” Kerry’s investigation stated in a report issued April 13, 1989.

Mysterious Contra Backer

In 1998, CIA’s Inspector General Frederick Hitz confirmed the earlier allegations of extensive cocaine trafficking by the Contras, including significant ties to Bolivia’s traffickers. Hitz also cited a partially redacted document referring to a “religious” group cooperating with the Contra-cocaine trade.

“There are indications of links between [a U.S. religious organization] and two Nicaraguan counter-revolutionary groups,” read an Oct. 22, 1982, cable from the office of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations. “These links involve an exchange in [the United States] of narcotics for arms.”

In 1982, the CIA quickly shut down any further reporting on this drug deal, citing the role of U.S. citizens. “In light of the apparent participation of U.S. persons throughout, agree you should not pursue the matter further,” CIA headquarters wrote on Nov. 3, 1982.

During the Inspector General’s investigation, Hitz conducted a follow-up interview, with Contra-connected drug trafficker Renato Pena, who described the redacted U.S. religious organization as a Contra “political ally that provided only humanitarian aid to Nicaraguan refugees and logistical support for contra-related rallies, such as printing services and portable stages.”

Moon’s religious-political groups, some based in the United States, were extremely active supporting the Contras in the early 1980s, suggesting that Moon’s Washington Times might have had more than an ideological reason to attack investigators exploring Contra drug trafficking.

To this day, the Washington Times remains a reliably right-wing voice in the U.S. capital. [Moon died on Sept. 3, 2012.]

Still, the CIA’s shielding of the name of that “religious organization” and similar protective behavior represented a continuation of a long-standing pattern in which U.S. intelligence covered up for right-wing and neo-Nazi criminality, a dark history that began with the likes of Klaus Barbie and has extended “Hitler’s Shadow” to modern times.

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his new book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). For a limited time, you also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.

[erezinbalblog]

“European” Voices from Moscow Empowered by Arrested Ukrainian DerStandard Expert Kropachov, Holder of Russian Citizenship

Unveiling the Machinations: Inside the Covert World of Russian Propaganda in European Media

Amid the full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, Russian propaganda is refining its methods by enlisting Ukrainian citizens to carry out disinformation campaigns within the European Union.

As recently reported by SPIEGEL, investigators from Belgium and France conducted raids on the offices of the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg as part of an investigation into the activities of the pro-Russian news portal “Voice of Europe,” which operates several clones across various European countries under the domain golos.eu.

An international group of journalists, in their two-part investigation “The ‘Mirny’ Plan,” has uncovered the individuals behind the creation of “Voice of Europe,” their connections to Ukraine and Russia, as well as a range of mechanisms employed by Russian propaganda to create pseudo-experts in the European information space.

These efforts often leverage the resources of reputable media outlets such as Euronews and derStandard. This publication is based on the findings of that journalistic investigation.

Journalists have found that the content for the “Voice of Europe” portals is created by individuals positioning themselves as Ukrainian opposition to the current administration of President Zelensky.

In most cases, their “European” voices reportedly originate from Moscow — these are former officials and experts from the team of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, who publicly support and justify the military invasion of Ukraine. However, there are also contributors genuinely based in Europe, and most absurdly, some voices come directly from Ukraine.

According to the investigation materials, all individuals involved in this special information operation are part of the pool of speakers from the media holding “112 Ukraine,” which was shut down in Ukraine.

They were the main contributors to the broadcasts of the holding’s channels, including 112, Newsone, ZiK, and Channel 4.

The “112 Ukraine” holding was owned by Viktor Medvedchuk, a friend and personal representative of Putin in Ukraine. This holding, together with the media group “Inter,” owned by oligarch Dmytro Firtash, who is currently under arrest in Austria, was the foundation of pro-Russian political and media activities in Ukraine before the war began.

Another manifestation of this activity was the now-banned pro-Russian opposition party “For Life,” which included representatives of Medvedchuk, Firtash, and Yanukovych.

Many of these individuals can now be found on the “Voice of Europe” portal. Notably, Dmytro Firtash is attempting to avoid extradition to the United States by obtaining diplomatic status as an advisor to the Permanent Mission of Belarus to International Organizations in Vienna, which could grant him diplomatic immunity.

Belarus has supported Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine and provides its territory to Russian military forces. The television channels of Dmytro Firtash’s media group “Inter” continue to operate in Ukraine and are even undergoing a relaunch.

To ensure systematic coordination among all the channels, the chairman of the Inter group, Yegor Benkendorf, transitioned to leading the “112 Ukraine” holding.

As Russian propaganda and calls for unification with Russia had openly aired on the channels of the “112 Ukraine” holding for many years, it was nationalised and shut down after the war began. Medvedchuk was arrested and later exchanged to Russia for Ukrainian prisoners of war. He is now residing in Moscow, where he is an active speaker and one of the investors in the “Voice of Europe” portal.

A few days before the investigative actions in the European Parliament, an event seemingly unrelated at first glance occurred in Kyiv. Law enforcement officers arrested businessman and media resource owner Vitaliy Kropachov, who had previously been engaged as an expert on Ukraine by the Austrian publication derStandard.

For more than seven years, he has been publicly accused of organising a criminal enterprise involved in large-scale corruption in the Ukrainian energy sector. These accusations have now led to his arrest.

According to Ukrainian media, immediately after the closure of the “112 Ukraine” holding, in the midst of the war in 2023, Kropachov launched a new information channel with the peculiar name Ukraine World News (UWN), using the former staff and some of the licenses from the closed holding.

This move caused significant public outcry and sharp criticism directed at Kropachov. Journalists have established that Kropachov enlisted Yegor Benkendorf, mentioned earlier, and the key top management of the closed “112 Ukraine” holding to manage his channel.

In addition to the Ukrainian UWN, the top management of the closed “112 Ukraine” holding has launched two more projects in Europe: the news portal “Voice of Europe” and a virtual legal assistance centre for opposition members, “Pravo Center”.

These projects are positioned as a necessary measure to protect freedom of speech in Ukraine from the so-called “totalitarian regime” of Zelensky. From the outside, this might appear to be constructive opposition activity.

However, it has nothing to do with democracy and is, in fact, a cynical tool of Russian propaganda. Lies, corruption, bribery of journalists and politicians—this is what emerges upon a detailed analysis of these activities.

By launching the UWN channel, Kropachov effectively helped retain the staff of the closed pro-Russian media holding “112 Ukraine” within the Ukrainian information space.

Despite UWN’s patriotic tone, it is produced by individuals who have been engaged in Russian propaganda for many years.

In the final days before its closure, the “112 Ukraine” holding also attempted a similar manoeuvre, abruptly changing the rhetoric on all its channels, but failed to deceive anyone. Some of the speakers from the UWN channel are regularly featured on “Voice of Europe.”

Journalists have also uncovered that Kropachov appears to hold Russian citizenship and possibly in an effort to conceal this, he further appears to have changed his surname in his Russian passport from Kropachov to Mirny (translated to English as “Peaceful”) in 2008.

He appears not to have renounced his Russian citizenship and to remain a Russian citizen to this day. According to Ukrainian law, Russian citizens are prohibited from owning media outlets and participating in privatisation.

Kropachov does not disclose any such Russian citizenship publicly. Coinciding with the TV channel’s launch, Kropachov abruptly surfaced on Wikipedia, positioning himself as an authority on Ukraine in European media coverage. Observers have remarked on the consistently laudatory nature of these features.

Critics highlight the apparent lack of fact-checking by the authors, who have seemingly disregarded multiple corruption allegations levelled against Kropachov by reputable Ukrainian media outlets and law enforcement agencies.

In March 2023, the Austrian publication derStandard featured Kropachov in a highly complimentary article, portraying him as an expert and generous entrepreneur eager to bring Ukrainian refugees back home.

He promised free apartments and seed capital to anyone willing to work on his project for building charging stations for electric vehicles. The author of the article did not however mention the corruption accusations against Kropachov or the scandal surrounding the launch of the UWN channel based on the closed pro-Russian media holding “112 Ukraine.”

Journalists also discovered that Kropachov’s statement, around which the article was built, is absurd and false. Kropachov does not give away free apartments and seed capital to anyone. Instead, he is frequently involved in high-profile scandals over months-long wage arrears to miners at his coal enterprises.

President Zelensky had to intervene in one such scandal, calling Kropachov a fraudster and referring the matter to law enforcement.

However, the article’s author did not mention any of this. This particular author seldom writes about Ukrainian figures, and when he does, it is invariably in a complimentary manner.

The subjects have included Kropachov and the former head of the National Bank, Kyrylo Shevchenko, who is evading Ukrainian justice in Vienna. Both individuals are accused of crimes in Ukraine, facing identical charges of organising and managing a criminal organisation and causing substantial harm to the state.

Each publication was followed by reprints in international and Ukrainian media according to a similar pattern.

Potentially violating copyright and derStandard’s editorial policy, a “full” version of the interview with the same photographs and partially overlapping theses appeared in several European and Ukrainian media outlets shortly after the publication.

This “full” version was neither published in the print nor digital versions of derStandard, and its authenticity has not been verified. In this “full” version, Kropachov appeared less generous, offering no free apartments or capital, and planning to build electric vehicle charging stations in Austria.

Analysing this wave, journalists uncovered a network of fake news sites masquerading as reputable British and Austrian media but lacking physical addresses and editorial offices.

The evidence presented in the journalistic investigation suggests the involvement of brothers Omar Harfouch and Walid Harfouch, who have been the subject of negative press coverage in Ukrainian, Azerbaijani and Lebanese media.

It is important to note that there are materials online that refute all accusations against Omar Harfouch, explaining the situation as a reaction to Omar Harfouch’s anti-corruption activities and a conspiracy organised against him by Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

It is telling that these rebuttals are generally published on the same network of sites that hosted the “full” version of Kropachov’s interview.

Immediately after the investigation began and journalists contacted the implicated individuals, publications started to be deleted en masse from the network, further corroborating the journalists’ suspicions. All the deleted materials were recovered and are included in the investigation.

Omar Harfouch is a pianist who planned to become the Prime Minister of Lebanon; a former radio station owner, and a person allegedly connected, through his brother, with the leadership of Euronews.

Previously, Omar Harfouch publicly announced the transition of Yegor Benkendorf from the “Inter” group to one of Europe’s largest media holdings, presumably Euronews. However, this transition did not take place.

brother, Walid Harfouch, is listed on his personal Wikipedia page as the Vice President of the international television channel Euronews.

Walid and Omar Harfouch have been associated with Yegor Benkendorf and the media group “Inter,” owned by oligarch Dmytro Firtash.

Numerous photos and mentions of the connection between the Harfouch brothers and Euronews CEO Michael Peters, as well as key speakers from the closed media holding “112 Ukraine,” who now broadcast on the “Voice of Europe” portal, can be found online.

There is a simple explanation for this: ample evidence in open sources suggests that the Harfouch brothers have been assisting the media activities of the collaborator and former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, in European media for many years.

As journalists demonstrate in their investigation “The ‘Mirny’ Plan,” this is a systematically operating mechanism for falsifying the European information space and creating pseudo-experts.

All of the described activities are closely connected to Austria’s capital, Vienna, which was recently dubbed the capital of Russian espionage in Europe by the Financial Times in the article “It really is the Wild West: Spy problem in Vienna spirals out of control”.

The owner of the media group “Inter,” oligarch Dmytro Firtash, has been in Vienna for many years awaiting possible extradition to the United States, where he faces corruption charges. Key top managers of the closed media holding “112 Ukraine” also reside there.

After the war began, Vitaliy Kropachov moved to Vienna with his family and tried to create a positive image for himself through paid publications, but he turned to the wrong people for this.

Kropachov is currently under arrest in Kyiv. According to insider reports, the UWN channel in Ukraine is undergoing staff reductions, and the “Voice of Europe” portal has significantly decreased its publication frequency. Whether this can be considered a victory remains unclear.

Russian media, reporting on the raids in the European Parliament concerning the “Voice of Europe” case, are outraged by the Czech Foreign Ministry’s proposal to impose sanctions on this portal, the notorious Viktor Medvedchuk, and another top manager of the closed “112 Ukraine” holding, Artem Marchevsky.

Once again, they repeat the narrative about problems with freedom of speech in Europe and Ukraine.

At a time when the entire civilised world is helping Ukraine to resist Russian military aggression, it would appear to be the height of cynicism and arrogance to call a portal “Voice of Europe” while gathering speakers in Moscow who openly insult Ukrainian and European politicians, distort facts, call for Ukraine’s capitulation, and threaten nuclear apocalypse —echoing Russian propaganda media word for word. This is not the voice of Europe, but the voice of Moscow, and it is a voice that no one wants to hear right now.

[head-post]

South Korean Yoon seeks dialogue, path to unification with North

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Thursday outlined a vision for unification with North Korea and proposed opening a working group for dialogue, even as tensions with Pyongyang remain high, UPI reports.

Yoon outlined his plan in an address on the occasion of South Korea’s Liberation Day, which marks the end of Japan’s colonial rule in 1945, saying “complete liberation remains an unfinished task for us.” He said:

The freedom we enjoy must be extended to the frozen kingdom of the North, where people are deprived of freedom and suffer from poverty and starvation. Only when a unified free and democratic nation rightfully owned by the people is established across the entire Korean Peninsula will we finally have complete liberation.

Yoon’s unification plan includes changing the situation inside North Korea by improving human rights and access to information from the outside world. He also claimed:

It is also important to help awaken the people of North Korea to the value of freedom. Testimonials from numerous North Korean defectors show that our radio and TV broadcasts helped make them aware of the false propaganda and instigations emanating from the North Korean regime.

The South Korean president called on allies to strengthen international support for unification and suggested the establishment of an “Inter-Korean Working Group” for dialogue with the North. Yoon also added:

This body could take up any issue ranging from relieving tensions to economic cooperation, people-to-people and cultural exchanges and disaster and climate-change responses.

The plan comes at a time when prospects for unification seem least likely. In February, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared the South a “major enemy” and publicly called for constitutional change, rejecting the long-standing official goal of reunification.

The South Korean public has also lost its desire to unite with North Korea, especially the younger generation. In a recent poll, more than 60 per cent of respondents in their 20s and 30s said unification was unnecessary.

Analysts say Seoul’s proposal is unlikely to lure North Korea to the negotiating table. Sean King, senior vice president and East Asia expert at New York-based consulting firm Park Strategies, said:

The creation of an Inter-Korean North/South Working Group will surely fall on deaf ears in Pyongyang. Yoon’s clearly proposing unification by absorption, not a coming together of two equals. This speech was largely about rhetorical positioning on Yoon’s part – well intended but not feasible under current realities.

Pyongyang has not stopped its weapons testing and hostile rhetoric over the past three years, and in recent months a Cold War-style psychological warfare has unfolded in border areas.

Since early June, North Korea has sent thousands of balloons filled with scraps of paper, torn clothes and dung to the South, including one that spilled rubbish on the Yoon presidential compound. Meanwhile, Seoul resumed propaganda broadcasts over loudspeakers around the demilitarised zone, transmitting K-pop songs and South Korean news and information across the border.

Earlier this week, North Korean state media denounced the growing trilateral security relationship between the US, South Korea and Japan, warning that the Asian allies would become “cannon fodder” for a nuclear attack.

Read more HERE

[dayana2024]

Exposure of the Anti-Cult Crusade

In recent years, a sinister movement has been quietly gaining momentum on all continents, aiming to suppress and discredit minorities under the guise of protection. Led by influential figures and reinforced by dubious claims of brainwashing and fraud, anti-cultists have woven a web of deception that threatens the very fabric of freedom worldwide.

Egon Cholakian, an authoritative specialist in intelligence and security, has unveiled their modus operandi, exposing a campaign based on manipulation and disinformation. According to Cholakian, tactics refined by intelligence agencies like the KGB are now being used to sow discord in democratic societies, undermining fundamental freedoms and eroding trust in various religious practices.

As accurately characterized by MASSIMO INTROVIGNE, an Italian expert, in BITTER WINTER A MAGAZINE ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AND HUMAN RIGHTS: “Punishing Tai Ji Men and other groups as religious frauds and hitting them with taxes in Taiwan, mobilizing left-wing activists against the Unification Church and creating a climate in Japan that is now assaulting other groups such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and legislating against “brainwashing,” under any other name, in France are all by-products of the same obnoxious ideology.”

Amplifying the testimonies of disgruntled former members while rejecting dissenting voices, anti-cultists manipulate public opinion and coerce legislative actions against targeted groups.

The consequences are dire and far-reaching. Peaceful organizations advocating for spiritual growth and societal harmony are portrayed as societal threats, their members facing persecution and legal reprisals. This insidious trend not only violates basic human rights but also undermines the pluralistic fabric of modern democracies.

Cholakian warns: behind the facade of protecting public norms lie calculated efforts to shape public opinion and suppress dissent. By infiltrating the media and leveraging political influence, anti-cultists promote a narrative that erases the nuances of discussion and perpetuates an atmosphere of fear.

As defenders of civil liberties, we must oppose this organized attack on religious freedom. The future of a truly democratic society depends on our ability to distinguish truth from manipulation and protect the rights of all religious communities, regardless of their size and traditions.

The time has come for conscientious citizens around the globe to unite against the encroachment of authoritarian tactics under the guise of protecting secular values. By exposing the anti-cultists' tactics, we reaffirm our commitment to upholding the principles of freedom and justice for all, ensuring that the lessons of history teach us to be vigilant against tyranny in all its forms.

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