Pelshval

Antropologiske betraktninger om pelshvaldrift

Month: January 2026

When journalists were Journalists

24.01.2026 /

Once upon a time, there were few vocations prouder than that of “investigative Journalist”. Now people tell me that journalists don’t do their job properly because they are ignorant and lazy.

I fear that is not the problem. The problem is that journalists, like most people I know, including myself, need to make a living to pay the rent. They need electricity, internet, insurance… They cannot – they simply cannot afford to be fired. As anybody familiar with 19th century literature knows: prostitution is an act of desperation, not of love.

Carleton Beals (1893 –1979) was a US journalist about whom I know absolutely nothing. Nothing, I repeat, except that Wikipedia maintains he wrote “more than 45 books” and that Time Magazine called him, “the best informed and the most awkward living writer on Latin America”.

Today, there are few “awkward writers” in mainstream (i.e. State or corporate) media. True investigative journalists have had to find new homes in alternative outlets, such as Consortium News, founded by Robert Parry (1949-2018).

In 1988, Robert Parry informed the US public (in issue no. 72 of the influential magazine Foreign Policy) about the Iran-Contras scandal. By doing so, I believe he contributed to the end of the decade-long war in “America’s back yard”. Reagan was dismayed: Robert Parry and his ilk had to be stopped from meddling in matters of “national interest”, i.e. the economic interests of an infinitesimal portion of the US population. How the press was progressively gagged is a long story, but it is best told by a journalist. Who better than Robert Parry himself: The victory of perception management.

When Europeans are shocked by the current US president’s recent actions against Venezuela, ongoing actions against Greenland and Gaza and future actions against Iran, they seem to have forgotten that he is not the first nor the second King Kong. They ask: “Why on earth did Americans vote for such a clown? Why do they believe all those crazy conspiracy theories?”

Well, for one thing, not all crazy conspiracy theories are false. We now know, for instance, that there is more to the Epstein story than meets the eye, though we still don’t know just what. Moreover:

  • The USA is a country where the authorities still refuse to admit what many historians suspect: that the murder of President JFK was an inside job related to his “Commencement Address” to the American University three months earlier. Confer the moving statement of the 79-year-old Oliver Stone to congress on 1 April 2025.
  • The USA is a country that still denies that the furin cleavage site of the virus that caused Covid 19 was very unlikely to have developed naturally and that the virus was most probably leaked from a lab conducting gain of function experiments partly financed by the US government (NIH).
  • The USA’s healthcare record is so abominable that it lead to the tragic oxycontin drama which in turn has culminated in a grim epidemic of drug overdoses.
  • The USA is therefore a country whose population thinks that “you really cannot trust a word they say” – “they” being the Presidents and their mouthpieces, including the once formidable NY Times and Washington Post; including also, by the way, all state and corporate media in vassal countries in Europe.

So, with respect to Latin America, the USA has had not only one but lots of fingers in the pie almost since the very beginning. The year 1812 saw the “Patriot War”, i.e. the unsuccessful attempt to steal Florida. As a result of subsequent attempts, the USA took possession of bit by bit of what was to become the state of Florida. I suspect that US schoolchildren are taught that the inhabitants of Florida had everything to gain by becoming US citizens. That is undoubtedly Marco Rubio’s point of view, but he is not – you will admit – the average US citizen, at least not as far as wealth and health is concerned.

Nor was Ronald Reagan the first president who tried to annihilate independent Nicaragua. In 1909, US warships were sent to the area. The military intervention forced a progressive president to resign. It was a story we have seen played out umpteen times since: The Yankees didn’t like his policies, quoting Wikipedia:

… improved public education, railroads, and established steam ship lines. He also enacted constitutional rights that provided for equal rights, property guarantees, habeas corpus, compulsory vote, compulsory education, the protection of arts and industry, minority representation, and the separation of state powers.

The 1909 intervention was followed by full-scale occupation in 1912. However, the occupation was not entirely successful. A man named Augusto Cesar Sandino made life difficult for the occupants. He was assassinated by General Somoza in 1934. His example was later followed by the Sandinistas who ousted the dictator Somoza in 1979. Of course the Yankees were not pleased and provided massive assistance to the Contras.

In 1990, presumably to celebrate the Sandinistas’ defeat over the Contras and to commemorate the hero who inspired them, the film El Sandino directed by the exciting Chilean director Miguel Littin, conveyed to those of us who cared, some of the spectacular difficulties facing Latin American countries trying to shake off the grubby fingers of King Kong. As far as I have been able to ascertain, Carleton Beale was the only US journalist to interview El Sandino. Was the brave fictional US Journalist in the film modelled on him? Did Beale’s work inspire the late Robert Parry?

At any rate it was Robert Parry who informed the public about a 90-page manual written in 1983 for the Contras. Quoting Wikipedia, the Contras were taught to:

[lead] demonstrators into clashes with the authorities, to provoke riots or shootings, which lead to the killing of one or more persons, who will be seen as the martyrs; this situation should be taken advantage of immediately against the Government to create even bigger conflicts.

[and to engage in] selective use of armed force for PSYOP effect. … Carefully selected, planned targets — judges, police officials, tax collectors, etc. — may be removed for PSYOP effect in a UWOA [unconventional warfare operations area]

Do these two paragraphs remind you of more recent events, by any chance?

Like Iran and Venezuela, Nicaragua has been demonised by the Western press and plagued by economic sanctions. According to the Human Development Index it nevertheless ranks above Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador (that are not subject to sanctions).

Far be it from my intention to defend our present King Kong, but I put to you that a boss who honestly states his ghastly aims is preferable to one who cloaks them in “freedom and democracy”.

As a result of the present King Kong’s frankness, what PM Carney has just referred to as “the fiction” (of the rules-based order) has hopefully lost its “free and Democratic” veneer. Likewise, our leaders, of whom PM Carney revealed that “we” have known it was fiction “for decades“, have been exposed. Is there a glimmer of hope here?

***

I add, by way of conclusion, a link to the trailer of a Netflix documentary about another great investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. He most recently made a splash when he claimed that the USA, with the assistance of Norway, carried out the sabotage of the Nord-Stream Pipeline.

Us versus the State

17.01.2026 /

In liberal Democracies – my state, your state, whichever state – the problem with state propaganda about this, that or the other issue is that those of us who know better are so few. The state, on the other hand, is all-powerful and it is supported by even more powerful agents.

Let me turn that last phrase around: The state is to a large extent the agent of large corporations and big finance, not officially, of course. The meetings of the Bilderberg Group are not official either, nor were those of the Mont Pelerin Society that preceded it and fathered neoliberalism (market fundamentalism, globalism, etc.)

A great deal could be said about the agenda of these coteries of the rich and powerful and their matrimony with “the State” – basically all states, in the so-called West.

The other day, I read a piece written by a former local politician in Norway:

[What we are seeing is a] power structure in which global capital interests, financial institutions, supranational bodies and technocratic circles set the framework which national authorities and the media propagate. Asset managers and funds with ownership across virtually all sectors of society, key financial hubs, large banks, consulting firms and international institutions constitute what can collectively be described as the global governance complex.

In this system, elected representatives at all levels are subjected to intense pressure… [and] begin to represent what comes from above, not what comes from below. Thus, their role shifts from being representatives of the people to being administrators of the interests of the global governance complex.

(AI translation)

Just so! I could not possibly have phrased this more succinctly, and, for the umpteenth time: re-read Orwell‘s 1984. Democracy, I put to you, is just a sham. You and I and all our friends and relatives have no say. Voters can merely decide who will perform the functions of governance, not what sort of governance will be performed.

Meanwhile the propaganda machine, which was once limited to the printed word, now beams its messages through the internet, through Cable TV and through the social media – all of which are part of the “global governance complex”.

So If I tell you that what you have been told about Venezuela is largely, if not altogether, false, you won’t believe me. No mainstream outlet – NY Times, the Guardian, etc. will corroborate what I claim. The same applies to Iran. If Max Blumenthal tells you that the violence perpetrated there is largely the work of people paid by the CIA and Mossad, you won’t have even the slightest chance of believing him, because the propaganda designed to give legitimacy to imminent US aggression against Iran has been overwhelming.

In Norway, where we have a national broadcasting company, and where the population still trusts our authorities because this is still a welfare state, few questions have been asked. We are told that Iran is a monster state that violently suppresses its people. Period. And that is what almost all Norwegians believe without reservations. We were also very much in favour of giving Venezuelans their “freedom”.

After Trump has said that Venezuelans don’t trust Machado, and after Machado has given the shameful prize to Trump, whom Norwegians don’t trust, we are admittedly a little confused. The business of liberty and Democracy is not quite as clear-cut as in Biden’s day. The curtain concealing the heinous operations of the dirty dozen – who have always been cavorting behind the scenes, unbeknownst to us – has been worn thin.

Moreover, Trump has muddied the Ukrainian waters and people are starting to suspect that Ukraine is not quite what it has claimed to be either.

Indeed, now that our most important ally is determined to take Greenland, we are more than confused.

Mind you, I am not saying that China and Russia are more democratic than we are. Certainly not. What I am saying is that they don’t pretend to be. What I am saying is that “Western” so-called liberal Democracy is just a show, a glitzy performance. Behind the scenes, oligarchs have a free rein. In Russia and China, the oligarchs are somewhat reined in. In the West and certainly in Ukraine, the oligarchs basically run the show.

Alas, no Armageddon

15.01.2026 /

I had not listened to the grand old man of political science, John Mearsheimer, for a long time when, today, I heard his recent conversation with Glenn Greenwald. What he said about the currently burning matters of Greenland, Venezuela, Iran, Gaza and Ukraine did not surprise me. His position on these topics is above all reasonable and rational – as was his initial position on Ukraine in 2015. After all, he is a “realist”. He does not pretend to know what will happen in 24 hours, but he peers into the distance and assesses the long-term effects of today’s foreign policy. With regard to Ukraine, ten years after his warnings in 2015, he has been proven right.

Due to those warnings in 2015, the Western press dropped their former star political scientist as though he were a carrier of the Bubonic Plague.

Only on one point did Mearsheimer disappoint me today, not – I repeat not – because I assume he is wrong, but because I hope he is wrong. (The distance between hope and assumption is as that between myself and the moon.) Glenn Greenwald quoted President Lula of Brazil, who claims to dream every night of “de-dollarisation”. To my chagrin, Mearsheimer told Glenn Greenwald that he did not foresee “de-dollarisation” for at least five to ten years.

John Mearsheimer is the antithesis of a vulgar man. He is eminently courteous, soft-spoken, the perfect diplomat, you might say, because he makes no secret of being in every sense an “American”, although he so deeply regrets the foreign policies espoused by his country’s administrations over the past decades.

I recommend the said conversation.

For instance, on a topic about which I, who am anything but a diplomat. howl with rage, he tells us, smiling dangerously, what he thinks will happen next:

You have this so-called cease-fire. The fact is, it’s not been a cease fire from the Israeli perspective. The Israelis have basically continued to behave as if there were no cease-fire. By the way, they’ve done the same thing in Lebanon. … and what they’ll do, they’ll engineer some crisis where they blame Hamas for a gross violation of the cease-fire and say that this is reason for Israel to go in and “finish the job”. … The Israeli goal here is to either drive all the Palestinians out of Gaza into Somaliland or Egypt or whatever or if not do that, kill them. Right? Either starve them to death or bomb them to death or some combination of the two.

The Mearsheimer smile! Paraphrasing the Israelis who refer to the Palestinians as though they were cattle, he beamed his terrifyingly benign smile at us.

Alas, even Mearsheimer cannot foresee any Armageddon for that most vile of entities, Israel. Not as long as the USA, his country, still has its fangs planted in the world economy. Yes, there are many of us who dream of de-dollarisation.

Glenn Greenwald did not question him about Europe’s growing authoritarian tendencies. I wonder why. Does Glenn Greenwald not know how bad things are here now?

One morning last year, the above appeared on one of the walls of the British Royal Court of Justice.

The authorities wasted no time having the stencil removed, leaving its shadow. And this is where we are now: Liberal Democracy.

Hva med NRK?

09.01.2026 /

Norge er et tillitsbasert samfunn, får vi høre. Det fremgår vidt og bredt på nettet. Tillit er bra, selvfølgelig, men det kan bli for mye også av det gode. Under overskriften Norge har et konsensusproblem presenteres følgende postulat:

Når høy grad av konsensus kombineres med lav toleranse for avvikende meninger, oppstår et miljø der frykt og indoktrinering kan få fotfeste – to trekk som historisk har vært kjennetegn på autoritære regimer.

I episode av 30. desember 2025 har Mediaovervåkerne invitert “lektor og medieviter Lars Audun Bråten”. Han har nylig skrevet en kronikk om NRK med tittelen Redaktørstyrt narrativkontroll med undertittelen: “NRK lurer og påvirker sitt publikum under dekke av å aktivt arbeide for å ikke lure og påvirke”.

Her følger noen utdrag:

Vi er mange som har stusset over NRKs ensidige dekning av Russlands krig mot Ukraina siden invasjonen i februar 2022.

I et foredrag for Kringkastingsrådet 25. september 2025, under segmentet «Slik blir vi forsøkt påvirket og lurt», redegjør Anders Hofset fra NRK Beta for statskanalens arbeid mot påvirkningskampanjer og desinformasjon. … Som et ansvarlig, redaktørstyrt medium, er det både selvsagt og prisverdig at NRK har en plan for å motvirke slike påvirkningsforsøk fra aktører som anses som trusler mot Norge. Men hva med påvirkning fra våre allierte og aktører vi har et mer vennligsinnet forhold til? Kan ikke den typen påvirkningskampanjer være like problematiske, når målet med journalistikk tross alt er sannhetssøken og troverdighet?

Problemet for NRK oppstår nemlig når nevnte Hofset informerer kringkastingsrådet om at flere medarbeidere i NRKs utenriksavdeling, blant andre redaktør Sigurd Falkenberg Michelsen, kort tid før møtet i rådet var på studietur til Kyiv og besøkte avisa Kyiv Independent. Her forklarer Hofset ublygt at det er den ukrainske avisas redaktør Toma Istominas «sjekkliste» som ligger til grunn for NRKs dekning av krigen, og at denne sjekklista er spredd til alle kanalens redaksjoner. Lista sirkuleres sågar under tittelen «Tomas sjekkliste». I sjekklista står det blant annet at NRK må spørre seg hva ukrainske myndigheter sier om den aktuelle nyheten før de publiserer noe om den, og om nyheten er viktig nok til at NRK trenger å dekke saken.

—

,,,. at NRK stort sett holder seg med et fast, men relativt lite knippe ekspertkommentatorer fra det utenriks- og sikkerhetspolitiske miljøet i Norge. Publikum som har fulgt kanalens sendinger, kan ikke unngå å ha lagt merke til at Tor Bukkvoll fra Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt, Palle Ydstebø fra Krigsskolen, Karsten Friis fra NUPI og Tom Røseth fra Forsvarets Høgskole har vært hyppige gjester. I tillegg kan nevnes Iver B. Neumann fra Fridtjof Nansens Institutt og Anders Romarheim fra Forsvarets Høgskole. Felles for alle disse aktørene, er at de systematisk og over lang tid har undervurdert russisk økonomi og militær styrke, mens de paradoksalt nok advarer mot russiske angrep på NATO-land dersom Donald Trumps fredsplan blir implementert. Er det dette NRK anser som «bredde og relevans» i valg av kilder?

Det Lars Audun Bråten skriver og som ble drøftet av Mediaovervåkerne var så interessant at Pelshvalen følte behov for å se nærmere på det omtalte møtet.

Det stemmer at et videoopptak av Kringkastingsrådets møte 25. september 2025 ligger offentlig tilgjengelig, antakelig i henhold til Offentlighetsloven. Møtet er 4 timer og 29 minutter langt.

Saken som interesserer Medieovervåkerne er siste og lengste post: “PÅVIRKNING, DESINFORMASJON OG TRUSLER”

Det dreier seg om to “innledninger” under overskriften “Slik blir vi påvirket og lurt”.

Innledning 1) av Bente Kalsnes, professor ved høyskolen i Kristiania med et nydelig smil begynner ca. 2:59:00. Etter noen ord om hvem og hva hun er følger en utredning om ikke minst “Russisk informasjonskonfrontasjon”.

Innledning 2) av NRKs egen Anders Hovseth (begynner ca. 3:40:00) og er den som opptar Medieovervåkerne og Pelshvalen.

***

(Alle uthevinger i det som følger er Pelshvalens)j

“Dypest sett styrer offentligheten vår forståelse, valgene vi gjør og samfunnsutviklingen vi får”, lærer vi. Utfordringen for offentligheten er de ikke-redaktørstyrte mediene, siden “[e]nkel og fri tilgang til publisering og stor distribusjon uten redaksjonell kontroll kan åpne for påvirkning”, uønsket påvirkning, altså.

Et interessant begrep Hovseth bruker i denne sammenhengen er “representativitet” som i utsagnet “Manglene representativitet – åpner for å spre et forvrengt bilde”. Pelshvalen tolker utsagnet slik: Vi vil helst at alle tenker likt.

De redaktørstyrte mediene kan beskytte oss mot “påvirkning” (uønsket påvirkning, altså.) og fremme “representativitet”. De har “har en todelt rolle i møtet med påvirkning og desinformasjon”, nemlig 1) “å spre informasjon om påvirkningen og hva som er sant” og 2) “å spre påvirkningen” [sic]. Jeg antar at rolle nr 2 gjelder ønsket påvirkning.

Hovseth viser videre til 3 punkter fra pressens “vær varsom plakat” blant dem følgende to:

1.1 Ytringsfrihet, informasjonsfrihet og trykkefrihet er grunnelementer i et demokrati. En fri, uavhengig og sannhetssøkende presse er blant de viktigste institusjoner i demokratiske samfunn.

3.2 Vær kritisk i valg av kilder, og kontroller at opplysninger som gis er korrekte. Det er god presseskikk å tilstrebe bredde og relevans i valg av kilder. Vær spesielt aktsom ved behandling av informasjon fra anonyme kilder, informasjon fra kilder som tilbyr eksklusivitet, og informasjon som er gitt fra kilder mot betaling.

I lys av trusler om uønsket påvirkning kan Hovseth berolige oss med å forsikre at:

Internt så har vi skjerpet den redaksjonelle kontrollen. Vi har en spesialfunksjon på desken med særlig ansvar for verifisering av bilde- og videoinnhold og vi gjør kritiske vurderinger av om nyheten er viktig nok.

Medlemmer av utenriksredaksjonen var for eksempel på studietur til Kiev nå nylig hvor ett av besøkene var til Kiev Independent, og der diskuterte de hvordan de forholdt seg til nyhetsjobbing om krigen med Toma Istominas. I etterkant laget de denne sjekklisten, som er spredd til alle våre redaksjoner.

Vi har også interne råd for å sikre at vi ikke blir misbrukt til påvirkning.

Ett av de “interne rådene” er: “Vi har ikke publiseringsplikt“.

Hovseth forsikret at “vi” legger vekt på

å bevisstgjøre publikum om desinformasjon og trusler. Og da dekker vi påvirkningsmetoder og utenlandske påvirkningsaktører og særlig i forkant av valg.

Han gjorde videre rede for arbeidet med kompetanseheving internt om dette feltet (fagdager osv.).

***

Pelshvalen takker Mediaovervåkerne og Lars Audun Bråten og slutter seg til deres vurderinger av NRKs dekning i spørsmål vedrørende norsk utenrikspolitikk generelt og Ukrainakrigen spesielt.

Pelshvalen kan ikke se at NRKs dekning av utenrikspolitiske saker er fri eller uavhengig eller sannhetssøkende. Pelshvalen kan ikke se at NRK tilstreber bredde i valg av kilder. Pelshvalen kan ikke se at NRK gir norske borgere grunnlag for å danne seg en kunnskapsbasert forståelse av den geopolitiske virkeligheten.

Kort sagt kan Pelshvalen ikke se annet enn at det offentlige Norge driver med informasjonssensur.

Brev fra Oslo

05.01.2026 /

Kjære venner,

Etter mine tre måneder i San Miguel de la Peña på slutten av 2025 hadde jeg ikke produsert et eneste “Brev fra San Miguel” slik jeg pleier å sende til den lange listen av dem som “abonnerer” på mine reisebrev. Jeg følte rett og slett ikke for det å skrive om hvor pussige mine nye landsmenn – de kaller seg miguelinos – er. Tvert i mot syntes jeg at mine gamle landsmenn, som kaller seg nordmenn, er langt rarere.

Så nå er jeg tilbake i Oslo og kan skrive “Brev fra Oslo”.

Det er et nytt år, 2026. (Jeg må skrive tallet slik at jeg får det inn i håndens minne.) Mer enn det: det er 3. januar 2026, dagen da Venezuela ble halshugget – “decapitated” er ordet som brukes om den slags CIA-angrep.

Egentlig hadde jeg tenkt å skrive om hvor godt jeg og flertallet her til lands (altså Norge) tross alt har det, i alle fall etter at vi fikk “norgespris” på strøm. I fjor frøs jeg like mye her som i San Miguel fordi jeg ikke hadde råd til forsvarlig oppvarming. Men nå holder leiligheten min her 19 grader, og det er helt ok hvis man kler seg ordentlig. Jeg drikker tran (mot manglende sol), tar hver dag en tablett multivitamin og har ikke vært syk på over ett år. Jeg har råd til en tannlegesjekk hvert år og har ikke hatt hull på det jeg kan huske. Er det noen sak? Om jeg er representativ, er nordmenn ekstremt sunne og friske, eller hur?

Jeg har medianlønn, tror jeg, ikke mer, men heller ikke mye mindre. Selv om jeg ikke lenger har studiegjeld og ikke tok lån da jeg kjøpte leilighet på østkanten, bevilger jeg meg ikke opphold på norske hoteller eller tur med Hurtigruta, men jeg reiser 2 x / år utenom høysesong til San Miguel de la Peña. Pensjonen min dekker det, men ikke stort mer. Jeg har det derfor, økonomisk sett, som plommen i egget – altså helt strålende!

I Oslo har jeg skilderier på veggene, musikk fra gode høyttalere, deilige bøker i bøtter og spann og utsikt over solnedgangen når det er klarvær. Til overmål har jeg en voksen datter som rett som det er vier meg noen dager. Hva mer kan en ønske seg?

Men til min undring ser jeg at nordmenn – det er jo ikke så mange av oss – hadde en total rentebærende forbruksgjeld i desember på 140 milliarder: Jeg gjentar 140 milliarder! Det er mye penger. I løpet av måneden økte beløpet ytterligere. Renter på kredittkortgjeld er brutale, for å si det enkelt.

Noen i kongeriket Norge – hvor mange er det, mon tro ? – er altså gjeldsslaver til et kredittkortselskap. Jeg regner med at noen kjøper over evne, men at det også er mange som må betale for nødvendigheter de ikke har råd til, som tannlegeregninger.

I San Miguel er en betydelig andel av befolkningen tannløs. Har de spist for mye sukker eller drukket for lite melk? Har de forsømt å pusse tenner? Kanskje de ikke hadde råd til tannpasta? Ikke vet jeg. Jeg spør ikke. Om jeg hadde spurt hadde jeg uansett ikke forstått svaret fordi de som mangler fortenner snakker uforståelig, rent bortsett fra at de til forveksling likner alle andre tannløse. Se bare på komponisten Franz Liszt. Som ung var han så vakker at det ble utløst “Listomania” overalt hvor han viste seg. På sine gamle dager, da han ikke hadde fortenner, kunne man ikke skille ham fra andre tannløse gamlinger.

President Maduro har alle sine tenner, så vidt man kan bedømme. En vakker rad hvite tenner hadde også hans forgjenger Chavez. Sistnevnte er død, men gudane må vite hva Maduro utsettes for nå av hans CIA-kidnappere. Kanskje tar de tennene hans?

Tenk, slikt driver CIA med den dag i dag. USA vil ha Venezuelas olje, slik de i sin tid ville ha Midtøstens olje. For USA skylder nå over 38 billioner (“38 trillion”) USD. USA må betale stadig mer i renter for å lokke investorer til å kjøpe landets statsobligasjoner, som mange land nå ønsker å kvitte seg med fordi USD i økende grad anses som utrygge.

Men det var ikke det jeg ville skrive om, og jeg måtte ta pause i brevskrivingen for å roe meg. Det er nå 6. januar 2026, men jeg har ikke klart å roe meg. Tvert imot, for NRK-nyheter er nok en gang som barnetimen for de minste. Vi har vært USAs snille læregutter i alle år og har fremstilt ikke minst sosialistiske Venezuela slik vår “Daddy” befalte, enten han het Clinton/Obama eller Bush/Trump.

For meg er Venezuela et nesten like smertefullt tema som Palestina og for den del Ukraina. Alle disse tre landene har jeg tilfeldigvis et spesielt forhold til. Og om alle disse landene har grådige USA spredd løgner år etter år, løgner som lydig er blitt kolportert av NRK og norske aviser. (Først med Bart Eide har Norge endret kurs i forhold til Palestina.)

Det finnes faktisk en norsk nettavis som ikke kolporterer USAs løgner om Venezuela. Det er Steigan.no. Steigan.no er anatema for både den ene og den andre her til lands. Det er nemlig en avis som utfordrer løgnhistoriene såvel fra USA som fra EU. Tatt i betraktning dens minimale ressurser, er Steigan.no en forbannet god avis. Faktisk! Ja, selv her i barnetime-Norge finnes det altså en avis det er verdt å lese. Så les den!

Om Venezuela har avisa nå en viktig artikkel av Craig Murry, (originalen på engelsk),

La det være klart: Det finnes andre land som er og har vært minst like feilrepresentert i USA/EU-vennlig presse. Det gjelder ikke minst land i Afrika. Men jeg har ikke innsikt i dem. Nesten det eneste jeg vet om dem er at Storbritannia og i enda større grad Frankrike fortsatt ikke helt har gitt opp kampen om kontinentets ressurser.

Men det var heller ikke det jeg ville skrive om. Jeg ville bare skrive et hyggelig brev til mine norske venner, et “Brev fra Oslo”, denne gangen. Dessverre, viser deg seg, er ikke dette brevet det aller minste hyggelig, og dessuten ikke om Oslo.

Den verden jeg ser og den verden mine norske venner ser, er ulike som natt og dag.

Hva kommer de til å si, mon tro, når USA bruker sine 12 baser på norsk jord for å ta Grønnland?

Parallel realities

03.01.2026 /

Christmas has always been a time of make-belief. Never more so than now. Here in Oslo we have tried our best to pretend that all is normal, although there is no snow on the ground, although Trump has been threatening to occupy our neighbour Greenland and Venezuela, and although the genocide of Palestinians is continuing unabated.

I spent Christmas day with adult family – no tree, no red, green or gold baubles – what a relief! There was a fire burning in the hearth, though, which is consistent with our fantasies. And we had a delicious meal of baked trout.

For psychiatrists, police officers, mental health workers and MDs on duty over the Christmas holiday, there is nothing festive about those days and never has been. For a large number of people, the discrepancy between fact and fiction is vast. Consider the classical scene: In a block of flats, somebody starts screaming on the third floor, really screaming – man or woman – enraged, delirious. The entire neighbourhood tries to overhear the violently hurled threats, turning up the volume of the TV’s rendering of “Adeste fideles“.

There is nothing new about this.

What is new is that the screaming is heard not only from the third floor but from “our friends” in the EU, Santa Ursula and her lot. Meanwhile, our most prized “ally” with its 12 military bases on our soil was engaging in piracy in the Caribbean, so there is no reason to doubt it might make good on its promise to “take” Greenland too.

Even Norwegians, whose intake of real news is blocked in all mainstream media, get the uncanny impression that there is evil in the air, lacing the scents we have treasured for centuries: cinnamon on baked apples, cardamom in raisin bread, cloves on legs of ham, sage in turkey stuffing, or maybe rosemary for those who prefer lamb, not to mention the scent of a wood fire and of spruce. Christmas has always been a glorious festival of scents.

This year, we celebrated Christmas with an orgy of desperate consumption, as though fearing it would be our very last, and who knows: maybe it will be. If Mertz, Starmer and Santa Ursula have their way – certainly if they succeed in killing Putin – we will be embroiled in all-out-war with Russia within minutes. And that is what they want, because then the US will have to defend us, or so they hope. And then, they hope, Russia will be crucified.

Of course Mertz, Santa Ursula and Kaja Kallas won’t be sent to the front to fight. They will send us – European citizens, as they have sent Ukrainian citizens – to the meat grinder. WWI all over again. Have we not learnt?

(AI generated image)

Alas, “we”, European voters, are denied information and are hence unable to make “informed decisions”.

I have not seen “proof” that Norwegian media have explicitly been subjected to press censure . However, the very fact that there has been absolutely no discussion in the press about our military and economic support to the corrupt regime in Kiev is highly suspicious, to say the very least.

Dissent in Norway is suppressed not with criminalisation, not yet – true – but by other means, which I do not have the instruments to analyse, except that I note that social media are also used to discredit dissenting views. Those who attempt to question the official narrative in the press are instantly and viciously smeared. No arguments are offered, just defamation. Weird and definitely Orwellian.

Were those poor dead Ukrainians really fighting for Democracy? For liberty?

Some people say it’s all about ingrained ancient “Russophobia”. I do not entirely agree: I maintain it’s not least about money. The rich and powerful thought they could easily put Ukraine and the frozen Russian billions in their pockets by riding on the backs of the ultra-nationalist Western Ukrainians. They were mistaken and now they are desperately indebted.

The US is trying to extricate itself, while the EU leaders and Starmer are digging in, deeper and deeper. Desperate.

So desperate are they, that they are starting to clap sanctions on European journalists and writers. Without even being charged, let alone tried, even the eminent military analyst Jacques Baud has seen his bank accounts and sources of income frozen and is banned from travelling because he has dared publicly doubt the official narrative.

Russophobia is merely a tool used in the media by the powers-that-be to legitimise their awful campaigns, now as in the past.

Most wars are about money – greed, if you will – just as much so as the financial crisis in 2008. So is the Ukraine war. So is the rape of Venezuela. Greed and lust for power. Money is the conduit for power.

Moneys are running out and power is slipping, in Europe as in the USA. Basically, the US dollar is increasingly understood for what it is, a Ponzi scheme. This charming piece explains why. (If you prefer to skip the introductory charm, search in the text for the sentence: Watch how it plays out in real life.

Incidentally, the writer even explains the fallacy of “the growth mindset”. The more people understand this, the sooner the Ponzi scheme will collapse.

So the USA and the EU need new moneys. They need them bad, so bad that they are willing to break any rule and to expose themselves for what they are: unscrupulous totalitarian predators.

Today, we wake up to learn that the chief predator is on the kill in Venezuela. He wants Venezuela’s oil (money) so he can keep the Ponzi scheme going. My country’s press basically holds its breath and says nothing. The global south, however, notes once again: Yep, that’s Western “Democracy”.

Happy New Year, guys and girls.
This promises to be quite a ride on a dangerous carousel.

Painted by Thrandur Thorarinsson

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