January 6-7

"Propaganda, as inverted patriotism, draws nourishment from the sins of the enemy. If there are no sins, invent them! The aim is to make the enemy appear so great a monster that he forfeits the rights of a human being."

--Sir Ian Hamilton (1853-1947), The Soul and Body of an Army, 1921, p. 213; via

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Confusion on the Interwebs - Steve Saideman, saideman.blogspot.com: "Last night, I tweeted about the US Navy rescue of a bunch of Iranian sailors from Somali pirates. I marveled at the timing--after a week of brinksmanship and hostilities, it seemed like an astounding coincidence that these pirates would be operating within six miles of a US carrier group. Even more amazing, CJ Chivers, the NYT combat journalist and Tyler Hicks, his photojournalist colleague, happened to be on board the carrier, the USS Stennis. ... I am not saying that there was some secret conspiracy to create an incident. What I am saying is that the USN was prepared to act in such a situation, acted well when the opportunity arose (where there previous opportunities that were nearly as, well, opportune?), marshaling not just naval assets (helicopters, multiple ships), Marines, and so on, but also the media to demonstrate to Iran and the region that the US Navy can do very good things for everyone, in addition to be a thorn in the side of Iran. The timing was very fortunate.

I am just always surprised when the US does public diplomacy well, given how badly the US has been at such stuff in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. And few times the US seems to have done the hero thing so well--Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman--we learn that there was more/less to it. So, I have learned to be a bit suspicious. However, having Chivers on the scene raises the credibility of the account even as it seems incredibly fortuitous." Image from

US Navy Rescues Iranian fisherman after saving Iranian cargo ship - Matt Armstrong, mountainrunner.us: "According to CJ Chivers of The New York Times, this week the US Navy broke up an attempted hijacking of an Iranian cargo ship by Somali pirates and after some clever surveillance, ended up rescuing Iranian fishermen held hostage by the same pirates. ... That’s a nice story and all — it is potentially good public diplomacy fodder for the region, especially Iran — but I’d like to know how Parazit plays the story. Parazit is the Voice of America’s Persian News Service program that’s been compared to The Daily Show."

Why is the US Iranian fishermen rescues publicised? - abdirahmankoronto.wordpress.com: "Is the US government using the saving of 13 Iranian fishermen from Somali pirates as a PR stunt? Or is the media making it big? What could be the reaction of Iran? Does it see the incident as a political or humanitarian act? Those are questions which could only be answered by the US and Iran. They both seem to be sworn enemies.

Each is involved in making propaganda stunts and engaged in strengthening their public relations. ... The other important point the incident highlights the extent of reach of Somali pirates and the sea off the coast of Somalia might have turned a lawless place where no one regulates the fishing industry. Somali coastal fishing could be diminishing due to over-fishing. Somali fishermen had continuously complained about the huge fishing ships destroying their fishing nets and illegal fishing." Image from

NATO can win the war in Afghanistan with Pubic [sic, January 7, 1:41 pm] Diplomacy- Mahtab Farid, U.S. Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan...: "Yaghoubi is a 23- years- old local journalist in Ghazni province working for BBC radio. Yaghoubi is just an example of many bright young Afghans that take whatever learning opportunity and turn it into gold. He has gone through extensive BBC journalism training and started earning a professional salary even when he was at school. Yaghoubi

commuted to Kabul to attend the university and stayed with friends when he had classes few times a week while working in Ghazni. Later on he was introduced to the Ghazni public diplomacy team and started some public diplomacy projects. This impressive young man directed a U.S. Embassy public diplomacy photography project for exhibiting photos from various districts of Ghazni to teach the world about Ghazni 2013. (Ghazni is chosen to be the city of Islamic arts and culture in 2013). ... When people talk about winning the war in Afghanistan, it is important to keep in mind that NATO forces and United States are not in Afghanistan to make Kabul the 51 State of the United States. The presence of international community is to establish security, train Afghan armed forces and to help build capacity among Afghans especially young people. This is just one example of how one public diplomacy project can bring many Afghans together and connect the Afghans to the members of their government. It also gives Afghans a chance to display their talents to the international community. A wish that every Afghan yearns." Arif Yaghoubi image from article. See also John Brown, "Public Diplomacy Goes 'Pubic'," CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy (2007)

State Department to hold first ever Twitter briefing - Josh Rogin, Foreign Policy (January 5): "The State Department will hold its first ever public briefing tomorrow using questions submitted on Twitter, an experiment in State's ever-evolving strategy that it has dubbed '21st Century Statecraft.' State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland will stand at the press briefing podium tomorrow and give live video answers to questions sent in by Twitter users. The answers will then be made into video files and tweeted back to the users with translations in their native languages, Nuland said.

Nuland will do this every Friday in January as an experiment. The choice of languages reveals the priorities State sees in conducting its public diplomacy. Its outreach is directed toward Twitter users in the Arab world, China, Iran, the French-speaking world, the Portuguese-speaking world (namely Brazil), Russia, Spanish speakers, and those who speak Urdu (Pakistan). Twitter users who speak languages such as Japanese, Korean, or Turkish are out of luck for now. The digital media team at State is sorting through the questions now and choosing 10 to 15 for Nuland to tackle." Image from, with caption: US State Dept. Creates Arabic Twitter Channel

Hip-Hop Diplomacy? How the State Department Uses Rap to Spread Propaganda Abroad: There is hypocrisy in the State Department's cultural diplomacy efforts - Julianne Escobedo, AlterNet: "Since 2005, the US State Department has been using hip-hop as a bridge for foreign cultural diplomacy. Operating under the auspices of then-public diplomacy undersecretary Karen Hughes, the 'Rhythm Road' program began sending 'hip-hop envoys'

to, mostly, the Middle East, hoping to promote transnational understanding through music and dance. ... The State Department is using hip-hop as a diplomatic concern in an effort to piggyback and control it, yet hip-hop has already been its own diplomat." Uncaptioned image from article

State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board - Matt Armstrong, mountainrunner.us: "Josh Rogin and others reported last month on the Secretary Clinton’s new Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Organized as a Federal Advisory Committee, it is reasonable to expect that all of the meetings will be closed door, which is unfortunate. ... [A] challenge for the State Department is opening up to outside opinions and accepting those opinions. The Defense Department now has a long history of asking for advice. The State Department, well, they don’t quite have that same history or openness of engaging outsiders. You might describe the situation as mirroring the differences between diplomacy and public diplomacy: one is guarded and controlled and the other is open and agile."

Some Voice of America contract employees not paid since November - USG Broadcasts: BBG Watch: "About 20 contract employees working for the Voice of America’s TV Operations Division have not been paid since last November! The exploitation of contract employees at VOA by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) executives, who make $170,000 a year and give themselves $10,000 bonuses, is one of many scandals in U.S. international broadcasting. The contract employees — who now constitute almost 50 percent of the VOA workforce — work full-time, have permanent assignments and work stations, have regular working schedules — and yet the BBG pays them at very low rates and denies them some of the most basic benefits, such as vacation, sick leave, health insurance, and pensions. ... Delays in payments to BBG contractors are widespread throughout the organization, while top VOA and BBG executives are busy hiring their former CNN associates.

(BBG Chairman Walter Isaacson is a former CNN executive, VOA Director David Ensor is a former CNN correspondent, RFE/RL President Steven Korn is a former CNN lawyer.)" Image from

NATO Q&A Highlights Strategic Comm Challenges - Scott W. Ruston, comops.org: "All countries when seeking to communicate their objectives and goals, and seeking to persuade an audience to cooperate in the achievement of those goals have two audiences, external and internal.

In its traditional definition—communication crafted and coordinated to support the achievement of a goal—strategic communication is often conceived as an externally focused process, and this is especially true when subcomponents of the discipline such as public diplomacy, information operations and psychological operations (psyops) are considered. However, countries have domestic audiences that require information and need to understand what their government is trying to accomplish. In NATO’s case, this internal audience presents a particular challenge: 28 member countries, each with its own unique security and diplomatic concerns, its own internal political turmoil, not too mention significant historical and cultural concerns. Each country itself has both internal and external audiences." Image from

To be or not to be – that is the question - Martin Sherman, Jerusalem Post: "Today the entire public diplomacy budget is reportedly of the order of magnitude of what a medium-to-large Israeli corporation spends on promoting fast-food or snacks. If one does not invest in winning hearts and minds, it is no wonder that they are not won. According to the IMF, Israel’s GDP is approaching a quarter trillion dollars. If it were to allot less than one half of 1% of GDP to public diplomacy, that would be over $1 billion – enough to swamp anything the George Soroses of the world devote to Israel’s delegitimization."

PostScript: Time to get smart - Hirsh Goodman, Jerusalem Post: "The pre-occupation with delegitimization has been accelerated by the preponderance of ministries created to cater to the political needs of the current coalition, such as the Strategic Affairs Ministry, the Ministry for Information (Public Diplomacy) and several others, which have more staff than ideas, and budgets they need to justify. For them delegitimization has fallen as

manna from heaven. Here was no one’s turf and everyone’s turf, where the new strategically oriented ministries could claim a piece of the action without stepping on anyone’s toes and, at the same time, justify their existence. ... The danger with delegitimization is that both the attacks and the responses to them are all over the place, from the countless NGOs that claim the subject to be theirs, the new ministries that have taken to the challenge like a bee to honey, the defense establishment and the Foreign Ministry, always mindful of their turf, and those abroad raising money in the name of dealing with the new demon. There does not exist, however, to the best of my humble knowledge, any single responsible, authoritative and unified national body dealing with it, where the potential damage to Israel is assessed and its trends analyzed, where a doctrine and strategy is being worked on, where information is shared and the hundreds of smatterings on the subject are brought together in some cogent way. The war to delegitimize Israel can only become more intense with time. The tools for this warfare are constantly improving, free, intellectually challenging and converge to serve a host of Israel’s enemies from anti-Semites to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and had better be clearly understood. ... Israel has paid a terrible price for the lack of coordination between government agencies when facing threats in the past, among them in the public diplomacy realm during the Second Lebanon War and the second intifada. Here, despite the alarm bells and frenetic energy being expended on the issue, no coordinated preemptive effort seems to be in the works, and history seems to be in the process of repeating itself." Image from

The Promised Land: Israel Continues Its Courtship Of The Gays. Would You Like To Be Its Unofficial Ambassador? - Evan Mulvihill, queerty.com: "Call it birthright for gays. The Israeli government is continuing its campaign of looking progressive by courting the LGBT community as unofficial ambassadors. According to the AP, Spokesperson Gal Ilan of the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs ministry said 'the goal was to highlight Israel’s diversity' and that 'when people think about Israel, the gay community is often overlooked.' Our sister site GayCities.com certainly hasn’t forgotten about Israel, particularly the gay mecca of Tel Aviv, which we nominated for Best LGBT-Friendly City of 2011.

For some reason, we’re not enough good press for them, and they’re looking for unofficial envoys to speak about Israel positively, which leaves us with a few questions: 1. Will the gays be compensated for this lip service? We’d like an all-expenses-paid bar mitzvah at Club Med please. 2. Is this just a PR ploy to make Israel look like a progressive diamond in the Middle Eastern rough while downplaying the Palestinian issue, as we previously considered? 3. Do Israeli men prefer unshaven rugged guys like themselves or do they want, like, hairless European twinks?" Image from article. See also.

China Vows Backing for Firms Investing Abroad - english.cri.cn: "Myanmar President Thein Sein's sudden suspension of the Myitsone hydropower plant, a project both sides agreed upon in 2006, on Sept 30, came as a surprise to many. The country's foreign minister and vice-president paid consecutive visits to China to hold consultations in the wake of the incident. The two countries are still in the process of properly resolving the issue, Luo said, adding that China supports reconciliation efforts by the Myanmar government and is willing to see its relations improve with Western countries. Yang Baoyun, a professor of Asian studies at Peking University, said State-owned companies should 'be more cautious' in investing overseas. 'The overseas operation of large State-owned enterprises serves as a component of public diplomacy,' he said. State-owned China Power Investment is Myitsone's largest investor."

Key interviews - China Daily: "Thursday marked the beginning of a series of online interviews with a dozen senior Chinese diplomats, co-hosted by People's Daily Online,

China Daily's website, China News Service website and the website of the Foreign Ministry. Directors-general with the ministry are expected to host interviews dealing with regional and global issues, review China's diplomacy in 2011 and exchange views on China's relations with the world in 2012. Yi Xianliang, deputy director-general of the ministry's Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, will host the second interview on Friday. 'This series of interviews symbolizes a great step forward for Chinese public diplomacy,' said Wang Yusheng, former Chinese ambassador to Colombia." Image from, with comment: People’s Daily Online, the website operated by the CCP’s official People’s Daily newspaper

UAE envoy receives Chinese painting for Khalifa - wam.ae: "UAE Ambassador to China Omar Al Bitar has taken delivery of a painting of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan from Wu Sike, Chinese special envoy on the Middle East, on behalf of the Global Commercial District (GBD) Public Diplomacy Cultural Exchange Center. The portrait is drawn by the famous contemporary Chinese brush artist Chin Sung on rice paper using traditional Chinese ink and colours.

The traditional Chinese indelible ink - used in the painting - can stand the test of time for more than 1000 year." Image from, with caption: President George W. Bush sits with United Arab Emirates President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan at Al Mushref Palace, Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008 in Abu Dhabi.

Canada’s changing image - prasino.eu: "Canada is frequently held up as a model country. It sits near the top in many global league tables. But are times changing? Daryl Copeland (of Guerilla Diplomacy fame) reports that public diplomacy is on the decline in Canada. Far from maintaining its pioneer role the government is almost ending its PD programmes. Copeland points out Canada’s leading role in the landmines campaign, in climate and environmental issues. All now seemingly consigned to history. Mark Leonard once argued that a country’s

reputation internationally was 15 years out of date. Is Canada now along the way? Is it any longer demonstrating its progressive agenda as a global leader or reverting to narrow nationalistic interests? On the environment, and indeed climate change, it has regressed. ... Canada has been a leading participant in international military adventures. One key priority of its remaining public diplomacy programme is to promote its role in Afghanistan. Changing political priorities are nothing new. When they change so does the politically orientated public diplomacy, public relations programmes and messages. What needs to change is the impact on reputation. That takes longer for Canada to lose its position as a progressive member of the international community." Image from

Casa Mediterráneo, Refurbishment of and old train station in Alicante, Spain by Manuel Ocaña del Valle - Sumit Singhal: "Casa Mediterráneo is an institution born to cater for public diplomacy. Its main aim is to foster the common identity of the Mediterranean cultures.

Its new headquarters are to be established in the old Benalúa railway station. The new institution needs spaces in order to host events, exhibitions, concerts, projections and all kinds of parties. Image from article

Conference in memory of Professor Philip M. Taylor - Public Diplomacy and International Communications: Thoughts and comments about public diplomacy, soft power and international communications by Gary Rawnsley: "Philip (Phil) Taylor was an intellectual powerhouse in International Communications. He was the first Chair of the subject in the UK, and helped to create the Institute of Communnications Studies at the University of Leeds. I am proud to have been his PhD student (1991-94) and, since my return to Leeds in 2007, his colleague and friend. His histories of public and cultural diplomacy and propaganda are outstanding and remain the seminal works in the field today. His 1981 book, The Projection of Britain: British Overseas Publicity and Propaganda, 1919-1939, first published in 1981 and reissued in 2007, is by far his most enduring work.

Based on careful archival research, The Projection of Britain is as relevant today as it ever was and should be read by every student of international communications, and should inspire every PhD student wanting to know how to research and write on historical subject matter. Phil later branched into more contemporary scholarship and was in constant demand by militaries around the world who sought his advice on communications and information strategy in the so-called 'war on terror'. His work, always informed by his all-round historical perspective, was devoted to demonstrating how communications can save lives, and he took each death of members of the US or UK psyops teams in Iraq and Afghanistan very personally. I was honoured to organise a conference in his memory on 16th and 17th December 2011 in the University of Leeds to coincide with the first anniversary of his untimely passing." Image from

Phil Taylor Conference & New Year Updates - Molly Sisson, americanstudentsinbritain.blogspot.com: "Now that the holidays are over and I'm back in the office, it's time for a few updates. First off, the Phil Taylor conference was brilliant. It was such an amazing chance to meet all of these academic stars--and since we'd been e-mailing each other since August, it felt like I already knew them. We all had a mutual friend in Phil, too, which was a great ice breaker and made it such a unique conference.

On the first day, I got to ICS early to help set up and coordinate the MA student volunteers. When speakers started arriving, it was so great to meet them and put a face to the name--nearly everyone greeted me with "Oh, you're Molly!" because I'd been e-mailing them for months. Some, like Kate Utting and Paul Moorcraft, were really friendly and it felt like we'd known each other for ages. Some, like Nick Cull, were keen on chatting about public diplomacy and gave me some great tips for my research." Image from article

RELATED ITEMS

Can security and design be reconciled in new U.S. embassies? State Department hopes to move beyond bunker style in robust building program - Roland Flamini, The Washington Times: It appears host-country residents may come to admire the new U.S. embassies after all. If, that is, they can find them.

Image from article, with caption: The new U.S. Embassy in Malta is being built several miles from the Mediterrean island nation’s capital, Valletta.

Why do we ignore the civilians killed in American wars? - John Tirman, Washington Post: As the United States officially ended the war in Iraq last month, President Obama spoke eloquently at Fort Bragg, N.C., lauding troops for “your patriotism, your commitment to fulfill your mission, your abiding commitment to one another,” and offering words of grief for the nearly 4,500 members of the U.S. armed forces who died in Iraq.

He did not, however, mention the sacrifices of the Iraqi people. This inattention to civilian deaths in America’s wars isn’t unique to Iraq. There’s little evidence that the American public gives much thought to the people who live in the nations where our military interventions take place. Think about the memorials on the Mall honoring American sacrifices in Korea and Vietnam. These are powerful, sacred spots, but neither mentions the people of those countries who perished in the conflicts. Image from article, with caption: U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta declared the official end to the Iraq war, formally wrapping up the U.S. military’s mission in the country after almost nine years.

After America: How does the world look in an age of U.S. decline? Dangerously unstable - Zbigniew Brzezinski: ForeignPolicy: Those dreaming today of America's collapse would probably come to regret it. Via LJB

A Pakistani Spring? - Huma Yusuf, New York Times: Unlike their counterparts in the Arab world, young Pakistanis

are less inspired by revolutionary rhetoric than in producing results through the existing system. They are demanding issue-based politics and sound government policies to reduce corruption, create jobs and recalibrate U.S.-Pakistani relations. Image from, with caption: Spirit of young Pakistani generation

US Army uses hand-crank shortwave radios for literacy project in Afghanistan - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

How Propaganda Targets Iran - Lawrence Davidson,consortiumnews.com: The neoconservatives and hard-line Zionists first created false charges (Iran’s alleged desire for nuclear weapons and willingness to use them against the U.S. and Israel)

and are now, with the cooperation of the mass media, repeating them over and over again as if they were true. We need to find a constitutionally safe way to protect ourselves from our own lies. Image from

A Torrent of Disinformation: The NeoCon Propaganda Machine Pushing “Regime Change” in Syria - Aisling Byrne, counterpunch.org: What we are seeing in Syria is a deliberate and calculated campaign to bring down the Assad government so as to replace it with a regime “more compatible” with US interests in the region. The majority of Western mainstream media outlets, along with the media of the US’s allies in the region, particularly al-Jazeera and the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV channels, are effectively collaborating with the “regime change” narrative and agenda with a near-complete lack of questioning or investigation of statistics and information put out by organizations and media outlets that are either funded or owned by the US/European/Gulf alliance – the very same countries instigating the regime change project in the first place.

Israeli government pays students to spread propaganda online - imemc.org: The Israeli government has launched a program to pay students to promote the Israeli agenda on Facebook and internet chatrooms. Students participating in the program will receive a two thousand dollar stipend from the Jewish Agency, part

of the Israeli government, to spend five hours a week online promoting talking points provided by the Israeli government. Program organizers say that all criticism of Israel constitutes ‘anti-Semitism’ and should be combated using cyber-warfare and propaganda. To that end, they will be sending hundreds of self-proclaimed ‘student missionaries’ to colleges around the world to promote the online propaganda program and to encourage students to support the Israeli government’s agenda. To be eligible for the program, students must have lived in Israel for three years and consider themselves active Zionists, as well as having served in the Israeli military. Image from article, with caption: Internet Hasbara - image from occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com

Black propaganda websites targeted the nation, prosecutor says - todayszaman.com: Prosecutors conducting an investigation into an alleged online campaign conducted by the military through websites disseminating anti-government propaganda say the timing and content of the news stories used in these websites were shaped according to the current affairs of the day. On Thursday night, former Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ was arrested on charges of having given the orders to put up some 46 websites disseminating propaganda to undermine the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.

Iran Mounts New Web Crackdown: Rule Calls for Surveillance Cameras in Internet Cafes; Launch of National Internet Is Seen Nearing - Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal: With the latest moves, the government is aiming to sow fear ahead of elections and curtail planned protests, say activists and observers in Iran and abroad. The Iranian judiciary announced last week that any calls to boycott elections, delivered on social-networking sites or by email, would be considered crimes against national security. Iran announced in March 2011 that it was funding a multimillion-dollar project to build an Iranian intranet—a necessity, its telecommunications ministry said, to offer Iranians an alternative to the un-Islamic and corrupt content on the World Wide Web.

Inside North Korea: The day Kim Jong-il gave me a Rolex bbc.co.uk: "A part of North Korea's propaganda machine, Jang Jin-sung spent his career writing eulogies of Kim Jong-il, before growing disillusioned and fleeing to South Korea in 2004. Here he describes life as a member of the North Korean eliteI wrote poems for the regime under a pen name, pretending I was a grass-roots poet from the South.

I wrote epic poems glorifying Kim Jong-il, which were published in the main newspaper in the North. I met Kim Jong-il twice. The first time, in 1999, I was overwhelmed and full of emotion. But at the same time I thought the image I had received of him - through brainwashing - was very different to how he appeared in person. Kim Jong-il's words are used as guidelines for running the country. He is a god-like figure. But when I met him I felt he was much more individualistic, even a bit selfish - and I was disappointed. I was given a Rolex watch as a gift when I met him and when I came to the south I saw the same watch at a department store for sale for about $11,000 (£7,000)." Image from article

Commentator: "The problem with [Australia Network] is not merely that it is boring" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Retrospective: Talking animals in World War II propaganda - flayrah.com: Volumes could also be written of the wartime funny-animal comic book and newspaper comic strip characters who fought the Axis, usually on the Home Front against saboteurs and hoarders.

All of the US animation studios made propaganda cartoons, and many featured anthropomorphized animals. The British and Canadians made some wartime propaganda animated cartoons, but none featuring animal characters. The Soviet Union did not, either, although it did caricature Nazi U-boats and the Luftwaffe as anthropomorphized sharks and vultures and Nazi soldiers as a cross between a wolf and a pig. Image from article

‘Die, Nazi Scum!’: Soviet Tass Propaganda Posters, 1941-1945 - Roberta Smith, New York Times: Andrew Edlin Gallery 134 10th Avenue, near 18th Street, Chelsea Through Jan. 14: This lively array of ferocious anti-Nazi posters produced in the Soviet Union during World War II will reward anyone interested in political cartoons, graphic design, wartime propaganda, German Expressionism, Soviet Social Realism or all of the above. The show follows a more extensive one at the Art Institute of Chicago last summer that was the first of its kind in this country. It presents 15 large posters by the little-known Okna Tass studio, a group of artists, poets and writers that coalesced in Moscow in the wake of Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. Its members were tasked with combining phrases and images to inspire the Soviet people to fight the Germans in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. How much these images of Germans as raving apelike beasts and Hitler as a frantic, demented twit contributed to their ultimate triumph is anyone’s guess, but it seems possible that the best posters’ exuberant visual force — at once vehement and comic — provided an inspiring goad. They usefully illuminate the relationship between form and humor, and between humor and courage. The Okna Tass artists produced 1,240 designs in multiples from 100 to 500 during the 1,418 days of war. They worked in assembly-line groups using a combination of stencils and gouache — which made for exceptionally vivid colors and painterly textures — because wartime shortages ruled out more mechanical means. Going by the works here some artists opted for a relatively sedate Social Realist style; others favored a fiery palette, savage caricature and general hilarity egged on by black, lashing lines. This style is most vivid in the hands of Pavel Petrovich Sokolov-Skalia (1899-1961).

In an image aimed at steelworkers, he portrays Hitler deluged in molten ore. In an especially historically minded scene Hitler hops barefoot, in red-striped boxer shorts, behind a one-horse sleigh occupied by Napoleon, who turns to say, “The only similarity between you and me, Adolf, is that we were both beaten by the Russians.” (This line is credited to the avant-garde poet Osip Brik.) At the very least the posters got under Hitler’s skin. The art historian Xenia Vytuleva observes at the start of her illuminating catalog essay that by July 1941 the Nazis listed 15 members of the Tass studio among government leaders to be executed immediately once the Soviets surrendered. Image: Pavel Petrovich Sokolov-Skalia, It Has Come to Pass! (1944) from

6 Propaganda Tactics to Empower Your Marketing - fastninja.freelanceful.com: Propaganda has been used in some way by every political movement or government since the dawn of time. Its main goal is to influence. It can be used to sway opinion, to move people to act, or to affect decisions. Sound familiar? We may look back at some historical propaganda and laugh at its over-the-top tactics, but in truth, often times propaganda shares some similar techniques used in marketing and advertising today. For the most part, the propaganda we’d normally think of would be considered very outbound. Having an old man on a poster point at you in a funny hat and insisting that you join a World War probably wouldn’t work in this day and age. However, with a closer look, there are actually quite a few inbound lessons marketers can learn by examining some old propaganda posters and tactics: 1. Take Risks, Even if They’re Small 2. Keep Them Coming Back 3. Show Your Customers You Chose Them, Too 4. Stick to Your Core Values 5. Get on the Bandwagon

6. Commit to Change Internally. Propaganda tactics have a bad rap. They are in your face, over the top, and often off putting. However, if implemented carefully, in an inbound manner, you’ll find some propaganda tactics can truly empower your inbound marketing. Image from article

AMERICANA

a) Stuff White Girls Say… To Black Girls [Video] - Ryan O'Connell

b) Christmas Trees - John Brown, Notes and Essays: "As I walk up Sedgwick Street in Washington D.C., on my way home, I cannot help but be struck by the idiocy of 'Christmas trees.' Along the sidewalk, you see these abandoned, brutally cut-off miracles of God's splendor, supposedly ready to be picked up for ultimate destruction by city 'services.' A sad, in my view, commentary on America's ecological/global priorities."

Image from

c) U.S. proposes regulating face, hand transplants - USA Today

d) Five myths about the American dream - Michael F. Ford, Washington Post: 63 percent of Americans said they are confident that they will attain their American dream, regardless of what the nation’s institutions do or don’t do.

While they may be worried about future generations, their dream today stands defiantly against the odds. Image from

MORE AMERICANA

“I’m all in favor of girls with guns who know their purpose.”

--Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin; satirical image from