Democracy Gassed

The U.S. government and its minions don't hesitate using corrosive chemical agents on peaceful protestors. Here's video of shameful violence at the University of California at Davis (18 November 2011; video here)

UC Davis ultimately apologized and paid compensation to those gassed.

One dumb Fox News commentator, Megyn Kell, belittled the attack, claiming pepper spray "is essentially a food product."

Viva !  Democracy USA

Chemical Extermination

Is the Syrian government guilty of using chemical agents to exterminate people?

We don't know.

John Kerry doesn't know. Pres. Obama doesn't know. Eager military supply companies now demanding the U.S. intervene in Syria surely do not know.

We do know the USA itself used chemical poisons to kill hundreds of convicts over the past 50 years. So-called "lethal injection" can be horrendous (link). Since Obama became US President (from 20 Jan 2009 until 5 Aug 2013), 200 people have been chemically exterminated in the USA without benefit of a participating physician.

We've also used napalm, depleted uranium & phosphorous bombs over the past decades on foreign peoples, both rural & urban, killing unknown hundreds - more likely thousands - of non-combatants.

Nobody has been prosecuted for such overseas crimes.

It's hard to believe America mourns Syria's most recent dead. Judging from past misdeeds, it's as likely we're partly responsible. In any event, more illegal killing is not the path we should follow.  No More ... Yankee War.

No more Yankee war.

Sweden as a Poodle

Sweden obeys the USA like a pet dog.



After the Snowden revelations, Sweden's PM Fredrik Reinfeldt & Foreign Minister Carl Bildt know their government keeps few secrets from America's secret police. But they could complain about the range of people with access to Sweden's strategic & defense intel.

US government outsourcing opens Sweden's industrial infrastructure to worldwide prying eyes. Perhaps anyone can buy a peek.

And it's the same for other nations whose secrets are tapped. We only know Chelsea Manning can't watch us.

Will Freddie complain next week when master visits? He's such a polite little poodle! ...one of Barry's favorite dozen.

Shitler

Herr Adolf Hitler is misunderstood.

Sure he was an evil little fucker. But one man didn't create the murderous system of National Socialism. Even all his demonic lieutenants with their militaristic uniforms could not make war at home & abroad without the willing assistance of a wider population, (pardon to use German), das Volk.

Volksgemeinschaft is alive & well in militarist nations. It's often joined by feelings of victimization, Dolchstoßlegende ...

Surely many recognize they're being played as fools. We need to look deeper for the puppet masters. Hitler was front man for military industrialists. Look past Hitler to find Hermann Göring, Alfried Krupp, and other smarmy militarists.

These weasels looked for the scapegoat & hid behind patriotism. A familiar story today...

March On Military Debt

The clamor against militarism is not loud enough.

Many people believe money should be better spent on other services, but do little or nothing. Of course, the worst victims of militarism can no longer speak.

One problem is U.S. militarism has not paid its debts. Not only is there huge deficit spending to fuel the military, but human costs are under-reported and discounted.

Many troops return home seriously damaged, only to be ignored. Those are the lucky - the clearly injured are considered unsightly & distasteful: wounded cripples are blemishes on any cool community. A daily shave for each good-for-nothing bum? One in four homeless in America is a veteran.

Military debts are killing us all.

March On Military Debt.
Perhaps we can trigger change when a few million people walk and wheel themselves to the leafy neighborhoods of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and other militarist con artists.

Bradley Manning

Read Bradley Manning's statement (link) on facing 35-years in military prison.

Bradley Manning could not have worked within the system for change. The system is inherently corrupt. Militarism feeds itself first. The US military undermines democracy at home & abroad.

Manning's leaks exposed assorted terrible crimes. The government summarized its prosecution claiming Bradley Manning was a self-aggrandizing traitor, though he tried to keep his actions confidential. Security might still be searching for an unknown whistleblower if not for disingenuous ex-con Adrian Lamo.

The 2001 anthrax attacks (link) killed five people, and may have been the work of a highly decorated U.S. Defense Department employee, but subsequent investigations were bungled & inconclusive, with inexcusable destruction of key evidence (the Ames anthrax archive). Meanwhile, blame was directed at Iraq, and fueled arguments for the US invasion (link) (link). Since then, many billions of dollars were spent on biowarfare-related operations. A Wall Street Journal article of 15 Oct 2001 (non-subscribers can read it here) discussed a state-sponsored anthrax threat. The WSJ article claimed "The leading supplier suspect has to be Iraq."  This whole affair is now powerfully ignored.  Why?  The leading supplier suspect is the USA (specifically, USAMRIID, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, MD). Perhaps a rogue operative, perhaps not; we may never know. But the implications are profound. And as FBI budgets balloon, we're treated to admissions in the recent Bulger trial of systemic corruption in Boston's FBI office. In summary: this is an alarmingly broken system, where unprosecuted responsibility for unexamined grave problems goes far beyond Brad Manning.

Let's be crystal clear: Manning was a very junior, rather unstable person. Only a broken ill-conceived system would place this guy in a sensitive analytic position, with access to highly classified & secret data. Manning did not sell information. We can assume, however, that America's enemies & competitors would like to study confidential materials; we must assume they now access our data.

There is no doubt that Manning provided a huge service by  drawing attention to lax security. Efforts to punish Manning should instead be directed toward reform & revision of data collection & data handling procedures. 

... &  Let's Work for World Peace.

Boiled Frog

America's public servants have developed (link) "an aggressive, militarized SWAT mentality, with officers being armed, trained, and psyched to treat common citizens as enemies."

Will things get better? What can be done?

Slimy Spies & Criminals

The Surveillance State has been hacked.

Assume the nefarious have access. Security was shit.
Leave guns lying around -- of course criminals pick them up...
Bush, Blair & Obama truly tried building Skynet.
Can you help Sarah Connor?

Comments on the extent of spying by the American secret police include much foolish "reporting"...

One example is an article (link) claiming the NSA & FBI have provided bad data (mathematically erroneous by a factor of ten). In other words, the spying is ten times larger than admitted.

Of course, after years of lies, denial and no comment, anything grudgingly admitted by the US government should be considered very skeptically.

Many people look at these reports and reflect on the threat to their personal privacy. Maybe a good motivator toward action, and a needed counterbalance. Otherwise we get even greater spying & espionage.

We who live outside America are reportedly fair game for surveillance. I don't like it, but can't do much.  Well, I can complain & also post my displeasure in articles like this -- which won't curtail NSA spying. 

To shutdown monitoring is more problematic. There certainly are enemies to be tracked.

In my view we've three main problems:

3) low trust
There is little reason to trust government officials who serve militarism.

2) lack of oversight, due process & accountability
We've no idea what is going on, which in a democracy is terrible. Spying is tip of the iceberg. The US government claims the right to murder designated individuals (and family & associates as collateral damage) without oversight or proper judicial review; these assassinations are wholly wrong. To "detain" people for years as at Guantanamo is also wholly wrong.

1) technical irresponsibility
The pervasive data collection system described by The Guardian through revelations of Edward Snowden is criminal and horrible because it's unworkable. The NSA has without doubt provided data feeds to the heart of its own people that darker powers now use malignantly. Can we imagine with subcontractors, low-level military, and ambitious yuppies that all access is always secure? I'm less concerned NSA or Pentagon analysts might read my mail, than that they've made so much data (including mine) accessible to scuzzy operators worldwide: criminals, foreign governments, competitor companies, etc.

Snowden & Manning make the last point crystal clear; and their whistleblowing needed data to be noticed. The dirt undermines superior officers & decisionmakers, but we're all better off.  Again, we've far worse & better organized enemies than the dipshit shoebomber. Our pervasive surveillance State is hacked - it's inherently dangerous & explosive.

New World Order?

What type of world do we live in today?

The political scientist will answer differently than the biologist or climate specialist. The poor feel differently from the hospitalized. The young test-taker faces different struggles than a grandparent.

Communications have changed aspirations, with more options offered to more people.

But while the simple dimensions of living remain, they're also easier to overlook. Starry skies are obscured by city lights and smog. Fragmented and mobile families share less of their dreams and discoveries. Communities are being rediscovered.

Technology offers tools for better living. But we each still struggle along life's paths.

Steel Sinai

Is it steel Sinai or steal Sinai?

Since 1979, Egypt's government has limited its Sinai sovereignty in exchange for US payoffs and peace with Israel. After Egyptian Army officers assassinated President Anwar Sadat, this detente was honored while Egypt's former Air Force Chief Marshal Hosni Mubarak held power as President. But when a democratically-elected government took control, the balance was threatened.

Doctrinal tension between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wahhabi movement is also hugely inflammatory, with potential to further destabilize the dominance of the nearby House of Saud. The al-Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain may also be at risk.

Arab neighbors bicker. Absolute monarchs fear the disenfranchised. These conditions continue over thousands of years. The leader who would bridge these differences is under threat by those who thrive on Arab strife.

Now the Egyptian military has overthrown the Morsi government. A new generation of military leaders focus on snuffing domestic malcontents rather than on repelling foreign enemies. It may cost Egypt the Sinai.

Egyptian security forces in the Sinai have been under attack, by well-equipped forces unknown. The recent murder of 24 Egyptian policemen in the Sinai (link) has been prominently positioned after news of 36 detainees killed yesterday while in government custody in Cairo (link).

Very different forces now cause Egypt's havoc. Is a secular democratic Egypt possible? Whatever the case, our interference causes problems. Offering payoffs & future refuge to selected elites is morally criminal.

The European Union is reviewing its aid & loan supports in Egypt. Most important is accountability. Find the head of the viper. We must identify the people in power, and hold them to account.

Murder @Time magazine

Time magazine's Senior National Correspondent Michael Grunwald is publicly supporting the US government assassinate fellow journalist Julian Assange of Wikileaks.

Grunwald claims to be an eager tool for violent murder. This chauvinism is dangerous and outrageous. Grunwald should be immediately fired.

Shall all non-mainstream voices be stifled through violence and murder?  Readers of Time magazine should write and complain. Don't subscribe to assassination. This garbage is unacceptable.

USA-led Cairo junta

The military junta in Egypt is supplied by American funds.

The USA is the favored escape route for coup leaders, including US-trained General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. But the calculated murders of so many Egyptian people over the past few days will not be ignored by the international community. President Obama can't justify offering sanctuary to murderous Egyptian military officials. Most Americans are sick of expensive overseas adventurism by their own government. Resettling anti-democratic killers into American communities deserves condemnation at home & around the globe.

Asbestos Crybabies, Dirty Bomb

Big industrialists treat people rudely - they've pumped out huge amounts of effluent & toxic waste in every nation until forced to stop & to pay for cleanup. Delays allow them to extract profits & escape costs via limited liability corporate protections.

Is asbestos dangerous?

Is your home filled with lead paint?

These were long ago recognized deadly products -- but we got sold them anyway. Now, thanks to the Fukushima disaster, we know nuclear power & conjoint nuclear waste dumps are terribly dangerous.

Don't wait for industry to admit the dangers. Force shutdown & total redesign.

Regardless of misguidance or obfuscation.

Baby inhales lead powder in an asbestos blanket.  
Don't stockpile dirty bombs by the furnace.

Remember:
Every nuclear plant is also a nuclear storage facility. Designs are deficient & defective. The stored waste is dangerous. The nuclear cores are dangerous. Why accept a deadly waste dump next to a potentially explosive energy plant? Fukushima's explosions should be a lesson.

Nuclear waste dumps are dangerous, dirty & deadly.

Who Runs Egypt?

Egypt suffers. 

Democracy was overthrown in a bloody coup. In the past few days, hundreds of people were butchered in the streets of Cairo. The world is reminded of Pinochet / Kissinger crimes.

Meanwhile, Israel's minstrel show Peace Talks continue; a diversion, even as further illegal Zionist settlements are planned.

The Egyptian military deposed their President. As killings continue, many of these military will desert. They'll not flee to Israel but to the USA, which supplies them military funding & support. But the American people don't want (and can't afford) Egypt's castoff criminals.

All officially condemn the violence, yet the USA can stop it.  Explicitly refuse ever to evacuate Egypt's military.

Political Prisoners USA

The show trial of Bradley Manning is an outrage.

The people who waged illegal war, responsible for uncounted deaths in Iraq and a brutalized America, enjoy sipping ice tea in Texas, Wyoming and elsewhere.

These casual creeps crippled millions.

These criminal servants to militarism squandered America's huge wealth, and they laugh. Like the previous generation of militaristic US leaders who ravaged Vietnam, they've evaded justice.

The present administration serves-up Manning, after torture, as a political morsel for barbeque. SICK.

Register Your Opinions

Many formerly-robust internet discussions are smothered as the public learns gradually learns the extent of secret police spying by the USA & other governments.

Commentators wishing to share opinions recognize the impossibility of anonymity.

Using sign-in credentials of any type simply labels & registers your opinions -- with state security agencies, with dozens (perhaps hundreds) of their private contractor companies, and with the host site.

Such data is great for marketing, blackmail, espionage agent recruitment, etc.  Clever foreign governments & savvy profitmaking firms would surely love access -- they've probably already tapped-in... These are real horrors unleashed on us by dimwitted non-technical bumbling officials (such as U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein). Whistleblowers Manning & Snowden deserve honor for identifying massive security flaws; Feinstein, Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, should be serving time in prison.

An invitation to comment is now simply an entree for self-input of data to your permanent record.

Watch Whitey Escape

James "Whitey" Bulger, arrested 25 months ago, has been found guilty of assorted serious crimes, including 11 murders. He's due to be sentenced in three months, on 13 November 2013.

Justice can be slow. Now that Bulger (who'll be 84 in a couple of weeks) has been found guilty of crimes he committed about 30 years ago, will justice be done?

Probably not.

In fact, Bulger might still pull a Kenneth 'Kenny Boy' Lay maneuver. If Bulger "dies" conveniently before exhausting his appeals, his conviction might be abated - perhaps even vacated automatically, such that "the law views it as though he had never been indicted, tried and convicted" (link). 

Stranger things have happened in Boston. A key potential witness (Stephen Rakes) was already murdered during the trial; he'd threatened to further tarnish brother "Billy" Bulger's name (William served for decades as a senior official in Massachusetts state government).

Can victim families split the $822,000 in cash that police seized with Whitey Bulger?  Don't hold your breath... Very little Bulger wealth has been officially recovered, though Whitey's net worth could be $200 million or more (it was estimated by Boston magazine as US$50,000,000)  - see Howie Carr (2006) The Brothers Bulger: How they Terrorized and Corrupted Boston for a Quarter Century (NY, NY: Grand Central Publishing); p. xii; also photo below

USA Illegal Subsidies

The so-called bailout of banks & big companies was a corrupt infusion of government cash to loser firms and crooked insiders.

The bailout & TARP were also an illegal government subsidy: unfair to smaller unsubsidized domestic firms, and against WTO rules (anti-competitive against unsubsidized foreign companies).

If the Frenchies or Chinese offered such government subsidies, we'd expect the USA and US Chamber of Commerce would scream bloody murder... But Big Capital protects itself (at taxpayer expense).

Fascist Kindness

Of course extremist government claims to operate for greater good.

Torturers prefer victims walk to the execution ground - minimizing need for force.

The Nazi Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei, "Secret State Police") were not empowered to freely detain and imprison. Many unfortunates were held in Schutzhaft —"protective custody"  — an extrajudicial condition where the victim officially requests confinement.  This reportedly (link) included each prisoner signing their own Schutzhaftbefehl, imprisonment order.

Evil progresses with a smile.

Don't give up legal & constitutional protections.

Pervasive secret police surveillance is very threatening.

Why imagine government deserves your trust? Even if you can easily imagine a reason, think again. Why should a democratic government trust shadowy private contractors such as Booz Allen Hamilton (Edward Snowden's last employer) or mercenary companies such as Blackwater and Dow Chemical, and distrust & spy upon its own law-abiding citizens? To them you deserve fleecing if you sheepishly believe their 'bless you' bullshit, as secret police claim "we keep you safe"... These assholes brought us the Vietnam War. When you see smarmy weasels selling government's agenda, and arrogant mean-spirited goons lurking in the shadows, fight back while you can.

Democracy Destroyed

The USA is not really a nanny state, though leadership claim they're governing "for the people" ... in fact, top leaders must pledge to uphold the Constitution, but they routinely lie.

Democracy, and even the veneer of democracy, has been destroyed in America by militarism & our secret police.

Huge areas of government and our nation are now "high security" and secret. So much is off-limits. There is no hope that citizen voters can control the monster, as we're kept from understanding what's going on.

A tiny ruling class has destroyed democracy, and made the American people their slaves.

It's truly bad. But many caring Americans do nothing.

America's Masters

America's furtive secret police are being investigated due to the disclosures of Edward Snowden. This is good - for too long there's been little or no oversight. Huge funding has been spent on protecting the interests of a few handfulls of robber barons, and also ??? -- who knows.

Are there typical secret police? One key problem is too many technicians merely follow orders, and those orders might originate from dark prejudice or from furtive overseas interests. Without oversight or accountability, how do we know our secret services are not infiltrated? Perhaps hardworking well-meaning honest Americans in our secret police now unknowingly work for foreign powers.

Will a personnel snapshot of our secret police and military intelligence show a range of superheros? They may be skinny technicians. Though whistleblowers Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden are heroic to many, the weakest link in their secret services seems very weak indeed.

One of the problems of such extensive secret police forces is their potential to destabilize governments. The FBI "Official and Confidential" black files of J. Edgar Hoover (link) were allegedly used for decades to blackmail Americans - especially high public officials. Hoover is dead. Has all blackmail stopped?

Trains on Time?

'The professional football team's owner released a statement "We are shocked and appalled ... This sort of behavior or attitude from anyone has no role in a civil society. He has accepted responsibility for his words and his actions. He has been fined for this incident." The NFL later released a statement: "The NFL stands for diversity and inclusion. Comments like this are wrong, offensive, and unacceptable."'

We profess to be a civilized people. But while we might properly upgrade our actions, and cavort primly in polite surroundings, and would truly welcome a more unified community -- we have failed.

Americans (usually) profess respect for each other, and are keen to be nice. But our hands are bloodied by constant militarism and slaughter, at home & around the world.

The stink of torture & murder enshroud America's government.

Does it matter if Dick Cheney likes dogs & apple pie?
He killed a million gooks.

Ashoka vs. Obama

Indian Emperor Ashoka lived some 2300 years ago. He's remembered for his wisdom, his efforts to promote peace, and his edicts on right behavior & respect for others. He reached out to the far corners of the then-known world to dig wells and to plant trees. Ashoka supported education and made provision for minority peoples.

"Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of Asoka shines, and shines, almost alone, a star."

     --  H.G. Wells (1921) The Outline of History. New York:Macmillan, p.371

From our own time, the name Obama might have become great. He promised much. He ruled a great nation, and pledged change & hope. But he fizzled, and failed without really trying. Anti-democratic, militaristic, champion of a dangerous secret police, Obama will be remembered, if at all, as just another shallow bum.

Militarism vs. Manning

Can U.S.Army Private Bradley Manning justly be tried by the U.S. military after releasing documentation of American war crimes and murder?

Surely not.

Middle East Feast

The USA tries to make peace in the Middle East.

Or do they?  Israel does what it wishes.

The USA pays out huge subsidies for the opportunity to pretend it's involved with peacemaking. But mostly "the Peace process" is bullshit: a few cozy dinners, a chance to act as statesmen for partisan fools who crave self-promoting TV coverage.

Hoping reportedly to renew key discussions, the USA today appointed Martin Indyk as special envoy & lead negotiator. Clearly Indyk's not neutral - he's a former research director for Israeli lobbying group AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). It's more likely Marty's there to keep John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State, on a very short leash.

For non-extremist ideas (link), see  Jewish Voices for Peace

Secret Police USA

Both Brad Manning & Eddie Snowden are tormented by the U.S. government not so much because they released truthful information to the media. They drew attention to criminal acts by our overseers, America's commissar class.

We now know the USA has a huge secret police system. 

It consumes monstrous chunks of our scarce resources.

Secret Police USA is insecure, and threatens all the world.


"Get back!  Do it now!"

Graphix to Share

Bulger Brothers Back

William "Billy" Bulger was President of the Massachusetts Senate - over a period of 25 years he was New England's most powerful politician. Part of that time his criminal brother "Whitey" Bulger was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list (though corrupt police & FBI were happy not to find him).  Creepy...

http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/22935823/2013/07/25/stephen-rakes-had-image-made-of-bulger-brothers-before-death

We Kill Egypt

Democracy was overthrown in Egypt's recent military coup.

The military has begun to massacre the non-obedient.

Pres. Morsi's life is surely in danger.

As with Chile under Pinochet, to slow repression & killing puts the killers at risk. Only their paymasters can intervene - But will we?

Egypt's supreme military leader, General Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, is a "good friend" of the USA & UK. In other words, a colonial stooge.

But al-Sisi is not without his own opinions. He gained infamy for supporting Egyptian "virginity tests" in 2011 after the toppling of US-backed dictator Mubarak.

General Sisi is former head of Egyptian military intelligence. He completed a Basic Infantry Course in the USA (link) sometime in the early 1980s, trained at the UK Joint Services Command and Staff College in Oxfordshire (1992), and in 2006 finished a Masters Degree at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania.

According to Al Jazeera, General Sisi is "known for his close relationship with US military." -- Beirut's Daily Star (12 Sept 2012) reports Sisi "promised to raise the salary of all middle-ranking officers by $50 a month (while) 40 percent of the population live on less than $2 a day." Such pay raise wouldn't be from Sisi's personal funds, but from American foreign-aid grants to Egypt...

Why should American taxpayers pay for busting heads abroad?

We've police violence at home in Detroit, in Wisconsin, in New York's Zuccotti Park, & elsewhere across impoverished America... We pay for repression & torture elsewhere, and pay at home for our own jailers. The police are goons of our rulers, paid to protect upper class tranquility. We get gruffly ordered about, and clubbed when disobedient. Too many cops, too little justice.

Police Stun Wisconsin

Why care about Wisconsin democracy?

Police wade into crowds arresting protestors, whose constitutional right to freely assemble is revoked by decree. (link)
Why worry?   Very forthreich. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NRVgIN_jSM