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<p>Earlier this month, after some high-stakes brinkmanship on both sides, the European Union opened formal membership talks with Turkey. The mere fact of the negotiations, which mark the latest stage in a long and arduous process that began in 1953, when Turkey first applied to join the E.U., is hugely significant. Just to be considered for membership, Turkey has had to undertake a top-to-bottom reform of its political arrangements, its laws, and its economy, and reassess some of its most basic cultural assumptions. For all its progress, though, the country has a long way to go before its institutions and norms are fully aligned with Europe’s—a bedrock precondition for membership—and success is hardly guaranteed even then. Under the most optimistic scenario, Turkey could be admitted to the E.U. as a full and equal partner in about ten years.</p>
<p>Turks, on the whole, want their country in the E.U. They hanker after the economic benefits that flow from having free access to the world’s largest single market, and they view admission as the fulfillment of an aspiration, first formulated in the 1920s by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the country’s founder, that Turkey should take its rightful place among the world’s first-rank powers as a prosperous, secular, fully modern nation.</p>
<p>Plenty of Europeans, of course, have their doubts. In a recent poll only 35 percent of E.U. citizens said they favored Turkish membership; political leaders, too, are split: Tony Blair, for instance, is a strong advocate—on the grounds that by accepting Turkey Europe would decisively debunk the pernicious myth that Islamic and Western worlds are destined unavoidably to clash; others, like the new German chancellor Angela Merkel, argue that the country is too different culturally from Europe for any merger to work.</p>
<p>But nor are Turks uniformly pro-E.U. In fact, large numbers are deeply ambivalent about the liberalizing process required by Brussels, seeing it as a threat to the integrity of the Turkish state and Turkish identity. In order to pass E.U. muster, for instance, Turkey will somehow have to come to terms with its large, impoverished, and periodically insurgent Kurdish population; it must resolve, in concert with Greece and the union, the question of Cyprus; it will have to complete the work, already far advanced, of removing the Turkish military from political life, which it has dominated—sometimes quite openly, other times covertly—throughout the 80-year history of the republic; and it will have to loosen restrictions on the public expression of Islamic piety. Crucially, the Turkish state will have to permit public discussion of these and other taboo issues. (Many topics remain off limits in Turkey today: consider that the country’s most famous novelist, Orhan Pamuk, was recently charged with “humiliating Turkish identity,” having observed, in an interview, that Turkey was overdue for some public soul-searching about its treatment of the Armenians (in 1915) and the Kurds. He stands trial in December and faces up to three years in jail if convicted.)</p>
<p>Andrew Mango, who was born in Istanbul, is optimistic that Turkey will eventually take its place among the world’s modern liberal democracies. But he knows Turkey too well—knows its plentiful contradictions and ambiguities—to blithely assume that its path of reform will be easy. Mango, who worked for 40 years at the BBC, is the author of Ataturk, a monumental biography of the Turkish nation’s founder and guiding spirit, and, more recently, <a href="http://www.overlookpress.com/book.php?ISBN=1-58567-615-2" type="external">The Turks Today</a>, the definitive English-language work on modern Turkey. He recently spoke by phone with Mother Jones from London, where he now lives.</p>
<p>Mother Jones: Turkey has made great progress down the path of liberal reform in recent years. And yet, the country’s best known novelist, Orhan Pamuk, was recently indicted for making some fairly mild comments about Turkey’s need to confront its past. What to make of the contradiction?</p>
<p>Andrew Mango: One should remember that this is a decision by a single public prosecutor in Turkey, and in Turkey, as in many European countries, public prosecutors can initiate proceedings on their own initiative. Second, the Turkish judiciary has a very strong nationalist tradition, which is gradually changing, but only gradually. And since there was a nationalist outcry against Pamuk’s remarks, I’m not surprised that one public prosecutor in an Istanbul borough should have decided to act. I don’t expect the proceedings to lead to a conviction. But in any case one mustn’t generalize and say that’s the way Turkey behaves; it’s the way one nationalist public prosecutor behaves.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.overlookpress.com/book.php?ISBN=1-58567-615-2" type="external" /></p>
<p>MJ: Even so, the mixed reaction to Pamuk’s comments—some Turks backed him, others were incensed—suggests at least an ambivalence in Turkish society about hitching the Turkey to the West.</p>
<p>AM: Turkey’s relationship with the West is a love-hate one. There are people in Turkey who want to open to the outside world and others who are frightened of the outside world. They don’t feel secure; they think that foreigners are trying to harm or even destroy Turkey. But that’s not true of the majority of Turks, who want to exercise their skills in a global market.</p>
<p>MJ: What are Turkish nationalists afraid of?</p>
<p>AM: That the country’s sovereignty will be watered down; that law and order might be compromised—and these fears are not totally groundless. You know, there was a time when Istanbul was one of the safest cities in the world, because people were afraid of the police. People are no longer as afraid of the police as they used to be. Mugging used to be almost unknown; now everybody is afraid of mugging. In that sense, the downside of liberalization is already being felt in Turkey. And of course some people are afraid of Kurdish ethno-terrorism, which worries Turks very much more than the religious sort.</p>
<p>MJ: Throughout Turkish history the military has been one of the key players—until recently the key player—in the country’s political life. How do the generals feel about Turkey’s bid to join the E.U.?</p>
<p>AM: They have contradictory feelings about it. On the one hand they feel that they’re guardians of Ataturk’s legacy, which meant Westernizing, coming closer to Europe. So it’s what the Turkish army, as a modernizing force, has always pushed for. On the other hand they’re afraid that liberal attitudes toward dissent would damage the cohesion of Turkish society. The generals are always talking about “fraternal unity,” and of the army as the expression of fraternal unity. You have to realize that the Turks come from very many ethnic origins, and so the generals are afraid that Kurdish nationalism might lead to a nationalism of refugees from the Caucasus, from Bosnians, Albanians, and that Turkish society would break up into a mosaic, a Babel of competing ethnic groups. I think that fear is exaggerated, except in the case of Kurdish nationalism.</p>
<p>MJ: In recent years the military has gradually been eased out of political life. Is there ambivalence about that among the generals?</p>
<p>AM: There is. But as far as legislation is concerned, the requirements of the European Union have been met. The military budget is now subject to much more parliamentary scrutiny than before. The National Security Council, through which the military used to exercise influence over the government is now a purely consultative body.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Turkish society can’t change overnight. And Turkish society sees the military as the guarantor of law and order. The army is trusted, held in high regard—though not, obviously, by dissident liberals. When things go wrong, people expect the military to intervene, as they’ve intervened over and over again in Turkish history. That’s not going to change overnight.</p>
<p>MJ: Why should we in the West care whether or not Turkey successfully modernizes or gets into the E.U.?</p>
<p>AM: Accepting Turkey as a member of the European club means that the club is open to outsiders, to Muslims, to poorer people, to developing countries, to countries with a slightly different cultural tradition but basically the same values. I think it’s dangerous for us to close the door; it doesn’t do us any good and it doesn’t do the rest of the world any good. Also, it reduces the danger of a “clash of civilizations.”</p>
<p>There are of course economic advantages to having Turkey in. It’s a developing country with a large, reasonably well-trained labor force at a time when the European birth rate is dropping at a catastrophic rate and Europe is graying. It offers opportunities for greater trade and investment to the benefit of both Turkey and Europe.</p>
<p>MJ: Nevertheless, there’s opposition in Europe to Turkish membership.</p>
<p>AM: That’s true. These are the inevitable fears of energetic, poorer, Muslim outsiders who will come in and work hard and take jobs. There’s also a fear that under E.U. rules Turkey might get a disproportionate amount of cohesion funds and agricultural subsidies—although it’s quite clear that Europe is changing its rules, and that there will not be very much in the way of net transfers of resources from Europe to Turkey.</p>
<p>MJ: And anyway, Turkey’s economy is developing reasonably well, isn’t it?</p>
<p>AM: Yes. Turkey has had a customs union with Europe since 1996, and there’s free trade in everything other than farm products and services. And Turkey has shown that it can compete. It’s good at making cheap goods—household appliances, food, detergents, cheap clothes. And they make a lot of white goods, cheap TVs, washing machines, electric appliances, steel, and, recently, auto parts. And Turks are gradually moving into IT.</p>
<p>MJ: But historically Turkey hasn’t had much success in attracting foreign investment. Is that changing?</p>
<p>AM: Slowly. There’s a tradition of arbitrary decisions by government ministers and senior civil servants, which would ruin businesses from one day to the next, and which has tended to deter foreign investment. That’s changing, and convergence with E.U. practices is a good thing in that it improves governance.</p>
<p>MJ: It’s been suggested that Turkey should be accorded something less than full membership, some kind of privileged status. Could Turkey live with that?</p>
<p>AM: Well, this is not the time to discuss it. Let’s see whether, within ten years, Turkey’s full membership is agreed or not. And if it isn’t, you see what is possible short of that. Of course, Turkey already has privileged status: it’s the only non-E.U. country that’s got a customs union with the E.U.</p>
<p>MJ: There are concerns in the West about the status of women in Turkey. Are they justified?</p>
<p>AM: It’s important to differentiate. Istanbul and the western and southern seaboards are very Europeanized. But then you have the Kurdish areas, in the southeast. That’s Turkey’s Middle East, where you have a different society, which itself is changing but much more slowly, where women are maltreated, are expected to have huge families, and are often basically beasts of burden. That is changing—with education, with the movement of people from the southeast to the west and the cities. As with so much in Turkey, you can’t expect change to happen overnight.</p>
<p>MJ: What about human rights more broadly? Turkey has an poor record there. Has there been progress on that front?</p>
<p>AM: They’ve improved a great deal, but progress on human rights depends on the degree of law and order. We’ve seen in Europe after the recent terrorist attacks a certain retrogression in human rights. It depends on how threatened the Turks feel. For example, Turkey became much more tolerant towards Kurdish nationalists when the killing of Turkish soldiers stopped in southeastern Turkey and body bags stopped arriving. Now, since June there’s been a revival of Kurdish attacks on Turkish troops—something like 150 people have been killed by terrorists supplied from and operating out of bases in northern Iraq. So Turks are feeling much less tolerant of Kurdish nationalism.</p>
<p>MJ: Kurds have it pretty hard in Turkey. What should the Turkish state be doing to improve their condition?</p>
<p>AM: Most Turkish Kurds want a quiet life and improved economic conditions. But the Kurdish regions of Turkey are mountainous; they’re ill-favored climatically; they’re poor; and there’s a limit to what the government can do there without wasting a lot of resources. Developing the south east may mean decamping a large part of its population. But the thing that will improve the lot of the Kurds more than anything else will be the stabilization of Iraq in the first place, because then the Turkish southeast stops being a dead end. It can become a bridge, with trade flowing in both directions.</p>
<p>MJ: The Turkish government today is dominated by an Islamist party, and the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is was jailed a few years ago for reciting a poem extolling militant Islam. Despite his background, he has moved Turkey in a liberal, reformist direction faster and more comprehensively than any of his predecessors. How to make sense of that?</p>
<p>AM: I think he has genuinely changed, as he has said himself. He comes, like most of his supporters, from a less privileged part of society. Although Erdogan went to faith school he then went on to university and got a degree in economics, and a lot of his people have got degrees in modern disciplines. They come from outside the establishment, but they found their way in by peaceful means. They’re not an anti-system party, as Islamic fundamentalists are; they are secularists. In Turkey religion not only affects society but is affected by it, which is why Turkish Islam differs from Arab Islam. It’s a more modern, more rational, more self-confident society. Granted, Erdogan has conservative instincts on, say, family values—respect, honor, and all the rest of it—but I think you’ll find that his and his followers’ children will see things differently.</p>
<p>MJ: Modern Turkey, throughout its history, has been stringently secular. Observers have nonetheless noted a revival in public piety in recent years. Is this an important trend?</p>
<p>AM: It’s a bit like the piety of Victorian England. As things change people find in religious observance a certain framework of safety, of continuity. This is quite a common phenomenon. In a strange way it’s part of a democratization of society. Although religious observance seems more common these days, it’s not that people who did not go to mosques have started to go to mosques. I don’t know anyone in Turkey who’s become a born-again Muslim. It’s a question of individual choice, and it does not stop the organic secularization of Turkish society, which carries on regardless.</p>
<p>MJ: How are Turkey’s relations with its immediate neighbors?</p>
<p>AM: They’ re improving. They were pretty bad for a long time—with Syria they were abominable, and with Iran they were pretty bad. In both cases Turkey sees potential for trade, especially with Iran, where it gets a lot of natural gas. In good times Iran and Turkey find mutually profitable objects of exchange, but with Syria things have been very bad; Syria doesn’t have much money and never will.</p>
<p>MJ: Turkey’s relationship with the United States came under strain in 2003, when Turkey refused to grant transit rights to the American forces invading Iraq. How are relations two years later?</p>
<p>AM: That was a very difficult decision even for the most intelligent and pragmatic Turks to work out what was in the national interest. Would it be better to let the Americans in and therefore have a presence and a say in Northern Iraq? Or to deny them transit rights and avoid mobilizing Arab opinion against Turkey? Even the generals couldn’t make up their minds. When people in Turkey ask me, Do you think we were right? I use a variation on Chou en Lai’s remark about the French Revolution: “It’s too early to tell.”</p>
<p>Of course, it affected Turkish-American relations at the time. But I think basically there’s a realization that there’s a common interest in stability, in rational government, will draw the two countries together. Turkey, as an ex-imperial power, is all in favor of empires guaranteeing law and order on its borders. Turkey’s and America’s basic interests with regard to Iraq are identical. They both want a stable and rational Iraq that would use its considerable oil wealth in order to improve its own lot. But there doesn’t seem to be very much prospect of that at the moment.</p>
<p>MJ So, to wrap up, how optimistic are you that Turkey will continue on its path of reform? And do you think it will eventually be welcomed into the E.U.?</p>
<p>AM: I’m optimistic about Turkey’s prospects for reaching the E.U.’s standards of development, governance, and democracy, whether inside or outside the E.U. Provided you have a prosperous, rational society in Turkey that can interact with Europe and the West, I don’t really care what kind of institutional arrangement you have. The point to make about Turkey and Europe is that it’s a very long, drawn-out process. What’s important is that the process not be stopped, that Turkey and Europe evolve in the right direction, on a path of convergence. Convergence is the name of the game.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | earlier month highstakes brinkmanship sides european union opened formal membership talks turkey mere fact negotiations mark latest stage long arduous process began 1953 turkey first applied join eu hugely significant considered membership turkey undertake toptobottom reform political arrangements laws economy reassess basic cultural assumptions progress though country long way go institutions norms fully aligned europesa bedrock precondition membershipand success hardly guaranteed even optimistic scenario turkey could admitted eu full equal partner ten years turks whole want country eu hanker economic benefits flow free access worlds largest single market view admission fulfillment aspiration first formulated 1920s mustafa kemal ataturk countrys founder turkey take rightful place among worlds firstrank powers prosperous secular fully modern nation plenty europeans course doubts recent poll 35 percent eu citizens said favored turkish membership political leaders split tony blair instance strong advocateon grounds accepting turkey europe would decisively debunk pernicious myth islamic western worlds destined unavoidably clash others like new german chancellor angela merkel argue country different culturally europe merger work turks uniformly proeu fact large numbers deeply ambivalent liberalizing process required brussels seeing threat integrity turkish state turkish identity order pass eu muster instance turkey somehow come terms large impoverished periodically insurgent kurdish population must resolve concert greece union question cyprus complete work already far advanced removing turkish military political life dominatedsometimes quite openly times covertlythroughout 80year history republic loosen restrictions public expression islamic piety crucially turkish state permit public discussion taboo issues many topics remain limits turkey today consider countrys famous novelist orhan pamuk recently charged humiliating turkish identity observed interview turkey overdue public soulsearching treatment armenians 1915 kurds stands trial december faces three years jail convicted andrew mango born istanbul optimistic turkey eventually take place among worlds modern liberal democracies knows turkey wellknows plentiful contradictions ambiguitiesto blithely assume path reform easy mango worked 40 years bbc author ataturk monumental biography turkish nations founder guiding spirit recently turks today definitive englishlanguage work modern turkey recently spoke phone mother jones london lives mother jones turkey made great progress path liberal reform recent years yet countrys best known novelist orhan pamuk recently indicted making fairly mild comments turkeys need confront past make contradiction andrew mango one remember decision single public prosecutor turkey turkey many european countries public prosecutors initiate proceedings initiative second turkish judiciary strong nationalist tradition gradually changing gradually since nationalist outcry pamuks remarks im surprised one public prosecutor istanbul borough decided act dont expect proceedings lead conviction case one mustnt generalize say thats way turkey behaves way one nationalist public prosecutor behaves mj even mixed reaction pamuks commentssome turks backed others incensedsuggests least ambivalence turkish society hitching turkey west turkeys relationship west lovehate one people turkey want open outside world others frightened outside world dont feel secure think foreigners trying harm even destroy turkey thats true majority turks want exercise skills global market mj turkish nationalists afraid countrys sovereignty watered law order might compromisedand fears totally groundless know time istanbul one safest cities world people afraid police people longer afraid police used mugging used almost unknown everybody afraid mugging sense downside liberalization already felt turkey course people afraid kurdish ethnoterrorism worries turks much religious sort mj throughout turkish history military one key playersuntil recently key playerin countrys political life generals feel turkeys bid join eu contradictory feelings one hand feel theyre guardians ataturks legacy meant westernizing coming closer europe turkish army modernizing force always pushed hand theyre afraid liberal attitudes toward dissent would damage cohesion turkish society generals always talking fraternal unity army expression fraternal unity realize turks come many ethnic origins generals afraid kurdish nationalism might lead nationalism refugees caucasus bosnians albanians turkish society would break mosaic babel competing ethnic groups think fear exaggerated except case kurdish nationalism mj recent years military gradually eased political life ambivalence among generals far legislation concerned requirements european union met military budget subject much parliamentary scrutiny national security council military used exercise influence government purely consultative body hand turkish society cant change overnight turkish society sees military guarantor law order army trusted held high regardthough obviously dissident liberals things go wrong people expect military intervene theyve intervened turkish history thats going change overnight mj west care whether turkey successfully modernizes gets eu accepting turkey member european club means club open outsiders muslims poorer people developing countries countries slightly different cultural tradition basically values think dangerous us close door doesnt us good doesnt rest world good also reduces danger clash civilizations course economic advantages turkey developing country large reasonably welltrained labor force time european birth rate dropping catastrophic rate europe graying offers opportunities greater trade investment benefit turkey europe mj nevertheless theres opposition europe turkish membership thats true inevitable fears energetic poorer muslim outsiders come work hard take jobs theres also fear eu rules turkey might get disproportionate amount cohesion funds agricultural subsidiesalthough quite clear europe changing rules much way net transfers resources europe turkey mj anyway turkeys economy developing reasonably well isnt yes turkey customs union europe since 1996 theres free trade everything farm products services turkey shown compete good making cheap goodshousehold appliances food detergents cheap clothes make lot white goods cheap tvs washing machines electric appliances steel recently auto parts turks gradually moving mj historically turkey hasnt much success attracting foreign investment changing slowly theres tradition arbitrary decisions government ministers senior civil servants would ruin businesses one day next tended deter foreign investment thats changing convergence eu practices good thing improves governance mj suggested turkey accorded something less full membership kind privileged status could turkey live well time discuss lets see whether within ten years turkeys full membership agreed isnt see possible short course turkey already privileged status noneu country thats got customs union eu mj concerns west status women turkey justified important differentiate istanbul western southern seaboards europeanized kurdish areas southeast thats turkeys middle east different society changing much slowly women maltreated expected huge families often basically beasts burden changingwith education movement people southeast west cities much turkey cant expect change happen overnight mj human rights broadly turkey poor record progress front theyve improved great deal progress human rights depends degree law order weve seen europe recent terrorist attacks certain retrogression human rights depends threatened turks feel example turkey became much tolerant towards kurdish nationalists killing turkish soldiers stopped southeastern turkey body bags stopped arriving since june theres revival kurdish attacks turkish troopssomething like 150 people killed terrorists supplied operating bases northern iraq turks feeling much less tolerant kurdish nationalism mj kurds pretty hard turkey turkish state improve condition turkish kurds want quiet life improved economic conditions kurdish regions turkey mountainous theyre illfavored climatically theyre poor theres limit government without wasting lot resources developing south east may mean decamping large part population thing improve lot kurds anything else stabilization iraq first place turkish southeast stops dead end become bridge trade flowing directions mj turkish government today dominated islamist party prime minister recep tayyip erdogan jailed years ago reciting poem extolling militant islam despite background moved turkey liberal reformist direction faster comprehensively predecessors make sense think genuinely changed said comes like supporters less privileged part society although erdogan went faith school went university got degree economics lot people got degrees modern disciplines come outside establishment found way peaceful means theyre antisystem party islamic fundamentalists secularists turkey religion affects society affected turkish islam differs arab islam modern rational selfconfident society granted erdogan conservative instincts say family valuesrespect honor rest itbut think youll find followers children see things differently mj modern turkey throughout history stringently secular observers nonetheless noted revival public piety recent years important trend bit like piety victorian england things change people find religious observance certain framework safety continuity quite common phenomenon strange way part democratization society although religious observance seems common days people go mosques started go mosques dont know anyone turkey whos become bornagain muslim question individual choice stop organic secularization turkish society carries regardless mj turkeys relations immediate neighbors improving pretty bad long timewith syria abominable iran pretty bad cases turkey sees potential trade especially iran gets lot natural gas good times iran turkey find mutually profitable objects exchange syria things bad syria doesnt much money never mj turkeys relationship united states came strain 2003 turkey refused grant transit rights american forces invading iraq relations two years later difficult decision even intelligent pragmatic turks work national interest would better let americans therefore presence say northern iraq deny transit rights avoid mobilizing arab opinion turkey even generals couldnt make minds people turkey ask think right use variation chou en lais remark french revolution early tell course affected turkishamerican relations time think basically theres realization theres common interest stability rational government draw two countries together turkey eximperial power favor empires guaranteeing law order borders turkeys americas basic interests regard iraq identical want stable rational iraq would use considerable oil wealth order improve lot doesnt seem much prospect moment mj wrap optimistic turkey continue path reform think eventually welcomed eu im optimistic turkeys prospects reaching eus standards development governance democracy whether inside outside eu provided prosperous rational society turkey interact europe west dont really care kind institutional arrangement point make turkey europe long drawnout process whats important process stopped turkey europe evolve right direction path convergence convergence name game | 1,523 |
<p>If you’re trying to explain to friends and family why you oppose the war in Afghanistan, you can find much useful information in the latest “ <a href="" type="internal">Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan.</a>”</p>
<p>The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 requires that the Defense Department, State Department, Director of National Intelligence, Attorney General, Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, Secretary of Agriculture, and Secretary of the Treasury all sign off on this “Report on Progress” delivered to the Congress every 180 days.</p>
<p>The fifth such report has just been released. It does not in fact report “progress” but tells us, among other things:</p>
<p>The U.S. military has designated in Afghanistan 80 “Key Terrain districts” (“districts where the bulk of the population is concentrated, and that contain centers of economic productivity, key infrastructure, and key commerce routes connecting such areas to each other and to the outside world”) and 41 “Area of Interest districts” (“districts that, for a variety of reasons, exert influence on Key Terrain districts to a degree that renders it necessary to focus information collection and operational resources upon them to support operations in the Key Terrain districts”). These surround the three main highways linking the major cities.</p>
<p>The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)—the international force which is overwhelmingly U.S. with diminishing NATO and other participation—only has “the resources to conduct operations in 48 focus districts.” Thus even as the U.S. forces climb to 98,000 by August by order of President Obama, ISAF will be unable to operate in most key districts. Several key generals have noted that the war cannot be won militarily. This report tacitly admits that victory would require a huge further “surge.” (This at a time when ISAF is planning an assault on Kandahar opposed by the local people and even the Karzai regime, which politically fearing too intimate an association with the invaders has invited the U.S. to fix a deadline for withdrawal.)</p>
<p>The report states, “Violence is sharply above the seasonal average for the previous year – an 87% increase from February 2009 to March 2010.” It spiked during the election last September. As U.S. troops sought to “stabilize” areas so that the balloting could be held—and upheld to the world as an instance of “democracy” conferred upon the Afghans by the invaders— Karzai rigged his re-election. (And got away with it, however much U.S. officials were obliged to express distaste. It’s not like they have many Afghans willing to work with them.) The increase in occupation forces has contributed to the increase in violence.</p>
<p>The report tells us: “The overall assessment indicates that the population sympathizes [as of March 2010] with or supports the Afghan Government in 24% (29 of 121) of all Key Terrain and Area of Interest districts.”</p>
<p>In its section on “Governance” the report provides figures on popular sentiment in the key 121 districts, as determined by a U.S. military <a href="" type="internal">commissioned poll</a>. But none of the districts deemed “key” for military purposes are listed as “supportive” of the Karzai government. The chart doesn’t really show a rise in number of districts sympathetic to the government&#160; over the time interval, since 38 were not assessed in the earlier survey. In December 2009, 33 out of the 83 assessed districts (40%) were pro-“insurgent” and that figure in March (48 out of 121) was still 40%. The pro-government figure is also virtually unchanged (23% to 24%). That leaves 36% of the districts “neutral.”&#160; But in these districts surrounding the highways, the “insurgents” enjoy significantly more support than the Kabul government, and the war is strengthening them.</p>
<p>The report also makes clear that the Talibs are not the only “insurgents,” and that there are half a dozen different organizations fighting the government. There’s a&#160; colorful map explaining what armed groups are here or there. It gives you a sense of the diversity of the fighters who are really a patchwork of Pashtun nationalists and others much less interested in a concept of global jihad than merely ridding their landscape of the unwelcome invaders’ presence. The war appears to be generating new resistance groups.</p>
<p>How do Afghans feel about the people providing “assistance” to them in achieving “security”? According to the report, 34% responding to a recent&#160; Army-commissioned poll rate ISAF “bad” or “very bad,” compared to 30% who rated it “good” or “very good.” 34% rated it “fair.” In September 2008 &#160;only 28% thought ISAF bad or very bad, and 39% thought it good. It seems the persistence of foreign presence, and the mounting civilian casualties (producing indignation at all levels of Afghan society, even occasioning parliamentary walkouts) are turning more people against it.</p>
<p>The report notes, “Afghan women and girls can still be sent to prison for ‘moral crimes,’ including fleeing domestic violence or eloping. Many State Department rule of law and human rights programs help civil society organizations and Afghan policymakers advocate for reform of such discriminatory laws…”</p>
<p>In other words, all that pre-war hype (including from Laura Bush, taking over her husband’s weekly radio address in November 2001) about freeing the Afghan women from the burqa etc. was just that—cynical hype. The fact is the Afghan war proponents have all along tried to enlist women in their cause arguing that the invasion was necessary to liberate women. The point was not so much to liberate anybody but to vilify the Taliban for their misogyny for political propaganda purposes. It worked in the short term but now with all these reports of continued abuse of women (with the backing of current legal authorities) it gets hard for U.S. officials to posture as any kind of moral authorities in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>Having invaded and imposed regime change on a country where fundamentalist Islam and tribal tradition govern most people’s attitudes towards gender and sexuality, the U.S. can’t remove the burqa, impose the practice of educating girls, prevent the imprisonment of girls who resist forced marriage, or even ensure respectful treatment of elected female legislators in the Afghan Parliament. The military seems to be shrugging off these issues, along with that of the Afghan policemen’s proclivity to rape boys, as “cultural” issues.</p>
<p>Of course such things are cultural issues. For example, the practice of wealthy men retaining bacha bazi (dancing boys), often purchased from impoverished parents, has been widespread in northern Afghanistan for a long time.</p>
<p>In the south (Pashtun) regions there is the phenomenon of the ashna (“beloved boy”). The national police in northern Helmand province are less popular than the Taliban in part due to their history of kidnapping boys for sexual purposes, in line with longstanding tribal tradition. Members of the Alizai tribe loyal to a local warlord were appointed as police and used their power to terrorize the rival Ishaqzai tribe, which had supported the Taliban. One way they did this was by abusing boys. The locals drove them out and during the recent NATO offensive in Helmand expressed fears about their return. They prefer the Taliban.</p>
<p>Such practices persist following a regime change supposed to somehow liberate Afghans from the darkness of fundamentalist Islamist rule. Some U.S., Canadian and other foreign troops notice the moral contradictions and feel uncomfortable. They maybe wonder if this war they fight in tandem with the rapists is really a “war of necessity” to prevent another 9-11.</p>
<p>In the section on Afghanistan’s relations with its neighbors, the report suggests (without evidence) that Iran is providing arms to the Taliban while noting that “is inconsistent with their historic enmity, but fits with its overall strategy of backing many groups to ensure a positive relationship with potential leaders and hedging against foreign presence.”</p>
<p>In other words, if there is any cooperation between these historic enemies (the Sunni Taliban hates the Shiites and their Iranian revolution) it has been produced by the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. (The fact is, Iran has sought and enjoys close diplomatic and economic ties with the Kabul government.)</p>
<p>Concerning Afghanistan’s relationship with Kyrgystan: “Importantly, we also have access to the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, through which the majority of our combat troops transit on their way to Afghanistan.” Actually, this might be shut down soon. But it’s interesting to see how in this document Afghanistan’s foreign relations are viewed so narrowly and obviously though the lens of U.S. geopolitical objectives.</p>
<p>The fact is, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan has destabilized neighboring Pakistan, producing groups calling themselves Taliban where there had been no Taliban before, &#160;their influence now extending far from the border area into the Swat Valley. Pakistani Talibs are now threatening to attack the U.S.</p>
<p>From the report it looks like the government exerts greatest control in Kabul, Wardak, Nangrahar, Balkh, Jowzjan, Herat, Badgiz, Farah, parts of Helmand and Oruzgan, Ghazni and Paktia. But that’s less territory than the insurgents control. This despite $ 300 billion in U.S. military spending on the Afghan War and considerable outlays by allies. (Germany, has spent over 3 billion euros so far, while France spends about one billion euros per year on the Afghan occupation.)</p>
<p>How is it that these “insurgents” without substantial outside help (while rogue elements in Pakistan’s ISI may be providing assistance no government supports them) have been able to regroup and acquire growing popular support, while the U.S. allies become further estranged from the people, viewed with contempt as they grow more corrupt? One doesn’t have to support the Taliban, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar or any of the unsavory characters in the resistance to pose that question. Or to demand that the U.S. withdraw from a country where its presence is not the “necessity” Obama calls it but clearly unnecessary, unwelcome, increasingly destructive, regionally destabilizing and likely to provoke more anti-U.S. terrorism.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Reports indicate that Faisal Shazad, accused of attempting a bomb attack on Times Square, met with a leader of the Pakistani Taliban group (there are several) Tehreek-e Taliban and was attempting to retaliate for the U.S. drone strikes against Pakistan that have killed 700 civilians.</p>
<p>The Pakistani foreign minister, whose government has formally protested the attacks in violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and international law, frankly terms the abortive bombing “blowback.”</p>
<p>That is to say: the U.S. can’t go on with its military aggression without inviting/inciting a response. The empirical evidence of the “Report on Progress” shows that more troops in Afghanistan simply produce more resistance. And bringing the whole region under U.S. hegemony, at a time when the U.S. is exposed throughout the Muslim world as a shameless defender of Israel, hell-bent under Israeli pressure to attack Iran, is a hopeless task.</p>
<p>Barack Obama is shouldering this task, justifying the effort as a matter of “necessity” produced by the 9-11 attacks. Maybe he figures more aggression will produce more blowback here at home. And more Homeland “terrorist” episodes will produce more sympathy for more war abroad. And even more “progress reports.”</p>
<p>GARY LEUPP is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Religion. He is the author of <a href="" type="internal">Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan</a>; <a href="" type="internal">Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan</a>; and <a href="" type="internal">Interracial Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900</a>. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch’s merciless chronicle of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CP_Books.html" type="external">Imperial Crusades</a>. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
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<p /> | true | 4 | youre trying explain friends family oppose war afghanistan find much useful information latest report progress toward security stability afghanistan national defense authorization act fiscal year 2008 requires defense department state department director national intelligence attorney general administrator drug enforcement administration administrator united states agency international development secretary agriculture secretary treasury sign report progress delivered congress every 180 days fifth report released fact report progress tells us among things us military designated afghanistan 80 key terrain districts districts bulk population concentrated contain centers economic productivity key infrastructure key commerce routes connecting areas outside world 41 area interest districts districts variety reasons exert influence key terrain districts degree renders necessary focus information collection operational resources upon support operations key terrain districts surround three main highways linking major cities international security assistance force isafthe international force overwhelmingly us diminishing nato participationonly resources conduct operations 48 focus districts thus even us forces climb 98000 august order president obama isaf unable operate key districts several key generals noted war militarily report tacitly admits victory would require huge surge time isaf planning assault kandahar opposed local people even karzai regime politically fearing intimate association invaders invited us fix deadline withdrawal report states violence sharply seasonal average previous year 87 increase february 2009 march 2010 spiked election last september us troops sought stabilize areas balloting could heldand upheld world instance democracy conferred upon afghans invaders karzai rigged reelection got away however much us officials obliged express distaste like many afghans willing work increase occupation forces contributed increase violence report tells us overall assessment indicates population sympathizes march 2010 supports afghan government 24 29 121 key terrain area interest districts section governance report provides figures popular sentiment key 121 districts determined us military commissioned poll none districts deemed key military purposes listed supportive karzai government chart doesnt really show rise number districts sympathetic government160 time interval since 38 assessed earlier survey december 2009 33 83 assessed districts 40 proinsurgent figure march 48 121 still 40 progovernment figure also virtually unchanged 23 24 leaves 36 districts neutral160 districts surrounding highways insurgents enjoy significantly support kabul government war strengthening report also makes clear talibs insurgents half dozen different organizations fighting government theres a160 colorful map explaining armed groups gives sense diversity fighters really patchwork pashtun nationalists others much less interested concept global jihad merely ridding landscape unwelcome invaders presence war appears generating new resistance groups afghans feel people providing assistance achieving security according report 34 responding recent160 armycommissioned poll rate isaf bad bad compared 30 rated good good 34 rated fair september 2008 160only 28 thought isaf bad bad 39 thought good seems persistence foreign presence mounting civilian casualties producing indignation levels afghan society even occasioning parliamentary walkouts turning people report notes afghan women girls still sent prison moral crimes including fleeing domestic violence eloping many state department rule law human rights programs help civil society organizations afghan policymakers advocate reform discriminatory laws words prewar hype including laura bush taking husbands weekly radio address november 2001 freeing afghan women burqa etc thatcynical hype fact afghan war proponents along tried enlist women cause arguing invasion necessary liberate women point much liberate anybody vilify taliban misogyny political propaganda purposes worked short term reports continued abuse women backing current legal authorities gets hard us officials posture kind moral authorities afghanistan invaded imposed regime change country fundamentalist islam tribal tradition govern peoples attitudes towards gender sexuality us cant remove burqa impose practice educating girls prevent imprisonment girls resist forced marriage even ensure respectful treatment elected female legislators afghan parliament military seems shrugging issues along afghan policemens proclivity rape boys cultural issues course things cultural issues example practice wealthy men retaining bacha bazi dancing boys often purchased impoverished parents widespread northern afghanistan long time south pashtun regions phenomenon ashna beloved boy national police northern helmand province less popular taliban part due history kidnapping boys sexual purposes line longstanding tribal tradition members alizai tribe loyal local warlord appointed police used power terrorize rival ishaqzai tribe supported taliban one way abusing boys locals drove recent nato offensive helmand expressed fears return prefer taliban practices persist following regime change supposed somehow liberate afghans darkness fundamentalist islamist rule us canadian foreign troops notice moral contradictions feel uncomfortable maybe wonder war fight tandem rapists really war necessity prevent another 911 section afghanistans relations neighbors report suggests without evidence iran providing arms taliban noting inconsistent historic enmity fits overall strategy backing many groups ensure positive relationship potential leaders hedging foreign presence words cooperation historic enemies sunni taliban hates shiites iranian revolution produced us invasion occupation afghanistan fact iran sought enjoys close diplomatic economic ties kabul government concerning afghanistans relationship kyrgystan importantly also access manas transit center kyrgyzstan majority combat troops transit way afghanistan actually might shut soon interesting see document afghanistans foreign relations viewed narrowly obviously though lens us geopolitical objectives fact us invasion afghanistan destabilized neighboring pakistan producing groups calling taliban taliban 160their influence extending far border area swat valley pakistani talibs threatening attack us report looks like government exerts greatest control kabul wardak nangrahar balkh jowzjan herat badgiz farah parts helmand oruzgan ghazni paktia thats less territory insurgents control despite 300 billion us military spending afghan war considerable outlays allies germany spent 3 billion euros far france spends one billion euros per year afghan occupation insurgents without substantial outside help rogue elements pakistans isi may providing assistance government supports able regroup acquire growing popular support us allies become estranged people viewed contempt grow corrupt one doesnt support taliban gulbuddin hekmatyar unsavory characters resistance pose question demand us withdraw country presence necessity obama calls clearly unnecessary unwelcome increasingly destructive regionally destabilizing likely provoke antius terrorism reports indicate faisal shazad accused attempting bomb attack times square met leader pakistani taliban group several tehreeke taliban attempting retaliate us drone strikes pakistan killed 700 civilians pakistani foreign minister whose government formally protested attacks violation pakistans sovereignty international law frankly terms abortive bombing blowback say us cant go military aggression without invitinginciting response empirical evidence report progress shows troops afghanistan simply produce resistance bringing whole region us hegemony time us exposed throughout muslim world shameless defender israel hellbent israeli pressure attack iran hopeless task barack obama shouldering task justifying effort matter necessity produced 911 attacks maybe figures aggression produce blowback home homeland terrorist episodes produce sympathy war abroad even progress reports gary leupp professor history tufts university adjunct professor religion author servants shophands laborers cities tokugawa japan male colors construction homosexuality tokugawa japan interracial intimacy japan western men japanese women 15431900 also contributor counterpunchs merciless chronicle wars iraq afghanistan yugoslavia imperial crusades reached gleuppgranitetuftsedu words stick 160 | 1,093 |
<p>Nine Palestinian farmers were taken to the nearby military base. When they arrived soldiers jumped on them, tied their hands behind their backs and fixed a piece of cloth around their eyes. They were led to a deserted area in the base and told to sit on the ground, while the soldiers threatened, and cursed them, hour after hour. Whoever dared to ask why he was being held, requested to go to the bathroom, or complained in any way, was kicked, slapped, or held down with his head to the ground. The farmers, turned prisoners’ only offence was an unsuccessful attempt to plow their land.</p>
<p>This incident is part of the ongoing campaign carried out by the Israeli government and the Jewish settlers; a campaign whose major objective is to undermine the infrastructure of existence of the occupied Palestinians, so that they, in turn, will bow down to Israeli demands and give up the claims to their land — it is a struggle against what the Palestinians call Tzumud, which means the “close and relentless attachment” to the land, their home.</p>
<p>Throughout this past summer, the settlers — often aided by the Israeli military — obstructed the harvesting of olives, grapes and other crops, and now that the time for tilling the soil has arrived, they are not allowing many Palestinians to reach their fields so that in the spring there will be nothing to harvest.</p>
<p>This particular incident began in late November when Palestinian residents from the South Hebron region started tilling their land. As soon as the farmers commenced plowing the fields located near a Jewish settlement, they were harassed by the settlers and detained for hours by the military.</p>
<p>It was then that they decided to contact the Israeli Civil Administration in order to try and coordinate the plowing, with the hope that the latter would protect them from settler harassment. The farmers also contacted members of Ta’ayush, Arab-Jewish Partnership, and requested that they intervene on their behalf. Time was running out, since the seeds need to be sowed before the rainy season.</p>
<p>Day after day passed; New Year’s Eve was quickly approaching, and there was still no word or sign from Lieutenant Colonel Tarek, the Civil Administration’s regional commander. Ta’ayush activists intervened on behalf of the Palestinians, and were told that the Palestinians should go to their fields, with their tractors in order to meet the Civil Administration. Every day the farmers came, and every day they were told: “come tomorrow, not today.”</p>
<p>Finally, after threatening the Civil Administration that if they did not set a date immediately, a Supreme Court appeal would be submitted, the residents were informed that on Saturday February 1 they could come to their fields and plow. Over two months had passed, and the plowing season was quickly drawing to a close.</p>
<p>Only at 10:00 in the morning, Lieutenant Colonel Tarek arrived on the scene. But instead of remaining to protect the residents, he told them they could plow and disappeared. Despite the late start, the Palestinians began working without interference. At about twelve noon, Jewish settlers from Susya, accompanied by soldiers, appeared. Wielding their guns, they forced the Palestinians to stop their work, while simultaneously beating a number of residents.</p>
<p>Ta’ayush members immediately called the Civil Administration and the police, demanding that they proceed to the fields at once; the activists decided concomitantly to enter the region in spite of the fact that the whole southern West Bank had been declared a closed military zone — just to ensure that they would not and could not enter the area. The closure of the territories reaffirmed once again our suspicion that all Ta’ayush activities are under surveillance by the security services.</p>
<p>Using a roundabout route, one car with five activists managed to pass through just as the Civil Administration began detaining the nine Palestinian farmers and their four tractors; they were taken to a military base three kilometers away.</p>
<p>The remaining Ta’ayush members were stopped by the police about a kilometer from the fields. The activists immediately exited their vehicles and began walking towards the five members who had managed to reach the Palestinians. At this point there was only one police van on the scene, and although they could not stop all of the activists, they did manage to arrest three people.</p>
<p>Most of the group continued walking, however, while a few remained at the roadblock to make sure that those arrested would not be taken away. Those who remained sat down in protest, encircling the police vehicle.</p>
<p>Large police forces were summoned, including special units and armed vehicles. These forces rapidly advanced and stopped the activists who had continued marching forward, about 400 yards before they reached the Palestinian residents. The Ta’ayush activists negotiated with the police and reached an agreement that they would withdraw if the five Ta’ayush activists who had been arrested (two more had been arrested as they walked towards the fields) were released as well as the Palestinians and their tractors.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the five activists who managed to get through collected affidavits from the Palestinian residents, some of whom had been beaten by settlers. They related how they were suddenly attacked by a group of settlers while plowing and sowing seeds. One young Palestinian woman received a blow from a rifle.</p>
<p>The five members also contacted Knesset Member Zahava Galon who called Lieutenant Colonel Tarek. She was promised that the Palestinians and their tractor would be released shortly and that they would be allowed to plow the following day. Once again, as it would turn out, Tarek was lying.</p>
<p>In order to cover up his breach of the agreement, which specified that he would remain with the Palestinians until they completed their work and, in this way, protect them, Lieutenant Colonel Tarek decided to place the blame on the Palestinians. It is always easiest to blame the victims.</p>
<p>Instead of removing the settlers and taking responsibility for the fact that he had left the area, he concocted a story, claiming that the Palestinians had plowed in an out-of-bound area and were therefore to blame for what had occurred. Thus, the Palestinians who had been forcibly prevented from plowing their land for over two months, and who — when they were finally given permission to plow their own land — were beaten and detained, were blamed for the whole situation. And all this because a civil administration officer acted irresponsibly, wanted to cover his tracks, and did not want to upset the Jewish settlers, who are the real sovereign in the area.</p>
<p>Based on the promise given to Zahava Galon, as well as a promise from the police that they would release the activists who had been arrested, the Ta’ayush activists decided to withdraw. They waited about one kilometer from the fields for the release of the nine Palestinians; there was a large police and military presence waiting with them.</p>
<p>It was now about 2:00 pm.</p>
<p>After further negotiations and a promise from Tarek that within an hour he would release the Palestinians, part of the group retreated even further, while five members remained near the Susya settlement. There were also four police vans and 25 policemen waiting with them.</p>
<p>Two hours passed, and the policeman in charge, Moshe Moshe, notified the activists that the Palestinians had been taken to the Hebron police station. He also promised the activists that the Palestinians would be released very soon.</p>
<p>At around 4:30, the five Ta’ayush activists decided to drive to the Hebron station themselves to see whether they could find the Palestinians and to file complaints against Lieutenant Colonel Tarek and the settlers.</p>
<p>By the time they reached Hebron it was dark. They managed to file the complaints, but they saw no sign of the Palestinians. Moshe Moshe tried once again to find out where they were, and this time he informed the activists that the Palestinians were still being held in the military base near the fields, and that they were in the process of being released.</p>
<p>About twenty minutes later, the activists finally made contact with one of the Palestinians who had been detained. He related how they had been taken to the military base and placed in a corner with their hands tied behind their backs and a piece of cloth fixed around their eyes. They had sat in a corner on the ground for six long hours, while soldiers randomly kicked, threatened, and cursed them. Their four tractors, however, remained in custody.</p>
<p>As if this was not enough, the following day the Palestinians contacted Ta’ayush and informed us that settlers had taken over the fields and were beginning to plant trees on the very land that the farmers had been trying to plow for over two months. The very land that — only a day before the Civil Administration had promised would be “available” and “safe” for tilling. Those that went back to the military base to take the tractors, were once again tied and blindfolded and held for hours before they were released. The military was determined to suppress all Palestinian efforts to live a normal life.</p>
<p>For more information on Ta’ayush and to support our activities in the South Hebron region click <a href="http://www.taayush.org/" type="external">www.taayush.org</a>.</p>
<p>Neve Gordon teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University, Israel, and is a contributor to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/156584789X/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent</a>. (New Press 2002). He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | nine palestinian farmers taken nearby military base arrived soldiers jumped tied hands behind backs fixed piece cloth around eyes led deserted area base told sit ground soldiers threatened cursed hour hour whoever dared ask held requested go bathroom complained way kicked slapped held head ground farmers turned prisoners offence unsuccessful attempt plow land incident part ongoing campaign carried israeli government jewish settlers campaign whose major objective undermine infrastructure existence occupied palestinians turn bow israeli demands give claims land struggle palestinians call tzumud means close relentless attachment land home throughout past summer settlers often aided israeli military obstructed harvesting olives grapes crops time tilling soil arrived allowing many palestinians reach fields spring nothing harvest particular incident began late november palestinian residents south hebron region started tilling land soon farmers commenced plowing fields located near jewish settlement harassed settlers detained hours military decided contact israeli civil administration order try coordinate plowing hope latter would protect settler harassment farmers also contacted members taayush arabjewish partnership requested intervene behalf time running since seeds need sowed rainy season day day passed new years eve quickly approaching still word sign lieutenant colonel tarek civil administrations regional commander taayush activists intervened behalf palestinians told palestinians go fields tractors order meet civil administration every day farmers came every day told come tomorrow today finally threatening civil administration set date immediately supreme court appeal would submitted residents informed saturday february 1 could come fields plow two months passed plowing season quickly drawing close 1000 morning lieutenant colonel tarek arrived scene instead remaining protect residents told could plow disappeared despite late start palestinians began working without interference twelve noon jewish settlers susya accompanied soldiers appeared wielding guns forced palestinians stop work simultaneously beating number residents taayush members immediately called civil administration police demanding proceed fields activists decided concomitantly enter region spite fact whole southern west bank declared closed military zone ensure would could enter area closure territories reaffirmed suspicion taayush activities surveillance security services using roundabout route one car five activists managed pass civil administration began detaining nine palestinian farmers four tractors taken military base three kilometers away remaining taayush members stopped police kilometer fields activists immediately exited vehicles began walking towards five members managed reach palestinians point one police van scene although could stop activists manage arrest three people group continued walking however remained roadblock make sure arrested would taken away remained sat protest encircling police vehicle large police forces summoned including special units armed vehicles forces rapidly advanced stopped activists continued marching forward 400 yards reached palestinian residents taayush activists negotiated police reached agreement would withdraw five taayush activists arrested two arrested walked towards fields released well palestinians tractors meantime five activists managed get collected affidavits palestinian residents beaten settlers related suddenly attacked group settlers plowing sowing seeds one young palestinian woman received blow rifle five members also contacted knesset member zahava galon called lieutenant colonel tarek promised palestinians tractor would released shortly would allowed plow following day would turn tarek lying order cover breach agreement specified would remain palestinians completed work way protect lieutenant colonel tarek decided place blame palestinians always easiest blame victims instead removing settlers taking responsibility fact left area concocted story claiming palestinians plowed outofbound area therefore blame occurred thus palestinians forcibly prevented plowing land two months finally given permission plow land beaten detained blamed whole situation civil administration officer acted irresponsibly wanted cover tracks want upset jewish settlers real sovereign area based promise given zahava galon well promise police would release activists arrested taayush activists decided withdraw waited one kilometer fields release nine palestinians large police military presence waiting 200 pm negotiations promise tarek within hour would release palestinians part group retreated even five members remained near susya settlement also four police vans 25 policemen waiting two hours passed policeman charge moshe moshe notified activists palestinians taken hebron police station also promised activists palestinians would released soon around 430 five taayush activists decided drive hebron station see whether could find palestinians file complaints lieutenant colonel tarek settlers time reached hebron dark managed file complaints saw sign palestinians moshe moshe tried find time informed activists palestinians still held military base near fields process released twenty minutes later activists finally made contact one palestinians detained related taken military base placed corner hands tied behind backs piece cloth fixed around eyes sat corner ground six long hours soldiers randomly kicked threatened cursed four tractors however remained custody enough following day palestinians contacted taayush informed us settlers taken fields beginning plant trees land farmers trying plow two months land day civil administration promised would available safe tilling went back military base take tractors tied blindfolded held hours released military determined suppress palestinian efforts live normal life information taayush support activities south hebron region click wwwtaayushorg neve gordon teaches politics bengurion university israel contributor israel voices refusal dissent new press 2002 reached ngordonbgumailbguacil 160 | 806 |
<p>This post contains spoilers about everything that happened in 2014.It’s the time of year when every news site publishes list upon list of memorable moments — best, worst, funniest, etc. — throughout the past year. It’s only fitting for a progressive news site to write a progressive version of that theme. So here they are, the most progressive moments of 2014.</p>
<p>Let’s be clear: This isn’t a record of the best OR worst moments in pop culture this year. In fact, it’s a record of best AND worst moments — ones that made us smile, laugh, and/or cry for humanity. It is a list of happenings, in no particular order, that either advanced progressive ideals or got us talking about them. So without further ado:</p>
<p>Most people hoped that commercials occupying mutli-million dollar time slots would compensate for one of the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-2014-boring-game-safe-ads-transit-nightmare/" type="external">most boring Super Bowls of all time</a> last January. A Coke commercial did just that, by showing an awesome and unexpected montage of people from diverse backgrounds singing ‘America the Beautiful’ in different languages. So of course people were outraged, and <a href="http://time.com/3773/coca-colas-its-beautiful-super-bowl-ad-brings-out-some-ugly-americans/" type="external">demanded that people speak English</a> or get out of town, signaling that xenophobia is still alive and well in the U.S.</p>
<p>And then there was the visually stunning ad by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), “Proud to Be,” <a href="http://www.upworthy.com/the-nfl-would-never-let-this-ad-air-on-the-super-bowl-so-were-gonna-show-you-it-its-important" type="external">which was not aired</a> during the Super Bowl. The commercial reminded the country that Native Americans are not a monolith, but are common in their resilience and survivorship. Although it aired on television in subsequent days, it’s a shame that Native Americans — the original Americans — were not given a spotlight on the most American day of the year, because of the NFL’s commitment to racism and injustice.</p>
<p>Speaking of Native Americans, Dan Snyder still <a href="" type="internal">refuses to admit</a> how offensive the term “Redskins” is, which was just one of the NFL’s major flubs this year. His communications team even had the audacity to start a Twitter trend, #RedskinsPride, to get people talking about what the team means to them. <a href="" type="internal">Click here</a> to see how well that went. The NFL also screwed up when it tried to <a href="" type="internal">cover up a video of Ray Rice</a> beating his girlfriend in an elevator — and then <a href="" type="internal">lied about it</a>. The incident opened up a discussion about the culture of domestic violence among football players, and lax policies that enable abusers to go unpunished. It also pointed to society’s tendency to re-victimize survivors of abuse, like Rice’s wife Janay, by either <a href="" type="internal">blaming them for their plight</a> or accusing them of not speaking up. And then there was running back Adrian Peterson, who allegedly beat his four-year-old child, and reopened the longstanding debate over <a href="" type="internal">corporal punishment</a>. All in all, the NFL was one of the biggest losers of the year, but it also forced sports fans to confront serious subject matter.</p>
<p>It’s time to lay the conversation about butts to rest, but let us not forget how big arses sashayed their way into mainstream pop culture’s collective psyche and started an important dialogue about body image and race. A lot of publications —  <a href="" type="internal">Vanity Fair</a>, <a href="http://www.vogue.com/1342927/booty-in-pop-culture-jennifer-lopez-iggy-azalea/" type="external">Vogue</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/18/fashion/more-women-seeking-curvaceous-posteriors.html?smid=tw-nytimes&amp;_r=5" type="external">the New York Times</a> — had the nerve to say that prominent white women + Beyonce + Nicki Minaj made big butts desirable, enviable, and trendy, while simultaneously overlooking and erasing women of color with curves who never received the same amount of praise. Regardless, the booty talk did usher in a renewed appreciation for a body type that is not size 0. It was a welcome change. Cue Anaconda video.</p>
<p>In this brilliant indie film starring Jenny Slate, abortion isn’t treated as the act of shame that we tend to see on television and in most movies. After a night of rebound sex, Slate gets pregnant and immediately decides to have an abortion, guilt-free. She doesn’t hesitate, and she doesn’t feel like her world is ending. In fact, the movie is a <a href="" type="internal">romantic comedy</a>, which carries as much weight as the underlying abortion story line. With women’s reproductive health rights under attack from the Supreme Court and state governments, Obvious Child is an important film that counters negative perceptions of abortion and advocates a woman’s right to exercise agency over her own body.</p>
<p>The Game of Thrones scene in which Jaime Lannister raped his sister, Cersei, next to their dead son was one of the most superfluous scenes in television history. On a show characterized by gruesome death and destruction, Game of Thrones’ distortion of its source material, in which Cersei verbally consents to her brother/lover’s advances, used violence against women for shock value only. Shortly after the episode aired, cast members defended the scene, which sparked a national conversation about consent and the way we talk about rape. But GoT wasn’t the only perpetrator of on-screen rape this year (see <a href="" type="internal">House of Cards and the Americans</a>). After Gone Girl was released in October, the debate about women falsely accusing men of rape and domestic violence was reignited. Many <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/06/gone-girl-rape-domestic-violence-ben-affleck" type="external">argued</a> that the movie (and book) reinforced the myth that women “cry rape” at the expense of men, while others <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119743/gone-girl-has-offered-feminism-new-hero" type="external">defended</a> it as a feminist work. Either way, rape was front and center, making us question both its use as an entertainment tool and its representation in pop culture overall.</p>
<p>Feminism. It’s a word that shouldn’t go away, despite Time’s <a href="http://time.com/3576870/worst-words-poll-2014/" type="external">failed attempt to make it so</a>. In fairness, discussions about feminism have become redundant, and should probably should start moving beyond the “Are you one or not?” question. But Emma Watson declaring her reasons for being a feminist in front of the U.N. shouldn’t be overlooked. As a <a href="" type="internal">newly appointed ambassador</a> for HeForShe, to encourage men around the globe to stand up for women’s rights, Watson’s speech showed us all that young witches can blossom into strong, trailblazing women demanding gender equality.</p>
<p>On the subject of trailblazing women, Laverne Cox became the first trans woman to receive an Emmy nod (for Orange Is the New Black) AND the first to grace the cover of Time. At the forefront of trans rights activism, Cox’s celebrity advanced trans visibility in a profound way. Her friend Janet Mock’s hit autobiography, Redefining Realness, also did the trick. But Cox was, arguably, the most influential trans person in America this year.</p>
<p>Every year we unexpectedly lose entertainers, but some deaths really hit close to home. This year, the country was taken aback when funnyman Robin Williams <a href="" type="internal">committed suicide</a>, and the extraordinary Philip Seymour Hoffman <a href="" type="internal">overdosed on heroin</a>. Both losses got us talking about the stigma attached to drug abuse and mental illness, and how that stigma has tragic consequences for people afraid to speak up. The <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/08/12/suicide-contagion-and-social-media-the-dangers-of-sharing-genie-youre-free/" type="external">“Genie, you’re free” meme</a> also stirred up controversy, with many arguing that the message actually encouraged and glorified suicide. But beyond their causes of death, the two actors left a gaping hole in the movie industry, and <a href="" type="internal">legacies</a> that extend far beyond the world of entertainment. RIP.</p>
<p>A huge bomb was dropped on the news world when Executive Editor Jill Abramson was allegedly fired from the Times after asking for a pay raise. The backlash was immediate, and put the gender pay gap front and center. But it also highlighted the <a href="" type="internal">glass ceiling phenomenon</a> in which women are hired as “fixers” and then blamed for not being able to clean up the mess they inherited. So that was Strike 1 for the publication. Then, fan favorite Alessandra Stanley, who’s notorious for writing <a href="http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/wrong_wrong_wrong_wrong_wrong.php?page=all" type="external">factually incorrect articles</a>, wrote a piece about Shonda Rhimes being an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/arts/television/viola-davis-plays-shonda-rhimess-latest-tough-heroine.html" type="external">angry black woman</a>. She also went so far as to reify warped standards of beauty and offend a prominent black actress in the same sentence. Stanley’s and Abramson’s forced departure reflected poorly on the Times’ credibility and called into question journalistic integrity in one fell swoop.</p>
<p>Every year we push for more diversity in television, and this year we saw a lot more of it. We were introduced to <a href="" type="internal">Jane the Virgin</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Black-ish, Cristela, and How to Get Away With Murder</a>, in what is a clear push for better race representation on the small screen. ABC also announced its new show <a href="" type="internal">Fresh Off the Boat</a>, which will premiere early next year. But there was also <a href="" type="internal">record-breaking LGBT inclusion</a>, with new shows like Transparent on Amazon, Looking on HBO, and a number of recurring LGBT characters on more established shows (Orange Is the New Black, The Fosters, Glee, etc.). A GLAAD study also found that there are <a href="http://www.glaad.org/files/GLAAD-2014-WWAT.pdf" type="external">more people with disabilities</a> on TV than ever before. On the flip side, TV is <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/women-in-tv-study-2014/" type="external">backtracking</a> on gender equity: the number of women with speaking roles declined by 1 percent, and they are less likely to be shown in a work setting than their male counterparts.</p>
<p>Unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past 3 weeks, you know that Bill Cosby allegedly raped a lot of women in the past, who are now speaking out about his history of sexual misconduct. Although allegations were made against him in 2004, comedian Hannibal Burress reintroduced the conversation in joke form. But that joke had unintended consequences, when Barbara Bowman <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/11/13/bill-cosby-raped-me-why-did-it-take-30-years-for-people-to-believe-my-story/" type="external">wrote a Washington Post op-ed</a> about her horrifying encounter with Cosby and being shamed for speaking out. Soon after the op-ed was published, victim after victim came forth to tell their stories about the actor. But hers was not the only piece slamming a high-profile entertainer for sex crimes. Dylan Farrow published a <a href="http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/" type="external">New York Times letter</a> about being molested by her father, Woody Allen, and the difficulties of watching him receive praise in spite of his wrongdoing. Neither Cosby nor Allen have been convicted for their crimes, but by writing widely publicized letters, their accusers revamped the war on superstars who perpetuate violence against women, and think they can get away with it unscathed.</p>
<p>Although Colbert won the coveted late night talk show slot that Letterman’s giving up, it wasn’t smooth sailing for the beloved comedian. It started when a Twitter account associated with the Colbert Report tweeted “I am willing to show #Asian community I care by introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever,” poking fun at Dan Synder’s reluctance to scrap the Redskins team name. In response, Asian-American activist Suey Park started the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23CancelColbert&amp;src=hash" type="external">#CancelColbert campaign</a>. Some who disagreed with Park’s campaign said that the joke was <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/04/06/299699625/asian-americans-cancelcolbert" type="external">a simple misunderstanding</a>, but it did leave a blemish on Colbert’s pristine comedic past. It’s worth noting that Colbert did not actually tweet the message himself. More than anything, #CancelColbert made us <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/03/28/in_support_of_cancelcolbert_why_stephen_colbert_needs_to_make_this_right/" type="external">evaluate the role of comedy in pop culture</a>, and think about subject matter that is or is not fair game, and who is allowed to make race-related jokes.</p>
<p>Ohhh Donald Sterling, where do we even begin with you? Like Mel Gibson before him, Clippers owner Donald Sterling got caught saying some outlandishly racist things to then-girlfriend V. Stiviano. Take a listen, thanks to gossip-site-turned-”video journalism”-site, TMZ:</p>
<p><a href="http://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/p/591531/sp/59153100/embedIframeJs/uiconf_id/6740162/partner_id/591531?iframeembed=true&amp;playerId=kaltura_player_1413478522&amp;entry_id=0_wkuhmkt8" type="external">Kaltura Embed Player iFrameEdit descriptioncdnapisec.kaltura.com</a> <a href="http://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/p/591531/sp/59153100/embedIframeJs/uiconf_id/6740162/partner_id/591531?iframeembed=true&amp;playerId=kaltura_player_1413478522&amp;entry_id=0_wkuhmkt8" type="external" />Sterling already had a history of racism against African Americans — ie. <a href="" type="internal">gross housing discrimination</a> — but the recording was the final nail in his coffin. Offending the very players who contributed to his excessive wealth, the video served as a loud reminder that we do not live in a post-racial society, and a prime example of the devaluation of black lives in America. Sterling has since sold the basketball team.</p>
<p>Last year, Jason Collins became the <a href="http://www.si.com/more-sports/2013/04/29/jason-collins-gay-nba-player" type="external">first openly gay athlete in a major American sport</a>. Last week, Collins <a href="" type="internal">announced his plan to retire</a>, but he did pave the way for gay athletes to come out. Enter Michael Sam, who became the <a href="" type="internal">first openly gay football player</a> selected in the NFL draft. The media is still figuring out how to discuss LGBT athletes (see <a href="" type="internal">ESPN’s cringe-worthy locker room story</a>), but Sam continues to change the sports world by virtue of being, unapologetically, himself. He’s the real MVP. (Quick aside: Actress <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ellen-page-comes-as-gay-680563" type="external">Ellen Page</a> also came out at the Human Rights Campaign’s Time To Thrive conference.)</p>
<p>Some called it a sex scandal. Others (more accurately) dubbed the <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/01/heres-what-we-know-so-far-about-the-celebrity-photo-hack/" type="external">leak of hundreds of naked photos</a> on 4chan sexual harassment. Among the victims were Jennifer Lawrence, Rihanna, underage olympian Mikayla Pierce and <a href="http://varietylatino.com/english/2014/gente/noticias/nude-photo-leak-hacking-full-list-celebrities-jennifer-lawrence-77530/" type="external">98 additional celebrities</a>. Although celebrities’ leaked photos made headlines in previous years, a photo hack of this magnitude was unprecedented. This is not to say that non-celebrities haven’t experienced the same abuse of privacy in the past, but the theft and publication of photos belonging to superstars started an interesting, necessary conversation about digital sex crimes. It also highlighted a culture of victim-blaming, with people making comments like “You’re a celebrity and shouldn’t do anything you don’t want people to see.” But most importantly, it shows that social media, from 4chan to Twitter, actually fosters a <a href="" type="internal">culture of misogyny</a>.</p>
<p>The Winter Olympics and World Cup, two of the biggest sporting events in the world, happened this year. It brought ‘Merica together the way most sporting events do. In February we crowded around TV screens and computer monitors to catch a glimpse of the freestyle skiers, curlers, and ice dancers beating Canadians and Russians with their mesmerizing twizzles. Meryl Davis and Charlie White became America’s favorite “couple.”</p>
<p>Flash forward to the World Cup in June, where the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team (and <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/spenceralthouse/tim-howard-is-americas-lord-and-savior-despite-world-cup-los" type="external">Tim Howard</a>) won over millions of new fans, who never cared about the world’s most popular sport. Competing in Group G — the “Group of Death,” the U.S. silenced haters and non-believers alike. We beat Ghana, tied with Portugal, lost to Germany, and STILL clawed our way into the next round. The country <a href="" type="internal">went nuts</a>.</p>
<p>But two countries paid a heavy price for our joy: Brazil and Russia. In Brazil, <a href="" type="internal">communities were destroyed</a> so that stadiums could be built, leaving <a href="" type="internal">thousands homeless</a>; police committed <a href="" type="internal">human rights abuses</a> against outraged civilians who <a href="" type="internal">took the streets</a>; and billions of dollars that could’ve been used for much-needed public and social services were allocated to the event. In Sochi, hundreds of residents were <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2014/feb/06/world/la-fg-sochi-dark-side-20140207" type="external">relocated</a> from their homes, and LGBT athletes and fans were <a href="" type="internal">persecuted and censored</a>. Today the city is a <a href="http://curbed.com/archives/2014/08/26/six-months-postolympics-sochi-is-already-an-eerie-wasteland.php" type="external">wasteland</a>.</p>
<p>Should we consider music a criminal threat? That’s what the Supreme Court will determine in the case of Anthony Elonis, who posted violent rap lyrics about his wife and was <a href="http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/12/killer-mike-argues-rap-lyrics-should-be-treated-as-free-speech-in-usa-today-op-ed/" type="external">sentenced to 44 months in prison</a> thereafter. More broadly, the trial is about persecuting individuals based on verbal threats, but rap lyrics — which often glorify violence — are a key component of the discussion. The debate as to whether or not they can and should be used as evidence is not new. Last January a similar court case convened in New Jersey, after which the state’s Supreme Court <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/nj-supreme-court-strikes-conviction-based-rap-lyrics/" type="external">overturned Vonte Skinner’s murder conviction</a>, ruling that the rap lyrics used to implicate him were prejudiced and “risked poisoning the jury.” But the U.S. Supreme Court case continues the conversation, which is <a href="" type="internal">fraught with racial undertones</a> and <a href="" type="internal">calls online speech into question</a>. The decision will come down between now and next June.</p>
<p>It started in 2012 when <a href="" type="internal">Anita Sarkeesian spoke out</a> about the presence and portrayal of women in videogames, after which she was brutally attacked online. Some even went so far as to create a game that allows players to <a href="" type="internal">beat her up</a>. Two years later, the <a href="" type="internal">death threats against her continue</a>. But a similar case of misogyny and online harassment happened in August, when an ex-boyfriend alleged that Zoe Quinn, a videogame developer, slept with a Nathan Grayson, a game reviewer for Kotaku, to get a positive review of Depression Quest. Since then, Quinn’s been the victim of online attacks and rape and death threats. And women who’ve spoken out in support of people like Quinn and Sarkeesian have been <a href="" type="internal">attacked ruthlessly</a>. Many people cited <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/gamergate-about-media-ethics-or-harassing-women-harassment-data-show-279736" type="external">ethics in journalism</a> as the real problem at hand, but that’s a secondary issue at best. Let’s just hope that GamerGate — the name for the <a href="" type="internal">online assault</a> of female game critics, developers, and bloggers — dies in 2015. And in case you were wondering, there’s still no proof that Grayson ever reviewed Depression Quest.</p> | true | 4 | post contains spoilers everything happened 2014its time year every news site publishes list upon list memorable moments best worst funniest etc throughout past year fitting progressive news site write progressive version theme progressive moments 2014 lets clear isnt record best worst moments pop culture year fact record best worst moments ones made us smile laugh andor cry humanity list happenings particular order either advanced progressive ideals got us talking without ado people hoped commercials occupying mutlimillion dollar time slots would compensate one boring super bowls time last january coke commercial showing awesome unexpected montage people diverse backgrounds singing america beautiful different languages course people outraged demanded people speak english get town signaling xenophobia still alive well us visually stunning ad national congress american indians ncai proud aired super bowl commercial reminded country native americans monolith common resilience survivorship although aired television subsequent days shame native americans original americans given spotlight american day year nfls commitment racism injustice speaking native americans dan snyder still refuses admit offensive term redskins one nfls major flubs year communications team even audacity start twitter trend redskinspride get people talking team means click see well went nfl also screwed tried cover video ray rice beating girlfriend elevator lied incident opened discussion culture domestic violence among football players lax policies enable abusers go unpunished also pointed societys tendency revictimize survivors abuse like rices wife janay either blaming plight accusing speaking running back adrian peterson allegedly beat fouryearold child reopened longstanding debate corporal punishment nfl one biggest losers year also forced sports fans confront serious subject matter time lay conversation butts rest let us forget big arses sashayed way mainstream pop cultures collective psyche started important dialogue body image race lot publications vanity fair vogue new york times nerve say prominent white women beyonce nicki minaj made big butts desirable enviable trendy simultaneously overlooking erasing women color curves never received amount praise regardless booty talk usher renewed appreciation body type size 0 welcome change cue anaconda video brilliant indie film starring jenny slate abortion isnt treated act shame tend see television movies night rebound sex slate gets pregnant immediately decides abortion guiltfree doesnt hesitate doesnt feel like world ending fact movie romantic comedy carries much weight underlying abortion story line womens reproductive health rights attack supreme court state governments obvious child important film counters negative perceptions abortion advocates womans right exercise agency body game thrones scene jaime lannister raped sister cersei next dead son one superfluous scenes television history show characterized gruesome death destruction game thrones distortion source material cersei verbally consents brotherlovers advances used violence women shock value shortly episode aired cast members defended scene sparked national conversation consent way talk rape got wasnt perpetrator onscreen rape year see house cards americans gone girl released october debate women falsely accusing men rape domestic violence reignited many argued movie book reinforced myth women cry rape expense men others defended feminist work either way rape front center making us question use entertainment tool representation pop culture overall feminism word shouldnt go away despite times failed attempt make fairness discussions feminism become redundant probably start moving beyond one question emma watson declaring reasons feminist front un shouldnt overlooked newly appointed ambassador heforshe encourage men around globe stand womens rights watsons speech showed us young witches blossom strong trailblazing women demanding gender equality subject trailblazing women laverne cox became first trans woman receive emmy nod orange new black first grace cover time forefront trans rights activism coxs celebrity advanced trans visibility profound way friend janet mocks hit autobiography redefining realness also trick cox arguably influential trans person america year every year unexpectedly lose entertainers deaths really hit close home year country taken aback funnyman robin williams committed suicide extraordinary philip seymour hoffman overdosed heroin losses got us talking stigma attached drug abuse mental illness stigma tragic consequences people afraid speak genie youre free meme also stirred controversy many arguing message actually encouraged glorified suicide beyond causes death two actors left gaping hole movie industry legacies extend far beyond world entertainment rip huge bomb dropped news world executive editor jill abramson allegedly fired times asking pay raise backlash immediate put gender pay gap front center also highlighted glass ceiling phenomenon women hired fixers blamed able clean mess inherited strike 1 publication fan favorite alessandra stanley whos notorious writing factually incorrect articles wrote piece shonda rhimes angry black woman also went far reify warped standards beauty offend prominent black actress sentence stanleys abramsons forced departure reflected poorly times credibility called question journalistic integrity one fell swoop every year push diversity television year saw lot introduced jane virgin blackish cristela get away murder clear push better race representation small screen abc also announced new show fresh boat premiere early next year also recordbreaking lgbt inclusion new shows like transparent amazon looking hbo number recurring lgbt characters established shows orange new black fosters glee etc glaad study also found people disabilities tv ever flip side tv backtracking gender equity number women speaking roles declined 1 percent less likely shown work setting male counterparts unless youve lived rock past 3 weeks know bill cosby allegedly raped lot women past speaking history sexual misconduct although allegations made 2004 comedian hannibal burress reintroduced conversation joke form joke unintended consequences barbara bowman wrote washington post oped horrifying encounter cosby shamed speaking soon oped published victim victim came forth tell stories actor piece slamming highprofile entertainer sex crimes dylan farrow published new york times letter molested father woody allen difficulties watching receive praise spite wrongdoing neither cosby allen convicted crimes writing widely publicized letters accusers revamped war superstars perpetuate violence women think get away unscathed although colbert coveted late night talk show slot lettermans giving wasnt smooth sailing beloved comedian started twitter account associated colbert report tweeted willing show asian community care introducing chingchong dingdong foundation sensitivity orientals whatever poking fun dan synders reluctance scrap redskins team name response asianamerican activist suey park started cancelcolbert campaign disagreed parks campaign said joke simple misunderstanding leave blemish colberts pristine comedic past worth noting colbert actually tweet message anything cancelcolbert made us evaluate role comedy pop culture think subject matter fair game allowed make racerelated jokes ohhh donald sterling even begin like mel gibson clippers owner donald sterling got caught saying outlandishly racist things thengirlfriend v stiviano take listen thanks gossipsiteturnedvideo journalismsite tmz kaltura embed player iframeedit descriptioncdnapiseckalturacom sterling already history racism african americans ie gross housing discrimination recording final nail coffin offending players contributed excessive wealth video served loud reminder live postracial society prime example devaluation black lives america sterling since sold basketball team last year jason collins became first openly gay athlete major american sport last week collins announced plan retire pave way gay athletes come enter michael sam became first openly gay football player selected nfl draft media still figuring discuss lgbt athletes see espns cringeworthy locker room story sam continues change sports world virtue unapologetically hes real mvp quick aside actress ellen page also came human rights campaigns time thrive conference called sex scandal others accurately dubbed leak hundreds naked photos 4chan sexual harassment among victims jennifer lawrence rihanna underage olympian mikayla pierce 98 additional celebrities although celebrities leaked photos made headlines previous years photo hack magnitude unprecedented say noncelebrities havent experienced abuse privacy past theft publication photos belonging superstars started interesting necessary conversation digital sex crimes also highlighted culture victimblaming people making comments like youre celebrity shouldnt anything dont want people see importantly shows social media 4chan twitter actually fosters culture misogyny winter olympics world cup two biggest sporting events world happened year brought merica together way sporting events february crowded around tv screens computer monitors catch glimpse freestyle skiers curlers ice dancers beating canadians russians mesmerizing twizzles meryl davis charlie white became americas favorite couple flash forward world cup june us mens soccer team tim howard millions new fans never cared worlds popular sport competing group g group death us silenced haters nonbelievers alike beat ghana tied portugal lost germany still clawed way next round country went nuts two countries paid heavy price joy brazil russia brazil communities destroyed stadiums could built leaving thousands homeless police committed human rights abuses outraged civilians took streets billions dollars couldve used muchneeded public social services allocated event sochi hundreds residents relocated homes lgbt athletes fans persecuted censored today city wasteland consider music criminal threat thats supreme court determine case anthony elonis posted violent rap lyrics wife sentenced 44 months prison thereafter broadly trial persecuting individuals based verbal threats rap lyrics often glorify violence key component discussion debate whether used evidence new last january similar court case convened new jersey states supreme court overturned vonte skinners murder conviction ruling rap lyrics used implicate prejudiced risked poisoning jury us supreme court case continues conversation fraught racial undertones calls online speech question decision come next june started 2012 anita sarkeesian spoke presence portrayal women videogames brutally attacked online even went far create game allows players beat two years later death threats continue similar case misogyny online harassment happened august exboyfriend alleged zoe quinn videogame developer slept nathan grayson game reviewer kotaku get positive review depression quest since quinns victim online attacks rape death threats women whove spoken support people like quinn sarkeesian attacked ruthlessly many people cited ethics journalism real problem hand thats secondary issue best lets hope gamergate name online assault female game critics developers bloggers dies 2015 case wondering theres still proof grayson ever reviewed depression quest | 1,566 |
<p>Imad Mughniyeh is dead, killed in a Feb. 12 car bomb attack carried out by as yet unidentified assailants in a Damascus suburb. Mughniyeh, a Lebanese, had been the head of Hezbollah’s Jihad Council, responsible for the external operations of that organization’s military wing. He was 48 years old. Since coming into prominence during the bloody years of Lebanon’s civil war (1976-79), Mughniyeh had built a résumé of operations that, depending on one’s perspective, established him as either one of the world’s foremost terrorists or freedom fighters. Few outside Lebanon, Syria and Iran will regard him as anything other than a terrorist. He is alleged to have carried out numerous attacks against the United States, killing hundreds, but for me, a former Marine, it is the loss of 241 of my fellow servicemen, the majority of them Marines, in an <a href="http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,515039782,00.html%20" type="external">attack on a Beirut barracks</a> attributed to Mughniyeh that will forever cement him in my mind as a mortal enemy.</p>
<p>That Mughniyeh deserved what he got is, in my opinion, not a matter up for debate. When one lives by the sword, he should expect to perish in the same fashion. Mughniyeh is alleged to be the mastermind of a number of horrific attacks that killed hundreds of people, military and civilian alike. Some of his actions have been acknowledged by those who support him, such as the <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/twa-flight-847" type="external">hijacking of TWA Flight 847</a> in 1985, which resulted in the murder of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem. Other alleged attacks, such as the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and the bombing of a Jewish cultural center in Argentina two years later, have been denied by Hezbollah. Most recently, Hezbollah acknowledged that Mughniyeh had played a significant role in the summer 2006 border war with Israel; that conflict was initiated by an attack that he probably masterminded, an attack in which eight Israeli soldiers were killed and two others were abducted. There is no doubt that Mughniyeh was personally responsible for any number of attacks, acknowledged or not. Today Mughniyeh lies dead and buried in a land which continues to be torn asunder, largely because of the actions of men like him.</p>
<p>And yet anyone who thinks Mughniyeh’s demise somehow improves the overall situation in the Middle East is sadly mistaken. Hezbollah has appointed his successor, and in light of Hezbollah’s extensive experience and depth, whoever has taken the reins from the slain Mughniyeh will no doubt possess similar nefarious tenacity and imagination. As will whoever replaces the successor when he perishes, and on and on. As with the killing of al-Qaida’s purported No. 3, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/01/31/alqaeda.death/index.html%20" type="external">Abu Laith al-Libi</a>, in Pakistan on Jan. 29 by a missile-equipped CIA unmanned drone, the impact of taking out one individual is minimized when the entire structure of the organization the individual served remains intact, and the cause of the organization, in the eyes of those who support it, remains just.</p>
<p>Indeed, as was so in both the Mughniyeh and al-Libi operations, the violent removal of an individual in isolation often does more harm than good, since it inflames tensions and undermines any progress toward a lasting resolution of the underlying problem. In the case of al-Libi, the CIA attack was conducted unilaterally over Pakistani airspace, without permission of the Pakistani government. This blatant violation of sovereignty by the United States could have detrimental ramifications well beyond any short-term benefit gained by killing al-Libi. And Mughniyeh’s assassination has incensed Hezbollah during a time of increased tension, raising the possibility of renewed conflict with Israel, a conflict that could easily spin out of control and spark an even larger regional conflict. While many tout such targeted killings as a critical element of any larger war on terror, the fact is such actions rarely succeed in facilitating an easing of terrorism, but rather accelerate and exacerbate the conditions that spawn it.</p>
<p />
<p>Radical Islamic fundamentalism of the sort that produces an Imad Mughniyeh is a nebulous entity lacking a central theme, cause, creed or motivating factor, save one: the lure of “martyrdom.” In most organizations, the elimination of a top leader would signal a setback, but the martyrdom of Mughniyeh simply motivates those who follow to stay the course. Those who wage jihad, or holy war, tend to view martyrdom not only as a risk worth taking but as a noble and just end in itself. As such, operations that kill jihadists like Mughniyeh, when viewed in isolation, are self-defeating. And if a policy countering the work of jihadists consists of little more than stringing together targeted assassinations, it is a policy doomed to fail.</p>
<p>The key to winning the so-called global war on terror hinges not on our ability to kill terrorists but rather our ability to create conditions that stop producing terrorists. History will show that the assassination of Mughniyeh produced far more terrorists, and far more terrorism, than if he had been left to live. Left to live, however, does not mean left alone. Any policy direction that de-emphasizes violence must articulate some sort of counter to the lure of jihad. There must be a policy of jihad de-legitimization. Unfortunately, the policies of the United States and Israel, in reacting to terror, have done more to legitimize jihad and the resultant acts of terror than anything else. An assassination not only energizes the base of a terrorist organization but, in the case of Mughniyeh, rallies to the cause of Hezbollah the fractured constituencies of global terror, the nebulous mafia of “radical Islamic fundamentalism” ignorantly referred to in certain circles as Islamofascism, that otherwise would have remained neutral or even in opposition.</p>
<p>Contrary to the statements of President George W. Bush and members of his administration, there is no global nexus of radical Islamic terror. There is a growing number of Islamic groups and organizations whose actions have become increasingly radicalized in the past decades, some of which have assumed tactics and methods that can be classified as terrorism. There will be those who will point out that Mughniyeh was in Damascus ostensibly to meet with <a href="http://www.cfr.org/publication/8968/#1%20" type="external">Hamas</a> leaders about a coordinated strategy for dealing with Israel and say that this, in fact, proves that Hezbollah and Hamas are working the same agenda. These same people will note that past statements made by senior al-Qaida figures, including Osama bin Laden, have praised the work of Hamas, and will conclude that Hamas and al-Qaida are working the same agenda. And some will note that bin Laden himself at one time opened a training camp for Shiite jihadists, thereby theoretically bringing Hezbollah and its Iranian masters (both exclusively Shiite entities) into line with al-Qaida (an exclusively Sunni establishment). But to claim that Hezbollah is Hamas, that Hamas is al-Qaida, and that al-Qaida is Hezbollah is wrong.Assessments of this sort put forth by the Bush administration and others fly in the face of reality and fact. Coordination between <a href="http://hnn.us/articles/934.html%20" type="external">Sunni and Shiite</a> is anathema for most Sunni fundamentalists, who view the Shiites as apostates; al-Qaida training literature places the Shiite as the second-greatest enemy of Islam, behind Sunni heretics, and ahead of Israel and the United States. Iran nearly fought a war with the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies in 1999, following the Taliban’s massacre of thousands of Shiite <a href="http://www.afghan-network.net/Ethnic-Groups/hazaras.html%20" type="external">Hazara</a> in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, along with several Iranian diplomats and their families. Many of the more extreme elements within al-Qaida are known as “taqfiris,” or those who believe in the repudiation and elimination from Islam of all impure elements. To them, the Shiites are among the most impure. The natural inclination between Shiite and Sunni, especially at the level of fundamentalists, is to oppose one another, more often than not violently. The concept of a “nexus of terror” naturally linking these two forces together is difficult to imagine, let alone document. It would take a compelling cause for any such linkage to be formed, directly or indirectly. Such a cause exists, and it can be defined by one word: Palestine.</p>
<p>The cause of Palestine is not a natural rallying point for most Sunni fundamentalists associated with al-Qaida. For all the language of global jihad, most Sunni fundamentalists are in fact quite parochial, focused primarily on “cleansing” Islam only insofar as it impacts them personally. Thus, an Egyptian member of the Muslim Brotherhood is almost exclusively focused on ridding Egypt of “heretics” such as President Hosni Mubarak, and not supporting global jihad or the Palestinian cause. Similarly, Sunni fundamentalists in Afghanistan are more concerned with establishing Islamic purity in their respective areas than they are with exporting Islam abroad. While there are those elements of Sunni Islamic fundamentalism that do in fact espouse global jihad, they are very much in the minority and, more critically, isolated from any traditional foundation of support. Stateless, these extremists are prone to being isolated from the rest of Islam due to a combination of conditions — their inability to bond with the natural fabric of Islamic society (family, tribe and nation), and the violence of their actions, which are rejected by nearly the entire Islamic world. These stateless jihadists are in fact little more than parasites, and they require a host cause from which they can nourish. Palestine represents such a cause.</p>
<p>One of bin Laden’s overarching objectives was to get the United States to commit to a course of action that pitted it in a life-and-death struggle with Islam. The horrific attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were intended to accomplish this, but in fact backfired when the majority of Islam expressed revulsion at the murder of thousands of innocents. It took the invasion of Iraq by the United States to breathe life into bin Laden’s dream. Afghanistan today remains a remote battleground in the “global war on terror,” with American forces engaged in little more than a fruitless manhunt amid the backdrop of an internal struggle for power within Afghanistan and Pakistan. The American invasion of Iraq created the spectacle of a Christian nation invading and occupying, in brutal fashion, a Muslim people (albeit ruled by a secular dictator). But even this horrific blunder by the United States, left in isolation, was not enough to inspire a universal condemnation by the Islamic world, if for no other reason than that the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein was viewed by most Muslim nations as an embarrassment. The resistance to the American occupation of Iraq comes almost exclusively from Iraqi sources, with foreign jihadists comprising a distinct minority used more as disposable munitions (i.e., suicide bombers) than a philosophical center of gravity. But what the American invasion of Iraq did accomplish, coupled with the ongoing occupation of Afghanistan, was to create the impression of a larger struggle between the West and Islam that has come to be defined by a separate ongoing occupation, carried out by an American ally viewed by many in the Muslim world as more U.S. proxy than U.S. friend. The occupier in this case is Israel, with Palestine being the occupied territory. Since 9/11 didn’t capture the imagination of the Muslim world, and Afghanistan and Iraq couldn’t hold the attention of the Muslim world, bin Laden and his circle of followers have opportunistically picked up on Palestine as the issue of the moment. Unlike 9/11 and Iraq, it’s an issue that sticks.</p>
<p>Hamas rejects any effort to label its movement as extremist, and, though it is a religious organization, it has vociferously rebuffed all efforts undertaken by al-Qaida to piggyback the cause of global jihad onto the matter of a Palestinian homeland. Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal has repeatedly underscored that his group’s mission is to secure a Palestinian homeland and that its military struggle will never expand beyond confronting Israel inside Israel or in the occupied territories. While Hamas has no global agenda, it has attracted the attention of Islamist elements around the world beyond the parasitic opportunism of al-Qaida, including Hezbollah, the parent organization of Imad Mughniyeh.</p>
<p>Hezbollah began as a radical outgrowth of the Lebanese Shiite militia group known as Amal. In 1979, following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, radical elements of the newly formed Iranian Revolutionary Guard Command traveled to Lebanon in an effort to export the concept of Islamic revolution. Many of these Iranians took Lebanese wives and became an integral part of the Shiites of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. The call for Islamic revolution did not catch on, however, and many of the original cadres of Revolutionary Guards were transferred back to Iran when Iraq invaded. The Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon in 1982 dramatically altered the political landscape among the Shiites. The Iranians rushed reinforcements to Lebanon to support their Amal allies, until nearly 1,500 Revolutionary Guards were deployed. These forces helped fight the Israeli army to a standstill, and became a critical part of the resistance movement that grew inside Lebanon. Mughniyeh came into prominence during this time, serving as a senior leader of a group known as Islamic Jihad. Under his direction, some 35 suicide attacks were launched against the forces of those nations seen as occupiers of Lebanon, including Israel and, later, the United States and France. By 1985, differences in the direction of resistance to the ongoing Israeli occupation had created a split within the Shiites of southern Lebanon, with the mainstream Amal militia taking a more moderate approach and a more radical wing of Amal, backed by the Revolutionary Guard, advocating a more aggressive stance. The radicals split from Amal in 1985 and created their own organization, known as the Party of God, or Hezbollah. Although Lebanese, Hezbollah, as a Shiite-based religious organization, recognized the supreme leader of Iran as its highest political authority and looked to Tehran for final approval of most major decisions. With the death of the <a href="http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/khomeini.html%20" type="external">Ayatollah Khomeini</a> in 1989, Hezbollah increasingly assumed a more independent posture, although it remained strongly influenced by Iran. Hezbollah had an almost singular focus on achieving the liberation of Lebanon from Israeli occupation, a goal it was surprisingly able to achieve in 2000 through tenacity and the force of arms.</p>
<p>Links between Hezbollah and Hamas were for all intents and purposes nonexistent before 2002. When Israeli forces raided the West Bank and detained Marwan Barghouti, a prominent Palestinian figure, Hezbollah head Hasan Nasrullah expressed his support of Palestinian resistance to an Israeli occupation of Palestine, which he felt paralleled the Israeli occupation of Lebanon. Barghouti headed a wing of the PLO known as Tanzim. Tanzim had become a very effective and violent movement resisting Israel and was gradually drifting away from embracing what it viewed as the more accommodating policies of the PLO and toward the more active resistance embraced by Hamas. When Israel assassinated the former head of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, in 2004, Nasrullah publicly declared the forces of Hezbollah to be at the disposal of Hamas.</p>
<p>But Hamas continues to maintain that it will limit its actions to the immediate theater of action in Israel and the occupied territories, and Hezbollah maintains that its military operations will be limited to protecting Lebanon from outside aggression and Israeli occupation. In 2004, the same year he promised support for Hamas, Nasrullah declared that any solution to the Palestinian problem that was acceptable to the Palestinians would be acceptable to Hezbollah. Far from embracing Osama bin Laden’s parasitic cry for global jihad in defense of Palestine, both Hamas and Hezbollah recognized the reality of Israel as a nation-state and were willing to deal with Israel within the context of the pre-1967 borders and respect for the rights of Palestinians. This posture seemed to be embraced by Hezbollah’s Iranian sponsors as well, insofar as a 2003 diplomatic outreach from Iran to the United States indicated both a willingness to respect Israel’s legitimate right to exist as a nation-state and a promise to help rein in the actions of Hezbollah and Hamas.</p>
<p>The rejection by the Bush administration of the 2003 Iranian initiative, Israel’s disastrous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict%20" type="external">34-day war with Hezbollah</a> in the summer of 2006 and Israel’s virtual declaration of war against Hamas have combined to negatively influenced the situation vis-à-vis Israel, Palestine, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran. The policies of the Bush administration — from opposing a cease-fire in Lebanon in 2006 while a thousand Lebanese civilians were being bombed to death by Israel and over a hundred Israelis, mostly soldiers, were being killed by Hezbollah, to promoting a confrontational policy centered on regime change with Iran — have only exacerbated an already difficult situation. The assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, which, despite denials, might have been a direct action undertaken by the Israeli Mossad, threatens to turn a volatile situation into an explosive one. If Hezbollah carries out its promise of retaliation against Israel, the northern border of Israel could again explode in violence that, this time, might extend all the way to Iran, drawing in the U.S. military as well. The end result would be further radicalization of forces like Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as Iran, and the creation of a casus belli for radical Islamic fundamentalists worldwide, many of whom will be drawn in by the opportunistic calls for jihad issued by bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders; in short, a victory for radical Islamic fundamentalism.</p>
<p>This is a fight that didn’t need to happen, and should never have been allowed to develop in this manner. Whatever Mughniyeh had done in the past, the fact is that for more than a decade this “world’s most dangerous man” had been contained by the passage of time. The events that created a Mughniyeh in Lebanon were no longer in play, and his role in the greater scheme of things had been significantly reduced. Simply put, Mughniyeh was no longer a key player for Hezbollah or any other group, and was fully subject to being contained by those elements that favored moderation and diplomacy over extremism and violence. Now he is dead, and there is the great possibility of even more violence being done in the name of a man who was, for the most part, a vestige of times gone by, and no longer relevant.</p>
<p>This is the Mughniyeh Enigma. Do we hold on to the events of the past, seeking to avenge all wrongs regardless of the consequences? Did Mughniyeh deserve to be brought to justice? Yes. Was justice served by assassinating him? No. The only thing accomplished was a simple act of revenge that no court of law would recognize as justice. If the issue of greater good, especially within the context of the “global war on terror,” is considered, it becomes clear that by far the greater good would have been served by letting Mughniyeh be and allowing his enemies to focus on the issue that exacerbates all efforts to quash radical Islamic extremism, whether it is derived from a parasitic organization like al-Qaida or from regional resistance-oriented groups like Hamas and Hezbollah: Palestine. Resolving the Palestinian issue would not cure all that ails the Middle East. But it would go a long way in restoring a sense of stability, a foundation of peace upon which any lasting agreement between Israel and its neighbors, or for that matter the United States and the Middle East, might be built.</p> | true | 4 | imad mughniyeh dead killed feb 12 car bomb attack carried yet unidentified assailants damascus suburb mughniyeh lebanese head hezbollahs jihad council responsible external operations organizations military wing 48 years old since coming prominence bloody years lebanons civil war 197679 mughniyeh built résumé operations depending ones perspective established either one worlds foremost terrorists freedom fighters outside lebanon syria iran regard anything terrorist alleged carried numerous attacks united states killing hundreds former marine loss 241 fellow servicemen majority marines attack beirut barracks attributed mughniyeh forever cement mind mortal enemy mughniyeh deserved got opinion matter debate one lives sword expect perish fashion mughniyeh alleged mastermind number horrific attacks killed hundreds people military civilian alike actions acknowledged support hijacking twa flight 847 1985 resulted murder us navy diver robert stethem alleged attacks bombing israeli embassy buenos aires 1992 bombing jewish cultural center argentina two years later denied hezbollah recently hezbollah acknowledged mughniyeh played significant role summer 2006 border war israel conflict initiated attack probably masterminded attack eight israeli soldiers killed two others abducted doubt mughniyeh personally responsible number attacks acknowledged today mughniyeh lies dead buried land continues torn asunder largely actions men like yet anyone thinks mughniyehs demise somehow improves overall situation middle east sadly mistaken hezbollah appointed successor light hezbollahs extensive experience depth whoever taken reins slain mughniyeh doubt possess similar nefarious tenacity imagination whoever replaces successor perishes killing alqaidas purported 3 abu laith allibi pakistan jan 29 missileequipped cia unmanned drone impact taking one individual minimized entire structure organization individual served remains intact cause organization eyes support remains indeed mughniyeh allibi operations violent removal individual isolation often harm good since inflames tensions undermines progress toward lasting resolution underlying problem case allibi cia attack conducted unilaterally pakistani airspace without permission pakistani government blatant violation sovereignty united states could detrimental ramifications well beyond shortterm benefit gained killing allibi mughniyehs assassination incensed hezbollah time increased tension raising possibility renewed conflict israel conflict could easily spin control spark even larger regional conflict many tout targeted killings critical element larger war terror fact actions rarely succeed facilitating easing terrorism rather accelerate exacerbate conditions spawn radical islamic fundamentalism sort produces imad mughniyeh nebulous entity lacking central theme cause creed motivating factor save one lure martyrdom organizations elimination top leader would signal setback martyrdom mughniyeh simply motivates follow stay course wage jihad holy war tend view martyrdom risk worth taking noble end operations kill jihadists like mughniyeh viewed isolation selfdefeating policy countering work jihadists consists little stringing together targeted assassinations policy doomed fail key winning socalled global war terror hinges ability kill terrorists rather ability create conditions stop producing terrorists history show assassination mughniyeh produced far terrorists far terrorism left live left live however mean left alone policy direction deemphasizes violence must articulate sort counter lure jihad must policy jihad delegitimization unfortunately policies united states israel reacting terror done legitimize jihad resultant acts terror anything else assassination energizes base terrorist organization case mughniyeh rallies cause hezbollah fractured constituencies global terror nebulous mafia radical islamic fundamentalism ignorantly referred certain circles islamofascism otherwise would remained neutral even opposition contrary statements president george w bush members administration global nexus radical islamic terror growing number islamic groups organizations whose actions become increasingly radicalized past decades assumed tactics methods classified terrorism point mughniyeh damascus ostensibly meet hamas leaders coordinated strategy dealing israel say fact proves hezbollah hamas working agenda people note past statements made senior alqaida figures including osama bin laden praised work hamas conclude hamas alqaida working agenda note bin laden one time opened training camp shiite jihadists thereby theoretically bringing hezbollah iranian masters exclusively shiite entities line alqaida exclusively sunni establishment claim hezbollah hamas hamas alqaida alqaida hezbollah wrongassessments sort put forth bush administration others fly face reality fact coordination sunni shiite anathema sunni fundamentalists view shiites apostates alqaida training literature places shiite secondgreatest enemy islam behind sunni heretics ahead israel united states iran nearly fought war taliban alqaida allies 1999 following talibans massacre thousands shiite hazara mazarisharif afghanistan along several iranian diplomats families many extreme elements within alqaida known taqfiris believe repudiation elimination islam impure elements shiites among impure natural inclination shiite sunni especially level fundamentalists oppose one another often violently concept nexus terror naturally linking two forces together difficult imagine let alone document would take compelling cause linkage formed directly indirectly cause exists defined one word palestine cause palestine natural rallying point sunni fundamentalists associated alqaida language global jihad sunni fundamentalists fact quite parochial focused primarily cleansing islam insofar impacts personally thus egyptian member muslim brotherhood almost exclusively focused ridding egypt heretics president hosni mubarak supporting global jihad palestinian cause similarly sunni fundamentalists afghanistan concerned establishing islamic purity respective areas exporting islam abroad elements sunni islamic fundamentalism fact espouse global jihad much minority critically isolated traditional foundation support stateless extremists prone isolated rest islam due combination conditions inability bond natural fabric islamic society family tribe nation violence actions rejected nearly entire islamic world stateless jihadists fact little parasites require host cause nourish palestine represents cause one bin ladens overarching objectives get united states commit course action pitted lifeanddeath struggle islam horrific attacks sept 11 2001 intended accomplish fact backfired majority islam expressed revulsion murder thousands innocents took invasion iraq united states breathe life bin ladens dream afghanistan today remains remote battleground global war terror american forces engaged little fruitless manhunt amid backdrop internal struggle power within afghanistan pakistan american invasion iraq created spectacle christian nation invading occupying brutal fashion muslim people albeit ruled secular dictator even horrific blunder united states left isolation enough inspire universal condemnation islamic world reason iraqi regime saddam hussein viewed muslim nations embarrassment resistance american occupation iraq comes almost exclusively iraqi sources foreign jihadists comprising distinct minority used disposable munitions ie suicide bombers philosophical center gravity american invasion iraq accomplish coupled ongoing occupation afghanistan create impression larger struggle west islam come defined separate ongoing occupation carried american ally viewed many muslim world us proxy us friend occupier case israel palestine occupied territory since 911 didnt capture imagination muslim world afghanistan iraq couldnt hold attention muslim world bin laden circle followers opportunistically picked palestine issue moment unlike 911 iraq issue sticks hamas rejects effort label movement extremist though religious organization vociferously rebuffed efforts undertaken alqaida piggyback cause global jihad onto matter palestinian homeland hamas chief khaled meshaal repeatedly underscored groups mission secure palestinian homeland military struggle never expand beyond confronting israel inside israel occupied territories hamas global agenda attracted attention islamist elements around world beyond parasitic opportunism alqaida including hezbollah parent organization imad mughniyeh hezbollah began radical outgrowth lebanese shiite militia group known amal 1979 following islamic revolution iran radical elements newly formed iranian revolutionary guard command traveled lebanon effort export concept islamic revolution many iranians took lebanese wives became integral part shiites southern lebanon bekaa valley call islamic revolution catch however many original cadres revolutionary guards transferred back iran iraq invaded israeli invasion occupation southern lebanon 1982 dramatically altered political landscape among shiites iranians rushed reinforcements lebanon support amal allies nearly 1500 revolutionary guards deployed forces helped fight israeli army standstill became critical part resistance movement grew inside lebanon mughniyeh came prominence time serving senior leader group known islamic jihad direction 35 suicide attacks launched forces nations seen occupiers lebanon including israel later united states france 1985 differences direction resistance ongoing israeli occupation created split within shiites southern lebanon mainstream amal militia taking moderate approach radical wing amal backed revolutionary guard advocating aggressive stance radicals split amal 1985 created organization known party god hezbollah although lebanese hezbollah shiitebased religious organization recognized supreme leader iran highest political authority looked tehran final approval major decisions death ayatollah khomeini 1989 hezbollah increasingly assumed independent posture although remained strongly influenced iran hezbollah almost singular focus achieving liberation lebanon israeli occupation goal surprisingly able achieve 2000 tenacity force arms links hezbollah hamas intents purposes nonexistent 2002 israeli forces raided west bank detained marwan barghouti prominent palestinian figure hezbollah head hasan nasrullah expressed support palestinian resistance israeli occupation palestine felt paralleled israeli occupation lebanon barghouti headed wing plo known tanzim tanzim become effective violent movement resisting israel gradually drifting away embracing viewed accommodating policies plo toward active resistance embraced hamas israel assassinated former head hamas sheikh ahmad yassin 2004 nasrullah publicly declared forces hezbollah disposal hamas hamas continues maintain limit actions immediate theater action israel occupied territories hezbollah maintains military operations limited protecting lebanon outside aggression israeli occupation 2004 year promised support hamas nasrullah declared solution palestinian problem acceptable palestinians would acceptable hezbollah far embracing osama bin ladens parasitic cry global jihad defense palestine hamas hezbollah recognized reality israel nationstate willing deal israel within context pre1967 borders respect rights palestinians posture seemed embraced hezbollahs iranian sponsors well insofar 2003 diplomatic outreach iran united states indicated willingness respect israels legitimate right exist nationstate promise help rein actions hezbollah hamas rejection bush administration 2003 iranian initiative israels disastrous 34day war hezbollah summer 2006 israels virtual declaration war hamas combined negatively influenced situation visàvis israel palestine hamas hezbollah iran policies bush administration opposing ceasefire lebanon 2006 thousand lebanese civilians bombed death israel hundred israelis mostly soldiers killed hezbollah promoting confrontational policy centered regime change iran exacerbated already difficult situation assassination imad mughniyeh despite denials might direct action undertaken israeli mossad threatens turn volatile situation explosive one hezbollah carries promise retaliation israel northern border israel could explode violence time might extend way iran drawing us military well end result would radicalization forces like hamas hezbollah well iran creation casus belli radical islamic fundamentalists worldwide many drawn opportunistic calls jihad issued bin laden alqaida leaders short victory radical islamic fundamentalism fight didnt need happen never allowed develop manner whatever mughniyeh done past fact decade worlds dangerous man contained passage time events created mughniyeh lebanon longer play role greater scheme things significantly reduced simply put mughniyeh longer key player hezbollah group fully subject contained elements favored moderation diplomacy extremism violence dead great possibility even violence done name man part vestige times gone longer relevant mughniyeh enigma hold events past seeking avenge wrongs regardless consequences mughniyeh deserve brought justice yes justice served assassinating thing accomplished simple act revenge court law would recognize justice issue greater good especially within context global war terror considered becomes clear far greater good would served letting mughniyeh allowing enemies focus issue exacerbates efforts quash radical islamic extremism whether derived parasitic organization like alqaida regional resistanceoriented groups like hamas hezbollah palestine resolving palestinian issue would cure ails middle east would go long way restoring sense stability foundation peace upon lasting agreement israel neighbors matter united states middle east might built | 1,745 |
<p>“Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.”</p>
<p>–Karl Marx</p>
<p>If Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin were alive today, they would be leading contenders for the Nobel Prize in economics.</p>
<p>Marx predicted the growing misery of working people, and Lenin foresaw the subordination of the production of goods to financial capital’s accumulation of profits based on the purchase and sale of paper instruments. Their predictions are far superior to the “risk models” for which the Nobel Prize has been given and are closer to the money than the predictions of Federal Reserve chairmen, US Treasury secretaries, and Nobel economists, such as Paul Krugman, who believe that more credit and more debt are the solution to the economic crisis.</p>
<p>In this first decade of the 21st century there has been no increase in the real incomes of working Americans. There has been a sharp decline in their wealth. In the 21st century Americans have suffered two major stock market crashes and the destruction of their real estate wealth.</p>
<p>Some studies have concluded that the real incomes of Americans, except for the financial oligarchy of the super rich, are less today than in the 1980s and even the 1970s. I have not examined these studies of family income to determine whether they are biased by the rise in divorce and percentage of single parent households. However, for the last decade it is clear that real take-home pay has declined.</p>
<p>The main cause of this decline is the offshoring of US high value-added jobs. Both manufacturing jobs and professional services, such as software engineering and information technology work, have been relocated in countries with large and cheap labor forces.</p>
<p>The wipeout of middle class jobs was disguised by the growth in consumer debt. As Americans’ incomes ceased to grow, consumer debt expanded to take the place of income growth and to keep consumer demand rising. Unlike rises in consumer incomes due to productivity growth, there is a limit to debt expansion. When that limit is reached, the economy ceases to grow.</p>
<p>The immiseration of working people has not resulted from worsening crises of over-production of goods and services, but from financial capital’s power to force the relocation of production for domestic markets to foreign shores. Wall Street’s pressures, including pressures from takeovers, forced American manufacturing firms to “increase shareholders’ earnings.” This was done by substituting cheap foreign labor for American labor.</p>
<p>Corporations offshored or outsourced abroad their manufacturing output, thus divorcing American incomes from the production of the goods that they consume. The next step in the process took advantage of the high speed Internet to move professional service jobs, such as engineering, abroad. The third step was to replace the remains of the domestic work force with foreigners brought in at one-third the salary on H-1B, L-1, and other work visas.</p>
<p>This process by which financial capital destroyed the job prospects of Americans was covered up by “free market” economists, who received grants from offshoring firms in exchange for propaganda that Americans would benefit from a “New Economy” based on financial services, and by shills in the education business, who justified work visas for foreigners on the basis of the lie that America produces a shortage of engineers and scientists.</p>
<p>In Marx’s day, religion was the opiate of the masses. Today the media is. Let’s look at media reporting that facilitates the financial oligarchy’s ability to delude the people.</p>
<p>The financial oligarchy is hyping a recovery while American unemployment and home foreclosures are rising. The hype owes its credibility to the high positions from which it comes, to the problems in payroll jobs reporting that overstate employment, and to disposal into the memory hole of any American unemployed for more than one year.</p>
<p>On October 2 statistician John Williams of shadowstats.com reported that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has announced a preliminary estimate of its annual benchmark revision of 2009 employment. The BLS has found that employment in 2009 has been overstated by about one million jobs. John Williams believes the overstatement is two million jobs. He reports that “the birth-death model currently adds [an illusory] net gain of about 900,00 jobs per year to payroll employment reporting.”</p>
<p>The non-farm payroll number is always the headline report. However, Williams believes that the household survey of unemployment is statistically sounder than the payroll survey. The BLS has never been able to reconcile the difference in the numbers in the two employment surveys. Last Friday, the headline payroll number of lost jobs was 263,000 for the month of September. However the household survey number was 785,000 lost jobs in the month of September.</p>
<p>The headline unemployment rate of 9.8% is a bare bones measure that greatly understates unemployment. Government reporting agencies know this and report another unemployment number, known as U-6. This measure of US unemployment stands at 17% in September 2009.</p>
<p>When the long-term discouraged workers are added back into the total unemployed, the unemployment rate in September 2009 stands at 21.4%.</p>
<p>The unemployment of American citizens could actually be even higher. When Microsoft or some other firm replaces several thousand US workers with foreigners on H-1B visas, Microsoft does not report a decline in payroll employment. Nevertheless, several thousand Americans are now without jobs. Multiply this by the number of US firms that are relying on “body shops” to replace their US work force with cheap foreign labor year after year, and the result is hundreds of thousands of unreported unemployed Americans.</p>
<p>Obviously, with more than one-fifth of the American work force unemployed and the remainder buried in mortgage and credit card debt, economic recovery is not in the picture.</p>
<p>What is happening is that the hundreds of billions of dollars in TARP money given to the large banks and the trillions of dollars that have been added to the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet have been funneled into the stock market, producing another bubble, and into the acquisition of smaller banks by banks “too large to fail.” The result is more financial concentration.</p>
<p>The expansion in debt that underlies this bubble has further eroded the US dollar’s credibility as reserve currency. When the dollar starts to go, panicked policy-makers will raise interest rates in order to protect the US Treasury’s borrowing capability. When the interest rates rise, what little remains of the US economy will tank.</p>
<p>If the government cannot borrow, it will print money to pay its bills. Hyperinflation will hit the American population. Massive unemployment and massive inflation will inflict upon the American people misery that not even Marx and Lenin could envisage.</p>
<p>Meanwhile America’s economists continue to pretend that they are dealing with a normal postwar recession that merely requires an expansion of money and credit to restore economic growth.</p>
<p>PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of <a href="" type="internal">The Tyranny of Good Intentions.</a>He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | capital dead labor vampirelike lives sucking living labor lives labor sucks karl marx karl marx v lenin alive today would leading contenders nobel prize economics marx predicted growing misery working people lenin foresaw subordination production goods financial capitals accumulation profits based purchase sale paper instruments predictions far superior risk models nobel prize given closer money predictions federal reserve chairmen us treasury secretaries nobel economists paul krugman believe credit debt solution economic crisis first decade 21st century increase real incomes working americans sharp decline wealth 21st century americans suffered two major stock market crashes destruction real estate wealth studies concluded real incomes americans except financial oligarchy super rich less today 1980s even 1970s examined studies family income determine whether biased rise divorce percentage single parent households however last decade clear real takehome pay declined main cause decline offshoring us high valueadded jobs manufacturing jobs professional services software engineering information technology work relocated countries large cheap labor forces wipeout middle class jobs disguised growth consumer debt americans incomes ceased grow consumer debt expanded take place income growth keep consumer demand rising unlike rises consumer incomes due productivity growth limit debt expansion limit reached economy ceases grow immiseration working people resulted worsening crises overproduction goods services financial capitals power force relocation production domestic markets foreign shores wall streets pressures including pressures takeovers forced american manufacturing firms increase shareholders earnings done substituting cheap foreign labor american labor corporations offshored outsourced abroad manufacturing output thus divorcing american incomes production goods consume next step process took advantage high speed internet move professional service jobs engineering abroad third step replace remains domestic work force foreigners brought onethird salary h1b l1 work visas process financial capital destroyed job prospects americans covered free market economists received grants offshoring firms exchange propaganda americans would benefit new economy based financial services shills education business justified work visas foreigners basis lie america produces shortage engineers scientists marxs day religion opiate masses today media lets look media reporting facilitates financial oligarchys ability delude people financial oligarchy hyping recovery american unemployment home foreclosures rising hype owes credibility high positions comes problems payroll jobs reporting overstate employment disposal memory hole american unemployed one year october 2 statistician john williams shadowstatscom reported bureau labor statistics announced preliminary estimate annual benchmark revision 2009 employment bls found employment 2009 overstated one million jobs john williams believes overstatement two million jobs reports birthdeath model currently adds illusory net gain 90000 jobs per year payroll employment reporting nonfarm payroll number always headline report however williams believes household survey unemployment statistically sounder payroll survey bls never able reconcile difference numbers two employment surveys last friday headline payroll number lost jobs 263000 month september however household survey number 785000 lost jobs month september headline unemployment rate 98 bare bones measure greatly understates unemployment government reporting agencies know report another unemployment number known u6 measure us unemployment stands 17 september 2009 longterm discouraged workers added back total unemployed unemployment rate september 2009 stands 214 unemployment american citizens could actually even higher microsoft firm replaces several thousand us workers foreigners h1b visas microsoft report decline payroll employment nevertheless several thousand americans without jobs multiply number us firms relying body shops replace us work force cheap foreign labor year year result hundreds thousands unreported unemployed americans obviously onefifth american work force unemployed remainder buried mortgage credit card debt economic recovery picture happening hundreds billions dollars tarp money given large banks trillions dollars added federal reserves balance sheet funneled stock market producing another bubble acquisition smaller banks banks large fail result financial concentration expansion debt underlies bubble eroded us dollars credibility reserve currency dollar starts go panicked policymakers raise interest rates order protect us treasurys borrowing capability interest rates rise little remains us economy tank government borrow print money pay bills hyperinflation hit american population massive unemployment massive inflation inflict upon american people misery even marx lenin could envisage meanwhile americas economists continue pretend dealing normal postwar recession merely requires expansion money credit restore economic growth paul craig roberts assistant secretary treasury reagan administration coauthor tyranny good intentionshe reached paulcraigrobertsyahoocom 160 160 | 676 |
<p>Illustration: Mark Matcho</p>
<p />
<p>On the afternoon of September 24, 2009, Pennsylvania State Troopers, their guns drawn, broke down the door of room 238 of the CareFree Inn on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. The troopers were acting on a search warrant related to protests planned for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_G-20_Pittsburgh_summit" type="external">G20 summit</a>—a meeting of the heads of state of the world’s major economies. Thousands of protesters had descended on the city, presenting demands ranging from curbs on carbon emissions to the outright abolition of capitalism.</p>
<p>Anticipating hordes of black-masked, Starbucks-smashing anarchists, the Pittsburgh police and the Secret Service coordinated nearly 4,000 law enforcement officers, outfitting them with the latest in riot-dispersal technology. Crowds marching on the summit were met with pepper spray, stun grenades, and—for the first time on US soil— <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSMyY3_dmrM" type="external">acoustic cannons</a> that blast painful sounds as far as 1,000 feet. But the protesters had their own crowd-control methods, and that’s what had brought the state troopers to the CareFree Inn.</p>
<p>What they found when they broke down the door were a couple of middle-aged housemates from Queens, New York. Elliott Madison sat at a desk with a laptop and a cell phone. A police scanner lay nearby. Michael Wallschlaeger was at the minifridge grabbing some hummus when the police rushed in. According to the criminal complaint filed against them, the two men had been “communicating with various protestors, and protest groups…[via] internet based communications, more commonly known as ‘Twitter’. The observed ‘Twitter’ communications were noted to be relevant to the direction of the movement of the Protestors…in order to avoid apprehension…”</p>
<p>Madison and Wallschlaeger were part of <a href="http://tincancomms.wordpress.com/" type="external">Tin Can Comms Collective</a>, a “collection of communication rebels” made up of several individuals in various locations across Pittsburgh. Madison’s job was to verify information being sent in and then relay that to legal observers, street medics, and other organizers who could in turn tweet the information to the masses in the streets.</p>
<p>The raid occurred just as the protests were starting, but even as Madison and Wallschlaeger were arrested, the information flowed from the other tweeters without a blip. “A comms facility was raided, but we are still fully operational please continue to submit reports” stated <a href="http://twitter.com/G20pgh" type="external">one subsequent tweet</a>.</p>
<p>The real-time updates were available to anyone who followed the feed, allowing protesters to see the theater of operations and add information to the picture. It was as if the demonstrators had gotten their own helicopter. Tin Can Comms sent out <a href="http://twitter.com/G20pgh" type="external">messages</a> such as “SWAT teams rolling down 5th Ave towards Schenley” and “40 cops, w/ bus, headed towards friendship park.” The police knew they were being outflanked, but could do little against a decentralized foe: “SCANNER JUST SAID: BE ADVISED WE’RE BEING MONITORED BY ANARCHISTS THROUGH SCANNER,” noted one Tin Can tweet.</p>
<p>Madison and Wallschlaeger were charged with “criminal use of a communication facility,” “possessing instruments of crime,” and “hindering apprehension”—two felony counts and one misdemeanor.</p>
<p>With his long ponytail and goatee, Madison looks younger than his 42 years. A full-time social worker and self-proclaimed anarchist, he has long played support roles in protest movements, most often as a legal observer or a communications coordinator. He has no criminal record, but nevertheless had to post $30,000 in bail. Wallschlaeger, a 46-year-old host of a radio show called “ <a href="http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/35839" type="external">This Week in Radical History</a>,” had to post $5,000.</p>
<p>Madison calls the arrest an attempt to “stifle dissent” and says his actions were “perfectly legal.” His lawyer, Martin Stolar, calls them “absolutely protected speech.” Madison also points out the irony that last June the State Department asked Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance so as not to interrupt Iranian protesters tweeting from the barricades.</p>
<p>Tehran and Pittsburgh were not the first time social networking and mass texts were used to support a large-scale protest: At the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, thousands of protesters were organized by a mass-messaging <a href="http://web.media.mit.edu/~tad/pub/txtmob_chi05.pdf" type="external">program called TXTmob</a> (pdf). This proved the new tools’ usefulness to both activists and police, and they adjusted their strategies accordingly. TXTmob is even credited as one of the programs that inspired Twitter’s inventors.</p>
<p>In Pittsburgh, the protesters’ Twitter stream continued through the end of the G20 summit, with noticeable results. By the time the tear gas cleared, only around 190 arrests had been made, far fewer than at previous protests in Seattle and New York. The media soon forgot about the story—but for the two arrestees, an ordeal that Madison describes as “Kafkaesque” was only beginning.</p>
<p>At around six in the morning a week after Madison and Wallschlaeger posted bail, a dozen NYPD officers and FBI agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) broke down the front and back doors of Madison’s home in Queens. Guns drawn, they smashed in bedroom doors, and Madison, Wallschlaeger, their housemates, and a guest were left handcuffed on a couch. With helicopters circling overhead, agents searched the house for 16 hours. “I asked to see the search warrant,” says Madison, “and they basically said, ‘Fuck you, you’ll see it when we give it to you.'”</p>
<p>Court records show the FBI seized hundreds of items, including computers, hard drives, cameras, a World War I-era gas mask, “anarchy books,” even an antique needlepoint of Lenin made by Madison’s wife’s grandmother. Several issues of <a href="http://www.steampunkmagazine.com/" type="external">Steampunk Magazine</a>, where Madison writes under the pen name Professor Calamity, were also seized, as was a guide on poisons (which he says he uses in the writing of mystery novels), a Mao Tse-tung refrigerator magnet, and several Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVDs. A poster in the living room of anarchist philosopher <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin" type="external">Mikhail Bakunin</a> was left alone; “I guess they didn’t know who he was,” says Madison. At one point a hazmat team in full protective gear was brought in to investigate a jar of kombucha tea fermenting in the basement. Madison claims a JTTF agent shook his head and said, “You guys are just a bunch of hippies!”</p>
<p>The raid seemed to have an aimless quality. Madison was handed a ticket for a packet of fireworks, and an agent who put his hand into a suspected bag of marijuana discovered, painfully, that it was dried stinging nettles, used in homeopathy. “It was almost as if they thought, ‘If we take enough stuff, we’ll find something to charge them with,'” Madison says. When he was finally shown the cover sheet to the search warrant, it provided for the seizure of any items “designed or intended as a means of violating the federal rioting laws.”</p>
<p>The federal anti-riot statute— <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002101----000-.html" type="external">18 USC §2101</a>—makes it a felony to engage in interstate travel to “organize, promote, encourage, participate in, or carry on a riot.” The statute is almost never invoked, but was used to indict the Chicago 7 for their <a href="" type="internal">organizing activities</a> during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. That case was ultimately appealed and thrown out on other grounds, so the constitutionality of the anti-riot statute has never been challenged in the Supreme Court. Critics have long contended that it is vague, overbroad, and designed to suppress protest activity and free expression. Applied in the current context, “it starts to criminalize dissent, to conflate terrorism with demonstrations, and that’s a very, very dangerous notion,” says lawyer Stolar. “Essentially it’s prosecution for a thought crime.”</p>
<p>The fallout from the G20 protests has gotten curiouser and curiouser. In an unexpected move, the Pittsburgh charges against Madison and Wallschlaeger were summarily dismissed. A spokesman for the Allegheny County district attorney said that the defendants’ actions “may have been related to more expansive activities” and “that until further investigative activities by law enforcement agencies can be completed, it would be more prudent to have the current charges withdrawn.” Whatever the JTTF was up to, in other words, would remain secret, along with the sealed warrant that the Pennsylvania state troopers had used.</p>
<p>At around the same time, during an October hearing on the Queens raid, a prosecutor revealed that a federal grand jury had been convened to investigate protest activities. The affidavits containing the allegations that convinced a judge to approve the search of Madison’s house also remain sealed.</p>
<p>Federal and grand juries are conducted in utter secrecy and have enormous power. The old joke is that they can “indict a ham sandwich,” but if they turn up nothing, they can disappear with no public disclosure. Stolar doesn’t know of anyone who has been summoned, but given the course of events, “I would say they’re looking to go after what they consider to be hardcore demonstrators,” he says. “I have very little faith in government anyway,” says Madison, “but this is something I would have expected more under the Bush regime.” A spokesman for the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment on the investigation.</p>
<p>Madison and his housemates are trying to get on with their lives, not knowing when, or if, the other shoe will drop. “Nothing could ever happen and we’ll never know why,” says Madison, sitting in the living room of his Queens home, the broken lock on the front door still unrepaired. “We’re anarchists,” he adds, “but that’s not illegal, and it’s actually a good thing. We’re not ashamed of it. Part of the thing with the government is to make you feel not only afraid but also ashamed. That’s just not going to work with me.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | illustration mark matcho afternoon september 24 2009 pennsylvania state troopers guns drawn broke door room 238 carefree inn outskirts pittsburgh troopers acting search warrant related protests planned g20 summita meeting heads state worlds major economies thousands protesters descended city presenting demands ranging curbs carbon emissions outright abolition capitalism anticipating hordes blackmasked starbuckssmashing anarchists pittsburgh police secret service coordinated nearly 4000 law enforcement officers outfitting latest riotdispersal technology crowds marching summit met pepper spray stun grenades andfor first time us soil acoustic cannons blast painful sounds far 1000 feet protesters crowdcontrol methods thats brought state troopers carefree inn found broke door couple middleaged housemates queens new york elliott madison sat desk laptop cell phone police scanner lay nearby michael wallschlaeger minifridge grabbing hummus police rushed according criminal complaint filed two men communicating various protestors protest groupsvia internet based communications commonly known twitter observed twitter communications noted relevant direction movement protestorsin order avoid apprehension madison wallschlaeger part tin comms collective collection communication rebels made several individuals various locations across pittsburgh madisons job verify information sent relay legal observers street medics organizers could turn tweet information masses streets raid occurred protests starting even madison wallschlaeger arrested information flowed tweeters without blip comms facility raided still fully operational please continue submit reports stated one subsequent tweet realtime updates available anyone followed feed allowing protesters see theater operations add information picture demonstrators gotten helicopter tin comms sent messages swat teams rolling 5th ave towards schenley 40 cops w bus headed towards friendship park police knew outflanked could little decentralized foe scanner said advised monitored anarchists scanner noted one tin tweet madison wallschlaeger charged criminal use communication facility possessing instruments crime hindering apprehensiontwo felony counts one misdemeanor long ponytail goatee madison looks younger 42 years fulltime social worker selfproclaimed anarchist long played support roles protest movements often legal observer communications coordinator criminal record nevertheless post 30000 bail wallschlaeger 46yearold host radio show called week radical history post 5000 madison calls arrest attempt stifle dissent says actions perfectly legal lawyer martin stolar calls absolutely protected speech madison also points irony last june state department asked twitter delay scheduled maintenance interrupt iranian protesters tweeting barricades tehran pittsburgh first time social networking mass texts used support largescale protest 2004 republican national convention new york city thousands protesters organized massmessaging program called txtmob pdf proved new tools usefulness activists police adjusted strategies accordingly txtmob even credited one programs inspired twitters inventors pittsburgh protesters twitter stream continued end g20 summit noticeable results time tear gas cleared around 190 arrests made far fewer previous protests seattle new york media soon forgot storybut two arrestees ordeal madison describes kafkaesque beginning around six morning week madison wallschlaeger posted bail dozen nypd officers fbi agents joint terrorism task force jttf broke front back doors madisons home queens guns drawn smashed bedroom doors madison wallschlaeger housemates guest left handcuffed couch helicopters circling overhead agents searched house 16 hours asked see search warrant says madison basically said fuck youll see give court records show fbi seized hundreds items including computers hard drives cameras world war iera gas mask anarchy books even antique needlepoint lenin made madisons wifes grandmother several issues steampunk magazine madison writes pen name professor calamity also seized guide poisons says uses writing mystery novels mao tsetung refrigerator magnet several buffy vampire slayer dvds poster living room anarchist philosopher mikhail bakunin left alone guess didnt know says madison one point hazmat team full protective gear brought investigate jar kombucha tea fermenting basement madison claims jttf agent shook head said guys bunch hippies raid seemed aimless quality madison handed ticket packet fireworks agent put hand suspected bag marijuana discovered painfully dried stinging nettles used homeopathy almost thought take enough stuff well find something charge madison says finally shown cover sheet search warrant provided seizure items designed intended means violating federal rioting laws federal antiriot statute 18 usc 2101makes felony engage interstate travel organize promote encourage participate carry riot statute almost never invoked used indict chicago 7 organizing activities 1968 democratic national convention case ultimately appealed thrown grounds constitutionality antiriot statute never challenged supreme court critics long contended vague overbroad designed suppress protest activity free expression applied current context starts criminalize dissent conflate terrorism demonstrations thats dangerous notion says lawyer stolar essentially prosecution thought crime fallout g20 protests gotten curiouser curiouser unexpected move pittsburgh charges madison wallschlaeger summarily dismissed spokesman allegheny county district attorney said defendants actions may related expansive activities investigative activities law enforcement agencies completed would prudent current charges withdrawn whatever jttf words would remain secret along sealed warrant pennsylvania state troopers used around time october hearing queens raid prosecutor revealed federal grand jury convened investigate protest activities affidavits containing allegations convinced judge approve search madisons house also remain sealed federal grand juries conducted utter secrecy enormous power old joke indict ham sandwich turn nothing disappear public disclosure stolar doesnt know anyone summoned given course events would say theyre looking go consider hardcore demonstrators says little faith government anyway says madison something would expected bush regime spokesman us attorney eastern district new york declined comment investigation madison housemates trying get lives knowing shoe drop nothing could ever happen well never know says madison sitting living room queens home broken lock front door still unrepaired anarchists adds thats illegal actually good thing ashamed part thing government make feel afraid also ashamed thats going work | 888 |
<p />
<p>Article created by the <a href="" type="external">The Century Foundation</a>.</p>
<p>To quote Yogi Berra, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Many (including myself) expected that the bursting of the stock market and Internet bubbles in 2001 would cause a deep recession owing to large excesses of borrowing and spending by both the household and corporate sectors. Now we know that the recession of 2001 was fairly mild and of short duration, though the economic recovery has also been the weakest since World War II.</p>
<p>After having been wrong once, it’s either brave or foolish to make a second prediction that the next recession will be deep and difficult to escape. But the facts point to it being just that—despite the optimism of the Federal Reserve. This is because the economic factors that helped escape the last recession have been largely exhausted, and will not be available to fight the next recession.</p>
<p>The main reasons why the last recession was so relatively mild are the federal budget and interest rates. In fiscal year 2000 the federal government ran a budget surplus of $236 billion dollars, but within three years this had reversed to a deficit of $378 billion. The overall budgetary U-turn was therefore $614 billion dollars, equal to about six percent of economic output (gross domestic product). This turn provided an enormous injection of spending that helped prevent a deeper recession and jump start recovery.</p>
<p>The role of government spending in damping the recession and driving the recovery is evident in the employment statistics. From March 2001 (the beginning of the recession) to January 2006 government employment rose by 4.5 percent (one million jobs) to 21.9 million jobs. Over the same period, private-sector employment rose by just one percent. Government, which accounts for just 16 percent of total employment, created half of all new jobs in the four years after the recession ended. The private sector, which accounts for 84 percent of total employment, created the other half. Moreover, part of the increase in private-sector jobs involves government contract and defense-related work, so that the government’s overall job contribution was even larger. In effect, increased government employment has masked persistent private-sector weakness.</p>
<p>This fiscal stimulus was accompanied by an extraordinary extended period of monetary ease that kept interest rates at historical lows. In 2000, the year before the recession, the Federal Reserve’s target interest rate (the Federal funds rate) averaged 6.24 percent. When the recession began, the Fed cut this interest rate aggressively, lowering it to 1.67 percent in 2002 and 1.13 percent in 2003. Moreover, the Fed then held interest rates at historical lows three years after economic recovery had officially begun, so that the Federal funds rate was only 1.35 percent in 2004. Only since late 2004 has the Fed reversed itself and started systematically raising short-term interest rates.</p>
<p>There are three significant features about this monetary easing. First, it contributed importantly to warding off the recession and generating recovery. Second, the weakness of the private-sector recovery, despite the extraordinary scale of the fiscal and monetary stimulus, points to the underlying fragility of the private-sector economy. Third, the monetary easing has promoted massive consumer indebtedness and a housing price bubble, a combination that poses grave future threats.</p>
<p>The Fed’s lowering of interest rates to forty-year record lows served to spur the recovery. It inspired a mortgage re-financing boom, providing immediate relief to households who were able to spend their mortgage interest savings. Lower interest rates also made houses more affordable, triggering a house price bubble that contributed significantly to escaping the recession. Higher house prices increased homeowner equity, and many owners used this increased equity as collateral to borrow against.</p>
<p>Their borrowing then financed consumption, which significantly explains the consumer-spending boom. Higher house prices have also allowed some existing homeowners to cash out, and some have spent part of their windfall. Meanwhile, homebuyers have financed house purchases with loans, which has increased the money supply. Lastly, rising house home prices have also created enormous profit margins for builders, providing an incentive to build new homes and spurring a construction industry boom.</p>
<p>The problem now is that these special conditions are largely spent. The projected federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2006 is $423 billion, approximately 3.3 percent of national output. With the budget already in deficit, this leaves less room for the type of U-turn that occurred in the last recession.</p>
<p>With regard to interest rates, the federal funds rate now stands at 4.5 percent—so there is room to lower it. However, lowering it is likely to have far smaller effects than last time. Why?</p>
<p>Homeowners have already significantly refinanced so that the stock of high interest rate mortgages available for refinancing has been depleted. Consumers are borrowed to the hilt, leaving less access for further borrowing. House prices are already at all-time highs by every measure—so lower interest rates are unlikely to spur another price boom, with all its expansionary effects. Instead, house prices could actually start falling as new supply continues to come on to the market, and this effect could be amplified by recession-induced job losses that trigger mortgage defaults by workers losing their jobs. Taken together, these factors point to future interest rate reductions likely being akin to pushing on a string.</p>
<p>Adverse domestic economic conditions will also be echoed globally. The 2001 recession was business investment-led, with little consequence for China and East Asia. This is because those economies export consumer goods and the American consumer kept spending. However, a consumption spending-led recession will quickly spill over into East Asia, triggering job losses and a decline in investment spending in those economies. Consequently, a U.S. recession will quickly ricochet around the globe.</p>
<p>This is not about predicting when the next recession will happen, but rather about its character. The when game is impossible. As Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Samuelson once quipped, “Economists have correctly predicted nine of the last five recessions.” However, it is possible to anticipate future difficulties and prescribe possible remedies.</p>
<p>First, the Federal Reserve should be very careful about over-shooting with its rate hikes, and at this time it should take an inflation chill pill. Second, the current recovery has been extraordinarily weak, which should finally discredit the notion that tax cuts for the rich drive growth and job creation. Third, the speculative financial market paradigm—which has ruled the policy roost for twenty-five years—is out of gas. It is time for a new paradigm that links growth to rising wages rather than to asset price boom-bust cycles.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | article created century foundation quote yogi berra tough make predictions especially future many including expected bursting stock market internet bubbles 2001 would cause deep recession owing large excesses borrowing spending household corporate sectors know recession 2001 fairly mild short duration though economic recovery also weakest since world war ii wrong either brave foolish make second prediction next recession deep difficult escape facts point thatdespite optimism federal reserve economic factors helped escape last recession largely exhausted available fight next recession main reasons last recession relatively mild federal budget interest rates fiscal year 2000 federal government ran budget surplus 236 billion dollars within three years reversed deficit 378 billion overall budgetary uturn therefore 614 billion dollars equal six percent economic output gross domestic product turn provided enormous injection spending helped prevent deeper recession jump start recovery role government spending damping recession driving recovery evident employment statistics march 2001 beginning recession january 2006 government employment rose 45 percent one million jobs 219 million jobs period privatesector employment rose one percent government accounts 16 percent total employment created half new jobs four years recession ended private sector accounts 84 percent total employment created half moreover part increase privatesector jobs involves government contract defenserelated work governments overall job contribution even larger effect increased government employment masked persistent privatesector weakness fiscal stimulus accompanied extraordinary extended period monetary ease kept interest rates historical lows 2000 year recession federal reserves target interest rate federal funds rate averaged 624 percent recession began fed cut interest rate aggressively lowering 167 percent 2002 113 percent 2003 moreover fed held interest rates historical lows three years economic recovery officially begun federal funds rate 135 percent 2004 since late 2004 fed reversed started systematically raising shortterm interest rates three significant features monetary easing first contributed importantly warding recession generating recovery second weakness privatesector recovery despite extraordinary scale fiscal monetary stimulus points underlying fragility privatesector economy third monetary easing promoted massive consumer indebtedness housing price bubble combination poses grave future threats feds lowering interest rates fortyyear record lows served spur recovery inspired mortgage refinancing boom providing immediate relief households able spend mortgage interest savings lower interest rates also made houses affordable triggering house price bubble contributed significantly escaping recession higher house prices increased homeowner equity many owners used increased equity collateral borrow borrowing financed consumption significantly explains consumerspending boom higher house prices also allowed existing homeowners cash spent part windfall meanwhile homebuyers financed house purchases loans increased money supply lastly rising house home prices also created enormous profit margins builders providing incentive build new homes spurring construction industry boom problem special conditions largely spent projected federal budget deficit fiscal year 2006 423 billion approximately 33 percent national output budget already deficit leaves less room type uturn occurred last recession regard interest rates federal funds rate stands 45 percentso room lower however lowering likely far smaller effects last time homeowners already significantly refinanced stock high interest rate mortgages available refinancing depleted consumers borrowed hilt leaving less access borrowing house prices already alltime highs every measureso lower interest rates unlikely spur another price boom expansionary effects instead house prices could actually start falling new supply continues come market effect could amplified recessioninduced job losses trigger mortgage defaults workers losing jobs taken together factors point future interest rate reductions likely akin pushing string adverse domestic economic conditions also echoed globally 2001 recession business investmentled little consequence china east asia economies export consumer goods american consumer kept spending however consumption spendingled recession quickly spill east asia triggering job losses decline investment spending economies consequently us recession quickly ricochet around globe predicting next recession happen rather character game impossible nobel prizewinning economist paul samuelson quipped economists correctly predicted nine last five recessions however possible anticipate future difficulties prescribe possible remedies first federal reserve careful overshooting rate hikes time take inflation chill pill second current recovery extraordinarily weak finally discredit notion tax cuts rich drive growth job creation third speculative financial market paradigmwhich ruled policy roost twentyfive yearsis gas time new paradigm links growth rising wages rather asset price boombust cycles | 671 |
<p>Tripoli.</p>
<p>The large gold framed portrait of Colonel Muammar Qaddafi that adorned the wall behind the reception desk of my hotel since it opened many years ago has vanished.&#160; Also gone are the 72 green flags that flew on the white poles have also been removed.&#160; &#160;&#160;It’s not polite to inquire of the skeleton staff about who removed these items because the act of removal could become very serious offenses depending on the final outcome here.&#160; But, my friend Ismail, manning the front desk, just grinned at me when I commented on the hotels fine new mirror that hangs in the leader’s space.</p>
<p>Looking over the skyline of Tripoli at 7:30 a.m. 8/22/11 from the 26th floor of the Corinthia Hotel it seems that it’s just about over for the Qaddafi regime.</p>
<p>All night one heard in central Tripoli mainly celebratory gunfire from areas like the nearby newly renamed “Martyrs Square” (formerly ‘Green Square’) but so many questions are on most people minds this morning.&#160; Some ask, Are the Qaddafi forces opening a trap for the rebel forces allowing them to come in quickly and easily and then when they are gathered in public celebrations and seek rest, counter attack?</p>
<p>The claim of the NTC representative this morning that the rebels control 95 per cent of Tripoli seems farfetched.&#160; This is a very spread out city and its clear rebel forces are not deployed everywhere.</p>
<p>A column of 22 camouflaged painted military vehicles full of government fighters slowly passed by our hotel at 8:10 this morning and turned right into the seaside compound which includes the Bab al Bahar Hotel (“gate to the sea”), and on its edge, the unoccupied JW Marriott, from which witnesses said the sniper who shot me in my right leg yesterday morning was perched. My Dr. gave me the bullet as a souvenir and I will be fine although the damned thing hurts. An arriving Hotel worker just reported seeing government forces assembling in Tripoli’s neighborhoods over the past several hours.</p>
<p>On the other side of my hotel I can see rebel pickups filled with fighters and new tricolor Libyan flags driving very slowly towards Green (Martyr’s) Square.&#160; I am thinking what would happen if they make a wrong turn.</p>
<p>Reports of Saif and Mohammad Qaddafi’s capture supports the idea that the government here wildly exaggerated its solid support and that the public largely believed them.&#160; Already among the few staff and some kids who come early the jump the hotel fence and use the swimming pool, and their trademark chants of “Allah, Mohammad, Muammar, Libya wa bass” have ended their chants and now support for ousting “the leader” is widespread. Most hotel staff at my hotel appear crestfallen.</p>
<p>The outpouring of support for Qaddafi’s departure by the same crowds who seemed to adore him at Green Square the past five months I have been monitoring them is surprising but perhaps reveal why all powerful despots are often more form than substance and can collapse quickly under certain conditions.</p>
<p>The questions being asked here this morning by student friends include what happened to the resistance to NATO and its supported rebels, where are the “65,000 professional soldiers waiting to repel “NATO’s rebels” from entering Tripoli, mentioned just last night by Government spokesman, Musa Ibrahim, was there ever a real Libyan army of thousands ready to defend Tripoli, what will the transition be like, will there be tribal conflicts for power, will Libya have to pay for all the infrastructure damage, will NATO countries, given the widespread hostility to NATO killing&#160; so many civilians be granted oil contracts, will the US get another military base (Wheelus was closed by Qaddafi on June 1970), will the new government recognize Israel as NATO &#160;is said to be &#160;demanding, will the National Transition Council fulfill its pledges for a just, quick transition with early elections, and on and on.</p>
<p>Yesterday morning, as I embarked on a bike tour of Tripoli, there were signs that something incongruous was happening. Security guards, normally about 20 outside the hotel were nowhere to be seen. Also, no staff came to work.&#160; Ismail and the IT guy slept at the hotel—and the British lady “Miss Lorraine” who is in charge of hotel Hospitality lives at the hotel and was understandably and visibly upset.</p>
<p>As I left the hotel close to 7:30 a.m. by bicycle yesterday morning I was surprised to see one woman standing alone on the street in front of the hotel. I more surprised when she lite up with a broad smile as chimed “Hello Mr. Lamb!”</p>
<p>She is Marianne, who works with Lorraine somewhere in the bowels of this claimed “7 Star Hotel” I had spoken with her on the phone but we never met personally. &#160;When I asked her why she was standing in the empty street, &#160;she replied, “I need to find a ride to the port!”&#160; That seemed odd, given what is happening here, so I asked her why.&#160; “My two week vacation starts today and I need to get a boat to Malta”. &#160;I was shocked, “Sweetheart, please, for sure there is no boat to Malta now and it’s dangerous for you to go to the Port.”&#160; “But, my boyfriend is waiting for me in Malta” she wailed.&#160; “Ok, but if you find a ride call my room and I will pay half and come with you to the Port”. Marianne agreed. I never saw her again.</p>
<p>The UN delegation left yesterday after their five day “fact finding mission.”&#160; Not sure what facts they found because they mainly stayed in the hotel waiting and waiting, like most other foreigners here do, for a promised appointment with a government official or&#160;someone.&#160;Their leader, a stellar Palestinian lady from Nazarath in Occupied Palestine, convinced NATO to let some foreigners make use of empty UN planes seats so this hotel was essentially emptied of guests.</p>
<p>There has been no sign of Colonel Gaddafi. A strange calm has spread over Tripoli.</p>
<p>Franklin Lamb&#160;is in Tripoli.&#160; He can be reached c/o&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | true | 4 | tripoli large gold framed portrait colonel muammar qaddafi adorned wall behind reception desk hotel since opened many years ago vanished160 also gone 72 green flags flew white poles also removed160 160160its polite inquire skeleton staff removed items act removal could become serious offenses depending final outcome here160 friend ismail manning front desk grinned commented hotels fine new mirror hangs leaders space looking skyline tripoli 730 82211 26th floor corinthia hotel seems qaddafi regime night one heard central tripoli mainly celebratory gunfire areas like nearby newly renamed martyrs square formerly green square many questions people minds morning160 ask qaddafi forces opening trap rebel forces allowing come quickly easily gathered public celebrations seek rest counter attack claim ntc representative morning rebels control 95 per cent tripoli seems farfetched160 spread city clear rebel forces deployed everywhere column 22 camouflaged painted military vehicles full government fighters slowly passed hotel 810 morning turned right seaside compound includes bab al bahar hotel gate sea edge unoccupied jw marriott witnesses said sniper shot right leg yesterday morning perched dr gave bullet souvenir fine although damned thing hurts arriving hotel worker reported seeing government forces assembling tripolis neighborhoods past several hours side hotel see rebel pickups filled fighters new tricolor libyan flags driving slowly towards green martyrs square160 thinking would happen make wrong turn reports saif mohammad qaddafis capture supports idea government wildly exaggerated solid support public largely believed them160 already among staff kids come early jump hotel fence use swimming pool trademark chants allah mohammad muammar libya wa bass ended chants support ousting leader widespread hotel staff hotel appear crestfallen outpouring support qaddafis departure crowds seemed adore green square past five months monitoring surprising perhaps reveal powerful despots often form substance collapse quickly certain conditions questions asked morning student friends include happened resistance nato supported rebels 65000 professional soldiers waiting repel natos rebels entering tripoli mentioned last night government spokesman musa ibrahim ever real libyan army thousands ready defend tripoli transition like tribal conflicts power libya pay infrastructure damage nato countries given widespread hostility nato killing160 many civilians granted oil contracts us get another military base wheelus closed qaddafi june 1970 new government recognize israel nato 160is said 160demanding national transition council fulfill pledges quick transition early elections yesterday morning embarked bike tour tripoli signs something incongruous happening security guards normally 20 outside hotel nowhere seen also staff came work160 ismail guy slept hoteland british lady miss lorraine charge hotel hospitality lives hotel understandably visibly upset left hotel close 730 bicycle yesterday morning surprised see one woman standing alone street front hotel surprised lite broad smile chimed hello mr lamb marianne works lorraine somewhere bowels claimed 7 star hotel spoken phone never met personally 160when asked standing empty street 160she replied need find ride port160 seemed odd given happening asked why160 two week vacation starts today need get boat malta 160i shocked sweetheart please sure boat malta dangerous go port160 boyfriend waiting malta wailed160 ok find ride call room pay half come port marianne agreed never saw un delegation left yesterday five day fact finding mission160 sure facts found mainly stayed hotel waiting waiting like foreigners promised appointment government official or160someone160their leader stellar palestinian lady nazarath occupied palestine convinced nato let foreigners make use empty un planes seats hotel essentially emptied guests sign colonel gaddafi strange calm spread tripoli franklin lamb160is tripoli160 reached co160 fplambgmailcom | 558 |
<p>MCHENRY, Ill. (AP) — Skeleton in hand, retired biology teacher Jeannie Scown delivered a message to her Republican congressman at his office northwest of Chicago.</p>
<p>“Killed by Trumpcare Plague, May 4, 2017,” her poster read.</p>
<p>In a nod to House Republicans’ recent vote to gut the health care law, Scown had no intention of sparing four-term Rep. Randy Hultgren with subtlety.</p>
<p>“He has to understand that sick people vote, too,” Scown said, “and we are going to go get them and take them to the polls if they can’t get there themselves, because we are tired of being used.”</p>
<p>Americans vented similar frustrations this past week in Republican districts crucial to GOP majority control of the House, sounding off about health care and President Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey. Democrats see in these displays evidence of the enthusiasm necessary for them to break the GOP’s monopoly control of Washington in next year’s midterm elections.</p>
<p>Republicans in some districts faced a backlash at raucous town halls over their votes for the House health care bill. There were plenty of complaints about a provision that would allow insurers to charge seriously ill people higher rates if they let their coverage lapse. Other lawmakers avoided holding forums.</p>
<p>Trump added to the tumult by dismissing Comey, raising questions about whether the president was trying to scuttle an FBI investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.</p>
<p>“He did this as Comey wanted to get closer and closer,” said Sam Weissbard of Westfield, New Jersey. A dentist who practices in Manhattan, Weissbard said he has no ill-will against his five-term congressman, Republican Leonard Lance, who voted against the health bill. Nonetheless, Weissbard will oppose Lance to send a message to the White House.</p>
<p>In Illinois, Scown said Trump’s move shows why “the whole administration scares many of us.” Whatever “displeases him,” she said, “he gets rid of.”</p>
<p>Trump maintains a hold on his core supporters — about 40 percent according to many polls — but the intensity of voters like Scown and Weissbard offer encouragement for Democrats.</p>
<p>The party needs to flip 24 seats to seize control of the House. Democrats’ top targets are some two dozen GOP-held seats around the country in places such as Arizona, Florida, California and Colorado where Democrat Hillary Clinton beat Trump. Of the 217 Republicans who backed the bill, 14 come from districts carried by Clinton.</p>
<p>The first political tests are just weeks away.</p>
<p>In Montana, folk singer-turned-politician Rob Quist is trying to win his state’s at-large House seat in a May 25 special election. In Georgia, Democrat Jon Ossoff has raised more than $10 million ahead of a June special election in a suburban Atlanta district last represented by Trump’s health secretary, Tom Price. But party operatives and their aligned groups are primed for an offensive even if Ossoff and Quist fall short.</p>
<p>Outside groups have started television and digital ads against vulnerable Republicans who voted for the bill, and liberal grassroots groups are organizing “Adopt-A-District” town halls that send Democratic House members into Republican districts where the local representative has no scheduled open forums.</p>
<p>One of the first sessions was Friday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s district. With Ryan elsewhere in Wisconsin — public events but not open town halls — his neighboring Democratic colleague, Mark Pocan, greeted the speaker’s constituents at a union hall.</p>
<p>“Paul is the person who essentially drafted this health care bill,” Pocan said, ahead of the gathering. “We need to know that his constituents have every tool possible to try to influence him in a different direction.”</p>
<p>Defending himself, Ryan told reporters on Friday: “It’s not that I’m not doing town halls. I’m getting around to see constituents all the time. I’m doing office hours, I’m doing telephone town halls, I’m doing business interviews. I’m doing it in a way so constituents don’t go into a harassing environment.”</p>
<p>New Jersey Rep. Tom MacArthur spent five hours last Wednesday fielding intense, sometimes angry inquiries.</p>
<p>Vicky Van Wright, 69, who had never attended a town hall, said she was worried about Trump leading the U.S. “back to a darker time in our history,” but identified the health care bill as her driving concern. She argued it could threaten Medicaid insurance programs for her 35-year-old son with Down’s syndrome.</p>
<p>MacArthur told Van Wright that Republicans want to give states flexibility, not “cut” Medicaid. Van Wright remained unconvinced.</p>
<p>Hultgren said in a statement that the protesters who’ve gathered outside his office are “getting overly dramatic” about the impact of the plan.</p>
<p>In California, about 800 people attended a town hall without Rep. Mimi Walters in Orange County. Demonstrators wearing hospital gowns and wielding crutches visited one of Rep. Darrell Issa’s district offices.</p>
<p>In 15-term Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s nearby district, Patricia Hilaiel-Miller is the kind of voter at-risk Republicans must win over, despite any misgivings over Trump or health care.</p>
<p>A registered Democrat, Hilaiel-Miller, praises Rohrabcher as “proactive.” But the 60-year-old said she and her husband, who is self-employed, benefit from the law and she’s unsure about potential changes.</p>
<p>“The whole thing is a joke,” she said. “I’m just going to move to France.”</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Michael Catalini in New Jersey, Amy Taxin in California and Scott Bauer in Wisconsin contributed to this report.</p>
<p>___</p>
<p>Follow Barrow on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP and Burnett at https://twitter.com/sara_burnett.</p>
<p>Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</p> | true | 4 | mchenry ill ap skeleton hand retired biology teacher jeannie scown delivered message republican congressman office northwest chicago killed trumpcare plague may 4 2017 poster read nod house republicans recent vote gut health care law scown intention sparing fourterm rep randy hultgren subtlety understand sick people vote scown said going go get take polls cant get tired used americans vented similar frustrations past week republican districts crucial gop majority control house sounding health care president donald trumps abrupt firing fbi director james comey democrats see displays evidence enthusiasm necessary break gops monopoly control washington next years midterm elections republicans districts faced backlash raucous town halls votes house health care bill plenty complaints provision would allow insurers charge seriously ill people higher rates let coverage lapse lawmakers avoided holding forums trump added tumult dismissing comey raising questions whether president trying scuttle fbi investigation possible collusion trump campaign russia comey wanted get closer closer said sam weissbard westfield new jersey dentist practices manhattan weissbard said illwill fiveterm congressman republican leonard lance voted health bill nonetheless weissbard oppose lance send message white house illinois scown said trumps move shows whole administration scares many us whatever displeases said gets rid trump maintains hold core supporters 40 percent according many polls intensity voters like scown weissbard offer encouragement democrats party needs flip 24 seats seize control house democrats top targets two dozen gopheld seats around country places arizona florida california colorado democrat hillary clinton beat trump 217 republicans backed bill 14 come districts carried clinton first political tests weeks away montana folk singerturnedpolitician rob quist trying win states atlarge house seat may 25 special election georgia democrat jon ossoff raised 10 million ahead june special election suburban atlanta district last represented trumps health secretary tom price party operatives aligned groups primed offensive even ossoff quist fall short outside groups started television digital ads vulnerable republicans voted bill liberal grassroots groups organizing adoptadistrict town halls send democratic house members republican districts local representative scheduled open forums one first sessions friday kenosha wisconsin house speaker paul ryans district ryan elsewhere wisconsin public events open town halls neighboring democratic colleague mark pocan greeted speakers constituents union hall paul person essentially drafted health care bill pocan said ahead gathering need know constituents every tool possible try influence different direction defending ryan told reporters friday im town halls im getting around see constituents time im office hours im telephone town halls im business interviews im way constituents dont go harassing environment new jersey rep tom macarthur spent five hours last wednesday fielding intense sometimes angry inquiries vicky van wright 69 never attended town hall said worried trump leading us back darker time history identified health care bill driving concern argued could threaten medicaid insurance programs 35yearold son downs syndrome macarthur told van wright republicans want give states flexibility cut medicaid van wright remained unconvinced hultgren said statement protesters whove gathered outside office getting overly dramatic impact plan california 800 people attended town hall without rep mimi walters orange county demonstrators wearing hospital gowns wielding crutches visited one rep darrell issas district offices 15term rep dana rohrabachers nearby district patricia hilaielmiller kind voter atrisk republicans must win despite misgivings trump health care registered democrat hilaielmiller praises rohrabcher proactive 60yearold said husband selfemployed benefit law shes unsure potential changes whole thing joke said im going move france ___ barrow reported atlanta associated press writers michael catalini new jersey amy taxin california scott bauer wisconsin contributed report ___ follow barrow twitter httpstwittercombillbarrowap burnett httpstwittercomsara_burnett copyright 2017 associated press rights reserved material may published broadcast rewritten redistributed | 592 |
<p>Neither represented nor excommunicated, only today could I learn what was discussed at the Summit of Port of Spain. They led us all to entertain hopes that the meeting would not be secret, but those running the show deprived us of such an interesting intellectual exercise. We shall get to know the substance but not the tone of voice, the look in the eyes or the facial look that can be a reflection of a person’s ideas, ethic and character. A Secret Summit is worse than a silent movie. For a few minutes the television showed some images. There was a gentleman on Obama’s left whom I could not identify clearly as he laid his hand on Obama’s shoulder, like an eight-year-old boy on a classmate in the front row. Then, another member of his entourage standing beside him interrupted the president of the United States for a dialogue; those coming up to address him had the appearance of an oligarchy that never knew what hunger is and who expect to find in Obama’s powerful nation the shield that will protect the system from the fearsome social changes.</p>
<p>Up to that moment, a bizarre atmosphere prevailed at the Summit.</p>
<p>The artistic function arranged by the host was really spectacular. I have seldom seen something like it; perhaps never. A good announcer, apparently a Trinitarian, had proudly said that it was unique.</p>
<p>It was a feast of culture and luxury. I meditated about it. I calculated the cost of all that and suddenly I realized that no other country in the Caribbean could afford such a display, that the venue of the summit is very wealthy, a sort of United States surrounded by small poor countries. Could Haiti with its exuberant culture or Jamaica, Granada, Dominica, Guyana, Belize or any other have hosted such a luxurious summit? Their beaches may be wonderful but they are not surrounded by the towers that distinguish the Trinitarian landscape and accumulate with that non-renewable raw material the enormous resources that sustain today the riches of that country. Almost every other island in the Caribbean community located to the north of this is directly battered by the hurricanes of increasing intensity that hit our sister islands of the Caribbean region every year.</p>
<p>Did anyone in that meeting remember that Obama promised to invest as much money as necessary to make the United States self-reliant in fuel? Such a policy would directly affect many of the States taking part in the meeting since they will not have access to the technologies and the huge investments required to work on that area or any other.</p>
<p>Something really impressed me as the summit unfolded until today, Saturday, April 18, at 11:47 a.m. when I am writing these lines: Daniel Ortega’s remarks. I had promised myself not to publish anything until next Monday, April 20, but rather to observe the developments in the celebrated summit.</p>
<p>It was not the economist, the scientist, the intellectual or the poet speaking; Daniel did not choose an elaborate language to impress his audience. He spoke as the president of one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, as a revolutionary combatant, on behalf of a group of Central American nations and the Dominican Republic which is a partner of SICA (Central American Integration System).</p>
<p>It would suffice to be one of the hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans who learned how to read and write in the first stage of the Sandinista Revolution, when the illiteracy rate was reduced from 60 to 12 percent, or again when Daniel received power in 2008 as the illiteracy rate had increased to 35 percent.</p>
<p>His remarks extended for nearly 50 minutes. He spoke slowly and calmly, but the reproduction of the full text would make this Reflection too extensive.</p>
<p>I shall summarize his statement using his own words for each of the basic ideas he expressed.</p>
<p>Nicaragua appealed to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. It filed a lawsuit against the war policy, the terrorist policy implemented by President Ronald Reagan on behalf of the United States.</p>
<p>Our crime: we had freed ourselves from Anastasio Somoza’s tyranny imposed through the intervention of the Yankee troops in Nicaragua.</p>
<p>From the past century, Central America has been shaken by the expansionist policies, the war policies that brought the Central Americans together to defeat them.</p>
<p>These were followed by interventions extending from the year 1912 to 1932, which resulted in the imposition of the Somozas’ tyranny equipped, funded and defended by American leaders.</p>
<p>I had the opportunity of meeting President Reagan during the war; we shook hands and I asked him to stop the war against Nicaragua.</p>
<p>I had the opportunity of meeting President Carter and when he told me that “now that the Nicaraguan people had got rid of the Somoza tyranny it was time for Nicaragua to change” I said to him: No, Nicaragua does not have to change, you have to change. Nicaragua has never invaded the United States; Nicaragua has not planted mines in the U.S. harbors; Nicaragua has not thrown a stone against the American nation; Nicaragua has not imposed governments on the United States; you are the ones who should change and not the Nicaraguans.</p>
<p>As the war was still going on, I had the chance to meet the then recently inaugurated President of the United States George Bush, senior. In the year 1989, at a gathering in Costa Rica, we sat facing each other, President Bush and me, and he said: “The press has come here because they want to see a fight between the president of the United States and the president of Nicaragua, and we have made an effort not to oblige them.”</p>
<p>Nicaragua was still fighting the war imposed by the United States. The International Court of Justice in The Hague decided on the lawsuit filed by Nicaragua and passed sentence. It clearly stated that “the United States should cease every military action, the mining of the harbors and the funding of the war; that it should indicate where the mines had been planted since it refused to provide that information;” it also ordered the U.S. government to compensate Nicaragua for the trade and economic blockade imposed on that nation.</p>
<p>We are waging a struggle in Nicaragua, Central America and Latin America to eradicate illiteracy with the generous and unconditional solidarity of the fraternal Cuban people, of Fidel who promoted such literacy campaigns in solidarity with our peoples, and of President Raul Castro who has continued these programs for the benefit of all of the Latin American and Caribbean peoples.</p>
<p>Later, the Bolivarian people of Venezuela and its President Hugo Chavez Frias joined in this effort with a generous spirit.</p>
<p>Most of the presidents and heads of government of Latin America and the Caribbean are here today; also the President of the United States and the Primer Minister of Canada. But there are two notable absentees: one is Cuba, whose only crime has been to fight for the peoples’ sovereignty and independence; to give solidarity, unconditionally, to our peoples. That’s why it is sanctioned, that’s why it is punished; that’s why it is excluded. That’s why I do not feel comfortable today in this Summit; I cannot feel comfortable in this Summit. I am embarrassed to be attending this summit in the absence of Cuba.</p>
<p>Another country is not present here because unlike Cuba, which is an independent and supportive nation, that other people is still submitted to colonialist policies: I mean the fraternal people of Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>We are working to build a great alliance, a great unity of Latin American and Caribbean peoples. The day will come when the Puerto Rican people is also a part of that great alliance.</p>
<p>In the 1950s racial discrimination was institutionalized, it was part of the American way of life, part of the American democracy: black people could not walk into white people’s restaurants or white people’s bars. The children of black families could not attend the white children schools. In order to turn down the wall of racial discrimination it was necessary –and this President Obama knows better than we do—Martin Luther King, jr, said: “I have a dream.” The dream became a reality and the wall of racial discrimination collapsed in the United States of America, thanks to the struggle of that people.</p>
<p>This meeting, this gathering is opening exactly the same day that the invasion of Cuba started in 1961. Talking with the President of Cuba Raul Castro, he gave me some data: “Daniel, President Obama was born on August 4, 1961; he was three and a half months when we attained victory in Playa Giron on April that year. Obviously he is not accountable for that historic event. The bombings on April 15; the proclamation of socialism by Fidel during the funeral of the victims on the 16th; the invasion on the 17th; on the 18th, the battle goes on and victory is attained on the 19th, before 72 hours had passed. Raul.” (On his return from Cumana, Raul related to me that in a note he wrote for Daniel he made a quick calculation and was wrong to assert that Obama was three and a half months at the time of the Bay of Pigs invasion, when he should have said that Obama was born three and a half months later; that it was his [Raul’s] mistake.)</p>
<p>That is history. In the year 2002, also in the month of April, on the 11th, a coup d’etat was dealt to murder an elected president in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez was seized; the order to murder him had been issued. When the puppet regime took over, the U.S. government through its spokesman recognized the putschers and offered them support. We are right to say that that is not history; such violent events against the institutions of a people, of a progressive, supportive and revolutionary nation took place hardly seven years ago.</p>
<p>I think that the time I’m taking is shorter than the three hours I had to wait at the airport inside the plane.</p>
<p>The freedom of expression must apply to the big ones and the little ones: Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic as an associate. The territorial area is 355,617.5 square miles. The population is a little more than 41.7 million.</p>
<p>We are asking that all immigrants in the United States receive the TPS, but the causes of migration are the underdevelopment and poverty of our Central American peoples.</p>
<p>The only way to stop that flow of emigrants to the United States is not building a fence or reinforcing military surveillance along the border.</p>
<p>The United States needs the Central American labor force, as it needs the Mexican labor force. Then, when the supply of that labor force is higher than the demand of the U.S. economy, repressive policies come into play, while funds should be contributed without political strings attached, without the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund.</p>
<p>We have the ungrateful task of protecting the U.S. borders due to drug abuse.</p>
<p>Just in Nicaragua, the national police impounded over 360 tons of cocaine last year. That, at a market price in the United States, would certainly amount to more than 1 billion dollars.</p>
<p>How much does the United States provide Nicaragua for guarding its borders? It provides 1,200,000 dollars.</p>
<p>It’s not fair, it’s not equitable, it’s not ethical. It is not moral that the G-20 continues to make the great decisions; the time has come for the G-192, that is, for all countries in the United Nations to make them.</p>
<p>Those who have had dealings with the IMF are perfectly aware of what the Fund has meant, of the social, agricultural and productive programs that have been cut off to obtain resources to pay back the debt, a debt imposed by the rules established by global capitalism. It has only been an instrument setting forth and developing colonialist, neocolonialist and imperialist policies from the metropolises.</p>
<p>Mahatma Gandhi, who waged a heroic struggle against England for the independence of India, said that England had used one-fourth of the resources of the planet to reach its current state of development. So, what resources would India need to attain a similar condition? Now, in this 21st century, and since the end of the 20th century, it was not only England but every developed capitalist country that established their hegemony at the expense of the destruction of the planet and the human species, imposing the consumerist patterns of their model.</p>
<p>The only way to save the planet, and the sustainable development of mankind with it, will be to lay the foundations of a new international economic order, a new socio-economic and political model which is truly fair, supportive and democratic.</p>
<p>There is the project known as PETROCARIBE and there is ALBA –most of the Caribbean nations are members of PETROCARIBE, but there are also members of SICA which belong to PETROCARIBE: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Panama.</p>
<p>“The heads of Sate and Government of Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela, members of ALBA, consider that the draft Declaration of the Fifth Summit of the Americas is insufficient and unacceptable for the following reasons:</p>
<p>(He goes on to read the ALBA Declaration on the document proposed for the Summit of the Americas.)</p>
<p>“It does not respond to the issue of the Global Economic Crisis, even though that is the greatest challenge faced by mankind in decades.</p>
<p>“It unjustifiably excludes Cuba without mentioning the general consensus in the region to condemn the blockade and the attempts to constantly isolate its people and government in a criminal fashion.</p>
<p>“What we are experiencing is a structural and systemic global economic crisis and not just another cyclic crisis.</p>
<p>“The environmental crisis has been caused by capitalism which had subordinated the necessary conditions for life on the planet to the predominance of markets and profits.</p>
<p>To avoid this outcome it is necessary to develop an alternative model to the capitalist system. A system in harmony with our Mother Earth and not one that plunders its natural resources; a system of cultural diversity and not of crushing cultures and imposing cultural values and life styles that have nothing to do with the realities of our countries; a system of peace based on social justice and not on imperialist wars and policies; a system that does not reduce them to simple consumers or merchandise.</p>
<p>Regarding the U.S. blockade on Cuba and the exclusion of this country from the Summit of the Americas, the member countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) reiterate the Declaration adopted last December 16, 2008, by all of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on the necessity to put an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States of America, including the implementation of the so-called Helms-Burton Act, widely known to all.</p>
<p>In my country, Nicaragua, the governments that preceded me strictly enforced the neoliberal policies, that is, from 1990, when the Sandinista Front left the government, until January 10, 2007, when the Sandinista Front returned to government; they enforced them for 16 years.</p>
<p>As the Nicaraguan Revolution triumphed in 1979, it found that the tyrannies and governments that had been imposed and sustained in Nicaragua by the U.S. administrations, the self-defined democratic governments, had left Nicaragua with 60 percent illiteracy.</p>
<p>Our first big battle was to eradicate illiteracy. We undertook that battle and reduced illiteracy to 11.5 or 12 percent. We couldn’t go further because we were imposed a war policy by the Reagan administration.</p>
<p>We left the government in 1990 with 12.5 percent illiteracy in the country and on January 2007 we received back the country with 35 percent illiteracy.</p>
<p>This data have not been made up by the government; they have been released by agencies specialized in education and culture.</p>
<p>That is the result of the neoliberalism applied in Nicaragua; the result of privatizations in Nicaragua where healthcare and education were privatized and the poor were left out. For others it was a good change because they amassed fortunes; the model has proven successful to concentrate riches and extend poverty. It is a great concentrator of riches and a great multiplier of poverty and destitution.</p>
<p>It is an ethical problem, a moral problem, and the future lies on it; not only the future of the most impoverished countries –as the five countries of Latin America and the Caribbean I have mentioned—that have little else to lose other than our shackles, if there is not a change of ethics, a change of moral, a change of values that will enable us to be really sustainable.</p>
<p>It is no longer a matter of ideology, it’s not a political issue; it’s a matter of survival. And this applies to all, from the G-20 to the G-5 who are the most impoverished in Latin America and the Caribbean.</p>
<p>I think that this crisis that is affecting the world today and that is leading to discussions, debates, and to a search for solutions we should approach it bearing in mind that the current development model is no longer possible, no longer sustainable.</p>
<p>The only way to save us all is to change the model.</p>
<p>Thank you, very much.</p>
<p>Daniel’s phrases at the opening session of the Summit were like a bell tolling for a centuries-old policy that until a few months ago was applied to the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean.</p>
<p>It is 19:58 hours. I have just listened to the words of President Hugo Chavez. Apparently, Venezolana de Television introduced a camera in the “Secret Summit” and carried some of his words. Yesterday we saw him graciously return Obama’s gesture as he walked up to greet him, unquestionably a clever gesture of the United States president.</p>
<p>This time Chavez stood up from his chair, walked to Obama’s seat at the head of a rectangular hall near Michelle Bachelet, and presented him with the well known book by Galeano, Las venas abiertas de America Latina, systematically updated by the author. I simply mentioned the time it was when I listened to him.</p>
<p>It is announced that the Summit will be closed tomorrow at noon.</p>
<p>The United States president has been very active. According to press reports he has not only taken part in the plenary session of the Summit but also met with every regional subgroup.</p>
<p>His predecessor went to bed early and slept for many hours. Seemingly, Obama works hard and sleeps little.</p>
<p>Today, the 19th , at 11:57 hours, I don’t see anything new. The CNN news channel has no fresh news. The clock struck 12 when the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago stood on the rostrum. I prepare to listen to him, and then I perceive some strange signals. Manning’s face looks tense. Later, Obama speaks and takes some questions from the press; I find him gruff although calm. I was surprised that a press conference was organized with several leaders without the participation of any of those who disagreed with the document.</p>
<p>Manning had said before that the document had been elaborated two years back when there was not a deep economic crisis; therefore, the current issues had not been properly examined. Of course, I thought, McCain was not there; surely the OAS, Leonel and the Dominican Republic remembered the name of the military commander of the invaders in 1965 and the 50 thousand troops that occupied the country to prevent the return of Juan Bosch who was not a Marxist-Leninist.</p>
<p>The leaders in the press conference were the Prime Minister of Canada, certainly a rightist and the only one who had been rude to Cuba; Mexican President Felipe Calderon; Martin Torrijos from Panama and, naturally, Patrick Manning. The Caribbean and the two Latin American leaders were respectful to Cuba; none of them attacked it, and they had expressed their opposition to the blockade.</p>
<p>Obama spoke of the United States military power, which could be of assistance in the fight on organized crime, and of the significance of the U.S. market. He also admitted that the programs carried forward by the government of Cuba, such as sending groups of doctors to countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, could be more effective than Washington’s military power to gain influence in the region.</p>
<p>We, the Cubans do not do it to gain influence; it’s a tradition that was born in Algeria in 1963, when that country was fighting French colonialism, and we have later done likewise in scores of Third World countries.</p>
<p>He was gruff and elusive with regards to the blockade in his interview with the press; but he is already born and he will be 48 years next August 4.</p>
<p>Nine days later, that same month, I will be 83, almost twice his age, but now I have much more time to think. I wish to remind him of a basic ethical principle with respect to Cuba: there is no excuse for any injustice, any crime to last, regardless of time; the cruel blockade on the Cuban people takes lives and causes suffering; it also affects the economy of the nation and limits its possibilities to cooperate with healthcare, education and sports services, with energy saving and with the protection of the environment in many poor countries of the world.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | neither represented excommunicated today could learn discussed summit port spain led us entertain hopes meeting would secret running show deprived us interesting intellectual exercise shall get know substance tone voice look eyes facial look reflection persons ideas ethic character secret summit worse silent movie minutes television showed images gentleman obamas left could identify clearly laid hand obamas shoulder like eightyearold boy classmate front row another member entourage standing beside interrupted president united states dialogue coming address appearance oligarchy never knew hunger expect find obamas powerful nation shield protect system fearsome social changes moment bizarre atmosphere prevailed summit artistic function arranged host really spectacular seldom seen something like perhaps never good announcer apparently trinitarian proudly said unique feast culture luxury meditated calculated cost suddenly realized country caribbean could afford display venue summit wealthy sort united states surrounded small poor countries could haiti exuberant culture jamaica granada dominica guyana belize hosted luxurious summit beaches may wonderful surrounded towers distinguish trinitarian landscape accumulate nonrenewable raw material enormous resources sustain today riches country almost every island caribbean community located north directly battered hurricanes increasing intensity hit sister islands caribbean region every year anyone meeting remember obama promised invest much money necessary make united states selfreliant fuel policy would directly affect many states taking part meeting since access technologies huge investments required work area something really impressed summit unfolded today saturday april 18 1147 writing lines daniel ortegas remarks promised publish anything next monday april 20 rather observe developments celebrated summit economist scientist intellectual poet speaking daniel choose elaborate language impress audience spoke president one poorest countries hemisphere revolutionary combatant behalf group central american nations dominican republic partner sica central american integration system would suffice one hundreds thousands nicaraguans learned read write first stage sandinista revolution illiteracy rate reduced 60 12 percent daniel received power 2008 illiteracy rate increased 35 percent remarks extended nearly 50 minutes spoke slowly calmly reproduction full text would make reflection extensive shall summarize statement using words basic ideas expressed nicaragua appealed international court justice hague filed lawsuit war policy terrorist policy implemented president ronald reagan behalf united states crime freed anastasio somozas tyranny imposed intervention yankee troops nicaragua past century central america shaken expansionist policies war policies brought central americans together defeat followed interventions extending year 1912 1932 resulted imposition somozas tyranny equipped funded defended american leaders opportunity meeting president reagan war shook hands asked stop war nicaragua opportunity meeting president carter told nicaraguan people got rid somoza tyranny time nicaragua change said nicaragua change change nicaragua never invaded united states nicaragua planted mines us harbors nicaragua thrown stone american nation nicaragua imposed governments united states ones change nicaraguans war still going chance meet recently inaugurated president united states george bush senior year 1989 gathering costa rica sat facing president bush said press come want see fight president united states president nicaragua made effort oblige nicaragua still fighting war imposed united states international court justice hague decided lawsuit filed nicaragua passed sentence clearly stated united states cease every military action mining harbors funding war indicate mines planted since refused provide information also ordered us government compensate nicaragua trade economic blockade imposed nation waging struggle nicaragua central america latin america eradicate illiteracy generous unconditional solidarity fraternal cuban people fidel promoted literacy campaigns solidarity peoples president raul castro continued programs benefit latin american caribbean peoples later bolivarian people venezuela president hugo chavez frias joined effort generous spirit presidents heads government latin america caribbean today also president united states primer minister canada two notable absentees one cuba whose crime fight peoples sovereignty independence give solidarity unconditionally peoples thats sanctioned thats punished thats excluded thats feel comfortable today summit feel comfortable summit embarrassed attending summit absence cuba another country present unlike cuba independent supportive nation people still submitted colonialist policies mean fraternal people puerto rico working build great alliance great unity latin american caribbean peoples day come puerto rican people also part great alliance 1950s racial discrimination institutionalized part american way life part american democracy black people could walk white peoples restaurants white peoples bars children black families could attend white children schools order turn wall racial discrimination necessary president obama knows better domartin luther king jr said dream dream became reality wall racial discrimination collapsed united states america thanks struggle people meeting gathering opening exactly day invasion cuba started 1961 talking president cuba raul castro gave data daniel president obama born august 4 1961 three half months attained victory playa giron april year obviously accountable historic event bombings april 15 proclamation socialism fidel funeral victims 16th invasion 17th 18th battle goes victory attained 19th 72 hours passed raul return cumana raul related note wrote daniel made quick calculation wrong assert obama three half months time bay pigs invasion said obama born three half months later rauls mistake history year 2002 also month april 11th coup detat dealt murder elected president bolivarian republic venezuela president hugo chavez seized order murder issued puppet regime took us government spokesman recognized putschers offered support right say history violent events institutions people progressive supportive revolutionary nation took place hardly seven years ago think time im taking shorter three hours wait airport inside plane freedom expression must apply big ones little ones belize costa rica guatemala honduras nicaragua panama el salvador dominican republic associate territorial area 3556175 square miles population little 417 million asking immigrants united states receive tps causes migration underdevelopment poverty central american peoples way stop flow emigrants united states building fence reinforcing military surveillance along border united states needs central american labor force needs mexican labor force supply labor force higher demand us economy repressive policies come play funds contributed without political strings attached without conditions imposed international monetary fund ungrateful task protecting us borders due drug abuse nicaragua national police impounded 360 tons cocaine last year market price united states would certainly amount 1 billion dollars much united states provide nicaragua guarding borders provides 1200000 dollars fair equitable ethical moral g20 continues make great decisions time come g192 countries united nations make dealings imf perfectly aware fund meant social agricultural productive programs cut obtain resources pay back debt debt imposed rules established global capitalism instrument setting forth developing colonialist neocolonialist imperialist policies metropolises mahatma gandhi waged heroic struggle england independence india said england used onefourth resources planet reach current state development resources would india need attain similar condition 21st century since end 20th century england every developed capitalist country established hegemony expense destruction planet human species imposing consumerist patterns model way save planet sustainable development mankind lay foundations new international economic order new socioeconomic political model truly fair supportive democratic project known petrocaribe alba caribbean nations members petrocaribe also members sica belong petrocaribe belize guatemala honduras dominican republic nicaragua panama heads sate government bolivia cuba dominica honduras nicaragua venezuela members alba consider draft declaration fifth summit americas insufficient unacceptable following reasons goes read alba declaration document proposed summit americas respond issue global economic crisis even though greatest challenge faced mankind decades unjustifiably excludes cuba without mentioning general consensus region condemn blockade attempts constantly isolate people government criminal fashion experiencing structural systemic global economic crisis another cyclic crisis environmental crisis caused capitalism subordinated necessary conditions life planet predominance markets profits avoid outcome necessary develop alternative model capitalist system system harmony mother earth one plunders natural resources system cultural diversity crushing cultures imposing cultural values life styles nothing realities countries system peace based social justice imperialist wars policies system reduce simple consumers merchandise regarding us blockade cuba exclusion country summit americas member countries bolivarian alternative peoples america alba reiterate declaration adopted last december 16 2008 countries latin america caribbean necessity put end economic commercial financial blockade imposed cuba united states america including implementation socalled helmsburton act widely known country nicaragua governments preceded strictly enforced neoliberal policies 1990 sandinista front left government january 10 2007 sandinista front returned government enforced 16 years nicaraguan revolution triumphed 1979 found tyrannies governments imposed sustained nicaragua us administrations selfdefined democratic governments left nicaragua 60 percent illiteracy first big battle eradicate illiteracy undertook battle reduced illiteracy 115 12 percent couldnt go imposed war policy reagan administration left government 1990 125 percent illiteracy country january 2007 received back country 35 percent illiteracy data made government released agencies specialized education culture result neoliberalism applied nicaragua result privatizations nicaragua healthcare education privatized poor left others good change amassed fortunes model proven successful concentrate riches extend poverty great concentrator riches great multiplier poverty destitution ethical problem moral problem future lies future impoverished countries five countries latin america caribbean mentionedthat little else lose shackles change ethics change moral change values enable us really sustainable longer matter ideology political issue matter survival applies g20 g5 impoverished latin america caribbean think crisis affecting world today leading discussions debates search solutions approach bearing mind current development model longer possible longer sustainable way save us change model thank much daniels phrases opening session summit like bell tolling centuriesold policy months ago applied peoples latin america caribbean 1958 hours listened words president hugo chavez apparently venezolana de television introduced camera secret summit carried words yesterday saw graciously return obamas gesture walked greet unquestionably clever gesture united states president time chavez stood chair walked obamas seat head rectangular hall near michelle bachelet presented well known book galeano las venas abiertas de america latina systematically updated author simply mentioned time listened announced summit closed tomorrow noon united states president active according press reports taken part plenary session summit also met every regional subgroup predecessor went bed early slept many hours seemingly obama works hard sleeps little today 19th 1157 hours dont see anything new cnn news channel fresh news clock struck 12 prime minister trinidad tobago stood rostrum prepare listen perceive strange signals mannings face looks tense later obama speaks takes questions press find gruff although calm surprised press conference organized several leaders without participation disagreed document manning said document elaborated two years back deep economic crisis therefore current issues properly examined course thought mccain surely oas leonel dominican republic remembered name military commander invaders 1965 50 thousand troops occupied country prevent return juan bosch marxistleninist leaders press conference prime minister canada certainly rightist one rude cuba mexican president felipe calderon martin torrijos panama naturally patrick manning caribbean two latin american leaders respectful cuba none attacked expressed opposition blockade obama spoke united states military power could assistance fight organized crime significance us market also admitted programs carried forward government cuba sending groups doctors countries latin america caribbean could effective washingtons military power gain influence region cubans gain influence tradition born algeria 1963 country fighting french colonialism later done likewise scores third world countries gruff elusive regards blockade interview press already born 48 years next august 4 nine days later month 83 almost twice age much time think wish remind basic ethical principle respect cuba excuse injustice crime last regardless time cruel blockade cuban people takes lives causes suffering also affects economy nation limits possibilities cooperate healthcare education sports services energy saving protection environment many poor countries world 160 160 160 160 | 1,826 |
<p>The Independent</p>
<p>“Water is your friend” was the advice regularly given to a truly good friend of mine here in the Middle East. The speaker was a member of the One-Thousand- Litres- a-Day-Keeps-Dehydration-at-Bay Brigade, although I have to say that the Arabs take a different view. After generations of sword-like desert heat, they take tea in the morning, endure an oven-like day without sustenance, and then sip another scalding tea at dusk. The less you drink, the less you perspire, the less you need to drink. In a land with few oases, it’s a craft worth learning.</p>
<p>The problem is that today, water is not our “friend”. It comes smashing into New Orleans; it drowns the nursing home elderly in their baths; it assaults Galveston and Houston; it kills millions in Bangladesh, dozens in Andhya Pradesh; it floods south from the great ice-cold green bays of the Arctic; it carries 19th-century houses through the centre of Prague, and it bubbles into the bars of English pubs from the ancient, overflowing river-banks of Kent. Water has become our enemy.</p>
<p>There is a beautiful, delicate, inevitably cruel irony at the way in which nature and man conspire to uncover the lies of the rich and powerful. Just as President Bush’s disastrous environmental policies are now destroying the southern coast of the United States–yes, it is global warming that causes this massacre of the innocent–America is preparing to receive its 2,000th dead soldier back from Iraq. No bodies, please–let’s not dishonour the dead of New Orleans by taking photographs of them. Nor the American dead of Iraq by taking pictures of their coffins en route home. Death, as usual, is what happens to other people.</p>
<p>But the photographs of British soldiers, cowled in fire, hurling themselves from the top of their Warrior fighting vehicle in Basra this week, were the final iconic images of our uniquely British folly in Iraq. Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara’s henchmen have concocted another monstrous lie about all this, of course. The Iraqi policemen who protested at Britain’s destruction of their prison–and the crowds who set fire to the Warrior (and its crew) — were only a few hundred people. Who were we to suggest they represented the millions of Shia Muslim voters who solemnly went to the polls last January? Ho, ho, ho. Yes, and who were we to suggest that the “few hundred” Saddam “remnants” identified as troublemakers in mid-2003 represented a Sunni insurgency? And who were we, back in 1971, to suggest that a few hundred stone-throwers in the Falls Road and Short Strand in Belfast represented “the vast majority of ordinary peace- loving Catholics” in Northern Ireland?</p>
<p>I speculated some weeks ago as to when the bubble will burst. With the insurgent capture (and massacre) of a US base in Iraq? With the overrunning of the Green Zone in Baghdad? Every day now brings Vietnam-style evidence of our collapse. The Americans batter their way into Tal Afar and kill, so they say, “142 insurgents”. Get that? US forces manage to kill 142 of their enemies, not a single innocent man, woman or child among them!</p>
<p>But let’s go back to the Brits. Remember how we were told that our immense experience of “peace- keeping” in Northern Ireland had allowed us to get on better with the Iraqis in the south than our American cousins further north? I don’t actually remember us doing much “peacekeeping” in Belfast after about 1969–the rest, I recall, was about biffing the IRA–but in any case the myth was burned out on the uniforms of British troops this week.</p>
<p>Indeed, much of the war in Northern Ireland appeared to revolve around the use of covert killings and SAS undercover operatives who blew away IRA men in ambushes. Which does raise the question, doesn’t it, as to just what our two SAS lads were doing cruising around Basra in Arab dress with itsy-bitsy moustaches and guns? Why did no one ask? How many SAS men are in southern Iraq? Why are they there? What are their duties? What weapons do they carry? Whoops! No one asked.</p>
<p>What we were actually doing to “keep the peace” in Basra was to turn a Nelsonian “blind eye” on the abuse, murder and anarchy of Basra since 2003 (including, it turns out, quite a bit of abuse by our very own squaddies). When Christian alcohol sellers were murdered, we remained silent. When ex-Baathists were slaughtered in the streets–including women and their children, a civil war if ever there was one–our British officers somehow forgot to tell the press. Anything to keep our boys out of harm’s way.</p>
<p>But this is what has been happening in Basra. As the locally recruited police force (paid by the occupation authorities) sucked into its ranks the riff-raff of every local militia–as it did in Sunni areas to the north–we ignored this. Even when an American reporter investigating this extraordinary phenomenon was murdered–almost certainly by these same policemen–the British remained silent. We were “controlling” the streets. In Amara–by awful coincidence, the very same Kut al-Amara with whose name, I’m sure, my favourite prime minister will soon be ennobled–British soldiers now operate just one heavily armed convoy patrol a day. That is the extent of our “control” over Amara. Now we are reducing our patrols in Basra. You bet we are.</p>
<p>And a familiar bleat is rising from the sheep pen. “Outside powers” are interfering in southern Iraq. Thirty-five years ago, it was the Irish Republic that was assisting Britain’s IRA enemies. Now it is Iran that is supposedly urging the Shia of Basra to revolt. In other words, it’s not our fault–yet again, it’s the bloody foreigners what’s to blame.</p>
<p>Alas, it is not. Iraqis do not need Iranian weapons or military expertise. Their country is afloat with weapons and they learned how to make bombs–in their millions–during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. Half the Iraqi cabinet are linked to Iran–have the British forgotten that their honourable Dawa party government officials in Baghdad worked for the very same Dawa party that blew up the US and French embassies in Kuwait, and tried to kill the emir in the late 1980s? That these same gentlemen belong to a party which was effectively controlling the western hostages in Beirut during this same period?</p>
<p>No. All this is forgotten. Blame Iran. Later, no doubt, we’ll blame those ungrateful Iraqis and then we’ll declare victory and do what Defence Secretary John Reid claims we won’t do: cut and run. And there again, we’re in danger of forgetting the origin of such things. Faced with the imminent destruction of his vessel, a sailing ship captain would cut his anchor or sail ropes to allow his ship to move away from rocks or from being overwhelmed by the waves. Cutting and running was often an eminently sensible thing to do. But not for John Reid. We’re not going to cut and run. We’re going to be blown on to the rocks.</p>
<p>ROBERT FISK is a reporter for The Independent and author of <a href="" type="internal">Pity the Nation</a>. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch’s collection, <a href="http://www.easycarts.net/ecarts/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Bookshop.html" type="external">The Politics of Anti-Semitism</a>. Fisk’s new book, <a href="" type="internal">The Conquest of the Middle East</a>, will be released this fall.</p>
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<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled “A Saudiless Arabia” by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the “Article”), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the “Website”).</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | independent water friend advice regularly given truly good friend mine middle east speaker member onethousand litres adaykeepsdehydrationatbay brigade although say arabs take different view generations swordlike desert heat take tea morning endure ovenlike day without sustenance sip another scalding tea dusk less drink less perspire less need drink land oases craft worth learning problem today water friend comes smashing new orleans drowns nursing home elderly baths assaults galveston houston kills millions bangladesh dozens andhya pradesh floods south great icecold green bays arctic carries 19thcentury houses centre prague bubbles bars english pubs ancient overflowing riverbanks kent water become enemy beautiful delicate inevitably cruel irony way nature man conspire uncover lies rich powerful president bushs disastrous environmental policies destroying southern coast united statesyes global warming causes massacre innocentamerica preparing receive 2000th dead soldier back iraq bodies pleaselets dishonour dead new orleans taking photographs american dead iraq taking pictures coffins en route home death usual happens people photographs british soldiers cowled fire hurling top warrior fighting vehicle basra week final iconic images uniquely british folly iraq lord blair kut alamaras henchmen concocted another monstrous lie course iraqi policemen protested britains destruction prisonand crowds set fire warrior crew hundred people suggest represented millions shia muslim voters solemnly went polls last january ho ho ho yes suggest hundred saddam remnants identified troublemakers mid2003 represented sunni insurgency back 1971 suggest hundred stonethrowers falls road short strand belfast represented vast majority ordinary peace loving catholics northern ireland speculated weeks ago bubble burst insurgent capture massacre us base iraq overrunning green zone baghdad every day brings vietnamstyle evidence collapse americans batter way tal afar kill say 142 insurgents get us forces manage kill 142 enemies single innocent man woman child among lets go back brits remember told immense experience peace keeping northern ireland allowed us get better iraqis south american cousins north dont actually remember us much peacekeeping belfast 1969the rest recall biffing irabut case myth burned uniforms british troops week indeed much war northern ireland appeared revolve around use covert killings sas undercover operatives blew away ira men ambushes raise question doesnt two sas lads cruising around basra arab dress itsybitsy moustaches guns one ask many sas men southern iraq duties weapons carry whoops one asked actually keep peace basra turn nelsonian blind eye abuse murder anarchy basra since 2003 including turns quite bit abuse squaddies christian alcohol sellers murdered remained silent exbaathists slaughtered streetsincluding women children civil war ever oneour british officers somehow forgot tell press anything keep boys harms way happening basra locally recruited police force paid occupation authorities sucked ranks riffraff every local militiaas sunni areas northwe ignored even american reporter investigating extraordinary phenomenon murderedalmost certainly policementhe british remained silent controlling streets amaraby awful coincidence kut alamara whose name im sure favourite prime minister soon ennobledbritish soldiers operate one heavily armed convoy patrol day extent control amara reducing patrols basra bet familiar bleat rising sheep pen outside powers interfering southern iraq thirtyfive years ago irish republic assisting britains ira enemies iran supposedly urging shia basra revolt words faultyet bloody foreigners whats blame alas iraqis need iranian weapons military expertise country afloat weapons learned make bombsin millionsduring 198088 iraniraq war half iraqi cabinet linked iranhave british forgotten honourable dawa party government officials baghdad worked dawa party blew us french embassies kuwait tried kill emir late 1980s gentlemen belong party effectively controlling western hostages beirut period forgotten blame iran later doubt well blame ungrateful iraqis well declare victory defence secretary john reid claims wont cut run danger forgetting origin things faced imminent destruction vessel sailing ship captain would cut anchor sail ropes allow ship move away rocks overwhelmed waves cutting running often eminently sensible thing john reid going cut run going blown rocks robert fisk reporter independent author pity nation also contributor counterpunchs collection politics antisemitism fisks new book conquest middle east released fall 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 clarification alexander cockburn jeffrey st clair becky grant institute advancement journalistic clarity counterpunch published article entitled saudiless arabia wayne madsen dated october 22 2002 article website institute advancement journalistic clarity counterpunch wwwcounterpunchorg website although intention counsel mohammed hussein al amoudi advised us article suggests could read suggesting mr al amoudi funded supported way associated terrorist activities osama bin laden al qaeda terrorist network evidence connecting mr al amoudi terrorism result exchange communications mr al amoudis lawyers removed article website pleased clarify position august 17 2005 160 | 731 |
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<p>This week, I’m reporting from outside Savannah, Georgia, on my first-ever hunting trip. We’re after invasive <a href="http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/animals/wildboar.shtml" type="external">feral pigs</a>, which have proliferated over the last decade in much of the southeastern US, competing with native species for food and <a href="http://feralhogs.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Feral-Hogs-in-Georgia.pdf" type="external">wreaking havoc</a> on land with their rooting. I’m hanging out with <a href="http://rule-303.blogspot.com/" type="external">Jackson Landers</a>, who aims to whet American appetites for invasive species like hogs, lionfish, geese, deer, and even spiny iguanas by working with wholesalers, chefs, and restaurateurs to promote these aliens as menu items. Read “Feral Pig Diaries Day 1: Moonshine and Teen Swine” <a href="" type="internal">here</a>, and “Feral Pig Diaries Day 2: Do Hogs Like Supermarket Danishes?” <a href="" type="internal">here</a>. My introductory post (wherein MoJo takes a field trip to the shooting range) is <a href="" type="internal">here</a>. A word to the squeamish: The Feral Pig Diaries do contain a few graphic images.</p>
<p>After having seen zero pigs (well, except a <a href="" type="internal">dead one</a>) during the first few days of my Feral Pig Diaries project, I couldn’t wait to get to <a href="http://www.ossabawisland.org/" type="external">Ossabaw</a>, a mostly uninhabited island, 20 miles off the coast of Savannah, with a major hog problem. Ossabaw’s 26,000 acres of dense forest, salt marshes, and sand beaches is usually closed to the public, but the Georgia Department of Natural Resources was nice enough to arrange a trip out so I could see the pigs and the trouble they’ve caused firsthand.</p>
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<p>My friend Caroline and I set out early from her parents’ place, just outside Beaufort, South Carolina, and met David Mixon and Ed Van Otteren, both biologists from the DNR, in a supermarket parking lot. We followed them to this dock, hidden away at the end of a winding drive in the tiny coastal community of Pin Point, Georgia (birthplace of Clarence Thomas!).</p>
<p>We made the 20-minute trip to the island in this little boat, threading our way between barrier islands, where the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogeechee_River" type="external">Ogeechee River</a> empties out into the ocean.</p>
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<p>The day was cold and damp, but we hardly noticed since we were busy gawking at the birds: cormorants, horned grebes, bufflehead ducks, and a whole mess of scaups overhead that changed direction with the wind every few seconds. Especially cool was a bald eagle perched on top of a pole on a marshy island (left.)</p>
<p>Also cool was the driver of our boat, DNR wildlife technician Andy Meadows (right), who has lived on Ossabaw for 11 years. His only (human) neighbors are a few other DNR&#160;staffers (including a full-time hog shooter) and 98-year-old Eleanor Torrey West, the only remaining member of the family from which the DNR purchased the island. “Miss West,” as she’s known, lives in a mansion on the island’s north shore, where she keeps a pet hog named Paul Mitchell, named (I&#160;kid you not) after the hair products guy because it has a cowlick.</p>
<p>I asked Andy if there was a good chance we’d see a hog, and he assured me that he sees them every day. Although pigs were first introduced to the island in the 1500s by Spanish settlers, Ossabaw’s current hog population is the result of centuries of mixing with domestic pigs. Ossabaw wasn’t always uninhabited; it was farmed till quite recently. At one point before the Civil War, the island held four cotton plantations and 1,200 slaves.&#160;</p>
<p>Once docked at the island, we climbed into a truck with Andy, and David and Ed followed in another truck behind us. From a narrow causeway, we saw a marsh full of bird action: great blue herons, snowy egrets, wood storks, wood ducks, oystercatchers, and one little pied-billed grebe who was making a <a href="http://www.junglewalk.com/sound/grebe-sounds.htm" type="external">racket</a>. After the jump: a gory-ish image (but it’s not too bad).</p>
<p>We headed deep into the forest on a dirt road flanked by live oaks and palmettos. After a few minutes, we got out to look for what Andy calls “pigloos,” dried grass and palmetto fronds that the pigs push into piles with their nimble snouts. “You can kinda go up to one and kick it,” says Andy. “You hear it grunt and get ready to shoot.” (The DNR has a shoot-on-sight policy for hogs.) We didn’t see a pigloo, but Andy pointed out holes and piles of decaying fronds and leaves, the handiwork of rooting piglets, “roving bands of juvenile delinquents,” as Andy put it. The ground looked like a weird subtropical moonscape:</p>
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<p>“Nothing else has room to grow when you have pigs around,” he said. The hogs’ only natural predators on the island are alligators (I was sort of hoping to witness a hog-vs.-gator showdown, but it was too cold for gators and Andy said he’d never seen such a thing anyway). And hogs are not picky eaters: In the winter, they feed on acorns, palmetto berries, and whatever other protein sources they can dig up, but in the springtime they head to the beach, where they like to dine on the bycatch from shrimping boats. Their favorite treats, though, are the eggs of threatened loggerhead turtles. In the spring, during turtle nesting season, the DNR sets up <a href="http://www.hogtrapping.com/traps/portable-hog-trap-plans.html" type="external">hog traps</a> on the edge of the beach to catch them before they can get to the turtle eggs.</p>
<p>We emerged from the forest onto the coast, and the truck bounced and shook on the low dunes. Hogs often hang out on the beach, but not today. I couldn’t blame them: It was 40 degrees and rainy. Not exactly beach weather.</p>
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<p>Next we circled back into the forest to a little body of freshwater called Hog Pond. As you can see above, David came prepared. It’s hard to say how successful the DNR staffers’ shooting and trapping efforts are, since no one knows exactly how many pigs are on the island, but they’ve reduced turtle egg depredations considerably. In addition, the agency runs seven public hunts every year. Hunters apply through a lottery system: Ossabaw Island hog is supposed to be especially delicious (though Andy thinks this is a myth—”Yeah, I’ve tasted it, and it pretty much tastes like pork”), so it’s fairly competitive: Your odds of getting selected are only a little better than getting into a really good college: Usually about 400 hunters apply for 70 spots.</p>
<p>We drove on. Andy pointed out a nine-banded armadillo digging for bugs and grubs in the woods:</p>
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<p>I was psyched, since Jackson and I hadn’t had any luck armadillo hunting (yes, these guys are <a href="http://www.gainvasives.org/subject.cfm?sub=4298" type="external">invasive</a>, too) on country roads outside Savannah the other night, though I resisted the temptation to leap from the truck and grab this guys as Jackson might have done.&#160;</p>
<p>I had all but given up hope of a pig sighting when I spotted them: A group of five or six small hogs rooting under the palmettos. For a split second of silence, a little black-and-white pig and I stared at eachother. “Hog,” I whispered. Andy stopped the truck and motioned to the David and Ed behind us. Before I had time to so much as get out my camera, David had gotten out with his rifle, aimed, and fired. With a single head shot, he killed this piglet:</p>
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<p>Not exactly a fearsome monster of muscle and jaw. In fact, my friend Caroline observed that he was significantly smaller than her miniature poodle. But this isn’t hunting for sport: The goal is to get rid of the pigs, and no one gets a pass for being cute. As much as I reminded myself that this piglet was a future turtle-egg-chomping disaster, though, I couldn’t help feeling sad.</p>
<p>We left the dead piglet in the woods. It’s too expensive for the DNR to make pork chops out of all the pigs they kill, so they cover them and let the vultures and bugs have their way. I asked Andy whether he ever considered partnering with restaurants, like Jackson wants to do: Surely some enterprising chef would like to claim this free meal. But Andy doubted the idea could work on a large scale; he thinks it would be too expensive to transport and refrigerate the meat all the way to a restaurant on the mainland.</p>
<p>It was getting late, and we were all cold and hungry, so we headed back to the dock, boarded the boat, and rode back to the mainland.</p>
<p>Waiting for us in Caroline’s parents’ fridge was a shoulder of the hog <a href="" type="internal">Bob had shot</a> during the hunting portion of my trip a few days ago. (Bob and Jackson generously shared with me; we carved my piece off in the parking lot behind the hotel before I&#160;left.) Caroline’s mom Marianne roasted the shoulder in a rich, sweet barbecue sauce with onions, butter, and thyme. The meat came right off the bone. We fixed ourselves pulled-pork sandwiches for dinner. &#160;</p>
<p>Since I’m usually a vegetarian, I don’t exactly know from good pulled pork, but I&#160;thought it was delicious (even better than the hamburger I ate for <a href="" type="internal">research purposes</a> last year):&#160;Tender, dark, smokey, and sweet. (Caroline and her parents, all meat-eaters, agreed, and pronounced it not gamey.)</p>
<p>Want some? If Jackson Landers has his way, this invasive sandwich might soon make an appearance on a menu near you.</p>
<p>Read “Feral Pig Diaries Day 1: Moonshine and Teen Swine” <a href="" type="internal">here</a>, and “Feral Pig Diaries Day 2: Do Hogs Like Supermarket Danishes?” <a href="" type="internal">here</a>. My introductory post (wherein MoJo takes a field trip to the shooting range) is <a href="" type="internal">here</a>.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | week im reporting outside savannah georgia firstever hunting trip invasive feral pigs proliferated last decade much southeastern us competing native species food wreaking havoc land rooting im hanging jackson landers aims whet american appetites invasive species like hogs lionfish geese deer even spiny iguanas working wholesalers chefs restaurateurs promote aliens menu items read feral pig diaries day 1 moonshine teen swine feral pig diaries day 2 hogs like supermarket danishes introductory post wherein mojo takes field trip shooting range word squeamish feral pig diaries contain graphic images seen zero pigs well except dead one first days feral pig diaries project couldnt wait get ossabaw mostly uninhabited island 20 miles coast savannah major hog problem ossabaws 26000 acres dense forest salt marshes sand beaches usually closed public georgia department natural resources nice enough arrange trip could see pigs trouble theyve caused firsthand friend caroline set early parents place outside beaufort south carolina met david mixon ed van otteren biologists dnr supermarket parking lot followed dock hidden away end winding drive tiny coastal community pin point georgia birthplace clarence thomas made 20minute trip island little boat threading way barrier islands ogeechee river empties ocean day cold damp hardly noticed since busy gawking birds cormorants horned grebes bufflehead ducks whole mess scaups overhead changed direction wind every seconds especially cool bald eagle perched top pole marshy island left also cool driver boat dnr wildlife technician andy meadows right lived ossabaw 11 years human neighbors dnr160staffers including fulltime hog shooter 98yearold eleanor torrey west remaining member family dnr purchased island miss west shes known lives mansion islands north shore keeps pet hog named paul mitchell named i160kid hair products guy cowlick asked andy good chance wed see hog assured sees every day although pigs first introduced island 1500s spanish settlers ossabaws current hog population result centuries mixing domestic pigs ossabaw wasnt always uninhabited farmed till quite recently one point civil war island held four cotton plantations 1200 slaves160 docked island climbed truck andy david ed followed another truck behind us narrow causeway saw marsh full bird action great blue herons snowy egrets wood storks wood ducks oystercatchers one little piedbilled grebe making racket jump goryish image bad headed deep forest dirt road flanked live oaks palmettos minutes got look andy calls pigloos dried grass palmetto fronds pigs push piles nimble snouts kinda go one kick says andy hear grunt get ready shoot dnr shootonsight policy hogs didnt see pigloo andy pointed holes piles decaying fronds leaves handiwork rooting piglets roving bands juvenile delinquents andy put ground looked like weird subtropical moonscape nothing else room grow pigs around said hogs natural predators island alligators sort hoping witness hogvsgator showdown cold gators andy said hed never seen thing anyway hogs picky eaters winter feed acorns palmetto berries whatever protein sources dig springtime head beach like dine bycatch shrimping boats favorite treats though eggs threatened loggerhead turtles spring turtle nesting season dnr sets hog traps edge beach catch get turtle eggs emerged forest onto coast truck bounced shook low dunes hogs often hang beach today couldnt blame 40 degrees rainy exactly beach weather next circled back forest little body freshwater called hog pond see david came prepared hard say successful dnr staffers shooting trapping efforts since one knows exactly many pigs island theyve reduced turtle egg depredations considerably addition agency runs seven public hunts every year hunters apply lottery system ossabaw island hog supposed especially delicious though andy thinks mythyeah ive tasted pretty much tastes like pork fairly competitive odds getting selected little better getting really good college usually 400 hunters apply 70 spots drove andy pointed ninebanded armadillo digging bugs grubs woods psyched since jackson hadnt luck armadillo hunting yes guys invasive country roads outside savannah night though resisted temptation leap truck grab guys jackson might done160 given hope pig sighting spotted group five six small hogs rooting palmettos split second silence little blackandwhite pig stared eachother hog whispered andy stopped truck motioned david ed behind us time much get camera david gotten rifle aimed fired single head shot killed piglet exactly fearsome monster muscle jaw fact friend caroline observed significantly smaller miniature poodle isnt hunting sport goal get rid pigs one gets pass cute much reminded piglet future turtleeggchomping disaster though couldnt help feeling sad left dead piglet woods expensive dnr make pork chops pigs kill cover let vultures bugs way asked andy whether ever considered partnering restaurants like jackson wants surely enterprising chef would like claim free meal andy doubted idea could work large scale thinks would expensive transport refrigerate meat way restaurant mainland getting late cold hungry headed back dock boarded boat rode back mainland waiting us carolines parents fridge shoulder hog bob shot hunting portion trip days ago bob jackson generously shared carved piece parking lot behind hotel i160left carolines mom marianne roasted shoulder rich sweet barbecue sauce onions butter thyme meat came right bone fixed pulledpork sandwiches dinner 160 since im usually vegetarian dont exactly know good pulled pork i160thought delicious even better hamburger ate research purposes last year160tender dark smokey sweet caroline parents meateaters agreed pronounced gamey want jackson landers way invasive sandwich might soon make appearance menu near read feral pig diaries day 1 moonshine teen swine feral pig diaries day 2 hogs like supermarket danishes introductory post wherein mojo takes field trip shooting range | 886 |
<p>Chicago police stand guard at the doors of the Thompson Center during a mass protest on December 9, 2015. Max Herman/The Chicago Reporter</p>
<p />
<p>This story appears courtesy of the <a href="http://chicagoreporter.com/" type="external">Chicago Reporter</a>, a nonprofit investigative news organization that focuses on race, poverty, and income inequality.</p>
<p>In the fallout from the release of the Laquan McDonald video, Chicago’s top cop lost his job. But the police officer who <a href="http://chicagoreporter.com/how-chicago-tried-to-cover-up-a-police-execution/" type="external">shot the teenager 16 times</a> is still employed.</p>
<p>Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is captured on police dash cam video shooting McDonald, can thank the <a href="http://www.chicagofop.org/" type="external">police union.</a></p>
<p>The Fraternal Order of Police <a href="http://www.chicagofop.org/contract/" type="external">contract with the city</a> shapes how Chicago handles <a href="http://chicagoreporter.com/police-misconduct-complaints-by-whites-more-likely-to-be-upheld/" type="external">police misconduct allegations</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/us/few-complaints-against-chicago-police-result-in-discipline-data-shows.html" type="external">disciplines</a> rank-and-file officers, as well as <a href="http://chicagoreporter.com/chicago-police-misconduct-payouts-topped-50-million-in-2014/" type="external">when the city pays</a> legal costs for police officers accused of wrongdoing. While activists have long called for changes to the contract, many people in local government have not been eager to take on that fight—until now.</p>
<p>With <a href="http://chicagoreporter.com/new-police-reform-task-force-triggers-feeling-of-deja-vu/" type="external">cries of reform ringing louder</a> than before and a federal investigation of the police department, aldermen are demanding changes to a union contract that <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/154305/city-council-approves-police-contract" type="external">breezed through the City Council</a> in 2014.</p>
<p>“Yes, the FOP is strong,” said Dick Simpson, a political science professor and former Chicago alderman. “But there is huge public pressure at the moment to provide oversight for police and to curb police abuse and corruption.”</p>
<p>The police contract expires in 2017. The Black Caucus is demanding that an officer’s liability risk be tied to their employment, as well as other changes, including tougher punishment for misconduct.</p>
<p>Ald. Howard Brookins (21st) said the contract makes it harder to cut ties with cops like Van Dyke who had numerous citizen complaints against him and <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-police-shooting-16-shots-04---met-20150425-story.html" type="external">had reportedly cost the city</a> more than $500,000 in legal settlements and fees. And critics said the evidence against Van Dyke was damning enough for him to be fired immediately.</p>
<p>“We have to be able to get rid of bad police officers,” Brookins said. “Maybe that’s something we shouldn’t have to bargain for.”</p>
<p>The union contends that changes to the contract would discourage people from becoming cops.</p>
<p>FOP President Dean Angelo said the contract contains fair and necessary protections for cops and doesn’t tie authorities’ hands in misconduct cases such as Van Dyke’s as much as some people think. He cast the aldermen as opportunists riding the wave of public outrage over a white cop shooting a black youth.</p>
<p>“It’s easy now in this environment to point fingers at us,” Angelo said.</p>
<p>Brookins acknowledged that there hasn’t been momentum on the council to change the contract. But now, he said, “There is a political will.”</p>
<p>The police contract</p>
<p>The current police contract, which was approved by the City Council unanimously in November 2014, sets the bar high for firing or suspending a cop.</p>
<p>Part of the agreement, known as the police bill of rights, gives cops a layer of due process beyond what most citizens enjoy. The contract allows officers to get in writing information about an investigation, including who will question them and what they’ll be asked. Cops who shoot civilians can delay making an official statement for several days, and investigators can’t interview them without providing transcripts of every prior interviews or notifying them.</p>
<p>Another union protection came into play in McDonald’s death. Experts suggested the officers who saw the shooting—whose <a href="http://chicagoreporter.com/how-chicago-tried-to-cover-up-a-police-execution/" type="external">accounts clash with the video</a>—should have been subject to lie detector tests, but the police bill of rights in the contract gives them the right to refuse the tests. In addition, police complaint and disciplinary records <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/news-chicago/7/71/1149585/lawsuit-seeks-stop-police-discipline-files-destroyed" type="external">must be destroyed</a> in five or seven years based on the type of alleged offense, making it harder to show a pattern of misconduct.</p>
<p>The union recently halted a city effort to grant requests for police misconduct records dating back to the 1960s, arguing that the city violated the union agreement by keeping the files. Investigators are also limited in how they can use past allegations of abuse to resolve new claims, according to the contract.</p>
<p>The superintendent has to file charges with the <a href="http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/cpb.html/" type="external">Chicago Police Board</a> and win an evidentiary hearing to fire an officer or issue a lengthy suspension. Even when investigators sustain allegations against an officer, the contract allows police to skirt the police board. For example, if the Independent Police Review Authority recommends suspending an officer, the contract lets him appeal the decision through arbitration, a process that experts characterize as heavily stacked in favor of cops.</p>
<p>“The incentives of the chief of police on down are further dampened by the knowledge that anything they do can be undone easily in arbitration,” said Max Schanzenbach, a law professor at Northwestern University. “So they have these cops well known to have numerous citizen complaints and settlements paid out for them, but they’re not dismissed from the force.”</p>
<p>Angelo contends that the FOP shields its officers from unfair discipline due to unfounded allegations just as any union would do for its members. He said the life or death stakes many cops operate under and the possibility of false complaints affords them special consideration.</p>
<p>While the public has expressed outrage over cops like Van Dyke, who, until recently, collected a check on desk duty, there’s little the city can do if the cop hasn’t been charged with a crime or had a complaint against them sustained.</p>
<p>The police department was able to suspend Van Dyke without pay when he got charged with murder by the State’s Attorney’s office a year after McDonald’s death, <a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/1124537/officer-still-payroll-possible-criminal-charges-loom-fatal-mcdonald-shooting" type="external">but the department did not fire him</a>. The Independent Police Review Authority froze its investigation after forwarding the case to county prosecutors.</p>
<p>A call for contract reform</p>
<p>Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th) said he wants a separate expedited disciplinary process in the contract for fatal shooting cases like Van Dyke’s where evidence of excessive force is obvious, even without criminal charges or a drawn out investigation.</p>
<p>“There are a lot of questions around why this officer was not removed,” Pawar said.</p>
<p>Some aldermen are scrutinizing the issue of indemnification, or covering legal costs for cops sued for alleged misconduct.</p>
<p>Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) released <a href="http://www.dowellforthirdward.com/statement-on-laquan-mcdonald-and-peace-prayer-vigil/" type="external">a statement</a> calling for the police union to chip in for misconduct settlements, which cost the city more than $50 million last year. She argued that “residents of Chicago should not be solely responsible for the cost of settlements in police cases.”</p>
<p>Ald. Will Burns (4th) a close ally of the mayor, also issued <a href="http://us8.campaign-archive2.com/?u=06ec4db706d5292e6f11a9a04&amp;id=56d618f1e1" type="external">a statement</a> that said “officers with a high number of complaints are a liability for the city of Chicago, and erode the critical trust between police and community.” He said the contract should be reviewed to allow authorities to suspend or fire cops with too many complaint as well as officers subject to excessive force lawsuits settled by the city.</p>
<p />
<p>Brookins suggested the city should take a cue from the private sector and write risk management clauses into the union contract.</p>
<p>“If you kept getting your company sued and cost them millions of dollars, you would be out of there,” he said. “And if you kept getting in too many car accidents, even if you said they weren’t your fault, your insurance company would drop you as a liability risk.”</p>
<p>But Angelo said that making an officer’s liability risk cause for termination would discourage people from signing up for a job that is inherently risky.</p>
<p>“We do a job less and less people want,” Angelo said. “That would minimize the population of people who want to perform this calling.”</p>
<p>Critics of the union contract don’t just want to change what’s in the agreement. They also want to change the negotiation process and give the public a forum to air concerns well in advance of a City Council vote on the contract.</p>
<p>Not much public input, if any, goes into union contract negotiations. The FOP and the city’s negotiators typically hammer out an agreement in private, sometimes with the help of an independent arbitrator, and present it to City Council for a vote.</p>
<p>Several experts said the city should hold public hearings about the police contract before negotiations are finalized.</p>
<p>“We need to put some sunlight on those union provisions that are offensive and which ones need to be changed, and then organize at the local level to get city council and mayors who won’t yield to union demands,” said police misconduct expert Sam Walker. “The police union is very effective in playing the crime card against their critics: ‘Oh, you’re against the police, you support the criminals.’ They’ve been doing that for decades.”</p>
<p>Despite <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/black-lives-matter-takes-aim-at-police-union-contracts/418530/" type="external">increasing national scrutiny of police union contracts</a> and how they affect police accountability, Walker said that they are still an underrated issue. That’s partly because much of the public isn’t aware of their problematic provisions, he said, but also because police unions have proven adept at getting their way in city halls and statehouses across the country.</p>
<p>Brookins and Schanzenbach both said that some of the most challenging concerns about the contract would require changes to state law. Illinois requires cities to negotiate disciplinary procedures as part of collective bargaining and foot the bill for cops sued for misconduct. A state law known as the police officer bill of rights <a href="http://chicagoreporter.com/police-have-their-own-bill-of-rights-raising-questions-about-accountability/" type="external">was modeled</a> after one of the most criticized parts of the contract.</p>
<p>But there’s still a lot officials and residents in Chicago can do, Walker said, including targeting the next round of contract negotiations.</p>
<p>“When a contract comes up for a vote by City Council,” Walker said, “it’s too late.”</p>
<p>Angelo said FOP has not been twisting the city’s arm in negotiations.</p>
<p>“The contract has been negotiated for almost 35 years,” he said, “and we certainly didn’t pull the wool over officials in the city of Chicago’s eyes time and time again.”</p>
<p>Political will to take on the FOP</p>
<p>Fighting the FOP isn’t easy. Matthew Piers, who was a top city lawyer under Mayor Harold Washington, said he lost <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-02-07/business/8903030696_1_police-officers-chicago-police-board-officer-acts" type="external">his battle against the union</a> in the 1980s. When Piers, now 64, joined the Chicago Law Department in 1984, the city had approved Chicago’s first FOP contract several years earlier. He had to work within the framework of union agreements made by Washington’s predecessor, Jane Byrne. One of those agreements was the indemnification clause, and Piers was charged with deciding whether the city would pay legal costs for police officers accused of misconduct.</p>
<p>Piers quickly ran afoul of the union for his refusal in numerous cases to foot the bill for cops he believed had intentionally harmed civilians. One such case involved a cop who was accused of raping a woman in the back of his car. The physical evidence, Piers said, left little doubt that nonconsensual sex had occurred, so he declined to represent the officer. But the FOP, which blasted him as anti-police for his stance, took the case to arbitration, citing the union contract. The arbitrator ordered the city to pay legal bills for the officer, who Piers said kept his job.</p>
<p>“Your conduct could cost the city millions with there being no repercussions for you as an individual,” Piers said. “That disconnect—I found it troubling then, and I find it troubling now.”</p>
<p>There have been several versions of the FOP contract ratified since the 1980s, but the provisions that City Council members want to put under a microscope aren’t new.</p>
<p>Angelo wonders why aldermen are talking so tough about a contract that they approved just last year. Aldermen could have questioned the contract or raised the issue of discipline, but, Angelo said, “I didn’t hear a word from any of them.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know if those people read what they voted on,” he said. “But if they didn’t read this contract before they voted on it and now are blaming us—shame on them.”</p>
<p>Brookins said he has raised concerns about the FOP contract in the past, but didn’t feel he had the political capital to be more vocal or force a change until now.</p>
<p>“Even when I was first elected in 2004, it was not popular or desirable to talk against the police,” Brookins said. “Everybody wanted to be the friend of law enforcement, to be tougher on crime, and going against the police, they equated that as siding with the criminals. So lawmaker after lawmaker has been tougher and tougher on crime, saying we support our police officers. So almost anything they bargained for they got.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | chicago police stand guard doors thompson center mass protest december 9 2015 max hermanthe chicago reporter story appears courtesy chicago reporter nonprofit investigative news organization focuses race poverty income inequality fallout release laquan mcdonald video chicagos top cop lost job police officer shot teenager 16 times still employed officer jason van dyke captured police dash cam video shooting mcdonald thank police union fraternal order police contract city shapes chicago handles police misconduct allegations disciplines rankandfile officers well city pays legal costs police officers accused wrongdoing activists long called changes contract many people local government eager take fightuntil cries reform ringing louder federal investigation police department aldermen demanding changes union contract breezed city council 2014 yes fop strong said dick simpson political science professor former chicago alderman huge public pressure moment provide oversight police curb police abuse corruption police contract expires 2017 black caucus demanding officers liability risk tied employment well changes including tougher punishment misconduct ald howard brookins 21st said contract makes harder cut ties cops like van dyke numerous citizen complaints reportedly cost city 500000 legal settlements fees critics said evidence van dyke damning enough fired immediately able get rid bad police officers brookins said maybe thats something shouldnt bargain union contends changes contract would discourage people becoming cops fop president dean angelo said contract contains fair necessary protections cops doesnt tie authorities hands misconduct cases van dykes much people think cast aldermen opportunists riding wave public outrage white cop shooting black youth easy environment point fingers us angelo said brookins acknowledged hasnt momentum council change contract said political police contract current police contract approved city council unanimously november 2014 sets bar high firing suspending cop part agreement known police bill rights gives cops layer due process beyond citizens enjoy contract allows officers get writing information investigation including question theyll asked cops shoot civilians delay making official statement several days investigators cant interview without providing transcripts every prior interviews notifying another union protection came play mcdonalds death experts suggested officers saw shootingwhose accounts clash videoshould subject lie detector tests police bill rights contract gives right refuse tests addition police complaint disciplinary records must destroyed five seven years based type alleged offense making harder show pattern misconduct union recently halted city effort grant requests police misconduct records dating back 1960s arguing city violated union agreement keeping files investigators also limited use past allegations abuse resolve new claims according contract superintendent file charges chicago police board win evidentiary hearing fire officer issue lengthy suspension even investigators sustain allegations officer contract allows police skirt police board example independent police review authority recommends suspending officer contract lets appeal decision arbitration process experts characterize heavily stacked favor cops incentives chief police dampened knowledge anything undone easily arbitration said max schanzenbach law professor northwestern university cops well known numerous citizen complaints settlements paid theyre dismissed force angelo contends fop shields officers unfair discipline due unfounded allegations union would members said life death stakes many cops operate possibility false complaints affords special consideration public expressed outrage cops like van dyke recently collected check desk duty theres little city cop hasnt charged crime complaint sustained police department able suspend van dyke without pay got charged murder states attorneys office year mcdonalds death department fire independent police review authority froze investigation forwarding case county prosecutors call contract reform ald ameya pawar 47th said wants separate expedited disciplinary process contract fatal shooting cases like van dykes evidence excessive force obvious even without criminal charges drawn investigation lot questions around officer removed pawar said aldermen scrutinizing issue indemnification covering legal costs cops sued alleged misconduct ald pat dowell 3rd released statement calling police union chip misconduct settlements cost city 50 million last year argued residents chicago solely responsible cost settlements police cases ald burns 4th close ally mayor also issued statement said officers high number complaints liability city chicago erode critical trust police community said contract reviewed allow authorities suspend fire cops many complaint well officers subject excessive force lawsuits settled city brookins suggested city take cue private sector write risk management clauses union contract kept getting company sued cost millions dollars would said kept getting many car accidents even said werent fault insurance company would drop liability risk angelo said making officers liability risk cause termination would discourage people signing job inherently risky job less less people want angelo said would minimize population people want perform calling critics union contract dont want change whats agreement also want change negotiation process give public forum air concerns well advance city council vote contract much public input goes union contract negotiations fop citys negotiators typically hammer agreement private sometimes help independent arbitrator present city council vote several experts said city hold public hearings police contract negotiations finalized need put sunlight union provisions offensive ones need changed organize local level get city council mayors wont yield union demands said police misconduct expert sam walker police union effective playing crime card critics oh youre police support criminals theyve decades despite increasing national scrutiny police union contracts affect police accountability walker said still underrated issue thats partly much public isnt aware problematic provisions said also police unions proven adept getting way city halls statehouses across country brookins schanzenbach said challenging concerns contract would require changes state law illinois requires cities negotiate disciplinary procedures part collective bargaining foot bill cops sued misconduct state law known police officer bill rights modeled one criticized parts contract theres still lot officials residents chicago walker said including targeting next round contract negotiations contract comes vote city council walker said late angelo said fop twisting citys arm negotiations contract negotiated almost 35 years said certainly didnt pull wool officials city chicagos eyes time time political take fop fighting fop isnt easy matthew piers top city lawyer mayor harold washington said lost battle union 1980s piers 64 joined chicago law department 1984 city approved chicagos first fop contract several years earlier work within framework union agreements made washingtons predecessor jane byrne one agreements indemnification clause piers charged deciding whether city would pay legal costs police officers accused misconduct piers quickly ran afoul union refusal numerous cases foot bill cops believed intentionally harmed civilians one case involved cop accused raping woman back car physical evidence piers said left little doubt nonconsensual sex occurred declined represent officer fop blasted antipolice stance took case arbitration citing union contract arbitrator ordered city pay legal bills officer piers said kept job conduct could cost city millions repercussions individual piers said disconnecti found troubling find troubling several versions fop contract ratified since 1980s provisions city council members want put microscope arent new angelo wonders aldermen talking tough contract approved last year aldermen could questioned contract raised issue discipline angelo said didnt hear word dont know people read voted said didnt read contract voted blaming usshame brookins said raised concerns fop contract past didnt feel political capital vocal force change even first elected 2004 popular desirable talk police brookins said everybody wanted friend law enforcement tougher crime going police equated siding criminals lawmaker lawmaker tougher tougher crime saying support police officers almost anything bargained got | 1,176 |
<p>The white supremacist rampage in Charlottesville, Virginia was the predictable outcome of the Republican Party’s racist agenda and Donald Trump’s ascension to the presidency.</p>
<p>The racist violence of the Right has been unshackled by Trump’s election. White racists have not just been emboldened by President Trump, they have also been encouraged by the Trump administration’s silence amid the dramatic growth of white supremacist organizations and violent racist attacks.</p>
<p>Antiracist activist <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/us/heather-heyer-charlottesville-victim.html?_r=0" type="external">Heather Heyer</a> is one of a growing list of people who have been killed by white racists since Trump’s election. Just months ago, self-described “alt-Reich” activists murdered African-American student <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/topic/crime-law-justice/crime/richard-collins-iii-PEOCVC0047-topic.html" type="external">Richard W. Collins III</a>. Earlier this year, Ricky John Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/28/he-will-remain-a-hero-families-and-friends-mourn-victims-of-portland-stabbing" type="external">were savagely murdered</a> when the two men intervened to stop a white racist from verbally abusing two young black women, one of whom was Muslim and wearing a hijab.</p>
<p>Collins’s murder received no response from the Trump White House, while the vicious slayings of Best and Meche elicited a rare and underwhelming comment from Trump. Trump’s muted comments in response to acts of racial terrorism stand in stark contrast to the bombast and vitriol he uses when he’s whipping up his base into a racist frenzy.</p>
<p>When Trump finally made a public statement many hours after the racist melee in Charlottesville began, it was intentionally vague: he claimed to oppose violence “on many sides.”</p>
<p>Trump’s behavior is appalling but hardly shocking. He has been involved in an obscene dalliance with violent racists since his campaign, which saw the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, and other notorious white supremacists endorsed him. His chief strategist is <a href="" type="internal">Steve Bannon</a>, who has previously bragged about his relationship with the “alt-right.” <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/sebastian-gorka-the-west-wings-phony-foreign-policy-guru-w496912" type="external">Sebastian Gorka</a>, a deputy assistant of Trump who has established ties to fascist organizations in Hungary, said last week that “white supremacists” are not a problem in the US.</p>
<p>If Charlottesville is another episode of racist violence that has been vaguely and quietly criticized by the Trump administration, it also represents an alarming escalation of organized racist violence in the US. Other white supremacist murders that have occurred since Trump’s inauguration could be described as random acts of racist violence. But the events in Charlottesville were planned well in advance.</p>
<p>For several months, it’s been known that white racists were going to descend upon Charlottesville to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue from a local park. This ragtag collection of racist organizations have been staging protests in and around the liberal college town for several months — including an earlier version of the tiki torch march that resurfaced on Friday evening.</p>
<p>Fascist organizations and their white supremacist allies spoke openly about bringing weapons — including guns — to Charlottesville. And they did, showing up with helmets, clubs, pepper spray, wooden shields, and assault rifles. On Friday night, before their supposed protest, hundreds of mostly young white men marched through the University of Virginia campus,&#160; <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/12/us/white-nationalists-tiki-torch-march-trnd/index.html" type="external">brandishing torches</a>. They also reportedly marched on a black church service being held in preparation for a major counter-protest the following day.</p>
<p>It was a naked act of racist intimidation. Despite their claims to only want to exercise their free speech rights, the white racists arrived in Charlottesville to riot, mob, and kill anyone who got in their way. The Southern Poverty Law Center described it as the largest gathering of hate groups in the US in decades.</p>
<p>Their mob action revealed multiple realities: they are relatively small, disproportionately violent — and <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/police-stood-by-as-mayhem-mounted-in-charlottesville" type="external">completely coddled</a> by law enforcement. On Friday evening, the police allowed these torch-bearing racists to descend upon a black church chanting “white lives matter” and the Nazi slogan “blood and soil,” with no permit to protest. The following day, police stood passively as white supremacists lined up in formation, charged at protestors, and beat people.</p>
<p>The contrast with police treatment of Black Lives Matter protests was night and day. The police let a racist mob intent on physical violence simply have its way. The white supremacists never had to contend with tanks, tear gas, dogs, water cannons, or assault from riot police. When antiracists chant “the cops and the Klan go hand in hand,” it is this cozy, almost collegial, relationship to which they are referring.</p>
<p>Trump’s reluctance to openly denounce the white supremacists that supported his candidacy and now support his presidency has embarrassed his Republican Party into rebuking its association with white racists. By Sunday, it was hard not to find a Republican denouncing white supremacist violence — with the important exception of the president of the United States.</p>
<p>Florida&#160;senator Marco Rubio <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/trump-and-rubio-react-to-racial-violence-in-charlottesville/2333548" type="external">implored</a> Trump to make clear his opposition to white supremacy. Utah senator Orrin Hatch <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/346343-gop-senator-rips-trump-over-charlottesville-statement-call-evil-by-its-name" type="external">urged</a> Trump to “call evil by its name.” Speaker of the House Paul Ryan <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-politicians-condemn-white-nationalist-rally-charlottesville-virginia-n792096" type="external">described</a> the attacks in Charlottesville as an example of “vile bigotry.”</p>
<p>The Republican Party is crying crocodile tears. This, after all, is the party that gave Trump the platform he has stood on&#160;for months, espousing the vilest racism in modern American history. For months, Republicans have cheered on Trump’s racist rampage in the White House. There was, of course, the Muslim travel ban that Trump called for within hours of his inauguration. But they have also stood by while he’s used Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to instill terror in immigrant communities through the weapon of raids. Republicans have celebrated the Trump administration and its return to supposed “law and order” rhetoric — led by Jeff Sessions — while Trump simultaneously encourages the police to abuse people in their custody.</p>
<p>These central pillars of the Trump administration, widely supported by the Republican Party as a whole, are only the very beginning. In the last several weeks, the Trump administration has signaled their intent to investigate whether white people are the victims of discrimination in higher education. They have proposed&#160;limiting the number of immigrants migrating to the United States who do not speak English. And they have threatened to increase the number of raids in immigrant communities while specifically targeting for deportation young immigrants brought into the country when they were children.</p>
<p>More than providing a platform for Trump’s racist hate speech, the Republican Party has boosted his political agenda — an agenda that has imbued the racist right with the confidence that they can succeed in their campaign of terrorizing, marginalizing, and even killing those who stand in their way. This includes black and brown people as well as the white antiracists who challenge them. We are all in their crosshairs.</p>
<p>The fight against racism in Charlottesville forced public officials to finally come out and speak against the growth of white supremacy and neo-Nazis. We have to continue to unite the struggle against right-wing racists and stop them before they kill again.</p> | true | 4 | white supremacist rampage charlottesville virginia predictable outcome republican partys racist agenda donald trumps ascension presidency racist violence right unshackled trumps election white racists emboldened president trump also encouraged trump administrations silence amid dramatic growth white supremacist organizations violent racist attacks antiracist activist heather heyer one growing list people killed white racists since trumps election months ago selfdescribed altreich activists murdered africanamerican student richard w collins iii earlier year ricky john best taliesin myrddin namkai meche savagely murdered two men intervened stop white racist verbally abusing two young black women one muslim wearing hijab collinss murder received response trump white house vicious slayings best meche elicited rare underwhelming comment trump trumps muted comments response acts racial terrorism stand stark contrast bombast vitriol uses hes whipping base racist frenzy trump finally made public statement many hours racist melee charlottesville began intentionally vague claimed oppose violence many sides trumps behavior appalling hardly shocking involved obscene dalliance violent racists since campaign saw ku klux klan david duke notorious white supremacists endorsed chief strategist steve bannon previously bragged relationship altright sebastian gorka deputy assistant trump established ties fascist organizations hungary said last week white supremacists problem us charlottesville another episode racist violence vaguely quietly criticized trump administration also represents alarming escalation organized racist violence us white supremacist murders occurred since trumps inauguration could described random acts racist violence events charlottesville planned well advance several months known white racists going descend upon charlottesville protest removal robert e lee statue local park ragtag collection racist organizations staging protests around liberal college town several months including earlier version tiki torch march resurfaced friday evening fascist organizations white supremacist allies spoke openly bringing weapons including guns charlottesville showing helmets clubs pepper spray wooden shields assault rifles friday night supposed protest hundreds mostly young white men marched university virginia campus160 brandishing torches also reportedly marched black church service held preparation major counterprotest following day naked act racist intimidation despite claims want exercise free speech rights white racists arrived charlottesville riot mob kill anyone got way southern poverty law center described largest gathering hate groups us decades mob action revealed multiple realities relatively small disproportionately violent completely coddled law enforcement friday evening police allowed torchbearing racists descend upon black church chanting white lives matter nazi slogan blood soil permit protest following day police stood passively white supremacists lined formation charged protestors beat people contrast police treatment black lives matter protests night day police let racist mob intent physical violence simply way white supremacists never contend tanks tear gas dogs water cannons assault riot police antiracists chant cops klan go hand hand cozy almost collegial relationship referring trumps reluctance openly denounce white supremacists supported candidacy support presidency embarrassed republican party rebuking association white racists sunday hard find republican denouncing white supremacist violence important exception president united states florida160senator marco rubio implored trump make clear opposition white supremacy utah senator orrin hatch urged trump call evil name speaker house paul ryan described attacks charlottesville example vile bigotry republican party crying crocodile tears party gave trump platform stood on160for months espousing vilest racism modern american history months republicans cheered trumps racist rampage white house course muslim travel ban trump called within hours inauguration also stood hes used immigration customs enforcement ice instill terror immigrant communities weapon raids republicans celebrated trump administration return supposed law order rhetoric led jeff sessions trump simultaneously encourages police abuse people custody central pillars trump administration widely supported republican party whole beginning last several weeks trump administration signaled intent investigate whether white people victims discrimination higher education proposed160limiting number immigrants migrating united states speak english threatened increase number raids immigrant communities specifically targeting deportation young immigrants brought country children providing platform trumps racist hate speech republican party boosted political agenda agenda imbued racist right confidence succeed campaign terrorizing marginalizing even killing stand way includes black brown people well white antiracists challenge crosshairs fight racism charlottesville forced public officials finally come speak growth white supremacy neonazis continue unite struggle rightwing racists stop kill | 662 |
<p>Twenty-one years ago this week, lethal radiation poured into the breezes over Europe and into the jet stream above, carrying death and disease around the planet.</p>
<p>It could be happening again as you read this: either by error, as at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, or by terror, as could have happened on September 11, 2001.</p>
<p>Those who now advocate a “rebirth” of this failed technology forget what happened during these “impossible” catastrophes, or refuse to face their apocalyptic reality, both ecological and financial.</p>
<p>Radiation monitors in Sweden, hundreds of miles away, first detected the fallout from the blast at Chernobyl Unit 4. The reactor complex had just been extolled in the Soviet press as the ultimate triumph of a “new generation” in atomic technology.</p>
<p>The Gorbachev government hushed up the accident, then reaped a whirlwind of public fury that helped bring down the Soviet Union. The initial silence in fact killed people who might otherwise have taken protective measures. In downtown Kiev, just 80 kilometers away, a parade of uninformed citizens—many of them very young—celebrated May Day amidst a hard rain of lethal fallout. It should never have happened.</p>
<p>Ten days after the explosion, radiation monitors at Point Reyes Station, on the California coast, detected that fallout. A sixty percent drop in bird births soon followed. (The researcher who made that public was fired).</p>
<p>Before they happened, reactor pushers said accidents like those at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl were “impossible.” But.</p>
<p>To this day, no one knows how much radiation escaped from TMI, where it went or who it harmed. But 2400 central Pennsylvanians who have sued to find out have been denied their day in court for nearly thirty years. The epithet “no one died at Three Mile Island” is baseless wishful thinking.</p>
<p>To this day also, no one knows how much radiation escaped from Chernobyl, where it went and who was harmed. Dr. Alexey Yablokov, former environmental advisor to the late President Boris Yeltsin, and president of the Center for Russian Environmental Policy, estimates the death toll at 300,000. The infant death and childhood cancer rates in the downwind areas have been horrific. Visual images of the innumerable deformed offspring make the most ghastly science fiction movies seem tame.</p>
<p>Industry apologists have stretched the limits of common decency to explain away these disasters. Patrick Moore, who falsely claims to be a founder of Greenpeace, has called TMI a “success story.” An industry doctor long ago argued that Chernobyl would somehow “lower the cancer rate.”</p>
<p>In human terms, such claims are beneath contempt. As one of the few reporters to venture into central Pennsylvania to study the health impacts of TMI, I can recall no worse experience in my lifetime than interviewing the scores of casualties.</p>
<p>The farmers made clear, with appalling documentation, that the animal death toll alone was horrendous. But the common human symptoms, ranging from a metallic taste the day of the accident to immediate hair loss, bleeding sores, asthma and so much more, came straight out of easily available literature from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.</p>
<p>There is no mystery about what happened downwind from TMI, only a conscious, well-funded corporate, media and judicial blackout.</p>
<p>At Chernobyl, the experience was repeated a thousand-fold. More than 800,000 (that’s NOT a typo) Soviet draftees were run through the radioactive ruins as “jumpers,” being exposed for 90 seconds or so to do menial clean-up work before hustling out. The ensuing cancer rate has been catastrophic (this huge cohort of very angry young men subsequently played a key role in bringing down the Soviet Union).</p>
<p>In both cases, “official” literature negating (at TMI) or minimizing (at Chernobyl) the death toll are utter nonsense. The multiple killing powers of radiation remain as much a medical mystery as how much fallout escaped in each case and where it went.</p>
<p>The economic impacts are not so murky. Moore’s assertion that TMI was a success story is literally insane. A $900 million asset became a $2 billion clean-up job in a matter of minutes. At Chernobyl, the cost of the accident in lost power, damaged earth, abandoned communities and medical nightmares has been conservatively estimated at a half-trillion dollars, and still climbing.</p>
<p>The price of a melt-down or terror attack at an American nuke is beyond calculation. In most cases, reactors built in areas once far from population centers have now been surrounded by development, some of it bumping right up to the plant perimeters. Had the jets that hit the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001 instead hit Indian Point Units Two and Three, 45 miles north, the human and financial costs would have been unimaginable. Imagine the entire metropolitan New York area being made permanently uninhabitable, and then calculate out what happens to the US economy.</p>
<p>There remains no way to protect any of the roughly 450 commercial reactors on this planet from either terror attack or an error on the part of plant operators.</p>
<p>Those advocating more nukes ignore the myriad good reasons why no private insurance company has stepped forward to insure them against catastrophe. Those who say future accidents are impossible forget that exactly the same was said of TMI and Chernobyl.</p>
<p>The commercial fuel cycle DOES emit global warming in the uranium enrichment process. Uranium mining kills miners. Milling leaves billions of tons of tailings that emit immeasurable quantities of radioactive radon. Regular reactor operations spew direct heat in to the air and water. They also pump fallout into the increasingly populated surroundings, with impacts on the infant death rate that have already been measured and proven. And, of course, there is no solution for the management of high-level waste, a problem the industry promised would be solved a half-century ago.</p>
<p>Economically, early forays into a “new generation” of reactors have already been plagued by huge cost overruns and construction delays. At best they would take ten to fifteen years to build, by which time renewable sources and efficiency—which are already cheaper than new nukes—will have totally outstripped this failed technology. Small wonder Wall Street wants no part of this radioactive hype, which is essentially just another corporate campaign for taxpayer handouts.</p>
<p>This past Earth Day an orgy of corporate greenwashing, aided by the always-compliant major media, tried to portray nukes as “green” energy. Nothing could be further from the truth.</p>
<p>We will never get to Solartopia, a sustainable economy based on renewables and efficiency, as long as atomic power sucks up our resources and threatens us with extinction.</p>
<p>Twenty-one years ago this week, Chernobyl became something far worse than a mere warning beacon. The radiation it spewed still travels our jet stream, still lodges in our bodies, still harms our children.</p>
<p>Only by burying this failed, murderous beast can we get to a truly green future.</p>
<p>HARVEY WASSERMAN, senior advisor to Greenpeace USA since 1990, is author of “ <a href="" type="internal">Solartopia: Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030,</a>” &#160;</p> | true | 4 | twentyone years ago week lethal radiation poured breezes europe jet stream carrying death disease around planet could happening read either error chernobyl three mile island terror could happened september 11 2001 advocate rebirth failed technology forget happened impossible catastrophes refuse face apocalyptic reality ecological financial radiation monitors sweden hundreds miles away first detected fallout blast chernobyl unit 4 reactor complex extolled soviet press ultimate triumph new generation atomic technology gorbachev government hushed accident reaped whirlwind public fury helped bring soviet union initial silence fact killed people might otherwise taken protective measures downtown kiev 80 kilometers away parade uninformed citizensmany youngcelebrated may day amidst hard rain lethal fallout never happened ten days explosion radiation monitors point reyes station california coast detected fallout sixty percent drop bird births soon followed researcher made public fired happened reactor pushers said accidents like three mile island chernobyl impossible day one knows much radiation escaped tmi went harmed 2400 central pennsylvanians sued find denied day court nearly thirty years epithet one died three mile island baseless wishful thinking day also one knows much radiation escaped chernobyl went harmed dr alexey yablokov former environmental advisor late president boris yeltsin president center russian environmental policy estimates death toll 300000 infant death childhood cancer rates downwind areas horrific visual images innumerable deformed offspring make ghastly science fiction movies seem tame industry apologists stretched limits common decency explain away disasters patrick moore falsely claims founder greenpeace called tmi success story industry doctor long ago argued chernobyl would somehow lower cancer rate human terms claims beneath contempt one reporters venture central pennsylvania study health impacts tmi recall worse experience lifetime interviewing scores casualties farmers made clear appalling documentation animal death toll alone horrendous common human symptoms ranging metallic taste day accident immediate hair loss bleeding sores asthma much came straight easily available literature hiroshima nagasaki mystery happened downwind tmi conscious wellfunded corporate media judicial blackout chernobyl experience repeated thousandfold 800000 thats typo soviet draftees run radioactive ruins jumpers exposed 90 seconds menial cleanup work hustling ensuing cancer rate catastrophic huge cohort angry young men subsequently played key role bringing soviet union cases official literature negating tmi minimizing chernobyl death toll utter nonsense multiple killing powers radiation remain much medical mystery much fallout escaped case went economic impacts murky moores assertion tmi success story literally insane 900 million asset became 2 billion cleanup job matter minutes chernobyl cost accident lost power damaged earth abandoned communities medical nightmares conservatively estimated halftrillion dollars still climbing price meltdown terror attack american nuke beyond calculation cases reactors built areas far population centers surrounded development bumping right plant perimeters jets hit world trade center 9112001 instead hit indian point units two three 45 miles north human financial costs would unimaginable imagine entire metropolitan new york area made permanently uninhabitable calculate happens us economy remains way protect roughly 450 commercial reactors planet either terror attack error part plant operators advocating nukes ignore myriad good reasons private insurance company stepped forward insure catastrophe say future accidents impossible forget exactly said tmi chernobyl commercial fuel cycle emit global warming uranium enrichment process uranium mining kills miners milling leaves billions tons tailings emit immeasurable quantities radioactive radon regular reactor operations spew direct heat air water also pump fallout increasingly populated surroundings impacts infant death rate already measured proven course solution management highlevel waste problem industry promised would solved halfcentury ago economically early forays new generation reactors already plagued huge cost overruns construction delays best would take ten fifteen years build time renewable sources efficiencywhich already cheaper new nukeswill totally outstripped failed technology small wonder wall street wants part radioactive hype essentially another corporate campaign taxpayer handouts past earth day orgy corporate greenwashing aided alwayscompliant major media tried portray nukes green energy nothing could truth never get solartopia sustainable economy based renewables efficiency long atomic power sucks resources threatens us extinction twentyone years ago week chernobyl became something far worse mere warning beacon radiation spewed still travels jet stream still lodges bodies still harms children burying failed murderous beast get truly green future harvey wasserman senior advisor greenpeace usa since 1990 author solartopia greenpowered earth ad 2030 160 | 686 |
<p><a href="http://wp.me/p3bwni-7b1" type="external">21st Century Wire</a> says…</p>
<p>‘Shop til you drop’ is the mantra that defines one aspect of cultural identity in the West. The flip side of that coin is called ‘work til you drop’, but it is invisible to retail extremists in cities like New York, London, Paris and Los Angeles – but it’s very real for sweatshop factory floor workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.</p>
<p>The brands you love – Gap, Target, H&amp;M, Adidas, Puma et all, and all made on the cheap by American and European corporations employing quasi-slave labour earning the princely sum of around $3.50 per day. Thanks to the west’s international WTO trade mafia and commodity casino markets, a worker will spend approximately $1.50 to $2 of that money per day on subsistence food. What’s left over at the end of the month could not buy a one designer T-Shirt (but maybe enough to feed a retail fashion super model for a week). It’s a pretty bad deal all around for the people in this region. And they say colonialism is dead?</p>
<p>Cambodian ‘Canaries in the Coal Mine‘</p>
<p>Mass faintings are up again this year, as Cambodian workers try to endure 100F temperatures inside. Garment retail’s frontline workers are today’s equivalent of ‘canaries in the coal mine’.</p>
<p>Factory owners and their fat retail clients starting to realise the inevitable backlash that comes with neoslavery in the 21st century. At the start of this year in January, street violence rocked multiple industrial areas in Phnom Penh, as hundreds of thousands indentured garment workers protested against their appalling working conditions and the profiteering of neocolonial corporation who’ve managed to pump up their share prices on the backs of struggling Cambodians. Predictably, police and military forces opened fire, killing four people and injuring dozens more. In response, the Cambodian government slapped a ban on public gatherings. By definition, this is full-blown naked fascism – and it’s fully endorsed by US and European retail giants. The US or EU governments might claim its an outrage and that Cambodia “must take steps towards reform”, but more often than not, political water carriers will just sit on their hands for fear of upsetting one corporate lobby or another.</p>
<p>It’s not just in factories though – it’s happening at universities, pagodas and out on the street. Skeptics claim that the recent spat of fainting is simply ‘hysteria’, and they’re half right. For slave workers whose employers won’t address their grievances, and whose government will not allow free speech or assembly, there are no viable options left. Better fainting than suicide bombs.</p>
<p>In the battle for bigger profit margins, US and Europe brands have been happy to outsource their production to some of the most depressed economic regions in the world. Putting the&#160;Phnom Penh situation in perspective, it wasn’t that long ago that America saw identical scenes as these, like the&#160; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike" type="external">Homestead Steel Strike</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain" type="external">Battle of Blair Mountain</a>, where US workers paid the ultimate price in the battle for a fairer wage and more tolerable working conditions.</p>
<p>As spring sales are in full swing, workers in Phnom Penh are dropping like flies, not only in the factory – but outside as well…</p>
<p />
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/10/mass-faintings-in-cambodia-whats-the-reason/" type="external">Washington Post</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/10/mass-faintings-in-cambodia-whats-the-reason/" type="external" />Along traffic-choked roads winding into Phnom Penh, Cambodia, sit dozens of factories baking in the sun. Every morning at dawn, thousands of workers wrap their heads in checkered scarves called&#160;kromahs,&#160;climb aboard rickety trucks and report to work to assemble clothing that will eventually arrive thousands of miles away at Gaps, Targets and H&amp;Ms.</p>
<p />
<p>Inside these darkened factories, temperatures soar above 100 degrees. Cambodians work for $100 per month.</p>
<p>And people faint.</p>
<p>A mass fainting, as it’s called, almost always begins with one worker. But fainting can spread like a contagion across a factory, infecting dozens, sometimes hundreds of workers.</p>
<p>Last week, nearly 120 workers spontaneously fainted at two textile factories that produce sportswear for Puma and Adidas. The fainting is the latest controversy to rock an industry vital to the Cambodian economy that generates more than&#160; <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/03/us-cambodia-garments-idUSBREA320TW20140403" type="external">$5 billion per year</a>.</p>
<p>This factory fainting was like scores of others. More than 1,000 factory faintings were&#160; <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/03/us-cambodia-garments-idUSBREA320TW20140403" type="external">reported in 2011</a>. In 2012, that number&#160; <a href="http://www.cambodiadaily.com/special-reports/ghost-in-the-machine-3347/" type="external">surged</a>&#160;to&#160;almost 2,000 — including&#160;30 workers who fainted while manufacturing clothing for Puma,&#160;according to a Cambodian study called “ <a type="external" href="">Shop ’til they drop</a>.”&#160;In 2013, the same thing happened to 180 workers manufacturing clothing for Adidas and Polo Ralph Lauren.</p>
<p>Cambodia is not the only country to pay a high cost for making cheap clothing. In April 2013, a Bangladeshi factory outside Dhaka collapsed, killing more than 1,100 people. And China has repeatedly faced criticism for the&#160; <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/09/25/working-conditions-the-persistence-of-problems-in-chinas-factories/" type="external">conditions</a>&#160;its factory workers face.</p>
<p>But mass faintings do seem to afflict Cambodia more than other countries. Though they&#160; <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/business-14897130" type="external">baffle</a>&#160;outside observers, faintings happen all over the country — in and out of factories.</p>
<p>High school students faint in the middle of class, and classmates whip out bottles of Tiger Balm, a heat rub, to rouse them. Others faint on buses, and their family members crowd around, pinching their skin. Cambodians faint at the market and Cambodians faint at the pagoda…</p>
<p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/10/mass-faintings-in-cambodia-whats-the-reason/" type="external">Continue this story at Washington Post</a></p>
<p>READ MORE TPP NEWS AT: <a href="" type="internal">21st Century Wire TPP Files</a></p>
<p>–</p> | true | 4 | 21st century wire says shop til drop mantra defines one aspect cultural identity west flip side coin called work til drop invisible retail extremists cities like new york london paris los angeles real sweatshop factory floor workers phnom penh cambodia brands love gap target hampm adidas puma et made cheap american european corporations employing quasislave labour earning princely sum around 350 per day thanks wests international wto trade mafia commodity casino markets worker spend approximately 150 2 money per day subsistence food whats left end month could buy one designer tshirt maybe enough feed retail fashion super model week pretty bad deal around people region say colonialism dead cambodian canaries coal mine mass faintings year cambodian workers try endure 100f temperatures inside garment retails frontline workers todays equivalent canaries coal mine factory owners fat retail clients starting realise inevitable backlash comes neoslavery 21st century start year january street violence rocked multiple industrial areas phnom penh hundreds thousands indentured garment workers protested appalling working conditions profiteering neocolonial corporation whove managed pump share prices backs struggling cambodians predictably police military forces opened fire killing four people injuring dozens response cambodian government slapped ban public gatherings definition fullblown naked fascism fully endorsed us european retail giants us eu governments might claim outrage cambodia must take steps towards reform often political water carriers sit hands fear upsetting one corporate lobby another factories though happening universities pagodas street skeptics claim recent spat fainting simply hysteria theyre half right slave workers whose employers wont address grievances whose government allow free speech assembly viable options left better fainting suicide bombs battle bigger profit margins us europe brands happy outsource production depressed economic regions world putting the160phnom penh situation perspective wasnt long ago america saw identical scenes like the160 homestead steel strike battle blair mountain us workers paid ultimate price battle fairer wage tolerable working conditions spring sales full swing workers phnom penh dropping like flies factory outside well washington post along trafficchoked roads winding phnom penh cambodia sit dozens factories baking sun every morning dawn thousands workers wrap heads checkered scarves called160kromahs160climb aboard rickety trucks report work assemble clothing eventually arrive thousands miles away gaps targets hampms inside darkened factories temperatures soar 100 degrees cambodians work 100 per month people faint mass fainting called almost always begins one worker fainting spread like contagion across factory infecting dozens sometimes hundreds workers last week nearly 120 workers spontaneously fainted two textile factories produce sportswear puma adidas fainting latest controversy rock industry vital cambodian economy generates than160 5 billion per year factory fainting like scores others 1000 factory faintings were160 reported 2011 2012 number160 surged160to160almost 2000 including16030 workers fainted manufacturing clothing puma160according cambodian study called shop til drop160in 2013 thing happened 180 workers manufacturing clothing adidas polo ralph lauren cambodia country pay high cost making cheap clothing april 2013 bangladeshi factory outside dhaka collapsed killing 1100 people china repeatedly faced criticism the160 conditions160its factory workers face mass faintings seem afflict cambodia countries though they160 baffle160outside observers faintings happen country factories high school students faint middle class classmates whip bottles tiger balm heat rub rouse others faint buses family members crowd around pinching skin cambodians faint market cambodians faint pagoda continue story washington post read tpp news 21st century wire tpp files | 541 |
<p>A major new Pew Research Center <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/07/14/climate-change-seen-as-top-global-threat/" type="external">study</a> this week found that Americans and Europeans are only moderately worried about climate change while those in more vulnerable regions — Latin America, Africa, and Asia — expressed much higher levels of concern.</p>
<p>The study, which surveyed 40 countries and over 45,000 respondents between late March and late May of this year, found that the people of Burkina Faso, a landlocked West African country of 17 million, are more concerned about global climate change than any other country surveyed, with 79 percent of them being very concerned. On the other hand, in the United States only 42 percent said the same thing about climate change, compared to 68 percent of people who responded that they were very concerned about the Islamic militant group ISIS. In fact, climate change came second to last for concern in the United States, 12 percent ahead of territorial disputes with China and one percent behind tensions with Russia.</p>
<p>While climate change was at the top of the charts in many regions — primarily Latin America (61 percent) and Africa (59 percent) — ISIS was the main concern in a number of developed countries, including the United States, Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Germany, the U.K., and Australia.</p>
<p>All in all, the study found that the majority of the populations in 19 countries believe that climate change is the top global threat, and regions especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change expressed the most concern. Those countries included South Africa, Pakistan, Chile, Mexico, and a number of other developing countries more vulnerable to drought, heat waves, sea level rise, and severe extreme weather.</p>
<p>Participants in the poll were asked to reply yes or no to whether they were “very concerned”, “somewhat concerned”, “not too concerned,” or “not at all concerned” regarding six issues: Climate change, global economic instability, ISIS, Iran’s nuclear program, cyberattacks, tensions with Russia, and territorial disputes with China.</p>
<p>This moderate concern for global climate change in the United States is not surprising considering a recent Gallup poll <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/182150/views-climate-change-stable-extreme-winter.aspx" type="external">found that</a> about one-third of Americans believe the effects of global warming will either never happen or not happen in their lifetime. A March 2014 Gallop poll <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/167843/climate-change-not-top-worry.aspx" type="external">found that</a> climate change and quality of the environment were near the bottom of a list of 15 national issues, behind drug use, hunger and homelessness, and social security.</p>
<p>In Peru and Brazil, where three quarters of respondents were very concerned about climate change, years of deforestation and lax environmental oversight have left many feeling anxious. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where poverty, environmental degradation, and disease are already major issues, climate change is especially worrisome: Aside from Burkino Faso, Uganda (74 percent), Ghana (71 percent), Nigeria (65 percent), and Kenya (68 percent) ranked global climate change as a very high concern.</p>
<p>In India, where drought and <a href="" type="internal">heat waves</a> have crippled agriculture and left thousands dead, and where there is a <a href="" type="internal">major push</a> for renewable energy to bring power to hundreds of millions without it, 73 percent of respondents said they were very concerned. In the Philippines, where climate change is <a href="" type="internal">exacerbating</a> extreme weather events such as typhoons, and where sea level rise is a <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/rapid-rise-in-sea-levels/1877242.html" type="external">major threat</a>, 72 percent responded that they were very concerned.</p>
<p>Pew also attributes elevated levels of concern around climate change to the forthcoming high-profile United Nations climate conference in Paris at the end of the year, when leaders hope to hash out the next global treaty to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. As countries announce their climate targets and negotiation stances, much attention is being given to the 193-nation event.</p>
<p>A Pew Research Center poll from January 2015 <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/29/public-and-scientists-views-on-science-and-society/pi_2015-01-29_science-and-society-00-12/" type="external">found that</a> while 87 percent of scientists said climate change is mostly due to human activity, only half of the U.S. public agreed. One thing both the general public and scientists agreed on in the United States is that science education is lagging. <a href="" type="internal">According to</a> the Pew poll, 68 percent of the general public considers U.S. science education at or below average; 84 percent of scientists held the same view.</p>
<p>While young people may not be getting their climate change information in the classroom, they are picking it up elsewhere — whether from the Pope’s <a href="" type="internal">major push</a> on the issue, progressive websites, or possibly <a href="" type="internal">even</a> the Weather Channel. The new Pew poll found that in the U.S., young people are ten percent more likely to express concern about climate change that those over 50–46 percent compared to 36 percent.</p>
<p>One of the largest divergences in responses in the United States came from Democrats and Republicans, with about 62 percent of Democrats being very concerned about climate change and just 20 percent of Republicans saying the same.</p>
<p>In China — the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter and largest coal user — only 19 percent of people responded that they were very concerned about climate change. However, this was still by far the highest response to any of the options. Only 8 percent of Chinese respondents were seriously concerned about Iran’s nuclear program and 9 percent over tensions with Russia. Perhaps the Chinese are a very level-headed culture, or perhaps their government limits access to information.</p>
<p>Even if climate change isn’t the primary driver of change, Chinese leaders are <a href="" type="internal">pursuing major efforts</a> to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources and to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, as coal-fired power plants have left many of their urban centers draped in unhealthy levels of smog. A larger middle class and <a href="" type="internal">greater awareness</a> of environmental issues are also forcing the hand of the leadership.</p>
<p>At the bottom end of the spectrum of the Pew study were Israel and Poland, where only 14 percent of the respondents expressed serious concern about climate change. Poland is a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/business/energy-environment/coal-in-poland-lowering-life-spans.html" type="external">very heavy</a> coal mining country and Israel has a toxic mix of other, even more pressing security concerns to worry about, including Iran and ISIS.</p> | true | 4 | major new pew research center study week found americans europeans moderately worried climate change vulnerable regions latin america africa asia expressed much higher levels concern study surveyed 40 countries 45000 respondents late march late may year found people burkina faso landlocked west african country 17 million concerned global climate change country surveyed 79 percent concerned hand united states 42 percent said thing climate change compared 68 percent people responded concerned islamic militant group isis fact climate change came second last concern united states 12 percent ahead territorial disputes china one percent behind tensions russia climate change top charts many regions primarily latin america 61 percent africa 59 percent isis main concern number developed countries including united states canada france spain italy japan germany uk australia study found majority populations 19 countries believe climate change top global threat regions especially vulnerable effects climate change expressed concern countries included south africa pakistan chile mexico number developing countries vulnerable drought heat waves sea level rise severe extreme weather participants poll asked reply yes whether concerned somewhat concerned concerned concerned regarding six issues climate change global economic instability isis irans nuclear program cyberattacks tensions russia territorial disputes china moderate concern global climate change united states surprising considering recent gallup poll found onethird americans believe effects global warming either never happen happen lifetime march 2014 gallop poll found climate change quality environment near bottom list 15 national issues behind drug use hunger homelessness social security peru brazil three quarters respondents concerned climate change years deforestation lax environmental oversight left many feeling anxious subsaharan africa poverty environmental degradation disease already major issues climate change especially worrisome aside burkino faso uganda 74 percent ghana 71 percent nigeria 65 percent kenya 68 percent ranked global climate change high concern india drought heat waves crippled agriculture left thousands dead major push renewable energy bring power hundreds millions without 73 percent respondents said concerned philippines climate change exacerbating extreme weather events typhoons sea level rise major threat 72 percent responded concerned pew also attributes elevated levels concern around climate change forthcoming highprofile united nations climate conference paris end year leaders hope hash next global treaty mitigate greenhouse gas emissions countries announce climate targets negotiation stances much attention given 193nation event pew research center poll january 2015 found 87 percent scientists said climate change mostly due human activity half us public agreed one thing general public scientists agreed united states science education lagging according pew poll 68 percent general public considers us science education average 84 percent scientists held view young people may getting climate change information classroom picking elsewhere whether popes major push issue progressive websites possibly even weather channel new pew poll found us young people ten percent likely express concern climate change 5046 percent compared 36 percent one largest divergences responses united states came democrats republicans 62 percent democrats concerned climate change 20 percent republicans saying china worlds biggest greenhouse gas emitter largest coal user 19 percent people responded concerned climate change however still far highest response options 8 percent chinese respondents seriously concerned irans nuclear program 9 percent tensions russia perhaps chinese levelheaded culture perhaps government limits access information even climate change isnt primary driver change chinese leaders pursuing major efforts shift fossil fuels cleaner energy sources mitigate greenhouse gas emissions coalfired power plants left many urban centers draped unhealthy levels smog larger middle class greater awareness environmental issues also forcing hand leadership bottom end spectrum pew study israel poland 14 percent respondents expressed serious concern climate change poland heavy coal mining country israel toxic mix even pressing security concerns worry including iran isis | 597 |
<p>In ways little and huge, it is clear that we live in a nation, a culture and a society that is terminally ill.</p>
<p>The latest outrage — the likely execution of a Mexican convicted in Texas of the brutal slaying of a 16-year-old girl in blatant violation of a universally adopted international treaty that requires that as a foreigner he be able to notify his home country’s consulate of his case — is evidence of this sickness, which appears to have both physical and mental aspects.</p>
<p>As a journalist I have traveled widely in the world, often in police states like China or Laos, and I have always trusted in the fact that if I ran afoul of those police, at least I could count on the fact that the authorities would be legally bound to notify my embassy, so that I could get international attention and, hopefully, legal assistance.</p>
<p>This point was made, belatedly and not particularly assertively, by the White House in the case of death-row inmate Humberto Leal Garcia Jr. in Texas, but the politically ambitious governor of Texas, Rick Perry, who is contemplating a run for the Republican presidential nomination, thinks killing Garcia is a good career move, and he’s ignoring the president. The Supreme Court, meanwhile, is declining to intervene, claiming, absurdly, that it hasn’t got the power to order a state government to halt an execution.</p>
<p>That’s just sick. The Constitution clearly states that only the federal government can negotiate and sign international treaties, and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations is a legally binding treaty. The state of Texas is in violation of that treaty, having arrested, tried and convicted Garcia without notifying his consulate of these actions. Clearly the state has broken the law of the land, and the federal authorities have the right to call a halt to this atrocity. Yet none of the three branches of the government will act. This means that any American who travels abroad, anywhere (and especially in Mexico), is at grave risk of being caught up in a dangerous legal situation, with the foreign government under no obligation to notify US authorities.</p>
<p>Then look at the Casey Anthony case. The woman, just acquitted by a Florida jury in a capital murder case where she was charged with murdering her daughter, never should have faced first-degree murder charges in the first place. Criminal neglect maybe, but not murder. The prosecutors had no evidence–not only of how the child had died, but that would have linked Anthony to the body. But this is America. Prosecutors want big trophies won in big media trials, and this one was a classic of the genre. The media piled on, ghoulish crime stalkers camped outside the courthouse trying to get a seat at the witch trial. Everyone outside the jury box was convinced she was guilty, guilty, guilty. And she walked. Why? Because in the one redeeming chapter in this sick saga, the jurors did their duty, and decided, in relatively short order, that the prosecution’s case was shot full of holes, and they could not say with a straight face that Anthony’s guilt had been proven “beyond a reasonable doubt.”</p>
<p>I would say that verdict makes me proud to be an American, but for the fact that a) the jurors are mostly being condemned by the public for doing the right thing and b) in most murder trials jurors are railroaded by lying, overly-aggressive and simply unprincipled and ambitious prosecutors who see their job as winning, not seeking justice. The conclusion of this case was shocking precisely because it was so unusual.</p>
<p>Here in Philadelphia, for example, the practice for decades has been for prosecutors to seek the death penalty in murder cases, even where it is wholly inappropriate, both in hopes that the mostly poor, and poorly represented, defendants will cop a plea to escape almost certain death, and because by making it a capital case, they get to pre-select a jury of people who are okay with the death penalty. Many studies have demonstrated that such pro-death penalty jurors tend to believe police witnesses, sympathize with the prosecution, and to not believe in the concept of innocent until proven guilty–making the prosecutor’s job easy.</p>
<p>I wrote a few days ago about the sickness of a government that would openly encourage a client state, in this case Israel, to attack, injure and perhaps even kill its own citizens — precisely what Secretary Hillary Clinton and the Obama White House has done with regard to the Americans aboard the US-flagged ship “The Audacity of Hope,” a part of the Freedom Flotilla seeking to sail from Greece to the open air prison camp called Gaza.</p>
<p>But it’s not just the US government that’s sick. As a people we are sick. What kind of human beings, after all, will accept the idea of 44 million of their own countrymen and women and children living in grinding, unremitting poverty? We know we have this many abjectly poor and that the number has actually risen by four million over the past year, yet most Americans — not desperately poor–appear to want to cut support for those suffering people, out of simple greed. Cutting taxes is more important to most of us than helping our neighbors–even their children.</p>
<p>We are, as a people, also singularly indifferent to the welfare of the rest of the world. How else to explain our yawning indifference to the massive number of civilians who are being killed in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Somalia by our bombs and rockets, not to mention by our armed men and women on the ground in Afghanistan? I should also add the millions of victims in Gaza and the West Bank, as their suffering is a direct result of US military aid to the nation of Israel.</p>
<p>We are sick as a nation in another way. It is clear to all except the willfully ignorant, that the entire Earth is dangerously overheating, and that absent dramatic actions to change our horrendously wasteful economic system with its obsession with endless “growth,” and our prodigious use of carbon-based energy, we are going to destroy not just ourselves, but most life on the planet. Yet polls show that roughly half of us don’t believe it’s happening (a percentage that is growing!). Never mind that the north polar ice cap is disappearing before our eyes, that the seas are rising at a record, and rising, rate, that the past decade has been the hottest on record, that violent weather events once seen only every hundred years, are now annual occurrences, that the seas are becoming dangerously acidic, threatening the whole plankton-based ecosystem, and that the icecaps on Greenland and in Antarctica are melting faster than any of the predictive models anticipated. Americans don’t even want to require the auto industry to make more gas-efficient cars. Look at the roads and the auto dealerships: People are choosing to buy big, gas-guzzling SUVs, though not one in a hundred will ever use them to drive off-road.</p>
<p>How can one explain the almost complete lack of concern and urgency among Americans about this looming disaster which threatens the very survival of our grandchildren, and perhaps even our children? How is it possible that the Big Issue in American politics today is concern about a budget deficit that is both readily solvable (by raising taxes on the rich and cutting outlandish military spending) and in any event not really a serious problem for another few decades, when we’re only perhaps at best a decade away from a runaway climate disaster that will be unstoppable?</p>
<p>What is particularly disturbing to me is the open celebration of ignorance that we have in this country. As I drive in the morning around my middle-class suburban neighborhood of Upper Dublin, just north of Philadelphia, I notice from the newspapers in the driveways, when there even are newspapers tossed there, a preponderance of a local suburban rag, the Intelligencer. It features local crime stories and other local stories, with almost nothing national, and except on the rarest occasions, nothing international. Few people seem to subscribe to the Philadelphia Inquirer, which itself is a god-awful paper anyhow these days. I read in a recent Pew study that nationwide, newspaper readership is down to 31% of the public, from 56% in 1991, and remember, those remaining newspapers have shed over 13,000 journalists over the 2007-2010 period, and are just shells of their former selves. (The Middletown Press, where I began my own career in Connecticut, once a renowned example of small-town quality journalism, has been converted into a free advertiser, with no journalists and no news content at all, and that’s a college town!)</p>
<p>Even the percentage of people who watch TV news for their information has fallen from 68% in 1991 to 58% today. And that’s not really all news either, or even mostly news. People are counting as news Fox News (a joke that) and CNN (not much better), and talk programs, including comedy shows, which are really opinion, not news. What does it say when an admittedly funny comic like John Stewart, and a blustery buffoon like Sean Hannity, are considered to be part of the newsmedia? Even the supposed bright side–an increase from 24% in 2004 to 34% today in people who get their news from “the Internet” or, god help us, from Twitter or on their cell phones, is not that great. Much of what is in the online media is rumor, is factually challenged, or is simply lies, and a lot of the rest is derivative opinion about news gleaned from the old-school media.</p>
<p>When I was a journalist in China, I spent a fair amount of time in the countryside and in smaller back-country cities, where I met and interviewed peasants and ordinary working people. I was struck by how much they knew about actual goings on in China, and even about the wider world. These people had a refreshing cynicism and a long-practiced ability to read between the lines of the official propaganda that they were spoon-fed by their state-owned newspapers and television. This is what is profoundly lacking among Americans: that down-to-earth realism and cynicism. Instead, we have here in America a lot of sheep who believe what they hear, and then a lot of others who, disbelieving the official line, turn to irrational conspiracy-mongering, much of which predisposes them to inaction and despair, instead of to resistance and rebellion.</p>
<p>How else to explain the stark contrast between the reaction of Greeks to the effort by the banks and the dominant European economic powers to steal their country out from under them (a national strike, riots in front of the parliament, major confrontations with the police), and the passivity of Americans as our own economic elite and their cronies in the two political parties engage in the same kind of theft here?</p>
<p>When I think back to the 1950s, ’60s and early ’70s, when Americans in their tens and hundred of thousands took serious action in the streets to end American apartheid, and to oppose its criminal wars, I can only shake my head in despair at how far we have fallen as a nation, a culture and a society.</p>
<p>I suppose if I were a Roman looking at my country back in 100 BC, I might have been saying something similar, and could have comforted myself with the thought that at least it would all eventually come crashing down, sparing the rest of the world the horrors of our malignancy. Unfortunately, in this case, while America too will surely come crashing down, destroyed by the limitless greed of its ruling elite, by its military hubris, and by the self-indulgence and ignorance of its citizens, but this time there can be no pleasure taken in it’s self-destruction, as America will likely drag the rest of mankind and the world down with it.</p>
<p>DAVE LINDORFF is a founding member of <a href="http://www.ThisCantBeHappening!.com" type="external">ThisCantBeHappening!</a>, the new independent, collectively-owned, journalist-run, reader-supported online alternative newspaper.</p>
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<p /> | true | 4 | ways little huge clear live nation culture society terminally ill latest outrage likely execution mexican convicted texas brutal slaying 16yearold girl blatant violation universally adopted international treaty requires foreigner able notify home countrys consulate case evidence sickness appears physical mental aspects journalist traveled widely world often police states like china laos always trusted fact ran afoul police least could count fact authorities would legally bound notify embassy could get international attention hopefully legal assistance point made belatedly particularly assertively white house case deathrow inmate humberto leal garcia jr texas politically ambitious governor texas rick perry contemplating run republican presidential nomination thinks killing garcia good career move hes ignoring president supreme court meanwhile declining intervene claiming absurdly hasnt got power order state government halt execution thats sick constitution clearly states federal government negotiate sign international treaties vienna convention consular relations legally binding treaty state texas violation treaty arrested tried convicted garcia without notifying consulate actions clearly state broken law land federal authorities right call halt atrocity yet none three branches government act means american travels abroad anywhere especially mexico grave risk caught dangerous legal situation foreign government obligation notify us authorities look casey anthony case woman acquitted florida jury capital murder case charged murdering daughter never faced firstdegree murder charges first place criminal neglect maybe murder prosecutors evidencenot child died would linked anthony body america prosecutors want big trophies big media trials one classic genre media piled ghoulish crime stalkers camped outside courthouse trying get seat witch trial everyone outside jury box convinced guilty guilty guilty walked one redeeming chapter sick saga jurors duty decided relatively short order prosecutions case shot full holes could say straight face anthonys guilt proven beyond reasonable doubt would say verdict makes proud american fact jurors mostly condemned public right thing b murder trials jurors railroaded lying overlyaggressive simply unprincipled ambitious prosecutors see job winning seeking justice conclusion case shocking precisely unusual philadelphia example practice decades prosecutors seek death penalty murder cases even wholly inappropriate hopes mostly poor poorly represented defendants cop plea escape almost certain death making capital case get preselect jury people okay death penalty many studies demonstrated prodeath penalty jurors tend believe police witnesses sympathize prosecution believe concept innocent proven guiltymaking prosecutors job easy wrote days ago sickness government would openly encourage client state case israel attack injure perhaps even kill citizens precisely secretary hillary clinton obama white house done regard americans aboard usflagged ship audacity hope part freedom flotilla seeking sail greece open air prison camp called gaza us government thats sick people sick kind human beings accept idea 44 million countrymen women children living grinding unremitting poverty know many abjectly poor number actually risen four million past year yet americans desperately poorappear want cut support suffering people simple greed cutting taxes important us helping neighborseven children people also singularly indifferent welfare rest world else explain yawning indifference massive number civilians killed pakistan afghanistan libya yemen iraq somalia bombs rockets mention armed men women ground afghanistan also add millions victims gaza west bank suffering direct result us military aid nation israel sick nation another way clear except willfully ignorant entire earth dangerously overheating absent dramatic actions change horrendously wasteful economic system obsession endless growth prodigious use carbonbased energy going destroy life planet yet polls show roughly half us dont believe happening percentage growing never mind north polar ice cap disappearing eyes seas rising record rising rate past decade hottest record violent weather events seen every hundred years annual occurrences seas becoming dangerously acidic threatening whole planktonbased ecosystem icecaps greenland antarctica melting faster predictive models anticipated americans dont even want require auto industry make gasefficient cars look roads auto dealerships people choosing buy big gasguzzling suvs though one hundred ever use drive offroad one explain almost complete lack concern urgency among americans looming disaster threatens survival grandchildren perhaps even children possible big issue american politics today concern budget deficit readily solvable raising taxes rich cutting outlandish military spending event really serious problem another decades perhaps best decade away runaway climate disaster unstoppable particularly disturbing open celebration ignorance country drive morning around middleclass suburban neighborhood upper dublin north philadelphia notice newspapers driveways even newspapers tossed preponderance local suburban rag intelligencer features local crime stories local stories almost nothing national except rarest occasions nothing international people seem subscribe philadelphia inquirer godawful paper anyhow days read recent pew study nationwide newspaper readership 31 public 56 1991 remember remaining newspapers shed 13000 journalists 20072010 period shells former selves middletown press began career connecticut renowned example smalltown quality journalism converted free advertiser journalists news content thats college town even percentage people watch tv news information fallen 68 1991 58 today thats really news either even mostly news people counting news fox news joke cnn much better talk programs including comedy shows really opinion news say admittedly funny comic like john stewart blustery buffoon like sean hannity considered part newsmedia even supposed bright sidean increase 24 2004 34 today people get news internet god help us twitter cell phones great much online media rumor factually challenged simply lies lot rest derivative opinion news gleaned oldschool media journalist china spent fair amount time countryside smaller backcountry cities met interviewed peasants ordinary working people struck much knew actual goings china even wider world people refreshing cynicism longpracticed ability read lines official propaganda spoonfed stateowned newspapers television profoundly lacking among americans downtoearth realism cynicism instead america lot sheep believe hear lot others disbelieving official line turn irrational conspiracymongering much predisposes inaction despair instead resistance rebellion else explain stark contrast reaction greeks effort banks dominant european economic powers steal country national strike riots front parliament major confrontations police passivity americans economic elite cronies two political parties engage kind theft think back 1950s 60s early 70s americans tens hundred thousands took serious action streets end american apartheid oppose criminal wars shake head despair far fallen nation culture society suppose roman looking country back 100 bc might saying something similar could comforted thought least would eventually come crashing sparing rest world horrors malignancy unfortunately case america surely come crashing destroyed limitless greed ruling elite military hubris selfindulgence ignorance citizens time pleasure taken selfdestruction america likely drag rest mankind world dave lindorff founding member thiscantbehappening new independent collectivelyowned journalistrun readersupported online alternative newspaper 160 | 1,038 |
<p>Shauna Prewitt says her rapist tried to seek custody of the child conceived during the assault. &lt;a href="http://www.shaunaprewitt.com/"&gt;Shauna Prewitt&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p>The debate over Rep. Todd Akin’s widely condemned comments on “legitimate rape” has largely centered on abortion and Republican efforts to outlaw the procedure, even in cases of rape. But the controversy has also uncovered a little-discussed issue: When some rape victims do choose to give birth to a child conceived through sexual assault, they find that the legal door is left wide open for their victimization to continue. It sounds unfathomable, but in many states the law makes it possible for rapists to assert their parental rights and use custody proceedings as a weapon against their victims.</p>
<p>Shauna Prewitt says it happened to her, in Akin’s home state of Missouri. In 2004, Prewitt was in the midst of her senior year in college when she was allegedly raped. Nine months later, she gave birth to a baby girl, who today is seven and a half. Shortly after her daughter’s birth, when Prewitt was pursuing charges against her accused rapist, he suddenly served her with papers requesting custody of their daughter. At first, Prewitt thought it was so ridiculous she laughed it off. Then, the truth sank in:</p>
<p>“I was struck with terror, not only with the idea of letting my child be around him, but also having to spend the next 18 years of my life tied to him,” she says.&#160;</p>
<p>Prewitt, who now works as an attorney in Chicago, thought there was no court on earth that would allow her alleged rapist (he was never convicted) to have custody rights. But her lawyer informed Prewitt that, due to Missouri law, her case wasn’t a slam dunk. The state wouldn’t allow her to fight the custody request directly—the court would have to file a petition independently.</p>
<p>At least Missouri has a law on the books allowing <a href="http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/c200-299/2110000447.htm" type="external">the court to step in</a> and terminate parental rights in a case like Prewitt’s—at least 27 states have no statutes to protect the mothers of rape-conceived children. Meanwhile, victims continue to come forward with horror stories of rapists using the threat of custody actions to blackmail and intimidate their victims into not pressing criminal charges.</p>
<p>“I got really lucky because the court terminated [my alleged attacker’s] parental rights anyway,” Prewitt says, “but I know a lot of women who aren’t so lucky.”</p>
<p>Rebecca Kiessling, the child of a rape victim, is a pro-life speaker and attorney who works closely with rape victims fighting custody cases. “It’s detrimental to both the mother and child to have the rapist involved,” she says.</p>
<p>Surely, most people would agree. So why don’t more states have protections in place for women who conceive children through rape?</p>
<p>Part of the problem is that many rapes go unprosecuted. According to the <a href="http://www.rainn.org/get-information/statistics/reporting-rates" type="external">Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, only 9 ou</a>t of every 100 rapes are prosecuted and just 5 lead to a felony conviction. But of the 19 states that have laws addressing the custody of rape-conceived children, 13 require proof of conviction in order to waive the rapist’s parental rights. Two more states have provisions on the issue that only apply if the victim is a minor or, in one of those cases, a stepchild or adopted child of the rapist. Another three states don’t have laws that deal with custody of a rapist’s child specifically, but do restrict the parental rights of a father or mother who sexually abused the other parent.</p>
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<p>In Maryland, which has no explicit statute in place, Democratic state Sen. Jamin B. Raskin has repeatedly tried to <a href="http://mlis.state.md.us/2007RS/fnotes/bil_0008/hb0648.pdf" type="external">get a law passed</a> preventing rapists from exercising parental rights under a standard used in civil court: preponderance of evidence, where a jury only has to be at least <a href="http://courts.uslegal.com/burden-of-proof/preponderance-of-the-evidence/" type="external">51 percent</a> sure the rape occurred. (Legally, this is two steps below the “beyond reasonable doubt” standard used in criminal proceedings.)</p>
<p>“I tried to base my bill on a civil standard because parental rights are a civil matter,” Raskin says. “The House took the position that you can’t say there was conception by rape unless there was a rape conviction.”</p>
<p>Raskin, who is also a law professor at American University, says several women testified before his Senate committee that they were subjected to continued harassment after their rapists asserted their parental rights.</p>
<p>“I think it’s scandalous that we would expose women to the possibility of continued abuse by a sexual aggressor,” he says.</p>
<p>While Maryland still hasn’t managed to pass a law, there has been some movement on this issue in other states in recent years: Oregon passed a conviction-based law in <a href="http://gov.oregonlive.com/bill/2011/SB522/" type="external">2011</a>, and Indiana <a href="http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/senate-votes-to-bar-rapist-contact-with-child-conceived-in/article_ade6192e-0c2b-57a1-9823-4b360a88956b.html" type="external">&#160;passed a bill through the Senate in January</a> of this year—but it was <a href="http://www.mygov365.com/legislation/view/id/4f07ff2a49e51bd61a370500/tab/actions/" type="external">modified</a>&#160;in the House to authorize an advisory committee to study the issue first.</p>
<p>Missouri, where Prewitt ran into trouble almost a decade ago, just <a href="http://governor.mo.gov/actions/" type="external">passed a law</a> that goes into effect later this month. It places an automatic stay on paternity proceedings when there is a pending criminal case alleging rape by the child’s father.</p>
<p>The woman behind the law is Angela Crews, a former Army MP whose teenage daughter conceived a son through alleged rape. The criminal case is pending, so she’s unable to go into detail, but Crews says she thought it was “crazy” that there was no law to explicitly stop a woman’s attacker from seeking custody during criminal proceedings. So, in 2011, she decided to do something about it: She found a local lawmaker to take up her cause and lobbied for <a href="http://www.senate.mo.gov/12info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&amp;BillID=92857" type="external">Senate Bill 628</a>. &#160;&#160;</p>
<p>Crews says that her ultimate goal is to get a law passed that prevents custody based on “clear and convincing evidence”—a higher standard than what Raskin proposed, but one that doesn’t require a criminal conviction.&#160;</p>
<p>“What I’m learning in my daughter’s case is that even getting a prosecution is so hard,” Crews says. “But this law is a start.”</p>
<p>Story by Dana Liebelson. Map and additional reporting by Sydney Brownstone.</p> | true | 4 | shauna prewitt says rapist tried seek custody child conceived assault lta hrefhttpwwwshaunaprewittcomgtshauna prewittltagt debate rep todd akins widely condemned comments legitimate rape largely centered abortion republican efforts outlaw procedure even cases rape controversy also uncovered littlediscussed issue rape victims choose give birth child conceived sexual assault find legal door left wide open victimization continue sounds unfathomable many states law makes possible rapists assert parental rights use custody proceedings weapon victims shauna prewitt says happened akins home state missouri 2004 prewitt midst senior year college allegedly raped nine months later gave birth baby girl today seven half shortly daughters birth prewitt pursuing charges accused rapist suddenly served papers requesting custody daughter first prewitt thought ridiculous laughed truth sank struck terror idea letting child around also spend next 18 years life tied says160 prewitt works attorney chicago thought court earth would allow alleged rapist never convicted custody rights lawyer informed prewitt due missouri law case wasnt slam dunk state wouldnt allow fight custody request directlythe court would file petition independently least missouri law books allowing court step terminate parental rights case like prewittsat least 27 states statutes protect mothers rapeconceived children meanwhile victims continue come forward horror stories rapists using threat custody actions blackmail intimidate victims pressing criminal charges got really lucky court terminated alleged attackers parental rights anyway prewitt says know lot women arent lucky rebecca kiessling child rape victim prolife speaker attorney works closely rape victims fighting custody cases detrimental mother child rapist involved says surely people would agree dont states protections place women conceive children rape part problem many rapes go unprosecuted according rape abuse incest national network 9 every 100 rapes prosecuted 5 lead felony conviction 19 states laws addressing custody rapeconceived children 13 require proof conviction order waive rapists parental rights two states provisions issue apply victim minor one cases stepchild adopted child rapist another three states dont laws deal custody rapists child specifically restrict parental rights father mother sexually abused parent maryland explicit statute place democratic state sen jamin b raskin repeatedly tried get law passed preventing rapists exercising parental rights standard used civil court preponderance evidence jury least 51 percent sure rape occurred legally two steps beyond reasonable doubt standard used criminal proceedings tried base bill civil standard parental rights civil matter raskin says house took position cant say conception rape unless rape conviction raskin also law professor american university says several women testified senate committee subjected continued harassment rapists asserted parental rights think scandalous would expose women possibility continued abuse sexual aggressor says maryland still hasnt managed pass law movement issue states recent years oregon passed convictionbased law 2011 indiana 160passed bill senate january yearbut modified160in house authorize advisory committee study issue first missouri prewitt ran trouble almost decade ago passed law goes effect later month places automatic stay paternity proceedings pending criminal case alleging rape childs father woman behind law angela crews former army mp whose teenage daughter conceived son alleged rape criminal case pending shes unable go detail crews says thought crazy law explicitly stop womans attacker seeking custody criminal proceedings 2011 decided something found local lawmaker take cause lobbied senate bill 628 160160 crews says ultimate goal get law passed prevents custody based clear convincing evidencea higher standard raskin proposed one doesnt require criminal conviction160 im learning daughters case even getting prosecution hard crews says law start story dana liebelson map additional reporting sydney brownstone | 564 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&amp;search_source=search_form&amp;version=llv1&amp;anyorall=all&amp;safesearch=1&amp;searchterm=%23fail&amp;search_group="&gt;chrisdorney&lt;/a&gt;/Shutterstock</p>
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<p>The government shutdown <a href="" type="internal">is awful</a>. It’s awful in a lot of <a href="" type="internal">different ways</a>—to kids with cancer, to firefighters, to domestic violence centers, to <a href="" type="internal">goats</a>. Another way in which this awful manifests itself is through a parade of misinformation and bad memes about what’s going on during this impasse. Here are six of the dumbest myths you’ve probably heard about the government shutdown:&#160;</p>
<p>1. Obama closed the ocean. On Saturday, Breitbart’s Mike Flynn <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/05/Feds-Try-to-Close-the-OCEAN-Because-of-Shutdown" type="external">posted</a> a piece, titled “Feds Try to Close the Ocean Because of Shutdown”, that reads, “before the weekend, the National Park Service informed charter boat captains in Florida that the Florida Bay was ‘closed’ due to the shutdown.” A bunch of people started tweeting about <a href="http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2013/oct/07/tweets/did-obama-shut-down-ocean-part-shutdown/" type="external">how Obama had shut down the ocean</a>, including <a href="http://schweikert.house.gov/" type="external">this</a> Republican congressman from Arizona:</p>
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<p>And on Monday, Fox News’ Megyn Kelly had the cast of Fox’s The Five on her new show to <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/tv/megyn-kelly-talks-shutdown-with-the-five-hosts-along-with-tons-of-awkward-sexual-banter/" type="external">talk about</a> what Miley Cyrus <a href="https://twitter.com/swin24/status/387631887071457280" type="external">looks like</a> when she twerks, but also about Obama closing the ocean.</p>
<p>Barack Obama did not close the ocean. Officials are indeed restricting access (fishing, for instance) to Florida Bay, a body of water that’s part of a national park. Florida Bay encompasses roughly a half million acres, but exceptions are being made for transit, access for emergencies, and access for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to monitor the population of algae. “[I]t’s an exaggeration to state that Obama has tried to shut down the entire ocean—or even to suggest that he has shuttered the Atlantic Ocean or all of the waters in the Keys,” PolitiFact.com <a href="http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2013/oct/07/tweets/did-obama-shut-down-ocean-part-shutdown/" type="external">concludes</a>. “Tourists and locals can continue to fish, swim and play in the ocean, even in the Keys.”</p>
<p>2. Obama is personally paying to keep a Muslim culture museum open. During the weekend edition of Fox &amp; Friends, cohost <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Anna+Kooiman&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8&amp;aq=t&amp;rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&amp;client=firefox-a&amp;channel=fflb" type="external">Anna Kooiman</a> claimed that President Obama offered to pay “out of his own pocket” to keep the International Museum of Muslim Cultures open during the shutdown—while <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/10/world_war_ii_veterans_visit_their_memorial_house_members_turn_up_for_the.html" type="external">refusing</a> to allow World War II veterans to visit their memorial in Washington, DC. Here’s the clip:</p>
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<p>This would be outrageous and bizarre—if the claim weren’t based on a piece <a href="http://nationalreport.net/obama-uses-money-open-muslim-museum-amid-government-shutdown/" type="external">published on a satirical website</a>. Kooiman later <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/10/05/fox-falls-for-fake-story-about-obama-personally/196304" type="external">apologized</a> on Twitter, and Fox is set to issue an on-air correction this Saturday.</p>
<p>3. Obama shut down the Amber Alert program. Conservative <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/07/tweets/tweets-and-bloggers-say-obama-used-shutdown-close-/" type="external">bloggers</a> were appalled this week to find that the federal government <a href="http://washingtonexaminer.com/morning-examiner-obama-shutters-amber-alerts-as-government-shutdown-enters-second-week/article/2536891" type="external">nixed Amber Alerts during the shutdown</a>. Though the website was down <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/amber-alert-website-down-97928.html" type="external">briefly</a>, the program itself was never shuttered. Also, the child abduction alert system is actually a <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/07/tweets/tweets-and-bloggers-say-obama-used-shutdown-close-/" type="external">state-based program</a>, two alerts went out during the shutdown, and the website is now back up and running. So that’s that.</p>
<p>4. NASA won’t tell you about world-ending asteroids because #shutdown.</p>
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<p>This one tweet kicked off a swirl of speculation and <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nasa-s-asteroid-detection-employees-off-the-job-for-shutdown" type="external">bad headlines</a> about how NASA’s asteroid detection staff had been axed—even though the Asteroid Watch Twitter feed <a href="https://twitter.com/AsteroidWatch/status/384888290005893120" type="external">clarified</a> that many observatories and astronomers <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/01/nasa-will-not-warn-us-about-asteroids-over-twitter-during-the-shutdown/" type="external">would continue to monitor the skies</a>. Ninety-seven percent of NASA staff was furloughed, and government social-media accounts <a href="" type="internal">took hits across the board</a>. But there’s <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/science/search-dangerous-asteroids-continues-despite-shutdown-8C11316002" type="external">no reason</a> to think that government officials wouldn’t be able to tell America that a <a href="" type="internal">Ben Affleck movie was becoming terrifying reality</a> just because they aren’t currently allowed to do it on Twitter.</p>
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<p>5. Priests are being threatened with arrest. “In a stunning development, some military priests are facing arrest if they celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the federal government shutdown,” the Daily Caller <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/04/priests-threatened-with-arrest-if-they-minister-to-military-during-shutdown/" type="external">reported</a> on Friday, with the provocative headline, “Priests threatened with arrest if they minister to military during shutdown.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/statuses/386250028668317696" type="external">tweeted</a> the story, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor responded:</p>
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<p>The Caller story was picked up by various right-winger pundits and <a href="http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2013/10/obama-eviscerates-troops-1st-amendment-rights-threatens-catholic-priests-with-arrest-if-they-minister-to-them/" type="external">bloggers</a>, including Fox News radio host <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/10/04/catholic-priests-in-military-face-arrest-for-celebrating-mass/" type="external">Todd Starnes</a>, who interpreted this as yet another one of Obama’s attacks on religious freedom. This all quickly morphed into the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=arrest%20threatened%20priests&amp;src=typd&amp;f=realtime" type="external">meme</a> that Obama was threatening military chaplains and priests with jail time. This simply <a href="http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/shutdown.asp" type="external">isn’t the case</a>, and the Obama administration has yet to initiate any kind of crackdown on Catholic priests. On Saturday, the House passed a <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/05/house-passes-measure-aimed-at-bringing-military-chaplains-back-to-work/" type="external">measure</a> allowing military chaplains to lead Sunday mass without fear of penalty. The Senate has yet to take up the bill.</p>
<p>6. Shutdowns are “normal.” On a recent episode of CNN’s Crossfire, cohost Newt Gingrich (who, as former speaker of the House, led Republicans during the <a href="http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19951113&amp;slug=2152355" type="external">last big shutdown</a>) claimed that shutdown-related hysteria was overblown. “There is an amazing amount of hysteria and vitriol over what is a normal part of the constitutional process,” Gingrich <a href="http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1309/30/cfr.01.html" type="external">said</a> on September 30. “The government shut down 12 times under Democratic House speaker Tip O’Neill. It was only shut down twice while I was speaker.”</p>
<p>The stated number of shutdowns under O’Neill is misleading, given that they were very short and that <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/04/newt-gingrich/newt-gingrich-says-late-speaker-tip-oneill-served-/" type="external">nearly half of them</a> weren’t technically government shutdowns. Of the seven genuine shutdowns of the O’Neill era, the longest lasted three days, and the cumulative duration of all seven was 13 days—half the combined length of Gingrich’s two shutdowns (26 days). Via <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/04/newt-gingrich/newt-gingrich-says-late-speaker-tip-oneill-served-/" type="external">PolitiFact</a>:</p>
<p>In addition, three of those happened primarily on weekends, further minimizing their impact.</p>
<p>A one-day shutdown in October 1982, the Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/25/here-is-every-previous-government-shutdown-why-they-happened-and-how-they-ended/" type="external">recently noted</a>, stemmed from a particularly innocuous reason: Congress delayed a session because President Reagan had invited lawmakers to a White House barbecue, and Democrats were holding a $1,000-a-plate fundraising dinner. The funding question was resolved the next day.</p>
<p>For more nuance, click <a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/04/newt-gingrich/newt-gingrich-says-late-speaker-tip-oneill-served-/" type="external">here</a>.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | lta hrefhttpwwwshutterstockcomcatmhtmllangenampsearch_sourcesearch_formampversionllv1ampanyorallallampsafesearch1ampsearchterm23failampsearch_groupgtchrisdorneyltagtshutterstock government shutdown awful awful lot different waysto kids cancer firefighters domestic violence centers goats another way awful manifests parade misinformation bad memes whats going impasse six dumbest myths youve probably heard government shutdown160 1 obama closed ocean saturday breitbarts mike flynn posted piece titled feds try close ocean shutdown reads weekend national park service informed charter boat captains florida florida bay closed due shutdown bunch people started tweeting obama shut ocean including republican congressman arizona monday fox news megyn kelly cast foxs five new show talk miley cyrus looks like twerks also obama closing ocean barack obama close ocean officials indeed restricting access fishing instance florida bay body water thats part national park florida bay encompasses roughly half million acres exceptions made transit access emergencies access florida fish wildlife conservation commission monitor population algae exaggeration state obama tried shut entire oceanor even suggest shuttered atlantic ocean waters keys politifactcom concludes tourists locals continue fish swim play ocean even keys 2 obama personally paying keep muslim culture museum open weekend edition fox amp friends cohost anna kooiman claimed president obama offered pay pocket keep international museum muslim cultures open shutdownwhile refusing allow world war ii veterans visit memorial washington dc heres clip would outrageous bizarreif claim werent based piece published satirical website kooiman later apologized twitter fox set issue onair correction saturday 3 obama shut amber alert program conservative bloggers appalled week find federal government nixed amber alerts shutdown though website briefly program never shuttered also child abduction alert system actually statebased program two alerts went shutdown website back running thats 4 nasa wont tell worldending asteroids shutdown one tweet kicked swirl speculation bad headlines nasas asteroid detection staff axedeven though asteroid watch twitter feed clarified many observatories astronomers would continue monitor skies ninetyseven percent nasa staff furloughed government socialmedia accounts took hits across board theres reason think government officials wouldnt able tell america ben affleck movie becoming terrifying reality arent currently allowed twitter 5 priests threatened arrest stunning development military priests facing arrest celebrate mass practice faith military bases federal government shutdown daily caller reported friday provocative headline priests threatened arrest minister military shutdown sen ted cruz rtexas tweeted story house majority leader eric cantor responded caller story picked various rightwinger pundits bloggers including fox news radio host todd starnes interpreted yet another one obamas attacks religious freedom quickly morphed meme obama threatening military chaplains priests jail time simply isnt case obama administration yet initiate kind crackdown catholic priests saturday house passed measure allowing military chaplains lead sunday mass without fear penalty senate yet take bill 6 shutdowns normal recent episode cnns crossfire cohost newt gingrich former speaker house led republicans last big shutdown claimed shutdownrelated hysteria overblown amazing amount hysteria vitriol normal part constitutional process gingrich said september 30 government shut 12 times democratic house speaker tip oneill shut twice speaker stated number shutdowns oneill misleading given short nearly half werent technically government shutdowns seven genuine shutdowns oneill era longest lasted three days cumulative duration seven 13 dayshalf combined length gingrichs two shutdowns 26 days via politifact addition three happened primarily weekends minimizing impact oneday shutdown october 1982 washington post recently noted stemmed particularly innocuous reason congress delayed session president reagan invited lawmakers white house barbecue democrats holding 1000aplate fundraising dinner funding question resolved next day nuance click | 551 |
<p>From Pondicherry, South India, where my partner Krista and our son Desmond have been living, I’d heard that people were taking their Indian-made Royal Enfield motorbikes on tour over the “Himalayan Highway,” all the way to Ladakh, also known as “Little Tibet.” The 300 mile long “world’s highest motorable road” runs from the Himalayan foothills at Manali, across four stupendous mountain ranges to Leh, the Ladakhi capital at the far western reaches of Tibet. I had spent several months in Ladakh 25 years ago, prior to the great onslaught of mass jet-setting tourism and before the construction of the new road, and ever since I have yearned to return to this most amazing place. We travelled by motorbike for several reasons: we wanted to see the most magnificent Himalaya together and not be bound by the two-day, express-bus rush through this spectacular region, or to fly in as do the bulk of the tourists today, but we also wished to bear witness to what the punching in of this road has wrought on the region.</p>
<p>Over the past 30 years, I’ve hiked all over the Himalaya, but I never walk where there’s a road. Roads into any remote areas where the lifecycles of the planet continue to function as they have forever, are nothing but vectors for the pollution of modernity, conveyances for the deep rot of nationalism, colonialism, tourism and development. Although I recognize myself as being a part of an increasingly difficult problem, I have been fortunate to have been just ahead of a huge wave of trekkers, who swarm rapidly into newly opened areas of the Himalaya. As such, I have been able to get a glimpse of what sustainable, enduring human civilization looks like. Inexorably, it seems, wherever the trekkers go, a road seems sure to follow. Twenty-five years ago, I spent a month walking across Zanskar, which is the next valley to the west, and during the trek, I only ran into one other foreigner.Today, hundreds of trekkers are passing through Zanskar during the four month season, while the Indian military incessantly builds its newest road through the valley. Thousands of tourists are now swarming into Ladakh via the Himalayan Highway, and even more take the plane to Leh. So it was with great trepidation that I was returning to Ladakh to see what changes the “advance” of modernity brought by the Indian occupation and mass tourism had wrought on this most amazing land and its people.</p>
<p>So we loaded our old 350 cc Enfield Bullet onto the Tamil Nadu Express train at Madras and headed to New Delhi, after which we travelled north by motorbike. Indian Railways (IR) operates one of the largest rail systems in the world and carries more than 14 million passengers daily. Although the service has improved tremedously over the years and now has a completely computerized reservation system, IR has absolutely no garbage management program whatsoever. On all the long-distance lines, IR meals are served on styrofoam trays wrapped in tinfoil and plastic, with drinks served in plastic cups. All garbage is simply tossed out of the windows, where it festoons the rail-side shrubbery and trees across the land. I mention this because India’s massive garbage problem manifests itself all along the Himalayan Highway, all the way to its culmination point at the top of the continent. The Siachen Glacier has become an enormous festering garbage dump.</p>
<p>At the time of my first visit, India had taken a resurgence of interest in Ladakh after several Pakistani “cartographic incursions” into the Siachen region, and large convoys of Indian Army trucks had begun to ply back and forth along the original road to Ladakh, which runs over the Zoji La pass from Srinagar in Kashmir. But the Srinagar-Leh road was considered to be vulnerable to Pakistani attack near Kargil, so during the 1980’s India constructed a new “Himalayan Highway” between Manali and Leh, Ladakh. This was an ambitious undertaking as the highway crosses several passes of more than 17,000 ft. and can only remain open for 4 months each year, after which it is socked in with snow (by comparison, Mount Logan, the highest mountain in Canada, is 19,550 ft. and the Rocky Mountain peaks around Banff are about 10,000 ft.). But after the 1962 Chinese annexation of the plains of Aksai Chin, Indian nationalist pride was once again at stake, so mobilize it must, and mobilize it did.</p>
<p>The road, for the most part, is a painstakingly handmade affair built and maintained by Nepalese and Jharkhandi labourers who are subjected to excrutiating and extremely dangerous working conditions. The Jharkhandi labourers, known as Dumkas, the namesake of a Gangetic plains village about 150 kms northwest of Calcutta, are used for cheap labour all over India, while the Nepalese can be found slaving along roadsides throughout the Himalaya and are just plain tough. For their labours, the Indian army pays their way up to the jobsite and supplies them with army rations during their four month stint. All along the way, one encounters crews of sun-blackened men, women and children hacking away at the rock-face, stacking boulders into hand-woven chainlink terraced shoring cages, shovelling snow, filling potholes or sweeping off the rock-fall which cascades off the ever-exfoliating mountainsides. The workers are woefully ill-equipped and under-dressed and although the army purports to lend them winter clothing suitable for the extremity of the weather at these altitudes, many of the workers were visibly suffering from the cold. People are seen operating jack-hammers in bare-feet, chiselling off shattered overhanging rock, and there’s an ever-present Indian Army supervisor hulking over their every move. At night they’re crammed into crudely built road-side hovels, constructed from cast-off tar barrels overthrown with ragged blown-out tarps.</p>
<p>Road-building is much the same over in the Pakistani-controlled regions of this part of the world, -that is the areas on the other side of the “Line of Control” which delineates the contested de facto border between northern India and Pakistan. The “Karakoram Highway” which was completed in 1982, leads up over the 15,400 ft Khunjerab Pass to Chinese-occupied Sinjiang, and is also a military road, hand-built with considerable help from the Chinese army. Its construction, which took 20 years, cost the lives of 810 Pakistani and 82 Chinese road workers. In Pakistan the deaths of the road workers are acknowledged by several large roadside cairns along the way. Although the workers who built India’s Himalayan Highway are nowhere acknowledged, it can be assumed that a great many of them have also been maimed and killed and continue to die on the job. The Indian Army is very proud of its Ladakh occupation, and considers its road-building efforts to be an exercise in “nation building”. Here’s the India Independence Day 2006 message from Lt. General KS Rao, the Director General of the military-run Border Roads Organization (BRO):</p>
<p>The BRO has made immense and incalculable contribution to the national integration and nation building during the last four decades. We were (sic) the torchbearers of development in the extremely remote, hostile and inhospitable terrain of our northern and north-eastern borders of the country. Our predecessors have brought fame and laurels to BRO by their dedication, hard work and supreme sacrifice and made BRO the premier road construction agency of the country. While we would be fully justified in trumpeting our success story, we can not afford to rest on our laurels. We need to recognize and keep pace with the tremendous changes that are taking place all around us ­ advancement in the field of construction technology, new opportunities provided by revolution in Information and communication technologies and in Military Affairs, to name a few. It is high time for BRO to change in consonance with the environment and maintain the pace if we have to continue to remain as a leader in road construction and contribute to nation building.</p>
<p>Ten years ago I travelled from Rawalpindi on the flats of Pakistan, up the length of the Karakoram highway, which winds along cliffs above the Indus River for most of the way. Just as I reached the Chinese border at Khunjerab Top, a large monsoon typhoon blew a vicious storm right up the pass and it started snowing heavily. I hurried back down to the last Pakistani village at the foot of the pass, and spent three days there, huddled under the leaking flat mud roof of a house that had not seen rain for 100 years. Rain in the Karakoram has been so rare that virtually all of the houses have mud roofs. Even the slightest drizzle brings the stones crashing down onto the roads. This prolonged downpour completely destroyed the road, and I spent the next week picking my way on foot down the ancient Silk Road, back through the Hunza valley to Gilgit. Every kilometer or so, the road was blocked by rock fall. As is the case throughout the Great Himalaya, particulary huge landslides occasionally block entire rivers. A lake then immediately begins forming behind the dam. Such lakes have been known to completely submerge upstream villages along the river, and ultimately, when the weight of water piling in blows out the obstruction, the resultant tsunami takes out the riverside villages downstream. As I walked, giant boulders the size of Volkswagons were continuously dislodging from the shattered Karakoram landscape above and smashing down onto the pavement, shearing off great chunks of road that went crashing into the river.</p>
<p>From Gilgit, I travelled up the Indus valley to Baltistan, which was part of Ladakh until the subdivision of the subcontinent into Pakistan and India in 1947. I passed through Skardu, which was once Ladakh’s winter capital and then on through Khapallu to the end of the road at the highest Baltistani village of Hushe. From there I hiked for a week on boulder-strewn glaciers up to a 16,000 ft. pass which overlooks the massive junction of glaciers at Concordia, at the foot of the world’s second highest mountain, K-2. I went on to the K-6 and K-7 base camps where I climbed another pass near the base of the Karakoram massif of Chogolisa which overlooks the Siachen Glacier. While I sat marvelling at the pristine mountain scenery, I was shocked out of my reverie by a squadron of Pakistani military helicopters, clattering their way towards the world’s highest battlefield.</p>
<p>Although people have been travelling up and down the Himalayan valleys forever on foot, roads are a new and very tenuous phenomena. While much of India’s single-lane Himalayan Highway is paved, the vagaries of extreme weather, and the constant motion of ice, snow and the mountains themselves have rendered the higher stretches an obstacle course of broken boulders, mud-wallows, and with no ditching whatsoever, mountain streams are left to run right down the road. We frequently submerged our motorbike’s exhaust pipe, and bouncing between the potholes and the frostheaves for most of the trip, we rarely made it out of second gear. The construction of roads along steep mountainsides alters the natural hydrology and are always a serious ecological incursion. When mountain roads are ditched, infinite seepage courselets are routed along the roadside, and then channeled through culverts spaced at intervals along the road. At each culvert, the waters are unnaturally concentrated into gulleys, where they artificially and inexorably erode new watercourses into the mountainside. Without ditching, the whole road becomes the new watercourse, and the constant moisture-loading and lubrication will inevitably cause sections of the road to slip. Every slippage has consequences both above and below the road.</p>
<p>Descending from the third major pass along the highway (the first part of the trip is described in Part 1 of this article), the 16,600 ft. Lachlung La, the Himalayan Highway is compressed into a narrowing gorge, with the final leg before the river having been manually chiselled right out of a sheer cliff face. This stretch of road is basically a tunnel with one open side, and a stomach-churning sense of vertigo accompanies any glance down the cliff-face into the chasm below. Having passed through the canyon, the traveller emerges into a hauntingly empty convoluted river valley. High above, a line of Hoodoos dominates the scenery, providing a vertical counterpoint to the flowing curves of scree which decend to the river. Here, due to a total paucity of vegetation, there are none of the endless cross-hatched striations laid down by the meanderings of grazing animals which adorn less arid regions of the high Himalaya.</p>
<p>In the evening, Desmond and I walked out beyond the little camp at Pang, and passing by the fluttering toilet-paper-festooned patch of tiny bushes that serves as the toilet area for the thousands of travellers passing through, we entered into a most desolate and silent desert landscape. Distance in the Himalayan desert is difficult to judge for lowlanders who are used to moving in vehicles, and to the visual distortions of rising water-vapours and the structural visual blockage of trees, walls or buildings. We have no visual concept of how far a human can walk in an hour, much less a day’s march, because one’s starting point is immediately obscured by obstacles as one carries along. But here, the clarity of vision is astounding and every detail is intricately defined even at a great distance. In a few minutes of walking, we were entirely alone in the valley, and after half an hour of climbing, the camp at Pang, although invisible in its riverside depression, seemed inconceivably distant. As far as the eye could see in any direction, there was no visible living thing, no movement, no human construction of any sort. As we continued, what had at first glance appeared as an immeasureable vastness of empty space became much more intimate as we began to understand the scale of the vista. A thin, compacted track led upwards to an apparently distant pass but we understood that it was perhaps only two hours away. While trekking in the Himalaya, oftentimes at the end of a long day’s hike, one can look back down a valley, seemingly to the very edge of the Earth, and be astonished to see one’s starting point so immensely far away.</p>
<p>The next morning, we wound up the switchbacks above Pang and arrived onto the Moray Plains of the Rupshu plateau, which features a surprisingly flat expanse surrounded by gently rolling mountains. Rupshu is the farthest western extremity of the Tibetan plateau and aside from small villages on the shores of the salt lakes of Tso Kar and Tso Moriri, it is too high for cultivation. This is a vast unfenced grassland commons dotted with sparse clumps of hardy grasses. At these altitudes, the landscape reaches upwards to scrape the final vestiges of moisture out of the few clouds which have managed to blow over the southern ranges into this vast Himalayan rainshadow. The rare sprinkles provide the green tinge of vegetation which sustains large herds of yaks, goats and sheep that are tended by Changpa nomads. The finest and softest wool called pashm is shorn from these Changpa goats and for centuries pashm wool was traded widely throughout the Himalaya. To this day, the wool makes its way to Kashmir to be woven into exquisite Pashmina shawls that are sold around the world.</p>
<p>The Changpa nomads we met on the Rupshu plain still camp out in their wool tents in the same spots that have been used since time immemorial, and from there, they set off to graze their herds up into the lonely highland realms at more than 20,000 ft. Among the tents are rock enclosures into which baby sheep and goats are herded at night to protect them from the wolves and snow leopards. Outside the tents, people can be seen at their back-strap looms weaving beautifully coloured horse blankets, woolen tent panels and rugs. The weaving and spinning of the wool shorn from their flocks is a constant communal activity for these tough and cheerful herdspeople. In contrast to the garbage-strewn squalor of the Indian army garrisons, police check-posts and parachute tent encampments, here was a total lack of garbage. As non-participants in the globalized consumer economy, the Changpa do not have anything to throw away. This is certainly not because they are impoverished; it’s because they are virtually self-sufficient and everything they own is in continuous use. Their survival has depended on an intrinsic social order which has allowed a continual usage of the available resources, but without any catastrophic depletion or degradation of the grasslands. In spite of the new road, they still manage to exist as did their ancestors, in an ancient peaceful symbiosis, -cleanly living with a minimal ecological footprint as participants in the ecological processes of their environment.</p>
<p>The historic self-sufficiency of the Ladakhi people and their current plight has been best documented by Helena Norberg-Hodge in her marvellous book “Ancient Futures.” Her books are essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the marvels of truly advanced human civilization, where humans live peacefully and happily together in balance and within the means of the giving Earth. My own experience of this pre-monetized, non-wheeled and non-electrified civilization was gained during my previous visit and especially while on my long hike through the Zanskar Valley when I was 21 years old. This solitary experience has left an indelible, deeply rooted impression and opened my eyes to what was once within the human capability -that humans could and did actually live well and happily within the carrying capacity of their environment. It was amazing that here, on this earthly moonscape, people not only lived well from the land, but their activities were the source of all greeness, vibrant colour, and every tree. But while Norberg-Hodge has focussed on the clash of civilizations that has resulted from the arrival of mass-tourism to Ladakh, for valid reasons, she has avoided discussion of the effects of the far more insidious invasion of the Indian military occupation. Had she done so, it would have been impossible for her to carry on with her essential work in Ladakh.</p>
<p>In the Zanskari villages I passed through, wealth was not measured by money and there was no poverty. Every house was busily inhabited, they wove and dyed their clothing, they grew their food, there was no garbage, no pollution, whether visual, aural, or the physical soiling of water, air and earth. The arability of the land was not determined by any natural availability of organic earth. Instead, the placement of villages depended on where aqueducts could be engineered to irrigate the barren, sterile mineral soil, and all organic soil nutrient was carefully added with a clear understanding of the processes of composting. The size of a village was intrinsic to the extent of the irrigable area of its fields, which in turn depended on the people-power to cultivate it, and the supply of water from the glaciers above. The village grew to a size that balanced what it was able to produce, and the population stabilized at that point, regulated in part by the practice of polyandry and the celibacy of the lama and chomo who renounced the householder’s life to live in the Buddhist gompas, which overlook every village in the land. At the bottoms of the farthest fields, one could see the browning off of the barley crops, as the water supply dwindled off to exhaustion.</p>
<p>After passing through Rupshu, the road ascends to the top of the 17,500 ft. Taglang La pass. Looking down from the pass, one can see the recently-abandoned ancient trail switchbacking directly down the mountainside to the desolate plain below. At the foot of the pass, a line of crumbling chortens and rings of wolf-proof stone fences marks an ancient campsite where traders and their caravans and flocks once rested as they plied their way across the mountains. Beyond the campsite, the trail is demarked by a continuous line of mani walls, topped with thousands of stones, each one carved with the ubiquitous mantra, “Om Mani Padme Hum,” and placed, one-by-one, over centuries by the passers-by.</p>
<p>Clearing the top, we dropped down into the narrow Gya River valley, where one finally enters Ladakh. Rounding the corner above the highest village at Rumtse, the splash of green barley fields set against startling purple mountains, featuring sedimentary strata pushed vertical by tectonic forces, demarcates the environmental limitation at which crops can be grown. Although there are higher agrarian villages in Ladakh, Nepal and Tibet, they are only found where certain geographical features, -a southern exposure, a particularly sheltered valley- can allow this limit to be pushed even higher. As we descended down alongside the Gya, we passed through numerous villages with well-built and white-washed houses individually interspersed throughout tree-ringed fields, and people along the road broke into huge smiles and sang out “Juley,” to us, the Ladakhi greeting, as we went by. Finally, at Upshi, we reached the Indus.</p>
<p>For the remaining 30 miles to Leh, the ancient capital city of Ladakh, situated at 11,500 ft, the road, on the north bank of the River Indus, passes by a series of dusty, sprawling military garrisons, that contrast with the lush greenbelt of Ladakhi villages on the southern side. The road here, the best in Ladakh, is flat, and mostly several lanes wide to accomodate the heavy military traffic. The villages it passes through have long lost their charm and cleanliness, and the once beautiful Tibetan-style houses are falling into disrepair and are being rapidly replaced with the same dreary reinforced concrete boxes and garish billboards that have buried so much of India’s architectural heritage. The village of Choglamsar, which I remember from 25 years ago as a gorgeous green centre of Ladakhi culture, has been reduced to a typical Indian strip mall of dust, clamour, garbage and squalor. Leh itself is surrounded by hideous military garrisons and a sprawling, shoddily-built concrete suburb, but the old part of the city with its surrounding fields still retains its beauty.</p>
<p>India claims that the road to the Nubra Valley over the 18,600 ft Khardung La Pass is the “highest motorable road” in the world, although China claims to have bested this achievement in Tibet. The road starts climbing the Ladakh Range directly behind Leh, and as one switches back and forth endlessly up the barren slopes, Leh’s barley fields and the verdure along the River Indus dwindles gradually to a glittering emerald speck in the distance. We picked a gorgeous, sunny cloud-free day for our ascent, but as we climbed, the cold and fuzzy numbness of very high altitude slowly enveloped us. Nearing the top of the pass, several of the switchbacks proved too much for our heavily loaded old Enfield, and Krista had to get off to walk the last 1/2 mile, which is no easy feat for those who’ve spent the past year living at sea level on the coast of South India. Above 18,000 feet, any exertion results in gasping and a racing heartbeat, and there’s an aural sensation similar to that buzzing tinitus which is experienced when diving into deep water. At the top of the pass the view was especially breathtaking, with range upon range of snowclad peaks against a black-blue sky stretching off to a convex horizon in every direction. Looking out across the Great Himalaya from such height exemplifies the thin tenuosity of the human-created lifestreams of Ladakh, with thin green veins extending in deeply incised desert valleys through the far more extensive whited snow and ice fields. The Khardung La was once the crux of a major trade conduit between Ladakh (now occupied by India), Baltistan (now occupied by Pakistan) and Sinjiang (now occupied by China). In spite of its great height, this was a comparatively easy pass, with the rest-stop of the village of Khardung near the top on one side, and Leh nearby on the other.</p>
<p>In the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal, the Sherpa villages of Pangboche and Dingboche near the foot of Mt. Chomolungma, or Sagarmatha as the Nepalese call it, or Everest as the Brits called it, are said to be the highest year-round inhabited villages in the world, at 14,000 ft. The Ladakhi village of Khardung is at 15,000 ft. and somehow, at this altitude, in the thin rarified air at the edge of the atmosphere, people are still growing barley, which they grind and roast into tsampa flour that is eaten uncooked, mixed with soldja, or butter tea. Far above Khardung, right up to the receding snow line, we could see tiny black dots of yak moving across the green and wine-stained stoney landscape.</p>
<p>Below Khardung, we entered into the Shyok Valley, and in contrast to virtually all other Ladakhi rivers which are opaque with silt and mud, the Shyok River runs a clear glacial blue. As we descended, the confluence of the Shyok and Nubra rivers came into view to the northeast, a scene of unparrelled beauty: barren desert sand dunes, interspersed with brilliant green fields of villages against the pale blue waters, and the snow-clad Saltoro Range of the Karakoram mountains towering overhead. The Shyok River drains off from the Karakoram Pass at the very apex of India’s claim over the region. This historic pass, over which trading caravans have passed between Ladakh and Sinjiang since ancient times, now overlooks the highest battlefield in the world, where India and Pakistan carry on the hidden, futile, stalemated and potentially the most dangerous war on the planet. The battlefield itself is the massive Siachen Glacier, the source of the Nubra river. At more than 50 miles long at more than 22,000 ft, Siachen is the largest glacier in the Himalaya and is known as the “third pole.”</p>
<p>The Nubra Valley is in the remotest, northernmost area that is permissable to visit in India. The village of Panamik is the end of the tourist trail, although the military road continues to the foot of the glacier several miles beyond. Siachen means “place of wild roses,” and along every watercourse and seepage, they were in full bloom providing a muted pink contrast to the greenery. Just like everywhere in Ladakh, everything has its use, and along with sea buckthorn, the wild roses of the Nubra provide impenetrable barriers which protect the precious fields from marauding livestock. Meticulously built freestone walls surround each field and thickets of thorny rose stems crown the walls along their entire length. Above Panamik village, natural hotsprings seep out of the mountainsides and a series of pipes delivers 24-hour hot running water to many of the households. The Indian army has ‘developed’ the hotsprings by installing several crude concrete tanks for the use of its soldiers, and now the facility is strewn with festering garbage.</p>
<p>The Nubra is at the altitude limit where apricots can be grown, although the really good ones are found further downstream at Khappalu in Baltistan, now on the Pakistan side. The arbitrary slashing of the LOC across the Shyok River between the Buddhist villages of Diskit and Hunder and the Islamic communities of Skardu and Khappalu, just downstream, has completely disrupted local cultural interactions, and a growing rift now festers between Ladakh’s Muslim and Buddhist communites. Baltistan, which has always been part of Ladakh in spite of converting to Islam centuries ago and which shares the same language, used to supply apricots to all of Ladakh and on to Tibet. In return they got pashm and other wool products, tsampa (roasted barley), Tibetan tea, copperware and turquoise that comprised the bulk of the goods that constantly traversed back and forth across the ranges. Charas (black hash) was carried up from the Kulu/Manali region and silk goods came down from Sinjiang. Here at the Nubra/Shyok confluence, a remnant herd of about 200 double-humped Bactrian camels are a living testament to this now-extinct historic caravan trade that once knit together so many Himalayan communities. These shaggy camels have all gone feral now, and continue to thrive in this remote wilderness. Several of them have been domesticated to provide camel rides among the desert dunes for tourists.</p>
<p>A little further up the valley lies the snout of the Siachen glacier. This is the culmination point for the bulk of the military traffic which travels the Himalayan and Karakoram Highways. These massive and fantastic road construction projects are for the most part, built with an vicious singlemindedness to prosecute their ongoing Siachen war. India and Pakistan’s imperialist war in Ladakh is a filthy business, which utterly defiles this most spectacular sanctuary of pristine mountain wilderness. Teru Kuwayama, a New York based photojournalist who visited the battlefield on assignment for <a href="" type="internal">Outside Magazine</a> in 2002 was shocked by the mountains of garbage he saw surrounding the remote military outposts. “To see these incredibly pristine mountains and the glacier ,” he writes, “and then to look down at your feet and for kilometers around you and just see nothing but this completely apocalyptic wasteland, it is really shocking, it’s really surreal, and sad, mostly. Thousands of tons of garbage, -spent ammo, rotten food and discarded weaponry- has accumulated on the ice for 20 years, and whatever goes up doesn’t go back.” Kevin Fedarko, Kuwayama’s co-writer for the Outside article writes:</p>
<p>When I got back down to the Corps Command Headquarters in Leh, I found out that the Indian army has, in fact, made an attempt to calculate the amount of garbage on the glacier, and the figures they’ve come up with are staggering. To sustain its troops, the army airdrops about 13,000 tons of supplies onto the glacier each year. Out of this, nearly 2,200 tons are left as waste: 1,400 tons of packing materials, 330 tons of empty ammunition cases, 7.6 tons of canned food, and 55 tons of miscellaneous items, including dead batteries, discarded clothing, and used signal cables. On top of all that come the periodic kerosene spills, which can disgorge up to 1,850 gallons in a day if undetected, and 372 tons a year of human feces, which has the potential of spreading jaundice, cholera, typhoid, and amoebic dysentery into the water flowing from the glacier and into the Nubra River. All told, that makes at least 41,000 tons of trash on the glacier. But that figure does not include the 43,000 artillery shells that India says are fired over the Saltoro Ridge onto the Siachen by the Pakistanis every year. Nor does it figure in the bodies of dead soldiers that cannot be recovered from the bottoms of crevasses and the middle of avalanche debris fields. By comparison, the South Col of Mount Everest, the most highly publicized high-altitude trash dump in the world, is polluted by only ten tons of garbage, most of it discarded oxygen cylinders.</p>
<p>The Indian military occupation is an insidious cultural, environmental and economic calamity of the worst order for the people of Ladakh and should be as widely condemned as the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the Pakistani occupation of the Karakoram. The associated war-mongering, which has cost the New Delhi government a million dollars a day since 1988, has simultaneously become an immense burden for all the peoples of the subcontinent. It has brought the belligerents to the very brink of nuclear war on numerous occasions and has continued to breed hatred and resentment across the land. While the rest of India struggles to uplift itself out of the humiliation of centuries of British colonial subjugation, India is perpetuating the very same Imperialist designs of its once British masters. While India rushes headlong into massive military development, space programs, missile programs, nuclear weapons programs, nuclear submarine programs and civil nuclear programs to maintain an aggressive hegemony over the subcontinent, hundreds of millions of people all over India continue to struggle in abject poverty. India should redirect this massive military largesse into developing a comprehensive, mutually respectful peace process with its neighbours, and celebrate and encourage the increasing independence efforts of its vast diversity of cultures. Instead of foisting an incessant cultural and political homogenization, this enormous and complex land would do far better to work respectfully to promote cultural and political autonomy in its regions, which is the only way forward towards a lasting peace in Asia.</p>
<p>It seems that the only hope for the survival of Ladakh’s traditional culture and precious ecology will be the imminent collapse of fossil-fuel-fed expansionist, capitalist economies like India’s. The bulk of the traffic on the Himalayan Highway is an endless convoys of fuel trucks, and a simple inevitable doubling of fuel prices will render it impossible to continue with this remote and ridiculous war. Perhaps then, the roads will become obsolete, and will gradually disintegrate over time, to allow the amazingly resilient and patient Himalayan peoples to reclaim their beautiful mountains and rebuild their damaged civilization.</p>
<p>INGMAR LEE is a Canadian freelance writer currently living in Pondicherry. He has travelled extensively throughout India since his first trip, overland from Europe in 1977. He has a deep and abiding love for India but is concerned about its current direction. Ingmar can be reached at ingmarz(at)gmail.com</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | pondicherry south india partner krista son desmond living id heard people taking indianmade royal enfield motorbikes tour himalayan highway way ladakh also known little tibet 300 mile long worlds highest motorable road runs himalayan foothills manali across four stupendous mountain ranges leh ladakhi capital far western reaches tibet spent several months ladakh 25 years ago prior great onslaught mass jetsetting tourism construction new road ever since yearned return amazing place travelled motorbike several reasons wanted see magnificent himalaya together bound twoday expressbus rush spectacular region fly bulk tourists today also wished bear witness punching road wrought region past 30 years ive hiked himalaya never walk theres road roads remote areas lifecycles planet continue function forever nothing vectors pollution modernity conveyances deep rot nationalism colonialism tourism development although recognize part increasingly difficult problem fortunate ahead huge wave trekkers swarm rapidly newly opened areas himalaya able get glimpse sustainable enduring human civilization looks like inexorably seems wherever trekkers go road seems sure follow twentyfive years ago spent month walking across zanskar next valley west trek ran one foreignertoday hundreds trekkers passing zanskar four month season indian military incessantly builds newest road valley thousands tourists swarming ladakh via himalayan highway even take plane leh great trepidation returning ladakh see changes advance modernity brought indian occupation mass tourism wrought amazing land people loaded old 350 cc enfield bullet onto tamil nadu express train madras headed new delhi travelled north motorbike indian railways ir operates one largest rail systems world carries 14 million passengers daily although service improved tremedously years completely computerized reservation system ir absolutely garbage management program whatsoever longdistance lines ir meals served styrofoam trays wrapped tinfoil plastic drinks served plastic cups garbage simply tossed windows festoons railside shrubbery trees across land mention indias massive garbage problem manifests along himalayan highway way culmination point top continent siachen glacier become enormous festering garbage dump time first visit india taken resurgence interest ladakh several pakistani cartographic incursions siachen region large convoys indian army trucks begun ply back forth along original road ladakh runs zoji la pass srinagar kashmir srinagarleh road considered vulnerable pakistani attack near kargil 1980s india constructed new himalayan highway manali leh ladakh ambitious undertaking highway crosses several passes 17000 ft remain open 4 months year socked snow comparison mount logan highest mountain canada 19550 ft rocky mountain peaks around banff 10000 ft 1962 chinese annexation plains aksai chin indian nationalist pride stake mobilize must mobilize road part painstakingly handmade affair built maintained nepalese jharkhandi labourers subjected excrutiating extremely dangerous working conditions jharkhandi labourers known dumkas namesake gangetic plains village 150 kms northwest calcutta used cheap labour india nepalese found slaving along roadsides throughout himalaya plain tough labours indian army pays way jobsite supplies army rations four month stint along way one encounters crews sunblackened men women children hacking away rockface stacking boulders handwoven chainlink terraced shoring cages shovelling snow filling potholes sweeping rockfall cascades everexfoliating mountainsides workers woefully illequipped underdressed although army purports lend winter clothing suitable extremity weather altitudes many workers visibly suffering cold people seen operating jackhammers barefeet chiselling shattered overhanging rock theres everpresent indian army supervisor hulking every move night theyre crammed crudely built roadside hovels constructed castoff tar barrels overthrown ragged blownout tarps roadbuilding much pakistanicontrolled regions part world areas side line control delineates contested de facto border northern india pakistan karakoram highway completed 1982 leads 15400 ft khunjerab pass chineseoccupied sinjiang also military road handbuilt considerable help chinese army construction took 20 years cost lives 810 pakistani 82 chinese road workers pakistan deaths road workers acknowledged several large roadside cairns along way although workers built indias himalayan highway nowhere acknowledged assumed great many also maimed killed continue die job indian army proud ladakh occupation considers roadbuilding efforts exercise nation building heres india independence day 2006 message lt general ks rao director general militaryrun border roads organization bro bro made immense incalculable contribution national integration nation building last four decades sic torchbearers development extremely remote hostile inhospitable terrain northern northeastern borders country predecessors brought fame laurels bro dedication hard work supreme sacrifice made bro premier road construction agency country would fully justified trumpeting success story afford rest laurels need recognize keep pace tremendous changes taking place around us advancement field construction technology new opportunities provided revolution information communication technologies military affairs name high time bro change consonance environment maintain pace continue remain leader road construction contribute nation building ten years ago travelled rawalpindi flats pakistan length karakoram highway winds along cliffs indus river way reached chinese border khunjerab top large monsoon typhoon blew vicious storm right pass started snowing heavily hurried back last pakistani village foot pass spent three days huddled leaking flat mud roof house seen rain 100 years rain karakoram rare virtually houses mud roofs even slightest drizzle brings stones crashing onto roads prolonged downpour completely destroyed road spent next week picking way foot ancient silk road back hunza valley gilgit every kilometer road blocked rock fall case throughout great himalaya particulary huge landslides occasionally block entire rivers lake immediately begins forming behind dam lakes known completely submerge upstream villages along river ultimately weight water piling blows obstruction resultant tsunami takes riverside villages downstream walked giant boulders size volkswagons continuously dislodging shattered karakoram landscape smashing onto pavement shearing great chunks road went crashing river gilgit travelled indus valley baltistan part ladakh subdivision subcontinent pakistan india 1947 passed skardu ladakhs winter capital khapallu end road highest baltistani village hushe hiked week boulderstrewn glaciers 16000 ft pass overlooks massive junction glaciers concordia foot worlds second highest mountain k2 went k6 k7 base camps climbed another pass near base karakoram massif chogolisa overlooks siachen glacier sat marvelling pristine mountain scenery shocked reverie squadron pakistani military helicopters clattering way towards worlds highest battlefield although people travelling himalayan valleys forever foot roads new tenuous phenomena much indias singlelane himalayan highway paved vagaries extreme weather constant motion ice snow mountains rendered higher stretches obstacle course broken boulders mudwallows ditching whatsoever mountain streams left run right road frequently submerged motorbikes exhaust pipe bouncing potholes frostheaves trip rarely made second gear construction roads along steep mountainsides alters natural hydrology always serious ecological incursion mountain roads ditched infinite seepage courselets routed along roadside channeled culverts spaced intervals along road culvert waters unnaturally concentrated gulleys artificially inexorably erode new watercourses mountainside without ditching whole road becomes new watercourse constant moistureloading lubrication inevitably cause sections road slip every slippage consequences road descending third major pass along highway first part trip described part 1 article 16600 ft lachlung la himalayan highway compressed narrowing gorge final leg river manually chiselled right sheer cliff face stretch road basically tunnel one open side stomachchurning sense vertigo accompanies glance cliffface chasm passed canyon traveller emerges hauntingly empty convoluted river valley high line hoodoos dominates scenery providing vertical counterpoint flowing curves scree decend river due total paucity vegetation none endless crosshatched striations laid meanderings grazing animals adorn less arid regions high himalaya evening desmond walked beyond little camp pang passing fluttering toiletpaperfestooned patch tiny bushes serves toilet area thousands travellers passing entered desolate silent desert landscape distance himalayan desert difficult judge lowlanders used moving vehicles visual distortions rising watervapours structural visual blockage trees walls buildings visual concept far human walk hour much less days march ones starting point immediately obscured obstacles one carries along clarity vision astounding every detail intricately defined even great distance minutes walking entirely alone valley half hour climbing camp pang although invisible riverside depression seemed inconceivably distant far eye could see direction visible living thing movement human construction sort continued first glance appeared immeasureable vastness empty space became much intimate began understand scale vista thin compacted track led upwards apparently distant pass understood perhaps two hours away trekking himalaya oftentimes end long days hike one look back valley seemingly edge earth astonished see ones starting point immensely far away next morning wound switchbacks pang arrived onto moray plains rupshu plateau features surprisingly flat expanse surrounded gently rolling mountains rupshu farthest western extremity tibetan plateau aside small villages shores salt lakes tso kar tso moriri high cultivation vast unfenced grassland commons dotted sparse clumps hardy grasses altitudes landscape reaches upwards scrape final vestiges moisture clouds managed blow southern ranges vast himalayan rainshadow rare sprinkles provide green tinge vegetation sustains large herds yaks goats sheep tended changpa nomads finest softest wool called pashm shorn changpa goats centuries pashm wool traded widely throughout himalaya day wool makes way kashmir woven exquisite pashmina shawls sold around world changpa nomads met rupshu plain still camp wool tents spots used since time immemorial set graze herds lonely highland realms 20000 ft among tents rock enclosures baby sheep goats herded night protect wolves snow leopards outside tents people seen backstrap looms weaving beautifully coloured horse blankets woolen tent panels rugs weaving spinning wool shorn flocks constant communal activity tough cheerful herdspeople contrast garbagestrewn squalor indian army garrisons police checkposts parachute tent encampments total lack garbage nonparticipants globalized consumer economy changpa anything throw away certainly impoverished virtually selfsufficient everything continuous use survival depended intrinsic social order allowed continual usage available resources without catastrophic depletion degradation grasslands spite new road still manage exist ancestors ancient peaceful symbiosis cleanly living minimal ecological footprint participants ecological processes environment historic selfsufficiency ladakhi people current plight best documented helena norberghodge marvellous book ancient futures books essential reading anyone wishes understand marvels truly advanced human civilization humans live peacefully happily together balance within means giving earth experience premonetized nonwheeled nonelectrified civilization gained previous visit especially long hike zanskar valley 21 years old solitary experience left indelible deeply rooted impression opened eyes within human capability humans could actually live well happily within carrying capacity environment amazing earthly moonscape people lived well land activities source greeness vibrant colour every tree norberghodge focussed clash civilizations resulted arrival masstourism ladakh valid reasons avoided discussion effects far insidious invasion indian military occupation done would impossible carry essential work ladakh zanskari villages passed wealth measured money poverty every house busily inhabited wove dyed clothing grew food garbage pollution whether visual aural physical soiling water air earth arability land determined natural availability organic earth instead placement villages depended aqueducts could engineered irrigate barren sterile mineral soil organic soil nutrient carefully added clear understanding processes composting size village intrinsic extent irrigable area fields turn depended peoplepower cultivate supply water glaciers village grew size balanced able produce population stabilized point regulated part practice polyandry celibacy lama chomo renounced householders life live buddhist gompas overlook every village land bottoms farthest fields one could see browning barley crops water supply dwindled exhaustion passing rupshu road ascends top 17500 ft taglang la pass looking pass one see recentlyabandoned ancient trail switchbacking directly mountainside desolate plain foot pass line crumbling chortens rings wolfproof stone fences marks ancient campsite traders caravans flocks rested plied way across mountains beyond campsite trail demarked continuous line mani walls topped thousands stones one carved ubiquitous mantra om mani padme hum placed onebyone centuries passersby clearing top dropped narrow gya river valley one finally enters ladakh rounding corner highest village rumtse splash green barley fields set startling purple mountains featuring sedimentary strata pushed vertical tectonic forces demarcates environmental limitation crops grown although higher agrarian villages ladakh nepal tibet found certain geographical features southern exposure particularly sheltered valley allow limit pushed even higher descended alongside gya passed numerous villages wellbuilt whitewashed houses individually interspersed throughout treeringed fields people along road broke huge smiles sang juley us ladakhi greeting went finally upshi reached indus remaining 30 miles leh ancient capital city ladakh situated 11500 ft road north bank river indus passes series dusty sprawling military garrisons contrast lush greenbelt ladakhi villages southern side road best ladakh flat mostly several lanes wide accomodate heavy military traffic villages passes long lost charm cleanliness beautiful tibetanstyle houses falling disrepair rapidly replaced dreary reinforced concrete boxes garish billboards buried much indias architectural heritage village choglamsar remember 25 years ago gorgeous green centre ladakhi culture reduced typical indian strip mall dust clamour garbage squalor leh surrounded hideous military garrisons sprawling shoddilybuilt concrete suburb old part city surrounding fields still retains beauty india claims road nubra valley 18600 ft khardung la pass highest motorable road world although china claims bested achievement tibet road starts climbing ladakh range directly behind leh one switches back forth endlessly barren slopes lehs barley fields verdure along river indus dwindles gradually glittering emerald speck distance picked gorgeous sunny cloudfree day ascent climbed cold fuzzy numbness high altitude slowly enveloped us nearing top pass several switchbacks proved much heavily loaded old enfield krista get walk last 12 mile easy feat whove spent past year living sea level coast south india 18000 feet exertion results gasping racing heartbeat theres aural sensation similar buzzing tinitus experienced diving deep water top pass view especially breathtaking range upon range snowclad peaks blackblue sky stretching convex horizon every direction looking across great himalaya height exemplifies thin tenuosity humancreated lifestreams ladakh thin green veins extending deeply incised desert valleys far extensive whited snow ice fields khardung la crux major trade conduit ladakh occupied india baltistan occupied pakistan sinjiang occupied china spite great height comparatively easy pass reststop village khardung near top one side leh nearby solu khumbu region nepal sherpa villages pangboche dingboche near foot mt chomolungma sagarmatha nepalese call everest brits called said highest yearround inhabited villages world 14000 ft ladakhi village khardung 15000 ft somehow altitude thin rarified air edge atmosphere people still growing barley grind roast tsampa flour eaten uncooked mixed soldja butter tea far khardung right receding snow line could see tiny black dots yak moving across green winestained stoney landscape khardung entered shyok valley contrast virtually ladakhi rivers opaque silt mud shyok river runs clear glacial blue descended confluence shyok nubra rivers came view northeast scene unparrelled beauty barren desert sand dunes interspersed brilliant green fields villages pale blue waters snowclad saltoro range karakoram mountains towering overhead shyok river drains karakoram pass apex indias claim region historic pass trading caravans passed ladakh sinjiang since ancient times overlooks highest battlefield world india pakistan carry hidden futile stalemated potentially dangerous war planet battlefield massive siachen glacier source nubra river 50 miles long 22000 ft siachen largest glacier himalaya known third pole nubra valley remotest northernmost area permissable visit india village panamik end tourist trail although military road continues foot glacier several miles beyond siachen means place wild roses along every watercourse seepage full bloom providing muted pink contrast greenery like everywhere ladakh everything use along sea buckthorn wild roses nubra provide impenetrable barriers protect precious fields marauding livestock meticulously built freestone walls surround field thickets thorny rose stems crown walls along entire length panamik village natural hotsprings seep mountainsides series pipes delivers 24hour hot running water many households indian army developed hotsprings installing several crude concrete tanks use soldiers facility strewn festering garbage nubra altitude limit apricots grown although really good ones found downstream khappalu baltistan pakistan side arbitrary slashing loc across shyok river buddhist villages diskit hunder islamic communities skardu khappalu downstream completely disrupted local cultural interactions growing rift festers ladakhs muslim buddhist communites baltistan always part ladakh spite converting islam centuries ago shares language used supply apricots ladakh tibet return got pashm wool products tsampa roasted barley tibetan tea copperware turquoise comprised bulk goods constantly traversed back forth across ranges charas black hash carried kulumanali region silk goods came sinjiang nubrashyok confluence remnant herd 200 doublehumped bactrian camels living testament nowextinct historic caravan trade knit together many himalayan communities shaggy camels gone feral continue thrive remote wilderness several domesticated provide camel rides among desert dunes tourists little valley lies snout siachen glacier culmination point bulk military traffic travels himalayan karakoram highways massive fantastic road construction projects part built vicious singlemindedness prosecute ongoing siachen war india pakistans imperialist war ladakh filthy business utterly defiles spectacular sanctuary pristine mountain wilderness teru kuwayama new york based photojournalist visited battlefield assignment outside magazine 2002 shocked mountains garbage saw surrounding remote military outposts see incredibly pristine mountains glacier writes look feet kilometers around see nothing completely apocalyptic wasteland really shocking really surreal sad mostly thousands tons garbage spent ammo rotten food discarded weaponry accumulated ice 20 years whatever goes doesnt go back kevin fedarko kuwayamas cowriter outside article writes got back corps command headquarters leh found indian army fact made attempt calculate amount garbage glacier figures theyve come staggering sustain troops army airdrops 13000 tons supplies onto glacier year nearly 2200 tons left waste 1400 tons packing materials 330 tons empty ammunition cases 76 tons canned food 55 tons miscellaneous items including dead batteries discarded clothing used signal cables top come periodic kerosene spills disgorge 1850 gallons day undetected 372 tons year human feces potential spreading jaundice cholera typhoid amoebic dysentery water flowing glacier nubra river told makes least 41000 tons trash glacier figure include 43000 artillery shells india says fired saltoro ridge onto siachen pakistanis every year figure bodies dead soldiers recovered bottoms crevasses middle avalanche debris fields comparison south col mount everest highly publicized highaltitude trash dump world polluted ten tons garbage discarded oxygen cylinders indian military occupation insidious cultural environmental economic calamity worst order people ladakh widely condemned chinese occupation tibet pakistani occupation karakoram associated warmongering cost new delhi government million dollars day since 1988 simultaneously become immense burden peoples subcontinent brought belligerents brink nuclear war numerous occasions continued breed hatred resentment across land rest india struggles uplift humiliation centuries british colonial subjugation india perpetuating imperialist designs british masters india rushes headlong massive military development space programs missile programs nuclear weapons programs nuclear submarine programs civil nuclear programs maintain aggressive hegemony subcontinent hundreds millions people india continue struggle abject poverty india redirect massive military largesse developing comprehensive mutually respectful peace process neighbours celebrate encourage increasing independence efforts vast diversity cultures instead foisting incessant cultural political homogenization enormous complex land would far better work respectfully promote cultural political autonomy regions way forward towards lasting peace asia seems hope survival ladakhs traditional culture precious ecology imminent collapse fossilfuelfed expansionist capitalist economies like indias bulk traffic himalayan highway endless convoys fuel trucks simple inevitable doubling fuel prices render impossible continue remote ridiculous war perhaps roads become obsolete gradually disintegrate time allow amazingly resilient patient himalayan peoples reclaim beautiful mountains rebuild damaged civilization ingmar lee canadian freelance writer currently living pondicherry travelled extensively throughout india since first trip overland europe 1977 deep abiding love india concerned current direction ingmar reached ingmarzatgmailcom 160 160 | 3,050 |
<p>Jeb isn’t the only unpopular bush these days.</p>
<p>A new survey of over 5,000 people conducted by <a href="http://www.askmen.com/grooming/appearance/opinions-on-women-s-grooming-survey.html" type="external">AskMen</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/10/women-pubic-hair_n_7544288.html" type="external">The Huffington Post</a> found that 41 percent of their predominantly male respondents prefer women to have no pubic hair whatsoever. Thirty-eight percent find pubic hair acceptable so long as it is “trimmed,” 15 percent have no preference, and only five percent prefer an au naturale mons pubis.</p>
<p>Every year, <a href="http://www.stylist.co.uk/beauty/the-bush-is-back" type="external">one style site</a> or <a href="http://www.menshealth.com/sex-women/pubic-hair-popular" type="external">another</a> will prematurely cry, “ <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/style/the-bush-is-back-the-return-of-the-hair-down-114077043843.html" type="external">The bush is back</a>.”</p>
<p>But the bush is not back. The menfolk have spoken and they prefer their lawns mowed. Of course, as The Huffington Post rightly put it, women don’t necessarily “give a damn what men think” when it comes to personal grooming. But is there any explanation for men’s love of the Brazilian beyond the proliferation of hairless bodies in online pornography?</p>
<p>Dr. Christopher Burris, a psychology professor at St. Jerome's University in the University of Waterloo, suspects that men may associate untrimmed pubic hair with infertility, further reinforcing cultural expectations that women <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2014/04/10/waxing-damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don-t-how-pubic-hair-became-political.html" type="external">trim or wax their pubic hair</a>.</p>
<p>In a new study published in the <a href="http://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/cjhs.2783" type="external">Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality</a>, Burris and co-author Armand Munteanu asked a small sample of 63 Canadian undergraduates to rate seven schematic drawings of pubic hair ranging from completely waxed to landing strip to full-on 70s bush, to use the proper scientific terminology.</p>
<p>The subjects also completed a questionnaire about the importance of sterility and fertility for themselves and their prospective female partners.</p>
<p>Burris was not surprised to discover that the men were most aroused by the hairless and neatly-trimmed drawings given prevailing pornographic <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2014/01/16/american-apparel-mannequins-feature-pubic-hair.html" type="external">pubic hairstyles</a>. But he also uncovered an intriguing correlation between the size of the, ahem, “ <a href="/content/witw/articles/2013/12/10/wax-on-wax-off-why-women-aren-t-embracing-more-hair-down-there.html" type="external">pubic expanse</a>” and men’s relative comfort with the infertility of a female partner.</p>
<p>“Even though our men rated more profuse public expanses as not very arousing in an absolute sense, there was variability,” Burris tells The Daily Beast. “Men who were more okay with the prospect of being in a relationship with an infertile female partner were more aroused by the three most profuse pubic expanses.”</p>
<p>In layman’s terms, men who didn’t care about female fertility liked bigger bushes. But why would these two seemingly random variables be connected?</p>
<p>For women, dramatically increased testosterone levels are associated with both fertility problems and an excess of body hair. At its most extreme, increased testosterone is associated with hirsutism in women or the appearance of body hair in a typically male pattern on the chest, legs, and face.</p>
<p>Based on this link between testosterone, body hair, and infertility, Burris believes that there may be “some sort of connection in men’s brains between more profuse <a href="/content/dailybeast/videos/2012/08/17/war-on-pubic-hair-waxing-emily-gibson-the-guardian.html" type="external">female pubic hair</a> and decreased female fertility, or vice versa.”</p>
<p>Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.</p>
<p>A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).</p>
<p>The expanded logic: Men associate less pubic hair on a female partner with greater fertility leading to increased arousal and they associate more pubic hair with testosterone, infertility and, therefore, lack of arousal.</p>
<p>Although the most unkempt pubic hair in the study’s set of drawings was still tidier and less expansive than the sort of excessive hair growth that accompanies a true clinical condition, it may still carry associations of infertility for men making the momentary judgments that lead to arousal.</p>
<p>“Just like in hand grenades and horseshoes, ‘Close enough,’ seems to count,” explains Burris.</p>
<p>The results of this study fall in line with decades worth of research on the intersection of perceived female attractiveness, waist-to-hip ratio, and fertility—an area of inquiry first opened up the famous evolutionary psychologist Devendra Singh in 1973. Singh suspected that the appeal of the “ <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16818094" type="external">hourglass figure</a>” could be explained via its associations with fertility.</p>
<p>If Burris’ results can be replicated with larger samples, it’s possible that the rise of bikini waxing is at least partially attributable to that same evolutionary logic.</p>
<p>But although Burris tells The Daily Beast that the connection between minimal pubic hair and increased attractiveness “makes sense” from a “gene-survival-via reproduction standpoint,” he cautions that it cannot account for individual patterns of arousal.</p>
<p>In other words, men are not necessarily evolution-obsessed automatons programmed to shut down at the mere sight of pubic hair.</p>
<p>“Our research documents statistical trends,” says Burris. “So if somebody says, ‘I want kids and I like a big bush,’ we can just shrug because statistically-based research seldom captures an individual’s experience exactly.”</p>
<p>Burris also warns that his sample size is small and culturally specific but he nonetheless maintains that the study is an important precedent for future research. As he and Munteanu write in the article, theirs is “the first [study] to offer empirical evidence” for the statistical correlation between men’s positive response to pubic hair and their relative indifference toward female infertility.</p>
<p>But as fascinating as the evolutionary interpretation may be, Burris notes that the bare look is so overwhelmingly popular that its rise can only be explained in conjunction with cultural factors like online pornography consumption.</p>
<p>In contrast to the unshaved starlets of the “golden age” of 1970s porn, the vast majority of present-day performers have neatly-trimmed pubic hair or none whatsoever. The waxed style is so pervasive that some mainstream porn sites have cordoned off special categories for “bush,” “classic,” or “vintage” porn, designed to appeal to those men who still have a soft spot for some shag carpet.</p>
<p>The dominance of the waxed look in pornography is one obvious cultural explanation for its heightened demand among young men.</p>
<p>“Perhaps fertility cues get some trends going but cultural factors subsequently kick in and broaden or shape the impact,” says Burris.</p>
<p>As for the men who responded to the AskMen/HuffPo poll, many of them claim a more altruistic motive for their Brazilian obsession: cunnilingus. “A huge number of men were quick to point out that they really, really, really don’t like going down on women who have loads of pubic hair,” the AskMen editors <a href="http://www.askmen.com/grooming/appearance/opinions-on-women-s-grooming-survey.html" type="external">reported</a>.</p>
<p>It’s certainly the simplest and most pleasant explanation, although one that carries with it a particular burden of proof.</p>
<p>The good news for women: the poll found that only about 9 percent of respondents had ever ended a date early or backed out of sex because they wandered into an overgrown lady garden. So whether it’s evolution, pornography, or sexual generosity that leads men to crave a bare bikini area, women may not have to humor that desire in order stay sexually active.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether your carpet is as elegant as the drapes in your house. Most men are just happy to be home.</p> | true | 4 | jeb isnt unpopular bush days new survey 5000 people conducted askmen huffington post found 41 percent predominantly male respondents prefer women pubic hair whatsoever thirtyeight percent find pubic hair acceptable long trimmed 15 percent preference five percent prefer au naturale mons pubis every year one style site another prematurely cry bush back bush back menfolk spoken prefer lawns mowed course huffington post rightly put women dont necessarily give damn men think comes personal grooming explanation mens love brazilian beyond proliferation hairless bodies online pornography dr christopher burris psychology professor st jeromes university university waterloo suspects men may associate untrimmed pubic hair infertility reinforcing cultural expectations women trim wax pubic hair new study published canadian journal human sexuality burris coauthor armand munteanu asked small sample 63 canadian undergraduates rate seven schematic drawings pubic hair ranging completely waxed landing strip fullon 70s bush use proper scientific terminology subjects also completed questionnaire importance sterility fertility prospective female partners burris surprised discover men aroused hairless neatlytrimmed drawings given prevailing pornographic pubic hairstyles also uncovered intriguing correlation size ahem pubic expanse mens relative comfort infertility female partner even though men rated profuse public expanses arousing absolute sense variability burris tells daily beast men okay prospect relationship infertile female partner aroused three profuse pubic expanses laymans terms men didnt care female fertility liked bigger bushes would two seemingly random variables connected women dramatically increased testosterone levels associated fertility problems excess body hair extreme increased testosterone associated hirsutism women appearance body hair typically male pattern chest legs face based link testosterone body hair infertility burris believes may sort connection mens brains profuse female pubic hair decreased female fertility vice versa start finish day top stories daily beast speedy smart summary news need know nothing dont expanded logic men associate less pubic hair female partner greater fertility leading increased arousal associate pubic hair testosterone infertility therefore lack arousal although unkempt pubic hair studys set drawings still tidier less expansive sort excessive hair growth accompanies true clinical condition may still carry associations infertility men making momentary judgments lead arousal like hand grenades horseshoes close enough seems count explains burris results study fall line decades worth research intersection perceived female attractiveness waisttohip ratio fertilityan area inquiry first opened famous evolutionary psychologist devendra singh 1973 singh suspected appeal hourglass figure could explained via associations fertility burris results replicated larger samples possible rise bikini waxing least partially attributable evolutionary logic although burris tells daily beast connection minimal pubic hair increased attractiveness makes sense genesurvivalvia reproduction standpoint cautions account individual patterns arousal words men necessarily evolutionobsessed automatons programmed shut mere sight pubic hair research documents statistical trends says burris somebody says want kids like big bush shrug statisticallybased research seldom captures individuals experience exactly burris also warns sample size small culturally specific nonetheless maintains study important precedent future research munteanu write article first study offer empirical evidence statistical correlation mens positive response pubic hair relative indifference toward female infertility fascinating evolutionary interpretation may burris notes bare look overwhelmingly popular rise explained conjunction cultural factors like online pornography consumption contrast unshaved starlets golden age 1970s porn vast majority presentday performers neatlytrimmed pubic hair none whatsoever waxed style pervasive mainstream porn sites cordoned special categories bush classic vintage porn designed appeal men still soft spot shag carpet dominance waxed look pornography one obvious cultural explanation heightened demand among young men perhaps fertility cues get trends going cultural factors subsequently kick broaden shape impact says burris men responded askmenhuffpo poll many claim altruistic motive brazilian obsession cunnilingus huge number men quick point really really really dont like going women loads pubic hair askmen editors reported certainly simplest pleasant explanation although one carries particular burden proof good news women poll found 9 percent respondents ever ended date early backed sex wandered overgrown lady garden whether evolution pornography sexual generosity leads men crave bare bikini area women may humor desire order stay sexually active end day doesnt matter whether carpet elegant drapes house men happy home | 658 |
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<p><a href="" type="internal">Anthony Correia</a>&#160;|&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Shutterstock.com</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
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<p>It is indisputable that the US “War on Terror” that continues to escalate throughout the Middle East and beyond has its roots in the September 11, 2001 attack on New York’s World Trade Towers.</p>
<p>It was 9-11 which initially gave the Bush-Cheney Administration and a subservient Congress the political cover to initiate a bombing campaign against the utterly defenseless, poverty stricken country of Afghanistan for ‘harboring terrorists’ before going on to initiate a full scale ‘shock and awe’ military invasion of Iraq which had nothing to do with 9-11 in 2003.&#160; The fact that fifteen of the nineteen 9-11 hijackers were Saudi nationals was of no apparent consequence.</p>
<p>To date, those attacks, barbaric in their intensity with millions of pounds of bombs and missiles, widespread in their devastation and horror, were only the beginning as the Obama Administration continued its own jihad with drone attacks, assassination lists, 10,000 US troops still in Afghanistan and 6,000 in Iraq as armed conflict expanded to eastern Europe and Africa, at an accrued <a href="" type="internal">estimated cost of $5 trillion</a> since 9-11.</p>
<p>The 832 page investigation of events entitled the <a href="" type="internal">Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001</a>, &#160;a declassified, yet redacted report of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, was released in December, 2002.</p>
<p>Part IV (pg. 415) containing 28 pages entitled <a href="https://28pages.org/the-declassified-28-pages/" type="external">Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding Certain Sensitive National Security Matters</a>&#160;of the final report remained classified on the basis of ‘national security’ concerns and was not subject to public dissemination. &#160;Finding 20 in Part IV states that:</p>
<p>“In their testimony, neither CIA nor FBI officials were able to address definitively the extent of such support for the hijackers globally or within the United States or the extent to which such support, if it exists, is knowing or inadvertent in nature.”</p>
<p>And in clarifying the nature of the Inquiry, Finding 20 continued “It was not the task of this Joint Inquiry to conduct the kind of extensive investigation that would be required to determine the true significance of such alleged support to the hijackers.”</p>
<p>Former Senator Bob Graham, (D-Fl), prime participant of the Inquiry and Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee during the crucial years of 2001-2003, continued to call for release of the 28 pages. &#160;Citing the FBI’s effort of&#160; “passive withhold of information” into a pattern of&#160; what he characterized as <a href="" type="internal">“aggressive deception</a>,” Graham described the term as “… where you try to change the narrative in an untruthful way, and then you keep the material that would provide the truth away from the people. So the only thing they see and are exposed to is the false narrative.”</p>
<p>In an April, 2016 interview with 60 Minutes, more than a decade after the report was issued, <a href="" type="internal">Graham said</a>,&#160; “I think it is implausible to believe that nineteen people, most of whom didn’t speak English, most of whom had never been in the United States before, many of whom didn’t have a high school education, could’ve carried out such a complicated task without some support from within the United States.”</p>
<p>Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), &#160;a sponsor of the Justice Against State Terrorism Act (JASTA), suggested that the “pages remain concealed not because of their strategic importance but because of <a href="" type="internal">potential embarrassment</a> they could cause to both governments.”</p>
<p>While James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence was <a href="" type="internal">vetting</a> the 28 pages for potential release, former Democratic congressman and member of the 9-11 Commission, <a href="" type="internal">Tim Roemer</a> told “60 Minutes” that there were ‘a lot of leads that were not sufficiently pursued” citing a series of coincidences and ‘a lot of smoke’ as he inquired “Is that enough to make … dig harder—and declassify these 28 pages? Absolutely.”</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">John Lehman</a>, Secretary of the Navy and member of the 9/11 Commission, told&#160;60 Minutes: “We’re <a href="" type="internal">not a bunch of rubes</a> that rode into Washington for this commission…We’ve seen fire and we’ve seen rain and the politics of national security. We all have dealt for our careers in highly classified and compartmentalized in every aspect of security. We know when something shouldn’t be declassified. And this, those 28 pages in no way fall into that category.”</p>
<p>Lehman also suggested that&#160; “Our report should never have been read as an exoneration of Saudi Arabia”&#160; and agreed there was ‘ <a href="" type="internal">clear evidence’</a> of Saudi government employees aiding the hijackers.</p>
<p>Questioned in May regarding when the President would authorize release of the 28 pages, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest said that the President “obviously reads a lot of material on a day-to-day basis” and “I’m not sure that he felt that it was <a href="http://www.newser.com/story/224499/white-house-obama-hasnt-read-911-28-pages.html" type="external">necessary for him to read those 28 pages.</a>”</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, CIA Director John Brennan said that&#160; <a href="http://www.newser.com/story/224438/cia-chief-911-28-pages-shouldnt-be-released.html" type="external">he thinks the pages should remain secret</a>, since they contain “uncorroborated, un-vetted information” that could cause people to reach the wrong conclusions about high-level Saudi involvement.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Five 9/11 widows</a>&#160;issued a statement that if Director Brennan is confident that the 28 pages have only “disjointed information, then why is he fighting so hard to have them kept classified and away from the American public? What is he so worried about? Especially if, according to him, releasing the 28 pages will exonerate the Saudis.”</p>
<p>While it has taken more than a decade (fourteen years to be precise) of Congressional requests and thanks largely to a handful of Members of Congress and the refusal of the <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/282378-9-11-families-plead-with-white-house-to-release-secret-28-pages" type="external">families</a> of 9-11 victims to accept the official story, the Obama Administration declassified the <a href="https://28pages.org/the-declassified-28-pages/" type="external">missing 28 pages</a> &#160;of Part IV in July.&#160; A still heavily redacted version went to the relevant Committees with the House Committee releasing it to the public.</p>
<p>Upon publication of the pages, the public was assured by the White House that the 28 pages “ <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/white-house-says-28-pages-shed-no-new-light-on-911/article/2596649" type="external">don’t shed any new</a> light or change the conclusions about the responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.” and that further &#160;there is “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi official individually funded al Qaeda” which he cites as the same <a href="" type="internal">conclusion of the 911 report</a>.</p>
<p>In the spirit of <a href="" type="internal">bipartisan cooperation</a> as the controversial pages were finally seeing the light of day, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chair Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. issued a joint statement that “We need to put an end to conspiracy theories and idle speculation that do nothing to shed light on the 9/11 attacks.”</p>
<p>In keeping step with the White House, <a href="" type="internal">Rep. Adam Schiff</a> of California, the House Intelligence Committee’s&#160;senior Democrat, said “The Intelligence Community and the&#160;9/11&#160;Commission…investigated the&#160;questions raised&#160;and was never able to find sufficient evidence to support them …as is often the case, the reality is less damaging than the uncertainty.”</p>
<p>In an interview on CNN, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywk1VhiU548" type="external">Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir</a> added his opinion that the ‘surprise is that there is no surprise” in the 28 pages.&#160; The Foreign Minister reiterated John Brennan’s judgment that the CIA, FBI and the Commission had found the conclusions were not vetted, not investigated, that there were no conclusions and no links established. Al Jubeir went on to attack former Sen. Bob Graham, who led the 911 inquiry, for ”misleading the public” into believing that there was ‘damning evidence’ contained in the 28 pages.</p>
<p>Not unexpectedly, the MSM followed the White House lead with few of the front page headlines or breaking story alerts that might be expected &#160;from the national media.</p>
<p>Some of the extensive analysis of the 28 pages from the <a href="" type="internal">WSWS website</a> are as follows:</p>
<p>“The report focused on the role of Omar al-Bayoumi, who was described to the FBI as a Saudi intelligence officer, and, according to FBI files, “provided substantial assistance to hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi after they arrived in San Diego in February 2000.”</p>
<p>“Since both al Mihdhar and al Hazmi were under CIA surveillance while attending an Al Qaeda planning meeting in 2000 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and placed on a “watch list” for FBI monitoring if they came to the United States,” how and why the two were allowed to enter the US and “operate freely, attending flight training school” remains a puzzle.</p>
<p>“FBI documents also established that “allowances” al-Bayoumi received through the Saudi military contractor, jumped to over $3,700 shortly after the arrival of al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar. During this period, al-Bayoumi initially allowed the two future hijackers to stay in his apartment before finding them their own place—with an informant of the San Diego FBI—cosigning their lease and advancing them a deposit and the first month’s rent.”&#160; Graham added that Saudi Director of Religious Affairs in San Diego had met with the hijackers.</p>
<p>The pages go on to state that “FBI investigations following 9/11 indicated that al-Bayoumi had “some ties to terrorist elements.” His wife was receiving a $1,200 a month stipend from the wife of Prince Bandar bin Sultan who was then Saudi ambassador to the US.”</p>
<p>“Also named in the document as a likely Saudi intelligence agent is Osama Bassnan, who lived across the street from the two hijackers in San Diego and was in telephone contact with al-Bayoumi several times a day during this period. Bassnan’s wife received a $2000 &#160;monthly stipend from Prince Bandar’s wife with, according to the FBI, one $15,000 check from Bandar’s account in 1998 to Bassnan.”</p>
<p>The 9-11 Report’s <a href="http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Exec.pdf" type="external">Executive Summary</a> established that the “9-11 attacks cost somewhere between $400,000-$500,000 to execute” and that “To date, we have not been able to identify the origin of the money used for the 9-11 attacks.”</p>
<p>The 28 pages also refer to “FBI interrogation of Saleh al-Hussayen, a prominent Saudi interior ministry official, who stayed in the same Virginia hotel as three of the hijackers the night before the 9/11 attacks. While he claimed not to know the hijackers, FBI agents “believed he was being deceptive.”</p>
<p>According to the report, al-Hussayen “feigned a seizure” and was released to a hospital, which he left several days later, catching a flight back to Saudi Arabia without any further questioning.”</p>
<p>Of special, even extraordinary, notice is the connection with Saudi Ambassador <a href="" type="internal">Prince Bandar,</a> a close <a href="" type="internal">personal friend and mentor</a> to both Presidents GWH and GW Bush as outlined in Michael Moore’s movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. &#160; An unlisted telephone number for the property manager at Bandar’s Aspen home was found in a telephone book as well as the unlisted number for Bandar’s bodyguard at the Saudi Embassy in DC. &#160;The telephone book was found on al Qaeda agent Abu Zubaydah when he was arrested in Pakistan in 2002.</p>
<p>The significance of Bandar’s name in these pages should have been like a jumping-up-and-down red flag of prime interest to the FBI, the White House and the government’s intel agencies.</p>
<p>Bandar, affectionately dubbed by GW as the “Bandar Bush,” was a frequent visitor to the President’s ranch in Crawford, Texas and the Oval Office.&#160; He was known to have advocated for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein" type="external">Saddam Hussein</a>‘s overthrow and military action against Iraq and supported <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney" type="external">Dick Cheney</a>‘s agenda for “The New Middle East” which called for pro-democracy programs in Syria and Iran.</p>
<p>After resigning his position in 2005, Seymour Hersh reported in 2007 in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yorker_Magazine" type="external">New Yorker</a> that as Saudi’s national security adviser, Bandar continued to meet privately with President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.</p>
<p>While the links, connections and conduits described in the 28 pages are clear and not difficult to follow, they provide sufficient leads for federal investigators to have aggressively pursued, leaving no stone unturned, &#160;to create an evidentiary record to be used in pursuit of a prosecution.</p>
<p>In that same CNN interview cited earlier, John Lehman explained that the Inquiry was <a href="" type="internal">terminated</a> before it could determine the exact roles of those involved, that the Commission had not completed its investigation and was limited by time and resources.</p>
<p>Presumably, one significant instance of unfinished business would be questions regarding Prince Bandar who appears to have been a crucial link, if not an active participant, and his presumed personal contact with Zubaydah as well as providing money to Saudi contacts in the US who then appear to have passed those funds along to the hijackers.</p>
<p>Is the American public expected to believe that Bandar, a big time international wheeler-dealer, a shrewd political operative par excellence with long time connections directly into the Oval Office and easy access to the Bush White House has no knowledge to share regarding the 9-11 hijackers.</p>
<p>According to Sen. Graham, that single minded pursuit in search of justice has not occurred.</p>
<p>Just prior to Congressional approval on JASTA, in an August, 2016 &#160;speech before the <a href="https://www.press.org/news-multimedia/videos/npc-newsmaker-sen-bob-graham-911-reports-missing-pages" type="external">National Press Club</a>, Graham compared release of the pages “like removing a cork from the bottle” in that it is the “first step to build public support” given that &#160;an estimated 100,000 pages of pertinent material remains classified.</p>
<p>As a native Floridian, shedding light on a <a href="" type="internal">wealthy Saudi family</a> in Sarasota who were never brought to the attention of the Inquiry was of special interest to Graham.&#160; Six year residents of Sarasota, the FBI confirmed that the al-Hijji family had extensive contact with “individuals associated with the terrorist attacks” (including Mohamad Atta) who were taking flight training classes near Sarasota.</p>
<p>Apparently under urgent conditions two weeks before the 9-11 attacks, the family departed in a rush, leaving a new car in the driveway, food in the refrigerator and clothes in the washer.&#160; Graham reported that he had been told by the FBI that the family had been investigated and found no connection with the hijackers and was assured that the FBI had made the information available to the Commission staff and citizen families but, upon personally checking, Graham found that those documents had not been provided.</p>
<p>When asked whether the US government was protecting the Saudi’s, Graham did not hesitate to respond “Yes” adding that the 9-11 families were litigating to establish the relationships between Saudi Arabian government, its entities and the hijackers but that the State Department, Treasury, Justice and the intel agencies had all “aggressively suppressed” information regarding Saudi involvement and that the message from the Obama White House has consistently been ‘we do not want any information regarding Saudi Arabia be released.”</p>
<p>Graham added that there were lots of facts and classified pages yet to be released with an estimated “twenty two Saudi officials who had direct contact with assorted hijackers.”&#160; Graham said he “understands why Bush acted the way he did but he cannot understand why Obama is acting how he is” adding that Obama had made “an executive decision to restrict information from the American people.”</p>
<p>Graham concluded with ‘the 28 pages are not the last word” and a mention that, at one point, FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce suggested that he was ‘wasting his time’ and to ‘get a life’.</p>
<p>JASTA which amends the Sovereign Immunity Act of 1976 will allow US Courts to hear cases against a foreign state if injuries or harm have occurred as a result of terrorism.&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;Thanks to the Congress for doing their job, who rarely act in the best interests of the American people, for stepping up on this vote – with unanimous aapprovals by&#160; <a href="" type="internal">the Senate</a>&#160;in May and the&#160; <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/358827-house-bill-sue-saudi/" type="external">House of Representative</a>s&#160;on September 12.</p>
<p>As JASTA, which will allow the 9-11 Families to pursue litigation against Saudi Arabia and pursue legal action to obtain the remaining classified documents, awaits President Obama’s signature, a White House spokesman reiterated “it is <a href="" type="internal">difficult to imagine</a> the President signing this legislation.”</p>
<p>It should be disturbing that the President who has a history of acting like a Globalist when the chips are down, would so fervently obstruct release of the pages for as long as he did and so it comes as no surprise that he threatens a veto.</p>
<p>If, as expected, the President vetoes JASTA, it is anticipated that both houses of Congress will achieve a two-thirds override vote; thereby challenging the Saudi government’s earlier threat to cash in <a href="" type="internal">$750 billion</a> worth of US Treasuries.</p> | true | 4 | anthony correia160160 shutterstockcom 160 indisputable us war terror continues escalate throughout middle east beyond roots september 11 2001 attack new yorks world trade towers 911 initially gave bushcheney administration subservient congress political cover initiate bombing campaign utterly defenseless poverty stricken country afghanistan harboring terrorists going initiate full scale shock awe military invasion iraq nothing 911 2003160 fact fifteen nineteen 911 hijackers saudi nationals apparent consequence date attacks barbaric intensity millions pounds bombs missiles widespread devastation horror beginning obama administration continued jihad drone attacks assassination lists 10000 us troops still afghanistan 6000 iraq armed conflict expanded eastern europe africa accrued estimated cost 5 trillion since 911 832 page investigation events entitled joint inquiry intelligence community activities terrorist attacks september 11 2001 160a declassified yet redacted report us senate select committee intelligence us house permanent select committee intelligence released december 2002 part iv pg 415 containing 28 pages entitled finding discussion narrative regarding certain sensitive national security matters160of final report remained classified basis national security concerns subject public dissemination 160finding 20 part iv states testimony neither cia fbi officials able address definitively extent support hijackers globally within united states extent support exists knowing inadvertent nature clarifying nature inquiry finding 20 continued task joint inquiry conduct kind extensive investigation would required determine true significance alleged support hijackers former senator bob graham dfl prime participant inquiry chair senate intelligence committee crucial years 20012003 continued call release 28 pages 160citing fbis effort of160 passive withhold information pattern of160 characterized aggressive deception graham described term try change narrative untruthful way keep material would provide truth away people thing see exposed false narrative april 2016 interview 60 minutes decade report issued graham said160 think implausible believe nineteen people didnt speak english never united states many didnt high school education couldve carried complicated task without support within united states rep walter jones rnc 160a sponsor justice state terrorism act jasta suggested pages remain concealed strategic importance potential embarrassment could cause governments james clapper director national intelligence vetting 28 pages potential release former democratic congressman member 911 commission tim roemer told 60 minutes lot leads sufficiently pursued citing series coincidences lot smoke inquired enough make dig harderand declassify 28 pages absolutely john lehman secretary navy member 911 commission told16060 minutes bunch rubes rode washington commissionweve seen fire weve seen rain politics national security dealt careers highly classified compartmentalized every aspect security know something shouldnt declassified 28 pages way fall category lehman also suggested that160 report never read exoneration saudi arabia160 agreed clear evidence saudi government employees aiding hijackers questioned may regarding president would authorize release 28 pages white house spokesperson josh earnest said president obviously reads lot material daytoday basis im sure felt necessary read 28 pages surprisingly cia director john brennan said that160 thinks pages remain secret since contain uncorroborated unvetted information could cause people reach wrong conclusions highlevel saudi involvement five 911 widows160issued statement director brennan confident 28 pages disjointed information fighting hard kept classified away american public worried especially according releasing 28 pages exonerate saudis taken decade fourteen years precise congressional requests thanks largely handful members congress refusal families 911 victims accept official story obama administration declassified missing 28 pages 160of part iv july160 still heavily redacted version went relevant committees house committee releasing public upon publication pages public assured white house 28 pages dont shed new light change conclusions responsibility 911 attacks 160there evidence saudi government institution senior saudi official individually funded al qaeda cites conclusion 911 report spirit bipartisan cooperation controversial pages finally seeing light day senate intelligence committee chairman richard burr rnc vice chair dianne feinstein dcalif issued joint statement need put end conspiracy theories idle speculation nothing shed light 911 attacks keeping step white house rep adam schiff california house intelligence committees160senior democrat said intelligence community the160911160commissioninvestigated the160questions raised160and never able find sufficient evidence support often case reality less damaging uncertainty interview cnn saudi foreign minister adel aljubeir added opinion surprise surprise 28 pages160 foreign minister reiterated john brennans judgment cia fbi commission found conclusions vetted investigated conclusions links established al jubeir went attack former sen bob graham led 911 inquiry misleading public believing damning evidence contained 28 pages unexpectedly msm followed white house lead front page headlines breaking story alerts might expected 160from national media extensive analysis 28 pages wsws website follows report focused role omar albayoumi described fbi saudi intelligence officer according fbi files provided substantial assistance hijackers khalid almihdhar nawaf alhazmi arrived san diego february 2000 since al mihdhar al hazmi cia surveillance attending al qaeda planning meeting 2000 kuala lumpur malaysia placed watch list fbi monitoring came united states two allowed enter us operate freely attending flight training school remains puzzle fbi documents also established allowances albayoumi received saudi military contractor jumped 3700 shortly arrival alhazmi almihdhar period albayoumi initially allowed two future hijackers stay apartment finding placewith informant san diego fbicosigning lease advancing deposit first months rent160 graham added saudi director religious affairs san diego met hijackers pages go state fbi investigations following 911 indicated albayoumi ties terrorist elements wife receiving 1200 month stipend wife prince bandar bin sultan saudi ambassador us also named document likely saudi intelligence agent osama bassnan lived across street two hijackers san diego telephone contact albayoumi several times day period bassnans wife received 2000 160monthly stipend prince bandars wife according fbi one 15000 check bandars account 1998 bassnan 911 reports executive summary established 911 attacks cost somewhere 400000500000 execute date able identify origin money used 911 attacks 28 pages also refer fbi interrogation saleh alhussayen prominent saudi interior ministry official stayed virginia hotel three hijackers night 911 attacks claimed know hijackers fbi agents believed deceptive according report alhussayen feigned seizure released hospital left several days later catching flight back saudi arabia without questioning special even extraordinary notice connection saudi ambassador prince bandar close personal friend mentor presidents gwh gw bush outlined michael moores movie fahrenheit 911 160 unlisted telephone number property manager bandars aspen home found telephone book well unlisted number bandars bodyguard saudi embassy dc 160the telephone book found al qaeda agent abu zubaydah arrested pakistan 2002 significance bandars name pages like jumpingupanddown red flag prime interest fbi white house governments intel agencies bandar affectionately dubbed gw bandar bush frequent visitor presidents ranch crawford texas oval office160 known advocated saddam husseins overthrow military action iraq supported dick cheneys agenda new middle east called prodemocracy programs syria iran resigning position 2005 seymour hersh reported 2007 new yorker saudis national security adviser bandar continued meet privately president george w bush vice president dick cheney links connections conduits described 28 pages clear difficult follow provide sufficient leads federal investigators aggressively pursued leaving stone unturned 160to create evidentiary record used pursuit prosecution cnn interview cited earlier john lehman explained inquiry terminated could determine exact roles involved commission completed investigation limited time resources presumably one significant instance unfinished business would questions regarding prince bandar appears crucial link active participant presumed personal contact zubaydah well providing money saudi contacts us appear passed funds along hijackers american public expected believe bandar big time international wheelerdealer shrewd political operative par excellence long time connections directly oval office easy access bush white house knowledge share regarding 911 hijackers according sen graham single minded pursuit search justice occurred prior congressional approval jasta august 2016 160speech national press club graham compared release pages like removing cork bottle first step build public support given 160an estimated 100000 pages pertinent material remains classified native floridian shedding light wealthy saudi family sarasota never brought attention inquiry special interest graham160 six year residents sarasota fbi confirmed alhijji family extensive contact individuals associated terrorist attacks including mohamad atta taking flight training classes near sarasota apparently urgent conditions two weeks 911 attacks family departed rush leaving new car driveway food refrigerator clothes washer160 graham reported told fbi family investigated found connection hijackers assured fbi made information available commission staff citizen families upon personally checking graham found documents provided asked whether us government protecting saudis graham hesitate respond yes adding 911 families litigating establish relationships saudi arabian government entities hijackers state department treasury justice intel agencies aggressively suppressed information regarding saudi involvement message obama white house consistently want information regarding saudi arabia released graham added lots facts classified pages yet released estimated twenty two saudi officials direct contact assorted hijackers160 graham said understands bush acted way understand obama acting adding obama made executive decision restrict information american people graham concluded 28 pages last word mention one point fbi deputy director sean joyce suggested wasting time get life jasta amends sovereign immunity act 1976 allow us courts hear cases foreign state injuries harm occurred result terrorism160160160160thanks congress job rarely act best interests american people stepping vote unanimous aapprovals by160 senate160in may the160 house representatives160on september 12 jasta allow 911 families pursue litigation saudi arabia pursue legal action obtain remaining classified documents awaits president obamas signature white house spokesman reiterated difficult imagine president signing legislation disturbing president history acting like globalist chips would fervently obstruct release pages long comes surprise threatens veto expected president vetoes jasta anticipated houses congress achieve twothirds override vote thereby challenging saudi governments earlier threat cash 750 billion worth us treasuries | 1,514 |
<p>Last night, in a live address to the nation on the immigration debate, George W. Bush did what he does best–scapegoat people of color and invoke the War on Terror to get what he wants. It is a familiar theme, played out in Afghanistan, Iraq, New Orleans, the WTO, and quite possibly Iran in the near future. There is seemingly no proposal that he cannot tie to fighting terrorism; one gets the sense that the man bases what he eats for breakfast on it (every morning, no doubt, Bush awakens to a bowl of Captain Crunch, whom he has already enlisted in the battle against the evildoers).</p>
<p>In response to Bush’s speech, which included a plan to send up to 6000 National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border, the call for a guest worker program and the denial of citizenship to millions of immigrants deemed too ‘new’ for the privilege, the Democratic Party also did what it does best–agree with him.</p>
<p>In his speech, Bush outlined an immigration reform plan that, in his own words, walks a “middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant, and a program of mass deportation.”</p>
<p>It is indeed a middle ground. On one side is the ultra-xenophobic right wing of his own party, exemplified by the Minutemen and such visionary statesmen as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, who responded to worries that deporting 12 million undocumented workers would have a devastating impact on the economy with this gem: “I say let the prisoners pick the fruits.” On the other is big business and their lackeys in Congress, desperate for a bill that ensures an influx of vulnerable labor and codifies their ability to super-exploit them at will.</p>
<p>It is also a middle ground that the Democratic Party seems happy to occupy; they have sided with Bush on nearly every issue of importance in the immigration debate. The fact that they opposed back the uber-draconian Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) is of little solace to the millions of immigrants they seek to relegate to second-class citizenship and the millions more they simply wish to deport.</p>
<p>The Democratic response, both in the form of the immediate rebuttal given by Sen. Dick Durbin, the assistant minority leader, and the legislation they have supported in the Senate, does not even rise to the level of pathetic. It is a non-response, essentially a total agreement. The six main features of Bush’s plan and the Democrats’ reaction to them:</p>
<p>Guest worker program This legalized form of indentured servitude is the centerpiece of the Democrats’ reform agenda. It was a major part of the McCain-Kennedy bill and the Senate Judiciary Committee bill that was passed with the support of every Democrat on the committee.</p>
<p>A ‘path to citizenship’ as opposed to amnesty Bush: “I believe that illegal immigrants who have roots in our country and want to stay should have to pay a meaningful penalty for breaking the law, to pay their taxes, to learn English, and to work in a job for a number of years. People who meet these conditions will have to wait in line behind those who played by the rules and followed the law. What I have just described is not amnesty. It is a way for those who have broken the law to pay their debt to society.”</p>
<p>Durbin: “People who have broken our laws should not and will not be rewarded with amnesty. But people who work hard and play by the rules should have a chance to earn their way to legal status if they pay a fine, learn English, pay back taxes and go to the back of the line.”</p>
<p>No comment necessary.</p>
<p>The building of additional detention centers for immigrants caught crossing the border Bush vowed to end the practice of ‘catch-and-release,’ a rather dehumanizing way of describing the practice of letting immigrants from countries other than Mexico go if they are caught trying to cross the border. The Democrats shine here as well, as the Senate Judiciary Committee bill mandates expedited removal (deportation without recourse to an immigration judge) for all non-Mexican and non-Cuban immigrants found within 100 miles of the border within two weeks of their entry and increases the number of detention beds–just as Bush proposed in his address.</p>
<p>Tamper-proof identification cards using biometric technology Could Bush have been cribbing from the McCain-Kennedy bill? Title IV of that bill requires that “immigration-related documentsbe upgraded to include biometric verification of travelers.”</p>
<p>Assimilation, with an emphasis on learning English Coming from Bush, one can only assume that this was not an attempt at irony. Either way, the Democrats are fully on board, as Title IX of the McCain-Kennedy bill provides funding for programs that ‘promote citizenship’ through increased English language instruction for immigrants.</p>
<p>Sending 6000 National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border This was Bush’s most controversial proposal, and there have been rumblings against this aspect of his plan from even some members of his own party. One could at least expect a certain amount of protest over the idea of literally militarizing the border.</p>
<p>Alas, ’twas not to be. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid had no qualms about the plan, telling CNN, “On the face of it, I think it is a good idea, but I say we have to be very specific what the president wants to do. I think that we have to understand that the states can’t afford to do this. This is not their responsibility. It’s a federal responsibility.” Sending armed troops to the border is fine; the only question is who will pay for it.</p>
<p>To hammer the point home, Durbin added during his rebuttal, “Democrats are willing to support any reasonable plan that will secure our borders, including the deployment of National Guard troops.”</p>
<p>All this from the ‘liberal lion’ of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, and one of its more liberal members, Durbin.</p>
<p>To put it bluntly: we need to defeat this bill, whatever form it eventually takes. Despite the millions of immigrants and their allies that have marched, rallied, gone on strike and boycotted, it is increasingly clear that any legislation Congress might actually pass this year will make life worse for undocumented workers, not better.</p>
<p>Should a ‘compromise’ bill come out of the Senate and ultimately be passed by the entire Congress, expect the Democrats to tell those of us in the movement to go home, shut up, and reward them for their treachery with our votes come November. Some will say that this is the best we can expect and that the real work is in electing a Democrat-controlled Congress in 2006, and a Democrat as President in 2008, in order to ‘fix’ the bill.</p>
<p>We shouldn’t buy it. Our job is to build a movement that understands we can do better, that looks to the history of the US working class, and immigrant struggles in particular, for inspiration and guidance. We are constantly being told to slow down, to not be too ‘extreme’ in our quest for justice, and often times the other side’s pleas have worked; but history is replete with examples of an explosion of anger and hope that cannot be contained by conniving and opportunism, and it is those moments that have been the source of every great movement that has transformed society.</p>
<p>Now is not the time to appeal to Congress, write our Representatives, or lobby the very people who are leading the fight for a new bracero program. The way forward is the kind of struggle and class politics that were so evident on May Day–millions of workers telling the politicians and their corporate bosses that until they receive justice, there will be no more business as usual.</p>
<p>Of course, this movement, like every other in American history, will suffer its setbacks along with its triumphs. After a string of successes, the next few months will see a counter-offensive by the Democratic Party and their liberal allies to narrow the terms of debate to what is ‘realistic’ and convince us that the Senate bill is worth supporting. We may not win this fight in the short term; with Bush, both parties in Congress and the business community aligned against us, in an effort to keep the cheap labor flowing and to try to rob the movement of its momentum, our side is up against some formidable odds.</p>
<p>No matter what happens in the next six months, though, there will still be millions of the most vulnerable among us in search of justice, demanding it, fighting for it, and that fight will not end with the passage of this or that bill.</p>
<p>This is a time for serious discussion and debate on the left and in the immigrants’ rights movement. We have an opportunity to build a movement of the working class that we haven’t seen in America in decades, but that won’t happen automatically or overnight. The first steps in this effort will take place this summer, with the regional conferences in Los Angeles, Chicago, and elsewhere called by a meeting of leading immigrants’ rights organizers in Chicago on April 22. There is a national conference, also called by the April 22 meeting, slated for July. The Socialism conference in New York City on June 22-25 will play a part in this effort as well, with Nativo Lopez of the Mexican American Political Association, Peter Camejo, Green Party Senate candidate Todd Chretien, and other leading immigrants’ right organizers and activists set to speak and discuss the way forward for the movement.</p>
<p>As we organize our forces and prepare for the long road ahead, we will carry the exhilaration and potential of May 1st with us, we will remember Anthony Soltero and the thousands of immigrants killed crossing the border, and we will never lose sight of our commitment to amnesty and justice for undocumented workers.</p>
<p>The battle has been joined; it’s time for our side to get ready. There is much work ahead of us, much to be discussed and debated, but as they say, we have a world to win.</p>
<p>MICHAEL GEORGE SMITH is a student at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of the Berkeley May 1st Mobilization Committee. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | last night live address nation immigration debate george w bush bestscapegoat people color invoke war terror get wants familiar theme played afghanistan iraq new orleans wto quite possibly iran near future seemingly proposal tie fighting terrorism one gets sense man bases eats breakfast every morning doubt bush awakens bowl captain crunch already enlisted battle evildoers response bushs speech included plan send 6000 national guard troops usmexico border call guest worker program denial citizenship millions immigrants deemed new privilege democratic party also bestagree speech bush outlined immigration reform plan words walks middle ground granting automatic path citizenship every illegal immigrant program mass deportation indeed middle ground one side ultraxenophobic right wing party exemplified minutemen visionary statesmen rep dana rohrabacher california responded worries deporting 12 million undocumented workers would devastating impact economy gem say let prisoners pick fruits big business lackeys congress desperate bill ensures influx vulnerable labor codifies ability superexploit also middle ground democratic party seems happy occupy sided bush nearly every issue importance immigration debate fact opposed back uberdraconian sensenbrenner bill hr 4437 little solace millions immigrants seek relegate secondclass citizenship millions simply wish deport democratic response form immediate rebuttal given sen dick durbin assistant minority leader legislation supported senate even rise level pathetic nonresponse essentially total agreement six main features bushs plan democrats reaction guest worker program legalized form indentured servitude centerpiece democrats reform agenda major part mccainkennedy bill senate judiciary committee bill passed support every democrat committee path citizenship opposed amnesty bush believe illegal immigrants roots country want stay pay meaningful penalty breaking law pay taxes learn english work job number years people meet conditions wait line behind played rules followed law described amnesty way broken law pay debt society durbin people broken laws rewarded amnesty people work hard play rules chance earn way legal status pay fine learn english pay back taxes go back line comment necessary building additional detention centers immigrants caught crossing border bush vowed end practice catchandrelease rather dehumanizing way describing practice letting immigrants countries mexico go caught trying cross border democrats shine well senate judiciary committee bill mandates expedited removal deportation without recourse immigration judge nonmexican noncuban immigrants found within 100 miles border within two weeks entry increases number detention bedsjust bush proposed address tamperproof identification cards using biometric technology could bush cribbing mccainkennedy bill title iv bill requires immigrationrelated documentsbe upgraded include biometric verification travelers assimilation emphasis learning english coming bush one assume attempt irony either way democrats fully board title ix mccainkennedy bill provides funding programs promote citizenship increased english language instruction immigrants sending 6000 national guard troops usmexico border bushs controversial proposal rumblings aspect plan even members party one could least expect certain amount protest idea literally militarizing border alas twas senate minority leader harry reid qualms plan telling cnn face think good idea say specific president wants think understand states cant afford responsibility federal responsibility sending armed troops border fine question pay hammer point home durbin added rebuttal democrats willing support reasonable plan secure borders including deployment national guard troops liberal lion senate ted kennedy one liberal members durbin put bluntly need defeat bill whatever form eventually takes despite millions immigrants allies marched rallied gone strike boycotted increasingly clear legislation congress might actually pass year make life worse undocumented workers better compromise bill come senate ultimately passed entire congress expect democrats tell us movement go home shut reward treachery votes come november say best expect real work electing democratcontrolled congress 2006 democrat president 2008 order fix bill shouldnt buy job build movement understands better looks history us working class immigrant struggles particular inspiration guidance constantly told slow extreme quest justice often times sides pleas worked history replete examples explosion anger hope contained conniving opportunism moments source every great movement transformed society time appeal congress write representatives lobby people leading fight new bracero program way forward kind struggle class politics evident may daymillions workers telling politicians corporate bosses receive justice business usual course movement like every american history suffer setbacks along triumphs string successes next months see counteroffensive democratic party liberal allies narrow terms debate realistic convince us senate bill worth supporting may win fight short term bush parties congress business community aligned us effort keep cheap labor flowing try rob movement momentum side formidable odds matter happens next six months though still millions vulnerable among us search justice demanding fighting fight end passage bill time serious discussion debate left immigrants rights movement opportunity build movement working class havent seen america decades wont happen automatically overnight first steps effort take place summer regional conferences los angeles chicago elsewhere called meeting leading immigrants rights organizers chicago april 22 national conference also called april 22 meeting slated july socialism conference new york city june 2225 play part effort well nativo lopez mexican american political association peter camejo green party senate candidate todd chretien leading immigrants right organizers activists set speak discuss way forward movement organize forces prepare long road ahead carry exhilaration potential may 1st us remember anthony soltero thousands immigrants killed crossing border never lose sight commitment amnesty justice undocumented workers battle joined time side get ready much work ahead us much discussed debated say world win michael george smith student university california berkeley member berkeley may 1st mobilization committee reached michaelsmith3gmailcom 160 160 | 873 |
<p>Okay, health care is done, now a quick deep breath and on to a bigger crisis: &#160;how to get millions of Americans back to work.</p>
<p>The gross numbers alone are daunting:</p>
<p>– Nearly 15 million people flat out unemployed.</p>
<p>– Almost 9 million working part-time because they can’t find full-time work</p>
<p>Millions more marginally attached workers or so-called discouraged and not counted as unemployed.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that America needs more than 10 million jobs just to get back&#160; to where we were two years ago. That would be difficult enough if we had at least begun adding jobs. But the U.S. economy continues to lose jobs.</p>
<p>The problem is so deep that even those with jobs are affected. That’s because that vast army of the unemployed is depressing incomes for those who do have jobs, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which pegs the decline in income at 1 percent for year ending February.</p>
<p>If the unemployment is rightfully deemed a crisis, the future offers little prospect of relief.</p>
<p>This past week the Obama administration’s economic team, led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, told Congress it expects the economy to generate about 100,000 per month for the remainder of this year. That’s better than losing jobs but 100,000 jobs monthly is barely what’s needed to keep pace with new workers entering the job market.</p>
<p>In other words, 100,000 jobs monthly would hold lock things at the status quo.</p>
<p>Further ahead, Geithner and company predict the unemployment rate – now 9.7 percent nationally and 12.5 percent in California – will edge down to 8.9 percent by the close of 2011. I don’t think I’ll hold either my breath or the Champagne for that prospect.</p>
<p>What should make this all the more scary is that none of the plans being offered for dealing with unemployment even pretend to deal with the scope of the problem.</p>
<p>That jobs bill Obama signed giving small companies tax breaks for hiring the unemployed this past week?</p>
<p>It might result in about 200,000 hires, according to the W.E. Upjohn Institute. Don’t race for your calculator, I’ve done the math: If the HIRE Act works as advertised, it would generate about 2 percent of jobs we need.</p>
<p>To be sure, neither the Obama nor Congress characterized the jobs bill as anything but a small step. That that would be encouraging, if there were additional measures in the offing that make sense.</p>
<p>There aren’t.</p>
<p>Apply a sharp pencil to the host of job proposals on the table and it’s obvious that none has the breadth, depth or wherewithal to get millions of people back to work.</p>
<p>More credit for small businesses?</p>
<p>Help me out here: Why would small business expand when American incomes are falling and even the employed fear for their future?</p>
<p>The small business people I know are seeing sales fall and have no interest in expanding at this time. The demand for credit, in fact, has fallen in the recession.</p>
<p>Rather than a credit crunch, we have a debt crisis at nearly every level – personal, state, federal and financial. (Oh, that’s right; we took care of the debt problem on Wall Street. What a load off my mind.)</p>
<p>Think American innovation will bail us out?</p>
<p>Well, while the U.S. was inventing synthetic collateralized debt obligations (don’t ask, but as Counterpunch readers now we all own them since taxpayers bailed out AIG), China was blowing past us in the manufacture of wind turbines and photovoltaic panels.</p>
<p>Oh, our engineers can beat their engineers?</p>
<p>Maybe, but will our engineers work for $9,000 annually – that’s going rate for these technical workers in China. With a master’s degree, no less.</p>
<p>Think training will get America? We’ve all heard that one and it’s true that employment in certain technical niches has increased (though not for electrical engineers and computer programmers). But there’s no way these technical occupations can absorb the millions who need work.</p>
<p>And keep this in mind: This past week the top scientist at Advanced Materials, a Silicon Valley company which is the world’s largest supplier of equipment to make semiconductors and photovoltaic, said he was moving to China. According to the New York Times, “companies are concluding their researchers need to be close to factories and consumers.”</p>
<p>Factories – remember those? What we forgot as we watched a third of America’s manufacturing move abroad is that this sector employs more scientists and technical workers than any other.</p>
<p>There’s ample evidence that things would have been much worse without the stimulus package passed last year. Most estimates are that we’d have roughly two million fewer jobs now without that program.</p>
<p>But for those looking for a plausible plan to get back to a reasonable level of employment, there’s little on the table now but despair.</p>
<p>Of course, many with a deep-seated faith in the ability of the US economy to renew itself, to come up with the latest widget, and to generate jobs may believe the absence of serious programs for unemployment is a good thing. Government tinkering will only cause harm, they say. Let the free market reign.</p>
<p>Well, if you believe that one, AIG has got a deal for you: billions of dollars in synthetic collateralized debt obligations. And there are thousands of financial wizards who can tell you how they work.</p>
<p>What they can’t explain is how to get America back to work.</p>
<p>CRAIG D. ROSE is a San Diego-based journalist who writes about energy and the economy.</p>
<p><a href="http://greentags.bigcartel.com/" type="external">WORDS THAT STICK</a></p>
<p /> | true | 4 | okay health care done quick deep breath bigger crisis 160how get millions americans back work gross numbers alone daunting nearly 15 million people flat unemployed almost 9 million working parttime cant find fulltime work millions marginally attached workers socalled discouraged counted unemployed bottom line america needs 10 million jobs get back160 two years ago would difficult enough least begun adding jobs us economy continues lose jobs problem deep even jobs affected thats vast army unemployed depressing incomes jobs according bureau labor statistics pegs decline income 1 percent year ending february unemployment rightfully deemed crisis future offers little prospect relief past week obama administrations economic team led treasury secretary timothy geithner told congress expects economy generate 100000 per month remainder year thats better losing jobs 100000 jobs monthly barely whats needed keep pace new workers entering job market words 100000 jobs monthly would hold lock things status quo ahead geithner company predict unemployment rate 97 percent nationally 125 percent california edge 89 percent close 2011 dont think ill hold either breath champagne prospect make scary none plans offered dealing unemployment even pretend deal scope problem jobs bill obama signed giving small companies tax breaks hiring unemployed past week might result 200000 hires according upjohn institute dont race calculator ive done math hire act works advertised would generate 2 percent jobs need sure neither obama congress characterized jobs bill anything small step would encouraging additional measures offing make sense arent apply sharp pencil host job proposals table obvious none breadth depth wherewithal get millions people back work credit small businesses help would small business expand american incomes falling even employed fear future small business people know seeing sales fall interest expanding time demand credit fact fallen recession rather credit crunch debt crisis nearly every level personal state federal financial oh thats right took care debt problem wall street load mind think american innovation bail us well us inventing synthetic collateralized debt obligations dont ask counterpunch readers since taxpayers bailed aig china blowing past us manufacture wind turbines photovoltaic panels oh engineers beat engineers maybe engineers work 9000 annually thats going rate technical workers china masters degree less think training get america weve heard one true employment certain technical niches increased though electrical engineers computer programmers theres way technical occupations absorb millions need work keep mind past week top scientist advanced materials silicon valley company worlds largest supplier equipment make semiconductors photovoltaic said moving china according new york times companies concluding researchers need close factories consumers factories remember forgot watched third americas manufacturing move abroad sector employs scientists technical workers theres ample evidence things would much worse without stimulus package passed last year estimates wed roughly two million fewer jobs without program looking plausible plan get back reasonable level employment theres little table despair course many deepseated faith ability us economy renew come latest widget generate jobs may believe absence serious programs unemployment good thing government tinkering cause harm say let free market reign well believe one aig got deal billions dollars synthetic collateralized debt obligations thousands financial wizards tell work cant explain get america back work craig rose san diegobased journalist writes energy economy words stick | 524 |
<p>The assault on the Gaza Ghetto, planned over six months and executed with perfect timing was designed largely to help the incumbent parties triumph in the forthcoming Israeli elections. The dead Palestinians are little more than election fodder in a cynical contest between the Right and the Far Right in Israel. Washington and its EU allies, perfectly aware that Gaza was about to be assaulted, as in the case of Lebanon a few years, sit back and watch. Washington, as is its wont, blames the pro-Hamas Palestinians, with Obama and Bush singing from the same AIPAC hymn sheet.</p>
<p>The EU politicians, having observed the build-up, the siege, the collective punishment inflicted on Gaza, the targeting of civilians, etc [See Harvard scholar Sara Roy’s chilling essay in the latest LRB] were convinced that it was the rocket attacks that had ‘provoked’ Israel but called on both sides to end the violence, with nil effect. The moth-eaten Mubarik dictatorship in Egypt and NATO’s favourite Islamists in Ankara, failed to even register a symbolic protest by recalling their Ambassadors from Israel. China and Russia did not convene a meeting of the UNSC to discuss the crisis.</p>
<p>As result of official apathy, one outcome of this latest attack will be to inflame Muslim communities throughout the world and swell the ranks of those very organisations that the West claims it is combating in the ‘war against terror’.</p>
<p>The bloodshed in Gaza raises broader strategic questions for both sides, issues related to recent history. One fact that needs to be recognised is that there is no Palestinian Authority. There never was one. The Oslo Accords were an unmitigated disaster for the Palestinians, creating a set of disconnected and shrivelled Palestinian ghettoes under the permanent watch of a brutal enforcer.</p>
<p>The PLO, once the repository of Palestinian hope, became little more than a supplicant for EU money. Western enthusiasm for democracy stops when those opposed to its policies are elected to office. The West and Israel tried everything to secure a Fatah victory: Palestinian voters rebuffed the concerted threats and bribes of the ‘international community’ in a campaign that saw Hamas members and other oppositionists routinely detained or assaulted by the IDF, their posters confiscated or destroyed, us and EU funds channelled into the Fatah campaign, and US Congressmen announcing that Hamas should not be allowed to run. Even the timing of the election was set by the determination to rig the outcome. Scheduled for the summer of 2005, it was delayed till January 2006 to give Abbas time to distribute assets in Gaza—in the words of an Egyptian intelligence officer: ‘the public will then support the Authority against Hamas’. Popular desire for a clean broom after ten years of corruption, bullying and bluster under Fatah proved stronger than all of this.</p>
<p>Hamas’s electoral triumph was treated as an ominous sign of rising fundamentalism, and a fearsome blow to the prospects of peace with Israel, by rulers and journalists across the Atlantic world. Immediate financial and diplomatic pressures were applied to force Hamas to adopt the same policies as those whom it defeated at the polls. Uncompromised by the Palestinian Authority’s combination of greed and dependency, the self-enrichment of its servile spokesmen and policemen, and their acquiescence in a ‘peace process’ that has brought only further expropriation and misery to the population under them, Hamas offered the alternative of a simple example. Without any of the resources of its rival, it set up clinics, schools, hospitals, vocational training and welfare programmes for the poor. Its leaders and cadres lived frugally, within reach of ordinary people. It is this response to everyday needs that has won Hamas the broad basis of its support, not daily recitation of verses from the Koran.</p>
<p>How far its conduct in the second Intifada has given it an additional degree of credibility is less clear. Its armed attacks on Israel, like those of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade or Islamic Jihad, have been retaliations against an occupation far more deadly than any actions it has ever undertaken. Measured on the scale of IDF killings, Palestinian strikes have been few and far between. The asymmetry was starkly exposed during Hamas’s unilateral ceasefire, begun in June 2003, and maintained throughout the summer despite the Israeli campaign of raids and mass arrests, which followed, in which some three hundred Hamas cadres were seized from the West Bank. On 19 August 2003 a self-proclaimed ‘Hamas’ cell from Hebron, disowned and denounced by the official leadership, blew up a bus in West Jerusalem, upon which Israel promptly assassinated the Hamas ceasefire’s negotiator, Ismail Abu Shanab. Hamas in turn responded. In return, the Palestinian Authority and Arab states cut funding to its charities and, in September 2003, the EU declared the whole Hamas movement to be a terrorist organization—a long-standing demand of Tel Aviv.</p>
<p>What has actually distinguished Hamas in a hopelessly unequal combat is not dispatch of suicide bombers, to which a range of competing groups resorted, but its superior discipline—demonstrated by its ability to enforce a self-declared ceasefire against Israel over the past year. All civilian deaths are to be condemned, but since Israel is their principal practitioner, Euro-American cant serves only to expose those who utter it. Overwhelmingly, the boot of murder is on the other foot, ruthlessly stamped into Palestine by a modern army equipped with jets, tanks and missiles in the longest armed oppression of modern history. ‘Nobody can reject or condemn the revolt of a people that has been suffering under military occupation for forty-five years against occupation force’: the words of General Shlomo Gazit, former chief of Israeli military intelligence, in 1993.</p>
<p>The real grievance of the EU and US against Hamas is that it refused to accept the capitulation of the Oslo Accords, and has rejected every subsequent effort, from Taba to Geneva, to pass off their calamities on the Palestinians. The West’s priority ever since was to break this resistance. Cutting off funding to the Palestinian Authority is an obvious weapon with which to bludgeon Hamas into submission. Boosting the presidential powers of Abbas—as publicly picked for his post by Washington, as was Karzai in Kabul—at the expense of the Legislative Council is another.</p>
<p>No serious efforts were made to negotiate with the elected Palestinian leadership. I doubt if Hamas could have been rapidly suborned to Western and Israel but it would not have been unprecedented. Hamas’s programmatic heritage remains mortgaged to the most fatal weakness of Palestinian nationalism: the belief that the political choices before it are either rejection of the existence of Israel altogether, or acceptance of the dismembered remnants of a fifth of the country. From the fantasy maximalism of the first to the pathetic minimalism of the second, the path is all too short, as the history of Fatah has shown. The test for Hamas is not whether it can be house-trained to the satisfaction of Western opinion, but whether it can break with this crippling tradition. Soon after the Hamas victory I was asked in public by a Palestinian what I would do in their place. ‘Dissolve the Palestinian Authority’, was my response and end the make-belief. To do so would situate the Palestinian national cause on its proper basis, with the demand that the country and its resources be divided equitably, in proportion to two populations that are equal in size—not 80 per cent to one and 20 per cent to the other, a dispossession of such iniquity that no self-respecting people will ever submit to it in the long run. The only acceptable alternative is a single state for Jews and Palestinians alike, in which the exactions of Zionism are repaired.</p>
<p>There is no other way. And Israeli citizens might ponder the following words from Shakespeare [The Merchant of Venice] that I have slightly altered:</p>
<p>‘I am a Palestinian. Hath not a Palestinian eyes? Hath not a Palestinian hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Jew is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that…the villainy you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.’</p>
<p>TARIQ ALI’s latest book, ‘ <a href="" type="internal">The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power</a>’ is published by Scribner.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | assault gaza ghetto planned six months executed perfect timing designed largely help incumbent parties triumph forthcoming israeli elections dead palestinians little election fodder cynical contest right far right israel washington eu allies perfectly aware gaza assaulted case lebanon years sit back watch washington wont blames prohamas palestinians obama bush singing aipac hymn sheet eu politicians observed buildup siege collective punishment inflicted gaza targeting civilians etc see harvard scholar sara roys chilling essay latest lrb convinced rocket attacks provoked israel called sides end violence nil effect motheaten mubarik dictatorship egypt natos favourite islamists ankara failed even register symbolic protest recalling ambassadors israel china russia convene meeting unsc discuss crisis result official apathy one outcome latest attack inflame muslim communities throughout world swell ranks organisations west claims combating war terror bloodshed gaza raises broader strategic questions sides issues related recent history one fact needs recognised palestinian authority never one oslo accords unmitigated disaster palestinians creating set disconnected shrivelled palestinian ghettoes permanent watch brutal enforcer plo repository palestinian hope became little supplicant eu money western enthusiasm democracy stops opposed policies elected office west israel tried everything secure fatah victory palestinian voters rebuffed concerted threats bribes international community campaign saw hamas members oppositionists routinely detained assaulted idf posters confiscated destroyed us eu funds channelled fatah campaign us congressmen announcing hamas allowed run even timing election set determination rig outcome scheduled summer 2005 delayed till january 2006 give abbas time distribute assets gazain words egyptian intelligence officer public support authority hamas popular desire clean broom ten years corruption bullying bluster fatah proved stronger hamass electoral triumph treated ominous sign rising fundamentalism fearsome blow prospects peace israel rulers journalists across atlantic world immediate financial diplomatic pressures applied force hamas adopt policies defeated polls uncompromised palestinian authoritys combination greed dependency selfenrichment servile spokesmen policemen acquiescence peace process brought expropriation misery population hamas offered alternative simple example without resources rival set clinics schools hospitals vocational training welfare programmes poor leaders cadres lived frugally within reach ordinary people response everyday needs hamas broad basis support daily recitation verses koran far conduct second intifada given additional degree credibility less clear armed attacks israel like fatahs alaqsa martyrs brigade islamic jihad retaliations occupation far deadly actions ever undertaken measured scale idf killings palestinian strikes far asymmetry starkly exposed hamass unilateral ceasefire begun june 2003 maintained throughout summer despite israeli campaign raids mass arrests followed three hundred hamas cadres seized west bank 19 august 2003 selfproclaimed hamas cell hebron disowned denounced official leadership blew bus west jerusalem upon israel promptly assassinated hamas ceasefires negotiator ismail abu shanab hamas turn responded return palestinian authority arab states cut funding charities september 2003 eu declared whole hamas movement terrorist organizationa longstanding demand tel aviv actually distinguished hamas hopelessly unequal combat dispatch suicide bombers range competing groups resorted superior disciplinedemonstrated ability enforce selfdeclared ceasefire israel past year civilian deaths condemned since israel principal practitioner euroamerican cant serves expose utter overwhelmingly boot murder foot ruthlessly stamped palestine modern army equipped jets tanks missiles longest armed oppression modern history nobody reject condemn revolt people suffering military occupation fortyfive years occupation force words general shlomo gazit former chief israeli military intelligence 1993 real grievance eu us hamas refused accept capitulation oslo accords rejected every subsequent effort taba geneva pass calamities palestinians wests priority ever since break resistance cutting funding palestinian authority obvious weapon bludgeon hamas submission boosting presidential powers abbasas publicly picked post washington karzai kabulat expense legislative council another serious efforts made negotiate elected palestinian leadership doubt hamas could rapidly suborned western israel would unprecedented hamass programmatic heritage remains mortgaged fatal weakness palestinian nationalism belief political choices either rejection existence israel altogether acceptance dismembered remnants fifth country fantasy maximalism first pathetic minimalism second path short history fatah shown test hamas whether housetrained satisfaction western opinion whether break crippling tradition soon hamas victory asked public palestinian would place dissolve palestinian authority response end makebelief would situate palestinian national cause proper basis demand country resources divided equitably proportion two populations equal sizenot 80 per cent one 20 per cent dispossession iniquity selfrespecting people ever submit long run acceptable alternative single state jews palestinians alike exactions zionism repaired way israeli citizens might ponder following words shakespeare merchant venice slightly altered palestinian hath palestinian eyes hath palestinian hands organs dimensions senses affections passions fed food hurt weapons subject diseases healed means warmed cooled winter summer jew prick us bleed tickle us laugh poison us die wrong us shall revenge like rest resemble thatthe villainy teach execute shall go hard better instruction tariq alis latest book duel pakistan flight path american power published scribner 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 | 768 |
<p>Funny how homelessness and the displacement of low income families by inordinate rent increases get turned against each other as issues. They are shunted into separate political domains, though building affordable housing would resolve both. The homeless are given shelters sufficient for 10% of their numbers, and the tenants facing displacement are given subsidy money to tide them over for a couple of months until the next threat of eviction. This, at least, is the extent to which City Council has seen fit to make positive policy with respect to these allegedly dual problems. The shelters guarantee that the problem of homelessness will not be reduced, and the city will continue to respond to it with increased policing. And addressing displacement only through monetary channels guarantees that for housing, the city will continue to turn to for-profit developers who will build market rate housing that induces displacement, and that the displaced cannot afford. Homelessness and housing get turned into policing and profiting, and people get thrown into the streets because there is no affordable housing. The outcome is the inability of the city to protect the majority of its people, the two-thirds of the population who are renters.</p>
<p>Alex Vitale has recently published a book called <a href="" type="internal">The End of Policing</a>, in which he discusses not the goals of policing, but rather how to end the police as a problem for contemporary society. He goes over such topics as the school-to-prison pipeline, the police tendency to traumatize or kill people with emotional problems because they don’t obey commands while going through emotional crises, the misguidedness (as a foregone failure) of the war on drugs, the immorality of criminalizing sex-work, among other things. As he goes along, he gives several reasons why reforming the police is really an exercise in futility, given the nature and structure of policing itself. A good example is the iniquity of criminalizing the homeless through policing.</p>
<p>When a city administration polices the homelessness, it is using an administrative process that is irrelevant to the problem. It sets people flowing through circular channels from court to jail to the street to court to jail, and sadly, too often to prison sentences for incorrigibility because a person turns to real crime in an effort to escape this merry-go-round. The money spent to run this machienry turns out to be far more than it would cost to give these “victims of procedure” a home and a job. Researchers at the Univ. of Southern California showed that the “total cost per person of public services for two years living on the streets was $187,288, compared to $107,032 for two years in permanent housing” also with support services (a 43% difference). [Michael Cousineau, et al, Homeless Cost Study, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, 2009] In other words, “cost” is not the reason cities do not house the homeless.</p>
<p>In reality, addressing the problem of homelessness through policing and criminalization is a trick to fool people into thinking that they need bigger police departments and larger jails, despite the costs. Civil society then picks up the tab for financing an agency whose primary objective is general regimentation of the populace. Through this trick and others, police departments have become so large they constitute a political force without equal at the urban level.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Vitale argues, stopgap measures such as shelters and temporary housing have no effect for decreasing the homeless population. Homelessness, he says, “is about a mismatch between incomes and housing costs.” He references research by the National Low Income Housing Coalition that shows that “75% of extremely low income renter households spend more than 50% of their income on housing.” [“Rental Inflation Drives Homelessness and Housing Instability for the Poor,” May 1, 2015] For the more than “10 million extremely low income rental households in the US, … only 3.2 million rental homes … are available and affordable to them.” (Vitale, p.103) And I might add, on the basis of a survey I made of rent controlled units in West Berkeley during the fall of 2016, the majority of tenants in controlled apartments are actually paying 70% to 75% of their income for housing, with a substantial number paying more than that.</p>
<p>“Extensive research now exists that the ultimate solution to homelessness involves increasing pay for low-wage work and creating more affordable housing, with support services for those who need it. Emergency shelters, transitional housing, life-skills training, and forced savings programs do nothing to reduce the overall amount of homelessness. The housing market on its own cannot house the growing number of people who are left out of the formal economy or have a tenuous relationship to it. In such a situation, the state has no choice but to intervene directly.” (Vitale, p. 102)</p>
<p>That means that government “must either dramatically raise the value of transfers to stimulate new low-cost housing construction or provide the housing itself.” We are not speaking about government choosing radical solutions. What Vitale is arguing is that a radical solution is the only one left. Any other, such as income support, welfare payments, or earned income tax credits will fail to keep pace with housing costs, and get lost in a supply-and-demand cycle of their own, owing to the influx of new low income renters.</p>
<p>Two years ago, the city of Berkeley admitted that the only real solution for the problem (aka travesty) of low income tenant displacement was building affordable housing. (“Affordability,” on HUDs standard, means that the maximum rent chargeable is 30% of the tenant’s income). Building “market rate” housing has put the city on a treadmill, huffing and puffing to get housing built, and getting nowhere in terms of resolving the affordable housing crisis. In fact, Berkeley has glutted itself with market rate housing, having fulfilled its requirement under Plan Bay Area. Today, one sees banners on big apartment buildings over a year old still announcing “Now Leasing” and “Apartments available.” Indeed, in the face of this glut, developers are now approaching the Planning Dept. with a demand that they be able to condo-ize. With respect to homelessness, that would only set the city on another treadmill.</p>
<p>The point of a treadmill is that it allows some people to crow that they are dealing with the problem while those who suffer from the problem see that the situation only getting worse.</p>
<p>Okay, lets get real – which means getting radical. City zoning only asks that 20% of each new housing project be affordable, which developers can avoid by paying a mitigation fee. That rate is a drop in the bucket given the need for low income housing. It also provides a pittance for the Housing Trust Fund (to use to build affordable housing) since the mitigation fee is only $34,000 per unit. The urgency of the situation calls for housing projects that will provide from 80% to 100% affordable units.</p>
<p>The city could change its zoning to require that by changing one number in its municipal code (Sect. 22-20-065D). There is a formula there, with a “20%” in it. Change it to “80%” and raise the mitigation fee to $120,000 per unit (which would put real money in the Housing Trust Fund) and the city could resolve its affordable housing problem. The benefits from doing so would be many.</p>
<p>First, these increases would not violate the Palmer decision (which holds that if a city mandates affordable housing units, then that city must make up the difference in developer earnings). The way the law is written in Berkeley, if 20% doesn’t violate Palmer, than 80% won’t either. The developer can still pay a mitigation fee to not include affordable units – that is, inclusion of affordable units remains voluntary. Second, it would defend the city against developers who opportune on the Housing Accountability Act that neutralizes the city’s ability to give democratic power or at least some choice concerning development to neighborhoods. And third, regulations like this would probably drive away some of the profit-hungry developers and their financial backers (aka banks). That might not be a bad bargain since all they can offer is a product (market rate housing) that we don’t need, while refusing to provide a product (affordable housing) that we do need.</p>
<p>There are those who would cry out that this would insure that nothing gets built. They only reveal that they worship the god “profit” and use the “law of supply-and-demand” as gospel. It is a religious argument. After chasing the unneeded for-profit developers away, the task would be to take over the land they will no longer be using (there are ways of doing that), and give it to any of the non-profits in the area who build affordable housing. We have several organizations in this town – SAHA, RCD (Resources for Community Development), and others waiting in the wings, who would love to take this on. Raising the bar on affordable housing might (could, would, should?) violate the developers’ fixation on profit, but it does not mean that nothing will be built. It simply implies that it won’t be built by profit-fixated developers.</p>
<p>The real job would be figuring out where to find alternate forms of financing. But alternate financing should be possible. There are many versions of mortgages to choose from, or bond issues, or federal subsidies (maybe a problem), or taxes on the rich and the huge corporations (maybe a virtue), or actually humanitarian investment, etc. But we already face this task. These would be the same means, using the same ideas and alternative sources, that would be needed to resolve the homeless crisis. There would have to be subsidized apartments for homeless people, until they get jobs and a stable income. And services will have to be provided in the meanwhile, since homelessness is a traumatic experience – one created by our socio-economic structure. To police the traumatized homeless is like breaking a man’s leg and then arresting him for vagrancy because he can’t walk.</p>
<p>But as long as I’m talking “radical,” lets go for it. What we need is a suit against the Pentagon for spending money on unneeded, redundant, and useless warmaking technologies, where that money is needed by the people of the US. We have a recent precedent. Two California counties and a city have sued 37 oil, gas, and coal companies for selling their products in the knowledge that they were causing serious climatic disruption. Other cities are suing a smaller number of oil companies for the same reason. It is like the suits against the tobacco companies. The dangers of climate change are not just against human health, however, as with the tobacco plague. We face rising sea levels, the fact that entire species are moving northward, and there is an accompanying and on-going mass extinction in progress. All of this poses severe threats to the planet, to society, and to human life in general.</p>
<p>This raises the interesting question of the kind of courage it would take to sue the Pentagon for hoarding the funds that would provide housing and free education and free healthcare for all the people of the nation. The only people who might object to such a suit and such courage (other than the usual corporate executives and investors) would be the white supremacists and white nationalists, since they do not want to be involved in national programs in which black and brown people have access equal to whites.</p>
<p>But we should heap unending scorn on cities and states that whine about not having funds to provide a decent life for people. There is plenty of money, squandered and wasted by the five-sided institution. Its sole function is to kill people, and it does that to us as well by hoarding the funds we need to live better. Or at all. Every month, some homeless people die on the street.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | funny homelessness displacement low income families inordinate rent increases get turned issues shunted separate political domains though building affordable housing would resolve homeless given shelters sufficient 10 numbers tenants facing displacement given subsidy money tide couple months next threat eviction least extent city council seen fit make positive policy respect allegedly dual problems shelters guarantee problem homelessness reduced city continue respond increased policing addressing displacement monetary channels guarantees housing city continue turn forprofit developers build market rate housing induces displacement displaced afford homelessness housing get turned policing profiting people get thrown streets affordable housing outcome inability city protect majority people twothirds population renters alex vitale recently published book called end policing discusses goals policing rather end police problem contemporary society goes topics schooltoprison pipeline police tendency traumatize kill people emotional problems dont obey commands going emotional crises misguidedness foregone failure war drugs immorality criminalizing sexwork among things goes along gives several reasons reforming police really exercise futility given nature structure policing good example iniquity criminalizing homeless policing city administration polices homelessness using administrative process irrelevant problem sets people flowing circular channels court jail street court jail sadly often prison sentences incorrigibility person turns real crime effort escape merrygoround money spent run machienry turns far would cost give victims procedure home job researchers univ southern california showed total cost per person public services two years living streets 187288 compared 107032 two years permanent housing also support services 43 difference michael cousineau et al homeless cost study united way greater los angeles 2009 words cost reason cities house homeless reality addressing problem homelessness policing criminalization trick fool people thinking need bigger police departments larger jails despite costs civil society picks tab financing agency whose primary objective general regimentation populace trick others police departments become large constitute political force without equal urban level hand vitale argues stopgap measures shelters temporary housing effect decreasing homeless population homelessness says mismatch incomes housing costs references research national low income housing coalition shows 75 extremely low income renter households spend 50 income housing rental inflation drives homelessness housing instability poor may 1 2015 10 million extremely low income rental households us 32 million rental homes available affordable vitale p103 might add basis survey made rent controlled units west berkeley fall 2016 majority tenants controlled apartments actually paying 70 75 income housing substantial number paying extensive research exists ultimate solution homelessness involves increasing pay lowwage work creating affordable housing support services need emergency shelters transitional housing lifeskills training forced savings programs nothing reduce overall amount homelessness housing market house growing number people left formal economy tenuous relationship situation state choice intervene directly vitale p 102 means government must either dramatically raise value transfers stimulate new lowcost housing construction provide housing speaking government choosing radical solutions vitale arguing radical solution one left income support welfare payments earned income tax credits fail keep pace housing costs get lost supplyanddemand cycle owing influx new low income renters two years ago city berkeley admitted real solution problem aka travesty low income tenant displacement building affordable housing affordability huds standard means maximum rent chargeable 30 tenants income building market rate housing put city treadmill huffing puffing get housing built getting nowhere terms resolving affordable housing crisis fact berkeley glutted market rate housing fulfilled requirement plan bay area today one sees banners big apartment buildings year old still announcing leasing apartments available indeed face glut developers approaching planning dept demand able condoize respect homelessness would set city another treadmill point treadmill allows people crow dealing problem suffer problem see situation getting worse okay lets get real means getting radical city zoning asks 20 new housing project affordable developers avoid paying mitigation fee rate drop bucket given need low income housing also provides pittance housing trust fund use build affordable housing since mitigation fee 34000 per unit urgency situation calls housing projects provide 80 100 affordable units city could change zoning require changing one number municipal code sect 2220065d formula 20 change 80 raise mitigation fee 120000 per unit would put real money housing trust fund city could resolve affordable housing problem benefits would many first increases would violate palmer decision holds city mandates affordable housing units city must make difference developer earnings way law written berkeley 20 doesnt violate palmer 80 wont either developer still pay mitigation fee include affordable units inclusion affordable units remains voluntary second would defend city developers opportune housing accountability act neutralizes citys ability give democratic power least choice concerning development neighborhoods third regulations like would probably drive away profithungry developers financial backers aka banks might bad bargain since offer product market rate housing dont need refusing provide product affordable housing need would cry would insure nothing gets built reveal worship god profit use law supplyanddemand gospel religious argument chasing unneeded forprofit developers away task would take land longer using ways give nonprofits area build affordable housing several organizations town saha rcd resources community development others waiting wings would love take raising bar affordable housing might could would violate developers fixation profit mean nothing built simply implies wont built profitfixated developers real job would figuring find alternate forms financing alternate financing possible many versions mortgages choose bond issues federal subsidies maybe problem taxes rich huge corporations maybe virtue actually humanitarian investment etc already face task would means using ideas alternative sources would needed resolve homeless crisis would subsidized apartments homeless people get jobs stable income services provided meanwhile since homelessness traumatic experience one created socioeconomic structure police traumatized homeless like breaking mans leg arresting vagrancy cant walk long im talking radical lets go need suit pentagon spending money unneeded redundant useless warmaking technologies money needed people us recent precedent two california counties city sued 37 oil gas coal companies selling products knowledge causing serious climatic disruption cities suing smaller number oil companies reason like suits tobacco companies dangers climate change human health however tobacco plague face rising sea levels fact entire species moving northward accompanying ongoing mass extinction progress poses severe threats planet society human life general raises interesting question kind courage would take sue pentagon hoarding funds would provide housing free education free healthcare people nation people might object suit courage usual corporate executives investors would white supremacists white nationalists since want involved national programs black brown people access equal whites heap unending scorn cities states whine funds provide decent life people plenty money squandered wasted fivesided institution sole function kill people us well hoarding funds need live better every month homeless people die street 160 | 1,077 |
<p>Recall the history of Iraq over the past thirty-six years. Recall its wars, its invasions, its occupation, its no-fly zones, its sectarian slaughter and its dictatorships.&#160; Now imagine this series of conflagrations as if it were the worst possible set of details from a Hieronymus Bosch painting—say from the Hell panel of The Garden of Earthly Delights. In other words, grotesquerie at its most gruesome.</p>
<p>Reading Hassam Blasim’s story collection <a href="" type="internal">The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq</a> is like walking into that painting.&#160; There’s blood.&#160; There’s gore. There’s death.&#160; There’s illness, both physical and mental.&#160; There’s distress and despair well beyond the tolerable.&#160; There’s grotesquerie beyond the comprehension of those whose militaries are the major cause of the mangled society Blasim’s fictions attempt to tell.&#160; The destruction of human environments is complemented and overrun by the destruction of human relationships these stories relay to the reader.</p>
<p>The book begins with the title story.&#160; This story is about a group of murderers who are also artists.&#160; The individuals in this group submit their ideas for their next art work/murder to an unseen set of judges.&#160; The works themselves are judged on their choice of target, their means of killing and the place and manner in which the corpses are laid out to be discovered.&#160; The story is simultaneously a mockery of war and art; and a cry of despair <a href="" type="internal" />from a severely wounded people who have known too much war and death for too many years.&#160; The other stories in the collect, none of them more than a few pages long in their English translations, satirize and decry the sheer inhumanity of a society that has been destroyed.&#160; The imagery is occasionally subtle, but just as often frighteningly undisguised and even loathsome.&#160; The satire is on par with Jonathan Swift’s bitterest works or, even more descriptively, reminiscent of the drawings of the German twentieth century artist George Grosz.&#160; For those who are unfamiliar with Grosz’s artistic attacks on the Weimar republic and the fascism it preceded but know Hunter S. Thompson, think of his sketch artist Ralph Steadman and multiply Steadman’s twisted efforts to reproduce the repulsive realities of the modern world.</p>
<p>Suicide bombers and corrupt merchants.&#160; Politicians without any sense of allegiance.&#160; Foreign soldiers without compassion or souls.&#160; God’s servants as wielders of some bloody sword pretending sectarian vengeance is holy justice.&#160; This book is a suicide bomb inside the reader’s complacent mind.&#160; Equally dark and beautiful, it should be read by every westerner who gave their tax dollars, their child or spouse, or their vote to a politician to fund or fight the battle waged on the people and society that was/is Iraq.</p>
<p>Wadada Leo Smith is one of a kind.&#160; His compositions epitomize jazz and the structured freedom it demands.&#160; The performances of his numerous ensembles over the years move those compositions towards pure transcendence.&#160; Whether he is writing about the African American freedom movement ( <a href="" type="internal">Ten Freedom Summers</a>), The Great Lakes (Great Lakes Suites), or US national parks (The National Parks), Smith’s last few years of recordings incorporate his understanding of the trumpet styling of Miles Davis, Don Cherry and Dizzy Gillespie, with a passionate take on world, its people and its places.&#160; I first discovered Smith back in the 1990s when he released <a href="" type="internal">Yo! Miles!.</a>&#160; I was reminded of him more recently when Anthony Brown (founder and drummer Asian-American Orchestra from San Francisco), a friend and master in his own right, told me he had been asked to join Smith’s ensemble for their 2010 European tour of Ten Freedom Summers.&#160; That spurred me to go back and discover earlier works and purchase the new ones that came along.&#160; I have not been disappointed.</p>
<p>His latest CD set, titled <a href="" type="internal">The National Parks</a>, is about more than just the acreage set aside in the wilderness for national parkland.&#160; It is about more than the majesty and beauty of those lands; more than the animals, both endangered and otherwise, that roam those lands.&#160; It is also about the relationship we as humans have with the land; those who understand its essential nature and those who would sell it all off to the highest bidder they knew.&#160; Furthermore, in this suite, Smith includes cities and the people in his definition of a national park—specifically New Orleans, with its culturally rich history that includes First Nations, stolen Africans, French, Spanish and English men and women.&#160; When one listens to this work, one hears the mighty Mississippi river and its myriad whirlpools and currents; one also hears the songs of its travelers from Injun Joe and Huck Finn to the gamblers and the whores. Elsewhere in the piece, it’s the whisper of the wind hundreds of meters up near the spar of the Sequoia that reveals itself to the ear.&#160; Smith’s ensemble is made up of pianist Anthony Davis, drummer Pheeroan Aklaff, and bassist John Lindberg.&#160; For this recording, it has been expanded to include cellist Ashley Walters. Take the time to listen.</p>
<p>The final work I want to mention in this troika is a 2016 memoir published by longtime peace activist Clare Hanrahan.&#160; Arrested for opposing nuclear weapons and the US military’s School of the Assassins (for which she spent six months in the federal pen), Hanrahan’s story is not so much about her activism, but about childhood experiences and realizations that brought her to that life.&#160; Born and raised in a working class district of Memphis, Tennessee, Hanrahan evocatively describes her childhood, the neighborhood, the racism, the ugliness and the beauty of that life.&#160; Told in a series of interlocking vignettes that mingle events and reflections, Hanrahan’s book, titled <a href="" type="internal">The Half Life of a Free Radical: Growing Up Irish Catholic in Jim Crow Memphis</a> paints a vivid picture of a time, a place, and a family.&#160; In telling her story, Hanrahan addresses the US wars on peoples fighting for their freedom, the daily despair of poverty, the disfiguring cost of racism, and the toll of alcoholism.&#160; Simultaneously, she presents a tale of perseverance, a determination to live a life of independence, victories both personal and public, and of love.&#160; There is a tempered rage at the destruction of souls and an unresolved sadness at the failure of relationships. Never sugarcoating anything, The Half Life of a Free Radical acknowledges the costs of living that life—to family and self.&#160; There are immeasurable quantities of sadness in these stories, but also humor, fierce resolve and an understanding attained only by one who has and continues to live their life to its fullest.</p> | true | 4 | recall history iraq past thirtysix years recall wars invasions occupation nofly zones sectarian slaughter dictatorships160 imagine series conflagrations worst possible set details hieronymus bosch paintingsay hell panel garden earthly delights words grotesquerie gruesome reading hassam blasims story collection corpse exhibition stories iraq like walking painting160 theres blood160 theres gore theres death160 theres illness physical mental160 theres distress despair well beyond tolerable160 theres grotesquerie beyond comprehension whose militaries major cause mangled society blasims fictions attempt tell160 destruction human environments complemented overrun destruction human relationships stories relay reader book begins title story160 story group murderers also artists160 individuals group submit ideas next art workmurder unseen set judges160 works judged choice target means killing place manner corpses laid discovered160 story simultaneously mockery war art cry despair severely wounded people known much war death many years160 stories collect none pages long english translations satirize decry sheer inhumanity society destroyed160 imagery occasionally subtle often frighteningly undisguised even loathsome160 satire par jonathan swifts bitterest works even descriptively reminiscent drawings german twentieth century artist george grosz160 unfamiliar groszs artistic attacks weimar republic fascism preceded know hunter thompson think sketch artist ralph steadman multiply steadmans twisted efforts reproduce repulsive realities modern world suicide bombers corrupt merchants160 politicians without sense allegiance160 foreign soldiers without compassion souls160 gods servants wielders bloody sword pretending sectarian vengeance holy justice160 book suicide bomb inside readers complacent mind160 equally dark beautiful read every westerner gave tax dollars child spouse vote politician fund fight battle waged people society wasis iraq wadada leo smith one kind160 compositions epitomize jazz structured freedom demands160 performances numerous ensembles years move compositions towards pure transcendence160 whether writing african american freedom movement ten freedom summers great lakes great lakes suites us national parks national parks smiths last years recordings incorporate understanding trumpet styling miles davis cherry dizzy gillespie passionate take world people places160 first discovered smith back 1990s released yo miles160 reminded recently anthony brown founder drummer asianamerican orchestra san francisco friend master right told asked join smiths ensemble 2010 european tour ten freedom summers160 spurred go back discover earlier works purchase new ones came along160 disappointed latest cd set titled national parks acreage set aside wilderness national parkland160 majesty beauty lands animals endangered otherwise roam lands160 also relationship humans land understand essential nature would sell highest bidder knew160 furthermore suite smith includes cities people definition national parkspecifically new orleans culturally rich history includes first nations stolen africans french spanish english men women160 one listens work one hears mighty mississippi river myriad whirlpools currents one also hears songs travelers injun joe huck finn gamblers whores elsewhere piece whisper wind hundreds meters near spar sequoia reveals ear160 smiths ensemble made pianist anthony davis drummer pheeroan aklaff bassist john lindberg160 recording expanded include cellist ashley walters take time listen final work want mention troika 2016 memoir published longtime peace activist clare hanrahan160 arrested opposing nuclear weapons us militarys school assassins spent six months federal pen hanrahans story much activism childhood experiences realizations brought life160 born raised working class district memphis tennessee hanrahan evocatively describes childhood neighborhood racism ugliness beauty life160 told series interlocking vignettes mingle events reflections hanrahans book titled half life free radical growing irish catholic jim crow memphis paints vivid picture time place family160 telling story hanrahan addresses us wars peoples fighting freedom daily despair poverty disfiguring cost racism toll alcoholism160 simultaneously presents tale perseverance determination live life independence victories personal public love160 tempered rage destruction souls unresolved sadness failure relationships never sugarcoating anything half life free radical acknowledges costs living lifeto family self160 immeasurable quantities sadness stories also humor fierce resolve understanding attained one continues live life fullest | 598 |
<p>With mass species die-offs, threats to human food supplies, toxicity of air and water, along with deforestation and ocean destruction and the justifiably dominant concern of climate change causing long-term droughts, floods, and extreme storms, the rule of law needs to be applied to the environment. The Green Shadow Cabinet will make putting in place the rule of law a top priority.</p>
<p>In 1970 the National Environmental Policy Act, signed by President Nixon, took effect. The law seeks “to declare national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation..."</p>
<p>We must now make this law a reality. Since 1970 the law has been manipulated by big business and government to allow environmentally damaging projects to go forward. NEPA required an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) before government actions but the failure of this process is evident when the State Department is on the verge of finding the Keystone XL Pipeline has no significant environmental impact even though James Hansen, one of the leading climate experts in the world, describes tapping into the Alberta Tar Sands as “game over for the planet” putting the Earth over the tipping point for climate change.</p>
<p>A process that concludes “game over for the planet” is not a significant environmental impact, it is a broken process. Obviously, climate change impact must be part of an environmental review.</p>
<p>Corporations that profit from investing in tar sands, as well as excavating, transporting, refining and profiting from tar sands, need to be held accountable. They know what they are doing pushes us over the tipping point for climate change; doesn’t this make them responsible?</p>
<p>We can no longer exempt oil, gas and other energy polluters from the requirements of environmental laws; they need to be held financially liable for their environmental degradation, not be given tax breaks and corporate welfare. The rule of law should include the corporate death penalty, revocation of the corporate charter, for corporations that are repeat offenders.</p>
<p>As carbon energy grows scarce environmentally damaging excavation increases, such as hydrofracking, tar sands, offshore oil drilling, arctic drilling, uranium mining and mountaintop removal. This shows the need to end put in place a carbon-free, nuclear-free energy economy by rapidly moving to clean, sustainable energy along with conservation and efficiency. Requiring carbon and nuclear energy sources to pay the real cost of their environmental damage will be a step toward a level playing field with solar, wind, geothermal and ocean energy.</p>
<p>The rule of law must put protection of the planet above profit. The Congress and executive branch, captured by big business interests emanating from Wall Street, has put profit ahead of the planet. The recent Monsanto Protection Act is an attack on the rule of law and judicial review in order to protect biotech profits. The rider, with the Orwellian name “Plant Protection Act,” was anonymously grafted onto an emergency budget bill, and grants immunity to legal challenges to GMO plant products that could be a tremendous risk to the environment and food supply. The Justice Council of the Green Shadow Cabinet would oppose patenting life forms.</p>
<p>More widely damaging to the rule of law will be the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest trade agreement in history, which is a global corporate coup that puts profits ahead of the environment and the people. President Obama has been negotiating the TPP in secret with 600 corporate advisers but hidden from the Congress, the media and American people for three years.</p>
<p>The trade agreement undermines the rule of law by allowing corporations to sue governments in trade tribunals, with judges primarily being corporate lawyers on leave from their corporate job. It puts the potential profits of corporations over environmental and other laws. Once again – the policy is profits before the environment – the opposite of what is needed. This agreement needs to be stopped and other agreements like the WTO and NAFTA reversed so the environment is protected and the people and planet come before profits.</p>
<p>Other countries are recognizing that there is an environmental crisis leading to ecological collapse and are putting protection of the environment in their laws. Bolivia’s Law of Mother Earth makes the planet “a collective subject of public interest,” and declares both the Earth and life-systems (which combine human communities and ecosystems) as titleholders of inherent legal rights. The law recognizes that the maintenance of life systems, ecological diversity (without genetic alteration), rights to water and air, the interdependence of the components of the Earth and the need to restore ecological systems all need legal protection.</p>
<p>Similarly the Icelandic Constitution, drafted in 2012, states: “All shall by law be accorded the right to a healthy environment, fresh water, unpolluted air and unspoiled nature. This means that the diversity of life and land must be maintained and nature’s objects of value, uninhabited areas, vegetation and soil shall enjoy protection. Earlier damages shall be repaired as possible.”</p>
<p>The United States needs to follow these examples and create laws to protect the environment. The power to do should be expanded beyond government by allowing standing to sue by anyone adversely affected by actions that hurt the environment. The judicial branch of government needs to be opened to all Americans injured by corporate or government action.</p>
<p>The Green Shadow Cabinet recognizes that the rule of law has been battered in recent decades beyond the failure to hold polluters accountable, such as the lack of prosecution of financiers whose pervasive fraud and law breaking caused economic collapse, the lack of prosecution of torturers and their enablers, the overuse of lengthy sentencing in racially disproportionate enforcement of drug offenses, the undermining of civil liberties in the name of the war on terror and war on drugs and the prosecution of whistleblowers seeking to bring much-needed transparency to government and big business. As we work toward establishing the rule of law in the United States, ecological restoration and environmental protection needs to be a top priority.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/rule-law-times-ecological-collapse-1366642895" type="external">Originally published by Nation of Change</a>.</p> | true | 4 | mass species dieoffs threats human food supplies toxicity air water along deforestation ocean destruction justifiably dominant concern climate change causing longterm droughts floods extreme storms rule law needs applied environment green shadow cabinet make putting place rule law top priority 1970 national environmental policy act signed president nixon took effect law seeks declare national policy encourage productive enjoyable harmony man environment promote efforts prevent eliminate damage environment biosphere stimulate health welfare man enrich understanding ecological systems natural resources important nation must make law reality since 1970 law manipulated big business government allow environmentally damaging projects go forward nepa required environmental impact statement eis government actions failure process evident state department verge finding keystone xl pipeline significant environmental impact even though james hansen one leading climate experts world describes tapping alberta tar sands game planet putting earth tipping point climate change process concludes game planet significant environmental impact broken process obviously climate change impact must part environmental review corporations profit investing tar sands well excavating transporting refining profiting tar sands need held accountable know pushes us tipping point climate change doesnt make responsible longer exempt oil gas energy polluters requirements environmental laws need held financially liable environmental degradation given tax breaks corporate welfare rule law include corporate death penalty revocation corporate charter corporations repeat offenders carbon energy grows scarce environmentally damaging excavation increases hydrofracking tar sands offshore oil drilling arctic drilling uranium mining mountaintop removal shows need end put place carbonfree nuclearfree energy economy rapidly moving clean sustainable energy along conservation efficiency requiring carbon nuclear energy sources pay real cost environmental damage step toward level playing field solar wind geothermal ocean energy rule law must put protection planet profit congress executive branch captured big business interests emanating wall street put profit ahead planet recent monsanto protection act attack rule law judicial review order protect biotech profits rider orwellian name plant protection act anonymously grafted onto emergency budget bill grants immunity legal challenges gmo plant products could tremendous risk environment food supply justice council green shadow cabinet would oppose patenting life forms widely damaging rule law transpacific partnership largest trade agreement history global corporate coup puts profits ahead environment people president obama negotiating tpp secret 600 corporate advisers hidden congress media american people three years trade agreement undermines rule law allowing corporations sue governments trade tribunals judges primarily corporate lawyers leave corporate job puts potential profits corporations environmental laws policy profits environment opposite needed agreement needs stopped agreements like wto nafta reversed environment protected people planet come profits countries recognizing environmental crisis leading ecological collapse putting protection environment laws bolivias law mother earth makes planet collective subject public interest declares earth lifesystems combine human communities ecosystems titleholders inherent legal rights law recognizes maintenance life systems ecological diversity without genetic alteration rights water air interdependence components earth need restore ecological systems need legal protection similarly icelandic constitution drafted 2012 states shall law accorded right healthy environment fresh water unpolluted air unspoiled nature means diversity life land must maintained natures objects value uninhabited areas vegetation soil shall enjoy protection earlier damages shall repaired possible united states needs follow examples create laws protect environment power expanded beyond government allowing standing sue anyone adversely affected actions hurt environment judicial branch government needs opened americans injured corporate government action green shadow cabinet recognizes rule law battered recent decades beyond failure hold polluters accountable lack prosecution financiers whose pervasive fraud law breaking caused economic collapse lack prosecution torturers enablers overuse lengthy sentencing racially disproportionate enforcement drug offenses undermining civil liberties name war terror war drugs prosecution whistleblowers seeking bring muchneeded transparency government big business work toward establishing rule law united states ecological restoration environmental protection needs top priority originally published nation change | 614 |
<p>Israel captured and occupied the Gaza Strip and the West Bank 40 years ago this week. The victory was celebrated as a great triumph, at once tripling the size of the land under Israeli control, including East Jerusalem. It was, however, a Pyrrhic victory. As the occupation stretched over the decades, it transformed and deformed Israeli society. It led Israel to abandon the norms and practices of a democratic society until, in the name of national security, it began to routinely accept the brutal violence of occupation and open discrimination and abuse of Palestinians, including the torture of prisoners and collective reprisals for Palestinians attacks. Palestinian neighborhoods, olive groves and villages were, in the name of national security, bulldozed into the ground.</p>
<p>Israel’s image has shifted from that of a heroic, open society set amid a sea of despotic regimes to that of an international pariah. Israel’s West Bank separation barrier, built ostensibly to keep out Palestinian bombers, has also been used to swallow huge tracts of the West Bank into Israel. Palestinian towns are ringed by Israeli checkpoints. Major roads in the West Bank are reserved for Israeli settlers. The U.N. estimates that about half the West Bank is now off-limits to Palestinians. And every week there are new reports of Palestinian produce that is held up until it rots, pregnant women giving birth in cars because they cannot get to hospitals, and even senseless and avoidable deaths, such as one young woman who died recently when she couldn’t get through a checkpoint to her kidney dialysis treatment.</p>
<p>“We are raising commanders who are policemen,” former Israeli General Amiram Levine told the newspaper Maariv. “We ask them to excel at the checkpoint. What does it means to excel at the checkpoint? It means being enough of a bastard to delay a pregnant woman from getting to the hospital.”</p>
<p>The occupation was benign at the beginning. Israelis crossed into Palestinian territory to buy cheap vegetables, eat at local restaurants, spend the weekend in the desert oasis of Jericho and get their cars fixed. The Palestinians were a pool of cheap labor and by the mid-1980s, 40 percent of the Palestinian workforce was employed in Israel. The Palestinians flowed over the border to the shops and beaches of Tel Aviv. But the second-class status of Palestinians, growing repression by Israeli authorities in the West Bank and Gaza and festering poverty saw Palestinians, most of them too young to remember the moment of occupation, rise up in December 1987 to launch six years of street protests. The uprising eventually led to a peace accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasir Arafat. Arafat, who had spent most of his life in exile, returned in triumph to Gaza.</p>
<p />
<p>The Oslo Accords that followed momentarily heralded a new era, a moment of hope. I was in Gaza when they were signed. The Gaza Strip was awash in a giddy optimism. Palestinian businessmen who had made their fortunes abroad returned to help build the new Palestinian state. The radical Islamists seemed to shrink away. Palestinian women threw off their head scarves and beauty salons sprouted on city streets. There was a brief and shining sense that life could be normal, free from strife and violence, that finally Palestinians had a future. But it all swiftly turned sour. The 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, coupled with mounting draconian restrictions on Palestinians to prevent them from entering Israel and keep them in submission, led to another uprising in 2000. This one, which I also covered for The New York Times, was far more violent. This latest uprising has led to the deaths of more than 4,300 Palestinians and 1,100 Israelis. It ushered in an Israeli policy that saw Jewish settlers relocated from Gaza. Gaza was then sealed off like a vast prison. Israel also began to build a security barrier — at a cost of about $ 1 million per mile — in the West Bank. When it is done, the barrier is expected to incorporate 40 percent of Palestinian land into the Israeli state.</p>
<p>Israeli air strikes have, over the past year, decimated the infrastructure in Gaza, destroying bridges, power stations and civilian administration buildings. The breakdown in law and order, coupled with the growing desperation in Gaza, has triggered an internecine conflict between Hamas and Fatah. There are some 200 Palestinians who have died in clashes and street fighting between the two factions during the past year — more than one-third of those killed by Israel during the same period.</p>
<p>The Israeli abuses have been well documented, not only by international human rights organizations, but Israeli human rights groups such as B’Tselem. On June 4, 2007, Amnesty International released a new 45-page report called “Enduring Occupation: Palestinians Under Siege in the West Bank,” which again illustrates the devastating impact of four decades of Israeli military occupation. The report documents the relentless expansion of unlawful settlements on occupied land. It details the ways Israel has seized or denied crucial resources, such as water, to Palestinians under occupation. It documents a plethora of measures that confine Palestinians to fragmented enclaves and hinder their access to work, health and education facilities. These measures include the 700-kilometer barrier or wall, more than 500 checkpoints and blockades, and a complicated system of permits to heavily restrict movement.</p>
<p>“Palestinians living in the West Bank are blocked at every turn. This is not simply an inconvenience — it can be a matter of life or death. It is unacceptable that women in labor, sick children, or victims of accidents on their way to hospital should be forced to take long detours and face delays which can cost them their lives,” said Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program.</p>
<p>“International action is urgently needed to address the widespread human rights abuses being committed under the occupation, and which are fueling resentment and despair among a predominantly young and increasingly radicalized Palestinian population,” said Smart. “For 40 years, the international community has failed to adequately address the Israeli-Palestinian problem; it cannot, must not, wait another 40 years to do so.”</p>
<p>Of Gaza’s 1.4 million residents, a staggering 1.1 million now depend on outside food assistance. The World Food Program has identified Gaza as one of the world’s hunger global hot spots. The WFP is a principal food aid provider to Palestinians, providing assistance to 640,000 Palestinians, more than a third of them in Gaza.</p>
<p>The desperation — with young men unable to find work, travel outside the Gaza Strip or West Bank and forced to sleep 10 to a room in concrete hovels without running water — has empowered the Islamic radicals. The desperation has led the Palestinian population, once one of the most secular in the Middle East, to turn to radical fundamentalism. The more pressure and violence Israel employs, the more these radicals are empowered.</p>
<p>The Israeli lobby in the United States is captive to the far right of Israeli politics. It exerts influence not on behalf of the Jewish state but an ideological strain within Israel that believes it can crush Palestinian aspirations through force. The self-defeating policies of the Bush administration are mirrored in the self-defeating policies championed by the hard-right administration of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem. Israel flouts international law and dismisses Security Council resolutions to respect the integrity of Palestinian territory. It has instead trapped Palestinians in squalid, barricaded ghettos where they barely survive.</p>
<p>It is not in Israel’s interest — or our own — to continue to fuel increased Palestinian strife and rising militancy. Economic sanctions and an arms ban against Israel are our last hope. These were the tools that toppled the apartheid regime in South Africa. And it was, after all, the sanctions imposed by the first President Bush — he suspended $10 billion of loan guarantees for resettling Russian immigrants in Israel — that prodded right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to attend peace talks in Madrid.</p>
<p>A trade embargo — even if imposed only by European states — would be a start. It is outside pressure that can alone halt the inexorable slide into a conflict that could become regional. And a new regional conflict with Israel could spell the end of the Zionist experiment in the Middle East. It may be quixotic, perhaps even impossible, but it is the last measure left to save Israel from itself.</p>
<p>Chris Hedges is a veteran journalist and former Mideast bureau chief for The New York Times. His most recent <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743284437/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0743284437&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=truthdig20-20&amp;linkId=5b4a22bfd7da71c0215803c1b6914007" type="external">book</a> is “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America.”</p> | true | 4 | israel captured occupied gaza strip west bank 40 years ago week victory celebrated great triumph tripling size land israeli control including east jerusalem however pyrrhic victory occupation stretched decades transformed deformed israeli society led israel abandon norms practices democratic society name national security began routinely accept brutal violence occupation open discrimination abuse palestinians including torture prisoners collective reprisals palestinians attacks palestinian neighborhoods olive groves villages name national security bulldozed ground israels image shifted heroic open society set amid sea despotic regimes international pariah israels west bank separation barrier built ostensibly keep palestinian bombers also used swallow huge tracts west bank israel palestinian towns ringed israeli checkpoints major roads west bank reserved israeli settlers un estimates half west bank offlimits palestinians every week new reports palestinian produce held rots pregnant women giving birth cars get hospitals even senseless avoidable deaths one young woman died recently couldnt get checkpoint kidney dialysis treatment raising commanders policemen former israeli general amiram levine told newspaper maariv ask excel checkpoint means excel checkpoint means enough bastard delay pregnant woman getting hospital occupation benign beginning israelis crossed palestinian territory buy cheap vegetables eat local restaurants spend weekend desert oasis jericho get cars fixed palestinians pool cheap labor mid1980s 40 percent palestinian workforce employed israel palestinians flowed border shops beaches tel aviv secondclass status palestinians growing repression israeli authorities west bank gaza festering poverty saw palestinians young remember moment occupation rise december 1987 launch six years street protests uprising eventually led peace accord israel palestine liberation organization led yasir arafat arafat spent life exile returned triumph gaza oslo accords followed momentarily heralded new era moment hope gaza signed gaza strip awash giddy optimism palestinian businessmen made fortunes abroad returned help build new palestinian state radical islamists seemed shrink away palestinian women threw head scarves beauty salons sprouted city streets brief shining sense life could normal free strife violence finally palestinians future swiftly turned sour 1995 assassination israeli prime minister yitzhak rabin coupled mounting draconian restrictions palestinians prevent entering israel keep submission led another uprising 2000 one also covered new york times far violent latest uprising led deaths 4300 palestinians 1100 israelis ushered israeli policy saw jewish settlers relocated gaza gaza sealed like vast prison israel also began build security barrier cost 1 million per mile west bank done barrier expected incorporate 40 percent palestinian land israeli state israeli air strikes past year decimated infrastructure gaza destroying bridges power stations civilian administration buildings breakdown law order coupled growing desperation gaza triggered internecine conflict hamas fatah 200 palestinians died clashes street fighting two factions past year onethird killed israel period israeli abuses well documented international human rights organizations israeli human rights groups btselem june 4 2007 amnesty international released new 45page report called enduring occupation palestinians siege west bank illustrates devastating impact four decades israeli military occupation report documents relentless expansion unlawful settlements occupied land details ways israel seized denied crucial resources water palestinians occupation documents plethora measures confine palestinians fragmented enclaves hinder access work health education facilities measures include 700kilometer barrier wall 500 checkpoints blockades complicated system permits heavily restrict movement palestinians living west bank blocked every turn simply inconvenience matter life death unacceptable women labor sick children victims accidents way hospital forced take long detours face delays cost lives said malcolm smart director amnesty internationals middle east north africa program international action urgently needed address widespread human rights abuses committed occupation fueling resentment despair among predominantly young increasingly radicalized palestinian population said smart 40 years international community failed adequately address israelipalestinian problem must wait another 40 years gazas 14 million residents staggering 11 million depend outside food assistance world food program identified gaza one worlds hunger global hot spots wfp principal food aid provider palestinians providing assistance 640000 palestinians third gaza desperation young men unable find work travel outside gaza strip west bank forced sleep 10 room concrete hovels without running water empowered islamic radicals desperation led palestinian population one secular middle east turn radical fundamentalism pressure violence israel employs radicals empowered israeli lobby united states captive far right israeli politics exerts influence behalf jewish state ideological strain within israel believes crush palestinian aspirations force selfdefeating policies bush administration mirrored selfdefeating policies championed hardright administration prime minister ehud olmert jerusalem israel flouts international law dismisses security council resolutions respect integrity palestinian territory instead trapped palestinians squalid barricaded ghettos barely survive israels interest continue fuel increased palestinian strife rising militancy economic sanctions arms ban israel last hope tools toppled apartheid regime south africa sanctions imposed first president bush suspended 10 billion loan guarantees resettling russian immigrants israel prodded rightwing israeli prime minister yitzhak shamir attend peace talks madrid trade embargo even imposed european states would start outside pressure alone halt inexorable slide conflict could become regional new regional conflict israel could spell end zionist experiment middle east may quixotic perhaps even impossible last measure left save israel chris hedges veteran journalist former mideast bureau chief new york times recent book american fascists christian right war america | 827 |
<p>Photo by G20 Voice | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned.</p>
<p>—William Butler Yeats, “ <a href="http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html" type="external">The Second Coming</a>”</p>
<p>Things are falling apart.</p>
<p>How much longer we can sustain the fiction that we live in a constitutional republic, I cannot say, but anarchy is being loosed upon the nation.</p>
<p>We are witnessing the unraveling of the American dream one injustice at a time.</p>
<p>Day after day, the government’s crimes against the citizenry grow more egregious, more treacherous and more tragic. And day after day, the American people wake up a little more to the grim realization that they have become captives in a prison of their own making. No longer a free people, we are now pushed and prodded and watched over by twitchy, hyper-sensitive, easily-spooked armed guards who care little for the rights, humanity or well-being of those in their care.</p>
<p>The death toll is mounting. The carnage is heartbreaking. The public’s faith in the government to do its job—which is to protect&#160;our&#160;freedoms—is deteriorating.</p>
<p>With&#160; <a href="" type="internal">alarming regularity</a>, unarmed men, women, children and even pets are being gunned down by police who shoot first and ask questions later, and all the government does is shrug and promise to do better.</p>
<p>Things are not getting better.</p>
<p>Justine Damond is dead. The 40-year-old yoga instructor was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">shot and killed by Minneapolis police</a>, allegedly because they were startled by a loud noise in the vicinity just as she approached their patrol car. Damond, clad in pajamas, had called 911 to report a possible assault in her neighborhood.</p>
<p>Ismael Lopez is dead. The 41-year-old auto mechanic was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">shot and killed by Mississippi police</a>&#160;who went to the wrong address looking for a suspect in connection with an aggravated domestic violence case. Police also shot the man’s dog, which had raced out of the house ahead of him.</p>
<p>Mary Knowlton is dead. The 73-year-old retired librarian was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">shot and killed by Florida police</a>&#160;during a “shoot/don’t shoot” role-playing scenario when police inadvertently used a loaded gun intended for training.</p>
<p>Sam DuBose is dead. The unarmed 43-year-old rapper was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">shot in the head and killed by a University of Cincinnati police officer</a>&#160;during a traffic stop over a missing front license plate.</p>
<p>Andrew Scott is dead. Although the 26-year-old homeowner had committed no crime and never fired a single bullet or lifted his firearm against police, he was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">gunned down by Florida police</a>&#160;who were investigating a speeding incident by engaging in a middle-of-the-night “knock and talk” in Scott’s apartment complex.</p>
<p>Richard Ferretti is dead. The 52-year-old chef was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">shot and killed by Philadelphia police</a>&#160;while trying to find a parking spot. Police had been alerted to investigate a purple Dodge Caravan that was driving “suspiciously” through the neighborhood.</p>
<p>Fritz Severe is dead. The 46-year-old homeless man was&#160; <a href="" type="internal">shot five times and killed by Miami police</a>&#160;in front of more than 50 schoolchildren attending a nearby summer camp merely because he was seen holding a metal pipe.</p>
<p>Jordan Edwards is dead. The 15-year-old high school freshman was sitting in the passenger seat of a car driving away from a house party when Dallas police,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">claiming to have heard gunshots</a>,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">smashed in the window of the moving car and shot the teenager in the head</a>. Edwards’ two brothers, also in the car, watched him die. No weapons were found.</p>
<p>Charleena Lyles is dead. The pregnant, 30-year-old mother of four had called the police to report a stolen Xbox video game unit. She was&#160; <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/charleena-lyles-seattle-shooting-pregnant-black-mother-of-four-brettler-family-place-a7797971.html" type="external">shot and killed by Seattle police</a>&#160;after they arrived at her home to find her holding a knife.</p>
<p>In every one of these scenarios, police&#160;could&#160;have resorted to less lethal tactics.</p>
<p>They&#160;could&#160;have acted with reason and calculation instead of reacting with a killer instinct.</p>
<p>They&#160;could&#160;have attempted to de-escalate and defuse whatever perceived “threat” caused them to fear for their lives enough to react with lethal force.</p>
<p>That police instead chose to fatally resolve these encounters by using their guns on fellow citizens speaks volumes about what is wrong with policing in America today, where police officers are being dressed in the trappings of war, drilled in the deadly art of combat, and trained to look upon “every individual they interact with as an armed threat and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">every situation as a deadly force encounter in the making</a>.”</p>
<p>Remember, to a hammer, all the world looks like a nail.</p>
<p>We’re not just getting hammered, however.</p>
<p>We’re getting killed, execution-style.</p>
<p>It no longer matters whether you’re innocent of any wrongdoing or guilty as sin: when you’re dealing with police who shoot first and ask questions later, due process—the constitutional assurance of a fair trial before an impartial jury—means nothing.</p>
<p>All the individuals who have been shot and killed by police—fired at three and four and five times in a split second—have already been tried, found guilty and sentenced to death. And in that split second of deciding whether to shoot and where to aim, the nation’s police officers have appointed themselves judge, jury and executioner over their fellow citizens.</p>
<p>In this way, we’re seen as nothing more than animals and treated as such.</p>
<p>In fact, we’re being gunned down like dogs.</p>
<p>Consider that a dog is shot by a police officer “ <a href="" type="internal">every 98 minutes</a>.”</p>
<p>The Department of Justice estimates that at least&#160; <a href="" type="internal">25 dogs are killed by police every day</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/graphic-video-shows-nypd-cop-shooting-dog-point/story?id=37925487" type="external">Spike, a 70-pound pit bull, was shot by NYPD police</a>&#160;when they encountered him in the hallway of an apartment building in the Bronx. Surveillance footage shows the dog, tail wagging, right before an officer shot him in the head at pointblank range.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Arzy, a 14-month-old Newfoundland, Labrador and golden retriever mix, was shot between the eyes</a>&#160;by a Louisiana police officer. The dog had been secured on a four-foot leash at the time he was shot. An independent witness testified that the dog never gave the officer any provocation to shoot him.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/police-kill-nearly-25-dogs-each-day/" type="external">Seven, a St. Bernard, was shot repeatedly by Connecticut police</a>&#160;in the presence of the dog’s 12-year-old owner. Police, investigating an erroneous tip, had entered the property—without a warrant—where the dog and her owner had been playing in the backyard, causing the dog to give chase.</p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">Dutchess, a 2-year-old rescue dog, was shot three times in the head by Florida police</a>&#160;as she ran out her front door. The officer had been approaching the house to inform the residents that their car door was open when the dog bounded out to greet him.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/news/crime-law/dekalb-cop-wounded-in-wrong-house-shooting-still-i/nnXCM/" type="external">Yanna, a 10-year-old boxer, was shot three times by Georgia police</a>&#160;after they mistakenly entered the wrong home and opened fire, killing the dog, shooting the homeowner in the leg and wounding an investigating officer.</p>
<p>Here’s the point: when you train police to shoot first and ask questions later—whether it’s a family pet, a child with a toy gun, or an old man with a cane—they’re going to shoot to kill.</p>
<p>This is the fallout from teaching police to assume the worst-case scenario and react with fear to anything that poses the slightest threat (imagined or real). This is what comes from teaching police to view themselves as soldiers on a battlefield and those they’re supposed to serve as enemy combatants. This is the end result of a lopsided criminal justice system that fails to hold the government and its agents accountable for misconduct.</p>
<p>Whether you’re talking about police shooting dogs or citizens, the&#160; <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/police-kill-nearly-25-dogs-each-day/" type="external">mindset is the same</a>: a rush to violence, abuse of power, fear for officer safety, poor training in how to de-escalate a situation, and general carelessness.</p>
<p>This is the same mindset that sees nothing wrong with American citizens being subjected to roadside strip searches, forcible blood draws, invasive surveillance, secret government experiments, and other morally reprehensible tactics.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this is a mindset that is flourishing within the corporate-controlled, military-driven American police state.</p>
<p>So what’s to be done about all of this?</p>
<p>Essentially, it comes down to training and accountability.</p>
<p>It’s the difference between police officers who rank their personal safety above everyone else’s and police officers who understand that their jobs are to serve and protect. It’s the difference between police who are trained to shoot to kill and police trained to resolve situations peacefully. Most of all, it’s the difference between police who believe the law is on their side and police who know that they will be held to account for their actions under the same law as everyone else.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, more and more police are being trained to view themselves as distinct from the citizenry, to view their authority as superior to the citizenry, and to view their lives as more precious than those of their citizen counterparts. Instead of being taught to see themselves as mediators and peacemakers whose lethal weapons are to be used as a last resort, they are being drilled into acting like gunmen with killer instincts who shoot to kill rather than merely incapacitate.</p>
<p>As a result, we’re approaching a breaking point.</p>
<p>This policing crisis is far more immediate and concerning than the government’s so-called war on terror or drugs.</p>
<p>This is no longer a debate over good cops and bad cops.</p>
<p>It’s a tug-of-war between the constitutional republic America’s founders intended and the police state we are fast becoming.</p>
<p>So how do we fix what’s broken, stop the senseless shootings and bring about lasting reform?</p>
<p>For starters, stop with the scare tactics.&#160;In much the same way that American citizens are being cocooned in a climate of fear by a government that knows exactly which buttons to push in order to gain the public’s cooperation and compliance, police officers are also being&#160; <a href="" type="internal">indoctrinated with the psychology of fear</a>. Despite the propaganda being peddled by the government and police unions,&#160; <a href="https://fee.org/articles/by-the-numbers-how-dangerous-is-it-to-be-a-cop/" type="external">police today experience less on-the-job fatalities</a>&#160;than they ever have historically.</p>
<p>Second, level the playing field.&#160;Police lives are no more valuable than any other citizen’s. Whether or not they wield a gun, police officers are public servants like all other government officials, which means that they work for us. While police are entitled to every protection afforded under the law, the same as any other citizen,&#160; <a href="https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/in_a_cop_culture_the_bill_of_rights_doesnt_amount_to_much" type="external">they should not be afforded any special privileges</a>. They certainly should not be shielded from accountability for misconduct by the courts and the legislatures.</p>
<p>Third, require that police officers be trained in non-lethal tactics.&#160;According to the&#160;New York Times, the training regimens at nearly all of the nation’s police academies continue to emphasize military-style exercises, with the average young officer made to undergo 58 hours of firearms training and 49 hours of defensive tactical training, but&#160; <a href="" type="internal">only eight hours of de-escalation training</a>. If police officers are taking classes in how to shoot, maim and kill, shouldn’t they also be trained in non-lethal force, crisis intervention training on how to deal with the mentally ill, de-escalation techniques to use the lowest level of force possible when responding to a threat, and how to respect their fellow citizens’ constitutional rights?</p>
<p>Fourth, ditch the quasi-military obsession.&#160;Police forces were never intended to be standing armies. Yet with police agencies dressing like the military in camouflage and armor, training with the military, using military weapons, riding around in armored vehicles, recruiting military veterans, and even boasting military titles, one would be&#160; <a href="" type="internal">hard pressed to distinguish between the two</a>. Still, it’s our job to make sure that we can distinguish between the two, and that means keeping the police in their place as civilians—non-military citizens—who are entrusted with protecting&#160;our&#160;rights.</p>
<p>Fifth,&#160;demilitarize.&#160;There are many examples of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">countries where police are not armed and dangerous</a>, and they are no worse off for it. Indeed, their crime rates are low and their police officers are trained to view every citizen as precious.</p>
<p>Sixth, stop making taxpayers pay for police abuses.&#160;Some communities are trying to&#160; <a href="http://www.citypages.com/news/city-lawyer-minneapolis-cant-force-cops-to-buy-own-insurance/388748352" type="external">require police to carry their own professional liability insurance</a>. The logic is that if police had to pay out of pocket for their own wrongdoing, they might be more cautious and less inclined to shoot first and ask questions later.</p>
<p>Seventh, support due process for everyone, not just the people in your circle.&#160;Remember that you no longer have to be poor, black or guilty to be treated like a criminal in America. All that is required is that you belong to the suspect class—a.k.a. the citizenry—of the American police state. As a&#160;de facto&#160;member of this so-called criminal class, every U.S. citizen is now guilty until proven innocent.</p>
<p>You could be the next person who gets shot by a police officer for moving the wrong way during a traffic stop, running the wrong way in the vicinity of a police officer, or defending yourself against a home invasion when the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">police show up at the wrong address</a>&#160;in the middle of the night.</p>
<p>People have been wrongfully shot and killed for these exact reasons.</p>
<p>Yet as I point out in my book&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Battlefield America: The War on the American People</a>, there can be no justice in America when Americans are being killed, detained and robbed at gunpoint by government officials on the mere suspicion of wrongdoing.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Americans have been so propagandized, politicized and polarized that many feel compelled to choose sides between defending the police at all costs or painting them as dangerously out-of-control.</p>
<p>Nothing is ever that black and white, but there are a few things that we can be sure of: America should not be a battlefield.</p>
<p>Police officers are not soldiers.</p>
<p>And “We the People: are not the enemy.</p> | true | 4 | photo g20 voice cc 20 things fall apart centre hold mere anarchy loosed upon world blooddimmed tide loosed everywhere ceremony innocence drowned william butler yeats second coming things falling apart much longer sustain fiction live constitutional republic say anarchy loosed upon nation witnessing unraveling american dream one injustice time day day governments crimes citizenry grow egregious treacherous tragic day day american people wake little grim realization become captives prison making longer free people pushed prodded watched twitchy hypersensitive easilyspooked armed guards care little rights humanity wellbeing care death toll mounting carnage heartbreaking publics faith government jobwhich protect160our160freedomsis deteriorating with160 alarming regularity unarmed men women children even pets gunned police shoot first ask questions later government shrug promise better things getting better justine damond dead 40yearold yoga instructor was160 shot killed minneapolis police allegedly startled loud noise vicinity approached patrol car damond clad pajamas called 911 report possible assault neighborhood ismael lopez dead 41yearold auto mechanic was160 shot killed mississippi police160who went wrong address looking suspect connection aggravated domestic violence case police also shot mans dog raced house ahead mary knowlton dead 73yearold retired librarian was160 shot killed florida police160during shootdont shoot roleplaying scenario police inadvertently used loaded gun intended training sam dubose dead unarmed 43yearold rapper was160 shot head killed university cincinnati police officer160during traffic stop missing front license plate andrew scott dead although 26yearold homeowner committed crime never fired single bullet lifted firearm police was160 gunned florida police160who investigating speeding incident engaging middleofthenight knock talk scotts apartment complex richard ferretti dead 52yearold chef was160 shot killed philadelphia police160while trying find parking spot police alerted investigate purple dodge caravan driving suspiciously neighborhood fritz severe dead 46yearold homeless man was160 shot five times killed miami police160in front 50 schoolchildren attending nearby summer camp merely seen holding metal pipe jordan edwards dead 15yearold high school freshman sitting passenger seat car driving away house party dallas police160 claiming heard gunshots160 smashed window moving car shot teenager head edwards two brothers also car watched die weapons found charleena lyles dead pregnant 30yearold mother four called police report stolen xbox video game unit was160 shot killed seattle police160after arrived home find holding knife every one scenarios police160could160have resorted less lethal tactics they160could160have acted reason calculation instead reacting killer instinct they160could160have attempted deescalate defuse whatever perceived threat caused fear lives enough react lethal force police instead chose fatally resolve encounters using guns fellow citizens speaks volumes wrong policing america today police officers dressed trappings war drilled deadly art combat trained look upon every individual interact armed threat and160 every situation deadly force encounter making remember hammer world looks like nail getting hammered however getting killed executionstyle longer matters whether youre innocent wrongdoing guilty sin youre dealing police shoot first ask questions later due processthe constitutional assurance fair trial impartial jurymeans nothing individuals shot killed policefired three four five times split secondhave already tried found guilty sentenced death split second deciding whether shoot aim nations police officers appointed judge jury executioner fellow citizens way seen nothing animals treated fact gunned like dogs consider dog shot police officer every 98 minutes department justice estimates least160 25 dogs killed police every day spike 70pound pit bull shot nypd police160when encountered hallway apartment building bronx surveillance footage shows dog tail wagging right officer shot head pointblank range arzy 14monthold newfoundland labrador golden retriever mix shot eyes160by louisiana police officer dog secured fourfoot leash time shot independent witness testified dog never gave officer provocation shoot seven st bernard shot repeatedly connecticut police160in presence dogs 12yearold owner police investigating erroneous tip entered propertywithout warrantwhere dog owner playing backyard causing dog give chase dutchess 2yearold rescue dog shot three times head florida police160as ran front door officer approaching house inform residents car door open dog bounded greet yanna 10yearold boxer shot three times georgia police160after mistakenly entered wrong home opened fire killing dog shooting homeowner leg wounding investigating officer heres point train police shoot first ask questions laterwhether family pet child toy gun old man canetheyre going shoot kill fallout teaching police assume worstcase scenario react fear anything poses slightest threat imagined real comes teaching police view soldiers battlefield theyre supposed serve enemy combatants end result lopsided criminal justice system fails hold government agents accountable misconduct whether youre talking police shooting dogs citizens the160 mindset rush violence abuse power fear officer safety poor training deescalate situation general carelessness mindset sees nothing wrong american citizens subjected roadside strip searches forcible blood draws invasive surveillance secret government experiments morally reprehensible tactics unfortunately mindset flourishing within corporatecontrolled militarydriven american police state whats done essentially comes training accountability difference police officers rank personal safety everyone elses police officers understand jobs serve protect difference police trained shoot kill police trained resolve situations peacefully difference police believe law side police know held account actions law everyone else unfortunately police trained view distinct citizenry view authority superior citizenry view lives precious citizen counterparts instead taught see mediators peacemakers whose lethal weapons used last resort drilled acting like gunmen killer instincts shoot kill rather merely incapacitate result approaching breaking point policing crisis far immediate concerning governments socalled war terror drugs longer debate good cops bad cops tugofwar constitutional republic americas founders intended police state fast becoming fix whats broken stop senseless shootings bring lasting reform starters stop scare tactics160in much way american citizens cocooned climate fear government knows exactly buttons push order gain publics cooperation compliance police officers also being160 indoctrinated psychology fear despite propaganda peddled government police unions160 police today experience less onthejob fatalities160than ever historically second level playing field160police lives valuable citizens whether wield gun police officers public servants like government officials means work us police entitled every protection afforded law citizen160 afforded special privileges certainly shielded accountability misconduct courts legislatures third require police officers trained nonlethal tactics160according the160new york times training regimens nearly nations police academies continue emphasize militarystyle exercises average young officer made undergo 58 hours firearms training 49 hours defensive tactical training but160 eight hours deescalation training police officers taking classes shoot maim kill shouldnt also trained nonlethal force crisis intervention training deal mentally ill deescalation techniques use lowest level force possible responding threat respect fellow citizens constitutional rights fourth ditch quasimilitary obsession160police forces never intended standing armies yet police agencies dressing like military camouflage armor training military using military weapons riding around armored vehicles recruiting military veterans even boasting military titles one would be160 hard pressed distinguish two still job make sure distinguish two means keeping police place civiliansnonmilitary citizenswho entrusted protecting160our160rights fifth160demilitarize160there many examples of160 countries police armed dangerous worse indeed crime rates low police officers trained view every citizen precious sixth stop making taxpayers pay police abuses160some communities trying to160 require police carry professional liability insurance logic police pay pocket wrongdoing might cautious less inclined shoot first ask questions later seventh support due process everyone people circle160remember longer poor black guilty treated like criminal america required belong suspect classaka citizenryof american police state a160de facto160member socalled criminal class every us citizen guilty proven innocent could next person gets shot police officer moving wrong way traffic stop running wrong way vicinity police officer defending home invasion the160 police show wrong address160in middle night people wrongfully shot killed exact reasons yet point book160 battlefield america war american people justice america americans killed detained robbed gunpoint government officials mere suspicion wrongdoing unfortunately americans propagandized politicized polarized many feel compelled choose sides defending police costs painting dangerously outofcontrol nothing ever black white things sure america battlefield police officers soldiers people enemy | 1,244 |
<p>Leslie Cagan is the national coordinator of the anti-war coalition United For Peace and Justice, ( <a href="http://www.UnitedForPeace.org/" type="external">www.UnitedForPeace.org)</a> which has been one of the main organizers of anti-war rallies since before the Iraq war began. We spoke with her on August 30th, the day after the UFPJ-organized march which drew an estimated 500,000 people to protest the Republican National Convention and the Bush agenda.</p>
<p>In the interview she talks about the August 29th UFPJ march, civil disobedience and where the peace movement might be headed if John Kerry is elected this November.</p>
<p>BD: What are your thoughts on yesterday’s protest?</p>
<p>We’re all thrilled by it. It was an outpouring of people to say no to the Bush agenda. People came from every neighborhood in the city, people came from city’s and towns all around the country. Our estimate was at least 500,000 people marched past Madison Square Garden delivering their messages, obviously the Iraqi war and occupation was a major issue, but many other issues came out yesterday as we wanted them to. And through that all, the one clear and strong message, we believe, came through and this we say no to the Bush agenda.</p>
<p>BD: Were there any problems with the police once it got started?</p>
<p>Yesterday, I must say the police handled themselves very well. And I hope that’s true for the rest of the week from here on out. But my experience and the reports we got from different people was that the police actually behaved very well.</p>
<p>AK: What do you think about this march (Poor People’s Campaign for Economic Human Rights), considering them undertaking civil disobedience, as opposed to yesterday’s march, under your coalition, deciding not to do that and not protest the decision on central park?</p>
<p>Well we certainly did protest the decision around Central Park, we worked very hard on that issue. We decided not to do that yesterday. We support civil disobedience, there is a long and honored history in this country of civil disobedience, obviously Martin Luther King Jr. and the movement he led is obviously the strongest example that everybody knows. But many movements have used civil disobedience as a legitimate tactic and it’s still a legitimate tactic just as permitted marches or rallies are legitimate tactics. I think the issues with organizers are, what tactics are going to work for the message you are trying to deliver, are the people you are bringing ready to engage in that tactic. There are tactical considerations that go into deciding which vehicle you are going to use for your particular protest. But there is nothing inherently better or worse about any given tactic.</p>
<p>BD: As far as keeping the momentum going do you see the momentum after Kerry wins – he is not necessarily an anti-war president–do you see the same kind of momentum going after he is elected or do you see it dwindling?</p>
<p>I think probably right after the election, there could very well be either because Bush or Kerry wins, a little bit of falling off. If Bush wins people could feel demoralized, if Kerry wins some people will think our work is over. But I think very quickly people will regroup and realize certainly that if Bush wins our movement has to keep going. But also if Kerry wins I think people will realize that we have to keep pushing him, we would like to not have to organize a demonstration saying we say no to the Kerry agenda, but if we have to in a year or two or whatever down the road, if we need to organize that kind of demonstration we will. The point is we are a movement about the issues, and if the issues aren’t being resolved by one president or another one, we are going to be out there. This movement is alive, it’s strong, it’s dynamic, it’s creative and it’s not going away.</p>
<p>AK: Do you have a sense that after a year or two things might really change under Kerry, seems like you expect that they won’t</p>
<p>I clearly think there is a difference between Bush and Kerry on quite a number of issues, especially on quite a number of social issues here in this country. On the war, Kerry has not been good, so we have to push him. My feeling, personally, I am not speaking for the coalition now because we don’t have a position on this–we need to get rid of Bush, that’s the first thing we need to do, we just need to take him and his whole crowd of criminals – and the crimes are not only committed in Iraq, they are committed every day in this country when people go homeless, and people go hungry and people don’t have health care, those are crimes against humanity. So we need to get rid of that whole bunch, and then we need to put the pressure on the new bunch that comes in. Kerry is not automatically all of a sudden going to be an anti-war president; we have to push him to that.</p>
<p>AK: Do you think there is a little more danger that Kerry might have, in a kind of ironic twist, more cushion because of the support he has from the anti-war crowd and maybe in a weird turn of events–that could prolong the occupation?</p>
<p>I don’t have a crystal ball but I guess that could happen, but I just think that what yesterday showed again, is that how deep and widespread the anti-war sentiment is. And I don’t think that sentiment goes away overnight. People know that this war was based on a pack of lies. People know, better information isn’t going to beat that out of people’s heads. Our job of course as organizers is to help keep that momentum going. You know we call it a movement for a reason, it has its ebbs and flows, sometimes it was stronger sometimes it was weaker, we move in and out. So there may be a time when it looks like we are a little weaker. But I think we are not going away. The other thing is that when you get a big mobilization, you see the strength of the movement, but the work of this movement goes on every single day. People are having educational forums, people are having vigils, people are lobbying their elected officials, people are writing letters to the editor, people are organizing shipments of humanitarian aid to Iraq or whatever. People keep on doing all kinds of things every single day and it doesn’t always make it into the news. That’s what the heart and soul of the movement is and that’s not going to go away. We now have in UFPJ almost 900 groups, we have done virtually no outreach, no outreach encouraging people to join our coalition. People have found us and said, we’re a group in Atlanta, or we’re a group in Bangore, Maine or whatever, we want to be a part of a national movement, can we join the coalition. That’s phenomenal.</p>
<p>BD: Do you think a lot of the people that were at the march yesterday will go home now and be motivated to do more? Do you think they will keep on working beyond the march?</p>
<p>The energy, the spirit and commitment of yesterday–people are going to take that home with them. People are going to back into their neighborhoods, back to their workplaces, their schools, their religious centerswherever, and they are going to keep doing that organizing. And that’s what’s most important, one of the most important thingsone is of course on any demonstration you want to send a clear message, that happened. The second thing you want to do is re-energize and keep the movement going. And I think that has happened not only yesterday but through this week of activities.</p>
<p>Benjamin Dangl and Andrew Kennis reported on the RNC demonstrations for The New Standard News at www.newstandardnews.net. Dangl edits <a href="http://www.UpsideDownWorld.org/" type="external">www.UpsideDownWorld.org</a>, a website about activism and politics.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | leslie cagan national coordinator antiwar coalition united peace justice wwwunitedforpeaceorg one main organizers antiwar rallies since iraq war began spoke august 30th day ufpjorganized march drew estimated 500000 people protest republican national convention bush agenda interview talks august 29th ufpj march civil disobedience peace movement might headed john kerry elected november bd thoughts yesterdays protest thrilled outpouring people say bush agenda people came every neighborhood city people came citys towns around country estimate least 500000 people marched past madison square garden delivering messages obviously iraqi war occupation major issue many issues came yesterday wanted one clear strong message believe came say bush agenda bd problems police got started yesterday must say police handled well hope thats true rest week experience reports got different people police actually behaved well ak think march poor peoples campaign economic human rights considering undertaking civil disobedience opposed yesterdays march coalition deciding protest decision central park well certainly protest decision around central park worked hard issue decided yesterday support civil disobedience long honored history country civil disobedience obviously martin luther king jr movement led obviously strongest example everybody knows many movements used civil disobedience legitimate tactic still legitimate tactic permitted marches rallies legitimate tactics think issues organizers tactics going work message trying deliver people bringing ready engage tactic tactical considerations go deciding vehicle going use particular protest nothing inherently better worse given tactic bd far keeping momentum going see momentum kerry wins necessarily antiwar presidentdo see kind momentum going elected see dwindling think probably right election could well either bush kerry wins little bit falling bush wins people could feel demoralized kerry wins people think work think quickly people regroup realize certainly bush wins movement keep going also kerry wins think people realize keep pushing would like organize demonstration saying say kerry agenda year two whatever road need organize kind demonstration point movement issues issues arent resolved one president another one going movement alive strong dynamic creative going away ak sense year two things might really change kerry seems like expect wont clearly think difference bush kerry quite number issues especially quite number social issues country war kerry good push feeling personally speaking coalition dont position thiswe need get rid bush thats first thing need need take whole crowd criminals crimes committed iraq committed every day country people go homeless people go hungry people dont health care crimes humanity need get rid whole bunch need put pressure new bunch comes kerry automatically sudden going antiwar president push ak think little danger kerry might kind ironic twist cushion support antiwar crowd maybe weird turn eventsthat could prolong occupation dont crystal ball guess could happen think yesterday showed deep widespread antiwar sentiment dont think sentiment goes away overnight people know war based pack lies people know better information isnt going beat peoples heads job course organizers help keep momentum going know call movement reason ebbs flows sometimes stronger sometimes weaker move may time looks like little weaker think going away thing get big mobilization see strength movement work movement goes every single day people educational forums people vigils people lobbying elected officials people writing letters editor people organizing shipments humanitarian aid iraq whatever people keep kinds things every single day doesnt always make news thats heart soul movement thats going go away ufpj almost 900 groups done virtually outreach outreach encouraging people join coalition people found us said group atlanta group bangore maine whatever want part national movement join coalition thats phenomenal bd think lot people march yesterday go home motivated think keep working beyond march energy spirit commitment yesterdaypeople going take home people going back neighborhoods back workplaces schools religious centerswherever going keep organizing thats whats important one important thingsone course demonstration want send clear message happened second thing want reenergize keep movement going think happened yesterday week activities benjamin dangl andrew kennis reported rnc demonstrations new standard news wwwnewstandardnewsnet dangl edits wwwupsidedownworldorg website activism politics 160 | 650 |
<p>In their attempts to stimulate and encourage their students to hone their reading skills and develop an appreciation for all the nuances of the written word, high school and college English teachers are always looking for that magical manuscript whose tantalizing plot, setting, and characterization will entice and excite their young pupils to plunge into that magical world where processed, bound plant/wood fiber is lovingly held in the&#160; palms of one’s hands, where eyes travel in left to right continuous horizontal and vertical and page-to-page tracks, and where imagination, inseminated with&#160; myriad&#160; phantasmagorias, concocts the unimaginable&#160; and wanders into unchartered worlds to transpose the reader into&#160; a world where the mind is distended in an explosion of vivid images akin to a roving kaleidoscopic excursion.</p>
<p>And much like alchemists, English teachers are always searching for that perfect elixir, that manuscript whose letters, words, sentences, paragraphs, and pages clench the reader in a spellbinding and captivating vise.</p>
<p>Some of the fictional works whose spellbinding magic has lingered from my yesteryears’&#160; teaching days include&#160; <a href="" type="internal">The Old Man and the Sea</a>,&#160; <a href="" type="internal">To Kill A Mockingbird</a>, <a href="" type="internal">One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Clockwork Orange</a>, <a href="" type="internal">The Color Purple</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Rabbit Run</a>, <a href="" type="internal">The&#160;Stranger</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Spring Snow</a>,&#160;and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Native Son.</a>&#160; Some teachers opted for&#160;Valley of the Dolls, Goodbye Columbus, and&#160;Love Story, three popular books of the 60’s and 70’s. These were pure fluff, and&#160;Jonathan Livingston Seagull&#160;and&#160;The Graduate,&#160;more fluff than stuff,&#160; had their devotees. I must confess that one semester I succumbed to including&#160; Jonathan Seagull&#160; on my students’ reading list. Some favorites included&#160; <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1451626657/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Catch-22</a>, <a href="" type="internal">A Man for All Seasons</a>, <a href="" type="internal">The Man Who Killed the Deer&#160;</a>and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Slaughterhouse-Five</a>, and three favorite non-fictional works included&#160; <a href="" type="internal">The Hidden Persuaders</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee&#160;</a>and&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Silent Spring</a>. As for autobiographical works <a href="" type="internal">The Bell Jar</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Big Doc’s Girl</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/143918271X/counterpunchmaga" type="external">Moveable Feast</a>, <a href="" type="internal">Soul on Ice</a>, and <a href="" type="internal">&#160;I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings</a>&#160;are six&#160;perennially refreshing&#160; works.</p>
<p>And then came Elie Wiesel’s&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Night</a>.</p>
<p>Suggested by the chairman of the English department soon after Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986,&#160;Night, by now jumping off the charts, was adopted by our department, added to the reading list, and was popular for a while. Wiesel’s&#160;Night&#160;no doubt helped spawn coast to coast Holocaust Studies programs on American university campuses.</p>
<p>And the Holocaust became almost exclusively synonymous with Jewish suffering, utilized to justify Israel’s wars, occupation, illegal annexations and the subjugation of Palestinians – always under the guise of victimhood and self-defense. Never mind that another 5 million Roma/Gypsies, Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians, Romanians, “the unfit,” the degenerates, ad infinitum&#160; were also brutalized by the Nazis.</p>
<p>While I recall including&#160;Night&#160;on my reading list twice, perhaps three times, I must admit that I lost interest soon after Wiesel’s blatant support, defense, and exoneration of Israel’s serial murders, ever-expansionist and ever-brutal wars on the Palestinians and Lebanese — wars that shook the Near East and no doubt helped lay the foundation for the current depravities afflicting the region. The 1948 and 1982 wars would be two of many serial atrocities committed by Israel —&#160; this behavior was and continues to be condoned, excused, financed, and supported by its compliant servant, the U.S.</p>
<p>Night fell on Lebanon towards the end of the horrific 1982 murderous invasion (which began on June 6, 1982, and ended in late October, 1982).&#160; The September&#160; massacres&#160; of&#160; the defenseless Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps occupants, orchestrated by Israel and executed by its Lebanese clients, resulted in several hundred Palestinian dead —&#160; mostly the elderly, women and children. Because the bodies were&#160;&#160; hauled off in the front end buckets of dozers and dumped on flat bed trucks (mostly under the cover of Night – the Israeli modus operandi) and buried in mass graves, we’ll never know the exact numbers of dead, which, by some estimates are between 3,500-4,000.&#160; Even the poor animals were not spared&#160; — dogs, donkeys, goats and sheep were shot in cold blood, and &#160;for three days carcasses lay bloated, alongside human corpses, in the hot, humid sun of Beirut’s darkest days turned into shamefully dark Nights. For detailed information I suggest that the reader peruse reports by the reputable Robert Fisk and Jonathan Cook, two journalists with impeccable professional credentials.</p>
<p>The following email exchanges took place just a few days ago between a dear friend, a preacher/peace activist/university president, and me:</p>
<p>Date:&#160;July 4, 2016 at 10:15:38 AM CDT To:&#160;Raouf Halaby &lt; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>&gt; Subject:&#160;God Cried</p>
<p>Happy 4th of July, Raouf! I hope we live to see the birth of a Palestinian State! Raouf, I ordered and received the book, God Cried, by Tony Clifton and Catherine Leroy, on Beirut 1982. &#160;Powerful memories!!!!</p>
<p>Just&#160; thinking of you. Israel has given us official state evil. With the passing of Elie Wiesel I hear tributes of “Never Again.”</p>
<p>What a sinister joke!</p>
<p>I love you,</p>
<p>Randall</p>
<p>My response:</p>
<p>Subject:Re: God Cried</p>
<p>Randall, Just read you precious missive after i sent you my email. Yes, Wiesel’s &#160;moral indignation is very selective, and his use of horror as propaganda and cover for Israel’s brutality makes mockery of all the WWII dead.</p>
<p>God never stopped crying. Somewhere in Genesis we are told (if it is true) that Cain killed his brother Abel. Methinks God cried that day for creating such petty creatures. And God has not stopped crying since.</p>
<p>Yes, the book is powerful. Just think of all the carnage since 1982.</p>
<p>And I recall two dear friends, men of character and goodwill, two blessed peacemakers, accompanying me to see Senator Dale Bumpers&#160; who doubted my telling him that Gaza, an open air prison, had the largest population density in the world. As for a Palestinian state, ain’t gonna happen. The forces of evil are far too powerful.</p>
<p>I am copying your mirror image. Am also going to forward&#160; a piece about Night written by Alexander Cockburn, CounterPunch co-founder.</p>
<p>Sincerely and Salam, Raouf</p>
<p>Randall’s response:</p>
<p>Absolutely!</p>
<p>Ya know, for a guy who liked to say, “Never again!” he surely was strangely silent in ’82, wasn’t he? &#160;He shoulda been saying, “Never again to Israel,” not, “Never Again.” Right?</p>
<p>He should’ve won the Israeli Peace Prize, not the Nobel. Agree? Randall</p>
<p>On August 10, 1982, Ariel Sharon, aka The Butcher of Lebanon, ordered a saturation bombing of the besieged city of Beirut; for 13 consecutive hours Israeli tanks, artillery and air force carpet bombed a defenseless city leaving senseless destruction akin to the wanton Allied bombing and destruction of Dresden.</p>
<p>Thus it was that in the fall of 2006 I penned a letter to Elie Wiesel, by then affiliated with Boston University’s Department of Religion. To the best of my recollection, I posed the following questions to Mr. Wiesel: How could he preach a “Never Again” ad infinitum sermon when the country to which he has pledged allegiance and financial support is depriving the Palestinians of their human rights? How could a people who suffered so horribly occupy and expropriate&#160; Palestinian lands and&#160; subject them to daily humiliation and racist indignities reminiscent of the manner Germans treated their Jewish citizens? I really didn’t expect an answer, for after all, by then, Wiesel, an avowed Zionist, was on record as a defender and apologist for “his country (Israel), right or wrong.”</p>
<p>Before long and to my utter surprise I received a light blue envelope with Boston University’s insignia and, scribbled above the return address, were six letters.&#160; “Wiesel.”</p>
<p>His hand written response was short.&#160; He never answered my question/s.&#160; If anything, he defended his stance and reminded me of Jewish suffering. And to this day I wonder, had I not typed my letter on university letterhead, Mr. Wiesel might not have responded.</p>
<p>Exactly one year ago last week I was boxing 42 years’ worth of professional correspondence, lectures, professional papers, research grant materials, publications, newspaper clippings,&#160; miscellaneous committee reports, public speeches, maps, drawings, handwoven tapestries and oodles of mementoes and memorabilia I’d collected on all my overseas trips, to be deposited, at the request of the university librarian, in the university’s archives. And it was exactly one year ago last week that I saw Mr. Wiesel’s letter in the stack of several hundred letters. (Call me a paper pack rat if you wish.)</p>
<p>And for the last few days I have hunted for that letter in each of the 25+ acid free card board boxes and all over the house. It has to be somewhere; it better be. The pack rat I am, I shall find it.&#160; I had hoped to scan it and use it, in Shakespeare’s words, as “the ocular proof” to this essay to attempt to prove Wiesel’s gross omission, his sinister self-imposed Night on the facts to the Nazi-like treatment of Palestinians and to deflate air, even a few puffs of it, out of the inflated balloons of high praise lavished on Wiesel. We were told that Mr. Wiesel was “Humanity’s conscience,” “messenger to mankind,” and that “with surviving comes a moral&#160;burden.”&#160; With surviving comes the responsibility of not only “talking the talk,” but also “walking the walk.”</p>
<p>Elie Wiesel’s relegating Israel’s ongoing and unabated brutality and the pain inflicted on the Palestinians to the realm of the obscurity of Night makes mockery of his lecturing the world on suffering and morality. His refusal to even pin-prick the consciences of his Israeli brothers and sisters, the World Jewish Community, and humanity is tragic, indeed. You’d think that those who suffered much would have empathy for others.</p>
<p>Never Again? Tell that to the Indonesians, the Vietnamese, Cambodians, Rwandans, Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Yemenis, Iraqis, Syrians, Kurds,&#160; Libyans, Algerians, Kashmiris, Armenians, Native Americans and Congolese. Are they, perchance,&#160; children of a lessor God?</p>
<p>In concluding, I’d like to refer&#160; the reader to the following (articulated infinitely better than I could ever so do)&#160; CounterPunch postings:&#160; Alexander Cockburn, (Repost)&#160; “Truth and Fiction in Elie Wiesel’s Night,” July 2, 2016;&#160; Joseph Grosso, “Elie Wiesel Poseur for Peace,” July 6, 2016.&#160; Max Blumenthal “Elie Wiesel’s two sides: the Holocaust survivor gave voice to Jewish victims while ignoring other’s suffering,”&#160; July 6, 2016,&#160; Alternet&#160; and Huffington Post. And Norman Finkelstein, “The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the exploitation of Jewish Suffering,” Verso Press, 2000.</p>
<p>Cockburn, Grosso and I (even though I am a Semite) will no doubt be accused of anti-Semitism; Blumenthal and Finkelstein will no doubt be accused of being self-hating Jews.</p>
<p>When the machinations of the darkest hours of the Night are exposed to the light and the truth of the daylight hours becomes visible, then, and only then, could we truthfully state that&#160;Night&#160;has taught us a moral lesson.</p> | true | 4 | attempts stimulate encourage students hone reading skills develop appreciation nuances written word high school college english teachers always looking magical manuscript whose tantalizing plot setting characterization entice excite young pupils plunge magical world processed bound plantwood fiber lovingly held the160 palms ones hands eyes travel left right continuous horizontal vertical pagetopage tracks imagination inseminated with160 myriad160 phantasmagorias concocts unimaginable160 wanders unchartered worlds transpose reader into160 world mind distended explosion vivid images akin roving kaleidoscopic excursion much like alchemists english teachers always searching perfect elixir manuscript whose letters words sentences paragraphs pages clench reader spellbinding captivating vise fictional works whose spellbinding magic lingered yesteryears160 teaching days include160 old man sea160 kill mockingbird one flew cuckoos nest clockwork orange color purple rabbit run the160stranger spring snow160and160 native son160 teachers opted for160valley dolls goodbye columbus and160love story three popular books 60s 70s pure fluff and160jonathan livingston seagull160and160the graduate160more fluff stuff160 devotees must confess one semester succumbed including160 jonathan seagull160 students reading list favorites included160 catch22 man seasons man killed deer160and160 slaughterhousefive three favorite nonfictional works included160 hidden persuaders bury heart wounded knee160and160 silent spring autobiographical works bell jar big docs girl moveable feast soul ice 160i know caged bird sings160are six160perennially refreshing160 works came elie wiesels160 night suggested chairman english department soon wiesel awarded nobel prize literature 1986160night jumping charts adopted department added reading list popular wiesels160night160no doubt helped spawn coast coast holocaust studies programs american university campuses holocaust became almost exclusively synonymous jewish suffering utilized justify israels wars occupation illegal annexations subjugation palestinians always guise victimhood selfdefense never mind another 5 million romagypsies poles lithuanians latvians romanians unfit degenerates ad infinitum160 also brutalized nazis recall including160night160on reading list twice perhaps three times must admit lost interest soon wiesels blatant support defense exoneration israels serial murders everexpansionist everbrutal wars palestinians lebanese wars shook near east doubt helped lay foundation current depravities afflicting region 1948 1982 wars would two many serial atrocities committed israel 160 behavior continues condoned excused financed supported compliant servant us night fell lebanon towards end horrific 1982 murderous invasion began june 6 1982 ended late october 1982160 september160 massacres160 of160 defenseless sabra shatila palestinian refugee camps occupants orchestrated israel executed lebanese clients resulted several hundred palestinian dead 160 mostly elderly women children bodies were160160 hauled front end buckets dozers dumped flat bed trucks mostly cover night israeli modus operandi buried mass graves well never know exact numbers dead estimates 35004000160 even poor animals spared160 dogs donkeys goats sheep shot cold blood 160for three days carcasses lay bloated alongside human corpses hot humid sun beiruts darkest days turned shamefully dark nights detailed information suggest reader peruse reports reputable robert fisk jonathan cook two journalists impeccable professional credentials following email exchanges took place days ago dear friend preacherpeace activistuniversity president date160july 4 2016 101538 cdt to160raouf halaby lt halabyrobuedugt subject160god cried happy 4th july raouf hope live see birth palestinian state raouf ordered received book god cried tony clifton catherine leroy beirut 1982 160powerful memories just160 thinking israel given us official state evil passing elie wiesel hear tributes never sinister joke love randall response subjectre god cried randall read precious missive sent email yes wiesels 160moral indignation selective use horror propaganda cover israels brutality makes mockery wwii dead god never stopped crying somewhere genesis told true cain killed brother abel methinks god cried day creating petty creatures god stopped crying since yes book powerful think carnage since 1982 recall two dear friends men character goodwill two blessed peacemakers accompanying see senator dale bumpers160 doubted telling gaza open air prison largest population density world palestinian state aint gon na happen forces evil far powerful copying mirror image also going forward160 piece night written alexander cockburn counterpunch cofounder sincerely salam raouf randalls response absolutely ya know guy liked say never surely strangely silent 82 wasnt 160he shoulda saying never israel never right shouldve israeli peace prize nobel agree randall august 10 1982 ariel sharon aka butcher lebanon ordered saturation bombing besieged city beirut 13 consecutive hours israeli tanks artillery air force carpet bombed defenseless city leaving senseless destruction akin wanton allied bombing destruction dresden thus fall 2006 penned letter elie wiesel affiliated boston universitys department religion best recollection posed following questions mr wiesel could preach never ad infinitum sermon country pledged allegiance financial support depriving palestinians human rights could people suffered horribly occupy expropriate160 palestinian lands and160 subject daily humiliation racist indignities reminiscent manner germans treated jewish citizens really didnt expect answer wiesel avowed zionist record defender apologist country israel right wrong long utter surprise received light blue envelope boston universitys insignia scribbled return address six letters160 wiesel hand written response short160 never answered questions160 anything defended stance reminded jewish suffering day wonder typed letter university letterhead mr wiesel might responded exactly one year ago last week boxing 42 years worth professional correspondence lectures professional papers research grant materials publications newspaper clippings160 miscellaneous committee reports public speeches maps drawings handwoven tapestries oodles mementoes memorabilia id collected overseas trips deposited request university librarian universitys archives exactly one year ago last week saw mr wiesels letter stack several hundred letters call paper pack rat wish last days hunted letter 25 acid free card board boxes house somewhere better pack rat shall find it160 hoped scan use shakespeares words ocular proof essay attempt prove wiesels gross omission sinister selfimposed night facts nazilike treatment palestinians deflate air even puffs inflated balloons high praise lavished wiesel told mr wiesel humanitys conscience messenger mankind surviving comes moral160burden160 surviving comes responsibility talking talk also walking walk elie wiesels relegating israels ongoing unabated brutality pain inflicted palestinians realm obscurity night makes mockery lecturing world suffering morality refusal even pinprick consciences israeli brothers sisters world jewish community humanity tragic indeed youd think suffered much would empathy others never tell indonesians vietnamese cambodians rwandans palestinians lebanese syrians yemenis iraqis syrians kurds160 libyans algerians kashmiris armenians native americans congolese perchance160 children lessor god concluding id like refer160 reader following articulated infinitely better could ever do160 counterpunch postings160 alexander cockburn repost160 truth fiction elie wiesels night july 2 2016160 joseph grosso elie wiesel poseur peace july 6 2016160 max blumenthal elie wiesels two sides holocaust survivor gave voice jewish victims ignoring others suffering160 july 6 2016160 alternet160 huffington post norman finkelstein holocaust industry reflections exploitation jewish suffering verso press 2000 cockburn grosso even though semite doubt accused antisemitism blumenthal finkelstein doubt accused selfhating jews machinations darkest hours night exposed light truth daylight hours becomes visible could truthfully state that160night160has taught us moral lesson | 1,077 |
<p>350 Its a simple number. Its the atmosphere concentration of CO2the planet can not surpass in terms of parts per million (ppm), before the polar ice caps melt. This would kick off a positive feedback loop of ever more warming as the sun’s rays are no longer reflected back into space, and the arctic warms even more releasing countless tonnes of stored methane in the permafrost according to the number’s originator Dr. Hansen, then of NASA. 1</p>
<p>The number we are at is 405 now. 2</p>
<p>If you consider 10-30ppm as the number of continued fossil fuel emissions to build out renewable infrastructure, high speed rail lines and buses and to keep farm tractors running till we can figure out how to feed and move six billion people without using carbon intensive methods, we are effectively sitting at a current level of 415-435 ppm on a transition adjusted basis (current level of 405 ppm + 10-30ppm to transition). This is 19-24% above Dr. Hansen’s maximum level and 53-61% above pre-industrial levels as things sit today. This also rather generously assumes everything to follow in this piece happened tomorrow, without another year wasted on effectively business as normal. Add in say five years to even start on any of this, and a more gradual carbon free adjustment speed and the numbers start to look far worse. To think the planet could go any higher in terms of its CO2 concentrations than the levels stated above and be okay in the end would be he equivalent of betting ones net worth on Bitcoin futures. Risky and highly unethical given the consequences of getting the bet wrong.</p>
<p>Even this stark assessment puts aside the enormous growth in methane emissions due to the fracking boom (heartily endorsed by Democrats it must be pointed out), and the poor state of our forests to absorb CO2 going forward, with huge deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia, and North American forests suffering from record forest fires. This is all means the option of longer time horizons for a transition (eg. 80% cut by 2050) are no longer adequate.</p>
<p>This means simply not building new fossil fuel projects or even zeroing out all stock market capitalization of fossil fuel companies, or getting all banks everywhere to stop loaning to fossil fuel companies will not save the planet. As an aside many of the largest fossil fuel producers are state owned and do not borrow in regular commercial lending markets. eg. Saudi Aramco, Gazprom or the national oil companies of Kuwait or the UAE. Most of the above have almost no private shareholders who could consider divesting in any event. Further to think small, privately owned oil companies will not produce in the Bakken of North Dakota and be shut out of all forms of local credit union, state level banks or private funding is delusional. It is to think slavery could and would end if only the New York banks of the era stopped funding it!</p>
<p>The only path towards saving our planet from climate change at this point, is for the equivalent of the retooling the American economy went thru from peacetime to wartime production in 1941-1944 to be applied to the goal of more or less immediate decarbonization of the entire economy. This can only be done with an unequivocal political mandate a crisis exists, and a suspension of the free market to ensure all resources go towards the critical goal of decarbonizing the economy. An explicit goal of removing most of the consumption we undertake now would be essential in order to power down the world’s energy requirements to something renewable energy could scale up to in a short period of time. Very likely rights to sue for lost profits for now banned fossil fuel production and for lease holders would have to be suspended. Ditto for investor dispute clauses in trade agreements. Ditto for the need for planning permissions for renewable energy. Sovereign debt repayments would have to be suspended so that such funds can go into renewable energy deployments. Such a “great leap” into decarbonization will also cause emissions to crash as new carbon emissions are then focused on transition not just more consumption, and activities which do not directly produce the goods required for the transition eg. Solar panels, wind farms etc. Token carbon prices of $15-$35/tonne will not get you there near quick enough. European emissions trading prices are and have been at the pathetically low levels of around 5-8 euros/tonne for years now 3.</p>
<p>California’s cap and trade system produced a not so ground breaking change in the use of automobiles by its having increased gasoline prices eleven cents per gallon. 4 Is there a single motorist who no longer drives solely because of this new toll? Perhaps why so many are eager to link to it 5, as it gives the appearance of action while actually doing more or less nothing. We must deliver actual decarbonization not “hope” a market pressure of “x emissions credits” or “y carbon taxes” will get us there. There is now no time to spare if we were to get any of these wrong. History shows we clearly would.</p>
<p>A government mandated retooling of the American and all other national economies is a tall order, yes. To be intellectually honest about it however, it is the only thing which can save the planet, and thus the only responsible call to action which can and should be made. If a patient with otherwise fatal cancer elects to refuse the viable surgery that will remove their cancer (as is their legal right to do) then the ethical surgeon can only but advise they get their affairs in order. They should not offer more palatable but surely inadequate alternative treatment paths which will not save the patients life. Divestment is no different in this regard.&#160; It is the equivalent of the patient being told diet and exercise can cure their late stage cancer. The patient must be given a clear diagnosis and asked if they wish to undertake the treatment which will save them. The survival of the planet will then be for its inhabitants to decide.</p>
<p>Anton Davis is a California based environmental activist with a keen interest in climate change. He believes neoliberal solutions to the issue such as cap and trade, carbon taxes, and moving funds from one capitalist investment structure to another (divestment) can not solve the issue. He has worked as a nature guide and tree planter throughout the Western United States.</p>
<p>Links.</p>
<p>1. https://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/abs/ha00410c.html</p>
<p>2. https://www.co2.earth/</p>
<p>3.&#160; <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/energy" type="external">https://www.bloomberg.com/energy</a></p>
<p><a href="" type="internal">4.https://ad36.asmrc.org/sites/default/files/districts/ad36/files/2016%20LAO%20Cap%20and%20Trade%20Cost%20Estimates.pdf</a></p>
<p>5.https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/markettrackingsystem/markettrackingsystem.htm#linkage</p> | true | 4 | 350 simple number atmosphere concentration co2the planet surpass terms parts per million ppm polar ice caps melt would kick positive feedback loop ever warming suns rays longer reflected back space arctic warms even releasing countless tonnes stored methane permafrost according numbers originator dr hansen nasa 1 number 405 2 consider 1030ppm number continued fossil fuel emissions build renewable infrastructure high speed rail lines buses keep farm tractors running till figure feed move six billion people without using carbon intensive methods effectively sitting current level 415435 ppm transition adjusted basis current level 405 ppm 1030ppm transition 1924 dr hansens maximum level 5361 preindustrial levels things sit today also rather generously assumes everything follow piece happened tomorrow without another year wasted effectively business normal add say five years even start gradual carbon free adjustment speed numbers start look far worse think planet could go higher terms co2 concentrations levels stated okay end would equivalent betting ones net worth bitcoin futures risky highly unethical given consequences getting bet wrong even stark assessment puts aside enormous growth methane emissions due fracking boom heartily endorsed democrats must pointed poor state forests absorb co2 going forward huge deforestation brazil indonesia north american forests suffering record forest fires means option longer time horizons transition eg 80 cut 2050 longer adequate means simply building new fossil fuel projects even zeroing stock market capitalization fossil fuel companies getting banks everywhere stop loaning fossil fuel companies save planet aside many largest fossil fuel producers state owned borrow regular commercial lending markets eg saudi aramco gazprom national oil companies kuwait uae almost private shareholders could consider divesting event think small privately owned oil companies produce bakken north dakota shut forms local credit union state level banks private funding delusional think slavery could would end new york banks era stopped funding path towards saving planet climate change point equivalent retooling american economy went thru peacetime wartime production 19411944 applied goal less immediate decarbonization entire economy done unequivocal political mandate crisis exists suspension free market ensure resources go towards critical goal decarbonizing economy explicit goal removing consumption undertake would essential order power worlds energy requirements something renewable energy could scale short period time likely rights sue lost profits banned fossil fuel production lease holders would suspended ditto investor dispute clauses trade agreements ditto need planning permissions renewable energy sovereign debt repayments would suspended funds go renewable energy deployments great leap decarbonization also cause emissions crash new carbon emissions focused transition consumption activities directly produce goods required transition eg solar panels wind farms etc token carbon prices 1535tonne get near quick enough european emissions trading prices pathetically low levels around 58 eurostonne years 3 californias cap trade system produced ground breaking change use automobiles increased gasoline prices eleven cents per gallon 4 single motorist longer drives solely new toll perhaps many eager link 5 gives appearance action actually less nothing must deliver actual decarbonization hope market pressure x emissions credits carbon taxes get us time spare get wrong history shows clearly would government mandated retooling american national economies tall order yes intellectually honest however thing save planet thus responsible call action made patient otherwise fatal cancer elects refuse viable surgery remove cancer legal right ethical surgeon advise get affairs order offer palatable surely inadequate alternative treatment paths save patients life divestment different regard160 equivalent patient told diet exercise cure late stage cancer patient must given clear diagnosis asked wish undertake treatment save survival planet inhabitants decide anton davis california based environmental activist keen interest climate change believes neoliberal solutions issue cap trade carbon taxes moving funds one capitalist investment structure another divestment solve issue worked nature guide tree planter throughout western united states links 1 httpspubsgissnasagovabsha00410chtml 2 httpswwwco2earth 3160 httpswwwbloombergcomenergy 4httpsad36asmrcorgsitesdefaultfilesdistrictsad36files201620lao20cap20and20trade20cost20estimatespdf 5httpswwwarbcagovcccapandtrademarkettrackingsystemmarkettrackingsystemhtmlinkage | 618 |
<p>The Iraqi government has banned international flights to the Kurdish capital Irbil from 6pm this Friday, isolating the Kurds in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/Iraq" type="external">Iraq</a>to a degree they have not experienced since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The isolation is political as well as geographical as traditional Kurdish allies, like the US, UK, France and Germany, have opposed the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/kurdish-independence" type="external">referendum on Kurdish independence</a> while near neighbours in Turkey, Iran and Baghdad are moving to squeeze the Kurds into submission.</p>
<p>The referendum succeeded in showing that the Kurds, not just in Iraq but in Turkey, Iran and Syria, still yearn for their own state. Paradoxically, the outcome of the poll has demonstrated both the strength of their demand for self-determination and the weakness of their ability to obtain it. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is revealed as a minnow whose freedom of action – and even its survival – depends on playing off one foreign state against the other and keeping tolerable relations with all of them, even when they detested each other. In the past an American envoy would go out one door just as the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards came in the other.</p>
<p>The referendum has ended, perhaps only temporarily, these delicate balancing acts at which the Kurdish leadership was very skilled. In the last few weeks, the US has denounced the referendum in forthright terms, emboldening Iraq, Turkey and Iran to punish the Kurds for their undiplomatic enthusiasm to be an independent nation.</p>
<p>The poll was always a dangerous gamble but it is too early to say that it has entirely failed: minority communities and small nations must occasionally kick their big power allies in the teeth. Otherwise, they will become permanent proxies whose agreement with what their big power ally wants can be taken for granted. The skill for the smaller player is not to pay too high a price for going their own way. Iraq, Turkey and Iran have all made threatening statements over the last few days, some of them bombast, but they can hit the Kurds very hard if they want to.</p>
<p>The Kurds are in a fix and normally they would look to Washington to help them out, but under President Trump US foreign policy has become notoriously unpredictable. Worse from the Kurdish point of view, the US no longer needs the Iraqi Kurds as it did before the capture of Mosul from Isis in July. In any case, it was the Iraqi armed forces that won a great victory there, so for the first time in 14 years there is a powerful Iraqi army in the north of the country. We may not be on the verge of an Arab-Kurdish war, but the military balance of power is changing and Baghdad, not Irbil, is the gainer.</p>
<p>Anxious diplomats and excited journalists describe Iraq as “being on a collision course”, but the different parties will not necessarily collide. Muddling through is not only a British trait. But there is no doubt that the situation has become more dangerous, particularly in the disputed territories stretching across northern Iraq from Syria to Iran.</p>
<p>The referendum always had a risky ambivalence about it which helped ignite the present crisis. It all depended on what audience Kurdish President Masoud Barzani was addressing: when he spoke to Kurdish voters, it was a poll of historic significance when the Kurds would take a decisive step towards an independent state.</p>
<p>But addressing an international and regional audience, Barzani said he was proposing something much tamer, more like an opinion poll, in which the Iraqi Kurds were politely indicating a general preference for independence at some date in the future. Like many leaders who play the nationalist card, Barzani is finding that his rhetoric is being taken more seriously than his caveats. “Bye, Bye Iraq!” chanted crowds in Irbil on the night of the referendum.</p>
<p>Much of this was born of Barzani’s bid to outmanoeuvre his political rivals in Kurdistan by re-emerging as the standard bearer of Kurdish nationalism. He will benefit from his decision to defy the world and press ahead with the vote when it comes to the presidential and parliamentary elections in KRG on 1 November.</p>
<p>But the price of this could be high. It is not only Barzani who is facing an election in which national self-assertion is an issue in the coming months. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has a parliamentary election in 2018 and does not want to be accused of being insufficiently tough on the Kurds. Banning of international flights to Irbil is far less than many Iraqi MPs say they want.</p>
<p>By holding a referendum in the disputed territories, Barzani promoted this issue to the top of the Iraqi political agenda. It might have been in the interests of the Kurds to let it lie since the contending claims for land are deeply felt and irreconcilable. Optimists believe that Irbil and Baghdad could never go to war because they are both too dependent militarily on foreign powers. It is true that the Iraqi armed forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga alike could not have held off and defeated Isis without close air support from the US-led coalition. But by putting the future status of the KRG and the territories in play, Barzani has presented the Iraqi government, Turkey and Iran with a threat and an opportunity.</p>
<p>The four countries with Kurdish minorities fear that secessionism might spread, but a further problem is that they do not believe that an Iraqi Kurdish state would be truly independent, but would shift into the orbit of another power. The Iranians are paranoid about the possibility that such a state would be an American base threatening Iran. Politicians in Baghdad say that, if the Kurds are serious about self-determination, they would cling onto the oil fields of Kirkuk and be dependent on Turkey through which to export their crude.</p>
<p>Once the KRG dreamed of becoming a new Dubai with gleaming malls and hotels, but since 2014 it has looked more like Pompeii. The skyline is punctured by dozens of half completed tower blocks beside rusting cranes and abandoned machinery. The boom town atmosphere disappeared in 2014 when the price of oil went down, money stopped coming from Baghdad and Isis seized Mosul two hours’ drive away. The state is impoverished and salaries paid late, if at all. This will now all get a lot worse with airports and border crossings closed and 35,000 federal employees no longer being paid.</p>
<p>At all events, the political landscape in Iraq and Syria is changing: we are at the beginning of a new political phase in which the battle to defeat Isis is being replaced by a power struggle between Arabs and Kurds.</p> | true | 4 | iraqi government banned international flights kurdish capital irbil 6pm friday isolating kurds iraqto degree experienced since overthrow saddam hussein 2003 isolation political well geographical traditional kurdish allies like us uk france germany opposed referendum kurdish independence near neighbours turkey iran baghdad moving squeeze kurds submission referendum succeeded showing kurds iraq turkey iran syria still yearn state paradoxically outcome poll demonstrated strength demand selfdetermination weakness ability obtain kurdistan regional government krg revealed minnow whose freedom action even survival depends playing one foreign state keeping tolerable relations even detested past american envoy would go one door head iranian revolutionary guards came referendum ended perhaps temporarily delicate balancing acts kurdish leadership skilled last weeks us denounced referendum forthright terms emboldening iraq turkey iran punish kurds undiplomatic enthusiasm independent nation poll always dangerous gamble early say entirely failed minority communities small nations must occasionally kick big power allies teeth otherwise become permanent proxies whose agreement big power ally wants taken granted skill smaller player pay high price going way iraq turkey iran made threatening statements last days bombast hit kurds hard want kurds fix normally would look washington help president trump us foreign policy become notoriously unpredictable worse kurdish point view us longer needs iraqi kurds capture mosul isis july case iraqi armed forces great victory first time 14 years powerful iraqi army north country may verge arabkurdish war military balance power changing baghdad irbil gainer anxious diplomats excited journalists describe iraq collision course different parties necessarily collide muddling british trait doubt situation become dangerous particularly disputed territories stretching across northern iraq syria iran referendum always risky ambivalence helped ignite present crisis depended audience kurdish president masoud barzani addressing spoke kurdish voters poll historic significance kurds would take decisive step towards independent state addressing international regional audience barzani said proposing something much tamer like opinion poll iraqi kurds politely indicating general preference independence date future like many leaders play nationalist card barzani finding rhetoric taken seriously caveats bye bye iraq chanted crowds irbil night referendum much born barzanis bid outmanoeuvre political rivals kurdistan reemerging standard bearer kurdish nationalism benefit decision defy world press ahead vote comes presidential parliamentary elections krg 1 november price could high barzani facing election national selfassertion issue coming months iraqi prime minister haider alabadi parliamentary election 2018 want accused insufficiently tough kurds banning international flights irbil far less many iraqi mps say want holding referendum disputed territories barzani promoted issue top iraqi political agenda might interests kurds let lie since contending claims land deeply felt irreconcilable optimists believe irbil baghdad could never go war dependent militarily foreign powers true iraqi armed forces kurdish peshmerga alike could held defeated isis without close air support usled coalition putting future status krg territories play barzani presented iraqi government turkey iran threat opportunity four countries kurdish minorities fear secessionism might spread problem believe iraqi kurdish state would truly independent would shift orbit another power iranians paranoid possibility state would american base threatening iran politicians baghdad say kurds serious selfdetermination would cling onto oil fields kirkuk dependent turkey export crude krg dreamed becoming new dubai gleaming malls hotels since 2014 looked like pompeii skyline punctured dozens half completed tower blocks beside rusting cranes abandoned machinery boom town atmosphere disappeared 2014 price oil went money stopped coming baghdad isis seized mosul two hours drive away state impoverished salaries paid late get lot worse airports border crossings closed 35000 federal employees longer paid events political landscape iraq syria changing beginning new political phase battle defeat isis replaced power struggle arabs kurds | 584 |
<p>The Syriza party is positioned to win Greece’s elections Sunday on a progressive platform to reverse savage austerity cuts imposed on the country over the past half decade. By reclaiming democratic sovereignty over its economy, Greece could end a humanitarian disaster and shake the foundations of the Europe-wide austerity project.</p>
<p>Since the first bailout in 2010, the Troika – the European Central Bank, European Commission and IMF – has&#160; <a href="" type="internal">effectively dictated Greece’s economic policy</a>, decimating its economy to levels arguably worse than the 1930s Great Depression in the U.S.</p>
<p>The Troika has enforced austerity, claiming that Greece should repay its creditors – despite the fact that these debts originated from private banks complicit in the global financial crisis. The country has also&#160; <a href="" type="internal">suffered from the structural design</a>&#160;of the Eurozone. The Greek bailout effectively paid the country's creditors, while&#160; <a href="http://www.eurodad.org/files/pdf/54bfcb0f01b0b.pdf" type="external">less than 10% of the money</a>&#160;reached the people of Greece.</p>
<p>Syriza has shifted its position from the last election in 2012, when it stated it would withdraw Greece from the E.U. and default on its debts. Now, the left-populist party headed by Alexis Tsipras wants to audit the country's debts and discuss the consequences of cutting those debts to reduce Greece's debt servicing burden. By ending austerity as we know it, Syriza promises to take measures that alleviate poverty and push public programs to increase employment.</p>
<p />
<p>With hours left before the vote, Syriza is now the focal point for the European austerity debate. Looking ahead, the focus will shift to Spain in December, where another left-populist and pro-democracy party, Podemos, is climbing steadily in the polls and gaining widespread public support. Other anti-austerity parties competing for political power are rising in Cyprus, Portugal and Slovenia.</p>
<p>In reaction to Syriza’s popular electoral platform, European elites are nonetheless queuing up to assert there are no alternatives.</p>
<p>“The election won't change the basic conditions [of austerity],"&#160; <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/01/14/uk-eurozone-greece-schaeuble-idUKKBN0KN14G20150114" type="external">asserts</a>&#160;German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. "Whichever government it is, whoever wins the election, must see that Greece – with a lot of solidarity from Europe – will continue on this path. A lot of progress has been made.”</p>
<p>Finland’s Prime Minister Alex Stubb&#160; <a href="http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/01/14/finish-pm-to-reject-any-greek-debt-forgiveness/" type="external">agrees</a>: “It is clear that we would say a resounding no to forgiving the loans… these ideas are simply unacceptable for Finland.”</p>
<p>But new E.U. rules contradict the warning that Greece cannot challenge the Troika. Critical academic Éric Toussaint highlights how&#160; <a href="http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article3816" type="external">a May 2013 regulation</a>&#160;enabled debt audits to uncover which debts are illegal and should be cancelled. Toussaint suggests an audit of the kind that Syriza is proposing would demonstrate why, under the Troika, Greece’s debt-to-GDP ratio increased from 113% to 175%.</p>
<p />
<p>A major factor was socializing the costs of private bank debts that were lent "recklessly by foreign banks," he said. Toussaint also accused Antonis Samaras, Greece's current prime minister, of effectively concealing the facts about the country's debt from Greek citizens.</p>
<p>Now, a project of fear is being orchestrated against Syriza's likely win, in Greece and across the E.U., according to Toussaint.</p>
<p>“This campaign against the supposed dangers of Syriza is aimed at intimidating Greek voters into renouncing their right to change. It is also intended, in the event of a Syriza victory, to cause part of European public opinion to reject the Greek Coalition of the Radical Left in order to avoid Podemos winning the autumn 2015 Spanish elections in its wake,” he said.</p>
<p>PM Samaras appears to substantiate these claims.&#160; <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/14/us-greece-election-poll-idUSKBN0KN1QJ20150114?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=worldNews" type="external">He said</a>&#160;of Syriza, “They are leading us to a clash with our lenders, to bankruptcy, to an exit from the euro.”</p>
<p>But economist Costas Lapavitsas&#160; <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/29/syriza-greece-austerity-eu" type="external">makes the point</a>&#160;that continuing with austerity will only make a disastrous situation worse, since Greece’s economy is already bankrupt. Lapavitsas suggests Syriza’s ideas are neither radical nor revolutionary, but “represent modest common sense and would open a fresh path for other European countries.”</p>
<p>He predicts that if Syriza wins it will face massive hostility from the E.U. to any adjustment of its debts – though he notes that the idea is now gaining momentum in unexpected quarters, like a&#160; <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/927efd1e-9c32-11e4-b9f8-00144feabdc0.html" type="external">Financial Times article</a>&#160;this week calling for Greece's debt cancellation. The article reported that Benjamin Freidman, "esteemed economic historian," told a room full of European bankers that Greece should be treated the same way West Germany was treated by its creditors in 1953.</p>
<p>In that year's London Conference, Germany had half its debts written off, including public and private debt. Germany was forced to pay only 3% of its export earnings to service the debts – something that encouraged Germany’s export economy to grow. These ideas are&#160; <a href="http://jubileedebt.org.uk/reports-briefings/briefing/europe-cancelled-germanys-debt" type="external">similar to Syriza’s proposals today</a>, where Greece would currently pay far higher levels than 3%.</p>
<p />
<p>Even more surprising, the FT article suggested that when debts spiral out of control, they should and can be written off – which has happened throughout history.</p>
<p>“Syriza’s proposals for a European conference are positive as this would bring everyone together," Jonathan Stevenson, of Jubilee Debt Campaign UK, told Occupy.com. "So it recognizes the problem is not just about Greece, but is a problem across the Europe that needs a collective solution.”</p>
<p>How significant would a Syriza victory on Sunday be in the context of austerity politics in Europe?</p>
<p>“It will be the first serious opposition that the Troika has had to its flawed and unjust plans to deal with the debt crisis,” Stevenson added, saying a win for Syriza could galvanize movements in the other European countries – both against austerity and for debt renegotiation.</p>
<p>“This will be just as important if Syriza gets into power as [it has been] during the campaign. There will be a media propaganda war, with one side asserting all the racist myths against Greece that justified the Troika in the first place," he said. "A large section of public opinion across Europe will be informed by this media battle, so it is vital that they know key points – such as how Greece's citizens did not create the debt in the first place, and the bailout loans mainly went to bankers in other countries.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | syriza party positioned win greeces elections sunday progressive platform reverse savage austerity cuts imposed country past half decade reclaiming democratic sovereignty economy greece could end humanitarian disaster shake foundations europewide austerity project since first bailout 2010 troika european central bank european commission imf has160 effectively dictated greeces economic policy decimating economy levels arguably worse 1930s great depression us troika enforced austerity claiming greece repay creditors despite fact debts originated private banks complicit global financial crisis country also160 suffered structural design160of eurozone greek bailout effectively paid countrys creditors while160 less 10 money160reached people greece syriza shifted position last election 2012 stated would withdraw greece eu default debts leftpopulist party headed alexis tsipras wants audit countrys debts discuss consequences cutting debts reduce greeces debt servicing burden ending austerity know syriza promises take measures alleviate poverty push public programs increase employment hours left vote syriza focal point european austerity debate looking ahead focus shift spain december another leftpopulist prodemocracy party podemos climbing steadily polls gaining widespread public support antiausterity parties competing political power rising cyprus portugal slovenia reaction syrizas popular electoral platform european elites nonetheless queuing assert alternatives election wont change basic conditions austerity160 asserts160german finance minister wolfgang schäuble whichever government whoever wins election must see greece lot solidarity europe continue path lot progress made finlands prime minister alex stubb160 agrees clear would say resounding forgiving loans ideas simply unacceptable finland new eu rules contradict warning greece challenge troika critical academic Éric toussaint highlights how160 may 2013 regulation160enabled debt audits uncover debts illegal cancelled toussaint suggests audit kind syriza proposing would demonstrate troika greeces debttogdp ratio increased 113 175 major factor socializing costs private bank debts lent recklessly foreign banks said toussaint also accused antonis samaras greeces current prime minister effectively concealing facts countrys debt greek citizens project fear orchestrated syrizas likely win greece across eu according toussaint campaign supposed dangers syriza aimed intimidating greek voters renouncing right change also intended event syriza victory cause part european public opinion reject greek coalition radical left order avoid podemos winning autumn 2015 spanish elections wake said pm samaras appears substantiate claims160 said160of syriza leading us clash lenders bankruptcy exit euro economist costas lapavitsas160 makes point160that continuing austerity make disastrous situation worse since greeces economy already bankrupt lapavitsas suggests syrizas ideas neither radical revolutionary represent modest common sense would open fresh path european countries predicts syriza wins face massive hostility eu adjustment debts though notes idea gaining momentum unexpected quarters like a160 financial times article160this week calling greeces debt cancellation article reported benjamin freidman esteemed economic historian told room full european bankers greece treated way west germany treated creditors 1953 years london conference germany half debts written including public private debt germany forced pay 3 export earnings service debts something encouraged germanys export economy grow ideas are160 similar syrizas proposals today greece would currently pay far higher levels 3 even surprising ft article suggested debts spiral control written happened throughout history syrizas proposals european conference positive would bring everyone together jonathan stevenson jubilee debt campaign uk told occupycom recognizes problem greece problem across europe needs collective solution significant would syriza victory sunday context austerity politics europe first serious opposition troika flawed unjust plans deal debt crisis stevenson added saying win syriza could galvanize movements european countries austerity debt renegotiation important syriza gets power campaign media propaganda war one side asserting racist myths greece justified troika first place said large section public opinion across europe informed media battle vital know key points greeces citizens create debt first place bailout loans mainly went bankers countries | 587 |
<p>If you have heard of Learfield Communications, it is probably from listening to college football and basketball games.</p>
<p>The Jefferson City, Missouri based Learfield is one of the nation’s largest broadcasters of college sports.</p>
<p>But it also produces news programming heard throughout the farm belt.</p>
<p>Learfield was started 35 years ago by Clyde Lear and Derry Brownfield.</p>
<p>Lear went on to be the chairman of the company. He bought out his friend and partner Brownfield in 1985.</p>
<p>Brownfield went on to do market news reports for the Learfield news division until 1997 or so, when he started broadcasting a daily call-in show called The Common Sense Coalition.</p>
<p>Derry Brownfield would broadcast The Common Sense Coalition from the studios of Learfield Communications.</p>
<p>Learfield would subsidize the program and allow Brownfield to use its studios and satellite hook-up.</p>
<p>Monsanto happens to be a big advertiser of the Learfield news division – to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.</p>
<p>Brownfield happens to think that Monsanto is an evil corporation.</p>
<p>Therein lies the rub.</p>
<p>For weeks, Brownfield had been ripping Monsanto on air for its policies of enforcing its seed patents against farmers.</p>
<p>On <a href="" type="internal">the April 16 show</a>, Brownfield’s topic was seed industry concentration in America.</p>
<p>His guests were Fred Stokes, president of the Organization for Competitive Markets, and Michael Stumo, general counsel of the group.</p>
<p>Stokes and Stumo were promoting a new project to study corporate concentration in the seed industry.</p>
<p>Monsanto is the dominant player in the global seed industry and has a reputation for playing rough.</p>
<p>On air, Brownfield quoted from a newly published Vanity Fair <a href="" type="internal">article</a> titled “Monsanto’s Harvest of Fear” by Donald Barlett and James Steele.</p>
<p>“Monsanto relies on a shadowy army of private investigators and agents in the American heartland to strike fear into farm country,” Barlett and Steele write. “They fan out into fields and farm towns, where they secretly videotape and photograph farmers, store owners, and co-ops, infiltrate community meetings, and gather information from informants about farming activities. Farmers say that some Monsanto agents pretend to be surveyors. Others confront farmers on their land and try to pressure them to sign papers giving Monsanto access to their private records. Farmers call them the ‘seed police’ and use words such as ‘Gestapo’ and ‘Mafia’ to describe their tactics.”</p>
<p>After reading from the Vanity Fair article, Brownfield then begins to riff on the Mafia theme.</p>
<p>“Multinational corporations are doing everything possible to change agriculture – and not for the better,” Brownfield says on the show. “I know a little bit about this – not a lot, just a little bit – but Monsanto literally they have Mafia goons out, do they not? They show up on farmers’ property, they try and harass them, they say if you don’t sign this, we are going to take you to court. They have literally tried to destroy agriculture as we know it. They have a goon squad. Maybe that’s not what they like to be called. But if it was the Mafia, we would call them the goon squad.”</p>
<p>Calling Monsanto’s patent enforcers goons was apparently the straw that broke this camel’s back.</p>
<p>Brownfield’s stint at Dearfield was about to end.</p>
<p>Last week, Brownfield was told that he could no longer broadcast out of the Dearfield studios. His buddy, Clyde Lear, posted a <a href="" type="internal">blog</a> on the Learfield web site saying that Brownfield’s last show will be in mid-May.</p>
<p>“The Common Sense Coalition grinds to a halt on our system,” Lear wrote.</p>
<p>“Most of his listeners loved him as did his affiliates,” Lear wrote about his buddy. “He didn’t mind controversy or taking on giants like the Monsanto Corporation. He thought they were bad for farmers, too big for their britches and generally bad for America. Increasingly he’s been saying so, without seeking balance, in my opinion.”</p>
<p>And then later, in response to listeners who were upset that Brownfield was being let go, Lear wrote:</p>
<p>“Some seem to think the reason Derry is leaving is because Monsanto threatened to stop advertising if we didn’t put a gag on him. If that were the only reason Derry was asked to leave, then I can see why they think we are selling out. We’ve parted ways because accusations being made about not only advertisers, but individuals, corporations, government, (fill in the blank) were based on fear and lies with absolutely no truth to back them up. I abhor radio talk shows like Rush Limbaugh…and Derry Brownfield where half-truths are articulated. I won’t be a part of them. And, that’s my right.”</p>
<p>But in an interview with CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER, Lear admits that the Monsanto issue is what drove his buddy Brownfield out. “If the Monsanto issue had not come up, we would not be here today,” Lear said.</p>
<p>Lear said that the President of Learfield Communications, Roger Gardner, talked recently with John Raines, Monsanto’s director of public affairs.</p>
<p>“John Raines talked to Roger Gardner about the difficulties they felt Brownfield is giving them,” Lear said. “(Gardner) told me he talked to John Raines about the Vanity Fair article.”</p>
<p>“The pressure I got came from the president of the news division, Stan Koenigsfeld,” Lear said. “Stan is the guy that has responsibility for selling and maintaining the financial viability of our news division. Stan is a no nonsense guy. So, Stan comes in and says – why are we doing this? Why do we continue to do this? We give him all of these things and he spits in our face by lambasting our good advertisers, without giving them an opportunity for fair and balanced reporting. And it is not reporting – it’s just entertainment. Why do we continue to do this?”</p>
<p>Lear says that the complaints have been mounting over the past five years about Brownfield.</p>
<p>“And I’ve been saying to Stan, settle down, it will all be alright,” Lear said. “But I imagine Stan is getting a lot of pressure from his sales executives. We have three that call on Monsanto for different products. And I would assume that he is getting pressure from those sales executives. When those sales executives call on Monsanto, Monsanto is complaining to the sales executives. That is where the connection happens. But you would have to talk to them about the kind of leverage Monsanto is putting on them. They have never to my knowledge threatened to pull any advertising.”</p>
<p>Lear finally confronted Brownfield.</p>
<p>“I went to him and said – Derry, look, lay off of this,” Lear said. “Lay off of this Monsanto thing. I am getting a lot of complaints.”</p>
<p>Lear said he was the only one in the company who could approach Brownfield.</p>
<p>“I’m the only one who can talk to him,” Lear said. “No one else in the company will go to him. He is kind of persona non grata. He is one of the guys who helped start the company years ago. He was my partner for years until 1985 when I bought him out. He is a dear friend of mine. So, there is no one else – all of the rest of the guys are half my age. They won’t go to him. They are afraid of him. They just won’t go and talk to him.”</p>
<p>“They all came to me and said – go talk to Derry,” Lear said. “We’ve got to quit doing this. Plus, it came at a bad time. It came during the same week that the National Association of Farm Broadcasters national convention was being held in Kansas City. And at that convention, of course, Monsanto was omnipresent. They are there trying to woo farm broadcasters, because they want them to say nice things about them, right? So, here are all of the Monsanto people at this convention. And their advertising agencies – Osborne &amp; Barr out of St. Louis – among others. They were all there. And it was embarrassing, because all of that week, Derry is lambasting Monsanto.”</p>
<p>“We have explained to Monsanto, in any way we can, that the Brownfield Network has nothing to do with Derry’s show,” Lear says. “This is a completely independent show that he puts on. Well, Monsanto says – he’s doing it from your studios, isn’t he? And we say yes, we give him space because of the history.”</p>
<p>“And they ask – how else do you help him? If he weren’t doing the show, would this problem disappear?”</p>
<p>“So my guys came to me and said – we’ve got to do something about this.”</p>
<p>“So, I went in to Derry and I sat down with him,” Lear said. “It was very good natured. I wasn’t angry. I wasn’t planning on doing anything. I said – let this Monsanto thing go for awhile. Just let it go.”</p>
<p>“He said – ‘Clyde – Monsanto is an evil empire,’” Lear recalled.</p>
<p>“‘This is evil. He said – every farmer hates Monsanto. You know what they have done – and then he would lambast Monsanto and lay out this litany of stuff that they do. It included milk. Apparently there is a human growth hormone that they put in the milk. I don’t know a thing about it, but apparently they won a court case that prohibited milk retailers from putting on the milk carton the label – hormone free. I didn’t know anything about this, but Brownfield was complaining about how the liberal judges of America are siding with the evil empire. And Monsanto pays them off. All kinds of allegations which I’m sure are not true. But Derry believes them.”</p>
<p>“So, I said – will you let Monsanto be on the air? And he said – I’m not going to give them a forum. But then he changed his mind and said – yeah, bring them on. I’ll let them on the show.”</p>
<p>Lear then went to hole up with his executives. And his execs told him – “It’s bigger than this now. We just don’t need to be associated with him.”</p>
<p>“So, I just walked back there and said to Derry – you say you are not going to lighten up. And he said no, I’m staying the course. And I said – not with us you are not. You are going to have to find some other way to distribute your program, and you are going to have to find some other office to do it out of.”</p>
<p>Given that he was willing put Monsanto on his show, why not keep him on?</p>
<p>“Maybe we should have,” Lear said.</p>
<p>Would you reconsider your decision?</p>
<p>“I don’t think so,” Lear says. “It is just not a business I want to be in anymore.”</p>
<p>Lear says he feels sad about parting with his old buddy, but he wants to help set up an internet radio studio for Derry out of Derry’s home office.</p>
<p>“We are helping him build a new facility in his home,” Lear says. “But we won’t have a connection to him. Then we can easily say to Monsanto – we don’t have a thing to do with Derry. We don’t have a thing to do with him. He’s not on our property. We can’t control him.”</p>
<p>Brownfield said he couldn’t comment on the situation.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | heard learfield communications probably listening college football basketball games jefferson city missouri based learfield one nations largest broadcasters college sports also produces news programming heard throughout farm belt learfield started 35 years ago clyde lear derry brownfield lear went chairman company bought friend partner brownfield 1985 brownfield went market news reports learfield news division 1997 started broadcasting daily callin show called common sense coalition derry brownfield would broadcast common sense coalition studios learfield communications learfield would subsidize program allow brownfield use studios satellite hookup monsanto happens big advertiser learfield news division tune hundreds thousands dollars year brownfield happens think monsanto evil corporation therein lies rub weeks brownfield ripping monsanto air policies enforcing seed patents farmers april 16 show brownfields topic seed industry concentration america guests fred stokes president organization competitive markets michael stumo general counsel group stokes stumo promoting new project study corporate concentration seed industry monsanto dominant player global seed industry reputation playing rough air brownfield quoted newly published vanity fair article titled monsantos harvest fear donald barlett james steele monsanto relies shadowy army private investigators agents american heartland strike fear farm country barlett steele write fan fields farm towns secretly videotape photograph farmers store owners coops infiltrate community meetings gather information informants farming activities farmers say monsanto agents pretend surveyors others confront farmers land try pressure sign papers giving monsanto access private records farmers call seed police use words gestapo mafia describe tactics reading vanity fair article brownfield begins riff mafia theme multinational corporations everything possible change agriculture better brownfield says show know little bit lot little bit monsanto literally mafia goons show farmers property try harass say dont sign going take court literally tried destroy agriculture know goon squad maybe thats like called mafia would call goon squad calling monsantos patent enforcers goons apparently straw broke camels back brownfields stint dearfield end last week brownfield told could longer broadcast dearfield studios buddy clyde lear posted blog learfield web site saying brownfields last show midmay common sense coalition grinds halt system lear wrote listeners loved affiliates lear wrote buddy didnt mind controversy taking giants like monsanto corporation thought bad farmers big britches generally bad america increasingly hes saying without seeking balance opinion later response listeners upset brownfield let go lear wrote seem think reason derry leaving monsanto threatened stop advertising didnt put gag reason derry asked leave see think selling weve parted ways accusations made advertisers individuals corporations government fill blank based fear lies absolutely truth back abhor radio talk shows like rush limbaughand derry brownfield halftruths articulated wont part thats right interview corporate crime reporter lear admits monsanto issue drove buddy brownfield monsanto issue come would today lear said lear said president learfield communications roger gardner talked recently john raines monsantos director public affairs john raines talked roger gardner difficulties felt brownfield giving lear said gardner told talked john raines vanity fair article pressure got came president news division stan koenigsfeld lear said stan guy responsibility selling maintaining financial viability news division stan nonsense guy stan comes says continue give things spits face lambasting good advertisers without giving opportunity fair balanced reporting reporting entertainment continue lear says complaints mounting past five years brownfield ive saying stan settle alright lear said imagine stan getting lot pressure sales executives three call monsanto different products would assume getting pressure sales executives sales executives call monsanto monsanto complaining sales executives connection happens would talk kind leverage monsanto putting never knowledge threatened pull advertising lear finally confronted brownfield went said derry look lay lear said lay monsanto thing getting lot complaints lear said one company could approach brownfield im one talk lear said one else company go kind persona non grata one guys helped start company years ago partner years 1985 bought dear friend mine one else rest guys half age wont go afraid wont go talk came said go talk derry lear said weve got quit plus came bad time came week national association farm broadcasters national convention held kansas city convention course monsanto omnipresent trying woo farm broadcasters want say nice things right monsanto people convention advertising agencies osborne amp barr st louis among others embarrassing week derry lambasting monsanto explained monsanto way brownfield network nothing derrys show lear says completely independent show puts well monsanto says hes studios isnt say yes give space history ask else help werent show would problem disappear guys came said weve got something went derry sat lear said good natured wasnt angry wasnt planning anything said let monsanto thing go awhile let go said clyde monsanto evil empire lear recalled evil said every farmer hates monsanto know done would lambast monsanto lay litany stuff included milk apparently human growth hormone put milk dont know thing apparently court case prohibited milk retailers putting milk carton label hormone free didnt know anything brownfield complaining liberal judges america siding evil empire monsanto pays kinds allegations im sure true derry believes said let monsanto air said im going give forum changed mind said yeah bring ill let show lear went hole executives execs told bigger dont need associated walked back said derry say going lighten said im staying course said us going find way distribute program going find office given willing put monsanto show keep maybe lear said would reconsider decision dont think lear says business want anymore lear says feels sad parting old buddy wants help set internet radio studio derry derrys home office helping build new facility home lear says wont connection easily say monsanto dont thing derry dont thing hes property cant control brownfield said couldnt comment situation 160 160 160 160 160 | 928 |
<p>After <a href="" type="internal">running as a political outsider</a>, Donald Trump now finds himself having to navigate between two uneasily aligned factions. On one side is an emboldened right-populist base, personified by incoming White House chief strategist and senior counselor Stephen Bannon, that wants to see a fundamental turnover among the people in charge. On the other is a more mainstream Republican wing represented by figures like Chief of Staff Reince Priebus that is preoccupied with standard conservative issues. These include reducing taxes on the wealthy, marketizing social services, and bolstering defense spending.</p>
<p>As the Trump White House takes shape, this jostling for influence within the new administration will not only affect the balance of power among state institutions and their internal dynamics, but also determine whose interests will best be represented.</p>
<p>Bannon has previously expressed a desire to overturn the political establishment, yet it is clear that other Trump loyalists and converts within the GOP are intent on benefiting from the party’s new majority in government. The nature of Trump’s coalition naturally raises the question of how these interests will be reconciled. The outcome will reveal much about the distribution of political power within the administration, and between it and the state.</p>
<p>One possibility is the radical transformation of “the establishment” favored by Bannon. He has just finished overseeing a presidential campaign that used dog-whistle tactics to mobilize the xenophobic, racist, and misogynistic far right into a key part of their constituency. Much has already been written about the <a href="" type="internal">scorched-earth character</a> of Trump’s campaign and the&#160;highly troubling&#160;potential for the erosion of democratic freedoms that his presidency promises.</p>
<p>A former Goldman Sachs banker and self-described “hard-nosed capitalist,” Bannon made his fortune through a variety of financial and entertainment ventures. But the 2008 financial crash allowed him to&#160;articulate&#160;the conservative economic populism that became the ideological staple of Trump’s campaign: “In the last twenty years, our financial elites and the political class have taken care of themselves and led our country to the brink of ruin;” meanwhile the Tea Party was composed of “the people who fight our wars, pay our taxes, run our civic organizations, who build our cities and who hold our neighborhoods together.”</p>
<p>Interestingly, in 2013 Bannon&#160;allegedly told&#160;former radical-turned-conservative historian Ronald Radosh that he was an admirer of Lenin, saying: “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.” What should we make of this claim? There are limits to what motives we can extrapolate from two sentences, especially as conveyed through a secondhand account. Perhaps Bannon was just engaging in the kind of ironic provocation that has become the calling card of today’s white supremacists (read: the “alt-right”). But it is also possible that Bannon was being sincere.</p>
<p>If Bannon’s Leninism has any intellectual grounding, it is in his belief that state institutions are spaces where entrenched interests are able to concentrate their power, wielding them as an instrument while inoculating themselves from the masses as a whole.</p>
<p>Although Lenin’s political strategy had important nuances throughout his life, in&#160; <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_State_and_Revolution.html?id=-a93oxUWZEcC" type="external">The State and Revolution</a>, written on the eve of the Bolshevik seizure of power, he was unambiguous about both the character of the bourgeois state and the political strategy for opposing it. The state, and especially its repressive organs like the police, the military, and carceral institutions, were best understood as “a special force for the suppression of a particular class.”</p>
<p>Being an instrument wielded by the bourgeoisie for the exploitation and oppression of the proletariat, the inherent rationale for the state’s existence precluded the possibility of reform. “The liberation of the oppressed class,” Lenin wrote, “is impossible not only without a violent revolution,&#160;but also without the destruction&#160;of the apparatus of state power, which was created by the ruling class.” This destruction of the state entailed a protracted and militant struggle. It would culminate in the seizure of the repressive and administrative institutions in which state power was concentrated, and their radical reorganization into the dictatorship of the proletariat.</p>
<p>Bannon’s claim of destroying the establishment — primarily meaning the political class made up of both Democratic and GOP elites, and their global financial networks — expresses hostility at an insular network of power and influence. In Bannon’s case this view has been supplemented with a familiar variety of far-right conspiracy theories that see global and national politics in terms of a simplistic relationship of direct cause (hidden interests) and effect (policy).</p>
<p>In his&#160;past remarks, Bannon has purported to represent a “growing global anti-establishment revolt against the permanent political class at home, and the global elites that influence them,” and an “insurgent, center-right populist movement that is virulently anti-establishment.” If the purpose of the state is to carry out the interests of a secretive elite, there is no possibility of negotiating or incrementally changing it. By identifying “the state” with “the establishment,” Bannon effectively collapses two terms with distinct meanings into a monolithic entity, and counterposes them to a strategy of relentless opposition and insurgency with the aim of its destruction.</p>
<p>Despite this superficial similarity, the rest of Bannon’s views do not neatly map onto Lenin’s thought. Bannon’s right-populist rhetoric about financial elites and the civic virtues of middle America is worlds away from Lenin’s treatment of imperialist rivalry and the class struggle. Lenin was highly skeptical of populism, and he expressed no sentimentalities toward the plight of the middle classes and their supposedly tightly knit social fabric, nor did he simply want to “bring everything crashing down.”</p>
<p>For these reasons, it would be misleading to prioritize Bannon’s supposed affection for Lenin as the key for explaining Trump’s presidential agenda as a whole. A more useful lens for understanding the nature and priorities of the Trump administration can be found in another source.</p>
<p>In 1969, the British Marxist scholar <a href="" type="internal">Ralph Miliband</a> published a work titled&#160; <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_state_in_capitalist_society.html?id=bPCFAAAAMAAJ" type="external">The State in Capitalist Society</a>. Arriving at the moment when the Keynesian welfare state had reached its apex and would soon give way to the legitimation and economic crises of the following decade, the book made an immediate impact. Miliband argued that the political systems of capitalist liberal democracies were not especially pluralistic, nor had the advent of the modern corporate model successfully transcended its class character.</p>
<p>In other words, Western liberal democracies were still decidedly class societies — ones where the power and resources of the economically dominant classes translated into their political power. And as the economic role of the state grew under contemporary capitalism, one could also observe that much of the top echelon of state institutions were populated by economic and social elites.</p>
<p>As Miliband wrote, “In terms of social origin, education and class situation, the men who have manned&#160;all&#160;command positions in the state system have largely, and in many cases overwhelmingly, been drawn from the world of business and property, or from the professional middle classes.”</p>
<p>Over the next two decades&#160;The State in Capitalist Society&#160;proved to be an important and influential work that spawned a series of debates among sociologists and political scientists concerning the relationship between political power and social classes. While its star waned somewhat under an onslaught by more theoretically sophisticated variants of neo-Marxist thought, today Miliband’s insights seem all the more prescient.</p>
<p>For example, in 2014 Martin Gilens of Princeton University and Benjamin Page of Northwestern University published a <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/is-america-an-oligarchy" type="external">provocative study</a> titled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens.” They had found that compared to average citizens, economic elites and organized business interests had a significantly disproportional amount of influence on government policy.</p>
<p>The best approximation of the political system that existed in the United States, they concluded, was neither majoritarian democracy nor pluralism, but a “biased pluralism” at best and “economic-elite domination” at worst. As Gilens and Page noted, Miliband’s observations closely approximated their own conclusions that interest groups and corporations representing “large-scale business” tended to prevail when it came to policy-making.</p>
<p>Historically, the least democratic periods of American history have coincided with the unimpeded and unmediated influence of capitalist interests upon the state. Within the debates that were spawned by Miliband’s book, one of the most influential voices was that of Nicos Poulantzas, who&#160;argued&#160;that the capitalist state needed to retain some degree of autonomy from the interests of any specific fraction of capitalists, in order that it could promote the hegemonic, long-term interests of the capitalist class as a whole.</p>
<p>In contrast to this general formulation, the Trump administration promises to inaugurate the closest realignment between state institutions and the direct representation of a segment of capitalist interests since at least the 1930s.</p>
<p>Set aside for a moment Trump’s own well-documented conflicts of interest between his public office and his businesses. His political appointments, including numerous representatives of corporate interests with little to no political experience, thus far have been made on the basis of loyalty and the potential for grift.</p>
<p>If Trump’s&#160;recent cabinet nominations&#160;and the “deal” he&#160;negotiated with Carrier&#160;to much fanfare are any indication, <a href="" type="internal">he will oversee</a> a haphazard and chaotic combination of federal subsidies to loyalists; bombastic, Potemkin-style infrastructure projects; and the systematic deconstruction of the&#160;already-tattered&#160;safety net.</p>
<p>Under such arrangements, state institutions historically favored by progressives — like the EPA and the Departments of Education, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services — now stand to be directed by individuals who are openly hostile to their very existence, and who will undoubtedly benefit from their gutting.</p>
<p>What the Trump administration promises to bring, in other words, is the mobilization of authoritarian right-populism within civil society combined with the reimposition of&#160;direct&#160;class rule on the level of the state. We are seeing a shift in the logic of governance, away from state institutions mediating competing interests on the behalf of the&#160;general interests of the capitalist class, that has characterized both Democratic and Republican administrations since the New Deal, to a more direct exercise of class rule on behalf of particular fractions involved in Trump’s coalition.</p>
<p>Although it is too early to say for sure, this turn toward their more “hands on” involvement in governance may be symptomatic of a structural shift in which the interests of landed, infrastructural, and resource-based enterprises move to the forefront of the new Republican coalition while banking and finance is integrated into a supporting role (the&#160;jubilance on Wall Street&#160;notwithstanding).</p>
<p>Bannon’s war against the establishment is thus likely to fail due to the fact that other influential members of Trump’s cabinet are poised to reap the rewards of their new positions, and to reinforce a politics of inequality. But the damage he leaves in his wake could resonate for decades to come. His cultural and rhetorical assault promises to further delegitimize the importance of constitutional rights and liberties, and thus to encourage voter suppression, civil rights violations, and illegal detention.</p>
<p>Coupled with this is a less visible but equally insidious process of institutional decay and atrophy, driven by the utter nihilism of the dominant classes toward the possibility of a more egalitarian economic and social order.</p>
<p>These have been persistent problems over the course of American history, ones that have long preceded Trump. Now they have been articulated in a particularly noxious way, combining anti-establishment ideology with the exploitation of state institutions for personal benefit and a blatant disregard for workers, minorities, and the poor. While much still remains to be seen, this leaves us with little to be optimistic about.</p> | true | 4 | running political outsider donald trump finds navigate two uneasily aligned factions one side emboldened rightpopulist base personified incoming white house chief strategist senior counselor stephen bannon wants see fundamental turnover among people charge mainstream republican wing represented figures like chief staff reince priebus preoccupied standard conservative issues include reducing taxes wealthy marketizing social services bolstering defense spending trump white house takes shape jostling influence within new administration affect balance power among state institutions internal dynamics also determine whose interests best represented bannon previously expressed desire overturn political establishment yet clear trump loyalists converts within gop intent benefiting partys new majority government nature trumps coalition naturally raises question interests reconciled outcome reveal much distribution political power within administration state one possibility radical transformation establishment favored bannon finished overseeing presidential campaign used dogwhistle tactics mobilize xenophobic racist misogynistic far right key part constituency much already written scorchedearth character trumps campaign the160highly troubling160potential erosion democratic freedoms presidency promises former goldman sachs banker selfdescribed hardnosed capitalist bannon made fortune variety financial entertainment ventures 2008 financial crash allowed to160articulate160the conservative economic populism became ideological staple trumps campaign last twenty years financial elites political class taken care led country brink ruin meanwhile tea party composed people fight wars pay taxes run civic organizations build cities hold neighborhoods together interestingly 2013 bannon160allegedly told160former radicalturnedconservative historian ronald radosh admirer lenin saying lenin wanted destroy state thats goal want bring everything crashing destroy todays establishment make claim limits motives extrapolate two sentences especially conveyed secondhand account perhaps bannon engaging kind ironic provocation become calling card todays white supremacists read altright also possible bannon sincere bannons leninism intellectual grounding belief state institutions spaces entrenched interests able concentrate power wielding instrument inoculating masses whole although lenins political strategy important nuances throughout life in160 state revolution written eve bolshevik seizure power unambiguous character bourgeois state political strategy opposing state especially repressive organs like police military carceral institutions best understood special force suppression particular class instrument wielded bourgeoisie exploitation oppression proletariat inherent rationale states existence precluded possibility reform liberation oppressed class lenin wrote impossible without violent revolution160but also without destruction160of apparatus state power created ruling class destruction state entailed protracted militant struggle would culminate seizure repressive administrative institutions state power concentrated radical reorganization dictatorship proletariat bannons claim destroying establishment primarily meaning political class made democratic gop elites global financial networks expresses hostility insular network power influence bannons case view supplemented familiar variety farright conspiracy theories see global national politics terms simplistic relationship direct cause hidden interests effect policy his160past remarks bannon purported represent growing global antiestablishment revolt permanent political class home global elites influence insurgent centerright populist movement virulently antiestablishment purpose state carry interests secretive elite possibility negotiating incrementally changing identifying state establishment bannon effectively collapses two terms distinct meanings monolithic entity counterposes strategy relentless opposition insurgency aim destruction despite superficial similarity rest bannons views neatly map onto lenins thought bannons rightpopulist rhetoric financial elites civic virtues middle america worlds away lenins treatment imperialist rivalry class struggle lenin highly skeptical populism expressed sentimentalities toward plight middle classes supposedly tightly knit social fabric simply want bring everything crashing reasons would misleading prioritize bannons supposed affection lenin key explaining trumps presidential agenda whole useful lens understanding nature priorities trump administration found another source 1969 british marxist scholar ralph miliband published work titled160 state capitalist society arriving moment keynesian welfare state reached apex would soon give way legitimation economic crises following decade book made immediate impact miliband argued political systems capitalist liberal democracies especially pluralistic advent modern corporate model successfully transcended class character words western liberal democracies still decidedly class societies ones power resources economically dominant classes translated political power economic role state grew contemporary capitalism one could also observe much top echelon state institutions populated economic social elites miliband wrote terms social origin education class situation men manned160all160command positions state system largely many cases overwhelmingly drawn world business property professional middle classes next two decades160the state capitalist society160proved important influential work spawned series debates among sociologists political scientists concerning relationship political power social classes star waned somewhat onslaught theoretically sophisticated variants neomarxist thought today milibands insights seem prescient example 2014 martin gilens princeton university benjamin page northwestern university published provocative study titled testing theories american politics elites interest groups average citizens found compared average citizens economic elites organized business interests significantly disproportional amount influence government policy best approximation political system existed united states concluded neither majoritarian democracy pluralism biased pluralism best economicelite domination worst gilens page noted milibands observations closely approximated conclusions interest groups corporations representing largescale business tended prevail came policymaking historically least democratic periods american history coincided unimpeded unmediated influence capitalist interests upon state within debates spawned milibands book one influential voices nicos poulantzas who160argued160that capitalist state needed retain degree autonomy interests specific fraction capitalists order could promote hegemonic longterm interests capitalist class whole contrast general formulation trump administration promises inaugurate closest realignment state institutions direct representation segment capitalist interests since least 1930s set aside moment trumps welldocumented conflicts interest public office businesses political appointments including numerous representatives corporate interests little political experience thus far made basis loyalty potential grift trumps160recent cabinet nominations160and deal he160negotiated carrier160to much fanfare indication oversee haphazard chaotic combination federal subsidies loyalists bombastic potemkinstyle infrastructure projects systematic deconstruction the160alreadytattered160safety net arrangements state institutions historically favored progressives like epa departments education labor housing urban development health human services stand directed individuals openly hostile existence undoubtedly benefit gutting trump administration promises bring words mobilization authoritarian rightpopulism within civil society combined reimposition of160direct160class rule level state seeing shift logic governance away state institutions mediating competing interests behalf the160general interests capitalist class characterized democratic republican administrations since new deal direct exercise class rule behalf particular fractions involved trumps coalition although early say sure turn toward hands involvement governance may symptomatic structural shift interests landed infrastructural resourcebased enterprises move forefront new republican coalition banking finance integrated supporting role the160jubilance wall street160notwithstanding bannons war establishment thus likely fail due fact influential members trumps cabinet poised reap rewards new positions reinforce politics inequality damage leaves wake could resonate decades come cultural rhetorical assault promises delegitimize importance constitutional rights liberties thus encourage voter suppression civil rights violations illegal detention coupled less visible equally insidious process institutional decay atrophy driven utter nihilism dominant classes toward possibility egalitarian economic social order persistent problems course american history ones long preceded trump articulated particularly noxious way combining antiestablishment ideology exploitation state institutions personal benefit blatant disregard workers minorities poor much still remains seen leaves us little optimistic | 1,076 |
<p>US soldiers at the flag casing ceremony that marked the end of Operation New Dawn, at the former Sather Air Base, in Baghdad, Iraq, on Dec. 15, 2011.&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/6516088807/"&gt;US Army&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
<p>This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175473/tomgram%3A_steve_fraser%2C_%22de-fault_is_ours%22/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>It was to be the war that would establish empire as an American fact. It would result in a thousand-year Pax Americana. It was to be “mission accomplished” all the way. And then, of course, it wasn’t. And then, almost nine dismal years later, it was over (sorta).</p>
<p>It was the Iraq War, and we were the uninvited guests who didn’t want to go home. To the last second, despite President Obama’s repeated promise that all American troops were leaving, despite an agreement the Iraqi government had signed with George W. Bush’s administration in 2008, America’s military commanders continued to <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175216/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_the_future_belongs_to_no_one___/" type="external">lobby</a> and Washington continued to negotiate for <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/110706/us-troops-military-iraq" type="external">10,000</a> to <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2011/1215/Iraq-after-US-ends-its-war-role-must-now-define-mission-accomplished" type="external">20,000</a> US troops to remain in-country as advisors and trainers.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" />Only when the Iraqis simply refused to guarantee those troops immunity from local law did the last Americans begin to cross the border into Kuwait. It was only then that our top officials began to hail the thing they had never wanted, the end of the American military presence in Iraq, as marking an era of “accomplishment.” They also began praising their own “decision” to leave as a triumph, and proclaimed that the troops were departing with—as the president put it—”their heads held high.”</p>
<p>In a final flag-lowering ceremony in Baghdad, clearly meant for US domestic consumption and <a href="http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/a-withdrawal-ceremony-in-iraq-observed-by-few-iraqis/" type="external">well attended</a> by the American press corps but not by Iraqi officials or the local media, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta <a href="http://www.defense.gov/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4946" type="external">spoke glowingly</a> of having achieved “ultimate success.” He assured the departing troops that they had been a “driving force for remarkable progress” and that they could proudly leave the country “secure in knowing that your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people begin a new chapter in history, free from tyranny and full of hope for prosperity and peace.” Later on his trip to the Middle East, speaking of the human cost of the war, he <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/12/19/panetta_iraq_war_was_worth_it/?source=newsletter" type="external">added</a>, “I think the price has been worth it.”</p>
<p>And then the last of those troops really did “come home”—if you define “home” broadly enough to include not just bases in the US but also garrisons in Kuwait, elsewhere in the Persian Gulf, and sooner or later in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>On December 14th at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the president and his wife gave returning war veterans from the 82nd Airborne Division and other units a rousing welcome. With some in picturesque <a href="http://www.latestcnnnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Obama_Addressing_Troops_Back_From_Iraq.jpg" type="external">maroon berets</a>, they picturesquely hooahed the man who had once called their war “ <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/16/opinion/la-ed-iraq-20111216" type="external">dumb.</a>” Undoubtedly looking toward his 2012 campaign, President Obama, too, now <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/14/remarks-president-and-first-lady-end-war-iraq" type="external">spoke stirringly</a> of “success” in Iraq, of “gains,” of his pride in the troops, of the country’s “gratitude” to them, of the spectacular accomplishments achieved as well as the hard times endured by “the finest fighting force in the history of the world,” and of the sacrifices made by our “wounded warriors” and “fallen heroes.”</p>
<p>He praised “an extraordinary achievement nine years in the making,” framing their departure this way: “Indeed, everything that American troops have done in Iraq—all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering—all of it has led to this moment of success… [W]e’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people.”</p>
<p>And these themes—including the “gains” and the “successes,” as well as the pride and gratitude, which Americans were assumed to feel for the troops—were <a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/what_iraq_changed_0qvKgy0geGsLo8BRkY0JHK" type="external">picked up</a> by the media and various <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/concoughlin/100124358/without-iraq-there-would-be-no-arab-spring/" type="external">pundits</a>. At the same time, other news reports were highlighting the possibility that Iraq was descending into <a href="http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/12/21/washington-flails-as-chaos-threatens-iraq-will-iran-stoke-or-douse-the-fires/" type="external">a new sectarian hell</a>, fueled by an American-built but largely Shiite military, in a land in which oil revenues barely <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45667992/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/nine-years-iraqs-economic-potential-still-untapped/#.Tv3rXlb2JBI" type="external">exceeded</a> the levels of the Saddam Hussein era, in a capital city which still had only <a href="http://m.newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2011/12/16/us-leaves-iraq-nbc-proclaims-no-victory-celebrations-no-thank-yous-ira" type="external">a few hours</a> of electricity a day, and that was promptly hit by a string of bombings and suicide attacks from an <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/al-qaeda-allied-group-claims-responsibility-for-baghdad-bombings/2011/12/27/gIQAHVxAKP_story.html?hpid=z4" type="external">al-Qaeda affiliated group</a> (nonexistent before the invasion of 2003), even as the <a href="http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/10/25/u-s-iraq-withdrawal-a-gift-to-iran-no-the-u-s-iraq-invasion-was-the-gift-to-iran/" type="external">influence of Iran</a> grew and Washington <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/world/middleeast/us-military-sales-to-iraq-raise-concerns.html" type="external">quietly fretted</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>A Consumer Society at War</p>
<p>It’s true that, if you were looking for low-rent victories in a <a href="http://costofwar.com/en/" type="external">near trillion-dollar</a> war, this time, as various <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/did-the-iraq-war-have-an-iconic-ending/2011/12/21/gIQARWP8DP_story.html" type="external">reporters</a> and pundits <a href="http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-12-16/news/bs-ed-witcover-iraq-20111215_1_dumb-war-iraq-war-ends-v-i-day" type="external">pointed out,</a> US diplomats weren’t rushing for the last helicopter off an embassy roof amid chaos and burning barrels of dollars. In other words, it wasn’t Vietnam and, as everyone knew, that was a defeat. In fact, as other articles pointed out, our—as no fitting word has been found for it, let’s go with—withdrawal was a magnificent feat of reverse engineering, worthy of a force that was a nonpareil on the planet.</p>
<p>Even the president mentioned it. After all, having seemingly moved much of the US to Iraq, leaving was no small thing. When the US military began stripping the <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jICw_Ai7K9e7eaTZrdJ3j9CDpbGw?docId=CNG.5e8ac5c2a9b4aae9e06b37574187c1ac.701" type="external">505 bases</a> it had built there at the cost of unknown multibillions of taxpayer dollars, it sloughed off $580 million worth of no-longer-wanted equipment on the Iraqis. And yet it still <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-15/u-s-military-rushes-to-ship-out-eight-years-of-iraq-war-gear.html" type="external">managed to ship</a> to Kuwait, other Persian Gulf garrisons, Afghanistan, and even small towns in the US more than two million items ranging from Kevlar armored vests to port-a-potties. We’re talking about the equivalent of 20,000 truckloads of materiel.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, given the society it comes from, the US military fights a consumer-intensive style of war and so, in purely commercial terms, the leaving of Iraq was a withdrawal for the ages. Nor should we overlook the trophies the military took home with it, including a <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/iraq-biometrics-database/#more-67896" type="external">vast Pentagon database</a> of thumbprints and retinal scans from approximately 10 percent of the Iraqi population. (A similar program is still <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/afghan-biometric-dragnet-could-snag-millions/" type="external">underway</a> in Afghanistan.)</p>
<p>When it came to “success,” Washington had a good deal more than that going for it. After all, it plans to maintain a Baghdad embassy <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174789/the_mother_ship_lands_in_iraq" type="external">so gigantic</a> it puts the Saigon embassy of 1973 to shame. With a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175401/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren,_how_not_to_withdraw_from_iraq/" type="external">contingent</a> of 16,000 to 18,000 people, including a force of perhaps 5,000 armed mercenaries (provided by private security contractors like Triple Canopy with its <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/20111214204110398186.html" type="external">$1.5 billion</a> State Department contract), the “mission” leaves any normal definition of “embassy” or “diplomacy” in the dust.</p>
<p>In 2012 alone, it is slated to spend <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/20111214204110398186.html" type="external">$3.8 billion</a>, a billion of that on a much criticized police-training program, only 12 percent of whose funds actually go to the Iraqi police. To be left behind in the “postwar era,” in other words, will be something new under the sun.</p>
<p>Still, set aside the euphemisms and the soaring rhetoric, and if you want a simple gauge of the depths of America’s debacle in the oil heartlands of the planet, consider just how the final unit of American troops left Iraq. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/world/middleeast/last-convoy-of-american-troops-leaves-iraq.html" type="external">According to</a> Tim Arango and Michael Schmidt of the New York Times, they pulled out at 2:30 a.m. in the dead of night. No helicopters off rooftops, but 110 vehicles setting out in the dark from Contingency Operating Base Adder. The day before they left, according to the Times reporters, the unit’s interpreters were ordered to call local Iraqi officials and sheiks with whom the Americans had close relations and make future plans, as if everything would continue in the usual way in the week to come.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />In other words, the Iraqis were meant to wake up the morning after to find their foreign comrades gone, without so much as a goodbye. This is how much the last American unit trusted its closest local allies. After shock and awe, the taking of Baghdad, the mission-accomplished moment, and the capture, trial, and execution of Saddam Hussein, after Abu Ghraib and the bloodletting of the civil war, after the surge and the Sunni Awakening movement, after the purple fingers and the reconstruction funds gone awry, after all the killing and the dying, the US military slipped into the night without a word.</p>
<p>If, however, you did happen to be looking for a word or two to capture the whole affair, something less polite than those presently circulating, “debacle” and “defeat” might fit the bill. The military of the self-proclaimed single greatest power of planet Earth, whose leaders once considered the occupation of the Middle East the key to future global policy and planned for a multi-generational <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174807/tom_engelhardt_the_great_american_disconnect" type="external">garrisoning of Iraq</a>, had been sent packing. That should have been considered little short of stunning.</p>
<p>Face what happened in Iraq directly and you know that you’re on a new planet.</p>
<p>Doubling Down on Debacle</p>
<p>Of course, Iraq was just one of our invasions-turned-counterinsurgencies-turned-disasters. The other, which started first and is still ongoing, may prove the greater debacle. Though less costly so far in both <a href="http://icasualties.org/" type="external">American lives</a> and national treasure, it threatens to become the more decisive of the two defeats, even though the forces opposing the US military in Afghanistan remain an ill-armed, relatively weak set of minority insurgencies.</p>
<p>As great as was the feat of building the infrastructure for a military occupation and war in Iraq, and then equipping and supplying a massive military force there year after year, it was nothing compared to what the U.S had to do in Afghanistan. Someday, the decision to invade that country, occupy it, build <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175204/nick_turse_america%27s_shadowy_baseworld" type="external">more than 400 bases</a> there, <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175176/tomgram:__state_of_surge,_afghanistan/" type="external">surge in</a> an extra 60,000 or more troops, masses of contractors, CIA agents, diplomats, and other civilian officials, and then push a weak local government to grant Washington the right to remain more or less in perpetuity will be seen as the delusional actions of a Washington incapable of gauging the limits of its power in the world.</p>
<p>Talk about learning curves: having watched their country fail disastrously in a major war on the Asian mainland three decades earlier, America’s leaders somehow convinced themselves that nothing was beyond the military prowess of the “sole superpower.” So they sent more than 250,000 American troops (along with <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/camp-victory-the-us-military-headquarters-in-iraq-getting-ready-to-close/2011/09/01/gIQA4tb5NK_print.html" type="external">all those</a> Burger Kings, Subways, and Cinnabons) into two land wars in Eurasia. The result has been another chapter in a <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175114/nick_turse_what_the_u.s._military_can%27t_do" type="external">history of American defeat</a>—this time of a power that, despite its pretensions, was not only weaker than in the Vietnam era, but also far weaker than its leaders were capable of imagining.</p>
<p>You would think that, after a decade of watching this double debacle unfold, there might be a full-scale rush for the exits. And yet the drawdown of US “combat” troops in Afghanistan is not scheduled to be completed until December 31, 2014 (with thousands of advisors, trainers, and special operations forces slated to remain behind); the Obama administration is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/world/asia/afghans-tell-conference-they-need-aid-for-at-least-another-decade.html" type="external">still negotiating</a> feverishly with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on an <a href="http://mobile.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-18/afghans-negotiating-long-term-u-s-presence-karzai-says.html" type="external">agreement</a> that—whatever the euphemisms chosen—would leave Americans garrisoned there for years to come; and, as in Iraq in 2010 and 2011, American commanders are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/world/asia/american-commander-in-afghanistan-john-allen-hints-at-post-2014-military-presence.html" type="external">openly lobbying</a> for an even slower withdrawal schedule.</p>
<p>Again as in Iraq, in the face of the obvious, the official word couldn’t be peachier. In mid-December, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta actually told frontline American troops there that they were <a href="http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=66465" type="external">“winning”</a> the war. Our commanders there similarly continue to <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204632204577128010613724848.html" type="external">tout “progress”</a> and “gains,” as well as a weakening of the Taliban grip on the Pashtun heartland of southern Afghanistan, thanks to the flooding of the region with US surge troops and continual, devastating <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45631592/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/t/us-commander-defends-night-raids-afghanistan/#.TwDQokrByUc" type="external">night raids</a> by US special operations forces.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the real story in Afghanistan remains grim for a squirming former superpower—as it has been ever since its occupation resuscitated the Taliban, the least popular popular movement imaginable. Typically, the U.N. has recently <a href="http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/southasia/news/article_1681907.php/LEAD-UN-Afghan-security-incidents-up-21-per-cent-NATO-differs" type="external">calculated</a> that “security-related events” in the first 11 months of 2011 rose 21 percent over the same period in 2010 (something denied by NATO). Similarly, yet more resources are being poured into an endless effort to build and train Afghan security forces. <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/29/us-afghanistan-financing-idUSTRE7AS0PH20111129" type="external">Almost $12 billion</a> went into the project in 2011 and a similar sum is slated for 2012, and yet those forces still can’t <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/09/not-a-single-afghan-battalion-fights-without-u-s-help/" type="external">operate on their own</a>, nor do they fight particularly effectively (though their Taliban opposites have few such problems).</p>
<p>Afghan police and soldiers continue to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/more-afghan-soldiers-deserting-the-army/2011/08/31/gIQABxFTvJ_story.html" type="external">desert</a> in droves and the US general in charge of the training operation <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/06/six-more-years-u-s-general-wants-to-train-afghans-until-2017/" type="external">suggested last year</a> that, to have the slightest chance of success, it would need to be extended through at least 2016 or 2017. (Forget for a moment that an impoverished Afghan government will be utterly incapable of supporting or financing the forces being created for it.)</p>
<p>The Pashtun-based Taliban, like any classic guerrilla force, has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/world/asia/in-afghanistan-a-troubling-resurgence-of-the-poppy-crop.html" type="external">faded away</a> before the overwhelming military of a major power, yet it still clearly has <a href="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/12/taliban-ringtone/" type="external">significant control</a> over the southern countryside, and in the last year its acts of violence have <a href="http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2011/12/suicide_bomber_kills_63.php" type="external">spread</a> ever more deeply into the non-Pashtun north. And if US forces in Iraq didn’t trust their local partners at the moment of departure, Americans in Afghanistan have every reason to be far more nervous. Afghans in police or army uniforms—some trained by the Americans or NATO, some possibly Taliban guerrillas dressed in outfits bought on the black market—have <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/06/14/afghanistan.nato.attacks/index.html" type="external">regularly</a> turned their guns on their putative allies in what’s referred to as <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175394/tom_engelhardt_bored_to_death_in_afghanistan" type="external">“green-on-blue violence.”</a> As 2011 ended, for instance, an Afghan army soldier <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/roadside-bombing-kills-10-afghan-police-officers-in-southwest-helmand-province/2011/12/29/gIQAhfG1NP_story.html?hpid=z4" type="external">shot and killed</a> two French soldiers. Not long before, several NATO troops were <a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2011/12/26/man-in-afghan-army-uniform-opens-fire-on-nato-troops/" type="external">wounded</a> when a man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on them.</p>
<p>In the meantime, US troop strength is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-order-to-pull-10000-us-troops-out-of-afghanistan-now-completed-91000-remain-there/2011/12/22/gIQAM7AeBP_story.html" type="external">starting to drop</a>; NATO allies look <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/dec/08/british-troops-leave-afghanistan-early?newsfeed=true" type="external">unsteady</a> indeed; and the Taliban, whatever its trials and tribulations, undoubtedly senses that time is on its side.</p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p>Depending on the Kindness of Strangers</p>
<p>Weak as the several outfits that make up the Taliban may be, there can be no question that they are preparing to successfully outlast the greatest military power of our time. And mind you, none of this does more than touch on the debacle that the Afghan War could become. If you want to judge the full folly of the American war (and gauge the waning of US power globally), don’t even bother to look at Afghanistan. Instead, check out the supply lines leading to it.</p>
<p>After all, Afghanistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia. The US is thousands of miles away. No giant ports-cum-bases as at Cam Ranh Bay in South Vietnam in the 1960s are available to bring in supplies. For Washington, if the guerrillas it opposes go to war with little more than the clothes on their backs, its military is another matter. From meals to body armor, building supplies to ammunition, it needs a massive—and massively expensive—supply system. It also <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174810/michael_klare_the_pentagon_as_global_gas_guzzler" type="external">guzzles fuel</a> the way a drunk downs liquor and has spent <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-war-20b-in-air-conditioning?ps=cprs" type="external">more than $20 billion</a> in Afghanistan and Iraq annually just on air conditioning.</p>
<p>To keep itself in good shape, it must rely on tortuous supply lines thousands of miles long. Because of this, it is not the arbiter of its own fate in Afghanistan, though this seems to have gone almost unnoticed for years.</p>
<p>Of all the impractical wars a declining empire could fight, the Afghan one may be the most impractical of all. Hand it to the Soviet Union, at least its “bleeding wound”—the phrase Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175261/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_washington_drunk_on_war/" type="external">gave</a> to its Afghan debacle of the 1980s—was conveniently next door. For the nearly <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-order-to-pull-10000-us-troops-out-of-afghanistan-now-completed-91000-remain-there/2011/12/22/gIQAM7AeBP_story.html" type="external">91,000 American troops</a> now in that country, their 40,000 NATO counterparts, and thousands of private contractors, the supplies that make the war possible can only enter Afghanistan three ways: perhaps 20 percent come in by air at staggering expense; more than a third arrive by the shortest and cheapest route—through the Pakistani port of Karachi, by truck or train north, and then by truck across narrow mountain defiles; and perhaps 40 percent (only “non-lethal” supplies allowed) via the <a href="http://tribune.com.pk/story/309163/only-29-of-non-military-us-supplies-go-through-pakistan-report/" type="external">Northern Distribution Network</a> (NDN).</p>
<p>The NDN was fully developed only beginning in 2009, when it belatedly became clear to Washington that Pakistan had a potential stranglehold on the American war effort. Involving at least 16 countries and just about every form of transport imaginable, the NDN is actually three routes, two of them via Russia, that funnel just about everything through the bottleneck of corrupt, autocratic <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/29/opinion/americas-uzbekistan-problem.html" type="external">Uzbekistan</a>.</p>
<p>In other words, simply to fight its war, Washington has made itself dependent on the kindness of strangers—in this case, Pakistan and Russia. It’s one thing when a superpower or great power on the rise casts its lot with countries that may not be natural allies; it’s quite a different story when a declining power does so. Russian leaders are already <a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2011/12/01/missile-defense-dispute-russia-threatens-to-block-nato-supply-route/" type="external">making noises</a> about the viability of the northern route if the US continues to displease it on the placement of its prospective European missile defense system.</p>
<p>But the more immediate psychodrama of the Afghan War is in Pakistan. There, the massive resupply operation is already a <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/printer/magazine/from-pakistan-to-afghanistan-us-finds-convoy-of-chaos-12142011.html" type="external">major scandal</a>. It was estimated, for instance, that, in 2008, 12 percent of all US supplies heading from Karachi to Bagram Air Base went missing somewhere en route. In what Karachi’s police chief has called “the mother of all scams,” 29,000 cargo loads of US supplies have disappeared after being unloaded at that port.</p>
<p>In fact, the whole supply system—together with the local security and protection agreements and bribes to various groups that are part and parcel of it along the way—has evidently helped fund and <a href="http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-25/world/afghanistan.us.funds.taliban_1_source-task-force-trucking?_s=PM:WORLD" type="external">supply</a> the Taliban, as well as stocking every bazaar en route and <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/how-us-funds-taliban" type="external">supporting</a> local warlords and crooks of every sort.</p>
<p>Recently, in response to American air strikes that killed 24 of their border troops, the Pakistani leadership forced the Americans to <a href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/12/15/cia-drones-quit-pakistan-site-but-us-keeps-access-to-other-airbases/" type="external">leave</a> Shamsi air base, where the CIA ran some of its drone operations, successfully pressured Washington into at least <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-cia-drone-20111224,0,3060692,full.story" type="external">temporarily halting</a> its drone air campaign in Pakistan’s borderlands, and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/apnewsbreak-us-relying-on-transit-routes-to-afghanistan-amid-deteriorating-pakistan-ties/2011/12/19/gIQAqooJ4O_story.html" type="external">closed the border crossings</a> through which the whole American supply system must pass. They remain closed almost two months later. Without those routes, in the long run, the American war simply cannot be fought.</p>
<p>Though those crossings are likely to be reopened after a significant renegotiation of US-Pakistani relations, the message couldn’t be clearer. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in those Pakistani borderlands, have not only drained American treasure, but exposed the relative helplessness of the “sole superpower.” <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5369198.stm" type="external">Ten</a> (or even five) years ago, the Pakistanis would simply never have dared to take actions like these.</p>
<p>As it turned out, the power of the US military was threateningly impressive, but only until George W. Bush pulled the trigger twice. In doing so, he revealed to the world that the US could not win distant land wars against minimalist enemies or impose its will on two weak countries in the Greater Middle East. Another reality was exposed as well, even if it has taken time to sink in: we no longer live on a planet where it’s obvious how to leverage staggering advantages in military technology into any other kind of power.</p>
<p>In the process, all the world could see what the United States was: the other declining power of the Cold War era. Washington’s state of dependence on the Eurasian mainland is now clear enough, which means that, whatever “agreements” are reached with the Afghan government, the future in that country is not American.</p>
<p>Over the last decade, the US has been taught a repetitive lesson when it comes to ground wars on the Eurasian mainland: don’t launch them. The debacle of the impending double defeat this time around couldn’t be more obvious. The only question that remains is just how humiliating the coming retreat from Afghanistan will turn out to be. The longer the US stays, the more devastating the blow to its power.</p>
<p>All of this should hardly need to be said and yet, as 2012 begins, with the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175478/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_1%25_election/" type="external">next political season</a> already upon us, it is no less painfully clear that Washington will be incapable of ending the Afghan War any time soon.</p>
<p>At the height of what looked like success in Iraq and Afghanistan, American officials fretted endlessly about how, in the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175040/tom_enelhardt_the_imperial_unconscious" type="external">condescending phrase</a> of the moment, to put an “Afghan face” or “Iraqi face” on America’s wars. Now, at a nadir moment in the Greater Middle East, perhaps it’s finally time to put an American face on America’s wars, to see them clearly for the imperial debacles they have been—and act accordingly.</p>
<p>Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608460711/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s</a> as well as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/155849586X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The End of Victory Culture</a>, runs the Nation Institute’s TomDispatch.com. His latest book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608461548/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">The United States of Fear</a> (Haymarket Books), has just been published. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com <a href="https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:Join/signupId:43308/acctId:25612" type="external">here</a>.</p> | true | 4 | us soldiers flag casing ceremony marked end operation new dawn former sather air base baghdad iraq dec 15 2011lta hrefhttpwwwflickrcomphotossoldiersmediacenter6516088807gtus armyltagtflickr story first appeared tomdispatch website war would establish empire american fact would result thousandyear pax americana mission accomplished way course wasnt almost nine dismal years later sorta iraq war uninvited guests didnt want go home last second despite president obamas repeated promise american troops leaving despite agreement iraqi government signed george w bushs administration 2008 americas military commanders continued lobby washington continued negotiate 10000 20000 us troops remain incountry advisors trainers iraqis simply refused guarantee troops immunity local law last americans begin cross border kuwait top officials began hail thing never wanted end american military presence iraq marking era accomplishment also began praising decision leave triumph proclaimed troops departing withas president put ittheir heads held high final flaglowering ceremony baghdad clearly meant us domestic consumption well attended american press corps iraqi officials local media secretary defense leon panetta spoke glowingly achieved ultimate success assured departing troops driving force remarkable progress could proudly leave country secure knowing sacrifice helped iraqi people begin new chapter history free tyranny full hope prosperity peace later trip middle east speaking human cost war added think price worth last troops really come homeif define home broadly enough include bases us also garrisons kuwait elsewhere persian gulf sooner later afghanistan december 14th fort bragg north carolina president wife gave returning war veterans 82nd airborne division units rousing welcome picturesque maroon berets picturesquely hooahed man called war dumb undoubtedly looking toward 2012 campaign president obama spoke stirringly success iraq gains pride troops countrys gratitude spectacular accomplishments achieved well hard times endured finest fighting force history world sacrifices made wounded warriors fallen heroes praised extraordinary achievement nine years making framing departure way indeed everything american troops done iraqall fighting dying bleeding building training partneringall led moment success leaving behind sovereign stable selfreliant iraq representative government elected people themesincluding gains successes well pride gratitude americans assumed feel troopswere picked media various pundits time news reports highlighting possibility iraq descending new sectarian hell fueled americanbuilt largely shiite military land oil revenues barely exceeded levels saddam hussein era capital city still hours electricity day promptly hit string bombings suicide attacks alqaeda affiliated group nonexistent invasion 2003 even influence iran grew washington quietly fretted 160 consumer society war true looking lowrent victories near trilliondollar war time various reporters pundits pointed us diplomats werent rushing last helicopter embassy roof amid chaos burning barrels dollars words wasnt vietnam everyone knew defeat fact articles pointed ouras fitting word found lets go withwithdrawal magnificent feat reverse engineering worthy force nonpareil planet even president mentioned seemingly moved much us iraq leaving small thing us military began stripping 505 bases built cost unknown multibillions taxpayer dollars sloughed 580 million worth nolongerwanted equipment iraqis yet still managed ship kuwait persian gulf garrisons afghanistan even small towns us two million items ranging kevlar armored vests portapotties talking equivalent 20000 truckloads materiel surprisingly given society comes us military fights consumerintensive style war purely commercial terms leaving iraq withdrawal ages overlook trophies military took home including vast pentagon database thumbprints retinal scans approximately 10 percent iraqi population similar program still underway afghanistan came success washington good deal going plans maintain baghdad embassy gigantic puts saigon embassy 1973 shame contingent 16000 18000 people including force perhaps 5000 armed mercenaries provided private security contractors like triple canopy 15 billion state department contract mission leaves normal definition embassy diplomacy dust 2012 alone slated spend 38 billion billion much criticized policetraining program 12 percent whose funds actually go iraqi police left behind postwar era words something new sun still set aside euphemisms soaring rhetoric want simple gauge depths americas debacle oil heartlands planet consider final unit american troops left iraq according tim arango michael schmidt new york times pulled 230 dead night helicopters rooftops 110 vehicles setting dark contingency operating base adder day left according times reporters units interpreters ordered call local iraqi officials sheiks americans close relations make future plans everything would continue usual way week come words iraqis meant wake morning find foreign comrades gone without much goodbye much last american unit trusted closest local allies shock awe taking baghdad missionaccomplished moment capture trial execution saddam hussein abu ghraib bloodletting civil war surge sunni awakening movement purple fingers reconstruction funds gone awry killing dying us military slipped night without word however happen looking word two capture whole affair something less polite presently circulating debacle defeat might fit bill military selfproclaimed single greatest power planet earth whose leaders considered occupation middle east key future global policy planned multigenerational garrisoning iraq sent packing considered little short stunning face happened iraq directly know youre new planet doubling debacle course iraq one invasionsturnedcounterinsurgenciesturneddisasters started first still ongoing may prove greater debacle though less costly far american lives national treasure threatens become decisive two defeats even though forces opposing us military afghanistan remain illarmed relatively weak set minority insurgencies great feat building infrastructure military occupation war iraq equipping supplying massive military force year year nothing compared us afghanistan someday decision invade country occupy build 400 bases surge extra 60000 troops masses contractors cia agents diplomats civilian officials push weak local government grant washington right remain less perpetuity seen delusional actions washington incapable gauging limits power world talk learning curves watched country fail disastrously major war asian mainland three decades earlier americas leaders somehow convinced nothing beyond military prowess sole superpower sent 250000 american troops along burger kings subways cinnabons two land wars eurasia result another chapter history american defeatthis time power despite pretensions weaker vietnam era also far weaker leaders capable imagining would think decade watching double debacle unfold might fullscale rush exits yet drawdown us combat troops afghanistan scheduled completed december 31 2014 thousands advisors trainers special operations forces slated remain behind obama administration still negotiating feverishly government afghan president hamid karzai agreement thatwhatever euphemisms chosenwould leave americans garrisoned years come iraq 2010 2011 american commanders openly lobbying even slower withdrawal schedule iraq face obvious official word couldnt peachier middecember secretary defense leon panetta actually told frontline american troops winning war commanders similarly continue tout progress gains well weakening taliban grip pashtun heartland southern afghanistan thanks flooding region us surge troops continual devastating night raids us special operations forces nonetheless real story afghanistan remains grim squirming former superpoweras ever since occupation resuscitated taliban least popular popular movement imaginable typically un recently calculated securityrelated events first 11 months 2011 rose 21 percent period 2010 something denied nato similarly yet resources poured endless effort build train afghan security forces almost 12 billion went project 2011 similar sum slated 2012 yet forces still cant operate fight particularly effectively though taliban opposites problems afghan police soldiers continue desert droves us general charge training operation suggested last year slightest chance success would need extended least 2016 2017 forget moment impoverished afghan government utterly incapable supporting financing forces created pashtunbased taliban like classic guerrilla force faded away overwhelming military major power yet still clearly significant control southern countryside last year acts violence spread ever deeply nonpashtun north us forces iraq didnt trust local partners moment departure americans afghanistan every reason far nervous afghans police army uniformssome trained americans nato possibly taliban guerrillas dressed outfits bought black markethave regularly turned guns putative allies whats referred greenonblue violence 2011 ended instance afghan army soldier shot killed two french soldiers long several nato troops wounded man afghan army uniform opened fire meantime us troop strength starting drop nato allies look unsteady indeed taliban whatever trials tribulations undoubtedly senses time side 160 depending kindness strangers weak several outfits make taliban may question preparing successfully outlast greatest military power time mind none touch debacle afghan war could become want judge full folly american war gauge waning us power globally dont even bother look afghanistan instead check supply lines leading afghanistan landlocked country central asia us thousands miles away giant portscumbases cam ranh bay south vietnam 1960s available bring supplies washington guerrillas opposes go war little clothes backs military another matter meals body armor building supplies ammunition needs massiveand massively expensivesupply system also guzzles fuel way drunk downs liquor spent 20 billion afghanistan iraq annually air conditioning keep good shape must rely tortuous supply lines thousands miles long arbiter fate afghanistan though seems gone almost unnoticed years impractical wars declining empire could fight afghan one may impractical hand soviet union least bleeding woundthe phrase soviet leader mikhail gorbachev gave afghan debacle 1980swas conveniently next door nearly 91000 american troops country 40000 nato counterparts thousands private contractors supplies make war possible enter afghanistan three ways perhaps 20 percent come air staggering expense third arrive shortest cheapest routethrough pakistani port karachi truck train north truck across narrow mountain defiles perhaps 40 percent nonlethal supplies allowed via northern distribution network ndn ndn fully developed beginning 2009 belatedly became clear washington pakistan potential stranglehold american war effort involving least 16 countries every form transport imaginable ndn actually three routes two via russia funnel everything bottleneck corrupt autocratic uzbekistan words simply fight war washington made dependent kindness strangersin case pakistan russia one thing superpower great power rise casts lot countries may natural allies quite different story declining power russian leaders already making noises viability northern route us continues displease placement prospective european missile defense system immediate psychodrama afghan war pakistan massive resupply operation already major scandal estimated instance 2008 12 percent us supplies heading karachi bagram air base went missing somewhere en route karachis police chief called mother scams 29000 cargo loads us supplies disappeared unloaded port fact whole supply systemtogether local security protection agreements bribes various groups part parcel along wayhas evidently helped fund supply taliban well stocking every bazaar en route supporting local warlords crooks every sort recently response american air strikes killed 24 border troops pakistani leadership forced americans leave shamsi air base cia ran drone operations successfully pressured washington least temporarily halting drone air campaign pakistans borderlands closed border crossings whole american supply system must pass remain closed almost two months later without routes long run american war simply fought though crossings likely reopened significant renegotiation uspakistani relations message couldnt clearer wars iraq afghanistan well pakistani borderlands drained american treasure exposed relative helplessness sole superpower ten even five years ago pakistanis would simply never dared take actions like turned power us military threateningly impressive george w bush pulled trigger twice revealed world us could win distant land wars minimalist enemies impose two weak countries greater middle east another reality exposed well even taken time sink longer live planet obvious leverage staggering advantages military technology kind power process world could see united states declining power cold war era washingtons state dependence eurasian mainland clear enough means whatever agreements reached afghan government future country american last decade us taught repetitive lesson comes ground wars eurasian mainland dont launch debacle impending double defeat time around couldnt obvious question remains humiliating coming retreat afghanistan turn longer us stays devastating blow power hardly need said yet 2012 begins next political season already upon us less painfully clear washington incapable ending afghan war time soon height looked like success iraq afghanistan american officials fretted endlessly condescending phrase moment put afghan face iraqi face americas wars nadir moment greater middle east perhaps finally time put american face americas wars see clearly imperial debacles beenand act accordingly tom engelhardt cofounder american empire project author american way war bushs wars became obamas well end victory culture runs nation institutes tomdispatchcom latest book united states fear haymarket books published stay top important articles like sign receive latest updates tomdispatchcom | 1,918 |
<p>It is far easier to criticize the social order than to change it. And our actions express our true priorities. &#160;The Halle/Chomsky article advocating lesser of two evils voting demonstrate the <a href="" type="internal">poverty of radical strategy</a>that does not seek alternatives to the two party system and the existing order.</p>
<p>The authors do get two big things right: tactics are provisional and there are serious consequences to political choices. But they act as if only those that refuse to vote for Clinton face the consequences of their action. Every political act leads to consequences intended or not. No one is free of that.</p>
<p>There have been plenty of <a href="" type="internal">negative consequences from four decades of lesser of two evil voting</a> that the authors fail to reckon with. Tactics should be provisional but it is the lesser of two evils has been the <a href="" type="internal">in-grained routine tactic</a>for decades.</p>
<p>At the core of the argument the authors damn dissenting voters as selfish moralists seeking only to feel good. Yet, the authors are every bit as involved with selling a morally correct argument that encourages people to feel good about voting for Clinton because it will, they seem sure, results in less oppression of already exploited people.</p>
<p>But a truly political and strategic choice is not between voting for the lesser evil and feeling good. The choice is between continuing <a href="" type="internal">four decades of failed lesser of two evils voting</a>or attempting to create a strategy and a movement to return the US government to the people.</p>
<p>It is vitally important that we protect historic gains by the social movements made but that does not require us to sign on to the established <a href="" type="internal">order of endless war, mass incarceration and corporate power by voting for Clinton.</a> Quite the opposite — it requires movement building and opposition. The failure of the lesser of two evils is a strategic failure.</p>
<p>One of the political problem with the lesser of two evils line is that it blunts criticism of the two party system, a system the authors certainly claim to oppose. Not a word is said about the failings of the Democratic party machine. By insisting on a deeply flawed political boss instead of a reformer that would handily beat Trump they are counting on compelling people to vote for candidates they despise. Sanders and <a href="" type="internal">a vigorous movement is the solution to Trump</a> that we already have at the ready. The writers never mention that. Why? Only the opposition is criticized.</p>
<p>So the opposition is blamed for mass disgust with the two parties candidates not the disgusting candidates of the two parties. Instead we are taught to fear. But, the Clinton Democrats are not afraid of Trump, at least not afraid enough to give up their positions of real political power, control and immense privilege.</p>
<p>One basic fact undermines all the lesser of two evil arguments. There is no scarcity of voters. Why does the vote of a small percentage of activists and dissidents matter so much when 70-90 million people do not vote in America? Why doesn’t Clinton go get them? Why doesn’t Clinton’s supporters or Halle and Chomsky go and get them? Bernie did and many others helped.</p>
<p>The answer I am afraid is simple. Mobilizing the 70-90 million non-voters, as Sanders and Stein have started to do, demands a program directed at their interests. This the Clinton machine cannot do and serve the 1% at the same time. Instead the social control discourse of the lesser of two evils, <a href="" type="internal">the spoiler</a>, and the horserace are deployed to attack dissent.</p>
<p>Despite the highly rational style of writing the authors use, Halle/Chomsky’s core arguments drag the discourse onto the ground of moral politics and psychology instead of the terrain of politics we so desperately need to understand better: evidence, history, strategy, conflicts of interest, community of interest, and questions of power.</p>
<p>A more useful political version of the lesser of two evils argument would raise issues of representative democracy, not just feelings. Should people vote for candidates and parties that represent their interests and values? If not, then we are forgoing the basic assumption about how representative democracy is supposed to work in favor of some clever tactic that will, in some unspecified way, allow us to reclaim democracy in some unspecified future despite all evidence to the contrary.</p>
<p>The one attempt at historical analogy offers a dubious and hotly contested interpretation of the Sixties. In 1968 the liberal Democrat Hubert Humphrey gave no indication he was going to do anything but continue the war in Vietnam. Keep in mind it was a Democrat’s war for years under Kennedy and Johnson. Nixon actually ran to Humphrey’s “left” as a kind of peace candidate seeking an “honorable peace,” or what was refined into “peace with honor.” And it is likely that Trump will run to Clintons “left” on a number of issues. Writers like Halle and Chomsky attribute the decline of the left to anti-war opposition and electoral resistance to the Democratic war managers.</p>
<p>It was the civil rights revolution and opposition to the Vietnam war that lead many to realize that the war was part of deeply rooted systemic problems: empire, racism and exploitation. The anti-war movement was the passage beyond the liberal consensus into revolutionary territory for millions of people.&#160;&#160; Martin Luther King and others spoke it aloud.&#160;</p>
<p>[T]he Black revolution is much more than a struggle for the rights of Negroes. It is forcing America to face all its interrelated flaws—racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism. It is exposing evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society. It reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and suggest that radical reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced.[1]</p>
<p>The radical movements the <a href="http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1655_reg.html" type="external">authors wrongly see as dying</a> after 1968 never disappeared but were slowed and challenged for many reasons: the three giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation could not be overcome, to say nothing of <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/topics/cointelpro" type="external">government repression</a> and <a href="" type="internal">the so-called war on drugs</a>. &#160;Of course, if the authors recognized the powerful institutional obstacles to change then they would also have to reckon with the Clinton machine’s role in continuing and expanding the many forms of power and social control.</p>
<p>Lesser of two evils is an admission that we can never expect fundamental change and must stay forever on the road we are on. Except that road is increasingly unsustainable and crisis-ridden. We cannot avoid serious consequences in any event.</p>
<p>Despite the authors moralizing, there is no moral clarity here. Its just judgement. Some people think that voting for the Green Party will create more suffering. I think that given the history of the last half century voting for the lesser of two evils has created plenty of suffering we can document in abundance. I blame you, you blame me and the machines are off the hook. Morally, we are all implicated in the existing order. Every one of us. Moral politics of this sort are a political dead end.</p>
<p>Yet, we cannot completely dispense with moral politics and feelings. So let’s give feelings their due. It is not “feeling good” but feelings of fear and fatalism that are the psychological and emotional states that contribute most to social control. Halle and Chomsky rely on fear and fatalism and the promise of feeling good to corral people back into line.</p>
<p>If we overcome our fear of change and our fatalism, be that through political vision or sheer desperation, we have a chance of creating a winning strategy. Tactics and strategy are provisional as the authors claim. After four decades of failed lesser of two evils, it is time to create a workable strategy based on mobilizing our latent power.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://befreedom.co/introduction-to-the-insideoutside-strategy/" type="external">inside/outside strategy</a> is a possible starting point. Some of the most productive organizing of this electoral cycle exerted leverage along the inside/outside borderline. &#160; <a href="https://citizensagainstplutocracy.wordpress.com/" type="external">Revolt Against Plutocracy</a> and its <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdgL4VZHVsHhuSLetahCs5evTfWryfREU1GySuYigb6lH1bmA/viewform" type="external">Bernie or Bust</a> strategy has urged people to vote Green Party as a counterweight to the Clinton machine.</p>
<p>Thousands have already made that move and <a href="" type="internal">the Green Party is growing rapidly</a>. “Bernie or Green in 2016” has already changed the face of this election.</p>
<p>We are, by the millions, overcoming the fear and fatalism of the lesser of two evils. We will make mistakes but we will, at long last, be the authors of our own history.</p>
<p>*”Actions express priorities.” &#160;Mahatma Gandhi.</p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p>[1] Martin Luther King, A Testament of Hope</p> | true | 4 | far easier criticize social order change actions express true priorities 160the hallechomsky article advocating lesser two evils voting demonstrate poverty radical strategythat seek alternatives two party system existing order authors get two big things right tactics provisional serious consequences political choices act refuse vote clinton face consequences action every political act leads consequences intended one free plenty negative consequences four decades lesser two evil voting authors fail reckon tactics provisional lesser two evils ingrained routine tacticfor decades core argument authors damn dissenting voters selfish moralists seeking feel good yet authors every bit involved selling morally correct argument encourages people feel good voting clinton seem sure results less oppression already exploited people truly political strategic choice voting lesser evil feeling good choice continuing four decades failed lesser two evils votingor attempting create strategy movement return us government people vitally important protect historic gains social movements made require us sign established order endless war mass incarceration corporate power voting clinton quite opposite requires movement building opposition failure lesser two evils strategic failure one political problem lesser two evils line blunts criticism two party system system authors certainly claim oppose word said failings democratic party machine insisting deeply flawed political boss instead reformer would handily beat trump counting compelling people vote candidates despise sanders vigorous movement solution trump already ready writers never mention opposition criticized opposition blamed mass disgust two parties candidates disgusting candidates two parties instead taught fear clinton democrats afraid trump least afraid enough give positions real political power control immense privilege one basic fact undermines lesser two evil arguments scarcity voters vote small percentage activists dissidents matter much 7090 million people vote america doesnt clinton go get doesnt clintons supporters halle chomsky go get bernie many others helped answer afraid simple mobilizing 7090 million nonvoters sanders stein started demands program directed interests clinton machine serve 1 time instead social control discourse lesser two evils spoiler horserace deployed attack dissent despite highly rational style writing authors use hallechomskys core arguments drag discourse onto ground moral politics psychology instead terrain politics desperately need understand better evidence history strategy conflicts interest community interest questions power useful political version lesser two evils argument would raise issues representative democracy feelings people vote candidates parties represent interests values forgoing basic assumption representative democracy supposed work favor clever tactic unspecified way allow us reclaim democracy unspecified future despite evidence contrary one attempt historical analogy offers dubious hotly contested interpretation sixties 1968 liberal democrat hubert humphrey gave indication going anything continue war vietnam keep mind democrats war years kennedy johnson nixon actually ran humphreys left kind peace candidate seeking honorable peace refined peace honor likely trump run clintons left number issues writers like halle chomsky attribute decline left antiwar opposition electoral resistance democratic war managers civil rights revolution opposition vietnam war lead many realize war part deeply rooted systemic problems empire racism exploitation antiwar movement passage beyond liberal consensus revolutionary territory millions people160160 martin luther king others spoke aloud160 black revolution much struggle rights negroes forcing america face interrelated flawsracism poverty militarism materialism exposing evils rooted deeply whole structure society reveals systemic rather superficial flaws suggest radical reconstruction society real issue faced1 radical movements authors wrongly see dying 1968 never disappeared slowed challenged many reasons three giant triplets racism militarism economic exploitation could overcome say nothing government repression socalled war drugs 160of course authors recognized powerful institutional obstacles change would also reckon clinton machines role continuing expanding many forms power social control lesser two evils admission never expect fundamental change must stay forever road except road increasingly unsustainable crisisridden avoid serious consequences event despite authors moralizing moral clarity judgement people think voting green party create suffering think given history last half century voting lesser two evils created plenty suffering document abundance blame blame machines hook morally implicated existing order every one us moral politics sort political dead end yet completely dispense moral politics feelings lets give feelings due feeling good feelings fear fatalism psychological emotional states contribute social control halle chomsky rely fear fatalism promise feeling good corral people back line overcome fear change fatalism political vision sheer desperation chance creating winning strategy tactics strategy provisional authors claim four decades failed lesser two evils time create workable strategy based mobilizing latent power insideoutside strategy possible starting point productive organizing electoral cycle exerted leverage along insideoutside borderline 160 revolt plutocracy bernie bust strategy urged people vote green party counterweight clinton machine thousands already made move green party growing rapidly bernie green 2016 already changed face election millions overcoming fear fatalism lesser two evils make mistakes long last authors history actions express priorities 160mahatma gandhi notes 1 martin luther king testament hope | 772 |
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<p>Photo by Jamelle Bouie | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
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<p>Among Donald Trump’s first acts as President was suspending <a href="" type="internal">Barack Obama’s last</a> – a grant of 221 million dollars in discretionary humanitarian aid to Palestine.</p>
<p>But why pause before the next move against Palestine?&#160; Move the US Embassy to East Jerusalem right now and end this charade once and for all.</p>
<p>Politics</p>
<p>US politicians like to preach from on high about justice for Palestinians and Israelis alike… as if the pathway of pain for occupied and occupier is one-in-the same… as if these two dramatically different ends of the scales of justice can, indeed should, be balanced.</p>
<p>When it comes to Palestine, for decades the United States has hidden behind a cheap frilly veneer of neutrality all the while subsidizing, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, a vicious, often deadly, criminal occupation that has used impediment and stalling tactics to re-sculpt a landscape that has been home to Palestinians for the millennium.</p>
<p>How often do we hear from US politicians that Palestine is a complex issue? In point of fact, Palestine is very complicated only when confusion provides opportune cover for delay. Of course, ethnic cleansing knows no better cover than delay.</p>
<p>The debate about the whens, wheres and whys can go on and on as not much more than the allure of excuse. There are, however, certain fundamental truths about Palestine that cannot be denied even by those largely European immigrants who have become expert at rewriting history to suit a land grab of epic and on-going proportion.</p>
<p>Population</p>
<p>While figures vary from source to source, in 1914, Palestine had a population of between 600-738,000 Palestinians (Muslim &amp; Christian Arabs as well as other religions) and 59-94,000 Jews. In 1922, the census showed some 660-725,000 Palestinians and 84-89,000 Jews. In 1931, it is recorded that 4,075 Jews immigrated to Palestine along with 1245 Christians and 213 Muslims. In 1935 it was 61,854 Jews who immigrated with 903 Arabs and 1390 Christians and others. In 1937 it was 10,500 Jews, 743 Arabs and 1196 Christians and others who came to Palestine. By the end of 1944, the Jewish population had increased to 528,702 of which 117,226 were natural and 327,686 were immigrants.&#160; The Arab population had increased to 1,061,277 of which 453,405 were natural and 18,695 were immigrants. Christians and others increased to 149,645 of which 51,616 were natural and 18,948 were immigrant.</p>
<p>Four years later, in 1948, when land designated as Israel was ripped from the heartland of Palestine by UN political fiat, the two sides were ill-matched. The Jewish community in Palestine was much smaller: approximately 608-630,000 to the Arab, Christian and others 1.3-1.7 million… roughly 30 or so percent of the overall population. In spite of all Israel’s efforts, the Jewish population remains in the minority (as it has since at least the 5th century).</p>
<p>Land</p>
<p>As of 1922 Jews owned roughly 3% of the land in Palestine which increased to some 7% of its total over the next decade. When the State of Israel was established, Jewish ownership of land stood at 8.6%, with 3.3% owned by those who were to become known as Israeli-Arabs while another 16.9% of land was abandoned by Palestinian owners who fled in advance of the war that was to come.</p>
<p>Following the UN pronouncement, some 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their farms and villages with estimates running as high as 20,000 civilians killed, twice as many injured and hundreds of rapes carried out by marauding terrorists from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Irgun-Zvai-Leumi" type="external">Irgun</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stern-Gang" type="external">Stern Gang</a>and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Haganah" type="external">Haganah</a>.&#160; Hundreds of villages and towns were eradicated.</p>
<p>In the war that followed, another 400 to 600 Palestinian villages were sacked while urban Palestine was almost entirely extinguished. Out of about 400 Jewish settlements built post 1948, 350 were fabricated on Palestinian refugee property. Between 1948 and 1950 some 369 Palestinian villages were erased and replaced by 161 new Jewish settlements. During that same period, Israel seized two-thirds of all cultivated land which had been owned by Palestinians who were forced to flee.</p>
<p>Reliable estimates indicate that ultimately 80% of the Arab inhabitants, in what became Israel, left or were expelled from their homes, swept out by a colonial design that has run unabated since 1948… one in which the US has been very much a willing partner, indeed, enabler of the ethnic cleansing that has ensued.</p>
<p>Fast Forward 1993: The Wasted Talks</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.historycentral.com/Israel/documents/Oslo.html" type="external">Oslo Peace Process of 1993</a> was intended to lead to a final negotiated settlement between the parties within five years. Among other things, it divided the West Bank into three administrative divisions: Areas A, B, and C. The first two were the smallest and were to be home to just Palestinians subject to varying degrees of Palestinian oversight. Area C, the largest at approximately 75% of the West Bank, was “gradually” to be transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction. It also led to the creation of a Palestinian Authority (PA) with responsibility for the administration of territory under its control.</p>
<p>Oslo I was signed in Washington D.C., followed by <a href="http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1991to_now_oslo_accords_2.php" type="external">Oslo II in 1995</a>. Among other things, this agreement, also known as the Taba Agreement, called for prompt Israeli withdrawals from various Palestinian areas and expanded Palestinian self-rule.</p>
<p>Following Oslo I, in rapid order, came: The <a href="http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1991to_now_gaza_jericho.php" type="external">Gaza-Jerico Agreement</a> also known as the Cairo Agreement (1994);The <a href="" type="internal">Agreement on Preparatory Transfer of Powers and Responsibilities Between Israel and the PLO</a> ( August 1994); The <a href="" type="internal">Protocol on Further Transfers of Powers and Responsibilities</a> (August 1995); The <a href="http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1991to_now_hebron_agreement_1997.php" type="external">Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron</a>(January 1997);&#160; The <a href="http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1991to_now_wye_agreement_1998.php" type="external">Wye River Memorandum</a> (October 1998); The <a href="http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1991to_now_sharmelsheikh_agreement_1999.php" type="external">Sharm el-Sheik Memorandum</a> (September 1999);&#160; The <a href="" type="internal">Camp David Meetings</a> in (July, 2000); The <a href="" type="internal">Agreement on Movement and Access</a>(November 2005); and, most recently, during 2013-2014, the unsuccessful&#160; attempt by now former Secretary of State Kerry to restart the so-called peace process.</p>
<p>Although these dozen or so hollow agreements, protocols and meetings made for powerful photo ops and fine dining, in practice they provided little more than cover… cover for Israel to steal more and more Palestinian land and moral cover for the US to speak of justice while, in reality, stoking the flames of racial and religious hatred through billions of dollars for Israeli settlements and weapons.</p>
<p>The Growth of Settlements</p>
<p>To some degree, the Oslo Accords are based upon the <a href="" type="internal">1978 Camp David Agreement</a>&#160;that resulted in a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. At the time of the agreement, there lived some 7,400 settlers in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem), and 500 in Gaza.</p>
<p>Fifteen years later, at the time of the 1993 Oslo Accords, there were some 262,500 settlers in the West Bank.</p>
<p>Seven years later, at the Camp David Summit of 2000, there were a total of 362,945 settlers in the West bank with 169,969 in East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>By 2013, some 20 years after the Oslo Accords, the number of settlers grew to 520,000, across the West Bank, including 200,000 in East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Today, there are approximately 250 settlements and “outposts” in the West Bank… home to some 800,000 illegal settlers… constituting approximately 13% of Israel’s population.</p>
<p>Among them are 13 settlements and 12 solely Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem where 200,000 Israelis live. The population of East Jerusalem is now down to 37% Palestinian. Area C of the West Bank is now 99% settler occupied.</p>
<p>Empowered by the election of Donald Trump and his nomination of David M. Friedman, long aligned with its settler far right, as Ambassador to Israel, it has approved more than 3,000 new units in the occupied West Bank, and signaled a green light to take what little else remains.</p>
<p>The Bleeding Hearts of the White House</p>
<p>One need not be a soothsayer to note a steady unbroken pattern of Israel swallowing more and more of the occupied West Bank even as U.S. politicians, republican and democrats alike convene feel good peace conferences or wax on about the need for justice for Palestinians.</p>
<p>As then President, Jimmy Carter noted “There has to be a homeland provided for the Palestinian refugees who have suffered for many, many years.” Ronald Reagan, spoke of “autonomy talks to pave the way for permitting the Palestinian people to exercise their legitimate rights.”</p>
<p>George H.W.&#160; Bush criticized the presence of illegal settlements in the West Bank noting “Outposts, yeah, they ought to go.”</p>
<p>President Clinton opined about the need for the creation of a new Palestinian State based on the idea of self-determination for the Palestinian people.</p>
<p>George W. Bush called for a halt to Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian lands needed for a state.</p>
<p>Several years ago Barrack Obama decried…“more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time.”</p>
<p>Though these sentiments have been echoed by each occupant of the White House over the last 40 years, in reality they’ve reflected little more than a conspicuous political subterfuge to garner votes while providing Israel unlimited funds to support its endless aggression.</p>
<p>The cold hard reality is US politicians care far more about the domestic political mileage and influence of American Zionists than they do abstract notions of international law or justice for Palestinians.</p>
<p>One simply can’t have it both ways… calling out for justice while subsidizing Israeli hatred and violence with an open checkbook and empty rhetoric. It’s just not possible to be a neutral and detached arbiter at the same time courting votes.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Israel simply does not care. 68 years of its history, and counting, has shown that it has and will continue to do whatever it wishes to Palestinians unless and until the United States holds it accountable by ripping up the blank check or until the pain and suffering of its colonial enterprise becomes just too much for Israelis to bear.</p>
<p>Enter Donald Trump</p>
<p>Donald trump is a simple man with a simple mind. It’s his way or none. He loves the challenge of being the smartest, toughest and most creative thinker in the room even when he knows he’s far from it. To Trump there’s nothing like the grand dare, even when he knows he’s not up to it. And when all else fails, he simply makes up the narrative to suit his view. In Trump’s world honesty is for the weak, reality for those who can’t lie and then simply move on.</p>
<p>For decades presidents have determined that they could pontificate to the world about justice for Palestinians but finance Israel in its drive to purge them from the river to the sea without costs that they were unwilling to bear.</p>
<p>However, these same presidents discerned a bright red line beyond which they could not cross without unleashing consequences far too explosive to contemplate… namely, moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the capital of Palestine in Jerusalem.</p>
<p>Apparently Donald Trump does not care.</p>
<p>To the politically naive, such a move would be of little practical consequence… a mere symbolic gesture. To millions of Palestinians, indeed hundreds of millions of Arabs, moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem without their specific invitation would constitute a point of no return… a veritable disaster in waiting.</p>
<p>In one fell swoop, it would signal an end to two separate yet related fictions that, since Oslo, have helped to enable a relative calm in Palestine even in the presence of the loss of much of it to settlers: 1) that the United States was interested in even the semblance of neutrality and 2) that the PA has the ability to represent the traditions and aspirations of the Palestinian people with meaningful capability and authority.</p>
<p>So, Mr. Trump, proceed at your own peril. If you feel, as Ambassador-to-be Friedman does, that Jerusalem is “Israel’s eternal capital”… proceed with your folly.&#160; Move the Embassy.</p>
<p>To millions of Palestinians, the only answer will be militant and fierce resistance, and it will come… as sure as the early morning call to prayer.</p> | true | 4 | photo jamelle bouie cc 20 among donald trumps first acts president suspending barack obamas last grant 221 million dollars discretionary humanitarian aid palestine pause next move palestine160 move us embassy east jerusalem right end charade politics us politicians like preach high justice palestinians israelis alike pathway pain occupied occupier oneinthe two dramatically different ends scales justice indeed balanced comes palestine decades united states hidden behind cheap frilly veneer neutrality subsidizing tune hundreds billions dollars vicious often deadly criminal occupation used impediment stalling tactics resculpt landscape home palestinians millennium often hear us politicians palestine complex issue point fact palestine complicated confusion provides opportune cover delay course ethnic cleansing knows better cover delay debate whens wheres whys go much allure excuse however certain fundamental truths palestine denied even largely european immigrants become expert rewriting history suit land grab epic ongoing proportion population figures vary source source 1914 palestine population 600738000 palestinians muslim amp christian arabs well religions 5994000 jews 1922 census showed 660725000 palestinians 8489000 jews 1931 recorded 4075 jews immigrated palestine along 1245 christians 213 muslims 1935 61854 jews immigrated 903 arabs 1390 christians others 1937 10500 jews 743 arabs 1196 christians others came palestine end 1944 jewish population increased 528702 117226 natural 327686 immigrants160 arab population increased 1061277 453405 natural 18695 immigrants christians others increased 149645 51616 natural 18948 immigrant four years later 1948 land designated israel ripped heartland palestine un political fiat two sides illmatched jewish community palestine much smaller approximately 608630000 arab christian others 1317 million roughly 30 percent overall population spite israels efforts jewish population remains minority since least 5th century land 1922 jews owned roughly 3 land palestine increased 7 total next decade state israel established jewish ownership land stood 86 33 owned become known israeliarabs another 169 land abandoned palestinian owners fled advance war come following un pronouncement 700000 palestinians driven farms villages estimates running high 20000 civilians killed twice many injured hundreds rapes carried marauding terrorists irgun stern gangand haganah160 hundreds villages towns eradicated war followed another 400 600 palestinian villages sacked urban palestine almost entirely extinguished 400 jewish settlements built post 1948 350 fabricated palestinian refugee property 1948 1950 369 palestinian villages erased replaced 161 new jewish settlements period israel seized twothirds cultivated land owned palestinians forced flee reliable estimates indicate ultimately 80 arab inhabitants became israel left expelled homes swept colonial design run unabated since 1948 one us much willing partner indeed enabler ethnic cleansing ensued fast forward 1993 wasted talks oslo peace process 1993 intended lead final negotiated settlement parties within five years among things divided west bank three administrative divisions areas b c first two smallest home palestinians subject varying degrees palestinian oversight area c largest approximately 75 west bank gradually transferred palestinian jurisdiction also led creation palestinian authority pa responsibility administration territory control oslo signed washington dc followed oslo ii 1995 among things agreement also known taba agreement called prompt israeli withdrawals various palestinian areas expanded palestinian selfrule following oslo rapid order came gazajerico agreement also known cairo agreement 1994the agreement preparatory transfer powers responsibilities israel plo august 1994 protocol transfers powers responsibilities august 1995 protocol concerning redeployment hebronjanuary 1997160 wye river memorandum october 1998 sharm elsheik memorandum september 1999160 camp david meetings july 2000 agreement movement accessnovember 2005 recently 20132014 unsuccessful160 attempt former secretary state kerry restart socalled peace process although dozen hollow agreements protocols meetings made powerful photo ops fine dining practice provided little cover cover israel steal palestinian land moral cover us speak justice reality stoking flames racial religious hatred billions dollars israeli settlements weapons growth settlements degree oslo accords based upon 1978 camp david agreement160that resulted peace treaty israel egypt time agreement lived 7400 settlers west bank excluding east jerusalem 500 gaza fifteen years later time 1993 oslo accords 262500 settlers west bank seven years later camp david summit 2000 total 362945 settlers west bank 169969 east jerusalem 2013 20 years oslo accords number settlers grew 520000 across west bank including 200000 east jerusalem today approximately 250 settlements outposts west bank home 800000 illegal settlers constituting approximately 13 israels population among 13 settlements 12 solely jewish neighborhoods east jerusalem 200000 israelis live population east jerusalem 37 palestinian area c west bank 99 settler occupied empowered election donald trump nomination david friedman long aligned settler far right ambassador israel approved 3000 new units occupied west bank signaled green light take little else remains bleeding hearts white house one need soothsayer note steady unbroken pattern israel swallowing occupied west bank even us politicians republican democrats alike convene feel good peace conferences wax need justice palestinians president jimmy carter noted homeland provided palestinian refugees suffered many many years ronald reagan spoke autonomy talks pave way permitting palestinian people exercise legitimate rights george hw160 bush criticized presence illegal settlements west bank noting outposts yeah ought go president clinton opined need creation new palestinian state based idea selfdetermination palestinian people george w bush called halt israels military occupation palestinian lands needed state several years ago barrack obama decriedmore aggressive settlement construction last couple years weve seen long time though sentiments echoed occupant white house last 40 years reality theyve reflected little conspicuous political subterfuge garner votes providing israel unlimited funds support endless aggression cold hard reality us politicians care far domestic political mileage influence american zionists abstract notions international law justice palestinians one simply cant ways calling justice subsidizing israeli hatred violence open checkbook empty rhetoric possible neutral detached arbiter time courting votes ultimately doesnt matter israel simply care 68 years history counting shown continue whatever wishes palestinians unless united states holds accountable ripping blank check pain suffering colonial enterprise becomes much israelis bear enter donald trump donald trump simple man simple mind way none loves challenge smartest toughest creative thinker room even knows hes far trump theres nothing like grand dare even knows hes else fails simply makes narrative suit view trumps world honesty weak reality cant lie simply move decades presidents determined could pontificate world justice palestinians finance israel drive purge river sea without costs unwilling bear however presidents discerned bright red line beyond could cross without unleashing consequences far explosive contemplate namely moving us embassy tel aviv capital palestine jerusalem apparently donald trump care politically naive move would little practical consequence mere symbolic gesture millions palestinians indeed hundreds millions arabs moving us embassy jerusalem without specific invitation would constitute point return veritable disaster waiting one fell swoop would signal end two separate yet related fictions since oslo helped enable relative calm palestine even presence loss much settlers 1 united states interested even semblance neutrality 2 pa ability represent traditions aspirations palestinian people meaningful capability authority mr trump proceed peril feel ambassadortobe friedman jerusalem israels eternal capital proceed folly160 move embassy millions palestinians answer militant fierce resistance come sure early morning call prayer | 1,125 |
<p>Arvind Kejriwal is not a socialist. He’ll be the first one to say this. In interview after interview, Kejriwal, a rising political star in India, consciously distances himself from any left-wing associations.</p>
<p>Yet the website arvindkejriwal.net.in (clearly run by a fan of Kejriwal, not the man himself) proudly proclaims that Kejriwal is a “popular socialist.” And while the Delhi manifesto of Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi (“Common Man”) Party is far from revolutionary, it is filled with proposals that tilt leftward: fighting the privatization of water in Delhi, building more government schools and imposing an upper limit for private school fees, breaking the stranglehold of monopoly capital in the electricity sector, replacing contract labor with permanent labor as much as possible, and empowering workers in the unorganized sector.</p>
<p>This manifesto was prepared for the Delhi Assembly elections, the first big test for the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party (commonly known as the AAP). The election results, announced on December&#160;8, stunned the political class, though they came as no surprise to the party’s supporters. In an impressive showing for such a young party, the AAP won 28 of 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly (the equivalent of a state legislature, except that as the national capital, Delhi, much like Washington, DC, is not quite a full state).</p>
<p>Delhi’s ruling party — the dynastic, dithering Congress — got walloped, winning a measly 8 seats, as voters expressed their discontent with rising food prices and a series of embarrassing political scandals. Congress’s perennial opponent, the business-friendly, upper caste-dominated, Hindu fundamentalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), gained the most from the anti-incumbency mood, taking 31 seats.</p>
<p>But Kejriwal himself scored the most telling victory, soundly defeating Congress’s Sheila Dikshit, who has served as Delhi’s Chief Minister (the state-level equivalent of Prime Minister) for the past fifteen years. Dikshit and Kejriwal were fighting to represent New Delhi, home to the nation’s top politicians. The lopsided nature of the contest was stunning: Kejriwal won by more than 30 percent. Post-election analysis revealed that much of Kejriwal’s support came from slums in the area; the working class residents of these slums, many of whom work in the service sector that supports the lavish lifestyles of politicians, had come to recognize the hollowness of Congress’s promises.</p>
<p>With this kind of support base, why does Kejriwal eschew the leftist label? After all, in India, unlike the United States, the words “communist” and “socialist” are not merely epithets used to tar political opponents. But perhaps “left” is becoming a dirty word among India’s political class. While communist parties have dominated the politics of two important Indian states and played key roles in others, they hold little sway nationwide after twenty years of neoliberalism. The country’s largest left party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), is communist in name only — the demands and capitulations of parliamentary politics have long drained it of any truly transformative potential.</p>
<p>While the “mainstream” left in India is largely moribund, the Maoist rural insurgency in central India grinds on. There is significant debate within the Indian left on the efficacy and implications of this guerrilla warfare, but those in power are happy to label dissidents of any kind as “Maoists” in order to crack down on them with the full force of the state. Between the Maoists and the parliamentarians, there are many active, inspiring left movements, but these have less of a hold in the country’s political imagination.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is CPI(M)’s failures or the connotations of dangerous Maoists that led Kejriwal to reject any association with the Left. For a man trying to build a political career, this may be a wise tactical move. Despite the gendered name, Kejriwal’s party of the common man claims to speak out for the masses who have been the victims of corruption and state-industry collusion. A key player in the anti-corruption protests that erupted in India in 2011, Kejriwal parted ways with that movement’s leader to try to turn the inchoate anti-corruption agitation into an organized political force. His platform calls for embracing direct democracy and fighting the power of big corporations in bed with top politicians.</p>
<p>But, on closer inspection, Kejriwal’s rhetoric suggests that he is not just coyly rejecting the leftist label while building a left-wing movement. His is a catch-all populism, capitalizing on popular discontent and welcoming all comers. In reaching out to the businesses classes, he has sung the praises of commerce and industry, and has insisted that “99 percent” of businesspeople are the victims, not the perpetrators, of corruption. Although opposed to some particular cases of privatization or corporate malfeasance, he sees the root cause of India’s problems as the corruption of the country’s political class — ignoring the much wider net of economic and political forces that entrap the “common man.”</p>
<p>One of the AAP’s main ideologues, Yogendra Yadav, a socialist, is clearly trying hard to bring a more structural analysis into the AAP’s policies — insisting, for example, that “corruption” is actually a symptom of the country’s deeper structural flaws. But the rhetoric of corruption has more often relied on a middle-class moralism, with the suggestion that tough enforcement and moral rectitude will solve the problem.</p>
<p>So we should take Kejriwal at his word when he says he isn’t a leftist. But he also insists his political philosophy is grounded neither in the Right nor the center. In this, Kejriwal’s tone is reminiscent of 2008 Barack Obama. (In fact, he has cited Obama as an inspiration, and his campaign benefited from savvy use of social media, crowdsourced fundraising and a committed group of grassroots volunteers.) He is full of hope and change, ready to clean up the dirty political scene by focusing on solutions, not tired ideologies.&#160;Unlike Obama (wisely, given the current political climate in India), Kejriwal doesn’t promise to cross the divide and work with his opponents; he’s more of a pugilist, and delights in hurling accusations at Congress and the BJP alike. Still, his overall approach to governance seems Obama-esque: he wants to usher in a new era of post-ideological, pragmatic, transparent governance.</p>
<p>The concept of the post-ideological is, of course, fundamentally vacuous. The AAP says it is against rigid, unwavering doctrine, but this is mere common sense — an empty platitude with which almost no one could disagree.</p>
<p>But while the party’s “post-ideological” stance may be linguistically meaningless, it has certainly been politically expedient. While creating the facade of technocratic competence and reasoned good governance, post-ideological politics (along with its related phrase “the end of history”) has been used as its own ideology to suggest that there’s no need or possibility to question, much less attempt to restructure, the current socioeconomic system. We’ve seen how the ideology of post-political hope and change has worked in the United States: Obama’s “post-political” approach has been, in reality, a strong affirmation of the free market, in realms as disparate as healthcare, education and finance.</p>
<p>But the Obama-Kejriwal analogy can only be taken so far. Unlike Obama, Kejriwal is coming from outside his country’s dominant two parties, and India’s parliamentary political system means that third parties can make a significant impact on both regional and national politics. The success of the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections has threatened the political mainstream in a way that Obama’s victory hardly could. Congress party officials, sheepish, have admitted that they have much to learn from the AAP. And commentators have made much of the AAP’s penchant for upending conventional political wisdom by refusing to give handouts like cash and booze before elections, and by largely eschewing identity politics.</p>
<p>The party has tapped into an idealism and a genuine desire to build a better political system, and it has shown that these altruistic feelings can translate into strong election results. But this momentum will likely result in a rapid rightward drift if the party continues to cling to its “post-ideological” approach.</p>
<p>The AAP is at a crossroads. The party’s initial support base skewed heavily towards the middle class, with significant support from well-off Indians living abroad. But recently, the party has mobilized considerable working class and lower-middle class support, mirroring its shift from a narrow focus on government corruption to a broader engagement with issues like corporate malfeasance, privatization of public services, and the prevalence of contract labor.</p>
<p>The party is looking to become viable nationwide. So far, it has succeeded by appearing to be all things to all people, promoting broadly popular measures and underplaying the many tensions and rifts in Indian society. Certainly this is preferable to narrow, cynical identity politics. But India’s very real conflicts, including heightened class conflicts in the neoliberal age, cannot be swept under the carpet indefinitely, no matter how much the rhetoric of post-ideology is invoked.</p>
<p>The immediate political future of Delhi is uncertain. Since no party won an outright majority in the Assembly elections, and since no party is willing to form a coalition, it seems likely Delhi will be placed under central government rule until a fresh election takes place. If this happens, and if the AAP can build on its strong start to win the next elections, its troubles will be far from over. Arvind Kejriwal and his party will be forced to confront the serious contradictions, both philosophical and practical, of post-ideological governance in a highly ideological world.</p> | true | 4 | arvind kejriwal socialist hell first one say interview interview kejriwal rising political star india consciously distances leftwing associations yet website arvindkejriwalnetin clearly run fan kejriwal man proudly proclaims kejriwal popular socialist delhi manifesto kejriwals aam aadmi common man party far revolutionary filled proposals tilt leftward fighting privatization water delhi building government schools imposing upper limit private school fees breaking stranglehold monopoly capital electricity sector replacing contract labor permanent labor much possible empowering workers unorganized sector manifesto prepared delhi assembly elections first big test fledgling aam aadmi party commonly known aap election results announced december1608 stunned political class though came surprise partys supporters impressive showing young party aap 28 70 seats delhi assembly equivalent state legislature except national capital delhi much like washington dc quite full state delhis ruling party dynastic dithering congress got walloped winning measly 8 seats voters expressed discontent rising food prices series embarrassing political scandals congresss perennial opponent businessfriendly upper castedominated hindu fundamentalist bharatiya janata party bjp gained antiincumbency mood taking 31 seats kejriwal scored telling victory soundly defeating congresss sheila dikshit served delhis chief minister statelevel equivalent prime minister past fifteen years dikshit kejriwal fighting represent new delhi home nations top politicians lopsided nature contest stunning kejriwal 30 percent postelection analysis revealed much kejriwals support came slums area working class residents slums many work service sector supports lavish lifestyles politicians come recognize hollowness congresss promises kind support base kejriwal eschew leftist label india unlike united states words communist socialist merely epithets used tar political opponents perhaps left becoming dirty word among indias political class communist parties dominated politics two important indian states played key roles others hold little sway nationwide twenty years neoliberalism countrys largest left party communist party india marxist cpim communist name demands capitulations parliamentary politics long drained truly transformative potential mainstream left india largely moribund maoist rural insurgency central india grinds significant debate within indian left efficacy implications guerrilla warfare power happy label dissidents kind maoists order crack full force state maoists parliamentarians many active inspiring left movements less hold countrys political imagination perhaps cpims failures connotations dangerous maoists led kejriwal reject association left man trying build political career may wise tactical move despite gendered name kejriwals party common man claims speak masses victims corruption stateindustry collusion key player anticorruption protests erupted india 2011 kejriwal parted ways movements leader try turn inchoate anticorruption agitation organized political force platform calls embracing direct democracy fighting power big corporations bed top politicians closer inspection kejriwals rhetoric suggests coyly rejecting leftist label building leftwing movement catchall populism capitalizing popular discontent welcoming comers reaching businesses classes sung praises commerce industry insisted 99 percent businesspeople victims perpetrators corruption although opposed particular cases privatization corporate malfeasance sees root cause indias problems corruption countrys political class ignoring much wider net economic political forces entrap common man one aaps main ideologues yogendra yadav socialist clearly trying hard bring structural analysis aaps policies insisting example corruption actually symptom countrys deeper structural flaws rhetoric corruption often relied middleclass moralism suggestion tough enforcement moral rectitude solve problem take kejriwal word says isnt leftist also insists political philosophy grounded neither right center kejriwals tone reminiscent 2008 barack obama fact cited obama inspiration campaign benefited savvy use social media crowdsourced fundraising committed group grassroots volunteers full hope change ready clean dirty political scene focusing solutions tired ideologies160unlike obama wisely given current political climate india kejriwal doesnt promise cross divide work opponents hes pugilist delights hurling accusations congress bjp alike still overall approach governance seems obamaesque wants usher new era postideological pragmatic transparent governance concept postideological course fundamentally vacuous aap says rigid unwavering doctrine mere common sense empty platitude almost one could disagree partys postideological stance may linguistically meaningless certainly politically expedient creating facade technocratic competence reasoned good governance postideological politics along related phrase end history used ideology suggest theres need possibility question much less attempt restructure current socioeconomic system weve seen ideology postpolitical hope change worked united states obamas postpolitical approach reality strong affirmation free market realms disparate healthcare education finance obamakejriwal analogy taken far unlike obama kejriwal coming outside countrys dominant two parties indias parliamentary political system means third parties make significant impact regional national politics success aap delhi assembly elections threatened political mainstream way obamas victory hardly could congress party officials sheepish admitted much learn aap commentators made much aaps penchant upending conventional political wisdom refusing give handouts like cash booze elections largely eschewing identity politics party tapped idealism genuine desire build better political system shown altruistic feelings translate strong election results momentum likely result rapid rightward drift party continues cling postideological approach aap crossroads partys initial support base skewed heavily towards middle class significant support welloff indians living abroad recently party mobilized considerable working class lowermiddle class support mirroring shift narrow focus government corruption broader engagement issues like corporate malfeasance privatization public services prevalence contract labor party looking become viable nationwide far succeeded appearing things people promoting broadly popular measures underplaying many tensions rifts indian society certainly preferable narrow cynical identity politics indias real conflicts including heightened class conflicts neoliberal age swept carpet indefinitely matter much rhetoric postideology invoked immediate political future delhi uncertain since party outright majority assembly elections since party willing form coalition seems likely delhi placed central government rule fresh election takes place happens aap build strong start win next elections troubles far arvind kejriwal party forced confront serious contradictions philosophical practical postideological governance highly ideological world | 896 |
<p>A musician friend of mine who releases his albums on his own label recently asked me, “What about the little record company, like mine? If people can get all my songs for free, then who will buy the CD?”</p>
<p>My heart just about sank when I heard this question coming from him. I didn’t expect it to come from someone who is a religious reader of this column, a personal friend, and frequent correspondent. But I wasn’t surprised, considering how much the major media has regurgitated the RIAA line that P2P file-sharing is killing the music industry. If you believe the often quoted line that sales are down 31% in the last three years, a period in which Internet down-loading of songs has become a world-wide phenomenon, it’s easy to make the assumption that P2P is the cause. And that the tough road which artists who are promoting and selling their own wares engage in will become even tougher. But is that a legitimate assumption? Or is that as big a leap as saying birds can’t fly because pigs have a monopoly on air space? Here’s a few observations from an unbiased observer.</p>
<p>The Single factor: A number of years back the major labels stated that singles weren’t profitable and made an (un)conscious decision to kill the format. They claimed that singles lost money and were only used as a promotional tool for albums. The truth of the matter was that singles weren’t as profitable, so why settle for 3 or 4 bucks when you could squeeze the public out of 17 or 18 for an album. After all, in CD format, the manufacturing costs of both were about the same. Tom Petty took his label at its word and said if singles were a promotional tool that lost money, then he would put his next one up on his web site for free. With no manufacturing costs, his label wouldn’t “lose” money if he promoted his album that way. This was several years before P2P technology. The label demanded an immediate retraction of the MP3 from his site and their true goals were exposed. Any customer that wanted the one song would just have to pay $17 for it whether they liked the rest of the album or not.</p>
<p>The Dumb factor: So what do the majors market in an era of few singles? Acts specializing in singles. Boy bands. Pop tunes. The most frequently named artist in the RIAA subpoenas by far was Avril Lavigne. The second was Michael Jackson. Let me clue the record industry in on something here. If you weren’t one of the 50 gazillion people that bought the Thriller album in the almost two decades since its release, you ain’t gonna buy it in 2003 just to get “Billie Jean.” Consider that Madonna, Pink, and Lil’ Romeo made the list. Now consider that Jimi Hendrix and John Coltrane didn’t.</p>
<p>The Deaf factor: Aw hell. This one doesn’t need explaining.</p>
<p>The Blind factor: Downloads were in full swing in 2001 when industry wide sales of singles in the United States totaled a little over 2 million units. The pitiful showing was due to one thing and one thing only. The major labels weren’t releasing any singles. But the industry just wouldn’t budge when it came to entering the download market. A few more singles were released last year and sales doubled to over 5 million. Still no movement on the majors part other than a few over-priced and poorly configured download sites which were label affiliated and exclusive. Enter iTunes this year. In 3 months iTunes has sold over 10 million downloads at a dollar a pop. The thing to consider here is that iTunes is currently only available to MAC users, an infinitesimally small portion of the home computer market. AND iTunes isn’t part of the world wide net. Their sales are limited to customers in the U.S. I think what is illustrated is that greed will blind you from reality. Toni Basil, Kajagoogoo, and Hooked On Classics all made money for the industry. They didn’t do it by selling albums. People aren’t going to pay album prices for one-hit wonders or career popsters.</p>
<p>The “lie-through-your-teeth” factor: The RIAA says sales are down 31% as if the 5 major labels were the only record labels in existence. No doubt that sales are down significantly for them. They released 25% fewer new releases during the slump. Take into account that the economy has been in the toilet for much of that time and average incomes continue to slide and the other 6% doesn’t seem to be out of line for an industry that sells exclusively non-essentials. Which brings us to…</p>
<p>The youth factor: The first jobs to go in a sliding economy are the ones held by teens and young adults, the primary focus audience for the majors. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that “in July 2003, the labor force participation rate for young men (16-24 years of age), which has declined steadily since 1995, was at its lowest July point on record, 70.0 percent. The July 2003 participation rate for young women was 64.5 percent, the lowest it has been since 1975.” So why is it that the majors, always looking at things in terms of “markets”, continue to ignore the multitude of older artists with followings ranging in age from 30-90 (save a stable of proven million sellers with major label careers dating back to the Jurassic age)? For one thing older artists have been around the block and don’t look at label contracts the same way a starry-eyed youth might. Either assume that those artists are too smart to be coaxed into slavery contracts or refer back to the dumb factor.</p>
<p>The Indie factor: About a dozen independent music stores were questioned while preparing this article. They were about evenly split on whether or not their businesses had increased or decreased over the last 3 years. But none stated anywhere close to a 31% hit. ALL stated that they had an increase in sales of independent releases during that period. Most stated that major label releases were moving in the direction of the Wooly Mammoth. The most successful operations stated community involvement, a move toward local talent and independent releases, and (get this) an increased focus on import singles not available in the U.S. as reasons for increased sales. In the most extreme example, Doyle Davis, co-owner of Grimey’s Pre-Loved Music in Nashville, states a whopping 250% increase in sales over the last year. A lot of the store’s success is attributed to co-owner Mike Grimes’ strong ties to the local music scene (he played in the Bis-Quits and Bare Jr and owns Nashville’s Slow Bar) and Davis’ extensive knowledge of music (he worked for the Great Escape, the leading used CD/comics store in town for 15 years). Plus a healthy stock of indie rock, classic funk (Davis’ fave) and reggae (think Lee Scratch Perry) along with local artists. With major label execs making tens of millions of dollars a year to steer their corporations into the dumpster, I wonder what a pair like Davis and Grimes would be worth to deliver just one year like that.</p>
<p>The price factor: You can buy a DVD of an old movie at Walmart for $6.88. A re-issued catalog CD costs twice that. If it has been re-mixed and re-mastered and some fluff thrown into the packaging it can cost three times as much. Tough choice when the consumer is contemplating where to spend their entertainment dollar? Think not.</p>
<p>All of this brings us back to my good friend’s concerns. He was on a major label at one time. He never made a dime off the deal. If he makes a dime on his own, he’s 10 cents ahead. He makes great records. He’ll never sell 500,000 copies of one though. There is a multitude of reasons for that and none of them have to do with P2P downloads. As Janis Ian has pointed out, there’s plenty of free water available but bottled water is still a huge industry.</p>
<p>That 12-year-old girl in New York that the RIAA sued last week lived in low-income public housing. How many 18-dollar CDs does the RIAA think she’s going to buy? Lost income? I don’t think so. Lost opportunity? You bet.</p>
<p>(Rev. Keith A. Gordon contributed to this article.)</p>
<p>BILL GLAHN writes the RIAA Watch column for CounterPunch. His Husgow Record Guide appears at <a href="http://www.mondogordo.com/" type="external">www.mondogordo.com</a>Feature articles appear in <a href="http://www.bigo.com.sg/" type="external">BigO magazine</a>.</p>
<p>Alt.Culture.Guide–The Journal of (Un)Popular Culture (Rev. Keith A. Gordon with BILL GLAHN, Anthem Pop/Kult Publishing) may be <a href="http://soundproducts.gemm.com/" type="external">purchased online from Sound Products</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | musician friend mine releases albums label recently asked little record company like mine people get songs free buy cd heart sank heard question coming didnt expect come someone religious reader column personal friend frequent correspondent wasnt surprised considering much major media regurgitated riaa line p2p filesharing killing music industry believe often quoted line sales 31 last three years period internet downloading songs become worldwide phenomenon easy make assumption p2p cause tough road artists promoting selling wares engage become even tougher legitimate assumption big leap saying birds cant fly pigs monopoly air space heres observations unbiased observer single factor number years back major labels stated singles werent profitable made unconscious decision kill format claimed singles lost money used promotional tool albums truth matter singles werent profitable settle 3 4 bucks could squeeze public 17 18 album cd format manufacturing costs tom petty took label word said singles promotional tool lost money would put next one web site free manufacturing costs label wouldnt lose money promoted album way several years p2p technology label demanded immediate retraction mp3 site true goals exposed customer wanted one song would pay 17 whether liked rest album dumb factor majors market era singles acts specializing singles boy bands pop tunes frequently named artist riaa subpoenas far avril lavigne second michael jackson let clue record industry something werent one 50 gazillion people bought thriller album almost two decades since release aint gon na buy 2003 get billie jean consider madonna pink lil romeo made list consider jimi hendrix john coltrane didnt deaf factor aw hell one doesnt need explaining blind factor downloads full swing 2001 industry wide sales singles united states totaled little 2 million units pitiful showing due one thing one thing major labels werent releasing singles industry wouldnt budge came entering download market singles released last year sales doubled 5 million still movement majors part overpriced poorly configured download sites label affiliated exclusive enter itunes year 3 months itunes sold 10 million downloads dollar pop thing consider itunes currently available mac users infinitesimally small portion home computer market itunes isnt part world wide net sales limited customers us think illustrated greed blind reality toni basil kajagoogoo hooked classics made money industry didnt selling albums people arent going pay album prices onehit wonders career popsters liethroughyourteeth factor riaa says sales 31 5 major labels record labels existence doubt sales significantly released 25 fewer new releases slump take account economy toilet much time average incomes continue slide 6 doesnt seem line industry sells exclusively nonessentials brings us youth factor first jobs go sliding economy ones held teens young adults primary focus audience majors bureau labor statistics reports july 2003 labor force participation rate young men 1624 years age declined steadily since 1995 lowest july point record 700 percent july 2003 participation rate young women 645 percent lowest since 1975 majors always looking things terms markets continue ignore multitude older artists followings ranging age 3090 save stable proven million sellers major label careers dating back jurassic age one thing older artists around block dont look label contracts way starryeyed youth might either assume artists smart coaxed slavery contracts refer back dumb factor indie factor dozen independent music stores questioned preparing article evenly split whether businesses increased decreased last 3 years none stated anywhere close 31 hit stated increase sales independent releases period stated major label releases moving direction wooly mammoth successful operations stated community involvement move toward local talent independent releases get increased focus import singles available us reasons increased sales extreme example doyle davis coowner grimeys preloved music nashville states whopping 250 increase sales last year lot stores success attributed coowner mike grimes strong ties local music scene played bisquits bare jr owns nashvilles slow bar davis extensive knowledge music worked great escape leading used cdcomics store town 15 years plus healthy stock indie rock classic funk davis fave reggae think lee scratch perry along local artists major label execs making tens millions dollars year steer corporations dumpster wonder pair like davis grimes would worth deliver one year like price factor buy dvd old movie walmart 688 reissued catalog cd costs twice remixed remastered fluff thrown packaging cost three times much tough choice consumer contemplating spend entertainment dollar think brings us back good friends concerns major label one time never made dime deal makes dime hes 10 cents ahead makes great records hell never sell 500000 copies one though multitude reasons none p2p downloads janis ian pointed theres plenty free water available bottled water still huge industry 12yearold girl new york riaa sued last week lived lowincome public housing many 18dollar cds riaa think shes going buy lost income dont think lost opportunity bet rev keith gordon contributed article bill glahn writes riaa watch column counterpunch husgow record guide appears wwwmondogordocomfeature articles appear bigo magazine altcultureguidethe journal unpopular culture rev keith gordon bill glahn anthem popkult publishing may purchased online sound products 160 | 815 |
<p>In mid-August, Donald Trump began his promised renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. “If we don’t get the deal we want,” he pledged on the campaign trail last year, “we will terminate NAFTA.”</p>
<p>Given that he scuttled Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement upon taking office, Trump’s working class supporters might reasonably think that he will deliver on his promise to make NAFTA “a lot better” or rip it up. They should not hold their breath. On trade—as on health care and taxes—Trump’s gasbag populism is relentlessly deflating. Any changes to NAFTA will be marginal—and they will favor corporate interests.</p>
<p>Still, overall, NAFTA displaced about 850,000 U.S. jobs, concentrated especially in the small- and medium-sized towns in the Midwest whose votes elected him.</p>
<p>But Trump’s claim that American workers lost jobs to Mexicans because U.S. negotiators were outsmarted is simply wrong. The interests of workers were never a priority for those involved in the negotiations. As Jorge Castañeda, later Mexico’s foreign minister, explained, NAFTA was “for the rich and powerful in the United States, Mexico and Canada, an agreement effectively excluding ordinary people in all three societies.” This then became the template for a quarter century of U.S. neoliberal trade deals (e.g., China, Korea, the World Trade Organization) that pushed American workers into brutal global competition for which they were not equipped.</p>
<p>NAFTA is not just a “free-trade” agreement. It is a thousand pages of complex rules that traded away the interests of American workers for those of corporate investors. Corporations are given privileged access to the U.S. market to sell goods produced in Mexico where both workers and government regulators come cheap. Among other things, it includes secret dispute settlement panels of corporate-connected lawyers with the power to override national labor and environmental regulations that may threaten profits.</p>
<p>Proposed by Ronald Reagan, negotiated under George Bush I, and sold to Congress by Bill Clinton, NAFTA was hailed by the governing classes of all three countries as a triumph of economic and political enlightenment. Their workers were told that deregulating trade and investment would create a ladder of upward mobility. Thus, Mexicans would get more jobs at the bottom (making t-shirts and plastic toys). Americans and Canadians would get more jobs at the top (automobiles and TV sets). Prosperity would in turn strengthen human rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Mexico.</p>
<p>Skeptics were dismissed as economic Neanderthals. During the congressional debate that proceeded the agreement, a reporter from National Public Radio asked me, in a voice dripping with contempt, “Don’t those autoworkers get it? NAFTA will create a huge middle class market in Mexico for the cars they make.”</p>
<p>But by strengthening the power of the oligarchs that dominate Mexico’s political economy, NAFTA suppressed wages on both sides of the border. (Somewhat less so in Canada where unions and social protections are stronger.)</p>
<p>Today, Mexico produces half of all the autos and parts made in North America. But Mexicans can afford to buy only 8 percent of them. The average Mexican autoworker makes $3 an hour. On average, Mexican labor costs remain roughly 12 percent of those in the United States, and are now about 40 percent below China’s.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Mexico’s 2014 poverty rate was higher than it was 20 years prior, when NAFTA was first implemented. Human rights and citizen safety has deteriorated as drug lords and criminal gangs with ties to public officials murder and extort with impunity. Efforts to organize independent labor unions are met with beatings and worse by government-tolerated company thugs. And thanks to NAFTA, low-priced U.S. government subsidized corn and wheat drove several million Mexicans from their farms. Unable to find decent work in the cities, they swelled the rising tide of immigrants into the United States, which Trump so skillfully demagogued in last year’s election.</p>
<p>For Trump to make good on his promise to the American workers who helped elect him, he would need to negotiate an agreement with enforceable labor standards and protections for human rights, democracy, and the environment equaling those given to corporate investors.</p>
<p>Forget it. Trump and the Republican-led Congress are committed to further deregulating worker’s rights. Trump’s economic advisers are the same sort of Wall Street characters that negotiated NAFTA with only their interests in mind 25 years ago. And already, Trump’s government has given access to the otherwise secret negotiations to hundreds of corporate lobbyists, just as the previous Administration did during negotiations for the ill-fated TPP.</p>
<p>Neither has Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, any interest in changing an arrangement that allows his party’s cronies to get rich by selling cheap labor to global investors. Justin Trudeau, the new Canadian prime minister, supports some strengthening of worker and human rights language, but he doesn’t hold much leverage over the other two leaders.</p>
<p>Neither, in some ways, does Trump, whose threat to blow up NAFTA if he doesn’t get what he wants has been largely disarmed by the implacable hostility of both Congress and corporate America to destroying the agreement.</p>
<p>But what does he want anyway? As with most issues, it seems clear that he himself doesn’t know. Required by law to make negotiating objectives public, Trump’s people gave out a vague and largely uninspiring list of changes they will seek. Some are certainly sensible—such as increasing the percentage of North American content in goods allowed to be traded freely in the three countries. Others, like imposing U.S. intellectual property laws on Mexico and Canada would add to the pile of NAFTA’s corporate goodies. Ironically, the Trump agenda for NAFTA looks very much like the Obama agenda for the TPP that Trump killed.</p>
<p>Trump says he wants a deal in six months. Both he and Peña Nieto have reason to conclude one before the Mexican elections are held next July; currently the leftist Andrés López Obrador is ahead in the polls. Yet history suggests this kind of negotiation always takes longer, especially now that Trump has opened it up to a feeding frenzy of corporate lobbyists each being paid to bite out new profit sources for their clients.</p>
<p>However long it takes, neither the American workers who voted for Trump nor the Mexican workers who voted for Peña Nieto will see much improvement in their lives.</p>
<p>And, however marginal the changes, we can be certain that our huckster-in-chief, standing side-by-side with his Mexican counterpart, will try to sell it as the greatest deal in the history of the world.</p>
<p>The question for workers on both sides of the border is whether they will continue to buy it.</p> | true | 4 | midaugust donald trump began promised renegotiation north american free trade agreement mexico canada dont get deal want pledged campaign trail last year terminate nafta given scuttled obamas trans pacific partnership trade agreement upon taking office trumps working class supporters might reasonably think deliver promise make nafta lot better rip hold breath tradeas health care taxestrumps gasbag populism relentlessly deflating changes nafta marginaland favor corporate interests still overall nafta displaced 850000 us jobs concentrated especially small mediumsized towns midwest whose votes elected trumps claim american workers lost jobs mexicans us negotiators outsmarted simply wrong interests workers never priority involved negotiations jorge castañeda later mexicos foreign minister explained nafta rich powerful united states mexico canada agreement effectively excluding ordinary people three societies became template quarter century us neoliberal trade deals eg china korea world trade organization pushed american workers brutal global competition equipped nafta freetrade agreement thousand pages complex rules traded away interests american workers corporate investors corporations given privileged access us market sell goods produced mexico workers government regulators come cheap among things includes secret dispute settlement panels corporateconnected lawyers power override national labor environmental regulations may threaten profits proposed ronald reagan negotiated george bush sold congress bill clinton nafta hailed governing classes three countries triumph economic political enlightenment workers told deregulating trade investment would create ladder upward mobility thus mexicans would get jobs bottom making tshirts plastic toys americans canadians would get jobs top automobiles tv sets prosperity would turn strengthen human rights democracy rule law mexico skeptics dismissed economic neanderthals congressional debate proceeded agreement reporter national public radio asked voice dripping contempt dont autoworkers get nafta create huge middle class market mexico cars make strengthening power oligarchs dominate mexicos political economy nafta suppressed wages sides border somewhat less canada unions social protections stronger today mexico produces half autos parts made north america mexicans afford buy 8 percent average mexican autoworker makes 3 hour average mexican labor costs remain roughly 12 percent united states 40 percent chinas meanwhile mexicos 2014 poverty rate higher 20 years prior nafta first implemented human rights citizen safety deteriorated drug lords criminal gangs ties public officials murder extort impunity efforts organize independent labor unions met beatings worse governmenttolerated company thugs thanks nafta lowpriced us government subsidized corn wheat drove several million mexicans farms unable find decent work cities swelled rising tide immigrants united states trump skillfully demagogued last years election trump make good promise american workers helped elect would need negotiate agreement enforceable labor standards protections human rights democracy environment equaling given corporate investors forget trump republicanled congress committed deregulating workers rights trumps economic advisers sort wall street characters negotiated nafta interests mind 25 years ago already trumps government given access otherwise secret negotiations hundreds corporate lobbyists previous administration negotiations illfated tpp neither mexicos president enrique peña nieto interest changing arrangement allows partys cronies get rich selling cheap labor global investors justin trudeau new canadian prime minister supports strengthening worker human rights language doesnt hold much leverage two leaders neither ways trump whose threat blow nafta doesnt get wants largely disarmed implacable hostility congress corporate america destroying agreement want anyway issues seems clear doesnt know required law make negotiating objectives public trumps people gave vague largely uninspiring list changes seek certainly sensiblesuch increasing percentage north american content goods allowed traded freely three countries others like imposing us intellectual property laws mexico canada would add pile naftas corporate goodies ironically trump agenda nafta looks much like obama agenda tpp trump killed trump says wants deal six months peña nieto reason conclude one mexican elections held next july currently leftist andrés lópez obrador ahead polls yet history suggests kind negotiation always takes longer especially trump opened feeding frenzy corporate lobbyists paid bite new profit sources clients however long takes neither american workers voted trump mexican workers voted peña nieto see much improvement lives however marginal changes certain hucksterinchief standing sidebyside mexican counterpart try sell greatest deal history world question workers sides border whether continue buy | 658 |
<p>We are very happy to announce that we have completed our second purchase of medical debt. This time, we bought and abolished over $1 million in debt from emergency rooms in Kentucky and Indiana. The average debtor owed around $900 and we will be abolishing the debt of over 1,000 people! We are sending the letters to the debtors as we type this. We are very concerned with the privacy of debtors, but if any of them come forward and want to share their stories, we will make them public.</p>
<p>This will be the second in a series of purchases of medical debt. For each one, we will announce it on this blog with extended details.</p>
<p>We’ve also been working long and hard to make sure our finances and operations are as transparent as possible. The all-volunteer Board of Directors, along with the RJ sub-committees (tech, messaging &amp; debt buying) and countless activists throughout the Strike Debt and Occupy Wall Street networks have been working diligently to ensure the Rolling Jubilee accomplishes its mission with dignity, transparency and political effectiveness.</p>
<p>From the beginning of the project over six months ago we have been very clear about three things we want from this project: (1) to provide some real relief for those around the country who are struggling under the crushing burden of debt; (2) to change the conversation around debt and austerity; and (3) to help advance debt resistance as part of a larger movement capable of bringing about a profound transformation of our economic system.</p>
<p>When we launched in November we expected to raise $50,000. Instead we raised over $500,000. We expected to get some press and attention, but we didn’t expect to get hundreds of interview requests and thousands of emails from debtors around the country describing their plight. This outpouring of support has moved and inspired us.</p>
<p>With a focus on transparency and a policy of humble indebtedness to our donors, supporters and the public, we decided to release the following on our newly launched transparency page:</p>
<p>It is our hope that these documents offer some insight into the very complicated operations of Rolling Jubilee. (In case you haven’t seen it yet, please check out the interview our lawyers did with Tax Analysts in February.)</p>
<p>Our financial documents will show our transactions over the past few months. We decided to put aside 10% of our donations in reserve, and have spent some initial money on start-up costs: CPA fees, consulting fees, insurance fees, registration paperwork, etc. Going forward, we expect these costs to be significantly minimized; most of the remaining money will go directly to buying and abolishing debt. We still expect to abolish around 20x what we raised: which would be nearly $12 million.</p>
<p>If you are wondering why we have not spent all of the funds we raised on debt yet, fear not. We are proceeding with care and caution, and more announcements will be made and actions planned in the coming months. A significant amount of due diligence must be done on each portfolio and we are weighing our options carefully. We think it’s more important to spend donations well–on debts that will actually help people–than spend them quickly. Each portfolio of debt we buy also provides an opportunity for public education and political momentum, and we hope to use these opportunities as wisely as possible.</p>
<p>When starting Rolling Jubilee we committed to buying medical debt first and foremost, wanting to call attention to the profound inhumanity and inequity of our for-profit healthcare system. We have spent a great deal of time learning about the medical debt market, and the healthcare industry at large. It is an industry designed to confuse, overwhelm, and exploit. Though one in three people have medical debt, very few know that their debts are for sale on the secondary market, nor do they realize that old medical bills can negatively impact their credit scores, often with disastrous consequences for their financial well being. Even some people in the industry agree that medical debt should not exist (and of course it doesn’t in most industrialized countries). It’s also hard to purchase. Unlike credit card or payday loan debt, it is usually sold by hospitals and practitioners to local debt collectors, sometimes in bundles or by physicians groups. Because we don’t want our purchases limited to New York, we have to work locally and regionally rather than in the national market. This means building relationships, one at a time.</p>
<p>We are thrilled to be helping so many people. But we are not naive. We know this won’t fix a broken and unjust system. Our health care industry reflects all that is wrong with the world today: a basic right (the right to take care and be taken care of) has become a commodity. People are made to suffer twice, first from injury or illness and then financial extortion. We are all forced into debt while private insurance companies, banks and real estate moguls profit off of our misery. We refuse to accept this. We want to use the attention these buys will generate to have an impact on the struggle for real, free, accessible healthcare for the 99%. There are real solutions being proposed as alternatives to Obama’s Affordable Care Act: a single-payer healthcare system would save the U.S. $400 billion dollars every year; even just expanding Medicare to all would save $68 billion by 2020. Creating a public alternative or single-payer system are some of the many ways to strike debt.</p>
<p>We have been working for months with allies and activists in the healthcare industry, and we are calling for a week of education, organizing and action to declare a Healthcare Emergency: It’s a Matter of “Life or Debt”, culminating in two days of action in New York City on March 21 and March 23, with solidarity actions happening in cities across the country.</p>
<p>If you’ll be in New York, join us! If you won’t be in New York, join us in bringing this action everywhere! Wherever you are,</p> | true | 4 | happy announce completed second purchase medical debt time bought abolished 1 million debt emergency rooms kentucky indiana average debtor owed around 900 abolishing debt 1000 people sending letters debtors type concerned privacy debtors come forward want share stories make public second series purchases medical debt one announce blog extended details weve also working long hard make sure finances operations transparent possible allvolunteer board directors along rj subcommittees tech messaging amp debt buying countless activists throughout strike debt occupy wall street networks working diligently ensure rolling jubilee accomplishes mission dignity transparency political effectiveness beginning project six months ago clear three things want project 1 provide real relief around country struggling crushing burden debt 2 change conversation around debt austerity 3 help advance debt resistance part larger movement capable bringing profound transformation economic system launched november expected raise 50000 instead raised 500000 expected get press attention didnt expect get hundreds interview requests thousands emails debtors around country describing plight outpouring support moved inspired us focus transparency policy humble indebtedness donors supporters public decided release following newly launched transparency page hope documents offer insight complicated operations rolling jubilee case havent seen yet please check interview lawyers tax analysts february financial documents show transactions past months decided put aside 10 donations reserve spent initial money startup costs cpa fees consulting fees insurance fees registration paperwork etc going forward expect costs significantly minimized remaining money go directly buying abolishing debt still expect abolish around 20x raised would nearly 12 million wondering spent funds raised debt yet fear proceeding care caution announcements made actions planned coming months significant amount due diligence must done portfolio weighing options carefully think important spend donations wellon debts actually help peoplethan spend quickly portfolio debt buy also provides opportunity public education political momentum hope use opportunities wisely possible starting rolling jubilee committed buying medical debt first foremost wanting call attention profound inhumanity inequity forprofit healthcare system spent great deal time learning medical debt market healthcare industry large industry designed confuse overwhelm exploit though one three people medical debt know debts sale secondary market realize old medical bills negatively impact credit scores often disastrous consequences financial well even people industry agree medical debt exist course doesnt industrialized countries also hard purchase unlike credit card payday loan debt usually sold hospitals practitioners local debt collectors sometimes bundles physicians groups dont want purchases limited new york work locally regionally rather national market means building relationships one time thrilled helping many people naive know wont fix broken unjust system health care industry reflects wrong world today basic right right take care taken care become commodity people made suffer twice first injury illness financial extortion forced debt private insurance companies banks real estate moguls profit misery refuse accept want use attention buys generate impact struggle real free accessible healthcare 99 real solutions proposed alternatives obamas affordable care act singlepayer healthcare system would save us 400 billion dollars every year even expanding medicare would save 68 billion 2020 creating public alternative singlepayer system many ways strike debt working months allies activists healthcare industry calling week education organizing action declare healthcare emergency matter life debt culminating two days action new york city march 21 march 23 solidarity actions happening cities across country youll new york join us wont new york join us bringing action everywhere wherever | 548 |
<p>Andrew Nelles/AP</p>
<p />
<p>After years of investigation by the Department of Justice, three top Rand Paul associates, including the senator’s nephew-in-law, were indicted for their role in an alleged attempt to buy an influential Iowa state senator’s endorsement of Ron Paul during his 2012 presidential campaign. None of these operatives, who served as top Ron Paul campaign aides, is currently on the payroll of Rand Paul’s presidential campaign. But two of them—Jesse Benton, who is married to Paul’s niece, and John Tate—run a pro-Rand Paul super-PACs that has raised $3.1 million to support Paul’s presidential campaign. <a href="#correction" type="external">*</a> The third man indicted, Dimitri Kesari, has served as an aide to both Rand Paul and his father.</p>
<p>Last year, former Republican Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson pleaded guilty to campaign finance charges accusing him of helping to cover up a scheme for the Ron Paul campaign to pay him more than $70,000 to switch his endorsement immediately before the 2012 Iowa caucus, from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul. Sorenson has been awaiting sentencing pending his cooperation in a further investigation, but it hasn’t been clear who on Ron Paul’s staff would be caught up in the scandal. At the time Benton served as the campaign’s chairman, Tate as the campaign manager, and Kesari as the deputy campaign manager.&#160;</p>
<p>All three men were charged with criminal conspiracy and federal charges related to falsification of government records. Tate and Benton face charges of making false statements to federal investigators; Kesari was indicted on one count of obstruction of justice for allegedly trying to persuade Sorenson to deny the scheme when pressed by prosecutors.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2195739-benton-et-al-indictment.html" type="external">indictment</a>, Sorenson negotiated with the Paul aides and eventually met with Kesari in an Iowa restaurant, where the Paul aide passed him a $25,000 check. The check was never cashed, however, and eventually wound up in the hands of an Iowa special prosecutor investigating a possible breach in ethics rules by Sorenson. Under federal law, the campaign could have legally paid Sorenson openly, but Iowa Senate rules prohibit lawmakers from receiving compensation for their endorsements. According to prosecutors, the campaign instead routed the payments through a Maryland audio-visual company connected to Kesari’s brother. During the course of the Iowa investigation, Sorenson acknowledged receiving $73,000 from the Maryland company but couldn’t explain why that was. Paul campaign records <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/09/two-grand-juries-continuing-probe-into-2012-iowa-payola-scandal/" type="external">show the campaign paid the Maryland company roughly $82,000</a>. Though Sorenson pleaded guilty to taking the money and lying to investigators about where it came from, his indictment did not name who authorized the payments.</p>
<p>The federal investigation has been spun by Paul insiders as the result of complaints by a disgruntled former Ron Paul supporter, Virginia conservative operative Dennis Fusaro. Fusaro certainly stoked the investigation by leaking emails to reporters showing Benton, Tate, and Kesari corresponding with Sorenson associates, as well as an audio recording of Sorenson admitting his role. Last summer, a <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/09/two-grand-juries-continuing-probe-into-2012-iowa-payola-scandal/" type="external">leaked grand jury subpoena</a> showed that that Justice Department investigators were casting a wide net in their pursuit of the case, demanding email records from much of the 2012 staff and even Ron Paul himself.</p>
<p>The indictment makes clear that investigators found incriminating correspondence. Included in the indictment are details of email conversations between the Paul aides about authorization of the payments to the audio-visual equipment company. Other emails show them responding to others on the campaign staff about the payments. In one email exchange described in the indictment, from June 2012, an invoice from the AV company led Tate to ask Kesari, “What is this? What is it for, who is it? Why do we keep paying them? The last payment was supposedly the last.”</p>
<p>Kesari responded: “This is the last payment for kent Sorenson [sic]. The deal jesse agreed to with kent.”</p>
<p>Tate approved the payment.</p>
<p>After media reports about the brewing scandal broke in September 2013, the indictment alleges, Kesari flew to Nebraska and then drove to Iowa to meet with Sorenson. Kesari allegedly asked Sorenson to prove he wasn’t wearing a recording device and then demanded he return the $25,000 check he had earlier given to him. Kesari also allegedly tried to convince Sorenson not to discuss the campaign’s role in the payments with federal investigators.</p>
<p>While Kesari, Benton, and Tate are not working for Rand Paul’s campaign, their indictment creates a major controversy for the candidate on the eve of the first GOP debate. In a statement to BuzzFeed‘s Rosie Gray, Ron Paul questioned the timing of the indictment against his former staffer: “I think the timing of this indictment is highly suspicious given the fact that the first primary debate is tomorrow.” Rand Paul’s campaign raised a little more than $7 million in the second quarter of the year, and the three super-PACs supporting his presidential bid have raised some $6 million. The largest, America’s Liberty PAC, is run by Tate and Benton, who also leads Campaign for Liberty, a politically active nonprofit founded by Ron Paul. With $3.1 million in cash on hand, the super-PAC is a major part of Paul’s campaign apparatus and has already released videos attacking his opponents.&#160;</p>
<p>Benton, who is married to Ron Paul’s granddaughter, became something of a hot commodity in the world of conservative politics following the 2012 Ron Paul campaign, which was seen as remarkably successful despite Paul’s defeat. In late 2012, he was hired by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to be his campaign manager. Kesari was also <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/11/mcconnell-campaign-hired-key-figure/" type="external">hired</a> to work for McConnell.</p>
<p>Benton resigned from McConnell’s campaign last August after Sorenson pleaded guilty, but he reemerged in March as the head of the pro-Rand Paul super-PAC.</p>
<p>Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell announced the indictments today, saying the Justice Department would take any illegal campaign finance activity very seriously. “When political operatives make under-the-table payments to buy an elected official’s political support, it undermines public confidence in our entire political system,” Caldwell said.</p>
<p>Kesari was arraigned today in an Iowa court, and Benton and Tate will be arraigned on September 3. The Rand Paul campaign has yet to release a statement on the indictments.</p>
<p>Correction: An earlier&#160;version of this&#160;article incorrectly stated that Tate ran another pro-Paul super-PAC, Concerned American Voters. None of the three men who were indicted has a connection with that PAC.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | andrew nellesap years investigation department justice three top rand paul associates including senators nephewinlaw indicted role alleged attempt buy influential iowa state senators endorsement ron paul 2012 presidential campaign none operatives served top ron paul campaign aides currently payroll rand pauls presidential campaign two themjesse benton married pauls niece john taterun prorand paul superpacs raised 31 million support pauls presidential campaign third man indicted dimitri kesari served aide rand paul father last year former republican iowa state sen kent sorenson pleaded guilty campaign finance charges accusing helping cover scheme ron paul campaign pay 70000 switch endorsement immediately 2012 iowa caucus michele bachmann ron paul sorenson awaiting sentencing pending cooperation investigation hasnt clear ron pauls staff would caught scandal time benton served campaigns chairman tate campaign manager kesari deputy campaign manager160 three men charged criminal conspiracy federal charges related falsification government records tate benton face charges making false statements federal investigators kesari indicted one count obstruction justice allegedly trying persuade sorenson deny scheme pressed prosecutors according indictment sorenson negotiated paul aides eventually met kesari iowa restaurant paul aide passed 25000 check check never cashed however eventually wound hands iowa special prosecutor investigating possible breach ethics rules sorenson federal law campaign could legally paid sorenson openly iowa senate rules prohibit lawmakers receiving compensation endorsements according prosecutors campaign instead routed payments maryland audiovisual company connected kesaris brother course iowa investigation sorenson acknowledged receiving 73000 maryland company couldnt explain paul campaign records show campaign paid maryland company roughly 82000 though sorenson pleaded guilty taking money lying investigators came indictment name authorized payments federal investigation spun paul insiders result complaints disgruntled former ron paul supporter virginia conservative operative dennis fusaro fusaro certainly stoked investigation leaking emails reporters showing benton tate kesari corresponding sorenson associates well audio recording sorenson admitting role last summer leaked grand jury subpoena showed justice department investigators casting wide net pursuit case demanding email records much 2012 staff even ron paul indictment makes clear investigators found incriminating correspondence included indictment details email conversations paul aides authorization payments audiovisual equipment company emails show responding others campaign staff payments one email exchange described indictment june 2012 invoice av company led tate ask kesari keep paying last payment supposedly last kesari responded last payment kent sorenson sic deal jesse agreed kent tate approved payment media reports brewing scandal broke september 2013 indictment alleges kesari flew nebraska drove iowa meet sorenson kesari allegedly asked sorenson prove wasnt wearing recording device demanded return 25000 check earlier given kesari also allegedly tried convince sorenson discuss campaigns role payments federal investigators kesari benton tate working rand pauls campaign indictment creates major controversy candidate eve first gop debate statement buzzfeeds rosie gray ron paul questioned timing indictment former staffer think timing indictment highly suspicious given fact first primary debate tomorrow rand pauls campaign raised little 7 million second quarter year three superpacs supporting presidential bid raised 6 million largest americas liberty pac run tate benton also leads campaign liberty politically active nonprofit founded ron paul 31 million cash hand superpac major part pauls campaign apparatus already released videos attacking opponents160 benton married ron pauls granddaughter became something hot commodity world conservative politics following 2012 ron paul campaign seen remarkably successful despite pauls defeat late 2012 hired senate majority leader mitch mcconnell campaign manager kesari also hired work mcconnell benton resigned mcconnells campaign last august sorenson pleaded guilty reemerged march head prorand paul superpac assistant attorney general leslie caldwell announced indictments today saying justice department would take illegal campaign finance activity seriously political operatives make underthetable payments buy elected officials political support undermines public confidence entire political system caldwell said kesari arraigned today iowa court benton tate arraigned september 3 rand paul campaign yet release statement indictments correction earlier160version this160article incorrectly stated tate ran another propaul superpac concerned american voters none three men indicted connection pac | 635 |
<p>Photo: AP</p>
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<p>With the antiwar movement struggling to regain its preinvasion groove, the student activists of ’03/’04 turned their attention closer to home. From Ahnold to Ashcroft, ROTC to rap videos, the targets of protest were as diverse, and colorful, as the demonstrations themselves:</p>
<p>1. University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez: When UPRM announced it was building a new, $150,000 Air Force ROTC facility on campus, dozens of activists from the Frente Universitario por la Desmilitarización y la Educación began what would become a six-month camp-in at the construction site. Calling on the university to invest in students not soldiers, 30 students also took over the Army ROTC building for 24 hours in January, redecorating it with antiwar murals. Victory came in March, when the university agreed to devote the new building to academic use and to refuse ROTC additional space on campus.</p>
<p>2. UCLA: Building a 10-foot-tall, 24-foot-long, PVC-pipe-and-cardboard version of Israel’s “separation wall,” UCLA activists in April brought a taste of the West Bank to West L.A. “Soldiers” also herded students through two checkpoints in the middle of Bruin Walk: one (with no line) for “Israelis” and another (with interminable delays) for “Palestinians.” “We want to show the reality of life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation,” said student leader Alia Hasan. (In a counterprotest, one student posed as a “suicide bomber” to demonstrate why he felt the wall was justified.)</p>
<p>3. Spelman College: After students at this historically black women’s college learned hip-hop star Nelly would be performing on campus, they presented him with a challenge: defend his sexist videos or stay home. Nelly was a no-show, so Spelman’s Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance hosted teach-ins, attended by more than 500 students from Spelman, Morehouse, and Clark Atlanta, to debate the representation of women in rap. “I would have liked to ask him some questions,” said FMLA president Moya Bailey. “But I think we introduced the issue to a lot more people and really got them to think.”</p>
<p>4. California Community Colleges: “Don’t terminate community colleges!” demanded 5,000 junior college students as they marched on Sacramento this spring to protest Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed 50 percent tuition hike. The students had reason to be angry: They were still reeling from a 2003 increase that has turned thousands of students out of the system. San Bernardino Valley College protester Stacey Lopez chided the Governator for raising tuition rather than taxes: “If our fees go up and people drop out, it’s going to be on him.”</p>
<p>5. Rutgers University: Rutgers students marshaled a small army to join the March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., in April. Some 600 Scarlet Knights ventured from New Jersey to the Mall—the largest college contingent at the record-setting pro-choice rally. With signs proclaiming “Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries,” the Rutgers clan marched in defense of Roe v. Wade and demanded that the Bush administration approve over-the-counter access to emergency contraception.</p>
<p>6. Suffolk University: Two hundred students wore “equality armbands” to protest Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s commencement address, while others with rainbow tassels on their mortarboards turned their backs. At least 500 students had unsuccessfully petitioned the school to disinvite Romney, who has led the charge to undo the state Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in favor of gay marriage. The governor’s address was delayed by a chorus of boos, and at least three vituperative protesters had to be escorted from the FleetBoston Pavilion ceremony by police.</p>
<p>7. University of Massachusetts: Unless you’re an engineering student from Lahore, you’ve likely never heard of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System—a John Ashcroft-approved initiative to foil evildoers by monitoring the studies of foreign university students. Protesting the Orwellian measure—and the “surveillance fee” that’s been tacked onto their tuition bills to pay for it—30 UMass activists staged a two-day hunger strike in April, followed by a 400-student march that had to be broken up by campus cops. There’s more than principle at stake: Dozens of grad students are risking deportation by refusing to pay the fee.</p>
<p>8. Mount St. Mary’s University: When this small, Maryland Catholic school announced it was bestowing an honorary degree on White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, student activists raised holy hell. Capital punishment, after all, is at odds with church teachings, and Gonzales had been instrumental in denying 57 death-row clemency appeals—including that of a mentally retarded man—when he served as counsel to then Texas governor George W. Bush. After a joint student-faculty protest, Mount St. Mary’s rescinded the degree.</p>
<p>9. Arizona State University: Following a rash of antigay harassment on campus, the LGBTQ Coalition convinced the administration in March to expand its nondiscrimination policy to include gender identity, making ASU the only state institution with protections for transgender people. This followed the Greek council’s February decision to approve the school’s first lesbian sorority, Gamma Rho Lambda (a.k.a. GRL)—making ASU the only university in the country with both gay and lesbian frats.</p>
<p>10. UC Berkeley: Graduation came two months early as activists held a “non-commencement ceremony” in Sproul Plaza to protest budget cuts that have limited enrollment. Empty chairs and life-size statues stood in for the 400 “missing students” from the class of 2008. Actual graduation ceremonies in May brought less playful protest. After Boalt Law School grads discovered that Berkeley professor John Yoo had penned one of the now-infamous Justice Department “torture memos,” one quarter of the graduating class donned red armbands, passed out “wanted” posters, and demanded that Yoo repudiate his memo or resign.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | photo ap antiwar movement struggling regain preinvasion groove student activists 0304 turned attention closer home ahnold ashcroft rotc rap videos targets protest diverse colorful demonstrations 1 university puerto rico mayaguez uprm announced building new 150000 air force rotc facility campus dozens activists frente universitario por la desmilitarización la educación began would become sixmonth campin construction site calling university invest students soldiers 30 students also took army rotc building 24 hours january redecorating antiwar murals victory came march university agreed devote new building academic use refuse rotc additional space campus 2 ucla building 10foottall 24footlong pvcpipeandcardboard version israels separation wall ucla activists april brought taste west bank west la soldiers also herded students two checkpoints middle bruin walk one line israelis another interminable delays palestinians want show reality life palestinians living israeli occupation said student leader alia hasan counterprotest one student posed suicide bomber demonstrate felt wall justified 3 spelman college students historically black womens college learned hiphop star nelly would performing campus presented challenge defend sexist videos stay home nelly noshow spelmans feminist majority leadership alliance hosted teachins attended 500 students spelman morehouse clark atlanta debate representation women rap would liked ask questions said fmla president moya bailey think introduced issue lot people really got think 4 california community colleges dont terminate community colleges demanded 5000 junior college students marched sacramento spring protest governor arnold schwarzeneggers proposed 50 percent tuition hike students reason angry still reeling 2003 increase turned thousands students system san bernardino valley college protester stacey lopez chided governator raising tuition rather taxes fees go people drop going 5 rutgers university rutgers students marshaled small army join march womens lives washington dc april 600 scarlet knights ventured new jersey mallthe largest college contingent recordsetting prochoice rally signs proclaiming keep rosaries ovaries rutgers clan marched defense roe v wade demanded bush administration approve overthecounter access emergency contraception 6 suffolk university two hundred students wore equality armbands protest massachusetts governor mitt romneys commencement address others rainbow tassels mortarboards turned backs least 500 students unsuccessfully petitioned school disinvite romney led charge undo state supreme courts landmark ruling favor gay marriage governors address delayed chorus boos least three vituperative protesters escorted fleetboston pavilion ceremony police 7 university massachusetts unless youre engineering student lahore youve likely never heard student exchange visitor information systema john ashcroftapproved initiative foil evildoers monitoring studies foreign university students protesting orwellian measureand surveillance fee thats tacked onto tuition bills pay it30 umass activists staged twoday hunger strike april followed 400student march broken campus cops theres principle stake dozens grad students risking deportation refusing pay fee 8 mount st marys university small maryland catholic school announced bestowing honorary degree white house counsel alberto gonzales student activists raised holy hell capital punishment odds church teachings gonzales instrumental denying 57 deathrow clemency appealsincluding mentally retarded manwhen served counsel texas governor george w bush joint studentfaculty protest mount st marys rescinded degree 9 arizona state university following rash antigay harassment campus lgbtq coalition convinced administration march expand nondiscrimination policy include gender identity making asu state institution protections transgender people followed greek councils february decision approve schools first lesbian sorority gamma rho lambda aka grlmaking asu university country gay lesbian frats 10 uc berkeley graduation came two months early activists held noncommencement ceremony sproul plaza protest budget cuts limited enrollment empty chairs lifesize statues stood 400 missing students class 2008 actual graduation ceremonies may brought less playful protest boalt law school grads discovered berkeley professor john yoo penned one nowinfamous justice department torture memos one quarter graduating class donned red armbands passed wanted posters demanded yoo repudiate memo resign | 595 |
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<p>World leaders have a pretty comprehensive plan to fight climate change, according to a United Nations report released Friday—even if it doesn’t go as far as many of them had hoped.</p>
<p>In just over a month, representatives from most of the countries on Earth will gather in Paris in an attempt to finalize an international agreement to limit global warming and adapt to its impacts. The video above is a snappy explainer of what’s at stake at this meeting, but suffice it to say the proposed deal is split into two keys parts. First is the core agreement, parts of which may be legally binding, that comprises broad, non-specific guidelines for all countries. It calls on countries to take steps such as transparently reporting greenhouse gas emissions and committing to ramp up climate action over the next few decades.</p>
<p>But the real meat-and-potatoes is in the second part, the “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDCs). The INDCs are what sets the Paris talks apart from past attempts at a global climate agreement in Kyoto in 1997 and Copenhagen in 2009. Those summits either left out major polluters (the US dropped out of the Kyoto Protocol; China and India were exempted) or fell apart completely (Copenhagen), in large part because they were built around universal greenhouse gas reduction targets that not everyone could agree to.</p>
<p>This time around, the UN process is more like a potluck, where each country brings its own unique contribution based on its needs and abilities; those are the INDCs. The US, for example, has <a href="" type="internal">committed to reduce</a> its greenhouse gas emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, mostly by going after carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. So far, <a href="http://cait.wri.org/indc/#/" type="external">according to the World Resources Institute</a>, 126 plans have been submitted, covering about 86 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. (The European Union submitted one joint plan for all its members.) Those contributions are likely to limit global warming to <a href="http://climateactiontracker.org/news/224/INDCs-lower-projected-warming-to-2.7C-significant-progress-but-still-above-2C-.html" type="external">around 2.7 degrees Celsius</a> (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels by 2100. That’s above the 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) limit <a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/21072015/new-study-says-even-2-degrees-warming-highly-dangerous" type="external">scientists say</a> is necessary to avert the worst impacts—but it’s also about 1 degree C less warming than would happen if the world continued on its present course.</p>
<p>Now, we have a bit more insight into how countries are planning to make this happen. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the group that is overseeing the Paris talks, combed through all the INDCs to look for trends. Its report is a bit convoluted and repetitive; I don’t recommend it to any but the nerdiest climate nerds. But I pulled out a few of the charts as an overview of what global action on climate change really looks like.</p>
<p>Types of targets: Most of the INDCs contain specific emission reduction targets. (Not all do; some countries, such as the small island nations, have such small or nonexistent emissions that it wouldn’t make sense to promise to reduce them.) The most common way to state these targets is to promise that emissions at X future date will be lower than they would be with no action. Indonesia, for example, <a href="http://www.wri.org/blog/2015/09/details-indonesia%E2%80%99s-climate-plan-remain-hazy" type="external">has pledged</a> to increase its emissions over the next 25 years by 29 percent less than it would have under a “business as usual” scenario. The US commitment fits in the second category, an “absolute” target where emissions actually begin to go down. Others specify a date at which emissions will “peak,” or set a goal for emissions per unit of GDP or energy production (“intensity”).</p>
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<p>Greenhouse gases: The commitments cover a broad range of greenhouse gases (most cover more than one), but carbon dioxide is the most common enemy. That’s no surprise, as it’s <a href="http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html" type="external">by far the most common</a>.</p>
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<p>Economic sectors: In different countries, different economic sectors are more or less responsible for climate pollution. In the US, the number-one source of emissions is coal-fired power plants; thus, President Barack Obama’s plans focus on the power sector. In Indonesia, by contrast, <a href="" type="internal">deforestation is the biggest problem</a>. Most plans cover more than one sector, but the most common is energy.</p>
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<p>How to fix it: This section finds that implementing renewable energy is the most common way countries are planning to meet their targets. More interesting is the tiny role played by carbon capture, use, and storage, down at the bottom of the chart. This refers to technology that “captures” greenhouse gas emissions on their way out of power plants, or directly from the atmosphere, and buries or re-purposes them. Support for carbon capture—also known as “clean coal”—is popular with policymakers who don’t want to curb coal use ( <a href="" type="internal">including GOP presidential contender John Kasich</a>), even though it remains <a href="" type="internal">costly and unproven at scale</a>.&#160;</p>
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<p>How to adapt: Many countries’ INDCs also contain information about how they plan to adapt to climate change. Water use, agriculture, and public health appear to be the biggest areas of focus.</p>
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<p>A terrible, no-good, very bad summary: The most important question is clearly how all this adds up to reducing the world’s greenhouse gas footprint and averting the worst threats posed by climate change. But the chart that addresses this question (below) is…not great. I’m including it so you have some sense of one big drawback of the Paris approach—without universal emissions targets, it’s a lot harder to specify what the cumulative effect of these plans will really be. In short, here’s what this chart shows: The gray line is global greenhouse gas emissions up to today. The orange line is how emissions will grow over the next couple decades if we do nothing. The three blue lines show how quickly we would need to reduce emissions to keep global warming to 2 degrees C; the longer we wait to take action, the steeper the cuts have to be. The yellow rectangles show a snapshot of where the INDCs leave us.</p>
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<p>So, we’re better off than before, but we’re not out of danger. That’s why it’s essential for the core agreement to include requirements that countries adopt even more aggressive goals in the future; that’s one of the key things that will be debated in Paris. In other words, the Paris meeting is just one key battle in a war that’s far from over, Jennifer Morgan, director of the WRI’s global climate program, said in a statement.</p>
<p>“Despite the unprecedented level of effort, this report finds that current commitments are not yet sufficient to meet what the world needs. Countries must accelerate their efforts after the Paris summit in order to stave off climate change. The global climate agreement should include a clear mandate for countries to ramp up their commitments and set a long-term signal to phase out emissions as soon as possible.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | world leaders pretty comprehensive plan fight climate change according united nations report released fridayeven doesnt go far many hoped month representatives countries earth gather paris attempt finalize international agreement limit global warming adapt impacts video snappy explainer whats stake meeting suffice say proposed deal split two keys parts first core agreement parts may legally binding comprises broad nonspecific guidelines countries calls countries take steps transparently reporting greenhouse gas emissions committing ramp climate action next decades real meatandpotatoes second part intended nationally determined contributions indcs indcs sets paris talks apart past attempts global climate agreement kyoto 1997 copenhagen 2009 summits either left major polluters us dropped kyoto protocol china india exempted fell apart completely copenhagen large part built around universal greenhouse gas reduction targets everyone could agree time around un process like potluck country brings unique contribution based needs abilities indcs us example committed reduce greenhouse gas emissions 26 28 percent 2005 levels 2025 mostly going carbon dioxide emissions coalfired power plants far according world resources institute 126 plans submitted covering 86 percent worlds greenhouse gas emissions european union submitted one joint plan members contributions likely limit global warming around 27 degrees celsius 49 degrees fahrenheit preindustrial levels 2100 thats 2 degrees c 36 degrees f limit scientists say necessary avert worst impactsbut also 1 degree c less warming would happen world continued present course bit insight countries planning make happen united nations framework convention climate change unfccc group overseeing paris talks combed indcs look trends report bit convoluted repetitive dont recommend nerdiest climate nerds pulled charts overview global action climate change really looks like types targets indcs contain specific emission reduction targets countries small island nations small nonexistent emissions wouldnt make sense promise reduce common way state targets promise emissions x future date lower would action indonesia example pledged increase emissions next 25 years 29 percent less would business usual scenario us commitment fits second category absolute target emissions actually begin go others specify date emissions peak set goal emissions per unit gdp energy production intensity greenhouse gases commitments cover broad range greenhouse gases cover one carbon dioxide common enemy thats surprise far common economic sectors different countries different economic sectors less responsible climate pollution us numberone source emissions coalfired power plants thus president barack obamas plans focus power sector indonesia contrast deforestation biggest problem plans cover one sector common energy fix section finds implementing renewable energy common way countries planning meet targets interesting tiny role played carbon capture use storage bottom chart refers technology captures greenhouse gas emissions way power plants directly atmosphere buries repurposes support carbon capturealso known clean coalis popular policymakers dont want curb coal use including gop presidential contender john kasich even though remains costly unproven scale160 adapt many countries indcs also contain information plan adapt climate change water use agriculture public health appear biggest areas focus terrible nogood bad summary important question clearly adds reducing worlds greenhouse gas footprint averting worst threats posed climate change chart addresses question isnot great im including sense one big drawback paris approachwithout universal emissions targets lot harder specify cumulative effect plans really short heres chart shows gray line global greenhouse gas emissions today orange line emissions grow next couple decades nothing three blue lines show quickly would need reduce emissions keep global warming 2 degrees c longer wait take action steeper cuts yellow rectangles show snapshot indcs leave us better danger thats essential core agreement include requirements countries adopt even aggressive goals future thats one key things debated paris words paris meeting one key battle war thats far jennifer morgan director wris global climate program said statement despite unprecedented level effort report finds current commitments yet sufficient meet world needs countries must accelerate efforts paris summit order stave climate change global climate agreement include clear mandate countries ramp commitments set longterm signal phase emissions soon possible | 637 |
<p>Where have the great hits of Puritan remembrance gone? Thanksgiving is perhaps the most unmusical date in the festival calendar. Even Halloween has its diverse genres of scary music. For many Thanksgiving passes without the slightest melody.</p>
<p>We learned no songs of the Pilgrims in school back in the 1970s. Instead we endured music-less pageants, made puritan hats out of black construction paper or more colorful Indian headbands with orange and blue feathers.</p>
<p>These days, only the most rigorous Protestants come to their Thanksgiving Day services in any number. As an organist for various of the less austere of these sects, I would often lament the drudgery of having to play for a handful of old-timers who had taken a break from their labors in the kitchen to sing a few hymns—“We Plow the Fields and Scatter”; “We Gather Together” etc.—and listen to the obligatory sermon on religious freedom and the glories of America.</p>
<p>In an attempt to correct this in my household without having to drag the kids down to the Christian Science Church at the bottom of our winding street, where Thanksgiving remains a big deal, I went to the Cornell library in the hopes of exhuming appropriate music.</p>
<p>My researches eventually brought my to a volume on crumbling acid-paper once in the possession of a certain Alfred Irving Swifty and dated 1886. Bound together in dark blue cardboard is this fine collection of Victoriana. First among the contents is the “Opera Comique” Olivette by Edmond Audran adapted into English by H. B. Farnie. Cues for the songs are written in red ink in Swifty’s own flowing script. He seems to have played for a production of the piece a long time ago. After the overture things start in with a bang with the Gossip Chorus and Air: “Timid and Graceful” and then move to Olivette’s opening number “The Convent Slept”—all but her that is, as the sounds of a distant Tyrolian guitar stir her innermost feelings. And so the romance proceeds past “What! She your wife?” through to the high point of the work, the Bolero “Where balmy garlic scents the air,” shortly before the final chorus “All is ended.”</p>
<p>Next in the book comes a copy of Iolanthe signed by Arthur Sullivan. The Overture rises in a unison figure cast in the exotic Phrygian mode before leaping upward to cuddle warmly with Wagner’s famed Tristan chord—this appropriation of the most 19th-century of 19th-century chords surely a dagger to the heart of the megalomaniac of Bayreuth: within these first few bars the musical air is filled with the most suffocating Victorian perfume, later to be ionized with the relentless patter of chords.</p>
<p>In search of fresher air, I flipped forward to the last item: “Twelve Popular Songs, Written by Mrs. Hemans, Composed by Her Sister,” published in London in an edition of Chappell’s Musical Magazine probably from around 1850. The collection has suffered some attrition. Only the first page of the eleventh song, unmoored from its gathering thread, remains. But the first piece is there in all its glory: “The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.” The poem first appeared in 1826 by the short-lived poet, who published her first volume, Early Blossoms, before she was fifteen. The song was also a huge favorite in the American 19th-century, the musical culmination of many a Plymouth Landing commemoration, not least at the annual celebrations of the New England Society at the Astor House in New York.</p>
<p>She was born a Browne in Liverpool to an Irish father in 1793. After financial reverses, he absconded to America when the future poet was only seven years old. It is perhaps not surprising that his daughter’s most famous poem should envision an America she never saw.</p>
<p>Hemans was unlucky with men, older ones that ran away—first her father, then her husband. As the Victorian musicologist, journalist, and organist Edward Rimbault puts it in the short biographical notice that opens the Chappell’s Musical Magazine dedicated to Hemans’ poems set by her sister, Mrs. Gray: “It was a year after the publication of the poetess’s first book, unfortunately for her future happiness, that she met with Captain Hemans, of the 4th Regiment, lately returned from Spanish service, to whom, after an attachment of three years, she was married in 1812.” After five years and five sons, Hemans left for Italy, “avowedly for the benefit of his health,” Rimbault writes with bitter irony. He never returned to England.</p>
<p>Felicia Hemans then moved in with her sister, like so many of her generation equipped with skills that allowed her to set her sister’s poetry to music. While living in the same household Hemans wrote “On the Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers.” In spite of her circumstances she continued to write poetry, met and was praised by Wordsworth and Scott and others, published several volumes of poetry, and in 1830 moved to Dublin where she died at thirty-seven in 1835.</p>
<p>Though Felicia Hemans never left the British Isles her poem about the Pilgrims was still memorized—and often sung—by American school children into the middle of the 20th century. Like so many Romantics, she was expert at imagining landscapes she never saw.</p>
<p>The setting by her sister begins without piano introduction, the voice singing the first note of the rising fourth A to D sung alone, as if in medias res—the Pilgrims are at sea trying to come ashore: “The breaking waves dash’d high / On a stern and rock-bound coast.” We are in the most martial of keys, D Major, the big rolled chords in the piano crashing in after the pick-up. The mood is resolute, triumphant even, in the manner of Haydn’s “The Heavens are Telling.” Like all good English girls of the early 19th-century, the Browne sisters knew their Haydn, a staple of bourgeois refinement after his London triumphs of the 1790s and the continued celebrity of his music in choral societies and drawing rooms long after.</p>
<p>The rhyme to the poem’s first two lines is made with “And the woods against a stormy sky, / Their giant branches toss’d.” Here the musical sister introduced roiling right-hand arpeggios to evoke the threatening elements, but the tempestuousness of a great composer is not in evidence: the harmonies move up from D Major through predictably intermediate chords, to A Major and the cadence, and then do this again and again, the sonorities dogging the rhyme scheme as the music gestures grandly in the parlor sublime.</p>
<p>The poem will later try to tell us this is not martial, but the music resounds with battlefield heroics. The poet attempts to cast the landing as a search for religious freedom, not for new lands and people to subdue, but the crashing chords tell us otherwise: “Not as the conqueror comes, / They the true-hearted come / Not with the roll of the stirring drums, / Or the trumpet that sings of fame.” The composing sister cannot resist painting these images in the piano accompaniment: she flourishes the rat-a-tat-tat of the drums and the clarion call.</p>
<p>The final piano interlude has more bugle calls. If we listen to the music, the legions of God, in search their own freedom, are seen to be armed with more than simply belief, though the poet insists theirs is not a quest for worldly riches but spiritual pay-off:</p>
<p>What sought they thus afar? Bright jewels of the mine The wealth of seas, the spoils of war?- They sought a faith’s pure shrine!</p>
<p>Ay, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod. They have left unstained what there they found. Freedom to worship God.</p>
<p>And so the last line descends from the high D down the octave to its final cadence, traversing the modest range of the piece, one calibrated to the talents and ambitions of amateur singers. The mighty arrival on “God” is like a canon blast that silences all thoughts of earthly vicissitude and personal aggrandizement.</p>
<p>Back in the still early years of the 21st century, we gather around the piano and belt out the ballad. My daughters have only been to church when dragged along by father or mother—both organists. Even with this limited experience, they recognize the idiom of the Protestant hymn given a bit of florid filigree by Mrs. Gray. They try their best to be amused by it all, and in trying can’t help themselves from enjoying the frivolity of a piece that was once so serious to generations of singers of this very music.</p>
<p>But there is something missing here, and both daughters note it: “What about the Indians?”</p>
<p>As I’d discovered earlier in the week, Heman’s original poem begins with an epigram from American William Cullen Bryant’s epic “The Ages” that is not to be found in the setting in “Twelve Popular Songs by Mrs. Hemans”:</p>
<p>Look now abroad; Another race has fill’d Those populous borders—wide the wood recedes, And towns shoot up, and fertile realms are till’d; The land is full of harvests and green meadows.</p>
<p>Here is the vision of America behind the rhetoric of religious freedom: ethnic cleansing, deforestation, and the prelude to urban sprawl.</p>
<p>I don’t tell my daughters about the epigram. They know the Thanskgiving back-story already. We give the song another go, then head back into the kitchen to baste the turkey.</p>
<p>DAVID YEARSLEY teaches at Cornell University. He is author of <a href="" type="internal">Bach and the Meanings of Counterpoint</a>His latest CD, “All Your Cares Beguile: Songs and Sonatas from Baroque London”, has just been released by <a href="http://www.musicaomnia.org/index2.htm" type="external">Musica Omnia</a>. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | true | 4 | great hits puritan remembrance gone thanksgiving perhaps unmusical date festival calendar even halloween diverse genres scary music many thanksgiving passes without slightest melody learned songs pilgrims school back 1970s instead endured musicless pageants made puritan hats black construction paper colorful indian headbands orange blue feathers days rigorous protestants come thanksgiving day services number organist various less austere sects would often lament drudgery play handful oldtimers taken break labors kitchen sing hymnswe plow fields scatter gather together etcand listen obligatory sermon religious freedom glories america attempt correct household without drag kids christian science church bottom winding street thanksgiving remains big deal went cornell library hopes exhuming appropriate music researches eventually brought volume crumbling acidpaper possession certain alfred irving swifty dated 1886 bound together dark blue cardboard fine collection victoriana first among contents opera comique olivette edmond audran adapted english h b farnie cues songs written red ink swiftys flowing script seems played production piece long time ago overture things start bang gossip chorus air timid graceful move olivettes opening number convent sleptall sounds distant tyrolian guitar stir innermost feelings romance proceeds past wife high point work bolero balmy garlic scents air shortly final chorus ended next book comes copy iolanthe signed arthur sullivan overture rises unison figure cast exotic phrygian mode leaping upward cuddle warmly wagners famed tristan chordthis appropriation 19thcentury 19thcentury chords surely dagger heart megalomaniac bayreuth within first bars musical air filled suffocating victorian perfume later ionized relentless patter chords search fresher air flipped forward last item twelve popular songs written mrs hemans composed sister published london edition chappells musical magazine probably around 1850 collection suffered attrition first page eleventh song unmoored gathering thread remains first piece glory landing pilgrim fathers poem first appeared 1826 shortlived poet published first volume early blossoms fifteen song also huge favorite american 19thcentury musical culmination many plymouth landing commemoration least annual celebrations new england society astor house new york born browne liverpool irish father 1793 financial reverses absconded america future poet seven years old perhaps surprising daughters famous poem envision america never saw hemans unlucky men older ones ran awayfirst father husband victorian musicologist journalist organist edward rimbault puts short biographical notice opens chappells musical magazine dedicated hemans poems set sister mrs gray year publication poetesss first book unfortunately future happiness met captain hemans 4th regiment lately returned spanish service attachment three years married 1812 five years five sons hemans left italy avowedly benefit health rimbault writes bitter irony never returned england felicia hemans moved sister like many generation equipped skills allowed set sisters poetry music living household hemans wrote landing pilgrim fathers spite circumstances continued write poetry met praised wordsworth scott others published several volumes poetry 1830 moved dublin died thirtyseven 1835 though felicia hemans never left british isles poem pilgrims still memorizedand often sungby american school children middle 20th century like many romantics expert imagining landscapes never saw setting sister begins without piano introduction voice singing first note rising fourth sung alone medias resthe pilgrims sea trying come ashore breaking waves dashd high stern rockbound coast martial keys major big rolled chords piano crashing pickup mood resolute triumphant even manner haydns heavens telling like good english girls early 19thcentury browne sisters knew haydn staple bourgeois refinement london triumphs 1790s continued celebrity music choral societies drawing rooms long rhyme poems first two lines made woods stormy sky giant branches tossd musical sister introduced roiling righthand arpeggios evoke threatening elements tempestuousness great composer evidence harmonies move major predictably intermediate chords major cadence sonorities dogging rhyme scheme music gestures grandly parlor sublime poem later try tell us martial music resounds battlefield heroics poet attempts cast landing search religious freedom new lands people subdue crashing chords tell us otherwise conqueror comes truehearted come roll stirring drums trumpet sings fame composing sister resist painting images piano accompaniment flourishes ratatattat drums clarion call final piano interlude bugle calls listen music legions god search freedom seen armed simply belief though poet insists quest worldly riches spiritual payoff sought thus afar bright jewels mine wealth seas spoils war sought faiths pure shrine ay call holy ground soil first trod left unstained found freedom worship god last line descends high octave final cadence traversing modest range piece one calibrated talents ambitions amateur singers mighty arrival god like canon blast silences thoughts earthly vicissitude personal aggrandizement back still early years 21st century gather around piano belt ballad daughters church dragged along father motherboth organists even limited experience recognize idiom protestant hymn given bit florid filigree mrs gray try best amused trying cant help enjoying frivolity piece serious generations singers music something missing daughters note indians id discovered earlier week hemans original poem begins epigram american william cullen bryants epic ages found setting twelve popular songs mrs hemans look abroad another race filld populous borderswide wood recedes towns shoot fertile realms tilld land full harvests green meadows vision america behind rhetoric religious freedom ethnic cleansing deforestation prelude urban sprawl dont tell daughters epigram know thanskgiving backstory already give song another go head back kitchen baste turkey david yearsley teaches cornell university author bach meanings counterpointhis latest cd cares beguile songs sonatas baroque london released musica omnia reached dgy2cornelledu | 856 |
<p>Don’t be fooled by their dark robes and serious demeanors: some judges are rebels. Their acts of insubordination may be quiet ones, but they still shake the foundations of the judicial hierarchy.</p>
<p>If strict obedience to the Supreme Court’s rulings is the best measure of judicial docility, then there is reason to view the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit as the country’s most rebellious appellate tribunal. In case after case, the Ninth Circuit is reversed by the Supreme Court, often by a unanimous vote.</p>
<p>But even by Ninth Circuit standards, an unpublished decision issued a few weeks ago is worthy of note. In a case involving California’s harsh “three strikes” sentencing law, under which defendants face mandatory life imprisonment, two judges expressed passionate disagreement with the applicable Supreme Court precedents.</p>
<p>One of the two, Judge Stephen Reinhardt, said that were it not for the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the California law, he would have voted to deny the prosecutor’s motion for summary disposition of the case. “I believe the sentence is both unconscionable and unconstitutional,” he explained.</p>
<p>The other, Judge Harry Pregerson, took a more overtly defiant approach. “In good conscience,” he wrote, “I can’t vote to go along with the sentence imposed in this case.”</p>
<p>While neither judge directly dissented from the panel’s decision –Judge Reinhardt concurred and Judge Pregerson said that he was writing separately –their reluctance to follow binding Supreme Court precedent was clear. Their actions were not terribly rebellious, in the end, but their views certainly were.</p>
<p>“The Supreme Court Has Erred”</p>
<p>Some judges have been far less cautious in challenging what is, in their view, wrongly decided Supreme Court precedent. In fact, Judges Pregerson and Reinhardt come off as rather timid compared to an Alabama judge who, in 1983, refused to strike down a school prayer law.</p>
<p>That judge, explaining the ruling, put the matter bluntly. As he proclaimed, with no false modesty, “[t]his Court’s independent review of the relevant historical documents and its reading of the scholarly analysis convinces it that the United States Supreme Court has erred in its reading of history.”</p>
<p>The rebellious judge’s decision was reversed on appeal, highlighting one of the main pitfalls of the defiant approach: it doesn’t get you very far. Any debate between a lower court and its hierarchical superior is inherently unequal. The lower court can appeal to logic, reason, common sense, interpretative canons, and constitutional doctrine, but the higher court’s preferences can still carry the day.</p>
<p>Vertical Stare Decisis</p>
<p>The lower courts’ duty to abide by Supreme Court precedent falls within the doctrine of stare decisis. Given the perceived weakening of stare decisis in recent decades, it is important to distinguish between the doctrine’s two forms: first, the respect a court owes to its own prior decisions, and second, the respect a lower court owes to the decisions of courts above it in the judicial hierarchy.</p>
<p>The first kind of stare decisis, sometimes referred to as “horizontal” stare decisis, has been the more prominent of the two, both in the case law and in academic commentary. There has been much debate over just what degree of deference the doctrine should command, but generally its binding force is understood as akin to a strong presumption, rather than to an inflexible rule of decision.</p>
<p>The duty imposed by “vertical” stare decisis, as the second form of the doctrine is called, is generally acknowledged to be stronger. Few commentators question the lower courts’ obligation to follow the rulings of higher courts; indeed, not even the most vociferous critics of stare decisis in its horizontal form take this position. In contrast to the flexibility usually recognized under the horizontal form of the doctrine, the duty prescribed by vertical stare decisis is frequently referred to as “absolute.”</p>
<p>“Unless We Wish Anarchy to Prevail”</p>
<p>In Hutto v. Davis, a 1982 case, the Supreme Court endorsed a robust view of vertical stare decisis. Warning of the perils of lower court disobedience, the Court conveyed an almost apocalyptic vision of confusion and disarray. As it explained: “unless we wish anarchy to prevail within the federal judicial system, a precedent of this Court must be followed by the lower federal courts no matter how misguided the judges of those courts may think it to be.”</p>
<p>Most foreign judges would be amused at these remarks. In civil law jurisdictions –that is, in most European and Latin American countries –there is a very different conception of the judicial function. In theory, the comprehensive legal codes used in such jurisdictions avoid the need for judicial interpretation –or the exercise of judicial discretion –and thus it is unnecessary for one judge’s interpretation to bind future judges.</p>
<p>In many countries, therefore, judges routinely flout the contrary precedents of higher courts. Indeed, the absence of a vertical principle of stare decisis is vividly illustrated by the response of one Italian trial judge who attended a lecture on courts in the United States. Hearing a defense of stare decisis, he exclaimed, with considerable outrage: “My independence as a judge would be completely undermined if I had to follow the decisions of the court of appeals.”</p>
<p>As the Italian judge implies, our system of law would not break down without strict judicial obedience to the rulings of higher courts. Its nature would, however, be changed if the principle of vertical stare decisis were to be accorded less deference.</p>
<p>The civil law understanding of judicial independence elevates the autonomy of individual judges at the expense of the judiciary’s strength as an institution. The principle of stare decisis constrains individual lower court judges but in doing so, it shifts power to the Supreme Court and the judiciary as a body. It turns a mass of uncoordinated decisionmakers into a coherent whole: a branch of government capable of speaking with one voice.</p>
<p>Certainly school desegregation would never have been accomplished, or probably even attempted, without a strong vertical stare decisis principle to keep recalcitrant lower court judges in line.</p>
<p>The Limits to Judicial Obedience</p>
<p>Yet even if one acknowledges that, in general, lower courts should follow the ruling of higher courts, the question remains: does this principle have limits?</p>
<p>If a Supreme Court ruling is clearly, unequivocally wrong –if it is an offense against the Constitution –should the lower courts apply it without demur? If the Court were to hold that black is white, up is down, and the Second Amendment protects an individual right to an AK-47, must lower court judges obediently follow suit?</p>
<p>Without attempting to answer these questions here, I’ll simply note that they hinge on the same interpretative issues, discussed by Professor Akhil Amar and Professor Vik Amar in a series of prior FindLaw columns, that relate to horizontal stare decisis. The fundamental question is to what extent stare decisis, in both its vertical and horizontal forms, is constitutionally mandated, and to what extent a judge’s direct understanding of the Constitution should take precedence.</p>
<p>I’ll also note, finally, that questions of vertical stare decisis are likely to become more prominent as the Supreme Court swings further to the right, assuming that the composition of the lower courts does not change with equal speed. If the Bush administration succeeds in appointing a bevy of extremely right-wing justices to the Court –Scalia junior and Thomas redux –many of us may hope that Judges Reinhardt and Pregerson begin to take a stronger stand.</p>
<p>JOANNE MARINER is a human rights attorney and regular CounterPunch contributor. She is the author of <a href="http://store.yahoo.com/hrwpubs/noesmalrapin.html" type="external">No Escape: Male Rape in US Prisons</a> published by Human Rights Watch. An earlier version of this piece appeared in <a href="http://writ.news.findlaw.com/" type="external">FindLaw’s Writ</a>. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | true | 4 | dont fooled dark robes serious demeanors judges rebels acts insubordination may quiet ones still shake foundations judicial hierarchy strict obedience supreme courts rulings best measure judicial docility reason view us court appeals ninth circuit countrys rebellious appellate tribunal case case ninth circuit reversed supreme court often unanimous vote even ninth circuit standards unpublished decision issued weeks ago worthy note case involving californias harsh three strikes sentencing law defendants face mandatory life imprisonment two judges expressed passionate disagreement applicable supreme court precedents one two judge stephen reinhardt said supreme courts recent decision uphold california law would voted deny prosecutors motion summary disposition case believe sentence unconscionable unconstitutional explained judge harry pregerson took overtly defiant approach good conscience wrote cant vote go along sentence imposed case neither judge directly dissented panels decision judge reinhardt concurred judge pregerson said writing separately reluctance follow binding supreme court precedent clear actions terribly rebellious end views certainly supreme court erred judges far less cautious challenging view wrongly decided supreme court precedent fact judges pregerson reinhardt come rather timid compared alabama judge 1983 refused strike school prayer law judge explaining ruling put matter bluntly proclaimed false modesty courts independent review relevant historical documents reading scholarly analysis convinces united states supreme court erred reading history rebellious judges decision reversed appeal highlighting one main pitfalls defiant approach doesnt get far debate lower court hierarchical superior inherently unequal lower court appeal logic reason common sense interpretative canons constitutional doctrine higher courts preferences still carry day vertical stare decisis lower courts duty abide supreme court precedent falls within doctrine stare decisis given perceived weakening stare decisis recent decades important distinguish doctrines two forms first respect court owes prior decisions second respect lower court owes decisions courts judicial hierarchy first kind stare decisis sometimes referred horizontal stare decisis prominent two case law academic commentary much debate degree deference doctrine command generally binding force understood akin strong presumption rather inflexible rule decision duty imposed vertical stare decisis second form doctrine called generally acknowledged stronger commentators question lower courts obligation follow rulings higher courts indeed even vociferous critics stare decisis horizontal form take position contrast flexibility usually recognized horizontal form doctrine duty prescribed vertical stare decisis frequently referred absolute unless wish anarchy prevail hutto v davis 1982 case supreme court endorsed robust view vertical stare decisis warning perils lower court disobedience court conveyed almost apocalyptic vision confusion disarray explained unless wish anarchy prevail within federal judicial system precedent court must followed lower federal courts matter misguided judges courts may think foreign judges would amused remarks civil law jurisdictions european latin american countries different conception judicial function theory comprehensive legal codes used jurisdictions avoid need judicial interpretation exercise judicial discretion thus unnecessary one judges interpretation bind future judges many countries therefore judges routinely flout contrary precedents higher courts indeed absence vertical principle stare decisis vividly illustrated response one italian trial judge attended lecture courts united states hearing defense stare decisis exclaimed considerable outrage independence judge would completely undermined follow decisions court appeals italian judge implies system law would break without strict judicial obedience rulings higher courts nature would however changed principle vertical stare decisis accorded less deference civil law understanding judicial independence elevates autonomy individual judges expense judiciarys strength institution principle stare decisis constrains individual lower court judges shifts power supreme court judiciary body turns mass uncoordinated decisionmakers coherent whole branch government capable speaking one voice certainly school desegregation would never accomplished probably even attempted without strong vertical stare decisis principle keep recalcitrant lower court judges line limits judicial obedience yet even one acknowledges general lower courts follow ruling higher courts question remains principle limits supreme court ruling clearly unequivocally wrong offense constitution lower courts apply without demur court hold black white second amendment protects individual right ak47 must lower court judges obediently follow suit without attempting answer questions ill simply note hinge interpretative issues discussed professor akhil amar professor vik amar series prior findlaw columns relate horizontal stare decisis fundamental question extent stare decisis vertical horizontal forms constitutionally mandated extent judges direct understanding constitution take precedence ill also note finally questions vertical stare decisis likely become prominent supreme court swings right assuming composition lower courts change equal speed bush administration succeeds appointing bevy extremely rightwing justices court scalia junior thomas redux many us may hope judges reinhardt pregerson begin take stronger stand joanne mariner human rights attorney regular counterpunch contributor author escape male rape us prisons published human rights watch earlier version piece appeared findlaws writ reached marinercounterpunchorg | 744 |
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<p>Photo by Julián Ortega Martínez | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p />
<p>As it expanded operations, El Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia’s La Guajira department threatened the survival of nearby Wayúu indigenous people. Many now are malnourished and children have died. Imperialism and the way it works bear most of the responsibility.</p>
<p>The stage for humanitarian disaster was already set. The Wayúu, who make up 45 percent of the Guajira population, are vulnerable: in 2012, 87.7% of jobs there were in the <a href="" type="internal">informal sector</a>, and 60% of workers received less than the legal minimum wage. Unemployment in La Guajira is 47 percent, and more than half the people there live <a href="https://psmag.com/climate-change-is-threatening-to-exterminate-the-way%C3%BAu-people-e79a1c7d33c4#.ijn6hg7wo" type="external">in poverty</a>; 25 percent, in extreme poverty.&#160; Some 15,000 school – age Wayúu children aren’t <a href="https://colombiaplural.com/la-zona-rosa-bogota-se-imaginan-la-guajira/" type="external">attending school</a> this year. Social services are weak, notably health care.</p>
<p>Wayúu people living inland have relied on subsistence farming. Despite an arid climate, water and land were available and <a href="https://colombiaplural.com/la-zona-rosa-bogota-se-imaginan-la-guajira/" type="external">food sovereignty</a> was maintained. As the mine grew and land was reserved for future expansion, farmers lost land. London activist Richard <a href="" type="internal">Solly reports</a> that in 1960, “104,963 hectares of the department [were] suitable for agriculture; but in 2001 only 30,752 hectares were under cultivation and in 2008 much less.”</p>
<p>There is also the Wayúu people’s hulking neighbor. El Cerrejón, 35 miles long, is the world’s largest open-pit coal mine. Exporting 32 million tons of coal annually, the mining company owns a 93 mile – long railroad and a deep-water seaport. It’s Colombia’s largest privately-owned export company. Three multi – national corporations share ownership.</p>
<p>They are: BHP Billiton (Australia), which, operating in 100 locations in 25 countries, extracts iron ore, oil, coal, and diamonds; Anglo-American (South Africa) which mines coal, iron ore, and copper in South Africa, Australia, and the Western Hemisphere; and Glencore (Switzerland), the tenth largest corporation in the world, producing 90 commodities. Profits of the three in 2016 were: <a href="" type="internal">$3.2 billion</a> (July through December), <a href="" type="internal">$1.59 billion</a>, and <a href="http://today.moneyweb.co.za/article?id=727634#.WLJDyGeQz3g" type="external">$3.67 billion</a>, respectively.</p>
<p>El Cerrejón has abused nearby Wayúu communities. Beginning in 2001, in the context of Cerrejón’s take-over of new land, bulldozers <a href="" type="internal">destroyed Wayúu</a>villages. Cerrejón has <a href="" type="internal">ravaged</a> over 30,000 acres of forest.</p>
<p>The company acted to ensure water for mine operations. After 2010, dams appeared across the Ranchería River and some tributaries to divert flow to the mine. These provided most of the people’s water. &#160;Since then – and drought has intervened – twelve rivers have disappeared or almost so, crops are no longer irrigated, farm animals are dying, and only <a href="https://colombiaplural.com/la-zona-rosa-bogota-se-imaginan-la-guajira/" type="external">0.7 liters</a> per capita of untreated water are available each day for drinking.</p>
<p>The diversion allows Cerrejón to remove <a href="https://colombiaplural.com/la-zona-rosa-bogota-se-imaginan-la-guajira/" type="external">17 million liters</a> every day from the river system. Toxins exuding from mine wastage contaminate water remaining in the streams.</p>
<p>According to one report in 2016, “around <a href="" type="internal">27% of children</a> under five are suffering from malnutrition,” According to another that year, “more than <a href="" type="internal">4770 children</a> of this indigenous community have died over eight years due to malnourishment and a lack of drinking water.” In 2016, <a href="http://prensa-latina.cu/index.php?o=rn&amp;id=65584&amp;SEO=analizaran-situacion-de-region-colombiana-castigada-por-la-hambruna" type="external">36 mothers</a> died of malnutrition.&#160; The data may underestimate the damage; government record keepers overlook the deaths of many Wayúu infants.&#160; The Colombian pediatric society, summarizing, says that, “an indigenous child [in La Guajira] has a 24 times greater risk of dying than children elsewhere in <a href="https://colombiaplural.com/la-zona-rosa-bogota-se-imaginan-la-guajira/" type="external">the country</a>.”</p>
<p>The Colombian government stays away. In Bogota, says one observer, “they have no idea of La Guajira, there’s laxity in understanding it, studying it, respecting it.” A socially-conscious physician writes of “abandonment by the state, violent stealing of resources, and institutional and <a href="https://colombiaplural.com/la-zona-rosa-bogota-se-imaginan-la-guajira/" type="external">political crisis</a>.”</p>
<p>Even if departmental and national governments were so inclined, funds generated from taxation or royalties from coal mining don’t suffice to bankroll social spending in La Guajira. Formerly 85 percent of the royalties derived from mineral extraction ended up in the department where operations took place; now “only <a href="" type="internal">9.3 percent</a> of the royalties come to the producing department.” Cerrejón benefits from a concession exempting the company from taxation until 2034. Royalties are paid, but since 2009 they’ve <a href="" type="internal">barely exceeded</a> the value of government subsidies to the company.</p>
<p>Rampant corruption within the La Guajira government sidelines help from that quarter.&#160; Reportedly, funds sent by the national government to help pay for schooling, health care, water, and food rarely leave the local government’s offices, or are wasted on costs tagged as administrative. Cerrejón allegedly <a href="https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/glencore/" type="external">bribes officials</a>. The department’s own development plan for 2016 – 2019 rejected official statistics on grounds of under-reporting, adding that, “you can’t govern anything you know <a href="https://colombiaplural.com/la-zona-rosa-bogota-se-imaginan-la-guajira/" type="external">nothing about</a>.”</p>
<p>Departmental governor Wilmer González Brito recently went to prison for buying votes. In 2013 authorities arrested his predecessor, Juan Francisco Gómez Cerchar, while in office. He had been a paramilitary and narco-trafficking operative. Charged with six murders, he is serving a 55 year jail sentence.</p>
<p>The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has insisted on “precautionary measures.” Its recommendations in late 2015 dealt with malnutrition in babies and children; others a year later, with malnutrition afflicting pregnant women and lactating mothers.</p>
<p>The national government announced it will be managing “health, education, and drinkable water resources” in La Guajira for three years. President Juan Manuel Santos denied that a “state <a href="" type="internal">of exception</a>” – or emergency – existed. Colombia’s Constitutional Court recently sent inspectors to La Guajira; they avoided southern regions of the department where suffering is concentrated. The Council of State in December, 2016 stopped the diversion of Bruno Stream, a tributary of the Ranchería River.</p>
<p>Conclusions are in order. First, a powerful company is laying waste to the very weak, with state collusion. Worldwide, there’s a long history: rapacious individuals and commercial entities set forth from centers of wealth and power to plunder distant territories. Hallmarks of imperialism – that’s the name – are: free rein for capitalist imperatives, concentrated wealth, and bias that marginalized peoples don’t matter.</p>
<p>Two, apologists for this system predominate in Colombia’s government and among ruling circles there. They presumably accept Cerrejón’s successful pursuit of imperialist goals and tolerate Wayúu suffering.&#160; Civil war in Colombia between the government and leftist insurgents may be ending, but the kind of war typified by the fate of the Wayúu is not. What happens to powerless, abandoned people like them isn’t on the official agenda for peace in Colombia.</p>
<p>Three, the U.S. government for decades has backed Colombia in its internal war. To suppose a creative response from there to suffering and human – rights violations in Colombia would be wishful thinking. The upper levels of U.S. society readily accept the U.S. role of protector and protagonist of the imperialist project. Their government stays solid with the status quo in Colombia.</p> | true | 4 | photo julián ortega martínez cc 20 expanded operations el cerrejón coal mine colombias la guajira department threatened survival nearby wayúu indigenous people many malnourished children died imperialism way works bear responsibility stage humanitarian disaster already set wayúu make 45 percent guajira population vulnerable 2012 877 jobs informal sector 60 workers received less legal minimum wage unemployment la guajira 47 percent half people live poverty 25 percent extreme poverty160 15000 school age wayúu children arent attending school year social services weak notably health care wayúu people living inland relied subsistence farming despite arid climate water land available food sovereignty maintained mine grew land reserved future expansion farmers lost land london activist richard solly reports 1960 104963 hectares department suitable agriculture 2001 30752 hectares cultivation 2008 much less also wayúu peoples hulking neighbor el cerrejón 35 miles long worlds largest openpit coal mine exporting 32 million tons coal annually mining company owns 93 mile long railroad deepwater seaport colombias largest privatelyowned export company three multi national corporations share ownership bhp billiton australia operating 100 locations 25 countries extracts iron ore oil coal diamonds angloamerican south africa mines coal iron ore copper south africa australia western hemisphere glencore switzerland tenth largest corporation world producing 90 commodities profits three 2016 32 billion july december 159 billion 367 billion respectively el cerrejón abused nearby wayúu communities beginning 2001 context cerrejóns takeover new land bulldozers destroyed wayúuvillages cerrejón ravaged 30000 acres forest company acted ensure water mine operations 2010 dams appeared across ranchería river tributaries divert flow mine provided peoples water 160since drought intervened twelve rivers disappeared almost crops longer irrigated farm animals dying 07 liters per capita untreated water available day drinking diversion allows cerrejón remove 17 million liters every day river system toxins exuding mine wastage contaminate water remaining streams according one report 2016 around 27 children five suffering malnutrition according another year 4770 children indigenous community died eight years due malnourishment lack drinking water 2016 36 mothers died malnutrition160 data may underestimate damage government record keepers overlook deaths many wayúu infants160 colombian pediatric society summarizing says indigenous child la guajira 24 times greater risk dying children elsewhere country colombian government stays away bogota says one observer idea la guajira theres laxity understanding studying respecting sociallyconscious physician writes abandonment state violent stealing resources institutional political crisis even departmental national governments inclined funds generated taxation royalties coal mining dont suffice bankroll social spending la guajira formerly 85 percent royalties derived mineral extraction ended department operations took place 93 percent royalties come producing department cerrejón benefits concession exempting company taxation 2034 royalties paid since 2009 theyve barely exceeded value government subsidies company rampant corruption within la guajira government sidelines help quarter160 reportedly funds sent national government help pay schooling health care water food rarely leave local governments offices wasted costs tagged administrative cerrejón allegedly bribes officials departments development plan 2016 2019 rejected official statistics grounds underreporting adding cant govern anything know nothing departmental governor wilmer gonzález brito recently went prison buying votes 2013 authorities arrested predecessor juan francisco gómez cerchar office paramilitary narcotrafficking operative charged six murders serving 55 year jail sentence interamerican commission human rights insisted precautionary measures recommendations late 2015 dealt malnutrition babies children others year later malnutrition afflicting pregnant women lactating mothers national government announced managing health education drinkable water resources la guajira three years president juan manuel santos denied state exception emergency existed colombias constitutional court recently sent inspectors la guajira avoided southern regions department suffering concentrated council state december 2016 stopped diversion bruno stream tributary ranchería river conclusions order first powerful company laying waste weak state collusion worldwide theres long history rapacious individuals commercial entities set forth centers wealth power plunder distant territories hallmarks imperialism thats name free rein capitalist imperatives concentrated wealth bias marginalized peoples dont matter two apologists system predominate colombias government among ruling circles presumably accept cerrejóns successful pursuit imperialist goals tolerate wayúu suffering160 civil war colombia government leftist insurgents may ending kind war typified fate wayúu happens powerless abandoned people like isnt official agenda peace colombia three us government decades backed colombia internal war suppose creative response suffering human rights violations colombia would wishful thinking upper levels us society readily accept us role protector protagonist imperialist project government stays solid status quo colombia | 706 |
<p>“Perhaps life is not the black, unutterably beautiful, mysterious and lonely thing the creative artist tends to think of it as being; but it is certainly not the sunlit playpen in which so many Americans lose first their identities and then their minds.”&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;</p>
<p>— James Baldwin, Mass Culture and the Creative Artist</p>
<p>[speaking of ‘the black river of dissolution’]”That’s what we&#160; never take into count – that it rolls onwards.”&#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160; &#160;</p>
<p>—&#160;D.H. Lawrence, Women In Love</p>
<p>‘”The one thing of value in the world,” says Emerson, “is the active soul; this every man contains within him.&#160; The soul active sees the absolute truth and utters truth and creates.”&#160; In other words, the individual instinct is the thing of value in the world.&#160; It is the true soul that sees and creates the truth alive, out of which is to come a still greater truth, the reborn social soul.”’</p>
<p>— Emma Goldman,&#160; Anarchism: What It Really Stands For</p>
<p>“What’s Poetry if it isn’t something that has to fight for the unseen against the seen, for the dead against the living, for the mysterious against the obvious?&#160; Poetry always takes sides.&#160; It’s the only Lost Cause we’ve got left!&#160; It fights for the….for the Impossible!”</p>
<p>— Lady Rachel to her poet lover in J.C. Powys,&#160; A Glastonbury Romance</p>
<p>Our young friend Will, back in Utica for a visit,&#160; following a session of reading poems with his poetry buddies on our deck, spoke of an idea he’d had recently.&#160; Like me a melancholic, Will struggles with being in this world in which those who value learning, who participate in thinking and ideas as essential human activities, are so marginalized.&#160; He has difficulty with the fact that we are a subjected people who behave as if we’re okay with a world that was getting uglier and meaner every day even before the ascent of Trump.&#160; His words, having come at that point in the evening after some beers had been enjoyed, plus a few sips of bourbon, had that fluid sound of people speaking directly from the well of their spirit.&#160; Saying this, I do not mean to romanticize alcohol, which someone called the “writer’s black lung.”&#160; For some of us the wine allows easier access not to a glib tongue but to one that feels – and sounds –&#160; akin to the deeper and more poetic realm of certainty that can barely exist, let alone be shared in a world&#160; that more and more blatantly resembles D.H. Lawrence’s darkened view of civilization.</p>
<p>Will referred to a poem he’d written comparing our times to the Byzantine era, when it was left to scribes in monasteries to preserve the accumulated cultural wisdom of Roman civilization.&#160; Suddenly I, who had been on the periphery of the little gathering of poets, and not connected to it, felt the world enlarge to include me.&#160; I recalled a couple of weekends ago when poet, writer and former environmental activist Paul Kingsnorth, had brought our weekend retreat to a conclusion with the prediction that it may become necessary, in the Dark Ages ahead, to preserve human knowledge in an intentional way, as the Irish monasteries did during the medieval centuries. &#160;Hearing Will, I felt once again as if I were in a shared world that sees the catastrophe, no longer in the prevalent one of&#160; hedging, pretending, avoiding, distracting, substance abusing, screen watching, Trump watching, Hillary-hating, etc., in order not to see where we are; the extremely defensive reality in which I – and I presume others –&#160; am excessively isolated.&#160; I would venture that much of the behavior around me these days is dictated by fear, more than by the enticement and joy of texting, or by following major league baseball, or than even by sex.&#160; I would venture further to say that few people, even those most heavily engaged in the distractions, feel at home in that world.&#160; The unwanted fact of our alienation is, our common lot, our shared pain; paradoxically it is our means of knowing we are “all one” and not as it often seems, permanently isolated, incapable of reunion or reconciliation with one another.&#160;&#160; But to publicly acknowledge that fact is another matter.</p>
<p>To get to that point of confessing our alienation in the consensus environment, the ‘elephant in the living room,’ is not simple, including for me. Last week an outsider, a visionary city planning consultant who was speaking in Utica, told us our city, with its many empty lots and boarded up buildings looks like cities in Europe post-WWII that had been heavily bombed.&#160; Ouch! He was right; but we never talk about this and clearly are not supposed to notice. The pull to be part of the bubbling stream of social discourse flowing on, seemingly regardless of the actual conditions, is too strong, the difficulty of making one’s way down into the caverns where the truth dwells too unsocial an activity to take on in the usual social contexts.&#160; This difficulty in holding to darker truth when one is feeling the demand to respond in the given conversation on its terms, (and the lack of opportunities for deeper honesty) are crucial to the continued pseudo-vitality of neoliberalism.&#160; The monstrous development that has changed traditional liberalism into blood-soaked neoliberalism depends upon that conditioned tendency to avoid darker truth at any cost.&#160; Equally, it benefits from the fact that&#160; this ‘elephant’ has its own wiles and guiles.</p>
<p>Our habit, conditioned over many centuries and pointed out by Lawrence and other prophetic writers and poets, of insisting on a bright, progressive, ever upward and improving reality, the “sunlit playpen,” as James Baldwin called it, effectively excludes the dark reality that is equally real.</p>
<p>The gathering I attended in early June with&#160; Dark Mountain Project co-founder Paul Kingsnorth, was explicitly for the purpose of addressing the “deep cultural roots” of our global environmental crisis, to get us to begin the work of changing the narratives our civilization bequeaths us.&#160; He told us an old European folk tale in which exiled truth, in the form of a serpent, returns to wreak death and destruction in the kingdom.&#160; Even at that conference premised upon dark truth (i.e., our civilization is killing the planet and traditional activism, including electoral politics, now is a waste of time), where, so to speak,&#160; elephant pie was on the menu,&#160; the communal feeling remained elusive; neither elephant&#160; nor serpent appeared at the table.</p>
<p>While some of us can still think clearly – if any can, living in these times when the falcon is out of earshot of the falconer – it seems to me that exactly what must be grappled with is that which we have for so long, by convention, agreed to treat as if it were not there.&#160; Over time, refusal to see outside our dominant frame of reference, be it capitalism or&#160; “whiteness” or “American exceptionalism”as some have called it, has crippled our own humanity; it has become standard equipment, a permanent and lethal handicap.&#160; The 99%&#160; will fail to meaningfully challenge the plutocracy if we cannot recognize our common plight, a plight which&#160; has both its interior, imaginative (and personally terrifying) dimension as well as its outer, shared-world, mutually terrifying dimension.&#160; To complicate matters further,&#160; having lost the container which religion provided for our imagination, our fear is healthy and justified; without such an imagination-based container, raw reality – the revelations of apocalypse – would likely be too disturbing to handle.</p>
<p>For all that Americans easily consign our puritan heritage to the ash heap of baneful human ideas, puritanism, unlike the liberalizing religious trends that followed it, took the dark side of human nature seriously. (See The Witch for corroboration of this!) Throwing off the Puritans was good for some things ( for example, the fact that we no longer have to worry that the terrible violence we commit in the world is sin, because there’s no such thing!…)&#160; but America – to our great loss in consciousness – never again obtained a common public language for speaking of the dark side of our nature – and of divine nature – as real.</p>
<p>The little Temenos group that gathers twice a month at The Other Side around my talks has, without any real ritual, become a communal space in which it is safe to acknowledge darker reality. Last week I received a note from one attender that said: I always walk away from your talks feeling less alone.&#160; The group is self-selecting; no one comes who is committed to the ‘sunlit playpen’ because I pointedly mention&#160; dark reality in every notice.&#160; My “preaching,” like that of the Puritans, insists on including the dark aspect of the larger spiritual reality, what Jung called the dark side of God or the still evolving God-image.&#160;&#160; I take for granted that spirit is real, and that its imaginative reality becomes real only in elucidating the darkness repudiated by sunlight strivers.&#160;&#160; Exactly at the place where I confront “what I do not want to know about,” “what terrifies me or I cannot bear to know about” is the point wherein the soul’s imaginative capacity kicks in; where the soul’s ability to read the signs like a native tracker in the deep forest of his familiar element is precisely what is needed.&#160; One would be extremely unwise to attempt the crossing without the aid of religion, or art or of initiated healers.&#160; But if we fail to make the attempt, if we fail to connect with both spiritual reality (anathema to religophobes) and&#160; death’s reality, if we do not find the&#160; poetic sensibility, there is only neoliberalism and its unexamined complacency, further descent into barbarity, and further estrangement from our humanity.</p>
<p>Being presented with the truth&#160; by going to alternative websites will not alter this fact.&#160; Pointing to the elephant so obviously right there will not do it. Only Emerson’s ‘active soul,’ its seeing, uttering and creating, will do it.</p>
<p>I write this piece on Emma Goldman’s birthday, June 27. To me it is fitting to be questioning the isolated condition of our existence, which EG fought against throughout her life by standing up for exactly those who’d fallen through the cracks of the society’s limited capacity to care&#160; for one another.&#160; She blamed not people for this, but government and authority.&#160; Today, the anarchist ideal is still the best proposal out there, in my view; it’s the shape the ‘elephant’ would take if it were allowed to express its positive nature in political terms.&#160;&#160; Behind what we most fear and what appears most dangerous to us is what we most want, a world based in mutual trust, mutual recognition, in which each is allowed to follow his/her “individual instinct” – different and free….Impossible!</p> | true | 4 | perhaps life black unutterably beautiful mysterious lonely thing creative artist tends think certainly sunlit playpen many americans lose first identities minds160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 james baldwin mass culture creative artist speaking black river dissolutionthats we160 never take count rolls onwards160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160dh lawrence women love one thing value world says emerson active soul every man contains within him160 soul active sees absolute truth utters truth creates160 words individual instinct thing value world160 true soul sees creates truth alive come still greater truth reborn social soul emma goldman160 anarchism really stands whats poetry isnt something fight unseen seen dead living mysterious obvious160 poetry always takes sides160 lost cause weve got left160 fights thefor impossible lady rachel poet lover jc powys160 glastonbury romance young friend back utica visit160 following session reading poems poetry buddies deck spoke idea hed recently160 like melancholic struggles world value learning participate thinking ideas essential human activities marginalized160 difficulty fact subjected people behave okay world getting uglier meaner every day even ascent trump160 words come point evening beers enjoyed plus sips bourbon fluid sound people speaking directly well spirit160 saying mean romanticize alcohol someone called writers black lung160 us wine allows easier access glib tongue one feels sounds 160 akin deeper poetic realm certainty barely exist let alone shared world160 blatantly resembles dh lawrences darkened view civilization referred poem hed written comparing times byzantine era left scribes monasteries preserve accumulated cultural wisdom roman civilization160 suddenly periphery little gathering poets connected felt world enlarge include me160 recalled couple weekends ago poet writer former environmental activist paul kingsnorth brought weekend retreat conclusion prediction may become necessary dark ages ahead preserve human knowledge intentional way irish monasteries medieval centuries 160hearing felt shared world sees catastrophe longer prevalent one of160 hedging pretending avoiding distracting substance abusing screen watching trump watching hillaryhating etc order see extremely defensive reality presume others 160 excessively isolated160 would venture much behavior around days dictated fear enticement joy texting following major league baseball even sex160 would venture say people even heavily engaged distractions feel home world160 unwanted fact alienation common lot shared pain paradoxically means knowing one often seems permanently isolated incapable reunion reconciliation one another160160 publicly acknowledge fact another matter get point confessing alienation consensus environment elephant living room simple including last week outsider visionary city planning consultant speaking utica told us city many empty lots boarded buildings looks like cities europe postwwii heavily bombed160 ouch right never talk clearly supposed notice pull part bubbling stream social discourse flowing seemingly regardless actual conditions strong difficulty making ones way caverns truth dwells unsocial activity take usual social contexts160 difficulty holding darker truth one feeling demand respond given conversation terms lack opportunities deeper honesty crucial continued pseudovitality neoliberalism160 monstrous development changed traditional liberalism bloodsoaked neoliberalism depends upon conditioned tendency avoid darker truth cost160 equally benefits fact that160 elephant wiles guiles habit conditioned many centuries pointed lawrence prophetic writers poets insisting bright progressive ever upward improving reality sunlit playpen james baldwin called effectively excludes dark reality equally real gathering attended early june with160 dark mountain project cofounder paul kingsnorth explicitly purpose addressing deep cultural roots global environmental crisis get us begin work changing narratives civilization bequeaths us160 told us old european folk tale exiled truth form serpent returns wreak death destruction kingdom160 even conference premised upon dark truth ie civilization killing planet traditional activism including electoral politics waste time speak160 elephant pie menu160 communal feeling remained elusive neither elephant160 serpent appeared table us still think clearly living times falcon earshot falconer seems exactly must grappled long convention agreed treat there160 time refusal see outside dominant frame reference capitalism or160 whiteness american exceptionalismas called crippled humanity become standard equipment permanent lethal handicap160 99160 fail meaningfully challenge plutocracy recognize common plight plight which160 interior imaginative personally terrifying dimension well outer sharedworld mutually terrifying dimension160 complicate matters further160 lost container religion provided imagination fear healthy justified without imaginationbased container raw reality revelations apocalypse would likely disturbing handle americans easily consign puritan heritage ash heap baneful human ideas puritanism unlike liberalizing religious trends followed took dark side human nature seriously see witch corroboration throwing puritans good things example fact longer worry terrible violence commit world sin theres thing160 america great loss consciousness never obtained common public language speaking dark side nature divine nature real little temenos group gathers twice month side around talks without real ritual become communal space safe acknowledge darker reality last week received note one attender said always walk away talks feeling less alone160 group selfselecting one comes committed sunlit playpen pointedly mention160 dark reality every notice160 preaching like puritans insists including dark aspect larger spiritual reality jung called dark side god still evolving godimage160160 take granted spirit real imaginative reality becomes real elucidating darkness repudiated sunlight strivers160160 exactly place confront want know terrifies bear know point wherein souls imaginative capacity kicks souls ability read signs like native tracker deep forest familiar element precisely needed160 one would extremely unwise attempt crossing without aid religion art initiated healers160 fail make attempt fail connect spiritual reality anathema religophobes and160 deaths reality find the160 poetic sensibility neoliberalism unexamined complacency descent barbarity estrangement humanity presented truth160 going alternative websites alter fact160 pointing elephant obviously right emersons active soul seeing uttering creating write piece emma goldmans birthday june 27 fitting questioning isolated condition existence eg fought throughout life standing exactly whod fallen cracks societys limited capacity care160 one another160 blamed people government authority160 today anarchist ideal still best proposal view shape elephant would take allowed express positive nature political terms160160 behind fear appears dangerous us want world based mutual trust mutual recognition allowed follow hisher individual instinct different freeimpossible | 1,052 |
<p />
<p>Preamble:&#160;Among the elements of the weak form of democracy enshrined in the constitution, presidential elections continue to pose a dilemma for the left in that any form of participation or non participation appears to impose a significant cost on our capacity to develop a serious opposition to the corporate agenda served by establishment politicians. The position outlined below is that which many regard as the most effective response to this quadrennial Hobson’s choice, namely the so-called “lesser evil” voting strategy or LEV. Simply put, LEV involves, where you can, i.e. in safe states, voting for the losing third party candidate you prefer, or not voting at all. in competitive “swing” states, where you must, one votes for the “lesser evil” Democrat.</p>
<p>Before fielding objections, it will be useful to make certain background stipulations with respect to the points below. The first is to note that since changes in the relevant facts require changes in tactics, proposals having to do with our relationship to the “electoral extravaganza” should be regarded as provisional. This is most relevant with respect to point 3) which some will challenge by citing the claim that Clinton’s foreign policy could pose a more serious menace than that of Trump.</p>
<p>In any case, while conceding as an outside possibility that Trump’s foreign policy is preferable, most of us not already convinced that that is so will need more evidence than can be aired in a discussion involving this statement. Furthermore, insofar as this is the fact of the matter, following the logic through seems to require a vote for Trump, though it’s a bit hard to know whether those making this suggestion are intending it seriously.</p>
<p>Another point of disagreement is not factual but involves the ethical/moral principle addressed in 1), sometimes referred to as the “politics of moral witness.” Generally associated with the religious left, secular leftists implicitly invoke it when they reject LEV on the grounds that “a lesser of two evils is still evil.” Leaving aside the obvious rejoinder that this is exactly the point of lesser evil voting-i.e. to do less evil, what needs to be challenged is the assumption that voting should be seen a form of individual self-expression rather than as an act to be judged on its likely consequences, specifically those outlined in 4). The basic moral principle at stake is simple: not only must we take responsibility for our actions, but the consequences of our actions for others are a far more important consideration than feeling good about ourselves.</p>
<p>While some would suggest extending the critique by noting that the politics of moral witness can become indistinguishable from narcissistic self-agrandizement, this is substantially more harsh than what was intended and harsher than what is merited. That said, those reflexively denouncing advocates of LEV on a supposed “moral” basis should consider that their footing on the high ground may not be as secure as they often take for granted to be the case.</p>
<p>A third criticism of LEV equates it with a passive acquiescence to the bipartisan status quo under the guise of pragmatism, usually deriving from those who have lost the appetite for radical change. It is surely the case that some of those endorsing LEV are doing so in bad faith-cynical functionaries whose objective is to promote capitulation to a system which they are invested in protecting. Others supporting LEV, however, can hardly be reasonably accused of having made their peace with the establishment. Their concern, as alluded to in 6) and 7) inheres in the awareness that frivolous and poorly considered electoral decisions impose a cost, their memories extending to the ultra-left faction of the peace movement having minimized the comparative dangers of the Nixon presidency during the 1968 elections. The result was six years of senseless death and destruction in Southeast Asia and also a predictable fracture of the left setting it up for its ultimate collapse during the backlash decades to follow.</p>
<p>The broader lesson to be drawn is not to shy away from confronting the dominance of the political system under the management of the two major parties. Rather, challenges to it need to be issued with a full awareness of their possible consequences. This includes the recognition that far right victories not only impose terrible suffering on the most vulnerable segments of society but also function as a powerful weapon in the hands of the establishment center, which, now in opposition can posture as the “reasonable” alternative. A Trump presidency, should it materialize, will undermine the burgeoning movement centered around the Sanders campaign, particularly if it is perceived as having minimized the dangers posed by the far right.</p>
<p>A more general conclusion to be derived from this recognition is that this sort of cost/benefit strategic accounting is fundamental to any politics which is serious about radical change. Those on the left who ignore it, or dismiss it as irrelevant are engaging in political fantasy and are an obstacle to, rather than ally of, the movement which now seems to be materializing.</p>
<p>Finally, it should be understood that the reigning doctrinal system recognizes the role presidential elections perform in diverting the left from actions which have the potential to be effective in advancing its agenda. These include developing organizations committed to extra-political means, most notably street protest, but also competing for office in potentially winnable races. The left should devote the minimum of time necessary to exercise the LEV choice then immediately return to pursuing goals which are not timed to the national electoral cycle.</p>
<p>*****</p>
<p>1) Voting should not be viewed as a form of personal self-expression or moral judgement directed in retaliation towards major party candidates who fail to reflect our values, or of a corrupt system designed to limit choices to those acceptable to corporate elites.</p>
<p>2) The exclusive consequence of the act of voting in 2016 will be (if in a contested “swing state”) to marginally increase or decrease the chance of one of the major party candidates winning.</p>
<p>3) One of these candidates, Trump, denies the existence of global warming, calls for increasing use of fossil fuels, dismantling of environmental regulations and refuses assistance to India and other developing nations as called for in the Paris agreement, the combination of which could, in four years, take us to a catastrophic tipping point. Trump has also pledged to deport 11 million Mexican immigrants, offered to provide for the defense of supporters who have assaulted African American protestors at his rallies, stated his “openness to using nuclear weapons”, supports a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. and regards “the police in this country as absolutely mistreated and misunderstood” while having “done an unbelievable job of keeping law and order.” Trump has also pledged to increase military spending while cutting taxes on the rich, hence shredding what remains of the social welfare “safety net” despite pretenses.</p>
<p>4) The suffering which these and other similarly extremist policies and attitudes will impose on marginalized and already oppressed populations has a high probability of being significantly greater than that which will result from a Clinton presidency.</p>
<p>5) 4) should constitute sufficient basis to voting for Clinton where a vote is potentially consequential-namely, in a contested, “swing” state.</p>
<p>6) However, the left should also recognize that, should Trump win based on its failure to support Clinton, it will repeatedly face the accusation (based in fact), that it lacks concern for those sure to be most victimized by a Trump administration.</p>
<p>7) Often this charge will emanate from establishment operatives who will use it as a bad faith justification for defeating challenges to corporate hegemony either in the Democratic Party or outside of it. They will ensure that it will be widely circulated in mainstream media channels with the result that many of those who would otherwise be sympathetic to a left challenge will find it a convincing reason to maintain their ties with the political establishment rather than breaking with it, as they must.</p>
<p>8) Conclusion: by dismissing a “lesser evil” electoral logic and thereby increasing the potential for Clinton’s defeat the left will undermine what should be at the core of what it claims to be attempting to achieve.</p>
<p>[This article originally appeared on John Halle's blog, <a href="http://johnhalle.com/outragesandinterludes/?p=1065" type="external">Outrages and Interludes</a>.]</p>
<p><a href="/filter/tips" type="external">More information about formatting options</a></p> | true | 4 | preamble160among elements weak form democracy enshrined constitution presidential elections continue pose dilemma left form participation non participation appears impose significant cost capacity develop serious opposition corporate agenda served establishment politicians position outlined many regard effective response quadrennial hobsons choice namely socalled lesser evil voting strategy lev simply put lev involves ie safe states voting losing third party candidate prefer voting competitive swing states must one votes lesser evil democrat fielding objections useful make certain background stipulations respect points first note since changes relevant facts require changes tactics proposals relationship electoral extravaganza regarded provisional relevant respect point 3 challenge citing claim clintons foreign policy could pose serious menace trump case conceding outside possibility trumps foreign policy preferable us already convinced need evidence aired discussion involving statement furthermore insofar fact matter following logic seems require vote trump though bit hard know whether making suggestion intending seriously another point disagreement factual involves ethicalmoral principle addressed 1 sometimes referred politics moral witness generally associated religious left secular leftists implicitly invoke reject lev grounds lesser two evils still evil leaving aside obvious rejoinder exactly point lesser evil votingie less evil needs challenged assumption voting seen form individual selfexpression rather act judged likely consequences specifically outlined 4 basic moral principle stake simple must take responsibility actions consequences actions others far important consideration feeling good would suggest extending critique noting politics moral witness become indistinguishable narcissistic selfagrandizement substantially harsh intended harsher merited said reflexively denouncing advocates lev supposed moral basis consider footing high ground may secure often take granted case third criticism lev equates passive acquiescence bipartisan status quo guise pragmatism usually deriving lost appetite radical change surely case endorsing lev bad faithcynical functionaries whose objective promote capitulation system invested protecting others supporting lev however hardly reasonably accused made peace establishment concern alluded 6 7 inheres awareness frivolous poorly considered electoral decisions impose cost memories extending ultraleft faction peace movement minimized comparative dangers nixon presidency 1968 elections result six years senseless death destruction southeast asia also predictable fracture left setting ultimate collapse backlash decades follow broader lesson drawn shy away confronting dominance political system management two major parties rather challenges need issued full awareness possible consequences includes recognition far right victories impose terrible suffering vulnerable segments society also function powerful weapon hands establishment center opposition posture reasonable alternative trump presidency materialize undermine burgeoning movement centered around sanders campaign particularly perceived minimized dangers posed far right general conclusion derived recognition sort costbenefit strategic accounting fundamental politics serious radical change left ignore dismiss irrelevant engaging political fantasy obstacle rather ally movement seems materializing finally understood reigning doctrinal system recognizes role presidential elections perform diverting left actions potential effective advancing agenda include developing organizations committed extrapolitical means notably street protest also competing office potentially winnable races left devote minimum time necessary exercise lev choice immediately return pursuing goals timed national electoral cycle 1 voting viewed form personal selfexpression moral judgement directed retaliation towards major party candidates fail reflect values corrupt system designed limit choices acceptable corporate elites 2 exclusive consequence act voting 2016 contested swing state marginally increase decrease chance one major party candidates winning 3 one candidates trump denies existence global warming calls increasing use fossil fuels dismantling environmental regulations refuses assistance india developing nations called paris agreement combination could four years take us catastrophic tipping point trump also pledged deport 11 million mexican immigrants offered provide defense supporters assaulted african american protestors rallies stated openness using nuclear weapons supports ban muslims entering us regards police country absolutely mistreated misunderstood done unbelievable job keeping law order trump also pledged increase military spending cutting taxes rich hence shredding remains social welfare safety net despite pretenses 4 suffering similarly extremist policies attitudes impose marginalized already oppressed populations high probability significantly greater result clinton presidency 5 4 constitute sufficient basis voting clinton vote potentially consequentialnamely contested swing state 6 however left also recognize trump win based failure support clinton repeatedly face accusation based fact lacks concern sure victimized trump administration 7 often charge emanate establishment operatives use bad faith justification defeating challenges corporate hegemony either democratic party outside ensure widely circulated mainstream media channels result many would otherwise sympathetic left challenge find convincing reason maintain ties political establishment rather breaking must 8 conclusion dismissing lesser evil electoral logic thereby increasing potential clintons defeat left undermine core claims attempting achieve article originally appeared john halles blog outrages interludes information formatting options | 728 |
<p>Remarks at 3/20 Burlington, VT Anti-War Rally</p>
<p>Brothers and sisters we rally and march this weekend to rebuild the resistance to empire. Bush, with the near unanimous support of the Democratic Party, lied us into this war and occupation</p>
<p>They lied about weapons of mass destruction. They lied about links between Saddam and Al Qeada! They lied about Iraq being a threat to the United States. Based on lies, they have murdered over 100,000 Iraqis, tortured countless people in the jails of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and laid waste to the infrastructure of Iraq. They have spent billions of our dollars and sacrificed over 1,500 working class soldiers on this conquest.</p>
<p>But across the world this weekend we march to say enough is enough. We will not stand for any more blood spilt for these lies. Mr. Bush, we demand that the US bring the troops home, not on some distant day, but now, today, so that Iraq can be free.</p>
<p>We the forces of the anti-war movement are the vast majority of the world, the majority of the United States and the majority of Vermonters. 59% of Americans want an end to the occupation. Vermont shocked the nation with our resolutions against the war and occupation! Here in Burlington, we voted two to one to bring the troops home now! In the words of the Christian Science Monitor, our town meetings were a revolt against war and occupation.</p>
<p>Faced with mass popular opposition to occupation, Bush has manufactured yet another lie-that the US aims to bring democracy to Iraq and the Mideast. Just as they have for the last five years, the media and the Democrats have accepted and repeated this new lie. Even Ted Kennedy said Bush deserves support for bringing democracy to the Mideast. The stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming.</p>
<p>In reality, the US has been the main supporter of dictatorships in Mideast for the last fifty years. It has backed the Shah of Iran, the Saudi Monarchy, Egypt’s dictatorship, Saddam Hussein himself, and of course the Israeli occupation of Palestine. A leopard does not change its spots. The US cares nothing for democracy; it supports regimes that agree to its terms and overthrows those that disagree whether they are democratic or autocratic. The US values obedience not democracy.</p>
<p>Remember, just a year ago, the US staged a coup in Haiti against the democratically elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide. They have twice tried to topple Venezuela’s democratically elected government of Hugo Chavez. But the worst of the hypocrisy is really in the Mideast. Against the wishes of the majority of the planet, Bush violated democracy by invading Iraq. He denied Iraqi’s right to self-determination by occupying the country, building 14 permanent military bases, and asserting US control over the country’s economy. This is not liberation or democratization; it is conquest.</p>
<p>The recent election itself was a farce, part of a long American tradition of staging demonstration elections throughout the world over the last one hundred years. The US aimed to give a democratic veneer to its permanent occupation of Iraq. The Bush administration even recognizes that you cannot have free and fair election under an occupation. Listen to what they said about Lebanon having elections during the Syrian Occupation. One of Bush spokespersons declared “How fair an election can Lebanon hold if the troops are there to intimidate voters, people running for election, or people now in office?”</p>
<p>What applies to Lebanon applies to Iraq. The US did not want elections and only held them under pressure from Ayatollah Sistani and the popular resistance in Iraq. The US delayed them for a year, cut deals with all parties that ran, who now support the continued occupation. They bought the parties off. So while the Iraqis who did vote thought they could use the election to kick the US out of Iraq, the opposite has turned out the be the case.</p>
<p>The new rigged government will support the occupation. Already regular Iraqi’s are figuring it out. Walid Mohammed told the New York Times that the new government does not think, “about what the Iraqi people need. They all work for the occupier. Whatever America wants that is what will happen in the end.”</p>
<p>The US is no more serious about democracy in the rest of the region. It is using the rhetoric of democracy to justify its plans to violate democracy by overthrowing regimes in Iran and Syria. Meanwhile it does not support democracy in Saudi Arabia where if elections were held the regime would be booted out of office. It also supports Israel and its undemocratic and illegal occupation of Palestine. We are in a weird Orwellian World-black is white, night is day, democracy is occupation.</p>
<p>We must reject this lie of democratization as we have all the others. The US fought this war to control the Mideast’s oil reserves and thereby the entire world system. Its ambitions were imperialist. Remember that the first name they came up with for the invasion of Iraq was Operation Iraqi Liberation. They only changed it after they figured out the acronym spelled OIL!</p>
<p>The US aims to control the region’s governments, seize its oil reserves, and thereby dominate it competitors like the European Union, China, and Japan who are all dependent of Mideast oil. The US assisted by its hit man, Israel, is planning to overthrow governments in Iran and Syria to prosecute these aims.</p>
<p>In fact, the entire war on terror is a smokescreen for similar ambitions throughout the world. The US intervened in Afghanistan to assert its control over the natural gas and oil reserves in the Caspian Sea. It wanted to make sure that it would control these and not Russia or China. The US is using its massive military arsenal to reorganize the world system in the interests of its corporations.</p>
<p>That’s why we must demand the immediate end to US interventions and occupations around the world from Iraq to Afghanistan and Haiti. As founder of Iraq Veterans against the War, Mike Hoffman stated, “to those who say we can’t cut and run, let’s be clear. The military can’t fix the problem. We are the problem.”</p>
<p>Far from benefiting from this imperial war, we the workers and oppressed of the United States are paying an enormous price. Martin Luther King said during the 1960s, “the bombs dropped in Vietnam explode at home.” What was true then is even more true today.</p>
<p>At the same time that Bush and the Democrats are spending billions on imperial war and occupation, they are slashing funding for unemployment benefits, education, social programs like Medicaid and Medicare, and now even threatening to destroy Social Security.</p>
<p>They have also shredded our civil liberties and civil rights with the Patriot Act. Worst of all, they have launched a racist witch-hunt against Arabs and Muslims. They have rounded up, detained, and deported thousands of Arabs across the country.</p>
<p>In the universities, the right wing has initiated a neo-McCarthyite attack on Arab professors, attempting to squelch the voices of dissent against US policy in the Middle East. They have used Ward Churchill’s statements about 9/11 to justify trying to fire him and launch an attack on professors at Colombia, Northeastern, and several other campuses. We must stand up and defend academic freedom, the first amendment, freedom of speech, the right to dissent, and especially the rights of Arabs and Muslims. We must demand money for jobs and education not for war and occupation.</p>
<p>Our government’s war on the world and its war on us here at home have built up an untapped reserve of resistance. We have an enormous opportunity and responsibility to re-galvanize an international movement against US Empire.</p>
<p>We should learn from the past about how to organize our movement to win this time. The head of Veterans for Peace Dave Cline has said that three things ended the Vietnam War-the mass anti-war movement in the US, the soldier’s resistance inside the American military, and the Vietnamese people’s fight for liberation.</p>
<p>It was not the Democratic Party, which was the architect of the war. We should learn this lesson. The Democrats are again on the side of war and occupation again today. They voted for the war, $81 billion to fund the occupation, the Patriot Act, the Intelligence Bill, Bush’s cabinet and on and on.</p>
<p>Over the last year, we compromised and demobilized our movement to get behind the pro-war campaign of John Kerry. We must not make that mistake again. Instead of hoping against reality that Democratic Party will be our ally, we must help organize the three forces that can end the occupation of Iraq.</p>
<p>Already, the Iraqi people have built an enormous popular resistance to the occupation demanding their right to self-determination. That resistance has actually bogged down the US military, prevented Bush from launching more wars and occupation, and thereby saved countless lives. It is the democratic expression of Iraqi’s fight for control of their country.</p>
<p>We see the beginnings of resistance inside the US war machine through Military Families Speak Out and Iraq Veterans against the War. Pablo Paredes and other soldiers have refused to fight for the empire. We have to support this resistance in order to paralyze the war machine.</p>
<p>What is lacking is our popular resistance in the streets, communities and workplaces of the US. We have to tap into the majority support for bringing the troops home now to re-galvanize our struggle. We need to rebuild local struggles. We can take inspiration from the counter-recruitment campaign on campuses and high schools across the country. They are exposing the lies of the recruiters and preventing them from hoodwinking working class students into becoming cannon fodder for empire. We need local actions of this sort everywhere.</p>
<p>At the same time we need to galvanize this local activism with mass marches on the centers of power to demand an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. The combined struggle of such a renewed mass movement in the US, soldiers resistance inside the military, and the Iraqi resistance will end the US occupation of Iraq and prevent further US interventions.</p>
<p>This international struggle is the real movement for democracy and liberation throughout the world. Bush is what hypocrisy looks like; we are what democracy looks like. Now is the time to fight for an immediate end to the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Haiti. Now is the time to fight for the US to pay war reparations to Iraq so that Iraqis can rebuild their own society. Now is the time to fight for social programs, jobs and civil liberties here at home.</p>
<p>It is time to rebuild our popular resistance against US imperialism and lay the foundations for a new society. Bring the troops home now! Iraq for Iraqis! Another world is possible, necessary, and we have to rebuild our mass movement to fight for it!</p>
<p>ASHLEY SMITH can be reached at <a href="" type="internal">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | remarks 320 burlington vt antiwar rally brothers sisters rally march weekend rebuild resistance empire bush near unanimous support democratic party lied us war occupation lied weapons mass destruction lied links saddam al qeada lied iraq threat united states based lies murdered 100000 iraqis tortured countless people jails abu ghraib guantanamo laid waste infrastructure iraq spent billions dollars sacrificed 1500 working class soldiers conquest across world weekend march say enough enough stand blood spilt lies mr bush demand us bring troops home distant day today iraq free forces antiwar movement vast majority world majority united states majority vermonters 59 americans want end occupation vermont shocked nation resolutions war occupation burlington voted two one bring troops home words christian science monitor town meetings revolt war occupation faced mass popular opposition occupation bush manufactured yet another liethat us aims bring democracy iraq mideast last five years media democrats accepted repeated new lie even ted kennedy said bush deserves support bringing democracy mideast stench hypocrisy overwhelming reality us main supporter dictatorships mideast last fifty years backed shah iran saudi monarchy egypts dictatorship saddam hussein course israeli occupation palestine leopard change spots us cares nothing democracy supports regimes agree terms overthrows disagree whether democratic autocratic us values obedience democracy remember year ago us staged coup haiti democratically elected government jean bertrand aristide twice tried topple venezuelas democratically elected government hugo chavez worst hypocrisy really mideast wishes majority planet bush violated democracy invading iraq denied iraqis right selfdetermination occupying country building 14 permanent military bases asserting us control countrys economy liberation democratization conquest recent election farce part long american tradition staging demonstration elections throughout world last one hundred years us aimed give democratic veneer permanent occupation iraq bush administration even recognizes free fair election occupation listen said lebanon elections syrian occupation one bush spokespersons declared fair election lebanon hold troops intimidate voters people running election people office applies lebanon applies iraq us want elections held pressure ayatollah sistani popular resistance iraq us delayed year cut deals parties ran support continued occupation bought parties iraqis vote thought could use election kick us iraq opposite turned case new rigged government support occupation already regular iraqis figuring walid mohammed told new york times new government think iraqi people need work occupier whatever america wants happen end us serious democracy rest region using rhetoric democracy justify plans violate democracy overthrowing regimes iran syria meanwhile support democracy saudi arabia elections held regime would booted office also supports israel undemocratic illegal occupation palestine weird orwellian worldblack white night day democracy occupation must reject lie democratization others us fought war control mideasts oil reserves thereby entire world system ambitions imperialist remember first name came invasion iraq operation iraqi liberation changed figured acronym spelled oil us aims control regions governments seize oil reserves thereby dominate competitors like european union china japan dependent mideast oil us assisted hit man israel planning overthrow governments iran syria prosecute aims fact entire war terror smokescreen similar ambitions throughout world us intervened afghanistan assert control natural gas oil reserves caspian sea wanted make sure would control russia china us using massive military arsenal reorganize world system interests corporations thats must demand immediate end us interventions occupations around world iraq afghanistan haiti founder iraq veterans war mike hoffman stated say cant cut run lets clear military cant fix problem problem far benefiting imperial war workers oppressed united states paying enormous price martin luther king said 1960s bombs dropped vietnam explode home true even true today time bush democrats spending billions imperial war occupation slashing funding unemployment benefits education social programs like medicaid medicare even threatening destroy social security also shredded civil liberties civil rights patriot act worst launched racist witchhunt arabs muslims rounded detained deported thousands arabs across country universities right wing initiated neomccarthyite attack arab professors attempting squelch voices dissent us policy middle east used ward churchills statements 911 justify trying fire launch attack professors colombia northeastern several campuses must stand defend academic freedom first amendment freedom speech right dissent especially rights arabs muslims must demand money jobs education war occupation governments war world war us home built untapped reserve resistance enormous opportunity responsibility regalvanize international movement us empire learn past organize movement win time head veterans peace dave cline said three things ended vietnam warthe mass antiwar movement us soldiers resistance inside american military vietnamese peoples fight liberation democratic party architect war learn lesson democrats side war occupation today voted war 81 billion fund occupation patriot act intelligence bill bushs cabinet last year compromised demobilized movement get behind prowar campaign john kerry must make mistake instead hoping reality democratic party ally must help organize three forces end occupation iraq already iraqi people built enormous popular resistance occupation demanding right selfdetermination resistance actually bogged us military prevented bush launching wars occupation thereby saved countless lives democratic expression iraqis fight control country see beginnings resistance inside us war machine military families speak iraq veterans war pablo paredes soldiers refused fight empire support resistance order paralyze war machine lacking popular resistance streets communities workplaces us tap majority support bringing troops home regalvanize struggle need rebuild local struggles take inspiration counterrecruitment campaign campuses high schools across country exposing lies recruiters preventing hoodwinking working class students becoming cannon fodder empire need local actions sort everywhere time need galvanize local activism mass marches centers power demand immediate end occupation iraq combined struggle renewed mass movement us soldiers resistance inside military iraqi resistance end us occupation iraq prevent us interventions international struggle real movement democracy liberation throughout world bush hypocrisy looks like democracy looks like time fight immediate end occupations iraq afghanistan palestine haiti time fight us pay war reparations iraq iraqis rebuild society time fight social programs jobs civil liberties home time rebuild popular resistance us imperialism lay foundations new society bring troops home iraq iraqis another world possible necessary rebuild mass movement fight ashley smith reached ashley05401yahoocom 160 160 160 160 160 | 979 |
<p>Liberals want to know how to win elections. Recently, you’ve heard a lot more of a clever but dangerous proposition about how to form a coalition of moderate Christians free from the claws of the radical right fringe cult. The proposition runs thus: we want progressives to work with moderates to build a more powerful political coalition, so we must jettison gay marriage and abortion from the political agenda.</p>
<p>I should know, because I’ve argued for that position myself. In the autumn of last year, I was working with a gay seminarian friend, and we had reached the same conclusion: gay marriage was not going to be one of the items in our political lobby. Poverty, yes; prison reform, yes; fair trade and foreign relations, absolutely: but gay marriage was too divisive, too narrow, and too domestic an issue to touch.</p>
<p>Maybe we also felt, secretly, that the gay marriage debate was going to be won without us: that the courts were acting in a fashion amenable to civil rights, that the rest of American culture was committed to a practical level of civic pluralism even if our government was not; that in any case, popular culture was so far ahead of the church in accepting gay relationships, that the church could only follow once enough of its older members, wary of Ellen and Boy George, died off.</p>
<p>So while we separated our political crusade from our concern for gay marriage, we felt that this was no betrayal of gay rights. I come from a family of gay rights activists within the church, and my friend is seeking ordination in a church suspicious of his orientation. We both felt extremely committed towards lobbying for gay marriage — not just blessing but marriage — within our churches. Privately and at church, we cited Melanchthon and Luther about the use of marriage not just to produce children but to care for the souls of the individuals; we saw marriage in a committed relationship before God and a community as serving that function, regardless of the gender of the individuals involved.</p>
<p>We shied away from gay marriage for practical reasons. We saw case after case where this issue, raised in the media, gave way to the most limp and meaningless discussion of marriage. Some say progressive theologians don’t have their theology worked out yet. Some say that progressives in general aren’t skilled enough in discussing their point of view in pithy terms without hemorrhaging emotionality. Some say the religious right’s sound-bites are too strong an ammunition for us. Some say that divisions within the churches cripple convicted clergy on the left from speaking their own mind. Some say that the tolerant are actually a minority in this country. Some say that tolerance is a majority virtue, but never has a chance in the world of mainstream media.</p>
<p>My experience carrying forward the banner of “progressive values without discussion of sexuality” made me change my mind. I got into a lot of bloody arguments — often from moderates I hadn’t expected it from, even more often from close friends and respected clergy who felt a duty to challenge me. Those who have fought for gay rights have felt betrayed time and again by the Democratic Party and other liberal organizations that count on their vote (because liberals are better than the opposition), and then, once in power, turned Judas on their supporters. There’s a great deal of righteous anger amongst gay rights supporters. There’s a great deal of appropriate suspicion among liberals towards any self-professed moderate who’s unwilling to touch gay marriage.</p>
<p>To me, there is no question about the appropriateness of gay marriage or gay relationships within the church. To me, the foes of gay marriage run dangerously close to advocating a kind of marriage in which I, as a woman, would play the role of subservient to my husband. If gender is so essential that commitment, love, Godliness, and community are insufficient to marriage without the appropriate gendering of one man and one woman, the only correct marriage must be one in which women act as traditional women. Traditional women are, as we know, deferent laboratories for producing infants, not permitted to be ordained.</p>
<p>Jesus and his apostles overturned that notion of gender long ago: there is neither man nor woman in Christ. Amongst the early Christians of the first centuries of the church, women acted as ministers and took more active roles than they had under Jewish law. When he told Christian women that they should not commit suicide just because their husband had died, Augustine advocated the independent salvation and purpose of the Christian woman in a fashion utterly radical to his pagan, Roman context.</p>
<p>As a Christian, I have no metaphysical use for gender. The salvation my church teaches comes between one individual and Christ: a Christian woman is a woman who has found out all her callings–domestic, professional, political, romantic, and social–and acts with full liberty, confidence, and discernment in each of them according to the products of her direct and ongoing conversation with God, not the pre-packaged marriage instructions of a local sewing circle.</p>
<p>When he went undercover amongst a cabal of billionaire right-wing Jesus freaks, journalist Jeff Sharlet gave a good picture of the way this minority has defaced the Christian understanding of gender by adulterating it with something more like the gospel of Liz Claiborne:</p>
<p>They wore red lipstick and long skirts (makeup and “feminine” attire were required) and had, after several months of cleaning and serving in The Cedars while the brothers worked outside, become quite unimpressed by the high-powered clientele. “Girls don’t sit in on the breakfasts,” one of them told me, though she said that none of them minded because it was “just politics.”</p>
<p>As Progressives, we may understand that individuals in our world are gendered, and we may make use of institutions that help them to function spiritually and ethically within this world. We don’t insist that women are only free if they stop shaving their legs or shave their hair; we understand that there are a thousand different feminisms, and that women as individuals pursue paths as diverse as men do. But gender and gendered living are necessary to neither our salvation nor to Christian living, and so they *cannot* be necessary to participating in marriage as a Christian sacrament (amongst Catholic churches) or Christian ceremony (amongst Protestant churches).</p>
<p>When my brothers and sisters in Jesus kicked the girls out of the politics meeting, they betrayed the Christian heritage, culture, and God. Their actions take on all the more significance when considered in light of international events. Gay Nigerian Christians have had their first meeting ever; a sign of hope to some and naivete to others. But the British media reports that the Nigerians just sound “scared.” They sound scared because they have dared to discuss their sexuality openly in a culture that deems the openly gay unfit to live. I don’t need to remind our readers of other societies where girl babies and widows are similarly deemed unfit to live.</p>
<p>In the great world of feudal corporate fiefdoms and third-world dictatorships, the woes of your individual lesbian couple in California might not matter much. But they do matter insofar as more powerful nations have, in realpolitik, the opportunity to influence the protection of human rights the world over.</p>
<p>Gay marriage in a small town in Idaho may not be our issue: getting mired by throwing Bible verses back and forth is not the way any of us should spend our precious time on the radio and tv waves. When we look at questions of liberty for political, social, religious, and economic action for people of every gender and sexuality, the United States and Britain make statements about freedoms appropriate for all people, whether they choose them or not.</p>
<p>Poor families in Pakistan and Nigeria and South Carolina can choose traditional relationships, courtship, and ceremony wherever they wish, but in every democracy where the light of Christianity (or indeed the secular Enlightenment, which took many of its values) has shown, the state as the will of the majority has prevented husbands, clerics, and churches from curtailing the property rights, legal rights, or life of the individual.</p>
<p>Protestant Christianity has always witnessed on behalf of the laws that protect individual freedom in this way. Its theology has, in the past, pushed the government to act in ways ever more protective of individual freedoms.</p>
<p>Thus it is profoundly embarrassing and sad for the church to claim that it can’t take a position on gay rights because its theology will take a hundred years to develop, as Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams did recentlyLuther started us on the correct path five hundred years ago, and we have had a hundred years since Havelock Ellis and Freud to understand how basic different forms of sexuality are to basic human identity.</p>
<p>How queer that once we have to talk about what particular acts of sex a committed couple takes part in, godfearing Christians turn pale and run away. In being asked to defend gay marriage, Christians are merely called to the same questions of individual freedom and conscience before God, to which they have dedicated themselves individuals, as married couples, and as churches.</p>
<p>Let me be clear: many things are not at stake here. At stake is not whether I, as a defender of my brother’s freedoms, participate in them myself, am virginal or not, am married or not, wish to live in my brother’s company or not, consider his choices well-advised or not, or wish to discuss his sexual life. At stake is not whether the individual priest is perfectly convinced that two people will forever adhere to the vow of chastity and commitment that they have made in due seriousness before him, although he may counsel and advise them according to his impression of the individuals in question.</p>
<p>At stake in whether a church marries too people is certainly not whether the individual priest judges that the individuals before him are actually going to heaven: what priest refuses marriage to the drunk or gluttonous or hate-filled man who stands before him with a future bride?</p>
<p>At stake is only a precept of freedom about whether the individual’s rights will be curtailed on the basis of gender, a precept which has profound consequences for global freedoms in light of today’s issues. We believe in a God that builds communities and sustains individuals, and an oath of marriage between two people — any two people — is, if nothing else, a vow to build a community as individuals who have made a free choice before God.</p>
<p>For in facing the question of how sexual relations are understood before God, the churches of United States and Britain have the opportunity with their theology to make a profound statement in favor of *human* rights — including the fundamental right to life free from murder — against regimes that devalue life merely because of an individual’s gender.</p>
<p>For as dictatorships and corporate feudalism spread throughout Africa and South America, we stand on a precipice and look out at two futures. In one version, the discourse of women’s rights and gay rights are jettisoned, as we argue instead about the necessity of traditional polygamy to maintaining the chiefs of African villages, of Sati to maintaining the wealth system of northern India, and of man-woman marriage to something vaguely called “traditional morality” in North America. In such a future, girl children will be exposed on hillsides as they were in ancient pagan empires; villages will throw screaming widows into the funeral pyres of their husbands; a tiny minority of the world’s women will have legal rights over their property; the rest of the world’s women will be legally subject to rape by their husbands and left penniless in case of divorce.</p>
<p>Remember that such was the legal condition of women in the West until about a hundred and twenty years ago — until, that is, the age of Freud and Havelock Ellis and the modern understanding of human sexuality — and you will understand how fragile is our concept of rights regardless of gender. You will understand how liable traditional local laws are to triumph in court and practice over the gospel of human rights.</p>
<p>You will understand how, in the spectrum of legal protections, gay marriage is a direct continuation of our understanding that men are free to serve God, and women are free to serve God, and traditions that restrict their freedoms because of their gender go flatly against Jesus’s teachings. You will understand how discussion of gay marriage scares people away from realizing the peril in which their common values stand. You will see that, while Western Christians hesitate, the Christian-derived precept of human rights stands threatened the world over.</p>
<p>The other future before us is that path we were called to by Jesus, Paul, the early Christians, Augustine, Luther, and the progressives of nineteenth-century America. In this future, women the world over have the opportunity, if they desire it, to seek education, work, and political involvement. In this future, black and white marry — even if a community deems it inadvisable, the church still supports them. In this future, a woman and a woman can marry, as can a man and a man, if their fascination with each other is romantic and sustained; if their mutual intention is towards God, and if they find a Christian community — any Christian community — willing to support them.</p>
<p>In this future, the churches of America and Britain are a safe house and a nurturing family to the African who happens to be gay or the Chinese who happens to be a woman. In this future, the Christian message of individual discernment runs so strong that it inspires freely-discerning individuals around the world to make their cause with God and face the fallen world with courage.</p>
<p>Rowan Williams has also spoken recently about what it means when a church says it needs leaders. Most people, he says, when they ask for leaders merely ask people to parrot back their own opinions for them. Leaders are instead individuals capable of holding together a sometimes fragile alliance for the purposes of some greater good that all have agreed upon.</p>
<p>Let’s agree that the discussion of gay marriage in the American media has been fractious and confusing, especially to Christians and moderates. We can talk with them individually and in our communities. Church leaders will continue to huddle and argue about Bible verses.</p>
<p>But for political purposes, perhaps we can concede that the image of the altar, the procession, the wedding dress, the wedding ring, and the priest are so symbolically charged as to trouble people when the image is tweaked. Individuals of little experience find pictures of newlywed lesbians holding hands in San Francisco and Boston are visually jolting and confusing. Perhaps a good leader would spare them confusion, and direct them to a message that they can’t be confused about: the rights of those gay Christians in Nigeria not to be lynched.</p>
<p>JO GULDI is a historian at Berkeley. She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | liberals want know win elections recently youve heard lot clever dangerous proposition form coalition moderate christians free claws radical right fringe cult proposition runs thus want progressives work moderates build powerful political coalition must jettison gay marriage abortion political agenda know ive argued position autumn last year working gay seminarian friend reached conclusion gay marriage going one items political lobby poverty yes prison reform yes fair trade foreign relations absolutely gay marriage divisive narrow domestic issue touch maybe also felt secretly gay marriage debate going without us courts acting fashion amenable civil rights rest american culture committed practical level civic pluralism even government case popular culture far ahead church accepting gay relationships church could follow enough older members wary ellen boy george died separated political crusade concern gay marriage felt betrayal gay rights come family gay rights activists within church friend seeking ordination church suspicious orientation felt extremely committed towards lobbying gay marriage blessing marriage within churches privately church cited melanchthon luther use marriage produce children care souls individuals saw marriage committed relationship god community serving function regardless gender individuals involved shied away gay marriage practical reasons saw case case issue raised media gave way limp meaningless discussion marriage say progressive theologians dont theology worked yet say progressives general arent skilled enough discussing point view pithy terms without hemorrhaging emotionality say religious rights soundbites strong ammunition us say divisions within churches cripple convicted clergy left speaking mind say tolerant actually minority country say tolerance majority virtue never chance world mainstream media experience carrying forward banner progressive values without discussion sexuality made change mind got lot bloody arguments often moderates hadnt expected even often close friends respected clergy felt duty challenge fought gay rights felt betrayed time democratic party liberal organizations count vote liberals better opposition power turned judas supporters theres great deal righteous anger amongst gay rights supporters theres great deal appropriate suspicion among liberals towards selfprofessed moderate whos unwilling touch gay marriage question appropriateness gay marriage gay relationships within church foes gay marriage run dangerously close advocating kind marriage woman would play role subservient husband gender essential commitment love godliness community insufficient marriage without appropriate gendering one man one woman correct marriage must one women act traditional women traditional women know deferent laboratories producing infants permitted ordained jesus apostles overturned notion gender long ago neither man woman christ amongst early christians first centuries church women acted ministers took active roles jewish law told christian women commit suicide husband died augustine advocated independent salvation purpose christian woman fashion utterly radical pagan roman context christian metaphysical use gender salvation church teaches comes one individual christ christian woman woman found callingsdomestic professional political romantic socialand acts full liberty confidence discernment according products direct ongoing conversation god prepackaged marriage instructions local sewing circle went undercover amongst cabal billionaire rightwing jesus freaks journalist jeff sharlet gave good picture way minority defaced christian understanding gender adulterating something like gospel liz claiborne wore red lipstick long skirts makeup feminine attire required several months cleaning serving cedars brothers worked outside become quite unimpressed highpowered clientele girls dont sit breakfasts one told though said none minded politics progressives may understand individuals world gendered may make use institutions help function spiritually ethically within world dont insist women free stop shaving legs shave hair understand thousand different feminisms women individuals pursue paths diverse men gender gendered living necessary neither salvation christian living necessary participating marriage christian sacrament amongst catholic churches christian ceremony amongst protestant churches brothers sisters jesus kicked girls politics meeting betrayed christian heritage culture god actions take significance considered light international events gay nigerian christians first meeting ever sign hope naivete others british media reports nigerians sound scared sound scared dared discuss sexuality openly culture deems openly gay unfit live dont need remind readers societies girl babies widows similarly deemed unfit live great world feudal corporate fiefdoms thirdworld dictatorships woes individual lesbian couple california might matter much matter insofar powerful nations realpolitik opportunity influence protection human rights world gay marriage small town idaho may issue getting mired throwing bible verses back forth way us spend precious time radio tv waves look questions liberty political social religious economic action people every gender sexuality united states britain make statements freedoms appropriate people whether choose poor families pakistan nigeria south carolina choose traditional relationships courtship ceremony wherever wish every democracy light christianity indeed secular enlightenment took many values shown state majority prevented husbands clerics churches curtailing property rights legal rights life individual protestant christianity always witnessed behalf laws protect individual freedom way theology past pushed government act ways ever protective individual freedoms thus profoundly embarrassing sad church claim cant take position gay rights theology take hundred years develop archbishop canterbury rowan williams recentlyluther started us correct path five hundred years ago hundred years since havelock ellis freud understand basic different forms sexuality basic human identity queer talk particular acts sex committed couple takes part godfearing christians turn pale run away asked defend gay marriage christians merely called questions individual freedom conscience god dedicated individuals married couples churches let clear many things stake stake whether defender brothers freedoms participate virginal married wish live brothers company consider choices welladvised wish discuss sexual life stake whether individual priest perfectly convinced two people forever adhere vow chastity commitment made due seriousness although may counsel advise according impression individuals question stake whether church marries people certainly whether individual priest judges individuals actually going heaven priest refuses marriage drunk gluttonous hatefilled man stands future bride stake precept freedom whether individuals rights curtailed basis gender precept profound consequences global freedoms light todays issues believe god builds communities sustains individuals oath marriage two people two people nothing else vow build community individuals made free choice god facing question sexual relations understood god churches united states britain opportunity theology make profound statement favor human rights including fundamental right life free murder regimes devalue life merely individuals gender dictatorships corporate feudalism spread throughout africa south america stand precipice look two futures one version discourse womens rights gay rights jettisoned argue instead necessity traditional polygamy maintaining chiefs african villages sati maintaining wealth system northern india manwoman marriage something vaguely called traditional morality north america future girl children exposed hillsides ancient pagan empires villages throw screaming widows funeral pyres husbands tiny minority worlds women legal rights property rest worlds women legally subject rape husbands left penniless case divorce remember legal condition women west hundred twenty years ago age freud havelock ellis modern understanding human sexuality understand fragile concept rights regardless gender understand liable traditional local laws triumph court practice gospel human rights understand spectrum legal protections gay marriage direct continuation understanding men free serve god women free serve god traditions restrict freedoms gender go flatly jesuss teachings understand discussion gay marriage scares people away realizing peril common values stand see western christians hesitate christianderived precept human rights stands threatened world future us path called jesus paul early christians augustine luther progressives nineteenthcentury america future women world opportunity desire seek education work political involvement future black white marry even community deems inadvisable church still supports future woman woman marry man man fascination romantic sustained mutual intention towards god find christian community christian community willing support future churches america britain safe house nurturing family african happens gay chinese happens woman future christian message individual discernment runs strong inspires freelydiscerning individuals around world make cause god face fallen world courage rowan williams also spoken recently means church says needs leaders people says ask leaders merely ask people parrot back opinions leaders instead individuals capable holding together sometimes fragile alliance purposes greater good agreed upon lets agree discussion gay marriage american media fractious confusing especially christians moderates talk individually communities church leaders continue huddle argue bible verses political purposes perhaps concede image altar procession wedding dress wedding ring priest symbolically charged trouble people image tweaked individuals little experience find pictures newlywed lesbians holding hands san francisco boston visually jolting confusing perhaps good leader would spare confusion direct message cant confused rights gay christians nigeria lynched jo guldi historian berkeley reached guldiberkeleyedu 160 160 | 1,336 |
<p>It took a Texas jury only a day and a half to sock it to Merck on behalf of Carol Ernst, a widow whose 53-year-old Vioxx-taking husband died of a heart attack in 2001. Texas has a protect-the-corporations cap, so the $253 million award will be reduced to $26 million, which will then be appealed. Merck shares fell 8% on news of the verdict. Merck had chosen the venue, Angleton, Texas, in Tom Delay’s district, and the case, in which the autopsy listed the cause of death as irregular heartbeat. (Clinical trials had linked Vioxx to heart attacks, strokes and blood clots; irregular heartbeat can have other origins.) The jury saw right through Merck’s lies.</p>
<p>Merck killed 19 times as many Americans with Vioxx than the 9/11 hijackers did with their planes, according to David Graham, MD, of the FDA. And it was intentional. Early clinical trials had alerted Merck executives to the fact that Vioxx caused coronary damage. Their response was to exclude from future trials anyone with a history of heart trouble. Once Vioxx was on the market, Merck suppressed indications that it was causing strokes and heart attacks at twice the normal rate.</p>
<p>The jurors who found for Carol Ernst against Merck were speaking for the American people, who have become totally hip to the pharmaceutical companies in recent years. “Respect us, that’s the message,” a juror Derrick Chizer, told the media. “Respect us.” Forewoman Marsha Robbins said, “We expect accountability, we expect them to be open with us, we expect them to be honest with us.”</p>
<p>Marijuana is literally and figuratively an alternative to Vioxx. The medical marijuana movement has contributed -and could contribute much more- to exposing and discrediting the pharmaceutical industry. Doctors in the Society of Cannabis Clinicians report that a large percentage of their patients define their progress in terms of which pharmaceutical drugs they can do without (avoiding adverse side effects and, often, great expense). “How’s your back pain?” the doctor will ask. “I’m taking half as many Vicodin,” the patient will respond.</p>
<p>Dennis Peron’s famous line -“In a country where they give Prozac to shy teenagers, all marijuana use is medical”- was not some sophistry trick to achieve legalization, it was a putdown of the pharmaceutical industry and a challenge to the medical establishment and to a rightwing culture that “medicalizes” problems that are basically economic. Dennis had interviewed thousands of people seeking to use marijuana for medical reasons, and determined that they all had rationales as compelling as the rationale for prescribing SSRI antidepressants. For his brilliant and forward-moving generalization, Dennis took an endless ration of shit. To this day, in the high-level chatrooms, Dale Gieringer, Scott Imler and others bemoan Dennis’s line (truncating it, although they know better, to “all use is medical”).</p>
<p>If Gieringer, Ethan Nadelman and other second-rank movement leaders (no disrespect, the second rank is a high rank indeed) had not taken offense at Dennis’s line in ’96, if they had pondered and acted on its implications, maybe the public in 2005 would be giving the medical marijuana movement some credit for exposing Merck et al. as greed-driven manufacturers of dangerous drugs. And maybe the public would not be surprised by footage of seemingly able-bodied young men emerging from cannabis dispensaries But the second-rank leaders were in the process of taking over the leadership, and they acted as if Dennis Peron, that wild man, had outworn his usefulness. The pros from Dover were going to play by the rules from now now…</p>
<p>Dennis’s instinct was to break out of the single-issue trap. He had said all along he wanted Prop 215 to be a step towards something bigger -MUCH bigger than the “legalization” goal that the Drug Warriors accuse the medical-marijuana advocates of pursuing. “This isn’t about marijuana, this is about America, it’s about how we treat each other as people,” he kept saying during the Prop 215 campaign. After 215 passed he was in a double bind. He had built the prototype “buy-low, sell-high cannabis club model” but he didn’t see how that model could lead to social change.</p>
<p>2. Dispensaries Get P.R. Conscious</p>
<p>The following email was sent on behalf of the Drug Policy Alliance by Dale Giering of California NORML</p>
<p>SUPPORT NEEDED FOR SF MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES</p>
<p>The SF Board of Supervisors is being deluged with complaints against MMJ dispensaries through an organized campaign led by neighborhood activists. Their aim is to pressure the Board to push a tough anti-dispensary ordinance. In order to resist this effort, we need allies from outside the MJ community who are willing to speak up in favor of the clubs. It would be particularly helpful to enlist supportive businesses, neighborhood groups and health care professionals. Please let us know if you are aware of any ‘outside’ supporters of dispensaries from S.F. who would be willing to voice their support. We are aiming to organize a campaign in favor of the dispensaries. Please circulate among friends in the SF area.</p>
<p>This effort would not be necessary now if the clubs had been relating differently to their customers (aka “the patients”) all along. I don’t mean that they should have been “providing social services” (the phrase makes my skin crawl) which some are now trying to do. I mean treating people as comrades in a political/educational struggle for the consciousness of America. At Dennis’s club the primary transaction was political/educational. In the early-to-mid-1990s seven thousand people got cards there at a time when getting one was a subversive act in and of itself. Then the place became Prop 215 headquarters. Even DP’s misbegotten run for governor in ’97 meant that 1444 Market was a political beehive. You couldn’t get upstairs without passing the literature/petition counter on the mezzanine. What I’m really talking about, though, is unquantifiable -a vibe, a mood in the air. At 1444 Market the nature of the dialogue between staff and patrons and between patrons and patrons usually touched on our new collective discovery: marijuana has beneficial medical effects for an amazing range of conditions! (And I bet a proper clinical trial would reveal that political action has antidepressant and other beneficial health effects.)</p>
<p>At very few of the clubs today is politics in the air. The transactions at the counter are overwhelmingly commercial. You might say Well, the times are different, the freshness of our discovery is gone. It isn’t. Tashkin’s cancer study, the role of CBD, the marketing of Sativex, the rescheduling fight, the busts, all the news that interests you and me would interest a significant fraction of cannabis dispensary patrons if it was laid on them in the right way. That’s the role that I thought a paper could play. I told Ethan Nadelmann in December ’96 as he started tritzing off to the other states (anointed by the NYT as our leader) that we needed a paper to sustain the movement in California. I wanted to say it at ASA’s first conference when they wouldn’t let me speak on What is to be done. I tried to explain to Hilary McQuie the need for a paper and she cut me off: “That’s not politics, that’s media.”</p>
<p>Organizing the club members might have obviated the need to now fight a NIMBY backlash in another way: the more responsibility people feel towards the movement, the less they’ll tolerate loitering by knuckleheads, and some of the knuckleheads would have been transformed, just from having been treated with some intellectual respect, into better citizens.</p>
<p>Readers are invited to send reviews of Weeds to [email protected]</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | took texas jury day half sock merck behalf carol ernst widow whose 53yearold vioxxtaking husband died heart attack 2001 texas protectthecorporations cap 253 million award reduced 26 million appealed merck shares fell 8 news verdict merck chosen venue angleton texas tom delays district case autopsy listed cause death irregular heartbeat clinical trials linked vioxx heart attacks strokes blood clots irregular heartbeat origins jury saw right mercks lies merck killed 19 times many americans vioxx 911 hijackers planes according david graham md fda intentional early clinical trials alerted merck executives fact vioxx caused coronary damage response exclude future trials anyone history heart trouble vioxx market merck suppressed indications causing strokes heart attacks twice normal rate jurors found carol ernst merck speaking american people become totally hip pharmaceutical companies recent years respect us thats message juror derrick chizer told media respect us forewoman marsha robbins said expect accountability expect open us expect honest us marijuana literally figuratively alternative vioxx medical marijuana movement contributed could contribute much exposing discrediting pharmaceutical industry doctors society cannabis clinicians report large percentage patients define progress terms pharmaceutical drugs without avoiding adverse side effects often great expense hows back pain doctor ask im taking half many vicodin patient respond dennis perons famous line country give prozac shy teenagers marijuana use medical sophistry trick achieve legalization putdown pharmaceutical industry challenge medical establishment rightwing culture medicalizes problems basically economic dennis interviewed thousands people seeking use marijuana medical reasons determined rationales compelling rationale prescribing ssri antidepressants brilliant forwardmoving generalization dennis took endless ration shit day highlevel chatrooms dale gieringer scott imler others bemoan denniss line truncating although know better use medical gieringer ethan nadelman secondrank movement leaders disrespect second rank high rank indeed taken offense denniss line 96 pondered acted implications maybe public 2005 would giving medical marijuana movement credit exposing merck et al greeddriven manufacturers dangerous drugs maybe public would surprised footage seemingly ablebodied young men emerging cannabis dispensaries secondrank leaders process taking leadership acted dennis peron wild man outworn usefulness pros dover going play rules denniss instinct break singleissue trap said along wanted prop 215 step towards something bigger much bigger legalization goal drug warriors accuse medicalmarijuana advocates pursuing isnt marijuana america treat people kept saying prop 215 campaign 215 passed double bind built prototype buylow sellhigh cannabis club model didnt see model could lead social change 2 dispensaries get pr conscious following email sent behalf drug policy alliance dale giering california norml support needed sf medical marijuana dispensaries sf board supervisors deluged complaints mmj dispensaries organized campaign led neighborhood activists aim pressure board push tough antidispensary ordinance order resist effort need allies outside mj community willing speak favor clubs would particularly helpful enlist supportive businesses neighborhood groups health care professionals please let us know aware outside supporters dispensaries sf would willing voice support aiming organize campaign favor dispensaries please circulate among friends sf area effort would necessary clubs relating differently customers aka patients along dont mean providing social services phrase makes skin crawl trying mean treating people comrades politicaleducational struggle consciousness america denniss club primary transaction politicaleducational earlytomid1990s seven thousand people got cards time getting one subversive act place became prop 215 headquarters even dps misbegotten run governor 97 meant 1444 market political beehive couldnt get upstairs without passing literaturepetition counter mezzanine im really talking though unquantifiable vibe mood air 1444 market nature dialogue staff patrons patrons patrons usually touched new collective discovery marijuana beneficial medical effects amazing range conditions bet proper clinical trial would reveal political action antidepressant beneficial health effects clubs today politics air transactions counter overwhelmingly commercial might say well times different freshness discovery gone isnt tashkins cancer study role cbd marketing sativex rescheduling fight busts news interests would interest significant fraction cannabis dispensary patrons laid right way thats role thought paper could play told ethan nadelmann december 96 started tritzing states anointed nyt leader needed paper sustain movement california wanted say asas first conference wouldnt let speak done tried explain hilary mcquie need paper cut thats politics thats media organizing club members might obviated need fight nimby backlash another way responsibility people feel towards movement less theyll tolerate loitering knuckleheads knuckleheads would transformed treated intellectual respect better citizens readers invited send reviews weeds fredplebesitecom 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 160 | 716 |
<p>The following is taken from Trump’s national security speech he gave to Congress in February of this year. It is what I imagine we would hear if he gave that speech today and miraculously told the truth. These are Trump’s actual words. Changes I’ve made to update events and state truths will be in bold.</p>
<p>TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:</p>
<p>Tonight, as we attempt to ignore that this month is LGBTQ Pride month, we are reminded of our Nation’s path toward civil rights and the work that still remains to dismantle that path. Recent threats targeting African Americans by leaving nooses at the Museum of African American History and Culture and the murder of 23-year-old Richard W. Collins, III , a 2nd lieutenant in the US Army, as well as the recent Portland, Oregon murders of two young men who attempted to defend a pair of Radical Islamic Extremist young girls, remind us that while we may be a Nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in eliminating these potential terrorist threats from people of color and the dangers they pose to our European heritage.</p>
<p>Each American generation passes the torch of truth, liberty and justice – in an unbroken chain all the way down until now.</p>
<p>That torch is now in my hands. And I will use it to light the world on fire! I am here tonight to deliver a message of divisiveness and self-interest, and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart.</p>
<p>A new chapter of American racism, sexism and bullying is now beginning.</p>
<p>A new national white pride is sweeping across our Nation!</p>
<p>What we are witnessing today is the Renewal of the American Spirit of anti-immigrant, non-white and non-Christian hatred.</p>
<p>Our allies will find that America is once again ready to isolate itself from the world and other cultures that are full of drug dealers and rapists.</p>
<p>In 9 years, the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding – 250 years since the day we declared our independence.</p>
<p>It will be one of the great milestones in the history of the world.</p>
<p>But what will America look like as we reach our 250th year? What kind of country will we leave for our children?</p>
<p>I will not allow the so-called greatness of recent decades past to define the course of our future.</p>
<p>For far too long, I have watched our upper classes shrink as we’ve forced them to pay higher taxes, forced them to provide healthcare for their employees and demanded that they provide equal pay for equal work.</p>
<p>We’ve financed and built one global project after another, but ignored the fates of our rich, white children in Beverly Hills, The Hamptons and in Trump Tower—and so many other places throughout our land.</p>
<p>We’ve defended the borders of our nation, while working to bring Dreamers and their families into the open, for anyone to become an American—and for minorities to be able to enroll in colleges at a now unprecedented rate.</p>
<p>No more. No more.</p>
<p>In 2016, the earth shifted beneath our feet. The rebellion started as a quiet protest, spoken by white families of all classes—families who just wanted a privileged shot for their children, and a biased hearing for their concerns.</p>
<p>But then the quiet voices became a loud chorus—as thousands of white nationalistic citizens now spoke out together, from cities small and large, all across our country.</p>
<p>Finally, the chorus became an earthquake—and the white nationalists, white separatists, anti-Semitics, immigrant haters, Islamophobes, homophobes and misogynists turned out by the tens of millions, and they were all united by one very simple, but crucial demand, that America must put its white citizens first—because then and only then, can we truly MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN!</p>
<p>To protect our citizens, I have directed the Department of Justice to form a Task Force of green shirts to round up and deport any persons with skin darker than my own.</p>
<p>I have further ordered the Department of Homeland Security and Justice, along with the Department of State and the Director of National Intelligence, to coordinate an aggressive strategy to dismantle the investigations into police brutality and violations of civil rights.</p>
<p>At the same time, my Administration has answered the pleas of the racist Americans for immigration enforcement and border security. By finally arresting immigrant parents as they try to pick their children up at school we will raise food costs, help the private prison industry make billions off of taxpayer dollars, and make our communities less safe for everyone. We want white Americans to succeed—but that can’t happen in an environment with people of color. We must restore white, Judeo-Christian values, and the rule of intolerance to our borders.</p>
<p>For that reason, we will soon begin the construction of a great wall along our southern border. It will be started later rather than sooner, and when finished, Mexico will never pay for it. You will.</p>
<p>Our obligation is to serve, protect and defend the white, rich people of the United States. We are also taking strong measures to protect our Nation from feminism and women’s so-called rights.</p>
<p>With the help of the Christian right, we have eliminated healthcare for women around the world to help ensure that women remain barefoot and pregnant throughout their lives.</p>
<p>By the way, the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, was actually a Republican. Did you know that Pence? Ryan? I just read that, and now I’m educating all of you losers. You’re welcome.</p>
<p>Another Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, initiated the last truly great national infrastructure program—the building of the interstate highway system. The time has come for a new program of national rebuilding where everything is built by private companies that donated to my campaign. All buildings, bridges and highways will have TRUMP written on them in gold.</p>
<p>This effort will be guided by two core principles: Buy TRUMP and sell TRUMP.</p>
<p>Free nations are the best vehicle for sabotaging and suppressing the will of the people—and I don’t respect the rights of any nation. My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent myself, my family and my pay for play donors.</p>
<p>America is willing to find new friends, and to forge new partnerships, where my interests align. I want money and power, not harmony and stability.</p>
<p>Currently, when we order our Trump products be made by foreign workers in foreign countries, we can’t get our permits approved fast enough. This is hurting our ability as Trump’s to make millions more that would allow us to buy our fifth plane and tenth house. This hurts Americans who could be hired to fly those planes and clean those houses.</p>
<p>Thankfully, since I became President, at our meeting with China, I asked them, “How can my daughter get her permits passed?” They said, “Don’t label us currency manipulators.” So, I didn’t, and three days later, Ivanka got her permits!</p>
<p>They weren’t even asking for anything else, but just to be nice, I gave them top secret intelligence like I did with the Russians.</p>
<p>Tonight, I am also calling on this Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare with reforms that deny choice, decrease access, increase costs, and at the same time, provide little to no actual healthcare.</p>
<p>Mandating every American to buy government-approved health insurance as we do with home and car insurance, was never the right solution for America. The way to make health insurance companies and their CEOs more money is to increase the cost of health insurance, and that is what we will do.</p>
<p>Obamacare premiums nationwide will increase by double and triple digits because of my direct manipulation to make it fail. We know that all those promises have been broken thanks to my interference.</p>
<p>Here are the guiding principles that should guide the Congress as we move to create a better healthcare system:</p>
<p>First, we should tell Americans with pre-exiting conditions that they will be covered though they won’t.</p>
<p>Secondly, we should make Americans purchase their own coverage, through the use of tax credits and expanded Health Savings Accounts—without letting them know that they cannot afford these programs and that they only benefit the wealthy.</p>
<p>Thirdly, we should give our great state governors the resources and flexibility they need with Medicaid to screw over their poor constituents. That way, they take the blame when we kill Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.</p>
<p>In fact, our children will grow up in a Nation of miracles. But to achieve this future, we must enrich ourselves.</p>
<p>Education is the next big money maker of our time!</p>
<p>I am calling upon members of both parties to pass the education bill that funds school choice for white Christian youth. These families should be able to be free to self-segregate so they don’t have to learn about other cultures and yet still have the taxpayers pay for it. And private companies should be free to exploit this system at the cost of American children’s education.</p>
<p>Since my election, the stock market has become volatile and our neighbors are heading to war thanks to my insatiable need to tweet late at night. We’ve cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by causing investigations into my relationship with Russia, into mine and my children’s blatant violations of the Emoluments Clause and my many lies.</p>
<p>Oh, so many lies.</p>
<p>We have begun to fill the swamp of government corruption by imposing a 5-year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials—and then issuing waivers to all of my staff.</p>
<p>We have cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines so I can make tons of money from my investments in them—and I’ve issued a new directive that American pipelines continue to be made of Chinese steel even though I promised they would be made of American steel.</p>
<p>We have withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Accord because France’s President Macron made me feel inadequate about the size and strength of my hands.</p>
<p>Hopefully, the 250th year for America will see a world that has more TRUMP signs and more money and power for me.</p>
<p>When I have all of this, I will have made America greater than ever before. For all of my family.</p>
<p>This is my vision. This is my mission.</p>
<p>But I can only get there with your degradation and acquiescence.</p>
<p>We will be one people, with one destiny.</p>
<p>We will all bleed the same blood.</p>
<p>We will all salute the same flag.</p>
<p>And we will all be made by the same Christian God.</p>
<p>And when I fulfill this vision, when we celebrate our 250 years of glorious freedom, Americans will look back on tonight as when this new chapter of Trump/Russia began.</p>
<p>The time for thinking is over. The times for fighting has begun.</p>
<p>From now on, America will be empowered by Russia, not by the free and the brave—inspired by me and guided by my vision.</p>
<p>I am ordering citizens to embrace this Renewal of the TRUMP Spirit. I am demanding members of Congress to stay the hell out of my way.</p>
<p>Believe in me.</p>
<p>Believe in me.</p>
<p>And believe, once more, in me.</p>
<p>Thank you, God bless me, and God bless Putin.</p>
<p>Jenn Budd is a freelance writer. Follow her on Twitter @jenn_budd.</p> | true | 4 | following taken trumps national security speech gave congress february year imagine would hear gave speech today miraculously told truth trumps actual words changes ive made update events state truths bold congress united states tonight attempt ignore month lgbtq pride month reminded nations path toward civil rights work still remains dismantle path recent threats targeting african americans leaving nooses museum african american history culture murder 23yearold richard w collins iii 2nd lieutenant us army well recent portland oregon murders two young men attempted defend pair radical islamic extremist young girls remind us may nation divided policies country stands united eliminating potential terrorist threats people color dangers pose european heritage american generation passes torch truth liberty justice unbroken chain way torch hands use light world fire tonight deliver message divisiveness selfinterest message deeply delivered heart new chapter american racism sexism bullying beginning new national white pride sweeping across nation witnessing today renewal american spirit antiimmigrant nonwhite nonchristian hatred allies find america ready isolate world cultures full drug dealers rapists 9 years united states celebrate 250th anniversary founding 250 years since day declared independence one great milestones history world america look like reach 250th year kind country leave children allow socalled greatness recent decades past define course future far long watched upper classes shrink weve forced pay higher taxes forced provide healthcare employees demanded provide equal pay equal work weve financed built one global project another ignored fates rich white children beverly hills hamptons trump towerand many places throughout land weve defended borders nation working bring dreamers families open anyone become americanand minorities able enroll colleges unprecedented rate 2016 earth shifted beneath feet rebellion started quiet protest spoken white families classesfamilies wanted privileged shot children biased hearing concerns quiet voices became loud chorusas thousands white nationalistic citizens spoke together cities small large across country finally chorus became earthquakeand white nationalists white separatists antisemitics immigrant haters islamophobes homophobes misogynists turned tens millions united one simple crucial demand america must put white citizens firstbecause truly make america white protect citizens directed department justice form task force green shirts round deport persons skin darker ordered department homeland security justice along department state director national intelligence coordinate aggressive strategy dismantle investigations police brutality violations civil rights time administration answered pleas racist americans immigration enforcement border security finally arresting immigrant parents try pick children school raise food costs help private prison industry make billions taxpayer dollars make communities less safe everyone want white americans succeedbut cant happen environment people color must restore white judeochristian values rule intolerance borders reason soon begin construction great wall along southern border started later rather sooner finished mexico never pay obligation serve protect defend white rich people united states also taking strong measures protect nation feminism womens socalled rights help christian right eliminated healthcare women around world help ensure women remain barefoot pregnant throughout lives way first republican president abraham lincoln actually republican know pence ryan read im educating losers youre welcome another republican president dwight eisenhower initiated last truly great national infrastructure programthe building interstate highway system time come new program national rebuilding everything built private companies donated campaign buildings bridges highways trump written gold effort guided two core principles buy trump sell trump free nations best vehicle sabotaging suppressing peopleand dont respect rights nation job represent world job represent family pay play donors america willing find new friends forge new partnerships interests align want money power harmony stability currently order trump products made foreign workers foreign countries cant get permits approved fast enough hurting ability trumps make millions would allow us buy fifth plane tenth house hurts americans could hired fly planes clean houses thankfully since became president meeting china asked daughter get permits passed said dont label us currency manipulators didnt three days later ivanka got permits werent even asking anything else nice gave top secret intelligence like russians tonight also calling congress repeal replace obamacare reforms deny choice decrease access increase costs time provide little actual healthcare mandating every american buy governmentapproved health insurance home car insurance never right solution america way make health insurance companies ceos money increase cost health insurance obamacare premiums nationwide increase double triple digits direct manipulation make fail know promises broken thanks interference guiding principles guide congress move create better healthcare system first tell americans preexiting conditions covered though wont secondly make americans purchase coverage use tax credits expanded health savings accountswithout letting know afford programs benefit wealthy thirdly give great state governors resources flexibility need medicaid screw poor constituents way take blame kill medicaid medicare social security fact children grow nation miracles achieve future must enrich education next big money maker time calling upon members parties pass education bill funds school choice white christian youth families able free selfsegregate dont learn cultures yet still taxpayers pay private companies free exploit system cost american childrens education since election stock market become volatile neighbors heading war thanks insatiable need tweet late night weve cost taxpayers hundreds millions dollars causing investigations relationship russia mine childrens blatant violations emoluments clause many lies oh many lies begun fill swamp government corruption imposing 5year ban lobbying executive branch officialsand issuing waivers staff cleared way construction keystone dakota access pipelines make tons money investments themand ive issued new directive american pipelines continue made chinese steel even though promised would made american steel withdrawn united states paris climate accord frances president macron made feel inadequate size strength hands hopefully 250th year america see world trump signs money power made america greater ever family vision mission get degradation acquiescence one people one destiny bleed blood salute flag made christian god fulfill vision celebrate 250 years glorious freedom americans look back tonight new chapter trumprussia began time thinking times fighting begun america empowered russia free braveinspired guided vision ordering citizens embrace renewal trump spirit demanding members congress stay hell way believe believe believe thank god bless god bless putin jenn budd freelance writer follow twitter jenn_budd | 983 |
<p>Photo by frankieleon | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
<p>After a long reflection with a dear friend about some difficult events she had encountered in 2017, she ended with the typical statement, “let’s hope 2018 will be a better year.” I don’t know why&#160;this statement sounds to me as one full of defeat and hopelessness. It is a statement that many people repeat one year after another, even though they know deep inside that it is a fake form of&#160;optimism we console ourselves with, like a scared child singing in a dark alley to keep himself distracted from darkness. It is a way to seek solace about the fact that most of us are held hostages&#160;in the hands of few oppressive political and economic elites suffocating us. So, let’s get directly to the bad news without fooling ourselves further: 2018 won’t be new or happy while we are&#160;being ruled by the same war-mongers seeking to destroy everything meaningful and beautiful on our precious earth.</p>
<p>Those in power love it when we hold on to our fake optimism year after year, instead of revolting against these worn out celebrations. They love it when they see millions of mindless consumers&#160;storming stores to buy and consume more shiny and glittering gifts, as if they are genuine signs of loving and caring for each other. They love it when we keep quiet and do business as usual&#160;while “hoping for a better new year.” &#160;So, let’s declare it loud and clear: We are not happy! Also, there is nothing new with these traditional celebrations hijacked by businessmen who have&#160;reduced them into nothing more than an excuse for consuming goods. We need to change that by revolting as Jesus did at the temple when he drove out in a justified anger all those who were&#160;selling and buying there. Christmas and New Year should not be a temporary dose of heroine to sedate people and have them consume more goods, go on vacations, or sit with family and friends&#160;at the dinner tables of triviality to boast presumed “achievements” or share pathetic stories about “changing the world”.</p>
<p>As such, the question most worthy of pondering, as we get ready to bury the body of another precious year is: Can a new year really be happy with all this injustice going on in the world under&#160;our watch? This is not an analytical or an academic question. It is a dark reality that should be painfully obvious to any person with a beating heart. If there is any accuracy to William Faulkner’s&#160;words in that “the past is never dead. It is not even past,” then it follows that 2018 won’t be a happy year as long as the causes of human misery, wars, and destruction still exist, and so long&#160;many humans keep their mouths and eyes shut before all this injustice for temporary and pathetic gains.</p>
<p>The New Year won’t be a happy one so long as those waging economic wars and wars with bombs are still not held accountable for their crimes against humanity. 2018 won’t be a happy or a&#160;new one so long as we continue to be enslaved by the discriminatory laws enacted by those who have enough money and power to break them all whenever they please. &#160;2018 won’t be a good&#160;year so long as we don’t hold accountable those who think they have the right to displace and ruin millions of human lives; or cut parts of different countries like a piece of cloth according to&#160;their whims, religious beliefs, or political interests. The coming year won’t be a happy one so long as many of us choose to turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed against millions of&#160;precious human lives in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Palestine, the list could go on. The New Year won’t be a happy one so long as we passively accept the starvation and suffering of millions of&#160;innocent human lives subjected to the most inhumane economic sanctions imposed on them like it was done to the Iraqi people for 13 years. Like it is being done today to millions of innocent&#160;humans in Russia, North Korea, and Iran. And, by the way, the countries listed above are not “dirty” names we should fear pronouncing, writing, or sympathizing with, as the oppressive Western&#160;powers and propaganda want us to believe. Every country is a sacred ground as long as there is a single innocent human life inhabiting it. As an Iraqi-American, I know that most so-called&#160;“expert” narratives that paved the way to the Iraq war were outright false. Therefore, I have no reason to believe similar propaganda promoted today about all the countries listed above, either.&#160;Like any others in this world, these countries are filled with precious human lives and innocent people wishing for a more tolerable world.</p>
<p>Happy New Year? Oh, dear friends, this statement is like a dagger that gets pushed one inch deeper into my chest each time I hear it. I don’t know why it reminds me of Erich Maria Remarque’s&#160;words who writes in&#160;All Quiet on the Western Front, “Sweet dreams though the guns are booming.” At this time of the year, this statement should be revised to be “Merry Christmas and Happy&#160;New Year though the guns are booming!” We should then display it on every home, every school, every shop, and at the corner of every street to remind ourselves of our sad human reality&#160;before which we continue to stand motionless and unable to take brave actions.</p>
<p>Oh, my friends, let’s not celebrate the traditional holidays that no longer mean anything to many of us. Let’s find a new celebration day to celebrate every human life. Let’s do away with all&#160;celebrations imposed on us by the oppressive political and religious establishments around the world. In 2018, let’s stop consuming. Let’s stop killing each other. Let’s stop waging wars against&#160;each other. Let’s stop imposing economic sanctions on each other. Let’s stop closing borders in the face of each other. Let’s do away with all the fake, expensive, shiny, and nicely wrapped gifts&#160;of indifference. Let’s work a bit harder on the most precious human gift possible—the gift of listening carefully to each other.</p>
<p>Oh, my friends, please don’t ask me about my “resolutions” for 2018. I may disappoint you as I don’t have any plans for joining a new gym, following a healthy organic diet, buying a new car,&#160;remodeling my kitchen, or going on a fancy cruise. My resolution for 2018 is, despite all my despair, to continue to build bridges with my alphabet to help us get over the unquantifiable hate,&#160;racism, and inequality on this lonely planet. In 2018, let’s stop wars and violence. Let’s be resolved to unite humanity in a genuine way, not in the artificial and exploitative way through which&#160;globalization-promoters seek to turn this world into one small village for the selected rich and powerful to control and plunder. In the meantime, until humanity begins heading in that direction,&#160;perhaps we should not wish each other a Happy New Year. Given the discouraging events of 2017 and the previous years, 2018 will just be a continuation of pain and suffering if we continue&#160;operating with the same mindsets. Therefore, for now, let me declare loudly once again: I am neither happy nor is there anything new under the sun.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | photo frankieleon cc 20 long reflection dear friend difficult events encountered 2017 ended typical statement lets hope 2018 better year dont know why160this statement sounds one full defeat hopelessness statement many people repeat one year another even though know deep inside fake form of160optimism console like scared child singing dark alley keep distracted darkness way seek solace fact us held hostages160in hands oppressive political economic elites suffocating us lets get directly bad news without fooling 2018 wont new happy are160being ruled warmongers seeking destroy everything meaningful beautiful precious earth power love hold fake optimism year year instead revolting worn celebrations love see millions mindless consumers160storming stores buy consume shiny glittering gifts genuine signs loving caring love keep quiet business usual160while hoping better new year 160so lets declare loud clear happy also nothing new traditional celebrations hijacked businessmen have160reduced nothing excuse consuming goods need change revolting jesus temple drove justified anger were160selling buying christmas new year temporary dose heroine sedate people consume goods go vacations sit family friends160at dinner tables triviality boast presumed achievements share pathetic stories changing world question worthy pondering get ready bury body another precious year new year really happy injustice going world under160our watch analytical academic question dark reality painfully obvious person beating heart accuracy william faulkners160words past never dead even past follows 2018 wont happy year long causes human misery wars destruction still exist long160many humans keep mouths eyes shut injustice temporary pathetic gains new year wont happy one long waging economic wars wars bombs still held accountable crimes humanity 2018 wont happy a160new one long continue enslaved discriminatory laws enacted enough money power break whenever please 1602018 wont good160year long dont hold accountable think right displace ruin millions human lives cut parts different countries like piece cloth according to160their whims religious beliefs political interests coming year wont happy one long many us choose turn blind eye atrocities committed millions of160precious human lives syria iraq libya yemen palestine list could go new year wont happy one long passively accept starvation suffering millions of160innocent human lives subjected inhumane economic sanctions imposed like done iraqi people 13 years like done today millions innocent160humans russia north korea iran way countries listed dirty names fear pronouncing writing sympathizing oppressive western160powers propaganda want us believe every country sacred ground long single innocent human life inhabiting iraqiamerican know socalled160expert narratives paved way iraq war outright false therefore reason believe similar propaganda promoted today countries listed either160like others world countries filled precious human lives innocent people wishing tolerable world happy new year oh dear friends statement like dagger gets pushed one inch deeper chest time hear dont know reminds erich maria remarques160words writes in160all quiet western front sweet dreams though guns booming time year statement revised merry christmas happy160new year though guns booming display every home every school every shop corner every street remind sad human reality160before continue stand motionless unable take brave actions oh friends lets celebrate traditional holidays longer mean anything many us lets find new celebration day celebrate every human life lets away all160celebrations imposed us oppressive political religious establishments around world 2018 lets stop consuming lets stop killing lets stop waging wars against160each lets stop imposing economic sanctions lets stop closing borders face lets away fake expensive shiny nicely wrapped gifts160of indifference lets work bit harder precious human gift possiblethe gift listening carefully oh friends please dont ask resolutions 2018 may disappoint dont plans joining new gym following healthy organic diet buying new car160remodeling kitchen going fancy cruise resolution 2018 despite despair continue build bridges alphabet help us get unquantifiable hate160racism inequality lonely planet 2018 lets stop wars violence lets resolved unite humanity genuine way artificial exploitative way which160globalizationpromoters seek turn world one small village selected rich powerful control plunder meantime humanity begins heading direction160perhaps wish happy new year given discouraging events 2017 previous years 2018 continuation pain suffering continue160operating mindsets therefore let declare loudly neither happy anything new sun 160 | 652 |
<p>After the former U.S. senator’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/us/politics/george-mcgovern-a-democratic-presidential-nominee-and-liberal-stalwart-dies-at-90.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">death</a> on Sunday morning, we look back at a 2009 conversation between him and Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer.</p>
<p>George McGovern has been a witness to history, as both a scholar and one of the first senators to oppose the Vietnam War. At a recent Truthdig event, he shared his insight into past and current events, from Lincoln’s greatest accomplishment to the war in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>The following material was recorded in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2009 at the Truthdig salon “Sen. George McGovern on the American Presidency: From Lincoln to Obama.”</p>
<p>Videography and video editing by Brian Rudloff.</p>
<p />
<p>A full transcript begins on Page 2, following the video clips below. See also the summary article by Narda Zacchino, <a href="" type="internal">McGovern: Get Out of Afghanistan</a>.</p>
<p>Part 1 of 9 – Introduction</p>
<p>Part 2 of 9 – War Hero</p>
<p>Part 3 of 9 – Abraham Lincoln, “a good man speaking well”</p>
<p>Part 4 of 9 – A Bitter Lesson</p>
<p>Part 5 of 9 – Where Are the Great Leaders?</p>
<p>Part 6 of 9 – Landslide</p>
<p>Part 7 of 9 – Afghanistan</p>
<p>Part 8 of 9 – The Guy on the Airplane</p>
<p>Part 9 of 9 – Questions</p>
<p>Transcript begins on Page 2.</p>
<p>PART 1: ‘A moral center. An unwillingness to pander.’Robert Scheer:</p>
<p>Let me introduce our speaker. I can’t think of anyone around that I would be more honored to be able to introduce. I know that’s sort of a trite thing, but I did dedicate my own last book to both Gen. Eisenhower and George McGovern. And I just want to tell one little story. I was on a Nation magazine cruise; I think we were going up to Newfoundland or something—where were we going?—Alaska, oh sorry, was it Alaska? Anyway, it was very cold. And I remember we were talking on the back of this boat—that’s Nikki Keddie by the way, the nation’s leading expert on Iran, if you want to chat with somebody about what’s going on in the world, and a great heckler—and we were on the back of this boat, and I had interviewed Richard Nixon, I actually ended up being one of the few people who saw anything positive about Richard Nixon. I thought compared to Ronald Reagan he was positively enlightened, and compared to George W. Bush he was a flaming liberal. So I kind of wrote this, and Nixon liked what I wrote for the L.A. Times—this was I guess in ’84—so he invited me to come see him and I got to talk to him, so I have a more charitable view of Richard Nixon than most people in this room would have. But when I met with George McGovern on this boat, I asked him this one question that really confounded me. I said: You know, you were a major war hero. The Distinguished Flying Cross. Thirty-five suicide missions over Germany. Crash-landed your plane to save the crew. Received the Distinguished Flying Cross—that’s, you know, one of the really top medals you can get—an incredibly heroic figure from World War II. Richard Nixon was a parade guard in the Navy who did not see combat. Yet in that campaign, as is often the case, Richard Nixon played the patriotism card—who’s really willing to defend the country, who’s really willing to stand up for America, and so forth. And I asked Sen. McGovern, I said: “How come you didn’t bring up your war record in response to this and talk about your own personal heroism, which was considerable?” And George McGovern gave me an answer—it was the best answer I ever got from any politician to any question I ever asked—he said, “It would have been unseemly.” And I thought to have a classy guy like that be president, what a gift. Now, some of us think maybe it’s happening, maybe it’s not happening right now, we’ll have a lively discussion about it. But when I look back on Sen. McGovern’s life, the key thing that stands out is integrity. A moral center. An unwillingness to pander, to cater, to do things just for political advantage, and I just think it’s an amazing life story. I won’t go through all the details, but we’ll have a discussion, but people should know that George McGovern is a Methodist minister, that he has a doctorate in history, that he’s a major writer of books, that he’s a major intellectual, as well as having had a distinguished political career. And he’s written the book—the reason we’re here is because of our [Truthdig’s] Arts and Culture and our commitment to books—and he’s written, in a series on the presidency, the book on Abraham Lincoln. And I thought broadly we would ask you: “Where did we go wrong after Lincoln, or how do we get back there.” Let me introduce Sen. McGovern.</p>
<p>George McGovern: First, let me thank Zuade [Kaufman] for opening up her beautiful home. I can’t wait to jump in that pool someday when I come with more time. And I want to express my appreciation to Robert Scheer. When I announced for president a year ahead of the normal time, that’s the only time up until then in American history that anyone had announced two years before the election. But I come from a little state, South Dakota, with three electoral votes; I was a freshman senator, I had no money, and I was running against pretty tough people. I knew they were coming up—eventually 15 opponents, all trying for the nomination. But I said in that announcement speech in Sioux Falls, S.D., that I’d make one pledge above all others, and that is to seek and to speak the truth. I ran into Lyndon Johnson, the former president of the United States, at a reception, and he said he had heard my announcement speech and he liked it. I asked him if he had any criticisms. He said “nothing other than to say you’re going to find it a lot harder to know the truth than it is to speak it.” It’s actually very tough to do both. Some of these problems that faced us then or that faced Abraham Lincoln—probably he inherited the toughest problem of all, a four-year civil war in which Americans chose up sides and killed each other for four years. Six hundred thousand young Americans in that war—that’s equal to the combined American losses in World War I and World War II. Lincoln was a man of peace, but he was also a man of character and courage, and he saw no way out other than to resist the secession. … So he had a very tough decision to make that carried an enormous cost to the nation. But I want to say about Robert Scheer—of all the reporters I know, he’s been the best in digging out the truth and in expressing it, day after day. He had both the intelligence to dig out the truth and the courage to publish it. So he won in my book both on the intellect part and the courage part, Bob. [Applause] I was more than pleased when I picked up his recent book, called “The Pornography of Power.” It’s an analysis of what power does to people who have power, and what are the sources of power that shape our own country’s national agenda. For example, why, with the biggest military budget in the history of the world, by any country, equal to the combined military budgets of all the other 185 countries of the world—why are we so afraid? Why do we continue that kind of allocation year after year? Obviously we all want an adequate defense; this is a dangerous world, and I don’t think any reasonable person would object to an appropriate allocation to the military. But does it really have to be as big as all the rest of the world put together? And these are some of the questions raised by Bob. So I was pleased that he dedicated that book to President Eisenhower and to me.</p>
<p>PART 2: Breaking Through the Barrier of Fear</p>
<p>McGovern: Since I didn’t talk about it when it might have helped, maybe I might just take a couple of minutes to tell you why I volunteered to be a combat bomber pilot in World War II. I had taken a course at the little college I went to, Dakota Wesleyan, in flying. The government had announced that if you could get 10 students to sign up for the course, the government would provide an airplane, an instructor and an airfield. So one of the guys in my class was desperate to learn how to fly. And he had talked to me about it several times before I finally decided to go. One of the reasons I did that is that when I was in junior high school, we had a coach by the name of Joe Quentle. He was a good coach, but one of the meanest son of a guns I think I’ve ever known. You really got a tongue-lashing for any kind of mistake. And one day when I was about 13, maybe 14, junior high school, and he had us in a gymnastic class, and one of the things you had to do was run across that gymnasium as fast as you could go, and when you got to the end, dive over one of these big leather horses. I think probably you’ve—you all look like you’re in shape, so you’ve probably been through this. But anyway, you had to dive over it, duck your head, and then roll. I’d run up to that thing—I could not do it, I just couldn’t; I knew I’d break my neck if I did. Finally the loudest whistle I’ve ever heard from Joe Quentle. He said, “Mac, what the hell’s the matter with you?” I said “Well, Mr. Quentle, I’ll do anything for you, but I just can’t dive over that horse.” He said, “You want to know why? You’re a moral coward.” I thought I would die. I really thought I’d die right there. I didn’t think anybody would ever speak to me again, you know, the 60 young guys that were doing this—not all of them, but practically all. So that bothered me for a long time. Four years later, when I was 19, Pearl Harbor came. And I thought, here’s my chance to show Joe Quentle. So I signed up as a bomber pilot. There wasn’t any Air Force then, there was the Army Air Corps and the Navy Air Corps, and all 10 of us who had taken this course in flying, we borrowed a couple of cars—in those days, no student had a car—so we borrowed a car from the president and one from the dean, and drove to Omaha, where both of the recruiting stations are. And we’re debating, you know, should we join the Air [Corps], and one guy says, “Oh boy, trying to land on a carrier at night in a storm?” You know, that scared us a little, but another guy says, “You know, they do this and they do that,” silly arguments, we didn’t know what we were talking about. When we got there, one of the guys picked up a rumor that if you signed up with the Army Air Corps or even went to the recruiting station, the Air Corps would give you a free meal at a downtown cafeteria in Omaha. So on the strength of that unsubstantiated rumor and a meal ticket probably worth about a dollar, all 10 of us joined the Army Air Corps. It’s the cheapest I’ve ever sold out. So anyway, that’s the background on why you listed me as a hero. I was trying to get over the coward in me. So I hope I succeeded. [Applause] I can honestly tell you that the first time I stood up on the floor of the United States Senate, again as a freshman congressman—I’d only been there six months, 1963, and I had worked for the previous two years at the White House with President Kennedy, whom I loved. But I stood up and made my first speech saying the war in Vietnam was a mistake, that we had no business being there, and the quicker we disengaged, the better. That was the first speech in either the House or the Senate against the Vietnam War. [Applause] And I knew it was right at the time, but the political problem is that most people thought it was not right, and I never recovered from that politically, in terms of the millions of people that thought that was outrageous. I did it in considerable part because I know what war does. Half of the bomber crews that I flew with in World War II never survived the war—50 percent casualty rates. I’m proud of my role in World War II. I thought Hitler was a madman that had to be stopped—among other things, killed 6 million innocent Jewish people, mostly his own citizens. So I’m proud that I played some role in helping to smash his military machine. But I’m also proud that I stood up against a war that I thought was wrong, that killed 58,000 young Americans, probably the best troops we ever sent overseas, and all of this for naught. PART 3: Lincoln’s Strength Lay in Reading and Writing</p>
<p>McGovern: Let me give you a few words about Abraham Lincoln. There are more words and pages written about Abraham Lincoln than anybody else in world history, with the exception of Jesus Christ. My authority for that is this word master at The New York Times who died recently—I can’t think of his name [editor’s note: William Safire]. Anyway, more books in this country have [been] written about Abraham Lincoln than all the other presidents combined. So why another one? I did it partly to educate myself about Lincoln. I read all of his speeches, I read most of his letters, I read a number of the secondary books about him, and I did come to a deeply increased appreciation for this remarkable man. This is a part of a series. Henry Holt is the publisher; they’ve now been taken over by Macmillan—but they’re doing a book like this on each of the presidents, beginning with George Washington, and they’re supposed to be about 165 pages. And I’m glad they put that limit on it; I had to cross out an awful lot of brilliant stuff, but—I did it tearfully—and I think in holding it to 165 pages, each one of us probably did better than if we had had unlimited pages. You’ve heard the old saying, “Sorry, I don’t have time to write a short letter.” And it’s the same, I think, with books. A lot of these 900-page books, in my opinion, would be better if they were tightened up a bit—maybe to four or five hundred pages. Every writer thinks that every word is precious, but some of them aren’t all that precious; they can be tightened up.</p>
<p>I admire Lincoln, first of all, because of the kind of man he was. There was an old Roman orator by the name of Quintilian, an orator, and he was asked one time: “What makes a great orator?” And he said: “A good orator is a good man speaking well.” Today we’d say “a good person speaking.” To be a great speaker you should first of all be a good person—you agree with that, Bob? It’s probably the same with journalists. And I came to the conclusion Lincoln was even better than I had thought. He overcame incredible handicaps. One was the lack of education. About one and a half years—there were a few teachers, sort of traveling teachers that came through his little village, and they might stay around for a month or two and teach a few of the kids, but historians tell us that he had less than two years’ formal education. No high school, no junior high, no college, no law school, nothing, nothing like that. But he did learn two things in that little school. He learned how to read, and he learned how to write, and he never quit. Reading, reading, reading, reading, all of his life. He was hungry for every book he could get his hands on. He knew Shakespeare, he knew the King James Version of the Bible, he knew some of the great poets, he knew Aesop’s Fables, and hundreds of other things that he read. And writing—he loved to write. I think he became the best writer ever to serve in the White House. How are you going to improve on the Gettysburg Address? Talk about tightening things up—a definition of democracy: government of the people, by the people, for the people. That’s all you need to know about what democracy is all about. It took two and a half minutes to deliver that speech, but contrary to what you may have heard about him writing it on the back of an envelope on the way to the address, he worked on that speech for days, as he did every speech, those first and second inaugurals. Sometimes after he got a draft down to his satisfaction, he would call in members of the Cabinet, most frequently Secretary Seward, the secretary of state, and he would read his speech to the secretary or whoever was listening—“what do you think of this, what do you think of that”—Seward at one point said I think this particular phrase is a little dull, it’s a little flat. Why don’t you change that to “the better angels of our nature”—in that inaugural address. I’ve always wished I’d thought of that phrase, appealing to the better angels of people’s nature. But he didn’t have ghostwriters. He wrote his own speeches, and then he would let somebody else make a few suggestions. Then, after he incorporated the changes, he would read the speech—no, he would have the critic read the speech to him to see how it sounded. There’s a wonderful book just out called “Lincoln’s Sword.” And Lincoln’s sword, according to that author, was his writing ability and his speaking ability. If you want a really interesting book on Lincoln, [“Lincoln’s Sword” will] tell you how he produced those great masterpieces.</p>
<p>PART 4: A McGovern Family Tragedy; Lincoln’s Greatest Accomplishment</p>
<p>McGovern: He had what today we would call clinical depression, really severe clinical depression. He would sink into these spells of despondency that almost paralyzed him. It’s a terrible malady for anyone to have. I know a little about it because we have it in my family. My daughter Terry saw the first despondency settle in on her when she was a freshman at the University of South Dakota. She was a good student, she was a very intelligent young woman, had a great sense of humor—till the day she died, she had a great sense of humor—but she was depressed. And she finally told [my wife] Eleanor and me one night that she just couldn’t stand it, she thought she should end her life. So we took her to a psychiatrist, and they worked with her for a long time, several years; didn’t do much good. So she finally found a cure: a bottle of vodka. If you got hold of a jug of vodka and drank a glass or two, you could have a whale of a good time. You weren’t depressed; you could go to a party and make everybody laugh. And that eventually led to alcoholism. We had her in and out of all the treatment centers we could think of. And one night Eleanor and I were expecting her home for Christmas. By then she had two little girls, ages 7 and 9, and we had thought she was getting better—but always the relapse. That’s the biggest problem for an alcoholic, are these miserable relapses. And she was supposed to be home about three or four days before Christmas with her two little girls. I had sent them airline tickets; they lived in Madison, Wis., where Terry went to school. So Eleanor and I went out to dinner at a little restaurant on Connecticut Avenue. It was a fun evening; the restaurant owner played the piano and the accordion, and what passed for singing, so we had a pretty happy time. When we got home, Eleanor went upstairs and went to bed and was reading a novel; I was down in the living room reading a magazine, and the doorbell rang about midnight. I thought: “Gosh, who would be coming here at midnight?” We lived in a kind of a secluded part of Washington, along Rock Creek Park, and I thought: “Well, maybe Terry has moved it up a couple of [days].” So I went to the front door, but as I got there I could see through the glass, on either side of that big door, a police officer on one side and a chaplain on the other, and when I let them in, the officer said: “Senator, we’re awfully sorry to come to your house at Christmastime with such sad news, but we must tell you that your daughter, Teresa Jane McGovern, was found dead today.” That was it. He said that she was frozen to death in a Wisconsin snowstorm, apparently while deeply intoxicated. So that was a bitter lesson for me about both depression—which should not be fooled around with, it’s a treacherous thing—and alcoholism. I don’t take any money from any of the books that I sell. They all go to the Teresa McGovern Treatment Center in Madison, Wis. None of these treatment centers are too great, but this is one of the better ones. So I just want you to know that I’m not here to make money today, and every dollar that I get out of these books—I’ve written 14 books now, and this one promises to be a bestseller. But I want you to know the revenue goes to this treatment center.</p>
<p>Just a couple of quick additional things about Lincoln—I’ve probably gone too long, haven’t I?—he thought his greatest achievement was the Emancipation Proclamation. I would very respectfully disagree. That was important, but it was only a partial emancipation. It just emancipated the slaves in the 11 Southern states. And with the war in progress, there wasn’t much Lincoln could do to enforce the emancipation. It didn’t touch the slaves in the border states, and it didn’t provide for a permanent right of people to be free of slavery. That came after Lincoln was re-elected, and it’s in the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which not only freed all people who were slaves then, but freed people for all time. Nobody can be held a slave in the United States; that’s a federal crime. I think his greatest achievement was not that; it was the saving of the Union. The United States could very easily have disappeared as the United States of America. The New England states had threatened at an earlier time to secede over the tariff question, and then 20 years later comes the Southern secession. But Lincoln was determined to save the Union. He was very open on this; he tried to deal with the South so they wouldn’t secede. He said: “If I could save the Union by freeing all of the slaves, that I would do. If I could save the Union (and this was a sop to the Southerners) by freeing none of the slaves, that I would do. If I could save the Union by freeing some of the slaves and holding others (which is what he eventually did) that’s what I would do. But the Union must be preserved.” And that’s why he absolutely refused to compromise on slavery in the territories or on new states coming into the Union. Not one inch of soil would be settled with slaves in it, except for the 11 in the South. And that’s where he drew the line. So anyway, that to me is his greatest achievement: He saved the Union.</p>
<p>PART 5: The Founding Fathers’ Greatness; a Straight Shooter Named Goldwater</p>
<p>Scheer: Let me ask you a question. The old guys look good, yourself included. But seriously, I read Jefferson and Washington, and in my book I go on and on about how great Washington’s farewell address was. It’s a fabulous document, for people who haven’t read it. First of all, am I exaggerating how good these guys were? You know, at least they had brains; they thought. Now we do have a president who has a brain, so that’s been a good change. But I just wonder, what are we to make of the Founders, what are we to make of this great history? It did involve slavery, it did involve exploitation, it was white-male exclusive. What about that whole history, and to what degree is it worth relying on? Everybody does; even the right wing relies on it.</p>
<p>McGovern: Well, I think they were great, those Founding Fathers. I think Jefferson was a tremendously farsighted and intelligent man. Washington was a great administrator, and probably the person that was needed to launch the Union. He also had the ability to keep Jefferson and Hamilton in the same Cabinet without them shooting each other. Hamilton finally got shot by somebody else, but he and Jefferson didn’t agree on too much, and Washington wanted both of them in his Cabinet. So I think you’ve got to say Washington was a very great figure in the way he handled the first eight years. He was assailed right and left, even as was Lincoln. Lincoln, just to give you a few words that I recall, was called a senseless baboon; a traitor; was accused of selling out the country; even his physical appearance—he was described as an ugly creature. One problem with that is that Lincoln always thought he was ugly, he always thought he was homely. I don’t agree; I think he’s got a very noble face. I’d trade my mug for his any day. But he thought he was ugly. And when they tried to get Washington to run for a third term, he said: “I would rather be in my grave than to spend another four years in the White House.” And he bristled under these terrible things that were said about him. But I think these were great men. I think Adams was; Adams was a conservative, but we need that kind of conservative. I’ve never had any quarrel with honest-to-goodness conservatives any more than I had with honest-to-goodness liberals. I can’t stand these neoconservatives, I don’t know where they’re coming from, but I that think a person like John Adams you have to respect. One thing about the Founding Fathers: There were just a few of them, there were only about 150, and they all knew each other. And they wrote letters to each other, and they recommended books to each other, and they sent speeches to each other. Some of them were educated in three or four languages, including Jefferson, but a number of others—Lincoln is the one that had to get by with the least education, but he had great wisdom and great knowledge that was self-taught. So I think they were a very remarkable group of men. People ask me why we don’t produce people like that today, and I think probably we do, but in that time there was just this little group, as I say, maybe 150 or 200 people, and even Jefferson and Adams wrote hundreds of letters to each other, even though one was a liberal and one was a conservative. Mrs. Adams raised Jefferson’s children after Mrs. Jefferson died. And so they were close to each other; they had differences, but they were close to each other.Scheer: Speaking of that, you got to be close to Sen. [Barry] Goldwater later in life.</p>
<p>McGovern: I did; I liked his bluntness, and I used to see him down in the Senate gym all the time. He and I would get down there for an hour three or four times a week, and we’d sit in that steam room and talk. One thing he told me, Robert, he said: “You know, George, I know you’re always trying to cut the military budget. If you and [Sen. William] Proxmire would come over to my office for about a half a day sometime, I’ll show you how to cut that budget by a fourth and they’ll never miss it.” Unfortunately, he left office very soon after that. But Goldwater was not a stupid man. I think that he got steadily more liberal as he got older; most people get more conservative as they get older. Goldwater, for example after he got married a second time, when the first Mrs. Goldwater died—she influenced him on a number of things—and when Bill Clinton said we should permit gays to serve in the military, I wish he had had Goldwater with him when he made that statement. Because Goldwater told me down in the Senate gym, he says, “Hell, I don’t care whether a guy is straight or gay, as long as he can shoot straight.” And that would have been a good thing, I think, to put out for the general public. And then he said, “You know, George, we’ve had gays in the military ever since the Revolutionary Army.” I didn’t know that, but I’m always glad to believe something like that.</p>
<p>PART 6: Lyndon Johnson’s Secret; Cause of 1972 Election Landslide</p>
<p>Scheer: Let me ask you, getting a little closer to home, the Democrats: You mentioned before [that] you were a great admirer of John Kennedy, but John Kennedy did get us into Vietnam. At what point do you break with the Democratic Party?</p>
<p>McGovern: Well, keep in mind I made my break in my first year in the Senate. John Kennedy was president when I made that first speech warning against involvement in Vietnam. One thing I wish I had known is that Lyndon Johnson hated that war. If you read “The Johnson Tapes”—it’s a book edited by this historian, Michael Beschloss [editor’s note: “Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963-1964”], and it’ll knock you out of your chair, if you haven’t already read it. Johnson, just a few weeks after he got in the White House, he called in Dick Russell, the senior senator from Georgia who was chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and he says—and I’m just quoting what the tapes quote—he says: “Dick, what the hell are we going to do with that mess in Vietnam? We have no business out there, but I don’t know how to get out of the damn place.” And Russell said: “Well, remember Kennedy got that bunch to knock off old [President Ngo Dinh] Diem out there, and maybe you can find out who they were and get them, get some kind of a little coup to put them back in power, and then they could ask us—you’d probably have to pay them—but they could ask us to get the hell out of there.” He says: “That’s the only way I can figure out.” Neither one of these two senior political leaders, and both very bright, was willing to just say we’re coming home because we shouldn’t be there. They wanted somehow to get out without admitting we were wrong to be there. And that’s really, as you read these tapes, you’ll see that’s what was going on. And none of us who were criticizing the war had even a clue that Johnson had any question about it. And here the truth of the matter is he couldn’t stand it, but he didn’t know how to … he didn’t start the war, and he didn’t know how to get out. It’s as simple as that. Keep in mind Johnson was raised in the background of the Alamo. The Texas soldiers fought until the last man on the Alamo; well, every Texas schoolboy is taught that that’s the meaning of valor and courage, to stand up and die to the last man.</p>
<p>Scheer: What happened in those Lyndon Johnson discussions, the killer argument on his part was, “If I do this, I’ll be defeated.” That was the killer. “If I do this, they’ll have me for lunch; and so I can’t be the first president to lose the war, I can’t get out.” That has been the blackmail that has destroyed the Democratic Party, as far as I can see. At least Republicans, including Nixon, had a little bit of a cushion; no one’s going to call them soft, although they did with Eisenhower. And I imagine the discussion now in the higher circles of the Democratic Party and the White House was: I doubt very many people can make the case we should stay [in Afghanistan]; there’s a great deal of evidence that al-Qaida is not there; there are fewer than a hundred of them, according to the president’s intelligence adviser, and they can’t mount an attack, and so forth. We now have some reports about how it makes it much worse. But I suspect the compelling argument that may cause an escalation will be the one that drove Lyndon Johnson, which is: We will be hurt politically. And you stand as the exclamation point to that. They all say: See, we tried to do that—and you were defeated. Looking back at that history, what do you draw from that? Here was Richard Nixon, who was already breaking into your headquarters, already doing all these things, got a kind of free ride from the media right up through that election, Watergate didn’t break until after that. What is your feeling about you being used as a kind of poster boy for “No, we can’t do the right thing in foreign policy because we’ll be McGoverned”?</p>
<p>McGovern: Well, first let me say this. We did win the nomination. We did win 11 primaries, including the two biggest ones, California and New York. We were able to put together the best grass-roots army of dedicated people, I think, in the history of this country. Wonderful people. Marsha Hunt, back here, was one of them. I just described you as one of the best volunteers in American history. [Applause] Anyway, I think there’s no question that we prevailed inside the Democratic Party. We had a majority there. Now, the problem with that, politically, is that the Vietnam War was fought out within the Democratic Party. The hawks and the doves—those weren’t Republicans, those were Democrats. The Republicans finessed the issue by saying that “we’re going to support the commander in chief of the armed forces.” And that’s what they did, whether it was Kennedy or Nixon or Johnson or whoever it was, they were always with the commander in chief. It doesn’t mean they were for or against the war, they’re just saying … they finessed the issue. Democrats, no way, you were either a hawk or a dove, you had to stand up and battle. So while I think by the time the votes were taken in the bid for the nomination, a small majority of Democrats were probably against the war, that meant that almost half the Democrats were for the war. And therefore, when I won that nomination and then had to go out and face the country, the Republicans were united pretty solidly behind Nixon, and the Democrats were split right down the middle on Vietnam. There’s no question that a lot of those people who were in support of the war voted for Nixon. That’s the only way I can account for the landslide. I don’t think Nixon was all that likeable or that I was all that unlikable, but I think that war issue, which was a key with Democrats, I think that a lot of the pro-war Democrats voted for Nixon. That wasn’t out of evil; it was just out of their conviction that we had to stay there and fight, and we had to win.</p>
<p>PART 7: The Political Wisdom of an Afghanistan Pullout</p>
<p>(Editor’s note: Audience questions have been edited for brevity and clarity.)</p>
<p>What sort of advice would you give President Obama on the great moral issues of today?</p>
<p />
<p>— Bruce Baron, middle school principal</p>
<p>McGovern:</p>
<p>I would urge him to get out of Afghanistan. I could even make the case on political grounds. I’m convinced that war is going to turn sour. I’m convinced we’re not going to prevail there. People have been trying that ever since Alexander the Great. Genghis Khan even made a shot at it. The British throughout the 19th century were in there several times trying to pacify the thing and finally gave up. The Russians were there for 11 years, 1979 until 1990, they put in 100,000 crack soldiers, 25,000 of them killed dead in Afghanistan, another 25,000 crippled or injured. And the Russian treasury went broke, and some of our best Soviet experts believe that’s what really led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. As you know, it’s now 16 independent states instead of the United Soviet Socialist Republics. So I would go through that with the president, and I would point out that some of the best reporters over there are telling us that the Taliban are getting stronger and we’re getting weaker in the minds of the people, and that you have a corrupt government involved in drugs, involved in just plain old-fashioned stealing and corruption. It’s a lousy government, and it’s very difficult, even for a great country like this, to make them look good. So I think we have every reason to withdraw, and I would try to urge that course for the president. In other words, I don’t want to see happening to him what happened to Lyndon Johnson. Lyndon Johnson was a great president, in many ways. He had a great vision; a Great Society, he got ridiculed for that, but there’s nothing wrong with a president seeing America as a great society. And he did a lot of things good; he got these two landmark civil rights bills passed that no other president that I know of could have gotten through the Congress. And so what brought him down, and led him not to even run again, was the war in Vietnam. And I’d remind the president—I’m a strong supporter of Barack Obama. I think he’s a brilliant young guy and I think he can make a great president. Certainly our place in the world has gone up dramatically with him in the … most people around the world don’t look like you and me, they look like him. And I think that our standing worldwide is much better, all across Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America. And I think he still stands high with the American public, but I think this war is his biggest danger. Now, on the other big issue, national health care, I wish he had not started with a compromise proposal. There’s always room for compromise as you go along. His bill, as the House passed it, is now 2,000 pages long. The one that Hillary Clinton had 16 years ago was 1,300 pages. The problem with that is it’s so easy for demagogues to pick them apart. And nobody’s ever going to read 2,000 pages; at least I never have. I was in Congress for 22 years, but I never read a [2,000]-page bill, and I don’t think anybody else will. And so it’s easy to subject them to it. I would have just had a one-sentence bill: Congress hereby extends Medicare to all Americans. Period.What would be the consequences to President Obama’s domestic agenda and re-election chances if he did what you suggest regarding Afghanistan?</p>
<p>— Warren Olney, KCRW talk show host</p>
<p>McGovern:</p>
<p>If he could somehow get through even a compromise national health insurance bill, I think that’s the kind of thing that gets presidents re-elected. We don’t know at this stage what’s going to happen on national health care, but every politician I talk with says that’s the key issue; I’m sure it’s true in South Dakota, where I live at least half time. It doesn’t seem to make much difference whether it’s a conservative state or a liberal state, there’s strong support for national health care. So I think it was wise for the president to begin with that on the domestic front. And if the economy turns around in the next two or three years, which it probably will—I’ve confessed my ignorance on high finance—but I think the stimulus program and other things the administration has done will be helpful, and the reports that are coming in indicate that sometime in the next year or two we’ll see it. And that’s going to work favorably in terms of the re-election of the president. If people are doing reasonably well economically, it’s hard to defeat an incumbent president. So no matter what the fallout might be, good or bad, on Afghanistan, I don’t think that is going to be as important as these two matters I’ve just mentioned, in terms of him getting re-elected. I don’t see the move on Afghanistan as a way to get elected, but I see it doing—the course that I recommended is a way of avoiding defeat. You have to have some other things to get re-elected.</p>
<p>If you were the president, how would you get out of Afghanistan?</p>
<p />
<p>— Lila Garrett, KPFK talk show host</p>
<p>McGovern:</p>
<p>I would say to the Afghan people that we’ve been here for eight years, and we’ve come to the conclusion we can’t resolve your problems. You’ve got the Taliban, you may have al-Qaida, but—our soldiers have fought, died bravely—but it’s my conclusion, as president of the United States, that we can’t resolve the problems here. We’ll do what we can to help you, but we can’t do it with our military forces. As a matter of fact, while we’ve been here, the Taliban have grown stronger, and we don’t know where al-Qaida is—we think they’re in Pakistan—but having our troops in Afghanistan is not going to help that. So it’s our judgment that the best thing for us, and maybe for you, is for you to take over the handling of your own problems.</p>
<p>PART 8: The Lunacy of Our $700 Billion Giveaway</p>
<p>Scheer: If I don’t jump in now and ask this question — I know there’s a lot of you [with] questions — I’ll be yelling at my wife all the way home about why I didn’t ask this question. You said his biggest problem is Afghanistan, which I think is a big problem, and I think health care is a big problem. But I’m writing a book now on “The Great American Stickup: Greedy Bankers and the Politicians Who Love Them,” for The Nation, and I want to ask you, as … in touch with populist America, why isn’t there more rage about this country being sold out to the very bankers that got us into the problem in the first place? I don’t get it. I don’t know why people in South Dakota are not more upset about what’s happening. What is your sense of that? What happened to the old populist message against Wall Street, against big finance, and why doesn’t that resonate at all in the Democratic Party? We’re throwing trillions at these banks, and they’re not doing anything for us. What’s your take on it?</p>
<p>McGovern: Well, I agree generally with that view. I have to confess, Bob, I’m not an expert on high finance. I had a guy get on an airplane with me the other day. I was worn out, and I thought: “Well, I finally got up in a first-class seat. I’m just going to take a nap or read a book or something.” And a guy came up and sat down in the seat next to me, and he said: “The stewardess told me that I could come up for a brief time here, and I’ve got a suggestion to make. You want to know what’s wrong with this country?” I heaved a sigh, and I said, “Well, I can’t imagine.” He said, “The International Monetary Fund. And if you give me just a half an hour here, I can tell you what’s wrong with that International Monetary Fund.” I said: “Well, I’m going to save you the time. I don’t think my intellect is great enough to understand the International Monetary Fund, and furthermore, I don’t give a damn.” So he was kind of shocked, but he did go back to his seat at that point. I would never say that to you, Bob. No, I wish I knew more about high finance, but I would have voted against the $700 billion giveaway. I think that was a mistake, particularly since they didn’t attach any conditions to it. That was what bothered me, and I think there should have been a few populists taking the floor of the House and the Senate and say[ing]: “I can’t go down and get that kind of money from the government. What have these big banks and insurance companies, what have they done to deserve this? And what protection is there to the taxpayer? Are we just going to donate $700 billion with no conditions they have to meet?” So I think your point is well taken, and if we had Bill Proxmire here, he would come up with a really intelligent answer on that.</p>
<p>Scheer: OK. So I’m not the nut in the plane?</p>
<p>McGovern: I just take simple things, like the Afghanistan war.</p>
<p>PART 9: Plenty of Churches but Little ‘Social Gospel’</p>
<p>(Editor’s note: Audience questions have been edited for brevity and clarity.)</p>
<p>What would you tell President Obama to do for education?</p>
<p>— Jay Boberg, film producer and distributor</p>
<p>McGovern:</p>
<p>Well, I think it has to be both a federal and a state effort. And if I were going to outline four or five points that I’d like to run on, if I were running for office these days, I’d put education on that list, because—for example, in my state, teachers’ salaries, I think, are last among the 50 states. And we desperately need some federal input there too. We just don’t have the resources to provide the kind of first-rate schools and colleges that I think are needed. So I’d like to see a program, both of federal support to raise standards in the schools, and also I think the states need to do more.</p>
<p>Scheer: Let me segue a little bit on this. You come from this dream of America, OK, where religion was a positive force, right? Your father was a minister. It was not something that, as the folklore comes down to us, that divided people, although they did kill witches at one point. But seriously, reading your writing about your background, it was an incredibly nurturing, positive experience. Good schools, teachers who cared, churches that were supportive and reasonable. What happened to that? How did those people end up on the wrong side?</p>
<p>McGovern: Well, don’t you think these television evangelists have something to do with that? I don’t want to knock all of them, but I think what I understand to be the function of religion isn’t met very well by some of these guys that have enormous audiences; some of them have enormous churches. I went to a church in Houston the other day just to see a guy that I’ve watched on television; I wanted to see what he looked like in person. That church has 36,000 members. The [South Dakota] church I went to had about 60 when I was growing up. And what he [the Houston preacher] gives that audience is a kind of a feel-good, God wants you to do well, God doesn’t want you to be poor, God doesn’t want you overworked, and various … I guess I’d just call it a kind of a feel-good thing. You leave thinking, “Well, if God is for all those good things, I guess there’s nothing much wrong in the world.” And we know there are a lot of things wrong in the world. And I think religion has to speak to those things. I think clergymen have to speak to those things. We probably might not have ever fully emancipated black people had it not been for those little Southern churches, the Baptist ministers and others. Martin Luther King, of course, came out of that background. But I think religion has to speak to the problems of everyday life. I guess it’s called the “social gospel.” And that, it seems to me, is what is missing in many churches. I live part of the year down in Florida, and once in a while I dip into a church there just to see what’s going on, and usually I’m left without much feeling that they’re coming to grips with the real problems of a real people. Religion, in my opinion, has to stand for social justice as well as for … in many of these churches they emphasize personal salvation. I never knew whether I was saved or not. They’d have these altar calls and urge you to come down. Some people would stand up and testify they’d been saved. I stood up a couple of times and I felt like a liar after I didn’t feel that I’d really been saved from anything. So there’s a little too much of that, in many of these churches, to suit me. I like to hear a sermon on peace. I like to hear a sermon on racial justice. I like to hear a sermon on the rights of women. I like to hear sermons that help us build a better society on Earth. I don’t know what’s out there beyond the grave; I always refer to it as the mystery beyond the grave, because I just don’t know. I don’t know whether I’m going to get out there and run into Nixon, or what’s going to happen. [Applause] That’s a very roundabout answer to your question.</p>
<p>Scheer: I think it’s a great answer.</p>
<p>McGovern: You keep asking me tough questions.</p>
<p>Scheer: No, no, I think that’s probably a good moment on which to end. I just want to say something. As a journalist, and I’m sure [some of] the others in this room are journalists, I’ve interviewed a lot of people in my life. I’ve been around a lot of people who are influential, political, and so forth. I’ve never met a finer human being than George McGovern.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | former us senators death sunday morning look back 2009 conversation truthdig editorinchief robert scheer george mcgovern witness history scholar one first senators oppose vietnam war recent truthdig event shared insight past current events lincolns greatest accomplishment war afghanistan following material recorded los angeles nov 1 2009 truthdig salon sen george mcgovern american presidency lincoln obama videography video editing brian rudloff full transcript begins page 2 following video clips see also summary article narda zacchino mcgovern get afghanistan part 1 9 introduction part 2 9 war hero part 3 9 abraham lincoln good man speaking well part 4 9 bitter lesson part 5 9 great leaders part 6 9 landslide part 7 9 afghanistan part 8 9 guy airplane part 9 9 questions transcript begins page 2 part 1 moral center unwillingness panderrobert scheer let introduce speaker cant think anyone around would honored able introduce know thats sort trite thing dedicate last book gen eisenhower george mcgovern want tell one little story nation magazine cruise think going newfoundland somethingwhere goingalaska oh sorry alaska anyway cold remember talking back boatthats nikki keddie way nations leading expert iran want chat somebody whats going world great hecklerand back boat interviewed richard nixon actually ended one people saw anything positive richard nixon thought compared ronald reagan positively enlightened compared george w bush flaming liberal kind wrote nixon liked wrote la timesthis guess 84so invited come see got talk charitable view richard nixon people room would met george mcgovern boat asked one question really confounded said know major war hero distinguished flying cross thirtyfive suicide missions germany crashlanded plane save crew received distinguished flying crossthats know one really top medals getan incredibly heroic figure world war ii richard nixon parade guard navy see combat yet campaign often case richard nixon played patriotism cardwhos really willing defend country whos really willing stand america forth asked sen mcgovern said come didnt bring war record response talk personal heroism considerable george mcgovern gave answerit best answer ever got politician question ever askedhe said would unseemly thought classy guy like president gift us think maybe happening maybe happening right well lively discussion look back sen mcgoverns life key thing stands integrity moral center unwillingness pander cater things political advantage think amazing life story wont go details well discussion people know george mcgovern methodist minister doctorate history hes major writer books hes major intellectual well distinguished political career hes written bookthe reason truthdigs arts culture commitment booksand hes written series presidency book abraham lincoln thought broadly would ask go wrong lincoln get back let introduce sen mcgovern george mcgovern first let thank zuade kaufman opening beautiful home cant wait jump pool someday come time want express appreciation robert scheer announced president year ahead normal time thats time american history anyone announced two years election come little state south dakota three electoral votes freshman senator money running pretty tough people knew coming upeventually 15 opponents trying nomination said announcement speech sioux falls sd id make one pledge others seek speak truth ran lyndon johnson former president united states reception said heard announcement speech liked asked criticisms said nothing say youre going find lot harder know truth speak actually tough problems faced us faced abraham lincolnprobably inherited toughest problem fouryear civil war americans chose sides killed four years six hundred thousand young americans warthats equal combined american losses world war world war ii lincoln man peace also man character courage saw way resist secession tough decision make carried enormous cost nation want say robert scheerof reporters know hes best digging truth expressing day day intelligence dig truth courage publish book intellect part courage part bob applause pleased picked recent book called pornography power analysis power people power sources power shape countrys national agenda example biggest military budget history world country equal combined military budgets 185 countries worldwhy afraid continue kind allocation year year obviously want adequate defense dangerous world dont think reasonable person would object appropriate allocation military really big rest world put together questions raised bob pleased dedicated book president eisenhower part 2 breaking barrier fear mcgovern since didnt talk might helped maybe might take couple minutes tell volunteered combat bomber pilot world war ii taken course little college went dakota wesleyan flying government announced could get 10 students sign course government would provide airplane instructor airfield one guys class desperate learn fly talked several times finally decided go one reasons junior high school coach name joe quentle good coach one meanest son guns think ive ever known really got tonguelashing kind mistake one day 13 maybe 14 junior high school us gymnastic class one things run across gymnasium fast could go got end dive one big leather horses think probably youveyou look like youre shape youve probably anyway dive duck head roll id run thingi could couldnt knew id break neck finally loudest whistle ive ever heard joe quentle said mac hells matter said well mr quentle ill anything cant dive horse said want know youre moral coward thought would die really thought id die right didnt think anybody would ever speak know 60 young guys thisnot practically bothered long time four years later 19 pearl harbor came thought heres chance show joe quentle signed bomber pilot wasnt air force army air corps navy air corps 10 us taken course flying borrowed couple carsin days student carso borrowed car president one dean drove omaha recruiting stations debating know join air corps one guy says oh boy trying land carrier night storm know scared us little another guy says know silly arguments didnt know talking got one guys picked rumor signed army air corps even went recruiting station air corps would give free meal downtown cafeteria omaha strength unsubstantiated rumor meal ticket probably worth dollar 10 us joined army air corps cheapest ive ever sold anyway thats background listed hero trying get coward hope succeeded applause honestly tell first time stood floor united states senate freshman congressmanid six months 1963 worked previous two years white house president kennedy loved stood made first speech saying war vietnam mistake business quicker disengaged better first speech either house senate vietnam war applause knew right time political problem people thought right never recovered politically terms millions people thought outrageous considerable part know war half bomber crews flew world war ii never survived war50 percent casualty rates im proud role world war ii thought hitler madman stoppedamong things killed 6 million innocent jewish people mostly citizens im proud played role helping smash military machine im also proud stood war thought wrong killed 58000 young americans probably best troops ever sent overseas naught part 3 lincolns strength lay reading writing mcgovern let give words abraham lincoln words pages written abraham lincoln anybody else world history exception jesus christ authority word master new york times died recentlyi cant think name editors note william safire anyway books country written abraham lincoln presidents combined another one partly educate lincoln read speeches read letters read number secondary books come deeply increased appreciation remarkable man part series henry holt publisher theyve taken macmillanbut theyre book like presidents beginning george washington theyre supposed 165 pages im glad put limit cross awful lot brilliant stuff buti tearfullyand think holding 165 pages one us probably better unlimited pages youve heard old saying sorry dont time write short letter think books lot 900page books opinion would better tightened bitmaybe four five hundred pages every writer thinks every word precious arent precious tightened admire lincoln first kind man old roman orator name quintilian orator asked one time makes great orator said good orator good man speaking well today wed say good person speaking great speaker first good personyou agree bob probably journalists came conclusion lincoln even better thought overcame incredible handicaps one lack education one half yearsthere teachers sort traveling teachers came little village might stay around month two teach kids historians tell us less two years formal education high school junior high college law school nothing nothing like learn two things little school learned read learned write never quit reading reading reading reading life hungry every book could get hands knew shakespeare knew king james version bible knew great poets knew aesops fables hundreds things read writinghe loved write think became best writer ever serve white house going improve gettysburg address talk tightening things upa definition democracy government people people people thats need know democracy took two half minutes deliver speech contrary may heard writing back envelope way address worked speech days every speech first second inaugurals sometimes got draft satisfaction would call members cabinet frequently secretary seward secretary state would read speech secretary whoever listeningwhat think think thatseward one point said think particular phrase little dull little flat dont change better angels naturein inaugural address ive always wished id thought phrase appealing better angels peoples nature didnt ghostwriters wrote speeches would let somebody else make suggestions incorporated changes would read speechno would critic read speech see sounded theres wonderful book called lincolns sword lincolns sword according author writing ability speaking ability want really interesting book lincoln lincolns sword tell produced great masterpieces part 4 mcgovern family tragedy lincolns greatest accomplishment mcgovern today would call clinical depression really severe clinical depression would sink spells despondency almost paralyzed terrible malady anyone know little family daughter terry saw first despondency settle freshman university south dakota good student intelligent young woman great sense humortill day died great sense humorbut depressed finally told wife eleanor one night couldnt stand thought end life took psychiatrist worked long time several years didnt much good finally found cure bottle vodka got hold jug vodka drank glass two could whale good time werent depressed could go party make everybody laugh eventually led alcoholism treatment centers could think one night eleanor expecting home christmas two little girls ages 7 9 thought getting betterbut always relapse thats biggest problem alcoholic miserable relapses supposed home three four days christmas two little girls sent airline tickets lived madison wis terry went school eleanor went dinner little restaurant connecticut avenue fun evening restaurant owner played piano accordion passed singing pretty happy time got home eleanor went upstairs went bed reading novel living room reading magazine doorbell rang midnight thought gosh would coming midnight lived kind secluded part washington along rock creek park thought well maybe terry moved couple days went front door got could see glass either side big door police officer one side chaplain let officer said senator awfully sorry come house christmastime sad news must tell daughter teresa jane mcgovern found dead today said frozen death wisconsin snowstorm apparently deeply intoxicated bitter lesson depressionwhich fooled around treacherous thingand alcoholism dont take money books sell go teresa mcgovern treatment center madison wis none treatment centers great one better ones want know im make money today every dollar get booksive written 14 books one promises bestseller want know revenue goes treatment center couple quick additional things lincolnive probably gone long havent ihe thought greatest achievement emancipation proclamation would respectfully disagree important partial emancipation emancipated slaves 11 southern states war progress wasnt much lincoln could enforce emancipation didnt touch slaves border states didnt provide permanent right people free slavery came lincoln reelected 13th amendment constitution freed people slaves freed people time nobody held slave united states thats federal crime think greatest achievement saving union united states could easily disappeared united states america new england states threatened earlier time secede tariff question 20 years later comes southern secession lincoln determined save union open tried deal south wouldnt secede said could save union freeing slaves would could save union sop southerners freeing none slaves would could save union freeing slaves holding others eventually thats would union must preserved thats absolutely refused compromise slavery territories new states coming union one inch soil would settled slaves except 11 south thats drew line anyway greatest achievement saved union part 5 founding fathers greatness straight shooter named goldwater scheer let ask question old guys look good included seriously read jefferson washington book go great washingtons farewell address fabulous document people havent read first exaggerating good guys know least brains thought president brain thats good change wonder make founders make great history involve slavery involve exploitation whitemale exclusive whole history degree worth relying everybody even right wing relies mcgovern well think great founding fathers think jefferson tremendously farsighted intelligent man washington great administrator probably person needed launch union also ability keep jefferson hamilton cabinet without shooting hamilton finally got shot somebody else jefferson didnt agree much washington wanted cabinet think youve got say washington great figure way handled first eight years assailed right left even lincoln lincoln give words recall called senseless baboon traitor accused selling country even physical appearancehe described ugly creature one problem lincoln always thought ugly always thought homely dont agree think hes got noble face id trade mug day thought ugly tried get washington run third term said would rather grave spend another four years white house bristled terrible things said think great men think adams adams conservative need kind conservative ive never quarrel honesttogoodness conservatives honesttogoodness liberals cant stand neoconservatives dont know theyre coming think person like john adams respect one thing founding fathers 150 knew wrote letters recommended books sent speeches educated three four languages including jefferson number otherslincoln one get least education great wisdom great knowledge selftaught think remarkable group men people ask dont produce people like today think probably time little group say maybe 150 200 people even jefferson adams wrote hundreds letters even though one liberal one conservative mrs adams raised jeffersons children mrs jefferson died close differences close otherscheer speaking got close sen barry goldwater later life mcgovern liked bluntness used see senate gym time would get hour three four times week wed sit steam room talk one thing told robert said know george know youre always trying cut military budget sen william proxmire would come office half day sometime ill show cut budget fourth theyll never miss unfortunately left office soon goldwater stupid man think got steadily liberal got older people get conservative get older goldwater example got married second time first mrs goldwater diedshe influenced number thingsand bill clinton said permit gays serve military wish goldwater made statement goldwater told senate gym says hell dont care whether guy straight gay long shoot straight would good thing think put general public said know george weve gays military ever since revolutionary army didnt know im always glad believe something like part 6 lyndon johnsons secret cause 1972 election landslide scheer let ask getting little closer home democrats mentioned great admirer john kennedy john kennedy get us vietnam point break democratic party mcgovern well keep mind made break first year senate john kennedy president made first speech warning involvement vietnam one thing wish known lyndon johnson hated war read johnson tapesits book edited historian michael beschloss editors note taking charge johnson white house tapes 19631964 itll knock chair havent already read johnson weeks got white house called dick russell senior senator georgia chairman armed services committee saysand im quoting tapes quotehe says dick hell going mess vietnam business dont know get damn place russell said well remember kennedy got bunch knock old president ngo dinh diem maybe find get get kind little coup put back power could ask usyoud probably pay thembut could ask us get hell says thats way figure neither one two senior political leaders bright willing say coming home shouldnt wanted somehow get without admitting wrong thats really read tapes youll see thats going none us criticizing war even clue johnson question truth matter couldnt stand didnt know didnt start war didnt know get simple keep mind johnson raised background alamo texas soldiers fought last man alamo well every texas schoolboy taught thats meaning valor courage stand die last man scheer happened lyndon johnson discussions killer argument part ill defeated killer theyll lunch cant first president lose war cant get blackmail destroyed democratic party far see least republicans including nixon little bit cushion ones going call soft although eisenhower imagine discussion higher circles democratic party white house doubt many people make case stay afghanistan theres great deal evidence alqaida fewer hundred according presidents intelligence adviser cant mount attack forth reports makes much worse suspect compelling argument may cause escalation one drove lyndon johnson hurt politically stand exclamation point say see tried thatand defeated looking back history draw richard nixon already breaking headquarters already things got kind free ride media right election watergate didnt break feeling used kind poster boy cant right thing foreign policy well mcgoverned mcgovern well first let say win nomination win 11 primaries including two biggest ones california new york able put together best grassroots army dedicated people think history country wonderful people marsha hunt back one described one best volunteers american history applause anyway think theres question prevailed inside democratic party majority problem politically vietnam war fought within democratic party hawks dovesthose werent republicans democrats republicans finessed issue saying going support commander chief armed forces thats whether kennedy nixon johnson whoever always commander chief doesnt mean war theyre saying finessed issue democrats way either hawk dove stand battle think time votes taken bid nomination small majority democrats probably war meant almost half democrats war therefore nomination go face country republicans united pretty solidly behind nixon democrats split right middle vietnam theres question lot people support war voted nixon thats way account landslide dont think nixon likeable unlikable think war issue key democrats think lot prowar democrats voted nixon wasnt evil conviction stay fight win part 7 political wisdom afghanistan pullout editors note audience questions edited brevity clarity sort advice would give president obama great moral issues today bruce baron middle school principal mcgovern would urge get afghanistan could even make case political grounds im convinced war going turn sour im convinced going prevail people trying ever since alexander great genghis khan even made shot british throughout 19th century several times trying pacify thing finally gave russians 11 years 1979 1990 put 100000 crack soldiers 25000 killed dead afghanistan another 25000 crippled injured russian treasury went broke best soviet experts believe thats really led collapse soviet union know 16 independent states instead united soviet socialist republics would go president would point best reporters telling us taliban getting stronger getting weaker minds people corrupt government involved drugs involved plain oldfashioned stealing corruption lousy government difficult even great country like make look good think every reason withdraw would try urge course president words dont want see happening happened lyndon johnson lyndon johnson great president many ways great vision great society got ridiculed theres nothing wrong president seeing america great society lot things good got two landmark civil rights bills passed president know could gotten congress brought led even run war vietnam id remind presidentim strong supporter barack obama think hes brilliant young guy think make great president certainly place world gone dramatically people around world dont look like look like think standing worldwide much better across europe asia africa latin america think still stands high american public think war biggest danger big issue national health care wish started compromise proposal theres always room compromise go along bill house passed 2000 pages long one hillary clinton 16 years ago 1300 pages problem easy demagogues pick apart nobodys ever going read 2000 pages least never congress 22 years never read 2000page bill dont think anybody else easy subject would onesentence bill congress hereby extends medicare americans periodwhat would consequences president obamas domestic agenda reelection chances suggest regarding afghanistan warren olney kcrw talk show host mcgovern could somehow get even compromise national health insurance bill think thats kind thing gets presidents reelected dont know stage whats going happen national health care every politician talk says thats key issue im sure true south dakota live least half time doesnt seem make much difference whether conservative state liberal state theres strong support national health care think wise president begin domestic front economy turns around next two three years probably willive confessed ignorance high financebut think stimulus program things administration done helpful reports coming indicate sometime next year two well see thats going work favorably terms reelection president people reasonably well economically hard defeat incumbent president matter fallout might good bad afghanistan dont think going important two matters ive mentioned terms getting reelected dont see move afghanistan way get elected see doingthe course recommended way avoiding defeat things get reelected president would get afghanistan lila garrett kpfk talk show host mcgovern would say afghan people weve eight years weve come conclusion cant resolve problems youve got taliban may alqaida butour soldiers fought died bravelybut conclusion president united states cant resolve problems well help cant military forces matter fact weve taliban grown stronger dont know alqaida iswe think theyre pakistanbut troops afghanistan going help judgment best thing us maybe take handling problems part 8 lunacy 700 billion giveaway scheer dont jump ask question know theres lot questions ill yelling wife way home didnt ask question said biggest problem afghanistan think big problem think health care big problem im writing book great american stickup greedy bankers politicians love nation want ask touch populist america isnt rage country sold bankers got us problem first place dont get dont know people south dakota upset whats happening sense happened old populist message wall street big finance doesnt resonate democratic party throwing trillions banks theyre anything us whats take mcgovern well agree generally view confess bob im expert high finance guy get airplane day worn thought well finally got firstclass seat im going take nap read book something guy came sat seat next said stewardess told could come brief time ive got suggestion make want know whats wrong country heaved sigh said well cant imagine said international monetary fund give half hour tell whats wrong international monetary fund said well im going save time dont think intellect great enough understand international monetary fund furthermore dont give damn kind shocked go back seat point would never say bob wish knew high finance would voted 700 billion giveaway think mistake particularly since didnt attach conditions bothered think populists taking floor house senate saying cant go get kind money government big banks insurance companies done deserve protection taxpayer going donate 700 billion conditions meet think point well taken bill proxmire would come really intelligent answer scheer ok im nut plane mcgovern take simple things like afghanistan war part 9 plenty churches little social gospel editors note audience questions edited brevity clarity would tell president obama education jay boberg film producer distributor mcgovern well think federal state effort going outline four five points id like run running office days id put education list becausefor example state teachers salaries think last among 50 states desperately need federal input dont resources provide kind firstrate schools colleges think needed id like see program federal support raise standards schools also think states need scheer let segue little bit come dream america ok religion positive force right father minister something folklore comes us divided people although kill witches one point seriously reading writing background incredibly nurturing positive experience good schools teachers cared churches supportive reasonable happened people end wrong side mcgovern well dont think television evangelists something dont want knock think understand function religion isnt met well guys enormous audiences enormous churches went church houston day see guy ive watched television wanted see looked like person church 36000 members south dakota church went 60 growing houston preacher gives audience kind feelgood god wants well god doesnt want poor god doesnt want overworked various guess id call kind feelgood thing leave thinking well god good things guess theres nothing much wrong world know lot things wrong world think religion speak things think clergymen speak things probably might ever fully emancipated black people little southern churches baptist ministers others martin luther king course came background think religion speak problems everyday life guess called social gospel seems missing many churches live part year florida dip church see whats going usually im left without much feeling theyre coming grips real problems real people religion opinion stand social justice well many churches emphasize personal salvation never knew whether saved theyd altar calls urge come people would stand testify theyd saved stood couple times felt like liar didnt feel id really saved anything theres little much many churches suit like hear sermon peace like hear sermon racial justice like hear sermon rights women like hear sermons help us build better society earth dont know whats beyond grave always refer mystery beyond grave dont know dont know whether im going get run nixon whats going happen applause thats roundabout answer question scheer think great answer mcgovern keep asking tough questions scheer think thats probably good moment end want say something journalist im sure others room journalists ive interviewed lot people life ive around lot people influential political forth ive never met finer human george mcgovern | 4,122 |
<p>The invitation came to me from Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s public affairs office to attend a “conversation” with Panetta and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton at the prestigious National Defense University in Washington. Although I knew it wasn’t me they wanted to talk to, I sat in the audience to hear Panetta and Clinton in action, especially on the subject of my prime interest: the defense budget.</p>
<p>The “conversation,” it turns out, was with Frank Sesno, the former CNN personality and currently director of George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs. Sesno took the “conversation” assignment seriously; although he boldly said that it was important to “ask the tough questions” – just like a journalist – he did no such thing. Lofting over shallow dinner-talk queries, Sesno chummed it up with Panetta and Clinton and permitted them to say anything they wanted without fear of challenge.</p>
<p>Clinton tended toward impromptu speeches on whatever she was asked about; well articulated and forceful, much like she did as a senator at hearings where, rather than conduct oversight asking informed questions and following up, she would express her political points and neither seek nor reveal any new or deeper information.</p>
<p>Panetta was more subtle and single-minded. Although he comes from the same political background – White House insider and Congress – his answers were shorter and more softly stated, but they were directed at one and only one objective: defending the Pentagon’s budget.</p>
<p>Sesno started the “discussion” asking about budget cuts beyond the $350 billion the Pentagon has already committed to over the next 10 years, saying “What’s really at stake?” Panetta whacked the softball question hard: “Very simply, it would result in hollowing out the force,” and, “It would break faith with the troops and with their families,” and, finally, “It would literally undercut our ability to provide for the national defense.”</p>
<p>The bureaucratic moguls at the Pentagon, who currently preside over the largest defense or non-defense agency budget since the end of World War II, must have been delighted. After four years of sometime tough-guy Robert Gates, who fired senior officials for not toeing his line, DoD’s high spenders must be elated to have at the top someone who has leaped so quickly and with such eagerness to defending their agenda.</p>
<p>The $850 billion cut that Sesno was referring to does sound like a lot – if you are ignorant about the background and budget history. He offered no pushback and did nothing to probe Panetta’s budget preserving agenda, to question Panetta’s assumptions, and or even seek the data behind them.</p>
<p>Things didn’t get any better when Sesno allowed the audience a grand total of one question on DoD budget issues. The individual Sesno selected asked about funding for foreign language training. Panetta dutifully said it was important and that he wanted to look for “creative ways” to protect it. Clinton gave a speech about it, and the remaining 99.9 percent of the national security budget went unaddressed.</p>
<p>Instead of this feather-stroking chitchat, consider the following:</p>
<p>If the Pentagon’s “base” (non-war) budget were to be cut $850 billion, or so, over ten years, it would go down to about $472 billion annually, the approximate level of the base DOD budget in 2007. (This, not coincidentally, is about the same level of a new round of defense budget cutting hysteria circulating in Washington in response to a just released memo from OMB Director Jack Lew.)</p>
<p>Using the Pentagon’s “constant” dollars that adjust for the effects of inflation, that $472 billion level would be more than $70 billion higher than DOD spending was in 2000, just before the wars. Over ten years, base Defense Department spending would be almost three quarters of a trillion dollars above the levels extant in 2000. And, none of the additional monies to be spent on the wars would be eliminated.</p>
<p>At $472 billion per year, the Pentagon budget would be almost $40 billion more than we averaged, in inflation-adjusted “constant” dollars, during the Cold War when we faced an intimidating super-power, the Soviet Union, its Warsaw Pact allies and a hostile, dogmatically communist China.</p>
<p>At the 2007, 472 billion, level, our defense budget would remain more than twice the defense spending of China, Russia, Iran, Syria, Somalia, Cuba and any other potential adversary – combined.</p>
<p>The problem is not money. Under this so-called worst case scenario, the Pentagon would be left quite flush with money, plenty of it in historical terms.</p>
<p>The problem is that the Pentagon, as it exists under its current leadership, is incapable of surviving with less money. They quite literally do not understand how to face a future where the DoD budget exceeds any and all potential enemies by a multiple of only two.</p>
<p>Many – including Obama’s bipartisan 2010 National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a task force put together by congressmen Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas), yet another commission headed by former budget leaders Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and OMB Director Alice Rivlin, and two alternative budget proposals from Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) – have itemized how to save about $900 billion from the national defense budget. The political landscape is littered with competent recommendations to remove many of the thick layers of hydrogenated fat from the Pentagon.</p>
<p>These proposals hit on many of the same soft spots in the DoD budget, such as the unaffordable, underperforming, years behind schedule F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The implied consensus on such ideas and on the approximate amount (roughly $900 billion) suggest that the slightly lesser $850 billion in Pentagon savings is not “doomsday” (Panetta’s word) but quite endurable-and would actually leave DoD quite flush with cash.</p>
<p>But, it is unthinkable to Secretary Panetta, as it is to those who perform the enabling chitchat.</p>
<p>Winslow T. Wheeler&#160;is director of the Straus Military Reform Project and editor of “ <a href="" type="internal">The Pentagon Labyrinth: 10 Short Essays to Help You Through It.</a>“</p> | true | 4 | invitation came secretary defense leon panettas public affairs office attend conversation panetta secretary state hilary clinton prestigious national defense university washington although knew wasnt wanted talk sat audience hear panetta clinton action especially subject prime interest defense budget conversation turns frank sesno former cnn personality currently director george washington universitys school media public affairs sesno took conversation assignment seriously although boldly said important ask tough questions like journalist thing lofting shallow dinnertalk queries sesno chummed panetta clinton permitted say anything wanted without fear challenge clinton tended toward impromptu speeches whatever asked well articulated forceful much like senator hearings rather conduct oversight asking informed questions following would express political points neither seek reveal new deeper information panetta subtle singleminded although comes political background white house insider congress answers shorter softly stated directed one one objective defending pentagons budget sesno started discussion asking budget cuts beyond 350 billion pentagon already committed next 10 years saying whats really stake panetta whacked softball question hard simply would result hollowing force would break faith troops families finally would literally undercut ability provide national defense bureaucratic moguls pentagon currently preside largest defense nondefense agency budget since end world war ii must delighted four years sometime toughguy robert gates fired senior officials toeing line dods high spenders must elated top someone leaped quickly eagerness defending agenda 850 billion cut sesno referring sound like lot ignorant background budget history offered pushback nothing probe panettas budget preserving agenda question panettas assumptions even seek data behind things didnt get better sesno allowed audience grand total one question dod budget issues individual sesno selected asked funding foreign language training panetta dutifully said important wanted look creative ways protect clinton gave speech remaining 999 percent national security budget went unaddressed instead featherstroking chitchat consider following pentagons base nonwar budget cut 850 billion ten years would go 472 billion annually approximate level base dod budget 2007 coincidentally level new round defense budget cutting hysteria circulating washington response released memo omb director jack lew using pentagons constant dollars adjust effects inflation 472 billion level would 70 billion higher dod spending 2000 wars ten years base defense department spending would almost three quarters trillion dollars levels extant 2000 none additional monies spent wars would eliminated 472 billion per year pentagon budget would almost 40 billion averaged inflationadjusted constant dollars cold war faced intimidating superpower soviet union warsaw pact allies hostile dogmatically communist china 2007 472 billion level defense budget would remain twice defense spending china russia iran syria somalia cuba potential adversary combined problem money socalled worst case scenario pentagon would left quite flush money plenty historical terms problem pentagon exists current leadership incapable surviving less money quite literally understand face future dod budget exceeds potential enemies multiple two many including obamas bipartisan 2010 national commission fiscal responsibility reform task force put together congressmen barney frank dmass ron paul rtexas yet another commission headed former budget leaders sen pete domenici rnm omb director alice rivlin two alternative budget proposals sen tom coburn rokla itemized save 900 billion national defense budget political landscape littered competent recommendations remove many thick layers hydrogenated fat pentagon proposals hit many soft spots dod budget unaffordable underperforming years behind schedule f35 joint strike fighter implied consensus ideas approximate amount roughly 900 billion suggest slightly lesser 850 billion pentagon savings doomsday panettas word quite endurableand would actually leave dod quite flush cash unthinkable secretary panetta perform enabling chitchat winslow wheeler160is director straus military reform project editor pentagon labyrinth 10 short essays help | 580 |
<p>I hear from my friends that their champion has won a prize for peace, and I feel sure that, given the kind of peace for which my friends have settled, their champion deserves exactly this sort of recognition.</p>
<p>As I write my son comes by with a tub of Lego heads garnered from the field of battle.&#160; “I had not thought that death had undone so many,” I tell him.&#160; “Nevermore,” he says.&#160; A bit of nevermind and never mind and ravens, because he’s that kind of allusive nine-year-old.</p>
<p>Nine years ago I nursed him, as often as not all by myself, with a tiny flexible straw on one of my fingers while his mother worked the breastpump out of motor-sound range in the next room.&#160; My fingers like the multi-breasts of great Diana of the Ephesians about whom the people in the Bible story got so excited.</p>
<p>Some of the faces of the Legomen are fixed and tightlipped but many of them show the big O where they have been wrenched from the neck, and the O’s mix with the faces like captions of silent screaming.&#160; An anthem of O’s from the guernica box, a sad sigh of Oh’s and might-have-beens.&#160; A medley of nuance streaming through this single oft-repeated orifice, this single vowel, howl.</p>
<p>The Big O</p>
<p>Can I recite once again the true fable of language?&#160; You’ve heard it before, but this one has a twist, like a Legoman’s lost neck.&#160; The twist, this time, of how we came to settle for this terrible social contract, for all the terrible social contracts that are about sending ourselves away from the here and now to be performed elsewhere as an antic, degraded version of ourselves by such a thing as a leader.</p>
<p>Long before we’re born, our parents start preparing for us with words.&#160; Talking about us.&#160; Talking to us.&#160; Murmuring down into our hydraulic vat of preparation where the hip-hop percussion of systole and diastole calls out the minutes and hours.&#160; They’re readying a linguistic tabernacle for us, mixing metaphors, spreading Benjamin Moore’s new low-VOC colors on the walls of the nursery.</p>
<p>We’re born into a pre-established place in our parents’ linguistic universe, a space hundreds of years old.&#160; At first, we cry to get stuff.&#160; But after a while, in order to get stuff, we have to use words that are not our own and cannot possibly correspond to our complex situation.&#160; Just think of how many words we might have wanted to use to describe the nuance of a medley of diverse itches and the pleasures of relief we might imagine from various scratchings, the whole time that our caregivers are pestering us with words like “milk” or “diaper.”&#160; A thousand times after we have tried to say “I demand the lovely contrapuntal microbrewed synaesthesia of a joyous twisting semi-scratch in my left nostril up high near the convergence of the ear canal and the organs of taste” using only the grunt-words “milk” or “diaper,” we finally relinquish that demand in favor of the short list of satisfactions actually on tap: satisfactions that correspond to hunger or butt-itch.</p>
<p>Thus even our desires are alien, and worse—what we meant becomes what someone else imputes our meaning to be.&#160; If we cease crying because we are given milk, our cry must have “meant” hunger.&#160; Meaning is thus the meaning of others, of an other.&#160; The Other.&#160; Capitalized because it’s the big one, the from-now-on one.&#160; The mOther tongue, as Bruce Fink says of Lacan’s recitation of the fable, with the big O of otherness as language itself.&#160; In the end, we are ourselves the Other.&#160; Try flapping your mother’s tongue when you don’t even know that you can control your own hands, and you’ll have some idea of how alien we are even to so intimate an intimacy as our mother tongue.&#160; So what happens to the pleasures of that left nostril?&#160; In the land that flows with mere milk and honey, where does that inexpressible pleasure go?&#160; Let us name that place ‘the unconscious’.</p>
<p>The Political Unconscious</p>
<p>Our first social contract, then, is with our mother, and it is disastrous. No wonder that later our successful passage into the world of adults will be signaled by our monosyllabic submission to the alienating and distancing mechanism called leadership.&#160; It hardly matters whether the political space is a tyranny or a democracy.&#160; In the first our unwilling yes is demanded and in the second it is our willing yes that will be extracted.&#160; What is important is that in both we will forfeit the complex poetry of our desire in favor of the yes-grunt of submission to the leader.</p>
<p>The political unconscious is therefore not a metaphor for the linguistic and personal unconscious but rather its adult formation.&#160; The carnival of barely distinguishable fools is kept in the big O of the capitol city in order to wage various wars and give each other peace prizes.&#160; In this particular country where I live, the big O city literally begins with O, to remind us that we aren’t actually the country just below that begins with A and has that French liberty statue.&#160; All to no avail.&#160; Canadians are narcoleptics who wake up every five minutes having forgotten that they are not Americans.&#160; The big “eh.”&#160; In French the big Other is the big Autre.</p>
<p>If all these word games make you feel sleepy, imagine how babies and voters feel.</p>
<p>I nursed my son, and in that sense I am his mother.&#160; His big Other is bigger than most.&#160; Perhaps he dreams of digital breasts, and will need to fork out for therapy later in life.&#160; Hey, sew me, pal.</p>
<p>Democracy as Milgram Experiment</p>
<p>By the time we are old enough to think about them, language and leadership, the means of defrauding us, appear to be our most intimate selves.&#160; No wonder that we can see in our mind’s eye a world of itches attended to, of water and air cleaned, of rivers running free, wars abandoned, cities becoming gardens, and yet still march off somnambulistically to the voting booth to make the monosyllabic yes-grunt that keeps the war machine running.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment" type="external">Milgram</a> experiment of 1961 and its various replications remind us that the majority of people will torture and kill others if the authority asking them to do so appears to be legitimate enough and if the dirty work can be done at a distance (even if it’s someone in the next room screaming and banging on the wall).&#160; It turns out that we do not have to be a freak or psychopath to endorse and instigate massive suffering in others.&#160; It suffices only that we be the Big O to ourselves, self-strangers who have not awoken to our power to cease sending ourselves elsewhere.</p>
<p>We moderns are blood-drenched in the pathos of this essential misunderstanding.&#160; Democracy, our most inauthentic gesture, the way of sending ourselves elsewhere, goes unquestioned because it is fixed before we are socialized as political subjects.&#160; Indeed, our submission to it is our entrée into adulthood.&#160; It is socialization itself.</p>
<p>If there is a greater irony than the fact that the way we ensure we our not ourselves, democracy, appears to us as the very guarantor of selfhood, it is surely that most ancient fact about ourselves, that our mother tongue long ago served to guarantee that our own desires would not be our own.</p>
<p>The lights are out now, and the Legomen are singing into the dark.&#160; “O,” they are singing, “O O O.”</p>
<p>DAVID Ker THOMSON teaches at the University of Toronto.&#160; This paper was written to his freshmen humanities students this week to “lesson” their anxiety about the topic of their first paper, which could be about anything at all—a leaderless paper.&#160;He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | true | 4 | hear friends champion prize peace feel sure given kind peace friends settled champion deserves exactly sort recognition write son comes tub lego heads garnered field battle160 thought death undone many tell him160 nevermore says160 bit nevermind never mind ravens hes kind allusive nineyearold nine years ago nursed often tiny flexible straw one fingers mother worked breastpump motorsound range next room160 fingers like multibreasts great diana ephesians people bible story got excited faces legomen fixed tightlipped many show big wrenched neck os mix faces like captions silent screaming160 anthem os guernica box sad sigh ohs mighthavebeens160 medley nuance streaming single oftrepeated orifice single vowel howl big recite true fable language160 youve heard one twist like legomans lost neck160 twist time came settle terrible social contract terrible social contracts sending away performed elsewhere antic degraded version thing leader long born parents start preparing us words160 talking us160 talking us160 murmuring hydraulic vat preparation hiphop percussion systole diastole calls minutes hours160 theyre readying linguistic tabernacle us mixing metaphors spreading benjamin moores new lowvoc colors walls nursery born preestablished place parents linguistic universe space hundreds years old160 first cry get stuff160 order get stuff use words possibly correspond complex situation160 think many words might wanted use describe nuance medley diverse itches pleasures relief might imagine various scratchings whole time caregivers pestering us words like milk diaper160 thousand times tried say demand lovely contrapuntal microbrewed synaesthesia joyous twisting semiscratch left nostril high near convergence ear canal organs taste using gruntwords milk diaper finally relinquish demand favor short list satisfactions actually tap satisfactions correspond hunger buttitch thus even desires alien worsewhat meant becomes someone else imputes meaning be160 cease crying given milk cry must meant hunger160 meaning thus meaning others other160 other160 capitalized big one fromnowon one160 mother tongue bruce fink says lacans recitation fable big otherness language itself160 end other160 try flapping mothers tongue dont even know control hands youll idea alien even intimate intimacy mother tongue160 happens pleasures left nostril160 land flows mere milk honey inexpressible pleasure go160 let us name place unconscious political unconscious first social contract mother disastrous wonder later successful passage world adults signaled monosyllabic submission alienating distancing mechanism called leadership160 hardly matters whether political space tyranny democracy160 first unwilling yes demanded second willing yes extracted160 important forfeit complex poetry desire favor yesgrunt submission leader political unconscious therefore metaphor linguistic personal unconscious rather adult formation160 carnival barely distinguishable fools kept big capitol city order wage various wars give peace prizes160 particular country live big city literally begins remind us arent actually country begins french liberty statue160 avail160 canadians narcoleptics wake every five minutes forgotten americans160 big eh160 french big big autre word games make feel sleepy imagine babies voters feel nursed son sense mother160 big bigger most160 perhaps dreams digital breasts need fork therapy later life160 hey sew pal democracy milgram experiment time old enough think language leadership means defrauding us appear intimate selves160 wonder see minds eye world itches attended water air cleaned rivers running free wars abandoned cities becoming gardens yet still march somnambulistically voting booth make monosyllabic yesgrunt keeps war machine running milgram experiment 1961 various replications remind us majority people torture kill others authority asking appears legitimate enough dirty work done distance even someone next room screaming banging wall160 turns freak psychopath endorse instigate massive suffering others160 suffices big selfstrangers awoken power cease sending elsewhere moderns blooddrenched pathos essential misunderstanding160 democracy inauthentic gesture way sending elsewhere goes unquestioned fixed socialized political subjects160 indeed submission entrée adulthood160 socialization greater irony fact way ensure democracy appears us guarantor selfhood surely ancient fact mother tongue long ago served guarantee desires would lights legomen singing dark160 singing david ker thomson teaches university toronto160 paper written freshmen humanities students week lesson anxiety topic first paper could anything alla leaderless paper160he reached davethomsonutorontoca | 630 |
<p />
<p>Had Hurricane Katrina wanted to wreak a maximum of damage designed to highlight deeply entrenched environmental, social and economic injustices in the United States, it could not have picked a better place to make landfall than the Gulf Coast around New Orleans.</p>
<p>The maddening and shameful images of poor people of color stranded on rooftops and in hell holes like the Superdome have been joined by a growing list of environmental insults delivered or made worse by the hurricane. Some of the worst include oil spills, toxic chemicals on the loose, flooded Superfund sites, and the release of vast volumes of raw sewage. While we have some knowledge of the immediate environmental costs and dangers of the disaster, uncertainties remain about Katrina’s toxic legacy for human and ecosystem health.</p>
<p>Oil Spills</p>
<p>The Coast Guard estimates seven million gallons of oil got free from at least forty-four factories, tank farms, and other facilities to join the floodwaters of southeastern Louisiana. This is nearly two-thirds the amount of oil left in Alaskan waters by the Exxon Valdez. But in the case of the tanker accident, clean-up efforts were aided by the fact that the oil came from a single source.</p>
<p>What the current Coast Guard estimate misses is the highly dispersed and enormous volume of gasoline, oil, solvents, and other chemicals released when floodwaters washed over countless abandoned cars, boats, trucks, buses, oil change joints, and vehicle repair shops. And what of the structural integrity of the region’s 2,200 underground storage tanks? Adding to the uncertainties are no fewer than 58 unmoored drilling platforms floating in the Gulf, and unknown damage to hundreds of undersea pipelines.</p>
<p>Superfund Sites and Chemical Spills</p>
<p>The region was already infamous for poisoning those of its citizens least able to resist it before Katrina struck. Now, some of these waste and production sites are completely submerged or burned. Consider the case of the Thompson-Hayward chemical plant. For decades up through the mid-eighties, the facility manufactured insecticides like DDT, herbicides like 2,4,5-T (the main ingredient of dioxin-laced Agent Orange), and fungicides like the dioxin-containing pentachlorophenol. Remediation efforts throughout the eighties and nineties were never fully completed; some 2,600 tons of herbicide-tainted soil were deemed too dangerous to dispose of anywhere in the country.</p>
<p>Or take the case of the submerged Agriculture Street Landfill, rich in heavy metals, hazardous waste, and asbestos. Some of the landfill’s contents originated with the clean up in the wake of Hurricane Betsy in 1965. Plagued for years by uncontrollable underground fires, locals referred to the dump as "Dante’s Inferno." As Rebecca Clarren reports, "while the EPA eventually declared the dump a Superfund site (after the city had filled the area and built homes and a school above the infill of trash), the only cleanup the landfill underwent was the removal of 5 inches of soil . . . [then] a plastic barrier was put down and clean soil thrown on top."</p>
<p>A chemical storage facility on the river east of the French Quarter caught fire. Office buildings in New Orleans burned too, releasing that potent brew familiar to residents of Lower Manhattan after September 11. Explosions were reported in railcars carrying chemicals. What of the impact of the countless containers of household cleaning products floating in the region’s nearly 160,000 drowned residences?</p>
<p>Human and Animal Waste</p>
<p>As if the petrochemical hazards were not bad enough, residents must also contend with rotting livestock and seafood carcasses, dead fish and other marine life, innumerable drowned cats and dogs, and raw sewage. The region’s 200 wastewater treatment facilities are offline. The EPA declared as early as September 7 that e.coli bacteria levels in floodwaters were ten times those permitted by law. Add to this the untreated wastes dumped in shallow inlets and bays all along the coast by the thousands living aboard boats saved from the storm.</p>
<p>Several people have already died from vibrio vulnificus infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also worries about leptospirosis, with symptoms ranging from high fevers to liver failure, contracted through contact with water contaminated by livestock urine.</p>
<p>Neither Rocks Nor Hard Places</p>
<p>What to do with the toxic water under which sits New Orleans? Pump it into Lake Pontchartrain, untreated and as rapidly as possible, decided the Corps of Engineers. Environmentalists quickly identified two problems with this strategy. One, they fear the contaminants in the water will kill all living things in the giant but shallow lake, including migratory birds. Two, they worry that the storm roiled already contaminated sediments in the lake and in the Mississippi River that may have been transported elsewhere by the flood. These sediments were spoiled by companies like American Creosote whose century of production and accidents landed the site on the Superfund list in 1983. And like Ponchatoula Battery that dumped millions of spent lead-acid battery cases on the ground during the 1970s.</p>
<p>Flying over the Gulf Coast a couple weeks ago, geographer Chris Wells of the US Geological Survey described the landscape as "absolutely bizarre and unreal." With every tree in sight snapped, the remaining wetlands were scoured clean of vegetation as if by some giant scraper. With the exception of a few songbirds, and a lone alligator swimming twenty miles offshore, Wells saw no wildlife. Ecologists worry that the Gulf of Mexico’s frightful "dead zone" caused by algae blooms fed by agricultural run-off carried into it by the Mississippi is likely to expand. These environmental bads illustrate the real, dire, and reversible costs routinely paid by residents of Louisiana’s Cancer Alley and other national or regional sacrifice zones. As critical as we have rightly been of the unforgivably slow government reaction to evacuation and relief-with emergency response plans in place-there was no plan to cope with the environmental damage of a disaster.</p>
<p>Can we restore wetlands and barrier islands ravaged by centuries of shortsighted development? Can we replace our dependence on fossil fuels and toxic chemicals with renewables and benign alternatives? Can we bring back the Superfund tax on the chemical and oil industries-worth over $4 million each and every day-to help pay for the clean-up? Can we rebuild New Orleans with green materials and designs using local labor paid a living wage that will prepare the Crescent City for a future made riskier than ever by climate change? Can we forever put to rest proposals for elimination of the estate tax and other giveaways to those who already have too much? Might we finally end the war on Iraq? Answers to these questions will determine not only the future of the devastated Gulf Coast residents, but of all of the rest of us as well.</p>
<p>STEVE BREYMAN is Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of <a href="http://www.cectoxic.org/" type="external">Citizens Environmental Coalition</a>. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>CLARIFICATION</p>
<p>ALEXANDER COCKBURN, JEFFREY ST CLAIR, BECKY GRANT AND THE INSTITUTE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF JOURNALISTIC CLARITY, COUNTERPUNCH</p>
<p>We published an article entitled "A Saudiless Arabia" by Wayne Madsen dated October 22, 2002 (the "Article"), on the website of the Institute for the Advancement of Journalistic Clarity, CounterPunch, www.counterpunch.org (the "Website").</p>
<p>Although it was not our intention, counsel for Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi has advised us the Article suggests, or could be read as suggesting, that Mr Al Amoudi has funded, supported, or is in some way associated with, the terrorist activities of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.</p>
<p>We do not have any evidence connecting Mr Al Amoudi with terrorism.</p>
<p>As a result of an exchange of communications with Mr Al Amoudi’s lawyers, we have removed the Article from the Website.</p>
<p>We are pleased to clarify the position.</p>
<p>August 17, 2005</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | hurricane katrina wanted wreak maximum damage designed highlight deeply entrenched environmental social economic injustices united states could picked better place make landfall gulf coast around new orleans maddening shameful images poor people color stranded rooftops hell holes like superdome joined growing list environmental insults delivered made worse hurricane worst include oil spills toxic chemicals loose flooded superfund sites release vast volumes raw sewage knowledge immediate environmental costs dangers disaster uncertainties remain katrinas toxic legacy human ecosystem health oil spills coast guard estimates seven million gallons oil got free least fortyfour factories tank farms facilities join floodwaters southeastern louisiana nearly twothirds amount oil left alaskan waters exxon valdez case tanker accident cleanup efforts aided fact oil came single source current coast guard estimate misses highly dispersed enormous volume gasoline oil solvents chemicals released floodwaters washed countless abandoned cars boats trucks buses oil change joints vehicle repair shops structural integrity regions 2200 underground storage tanks adding uncertainties fewer 58 unmoored drilling platforms floating gulf unknown damage hundreds undersea pipelines superfund sites chemical spills region already infamous poisoning citizens least able resist katrina struck waste production sites completely submerged burned consider case thompsonhayward chemical plant decades mideighties facility manufactured insecticides like ddt herbicides like 245t main ingredient dioxinlaced agent orange fungicides like dioxincontaining pentachlorophenol remediation efforts throughout eighties nineties never fully completed 2600 tons herbicidetainted soil deemed dangerous dispose anywhere country take case submerged agriculture street landfill rich heavy metals hazardous waste asbestos landfills contents originated clean wake hurricane betsy 1965 plagued years uncontrollable underground fires locals referred dump dantes inferno rebecca clarren reports epa eventually declared dump superfund site city filled area built homes school infill trash cleanup landfill underwent removal 5 inches soil plastic barrier put clean soil thrown top chemical storage facility river east french quarter caught fire office buildings new orleans burned releasing potent brew familiar residents lower manhattan september 11 explosions reported railcars carrying chemicals impact countless containers household cleaning products floating regions nearly 160000 drowned residences human animal waste petrochemical hazards bad enough residents must also contend rotting livestock seafood carcasses dead fish marine life innumerable drowned cats dogs raw sewage regions 200 wastewater treatment facilities offline epa declared early september 7 ecoli bacteria levels floodwaters ten times permitted law add untreated wastes dumped shallow inlets bays along coast thousands living aboard boats saved storm several people already died vibrio vulnificus infections according centers disease control prevention cdc also worries leptospirosis symptoms ranging high fevers liver failure contracted contact water contaminated livestock urine neither rocks hard places toxic water sits new orleans pump lake pontchartrain untreated rapidly possible decided corps engineers environmentalists quickly identified two problems strategy one fear contaminants water kill living things giant shallow lake including migratory birds two worry storm roiled already contaminated sediments lake mississippi river may transported elsewhere flood sediments spoiled companies like american creosote whose century production accidents landed site superfund list 1983 like ponchatoula battery dumped millions spent leadacid battery cases ground 1970s flying gulf coast couple weeks ago geographer chris wells us geological survey described landscape absolutely bizarre unreal every tree sight snapped remaining wetlands scoured clean vegetation giant scraper exception songbirds lone alligator swimming twenty miles offshore wells saw wildlife ecologists worry gulf mexicos frightful dead zone caused algae blooms fed agricultural runoff carried mississippi likely expand environmental bads illustrate real dire reversible costs routinely paid residents louisianas cancer alley national regional sacrifice zones critical rightly unforgivably slow government reaction evacuation reliefwith emergency response plans placethere plan cope environmental damage disaster restore wetlands barrier islands ravaged centuries shortsighted development replace dependence fossil fuels toxic chemicals renewables benign alternatives bring back superfund tax chemical oil industriesworth 4 million every dayto help pay cleanup rebuild new orleans green materials designs using local labor paid living wage prepare crescent city future made riskier ever climate change forever put rest proposals elimination estate tax giveaways already much might finally end war iraq answers questions determine future devastated gulf coast residents rest us well steve breyman cochair board directors citizens environmental coalition reached breymsrpiedu clarification alexander cockburn jeffrey st clair becky grant institute advancement journalistic clarity counterpunch published article entitled saudiless arabia wayne madsen dated october 22 2002 article website institute advancement journalistic clarity counterpunch wwwcounterpunchorg website although intention counsel mohammed hussein al amoudi advised us article suggests could read suggesting mr al amoudi funded supported way associated terrorist activities osama bin laden al qaeda terrorist network evidence connecting mr al amoudi terrorism result exchange communications mr al amoudis lawyers removed article website pleased clarify position august 17 2005 160 | 757 |
<p>There are fewer places more beautiful than Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. It’s a park-like 300 acres of rolling hills, massive trees, majestic marble statuary and soothing water features. Hubert Eaton, a devout Christian, took over an existing graveyard in the early 1900s, and designed it to mark a new and glorious beginning, rather than the end of something.</p>
<p>Michael Jackson will lie in repose over no fewer than 13 subterranean floors, each holding intriguing secrets. As one cemetery insider told me, ”It’s sort of the opposite of the stairway to heaven.”</p>
<p>But this otherwise majestic place sits atop some dark secrets, ones that, as of this Thursday, Michael Joseph Jackson will rest upon as well. I was able to glimpse an advance peek at the King of Pop’s eternal throne, and the reality is stranger than his Thriller video, sitting atop more than a dozen floors of secret subterranean burial sections housing the remains of ancient devil worshippers and Gypsies, sacrificial fonts and crypts decorated with pentagrams and a secreted area with shelves housing at least a thousand abandoned urns containing the ashes of souls no one claimed.</p>
<p>My recent behind-the-scenes tour of the cemetery was conducted by a man who had worked there for several years in a job that had him into the bowels of every single building, the entire breadth of the grounds, and he knew the place like the back of his hand.</p>
<p>XTRA INSIGHT:• <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2009/08/31/did-jackson-drug-himself.html" type="external">Gerald Posner: Did Jackson Drug Himself?</a>“There’s Spencer Tracy’s plot -- and over here Errol Flynn’s,” says my guide, pointing to the appropriate places. After rounding a corner of one elaborate building, he motioned toward an out-of-the-way flower bed, pulled back a low hanging palm frond and said, “Hardly anyone has ever seen this.” He pointed to a plaque which read: Walter Elias Disney. Engraved underneath: “Ashes scattered in paradise.” Resting below, at the foot of a Little Mermaid statue, was a small stuffed Mickey Mouse.</p>
<p>Inside the mammoth Freedom Mausoleum, my guide points to a low marble bench and then up to the wall where a side-by-side crypt held the remains of Gracie Allen (1902-1964) and George Burns (1896-1996). He explains that every Tuesday for decades, Burns would sit on that bench and visit with his departed soulmate. The simple legend on their crypt reads: “Together Again.” Nat King Cole’s crypt is above and to the right.</p>
<p>Downstairs in this particular building, down into more marble walls holding the remains of members of the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers, Alan Ladd, Dorothy Dandridge, Clara Bow and many others, my chest tightens. It was like breathing in a heavy dose of musty mold - a rotting suffocating smell that forces staffers to leave open opposing doors so the breeze can carry at least some of the smell away. This smell of death cropped up randomly, in various buildings, throughout our excursion.</p>
<p>The talk of workers on the property today is of exactly where Michael Jackson will spend eternity after his final family memorial service, scheduled for Thursday at Forest Lawn’s Great Mausoleum, inside the elaborate Memorial Court of Honor. In that hall Jackson’s casket is scheduled to be staged under a stunning stained glass rendition of Leonardo da Vinci’s "Last Supper" masterpiece. It occupies one entire wall.</p>
<p>This location likely would have met with Michael’s approval. He once commissioned his own special Last Supper painting and for years it hung directly over his bed at Neverland Ranch. In Jackson’s version he occupies the center space where Jesus is usually seen and instead of the disciples there are some of Jackson’s heroes painted in, among them Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, Elvis Presley and Little Richard.</p>
<p>After the hoopla surrounding Jackson’s death dies down, maybe in a year or more, cemetery workers speculate that Jackson will be permanently buried in the uber-expensive “Golden Key” section of Forest Lawn, which is outlined with a prohibitively tall brick wall. Only family members in possession of a special key can enter this rarified space where the likes of Mary Pickford, Sammy Davis Jr. and Humphrey Bogart are interred. It’s a vast and lavish area of the cemetery surrounded with glittering marble statues and elaborate sarcophaguses.</p>
<p>But for now, sources tell me, Michael Jackson will be stored in a crypt almost directly underneath the <a href="http://www.forestlawn.com/About-Forest-Lawn/Glendale-The-Last-Supper-Window-Memorial-Terrace.asp" type="external">Last Supper</a> masterpiece.</p>
<p>To get to that spot my guide showed me a wide marble staircase, roped off to keep the public out, but clearly visible as going down. The first sunken level is where it’s expected Jackson will be held. Standing at the top of these stairs is like standing on the top floor of an apartment building and being able to see all the levels of staircases. It has an eerie feeling to it and, according to multiple sources, this is the route to the secret underground catacombs.</p>
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<p>Click Image to View Gallery: Michael Through the YearsMichael Jackson will lie in repose over no fewer than 13 subterranean floors, each holding intriguing secrets, some could date as far back to the late 1800’s. As one cemetery insider told me, ”It’s sort of the opposite of the stairway to heaven.”</p>
<p>When asked to confirm these areas a Forest Lawn spokesperson denied they exist.</p>
<p>But my sources, including another ex-Forest Lawn maintenance man and a mutual acquaintance of both employees to whom they gave contemporaneous accounts over the years, give descriptions that are rich with detail.</p>
<p>“There is a level where devil worshippers were once interred,” my guide tells me. “It’s complete with devil statues, pentagrams and an area where worshippers conducted weird services.”</p>
<p>Continuing down there is another level said to be dedicated to some of Los Angeles’ original and very wealthy industrialists and their families. They rest down behind ancient hardcore steel gates off to each side of a long main corridor. These are the departed rich who wanted to spend eternity away from the prying eyes of common citizens. Families with names like Williamson and Wilkinson and Miller. According to my sources, the Miller family, of Miller beer, has ancestors interred in these underground spaces.</p>
<p>Another subterranean area, according to the guide, was set aside as the final spot for wealthy gypsy families, the figurines on their crypts otherworldly, and as recently as the 1960s, my sources say, their families would stage elaborate get-togethers to honor their dead relatives.</p>
<p>Many doors remain padlocked deep within this labyrinth but when two workers opened one they discovered a room lined with shelves holding crematory urns for military men, police officers, nurses and city workers who were cremated gratis and held all these years because there were no families to claim them.</p>
<p>Both men told me when their duties required them to be in these underground spaces they often felt the eerie presence of some of the forgotten occupants.</p>
<p>“I’m not a supernatural, ghost-y kind of guy,” the guide told me as we continued our tour, “but more than once when I was down in those places I felt cold and clammy fingers brush against the back of my neck. I knew I was alone down there – but I wasn’t really alone, you know?”</p>
<p>Sounds like a real life Thriller location -- and one whose history would likely delight Michael Jackson.</p>
<p>Investigative journalist and syndicated columnist Diane Dimond has covered the Michael Jackson story since 1993 when she first broke the news that the King of Pop was under investigation for child molestation. She is author of the book, " <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743270924/thedaibea-20/" type="external">Be Careful Who You Love—Inside the Michael Jackson Case</a>." She lives in New York with her husband, broadcast journalist, Michael Schoen.</p> | true | 4 | fewer places beautiful forest lawn cemetery glendale california parklike 300 acres rolling hills massive trees majestic marble statuary soothing water features hubert eaton devout christian took existing graveyard early 1900s designed mark new glorious beginning rather end something michael jackson lie repose fewer 13 subterranean floors holding intriguing secrets one cemetery insider told sort opposite stairway heaven otherwise majestic place sits atop dark secrets ones thursday michael joseph jackson rest upon well able glimpse advance peek king pops eternal throne reality stranger thriller video sitting atop dozen floors secret subterranean burial sections housing remains ancient devil worshippers gypsies sacrificial fonts crypts decorated pentagrams secreted area shelves housing least thousand abandoned urns containing ashes souls one claimed recent behindthescenes tour cemetery conducted man worked several years job bowels every single building entire breadth grounds knew place like back hand xtra insight gerald posner jackson drug himselftheres spencer tracys plot errol flynns says guide pointing appropriate places rounding corner one elaborate building motioned toward outoftheway flower bed pulled back low hanging palm frond said hardly anyone ever seen pointed plaque read walter elias disney engraved underneath ashes scattered paradise resting foot little mermaid statue small stuffed mickey mouse inside mammoth freedom mausoleum guide points low marble bench wall sidebyside crypt held remains gracie allen 19021964 george burns 18961996 explains every tuesday decades burns would sit bench visit departed soulmate simple legend crypt reads together nat king coles crypt right downstairs particular building marble walls holding remains members three stooges marx brothers alan ladd dorothy dandridge clara bow many others chest tightens like breathing heavy dose musty mold rotting suffocating smell forces staffers leave open opposing doors breeze carry least smell away smell death cropped randomly various buildings throughout excursion talk workers property today exactly michael jackson spend eternity final family memorial service scheduled thursday forest lawns great mausoleum inside elaborate memorial court honor hall jacksons casket scheduled staged stunning stained glass rendition leonardo da vincis last supper masterpiece occupies one entire wall location likely would met michaels approval commissioned special last supper painting years hung directly bed neverland ranch jacksons version occupies center space jesus usually seen instead disciples jacksons heroes painted among abraham lincoln albert einstein charlie chaplin elvis presley little richard hoopla surrounding jacksons death dies maybe year cemetery workers speculate jackson permanently buried uberexpensive golden key section forest lawn outlined prohibitively tall brick wall family members possession special key enter rarified space likes mary pickford sammy davis jr humphrey bogart interred vast lavish area cemetery surrounded glittering marble statues elaborate sarcophaguses sources tell michael jackson stored crypt almost directly underneath last supper masterpiece get spot guide showed wide marble staircase roped keep public clearly visible going first sunken level expected jackson held standing top stairs like standing top floor apartment building able see levels staircases eerie feeling according multiple sources route secret underground catacombs start finish day top stories daily beast speedy smart summary news need know nothing dont click image view gallery michael yearsmichael jackson lie repose fewer 13 subterranean floors holding intriguing secrets could date far back late 1800s one cemetery insider told sort opposite stairway heaven asked confirm areas forest lawn spokesperson denied exist sources including another exforest lawn maintenance man mutual acquaintance employees gave contemporaneous accounts years give descriptions rich detail level devil worshippers interred guide tells complete devil statues pentagrams area worshippers conducted weird services continuing another level said dedicated los angeles original wealthy industrialists families rest behind ancient hardcore steel gates side long main corridor departed rich wanted spend eternity away prying eyes common citizens families names like williamson wilkinson miller according sources miller family miller beer ancestors interred underground spaces another subterranean area according guide set aside final spot wealthy gypsy families figurines crypts otherworldly recently 1960s sources say families would stage elaborate gettogethers honor dead relatives many doors remain padlocked deep within labyrinth two workers opened one discovered room lined shelves holding crematory urns military men police officers nurses city workers cremated gratis held years families claim men told duties required underground spaces often felt eerie presence forgotten occupants im supernatural ghosty kind guy guide told continued tour places felt cold clammy fingers brush back neck knew alone wasnt really alone know sounds like real life thriller location one whose history would likely delight michael jackson investigative journalist syndicated columnist diane dimond covered michael jackson story since 1993 first broke news king pop investigation child molestation author book careful loveinside michael jackson case lives new york husband broadcast journalist michael schoen | 750 |
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<p>In the spring of 2002, an Army major named Peter Kilner submitted an unusual essay to Military Review, a journal published by the Combined Arms Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Kilner argued that combat leaders have an obligation to justify the killing their soldiers do. “Soldiers who kill reflexively in combat will likely one day reconsider their actions reflectively,” he wrote. “If they are unable to justify to themselves that they killed another human being, they will likely, and understandably, suffer enormous guilt” that could balloon into post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). Top brass who ignored the issue, he concluded, were “treating their soldiers as commodities, not as persons.”</p>
<p>As an active-duty infantryman suggesting that a soldier’s most basic task could be emotionally self-destructive, Kilner had broken a giant taboo. Not surprisingly, his article didn’t go over well. Former drug czar General Barry McCaffrey, a colleague of Kilner’s at West Point, dismissed his argument out of hand. “He and some of the older generation really felt like, ‘Soldiers kill; they have no problem killing the enemy,’ ” Kilner recalls. “The question seemed to him just not a question.” (McCaffrey did not respond to requests for comment.) At one point, a few of Kilner’s superiors tried to discourage him from presenting his ideas publicly. “They told me it’s bad PR,” he says. “I literally had a colonel pull me in the closet and threaten to break me if I spoke to the press.”</p>
<p>But Kilner may have been on to something. Military doctors estimate that 20 percent of soldiers and 42 percent of reservists have returned from Iraq with some kind of psychological problem. Army suicides have more than doubled since 2001, hitting a 27-year high in 2007. The military has failed to address these problems in a systematic way. An investigation by National Public Radio found that the Army had punished and kicked out soldiers with ptsd; two veterans groups are currently suing the Department of Veterans Affairs for its “shameful failures” in providing mental health treatment.</p>
<p>In 2006, a Pentagon team concluded that the biggest predictors of mental illness were the length of a soldier’s deployment and how often he experienced combat. Yet Kilner says the real issue is not the time you do, but how you deal with that time. “People don’t have nightmares about, ‘It’s another Groundhog Day.’ They have nightmares about the killing they’ve done and seen.”</p>
<p>Now a lieutenant colonel, Kilner helps run the Center for Company Level Leaders at the US Military Academy at West Point. He’s been interested in the ethics and impact of killing since 1994, when he was a young Airborne captain preparing to deploy to Haiti. A devout Catholic, he asked an Army chaplain what justified the killing he might do. “The president says it’s right, so it’s right,” the chaplain replied. Kilner didn’t end up killing anyone, but he wondered if the Army had mentally prepared him to do so.</p>
<p>“When the military lists wartime causes of mental illness,” he told me in his office overlooking the Hudson River, “they talk about, ‘Oh, it’s hot; oh, it’s scary,’ looking at what happens to soldiers without any mention of the violent things soldiers actually do.” By interviewing combat veterans, Kilner hopes to spur an internal debate between traditionalists who say any discussion of killing undermines morale, and those who say the military is ignoring a major cause—perhaps the major cause—of ptsd.</p>
<p>One of the soldiers Kilner has talked with is Major Rob Hefner, a 42-year-old Texan who ditched a stateside post for a combat tour in Iraq. One day in June 2005, Hefner came under fire at an Iraqi army checkpoint. He spotted a figure with a rifle approximately 300 feet away. “He was gonna shoot at my soldiers,” Hefner recalls. “That is not a permissible action.” He raised his M-4, zeroed in on the man’s chest, and fired once. “At the time I fired the shot, all I felt was the satisfaction of seeing a round hit its intended target, like being out on the range,” he says.</p>
<p>After the firefight, Hefner went to look for the body. “I really can’t answer why,” he says. “Probably a part of me wanted to humanize the guy.” Hefner asked the Iraqis what they intended to do with the corpse. “We don’t bury dogs,” one replied. “They left him there to rot, and for weeks, if the wind was right, you could smell him,” Hefner says.</p>
<p>“I didn’t regret in any way, shape, or form what I did. But neither did I delude myself by saying it was the right thing to do.” He stops to think about his next words. “I’m okay with having done a wrong thing for the right reasons.”</p>
<p>Getting soldiers like Hefner to talk is not easy, partly due to etiquette. “As crazy as it is, it’s a question that’s just impolite to ask,” Kilner explains. When he first approached soldiers online, he recalls, “My question—’How do you justify killing to yourself?’—rubbed some people really wrong. I remember one letter started, ‘Who the hell are you to question whether what I did was right or wrong?'” One soldier told Kilner that he should be spending his time “worrying about how to kill people.”</p>
<p>In his research, which has included two monthlong trips to Iraq, Kilner has noted a pattern. Soldiers whose commanders openly discuss the dilemmas of killing before and after combat appear to cope well with their experiences. Soldiers who lack that support fall into isolation or depression. He paraphrases psychologist and retired Lt. Colonel David Grossman, the author of On Killing: “If you go into it cracked, you come out of it shattered. If you go into it strong, you come out stronger.” Hefner agrees with that assessment. “Let’s be honest. Most of our trigger pullers are kids, 18, 19 years old. How many of our 18- and 19-year-olds are anything but cracked?”</p>
<p>Clinicians have paid little attention to Kilner’s research, in part because it’s entirely anecdotal. It is difficult to estimate how many veterans might be adversely affected by the stress of killing because the military doesn’t collect statistics on how many have killed in the line of duty, not even among those who are treated for depression or ptsd. The lasting psychological consequences of killing are “strikingly under-researched,” according to Dr. Brett T. Litz, associate director of the National Center for ptsd. “Unfortunately,” he says, “we are just now getting serious about scientifically evaluating the unique psychological and social scars of killing and other potentially morally injurious experiences in Iraq.”</p>
<p>Many of the soldiers I’ve spoken with say that the military’s response to combat stress is ineffective. The Army provides soldiers with pocket guides on combat stress that feature kernels of wisdom such as “Try to look calm and in control” and “Drink plenty of fluids.” When they return from overseas, servicemen and -women are offered a questionnaire that is supposed to screen for ptsd. However, it does not ask directly if a soldier has killed anyone.</p>
<p>Soldiers who advocate a more honest discussion believe it can only come from their combat-tested officers and colleagues. “The answer is not more ptsd awareness and shrinks,” Hefner says. “Soldiers don’t need to lay on someone’s couch and talk about their childhood. They need the company of other soldiers…After all, why does the vfw exist?”</p>
<p>Kilner agrees, but he doesn’t expect the conversation to start soon. With 195,000 soldiers currently on combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he explains, “Everyone’s really busy.”</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | spring 2002 army major named peter kilner submitted unusual essay military review journal published combined arms center fort leavenworth kansas kilner argued combat leaders obligation justify killing soldiers soldiers kill reflexively combat likely one day reconsider actions reflectively wrote unable justify killed another human likely understandably suffer enormous guilt could balloon posttraumatic stress disorder ptsd top brass ignored issue concluded treating soldiers commodities persons activeduty infantryman suggesting soldiers basic task could emotionally selfdestructive kilner broken giant taboo surprisingly article didnt go well former drug czar general barry mccaffrey colleague kilners west point dismissed argument hand older generation really felt like soldiers kill problem killing enemy kilner recalls question seemed question mccaffrey respond requests comment one point kilners superiors tried discourage presenting ideas publicly told bad pr says literally colonel pull closet threaten break spoke press kilner may something military doctors estimate 20 percent soldiers 42 percent reservists returned iraq kind psychological problem army suicides doubled since 2001 hitting 27year high 2007 military failed address problems systematic way investigation national public radio found army punished kicked soldiers ptsd two veterans groups currently suing department veterans affairs shameful failures providing mental health treatment 2006 pentagon team concluded biggest predictors mental illness length soldiers deployment often experienced combat yet kilner says real issue time deal time people dont nightmares another groundhog day nightmares killing theyve done seen lieutenant colonel kilner helps run center company level leaders us military academy west point hes interested ethics impact killing since 1994 young airborne captain preparing deploy haiti devout catholic asked army chaplain justified killing might president says right right chaplain replied kilner didnt end killing anyone wondered army mentally prepared military lists wartime causes mental illness told office overlooking hudson river talk oh hot oh scary looking happens soldiers without mention violent things soldiers actually interviewing combat veterans kilner hopes spur internal debate traditionalists say discussion killing undermines morale say military ignoring major causeperhaps major causeof ptsd one soldiers kilner talked major rob hefner 42yearold texan ditched stateside post combat tour iraq one day june 2005 hefner came fire iraqi army checkpoint spotted figure rifle approximately 300 feet away gon na shoot soldiers hefner recalls permissible action raised m4 zeroed mans chest fired time fired shot felt satisfaction seeing round hit intended target like range says firefight hefner went look body really cant answer says probably part wanted humanize guy hefner asked iraqis intended corpse dont bury dogs one replied left rot weeks wind right could smell hefner says didnt regret way shape form neither delude saying right thing stops think next words im okay done wrong thing right reasons getting soldiers like hefner talk easy partly due etiquette crazy question thats impolite ask kilner explains first approached soldiers online recalls questionhow justify killing yourselfrubbed people really wrong remember one letter started hell question whether right wrong one soldier told kilner spending time worrying kill people research included two monthlong trips iraq kilner noted pattern soldiers whose commanders openly discuss dilemmas killing combat appear cope well experiences soldiers lack support fall isolation depression paraphrases psychologist retired lt colonel david grossman author killing go cracked come shattered go strong come stronger hefner agrees assessment lets honest trigger pullers kids 18 19 years old many 18 19yearolds anything cracked clinicians paid little attention kilners research part entirely anecdotal difficult estimate many veterans might adversely affected stress killing military doesnt collect statistics many killed line duty even among treated depression ptsd lasting psychological consequences killing strikingly underresearched according dr brett litz associate director national center ptsd unfortunately says getting serious scientifically evaluating unique psychological social scars killing potentially morally injurious experiences iraq many soldiers ive spoken say militarys response combat stress ineffective army provides soldiers pocket guides combat stress feature kernels wisdom try look calm control drink plenty fluids return overseas servicemen women offered questionnaire supposed screen ptsd however ask directly soldier killed anyone soldiers advocate honest discussion believe come combattested officers colleagues answer ptsd awareness shrinks hefner says soldiers dont need lay someones couch talk childhood need company soldiersafter vfw exist kilner agrees doesnt expect conversation start soon 195000 soldiers currently combat tours iraq afghanistan explains everyones really busy | 691 |
<p>Dear Sindy,</p>
<p>So as you know I get my dialysis treatments in Pakistan because it’s like so much cheaper and Daddy says there’s no way he’s paying MSRP not even for his little angel, plus Mummy can come with me and go shopping for uncut emeralds and handicrafts and whatnot, but the whole thing is such a drag because this place is so third world, I mean not even second place, but anyway I’m at this clinic which is like such a rest room I can’t even believe it with these old wire fans in the windows and no AC and actual typewriters that go clack clack clack I mean not even Mac Classic, these people are stone age, how did they get dialysis machines, right? And I’m in the waiting room and there’s a man with a diaper on his head, but he’s got shoulders and dreamy brown eyes so I’m like looking at him over the corner of this old copy of Golf Magazine from back when white people still won the game, and he sees me, and he smiles this little shy smile, but Mummy is right there, so nothing happens, right? And then like after the treatment I’m waiting on this totally scabby porch while Mummy has a cigarette in the car because it’s air conditioned and this same guy comes out, and all of a sudden I’m like, “Oh, my God, you’re Osama Bin Laden!!!!” And he’s like “Yeah,” and he smiles again like he was some little kid. I totally perked out. He’s like so famous and the last famous person I met was Ben Affleck, and he’s into miss bubble butt so forget it!!!!</p>
<p>I don’t even know what to say because he’s like totally evil and I’m not even a sophomore yet, and I could ask for his autograph or something but I mean that is so Ebay. I never thought about what to say to somebody who’s like “dead or alive”, am I supposed to grab a pen out of my purse and stab him in the neck, or find out if he has an Email address? I thought about following him back to his hotel or cave or whatever, but that’s way too Pierce Brosnan for me, and Mummy is TNC with vehicular pursuits. She didn’t even let me watch the OJ chase. “Honey, nobody chases anybody if they’re serious. They just wait for them at home.” Osama looks a little bit like OJ, how creepy is that? Or Keanu. But he’s really tall. It’s been like ten seconds and I’m like oh my God I have to do something, this is so weird, and I can tell he’s thinking the same thing, maybe because I’m wearing a halter top and I know he’s used to burlap bags from head to toe, right? So I “accidentally” drop the minibar bill from the hotel and go to the car. I’m like how lame is that, but I have no idea what to do around a serious outlaw, like Axel Rose level, hard core?!?!? He rides away, I’m totally serious, on a horse!!! I saw it out the back of the car. Mummy’s like “who was that?” And I said it was the towel guy from the hotel pool. Like I’m going to tell her.</p>
<p>This is the totally amazing part. I am serious fingers crossed true about this, no lie!!!!!! Mummy’s out shopping at some rug place and I’m at the hotel with cramps, which is grody beyond compare (the hotel I mean) they have these weird drinks in the vending machines in bottles that have been like used fifty times so you can’t even read the label any more, I hope they wash them. I’m between the pool and the bar getting a serious brown on in one of the chaises and I forgot all about Osama. And then there he is. He’s at the bar ordering a club soda, and then he comes over and sits on the chaise next to mine and starts talking right to me, and I’m like oh my God is he going to crash a plane into the hotel? Because if so, I’m changing rooms. “Hi,” he says, and he’s got a total Omar accent. But he talks English. “We met at the clinic.” No duh. I act like I’m trying to remember, and then I’m like, “oh, right!” He smiled that little smile again. He would be cute if he shaved off that totally lumberjack beard, IMHO. He looks out over the pool like it was the ocean, which I notice is something he does. He has this look like he can see really far, even if really he can only see to the end of the patio where they have the dressing rooms. Maybe he’s stoned on that quality hash they grow. And then he’s like, “I shouldn’t even be drinking this, my kidneys are shot,” which is funny and so I like laugh and he smiles and says “American, right?” Just to be safe I say I’m Canadian, but he shakes his head. “What are you worried about, I got what I wanted. I’m focusing on regional issues now. At least for the time being.” That loosened me up a lot. You could tell he was telling the truth. Just as long as he’s not getting nukes from the Pakistani rebels!!!!!!!!! JK, LOL. Why would they give him those, right? Duh.</p>
<p>Anyhoo, we hang by the pool for a while and then these total Indiana Jones rejects come up and he’s like “Gotta go” and he makes like a fetus and heads out? So I’m like stuck with nothing to do but wonder if Cosmopolitan would pay me cash for the story of my brush with this terrorist mastermind with the melted chocolate eyes. I should tell DeeDee’s dad about it at least because he works at the CIA and he’s such a Mulder he would probably pop a fly to hear about it, but then they might stick me in Guano bay with all those other unlawful awfuls. So I decide not to say anything.</p>
<p>Then I’m at the disco with Kevin and this complete Gunga Din whose mom runs the hospital, we’re talking gold chains from here to there, WAL!!! And I’m totally pounding sea breezes even though my kidneys could totally fail on me, but you only live once if you’re even that lucky, right? The place is about 500 degrees, it smells like somebody spilled a quart of Drakar on a rhinoceros, and the music is so Dollywood it’s insane. And we’re like partying in a heavy manner and then across the room I see this tall white turban bopping along. So I scoot over there and it’s Osama b. L himself, looking fine even though his beard is so way vile. We dance for a while but he’s focused on his mysterious beyond the whole time and I’m like “Okay, later” and he says “Don’t go” and we end up on this upstairs patio where they store the empty Coke bottles. In the moonlight it almost looks like Redondo Beach out there.</p>
<p>So he takes me by the arm really gently, partly because he can barely move his hand which is all wrapped in bandages, and he says “I like you. I like you a lot.” I’m kind of like not sure where I stand because he did kill way many people, but he’s cute, and then all of a sudden he’s going for me like some kind of animal. Note to self: white guys only. I mean I am all about the brotherhood of man and human rights and that, but not for just everybody. You have to earn it. Earth to Osama? He’s saying all this stuff about how lonely it is being in the mountains and the eternal war for God’s people, how the flower of his enemy is still the fragrant bloom, like I’m going to buy that line? And I grab one of these ten-pound Coke bottles and I hit him with it but the towel on his head stops it from doing much damage. He calls me a spirited she-cat and comes in for more and this time I take off my Prado and jab the heel right where it counts, because I spend half my time dealing with my own kidneys, so I know what’s going to work on him? He starts yelling in Ali Baba language and falls right off the patio into the recycling dumpster and just lies there with his head at a weird angle and his towel all tangled up around his ears.</p>
<p>You can imagine how fast I got out of there.</p>
<p>So now we’re at the hotel waiting for the plane to get un-cancelled as usual, this place is so not Club Med it’s not even funny, and I thought I should write down what happened because number one I’m dying to tell somebody and number two I need to know if I should like go public with this because I think we are talking movie of the week minimum but more like solid Memorial Day Weekend blockbuster material, you know? HCWTB? We’ll be back in three days, according to Mummy, who doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but anyway within a week, and my kidneys will be good for at least three months if this new treatment worked at all, like I don’t think so but oh well. As for Osama, he seemed nice at first, but these terrorists are SO unreliable. I think I’m better off without him. Maybe you could tell DeeDee to tell her dad for me.</p>
<p>XOXOXO</p>
<p>Ashleigh</p>
<p>BEN TRIPP is a screenwriter and cartoonist. Ben also has <a href="http://www.cafeshops.com/tarantulabros" type="external">a lot of outrageously priced crap for sale here.</a> If his writing starts to grate on your nerves, buy some and maybe he’ll flee to Mexico. If all else fails, he can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | dear sindy know get dialysis treatments pakistan like much cheaper daddy says theres way hes paying msrp even little angel plus mummy come go shopping uncut emeralds handicrafts whatnot whole thing drag place third world mean even second place anyway im clinic like rest room cant even believe old wire fans windows ac actual typewriters go clack clack clack mean even mac classic people stone age get dialysis machines right im waiting room theres man diaper head hes got shoulders dreamy brown eyes im like looking corner old copy golf magazine back white people still game sees smiles little shy smile mummy right nothing happens right like treatment im waiting totally scabby porch mummy cigarette car air conditioned guy comes sudden im like oh god youre osama bin laden hes like yeah smiles like little kid totally perked hes like famous last famous person met ben affleck hes miss bubble butt forget dont even know say hes like totally evil im even sophomore yet could ask autograph something mean ebay never thought say somebody whos like dead alive supposed grab pen purse stab neck find email address thought following back hotel cave whatever thats way pierce brosnan mummy tnc vehicular pursuits didnt even let watch oj chase honey nobody chases anybody theyre serious wait home osama looks little bit like oj creepy keanu hes really tall like ten seconds im like oh god something weird tell hes thinking thing maybe im wearing halter top know hes used burlap bags head toe right accidentally drop minibar bill hotel go car im like lame idea around serious outlaw like axel rose level hard core rides away im totally serious horse saw back car mummys like said towel guy hotel pool like im going tell totally amazing part serious fingers crossed true lie mummys shopping rug place im hotel cramps grody beyond compare hotel mean weird drinks vending machines bottles like used fifty times cant even read label hope wash im pool bar getting serious brown one chaises forgot osama hes bar ordering club soda comes sits chaise next mine starts talking right im like oh god going crash plane hotel im changing rooms hi says hes got total omar accent talks english met clinic duh act like im trying remember im like oh right smiled little smile would cute shaved totally lumberjack beard imho looks pool like ocean notice something look like see really far even really see end patio dressing rooms maybe hes stoned quality hash grow hes like shouldnt even drinking kidneys shot funny like laugh smiles says american right safe say im canadian shakes head worried got wanted im focusing regional issues least time loosened lot could tell telling truth long hes getting nukes pakistani rebels jk lol would give right duh anyhoo hang pool total indiana jones rejects come hes like got ta go makes like fetus heads im like stuck nothing wonder cosmopolitan would pay cash story brush terrorist mastermind melted chocolate eyes tell deedees dad least works cia hes mulder would probably pop fly hear might stick guano bay unlawful awfuls decide say anything im disco kevin complete gunga din whose mom runs hospital talking gold chains wal im totally pounding sea breezes even though kidneys could totally fail live youre even lucky right place 500 degrees smells like somebody spilled quart drakar rhinoceros music dollywood insane like partying heavy manner across room see tall white turban bopping along scoot osama b l looking fine even though beard way vile dance hes focused mysterious beyond whole time im like okay later says dont go end upstairs patio store empty coke bottles moonlight almost looks like redondo beach takes arm really gently partly barely move hand wrapped bandages says like like lot im kind like sure stand kill way many people hes cute sudden hes going like kind animal note self white guys mean brotherhood man human rights everybody earn earth osama hes saying stuff lonely mountains eternal war gods people flower enemy still fragrant bloom like im going buy line grab one tenpound coke bottles hit towel head stops much damage calls spirited shecat comes time take prado jab heel right counts spend half time dealing kidneys know whats going work starts yelling ali baba language falls right patio recycling dumpster lies head weird angle towel tangled around ears imagine fast got hotel waiting plane get uncancelled usual place club med even funny thought write happened number one im dying tell somebody number two need know like go public think talking movie week minimum like solid memorial day weekend blockbuster material know hcwtb well back three days according mummy doesnt know shes talking anyway within week kidneys good least three months new treatment worked like dont think oh well osama seemed nice first terrorists unreliable think im better without maybe could tell deedee tell dad xoxoxo ashleigh ben tripp screenwriter cartoonist ben also lot outrageously priced crap sale writing starts grate nerves buy maybe hell flee mexico else fails reached credelearthlinknet 160 | 836 |
<p>Ghulam Reza often plays at the Borderfree Centre. He’s 5 years, 3 mos. On Saturday, he was filling an empty chips bag with water, tying off the top, and pushing it along, atop a roof tile. Zarghuna and I tried asking if it was a ship or a truck, but he generally ignored us and kept on playing quietly.</p>
<p />
<p>Ghulam Reza makes a toy for himself</p>
<p>Near a boys’ school in the Karte Sakhi neighborhood, Najiba leads us through the wooden gate to her family’s home. A store of coal is stored in one corner of the courtyard, coal for other families.</p>
<p>Najiba’s older neighbor Fatima comes outside to greet us and leads us to her small room. Carpets cover the floor. The sun has warmed the room, but still Fatima turns on the small propane heater. The heater is started clearly for her guests.</p>
<p>Zekerullah and Hakim, both Afghan Peace Volunteers (APVs), have come to conduct a home survey for potential duvet sewers. Zekerullah opens his notebook to find the survey questions printed on loose papers tucked inside. He asks Fatima and Najiba where they have come from, the family’s ethnic group, the cost of rent, how many live in the home and who is working.</p>
<p />
<p>Zekerullah asking survey questions</p>
<p>Najiba turns her hands palm-side up so that we can see how washing clothes to earn money has damaged her skin, reddening her wrists.</p>
<p />
<p>Najiba shows her wrist, made raw from washing</p>
<p>Later I ask Zekerullah if any of the families we visited would be considered most in need and given the sewing work. Zekerullah says if he were to choose, it would be Najiba. When an Afghan woman is working outside the home, he explains, it is a sign that the family circumstances are especially difficult.</p>
<p>Another APV Hadisa told me today that she felt women like Najiba were “heroes for their daughters.” They work hard to provide for their children. They are powerful women.</p>
<p>Marzia didn’t have breakfast this morning and stayed home from work because she felt sick. She met the home survey team outside the Masjib Safit mosque. As Maryam, one member of the team, said, the streets are like a puzzle. The narrow alleys, wide enough only for foot traffic or a cart, have so many turns and no numbers or names that without Marzia as our guide, we would never find her home.</p>
<p>Marzia earns money for her four children by cleaning other people’s houses and by sewing women’s scarves. But it is not enough money. The room rent is 2,000 Afghanis (Afs. ) a month and she can’t afford it.</p>
<p>Sometimes the owner of the room she rents gives her leftover food. When I heard this, I thought it was good that the food wasn’t wasted, that instead it was shared, but Qasim, another Afghan Peace Volunteer, thought receiving leftovers wasn’t good. It’s leftovers, he said, emphasizing the last word.</p>
<p>Marzia burns discarded clothing as fuel in a small stove. The clothes come from the people she works for.</p>
<p>The survey team sat with Marzia and her sister Hadisa together. Both of their husbands are dead. Hadisa’s husband died from an illness. Marzia’s husband was killed when he fell into a well.</p>
<p>Marzia, (left) sits with her sister Hadisa</p>
<p>Before going to school in the morning, Shazad, age 10, used get up early to work at a bakery, carrying flour and doing other small tasks. From there he’d go to school from&#160;8 until10 a.m., then to the madrasa, and afterwards, back to work at the bakery. Now he sells onions from a wheelbarrow near the Maiwan Hospital in Nowabat. They sell for a little less than 50 Afs. and sometimes that’s all he earns in a day. That’s less than $1 US. Other days he might earn 200 Afs. Shazad describes the work as fun because he likes calling out to people to buy his onions. He says he likes earning money, too.</p>
<p>His brothers and father also work, his brothers selling soup and his father, popcorn.</p>
<p>Shazad has been studying at the Street Kids School for almost a year, learning about the school from his friend and classmate Sahel.</p>
<p>During yesterday’s class, he was the first to volunteer to read a paragraph aloud containing several words with the letter ظ. He and his classmates lowered one arm, then the other, as if they were marching, as they broke down the words into syllables.</p>
<p>Before leaving the classroom, Shazad said that he dreams of becoming a police officer. He wants to help secure his country.</p>
<p>Shazad sits on a window school at the Borderfree Center where he studies at the Street Kids School</p>
<p>Fatima is 12. She started studying at the Street Kids School three years ago. At that time, she was selling plastic shopping bags. Now she works in other people’s homes, washing clothes and dishes and sweeping the floor. She works by herself from&#160;7 a.m.&#160;until the afternoon. Her mother does the same work but in different people’s houses. Fatima says she is not afraid to work alone. She says that her work is important because it is how she can help provide halal food to her family.</p>
<p>While Fatima and her mother work outside the home, Fatima’s older sister stays home to do the household chores and to care for her four youngest siblings.</p>
<p>Sometimes during class Fatima seems distracted. Her teacher, Mahtab, will call her name to regain her attention. When copying a Dari lesson, she stops halfway through and seems surprised when Mahtab points out that it is not complete. I wonder where her mind goes.</p>
<p>Fatima tells me through Mahtab that she likes studying math and Dari. She hopes she can become a useful person in the future. Her first choice is to become a doctor, her second choice, a lawyer. Either way, her hope is to help her mother.</p>
<p />
<p>Fatima</p>
<p>Photo credits: Carolyn Coe</p>
<p>Carolyn Coe has been a guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers, in Kabul ( <a href="www.ourjourneytosmile.com" type="external">www.ourjourneytosmile.com</a>) and contributes to the Voices for Creative Nonviolence website ( <a href="http://www.vcnv.org" type="external">www.vcnv.org</a>)</p> | true | 4 | ghulam reza often plays borderfree centre hes 5 years 3 mos saturday filling empty chips bag water tying top pushing along atop roof tile zarghuna tried asking ship truck generally ignored us kept playing quietly ghulam reza makes toy near boys school karte sakhi neighborhood najiba leads us wooden gate familys home store coal stored one corner courtyard coal families najibas older neighbor fatima comes outside greet us leads us small room carpets cover floor sun warmed room still fatima turns small propane heater heater started clearly guests zekerullah hakim afghan peace volunteers apvs come conduct home survey potential duvet sewers zekerullah opens notebook find survey questions printed loose papers tucked inside asks fatima najiba come familys ethnic group cost rent many live home working zekerullah asking survey questions najiba turns hands palmside see washing clothes earn money damaged skin reddening wrists najiba shows wrist made raw washing later ask zekerullah families visited would considered need given sewing work zekerullah says choose would najiba afghan woman working outside home explains sign family circumstances especially difficult another apv hadisa told today felt women like najiba heroes daughters work hard provide children powerful women marzia didnt breakfast morning stayed home work felt sick met home survey team outside masjib safit mosque maryam one member team said streets like puzzle narrow alleys wide enough foot traffic cart many turns numbers names without marzia guide would never find home marzia earns money four children cleaning peoples houses sewing womens scarves enough money room rent 2000 afghanis afs month cant afford sometimes owner room rents gives leftover food heard thought good food wasnt wasted instead shared qasim another afghan peace volunteer thought receiving leftovers wasnt good leftovers said emphasizing last word marzia burns discarded clothing fuel small stove clothes come people works survey team sat marzia sister hadisa together husbands dead hadisas husband died illness marzias husband killed fell well marzia left sits sister hadisa going school morning shazad age 10 used get early work bakery carrying flour small tasks hed go school from1608 until10 madrasa afterwards back work bakery sells onions wheelbarrow near maiwan hospital nowabat sell little less 50 afs sometimes thats earns day thats less 1 us days might earn 200 afs shazad describes work fun likes calling people buy onions says likes earning money brothers father also work brothers selling soup father popcorn shazad studying street kids school almost year learning school friend classmate sahel yesterdays class first volunteer read paragraph aloud containing several words letter ظ classmates lowered one arm marching broke words syllables leaving classroom shazad said dreams becoming police officer wants help secure country shazad sits window school borderfree center studies street kids school fatima 12 started studying street kids school three years ago time selling plastic shopping bags works peoples homes washing clothes dishes sweeping floor works from1607 am160until afternoon mother work different peoples houses fatima says afraid work alone says work important help provide halal food family fatima mother work outside home fatimas older sister stays home household chores care four youngest siblings sometimes class fatima seems distracted teacher mahtab call name regain attention copying dari lesson stops halfway seems surprised mahtab points complete wonder mind goes fatima tells mahtab likes studying math dari hopes become useful person future first choice become doctor second choice lawyer either way hope help mother fatima photo credits carolyn coe carolyn coe guest afghan peace volunteers kabul wwwourjourneytosmilecom contributes voices creative nonviolence website wwwvcnvorg | 574 |
<p>As someone who was once part of the media mob that covered the O.J. Simpson murder trial, I have been enjoying the FX original television series “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.”</p>
<p>Watching it, I relive 1994 and 1995. Each morning during that period, I would flip on the “Today” show, which featured the trial almost every day, and feel pleased that I too was heading downtown to cover the biggest story in the country. Once I had made it to the courthouse, I would find myself among the many eccentric characters who were part of the trial.</p>
<p>Some of my more solemn colleagues treated it as something of a legal-ethical seminar as well as a crime story. I saw it as a circus, and having been a political reporter for many years, I knew the circus better than most of them did.</p>
<p>But as I think of the trial now, I’m often drawn back to a more serious aspect of it: race.</p>
<p />
<p>The importance of race in the case was not apparent to me on June 17, 1994, when Simpson, after the famous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcyyCi2b2AY%20" type="external">low-speed chase</a> on Interstate 405, was arrested for the stabbing murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman, a waiter at a nearby restaurant who was returning a purse that Nicole had left behind.</p>
<p>A part of that chase took place just a few blocks from my home as Simpson—instead of surrendering to police—took off in a Ford Bronco driven by his friend Al Cowlings. They headed south on the 405, then back north. Helicopters followed them from the air, and police cars trailed them on the ground.</p>
<p>The pursuit was on every TV station. Earlier, my wife, Nancy, and I had settled in for what we thought would be a relaxing evening before the television set. She and I went outside, watched the helicopters and even glimpsed the slow-moving procession as it headed north to Simpson’s mansion, a few miles away in a much richer neighborhood than ours.</p>
<p>I had been writing a column in the Los Angeles Times explaining and exposing the vagaries of local politics and government. With Simpson’s arrest and trial, I was shifted to the team covering the trial, and I began to write a new column, called “The Spin,” which appeared several times a week.</p>
<p>My initial mandate was to report and write about the ways that the lawyers and journalists were shaping the narrative, or spinning it — the lawyers attempting to influence public opinion and the jury pool, the media trying to get more viewers and readers. But I moved beyond that into an exploration of how the trial was influencing the world outside the courtroom. I was interested in how it affected race relations in a city still recovering from the 1992 riots, sparked by the acquittal of the police officers charged in the <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/rodney-king-9542141#beating-by-lapd%20" type="external">beating of Rodney King</a>.</p>
<p>Simpson, a great running back at the University of Southern California and in the National Football League, was a famous African-American who had spent his life among affluent and famous white people and was publicly silent about race. But so deep was the feeling against the police in the black community that I thought it might influence the way African-Americans saw the trial.</p>
<p>As the trial went on, I would periodically leave the courthouse and drive to African-American neighborhoods in South Los Angeles to learn what people were saying and thinking. On one occasion I visited Creative Neighbors Always Sharing, a halfway house for ex-convicts in Los Angeles headed by Patricia Logan-Miles and her husband, the Rev. Phillip Miles, pastor of the Lively Hope Evangelistic Ministry. He thought I could learn something by talking to the men, all of whom were African-Americans, about the Simpson case and the criminal justice system. He said it would help me understand some of the feelings about Simpson in the African-American community.</p>
<p>I knew the neighborhood, a few miles east of the intersection of West Florence and Normandie avenues, where the 1992 riot had started. The building, once an apartment house, was on a street of small businesses, vacant stores, churches and empty lots. The group assembled by Phillip Miles awaited me in the community room. Some of the men, he told me, had served time for crimes such as armed robbery, shooting a police officer and house burglary. Their ages seemed to range from mid-20s to late 30s. At first, they were hesitant to talk, but they soon opened up. We joked about what would happen to me if I ended up in jail. They didn’t think that I would do very well.</p>
<p>“Is Simpson guilty?” I asked. No one who replied to the question thought so. “You know when a killer is a killer,” one of the men said. “There are two different kind of people who kill. You’ve got the kind that kills out of rage. The other person kills because he’s a plain killer. O.J. had a good life all his life. He never grew up in no bad environment. He ain’t never been in jail. He ain’t no killer. He ain’t got no type of nerve or courage to cut someone up like that. … He’s got millions of dollars. He could pay somebody to kill somebody.”</p>
<p>Every man in the group was hostile to the Los Angeles Police Department, and to the entire criminal justice system, because of unfair treatment by the authorities.</p>
<p>“In ’84, the police came at me, they rushed me,” one man said. “I had one robbery. There was no witness, [but] they said they had a witness. They rushed me in. I told the judge we’re not ready to pick the jury. I had a lawyer, a public defender.”</p>
<p>The man was found guilty, was sentenced to 12 years and was out in eight.</p>
<p>“I feel good that O.J. is a black man who is up there and able to actually defend himself,” another man said. “I feel good he will get justice. Everyone is focused on this. He has the people behind him, and the case isn’t strong.”</p>
<p>Afterward, Miles told me, “Everyone knows somebody who has been arrested, who has not received a just trial or who has been framed. … The law-abiding African-Americans as well as those breaking the law are all fearful of the police department and the judicial system, even if they are pulled over for a traffic ticket. They don’t feel they have been fairly or justly treated, and that is the experience of the African-American community.”</p>
<p>On another day, I had an experience that brought home the divide between blacks and whites.</p>
<p>A central character in the trial was police Detective Mark Fuhrman. As he and other cops searched Simpson’s big house and spacious grounds, he said, he found a bloody glove. It was Simpson’s, the prosecution maintained, and it had been bloodied during the murders.</p>
<p>The defense, however, had been tipped off to the existence of tapes that Fuhrman had made while working with a screenwriter on a movie idea between 1985 and 1994. In the tapes, Fuhrman revealed himself to be a foul-mouthed anti-black racist. The recordings contained 41 instances of Fuhrman using the N-word.</p>
<p>When Judge Lance A. Ito permitted some of the tapes to be heard, they bolstered the defense’s contention that Fuhrman had taken the glove from the crime scene and planted it in Simpson’s yard.</p>
<p>I wanted to talk to someone about the tapes, not the usual community leader but a resident who had been watching the trial on television that morning. I drove south from the courthouse, looking for a likely place to find people — a store, a shopping center, maybe a restaurant. I passed a building that I knew housed the African-American Unity Center, a community organization. I parked and went inside. Nobody seemed to be there. I looked around and found a small office where Cheryl Bacot, an African-American, was working. I introduced myself, and we talked. She told me that she had seen the morning session on television.</p>
<p>Listening to the tapes and watching the words flash across the screen had been too much for her, she told me. She had quit watching.</p>
<p>“I can’t believe this is 1995 in America, entering the 21st century,” she said. “It is a very frightening experience and very emotional. To me, we’re back 50 years.”</p>
<p>I wanted to know how she felt when she saw the N-word on the screen. I hesitated, thinking I should use the euphemism, as we did in our paper and as other media did. But I opted for the real thing and decided to say “nigger.” I instantly regretted it. She winced. The pain on her face has remained with me all these years.</p>
<p>We then talked about Simpson and the Los Angeles Police Department.</p>
<p>“My heart goes out to the Goldman family and the Brown family,” Bacot said, “but in my heart, I don’t believe that O.J. Simpson murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. If he is guilty, I don’t want him acquitted because he is a black man. But there are too many unanswered questions.”</p>
<p>Bacot’s relationship with the LAPD was a conflicted one. She believed the department was afflicted with racism, yet she worked with the department’s community policing program to break down barriers. In fact, she was about to leave for a meeting with officers involved in the program.</p>
<p>The Los Angeles Times was afflicted with the same racial divide that separated the local community. I experienced it with Andrea Ford, an African-American who reported on the trial from the courtroom and who often fed material to white journalists who were writing from the office. She had little patience with what she saw as racism among her white colleagues.</p>
<p>She accused me of being racist in two columns I had written. Our first argument was in the newsroom over a column I had written after the riot. She accused, and I argued back. Heads turned when neither of us would give an inch. The second time was when I walked into the pressroom in the morning during the Simpson trial. As soon as she saw me, she denounced my latest column and me as racist.</p>
<p>We argued — loudly. We moved our dispute into the hall so as not to disturb the other reporters. Our voices were so loud that a television reporter asked us to move into another hallway because he was starting his standup report. Such arguments occurred in workplaces around the city and the country.</p>
<p>Yet I liked Ford, and she seemed to like me. When she wasn’t angry at me, she was warm and friendly. We would talk about our kids — teenagers who caused us lots of trouble. Parenthood was a bond.</p>
<p>When the trial ended with Simpson’s acquittal, I went out for a drink at the local bar, the Redwood, with Ford and another African-American reporter, John Mitchell. We drank and chatted, nothing heavy, and I went home feeling sad that my great adventure was over.</p>
<p>For me, the trial’s racial aspects did not end with the verdict. I followed the racial story in the streets and schools, and dealt with it on the Times staff when I became city editor. As I navigated the racial currents, I thought back to my experiences at the trial, with the ex-cons I met at the halfway house, with Cheryl Bacot and elsewhere — and to Andrea and me shouting at each other in the hallway.</p>
<p>It had been a trial as much about race as it was about murder.</p> | true | 4 | someone part media mob covered oj simpson murder trial enjoying fx original television series people v oj simpson american crime story watching relive 1994 1995 morning period would flip today show featured trial almost every day feel pleased heading downtown cover biggest story country made courthouse would find among many eccentric characters part trial solemn colleagues treated something legalethical seminar well crime story saw circus political reporter many years knew circus better think trial im often drawn back serious aspect race importance race case apparent june 17 1994 simpson famous lowspeed chase interstate 405 arrested stabbing murders wife nicole brown simpson ron goldman waiter nearby restaurant returning purse nicole left behind part chase took place blocks home simpsoninstead surrendering policetook ford bronco driven friend al cowlings headed south 405 back north helicopters followed air police cars trailed ground pursuit every tv station earlier wife nancy settled thought would relaxing evening television set went outside watched helicopters even glimpsed slowmoving procession headed north simpsons mansion miles away much richer neighborhood writing column los angeles times explaining exposing vagaries local politics government simpsons arrest trial shifted team covering trial began write new column called spin appeared several times week initial mandate report write ways lawyers journalists shaping narrative spinning lawyers attempting influence public opinion jury pool media trying get viewers readers moved beyond exploration trial influencing world outside courtroom interested affected race relations city still recovering 1992 riots sparked acquittal police officers charged beating rodney king simpson great running back university southern california national football league famous africanamerican spent life among affluent famous white people publicly silent race deep feeling police black community thought might influence way africanamericans saw trial trial went would periodically leave courthouse drive africanamerican neighborhoods south los angeles learn people saying thinking one occasion visited creative neighbors always sharing halfway house exconvicts los angeles headed patricia loganmiles husband rev phillip miles pastor lively hope evangelistic ministry thought could learn something talking men africanamericans simpson case criminal justice system said would help understand feelings simpson africanamerican community knew neighborhood miles east intersection west florence normandie avenues 1992 riot started building apartment house street small businesses vacant stores churches empty lots group assembled phillip miles awaited community room men told served time crimes armed robbery shooting police officer house burglary ages seemed range mid20s late 30s first hesitant talk soon opened joked would happen ended jail didnt think would well simpson guilty asked one replied question thought know killer killer one men said two different kind people kill youve got kind kills rage person kills hes plain killer oj good life life never grew bad environment aint never jail aint killer aint got type nerve courage cut someone like hes got millions dollars could pay somebody kill somebody every man group hostile los angeles police department entire criminal justice system unfair treatment authorities 84 police came rushed one man said one robbery witness said witness rushed told judge ready pick jury lawyer public defender man found guilty sentenced 12 years eight feel good oj black man able actually defend another man said feel good get justice everyone focused people behind case isnt strong afterward miles told everyone knows somebody arrested received trial framed lawabiding africanamericans well breaking law fearful police department judicial system even pulled traffic ticket dont feel fairly justly treated experience africanamerican community another day experience brought home divide blacks whites central character trial police detective mark fuhrman cops searched simpsons big house spacious grounds said found bloody glove simpsons prosecution maintained bloodied murders defense however tipped existence tapes fuhrman made working screenwriter movie idea 1985 1994 tapes fuhrman revealed foulmouthed antiblack racist recordings contained 41 instances fuhrman using nword judge lance ito permitted tapes heard bolstered defenses contention fuhrman taken glove crime scene planted simpsons yard wanted talk someone tapes usual community leader resident watching trial television morning drove south courthouse looking likely place find people store shopping center maybe restaurant passed building knew housed africanamerican unity center community organization parked went inside nobody seemed looked around found small office cheryl bacot africanamerican working introduced talked told seen morning session television listening tapes watching words flash across screen much told quit watching cant believe 1995 america entering 21st century said frightening experience emotional back 50 years wanted know felt saw nword screen hesitated thinking use euphemism paper media opted real thing decided say nigger instantly regretted winced pain face remained years talked simpson los angeles police department heart goes goldman family brown family bacot said heart dont believe oj simpson murdered nicole brown simpson ron goldman guilty dont want acquitted black man many unanswered questions bacots relationship lapd conflicted one believed department afflicted racism yet worked departments community policing program break barriers fact leave meeting officers involved program los angeles times afflicted racial divide separated local community experienced andrea ford africanamerican reported trial courtroom often fed material white journalists writing office little patience saw racism among white colleagues accused racist two columns written first argument newsroom column written riot accused argued back heads turned neither us would give inch second time walked pressroom morning simpson trial soon saw denounced latest column racist argued loudly moved dispute hall disturb reporters voices loud television reporter asked us move another hallway starting standup report arguments occurred workplaces around city country yet liked ford seemed like wasnt angry warm friendly would talk kids teenagers caused us lots trouble parenthood bond trial ended simpsons acquittal went drink local bar redwood ford another africanamerican reporter john mitchell drank chatted nothing heavy went home feeling sad great adventure trials racial aspects end verdict followed racial story streets schools dealt times staff became city editor navigated racial currents thought back experiences trial excons met halfway house cheryl bacot elsewhere andrea shouting hallway trial much race murder | 961 |
<p>The prospect that Europe and Asia might move towards greater independence has troubled US planners since the second world war. The concerns have only risen as the “tripolar order”–Europe, North America and Asia–has continued to evolve.</p>
<p>Every day Latin America, too, is becoming more independent. Now Asia and the Americas are strengthening their ties while the reigning superpower, the odd man out, consumes itself in misadventures in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Regional integration in Asia and Latin America is a crucial and increasingly important issue that, from Washington’s perspective, betokens a defiant world gone out of control. Energy, of course, remains a defining factor–the object of contention–everywhere.</p>
<p>China, unlike Europe, refuses to be intimidated by Washington, a primary reason for the fear of China by US planners, which presents a dilemma: steps toward confrontation are inhibited by US corporate reliance on China as an export platform and growing market, as well as by China’s financial reserves–reported to be approaching Japan’s in scale.</p>
<p>In January, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah visited Beijing, which is expected to lead to a Sino-Saudi memorandum of understanding calling for “increased cooperation and investment between the two countries in oil, natural gas and investment”, the Wall Street Journal reports.</p>
<p>Already much of Iran’s oil goes to China, and China is providing Iran with weapons that both states presumably regard as deterrent to US designs. India also has options. India may choose to be a US client, or it may prefer to join the more independent Asian bloc that is taking shape, with ever more ties to Middle East oil producers. Siddharth Varadarjan, the deputy editor of the Hindu, observes that “if the 21st century is to be an ‘Asian century,’ Asia’s passivity in the energy sector has to end”.</p>
<p>The key is India-China cooperation. In January, an agreement signed in Beijing “cleared the way for India and China to collaborate not only in technology but also in hydrocarbon exploration and production, a partnership that could eventually alter fundamental equations in the world’s oil and natural gas sector”, Varadarjan points out.</p>
<p>An additional step, already being contemplated, is an Asian oil market trading in euros. The impact on the international financial system and the balance of global power could be significant. It should be no surprise that President Bush paid a recent visit to try to keep India in the fold, offering nuclear cooperation and other inducements as a lure.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in Latin America left-centre governments prevail from Venezuela to Argentina. The indigenous populations have become much more active and influential, particularly in Bolivia and Ecuador, where they either want oil and gas to be domestically controlled or, in some cases, oppose production altogether.</p>
<p>Many indigenous people apparently do not see any reason why their lives, societies and cultures should be disrupted or destroyed so that New Yorkers can sit in their SUVs in traffic gridlock.</p>
<p>Venezuela, the leading oil exporter in the hemisphere, has forged probably the closest relations with China of any Latin American country, and is planning to sell increasing amounts of oil to China as part of its effort to reduce dependence on the openly hostile US government.</p>
<p>Venezuela has joined Mercosur, the South American customs union–a move described by Nestor Kirchner, the Argentinian president, as “a milestone” in the development of this trading bloc, and welcomed as a “new chapter in our integration” by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president.</p>
<p>Venezuela, apart from supplying Argentina with fuel oil, bought almost a third of Argentinian debt issued in 2005, one element of a region-wide effort to free the countries from the controls of the IMF after two decades of disastrous conformity to the rules imposed by the US-dominated international financial institutions.</p>
<p>Steps toward Southern Cone [the southern states of South America] integration advanced further in December with the election in Bolivia of Evo Morales, the country’s first indigenous president. Morales moved quickly to reach a series of energy accords with Venezuela. The Financial Times reported that these “are expected to underpin forthcoming radical reforms to Bolivia’s economy and energy sector” with its huge gas reserves, second only to Venezuela’s in South America.</p>
<p>Cuba-Venezuela relations are becoming ever closer, each relying on its comparative advantage. Venezuela is providing low-cost oil, while in return Cuba organises literacy and health programmes, sending thousands of highly skilled professionals, teachers and doctors, who work in the poorest and most neglected areas, as they do elsewhere in the third world.</p>
<p>Cuban medical assistance is also being welcomed elsewhere. One of the most horrendous tragedies of recent years was the earthquake in Pakistan last October. Besides the huge death toll, unknown numbers of survivors have to face brutal winter weather with little shelter, food or medical assistance.</p>
<p>“Cuba has provided the largest contingent of doctors and paramedics to Pakistan,” paying all the costs (perhaps with Venezuelan funding), writes John Cherian in India’s Frontline magazine, citing Dawn, a leading Pakistan daily.</p>
<p>President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan expressed his “deep gratitude” to Fidel Castro for the “spirit and compassion” of the Cuban medical teams–reported to comprise more than 1,000 trained personnel, 44% of them women, who remained to work in remote mountain villages, “living in tents in freezing weather and in an alien culture”, after western aid teams had been withdrawn.</p>
<p>Growing popular movements, primarily in the south but with increasing participation in the rich industrial countries, are serving as the bases for many of these developments towards more independence and concern for the needs of the great majority of the population.</p>
<p>© NOAM CHOMSKY</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | prospect europe asia might move towards greater independence troubled us planners since second world war concerns risen tripolar ordereurope north america asiahas continued evolve every day latin america becoming independent asia americas strengthening ties reigning superpower odd man consumes misadventures middle east regional integration asia latin america crucial increasingly important issue washingtons perspective betokens defiant world gone control energy course remains defining factorthe object contentioneverywhere china unlike europe refuses intimidated washington primary reason fear china us planners presents dilemma steps toward confrontation inhibited us corporate reliance china export platform growing market well chinas financial reservesreported approaching japans scale january saudi arabias king abdullah visited beijing expected lead sinosaudi memorandum understanding calling increased cooperation investment two countries oil natural gas investment wall street journal reports already much irans oil goes china china providing iran weapons states presumably regard deterrent us designs india also options india may choose us client may prefer join independent asian bloc taking shape ever ties middle east oil producers siddharth varadarjan deputy editor hindu observes 21st century asian century asias passivity energy sector end key indiachina cooperation january agreement signed beijing cleared way india china collaborate technology also hydrocarbon exploration production partnership could eventually alter fundamental equations worlds oil natural gas sector varadarjan points additional step already contemplated asian oil market trading euros impact international financial system balance global power could significant surprise president bush paid recent visit try keep india fold offering nuclear cooperation inducements lure meanwhile latin america leftcentre governments prevail venezuela argentina indigenous populations become much active influential particularly bolivia ecuador either want oil gas domestically controlled cases oppose production altogether many indigenous people apparently see reason lives societies cultures disrupted destroyed new yorkers sit suvs traffic gridlock venezuela leading oil exporter hemisphere forged probably closest relations china latin american country planning sell increasing amounts oil china part effort reduce dependence openly hostile us government venezuela joined mercosur south american customs uniona move described nestor kirchner argentinian president milestone development trading bloc welcomed new chapter integration luiz inacio lula da silva brazilian president venezuela apart supplying argentina fuel oil bought almost third argentinian debt issued 2005 one element regionwide effort free countries controls imf two decades disastrous conformity rules imposed usdominated international financial institutions steps toward southern cone southern states south america integration advanced december election bolivia evo morales countrys first indigenous president morales moved quickly reach series energy accords venezuela financial times reported expected underpin forthcoming radical reforms bolivias economy energy sector huge gas reserves second venezuelas south america cubavenezuela relations becoming ever closer relying comparative advantage venezuela providing lowcost oil return cuba organises literacy health programmes sending thousands highly skilled professionals teachers doctors work poorest neglected areas elsewhere third world cuban medical assistance also welcomed elsewhere one horrendous tragedies recent years earthquake pakistan last october besides huge death toll unknown numbers survivors face brutal winter weather little shelter food medical assistance cuba provided largest contingent doctors paramedics pakistan paying costs perhaps venezuelan funding writes john cherian indias frontline magazine citing dawn leading pakistan daily president pervez musharraf pakistan expressed deep gratitude fidel castro spirit compassion cuban medical teamsreported comprise 1000 trained personnel 44 women remained work remote mountain villages living tents freezing weather alien culture western aid teams withdrawn growing popular movements primarily south increasing participation rich industrial countries serving bases many developments towards independence concern needs great majority population noam chomsky 160 160 160 | 563 |
<p>for Howard Zinn</p>
<p>Howard Zinn greatly admired Fiorello LaGuardia and in the end the two men had important things in common. They grew up in New York City, two generations apart, sons of immigrants. They both flew bombing missions for the U.S. Army -LaGuardia over Italy during World War One, Zinn over occupied France in World War Two- and then reconsidered the worth of those missions. They both spent their lives speaking for people whose voices hardly got heard.</p>
<p>Zinn wrote his PhD dissertation on LaGuardia’s years as a Congressman representing the tenement dwellers of East Harlem (1917-1933, minus his stint in the Army and two years as President of the New York City Board of Aldermen). “LaGuardia in Congress,” published by Cornell University Press in 1959, established Zinn’s reputation as a historian. It debunked the prevailing text-book image of the 1920s. Its themes were encapsulated in an essay, “LaGuardia in the Jazz Age,” which Zinn published in “The Politics of History” (Beacon, 1970).</p>
<p>“In the United States, the twenties were the years of Prosperity, and Fiorello LaGuardia is one of its few public figures who suspected to what extent that label was a lie,” Zinn wrote. Nor did LaGuardia mistake the twenties for “a time of quiet isolation from foreign affairs… The United States was established as a dominant power in the Caribbean having purchased the Virgin Islands during the war, possessing a naval base in Cuba, and exercising such control over the Republic of Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic as to make them ‘virtual protectorates.’ American influence in the Far East extended from the Aleutian Islands to Hawaii and across the western Pacific to the Philippines.”</p>
<p>LaGuardia opposed sending 5,000 U.S. troops to Nicaragua in 1927 to&#160; uphold a government subservient to U.S. lumber and fruit interests. “The protection of American life and property in Nicaragua does not require the formidable naval and marine forces operating there now,” La Guardia declared. “Give me fifty New York cops and I can guarantee full protection.”</p>
<p>Zinn wrote that LaGuardia did not see the 1920s as a time of “national political consensus, when a general mood of well-being softened political combat…&#160; He denounced the drastic restriction of immigration and particularly the ‘national origins’ method of determining quotas… The restriction bills were ‘unscientific,’ LaGuardia retorted, the ‘result of narrow-mindedness and bigotry’ and ‘inspired by influences who have a fixed obsession on Anglo-Saxon superiority.’ Angered by a reference to the ‘Italian bloc’ from New York made by Kentucky’s Fred Vinson, LaGuardia referred to the illiteracy of the Blue Ridge mountain folk.”</p>
<p>By 1937, when Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act, LaGuardia was in his fourth year as mayor of New York City. His nemesis, Vinson of Kentucky, was the Treasury Department’s key ally in pushing marijuana prohibition through the House Ways and Means Committee. Vincent hostilely interrogated the only witness who understood and strongly opposed prohibition, Dr. William Woodward of the American Medical Association. When the Act came before the full House, instead of explaining its provisions, Vinson recounted Harry Anslinger’s “reefer madness” testimony as undisputed fact. (Anslinger owed his position as head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics to his wife’s uncle, the banker and former Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, another LaGuardia nemesis.)</p>
<p>The question of whether the American Medical Association agreed with the Marihuana Tax Act was answered thus by Vinson: “Our committee heard testimony of Dr. William Wharton -sic- who not only gave this measure his full support, but also the approval from the American Medical Association which he represented as legislative counsel.” The Act passed on a voice vote and was enacted into law in September of 1937. Fred Vinson, brazen liar, went on to become Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Marijuana prohibition might not have sailed through Congress if Fiorello LaGuardia had still been a member in 1937. It was based on false facts that no one in Congress questioned, but which LaGuardia recognized as baloney -notably that marijuana is addictive and leads to insanity and violent crime. In 1938 LaGuardia, as mayor, assigned the New York Academy of Medicine to investigate the premises of marijuana prohibition. A blue-ribbon committee of 31 scientists was assembled. Physicians from the city Department of Hospitals supervised clinical research involving 77 patients. A sociological study on the extent of use by New Yorkers was conducted by a Police Department team. The published report thanks the&#160; “six members of the Force, four men and two women, whose intelligence, interest in the work, and desire to obtain the facts of the situation were of invaluable aid in obtaining the information on which the sociological report is based. The four men and two women assigned to us made painstaking observations and reports, acted as investigators and social workers and not as police officers, and brought to the performance of this task a native intelligence, specialized training, and civic interest…. Thanks are due also to the medical staff of the Riker’s Island Hospital for their assistance in the narcotic addiction study.”</p>
<p>A key chapter of the report by Drs. Samuel Allentuck and Karl Bowman, “The Psychiatric Aspects of Marijuana Intoxication,” was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in September 1942. It specifically refuted the Federal Bureau of Narcotics characterization of marijuana as an addictive drug that led to insanity.</p>
<p>The full report, “The Marijuana Problem in the City of New York,” was published in 1944. Its conclusions are summarized thus on Wikipedia:</p>
<p>•&#160; Marijuana is used extensively in the Borough of Manhattan but the problem is not as acute as it is reported to be in other sections of the United States.</p>
<p>• The introduction of marijuana into this area is recent as compared to other localities.</p>
<p>• The cost of marijuana is low and therefore within the purchasing power of most persons.</p>
<p>• The distribution and use of marijuana is centered in Harlem.</p>
<p>• The majority of marijuana smokers are Blacks and Latin-Americans.</p>
<p>• The consensus among marijuana smokers is that the use of the drug creates a definite feeling of adequacy.</p>
<p>• The practice of smoking marijuana does not lead to addiction in the medical sense of the word.</p>
<p>• The sale and distribution of marijuana is not under the control of any single organized group.</p>
<p>• The use of marijuana does not lead to morphine or heroin or cocaine addiction and no effort is made to create a market for these narcotics by stimulating the practice of marijuana smoking.</p>
<p>• Marijuana is not the determining factor in the commission of major crimes.</p>
<p>• Marijuana smoking is not widespread among school children. Juvenile delinquency is not associated with the practice of smoking marijuana.</p>
<p>• The publicity concerning the catastrophic effects of marijuana smoking in New York City is unfounded.</p>
<p>“My own interest in marihuana goes back many years,” LaGuardia wrote in a foreword to the committee’s report, “to the time when I was a member of the House of Representatives and, in that capacity, heard of the use of marihuana by soldiers stationed in Panama. I was impressed at that time with the report of an Army Board of Inquiry which emphasized the relative harmlessness of the drug and the fact that it played a very little role, if any, in problems of delinquency and crime in the Canal Zone.</p>
<p>“The report of the present investigations covers every phase of the problem and is of practical value not only to our own city but to communities throughout the country. It is a basic contribution to medicine and pharmacology. I am glad that the sociological, psychological, and medical ills commonly attributed to marihuana have been found to be exaggerated… The scientific part of the research will be continued in the hope that the drug may prove to possess therapeutic value for the control of drug addiction.”&#160; In other words, the NYAM investigators -and Mayor LaGuardia himself- were hip to the harm-reduction potential of marijuana as a substitute for hard drugs.</p>
<p>Although the LaGuardia Committee provided evidence and documentation in support of its findings, the Report was ignored at the federal level. Other painstaking commission reports would be ignored by the U.S. government and the medical establishment in the decades to follow. Researchers who determine that marijuana is relatively safe and medically useful have been and excluded from the canon as systematically as those who shed light on the oppression of the working class.</p>
<p>FRED GARDNER edits O’Shaughnessy’s, The Journal of Cannabis in Clinical Practice. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | howard zinn howard zinn greatly admired fiorello laguardia end two men important things common grew new york city two generations apart sons immigrants flew bombing missions us army laguardia italy world war one zinn occupied france world war two reconsidered worth missions spent lives speaking people whose voices hardly got heard zinn wrote phd dissertation laguardias years congressman representing tenement dwellers east harlem 19171933 minus stint army two years president new york city board aldermen laguardia congress published cornell university press 1959 established zinns reputation historian debunked prevailing textbook image 1920s themes encapsulated essay laguardia jazz age zinn published politics history beacon 1970 united states twenties years prosperity fiorello laguardia one public figures suspected extent label lie zinn wrote laguardia mistake twenties time quiet isolation foreign affairs united states established dominant power caribbean purchased virgin islands war possessing naval base cuba exercising control republic panama nicaragua haiti dominican republic make virtual protectorates american influence far east extended aleutian islands hawaii across western pacific philippines laguardia opposed sending 5000 us troops nicaragua 1927 to160 uphold government subservient us lumber fruit interests protection american life property nicaragua require formidable naval marine forces operating la guardia declared give fifty new york cops guarantee full protection zinn wrote laguardia see 1920s time national political consensus general mood wellbeing softened political combat160 denounced drastic restriction immigration particularly national origins method determining quotas restriction bills unscientific laguardia retorted result narrowmindedness bigotry inspired influences fixed obsession anglosaxon superiority angered reference italian bloc new york made kentuckys fred vinson laguardia referred illiteracy blue ridge mountain folk 1937 congress passed marihuana tax act laguardia fourth year mayor new york city nemesis vinson kentucky treasury departments key ally pushing marijuana prohibition house ways means committee vincent hostilely interrogated witness understood strongly opposed prohibition dr william woodward american medical association act came full house instead explaining provisions vinson recounted harry anslingers reefer madness testimony undisputed fact anslinger owed position head federal bureau narcotics wifes uncle banker former secretary treasury andrew mellon another laguardia nemesis question whether american medical association agreed marihuana tax act answered thus vinson committee heard testimony dr william wharton sic gave measure full support also approval american medical association represented legislative counsel act passed voice vote enacted law september 1937 fred vinson brazen liar went become chief justice us supreme court marijuana prohibition might sailed congress fiorello laguardia still member 1937 based false facts one congress questioned laguardia recognized baloney notably marijuana addictive leads insanity violent crime 1938 laguardia mayor assigned new york academy medicine investigate premises marijuana prohibition blueribbon committee 31 scientists assembled physicians city department hospitals supervised clinical research involving 77 patients sociological study extent use new yorkers conducted police department team published report thanks the160 six members force four men two women whose intelligence interest work desire obtain facts situation invaluable aid obtaining information sociological report based four men two women assigned us made painstaking observations reports acted investigators social workers police officers brought performance task native intelligence specialized training civic interest thanks due also medical staff rikers island hospital assistance narcotic addiction study key chapter report drs samuel allentuck karl bowman psychiatric aspects marijuana intoxication published american journal psychiatry september 1942 specifically refuted federal bureau narcotics characterization marijuana addictive drug led insanity full report marijuana problem city new york published 1944 conclusions summarized thus wikipedia 160 marijuana used extensively borough manhattan problem acute reported sections united states introduction marijuana area recent compared localities cost marijuana low therefore within purchasing power persons distribution use marijuana centered harlem majority marijuana smokers blacks latinamericans consensus among marijuana smokers use drug creates definite feeling adequacy practice smoking marijuana lead addiction medical sense word sale distribution marijuana control single organized group use marijuana lead morphine heroin cocaine addiction effort made create market narcotics stimulating practice marijuana smoking marijuana determining factor commission major crimes marijuana smoking widespread among school children juvenile delinquency associated practice smoking marijuana publicity concerning catastrophic effects marijuana smoking new york city unfounded interest marihuana goes back many years laguardia wrote foreword committees report time member house representatives capacity heard use marihuana soldiers stationed panama impressed time report army board inquiry emphasized relative harmlessness drug fact played little role problems delinquency crime canal zone report present investigations covers every phase problem practical value city communities throughout country basic contribution medicine pharmacology glad sociological psychological medical ills commonly attributed marihuana found exaggerated scientific part research continued hope drug may prove possess therapeutic value control drug addiction160 words nyam investigators mayor laguardia hip harmreduction potential marijuana substitute hard drugs although laguardia committee provided evidence documentation support findings report ignored federal level painstaking commission reports would ignored us government medical establishment decades follow researchers determine marijuana relatively safe medically useful excluded canon systematically shed light oppression working class fred gardner edits oshaughnessys journal cannabis clinical practice reached fredplebesitecom 160 160 | 800 |
<p>Sometimes a trivial episode throws a revealing light on a grave public disease.</p>
<p>A classic example: the Captain of Koepenick. On the face of it, it was a minor criminal incident: in 1906, a shoemaker named Wilhelm Voigt was released from prison, after serving a sentence for forgery. To get work he needed a passport, which, as a former convict, he could not get.</p>
<p>So he went to a junk shop and bought the uniform of an army captain, commandeered some soldiers in the street, took them to Koepenick, a Berlin suburb, arrested the mayor and confiscated the blank passports. Since he was well-known to the police, he was soon arrested.</p>
<p>All Europe laughed at this exposure of the situation in Germany, where anyone wearing a uniform was a king and every army officer a demigod.</p>
<p>In the classic film about the episode, the news was brought to the Kaiser (the same Kaiser Wilhelm II who had earlier met with Theodor Herzl in Jerusalem). For a long moment, the courtiers held their breath. Then the Kaiser burst out laughing, and the relieved courtiers joined in.</p>
<p>It wasn’t really a laughing matter, because eight years later the unbridled German militarism was one of the causes of World War I.</p>
<p>A week ago, a young Frenchwoman called Marie Leonie caused an uproar. According to her, six youngsters “with a North African look” attacked her in a Paris train, grabbed her purse and, (wrongly) believing her to be Jewish because she lives in the well-to-do 16th arrondissement, tore her clothes and painted swastikas on her belly. They then overturned her baby carriage – all this while 20 other passengers looked on without lifting a finger to help her.</p>
<p>France waxed hysterical with rage and guilt. The leaders of the republic, from President Jacques Chirac down, blamed themselves and promised to put the fight against anti-Semitism at the top of the national agenda. All the newspapers displayed giant headlines about the nation’s shame, together with profound background-pieces about the groundswell of anti-Semitism. Jewish organizations in France and throughout the world accused European society of a frightening resurgence of anti-Semitism and invoked memories of the Holocaust. The Israeli media had a field-day, telling all Jews that they would find safety only in Israel.</p>
<p>I had my doubts from the first moment. After my 40 years as the editor of a magazine specializing in investigative journalism, I have developed a keen nose for phony stories. This one was manifestly implausible. I am convinced that the French investigators doubted it from the beginning. But who would dare to raise any doubts in the face of a runaway public hysteria?</p>
<p>And then, suddenly, the whole story collapsed. Not a single eye-witness came forward. The station cameras did not show any sign of the occurrence. It became known that the young woman had made false statements to the police in the past. Two days after the uproar, the woman broke down and admitted the truth: the whole thing was an invention.</p>
<p>Like the Captain of Koepenick, who trained the spotlight on Prussian militarism, so did Marie Leonie direct the light at the anti-anti-Semitic hysteria in Europe, an irrational phenomenon that turns experienced politicians into fools, makes serious newspapers go crazy and allows all kinds of ugly manipulations.</p>
<p>In order to inject a measure of logic and sanity into the matter, one has to begin by distinguishing between different phenomena.</p>
<p>There is indeed some real anti-Semitism. It is deeply embedded in European-Christian civilization. It does exist today, as it always did. This is a hatred of Jews because they are Jews, irrespective of who and what else they are ­ rich or poor, capitalists or communists, supporters or critics of Israel, corrupt or honest. One of its expressions, for example, is the painting of swastikas on tombstones, an idiotic act that any disturbed juvenile can carry out on his own.</p>
<p>I don’t believe that this kind of anti-Semitism has increased in recent years. Perhaps it is has lost some of its shame with the passing of the years since the Holocaust. In the present situation, it is not dangerous.</p>
<p>A quite different phenomenon is the North-African war conducted on European soil. Young Muslims from North Africa are battling young Jews from North Africa. That started back home, when the Jews supported the French regime against the freedom fighters. In the last phase, the Jewish underground organization was the mainstay of the opposition to the liberation of Algeria. (The organization was set up by Israeli agents to defend the Jews, but the leaders gradually migrated to Israel and the organization was left in the hands of the most rabid Arab-haters.)</p>
<p>Now this confrontation has become a local offshoot of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Muslims are enflamed by TV pictures of the oppression and humiliation enforced by our soldiers in the occupied territories, while the Jewish organizations support the Sharon government. Most Jews in France are emigrants from North Africa. This causes many incidents and creates the impression that anti-Semitism is on the rise.</p>
<p>Our government is pouring petrol on the flames by instructing its representatives around the world to stigmatize all criticism of its actions as anti-Semitism. This way it sticks the label of anti-Semitism on the entire world, from the UN General Assembly and the International Court of Justice to humanitarian organizations.</p>
<p>It is easy to create this confusion when one does not differentiate between “Jewish” and “Israeli”. Everything becomes mixed up: anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, criticism of Israel, criticism of Sharon. Such a mix-up is convenient for those interested in manipulations, but it not good for the Jews. “Jew” and “Israeli” are not the same.</p>
<p>Israel is a state like any other state. It was indeed created by Jews and a majority of its citizens are Jews. But Israel is an independent and separate entity. It is permissible (and, in my opinion, desirable) to criticize the policy of our government, much as it is permissible for us to criticize that of any other state. There is no necessary connection between such criticism and anti-Semitism.</p>
<p>True, the Jews in Israel have a strong affinity with Jews all over the world, and these have an affinity with Israel. That is quite natural, and much like the affinity that many people in Australia and Canada feel for Britain. But this does not mean that Jews around the world must automatically support every act of the Israeli government in a kind of Pavlovian reflex. That is convenient for the Israeli government, but not necessarily good for Israel. It is certainly bad for the Jews.</p>
<p>We are Israelis. We created this state in order to be masters of our own destiny. We want to be like any other people, indeed, like the best of them. We are responsible for our actions, and nobody who is not a citizen of Israel bears any responsibility for them.</p>
<p>The Jewish citizens of France are responsible for the actions of the French government that they vote for, and perhaps for the actions of the Jewish community to which they belong. They are not responsible for our actions. They do not have to defend our actions at all costs. If they want to criticize them, they are welcome.</p>
<p>When there is a clear and clean separation, anti-Semitism will remain in Europe as marginal a phenomenon as it has been since the Holocaust. And if we Israelis succeed in returning to the road to peace, the attitude towards Israel will return to what it was after Oslo, when the whole world saluted us.</p>
<p>If the disturbed Frenchwoman’s hoax helps us overcome the hysteria and return to a sane approach to this matter, than she deserves our blessing.</p>
<p>URI AVNERY is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is one of the writers featured in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/156584789X/counterpunchmaga" type="external">The Other Israel: Voices of Dissent and Refusal</a>. He is also a contributor to CounterPunch’s hot new book <a href="" type="internal">The Politics of Anti-Semitism</a>. He can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | sometimes trivial episode throws revealing light grave public disease classic example captain koepenick face minor criminal incident 1906 shoemaker named wilhelm voigt released prison serving sentence forgery get work needed passport former convict could get went junk shop bought uniform army captain commandeered soldiers street took koepenick berlin suburb arrested mayor confiscated blank passports since wellknown police soon arrested europe laughed exposure situation germany anyone wearing uniform king every army officer demigod classic film episode news brought kaiser kaiser wilhelm ii earlier met theodor herzl jerusalem long moment courtiers held breath kaiser burst laughing relieved courtiers joined wasnt really laughing matter eight years later unbridled german militarism one causes world war week ago young frenchwoman called marie leonie caused uproar according six youngsters north african look attacked paris train grabbed purse wrongly believing jewish lives welltodo 16th arrondissement tore clothes painted swastikas belly overturned baby carriage 20 passengers looked without lifting finger help france waxed hysterical rage guilt leaders republic president jacques chirac blamed promised put fight antisemitism top national agenda newspapers displayed giant headlines nations shame together profound backgroundpieces groundswell antisemitism jewish organizations france throughout world accused european society frightening resurgence antisemitism invoked memories holocaust israeli media fieldday telling jews would find safety israel doubts first moment 40 years editor magazine specializing investigative journalism developed keen nose phony stories one manifestly implausible convinced french investigators doubted beginning would dare raise doubts face runaway public hysteria suddenly whole story collapsed single eyewitness came forward station cameras show sign occurrence became known young woman made false statements police past two days uproar woman broke admitted truth whole thing invention like captain koepenick trained spotlight prussian militarism marie leonie direct light antiantisemitic hysteria europe irrational phenomenon turns experienced politicians fools makes serious newspapers go crazy allows kinds ugly manipulations order inject measure logic sanity matter one begin distinguishing different phenomena indeed real antisemitism deeply embedded europeanchristian civilization exist today always hatred jews jews irrespective else rich poor capitalists communists supporters critics israel corrupt honest one expressions example painting swastikas tombstones idiotic act disturbed juvenile carry dont believe kind antisemitism increased recent years perhaps lost shame passing years since holocaust present situation dangerous quite different phenomenon northafrican war conducted european soil young muslims north africa battling young jews north africa started back home jews supported french regime freedom fighters last phase jewish underground organization mainstay opposition liberation algeria organization set israeli agents defend jews leaders gradually migrated israel organization left hands rabid arabhaters confrontation become local offshoot israelipalestinian conflict muslims enflamed tv pictures oppression humiliation enforced soldiers occupied territories jewish organizations support sharon government jews france emigrants north africa causes many incidents creates impression antisemitism rise government pouring petrol flames instructing representatives around world stigmatize criticism actions antisemitism way sticks label antisemitism entire world un general assembly international court justice humanitarian organizations easy create confusion one differentiate jewish israeli everything becomes mixed antisemitism antizionism criticism israel criticism sharon mixup convenient interested manipulations good jews jew israeli israel state like state indeed created jews majority citizens jews israel independent separate entity permissible opinion desirable criticize policy government much permissible us criticize state necessary connection criticism antisemitism true jews israel strong affinity jews world affinity israel quite natural much like affinity many people australia canada feel britain mean jews around world must automatically support every act israeli government kind pavlovian reflex convenient israeli government necessarily good israel certainly bad jews israelis created state order masters destiny want like people indeed like best responsible actions nobody citizen israel bears responsibility jewish citizens france responsible actions french government vote perhaps actions jewish community belong responsible actions defend actions costs want criticize welcome clear clean separation antisemitism remain europe marginal phenomenon since holocaust israelis succeed returning road peace attitude towards israel return oslo whole world saluted us disturbed frenchwomans hoax helps us overcome hysteria return sane approach matter deserves blessing uri avnery israeli writer peace activist gush shalom one writers featured israel voices dissent refusal also contributor counterpunchs hot new book politics antisemitism reached avnerycounterpunchorg 160 | 668 |
<p>Flickr/&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4606605092/"&gt;isafmedia&lt;/a&gt;</p>
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<p>Last week, the Afghan government intervened to stabilize Kabul Bank, whose dubious off-the-books investments and shady real estate deals in Dubai could precipitate a massive bank run—or even the collapse of Afghanistan’s fragile financial system. On Tuesday,&#160; <a href="http://english.aljazeera.net//news/asia/2010/09/20109785624253265.html" type="external">the government announced</a> that it has frozen the assets of the banks top shareholders and borrowers “until the situation becomes clear.”</p>
<p>So how bad are things going to get for Afghans who have money sitting in the bank’s swiftly emptying vaults? The troubled institution has already lost some $300 million of its $1.1 billion in deposits. Last week’s revelations have led to the forced resignation of some of the bank’s top officials, including bank founder and former chairman Sherkhan Farnood, a world class poker player and owner of much of the Dubai real estate. (When the Washington Post&#160;asked about the Dubai deals <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/21/AR2010022104317.html?sid%3DST2010090107315&amp;sub=AR" type="external">in February</a>, Farnood had this to say:&#160;“What I’m doing is not proper, not exactly what I should do. But this is Afghanistan.”)&#160;Meanwhile,&#160;government officials are denying early reports that the Afghan Central Bank will have to take over Kabul Bank. If that happens,&#160;Afghanistan could wind up begging the international community for hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure that its small businessmen and civil servants don’t lose everything in the potential run.</p>
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<p>With the stakes so high, President Hamid Karzai and the Central Bank are working to reassure depositors, calling in $300 million in reserves to help guarantee Kabul Bank’s liquidity and <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/Karzai_Calls_Kabul_Bank_Safe_Amid_Signs_Of_Panic/2147759.html" type="external">injecting $100-150 million to keep the bank afloa</a>t. “No customers are leaving without their money… The situation has normalized,”&#160;Abdul Qadir Fitrat, a governor at the Afghan Central Bank, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/06/AR2010090603600.html" type="external">said Tuesday</a>. Fitrat claims that Kabul Bank is still using its “own money” (as opposed to government funds) and that its customers deposited $11 to 17 million a day over the past several days.&#160;</p>
<p>There is no doubt that the efforts to stave off a complete financial meltdown have been aggressive. Considering how cozy the president and his crew are with the bank, which contributed large sums to Karzai’s re-election campaign, that’s hardly a surprise. Mahmoud, the President’s brother, is Kabul Bank’s&#160;third-largest shareholder, and lived in one the villas the bank bought in Dubai. (Mahmoud recently announced he’ll be vacating that pad.)&#160;But while calling in the reserves may have reassured Karzai’s buddies, the thousands of Afghans who lined up to pull their savings—and the $200 million-plus they’ve withdrawn in recent days—suggest that the state’s measures aren’t convincing the common people.</p>
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<p>The US says that it won’t be bailing out Kabul Bank. American officials are, however, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/03/afghanistan-kabul-bank-clean-up" type="external">pushing for a major clean-up</a>. That leaves Karzai relatively exposed: if he can’t dig the bank out of this hole, his credibility will continue to erode. And if Afghans weren’t sure of it before, they know now: off-the-books investments by the government with their own money have a direct and negative impact on their lives.&#160;The more Afghans are able to put together a complete picture of government malfeasance, the more troubling the long-term security picture becomes. Here’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/weekinreview/05filkins.html?pagewanted=all" type="external">Dexter Filkins’ grim assessment</a>:&#160;</p>
<p>. . . [T]he rationalization offered by the Western official—that Afghans are happy to tolerate a certain level of bribery and theft—seems to have turned out terribly wrong. It now seems clear that public corruption is roundly despised by ordinary Afghans, and that it may constitute the single largest factor driving them into the arms of the Taliban.&#160;</p>
<p>UPDATE: In the Times today, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/world/asia/08kabul.html?hp=&amp;pagewanted=all" type="external">Adam Ellick and Filkins chart the relationships</a> between the bank, the brothers of Hamid Karzai and his vice president Muhammad Qasim Fahim, and the Afghan political class:</p>
<p>In early 2009, as President Hamid Karzai scanned the landscape for potential partners to run in his re-election bid, he was approached from an unusual corner: a bank. The president’s brother, Mahmoud, and another Afghan businessman, Haseen Fahim, were shareholders in Kabul Bank, one of the freewheeling financial institutions that had sprung up over the past decade since the Taliban’s fall. According to Afghan officials and businessmen in Kabul, Mahmoud Karzai and Mr. Fahim recommended Mr. Fahim’s brother, Gen. Muhammad Qasim Fahim, to become the president’s running mate. President Karzai agreed, and in a stroke co-opted his ethnic Tajik opposition and placated an old political foe with a checkered record on human rights and corruption. After the deal, Kabul Bank poured millions into Mr. Karzai’s re-election campaign, Afghan officials said. Mahmoud Karzai and Haseen Fahim, drawing on Kabul Bank’s resources, were able to enrich their families aided by tens of millions of dollars in loans. [emphasis added]</p>
<p>The Times outlines, in great detail, the odd coupling of the educated statesman Karzai and brutal warlord Fahim, and points out that the bank crisis throws a serious monkey wrench in their superalliance. For his part, Mahmoud—whose shady adventures in ill-advised investments are becoming clearer with each passing day—claims that the president’s support for General Fahim “had nothing to do” with the fact that he and the future vice president’s brother were in cahoots. “Yes, I recommended [Fahim]. . . He is a sober man, and he is very brave.”</p>
<p>And for brother Hamid? If he doesn’t continue to prop up Kabul Bank with public funds, he risks destroying the livelihoods of thousands of innocent Afghans. If he does, he opens himself up to accusations of political favoritism—I think the technical term for it is damned if you do, damned if you don’t.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | flickrlta hrefhttpwwwflickrcomphotosisafmedia4606605092gtisafmedialtagt last week afghan government intervened stabilize kabul bank whose dubious offthebooks investments shady real estate deals dubai could precipitate massive bank runor even collapse afghanistans fragile financial system tuesday160 government announced frozen assets banks top shareholders borrowers situation becomes clear bad things going get afghans money sitting banks swiftly emptying vaults troubled institution already lost 300 million 11 billion deposits last weeks revelations led forced resignation banks top officials including bank founder former chairman sherkhan farnood world class poker player owner much dubai real estate washington post160asked dubai deals february farnood say160what im proper exactly afghanistan160meanwhile160government officials denying early reports afghan central bank take kabul bank happens160afghanistan could wind begging international community hundreds millions dollars ensure small businessmen civil servants dont lose everything potential run stakes high president hamid karzai central bank working reassure depositors calling 300 million reserves help guarantee kabul banks liquidity injecting 100150 million keep bank afloat customers leaving without money situation normalized160abdul qadir fitrat governor afghan central bank said tuesday fitrat claims kabul bank still using money opposed government funds customers deposited 11 17 million day past several days160 doubt efforts stave complete financial meltdown aggressive considering cozy president crew bank contributed large sums karzais reelection campaign thats hardly surprise mahmoud presidents brother kabul banks160thirdlargest shareholder lived one villas bank bought dubai mahmoud recently announced hell vacating pad160but calling reserves may reassured karzais buddies thousands afghans lined pull savingsand 200 millionplus theyve withdrawn recent dayssuggest states measures arent convincing common people us says wont bailing kabul bank american officials however pushing major cleanup leaves karzai relatively exposed cant dig bank hole credibility continue erode afghans werent sure know offthebooks investments government money direct negative impact lives160the afghans able put together complete picture government malfeasance troubling longterm security picture becomes heres dexter filkins grim assessment160 rationalization offered western officialthat afghans happy tolerate certain level bribery theftseems turned terribly wrong seems clear public corruption roundly despised ordinary afghans may constitute single largest factor driving arms taliban160 update times today adam ellick filkins chart relationships bank brothers hamid karzai vice president muhammad qasim fahim afghan political class early 2009 president hamid karzai scanned landscape potential partners run reelection bid approached unusual corner bank presidents brother mahmoud another afghan businessman haseen fahim shareholders kabul bank one freewheeling financial institutions sprung past decade since talibans fall according afghan officials businessmen kabul mahmoud karzai mr fahim recommended mr fahims brother gen muhammad qasim fahim become presidents running mate president karzai agreed stroke coopted ethnic tajik opposition placated old political foe checkered record human rights corruption deal kabul bank poured millions mr karzais reelection campaign afghan officials said mahmoud karzai haseen fahim drawing kabul banks resources able enrich families aided tens millions dollars loans emphasis added times outlines great detail odd coupling educated statesman karzai brutal warlord fahim points bank crisis throws serious monkey wrench superalliance part mahmoudwhose shady adventures illadvised investments becoming clearer passing dayclaims presidents support general fahim nothing fact future vice presidents brother cahoots yes recommended fahim sober man brave brother hamid doesnt continue prop kabul bank public funds risks destroying livelihoods thousands innocent afghans opens accusations political favoritismi think technical term damned damned dont | 527 |
<p>Xiaoming Chai is an instructor of the Further Education Project at Peking University, and a current affairs commentator for several Chinese youth websites. Before that he had worked for several NGOs for over six years in mainland China, Hong Kong and Europe. His main studying interests are labour movements, social conflicts and globalization in China.</p>
<p>Michelle Chen is a contributor to The Nation, a contributing editor at In These Times, a contributor to Working In These Times, and an editor at CultureStrike. She is also a co-producer of Asia Pacific Forum on Pacifica's WBAI. Her work has appeared on Alternet, Colorlines.com, Ms., and The Nation, Newsday, and her old zine, cain. Follow her on Twitter at @meeshellchen or reach her at michellechen [at] inthesetimes [dot] com.</p>
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<p /> JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore.
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<p />Thirty thousand Chinese workers have been on strike for two weeks against the world's largest maker of athletic shoes. They make sneakers for companies that you know of, of course, like Nike and Adidas. And workers have shut down production. And the company Yue Yuen's stock price has sharply declined. The workers allege the company has failed to adequately fund social security pensions and contribute to housing funds.
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<p />Joining us to discuss this strike are our two guests.
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<p />Michelle Chen is a contributor to The Nation and In These Times and an editor at CultureStrike.
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<p />And we have--joining us from China is Xiaoming Chai. He works at Peking University, and he's an instructor for the Further Education Project.
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<p />Thank you both for joining us.
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<p />MICHELLE CHEN, CONTRIBUTOR, THE NATION: Thanks.
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<p /> XIAOMING CHAI, INSTRUCTOR FOR FURTHER EDUCATION PROJECT, PEKING UNIV.: Thank you.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: So, Michelle, let's start off with you. The Yue Yuen strike is estimated to be one of the largest in decades. Can you tell us why so many workers are striking? And what are their demands?
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<p />CHEN: The workers basically just want the company to make good on their obligations under Chinese law to pay social insurance costs. Many of these workers say they are owed a lot of overdue payments on the part of the company for basic things like pension funds, unemployment insurance, basic social welfare protections that are laid out in Chinese law under the newly reformed labor laws.
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<p />You know, this is certainly not the only incidence in which a company has shirked on its obligations to pay. These violations of the social insurance [incompr.] payment laws are routine throughout the workforce. But these workers feel like it has reached such a crisis point that they are willing to go into the streets.
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<p />Another big issue is that there are, in addition, contributions to the housing fund that they're owed. And with the rising cost of living, many of these workers are suffering from these really burdensome housing costs that they cannot keep up with, and their wages, unfortunately, are not rising as much as they should be to keep up with the cost of living.
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<p />So now we have tens of thousands of workers--I believe at a peak it was over 30,000 workers--marching in the streets, you know, undertaking a work stoppage, protesting. And, also, many of them are just not going to work. They were [incompr.] swiping their cards and just, you know, not working. So they're resisting in a variety of ways.
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<p />And the Western companies have simply been caught off guard. And it's been--it's made some waves, because it's very unusual for, you know, a country with supposedly no independent, you know, labor unions, where labor activity is really suppressed, for workers to be taking action like this.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Yeah. You mentioned it's unusual. But the Chinese civil think tank Institute of Contemporary Observations says that there have been 30 strikes involving at least 50 workers since March. So it seems like there's an uptick. And I want to turn to Xiaoming and get your point of view. Are we actually seeing an uptick here?
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<p />CHAI: (Sorry.) And, actually, I think that this is the first time for years we got this kind of--so a huge a scale of strike, even in Canton. So there was--so there have been often strikes from different factories. It's even from some big brand names, like the IBM and Nokia.
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<p />And also, until now, the strike last over two weeks, from 5 April to now. I think it's quite dramatic. And, also, workers are quite confident with their activities.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Can you tell us--I want to get a sense of do workers usually actually win in the end. What's the likelihood that we'll actually see the company agree to these terms?
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<p />CHAI: Okay. I would say now it's still what they call in English: it's a seesaw war. And we heard quite many things, like that dozens of workers have been interrogated, questioned by the local authority, even arrested. Some activists, like Zhang Zhiru, they have been detained under house arrest by the local policemen or the local government.
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<p />But workers still keep the high confidence, and because two hours ago I was into some--it's kind of the instant social message group with workers, one of the largest with the workers, and 400 or 300 workers, they are discussing their planning, their feedback about today and several days' feeling. So workers, still they're planning to last the strike until the May Day. They say if they can't get their demands, they will not give up. So it's quite militant, it's quite confident, yes.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Okay.
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<p />CHEN: I'd just like to add, also, in a lot of these incidences when you do see workers going on strike, in the end it does end with some kind of negotiation. Often the management will give concessions. You know, it's rare that you'd see, like, a massive victory, but, you know, frankly, the management often just wants people to go back to work, and often workers know what they want, and when they get what they want, you know, things just continue. I mean, you know, we may not see, you know, huge, radical upheaval in the streets any time soon, but workers do know how to organize and can take very targeted strategic actions when they know--when they have a specific goal in mind.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Alright. Let's turn and talk about this Guardian report that came out talking about a labor organizer, Zhang Zhiru. He basically has been missing for more than 24 hours, and his wife suspects that he has been detained by state security services. Can you tell us about Zhang Zhiru's role in organizing the strike, Xiaoming?
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<p />CHAI: And, actually, I would not say he is the organizer, because this strike was spontaneous and not well organized. And it's still [the mainly] [incompr.] automatic phenomenon. It's planned, or that we even can say not planned by the workers but launched by the workers. And Zhang Zhiru, he's a quite senior, experienced labor activist in Shenzhen and in Dongguan. Yes, he is quite famous, and he has been involved in the strike, probably from 12 April, but the strike did start before that. And Zhang want to advised and support the workers, and legally and also technically, how to [learning] and how to organize the individual groups. And Zhang was detained by the local authority or local policemen, I think, not only 24 hours. Probably--to today it's already the third day. And his wife still cannot contact him, and also not only himself, and also other individual activists also had been interrogated by the local authority and the policemen, yes.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Michelle, is it common for labor organizers to be intimidated or detained?
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<p />CHEN: Yes, common for anyone, you know, doing anything bold politically in China to suffer some kind of intimidation or harassment. You know, it doesn't always wind up with someone actually being detained, but, you know, these things are nothing new.
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<p />The issue with labor activists is, you know, as Xiaoming was saying, this is kind of a spontaneous uprising that's coming from the grassroots. So it's going to be very hard for authorities to contain simply by detaining one guy that they perceive as the leader. Frankly, it doesn't--I mean, I'm viewing it from afar, but it seems like you don't--it can never be just one guy who's leading, you know, tens of thousands of workers; there's got to be something else going on there. So I imagine that this campaign will survive despite the detention, and if anything, hopefully this will open up some more room for dissent in organizing and for leaders to have a little bit more breathing room, because what they can do as organizers is help to negotiate when it comes down to bringing workers to the table. Ultimately, the government can't keep down 30,000 people. And if there is a representative who's willing to represent their interests on behalf of the entire workforce, then they need those people. They can't just throw them in jail.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Alright. Michelle, I'll ask the final question to you. Do you foresee that we'll see a shift from Western multinational companies to start investing and looking to produce elsewhere? Does this signal sort of an end to cheap Chinese labor?
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<p />CHEN: I'm hesitant to say that anything signals the end to cheap Chinese labor, because it has been such a faithful servant to U.S. consumers and for so long.
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<p />But yes, I mean, you do see companies increasingly undertaking capital flight, as it's known. You know, just as we saw manufacturing jobs being offshored from the U.S., you're seeing companies that used to produce a lot in China sort of slowly shifting a lot of their production facilities to countries with even lower cost in labor, such as Indonesia or Cambodia or Bangladesh, you know, as we've seen with the recent tragedies that have gone on there. So it is, you know, a race to the bottom that is continuing.
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<p />But, I mean, the thing is, Chinese workers have a lot of leverage. I mean, you know, 1.2 billion people is not something even a huge multinational can just walk away from. So if they can use that leverage and use it to advance, you know, political as well as economic justice, that might change China, it might change the manufacturing industry for the better. I just hope Adidas and those other companies will actually start to listen before it's too late.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: Alright. Michelle Chen, as well as Xiaoming Chai, thank you both for joining us.
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<p />CHEN: Thanks.
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<p />CHAI: Yes, thank you.
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<p />DESVARIEUX: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | xiaoming chai instructor education project peking university current affairs commentator several chinese youth websites worked several ngos six years mainland china hong kong europe main studying interests labour movements social conflicts globalization china michelle chen contributor nation contributing editor times contributor working times editor culturestrike also coproducer asia pacific forum pacificas wbai work appeared alternet colorlinescom ms nation newsday old zine cain follow twitter meeshellchen reach michellechen inthesetimes dot com jessica desvarieux trnn producer welcome real news network im jessica desvarieux baltimore thirty thousand chinese workers strike two weeks worlds largest maker athletic shoes make sneakers companies know course like nike adidas workers shut production company yue yuens stock price sharply declined workers allege company failed adequately fund social security pensions contribute housing funds joining us discuss strike two guests michelle chen contributor nation times editor culturestrike havejoining us china xiaoming chai works peking university hes instructor education project thank joining us michelle chen contributor nation thanks xiaoming chai instructor education project peking univ thank desvarieux michelle lets start yue yuen strike estimated one largest decades tell us many workers striking demands chen workers basically want company make good obligations chinese law pay social insurance costs many workers say owed lot overdue payments part company basic things like pension funds unemployment insurance basic social welfare protections laid chinese law newly reformed labor laws know certainly incidence company shirked obligations pay violations social insurance incompr payment laws routine throughout workforce workers feel like reached crisis point willing go streets another big issue addition contributions housing fund theyre owed rising cost living many workers suffering really burdensome housing costs keep wages unfortunately rising much keep cost living tens thousands workersi believe peak 30000 workersmarching streets know undertaking work stoppage protesting also many going work incompr swiping cards know working theyre resisting variety ways western companies simply caught guard beenits made waves unusual know country supposedly independent know labor unions labor activity really suppressed workers taking action like desvarieux yeah mentioned unusual chinese civil think tank institute contemporary observations says 30 strikes involving least 50 workers since march seems like theres uptick want turn xiaoming get point view actually seeing uptick chai sorry actually think first time years got kind ofso huge scale strike even canton wasso often strikes different factories even big brand names like ibm nokia also strike last two weeks 5 april think quite dramatic also workers quite confident activities desvarieux tell usi want get sense workers usually actually win end whats likelihood well actually see company agree terms chai okay would say still call english seesaw war heard quite many things like dozens workers interrogated questioned local authority even arrested activists like zhang zhiru detained house arrest local policemen local government workers still keep high confidence two hours ago someits kind instant social message group workers one largest workers 400 300 workers discussing planning feedback today several days feeling workers still theyre planning last strike may day say cant get demands give quite militant quite confident yes desvarieux okay chen id like add also lot incidences see workers going strike end end kind negotiation often management give concessions know rare youd see like massive victory know frankly management often wants people go back work often workers know want get want know things continue mean know may see know huge radical upheaval streets time soon workers know organize take targeted strategic actions knowwhen specific goal mind desvarieux alright lets turn talk guardian report came talking labor organizer zhang zhiru basically missing 24 hours wife suspects detained state security services tell us zhang zhirus role organizing strike xiaoming chai actually would say organizer strike spontaneous well organized still mainly incompr automatic phenomenon planned even say planned workers launched workers zhang zhiru hes quite senior experienced labor activist shenzhen dongguan yes quite famous involved strike probably 12 april strike start zhang want advised support workers legally also technically learning organize individual groups zhang detained local authority local policemen think 24 hours probablyto today already third day wife still contact also also individual activists also interrogated local authority policemen yes desvarieux michelle common labor organizers intimidated detained chen yes common anyone know anything bold politically china suffer kind intimidation harassment know doesnt always wind someone actually detained know things nothing new issue labor activists know xiaoming saying kind spontaneous uprising thats coming grassroots going hard authorities contain simply detaining one guy perceive leader frankly doesnti mean im viewing afar seems like dontit never one guy whos leading know tens thousands workers theres got something else going imagine campaign survive despite detention anything hopefully open room dissent organizing leaders little bit breathing room organizers help negotiate comes bringing workers table ultimately government cant keep 30000 people representative whos willing represent interests behalf entire workforce need people cant throw jail desvarieux alright michelle ill ask final question foresee well see shift western multinational companies start investing looking produce elsewhere signal sort end cheap chinese labor chen im hesitant say anything signals end cheap chinese labor faithful servant us consumers long yes mean see companies increasingly undertaking capital flight known know saw manufacturing jobs offshored us youre seeing companies used produce lot china sort slowly shifting lot production facilities countries even lower cost labor indonesia cambodia bangladesh know weve seen recent tragedies gone know race bottom continuing mean thing chinese workers lot leverage mean know 12 billion people something even huge multinational walk away use leverage use advance know political well economic justice might change china might change manufacturing industry better hope adidas companies actually start listen late desvarieux alright michelle chen well xiaoming chai thank joining us chen thanks chai yes thank desvarieux thank joining us real news network end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 959 |
<p>President Barack Obama desecrated the Constitution that he and I swore to defend when he signed the&#160;National Defense Authorization Act of 2012, which includes language violating the Bill of Rights and other constitutionally protected liberties.</p>
<p>The NDAA affirms that the president has the authority to use the Armed Forces to detain any person “who was part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.”</p>
<p>Yes, I know that the Obama administration’s allies got some wording put in to say that “nothing in this section is intended to limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the [2001] Authorization for Use of Military Force,” nor shall the NDAA “be construed to affect existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States, or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.”</p>
<p>And there were some waivers stuck in to give the president discretion over whether to send someone into the gulag of the Military Commissions system possibly for the rest of a detainee’s life, given the indefinite nature of what was formerly called the “war on terror” and what the Pentagon has dubbed the Long War.</p>
<p>It’s true as well that after signing the NDAA on New Year’s Eve, President Obama engaged in some handwringing. He expressed “serious reservations” about some of the law’s provisions and declared, “I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens.” He added that he would interpret the law “in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law.”</p>
<p>But those who hoped that Barack Obama, the onetime constitutional law professor, would begin rolling back the aggressive assault on civil liberties that President George W. Bush began after the 9/11 attacks must be sorely disappointed.</p>
<p>Those existing laws – including the original post-9/11 use-of-military-force authorization and the Military Commissions Act passed in 2006 and modified in 2009 – opened the door for presidents to declare anyone of their choice, American citizen or non-citizen alike, an “enemy combatant” and to subject the person to military prison or even assassination.</p>
<p>Just think of U.S. citizens Jose Padilla (who was tossed into the Navy Brig in Charleston, South Carolina, for years) and Anwar al-Awlaki (who was murdered in a drone attack in Yemen in 2011). So, it’s not especially reassuring that President Obama insists that the new law doesn’t dramatically worsen the decade-long erosion of constitutional rights.</p>
<p>Sweeping Provisions</p>
<p>The American Civil Liberties Union also disputed Obama’s claim that the NDAA was essentially business as usual. “The statute contains a sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision,” the ACLU said, without “temporal or geographic limitations, and can be used by this and future presidents to militarily detain people captured far from any battlefield.”</p>
<p>In other words, the ACLU is noting that since the United States relies on the principle of “laws, not men,” the assurance of any individual president that he won’t exploit an abusive legal power doesn’t mean that the next president won’t. The right thing to do in such a case is to veto legislation that contains that kind of unconstitutional provision, not simply sign it, promise not to use it, and express “serious reservations.”</p>
<p>Sure, if President Obama had exercised his veto, he would have been criticized in some corners as “soft on terror” and he would have undercut his political message about the need for bipartisanship amid the dysfunction of Washington. But compromising on the Constitution isn’t like adding a road project to secure some congressman’s vote.</p>
<p>Fifty years ago, when I was commissioned a 2nd&#160;lieutenant in the U.S. Army, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. I knew that the oath carried no expiration date. Back then, I could not conceive of the possibility that one day this would pose a problem. I felt that we Americans were pretty much all on the same team. But how will I honor my oath in today’s circumstances?</p>
<p>The winter is getting cold and I am getting old. Still. Do I have enough integrity; do I have enough genuine love for my country to be a “winter soldier” and do what I can to stop this steady encroachment on liberties that many other soldiers fought so valiantly to establish and protect?</p>
<p>It is a challenge not wholly different from the cold reality faced 235 winters ago by George Washington’s army. The British had forced the army’s&#160;retreat from New York just months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.&#160;Not only was the American cause at low ebb, but Gen. Washington faced the annual crisis caused by the expiration of the Continental Army’s period of enlistment. Some kind of success was desperately needed.</p>
<p>So Washington decided to cross the Delaware River at Christmas, surprise the defenders of Trenton, and seize it. Washington feared that what seemed like a desperate attack plan was unlikely to buck up troop morale, so he had his officers read to the troops an essay fresh from the pen of Thomas Paine, himself a soldier in Washington’s army.</p>
<p>Paine’s first words became the watchword of the attack on Trenton and are said to have inspired much of the uncommon bravery displayed that night and for the next five years: “These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.”</p>
<p>Blood on the Snow</p>
<p>The Delawar River was already running high with flowing ice on Christmas Day, when at 11 p.m. a heavy snow and sleet storm broke. Washington’s force did not reach the east bank until around 3 a.m. His soldiers then marched to Trenton — the ones without shoes leaving traces of blood on the snow. Though they reached Trenton hours later than Washington had planned, his troops still surprised and overwhelmed a garrison of Hessian mercenaries on the day after Christmas.</p>
<p>Capt. Alexander Hamilton commanded an artillery section. Capt. William Washington, second cousin to the commanding general, and Lt. James Monroe (yes, that James Monroe) were wounded, the only American officer casualties. Two American soldiers were killed; and two others froze to death. The Hessian defenders suffered 20 killed and around 100 wounded, with 1,000 captured.</p>
<p>Not a major battle, you may be thinking. But remember, the effect of the Battle of Trenton was out of all proportion to the numbers involved and the casualties. The success at Trenton galvanized the American effort across the colonies and reversed the psychological dominance enjoyed by the British in the preceding months.</p>
<p>So why all this history? Because, remember, actions often have a larger impact, a greater significance, than numbers can impart. Bravery and ideas can touch the&#160;heart and focus the mind. They can inspire.</p>
<p>Perhaps you will sense the same hope I do in recognizing that this kind of thing can, and does, happen. And can happen again. What are required are integrity, courage, and imagination.&#160;Americans&#160;still can revive the spirit around the Battle of Trenton and start to turn the tide against a new tyranny.</p>
<p>We may have to leave some “blood on the snow,” so to speak, but perhaps we owe that to the soldiers who had no shoes 235 Christmases ago. We are Washington’s foot soldiers now — facing the resurgent face of tyranny. But there are already enough of us to defend our Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.</p>
<p>Traitorous Law</p>
<p>Lawyers and historians may argue over whether the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 is the deepest wound ever inflicted on the U.S. Constitution or just another debilitating cut. They may note that the United States has lost its way before – from the Alien and Sedition Acts to Cointelpro.</p>
<p>But the NDAA strikes me as the most serious affront to American rights in my already pretty long lifetime. That, and the lifetime of my eight grandchildren, constitutes my horizon. Yet, why do so few of my neighbors understand the assault on the Bill of Rights that President Obama advanced with his signature?</p>
<p>Is it the old story of the frog that lets itself get slowly boiled to death because the water temperature is raised only gradually? Or is it that the law was signed on New Year’s Eve when most Americans were distracted? Or perhaps because the following day, the journalists of the Fawning Corporate Media had convenient hangovers, excusing them for ignoring this latest dark turn in our nation’s history.</p>
<p>Just as former CIA Director George Tenet protested to Scott Pelley on&#160;60 Minutes&#160;– five times in five consecutive sentences, “We do not torture!” – Obama may now declare, “We don’t violate the Constitution!”</p>
<p>But where are our journalists now, this week in January 2012? Why aren’t they investigating how this travesty occurred – and how curious it is that this steady encroachment on American rights continues even as U.S. intelligence agencies say al-Qaeda is on the verge of defeat with only a couple of “high-value targets” left from its core operation?</p>
<p>Shouldn’t this be the moment when&#160;the United States begins winding down this decade-long anti-constitutional state of siege rather than giving it new life and even expanding its reach? Is there a message here about the future, especially given the new neoconservative&#160; <a href="" type="internal">propaganda initiative</a>associating&#160;al-Qaeda with Iran?</p>
<p>Secret Covenants</p>
<p>Behind closed doors, the law’s chief co-conspirators – Sens. Carl Levin, D-Michigan; John McCain, R-Arizona; Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina; and Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut – injected into the NDAA ambiguous language that could be applied by this president or the next to Americans who resist endless war against “associated forces” somehow linked to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.</p>
<p>All four of these co-conspirators are prominent supporters of harsher and harsher sanctions against Iran, actions that have put in place the dry kindling that awaits some spark to touch off a new conflagration in the Middle East.</p>
<p>Now that neocon operatives have “associated” al-Qaeda with Iran does that mean protesting a new war with Iran constitutes the kind of “support” that could prompt a long vacation at Guantanamo Bay? That may be too big a stretch, but it does seem odd that we’re having this debate after al-Qaeda has been reduced to a sliver of its past self and as the Obama administration seeks negotiations with the Taliban.</p>
<p>The media play, or lack thereof, is another back-story here. Painfully clear is the success enjoyed thus far by those determined to use artificially whipped up fear of “terrorism” in the same way Sen. Joe McCarthy used the dread of “communism” to deprive Americans of their constitutional rights.</p>
<p>Let it not be forgot that our Founders, one of whom (George Mason of Virginia, author of the Bill of Rights) grew up a stone’s throw from where I live, had the courage to declare how importantly urgent was the enterprise upon which they, and the foot soldiers of George Washington’s army, were embarked toward freedom.</p>
<p>In 1776, at a time when it seemed far more likely than not that they would hang at the end a rope, they formally declared their support for a common effort to defeat tyranny. They declared: “We mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”</p>
<p>And we are the beneficiaries of their decision to risk all to ensure the blessings of liberty to us and our posterity. Are we, 235 years later, unable to recognize what is at stake? Do we lack the courage to act in the tradition of the Founders when government becomes destructive of these ends?</p>
<p>I came across the following on my bookshelf. It’s nice. Anyone know what it’s from? It reads:&#160;We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.</p>
<p>–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,</p>
<p>–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.</p>
<p>Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.</p>
<p>But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.</p>
<p>THAT is how strongly our predecessor patriots from Virginia, Massachusetts and points south, north, and in between felt about all this. Many of them knew first-hand the evils of unchecked tyranny. THAT is why courageous foot soldiers were willing to mark the snow with blood from their feet as they marched on Trenton.</p>
<p>The Bill of Rights?</p>
<p>It is generally known that my former neighbor, George Mason, worked side-by-side with James Madison in crafting the Constitution. What is less known is that, when the draft was finished, Mason shocked Madison by refusing to sign the Constitution in 1787. His reason? He demanded that it contain a Bill of Rights.</p>
<p>Madison and other Founders pledged – and honored their pledge – to incorporate a Bill of Rights as the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution. They did so by riding through the towns and villages of the young country, making the case for a Bill of Rights, which was approved by Congress and ratified in 1791.</p>
<p>Can you visualize that in your mind’s eye? How many of us can envisage riding horseback far and wide to persuade Carolinians and Vermonters alike that their liberty could not be assured without those Ten Amendments to the Constitution?</p>
<p>What about us? Can we not get up from our armchairs and do what we can to insist that those liberties be protected? How have we reached such a pass? Have we grown so inured to the repetition from our leaders, including both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, that keeping us “safe” is their first priority, that we have forgotten that the Founders risked everything for liberty, not for “safety”?</p>
<p>Madison already knew far too well what could pose the greatest danger to the Constitution. He recognized the inevitable effects on our liberties of “continual warfare” of the kind we have been waging for more than a decade now:</p>
<p>“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.”</p>
<p>“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.” [Or put in today’s parlance, the 99 percent under the boot of the one percent.]</p>
<p>“The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”</p>
<p>Speaking Out</p>
<p>While horses and sailing ships of the 18th&#160;Century are slower than today’s newspaper delivery trucks and electronic news outlets, those riders and ship captains who delivered Thomas Paine’s pamphlets up and down the colonies encountered a much less distracted, much more engaged and eager readership.</p>
<p>There was no competition from faux-news on TV, or in what pass for newspapers these days. There was not even any football. And for the Founders and their families, freedom and politics were not spectator sports. They knew all too well how tyranny could be ushered in not only from overseas but also from behind closed doors.</p>
<p>Who has exposed Congress’s latest poaching on our liberties – and President Obama’s hand-wringing decision to compromise those liberties? In fact some have, but you won’t find them on U.S. network TV or even on most American cable channels.</p>
<p>You either have to know your way around the Internet, or purchase the kind of service that will permit you to see foreign-sponsored channels like PressTV, Aljazeera, and RT. Even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has admitted that by watching Aljazeera and RT when she travels abroad, she has gotten used to better news coverage than she gets in Washington.</p>
<p>I have been keeping track: CNN domestic has been punctual in interviewing me every three and a half years. I have flunked out of Fox News altogether, although there have been a few rare occasions when a local Fox station invites me on to comment on a fast-breaking event. And forget the rest of the FCM.</p>
<p>So when someone from, say, PressTV, which is run by Iran, asks to interview me on a subject I know something about, I normally say yes if a convenient time can be arranged. On Monday, PressTV invited me to join two others (Dave Lindorff in Philadelphia and Don DeBar in New York) in&#160; <a href="" type="internal">a panel discussion</a>&#160;of the implications of the President’s signing of the NDAA.</p>
<p>I haven’t a clue how many Americans might have been able to watch such a program on their TVs.&#160;But it is usually possible to access such programs on the Web, where many more may have already seen it, or can see it now. The interview touched on many things that I would have welcomed a chance to say on CNN.</p>
<p>It will be necessary to keep informed as we face down this resurgence of tyranny. Sunshine patriots will deceive themselves into thinking they can do that, while staying malnourished by the Fawning Corporate Media. You readers know better, right?</p>
<p>Ray McGovern&#160;was an Army officer and CIA analyst for almost 30 year. He now serves on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He is a contributor to&#160; <a href="http://www.easycartsecure.com/CounterPunch/CounterPunch_Books.html" type="external">Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia</a>, edited by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair (Verso). He can be reached at:&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>A version of this article first appeared on Consortiumnews.com.</p> | true | 4 | president barack obama desecrated constitution swore defend signed the160national defense authorization act 2012 includes language violating bill rights constitutionally protected liberties ndaa affirms president authority use armed forces detain person part substantially supported alqaeda taliban associated forces engaged hostilities united states coalition partners yes know obama administrations allies got wording put say nothing section intended limit expand authority president scope 2001 authorization use military force shall ndaa construed affect existing law authorities relating detention united states citizens lawful resident aliens united states persons captured arrested united states waivers stuck give president discretion whether send someone gulag military commissions system possibly rest detainees life given indefinite nature formerly called war terror pentagon dubbed long war true well signing ndaa new years eve president obama engaged handwringing expressed serious reservations laws provisions declared want clarify administration authorize indefinite military detention without trial american citizens added would interpret law manner ensures detention authorizes complies constitution laws war applicable law hoped barack obama onetime constitutional law professor would begin rolling back aggressive assault civil liberties president george w bush began 911 attacks must sorely disappointed existing laws including original post911 useofmilitaryforce authorization military commissions act passed 2006 modified 2009 opened door presidents declare anyone choice american citizen noncitizen alike enemy combatant subject person military prison even assassination think us citizens jose padilla tossed navy brig charleston south carolina years anwar alawlaki murdered drone attack yemen 2011 especially reassuring president obama insists new law doesnt dramatically worsen decadelong erosion constitutional rights sweeping provisions american civil liberties union also disputed obamas claim ndaa essentially business usual statute contains sweeping worldwide indefinite detention provision aclu said without temporal geographic limitations used future presidents militarily detain people captured far battlefield words aclu noting since united states relies principle laws men assurance individual president wont exploit abusive legal power doesnt mean next president wont right thing case veto legislation contains kind unconstitutional provision simply sign promise use express serious reservations sure president obama exercised veto would criticized corners soft terror would undercut political message need bipartisanship amid dysfunction washington compromising constitution isnt like adding road project secure congressmans vote fifty years ago commissioned 2nd160lieutenant us army took oath support defend constitution united states enemies foreign domestic knew oath carried expiration date back could conceive possibility one day would pose problem felt americans pretty much team honor oath todays circumstances winter getting cold getting old still enough integrity enough genuine love country winter soldier stop steady encroachment liberties many soldiers fought valiantly establish protect challenge wholly different cold reality faced 235 winters ago george washingtons army british forced armys160retreat new york months signing declaration independence july 4 1776160not american cause low ebb gen washington faced annual crisis caused expiration continental armys period enlistment kind success desperately needed washington decided cross delaware river christmas surprise defenders trenton seize washington feared seemed like desperate attack plan unlikely buck troop morale officers read troops essay fresh pen thomas paine soldier washingtons army paines first words became watchword attack trenton said inspired much uncommon bravery displayed night next five years times try mens souls summer soldier sunshine patriot crisis shrink service country stands deserves love thanks man woman tyranny like hell easily conquered blood snow delawar river already running high flowing ice christmas day 11 pm heavy snow sleet storm broke washingtons force reach east bank around 3 soldiers marched trenton ones without shoes leaving traces blood snow though reached trenton hours later washington planned troops still surprised overwhelmed garrison hessian mercenaries day christmas capt alexander hamilton commanded artillery section capt william washington second cousin commanding general lt james monroe yes james monroe wounded american officer casualties two american soldiers killed two others froze death hessian defenders suffered 20 killed around 100 wounded 1000 captured major battle may thinking remember effect battle trenton proportion numbers involved casualties success trenton galvanized american effort across colonies reversed psychological dominance enjoyed british preceding months history remember actions often larger impact greater significance numbers impart bravery ideas touch the160heart focus mind inspire perhaps sense hope recognizing kind thing happen happen required integrity courage imagination160americans160still revive spirit around battle trenton start turn tide new tyranny may leave blood snow speak perhaps owe soldiers shoes 235 christmases ago washingtons foot soldiers facing resurgent face tyranny already enough us defend constitution enemies foreign domestic traitorous law lawyers historians may argue whether national defense authorization act 2012 deepest wound ever inflicted us constitution another debilitating cut may note united states lost way alien sedition acts cointelpro ndaa strikes serious affront american rights already pretty long lifetime lifetime eight grandchildren constitutes horizon yet neighbors understand assault bill rights president obama advanced signature old story frog lets get slowly boiled death water temperature raised gradually law signed new years eve americans distracted perhaps following day journalists fawning corporate media convenient hangovers excusing ignoring latest dark turn nations history former cia director george tenet protested scott pelley on16060 minutes160 five times five consecutive sentences torture obama may declare dont violate constitution journalists week january 2012 arent investigating travesty occurred curious steady encroachment american rights continues even us intelligence agencies say alqaeda verge defeat couple highvalue targets left core operation shouldnt moment when160the united states begins winding decadelong anticonstitutional state siege rather giving new life even expanding reach message future especially given new neoconservative160 propaganda initiativeassociating160alqaeda iran secret covenants behind closed doors laws chief coconspirators sens carl levin dmichigan john mccain rarizona lindsey graham rsouth carolina joe lieberman iconnecticut injected ndaa ambiguous language could applied president next americans resist endless war associated forces somehow linked alqaeda taliban four coconspirators prominent supporters harsher harsher sanctions iran actions put place dry kindling awaits spark touch new conflagration middle east neocon operatives associated alqaeda iran mean protesting new war iran constitutes kind support could prompt long vacation guantanamo bay may big stretch seem odd debate alqaeda reduced sliver past self obama administration seeks negotiations taliban media play lack thereof another backstory painfully clear success enjoyed thus far determined use artificially whipped fear terrorism way sen joe mccarthy used dread communism deprive americans constitutional rights let forgot founders one george mason virginia author bill rights grew stones throw live courage declare importantly urgent enterprise upon foot soldiers george washingtons army embarked toward freedom 1776 time seemed far likely would hang end rope formally declared support common effort defeat tyranny declared mutually pledge lives fortunes sacred honor beneficiaries decision risk ensure blessings liberty us posterity 235 years later unable recognize stake lack courage act tradition founders government becomes destructive ends came across following bookshelf nice anyone know reads160we hold truths selfevident men created equal endowed creator certain unalienable rights among life liberty pursuit happiness secure rights governments instituted among men deriving powers consent governed whenever form government becomes destructive ends right people alter abolish institute new government laying foundation principles organizing powers form shall seem likely effect safety happiness prudence indeed dictate governments long established changed light transient causes accordingly experience hath shewn mankind disposed suffer evils sufferable right abolishing forms accustomed long train abuses usurpations pursuing invariably object evinces design reduce absolute despotism right duty throw government provide new guards future security strongly predecessor patriots virginia massachusetts points south north felt many knew firsthand evils unchecked tyranny courageous foot soldiers willing mark snow blood feet marched trenton bill rights generally known former neighbor george mason worked sidebyside james madison crafting constitution less known draft finished mason shocked madison refusing sign constitution 1787 reason demanded contain bill rights madison founders pledged honored pledge incorporate bill rights first ten amendments constitution riding towns villages young country making case bill rights approved congress ratified 1791 visualize minds eye many us envisage riding horseback far wide persuade carolinians vermonters alike liberty could assured without ten amendments constitution us get armchairs insist liberties protected reached pass grown inured repetition leaders including george w bush barack obama keeping us safe first priority forgotten founders risked everything liberty safety madison already knew far well could pose greatest danger constitution recognized inevitable effects liberties continual warfare kind waging decade standing military force overgrown executive long safe companions liberty means defense foreign danger always instruments tyranny home enemies public liberty war perhaps dreaded comprises develops germ every war parent armies proceed debts taxes armies debts taxes known instruments bringing many domination put todays parlance 99 percent boot one percent malignant aspect republicanism may traced inequality fortunes opportunities fraud growing state war degeneracy manners morals engendered nation could preserve freedom midst continual warfare speaking horses sailing ships 18th160century slower todays newspaper delivery trucks electronic news outlets riders ship captains delivered thomas paines pamphlets colonies encountered much less distracted much engaged eager readership competition fauxnews tv pass newspapers days even football founders families freedom politics spectator sports knew well tyranny could ushered overseas also behind closed doors exposed congresss latest poaching liberties president obamas handwringing decision compromise liberties fact wont find us network tv even american cable channels either know way around internet purchase kind service permit see foreignsponsored channels like presstv aljazeera rt even secretary state hillary clinton admitted watching aljazeera rt travels abroad gotten used better news coverage gets washington keeping track cnn domestic punctual interviewing every three half years flunked fox news altogether although rare occasions local fox station invites comment fastbreaking event forget rest fcm someone say presstv run iran asks interview subject know something normally say yes convenient time arranged monday presstv invited join two others dave lindorff philadelphia debar new york in160 panel discussion160of implications presidents signing ndaa havent clue many americans might able watch program tvs160but usually possible access programs web many may already seen see interview touched many things would welcomed chance say cnn necessary keep informed face resurgence tyranny sunshine patriots deceive thinking staying malnourished fawning corporate media readers know better right ray mcgovern160was army officer cia analyst almost 30 year serves steering group veteran intelligence professionals sanity contributor to160 imperial crusades iraq afghanistan yugoslavia edited alexander cockburn jeffrey st clair verso reached at160 rrmcgoverngmailcom version article first appeared consortiumnewscom | 1,658 |
<p>There is no substitute for live musical performance. It is not only that the human ear is still, and will probably always be, far more sophisticated and sensitive than the best microphones. Experiencing music delivered by living beings is always about much more than mere sound. As yet, no digital medium can even approximate stage presence. Here’s betting that Silicon Valley engineers will never master the metaphysical.</p>
<p>Real performance is not just to be marveled at in the concert hall, however. The natural world teaches us the lesson of the live far more forcefully. There is so much more to the Northern Cardinal’s song than the confidence of its fanfare opening and the seduction of its sliding second theme. The pitches and complex cadence of the bird’s music are richer and more powerful when performed at the top of a locust snag above a humid gorge with the rolling New York hills emerging from the dawn horizon! And what would the cardinal’s song be without its bright red plumage, its black face, its fat beak, and flexing crest? A recording of a bird’s song, however beautiful as abstracted music, is as much about the absence of the performer as it is about the beauty of the melody.</p>
<p>The Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York is the most famous center for the study of birds and has the world’s largest collection of birdsong. Though birdsong has long fascinated musicians, Oliver Messiaen was the most assiduous student of avian sound. Birdsong is an essential symbolic and mystical feature of Messiaen’s oeuvre. An active transcriber in the field in his beret and holding a clipboard, Messiaen transcribed the songs taken up in his Oiseaux exotiques of 1956 not from nature, but from a set of six 78 rpm records put out in 1942 by Cornell.&#160; When he came to Cornell in the 1980s for a series of concerts, he spent all the time he could at the Lab investigating its archive of birdsong, then still consisting of analog recordings.</p>
<p>It is not just the thousands of species represented in the lab’s catalog that astonish, but the range of individual performers and performances. There are 401 different recordings available on-line through the lab’s website of the Northern Cardinal. Although obvious as soon as one steps back and looks at the range of human speech and song, the individual variations to be heard within the unity that is a bird species’ language are inspiring. When a bird goes extinct so does a vast array of unique performances and the possibility of future individual expressions of a song.</p>
<p>Eight-hundred pound bronzes don’t sing, nor do extinct species.&#160; At last night’s opening of a remarkable exhibition of the latest work of sculptor Todd McGrain, five human-scale bronzes of vanished birds huddled in the stone and glass entrance hall of the Cornell Lab’s new building. The dark warmth of their forms blunted the brittle, slightly muted light cast from above. Within earshot of the world’s greatest archive of birdsong, the silence of these five figures was overwhelming.</p>
<p>For his Lost Bird Project, McGrain has chosen four North American species and one of the North Atlantic and lower Arctic: the Passenger Pigeon, the Labrador Duck, the Heath Hen (an extinct subspecies of the Greater Prairie-Chicken), the Carolina Parakeet, and the Great Auk. As far as I could find out, The Cornell Lab has no recordings of any of their voices. No aural trace of them remains.</p>
<p>The most famous of these birds, and the one whose extinction counts as the most infamous, was the Passenger Pigeon. “No mere bird, he was a biological storm,” wrote Aldo Leopold in his 1947 <a href="" type="internal">On a Monument to the Pigeon</a>. Leopold’s is the most beautiful account of a bird and its demise:</p>
<p>“[The Passenger Pigeon] was the lightning that played between two biotic poles of intolerable intensity: the fat of the land and his own zest for living.&#160; Yearly the feathered tempest roared up, down, and across the continent, sucking up the laden fruits of forest and prairie, burning them in a travelling blast of life.&#160; Like any other chain reaction, the pigeon could survive no diminution of his own furious intensity.&#160; Once the pigeoners had subtracted from his numbers, and once the settlers had chopped gaps in the continuity of his fuel, his flame guttered out with hardly a sputter or even a wisp of smoke.”</p>
<p>The Passenger Pigeon once made up nearly half of the land-bird population of the North America, its numbers estimated to be between three and five billion; pigeons eclipsed the sun for hours as they migrated at sixty miles per hour. The species was the most sociable on earth, the size of its flocks second only to those of the desert locust. Such social cohesiveness coupled with the rapacity of the Europeans wiped out the species with horrible speed. Its cheap meat fed slavery and industrialization. The last wild bird was shot in 1914; the final pair lived in the Cincinnati Zoo, where the final survivor, Martha, died in 1918.</p>
<p>Europeans marveled at the near-deafening noise from the seemingly endless nesting colonies of pigeons. Only written accounts survive of the species’ vocal array, but these were done with of captive birds. Once taken from the wild, pigeons never mated. Thus their erotic vocalization—that most important discourse of any language, verbal or otherwise—was never “scientifically” described.</p>
<p>McGrain’s seven-foot tall Passenger is Pigeon is as colorless as it is mute. There is as little suggestion of its brilliant feathers as there is of its lost songs. Rather than perched on its circular base, the bird emerges from it. Wings cleaving to one side of that base and extending down to the floor, the body rises almost vertically, the beak pointed obliquely upward.&#160; Unmoving, the sculpture is nonetheless full of a energy, as if the bird is about to stretch or contemplates flight or looks up at a flock of his kind already flying in masses above. Like Pygmalion’s Galatea the statue seems on the verge of lifeBut extinction is the final cessation of motion: one sees that in the stuffed specimens in the Lab’s nearby display cases.</p>
<p>In McGrain’s sculpture the absence of these birds’ most distinctive characteristics—their color and voice—are made all the more painful by the bronzes’ smooth, black surface and elegiac form. This is monumental sculpture in both senses: large and memorial, as much about presence is about loss. One paradoxically confronts the unretrievable.</p>
<p>Of all the five sculptures in the Cornell Lab exhibition the Passenger Pigeon reminded me most of Constantin Brancusi’s birds. &#160;The Guggenheim’s Bird in Space&#160;from the 1930s abstracts the idea of flight from a winging bird. There is something of the great modernist’s slender, oblong shape in all of McGrain’s birds, but especially the pigeon. McGrain has found a compelling balance between sensuous contour and figural detail. Whereas Brancusi uses brilliantly polished brass to help convey the lightness of flight, McGrain brings his birds down to earth, and ultimately to death, with a bronze darkened to smooth perfection by grinding and the addition of four layers of patina: a first coat of brown, blue, then black, then blue again.</p>
<p>McGrain’s sculptures are richly waxed so that their onyx skin gleams in the indoor lightning. The contours and folds of the bronze will one day glint in the sun, when his Lost Bird Project finds funding to place each sculpture in the location where each species was last seen in the wild: from nearby Elmira, New York, in the case of the Labrador Duck, to Eldey Island off the coast of Iceland for the Great Auk .</p>
<p>Without the hint of the feathers’ texture or color, McGrain’s bronzes begin Brancusi’s process of abstraction, or, put another way reverse it, moving from the ideal part way towards real, from the destroyed to the made. They are symbolic without being denuded of life; these shapes are not the generic, though highly useful, forms of birders’ field guides.&#160; If only by their nobility, each sculpture seems to embody both an individual and an absolute.</p>
<p>The most colorful and songful of the quintet of birds sculpted&#160; by McGrain was the Carolina Parakeet, The only parrot species native to eastern North America, its range once extended from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf of Mexico.&#160; It too was a social bird, and once swathes of its territory were converted to agriculture, it was shot as a nuisance because of its reliance on those new crops cultivated on its habitat. The birds’ extravagant plumage attracted not only mates but the lethal fancy of fashion designers and their numberless customers. There have been no confirmed sightings of the birds in more than sixty years. The last captive parakeet died in 1918 in that same Cincinnati zoo where the Passenger Pigeons had gone extinct four years earlier.</p>
<p>Although there are no recordings of the Carolina Parakeet’s vocal repertoire, the great nineteenth and early twentieth-century ornithologist Charles Johnson Maynard noted that they were among the greatest of dining conversationalists: “While feeding, the Parakeets are not absolutely noisy but will keep up a low continuous chattering among themselves, as if conversing in a social manner.&#160; These notes are continued while the birds are assuming all kinds of positions, now reaching for some tempting morsel while they hang head downward, or climbing with great ability from twig to twig.&#160; All of these feats are done without interrupting the flow of gossip.”</p>
<p>Where McGrain’s Passenger Pigeon, like his Great Auk, is vertical in orientation, his Carolina Parakeet is horizontal, its beak tucked backward into its neck, its long slender tail extending straight out as it descends gradually towards the floor. The shadow of a claw is visible on the plinth on which it roosts. There is no intimation of a branch or of the natural world. The bird has withdrawn from its vanished conversation partners and its vanished world into itself. Perhaps it is grooming or sleeping. The behavior reflected by the form is irrelevant: in its posture of obliviousness it recedes towards oblivion, even while it is massively and gracefully before us.</p>
<p>Maynard also noted the uncanny way in which large flocks of exuberant Carolina Parakeets “endeavor to excel the other in producing the most discordant yells when in the air” but then, on landing would suddenly become uncannily quiet: “So great had been the din but a second before that the comparative stillness is quite bewildering.”</p>
<p>Bewildering is the inward turning silence of these timeless and peerless bronzes.</p>
<p>Cornell Labor of Ornithology <a href="http://www.birds.cornell.edu/" type="external">http://www.birds.cornell.edu/</a></p>
<p>Lost Bird Project at: <a href="http://www.toddmcgrain.com/" type="external">http://www.toddmcgrain.com/</a></p>
<p>DAVID YEARSLEY teaches at Cornell University. A long-time contributor to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, he is author of <a href="" type="internal">Bach and the Meanings of Counterpoint</a>His latest CD, “All Your Cares Beguile: Songs and Sonatas from Baroque London”, has just been released by <a href="http://www.musicaomnia.org/index2.htm" type="external">Musica Omnia</a>. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p /> | true | 4 | substitute live musical performance human ear still probably always far sophisticated sensitive best microphones experiencing music delivered living beings always much mere sound yet digital medium even approximate stage presence heres betting silicon valley engineers never master metaphysical real performance marveled concert hall however natural world teaches us lesson live far forcefully much northern cardinals song confidence fanfare opening seduction sliding second theme pitches complex cadence birds music richer powerful performed top locust snag humid gorge rolling new york hills emerging dawn horizon would cardinals song without bright red plumage black face fat beak flexing crest recording birds song however beautiful abstracted music much absence performer beauty melody cornell lab ornithology ithaca new york famous center study birds worlds largest collection birdsong though birdsong long fascinated musicians oliver messiaen assiduous student avian sound birdsong essential symbolic mystical feature messiaens oeuvre active transcriber field beret holding clipboard messiaen transcribed songs taken oiseaux exotiques 1956 nature set six 78 rpm records put 1942 cornell160 came cornell 1980s series concerts spent time could lab investigating archive birdsong still consisting analog recordings thousands species represented labs catalog astonish range individual performers performances 401 different recordings available online labs website northern cardinal although obvious soon one steps back looks range human speech song individual variations heard within unity bird species language inspiring bird goes extinct vast array unique performances possibility future individual expressions song eighthundred pound bronzes dont sing extinct species160 last nights opening remarkable exhibition latest work sculptor todd mcgrain five humanscale bronzes vanished birds huddled stone glass entrance hall cornell labs new building dark warmth forms blunted brittle slightly muted light cast within earshot worlds greatest archive birdsong silence five figures overwhelming lost bird project mcgrain chosen four north american species one north atlantic lower arctic passenger pigeon labrador duck heath hen extinct subspecies greater prairiechicken carolina parakeet great auk far could find cornell lab recordings voices aural trace remains famous birds one whose extinction counts infamous passenger pigeon mere bird biological storm wrote aldo leopold 1947 monument pigeon leopolds beautiful account bird demise passenger pigeon lightning played two biotic poles intolerable intensity fat land zest living160 yearly feathered tempest roared across continent sucking laden fruits forest prairie burning travelling blast life160 like chain reaction pigeon could survive diminution furious intensity160 pigeoners subtracted numbers settlers chopped gaps continuity fuel flame guttered hardly sputter even wisp smoke passenger pigeon made nearly half landbird population north america numbers estimated three five billion pigeons eclipsed sun hours migrated sixty miles per hour species sociable earth size flocks second desert locust social cohesiveness coupled rapacity europeans wiped species horrible speed cheap meat fed slavery industrialization last wild bird shot 1914 final pair lived cincinnati zoo final survivor martha died 1918 europeans marveled neardeafening noise seemingly endless nesting colonies pigeons written accounts survive species vocal array done captive birds taken wild pigeons never mated thus erotic vocalizationthat important discourse language verbal otherwisewas never scientifically described mcgrains sevenfoot tall passenger pigeon colorless mute little suggestion brilliant feathers lost songs rather perched circular base bird emerges wings cleaving one side base extending floor body rises almost vertically beak pointed obliquely upward160 unmoving sculpture nonetheless full energy bird stretch contemplates flight looks flock kind already flying masses like pygmalions galatea statue seems verge lifebut extinction final cessation motion one sees stuffed specimens labs nearby display cases mcgrains sculpture absence birds distinctive characteristicstheir color voiceare made painful bronzes smooth black surface elegiac form monumental sculpture senses large memorial much presence loss one paradoxically confronts unretrievable five sculptures cornell lab exhibition passenger pigeon reminded constantin brancusis birds 160the guggenheims bird space160from 1930s abstracts idea flight winging bird something great modernists slender oblong shape mcgrains birds especially pigeon mcgrain found compelling balance sensuous contour figural detail whereas brancusi uses brilliantly polished brass help convey lightness flight mcgrain brings birds earth ultimately death bronze darkened smooth perfection grinding addition four layers patina first coat brown blue black blue mcgrains sculptures richly waxed onyx skin gleams indoor lightning contours folds bronze one day glint sun lost bird project finds funding place sculpture location species last seen wild nearby elmira new york case labrador duck eldey island coast iceland great auk without hint feathers texture color mcgrains bronzes begin brancusis process abstraction put another way reverse moving ideal part way towards real destroyed made symbolic without denuded life shapes generic though highly useful forms birders field guides160 nobility sculpture seems embody individual absolute colorful songful quintet birds sculpted160 mcgrain carolina parakeet parrot species native eastern north america range extended ohio valley gulf mexico160 social bird swathes territory converted agriculture shot nuisance reliance new crops cultivated habitat birds extravagant plumage attracted mates lethal fancy fashion designers numberless customers confirmed sightings birds sixty years last captive parakeet died 1918 cincinnati zoo passenger pigeons gone extinct four years earlier although recordings carolina parakeets vocal repertoire great nineteenth early twentiethcentury ornithologist charles johnson maynard noted among greatest dining conversationalists feeding parakeets absolutely noisy keep low continuous chattering among conversing social manner160 notes continued birds assuming kinds positions reaching tempting morsel hang head downward climbing great ability twig twig160 feats done without interrupting flow gossip mcgrains passenger pigeon like great auk vertical orientation carolina parakeet horizontal beak tucked backward neck long slender tail extending straight descends gradually towards floor shadow claw visible plinth roosts intimation branch natural world bird withdrawn vanished conversation partners vanished world perhaps grooming sleeping behavior reflected form irrelevant posture obliviousness recedes towards oblivion even massively gracefully us maynard also noted uncanny way large flocks exuberant carolina parakeets endeavor excel producing discordant yells air landing would suddenly become uncannily quiet great din second comparative stillness quite bewildering bewildering inward turning silence timeless peerless bronzes cornell labor ornithology httpwwwbirdscornelledu lost bird project httpwwwtoddmcgraincom david yearsley teaches cornell university longtime contributor anderson valley advertiser author bach meanings counterpointhis latest cd cares beguile songs sonatas baroque london released musica omnia reached dgy2cornelledu 160 | 981 |
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<p>Photo by Devin Smith | <a href="" type="internal">CC BY 2.0</a></p>
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<p>Ominous developments in East Syria&#160;have drawn the United States and Russia into closer proximity increasing the likelihood of a violent confrontation.&#160;&#160;The Trump administration has embarked on a dangerous plan to defeat&#160;the terrorist militia, ISIS, in Raqqa. But recent comments by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggest that Washington’s long-term&#160;strategy may conflict with Moscow’s goal of restoring&#160;Syria’s sovereign borders.&#160; Something’s got to give. Either Russia ceases its clearing operations in east Syria or Washington agrees to withdraw its US-backed forces when the battle is over. If&#160;neither side gives ground,&#160;there’s going to be&#160;a collision between the two nuclear-armed adversaries.</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the US airlifted hundreds of mainly-Kurdish fighters to an area behind ISIS lines where they were dropped near the town of al-Tabqa. The troops– who are part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF– were accompanied by an undisclosed number of&#160;US Marines serving as advisors. Ostensibly, the deployment was intended to encircle ISIS positions and retake the area around the strategic Tabqa Dam. But the operation had the added effect of&#160;blocking the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) from advancing &#160;along the main road towards Raqqa, the so called Capital of ISIS.&#160; While the blocking move might have been coincidental, there’s a strong possibility that Washington is in the opening&#160;phase of&#160;a&#160;broader strategy to splinter the war-torn country and prevent the reemergence of a united secular Syria.</p>
<p>According to Almasdar News:</p>
<p>“The Coalition supported the offensive with air movement and logistical support, precision airstrikes, Apache helicopters in close air support, Marine artillery, and special operations advice and assistance to SDF leadership,” the US-led coalition said in a statement.” (AMN News)</p>
<p>In a matter of weeks, Washington’s approach to the war in Syria has changed dramatically. While&#160;the US&#160;has reportedly&#160;ended its&#160;support for the Sunni militias that have torn the country apart and killed over 400,000 people, the US has increased its aid to the SDF that is making impressive territorial gains across the eastern corridor. The ultimate goal for the&#160;SDF fighters is an autonomous Kurdish homeland carved out of West Iraq and East Syria, while US objectives focus primarily on the breakup of the Syrian state, the removal of the elected government, the control over critical pipelines routes, and the&#160;redrawing of national borders to better serve the interests of the US and Israel.</p>
<p>The&#160;idea of breaking up&#160;Syria is not new. The plan first appeared in an article by Oded Yinon in 1982 titled “A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties”.&#160; Yinon believed that– for Israel to survive– it must become an imperial regional power that “must effect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states.” (Israel Shahak)</p>
<p>The most recent adaptation of Yinon’s&#160;plan was articulated by Brookings Institute&#160;analyst Michael O’ Hanlon in a piece that appeared in the Wall Street Journal titled “A Trump Strategy to End Syria’s Nightmare”.&#160; In the article, O’ Hanlon states bluntly:</p>
<p>“To achieve peace, Syria will need self-governance within a number of autonomous zones. One option is a confederal system by which the whole country is divided into such zones. A less desirable but minimally acceptable alternative could be several autonomous zones within an otherwise still-centralized state—similar to how Iraqi Kurdistan has functioned for a quarter-century….</p>
<p>Security in the Sunni Arab and Kurdish autonomous zones would be provided by local police and perhaps paramilitary forces raised, trained and equipped with the direct support of the international community. …(“A Trump Strategy to End Syria’s Nightmare”, Wall Street Journal)</p>
<p>In an earlier piece, O’ Hanlon referred to his scheme as “Deconstructing Syria” a plan that “would produce autonomous zones that would never again have to face the prospect of rule by either Assad or ISIL.”</p>
<p>Many of the details in O’ Hanlon’s piece&#160;are identical&#160;to those in Trump’s plan which was announced by Secretary of State Tillerson just&#160;last week.&#160;The Brookings strategy appears to be the script from which the administration is operating.</p>
<p>In his presentation, Tillerson announced that US troops would not leave Iraq after the siege of Mosul was concluded which has led many to speculate that the same policy will&#160;be&#160;used in&#160;Syria. Here’s an excerpt from an article at the WSWS that explains this point:</p>
<p>“US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared Washington’s intention to keep troops deployed more or less indefinitely in the territories now occupied by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in remarks delivered at the beginning of a two-day meeting of the US-organized anti-ISIS coalition in Washington.</p>
<p>“The military power of the coalition will remain where this fraudulent caliphate has existed in order to set the conditions for a full recovery from the tyranny of ISIS,” he told an audience that included Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. He gave no indication of when, if ever, US troops could be withdrawn from a war zone extending across Iraq and Syria, where there has been fighting of greater or lesser intensity throughout the 14 years since the US first invaded Iraq.” (Tillerson pledges long-term US military role in Iraq and Syria, World Socialist web Site)</p>
<p>US Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis&#160;reinforced Tillerson’s comments adding&#160;that the US&#160;plans a&#160;indefinite&#160;occupation of Iraq (and, possibly, Syria) stating that&#160;it was in&#160;America’s “national interest.”</p>
<p>“I believe it’s in our national interest that we keep Iraqi security forces in a position to keep our mutual enemies on their back foot,” he said, as quoted by the Military Times. The US “needs to remain decisively engaged in Iraq and in the region.”</p>
<p>In response to Mattis’s comments, Syrian President Bashar al Assad said:</p>
<p>“Any military operation in&#160;Syria without&#160;the approval of&#160;the Syrian government is illegal, and&#160; any troops on&#160;the Syrian soil,&#160; is an invasion, whether to&#160;liberate Raqqa or any other place. …The&#160;(US-led) coalition has never been serious about&#160;fighting ISIS or the terrorists.”</p>
<p>Clearly, Washington&#160;is using&#160;the fight against ISIS as a pretext for capturing and holding territory in a critical, energy-rich area of the world. The plan to seize parts of East Syria for military bases and pipeline corridors fits neatly&#160;within this same&#160;basic strategy.&#160;&#160; But it also&#160;throws a wrench in Moscow’s&#160;plan&#160;to restore&#160;the country’s&#160;borders and&#160;put an end to the six year-long conflict.</p>
<p>And what&#160;does Tillerson mean when he talks about&#160;“interim zones of stability” a moniker that the Trump administration&#160;carefully crafted to avoid the more portentous-sounding “safe zones”. (Readers will recall that Hillary Clinton was the biggest proponent of safe zones in Syria, even though they would require a huge commitment of US troops as well as the costly&#160;imposition of a no-fly zone.)</p>
<p>Tillerson’s comments suggest that&#160;the Trump administration is deepening its involvement in Syria&#160;despite the risks of a&#160;catastrophic clash with Moscow.&#160;Ever since&#160;General Michael Flynn was forced to step down from his position as National Security Advisor, (Flynn wanted to “normalize” relations with Russia), Trump has&#160;filled his foreign policy team with&#160;Russophobic hawks who see Moscow as “hostile revisionist power” that “annex(es) territory, intimidates our allies, develops nuclear weapons, and uses proxies under the cover of modernized conventional militaries.”&#160;Those are the words of &#160;the man who replaced Flynn as NSA, &#160;Lt. General HR McMaster. While the media applauded the McMaster appointment as an “outstanding choice”, his critics think it signals a departure from Trump’s campaign promise:</p>
<p>“We will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past…We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments…. Our goal is stability not chaos, because we want to rebuild our country [the United States] …In our dealings with other countries, we will seek shared interests wherever possible and pursue a new era of peace, understanding, and good will.”</p>
<p>There won’t be&#160;any peace under Mattis&#160;or McMaster, that’s&#160;for sure. Both men&#160;are&#160;anti-Moscow hardliners who think&#160;Russia is an emerging rival that must be confronted and defeated. Even more worrisome is the fact that uber-hawk John McCain recently stated that he talks with both men “almost daily” (even though he has avoided talking to Trump since he was elected in November.)</p>
<p>According to German Marshall Fund’s Derek Chollet, a former Obama Pentagon official. “(McCain) is&#160;trying to run U.S. defense policy through Mattis and effectively ignore Trump.” (Kimberly Dozier, Daily Beast contributing editor)&#160; Chollet’s comments square with our belief that Trump has relinquished his control over foreign policy to placate his critics.</p>
<p>Washington’s Syria policy is now in the hands of a small group of right-wing extremists who think Russia is the biggest threat the nation has faced since WW2. That’s why there’s been a sharp uptick in the number of troops&#160;deployed to the region.&#160;This is&#160;from The Nation:</p>
<p>“On March 9, The New York Times reported that the United States is sending 400 troops to Syria…A week later, March 15, The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon has drawn up plans to send a 1,000 more troops within the coming weeks. Meanwhile, in anticipation of the coming&#160;… operation against the Islamic State, the administration has decided to send “an additional 2,500 ground combat troops to a staging base in Kuwait.” (“Congress Needs to Stop Trump’s Escalation of the War on Syria”, Nation)</p>
<p>Here’s more from Sputnik:</p>
<p>“Every two days the US deploys a large amount of&#160;weapons, primarily heavy armaments, to&#160;the region. They have sent tanks, armored vehicles, missiles, sniper rifles, mortar launchers and other types of&#160;weaponry…In addition, the United States has told us that a decision was made to&#160;send an additional 1,000 US troops to&#160;take part in&#160;the Raqqa operation,” he said, specifying that US troops will serve as&#160;military advisers during&#160;the operation and will not take part in&#160;the combat.” (Sputnik)</p>
<p>Washington is&#160;increasing its weapons stockpile to&#160;fend off any attempt by Russia and its allies to keep the battered nation together. A weaker, fragmented Syria governed by tribal leaders and local warlords will pose no&#160; threat to Washington or Tel Aviv’s regional ambitions.&#160;&#160;At least, that appears to be the thinking among US foreign policy elites.</p>
<p>But while Washington continues to pour gas on the fire, &#160;&#160;Russia remains committed to preserving what Putin calls “the fair world order”. In a recent speech he said:</p>
<p>“Russia opposes attempts to destabilize and weaken international relations, as&#160;this could lead to&#160;a&#160;chaotic and&#160;ever less controllable slide towards greater tension in&#160;the&#160;world.</p>
<p>We support joint action to&#160;ensure a&#160;democratic and fair world order based on&#160;strict respect for&#160;the&#160;norms of&#160;international law, the&#160;United Nations Charter, recognition of&#160;the&#160;unquestionable value of&#160;cultural and&#160;civilizational diversity, national sovereignty, and&#160;the&#160;right of&#160;all countries to&#160;decide their futures freely, without external pressure.”</p>
<p>The Trump administration’s plan to splinter Syria and establish a permanent garrison in the eastern&#160;part of the country won’t be stopped unless&#160;the American people&#160;express their opposition en masse.&#160; Investigative journalist, James Carden, recommends that Congress pass a “No Presidential Wars” resolution that “would prohibit the president from “initiating wars against state or non-state actors without prior congressional declarations under Article I, section 8, clause 11 (Declare War Clause).”&#160;&#160;It’s a great idea, but it won’t happen without pressure from below.&#160; People will have to get more involved if they want the bloodletting to end. There’s no other way.</p> | true | 4 | photo devin smith cc 20 ominous developments east syria160have drawn united states russia closer proximity increasing likelihood violent confrontation160160the trump administration embarked dangerous plan defeat160the terrorist militia isis raqqa recent comments us secretary state rex tillerson suggest washingtons longterm160strategy may conflict moscows goal restoring160syrias sovereign borders160 somethings got give either russia ceases clearing operations east syria washington agrees withdraw usbacked forces battle if160neither side gives ground160theres going be160a collision two nucleararmed adversaries wednesday us airlifted hundreds mainlykurdish fighters area behind isis lines dropped near town altabqa troops part usbacked syrian democratic forces sdf accompanied undisclosed number of160us marines serving advisors ostensibly deployment intended encircle isis positions retake area around strategic tabqa dam operation added effect of160blocking syrian arab army saa advancing 160along main road towards raqqa called capital isis160 blocking move might coincidental theres strong possibility washington opening160phase of160a160broader strategy splinter wartorn country prevent reemergence united secular syria according almasdar news coalition supported offensive air movement logistical support precision airstrikes apache helicopters close air support marine artillery special operations advice assistance sdf leadership usled coalition said statement amn news matter weeks washingtons approach war syria changed dramatically while160the us160has reportedly160ended its160support sunni militias torn country apart killed 400000 people us increased aid sdf making impressive territorial gains across eastern corridor ultimate goal the160sdf fighters autonomous kurdish homeland carved west iraq east syria us objectives focus primarily breakup syrian state removal elected government control critical pipelines routes the160redrawing national borders better serve interests us israel the160idea breaking up160syria new plan first appeared article oded yinon 1982 titled strategy israel nineteen eighties160 yinon believed israel survive must become imperial regional power must effect division whole area small states dissolution existing arab states israel shahak recent adaptation yinons160plan articulated brookings institute160analyst michael hanlon piece appeared wall street journal titled trump strategy end syrias nightmare160 article hanlon states bluntly achieve peace syria need selfgovernance within number autonomous zones one option confederal system whole country divided zones less desirable minimally acceptable alternative could several autonomous zones within otherwise stillcentralized statesimilar iraqi kurdistan functioned quartercentury security sunni arab kurdish autonomous zones would provided local police perhaps paramilitary forces raised trained equipped direct support international community trump strategy end syrias nightmare wall street journal earlier piece hanlon referred scheme deconstructing syria plan would produce autonomous zones would never face prospect rule either assad isil many details hanlons piece160are identical160to trumps plan announced secretary state tillerson just160last week160the brookings strategy appears script administration operating presentation tillerson announced us troops would leave iraq siege mosul concluded led many speculate policy will160be160used in160syria heres excerpt article wsws explains point us secretary state rex tillerson declared washingtons intention keep troops deployed less indefinitely territories occupied islamic state iraq syria remarks delivered beginning twoday meeting usorganized antiisis coalition washington military power coalition remain fraudulent caliphate existed order set conditions full recovery tyranny isis told audience included iraqi prime minister haider alabadi gave indication ever us troops could withdrawn war zone extending across iraq syria fighting greater lesser intensity throughout 14 years since us first invaded iraq tillerson pledges longterm us military role iraq syria world socialist web site us defense secretary james mad dog mattis160reinforced tillersons comments adding160that us160plans a160indefinite160occupation iraq possibly syria stating that160it in160americas national interest believe national interest keep iraqi security forces position keep mutual enemies back foot said quoted military times us needs remain decisively engaged iraq region response mattiss comments syrian president bashar al assad said military operation in160syria without160the approval of160the syrian government illegal and160 troops on160the syrian soil160 invasion whether to160liberate raqqa place the160usled coalition never serious about160fighting isis terrorists clearly washington160is using160the fight isis pretext capturing holding territory critical energyrich area world plan seize parts east syria military bases pipeline corridors fits neatly160within same160basic strategy160160 also160throws wrench moscows160plan160to restore160the countrys160borders and160put end six yearlong conflict what160does tillerson mean talks about160interim zones stability moniker trump administration160carefully crafted avoid portentoussounding safe zones readers recall hillary clinton biggest proponent safe zones syria even though would require huge commitment us troops well costly160imposition nofly zone tillersons comments suggest that160the trump administration deepening involvement syria160despite risks a160catastrophic clash moscow160ever since160general michael flynn forced step position national security advisor flynn wanted normalize relations russia trump has160filled foreign policy team with160russophobic hawks see moscow hostile revisionist power annexes territory intimidates allies develops nuclear weapons uses proxies cover modernized conventional militaries160those words 160the man replaced flynn nsa 160lt general hr mcmaster media applauded mcmaster appointment outstanding choice critics think signals departure trumps campaign promise pursue new foreign policy finally learns mistakes pastwe stop looking topple regimes overthrow governments goal stability chaos want rebuild country united states dealings countries seek shared interests wherever possible pursue new era peace understanding good wont be160any peace mattis160or mcmaster thats160for sure men160are160antimoscow hardliners think160russia emerging rival must confronted defeated even worrisome fact uberhawk john mccain recently stated talks men almost daily even though avoided talking trump since elected november according german marshall funds derek chollet former obama pentagon official mccain is160trying run us defense policy mattis effectively ignore trump kimberly dozier daily beast contributing editor160 chollets comments square belief trump relinquished control foreign policy placate critics washingtons syria policy hands small group rightwing extremists think russia biggest threat nation faced since ww2 thats theres sharp uptick number troops160deployed region160this is160from nation march 9 new york times reported united states sending 400 troops syriaa week later march 15 washington post reported pentagon drawn plans send 1000 troops within coming weeks meanwhile anticipation coming160 operation islamic state administration decided send additional 2500 ground combat troops staging base kuwait congress needs stop trumps escalation war syria nation heres sputnik every two days us deploys large amount of160weapons primarily heavy armaments to160the region sent tanks armored vehicles missiles sniper rifles mortar launchers types of160weaponryin addition united states told us decision made to160send additional 1000 us troops to160take part in160the raqqa operation said specifying us troops serve as160military advisers during160the operation take part in160the combat sputnik washington is160increasing weapons stockpile to160fend attempt russia allies keep battered nation together weaker fragmented syria governed tribal leaders local warlords pose no160 threat washington tel avivs regional ambitions160160at least appears thinking among us foreign policy elites washington continues pour gas fire 160160russia remains committed preserving putin calls fair world order recent speech said russia opposes attempts destabilize weaken international relations as160this could lead to160a160chaotic and160ever less controllable slide towards greater tension in160the160world support joint action to160ensure a160democratic fair world order based on160strict respect for160the160norms of160international law the160united nations charter recognition of160the160unquestionable value of160cultural and160civilizational diversity national sovereignty and160the160right of160all countries to160decide futures freely without external pressure trump administrations plan splinter syria establish permanent garrison eastern160part country wont stopped unless160the american people160express opposition en masse160 investigative journalist james carden recommends congress pass presidential wars resolution would prohibit president initiating wars state nonstate actors without prior congressional declarations article section 8 clause 11 declare war clause160160its great idea wont happen without pressure below160 people get involved want bloodletting end theres way | 1,153 |
<p>George Gallup described polling simply as the science of reflecting public opinion, and like any science, it’s only as good as the technology driving it. The first “modern” election polls, launched between the World Wars by Literary Digest, leveraged a new innovation, air mail, but failed famously in 1936, as the disproportionately wealthy audience forecast an Alf Landon landslide over FDR. Telephone surveys proved better, but also favored the rich at first (when phones were a luxury) and the old more recently (since younger voters tend to be cell-only, unreachable by pollsters). Exit polls, demographic modeling, prediction markets—all have been deployed to varied results.</p>
<p>Which brings us to the Internet, the most extensive and immediate opinion generator ever invented. Can’t that be harnessed to become a more accurate predictor of opinion?</p>
<p>For the past two months, that’s what The Daily Beast has been trying to figure out, through our <a href="" type="internal">Election Oracle</a>. This wasn’t an Internet poll in the traditional sense—if it were, Justin Bieber would be the new speaker of the House—but rather taking the collective opinion expressed as people blogged, commented, and tweeted, and distilling that into a number.</p>
<p>First, we found a partner who could help us execute this concept: <a href="http://www.wisewindow.com/" type="external">WiseWindow</a>, a leading company in the field of business intelligence, which tells everyone from Microsoft and Sony to Stanford and Paramount what people online think about their brands and products.</p>
<p>Then, we set out to <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2010/10/20/election-oracle-methodology.html" type="external">create a methodology</a>. Specifically, the Oracle began perpetually scanning 40,000 websites, message boards, and forums, as well as Twitter and other public social media feeds (private networks like Facebook remained off-limits, and every public comment was tabulated anonymously), took the millions of political comments we found each day and sorted them by candidate. The Oracle specifically studied the exact text of each comment, and figured out if was positive, negative, neutral, or mixed. This plus/minus factor, using a 10-day moving average, was then mixed with traditional polling to create a prediction. Like the esteemed Nate Silver at <a href="http://FiveThirtyEight.com" type="external">FiveThirtyEight.com</a> or the InTrade prediction market, our predictions were expressed as a likelihood of winning (i.e. 60 percent means you have a three-in-five chance of winning the election, not that you’ll get 60 percent of the vote.)</p>
<p>It was often tricky. Is someone commenting on Harold Johnson, the Republican running in North Carolina’s 8th district? Or the beach volleyball star named Harold Johnson? Or the Vietnam-era general? Or the fantasy game designer? And if someone comments about how a candidate strongly supports health-care reform, is that an insult or a compliment? How do we factor in the natural ability of incumbents to attract more attention online, by virtue of their office? And how do we adjust when comments come from outside the candidate’s district? Over time, we—and the Oracle—got smarter about such issues.</p>
<p>So how did the Election Oracle perform? Extraordinarily well, actually.</p>
<p>From there, we subjected ourselves to a lot of trial-and-error. During the primary season, we furtively back-tested races to figure out what worked and what didn’t. And that process continued once we went live almost two months ago. Methodologies and weightings were regularly tweaked, and our editors got directly involved if anything on the Oracle looked completely off. (Humans still run the machines here.)</p>
<p>So how did the Election Oracle perform? Extraordinarily well, actually. Arguably, as good as any prediction outfit out there when if comes to statewide races.</p>
<p>Senate: Of 37 Senate races, the Oracle only muffed one—Harry Reid’s upset against Sharron Angle in Nevada, which virtually every other poll and prediction misfired on, as well. The Oracle correctly predicted every other nail-biting win, from Mark Kirk in Illinois to Patty Murray in Washington to Joe Manchin in West Virginia.</p>
<p>The Oracle was even prescient about the only two races it felt were too close to call. Colorado resulted in a virtual tie: Sen. Michael Bennet won re-election by roughly 15,000 votes out of 1.4 million cast, and they’ll still be counting the votes in Alaska for a few more weeks to see if Lisa Murkowski’s write-in campaign will triumph.</p>
<p>How did others pollsters do? Nate Silver, who used a baseball statistics background to revolutionize the analysis of tradition polls at FiveThirtyEight, performed similarly—wrong on Angle, pretty much right or close on the rest. But his polling-based data told him, for instance, that Joe Sestak had only a 2.6 percent chance of beating Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania. The tight results showed that to be far too low. The <a href="http://intrade.com" type="external">Intrade</a> prediction market performed similarly—wrong on Reid, less right than we were on many of the others. And while Charlie Cook wisely termed Reid-Angle a “toss-up,” he also did that with six other races, including some that weren’t, including the Barbara Boxer-Carly Fiorina face-off in California.</p>
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<p>Governors Races: Another 37 races, some 30 of which we deemed competitive enough to track, and again, we only muffed one—we didn’t see Democrat Chris Quinn’s win in Illinois. Again, we had that as a 30 percent likelihood, compared with Nate Silver’s 18 percent shot. (In fairness to Silver, we often proved too cautious, such as giving New York Republican Carl Paladino a 20 percent chance, compared with FiveThirtyEight’s confident 100 percent flameout.)</p>
<p>And again, our 50-50 win predictions were validated, issued only in races that, once the voters had their say, bore out as true virtual ties: Connecticut, Oregon, Florida, and Vermont.</p>
<p>The House: We got 10 races wrong, and there are two ways to look at that. The glass half-full outlook holds that with 435 House seats up for grabs, making the wrong call on 10 comes to an amazing batting average (97.7 percent).</p>
<p>In the interest of making the Oracle better, we’re inclined to be more self-critical. The vast majority of those 435 seats, even in this volatile election, were safe. Indeed, we only actively tracked 77 competitive races, putting our prognostication percentage (including credit for 50-50 predictions) at a bit over 87 percent, albeit 87 percent of the knottier campaigns.</p>
<p>Studying the data, the reason our House predictions trail those in the Senate and governors races is simple: less data. Smaller districts and stakes, obscure candidates and positions all conspired to give us far less information to analyze, and thus more errors in our predictions.</p>
<p>We hope that will be less of an issue moving forward. We now have tens of millions of pieces of data to back-test. For instance, the data showing Harry Reid’s surge were sitting on our servers, plain as day, but we had too many filters (since he’s both an incumbent and the Senate majority leader) to see it.</p>
<p>Trial-and-error. Revisions and refining. That’s how you perfect a research model. But we’ve seen enough to find optimism in collective Internet opinion as an election tool. And we look forward to honing that tool as the 2012 campaign heats up.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.RandallLane.com" type="external">Randall Lane</a> is editor at large at The Daily Beast. The former editor in chief of Trader Monthly, Dealmaker and P.O.V. magazines, and the former Washington bureau chief of Forbes, he is the author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591843294/thedaibea-20/" type="external">The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane</a>.</p> | true | 4 | george gallup described polling simply science reflecting public opinion like science good technology driving first modern election polls launched world wars literary digest leveraged new innovation air mail failed famously 1936 disproportionately wealthy audience forecast alf landon landslide fdr telephone surveys proved better also favored rich first phones luxury old recently since younger voters tend cellonly unreachable pollsters exit polls demographic modeling prediction marketsall deployed varied results brings us internet extensive immediate opinion generator ever invented cant harnessed become accurate predictor opinion past two months thats daily beast trying figure election oracle wasnt internet poll traditional senseif justin bieber would new speaker housebut rather taking collective opinion expressed people blogged commented tweeted distilling number first found partner could help us execute concept wisewindow leading company field business intelligence tells everyone microsoft sony stanford paramount people online think brands products set create methodology specifically oracle began perpetually scanning 40000 websites message boards forums well twitter public social media feeds private networks like facebook remained offlimits every public comment tabulated anonymously took millions political comments found day sorted candidate oracle specifically studied exact text comment figured positive negative neutral mixed plusminus factor using 10day moving average mixed traditional polling create prediction like esteemed nate silver fivethirtyeightcom intrade prediction market predictions expressed likelihood winning ie 60 percent means threeinfive chance winning election youll get 60 percent vote often tricky someone commenting harold johnson republican running north carolinas 8th district beach volleyball star named harold johnson vietnamera general fantasy game designer someone comments candidate strongly supports healthcare reform insult compliment factor natural ability incumbents attract attention online virtue office adjust comments come outside candidates district time weand oraclegot smarter issues election oracle perform extraordinarily well actually subjected lot trialanderror primary season furtively backtested races figure worked didnt process continued went live almost two months ago methodologies weightings regularly tweaked editors got directly involved anything oracle looked completely humans still run machines election oracle perform extraordinarily well actually arguably good prediction outfit comes statewide races senate 37 senate races oracle muffed oneharry reids upset sharron angle nevada virtually every poll prediction misfired well oracle correctly predicted every nailbiting win mark kirk illinois patty murray washington joe manchin west virginia oracle even prescient two races felt close call colorado resulted virtual tie sen michael bennet reelection roughly 15000 votes 14 million cast theyll still counting votes alaska weeks see lisa murkowskis writein campaign triumph others pollsters nate silver used baseball statistics background revolutionize analysis tradition polls fivethirtyeight performed similarlywrong angle pretty much right close rest pollingbased data told instance joe sestak 26 percent chance beating pat toomey pennsylvania tight results showed far low intrade prediction market performed similarlywrong reid less right many others charlie cook wisely termed reidangle tossup also six races including werent including barbara boxercarly fiorina faceoff california start finish day top stories daily beast speedy smart summary news need know nothing dont governors races another 37 races 30 deemed competitive enough track muffed onewe didnt see democrat chris quinns win illinois 30 percent likelihood compared nate silvers 18 percent shot fairness silver often proved cautious giving new york republican carl paladino 20 percent chance compared fivethirtyeights confident 100 percent flameout 5050 win predictions validated issued races voters say bore true virtual ties connecticut oregon florida vermont house got 10 races wrong two ways look glass halffull outlook holds 435 house seats grabs making wrong call 10 comes amazing batting average 977 percent interest making oracle better inclined selfcritical vast majority 435 seats even volatile election safe indeed actively tracked 77 competitive races putting prognostication percentage including credit 5050 predictions bit 87 percent albeit 87 percent knottier campaigns studying data reason house predictions trail senate governors races simple less data smaller districts stakes obscure candidates positions conspired give us far less information analyze thus errors predictions hope less issue moving forward tens millions pieces data backtest instance data showing harry reids surge sitting servers plain day many filters since hes incumbent senate majority leader see trialanderror revisions refining thats perfect research model weve seen enough find optimism collective internet opinion election tool look forward honing tool 2012 campaign heats randall lane editor large daily beast former editor chief trader monthly dealmaker pov magazines former washington bureau chief forbes author zeroes misadventures decade wall street went insane | 712 |
<p>I teach English at Montgomery High School in Santa Rosa, California.&#160; I love my school, my amazing colleagues, and the kids who enter my classroom each year.&#160; But I hate what is happening to public education.</p>
<p>From the national to the local level, our public schools are under attack, and that means our students are under attack.&#160; This attack takes more than one form.&#160; The cuts to vital education services are horrifying enough, but they’re only half the picture.&#160; The other half is the violation of our public trust by private interests.</p>
<p>It’s not a pretty sight, but we must look squarely at the vultures of privatization that prey on the damage to our schools, from New York to New Orleans to Wisconsin to California.&#160; Diane Ravitch, former Assistant Secretary of Education in the first Bush administration, refers to the three big education funders, Bill Gates, Eli Broad and the Walton Family, as the Billionaire Boys Club in her excellent book <a href="" type="internal">The Death and Life of the Great American School System</a>.&#160; Ravitch has come a long way since her days of working under Bush Sr.&#160; I’ve even heard people refer to her as the Noam Chomsky of education, a sure sign of how far to the right our political culture has drifted.</p>
<p>But we were talking about vultures.&#160; These corporations are poised to supply the artificial heart of learning to a wounded public school system they fully intend to finish off.&#160; But they won’t succeed. No they won’t because our communities are going to fight for our beloved schools, we teachers are going to fight for our students, and our students are going to demand the education they deserve!</p>
<p>There are so many intelligent, talented, compassionate educators who were called to this profession.&#160; Teaching was a calling for me.&#160; I’m in this for the long haul, and by this I mean public education.&#160; I’m going to stand up for the right that all young people have to a quality education.</p>
<p>Education is a right.&#160; Education is a human right; it’s not a humiliating race for basic funding, something the Obama administration and Education Secretary Arne Duncan would do well to remember.&#160; Education is indeed a right, and yet did you know there is more segregation in our schools today than at any time since 1968, the year of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination?&#160; The corporate obsession with charter schools and high stakes tests has contributed mightily to this segregation while shamefully distracting us from the poverty and income inequality that go hand in hand with it.</p>
<p>I’m not going to lie down while corporations prey on our students.&#160; I don’t want to see our nation’s young people at the mercy of a Rupert Murdoch or a Michael Milken.&#160; Do you remember Michael Milken, the former felon and Junk Bond King of the eighties?&#160; Michael Milkin is co-founder of K-12 Inc., America’s largest provider of online education for kindergarten through 12th grade.</p>
<p>Do you know what an online school is?&#160; That’s the one that exists inside of a computer.&#160; These days, kids can conduct their entire social lives on a computer and get all their schooling done there too.&#160; They never even have to leave the house.&#160; It’s very compact, very efficient, but there is one missing link: the human link, the spacious beauty of the human bond.</p>
<p>Online or virtual schools typically have high withdrawal rates, and that’s not surprising.&#160; It makes sense, doesn’t it?&#160; It must be very tempting to drop out of a “school” when there are no human beings there in person to make you feel connected to a real community, no gym, no playground, no student art on the walls, and no teacher to get to know you, to care, to see who you are and who you might one day become.</p>
<p>The bitter irony is that these online schools are marketed to English learners who need the exact opposite of isolation, who benefit most from cooperative strategies in natural, not virtual, settings.</p>
<p>Or they are preposterously promoted as beneficial to low income students as though it were a good thing to get education at a discount, off the rack. As Diane Ravitch warns of the educational dystopia that is fast gaining on reality, “the poor will get computers and the rich will get computers and teachers.”</p>
<p>The corporate predators also target struggling learners, kids with learning disabilities or emotional problems; in other words, the very kids who need human engagement and interaction the most.&#160; And make no mistake: all kids need it!&#160; One shudders to imagine children as young as five attending a virtual school.&#160; It’s a Brave New World, and I’m not just saying that because I’m an English teacher.</p>
<p>Our district right here in Santa Rosa has just launched an online charter school.&#160; I understand we are paying for it in-house, no involvement from Michael Milkin, not as far as I know, not yet anyway.&#160; But our community needs to ask critical questions about this online school nonetheless, especially when we are told to expect teacher layoffs this March.</p>
<p>According to SRTA President Andy Brennan, the district promised this online venture would be geared toward homeschooled kids but in spite of that claim, they have recruited from our general population.&#160; They forwarded a letter of recruitment to all department chairs in the district and got over 200 applicants.</p>
<p>So why are we diverting precious resources from our actual schools toward this virtual school?&#160; What priorities does this decision reflect?&#160; Who made the decision that an online school was good for our kids?&#160; Were studies consulted, and if so, which ones and with what level of scrutiny? The argument that getting the bulk of one’s education through a computer will give kids marketable technological skills is wholly unconvincing without evidence that students of these virtual schools actually get hired in these fields.&#160; Do the jobs that require these technological skills even exist in the present U.S. economy or have they been outsourced to other countries?</p>
<p>Finally, is it possible that, in our district as in so many others, what is good for our kids once again lost out to the bottom line, the almighty dollar?&#160; These are some of the questions we must ask.</p>
<p>Another question is why we allow Michael Milken, a man who wouldn’t be allowed inside of a real classroom because of his felony conviction, to make a profit off of marketing his online curriculum to kindergartners.</p>
<p>Letting the business world gain control of our public schools has many sad consequences, but there is no question that it is making a few people very rich.&#160; There is a reason that Rupert Murdoch referred to the for-profit K-12 education industry as, and I quote, “a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed.”&#160; I’d like to keep Rupert Murdoch waiting desperately until the end of time.&#160; How about you?</p>
<p>And we can’t forget the Walton Family.&#160; The Walton Family spent $157 million dollars on Ed Reform in 2010 alone and has spent $1 billion to date on pushing charter schools and busting teachers unions.&#160; Do we really want the people behind Walmart to set the education agenda for America?&#160; Something is definitely wrong with this picture.</p>
<p>We hear so much these days about standards in education and holding teachers accountable to the standards.&#160; Ask yourself what the Walmart standard of education might be – You’ve heard of the chain store, so now consider the chain school, all those unique kids across the nation being force-fed one standardized diet of junk learning.&#160; It’s the fast food of education these corporations are pushing.&#160; And when I consider the current and future classes of 40 plus students due to budget cuts, the term “supersize me” takes on a whole new meaning.&#160; Hey, how big can an online class get?&#160; Supersize me.</p>
<p>But these days in education, it’s not fashionable to examine the big picture, to ask too many questions about what students are learning and why we are teaching it to them.&#160; It’s not recommended for the teacher and it’s not prescribed for the student.&#160; Nevertheless, we teachers are not about to give up on critical thinking within or beyond the walls of the classroom.</p>
<p>Here is one critical piece of the big picture: The Walton Family owns more wealth than the bottom 40% of the whole U.S. while one in five kids here live in poverty. There is no question that poverty is a huge factor in the success of students.&#160; It accounts for 60% of student achievement!</p>
<p>Finland, the country whose scores in international test comparisons we’ve been holding up as a model, has high-performing schools in large part because they do things like provide food and free health-care for their students.&#160; And not incidentally, they don’t have standardized tests.&#160; They understand that a quality education emerges from a strong community and a humane society.&#160; Why can’t we figure that out here in the U.S., in the wealthiest country in the world?</p>
<p>So if the Walton family really wants to improve education, then maybe they should start supporting Single Payer Healthcare. Maybe they should launch a massive campaign to end child poverty.&#160; And no education reform effort would be complete without a major challenge to the corporate stranglehold on our system of government.&#160; Come to think of it, these philanthropists, as they like to think of themselves, might want to join the Occupy Movement.&#160; Except they’re the owners of Walmart, a conflict of interest to say the least.</p>
<p>The 1% is hoping that if America continues to blame teachers for everything then they will forget to tax the millionaires.&#160; But we here today can’t afford to forget the real scope of the problem.&#160; So as an English teacher, I decided to end my speech today with a nod to the parts of speech.</p>
<p>We can’t forget that Occupy was a verb before it became a noun.&#160; Whatever you believe about your political identity, your party affiliation, your status in America today, please don’t forget to occupy your conscience, your activism, and your humanity. We need to vote in California to fund public education and other essential human services, and I am giving my support to the Millionaires Tax Initiative supported by the California Federation of Teachers and the California Nurses Association.&#160; But we need to do more than rouse ourselves for intermittent election cycles.&#160; We need to occupy our hearts, our minds, and our capacity for critical thinking.&#160; We can’t go back to sleep.</p>
<p>People everywhere are waking up to the radical threat that corporations pose, to our global economy, to our planet and to our very existence as a species.&#160; And let’s not forget that corporations are a threat to our democracy, to the self-determination of people all over the world.&#160; Without public education, there can be no democracy.</p>
<p>This is why we reject this authoritarian education mandated by an illegitimate corporate power.&#160; We must overthrow the plutocracy!&#160; We must demand our human rights! And we cannot afford to wait timidly for politicians powered by big money to give their lukewarm legislative blessings to our kids’ fundamental human rights.&#160; We the people need to take to the streets to demand those rights, to demand the legislation that is just and fair in the wealthiest country in the world. We are the decision-makers and we are the people!</p>
<p>I would never have become a teacher if I didn’t believe in the power of people to change the world, and especially the power of young people.&#160; Students, I know you can change the world!&#160; You can change the world!&#160; I believe in you.</p>
<p>Simone Harris is a high school English teacher, activist, and blogger who writes about the politics of education at <a href="http://theedutalk.blogspot.com" type="external">theedutalk.blogspot.com</a>.</p> | true | 4 | teach english montgomery high school santa rosa california160 love school amazing colleagues kids enter classroom year160 hate happening public education national local level public schools attack means students attack160 attack takes one form160 cuts vital education services horrifying enough theyre half picture160 half violation public trust private interests pretty sight must look squarely vultures privatization prey damage schools new york new orleans wisconsin california160 diane ravitch former assistant secretary education first bush administration refers three big education funders bill gates eli broad walton family billionaire boys club excellent book death life great american school system160 ravitch come long way since days working bush sr160 ive even heard people refer noam chomsky education sure sign far right political culture drifted talking vultures160 corporations poised supply artificial heart learning wounded public school system fully intend finish off160 wont succeed wont communities going fight beloved schools teachers going fight students students going demand education deserve many intelligent talented compassionate educators called profession160 teaching calling me160 im long haul mean public education160 im going stand right young people quality education education right160 education human right humiliating race basic funding something obama administration education secretary arne duncan would well remember160 education indeed right yet know segregation schools today time since 1968 year martin luther king jrs assassination160 corporate obsession charter schools high stakes tests contributed mightily segregation shamefully distracting us poverty income inequality go hand hand im going lie corporations prey students160 dont want see nations young people mercy rupert murdoch michael milken160 remember michael milken former felon junk bond king eighties160 michael milkin cofounder k12 inc americas largest provider online education kindergarten 12th grade know online school is160 thats one exists inside computer160 days kids conduct entire social lives computer get schooling done too160 never even leave house160 compact efficient one missing link human link spacious beauty human bond online virtual schools typically high withdrawal rates thats surprising160 makes sense doesnt it160 must tempting drop school human beings person make feel connected real community gym playground student art walls teacher get know care see might one day become bitter irony online schools marketed english learners need exact opposite isolation benefit cooperative strategies natural virtual settings preposterously promoted beneficial low income students though good thing get education discount rack diane ravitch warns educational dystopia fast gaining reality poor get computers rich get computers teachers corporate predators also target struggling learners kids learning disabilities emotional problems words kids need human engagement interaction most160 make mistake kids need it160 one shudders imagine children young five attending virtual school160 brave new world im saying im english teacher district right santa rosa launched online charter school160 understand paying inhouse involvement michael milkin far know yet anyway160 community needs ask critical questions online school nonetheless especially told expect teacher layoffs march according srta president andy brennan district promised online venture would geared toward homeschooled kids spite claim recruited general population160 forwarded letter recruitment department chairs district got 200 applicants diverting precious resources actual schools toward virtual school160 priorities decision reflect160 made decision online school good kids160 studies consulted ones level scrutiny argument getting bulk ones education computer give kids marketable technological skills wholly unconvincing without evidence students virtual schools actually get hired fields160 jobs require technological skills even exist present us economy outsourced countries finally possible district many others good kids lost bottom line almighty dollar160 questions must ask another question allow michael milken man wouldnt allowed inside real classroom felony conviction make profit marketing online curriculum kindergartners letting business world gain control public schools many sad consequences question making people rich160 reason rupert murdoch referred forprofit k12 education industry quote 500 billion sector us alone waiting desperately transformed160 id like keep rupert murdoch waiting desperately end time160 cant forget walton family160 walton family spent 157 million dollars ed reform 2010 alone spent 1 billion date pushing charter schools busting teachers unions160 really want people behind walmart set education agenda america160 something definitely wrong picture hear much days standards education holding teachers accountable standards160 ask walmart standard education might youve heard chain store consider chain school unique kids across nation forcefed one standardized diet junk learning160 fast food education corporations pushing160 consider current future classes 40 plus students due budget cuts term supersize takes whole new meaning160 hey big online class get160 supersize days education fashionable examine big picture ask many questions students learning teaching them160 recommended teacher prescribed student160 nevertheless teachers give critical thinking within beyond walls classroom one critical piece big picture walton family owns wealth bottom 40 whole us one five kids live poverty question poverty huge factor success students160 accounts 60 student achievement finland country whose scores international test comparisons weve holding model highperforming schools large part things like provide food free healthcare students160 incidentally dont standardized tests160 understand quality education emerges strong community humane society160 cant figure us wealthiest country world walton family really wants improve education maybe start supporting single payer healthcare maybe launch massive campaign end child poverty160 education reform effort would complete without major challenge corporate stranglehold system government160 come think philanthropists like think might want join occupy movement160 except theyre owners walmart conflict interest say least 1 hoping america continues blame teachers everything forget tax millionaires160 today cant afford forget real scope problem160 english teacher decided end speech today nod parts speech cant forget occupy verb became noun160 whatever believe political identity party affiliation status america today please dont forget occupy conscience activism humanity need vote california fund public education essential human services giving support millionaires tax initiative supported california federation teachers california nurses association160 need rouse intermittent election cycles160 need occupy hearts minds capacity critical thinking160 cant go back sleep people everywhere waking radical threat corporations pose global economy planet existence species160 lets forget corporations threat democracy selfdetermination people world160 without public education democracy reject authoritarian education mandated illegitimate corporate power160 must overthrow plutocracy160 must demand human rights afford wait timidly politicians powered big money give lukewarm legislative blessings kids fundamental human rights160 people need take streets demand rights demand legislation fair wealthiest country world decisionmakers people would never become teacher didnt believe power people change world especially power young people160 students know change world160 change world160 believe simone harris high school english teacher activist blogger writes politics education theedutalkblogspotcom | 1,040 |
<p>Gilbert Achcar grew up in Lebanon, and is currently Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London. His books include The Clash of Barbarisms: The Making of the New World Disorder, published in 13 languages, Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, co-authored with Noam Chomsky, and most recently the critically acclaimed The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives.</p>
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<p /> PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome back to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay. We're carrying on with our history of modern Egypt. We're now up to the most recent events, as we lead into the mass protests. The elections that took place in October and December in Egypt were universally discredited, candidates not allowed to run, many people simply not allowed into the polling booths to even vote if they weren't going to vote for pro-Mubarak candidates. Now joining us to continue our story is Gilbert Achcar. Gilbert is a professor of development studies and international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, England. He's the author of the book The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives. Thanks for joining us again, Gilbert.
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<p />PROF. GILBERT ACHCAR, SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES: Thank you, Paul.
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<p />JAY: Why don't we pick up from this last election was essentially a fraud and enormous discreditation, even globally? Hardly anybody could recognize the results of the election. That takes place not long before the events in Tunisia. So perhaps give us a--pick up the narrative there.
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<p />ACHCAR: The last parliamentary election created huge frustration and huge resentment against Mubarak. I mean, the resentment has been building up for quite some time before the election, and the election came to increase it. And everybody understood that one of the reasons why Mubarak was just closing every possible door was that he wanted to secure his succession in the presidency for the next presidential election. He had the project of having his son elected. And that's why also you had a movement building up in Egypt against this hereditary succession that he was preparing. So, I mean, it is on the background of, therefore, social, economic conditions over the whole region, with a very sharp inflation, prices of basic necessities like food, fuel, electricity, and the rest sharply on the rise, creating social resentment, it is on this background that you have this further dimension of political frustration, and it was Mubarak just thinking that, you know, you can just shut the safety valve and you will keep the boiler under control. I mean, that was a complete miscalculation. And as you said, the Tunisian events started in the aftermath of those Egyptian elections in late December, and led on January 14 to the victory represented by the downfall of the Tunisian president. And, of course, this emboldened the mass movement and protest movement not only in Egypt but over the whole region.
<p />
<p />JAY: Now, the differences between the US and Mubarak over the last couple of years, were they primarily about the Americans being concerned that the Mubarak presidency turning into a monarchy was going to alienate people so much from the regime and the military that what they wanted was the military regime without Mubarak? I mean, had it gotten to that point?
<p />
<p />ACHCAR: They felt the need for reform. We know that from the WikiLeaks also, which gave us an insight into how--I mean, the kind of reports that they used to get in Washington. And no doubt about the fact that they were conscious of the fact that this regime was creating a dangerous situation in Egypt, that the situation could explode at any moment. I think they had a sense of the fact that it couldn't continue like that. And so they wanted some forms of opening, controlled opening by the military, as we have seen in other countries, other US clients. Pakistan, Turkey, for instance, here are two countries where the military were in power, are still in power, actually, are still the main backbone of power, and they let some degree of free political election. So Washington was contemplating some kind of development in that direction, at least for the presidential election. They didn't like the way Mohamed ElBaradei was treated by the Mubarak regime. And before him, in 2005, the only man who was allowed to contest the election against Mubarak was Ayman Nour, and just after the election, he was sentenced to five years' jail on completely phony accusations. This of course is seen from Washington with--I mean, they are not completely stupid in Washington; they understand that sooner or later this will create big problems.
<p />
<p />JAY: There was a report in Reuters, an interview with a military strategist that teaches at one of the American military colleges. There's been other speculation that especially after the events in Tunisia there was a lot of back-and-forth between the Pentagon and the Egyptian military. There were senior Egyptian military people in Washington just days before the big protests in Cairo. According to this analyst, there was a discussion going on then about how do we get rid of Mubarak and keep the military regime. To what extent do you think this collaboration was going on? And what do we know about it?
<p />
<p />ACHCAR: The movement that unfolded now over the last couple of weeks is basically the result of this accumulation of resentment at the popular level. And although it was less spontaneous than what you had in Tunisia, with the difference being that in Egypt, the beginning, the initial movement was coordinated by movements in the opposition who called to the demonstrations. This is a result of the conditions that we mentioned. Now, Washington was trying to get the regime to devise some form of succession which would be more credible and therefore lead to some legitimacy, at least in the successor of Mubarak. They understood that the scheme of having Mubarak's son succeed him would be disastrous for the stability of the country. And they had talks with the military. And the military themselves, the rest of the military, were not very happy, because, I mean, had Mubarak's son been elected, that would have been the first nonmilitary--actually, I mean, the first man who is not originating in the military to become president. And so the military themselves were not happy with this prospective. And long ago it was said that Omar Suleiman would be the likely candidate of the military apparatus as--for the succession of Mubarak. But basically Washington was trying, I mean, not to overthrow Mubarak, but to convince Mubarak. I mean, they considered Mubarak as an ally. And the talks were just asking people to put pressure on Mubarak in order to bring him to the kind of reforms that Washington felt were needed.
<p />
<p />JAY: The contention between Suleiman and Mubarak's son, then, is not so much Suleiman worried about or the Armed Forces worried about whether there's a inherited hand-off as it is about keeping it within the military leadership family.
<p />
<p />ACHCAR: On the one hand. But on the other hand, also, they--I mean, I think they--it was clear to everybody that Mubarak himself had some and still has some degree of social constituency, especially in the rural--in the countryside in Egypt. But his son doesn't have and wouldn't have had any kind of popularity, so that would have been a problem, and I think the military were aware of that. And that's why, as a consequence of that, Mubarak was hinting at the fact that he might represent himself to one more mandate in the presidential election which are supposed to take place in the fall of this year. And so that, I mean, seen from Washington, appeared as even more absurd, I mean, given his age and all that. And so that's why I think they were trying to push for some degree of reform, at least for the presidential election.
<p />
<p />End of Transcript
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | gilbert achcar grew lebanon currently professor school oriental african studies soas university london books include clash barbarisms making new world disorder published 13 languages perilous power middle east us foreign policy coauthored noam chomsky recently critically acclaimed arabs holocaust arabisraeli war narratives paul jay senior editor trnn welcome back real news network im paul jay carrying history modern egypt recent events lead mass protests elections took place october december egypt universally discredited candidates allowed run many people simply allowed polling booths even vote werent going vote promubarak candidates joining us continue story gilbert achcar gilbert professor development studies international relations school oriental african studies london england hes author book arabs holocaust arabisraeli war narratives thanks joining us gilbert prof gilbert achcar school oriental african studies thank paul jay dont pick last election essentially fraud enormous discreditation even globally hardly anybody could recognize results election takes place long events tunisia perhaps give us apick narrative achcar last parliamentary election created huge frustration huge resentment mubarak mean resentment building quite time election election came increase everybody understood one reasons mubarak closing every possible door wanted secure succession presidency next presidential election project son elected thats also movement building egypt hereditary succession preparing mean background therefore social economic conditions whole region sharp inflation prices basic necessities like food fuel electricity rest sharply rise creating social resentment background dimension political frustration mubarak thinking know shut safety valve keep boiler control mean complete miscalculation said tunisian events started aftermath egyptian elections late december led january 14 victory represented downfall tunisian president course emboldened mass movement protest movement egypt whole region jay differences us mubarak last couple years primarily americans concerned mubarak presidency turning monarchy going alienate people much regime military wanted military regime without mubarak mean gotten point achcar felt need reform know wikileaks also gave us insight howi mean kind reports used get washington doubt fact conscious fact regime creating dangerous situation egypt situation could explode moment think sense fact couldnt continue like wanted forms opening controlled opening military seen countries us clients pakistan turkey instance two countries military power still power actually still main backbone power let degree free political election washington contemplating kind development direction least presidential election didnt like way mohamed elbaradei treated mubarak regime 2005 man allowed contest election mubarak ayman nour election sentenced five years jail completely phony accusations course seen washington withi mean completely stupid washington understand sooner later create big problems jay report reuters interview military strategist teaches one american military colleges theres speculation especially events tunisia lot backandforth pentagon egyptian military senior egyptian military people washington days big protests cairo according analyst discussion going get rid mubarak keep military regime extent think collaboration going know achcar movement unfolded last couple weeks basically result accumulation resentment popular level although less spontaneous tunisia difference egypt beginning initial movement coordinated movements opposition called demonstrations result conditions mentioned washington trying get regime devise form succession would credible therefore lead legitimacy least successor mubarak understood scheme mubaraks son succeed would disastrous stability country talks military military rest military happy mean mubaraks son elected would first nonmilitaryactually mean first man originating military become president military happy prospective long ago said omar suleiman would likely candidate military apparatus asfor succession mubarak basically washington trying mean overthrow mubarak convince mubarak mean considered mubarak ally talks asking people put pressure mubarak order bring kind reforms washington felt needed jay contention suleiman mubaraks son much suleiman worried armed forces worried whether theres inherited handoff keeping within military leadership family achcar one hand hand also theyi mean think theyit clear everybody mubarak still degree social constituency especially ruralin countryside egypt son doesnt wouldnt kind popularity would problem think military aware thats consequence mubarak hinting fact might represent one mandate presidential election supposed take place fall year mean seen washington appeared even absurd mean given age thats think trying push degree reform least presidential election end transcript disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 663 |
<p>CNN.com</p>
<p>7:03 p.m. PST: “We are here tonight in Flint, Mich., because a horrendous tragedy is taking place. But it’s not just in Flint, Mich.,” Bernie Sanders said in his closing statement. This reflected one of the key through-lines in this latest scrimmage between the two standing Dems: The local is national. Also: The country cannot hold without addressing the crumbling infrastructure and lifting up the struggling lower classes.</p>
<p>Fracking, public education, religion and a certain big, orange-hued elephant were all in the room during the scrappy debate’s final stretch. By the conclusion of their exchange, both Sanders and Hillary Clinton had made strong showings, and neither was likely to have gained too great an edge over the other.</p>
<p>Regarding fracking, Clinton may have protested too much, figuratively speaking, giving a wordy answer to whether she’d support the controversial energy-grabbing practice. “I don’t support it where any locality or any state is against it, number one,” she said. “I don’t support it where release of methane or contamination of water is present. … Unless we can require where anybody who fracks can tell us exactly what chemicals they use.”</p>
<p />
<p>Right. Wait, what? “I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place,” she said, slightly clarifying her stance.</p>
<p>Sanders’ bluntness served him well in his response to the fracking query. “My answer is a lot shorter. No, I do not support fracking,” he said.</p>
<p>The Vermont senator also jumped at the chance to play another card from his strong suit: public education. “I believe that every public college and university in this country should be tuition-free, so that your child, regardless of the income of your family, knows that if she studies hard, she is going to be able to go to college,” Sanders said.</p>
<p>Clinton and Sanders worked hard to refute the right-wing refrain about “godless liberals” in their reactions to a pious audience member’s request that they flash their spiritual credentials. Sanders said he believed God was “relevant,” as the questioner put it, and spoke of his pride in his Jewish background, which, combined with his family’s history of being persecuted during the Holocaust, helped him understand “what crazy and radical and extremist politics mean.”</p>
<p>Clinton said that if she hadn’t been connected to a higher power before spending time in the White House, she would have found religion under the roof of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “I pray for the will of God to be known so we can know it and to the best of our limited ability try to follow it,” she added.</p>
<p>Speaking of extremism, Donald Trump’s unholy name was raised in the debate’s final minutes. Naturally, Sanders and Clinton each claimed that he or she had a better chance of beating the Republican front-runner in the presidential polling booths.</p>
<p>“Donald Trump’s bigotry, his bullying, his bluster … are not going to wear well on the American people,” Clinton said, adding, “I will look forward to engaging him.”</p>
<p>Sanders shared Clinton’s confidence. “I would love to run against Donald Trump, and I’ll tell you why,” he said, claiming that “almost every poll has shown that Sanders versus Trump does a lot better than Clinton versus Trump.” (Is that so? Depends on whom, and when, you ask. For varying answers to that question, look <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/01/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-poll/" type="external">here</a>, <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/269702-hillary-trails-trump-head-to-head-poll" type="external">here</a> and <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/trump-v-sanders-219060" type="external">here</a>.)</p>
<p>When reminded about one of Trump’s go-to slams against Sanders—calling Sanders a “communist”—the self-described democratic socialist was ready with a wry retort: “That was one of the nice things he said about me.” * * *</p>
<p>6:32 p.m. PST: With the niceties out of the way, the next half-hour consisted of tussles over issues such as gun control, income inequality, racial injustice and mass incarceration. In engaging those hot-button topics, as well as each other, Sanders and Clinton each attempted to step forward as the more enlightened option to represent African-American voters—rather than being as yet another white politician claiming to feel others’ pain while lining their own pockets.</p>
<p>But here we must pause to note that Sanders won Sunday’s caucuses in Maine. From The Guardian’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/06/marco-rubio-wins-puerto-rico-primary-election-2016" type="external">coverage</a>:</p>
<p>Bernie Sanders won the Maine Democratic caucuses on Sunday, his fifth victory in a caucus state, following wins in Nebraska and Kansas on Saturday.</p>
<p>With 77.5% of results counted, the leftwing Vermont senator had 64.2% of the vote to the former secretary of state’s 35.6%.</p>
<p>“With another double-digit victory, we have now won by wide margins in states from New England to the Rocky Mountains and from the Midwest to the Great Plains,” said Sanders in a statement put out by his campaign while he faced Clinton in a debate in Flint, Michigan.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, GOP candidate Marco Rubio prevailed in Puerto Rico.</p>
<p>But back to our regularly scheduled programming: CNN’s Don Lemon posed racially oriented questions to the candidates, asking them to account for their own blind spots and describe what they have done—and will do—for the cause of social justice.</p>
<p>Both acknowledged that they couldn’t claim to fully understand racism from self-reference alone. “I know I have never had the experience that so many people in America and this audience have had,” Clinton said.</p>
<p>Sanders seconded her sentiments. Pointing to his activism during the civil rights movement, he pledged, “We will end institutional racism.”</p>
<p>Clinton found herself in the hot seat when her husband’s legislative past on the subject of criminal justice came back to haunt her as potential indicators of her own likely moves on that front. “Why should black people trust you this time to get it right?” Lemon asked.</p>
<p>Clinton acknowledged that the 1990s criminal justice bill that President Clinton signed added to the country’s deplorable mass incarceration emergency.</p>
<p>Now that she knows better, she said, she would “go after systemic racism that stalks the criminal justice system, ending private prisons, ending the incarceration of low-level offenders.”</p>
<p>And spotting a chance to pull her rival into the fray, she asked, “Well, Sen. Sanders supported [the Clinton bill] as well. Are you going to ask him the question?”</p>
<p>Sanders answered for his own past by saying that the bill represented an instance in which “bad stuff and good stuff” coexisted in the same piece of legislation. “I have been a fierce fighter of domestic violence. … It was in that bill. The ban on assault weapons, what I’ve fought for my whole life, it was in that bill. … I tried to get the death penalty aspects in that bill out. Secretary Clinton and I disagree on that. I was then and I am now opposed to the death penalty.”</p>
<p>Judging by the audience’s response, that was a good countermove. * * *</p>
<p>5:55 p.m. PST: And then, the two Democratic presidential hopefuls’ united front came tumbling down. More accurately, Sanders took a jackhammer to it somewhere around the 25-minute mark.</p>
<p>Clearly determined to point out how his record differs sharply from Clinton’s, Sanders assumed an antagonistic stance and maintained it as he took her to task repeatedly, starting with her support of a series of “disastrous trade agreements written by corporate America.” Meanwhile, he said, “I was on a picket line in the early 1990s against NAFTA.”</p>
<p>Clinton pivoted and drew upon a potential strength from her own collection of legislative greatest hits, playing up a moment sure to resonate with the local community. “I voted to save the auto industry,” she said, adding that Sanders voted against it.</p>
<p>“If you are talking about the Wall Street bailout, in which all your friends destroyed the economy …” Sanders shot back, insinuating that Clinton was too close to financial leaders to hold them accountable. By contrast, he said, “Ultimately if you look at our records, I stood up against corporate America time and time again.”</p>
<p>Collecting herself to counter Sanders’ first attack about trade agreements, Clinton recast her changed position on the Trans-Pacific Partnership as the product of careful consideration rather than an outright flip-flop. “I thought it was reasonable to actually see what was in it before I opposed it. I opposed it,” she said.</p>
<p>As for supporting the 2008 bailout, well, that was also for the greater good, Clinton claimed. Had she not thrown in with the bailout effort, she said, “I believe the auto industry would have collapsed, taking 4 million jobs with it.”</p>
<p>That didn’t scan for Sanders. “I believe that the recklessness, the greed and the illegal behavior threw this country into the worst economic downturn in the modern history of the United States of America,” he retorted. “And I will be damned if it was the working people of this country who have to bail out the crooks on Wall Street.” The crowd took that one well.</p>
<p>Taking the audience reception as his cue to keep after Clinton, Sanders pointed out how one of them (guess who?) had a super PAC, and one had given speeches on Wall Street for large sums of money. Must be a “great speech,” he added. “I think we should release it.”</p>
<p>Clinton was in a corner, but as she has before, she positioned herself as someone who might seem to do the wrong thing in the moment but is right in the long run. “I’ll be happy to release whatever I have as long as everybody else does, too,” she said, saying that the real question is whether she can stand up to Wall Street.</p>
<p>And in another clever moment of revision, Clinton insinuated that it was exactly her close proximity to Wall Street that uniquely equipped her to take its leaders to task. “I told them they were wrecking the economy,” she said.</p>
<p>Sanders wasn’t buying her sales pitch, and he dialed up the contrast again in a theatrical gesture showing how much he had been paid for his own pro-Wall Street speechifying. “I release it—it ain’t nothin’!” he said. Clinton laughed. * * *</p>
<p>5:39 p.m. PST: Sanders and Clinton made the most of the backdrop, and the moment, as they played up—or ginned up—their populist credentials in light of the Flint water crisis.</p>
<p>The debate started on a note of solidarity, as both candidates agreed that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder should be forced to resign. CNN debate moderator Anderson Cooper pointed out that the stance represented a new development on Clinton’s part.</p>
<p>Sanders declared that the lead poisoning catastrophe and the toll it took on Flint citizens “literally shattered me and was beyond belief.” Drawing links to the bigger picture, Sanders added that “what is happening in Flint is happening throughout this country.”</p>
<p>“I’ll start by saying amen to that,” Clinton chimed in, helpfully informing the audience that it was her idea to hold the latest Democratic presidential faceoff in the beleaguered Michigan city. Getting down to specifics, she told concerned citizens in attendance that “the state is derelict in not coming forward with the money that’s required,” and that, as president, she would make sure remedies to the water crisis were “triple-checked to regain your trust.”</p>
<p>As for what he’d do for Flint from the Oval Office, Sanders summed up his plan succinctly: If local representatives and agencies fail to take charge, “Federal government comes in, federal government acts.” Pulling a dose of chutzpah from his activist past, Sanders went further, suggesting that Flint residents should not be on the hook to pay their water bill—which recently amounted to three times more, he said, than what he pays for water service in Burlington, Vt.—for “poisoned water.”</p>
<p>As for who should be on the hook, Sanders spoke plainly: “President Sanders would fire anybody who knew what was happening and did not act appropriately,” he said. Contrasting the neglect of America’s infrastructure with bloated defense spending, Sanders called for “changing our national priorities” in Washington and on Wall Street. To another Flint resident who wondered what took politicians so long to wise up and show up to talk solutions, Sanders said, “I will make a personal promise to you that the EPA … will make sure that every water system in the U.S. is tested” and that the people know the quality of the water that they’re drinking. * * *</p>
<p>Both the setting of Sunday night’s Democratic debate in Flint, Mich., and the timing were significant. The city is in the midst of a major public health and governmental crisis, and Super Tuesday was just five days before.</p>
<p>The seventh confrontation between Clinton and Sanders also took place a day after Sanders emerged victorious in two state primaries and Clinton picked up one win.</p>
<p>Earlier Sunday, news broke that former first lady Nancy Reagan had died—an <a href="" type="internal">end-of-an-era event</a> commemorated by Cooper and observed with a moment of silence at the opening of the debate.</p>
<p>Host network CNN also <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/06/politics/democratic-debate-highlights/index.html" type="external">pointed out</a> the auspicious timing of Sunday’s debate:</p>
<p>Their showdown comes a day after Sanders pulled off morale-boosting Super Saturday victories in caucuses in Kansas and Nebraska, doubling up on Clinton, who won one matchup—the Louisiana primary.</p>
<p>Yet such is the math of the presidential nominating process that Clinton won 57 pledged delegates to the 50 hauled in by Sanders, and so extended her lead in the overall Democratic presidential race.</p>
<p>The rivals also face off Sunday in Democratic caucuses in Maine, where polls will close just as they step onto the debate stage.</p>
<p>Before his encounter with Clinton, Sanders drew upon Saturday’s wins in an effort to <a href="" type="internal">build momentum</a> in the next phase of his campaign.</p>
<p>Once again, we’ll be updating this live blog throughout the debate.</p>
<p>—Posted by <a href="" type="internal">Kasia Anderson</a></p> | true | 4 | cnncom 703 pm pst tonight flint mich horrendous tragedy taking place flint mich bernie sanders said closing statement reflected one key throughlines latest scrimmage two standing dems local national also country hold without addressing crumbling infrastructure lifting struggling lower classes fracking public education religion certain big orangehued elephant room scrappy debates final stretch conclusion exchange sanders hillary clinton made strong showings neither likely gained great edge regarding fracking clinton may protested much figuratively speaking giving wordy answer whether shed support controversial energygrabbing practice dont support locality state number one said dont support release methane contamination water present unless require anybody fracks tell us exactly chemicals use right wait think many places america fracking continue take place said slightly clarifying stance sanders bluntness served well response fracking query answer lot shorter support fracking said vermont senator also jumped chance play another card strong suit public education believe every public college university country tuitionfree child regardless income family knows studies hard going able go college sanders said clinton sanders worked hard refute rightwing refrain godless liberals reactions pious audience members request flash spiritual credentials sanders said believed god relevant questioner put spoke pride jewish background combined familys history persecuted holocaust helped understand crazy radical extremist politics mean clinton said hadnt connected higher power spending time white house would found religion roof 1600 pennsylvania ave pray god known know best limited ability try follow added speaking extremism donald trumps unholy name raised debates final minutes naturally sanders clinton claimed better chance beating republican frontrunner presidential polling booths donald trumps bigotry bullying bluster going wear well american people clinton said adding look forward engaging sanders shared clintons confidence would love run donald trump ill tell said claiming almost every poll shown sanders versus trump lot better clinton versus trump depends ask varying answers question look reminded one trumps goto slams sanderscalling sanders communistthe selfdescribed democratic socialist ready wry retort one nice things said 632 pm pst niceties way next halfhour consisted tussles issues gun control income inequality racial injustice mass incarceration engaging hotbutton topics well sanders clinton attempted step forward enlightened option represent africanamerican votersrather yet another white politician claiming feel others pain lining pockets must pause note sanders sundays caucuses maine guardians coverage bernie sanders maine democratic caucuses sunday fifth victory caucus state following wins nebraska kansas saturday 775 results counted leftwing vermont senator 642 vote former secretary states 356 another doubledigit victory wide margins states new england rocky mountains midwest great plains said sanders statement put campaign faced clinton debate flint michigan meanwhile gop candidate marco rubio prevailed puerto rico back regularly scheduled programming cnns lemon posed racially oriented questions candidates asking account blind spots describe doneand dofor cause social justice acknowledged couldnt claim fully understand racism selfreference alone know never experience many people america audience clinton said sanders seconded sentiments pointing activism civil rights movement pledged end institutional racism clinton found hot seat husbands legislative past subject criminal justice came back haunt potential indicators likely moves front black people trust time get right lemon asked clinton acknowledged 1990s criminal justice bill president clinton signed added countrys deplorable mass incarceration emergency knows better said would go systemic racism stalks criminal justice system ending private prisons ending incarceration lowlevel offenders spotting chance pull rival fray asked well sen sanders supported clinton bill well going ask question sanders answered past saying bill represented instance bad stuff good stuff coexisted piece legislation fierce fighter domestic violence bill ban assault weapons ive fought whole life bill tried get death penalty aspects bill secretary clinton disagree opposed death penalty judging audiences response good countermove 555 pm pst two democratic presidential hopefuls united front came tumbling accurately sanders took jackhammer somewhere around 25minute mark clearly determined point record differs sharply clintons sanders assumed antagonistic stance maintained took task repeatedly starting support series disastrous trade agreements written corporate america meanwhile said picket line early 1990s nafta clinton pivoted drew upon potential strength collection legislative greatest hits playing moment sure resonate local community voted save auto industry said adding sanders voted talking wall street bailout friends destroyed economy sanders shot back insinuating clinton close financial leaders hold accountable contrast said ultimately look records stood corporate america time time collecting counter sanders first attack trade agreements clinton recast changed position transpacific partnership product careful consideration rather outright flipflop thought reasonable actually see opposed opposed said supporting 2008 bailout well also greater good clinton claimed thrown bailout effort said believe auto industry would collapsed taking 4 million jobs didnt scan sanders believe recklessness greed illegal behavior threw country worst economic downturn modern history united states america retorted damned working people country bail crooks wall street crowd took one well taking audience reception cue keep clinton sanders pointed one guess super pac one given speeches wall street large sums money must great speech added think release clinton corner positioned someone might seem wrong thing moment right long run ill happy release whatever long everybody else said saying real question whether stand wall street another clever moment revision clinton insinuated exactly close proximity wall street uniquely equipped take leaders task told wrecking economy said sanders wasnt buying sales pitch dialed contrast theatrical gesture showing much paid prowall street speechifying release itit aint nothin said clinton laughed 539 pm pst sanders clinton made backdrop moment played upor ginned uptheir populist credentials light flint water crisis debate started note solidarity candidates agreed michigan gov rick snyder forced resign cnn debate moderator anderson cooper pointed stance represented new development clintons part sanders declared lead poisoning catastrophe toll took flint citizens literally shattered beyond belief drawing links bigger picture sanders added happening flint happening throughout country ill start saying amen clinton chimed helpfully informing audience idea hold latest democratic presidential faceoff beleaguered michigan city getting specifics told concerned citizens attendance state derelict coming forward money thats required president would make sure remedies water crisis triplechecked regain trust hed flint oval office sanders summed plan succinctly local representatives agencies fail take charge federal government comes federal government acts pulling dose chutzpah activist past sanders went suggesting flint residents hook pay water billwhich recently amounted three times said pays water service burlington vtfor poisoned water hook sanders spoke plainly president sanders would fire anybody knew happening act appropriately said contrasting neglect americas infrastructure bloated defense spending sanders called changing national priorities washington wall street another flint resident wondered took politicians long wise show talk solutions sanders said make personal promise epa make sure every water system us tested people know quality water theyre drinking setting sunday nights democratic debate flint mich timing significant city midst major public health governmental crisis super tuesday five days seventh confrontation clinton sanders also took place day sanders emerged victorious two state primaries clinton picked one win earlier sunday news broke former first lady nancy reagan diedan endofanera event commemorated cooper observed moment silence opening debate host network cnn also pointed auspicious timing sundays debate showdown comes day sanders pulled moraleboosting super saturday victories caucuses kansas nebraska doubling clinton one matchupthe louisiana primary yet math presidential nominating process clinton 57 pledged delegates 50 hauled sanders extended lead overall democratic presidential race rivals also face sunday democratic caucuses maine polls close step onto debate stage encounter clinton sanders drew upon saturdays wins effort build momentum next phase campaign well updating live blog throughout debate posted kasia anderson | 1,221 |
<p>A stroll through many American urban landscapes confirms that music is as much a political phenomenon as a sonic one. A walker realizes this without ever hearing a note. While not as large as the giant stadiums that dominate many a city’s riverfront or harbor side, symphony halls and opera houses often occupy acres of honor near the temples of city government or the towers financial power—or both.&#160; In San Francisco, the hulking, de-ornamented Beaux-Arts façade of War Memorial Opera House stands opposite the Roman splendor of the Civic Center’s Michelangeline dome, like a Parisian dandy and an Italian pope eyeing one another from the far ends of an empty dance floor. The intervening street (Van Ness Avenue) and plaza may provide space for human activity, but their lowliness only augments the entwined majesty of high culture and governmental power.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, from Seattle’s Benaroya Hall to the billion Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, giant projects get plunked in downtowns, long-ago places with real urban culture rather than the wastelands now exploited for cultural redevelopment. Perched above the former sleaze district in Seattle, Benaroya consumes an entire block in the shadow of the reservoir-tipped Washington Mutual Tower, still rising proudly in spite of the collapse of Wamu under sub-prime pressure. Notwithstanding public relations pronouncements about the thriving shops, cafes, and galleries in the “neighborhood,” the ten-year-old hall has not revivified after-hours urban life in the district. With its waterfalls and shady spots, the half-acre Garden of Remembrance on the downhill side of the block is a nice patch of urban space for daytime kids and wandering concert-goers, but it does not constitute an urban park. It, too, suffers from the sterility of prestige. After the concert ends the entire quarter is quickly emptied of life. Only the invisible service workers remain behind.</p>
<p>Moated by highways and secured with bunkered parking, these glamorous projects are really no more than the upscale malls for the consumption of high culture, allowing suburbanites to shuttle into culture events in the safety and comfort of their cars, then head back home with their shopping bags full of snatches of symphony, a brush with the boss, and a general feeling of having arrived at a certain station in life, even if commuting to work and to a night out are mostly about departures.&#160; Bars and restaurants ensconced within the walls of these castles of high culture are essentially upscale food courts that provide the ersatz experience of city life.</p>
<p>Have a look at Dallas’s biggest-most expensive-in-the-world arts project floating in a gray sea of concrete and weep over the brutal exercise of power and wealth that is high culture when wielded by the big hands of Texas oil men . (Here’s the <a href="" type="external">Dallas project</a>.) But shed your bitterest tears for this apocalyptic vision of “urban” life and design, two malls—one cultural the other “traditional’—divided by an eight-lane freeway; parking lots and roads, deadly to cross by foot, close its borders, everywhere strips of sprawling mayhem.</p>
<p>Where the Arabs and Asians race to build the highest skyscraper, the Texans favor the horizontal for their open-range cultural ambitions. They flout the billion-dollar price tag and their usual-suspect, dream-team of architects—Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and Rem Koolhaas—with the subtlety of a Longhorn bull mounting a comely heifer.</p>
<p>Who can be fooled by the Center’s PR descriptions of the area as finding a “home” in “the heart of the downtown Dallas Arts District.” In the current age, everything can be named, as in the individual parts of the Norman Foster-designed Winspear opera house. Their publicity machine tells us that the “Simmons Glass Façade” will provide a sweeping view of downtown Dallas and portions of Uptown,” as if one were in Manhattan not in a post-urban no-man’s land.</p>
<p>Yet the clichés of political correctitude have even encroached on atavistic Texas: of course the opera house “is designed to be the environmentally conscious, state-of-the-art standard against which future opera houses will be measured”—a prospect that will certainly let the big-haired ladies and their Stetson-topped men snooze more easily through Lohengrin after having driven in for the evening in their patriotic gas hogs, and flown in architects, materials, singers from all over the globe.</p>
<p>Similarly disingenuous is the claim that the green areas provided by Foster’s “Grand Portico will provide shade over three acres of the Performance Park creating new outdoor spaces for visitors and nearby residents to gather and relax.” Nearby residents? Forgive me, but I doubt any of the nearby bail bondsmen and prostitutes will be venturing across the ghastly perimeter of expressways to take in the useful things Mozart had to say about sex in or around Norman Foster’s red building. The lawns and tree-lined avenues of the pseudo-park-like campus of the Arts Center only augment the artificiality of the whole project. Dallas rolls out bright green turf as easily as a red carpet.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to hear a performance of Così fan tutte next year in the Dallas Opera’s inaugural season in their new house.&#160; But I can think of few worse things than making my way through the encircling blight to this Jerusalem of the Arts shining on the benighted concrete prairie.</p>
<p>Retrofitting for this new age of the Performing Arts Center can be even more expensive than cannibalizing the disused expanses of Dallas, as the one billion dollar renovation project now under way at Lincoln Center in New York makes clear. Lincoln Center was the pioneer project that all subsequent efforts somehow must measure themselves against. In turn, New Yorkers must keep pace with their competitors, and are doing so by tempering the austere modernism of the original Lincoln Center conception towards something more dynamic, to use the buzzwords of modern urban planning.</p>
<p>The groundbreaking ceremony at Lincoln Center took place fifty years ago last month. A low-income neighborhood had been razed to make way for the arts complex. After Leonard Bernstein had conducted the New York Philharmonic in a performance of Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” — apparently not the common men displaced by the wrecking ball—President Eisenhower flung open his well-worn Cold War score, and duly predicted that Lincoln Center would become a “mighty influence for peace and understanding throughout the world.”&#160; Music, too, was an important weapon against the Evil Empire. But on the more local level, New York can at least claim to be one of the few remaining urban centers in the United States in which there are actually large numbers of people living near major cultural venues.</p>
<p>In principle, the initiative to convert some sixteen acres of parking lots, garage on-ramps, and kindred forms of automative chaos between Los Angeles’s art deco City Hall and the so-called Music Center (an would-be ensemble of four venues including the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Walt Disney Concert Hall) is a good thing. Give me a park over parking any time.</p>
<p>But bells of alarm and protest have been rung. Many have criticized the project for bringing a park to a place with relatively few residents, when South Central Los Angeles is in dire need of such spaces.</p>
<p>Also troubling to many is that fact that the project is funded and managed, with public oversight, by a private developer, the ominously-named Related Companies.&#160; Much of the $50 million price tag for the park was demanded of the company as the price for permission to build the $3 billion dollar, Frank Gehry-designed Grand Avenue Project. Other monies were granted for the park from dubious state funds meant to subsidize low-income urban housing. The public-private partnership offers the city a free park, one packaged with the rubric “this is what we can afford.”&#160; In a California of dissolving budgets and credit, the park’s backers boast that “the money is in the bank,” much of it soon to be spent on unsnarling the ramps and readjusting the terrain for underpasses. Rather than commit real public money to a real public project, Los Angeles is promised a park without having to pay for its construction themselves. The County Supervisors approved the design in April of this year.</p>
<p>A Grand Avenue Park Public Outreach Meeting of April 22, 2008, held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion which looks out over what will become the park, unveiled this design. This was what was “possible” said County Supervisor Gloria Molina, a major backer of the project. Also on show were “dreams” of future expansions and improvements which would include removing two more governmental buildings and adding a further ten acres to the space.</p>
<p>William Witte, President of Related Companies, assured those in attendance that a “healthy dose of self-interest” would ensure that his sought company the best possible result for the park.&#160; They would get absolutely no money out of its management, but a nice park would make their Grand Avenue project more attractive.</p>
<p>Parks are signs of a city’s wealth and standing, and Witte casually mentioned in his introductory remarks that he had been to Millennium Park&#160; in Chicago, now world famous as the site of Obama’s victory celebration. Witte quickly revved up the eternal engine of California real estate: the weather. During his February trip to the Windy City Millennium Park was covered by a foot of snow, Witte grinned.&#160; “We don’t have that,” he boasted. In LA the welcoming weather will insure year-round use under the smiling sun. But in the same breath, Witte admitted that Chicago had “much more downtown density” in terms of population. The developer thus left open the question of exactly where all of the park’s users would come from.</p>
<p>At the same meeting, a citizen grey haired man in a cowboy hat describing himself as “one of the few people who actually lives downtown” stepped up to the microphone to raise some thorny questions about traffic and other disruptions.</p>
<p>The “nearby visitor” almost comically posited by the Dallas hucksters is conjured with like fervor by proponents of the park in LA. One wonders. In spite of all the open-space-speak about a programmable park that will welcome concerts, protests, or nurture the solitary pleasures of a book and a cup of coffee, this is all seems less about people then about the symbols.</p>
<p>Enslaved to the automobile, downtown Los Angeles is one of the most park-poor cities in the world.&#160; An open space with any integrity whatever is better than the jumble of nonsense that now spreads between these points. But I have my doubts about calling this a real park regardless of its design and in spite of all the democratic rhetoric being lofted up on its behalf.</p>
<p>Sandwiched between the architectural icons of monied music and state power, Civic Park will, I suspect, be mostly about the show rather than the people, about scenery rather than real life. Since Hollywood celebrates itself each year with the Oscar spectacle at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which will now have a front row seat on LA’s Central Park, this is perhaps as it should be.</p>
<p>DAVID YEARSLEY teaches at Cornell University. A long-time contributor to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, he is author of <a href="" type="internal">Bach and the Meanings of Counterpoint</a>His latest CD, “All Your Cares Beguile: Songs and Sonatas from Baroque London”, has just been released by <a href="http://www.musicaomnia.org/index2.htm" type="external">Musica Omnia</a>. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | stroll many american urban landscapes confirms music much political phenomenon sonic one walker realizes without ever hearing note large giant stadiums dominate many citys riverfront harbor side symphony halls opera houses often occupy acres honor near temples city government towers financial poweror both160 san francisco hulking deornamented beauxarts façade war memorial opera house stands opposite roman splendor civic centers michelangeline dome like parisian dandy italian pope eyeing one another far ends empty dance floor intervening street van ness avenue plaza may provide space human activity lowliness augments entwined majesty high culture governmental power elsewhere seattles benaroya hall billion dallas center performing arts giant projects get plunked downtowns longago places real urban culture rather wastelands exploited cultural redevelopment perched former sleaze district seattle benaroya consumes entire block shadow reservoirtipped washington mutual tower still rising proudly spite collapse wamu subprime pressure notwithstanding public relations pronouncements thriving shops cafes galleries neighborhood tenyearold hall revivified afterhours urban life district waterfalls shady spots halfacre garden remembrance downhill side block nice patch urban space daytime kids wandering concertgoers constitute urban park suffers sterility prestige concert ends entire quarter quickly emptied life invisible service workers remain behind moated highways secured bunkered parking glamorous projects really upscale malls consumption high culture allowing suburbanites shuttle culture events safety comfort cars head back home shopping bags full snatches symphony brush boss general feeling arrived certain station life even commuting work night mostly departures160 bars restaurants ensconced within walls castles high culture essentially upscale food courts provide ersatz experience city life look dallass biggestmost expensiveintheworld arts project floating gray sea concrete weep brutal exercise power wealth high culture wielded big hands texas oil men heres dallas project shed bitterest tears apocalyptic vision urban life design two mallsone cultural traditionaldivided eightlane freeway parking lots roads deadly cross foot close borders everywhere strips sprawling mayhem arabs asians race build highest skyscraper texans favor horizontal openrange cultural ambitions flout billiondollar price tag usualsuspect dreamteam architectsnorman foster richard rogers rem koolhaaswith subtlety longhorn bull mounting comely heifer fooled centers pr descriptions area finding home heart downtown dallas arts district current age everything named individual parts norman fosterdesigned winspear opera house publicity machine tells us simmons glass façade provide sweeping view downtown dallas portions uptown one manhattan posturban nomans land yet clichés political correctitude even encroached atavistic texas course opera house designed environmentally conscious stateoftheart standard future opera houses measureda prospect certainly let bighaired ladies stetsontopped men snooze easily lohengrin driven evening patriotic gas hogs flown architects materials singers globe similarly disingenuous claim green areas provided fosters grand portico provide shade three acres performance park creating new outdoor spaces visitors nearby residents gather relax nearby residents forgive doubt nearby bail bondsmen prostitutes venturing across ghastly perimeter expressways take useful things mozart say sex around norman fosters red building lawns treelined avenues pseudoparklike campus arts center augment artificiality whole project dallas rolls bright green turf easily red carpet dont get wrong id love hear performance così fan tutte next year dallas operas inaugural season new house160 think worse things making way encircling blight jerusalem arts shining benighted concrete prairie retrofitting new age performing arts center even expensive cannibalizing disused expanses dallas one billion dollar renovation project way lincoln center new york makes clear lincoln center pioneer project subsequent efforts somehow must measure turn new yorkers must keep pace competitors tempering austere modernism original lincoln center conception towards something dynamic use buzzwords modern urban planning groundbreaking ceremony lincoln center took place fifty years ago last month lowincome neighborhood razed make way arts complex leonard bernstein conducted new york philharmonic performance coplands fanfare common man apparently common men displaced wrecking ballpresident eisenhower flung open wellworn cold war score duly predicted lincoln center would become mighty influence peace understanding throughout world160 music important weapon evil empire local level new york least claim one remaining urban centers united states actually large numbers people living near major cultural venues principle initiative convert sixteen acres parking lots garage onramps kindred forms automative chaos los angeless art deco city hall socalled music center wouldbe ensemble four venues including dorothy chandler pavilion walt disney concert hall good thing give park parking time bells alarm protest rung many criticized project bringing park place relatively residents south central los angeles dire need spaces also troubling many fact project funded managed public oversight private developer ominouslynamed related companies160 much 50 million price tag park demanded company price permission build 3 billion dollar frank gehrydesigned grand avenue project monies granted park dubious state funds meant subsidize lowincome urban housing publicprivate partnership offers city free park one packaged rubric afford160 california dissolving budgets credit parks backers boast money bank much soon spent unsnarling ramps readjusting terrain underpasses rather commit real public money real public project los angeles promised park without pay construction county supervisors approved design april year grand avenue park public outreach meeting april 22 2008 held dorothy chandler pavilion looks become park unveiled design possible said county supervisor gloria molina major backer project also show dreams future expansions improvements would include removing two governmental buildings adding ten acres space william witte president related companies assured attendance healthy dose selfinterest would ensure sought company best possible result park160 would get absolutely money management nice park would make grand avenue project attractive parks signs citys wealth standing witte casually mentioned introductory remarks millennium park160 chicago world famous site obamas victory celebration witte quickly revved eternal engine california real estate weather february trip windy city millennium park covered foot snow witte grinned160 dont boasted la welcoming weather insure yearround use smiling sun breath witte admitted chicago much downtown density terms population developer thus left open question exactly parks users would come meeting citizen grey haired man cowboy hat describing one people actually lives downtown stepped microphone raise thorny questions traffic disruptions nearby visitor almost comically posited dallas hucksters conjured like fervor proponents park la one wonders spite openspacespeak programmable park welcome concerts protests nurture solitary pleasures book cup coffee seems less people symbols enslaved automobile downtown los angeles one parkpoor cities world160 open space integrity whatever better jumble nonsense spreads points doubts calling real park regardless design spite democratic rhetoric lofted behalf sandwiched architectural icons monied music state power civic park suspect mostly show rather people scenery rather real life since hollywood celebrates year oscar spectacle dorothy chandler pavilion front row seat las central park perhaps david yearsley teaches cornell university longtime contributor anderson valley advertiser author bach meanings counterpointhis latest cd cares beguile songs sonatas baroque london released musica omnia reached dgy2cornelledu 160 | 1,083 |
<p>Firearms with silencers at a gun range at NRA headquarters, March 2017Ali Rizvi/ZUMA</p>
<p>Ever since gun silencers were first regulated in the 1930s, they have been used only rarely in violent crimes, with one notable recent exception: In early February 2013, a former police officer using a silencer on a 9mm Glock shot a young couple sitting in their car in what&#160;the <a href="https://www.policefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Police-Under-Attack.pdf" type="external">Police Foundation called</a> a “gang-style hit.” “Not a single neighbor had heard or seen a thing,” the Police Foundation wrote in its report about the beginning of a string of murders committed by Christopher Dorner in Southern California. In “lightning bolt attacks” over the following 10 days, Dorner killed two police officers and wounded several others—including an officer who was <a href="http://abc7.com/news/officer-shot-9-times-by-dorner-relives-terrifying-night/1187870/" type="external">shot nine times</a> but survived—and drew a legion of cops into the mountains, where he eventually shot himself to death as they closed in.</p>
<p>Now, a bill known as the&#160; <a href="https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr3668/BILLS-115hr3668ih.pdf" type="external">Hearing Protection Act</a>&#160;that is quietly making its way through Congress proposes to remove silencers from the list of regulated items under the National Firearms Act of 1934. The bill—co-sponsored by&#160;Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/14/politics/mo-brooks-shooting-intv-new-day-transcript-cnntv/index.html" type="external">who narrowly missed getting shot</a> in June when a gunman attacked a congressional baseball practice—would make the purchase of a silencer subject only to an&#160;instant background check, or potentially to no regulation at all in states that don’t require background checks for gun sales in private, at gun shows and online.</p>
<p>The new legislation “assaults the interests of our nation’s law enforcement officials and threatens our public safety and security,” David Chipman, a retired ATF special agent and senior policy adviser at Americans for Responsible Solutions, <a href="http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/David-Chipman-ARS-testimony-9.12.17.pdf" type="external">said</a> at a recent congressional hearing. “When silencers are used in crime, the results are particularly deadly.”</p>
<p>Donald Trump Jr. has thrown his weight behind the bill: In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vlu2G5UkXk" type="external">38-minute interview</a> with the CEO of one of the largest gun silencer manufacturers in the nation during his father’s presidential campaign, Trump Jr. argued that the regulation of silencers is just another example of “arbitrary policies by people who don’t know what they’re talking about.” When asked by SilencerCo’s CEO Joshua Waldron whether Trump as president would sign the Hearing Protection Act, Trump Jr. responded: “We would want to go through Congress, we would want to do it the right way, but if you line up those votes, he’s obviously gonna be for it.”</p>
<p>Silencers currently are legally obtainable after submitting an application, passing a background check, submitting fingerprints, paying a $200 fee, and registering the silencer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). Because paperwork must be filed with the&#160; <a href="" type="internal">overburdened and underfunded agency</a>, wait times can be months-long. The Hearing Protection Act—which House Republicans in June folded into the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr3668/BILLS-115hr3668ih.pdf" type="external">Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act</a> (SHARE Act), a bi-partisan package that typically passes with little drama—would do away with these hurdles.</p>
<p>Advocates of the bill argue that silencers have no nefarious purpose, but instead improve conditions for hunters and people who use <a href="" type="internal">shooting ranges</a>. Silencers “reduce the damage that gunshots do to the shooter in terms of their hearing, and reduce the overall noise impact for everyone,” says Todd Rathner, a gun rights lobbyist and executive director of the <a href="https://www.nfafa.org/about.cfm" type="external">NFA Freedom Alliance</a>, which campaigns to roll back restrictions on items regulated by the National Firearms Act. “If firearm sound suppressors were treated the way lawnmowers and chainsaws were treated, they would be required on firearms,” Rathner says, adding that opposition to the gear is “a cynical, knee-jerk political reaction, not one based on knowledge or experience.”</p>
<p>A <a href="http://americansforresponsiblesolutions.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Law-Enforcement-Memo.pdf" type="external">recent memo</a> from the Law Enforcement Coalition for Common Sense, signed by more than a dozen current and former law enforcement leaders, argues that deregulating silencers could have “devastating effects” on public safety and the safety of law enforcement officers. “Silencers mask the sound of a gun, changing the sound into one not easily recognized as gunfire,” the memo says. “As a result, assassination-style murders become easier, and bystanders may not know to alert first responders…This proposal would pose an additional threat to law enforcement at a time where officer safety is already at increased risk.”&#160;</p>
<p>The push for the bill may also be an effort to boost a potentially lucrative revenue stream for the gun industry, which has been hurting since the presidential election—a phenomenon dubbed the “ <a href="" type="internal">Trump Slump</a>.” (The <a href="" type="internal">gun industry enjoyed record sales</a> under the Obama administration and experienced spikes amid predictions that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election. But when Trump won, and fears of a massive “gun confiscation” could no longer be so easily stoked, the urgency to stock up on firearms and accessories dissipated.)&#160;A month after Trump’s inauguration, SilencerCo, the nation’s largest manufacturer of gun suppressors, was reportedly forced to lay off approximately <a href="https://modernrifleman.net/2017/02/02/mass-layoffs-at-silencerco/" type="external">50 percent</a> of its workforce.</p>
<p>“Sales have declined to the degree where…many silencer companies are fearing for their business,” Phil Sansotta, online marketing manager for silencer manufacturer <a href="https://gemtech.com/" type="external">GEMTECH</a>, told Task &amp; Purpose. “Right now, everyone is trying to weather the storm.”</p>
<p>Still, industry leaders see a lucrative market that could be unlocked by the legislation: In an interview with the&#160; <a href="http://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=5359341&amp;itype=CMSID" type="external">Salt Lake Tribune</a> in June, SilencerCo President Jason Schauble said, “There are 300 million firearms out there and [about] 1 million silencers. That shows you the relative scale of the business opportunity.”</p>
<p>Rep. Brooks, who is also <a href="http://nypost.com/2017/06/18/congressman-to-push-bill-that-lets-lawmakers-carry-guns/" type="external">pushing legislation</a> that would allow lawmakers to carry sidearms,&#160; <a href="https://palmer.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/meet-members-congress-who-pack-heat" type="external">once said</a> his reasons for carrying a gun are because of “terrorism” and “crime” and that “you never know when either one is going to happen.” Several&#160;hours before the silencer bill’s first scheduled hearing on June 14, Brooks was practicing baseball with other&#160;Republican members of Congress on the outskirts of Washington D.C.&#160;when a gunman, James Hodgkinson, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/law-enforcement-officials-identify-shooter-at-congressional-ballgame-as-illinois-man/2017/06/14/ba6439f4-510f-11e7-91eb-9611861a988f_story.html?utm_term=.279e8352265d" type="external">approached from a nearby YMCA</a> where he’d been laying in wait and opened fire.&#160;Brooks was on deck to bat when he heard “a loud blam,” he <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jun/14/mo-brooks-tells-shooting-steve-scalise-crawled-out/" type="external">told CNN</a>. “And I look around and behind third base, in the third base dugout, which is cinder blocks, I see a rifle and a little bit of a body, and then I hear another blam, and I realize there is an active shooter.”</p>
<p>Brooks ran, and soon was taking cover on the ground with two or three others as the gunfire continued. I hear a break in the gunfire and decided to take a chance and ran to the dugout, which is…cinder block and down about 2 or 3 feet.”</p>
<p>By the end of the attack, two congressional aides, two police officers, and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise had been shot. Thankfully none were killed. (Law enforcement officers responding to the attack shot and killed Hodgkinson.)</p>
<p>What more damage might have been done that day, had Hodgkinson used a silencer?</p>
<p>Brooks and the other backers of the Hearing Protection Act apparently are unconcerned with that question. On September 12, the House Committee on Natural Resources <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=402754" type="external">held a hearing</a> on the SHARE Act and issued final <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/uploadedfiles/fc_mu_memo_--_hr_3668_09.12.17__09.13.17.pdf" type="external">markups</a>. Proponents expect a House floor vote soon, and they expect the legislation to pass.</p> | true | 4 | firearms silencers gun range nra headquarters march 2017ali rizvizuma ever since gun silencers first regulated 1930s used rarely violent crimes one notable recent exception early february 2013 former police officer using silencer 9mm glock shot young couple sitting car what160the police foundation called gangstyle hit single neighbor heard seen thing police foundation wrote report beginning string murders committed christopher dorner southern california lightning bolt attacks following 10 days dorner killed two police officers wounded several othersincluding officer shot nine times survivedand drew legion cops mountains eventually shot death closed bill known the160 hearing protection act160that quietly making way congress proposes remove silencers list regulated items national firearms act 1934 billcosponsored by160rep mo brooks ral narrowly missed getting shot june gunman attacked congressional baseball practicewould make purchase silencer subject an160instant background check potentially regulation states dont require background checks gun sales private gun shows online new legislation assaults interests nations law enforcement officials threatens public safety security david chipman retired atf special agent senior policy adviser americans responsible solutions said recent congressional hearing silencers used crime results particularly deadly donald trump jr thrown weight behind bill 38minute interview ceo one largest gun silencer manufacturers nation fathers presidential campaign trump jr argued regulation silencers another example arbitrary policies people dont know theyre talking asked silencercos ceo joshua waldron whether trump president would sign hearing protection act trump jr responded would want go congress would want right way line votes hes obviously gon na silencers currently legally obtainable submitting application passing background check submitting fingerprints paying 200 fee registering silencer bureau alcohol tobacco firearms atf paperwork must filed the160 overburdened underfunded agency wait times monthslong hearing protection actwhich house republicans june folded sportsmens heritage recreational enhancement act share act bipartisan package typically passes little dramawould away hurdles advocates bill argue silencers nefarious purpose instead improve conditions hunters people use shooting ranges silencers reduce damage gunshots shooter terms hearing reduce overall noise impact everyone says todd rathner gun rights lobbyist executive director nfa freedom alliance campaigns roll back restrictions items regulated national firearms act firearm sound suppressors treated way lawnmowers chainsaws treated would required firearms rathner says adding opposition gear cynical kneejerk political reaction one based knowledge experience recent memo law enforcement coalition common sense signed dozen current former law enforcement leaders argues deregulating silencers could devastating effects public safety safety law enforcement officers silencers mask sound gun changing sound one easily recognized gunfire memo says result assassinationstyle murders become easier bystanders may know alert first respondersthis proposal would pose additional threat law enforcement time officer safety already increased risk160 push bill may also effort boost potentially lucrative revenue stream gun industry hurting since presidential electiona phenomenon dubbed trump slump gun industry enjoyed record sales obama administration experienced spikes amid predictions hillary clinton would win 2016 election trump fears massive gun confiscation could longer easily stoked urgency stock firearms accessories dissipated160a month trumps inauguration silencerco nations largest manufacturer gun suppressors reportedly forced lay approximately 50 percent workforce sales declined degree wheremany silencer companies fearing business phil sansotta online marketing manager silencer manufacturer gemtech told task amp purpose right everyone trying weather storm still industry leaders see lucrative market could unlocked legislation interview the160 salt lake tribune june silencerco president jason schauble said 300 million firearms 1 million silencers shows relative scale business opportunity rep brooks also pushing legislation would allow lawmakers carry sidearms160 said reasons carrying gun terrorism crime never know either one going happen several160hours silencer bills first scheduled hearing june 14 brooks practicing baseball other160republican members congress outskirts washington dc160when gunman james hodgkinson approached nearby ymca hed laying wait opened fire160brooks deck bat heard loud blam told cnn look around behind third base third base dugout cinder blocks see rifle little bit body hear another blam realize active shooter brooks ran soon taking cover ground two three others gunfire continued hear break gunfire decided take chance ran dugout iscinder block 2 3 feet end attack two congressional aides two police officers house majority whip steve scalise shot thankfully none killed law enforcement officers responding attack shot killed hodgkinson damage might done day hodgkinson used silencer brooks backers hearing protection act apparently unconcerned question september 12 house committee natural resources held hearing share act issued final markups proponents expect house floor vote soon expect legislation pass | 713 |
<p>Robert Kelley is a licensed nuclear engineer who has worked on many aspects of nuclear weapons and later on nuclear nonproliferation. His personal experiences include weapons simulation testing, plutonium metallurgy, isotope separation and emergency response. These experiences were extremely useful in carrying out intelligence analyses of foreign countries and lead to field experience as a chief inspector in Iraq nuclear weapons inspections and elsewhere. He is currently affiliated with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden and several other nonproliferation organizations.</p>
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<p /> JAISAL NOOR, PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News. I'm Jaisal Noor in Baltimore.
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<p />In the latest news on the Iran nuclear deal, the international regulatory agency is rejecting a report that threatens to throw a wrench in the securing of a survival of the P5+ deal in Congress. On Wednesday the Associated Press cited a secret draft deal between the IAEA and Iranian negotiators that would allow Iran to carry out its own inspection of the Parchin military site. This claim has not been independently verified.
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<p />Before the publication of the report, Republicans had acknowledged the Iran nuclear deal had been necessary to support to prevent Congress from blocking it. But speaking to the AP after the publication of the report, Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner asked, why haven't these secret site agreements been provided to Congress and the American people for review? Why should Iran be trusted to carry out its own nuclear inspections at a military site it tried to hide from the world? According to Reuters, the IAEA has called the report a, quote, misrepresentation.
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<p />Now joining us to discuss this is Robert Kelley. He's joining us from Europe. He's a former nuclear weapons analyst at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and a former director at the IAEA. He's also an associate research fellow at the Stockholm International Peace and Research Institute. Thanks so much for joining us again, Robert.
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<p />ROBERT KELLEY, FMR. DIRECTOR, IAEA: Good evening, Jaisal.
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<p />NOOR: So let's remind our viewers, there's no evidence that there's a nuclear weapons program in Iran. And we'll get to that point in a moment. But we want to get your response to this report. Do you think this AP report is accurate?
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<p />KELLEY: It's very hard to say. None of us have seen it. You haven't seen it. Congress hasn't seen it. We've got one reporter who says he saw it. Someone leaked it to him. We don't know if he got to look at it for 5 seconds or 50 seconds. Maybe he even has a copy. But no one else has seen it. So we're depending on his spin and his interpretation of what he saw. I'm not impressed by him.
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<p />NOOR: The author, George John, his impartiality has been questioned in the past regarding his reporting on Iran.
<p />
<p />KELLEY: Well it's definitely true. George has swallowed every story that's been fed to him, and he puts them out on a regular basis. You see this large chamber, for example, that he says was built at Parchin. This is the subject of this latest issue. And the cartoon that he's published there is laughable, and yet it's somehow being put forward as intelligence. I just don't see that I really care very much for his stories when you dissect them. There's a lot better intelligence out there.
<p />
<p />NOOR: And let's say this report is true. If so, would--and so the report is saying that the Iranians would be carrying out their own inspections on Parchin. Would this impact the agreement's ability to end Iranian breakout capacity, the ability to quickly create the necessary equipment to create a nuclear weapon?
<p />
<p />KELLEY: Absolutely not. Not in any way that's not a reasonable surmise. This inspection that IAEA wants to do is about verifying something that happened in the past. It's entirely about something that happened in the past, that could have stopped as much as ten years ago. So this is trying to get Iran to admit something. This facility that IAEA wants to inspect has no future. It's not useful to a nuclear weapons program, it probably never was. But it has no future. And so this is about just going back and checking something in the past. It has no effect on breakout.
<p />
<p />NOOR: The other question on people's minds is that if this report in the Associated Press is true, would it undermine the IAEA's ability to know what's going on in Parchin?
<p />
<p />KELLEY: Well, if it were possible that the Iranians would do an inspection without the IAEA present, entirely on their own and then mail the samples and the photographs, I'd be among the first to say that's unacceptable in any way. But what I think based upon the director general's statement today and common sense is that IAEA inspectors will stand over the Iranians while the Iranians take the samples themselves, and then give them to the IAEA in sterile, sealed bags. This is because the IAEA and Iran have lost trust with each other on this issue, and so the IAEA is going to have to let Iran do it so Iran can feel confident that the samples were taken in an unbiased kind of way.
<p />
<p />But if IAEA could stand over the Iranians while they do it, I think that's an acceptable compromise after four years of arguing about this.
<p />
<p />NOOR: And this AP report isn't the only controversial leak that's come out that could be interpreted as trying to undermine this deal before Congress votes on it in a few weeks. Talk about what else has been in the news recently and your analysis of those leaks.
<p />
<p />KELLEY: I think the leak from two weeks ago was much more significant. It was reported in the press that the intelligence community, the person of the office of the director of national intelligence, briefed Congress that the Iranians were trying to re-sanitize this Parchin site using heavy equipment and earth movers in broad daylight. Those were the words that were reported.
<p />
<p />There's no reason whatsoever for them to do that, because they've already repaved a good part of the area two years ago. So it's a crazy story. But when satellite imagery was published by an NGO in Washington, the satellite imagery shows absolutely nothing is happening. So either the IC briefed the Congress wrong, or the Congress, congressional staff maybe who were listening, decided to embellish the story. But all of a sudden you realize a very important story that impacts on whether we think Iran is telling the truth and is cooperating turns out to be completely false. That was a very specifically programmed lie of a leak.
<p />
<p />NOOR: Robert Kelley, thank you so much for joining us again.
<p />
<p />KELLEY: Nice to see you.
<p />
<p />NOOR: Thank you for joining us at the Real News Network.
<p />
<p />End
<p />
<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | robert kelley licensed nuclear engineer worked many aspects nuclear weapons later nuclear nonproliferation personal experiences include weapons simulation testing plutonium metallurgy isotope separation emergency response experiences extremely useful carrying intelligence analyses foreign countries lead field experience chief inspector iraq nuclear weapons inspections elsewhere currently affiliated stockholm international peace research institute sweden several nonproliferation organizations jaisal noor producer trnn welcome real news im jaisal noor baltimore latest news iran nuclear deal international regulatory agency rejecting report threatens throw wrench securing survival p5 deal congress wednesday associated press cited secret draft deal iaea iranian negotiators would allow iran carry inspection parchin military site claim independently verified publication report republicans acknowledged iran nuclear deal necessary support prevent congress blocking speaking ap publication report republican speaker house john boehner asked havent secret site agreements provided congress american people review iran trusted carry nuclear inspections military site tried hide world according reuters iaea called report quote misrepresentation joining us discuss robert kelley hes joining us europe hes former nuclear weapons analyst los alamos national laboratory former director iaea hes also associate research fellow stockholm international peace research institute thanks much joining us robert robert kelley fmr director iaea good evening jaisal noor lets remind viewers theres evidence theres nuclear weapons program iran well get point moment want get response report think ap report accurate kelley hard say none us seen havent seen congress hasnt seen weve got one reporter says saw someone leaked dont know got look 5 seconds 50 seconds maybe even copy one else seen depending spin interpretation saw im impressed noor author george john impartiality questioned past regarding reporting iran kelley well definitely true george swallowed every story thats fed puts regular basis see large chamber example says built parchin subject latest issue cartoon hes published laughable yet somehow put forward intelligence dont see really care much stories dissect theres lot better intelligence noor lets say report true wouldand report saying iranians would carrying inspections parchin would impact agreements ability end iranian breakout capacity ability quickly create necessary equipment create nuclear weapon kelley absolutely way thats reasonable surmise inspection iaea wants verifying something happened past entirely something happened past could stopped much ten years ago trying get iran admit something facility iaea wants inspect future useful nuclear weapons program probably never future going back checking something past effect breakout noor question peoples minds report associated press true would undermine iaeas ability know whats going parchin kelley well possible iranians would inspection without iaea present entirely mail samples photographs id among first say thats unacceptable way think based upon director generals statement today common sense iaea inspectors stand iranians iranians take samples give iaea sterile sealed bags iaea iran lost trust issue iaea going let iran iran feel confident samples taken unbiased kind way iaea could stand iranians think thats acceptable compromise four years arguing noor ap report isnt controversial leak thats come could interpreted trying undermine deal congress votes weeks talk else news recently analysis leaks kelley think leak two weeks ago much significant reported press intelligence community person office director national intelligence briefed congress iranians trying resanitize parchin site using heavy equipment earth movers broad daylight words reported theres reason whatsoever theyve already repaved good part area two years ago crazy story satellite imagery published ngo washington satellite imagery shows absolutely nothing happening either ic briefed congress wrong congress congressional staff maybe listening decided embellish story sudden realize important story impacts whether think iran telling truth cooperating turns completely false specifically programmed lie leak noor robert kelley thank much joining us kelley nice see noor thank joining us real news network end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 615 |
<p>Dahiyeh, South Beirut</p>
<p>Rushing to an appointment last Saturday I passed the Mohammad Hussein Fadallah Hassaniyeh (Mosque), which for many in my immediate Dahiyeh neighborhood is the religious institution we feel most connected to because of its long and continuing history &#160;&#160;of social and religious work in our community.</p>
<p>Nearly 18 months after the July 4th, 2010 death &#160;of Lebanon’s preeminent Islamic scholar, the Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, but seeming more like three months ago, the ‘Fadlallah Hassaniyeh’ is an ever active beehive of social work and religious study and truly a working people’s institution.</p>
<p>It is also the manifestation of Sayed &#160;Fadlallah’s &#160;achievement’s &#160;for and commitments to all in our community, Shia, Sunni, Christians and non-believers.</p>
<p>Unaware that it was the 12th day of the lunar month of Rabih el Awwal, the Prophet Mohammad bin Abdillah’s birthday, I was surprised by all the activity saturating the surrounding streets and the hundreds of school children in celebratory clothes doing various activities enjoying the festivity with their families.</p>
<p>Suddenly a gaggle of pre-teen friends from our neighborhood ran up to me and pulled me to the front of the vast &#160;ornate Fadlallah Mosque and to the tables in front where children were distributing small cloth wrapped candies in celebration. When night descends, which is early these days, the children might be given fireworks by their parents as was common in the past.&#160; Yet given so much uncertainly these days in the region and in Lebanon, even relatively mild explosive noises cause my neighbors to hustle their flocks inside and avoid balconies and windows until they understand what the noise was all about.</p>
<p>By then too late for my appointment, I postponed it and entered the Mosque and sat on a bench near the burial chamber (Maqam) of Ayatollah Fadlallah.&#160; I reflected on what he meant to Muslims and Christians in Lebanon and to all people of good will around the world and to me personally.&#160; I had the honor to meet with him several times and count his son Ali, who has succeeded him in much of his work, as my friend.&#160; &#160;As I sat close to the Maqam, I was surprised to see members of our community still arriving to his resting place, lean forward and speak privately to him and pledge to follow his progressive teachings, fatwas, and examples. Some, inspired by his life’s work took vows to become better people in their relations with others.</p>
<p>I &#160;also still recall vividly his funeral and the untold thousands who came to our neighborhood to join his funeral procession on July 6, 2010.</p>
<p>Friends carried his body around our neighborhood. &#160;They then marched to the spot of&#160; &#160;the 1985 CIA-Saudi &#160;assassination attempt, which killed 90 mainly school children and women and wounded more than 250, before returning to Imam Rida Mosque where he was laid to rest. Tens of thousands of mourners gathered at the mosque for prayer services before the funeral procession.</p>
<p>From all across the region delegations arrived and every Lebanese political and religious leader attended except the small minded Maronite Cardinal Patriarch Sfeir who took umbrage at Fadallah’s positive views about one person-one vote democracy.&#160; Sayeed Fadlallah did not favor Lebanon being ruled by the current archaic French colonial legacy of parceling out political power based on the undemocratic confessional formulae of the 1943 Paris installed National Pact.</p>
<p>His passing shocked and saddened the region and the loss of his advocacy of dialogue, respect and unity among all religions is incalculable. &#160; Justice for Palestine and ending the Zionist occupation was part of his unwavering lifelong work.&#160; Some media outlets, reported that shortly before he died, and upon being asked by a medical attendant a few days ago if he needed anything, he replied, “Only the end of the Zionist occupation of Palestine.”</p>
<p>I recalled &#160;the morning of July 4, Zeinab, the nurse on duty at the blood donor’s clinic at Bahman Hospital,&#160; a block from my home in Haret Hreik, had just instructed me to remain sitting for five minutes and to &#160;drink the juice she gave me before I returned to south Beirut’s blazing sun.</p>
<p>A companion and I had each just donated a pint of blood in response to an appeal from friends who worked in the Translation Office of Fadlallah. He had been hospitalized for the past 12 days but on Friday his stomach bleeding had increased dramatically, related to complications from a liver problem he had been treated for over the past several years. Sayeed Fadallah also suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure.</p>
<p>As we waited, Zeinab returned, tears in her eyes, and simply said, “The Sayeed has passed away.”&#160; And she disappeared. So did my Shia hijabed companion, and as it seemed, everyone from the floor.</p>
<p>I decided to walk down the stairs to the main level and could hear sobs&#160;from hospital staff on each floor, now seemingly darkened with each level eerier than the preceding one as I descended.</p>
<p>As I left the main entrance of Bahman&#160;hospital, I was thinking about some of&#160;the more than a dozen meetings I had the honor to attend with Grand Ayatolah Fadlallah and some of his staff over the past three years. Such as those who regularly visited him from the Washington DC based Council for the National Interest and one visit that I had arranged for former President Jimmy Carter.</p>
<p>Suddenly there was&#160;movement for two blocks in front&#160;and along the side streets adjacent to Bahman, a state of the art and science Hospital operated by Fadlallah’s Al Marbarrat Charity. This hospital was among hundreds of civil buildings in Haret Hreik and South Beirut, that Israel had bombed in July of 2006. The Fadlallah home was also reduced to rubble.</p>
<p>“How did these guys get here so fast” I wondered, for it was only minutes since the Majaa (religious guide) to millions in the Middle East had died. Some security units, dressed in black shirts, caps and trousers, walkie talkies in their left hands, others in civilian clothes, quickly placed traffic barriers in the area. They politely asked that all vehicles including motorcycles be relocated a least two blocks away.</p>
<p>Some, from their appearance, obviously war toughened fighters, wept&#160;and consoled men and women who began arriving at the hospital to pay their respects,&#160;first in two and three’s and then streams.</p>
<p>The loudspeakers from the Hassanayn Mosque, where every Friday Fadlallah for the past nearly 20 years, delivered sermons to tens of thousands of faithful, Muslim and Christian alike, began broadcasting religious music and Koranic verses to our shocked and grief stricken neighborhood. During the night of the 27th day of Ramadan, known as Laylat al-Kadr, (according to the Al Kadar Sura in the Koran, this is the day &#160;that the Angel Gabriel came down from heaven and the beginning of&#160; the revelation of the Koran) more than 50,000 filled Fadlallah’s Mosque and surrounding streets.</p>
<p>“The father, the leader, the marjaa, the guide, the human being is gone.” Sayyed Fadlallah has died this morning,” senior aide Ayatollah Abdullah al-Ghurayfi told a hastily called&#160; news conference, at the hospital, joined&#160; by the late cleric’s sons, Sayyed Ali Fadlallah and Jaafar, who, like nearly everyone else in attendance,&#160; could not hold back tears.</p>
<p>The&#160;sweltering evening of July 5th, an American delegation was given by his family and Hezbollah security the rare honor of viewing the body of Lebanon’s senior Shia cleric inside his Mosque near where he would be buried at 1:30 p.m. the following afternoon. The group met a wide spectrum of Lebanon’s&#160; political and resistance leadership but were not joined by anyone from the US Embassy since their government would boycott Lebanon’s national day of mourning&#160; and the burial of this Washington branded “Terrorist.”&#160; It was in 1995, that then President Bill Clinton, at the urging of AIPAC and facing a re-election campaign, so designated him. Former President Carter promised during a visit in June of 2009 that he would contact President Obama immediately about this travesty but was unable to have his name removed before the Sayeed’s death.</p>
<p>The American delegation paying their respects included residents of New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Hawaii and Oregon, a Catholic Priest and two nuns, some of whom were in Beirut as participants in the delayed Lebanon flotilla to help break the siege of Gaza. They felt they were the true representatives of their country, not their Embassy. &#160;Ever misleading the public with respect to the Middle East, the main stream &#160;western media began a thousand reports with the words, “A fiery anti-American critic died.”&#160; It is nonsense of course. Fadallah was very pro-American in the sense that he often extolled the founding&#160; American principles and his relationship with the American people was valued by both. Barely two weeks before his death he left his sick bed to meet with a group of Americans from Washington DC, against the advice of his doctors, and&#160; he urged them to work to preserve the founding principles on which their country was founded and to encourage dialogue between Muslims, Christians and Jews and to end the occupations of this region.</p>
<p>Like the rapidly growing number of American critics of US policy in the Middle East, many of &#160;Fadlallah’s Friday prayer sermons denounced arming and supporting serial Israelis aggressions.</p>
<p>For more than 50 years, he worked at “modernizing” the Shari’a and rendering it accessible to modern day youth, addressing their concerns, expectations and fears in a fast-changing world. He was truly the Mufti of the youth and of women, their guide who never oppressed their dreams and always simplified rulings. He was available for questions regarding the most taboo of social and political subjects. &#160;He was also the enemy of stalemate and a rejecter of tradition in its inflexible sense. He insisted on subjecting all ideas to discussions, debates and reassessments and was much more interested in human beings than doctrines.</p>
<p>His followers revered him for his moderate social views, openness and pragmatism. Fadlallah issued religious edicts forbidding female circumcision, condemning domestic violence-even allowing women to wear cosmetics and finger nail polish which some clerics opposed,&#160;and insisting that women could physically resist abusive husbands. He strongly supported female-male equality. He rejected the blood-letting at Ashoura events and like Hezbollah encouraged his followers to donate blood to the Red Crescent Society instead of cutting themselves. He also opposed &#160;the call to “jihad,” or holy war, by Osama bin Laden and he was among the first to condemn the 9/11 attacks. Fadlallah opposed ‘suicide attacks” but distinguished the right of an individual to sacrifice himself as a weapon during asymmetrical warfare by aggressors.</p>
<p>Fadlallah supported the Islamic revolution in Shiite Iran, and advocated armed resistance to Israel. In 2009, again during a meeting with Americans, including Jews,&#160; Fadlallah, whose family came from the southern Lebanese village of&#160; Ainata, &#160;reiterated his call for a Muslim-Jewish dialogue as part of interfaith efforts aimed at bridging the gap among various religious, rejecting any offensive against Jews or Christians in any Arab or Muslim country. But he emphasized to the delegation the importance of a Muslim-Jewish dialogue away from Zionist influence, stressing that Jews need to be freed from the cycle of world Zionism and Israel should be confronted because of its occupation of Arab lands.</p>
<p>He welcomed the election of Barack Obama in the US, telling the Wall Street Journal in 2009 that “some of Obama’s statements show that he believes in the method of dialogue”. He added: We don’t have a problem with any American president, but our problem is with his policy that might affect our strategic interest.” He later told visitors of his disappointment at President Obama’s Middle East policy, accusing him of being “under pressure” from Israeli supporters and “not a man who has a plan for peace”.</p>
<p>Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah had a widespread reputation for piety and scholarship through his teaching and the more than 40 books and treatises he wrote. He established religious schools and foundations, clinics and libraries as part of the charitable Al Marrarat Foundation</p>
<p>In summary, Mohammad Hussein Fadallah was too moderate, progressive and too effective a spokesman advocating for the deprived to be tolerated by the US administration and Israel. Both required more stereotypical radical Muslim clerics to smear the region. The Mossad is believed to have targeted him more than half a dozen times including during the July 2006 Israeli attack.</p>
<p>A generation was inspired by&#160;Sayeed Fadallah &#160;and&#160; listened to him and studied his voluminous writings.&#160; Two generations&#160;feel the emptiness of his passing away.</p>
<p>Mohammad Hussein Fadallah was a rare man of an angel’s wit, mirth and singular learning. A marvelous man of&#160;gentleness, humbleness and affability. Sometimes when defending the rights of Muslims,Christians, Jews and all people of faith or &#160;non-believers of good will, his countenance was changed by a sad gravity and his smiling eyes darkened.&#160; For to his core, Grand Ayatollah Fadlallah believed in the right and responsibility to resist injustice and occupation.</p>
<p>He was a man for all seasons whose conscience and piety would not allow him to be idle as long as the poor and downtrodden&#160;remained dispossessed and voiceless or&#160;his beloved Lebanon and Palestine was occupied.&#160; For this, and for no other reason he was placed and kept on the US&#160;Political Terrorism list as a Specially Designated Terrorist (SDT) in the&#160;Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control&#160; and&#160; his American&#160; charitable assets confiscated.</p>
<p>Like Thomas More, Fadlallah rejected offered inducements and bribes including T list removal from Washington if he followed the King’s wishes and stop support to the Lebanese National resistance. He wore his nonsensical Terrorist label as a badge of honor as his daily good works mocked and marked the list keepers with shame and cowardice for squandering American founding principles and for funding, arming &#160;and providing diplomatic cover to the Zionist colonial enterprise that stole Palestine.</p>
<p>Each month since Sayed Fadlallah’s passing brings deeper understanding about the greatness of this public servant and the value of his achievements.&#160; Following Arbeen, the Muslim &#160;40 day period of mourning for the departed, I visited with two of &#160;Fadallah’s &#160;close associates who wondered whether the future without his leadership would lead to his social service agency, the Mabarrat, having to cut back on its 30 schools, medical facilities, and social service agencies. &#160;They were worried that with his parting, his life’s work might become diminished and growing demands in the community could not be met.</p>
<p>This morning I was advised by a key aide of &#160;the late Ayatollah Fadlallah that the Marbarrat, thanks to Fadlallah’s administrative skill, planning and foresight, is strong, expanding and will long serve our community.</p>
<p>May Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah forever rest in Peace.</p>
<p>FRANKLIN LAMB can be reached c/o <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p> | true | 4 | dahiyeh south beirut rushing appointment last saturday passed mohammad hussein fadallah hassaniyeh mosque many immediate dahiyeh neighborhood religious institution feel connected long continuing history 160160of social religious work community nearly 18 months july 4th 2010 death 160of lebanons preeminent islamic scholar grand ayatollah mohammad hussein fadlallah seeming like three months ago fadlallah hassaniyeh ever active beehive social work religious study truly working peoples institution also manifestation sayed 160fadlallahs 160achievements 160for commitments community shia sunni christians nonbelievers unaware 12th day lunar month rabih el awwal prophet mohammad bin abdillahs birthday surprised activity saturating surrounding streets hundreds school children celebratory clothes various activities enjoying festivity families suddenly gaggle preteen friends neighborhood ran pulled front vast 160ornate fadlallah mosque tables front children distributing small cloth wrapped candies celebration night descends early days children might given fireworks parents common past160 yet given much uncertainly days region lebanon even relatively mild explosive noises cause neighbors hustle flocks inside avoid balconies windows understand noise late appointment postponed entered mosque sat bench near burial chamber maqam ayatollah fadlallah160 reflected meant muslims christians lebanon people good around world personally160 honor meet several times count son ali succeeded much work friend160 160as sat close maqam surprised see members community still arriving resting place lean forward speak privately pledge follow progressive teachings fatwas examples inspired lifes work took vows become better people relations others 160also still recall vividly funeral untold thousands came neighborhood join funeral procession july 6 2010 friends carried body around neighborhood 160they marched spot of160 160the 1985 ciasaudi 160assassination attempt killed 90 mainly school children women wounded 250 returning imam rida mosque laid rest tens thousands mourners gathered mosque prayer services funeral procession across region delegations arrived every lebanese political religious leader attended except small minded maronite cardinal patriarch sfeir took umbrage fadallahs positive views one personone vote democracy160 sayeed fadlallah favor lebanon ruled current archaic french colonial legacy parceling political power based undemocratic confessional formulae 1943 paris installed national pact passing shocked saddened region loss advocacy dialogue respect unity among religions incalculable 160 justice palestine ending zionist occupation part unwavering lifelong work160 media outlets reported shortly died upon asked medical attendant days ago needed anything replied end zionist occupation palestine recalled 160the morning july 4 zeinab nurse duty blood donors clinic bahman hospital160 block home haret hreik instructed remain sitting five minutes 160drink juice gave returned south beiruts blazing sun companion donated pint blood response appeal friends worked translation office fadlallah hospitalized past 12 days friday stomach bleeding increased dramatically related complications liver problem treated past several years sayeed fadallah also suffered diabetes high blood pressure waited zeinab returned tears eyes simply said sayeed passed away160 disappeared shia hijabed companion seemed everyone floor decided walk stairs main level could hear sobs160from hospital staff floor seemingly darkened level eerier preceding one descended left main entrance bahman160hospital thinking of160the dozen meetings honor attend grand ayatolah fadlallah staff past three years regularly visited washington dc based council national interest one visit arranged former president jimmy carter suddenly was160movement two blocks front160and along side streets adjacent bahman state art science hospital operated fadlallahs al marbarrat charity hospital among hundreds civil buildings haret hreik south beirut israel bombed july 2006 fadlallah home also reduced rubble guys get fast wondered minutes since majaa religious guide millions middle east died security units dressed black shirts caps trousers walkie talkies left hands others civilian clothes quickly placed traffic barriers area politely asked vehicles including motorcycles relocated least two blocks away appearance obviously war toughened fighters wept160and consoled men women began arriving hospital pay respects160first two threes streams loudspeakers hassanayn mosque every friday fadlallah past nearly 20 years delivered sermons tens thousands faithful muslim christian alike began broadcasting religious music koranic verses shocked grief stricken neighborhood night 27th day ramadan known laylat alkadr according al kadar sura koran day 160that angel gabriel came heaven beginning of160 revelation koran 50000 filled fadlallahs mosque surrounding streets father leader marjaa guide human gone sayyed fadlallah died morning senior aide ayatollah abdullah alghurayfi told hastily called160 news conference hospital joined160 late clerics sons sayyed ali fadlallah jaafar like nearly everyone else attendance160 could hold back tears the160sweltering evening july 5th american delegation given family hezbollah security rare honor viewing body lebanons senior shia cleric inside mosque near would buried 130 pm following afternoon group met wide spectrum lebanons160 political resistance leadership joined anyone us embassy since government would boycott lebanons national day mourning160 burial washington branded terrorist160 1995 president bill clinton urging aipac facing reelection campaign designated former president carter promised visit june 2009 would contact president obama immediately travesty unable name removed sayeeds death american delegation paying respects included residents new york massachusetts new jersey california hawaii oregon catholic priest two nuns beirut participants delayed lebanon flotilla help break siege gaza felt true representatives country embassy 160ever misleading public respect middle east main stream 160western media began thousand reports words fiery antiamerican critic died160 nonsense course fadallah proamerican sense often extolled founding160 american principles relationship american people valued barely two weeks death left sick bed meet group americans washington dc advice doctors and160 urged work preserve founding principles country founded encourage dialogue muslims christians jews end occupations region like rapidly growing number american critics us policy middle east many 160fadlallahs friday prayer sermons denounced arming supporting serial israelis aggressions 50 years worked modernizing sharia rendering accessible modern day youth addressing concerns expectations fears fastchanging world truly mufti youth women guide never oppressed dreams always simplified rulings available questions regarding taboo social political subjects 160he also enemy stalemate rejecter tradition inflexible sense insisted subjecting ideas discussions debates reassessments much interested human beings doctrines followers revered moderate social views openness pragmatism fadlallah issued religious edicts forbidding female circumcision condemning domestic violenceeven allowing women wear cosmetics finger nail polish clerics opposed160and insisting women could physically resist abusive husbands strongly supported femalemale equality rejected bloodletting ashoura events like hezbollah encouraged followers donate blood red crescent society instead cutting also opposed 160the call jihad holy war osama bin laden among first condemn 911 attacks fadlallah opposed suicide attacks distinguished right individual sacrifice weapon asymmetrical warfare aggressors fadlallah supported islamic revolution shiite iran advocated armed resistance israel 2009 meeting americans including jews160 fadlallah whose family came southern lebanese village of160 ainata 160reiterated call muslimjewish dialogue part interfaith efforts aimed bridging gap among various religious rejecting offensive jews christians arab muslim country emphasized delegation importance muslimjewish dialogue away zionist influence stressing jews need freed cycle world zionism israel confronted occupation arab lands welcomed election barack obama us telling wall street journal 2009 obamas statements show believes method dialogue added dont problem american president problem policy might affect strategic interest later told visitors disappointment president obamas middle east policy accusing pressure israeli supporters man plan peace mohammad hussein fadlallah widespread reputation piety scholarship teaching 40 books treatises wrote established religious schools foundations clinics libraries part charitable al marrarat foundation summary mohammad hussein fadallah moderate progressive effective spokesman advocating deprived tolerated us administration israel required stereotypical radical muslim clerics smear region mossad believed targeted half dozen times including july 2006 israeli attack generation inspired by160sayeed fadallah 160and160 listened studied voluminous writings160 two generations160feel emptiness passing away mohammad hussein fadallah rare man angels wit mirth singular learning marvelous man of160gentleness humbleness affability sometimes defending rights muslimschristians jews people faith 160nonbelievers good countenance changed sad gravity smiling eyes darkened160 core grand ayatollah fadlallah believed right responsibility resist injustice occupation man seasons whose conscience piety would allow idle long poor downtrodden160remained dispossessed voiceless or160his beloved lebanon palestine occupied160 reason placed kept us160political terrorism list specially designated terrorist sdt the160treasury departments office foreign asset control160 and160 american160 charitable assets confiscated like thomas fadlallah rejected offered inducements bribes including list removal washington followed kings wishes stop support lebanese national resistance wore nonsensical terrorist label badge honor daily good works mocked marked list keepers shame cowardice squandering american founding principles funding arming 160and providing diplomatic cover zionist colonial enterprise stole palestine month since sayed fadlallahs passing brings deeper understanding greatness public servant value achievements160 following arbeen muslim 16040 day period mourning departed visited two 160fadallahs 160close associates wondered whether future without leadership would lead social service agency mabarrat cut back 30 schools medical facilities social service agencies 160they worried parting lifes work might become diminished growing demands community could met morning advised key aide 160the late ayatollah fadlallah marbarrat thanks fadlallahs administrative skill planning foresight strong expanding long serve community may mohammad hussein fadlallah forever rest peace franklin lamb reached co fplambgmalcom | 1,409 |
<p>Chanel, Dior, <a href="/content/dailybeast/cheats/2014/12/12/struggling-gucci-leadership-resigns.html" type="external">Gucci</a>, Miu Miu, Marc Jacobs—the fashion credits that roll at the end of <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2016/09/08/designer-tom-ford-takes-the-digital-fast-lane-with-a-collection-instantly-available-online.html" type="external">Tom Ford</a>’s super-stylish new thriller Nocturnal Animals reads like a list of brands any arty fashionista covets—and has—in her well-stocked closet. Seems the only luxury fashion brand not thanked on those end credits is—you got it—Tom Ford.</p>
<p>Even the two pairs of Tom Ford-like oversized geek-chic reading glasses <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2014/02/23/creating-american-hustle-s-sexy-oscar-nominated-look-from-pasties-to-the-plaza.html" type="external">Amy Adams</a>’s high-gloss character Susan dons as she pores through her ex-husband’s new novel aren’t Tom Fords. “They’re Celine,” laughs Nocturnal Animals’s costume designer Arianne Phillips. “I wanted to use Tom’s glasses, but he was really clear he didn’t want the audience to be taken out of the film, that he wasn’t making ‘a branded film’ to sell clothes—to his credit.”</p>
<p>Yes, that’s right. Tom Ford the writer/director/producer of Nocturnal Animals (adapted from the 1993 novel by Austin Wright), his surprising follow up to his 2009 debut, A Single Man, nixed the use of pretty much all Tom Ford apparel and accessories from both his films. In A Single Man, <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2014/12/24/julianne-moore-is-oscar-gold-in-still-alice.html" type="external">Julianne Moore</a>’s famed 1960’s black and white dress was procured on eBay, and all of <a href="/content/dailybeast/articles/2014/07/21/emma-stone-and-colin-firth-on-woody-allen-shrinkage-and-live-texting-bridget-jones.html" type="external">Colin Firth</a>’s suits were built by Phillips and team. Of course, Moore, Firth, and now Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, and Aaron Taylor Johnson have appeared in Ford’s clothes at the films’ premiers. The on-screen no no is the off-screen perk.</p>
<p>Of course, Adams’s character Susan, a would-be artist who gave up her calling in favor of a luxe L.A. life, is the perfect Tom Ford woman: milky skin, creamsicle hair, svelte but curvy body—a lover of pencil skirts, chic silk blouses, and requisite heels and sculptural jewelry. And the things Susan slinks around in—black column dresses, ebony large disc jewelry, black trousers with white silk poet blouse, an insane tricolor fur coat, and the tie-neck apple green dress for the film’s finale—look a lot like Tom Ford clothes.</p>
<p>“Surprisingly, Susan’s character does not wear any designer clothes at all,” confides Phillips. “Most of the clothes were made; they’re not Tom Ford nor any other designer. I mean, you would think they would be, because it’s contemporary, and Susan’s part of the cultural elite. She’s very presentational: heavy makeup, precisely waved hair, polished, pristine. It’s a veneer to this inner world she’s struggling with—unhappy marriage, disillusionment. And, as we move into the script: regret, loss, betrayal. The movie’s really about loss and regret, and how important it is to nurture our relationships. Those emotions reflect her inner world—so the costumes had to have this veneer that reflected how she got through her day.”</p>
<p>Ford’s even admitted the film reflects a bit of his own struggle between the materialistic and the artistic: “it’s about the world of absurd rich people, the hollowness and emptiness I perceive in our culture. The struggle with contemporary culture and materialism is one that I’ve struggled with for years. And finally, I think, come to terms with. But you have to keep it in perspective: the important thing is the people in your life.”</p>
<p>Now, Susan’s tricolor fur in chestnut brown, amber, and white was helped along in craft by the Tom Ford atelier’s furrier. But you won’t find it in future TF collections. Nor will ladies likely find that knockout green dress, the standout piece in the film, in his boutiques. “That color was quite specific,” notes Phillips. “It was dyed and made; we labored over getting it the right color for film—and camera tested it. Will it ever be used for a future collection? That’s a question for Tom Ford the fashion designer—we know film influences fashion—but maybe not for Tom Ford the director! “</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Phillips is one of the few major movie costume designers (The People vs Larry Flynt, The Mod Squad, Girl, Interrupted, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (and its musical stage adaptation), 3:10 to Yuma, Madonna’s W.E., Kingsman: The Secret Service) who has major fashion credit: collaborating with major designers like Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci for years, costuming tours with longtime friend/client Madonna—“That is super fun for me! Most designers are super supportive, and make exactly what we want.” She has also styled fashion shows, curated collections, and is considered one of Hollywood’s top fashion-world insiders.</p>
<p>That end credit list of labels applies to a gallery scene with hundreds of extras early in the film, much of which wound up being cut. But Chanel did, in fact, make a very special appearance: “You learn in flashbacks the complicated relationship between Susan and her mother,” explains Phillips. “Laura Linney’s white suit was Chanel, made just for her. That was the time I said, ‘Tom, I need you to pick up the phone and call Karl (Lagerfeld).’ Tom agreed that Susan’s mother, a conservative Texas socialite with helmet-head hair, would wear Chanel, so he reached out. That’s the power of Tom Ford—the perk is the access!”</p>
<p>Ford was so fastidious that even the male characters in the Texas book-within-the-movie scenes were made. In most of those road trip scenes, Gyllenhaal’s Tony wears a red plaid shirt that looks so “ordinary guy,” it should have been easy to just buy.</p>
<p>“But Tom wanted a certain color and a certain fabric,” says Phillips, “and we couldn’t find it. And, we had to have multiples. We couldn’t find that richness of red, so we had to overdye the fabric the right color, for camera. And Jake wore cords, but we could never find the right color, so we made them. That detail works into the color balancing, and it’s all built into the production design and how everything will be lit—even the props. So those kinds of calibration of color really matter. Michael Shannon’s Western-cop costumes, they were all made. His cowboy hat, shirts, pants—his main jacket was based on having that Western yoke rogue cop archetype—those clothes don’t exist anymore, outside of polyester! Tom wanted corduroy. So we made two jackets, tan cord and brown cord. Then we made this ultra-suede and canvas bomber—based on vintage pieces—with a western yoke. And those pants with the western flat front and the western belt detail—all of that just doesn’t exist in the kind of quality we wanted.”</p>
<p>Of course, making all these costumes instead of buying or renting makes a production more costly. But for Ford and Phillips, who have their very own visual story and fashion language (“he is so much more communicative than most directors,” she says), this enhances the actors’ performances. “Also to Tom’s credit,” Phillips says. “Any producer on this film with a director would probably force their hand to buy stuff. But Tom, who directed and produced, wanted the quality of fabric to create our own cinematic world. Aaron Taylor Johnson’s green cowboy boots—we made them, based on a pair of vintage cowboy boots I found at a costume house: they’re crackling green. We thought, ‘Oh my God, that’s just the right thing for him!’ And he wears a little pinky, like a teenage girl’s birthstone ring, that we decided would be a signifier of a girl he maybe raped. It gives the audience story clues, and helps the actors texture their performances. That’s the fun part of costumes—the sleuthing that creates visual clues for the audience.”</p>
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<p>And when it comes to the psychological thriller, it’s likely what puts the psychology in the intense suspense.</p> | true | 4 | chanel dior gucci miu miu marc jacobsthe fashion credits roll end tom fords superstylish new thriller nocturnal animals reads like list brands arty fashionista covetsand hasin wellstocked closet seems luxury fashion brand thanked end credits isyou got ittom ford even two pairs tom fordlike oversized geekchic reading glasses amy adamss highgloss character susan dons pores exhusbands new novel arent tom fords theyre celine laughs nocturnal animalss costume designer arianne phillips wanted use toms glasses really clear didnt want audience taken film wasnt making branded film sell clothesto credit yes thats right tom ford writerdirectorproducer nocturnal animals adapted 1993 novel austin wright surprising follow 2009 debut single man nixed use pretty much tom ford apparel accessories films single man julianne moores famed 1960s black white dress procured ebay colin firths suits built phillips team course moore firth adams jake gyllenhaal michael shannon aaron taylor johnson appeared fords clothes films premiers onscreen offscreen perk course adamss character susan wouldbe artist gave calling favor luxe la life perfect tom ford woman milky skin creamsicle hair svelte curvy bodya lover pencil skirts chic silk blouses requisite heels sculptural jewelry things susan slinks around inblack column dresses ebony large disc jewelry black trousers white silk poet blouse insane tricolor fur coat tieneck apple green dress films finalelook lot like tom ford clothes surprisingly susans character wear designer clothes confides phillips clothes made theyre tom ford designer mean would think would contemporary susans part cultural elite shes presentational heavy makeup precisely waved hair polished pristine veneer inner world shes struggling withunhappy marriage disillusionment move script regret loss betrayal movies really loss regret important nurture relationships emotions reflect inner worldso costumes veneer reflected got day fords even admitted film reflects bit struggle materialistic artistic world absurd rich people hollowness emptiness perceive culture struggle contemporary culture materialism one ive struggled years finally think come terms keep perspective important thing people life susans tricolor fur chestnut brown amber white helped along craft tom ford ateliers furrier wont find future tf collections ladies likely find knockout green dress standout piece film boutiques color quite specific notes phillips dyed made labored getting right color filmand camera tested ever used future collection thats question tom ford fashion designerwe know film influences fashionbut maybe tom ford director meanwhile phillips one major movie costume designers people vs larry flynt mod squad girl interrupted hedwig angry inch musical stage adaptation 310 yuma madonnas kingsman secret service major fashion credit collaborating major designers like givenchys riccardo tisci years costuming tours longtime friendclient madonnathat super fun designers super supportive make exactly want also styled fashion shows curated collections considered one hollywoods top fashionworld insiders end credit list labels applies gallery scene hundreds extras early film much wound cut chanel fact make special appearance learn flashbacks complicated relationship susan mother explains phillips laura linneys white suit chanel made time said tom need pick phone call karl lagerfeld tom agreed susans mother conservative texas socialite helmethead hair would wear chanel reached thats power tom fordthe perk access ford fastidious even male characters texas bookwithinthemovie scenes made road trip scenes gyllenhaals tony wears red plaid shirt looks ordinary guy easy buy tom wanted certain color certain fabric says phillips couldnt find multiples couldnt find richness red overdye fabric right color camera jake wore cords could never find right color made detail works color balancing built production design everything liteven props kinds calibration color really matter michael shannons westerncop costumes made cowboy hat shirts pantshis main jacket based western yoke rogue cop archetypethose clothes dont exist anymore outside polyester tom wanted corduroy made two jackets tan cord brown cord made ultrasuede canvas bomberbased vintage pieceswith western yoke pants western flat front western belt detailall doesnt exist kind quality wanted course making costumes instead buying renting makes production costly ford phillips visual story fashion language much communicative directors says enhances actors performances also toms credit phillips says producer film director would probably force hand buy stuff tom directed produced wanted quality fabric create cinematic world aaron taylor johnsons green cowboy bootswe made based pair vintage cowboy boots found costume house theyre crackling green thought oh god thats right thing wears little pinky like teenage girls birthstone ring decided would signifier girl maybe raped gives audience story clues helps actors texture performances thats fun part costumesthe sleuthing creates visual clues audience start finish day top stories daily beast speedy smart summary news need know nothing dont comes psychological thriller likely puts psychology intense suspense | 741 |
<p>Back in 2001, two global toxics treaties offered a rare opportunity for U.S. leadership in the international environmental policy arena. Today not only is the opportunity for leadership lost, but the United States seems bent on undermining the effectiveness of these important treaties while the rest of the world moves ahead on implementation.</p>
<p>The issues at hand are global elimination of persistent chemicals and control of trade in toxics, and the two international treaties that address these challenges are the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade . As of August 2006, at least 127 countries had ratified the Stockholm Convention, and 110 had confirmed the Rotterdam Convention. Both conventions have been in force for more than two years, but the United States has yet to approve either.</p>
<p>The chemicals addressed under the Stockholm Convention are persistent organic pollutants (POPs). These toxic substances are transported across the globe, persist in the environment, accumulate in the body fat of humans and animals, and concentrate up the food chain. Even at very low levels of exposure, POPs can cause reproductive and developmental disorders, damage to the immune and nervous systems, and a range of cancers. Exposure during key phases of fetal development can be particularly damaging, and infants around the world are born with an array of POPs already in their blood. POPs are found in the current U.S. food supply, even though many of the chemicals in question have been banned in the United States for decades.</p>
<p>The global nature of these pollutants led the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to sponsor extensive negotiations that culminated in the signing of the Stockholm Convention on POPs in 2001. The treaty entered into force in May 2004 after ratification by 50 countries. The POPs treaty identifies an initial list of twelve pollutants slated for elimination. Nine of these-aldrin, endrin, dieldrin, chlordane, dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT), heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, and toxaphene-are pesticides that have been targeted for elimination by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world since the early 1980s. The other chemicals on the convention’s initial list are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, and furans. Although it banned PCBs and POPs many years ago, the United States continues to produce dioxins and furans as byproducts of chlorine-based industries and waste incineration.</p>
<p>The Stockholm Convention establishes various timetables for the elimination of the listed POP chemicals. Provisions specific to the ever-controversial DDT call for its ultimate elimination but allow interim use of the pesticide for malaria vector control, if use is accompanied by aggressive efforts to develop and implement safe and effective alternatives. DDT is currently used to control malaria in about two dozen countries, mostly in Africa.</p>
<p>Importantly, the Stockholm treaty also includes a process for identifying and reviewing additional POPs. Five nominated chemicals, including the pesticide lindane and the flame retardant pentabromodiphenyl ether (PBDE), have already passed the first stage of the rigorous, scientific review process on their way to being banned. Another five chemicals are under consideration.</p>
<p>The Rotterdam Convention, which also came into force in 2004, is a complementary treaty providing important controls on international trade of highly toxic chemicals. It requires that any country importing pesticides and certain other hazardous chemicals must be informed of bans or severe restrictions on those substances in other countries. This gives a receiving country the option of refusing shipments of chemicals listed under the treaty on the grounds that they may be harmful to the environment or to the health of its population.</p>
<p>According to the most recent analysis of U.S. customs records conducted by the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education, more than 1.7 billion pounds of pesticides were exported from U.S. ports between 2001 and 2003. Nearly 28 million pounds of this total were pesticides that have been banned in the United States. Developing countries often lack the capacity to adequately evaluate and regulate highly toxic chemicals imported from their Northern neighbors. The Rotterdam Prior Informed Consent treaty (PIC) is the international community’s response to this inequity. Although the convention could be strengthened-some analysts believe that the current rules for adding chemicals to the “PIC list” are designed to limit the number of new substances that can be added-it represents an important tool to help the international community monitor and control the world’s massive trade in dangerous substances.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Just prior to Earth Day 2001, President Bush announced that he intended to sign the Stockholm POPs treaty and move quickly toward ratification. He pointed out the bipartisan nature of the commitment, promising to conclude a process overseen by his Democratic predecessor. Many U.S. NGOs welcomed the Bush administration’s commitment to the treaty, and they hoped that the State Department and Senate would follow through with ratification of the Stockholm Convention and its companion, the Rotterdam Convention, before the end of 2001.</p>
<p>More than five years later, U.S. ratification is still elusive. Before the Senate can provide the necessary advice and consent, Congress must make modest amendments to fix loopholes in two key federal statutes. A controversial version of the required implementing legislation currently being considered by the House (the Gillmor POPs bill) would virtually ensure that the United States never regulates any POPs added to the Stockholm Convention. It also threatens states’ rights to protect their citizens from POPs by preempting stricter state rules. This bill has drawn fire from the United Steelworkers, American Nurses Association, attorneys general in eleven states, and dozens of environmental health advocacy groups. The House is likely to consider the proposed legislation, which modifies the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, in early September.</p>
<p>The United States has a history of slow ratification of international agreements, many of which have been known to languish for years in the Senate, the State Department, or somewhere in the policy netherworld. In the case of the Stockholm Convention, the delay is inexcusable. The treaty has widespread support from the NGO community, the chemical industry, and governments around the world, and it regulates a set of chemicals that have been known for decades to be extremely dangerous.</p>
<p>The primary barrier to ratification has been a reluctance to establish a reasonable domestic system for taking action when new chemicals are added under the treaty. The treaty is designed so that every participating country can opt in or opt out of taking action on newly added chemicals. Once the United States has decided to opt in, a domestic process must be in place to meet the treaty commitments. The current version of legislation delinks the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision-making from the international scientific process, even after the United States has decided to opt in for action on a new chemical. This is a serious barrier to streamlined action and a clear violation of the spirit of the convention.</p>
<p>Some of the chemicals likely to be considered for addition, such as the pesticide endosulfan, are still in widespread use in both industrialized and developing nations, despite clear evidence of toxicity, persistence in the environment, and bioaccumulation. Elimination of these additional chemicals is certain to be more controversial in the United States than agreement on the initial pesticides targeted under the treaty, which have already been banned domestically for decades. In a White House Rose Garden statement announcing his intent to sign and ratify the POPs treaty, President Bush noted that POP chemicals “respect no boundaries and can harm Americans even when released abroad.” This statement, while true, does not reflect the other side of the equation-that continued use and release in the United States of persistent chemicals not included on UNEP’s initial list under the convention can and do harm citizens in other countries around the world.</p>
<p>The science-based process of adding new chemicals under the Stockholm Convention should be governed by precaution, a concept that appears in several places in the treaty’s text and is strongly supported by health and environmental advocates worldwide. The precautionary principle recognizes that when there is evidence that a chemical threatens “serious or irreversible damage,” action should be taken even in the absence of full scientific certainty. This principle recognizes the tremendous complexity of scientific research on the environmental and health impacts of synthetic chemicals, and it directs the international community to take protective action based on available knowledge to avoid irreparable harm.</p>
<p>Most European countries are well ahead of the United States in embracing the precautionary principle in both domestic and international policies. In negotiating the Stockholm Convention, the United States strenuously opposed precautionary language, while Europe strongly promoted it. This proved, along with the topic of financing, to be one of the most contentious issues in the final hours of treaty negotiations.</p>
<p>During negotiation of the Rotterdam Convention, the United States clearly recognized the potential impact of the more precautionary and protective policies in Europe. Under the voluntary PIC procedure, a pesticide qualified for the PIC list if it had been banned or severely restricted in any single country. The alternative proposal, supported by the United States and eventually incorporated into the final Rotterdam Convention, stipulates that a pesticide must be banned in at least two countries belonging to two separate global regions to trigger the PIC procedure. The boundaries used for the treaty include the United States and Canada as one region and the 43 countries of Europe as another. The U.S. position on this issue stemmed from concerns that bans in Europe, based on more precautionary policies, would lead to a larger “PIC list,” potentially undermining markets for U.S. pesticide manufacturers.</p>
<p>Yet despite U.S. reluctance, the international community is moving toward precautionary approaches that will provide real protection for both human health and the environment. The Rotterdam Convention is itself an example of a fundamentally precautionary instrument that allows governments to choose to avoid harm by not allowing imports of chemicals that have been deemed too dangerous in other countries.</p>
<p>* * *</p>
<p>Congress must pass implementing legislation for the two conventions that ensures appropriate transparency and public notification, protects states’ rights, effectively meets treaty obligations, and, in the case of the Stockholm Convention, allows a streamlined process for adding new chemicals based on decisions taken by the countries that have ratified the convention-the Conference of Parties. Under the convention, an international Scientific Review Committee has been established to recommend bans on additional chemicals. The Conference of Parties will consider these recommendations and come to agreement on any list expansion. To fulfill its treaty obligations, the United States must have a domestic program in place to rapidly implement decisions made under the treaty.</p>
<p>Draft legislation meeting these criteria exists in the House (the Solis POPs bill), but it was voted down along party lines in committee in July 2006. Congress must roundly reject the controversial Gillmor bill moving forward that does not meet these criteria. Although environmental health groups around the United States are eager to see the conventions ratified, they would rather wait for proper implementing legislation than accept ratification that undermines the POPs treaty and weakens U.S. participation in its implementation.</p>
<p>Because the United States has not yet ratified the conventions, it is participating in official meetings as an observer. Yet this does not mean the United States cannot take steps to demonstrate a commitment to treaty implementation and advance toward meeting treaty objectives. The United States should immediately initiate the development of a national implementation plan, including a focus on the byproduct POPs (dioxins and furans) and an evaluation of persistent chemicals not yet listed under the Stockholm Convention.</p>
<p>In developing a national plan, federal officials should examine progressive policies at the state level. Several states such as Maine, Washington, and California are addressing the ongoing use of persistent pollutants. For example, a February 2006 executive order by the governor of Maine established a task force to identify and promote safer alternatives to persistent bioaccumulative toxins, neurotoxins, and other chemicals discovered through biological monitoring. The state of Washington is implementing a plan under its Department of Ecology to phase out releases of persistent pollutants like mercury and dioxins. And in 2002, California phased out the pharmaceutical uses of lindane, a persistent pesticide finally banned from agricultural applications by the EPA in 2006 after a 29-year review process. Lindane has already been outlawed in at least 52 countries and was nominated in 2005 for inclusion under the Stockholm Convention. Progress currently underway through state-level initiatives like these can help the United States move toward national evaluation, reduction, and eventual elimination of persistent pollutants that threaten human health.</p>
<p>The NGO community continues to track ratification of the Stockholm and Rotterdam treaties with great interest, but the cautious optimism of five years ago is long gone. In his 2001 speech linked to Earth Day, President Bush announced his support for the Stockholm Convention, reminding the country that “the risks are great, and the need for action is clear.” These words now have a hollow ring, as the United States is once again left far behind in the international environmental policy arena, and U.S. public health remains at risk.</p>
<p>KRISTIN S. SCHAFER program coordinator with <a href="http://www.panna.org/" type="external">Pesticide Action Network North America</a> (PANNA), is co-author of Nowhere to Hide: Persistent Toxic Chemicals in the U.S. Food Supply (San Francisco: PANNA, 2001) and Chemical Trespass: Pesticides in Our Bodies and Corporate Accountability (San Francisco: PANNA, 2004). She can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>Daryl Ditz of the <a href="http://www.ciel.org/" type="external">Center for International Environmental Law</a> and Carl Smith of the <a href="http://www.fasenet.org/" type="external">Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Education</a> contributed to this article, previous versions of which appeared in the September 2001 (vol. 6, no. 31) and September 2002 (vol.7, no.11) issues of Foreign Policy In Focus.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | back 2001 two global toxics treaties offered rare opportunity us leadership international environmental policy arena today opportunity leadership lost united states seems bent undermining effectiveness important treaties rest world moves ahead implementation issues hand global elimination persistent chemicals control trade toxics two international treaties address challenges stockholm convention persistent organic pollutants rotterdam convention prior informed consent procedure certain hazardous chemicals pesticides international trade august 2006 least 127 countries ratified stockholm convention 110 confirmed rotterdam convention conventions force two years united states yet approve either chemicals addressed stockholm convention persistent organic pollutants pops toxic substances transported across globe persist environment accumulate body fat humans animals concentrate food chain even low levels exposure pops cause reproductive developmental disorders damage immune nervous systems range cancers exposure key phases fetal development particularly damaging infants around world born array pops already blood pops found current us food supply even though many chemicals question banned united states decades global nature pollutants led united nations environment program unep sponsor extensive negotiations culminated signing stockholm convention pops 2001 treaty entered force may 2004 ratification 50 countries pops treaty identifies initial list twelve pollutants slated elimination nine thesealdrin endrin dieldrin chlordane dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane ddt heptachlor hexachlorobenzene mirex toxapheneare pesticides targeted elimination nongovernmental organizations ngos around world since early 1980s chemicals conventions initial list polychlorinated biphenyls pcbs dioxins furans although banned pcbs pops many years ago united states continues produce dioxins furans byproducts chlorinebased industries waste incineration stockholm convention establishes various timetables elimination listed pop chemicals provisions specific evercontroversial ddt call ultimate elimination allow interim use pesticide malaria vector control use accompanied aggressive efforts develop implement safe effective alternatives ddt currently used control malaria two dozen countries mostly africa importantly stockholm treaty also includes process identifying reviewing additional pops five nominated chemicals including pesticide lindane flame retardant pentabromodiphenyl ether pbde already passed first stage rigorous scientific review process way banned another five chemicals consideration rotterdam convention also came force 2004 complementary treaty providing important controls international trade highly toxic chemicals requires country importing pesticides certain hazardous chemicals must informed bans severe restrictions substances countries gives receiving country option refusing shipments chemicals listed treaty grounds may harmful environment health population according recent analysis us customs records conducted foundation advancements science education 17 billion pounds pesticides exported us ports 2001 2003 nearly 28 million pounds total pesticides banned united states developing countries often lack capacity adequately evaluate regulate highly toxic chemicals imported northern neighbors rotterdam prior informed consent treaty pic international communitys response inequity although convention could strengthenedsome analysts believe current rules adding chemicals pic list designed limit number new substances addedit represents important tool help international community monitor control worlds massive trade dangerous substances prior earth day 2001 president bush announced intended sign stockholm pops treaty move quickly toward ratification pointed bipartisan nature commitment promising conclude process overseen democratic predecessor many us ngos welcomed bush administrations commitment treaty hoped state department senate would follow ratification stockholm convention companion rotterdam convention end 2001 five years later us ratification still elusive senate provide necessary advice consent congress must make modest amendments fix loopholes two key federal statutes controversial version required implementing legislation currently considered house gillmor pops bill would virtually ensure united states never regulates pops added stockholm convention also threatens states rights protect citizens pops preempting stricter state rules bill drawn fire united steelworkers american nurses association attorneys general eleven states dozens environmental health advocacy groups house likely consider proposed legislation modifies toxic substances control act federal insecticide fungicide rodenticide act early september united states history slow ratification international agreements many known languish years senate state department somewhere policy netherworld case stockholm convention delay inexcusable treaty widespread support ngo community chemical industry governments around world regulates set chemicals known decades extremely dangerous primary barrier ratification reluctance establish reasonable domestic system taking action new chemicals added treaty treaty designed every participating country opt opt taking action newly added chemicals united states decided opt domestic process must place meet treaty commitments current version legislation delinks environmental protection agencys epa decisionmaking international scientific process even united states decided opt action new chemical serious barrier streamlined action clear violation spirit convention chemicals likely considered addition pesticide endosulfan still widespread use industrialized developing nations despite clear evidence toxicity persistence environment bioaccumulation elimination additional chemicals certain controversial united states agreement initial pesticides targeted treaty already banned domestically decades white house rose garden statement announcing intent sign ratify pops treaty president bush noted pop chemicals respect boundaries harm americans even released abroad statement true reflect side equationthat continued use release united states persistent chemicals included uneps initial list convention harm citizens countries around world sciencebased process adding new chemicals stockholm convention governed precaution concept appears several places treatys text strongly supported health environmental advocates worldwide precautionary principle recognizes evidence chemical threatens serious irreversible damage action taken even absence full scientific certainty principle recognizes tremendous complexity scientific research environmental health impacts synthetic chemicals directs international community take protective action based available knowledge avoid irreparable harm european countries well ahead united states embracing precautionary principle domestic international policies negotiating stockholm convention united states strenuously opposed precautionary language europe strongly promoted proved along topic financing one contentious issues final hours treaty negotiations negotiation rotterdam convention united states clearly recognized potential impact precautionary protective policies europe voluntary pic procedure pesticide qualified pic list banned severely restricted single country alternative proposal supported united states eventually incorporated final rotterdam convention stipulates pesticide must banned least two countries belonging two separate global regions trigger pic procedure boundaries used treaty include united states canada one region 43 countries europe another us position issue stemmed concerns bans europe based precautionary policies would lead larger pic list potentially undermining markets us pesticide manufacturers yet despite us reluctance international community moving toward precautionary approaches provide real protection human health environment rotterdam convention example fundamentally precautionary instrument allows governments choose avoid harm allowing imports chemicals deemed dangerous countries congress must pass implementing legislation two conventions ensures appropriate transparency public notification protects states rights effectively meets treaty obligations case stockholm convention allows streamlined process adding new chemicals based decisions taken countries ratified conventionthe conference parties convention international scientific review committee established recommend bans additional chemicals conference parties consider recommendations come agreement list expansion fulfill treaty obligations united states must domestic program place rapidly implement decisions made treaty draft legislation meeting criteria exists house solis pops bill voted along party lines committee july 2006 congress must roundly reject controversial gillmor bill moving forward meet criteria although environmental health groups around united states eager see conventions ratified would rather wait proper implementing legislation accept ratification undermines pops treaty weakens us participation implementation united states yet ratified conventions participating official meetings observer yet mean united states take steps demonstrate commitment treaty implementation advance toward meeting treaty objectives united states immediately initiate development national implementation plan including focus byproduct pops dioxins furans evaluation persistent chemicals yet listed stockholm convention developing national plan federal officials examine progressive policies state level several states maine washington california addressing ongoing use persistent pollutants example february 2006 executive order governor maine established task force identify promote safer alternatives persistent bioaccumulative toxins neurotoxins chemicals discovered biological monitoring state washington implementing plan department ecology phase releases persistent pollutants like mercury dioxins 2002 california phased pharmaceutical uses lindane persistent pesticide finally banned agricultural applications epa 2006 29year review process lindane already outlawed least 52 countries nominated 2005 inclusion stockholm convention progress currently underway statelevel initiatives like help united states move toward national evaluation reduction eventual elimination persistent pollutants threaten human health ngo community continues track ratification stockholm rotterdam treaties great interest cautious optimism five years ago long gone 2001 speech linked earth day president bush announced support stockholm convention reminding country risks great need action clear words hollow ring united states left far behind international environmental policy arena us public health remains risk kristin schafer program coordinator pesticide action network north america panna coauthor nowhere hide persistent toxic chemicals us food supply san francisco panna 2001 chemical trespass pesticides bodies corporate accountability san francisco panna 2004 reached kristinspannaorg daryl ditz center international environmental law carl smith foundation advancement science education contributed article previous versions appeared september 2001 vol 6 31 september 2002 vol7 no11 issues foreign policy focus 160 160 | 1,365 |
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<p>“Today, the danger of some sort of a nuclear catastrophe is greater than it was during the Cold War and most people are blissfully unaware of this danger.”</p>
<p>-William J. Perry,&#160;U.S. Sec. Of Defense (1994-97)</p>
<p>Perry has been an inside player in the business of nuclear weapons for over 60 years and his book, <a href="" type="internal">“My Journey at the Nuclear Brink,”</a> is a sober read. It is also a powerful counterpoint to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) current European strategy that envisions nuclear weapons as a deterrent to war:&#160; “Their [nuclear weapons] role is to prevent major war, not to wage wars,” argues the Alliance’s magazine, <a href="" type="internal">NATO Review</a>.</p>
<p>But, as Perry points out, it is only by chance that the world has avoided a nuclear war—sometimes by nothing more than dumb luck—and, rather than enhancing our security, nukes “now endanger it.”</p>
<p>The 1962 Cuban missile crisis is generally represented as a dangerous standoff resolved by sober diplomacy. In fact, it was a single man—Russian submarine commander Vasili Arkhipov—who countermanded orders to launch a nuclear torpedo at an American destroyer that could have set off a full-scale nuclear exchange between the USSR and the U.S.</p>
<p>There were numerous other incidents that brought the world to the brink. On a quiet morning in November 1979, a NORAD computer reported a full-scale Russian sneak attack with land and sea-based missiles, which led to scrambling U.S. bombers and alerting U.S. missile silos to prepare to launch. There was no attack, just an errant test tape.</p>
<p>Lest anyone think the Nov. 9 incident was an anomaly, a little more than six months later NORAD computers announced that Soviet submarines had launched 220 missiles at the U.S.—this time the cause was a defective chip that cost 49 cents—again resulting in scrambling interceptors and putting the silos on alert. <a href="" type="internal" /></p>
<p>But don’t these examples prove that accidental nuclear war is unlikely? That conclusion is a dangerous illusion, argues Perry, because the price of being mistaken is so high and because the world is a more dangerous place than it was in 1980.</p>
<p>It is 71 years since atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and humanity’s memory of those events has dimmed. But even were the entire world to read John Hersey’s <a href="" type="internal">Hiroshima</a>, it would have little idea of what we face today.</p>
<p>The bombs that obliterated those cities were tiny by today’s standards, and comparing “Fat Man” and “Little Boy”—the incongruous names of the weapons that leveled both cities—to modern weapons stretches any analogy beyond the breaking point. If the Hiroshima bomb represented approximately 27 freight cars filled with TNT, a one-megaton warhead would require <a href="http://fpif.org/nuclear-weapons-forever-synonymous-with-overkill/" type="external">a train</a> 300 miles long.</p>
<p>Each Russian RS-20V Voevoda intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) packs 10 megatons.</p>
<p>What has made today’s world more dangerous, however, is not just advances in the destructive power of nuclear weapons, but a series of actions by the last three U.S. administrations.</p>
<p>First was the decision by President Bill Clinton to abrogate a 1990 agreement with the Soviet Union not to push NATO further east after the reunification of Germany or to recruit former members of the defunct Warsaw Pact.</p>
<p>NATO has also reneged on a 1997 pledge not to install “permanent” and “significant” military forces in former Warsaw Pact countries. This month NATO decided to deploy four battalions on, or near, the Russian border, arguing that since the units will be rotated they are not “permanent” and are not large enough to be “significant.” It is a linguistic slight of hand that does not amuse Moscow.</p>
<p>Second was the 1999 U.S.-NATO intervention in the Yugoslav civil war and the forcible dismemberment of Serbia. It is somewhat ironic that Russia is currently accused of using force to “redraw borders in Europe” by annexing the Crimea, which is exactly what NATO did to create Kosovo. The U.S. subsequently built Camp Bond Steel, Washington’s largest base in the Balkans.</p>
<p>Third was President George W, Bush’s unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the decision by the Obama administration to deploy anti-missile systems in Romania and Poland, as well as Japan and South Korea.</p>
<p>Last is the decision by the White House to spend upwards of $1 trillion upgrading its nuclear weapons arsenal, which includes building bombs with <a href="" type="internal">smaller yields</a>, a move that many critics argue blurs the line between conventional and nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>The Yugoslav War and NATO’s move east convinced Moscow that the Alliance was surrounding Russia with potential adversaries, and the deployment of anti-missile systems (ABM)—supposedly aimed at Iran’s non-existent nuclear weapons—was seen as a threat to the Russian’s nuclear missile force.</p>
<p>One immediate effect of ABMs was to chill the possibility of further cuts in the number of nuclear weapons. When Obama proposed another round of warhead reductions, the Russians turned it down cold, citing the anti-missile systems as the reason. “How can we take seriously this idea about cuts in strategic nuclear potential while the United States is developing its capabilities to intercept Russian missiles?” asked Deputy Prime Minister <a href="" type="internal">Dmitry Rogozin</a>.</p>
<p>When the U.S. helped engineer the 2014 coup against the pro-Russian government in Ukraine, it ignited the current crisis that has led to several dangerous incidents between Russian and NATO forces—at last count, according to the <a href="" type="internal">European Leadership Network,</a> more than 60. Several large war games were also held on Moscow’s borders. Former Soviet president <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/nato-chief-russia-soviet-mikhail-gorbachev-ukraine-eastern-europe-tensions-jens-stoltenberg-unified-a7128521.html" type="external">Mikhail Gorbachev</a> went so far as to accuse NATO of&#160; “preparations for switching from a cold war to a hot war.”</p>
<p>In response, the Russians have also held war games involving up to 80,000 troops.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that NATO intends to attack Russia, but the power differential between the U.S. and Russia is so great—a “colossal asymmetry,” Dmitri Trenin, head of the Carnegie Moscow Center, told the Financial Times—that the Russians have abandoned their “no first use” of nuclear weapons pledge.</p>
<p>It the lack of clear lines that make the current situation so fraught with danger. While the Russians have said they would consider using small, <a href="http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-brink-when-russia-would-use-tactical-nukes-nato-15281" type="external">tactical nukes</a> if “the very existence of the state” was threatened by an attack, NATO is being deliberately opaque about its possible tripwires. According to NATO Review, nuclear “exercises should involve not only nuclear weapons states…but other non-nuclear allies,” and “to put the burden of the doubt on potential adversaries, exercises should not point at any specific nuclear thresholds.”</p>
<p>In short, keep the Russians guessing. The immediate problem with such a strategy is: what if Moscow guesses wrong?</p>
<p>That won’t be hard to do. The U.S. is developing a long-range cruise missile—as are the Russians—that can be armed with conventional or nuclear warheads. But how will an adversary know which is which? And given the old rule in nuclear warfare—use ‘em, or lose ‘em—uncertainty is the last thing one wants to engender in a nuclear-armed foe.</p>
<p>Indeed, the idea of no “specific nuclear thresholds” is one of the most extraordinarily dangerous and destabilizing concepts to come along since the invention of nuclear weapons.</p>
<p>There is no evidence that Russia contemplates an attack on the Baltic states or countries like Poland, and, given the enormous power of the U.S., such an undertaking would court national suicide.</p>
<p>Moscow’s “aggression” against Georgia and Ukraine was provoked. Georgia attacked Russia, not vice versa, and the Ukraine coup torpedoed a peace deal negotiated by the European Union, the U.S., and Russia. Imagine Washington’s view of a Moscow-supported coup in Mexico, followed by an influx of Russian weapons and trainers.</p>
<p>In a memorandum to the recent NATO meetings in Warsaw, the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity argued “There is not one scintilla of evidence of any Russian plan to annex Crimea before the coup in Kiev and coup leaders began talking about joining NATO. If senior NATO leaders continue to be unable or unwilling to distinguish between cause and effect, increasing tension is inevitable with potentially disastrous results.”</p>
<p>The organization of former intelligence analysts also sharply condemned the <a href="" type="internal">NATO war games</a>. “We shake our heads in disbelief when we see Western leaders seemingly oblivious to what it means to the Russians to witness exercises on a scale not seen since Hitler’s army launched ‘Unternehumen Barbarossa’ 75 years ago, leaving 25 million Soviet citizens dead.”</p>
<p>While the NATO meetings in Warsaw agreed to continue economic sanctions aimed at Russia for another six months and to station four battalions of troops in Poland and the Baltic states— separate <a href="http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Suwalki_Gap_key_to_NATOs_eastern_flank_security_999.html" type="external">U.S. forces</a> will be deployed in Bulgaria and Poland&#160; —there was an undercurrent of <a href="" type="internal">dissent</a>. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for deescalating the tensions with Russia and for considering Russian President Vladimir Putin a partner not an enemy.</p>
<p>Greece was not alone. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeler called NATO maneuvers on the Russian border “warmongering” and “saber rattling.” French President Francois Hollande said Putin should be considered a “partner,” not a “threat,” and France tried to reduce the number of troops being deployed in the Baltic and Poland. Italy has been increasingly critical of the sanctions.</p>
<p>Rather than recognizing the growing discomfort of a number of NATO allies and that beefing up forces on Russia’s borders might be destabilizing, U.S. Sec. of State John Kerry recently inked defense agreements with Georgia and Ukraine.</p>
<p>After disappearing from the radar for several decades, nukes are back, and the decision to modernize the U.S. arsenal will almost certainly kick off a nuclear arms race with Russia and China. &#160;Russia is already replacing its current ICBM force with the more powerful and long range <a href="" type="internal">“Sarmat” ICBM</a>, and China is loading its ICBM with multiple warheads.</p>
<p>Add to this volatile mixture military maneuvers and a deliberately opaque policy in regards to the use of nuclear weapons, and it is no wonder that Perry thinks that the chances of some catastrophe is a growing possibility.</p> | true | 4 | today danger sort nuclear catastrophe greater cold war people blissfully unaware danger william j perry160us sec defense 199497 perry inside player business nuclear weapons 60 years book journey nuclear brink sober read also powerful counterpoint north atlantic treaty organizations nato current european strategy envisions nuclear weapons deterrent war160 nuclear weapons role prevent major war wage wars argues alliances magazine nato review perry points chance world avoided nuclear warsometimes nothing dumb luckand rather enhancing security nukes endanger 1962 cuban missile crisis generally represented dangerous standoff resolved sober diplomacy fact single manrussian submarine commander vasili arkhipovwho countermanded orders launch nuclear torpedo american destroyer could set fullscale nuclear exchange ussr us numerous incidents brought world brink quiet morning november 1979 norad computer reported fullscale russian sneak attack land seabased missiles led scrambling us bombers alerting us missile silos prepare launch attack errant test tape lest anyone think nov 9 incident anomaly little six months later norad computers announced soviet submarines launched 220 missiles usthis time cause defective chip cost 49 centsagain resulting scrambling interceptors putting silos alert dont examples prove accidental nuclear war unlikely conclusion dangerous illusion argues perry price mistaken high world dangerous place 1980 71 years since atomic bombs destroyed hiroshima nagasaki humanitys memory events dimmed even entire world read john herseys hiroshima would little idea face today bombs obliterated cities tiny todays standards comparing fat man little boythe incongruous names weapons leveled citiesto modern weapons stretches analogy beyond breaking point hiroshima bomb represented approximately 27 freight cars filled tnt onemegaton warhead would require train 300 miles long russian rs20v voevoda intercontinental ballistic missile icbm packs 10 megatons made todays world dangerous however advances destructive power nuclear weapons series actions last three us administrations first decision president bill clinton abrogate 1990 agreement soviet union push nato east reunification germany recruit former members defunct warsaw pact nato also reneged 1997 pledge install permanent significant military forces former warsaw pact countries month nato decided deploy four battalions near russian border arguing since units rotated permanent large enough significant linguistic slight hand amuse moscow second 1999 usnato intervention yugoslav civil war forcible dismemberment serbia somewhat ironic russia currently accused using force redraw borders europe annexing crimea exactly nato create kosovo us subsequently built camp bond steel washingtons largest base balkans third president george w bushs unilateral withdrawal antiballistic missile treaty decision obama administration deploy antimissile systems romania poland well japan south korea last decision white house spend upwards 1 trillion upgrading nuclear weapons arsenal includes building bombs smaller yields move many critics argue blurs line conventional nuclear weapons yugoslav war natos move east convinced moscow alliance surrounding russia potential adversaries deployment antimissile systems abmsupposedly aimed irans nonexistent nuclear weaponswas seen threat russians nuclear missile force one immediate effect abms chill possibility cuts number nuclear weapons obama proposed another round warhead reductions russians turned cold citing antimissile systems reason take seriously idea cuts strategic nuclear potential united states developing capabilities intercept russian missiles asked deputy prime minister dmitry rogozin us helped engineer 2014 coup prorussian government ukraine ignited current crisis led several dangerous incidents russian nato forcesat last count according european leadership network 60 several large war games also held moscows borders former soviet president mikhail gorbachev went far accuse nato of160 preparations switching cold war hot war response russians also held war games involving 80000 troops unlikely nato intends attack russia power differential us russia greata colossal asymmetry dmitri trenin head carnegie moscow center told financial timesthat russians abandoned first use nuclear weapons pledge lack clear lines make current situation fraught danger russians said would consider using small tactical nukes existence state threatened attack nato deliberately opaque possible tripwires according nato review nuclear exercises involve nuclear weapons statesbut nonnuclear allies put burden doubt potential adversaries exercises point specific nuclear thresholds short keep russians guessing immediate problem strategy moscow guesses wrong wont hard us developing longrange cruise missileas russiansthat armed conventional nuclear warheads adversary know given old rule nuclear warfareuse em lose emuncertainty last thing one wants engender nucleararmed foe indeed idea specific nuclear thresholds one extraordinarily dangerous destabilizing concepts come along since invention nuclear weapons evidence russia contemplates attack baltic states countries like poland given enormous power us undertaking would court national suicide moscows aggression georgia ukraine provoked georgia attacked russia vice versa ukraine coup torpedoed peace deal negotiated european union us russia imagine washingtons view moscowsupported coup mexico followed influx russian weapons trainers memorandum recent nato meetings warsaw veteran intelligence professionals sanity argued one scintilla evidence russian plan annex crimea coup kiev coup leaders began talking joining nato senior nato leaders continue unable unwilling distinguish cause effect increasing tension inevitable potentially disastrous results organization former intelligence analysts also sharply condemned nato war games shake heads disbelief see western leaders seemingly oblivious means russians witness exercises scale seen since hitlers army launched unternehumen barbarossa 75 years ago leaving 25 million soviet citizens dead nato meetings warsaw agreed continue economic sanctions aimed russia another six months station four battalions troops poland baltic states separate us forces deployed bulgaria poland160 undercurrent dissent greek prime minister alexis tsipras called deescalating tensions russia considering russian president vladimir putin partner enemy greece alone german foreign minister frankwalter steinmeler called nato maneuvers russian border warmongering saber rattling french president francois hollande said putin considered partner threat france tried reduce number troops deployed baltic poland italy increasingly critical sanctions rather recognizing growing discomfort number nato allies beefing forces russias borders might destabilizing us sec state john kerry recently inked defense agreements georgia ukraine disappearing radar several decades nukes back decision modernize us arsenal almost certainly kick nuclear arms race russia china 160russia already replacing current icbm force powerful long range sarmat icbm china loading icbm multiple warheads add volatile mixture military maneuvers deliberately opaque policy regards use nuclear weapons wonder perry thinks chances catastrophe growing possibility | 965 |
<p>Turkish President Abdullah Gül and his Indonesian counterpart, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, shake hands at the Turkey-Indonesian Business Forum in 2010.&lt;a href="http://www.tccb.gov.tr/news/397/49722/target-five-billion-dollars-in-trade-between-turkey-and-indonesia.html"&gt;Presidency of the Republic of Turkey&lt;/a&gt;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external" />This <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175366/tomgram%3A_pepe_escobar%2C_mummies_and_models_in_the_new_middle_east/" type="external">story</a> first appeared on the <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/" type="external">TomDispatch</a> website.</p>
<p>Three mummies were recently found in an underground temple in Luxor, Egypt. Translated hieroglyphs identified them as the Clash of Civilizations, the End of History, and Islamophobia. They ruled in Western domains into the second decade of the twenty-first century before dying and being embalmed.</p>
<p>That much is settled. Without them, the Middle East is already a new world that must be understood in a new way. For one thing, Egypt, that previously moribund land of “stability” and bosom buddy of whoever was in power in Washington, has been hurled into the Middle East’s New Great Game. The question is: What will be its fate—and that of the millions of Egyptians who took to the streets in a staggering show of aggressive nonviolence in January and February?</p>
<p>It is, of course, impossible to say, especially since shadow play is the norm and the realities of rule are hard to discern. In a country where “politics” has for decades meant the army, it’s notable that the key actor supposedly coordinating the “transition to democracy” remains an appointee of Pharaoh Hosni Mubarak, Field Marshall <a href="http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/03/our-military-junta-of-egypt-meet.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29" type="external">Mohamed Hussein Tantawi</a> from the Supreme Army Council. At least, popular pressure has forced Tantawi’s military junta to appoint a new transitional Prime Minister, the Tahrir-Square-friendly former transport minister Essam Sharaf.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the hated emergency laws from the Mubarak era, part of what provoked the Egyptian uprising to begin with, are still in place and that the country’s intellectuals, its political parties, labor unions, and the media all fear a silent <a href="http://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/03/these-men-are-dangerous-on-revolution.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EgyptianChronicles+%28Egyptian+chronicles%29" type="external">counterrevolution</a>. At the same time, they almost uniformly insist that the Tahrir Square revolution will neither be hijacked nor rebranded by opportunists. As the ideological divide between liberalism, secularism, and Islamism disintegrated when the country’s psychological Wall of Fear came down, lawyers, doctors, textile workers—a range of the country’s civil society—remain clear on one thing: they will never settle for a theocracy or a military dictatorship. They want full democracy.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1934840831/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external" />No wonder what that implies makes Western diplomatic circles tremble. An Egyptian army even remotely accountable to an elected civilian government <a href="http://www.almanar.com.lb/english/adetails.php?fromval=1&amp;cid=23&amp;frid=23&amp;eid=4723" type="external">will not</a>, for instance, collaborate in the Israeli siege of Gaza’s Palestinians, or in CIA renditions of terror suspects to the country’s prisons, or blindly in that monstrous farce, the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, there are more pedestrian matters to deal with: How, for example, will the army-directed transition towards September elections make the economic numbers add up? In 2009, Egypt’s <a href="http://www.economywatch.com/world_economy/egypt/export-import.html" type="external">import bill</a> was $56 billion, while the country’s exports only added up to $29 billion. Tourism, foreign aid, and borrowing helped fill the gap. The uprising <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175355/michael_schwartz_weapons_of_mass_disruption" type="external">sent tourism</a> into a tailspin and who knows what kinds of aid and loans anyone will fork over in the months to come.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the country will have to import no less than 10 million tons of wheat in 2011 at about $3.3 billion (if grain prices don’t continue to rise) to keep people at least half-fed. This is but a small part of Mubarak’s tawdry legacy, which includes 40 million Egyptians, almost half the population, living on less than $2 a day, and it’s not going to disappear overnight, if at all.</p>
<p>Hit by a rolling, largely peaceful revolution all across MENA (the newly popular acronym for the Middle East and Northern Africa), Washington and an aging Fortress Europe, filled with fear, wallow in a mire of perplexity. Even after the dust from those rebellious Northern African winds settles, it’s hardly a given that they will grasp just how all the cultural stereotypes used to explain the Middle East for decades also managed to vanish.</p>
<p>My favorite line of the Great Arab Revolt of 2011 is still Tunisian scholar <a href="http://www.gei.de/en/fellows-and-staff/dr-dhouib.html" type="external">Sarhan Dhouib’s</a>: “These revolts are an answer to [George W.] Bush’s intent to democratize the Arab world with violence.” If “shock and awe” is now also an artifact of an ancient world, what’s next? &#160;</p>
<p>Models for Rent or Sale</p>
<p>On February 3rd, the <a href="http://www.tesev.org.tr/default.asp?PG=ANAEN" type="external">Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation</a> published a poll conducted in seven Arab countries and Iran. No less than <a href="http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=44078" type="external">66% of respondents</a> considered Turkey, not Iran, the ideal model for the Middle East. A media scrum from Le Monde to the Financial Times now evidently concurs. After all, Turkey is a functional democracy in a Muslim-majority country where the separation of mosque and state prevails.</p>
<p>That stellar Islamic scholar at Oxford, Tariq Ramadan, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, also recently <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tariq-ramadan/post_1690_b_820366.html" type="external">labeled</a> the “Turkish way” as “a source of inspiration.” In late February, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu agreed, with a surfeit of modesty that barely covered the ambitions of the new Turkey, insisting that his country does not want to be a model for the region, “but we can be a source of inspiration.”</p>
<p>The Egyptian Marxist economist Samir Amin—widely respected across the developing world—suspects that, whatever the hopes of the Turks and others, including so many Egyptians, Washington has quite different ideas about Egypt’s destiny. It wants, he <a href="http://theworkersdreadnought.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/samir-amin-movements-in-egypt-the-us-realigns/" type="external">believes</a>, not a Turkish model but a Pakistani one for that country: that is, the mix of an “Islamic power” with a military dictatorship. It won’t fly, Amin is convinced, because “the Egyptian people are now highly politicized.”</p>
<p>The process of true democratization that began back in the distant 1950s in Turkey proved to be a long road. Nonetheless, despite periodic military coups and the continuing political power of the Turkish army, elections were, and remain, free. The Justice and Development Party, or <a href="http://eng.akparti.org.tr/english/partyprogramme.html" type="external">AKP</a>, now at the Turkish helm, was founded in August 2001 by former members of the Refah Party, a much more conservative Islamic group with an ideology similar to that of today’s Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.</p>
<p>As the AKP mellowed out, however, the pro-business, pro-European Union wing of the country’s Islamists mixed with various center-right politicians and, in 2002, the AKP finally took power in Ankara. Only then could they begin to slowly undermine the stranglehold of the traditional Istanbul-based secular Turkish elite and the military that had held power since the 1920s.</p>
<p>Yet the AKP did not dream of dismantling the secular system first installed by Turkey’s founding father <a href="http://www.mideastweb.org/Middle-East-Encyclopedia/kemal-ataturk.htm" type="external">Mustapha Kemal Ataturk</a> in 1924. The Turkish civil code he instituted was inspired by Switzerland with citizenship based on secular law. While the country is predominantly Muslim, of course, its people simply would not welcome a system, as in Khomeinist Iran, that is guided by religion.</p>
<p>The AKP should be viewed as the equivalent of the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/jun/10/has-christian-democracy-reached-a-dead-end-in-europe" type="external">Christian Democrats</a> in Europe after the 1950s—dynamic, business-oriented conservatives with religious roots. In Egypt, the moderate wing of the Muslim Brotherhood has many similarities to the AKP and looks to it for inspiration. In the new Egypt, it will finally be a legitimate political party and most experts believe that it could garner 25% to 30% of the vote in the first election of the new era. &#160;</p>
<p>All Roads Lead to Tahrir</p>
<p>Turkish critics—usually from the Western-oriented technical and managerial caste—regularly accuse the democracy-meets-Islam Turkish model of being little more than a successful marketing ploy, or worse, a Middle Eastern version of Russia. After all, the army still wields disproportionate behind-the-scenes power as guarantor of the state’s secular framework. And the country’s Kurdish minority is not really integrated into the system (although in September 2010 Turkish voters approved <a href="http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/14/turkey_s_referendum_creating_constitutional_checks_and_balances" type="external">constitutional changes</a> that give greater rights to Christians and Kurds).</p>
<p>With its glorious Ottoman past, notes <a href="http://gulenlibrary.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=22:the-worlds-top-20-public-intellectuals&amp;catid=2:periodicals&amp;Itemid=4" type="external">Orhan Pamuk</a>, the 2006 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Turkey was never colonized by a world power, and thus “‘veneration of Europe’ or ‘imitation of the West’ never had the humiliating connotations” described by Frantz Fanon or Edward Said for much of the rest of the Middle East and North Africa.</p>
<p>There are stark differences between Turkey’s road to a military-free democracy in 2002 and the littered path ahead for Egypt’s young demonstrators and nascent political parties. In Turkey the key actors were pro-business Islamists, conservatives, neo-liberals, and right-wing nationalists. In Egypt they are pro-labor Islamists, leftists, liberals, and left-wing nationalists.</p>
<p>The Tahrir Square revolution was essentially unleashed by two <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/alamin02012011.html" type="external">youth groups</a>: the April 6 Youth Movement (which was geared towards solidarity with workers on strike), and We Are All Khaled Said (which mobilized against police brutality). Later, they would be joined by Muslim Brotherhood activists and—crucially—organized labor, the masses of workers (and the unemployed) who had suffered from years of the International Monetary Fund’s “structural adjustment” poison. (As late as April 2010, an IMF delegation visited Cairo and <a href="http://bikyamasr.com/wordpress/?p=12052" type="external">praised</a> Mubarak’s “progress.”)</p>
<p>The revolution in Tahrir Square made the necessary connections in a deeply comprehensible way. It managed to go to the heart of the matter, linking miserable wages, mass unemployment, and increasing poverty to the ways in which Mubarak’s cronies (and also the military establishment) enriched themselves. Sooner or later, in any showdown to come, the way the military <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/one-third-of-egypt-s-economy-under-army-control-1.1029129" type="external">controls</a> so much of the economy will be an unavoidable topic—the way, for instance, army-owned companies continue to make a killing in the water, olive oil, cement, construction, hotel, and oil industries, or the way the military has come to own significant tracts of land in the Nile Delta and on the Red Sea, “gifts” for guaranteeing regime stability.</p>
<p>It’s not surprising that key sectors in the West are pushing for a <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-04/arabs-battling-regimes-see-erdogan-s-muslim-democracy-in-turkey-as-model.html" type="external">“safe”</a> Turkish model for Egypt. Yet, given the country’s immiseration, it’s unlikely that young protesters and their working class supporters will be appeased even by the possibility of a Turkish-style, neoliberal, Islamo-democratic system. What this leftist/liberal/Islamist coalition is fighting for is a labor-friendly, independent, truly sovereign democracy. It doesn’t take a PhD. from the London School of Economics, like the one <a href="http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/75772,people,news,lse-investigates-saif-al-islam-gaddafi-over-phd-plagiarism-claims" type="external">bought by</a> Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, to see how cataclysmic this newly independent outlook could be for the current status quo.</p>
<p>Mirror, Mirror on the Wall</p>
<p>Don’t misunderstand: Whether the Tahrir Square activists want to reproduce the Turkish system in Egypt or not, Turkey itself is immensely popular there, as it increasingly is in the wider Arab world. That offers Ankara’s politicians the perfect scenario for consolidating the country’s regional leadership role, distinctly on the rise since, in 2003, its leaders established their independence by rebuffing George W. Bush’s desire to use Turkish territory in his invasion of Iraq.</p>
<p>That popularity was only heightened after eight of the nine victims shot by Israeli commandos in the Gaza freedom flotilla fiasco turned out to be Turks. When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vociferously condemned Israel for its “bloody massacre,” he instantly became the “King of Gaza.” When Mubarak finally responded to the Tahrir Square demonstrations by announcing that he would not run again for president in 2011, President Obama didn’t say much, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Egypt not to “rush towards elections.” As for Erdogan, he virtually <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/02/turkey-recep-tayyip-erdogan-egypt-hosni-mubarak.html" type="external">ordered</a> Mubarak to step down, live on al-Jazeera for the whole Muslim world to see.</p>
<p>While Washington fiddled with embracing the wrong side of history, however reluctantly and chaotically, in the company of those staunch Mubarak defenders Israel and Saudi Arabia, Erdogan—with a canny assessment of regional politics—preferred to back Egyptians attempting to chart their own destiny. And it paid off.</p>
<p>The point is not that America is now “losing” Turkey, nor that, as some critics have charged, Erdogan is dreaming of becoming a neo-Ottoman Caliph (whatever that might mean). What must be understood here is a new Turkish concept: strategic depth. For that we need to turn to a book, Stratejik Derinlik: Turkiye’nin Uluslararasi Konumu (Strategic Depth: Turkey’s International Position), published in Istanbul in 2001 by Ahmet Davutoglu, then a professor of international relations at the University of Marmara, now Turkey’s <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/20/turkeys_zero_problems_foreign_policy" type="external">Foreign Minister</a>.</p>
<p>In that book, Davutoglu looked into a future that seems ever closer to now and placed Turkey at the center of three concentric circles: 1) the Balkans, the Black Sea basin, and the Caucasus; 2) the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean; 3) the Persian Gulf, Africa, and Central Asia. When it came to future areas of influence, even in 2001 he believed that Turkey could potentially claim no less than eight: the Balkans, the Black Sea, the Caucasus, the Caspian, Turkic Central Asia, the Persian Gulf, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Today, he is a key player, and in many of those same areas of potential influence, people are indeed looking to Turkey. It’s a remarkable moment for Davutoglu, who remains convinced that Ankara will be a force to reckon with in the Middle East. As he puts it, simply enough, “This is our home.”</p>
<p>Take the idea of Turkey’s “strategic depth” and combine it with the Great Arab Revolt of 2011 and you understand why Erdogan has launched a bid not just to make the Turkish model the Egyptian one or even the Middle Eastern one, but to upstage Egypt as the future mediator between the region and the West. That Erdogan and Davutoglu were heading in this direction has been clear enough from the way, in the past few years, they have tried to insert themselves as mediators between Syria and Israel and have launched a complex political, diplomatic, and economic opening towards Iran.</p>
<p>And speaking of historical ironies, just as Iran’s fundamentalist leaders were watching an Egyptian regime deeply hostile to them go down, protests by the Iranian <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MB17Ak02.html" type="external">Green Movement</a> suddenly began to rock Tehran again—during a visit by none other than Turkish President Abdullah Gul. The protests were handled with what amounted to a velvet glove (by Tehran’s standards) because the military dictatorship of the mullahtariat found itself in a potentially losing competition with its Turkish ally to become the number one inspirational source for Arab mass movements. &#160;</p>
<p>Java: Democracy with Your Coffee?</p>
<p>If Egyptians want lessons in the establishment of democracy, Turkey is hardly the only place to turn to for inspiration. They could, for example, look to Latin America. For the first time in over 500 years, South America is fully democratic. As in Egypt, so in many Latin American countries in the Cold War era, dictatorships were the order of the day and militaries ruled. In Brazil, for instance, the “slow, gradual, and secure” political opening that left a military dictatorship behind took practically a decade.</p>
<p>That implies a lot of patience. The same applies to another model: <a href="http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2011/03/03/post-mubarak-egypt-is-indonesia-the-right-model/" type="external">Indonesia</a>. There, in 1998, Suharto, an aging US-backed dictator 32 years in power, finally resigned only a few days after returning from a visit to, of all places, Cairo. Indonesia then looked a lot like Egypt in February 2011: a Western-friendly, predominantly Muslim nation, impoverished and fed up with a mega-corrupt military dictator who crushed leftist intellectuals as well as political Islam.</p>
<p>Thirteen years later, Indonesia is the world’s third largest democracy and the freest in Southeast Asia, with a secular government, a booming economy, and the military out of politics.</p>
<p>I still have vivid memories of riding a bike one day in May 1998 across the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, while it was literally on fire, rage exploding in endless columns of smoke. Washington did not intervene then, nor did China, nor the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Indonesians did it for themselves. The transition followed an existing, if previously largely ignored, constitution. (In Egypt, the constitution now must be amended via a referendum.)</p>
<p>True, Indonesians had to live for a while with Suharto’s handpicked vice president, the affable B.J. Habibie (so unlike Mubarak’s handpicked successor the sinister Omar “Sheikh al-Torture” Suleiman). It took a year to organize new elections, amend electoral laws, and get rid of appointed seats in Parliament. It took six years for the first direct presidential election. And yes, corruption is still a huge problem, and wealth and the right connections go a long way (as is true, some would say, in the US). But today, the rule of law prevails.</p>
<p>An “Islamic state” never had a chance. Today, only 25% of Indonesians <a href="http://inside.org.au/indonesia%E2%80%99s-islamic-parties-in-decline/" type="external">vote for</a> Islamic parties, while the well-organized Prosperous Justice Party, an ideological descendant of the Muslim Brotherhood, but now officially open to non-Muslims, holds only four out of 37 seats in the <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/susilo-bambang-yudhoyonos-cabinet-pick-too-political/story-e6frg6so-1225790245241" type="external">cabinet</a> of President Yudhoyono, and expects to win no more than 10% of the vote in the 2014 elections.</p>
<p>While Indonesia remains close to the US and is heavily courted by Washington as a counterweight to China, Brazil under the presidency of immensely popular Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/17147828" type="external">charted</a> a far more independent path for itself and, by example, much of Latin America. This process took almost a decade and future historians may see it as at least as significant as the fall of the Berlin Wall.</p>
<p>In Eastern Europe, 1989 could be seen, in part, as a chain of rebellions by people yearning to get access to the global market. The Great Arab Revolt, on the other hand, has been an uprising in significant part against the dictatorship of that same market. Protestors from Tunisia to Bahrain are striking out in favor of social inclusion and new, better social and economic contracts. No wonder this staggering, ongoing upheaval is regarded across Latin America with tremendous empathy and with the feeling that “We did it, and now they’re doing it.”</p>
<p>The future is, of course, unknown, but perhaps a decade or two from now, we’ll be able to say that the Egyptians and other Arab peoples struck out not on the Turkish model, nor even the Brazilian or Indonesian ones, but onto a set of new paths. Perhaps the future from Cairo to Tunis, Benghazi to Manama, Algiers to (Allah willing) a post-House of Saud Saudi Arabia will involve inventing a new political culture and the new economic contracts that would go with it, ones that will be indigenous and, hopefully, democratic in new and surprising ways.</p>
<p>Which brings us back to Turkey. It’s perfectly feasible that Islam will be one of the building blocks of something entirely new, something no one today has a clue about, something that will resemble what was, in Europe, the separation between politics and religion. In the spirit of May 1968, perhaps we can even picture an Arab <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/feb/17/banksy-tags-los-angeles-pictures?intcmp=239#/?picture=371844005&amp;index=0" type="external">Banksy</a> plastering a stencil across all Arab capitals: Imagination in Power!</p>
<p>Pepe Escobar is the <a href="http://atimes.com/atimes/others/Pepe2011.html" type="external">roving correspondent</a> for <a href="http://www.atimes.com/" type="external">Asia Times</a>. His latest book is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1934840831/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20" type="external">Obama does Globalistan</a> (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | true | 4 | turkish president abdullah gül indonesian counterpart president susilo bambang yudhoyono shake hands turkeyindonesian business forum 2010lta hrefhttpwwwtccbgovtrnews39749722targetfivebilliondollarsintradebetweenturkeyandindonesiahtmlgtpresidency republic turkeyltagt story first appeared tomdispatch website three mummies recently found underground temple luxor egypt translated hieroglyphs identified clash civilizations end history islamophobia ruled western domains second decade twentyfirst century dying embalmed much settled without middle east already new world must understood new way one thing egypt previously moribund land stability bosom buddy whoever power washington hurled middle easts new great game question fateand millions egyptians took streets staggering show aggressive nonviolence january february course impossible say especially since shadow play norm realities rule hard discern country politics decades meant army notable key actor supposedly coordinating transition democracy remains appointee pharaoh hosni mubarak field marshall mohamed hussein tantawi supreme army council least popular pressure forced tantawis military junta appoint new transitional prime minister tahrirsquarefriendly former transport minister essam sharaf keep mind hated emergency laws mubarak era part provoked egyptian uprising begin still place countrys intellectuals political parties labor unions media fear silent counterrevolution time almost uniformly insist tahrir square revolution neither hijacked rebranded opportunists ideological divide liberalism secularism islamism disintegrated countrys psychological wall fear came lawyers doctors textile workersa range countrys civil societyremain clear one thing never settle theocracy military dictatorship want full democracy wonder implies makes western diplomatic circles tremble egyptian army even remotely accountable elected civilian government instance collaborate israeli siege gazas palestinians cia renditions terror suspects countrys prisons blindly monstrous farce israelipalestinian peace process meanwhile pedestrian matters deal example armydirected transition towards september elections make economic numbers add 2009 egypts import bill 56 billion countrys exports added 29 billion tourism foreign aid borrowing helped fill gap uprising sent tourism tailspin knows kinds aid loans anyone fork months come meanwhile country import less 10 million tons wheat 2011 33 billion grain prices dont continue rise keep people least halffed small part mubaraks tawdry legacy includes 40 million egyptians almost half population living less 2 day going disappear overnight hit rolling largely peaceful revolution across mena newly popular acronym middle east northern africa washington aging fortress europe filled fear wallow mire perplexity even dust rebellious northern african winds settles hardly given grasp cultural stereotypes used explain middle east decades also managed vanish favorite line great arab revolt 2011 still tunisian scholar sarhan dhouibs revolts answer george w bushs intent democratize arab world violence shock awe also artifact ancient world whats next 160 models rent sale february 3rd turkish economic social studies foundation published poll conducted seven arab countries iran less 66 respondents considered turkey iran ideal model middle east media scrum le monde financial times evidently concurs turkey functional democracy muslimmajority country separation mosque state prevails stellar islamic scholar oxford tariq ramadan grandson muslim brotherhood founder hassan albanna also recently labeled turkish way source inspiration late february turkish foreign minister ahmet davutoglu agreed surfeit modesty barely covered ambitions new turkey insisting country want model region source inspiration egyptian marxist economist samir aminwidely respected across developing worldsuspects whatever hopes turks others including many egyptians washington quite different ideas egypts destiny wants believes turkish model pakistani one country mix islamic power military dictatorship wont fly amin convinced egyptian people highly politicized process true democratization began back distant 1950s turkey proved long road nonetheless despite periodic military coups continuing political power turkish army elections remain free justice development party akp turkish helm founded august 2001 former members refah party much conservative islamic group ideology similar todays muslim brotherhood egypt akp mellowed however probusiness proeuropean union wing countrys islamists mixed various centerright politicians 2002 akp finally took power ankara could begin slowly undermine stranglehold traditional istanbulbased secular turkish elite military held power since 1920s yet akp dream dismantling secular system first installed turkeys founding father mustapha kemal ataturk 1924 turkish civil code instituted inspired switzerland citizenship based secular law country predominantly muslim course people simply would welcome system khomeinist iran guided religion akp viewed equivalent christian democrats europe 1950sdynamic businessoriented conservatives religious roots egypt moderate wing muslim brotherhood many similarities akp looks inspiration new egypt finally legitimate political party experts believe could garner 25 30 vote first election new era 160 roads lead tahrir turkish criticsusually westernoriented technical managerial casteregularly accuse democracymeetsislam turkish model little successful marketing ploy worse middle eastern version russia army still wields disproportionate behindthescenes power guarantor states secular framework countrys kurdish minority really integrated system although september 2010 turkish voters approved constitutional changes give greater rights christians kurds glorious ottoman past notes orhan pamuk 2006 winner nobel prize literature turkey never colonized world power thus veneration europe imitation west never humiliating connotations described frantz fanon edward said much rest middle east north africa stark differences turkeys road militaryfree democracy 2002 littered path ahead egypts young demonstrators nascent political parties turkey key actors probusiness islamists conservatives neoliberals rightwing nationalists egypt prolabor islamists leftists liberals leftwing nationalists tahrir square revolution essentially unleashed two youth groups april 6 youth movement geared towards solidarity workers strike khaled said mobilized police brutality later would joined muslim brotherhood activists andcruciallyorganized labor masses workers unemployed suffered years international monetary funds structural adjustment poison late april 2010 imf delegation visited cairo praised mubaraks progress revolution tahrir square made necessary connections deeply comprehensible way managed go heart matter linking miserable wages mass unemployment increasing poverty ways mubaraks cronies also military establishment enriched sooner later showdown come way military controls much economy unavoidable topicthe way instance armyowned companies continue make killing water olive oil cement construction hotel oil industries way military come significant tracts land nile delta red sea gifts guaranteeing regime stability surprising key sectors west pushing safe turkish model egypt yet given countrys immiseration unlikely young protesters working class supporters appeased even possibility turkishstyle neoliberal islamodemocratic system leftistliberalislamist coalition fighting laborfriendly independent truly sovereign democracy doesnt take phd london school economics like one bought saif alislam algaddafi see cataclysmic newly independent outlook could current status quo mirror mirror wall dont misunderstand whether tahrir square activists want reproduce turkish system egypt turkey immensely popular increasingly wider arab world offers ankaras politicians perfect scenario consolidating countrys regional leadership role distinctly rise since 2003 leaders established independence rebuffing george w bushs desire use turkish territory invasion iraq popularity heightened eight nine victims shot israeli commandos gaza freedom flotilla fiasco turned turks prime minister recep tayyip erdogan vociferously condemned israel bloody massacre instantly became king gaza mubarak finally responded tahrir square demonstrations announcing would run president 2011 president obama didnt say much former british prime minister tony blair urged egypt rush towards elections erdogan virtually ordered mubarak step live aljazeera whole muslim world see washington fiddled embracing wrong side history however reluctantly chaotically company staunch mubarak defenders israel saudi arabia erdoganwith canny assessment regional politicspreferred back egyptians attempting chart destiny paid point america losing turkey critics charged erdogan dreaming becoming neoottoman caliph whatever might mean must understood new turkish concept strategic depth need turn book stratejik derinlik turkiyenin uluslararasi konumu strategic depth turkeys international position published istanbul 2001 ahmet davutoglu professor international relations university marmara turkeys foreign minister book davutoglu looked future seems ever closer placed turkey center three concentric circles 1 balkans black sea basin caucasus 2 middle east eastern mediterranean 3 persian gulf africa central asia came future areas influence even 2001 believed turkey could potentially claim less eight balkans black sea caucasus caspian turkic central asia persian gulf middle east mediterranean today key player many areas potential influence people indeed looking turkey remarkable moment davutoglu remains convinced ankara force reckon middle east puts simply enough home take idea turkeys strategic depth combine great arab revolt 2011 understand erdogan launched bid make turkish model egyptian one even middle eastern one upstage egypt future mediator region west erdogan davutoglu heading direction clear enough way past years tried insert mediators syria israel launched complex political diplomatic economic opening towards iran speaking historical ironies irans fundamentalist leaders watching egyptian regime deeply hostile go protests iranian green movement suddenly began rock tehran againduring visit none turkish president abdullah gul protests handled amounted velvet glove tehrans standards military dictatorship mullahtariat found potentially losing competition turkish ally become number one inspirational source arab mass movements 160 java democracy coffee egyptians want lessons establishment democracy turkey hardly place turn inspiration could example look latin america first time 500 years south america fully democratic egypt many latin american countries cold war era dictatorships order day militaries ruled brazil instance slow gradual secure political opening left military dictatorship behind took practically decade implies lot patience applies another model indonesia 1998 suharto aging usbacked dictator 32 years power finally resigned days returning visit places cairo indonesia looked lot like egypt february 2011 westernfriendly predominantly muslim nation impoverished fed megacorrupt military dictator crushed leftist intellectuals well political islam thirteen years later indonesia worlds third largest democracy freest southeast asia secular government booming economy military politics still vivid memories riding bike one day may 1998 across indonesian capital jakarta literally fire rage exploding endless columns smoke washington intervene china 10member association southeast asian nations indonesians transition followed existing previously largely ignored constitution egypt constitution must amended via referendum true indonesians live suhartos handpicked vice president affable bj habibie unlike mubaraks handpicked successor sinister omar sheikh altorture suleiman took year organize new elections amend electoral laws get rid appointed seats parliament took six years first direct presidential election yes corruption still huge problem wealth right connections go long way true would say us today rule law prevails islamic state never chance today 25 indonesians vote islamic parties wellorganized prosperous justice party ideological descendant muslim brotherhood officially open nonmuslims holds four 37 seats cabinet president yudhoyono expects win 10 vote 2014 elections indonesia remains close us heavily courted washington counterweight china brazil presidency immensely popular luis ignacio lula da silva charted far independent path example much latin america process took almost decade future historians may see least significant fall berlin wall eastern europe 1989 could seen part chain rebellions people yearning get access global market great arab revolt hand uprising significant part dictatorship market protestors tunisia bahrain striking favor social inclusion new better social economic contracts wonder staggering ongoing upheaval regarded across latin america tremendous empathy feeling theyre future course unknown perhaps decade two well able say egyptians arab peoples struck turkish model even brazilian indonesian ones onto set new paths perhaps future cairo tunis benghazi manama algiers allah willing posthouse saud saudi arabia involve inventing new political culture new economic contracts would go ones indigenous hopefully democratic new surprising ways brings us back turkey perfectly feasible islam one building blocks something entirely new something one today clue something resemble europe separation politics religion spirit may 1968 perhaps even picture arab banksy plastering stencil across arab capitals imagination power pepe escobar roving correspondent asia times latest book obama globalistan nimble books 2009 may reached pepeasiayahoocom | 1,789 |
<p>&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/domesticat/2963393184/sizes/m/in/photostream/"&gt;domesticat&lt;/a&gt;/Flickr</p>
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<p>There are plenty of reasons to worry about fracking— <a href="" type="internal">groundwater contamination</a>, <a href="" type="internal">methane leaks</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrnnQ17SH_A" type="external">that flaming tap water thing</a>. But can it really cause earthquakes? That’s the question the US Geological Survey set out to answer after a spate of tremors in the Midwest—an area not usually known for earthquakes—alerted scientists to the possibility that some of them might be man-made.</p>
<p>Seismic activity in the Midwest started increasing around 12 years ago but picked up significantly in the past few years, says seismologist Bill Ellsworth, the lead author of <a href="http://www2.seismosoc.org/FMPro?-db=Abstract_Submission_12&amp;-sortfield=PresDay&amp;-sortorder=ascending&amp;-sortfield=Special+Session+Name+Calc&amp;-sortorder=ascending&amp;-sortfield=PresTimeSort&amp;-sortorder=ascending&amp;-op=gt&amp;PresStatus=0&amp;-lop=and&amp;-token.1=ShowSession&amp;-token.2=ShowHeading&amp;-recid=224&amp;-format=%2Fmeetings%2F2012%2Fabstracts%2Fsessionabstractdetail.html&amp;-lay=MtgList&amp;-find" type="external">a new USGS study</a> examining potential links between fracking and earthquakes in the region. Since 1970, the baseline for earthquakes in the Midwest measuring above a 3.0 hovered at around 21 per year, but beginning in 2001, that number began to rise. There’s been a “remarkable increase” in the past few years: The number of 3.0-plus earthquakes rose from 29 in 2008 to 50 in 2009, then to 87 in 2010, and in 2011 to a staggering 134. Something unusual was going on, but what? As Ellsworth and his colleagues at USGS ask in the study, “Is this increase natural or manmade?” And if it’s man-made, is fracking—which has ramped up in the region in the past several years—to blame?</p>
<p>According to the study, the answer to the first question is “almost certainly.” But the second one is a little more complicated. Though fracking <a href="http://earthquake.usgs.gov/learn/faq/?categoryID=46&amp;faqID=357" type="external">does cause tiny tremors</a>, the USGS scientists found no links between the process of fracking itself and the larger earthquakes that have been occurring more frequently. They did, however, notice that earthquakes have clustered around wastewater wells in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and neighboring states. Disposing of wastewater by pumping it deep into the ground is standard practice in many industries, including mining, chemical manufacturing, and oil and gas extraction, and the oil and gas industry alone <a href="http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class2/index.cfm" type="external">operates tens of thousands</a> of wastewater disposal wells. But the recent surge of fracking activity, which uses millions of gallons of water to crack rock deep in the ground and release natural gas, has boosted the volume of wastewater being injected into the ground.</p>
<p>3.0-plus magnitude earthquakes in the midcontinental US. USGS Stresses are everywhere in the earth’s crust, Ellsworth explains, and drilling activity can affect them. Many wastewater wells actually go deeper than gas drilling wells, reaching an older layer of rock known as basement rock, where stresses and faults are more common. The high pressure used to pump water into waste wells can cause those faults to shift, and the water itself can lubricate already-stressed faults, easing their movement and making an earthquake-causing slip more likely. As Ellsworth <a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/04/11/150440356/quakes-caused-by-waste-from-gas-wells-study-finds" type="external">told NPR</a>, “Small perturbations can tip the scales, allowing an earthquake that might not otherwise happen for a very long time.”</p>
<p>Most earthquakes caused by fracking-related processes are relatively small. But it’s possible that wastewater disposal could induce larger earthquakes: <a href="http://www2.seismosoc.org/FMPro?-db=Abstract_Submission_12&amp;-sortfield=PresDay&amp;-sortorder=ascending&amp;-sortfield=Special+Session+Name+Calc&amp;-sortorder=ascending&amp;-sortfield=PresTimeSort&amp;-sortorder=ascending&amp;-op=gt&amp;PresStatus=0&amp;-lop=and&amp;-token.1=ShowSession&amp;-token.2=ShowHeading&amp;-recid=631&amp;-format=%2Fmeetings%2F2012%2Fabstracts%2Fsessionabstractdetail.html&amp;-lay=MtgList&amp;-find" type="external">A new study</a> by University of Memphis geologist Stephen Horton concluded that a 5.6 quake in Oklahoma last November “was possibly triggered by fluid injection” at nearby wastewater wells. It’s not news that deep-earth fluid injection can cause increases in seismic activity: Nearly 50 years ago, <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/161/3848/1301.short%20" type="external">scientists traced a series of earthquakes</a> near Denver to huge injections of wastewater at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. And scientists have long observed that the extraction of large quantities of gas, oil, and water from the ground can affect existing stresses in unpredictable ways.</p>
<p>Still, researchers caution, the new data is preliminary, and plenty of questions remain. We don’t yet know why only a few of the tens of thousands of wastewater disposal wells have induced earthquakes, or whether any specific planned well is particularly likely to cause a quake. It could be because production has ramped up and the sheer quantity of wastewater has increased, or because oil and gas companies are using new techniques for injecting waste fluids. And while there have been no confirmed cases of major earthquakes resulting from the injection of wastewater into the ground near major faults, the possibility can’t be eliminated, <a href="http://www.doi.gov/news/doinews/Is-the-Recent-Increase-in-Felt-Earthquakes-in-the-Central-US-Natural-or-Manmade.cfm%20" type="external">says Deputy Secretary of the Interior</a> David Hayes.</p>
<p>Many regulators aren’t taking any chances. After a series of earthquakes in northeastern Ohio, including a 4.0 quake in Youngstown on New Year’s Eve, <a href="http://www.ohiodnr.com/home_page/NewsReleases/tabid/18276/EntryId/2711/Ohios-New-Rules-for-Brine-Disposal-Among-Nations-Toughest.aspx%20" type="external">state regulators ordered</a> natural gas drillers to suspend development of several deep-injection wastewater wells and issued a new set of standards for frack-water disposal. In Arkansas, dozens of earthquakes near wastewater disposal sites related to the state’s huge Fayetteville Shale deposit led the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/27/natural-gas-arkansas-commission-shut-down-wells_n_911541.html%20" type="external">Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission to shut down</a> an existing disposal site and issue a moratorium on the development of new ones. But because <a href="http://www.eenews.net/energywire/2012/03/22/archive/1" type="external">oil and gas companies are exempt</a> from the provisions in hazardous waste regulations aimed at preventing induced earthquakes, there’s a gap in regulation at the federal level, though the EPA is currently working to draft recommendations for state regulators.</p>
<p>So, does fracking cause earthquakes?&#160;Not exactly, but the way companies dispose of fracking waste can, which means that other types of energy-related activity that rely on fluid injection—enhanced oil recovery, enhanced geothermal systems, carbon capture and sequestration—also <a href="http://dels.nas.edu/Study-In-Progress/Induced-Seismicity-Potential-Energy-Technologies/DELS-BESR-10-05" type="external">have the potential to cause quakes</a>. Still, the evidence suggests that we can add earthquakes to the growing list of fracking-related hazards, alongside <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/environment/la-me-gs-fracking-increases-air-pollution-health-risks-to-residents-20120320,0,7159850.story" type="external">air pollution</a>, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/us/04natgas.html?gwh=60149A09F594FF6FFAE56DA41C859E1A" type="external">tainted drinking water</a>, and <a href="http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2012/01/20/fracked-the-debate-over-shale-gas-deepens/" type="external">potentially outsized carbon emissions</a>.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | lta hrefhttpwwwflickrcomphotosdomesticat2963393184sizesminphotostreamgtdomesticatltagtflickr plenty reasons worry fracking groundwater contamination methane leaks flaming tap water thing really cause earthquakes thats question us geological survey set answer spate tremors midwestan area usually known earthquakesalerted scientists possibility might manmade seismic activity midwest started increasing around 12 years ago picked significantly past years says seismologist bill ellsworth lead author new usgs study examining potential links fracking earthquakes region since 1970 baseline earthquakes midwest measuring 30 hovered around 21 per year beginning 2001 number began rise theres remarkable increase past years number 30plus earthquakes rose 29 2008 50 2009 87 2010 2011 staggering 134 something unusual going ellsworth colleagues usgs ask study increase natural manmade manmade frackingwhich ramped region past several yearsto blame according study answer first question almost certainly second one little complicated though fracking cause tiny tremors usgs scientists found links process fracking larger earthquakes occurring frequently however notice earthquakes clustered around wastewater wells oklahoma arkansas neighboring states disposing wastewater pumping deep ground standard practice many industries including mining chemical manufacturing oil gas extraction oil gas industry alone operates tens thousands wastewater disposal wells recent surge fracking activity uses millions gallons water crack rock deep ground release natural gas boosted volume wastewater injected ground 30plus magnitude earthquakes midcontinental us usgs stresses everywhere earths crust ellsworth explains drilling activity affect many wastewater wells actually go deeper gas drilling wells reaching older layer rock known basement rock stresses faults common high pressure used pump water waste wells cause faults shift water lubricate alreadystressed faults easing movement making earthquakecausing slip likely ellsworth told npr small perturbations tip scales allowing earthquake might otherwise happen long time earthquakes caused frackingrelated processes relatively small possible wastewater disposal could induce larger earthquakes new study university memphis geologist stephen horton concluded 56 quake oklahoma last november possibly triggered fluid injection nearby wastewater wells news deepearth fluid injection cause increases seismic activity nearly 50 years ago scientists traced series earthquakes near denver huge injections wastewater rocky mountain arsenal scientists long observed extraction large quantities gas oil water ground affect existing stresses unpredictable ways still researchers caution new data preliminary plenty questions remain dont yet know tens thousands wastewater disposal wells induced earthquakes whether specific planned well particularly likely cause quake could production ramped sheer quantity wastewater increased oil gas companies using new techniques injecting waste fluids confirmed cases major earthquakes resulting injection wastewater ground near major faults possibility cant eliminated says deputy secretary interior david hayes many regulators arent taking chances series earthquakes northeastern ohio including 40 quake youngstown new years eve state regulators ordered natural gas drillers suspend development several deepinjection wastewater wells issued new set standards frackwater disposal arkansas dozens earthquakes near wastewater disposal sites related states huge fayetteville shale deposit led arkansas oil gas commission shut existing disposal site issue moratorium development new ones oil gas companies exempt provisions hazardous waste regulations aimed preventing induced earthquakes theres gap regulation federal level though epa currently working draft recommendations state regulators fracking cause earthquakes160not exactly way companies dispose fracking waste means types energyrelated activity rely fluid injectionenhanced oil recovery enhanced geothermal systems carbon capture sequestrationalso potential cause quakes still evidence suggests add earthquakes growing list frackingrelated hazards alongside air pollution tainted drinking water potentially outsized carbon emissions | 535 |
<p>Gareth Porter is a historian and investigative journalist specializing in US foreign and military policy. He writes regularly for Inter Press Service on US policy towards Iraq and Iran. He is the author of five books, of which the latest is Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare.</p>
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<p /> JAISAL NOOR, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Jaisal Noor in Baltimore. And welcome to this latest edition of The Porter Report.
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<p />As the Obama administration continues to outline its case for attacking Syria, new revelations have come to light that call into question the very intelligence the White House is using to justify its actions.
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<p />Now joining us to discuss this is Gareth Porter. He's a historian and investigative journalist on U.S. foreign and military policy. He writes regularly for the Inter Press Service, and he received the U.K.-based Gellhorn Prize for Journalism in 2011 for his articles on the U.S. war in Afghanistan. His new piece published today in IPS is "Obama's Case for Syria Didn't Reflect Intel Consensus".
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<p />Thank you so much for joining us, Gareth.
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<p />GARETH PORTER, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: Thank you, Jaisal.
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<p />NOOR: So, Gareth, what do you know and how do you know it?
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<p />PORTER: Well, we know that there's a problem with the way in which the intelligence paper that the White House issued August&#160;30 has been described, for a number of reasons. The thing that--the tipoff that should have alerted me and many others but which I and others missed is the fact that this paper about the intelligence on the Syrian chemical weapons attack or alleged attack of August&#160;21 has been called by the White House, labeled a U.S. government assessment.
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<p />Now, that raises very fundamental question: why would the White House call a paper that's supposed to represent the intelligence community's perspective or their analysis of this intelligence a U.S. government assessment? And that is a tipoff that in fact this was not a paper that was put forward by the intelligence community itself and then simply released by the White House. It was a paper that went through a process which did involve the intelligence community, no doubt about that. They undoubtedly submitted their analyses, various intelligence agencies, the CIA, the DIA, and the 14 others, to the office of the director of national intelligence, James Clapper. There was a press report a couple of days, I think three days before the release of this paper indicating that the plan was that Clapper would be the person who would be the alleged author or the person whose name would be on this paper. But in fact his name is nowhere to be found. And I found from a very careful search of the website of the office of the director of national intelligence that it's nowhere to be found there either. It's only found on the White House website itself.
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<p />And incidentally, when I called the office of the director of national intelligence for this story on three successive days, a number of phone calls as well as an email, I could get no response whatsoever from them, and it's very clear they were refusing to talk to me about this. So this is the first clue that this was in fact a White House product in the end. But the White House had the final say over what was included in the product and not the director of national intelligence, not the CIA director or any of the other top officials of the intelligence community.
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<p />NOOR: So, Gareth, you talked to many former intelligence and government officials. One unnamed official you quote said this demonstrates the cherry picking of intelligence in this lead up to the possible attack on Syria. And you also talked to Greg Thielmann, who was involved in the government in the lead up to the war in Iraq. Can you talk about his significance and what it means that he's speaking out about this lead-up to the attack on Syria?
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<p />PORTER: Right. Well, first of all, just to be clear, the former senior intelligence official who I quoted saying that what was going on here was that the administration had put together something which allowed them to cherry pick the intelligence that they wanted to cite in support of their policy, the significance of that, of course, is that this was the charge against the Bush administration in 2002. And this senior intelligence official, who has decades of experience, has had dozens of security classifications, told me that he had never heard of the idea of a government assessment. He'd never seen that term used for any kind of document related to an international crisis, let alone a intelligence document, supposedly an intelligence assessment.
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<p />And what--when I asked Greg Thielmann about this, he said he agreed that there was something that was quite puzzling about this. He did not understand. He'd never himself seen the use of such a term and thought that it was a strange. And therefore he confirmed what the unnamed former senior intelligence official had said to me.
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<p />But I do want to make it clear that Greg Thielmann has said publicly and confirmed to me that he believes that the intelligence itself is more sound or firmer than it was in 2002. He's more satisfied with it. I disagree with that based on a very detailed analysis of what the White House did in fact cte in support of its plan to attack Syria in that August&#160;30 paper. But he, on one hand, admits that there's something not quite right about it. But he's not ready to say the same thing, that this means that the White House has cherry picked the intelligence.
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<p />NOOR: And can you just give us a little background on Thielmann and his involvement in the State Department in the lead-up to the war in Iraq?
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<p />PORTER: Well, he was the State Department specialist on Iraq who was the person who had to deal with the issues relating to the national intelligence estimate that was being prepared in October--well, is being prepared in September and early October&#160;2002 and had dissented from the point of view that predominated in the CIA, and which essentially was the one that was carried in the national intelligence estimate of October&#160;2002, on the issues of aluminum tubes, the famous aluminum tubes that were claimed to be evidence of a very advanced program of nuclear weapons on the part of Saddam and the question of the mobile bio weapons labs. So he was the State Department person who was entering in dissent on that set of issues.
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<p />NOOR: So, Gareth, thank you so much for joining us for part one of this discussion. We're going to continue this discussion and air part two of it tomorrow.
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<p />PORTER: Thank you, Jaisal.
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<p />NOOR: Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
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<p />End
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<p />DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy. | true | 4 | gareth porter historian investigative journalist specializing us foreign military policy writes regularly inter press service us policy towards iraq iran author five books latest manufactured crisis untold story iran nuclear scare jaisal noor trnn producer welcome real news network im jaisal noor baltimore welcome latest edition porter report obama administration continues outline case attacking syria new revelations come light call question intelligence white house using justify actions joining us discuss gareth porter hes historian investigative journalist us foreign military policy writes regularly inter press service received ukbased gellhorn prize journalism 2011 articles us war afghanistan new piece published today ips obamas case syria didnt reflect intel consensus thank much joining us gareth gareth porter investigative journalist thank jaisal noor gareth know know porter well know theres problem way intelligence paper white house issued august16030 described number reasons thing thatthe tipoff alerted many others others missed fact paper intelligence syrian chemical weapons attack alleged attack august16021 called white house labeled us government assessment raises fundamental question would white house call paper thats supposed represent intelligence communitys perspective analysis intelligence us government assessment tipoff fact paper put forward intelligence community simply released white house paper went process involve intelligence community doubt undoubtedly submitted analyses various intelligence agencies cia dia 14 others office director national intelligence james clapper press report couple days think three days release paper indicating plan clapper would person would alleged author person whose name would paper fact name nowhere found found careful search website office director national intelligence nowhere found either found white house website incidentally called office director national intelligence story three successive days number phone calls well email could get response whatsoever clear refusing talk first clue fact white house product end white house final say included product director national intelligence cia director top officials intelligence community noor gareth talked many former intelligence government officials one unnamed official quote said demonstrates cherry picking intelligence lead possible attack syria also talked greg thielmann involved government lead war iraq talk significance means hes speaking leadup attack syria porter right well first clear former senior intelligence official quoted saying going administration put together something allowed cherry pick intelligence wanted cite support policy significance course charge bush administration 2002 senior intelligence official decades experience dozens security classifications told never heard idea government assessment hed never seen term used kind document related international crisis let alone intelligence document supposedly intelligence assessment whatwhen asked greg thielmann said agreed something quite puzzling understand hed never seen use term thought strange therefore confirmed unnamed former senior intelligence official said want make clear greg thielmann said publicly confirmed believes intelligence sound firmer 2002 hes satisfied disagree based detailed analysis white house fact cte support plan attack syria august16030 paper one hand admits theres something quite right hes ready say thing means white house cherry picked intelligence noor give us little background thielmann involvement state department leadup war iraq porter well state department specialist iraq person deal issues relating national intelligence estimate prepared octoberwell prepared september early october1602002 dissented point view predominated cia essentially one carried national intelligence estimate october1602002 issues aluminum tubes famous aluminum tubes claimed evidence advanced program nuclear weapons part saddam question mobile bio weapons labs state department person entering dissent set issues noor gareth thank much joining us part one discussion going continue discussion air part two tomorrow porter thank jaisal noor thank joining us real news network end disclaimer please note transcripts real news network typed recording program trnn guarantee complete accuracy | 580 |
<p>AP/Damian Dovarganes</p>
<p>Until the run-up to the 2010 congressional elections, Daniel Schulman — like much of America — had barely heard of Charles and David Koch, billionaire industrialists who were primary backers of the tea party and were determined to take down President Obama. But after reading Jane Mayer’s piece about the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer?currentPage=all" type="external">political machinations</a> of the brothers in The New Yorker, Schulman began researching them and found all the elements of a good story full of money, power, and corporate and political intrigue. And lawsuits — lots and lots of lawsuits. As Bill Koch, David’s twin, said, “This would make ‘Dallas’ or ‘Dynasty’ look like a playpen.”</p>
<p>Now Schulman, a senior editor in the Washington bureau at Mother Jones, has written a <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=qmx-AgAAQBAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq=Sons+of+Wichita&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=Iri6U_L9E8zhoASJoYHQBA&amp;ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;q=Sons%20of%20Wichita&amp;f=false" type="external">book about the family</a> and their influence on America, the recently released “Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty.”</p>
<p>Patriarch Fred Koch and his firm developed a new process for refining oil. On a trip to the Soviet Union to help modernize its refineries, he was so horrified by communism that it shaped his politics and he went on to become a founder of the far-right John Birch Society.</p>
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<p>Charles Koch, who believes fervently in libertarian ideas and free-market economics, joined with his younger brother David to grow his father’s firm, renamed Koch Industries, into one of the largest private companies in the world with more than 100,000 employees. They are two of the wealthiest men on the planet, worth about $40 billion each. Their older brother, Frederick, wanted nothing to do with the family business and stays out of public life as an arts patron with several homes.</p>
<p>Bill Koch was thrown out of the family company, built an energy empire of his own, had a flashy lifestyle with multiple marriages and affairs, won sailing’s America’s Cup and has spent much of his time suing his brothers. Truthdig talked to Schulman about the Koch family’s pugilism, how the brothers made libertarianism mainstream and how it might be fun to have a beer with Bill.</p>
<p>Emily Wilson: You start the book with the story of the twins Bill and David, as teenagers, getting out of the car to box. Their caretaker, an ex-Marine, carried boxing gloves around so they could fight without killing each other. Why did you begin the book this way?</p>
<p>Daniel Schulman: I think the theme of pugilism carried through their lives. These guys fought each other legally, physically and emotionally. If you look at Bill Koch, his life is like a series of legal cases. Then Charles and David are taking a stand against the Obama administration. So it was an image that seemed to get to the themes that emerged later in the book.</p>
<p>EW: You say that their politics is not the most interesting thing about the Kochs. What is most interesting?</p>
<p>DS: I was really fascinated by how their father had left such a deep and lasting imprint on his sons. His legacy really has influenced all four of these guys in different ways. If you look at the politics of Charles and David especially, they’re more or less carrying his political torch into the future. The eldest Koch brother, Frederick, he was a disappointment to his father, so his life has been slightly haunted by that.</p>
<p>Bill Koch saw his dad fighting all of these lawsuits when he grew up, so what he took from that is that litigation is this tool of righteous retributions. You see him in this long fight with his brothers feeling as if he’s doing what his father would have done. So that was what captivated me. And, of course, this legal drama playing out between the brothers, which is absolutely brutal and goes back to things that happened in childhood.</p>
<p>EW: How did you do research? Whom did you talk to? The Kochs wouldn’t talk to you, right?</p>
<p>DS: I talked to the eldest brother, Frederick. We spent a few hours together and spent some time on the phone. I spoke to a lot of friends, relatives and former employees. The other layer to this is there is this massive amount of court records going back to 1929 that had to do with their father’s litigation. There was a lot of material out there, but it wasn’t necessarily easy to find. The court records for Koch v. Koch were literally stored in a salt mine, so tracking them down and actually being able to see them was pretty difficult.</p>
<p>I’ve never made so many cold calls. I was making 10 calls to get someone who would talk. That was the biggest challenge because the Kochs did not want me doing this book. Bill Koch and his operation were the least cooperative. When I talked to his spokesman, as I was describing what I was trying to do, he was like, “Yeah, letting you talk to Bill would be like slitting my throat.” Charles and Bill aren’t necessarily friendly right now — they’re just not fighting. I think both sides are afraid they could touch off a war.</p>
<p>AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</p>
<p>EW: You think people see them as big in the Republican Party, but really they’re libertarians. Why do you think that’s important for people to know?</p>
<p>DS: I think people misunderstand their politics. At this point, they are these big Republican powerbrokers. They don’t want to accentuate the points where they’re in complete disagreement with the Republican Party, which is on a lot of things, like most social issues. These guys have had such an uneasy relationship with Republicans over the years that they’re just happy now that they’ve got a seat at the table. The question is how will they use this power — are they going to be able to influence the party in their direction? I think it’s important for people to understand where they are coming from.</p>
<p>EW: You say that they have influenced the party already, right? You write about how Charles has made libertarianism more mainstream.</p>
<p>DS: I don’t think we’d be talking about libertarianism at all if Charles hadn’t made this the thrust of his philanthropic legacy. What you see now is the Republican Party having this libertarian streak with Rand Paul. What I’m wondering is if they’re going to be able to moderate the Republican Party on social issues, which is a tougher sell.</p>
<p>EW: On social issues, they don’t have a problem with gay marriage, are against the Iraq War and are moderate on immigration. It’s all about economics for them.</p>
<p>DS: Totally. These guys are free-market hard-liners. Charles Koch, talking to his libertarian allies from the 1970s, will say his view of the role of government was that really there shouldn’t be much of any government. He believes that private individuals can handle almost every function of government themselves. His vision for the country is not what your mainstream Republican would have.</p>
<p>EW: But you believe that they’re sincere in their political views — it’s not just about less taxes and regulations. You seem to feel that they genuinely believe this is what America needs to do.</p>
<p>DS: I really don’t believe this is all about money and making more money, although certainly there’s absolutely no question they’re looking out for their business interests. You could argue, from a libertarian perspective, that there should be no government solution to climate change, but that’s accepting that climate change is a real thing. But what they’ve done is fund a lot of groups that have created the impression there’s no such thing as climate change, which to me is a little more diabolical. They’re scientifically minded guys, and I would be surprised if they didn’t believe climate change is a real thing.</p>
<p>That’s where they create the impression they’re really just out for their bottom line. But I can give you one good example why I don’t think that. In the ’70s, Charles was railing against the business community and Republicans. He was attacking them for talking out of both sides of their mouth — condemning the welfare state but seeking corporate welfare. He believes that was hypocritical.</p>
<p>EW: You write about their environmental violations, and you have a chapter about two teenagers in Texas killed by a pipeline leak at Koch Industries.</p>
<p>DS: The company during the ’90s was profit driven. There was a deposition with one Koch supervisor about a different pipeline that was exposed. He had taken his higher-up out to look at it, and his concern was that a logging truck could drive over it and it could explode. This guy said his boss remarked something to the effect of, “Our philosophy is that if something happens here, the money it takes to repair this, instead of investing it in maintenance, investing it elsewhere could make more money, and if there’s a lawsuit later on, we can come back and pay that off.”</p>
<p>There was a lot that was attributed to Charles’ libertarian market-based philosophy, which was basically trying to create this free-market microcosm and people were relentlessly driven to add value to the company. A lot of people took it to mean they had to make money at any cost, and this was a really good example of Koch Industries not paying attention to maintenance and safety. They had a huge problem at the time. Even the general counsel of the company said, “If we stayed on that path, who knows where things would have led.”</p>
<p>AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes</p>
<p>EW: Your book details the hundreds of oil spills the company had and how they often didn’t report them or underreported them.</p>
<p>DS: In some ways, they’re an argument for why a pure free-market economy can’t work. If there were no regulators, this would have gone on. Charles Koch changed after a series of events — there was the pipeline explosion in Texas, there were multiple other environmental cases going on around the country. Their brother Bill was pursuing a whistle-blower case against them, and then the Clinton administration is a few months from leaving office, and they bring down a 97-count indictment against Koch Industries for environmental releases at its Corpus Christi refinery. Charles was absolutely shell-shocked, and it forced a course correction. After that the corporate mantra becomes “100 percent compliance 100 percent of the time.”</p>
<p>EW: Your book shows how flamboyant Bill is — winning the America’s Cup after starting from scratch and his soap operaesque romantic life, like when he went to court to evict a former Ford model from his $2.5 million apartment once their affair cooled down.</p>
<p>DS: Of the four Koch brothers, maybe Bill would be the most fun to go out and have a beer with. He gets into so many romantic entanglements. During the ’90s there were all these private detectives looking to dig up dirt and Bill’s dirty laundry — you didn’t have to rifle through his trash — it was right on the front page. You really can’t make any of these characters up. When they were having these legal battles, Bill would say, “This is a pure business dispute.” But at the same time, he would kind of go off on some episode where Charles pushed him down the root cellar when they were kids.</p>
<p>The other fascinating thing to me was their father had left in a note to his sons that Charles found after he died, and it says, “This money could be a blessing or a curse.” Of course they have this incredible privilege, but this money ends up fueling the implosion of the family with all these legal disputes.</p> | true | 4 | apdamian dovarganes runup 2010 congressional elections daniel schulman like much america barely heard charles david koch billionaire industrialists primary backers tea party determined take president obama reading jane mayers piece political machinations brothers new yorker schulman began researching found elements good story full money power corporate political intrigue lawsuits lots lots lawsuits bill koch davids twin said would make dallas dynasty look like playpen schulman senior editor washington bureau mother jones written book family influence america recently released sons wichita koch brothers became americas powerful private dynasty patriarch fred koch firm developed new process refining oil trip soviet union help modernize refineries horrified communism shaped politics went become founder farright john birch society charles koch believes fervently libertarian ideas freemarket economics joined younger brother david grow fathers firm renamed koch industries one largest private companies world 100000 employees two wealthiest men planet worth 40 billion older brother frederick wanted nothing family business stays public life arts patron several homes bill koch thrown family company built energy empire flashy lifestyle multiple marriages affairs sailings americas cup spent much time suing brothers truthdig talked schulman koch familys pugilism brothers made libertarianism mainstream might fun beer bill emily wilson start book story twins bill david teenagers getting car box caretaker exmarine carried boxing gloves around could fight without killing begin book way daniel schulman think theme pugilism carried lives guys fought legally physically emotionally look bill koch life like series legal cases charles david taking stand obama administration image seemed get themes emerged later book ew say politics interesting thing kochs interesting ds really fascinated father left deep lasting imprint sons legacy really influenced four guys different ways look politics charles david especially theyre less carrying political torch future eldest koch brother frederick disappointment father life slightly haunted bill koch saw dad fighting lawsuits grew took litigation tool righteous retributions see long fight brothers feeling hes father would done captivated course legal drama playing brothers absolutely brutal goes back things happened childhood ew research talk kochs wouldnt talk right ds talked eldest brother frederick spent hours together spent time phone spoke lot friends relatives former employees layer massive amount court records going back 1929 fathers litigation lot material wasnt necessarily easy find court records koch v koch literally stored salt mine tracking actually able see pretty difficult ive never made many cold calls making 10 calls get someone would talk biggest challenge kochs want book bill koch operation least cooperative talked spokesman describing trying like yeah letting talk bill would like slitting throat charles bill arent necessarily friendly right theyre fighting think sides afraid could touch war ap photodamian dovarganes ew think people see big republican party really theyre libertarians think thats important people know ds think people misunderstand politics point big republican powerbrokers dont want accentuate points theyre complete disagreement republican party lot things like social issues guys uneasy relationship republicans years theyre happy theyve got seat table question use power going able influence party direction think important people understand coming ew say influenced party already right write charles made libertarianism mainstream ds dont think wed talking libertarianism charles hadnt made thrust philanthropic legacy see republican party libertarian streak rand paul im wondering theyre going able moderate republican party social issues tougher sell ew social issues dont problem gay marriage iraq war moderate immigration economics ds totally guys freemarket hardliners charles koch talking libertarian allies 1970s say view role government really shouldnt much government believes private individuals handle almost every function government vision country mainstream republican would ew believe theyre sincere political views less taxes regulations seem feel genuinely believe america needs ds really dont believe money making money although certainly theres absolutely question theyre looking business interests could argue libertarian perspective government solution climate change thats accepting climate change real thing theyve done fund lot groups created impression theres thing climate change little diabolical theyre scientifically minded guys would surprised didnt believe climate change real thing thats create impression theyre really bottom line give one good example dont think 70s charles railing business community republicans attacking talking sides mouth condemning welfare state seeking corporate welfare believes hypocritical ew write environmental violations chapter two teenagers texas killed pipeline leak koch industries ds company 90s profit driven deposition one koch supervisor different pipeline exposed taken higherup look concern logging truck could drive could explode guy said boss remarked something effect philosophy something happens money takes repair instead investing maintenance investing elsewhere could make money theres lawsuit later come back pay lot attributed charles libertarian marketbased philosophy basically trying create freemarket microcosm people relentlessly driven add value company lot people took mean make money cost really good example koch industries paying attention maintenance safety huge problem time even general counsel company said stayed path knows things would led ap photodamian dovarganes ew book details hundreds oil spills company often didnt report underreported ds ways theyre argument pure freemarket economy cant work regulators would gone charles koch changed series events pipeline explosion texas multiple environmental cases going around country brother bill pursuing whistleblower case clinton administration months leaving office bring 97count indictment koch industries environmental releases corpus christi refinery charles absolutely shellshocked forced course correction corporate mantra becomes 100 percent compliance 100 percent time ew book shows flamboyant bill winning americas cup starting scratch soap operaesque romantic life like went court evict former ford model 25 million apartment affair cooled ds four koch brothers maybe bill would fun go beer gets many romantic entanglements 90s private detectives looking dig dirt bills dirty laundry didnt rifle trash right front page really cant make characters legal battles bill would say pure business dispute time would kind go episode charles pushed root cellar kids fascinating thing father left note sons charles found died says money could blessing curse course incredible privilege money ends fueling implosion family legal disputes | 970 |
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<p>Shortly after Vice President Cheney’s former Chief of Staff, I. Lewis (“Scooter”) Libby, was indicted for obstructing justice and making false statements to a government agent and a grand jury, Libby’s attorneys suggested that they would use the standard he’s-a-busy-man-who-can’t-remember-everything defense. But now, with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s revelation that a senior administration official other than Libby told him, in mid-June 2003, that Joseph Wilson’s trip to Niger had been arranged by Wilson’s CIA operative wife Valerie Wilson, it appears the Libby team has added another favorite, the SODDI Defense — as in, “Some Other Dude Did It.” Unfortunately for Libby, that turkey won’t fly. Here’s why.</p>
<p>According to Libby’s attorney, Theodore Wells, Woodward’s disclosure is a “bombshell” that “undermines the prosecution” because it disproves Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s alleged contention that Libby was the first senior administration official to reveal to a reporter that Valerie Wilson worked as a CIA analyst. Not true. For starters, a prosecutor’s press conference statements are irrelevant to, and not admissible in, the trial of the case. And Fitzgerald never said Libby was the first official to have disclosed information about Valerie Wilson; he said Libby was the first official known to have disclosed such information.</p>
<p>More important though, it is of no help to Libby that another administration official, “some other dude,” disclosed classified information about Valerie Wilson’s employment in order to discredit her husband before Libby himself did so. (By the way, Woodward’s impression that the disclosure by his source was “casual” proves nothing about whether the smearing official knew that the information being leaked was classified.) Despite the impression newspaper readers may carry away from the flap over Woodward, Libby is not charged with being the first to disclose Valerie Wilson’s employment; he’s not charged with disclosing anything at all. And in a criminal trial, it is the charges that define the issues. What, exactly, are those charges?</p>
<p>There are five counts. Count One charges Libby with obstructing justice by deceiving the grand jury about when and how he “acquired and subsequently disclosed to the media information concerning the employment of Valerie Wilson by the CIA.” Count Two charges Libby with making false statements to the government about his conversation with NBC News reporter Tim Russert on July 10, 2003. Count Three charges him with making false statements to a government agent about a July 12 discussion with Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper. Four and Five charge him with making false statements to a grand jury about those conversations.</p>
<p>So, the essential questions on which a jury would have to pass judgment at a trial would be:</p>
<p>1. Did Libby make the statements that the indictment alleges he made?</p>
<p>2. Did the statements relate to an issue that was material — that is, important to the investigation?</p>
<p>3. Were those statements true when Libby made them?</p>
<p>4. If the statements were not true, did Libby make them deliberately, knowing they were false? In other words, did he lie on purpose or did he simply make a mistake?</p>
<p>These, and only these, are the questions the jury would consider. As to Count Two, for example, the indictment says that Libby offered the following account to FBI agents in the fall of 2003:</p>
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<p>“During a conversation with Tim Russert of NBC News on July 10 or 11, 2003, Russert asked Libby if Libby was aware that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA. Libby responded to Russert that he did not know that, and Russert replied that all the reporters knew it. Libby was surprised by this statement because, while speaking with Russert, Libby did not recall that he previously had learned about Wilson’s wife’s employment from the Vice President.”</p>
<p>Will there be any question about whether Libby actually made that statement to FBI agents or that it related to an important matter? Probably not.</p>
<p>The contested issues at trial will surely be questions 3 and 4: Whether this statement was a true account of his discussion with Russert and, if not, whether Libby deliberately lied. To determine whether the statement was true, it’s necessary to consider its multiple assertions, which are: (1) In a conversation on July 10 or 11, Russert asked Libby if he was aware that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA; (2) Libby said he didn’t know that; (3) Russert told him that all the reporters knew it; and (4) Libby was surprised because he did not recall previously learning about Wilson’s wife’s employment from the Vice President.</p>
<p>Russert says he did not ask Libby whether Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA as Libby claimed, nor did he tell him that “all the reporters knew it.” The government’s proof that Libby’s statement was a knowing falsehood does not depend on whether the jury believes Russert over Libby, but it is worth mentioning that Russert has no easily imaginable reason for lying about this. He was a reluctant witness, not criminally at risk, and had no motive to try to incriminate Libby.</p>
<p>More important, however, even without factoring in additional information, Russert’s account is inherently credible and Libby’s is not. Even if Russert did ask whether Libby knew about Wilson’s wife’s employment, it is nearly impossible to believe that Libby could have been “surprised” by the information. After all, he is, by all accounts, an extremely intelligent and meticulous man who, as he admits himself in the statement, had learned about this fact from the Vice President, his boss and our second highest official. Moreover, his statement to the FBI agents can have been no passing slip or mistake, since he elaborated on it six months later. He then told the grand jury that he was “taken aback” by Russert’s question about Wilson’s wife because “at that point in time I did not recall that I had ever known, and I thought this is something that he was telling me that I was first learning.”</p>
<p>Libby’s eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind defense is harder yet to believe given what the prosecutor is apparently prepared to prove: that Libby had been preoccupied since May 2003 with Wilson’s allegations that the administration knowingly used a false claim about Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium from Niger to make its case for war; and that, by July 10, when Libby talked with Russert, he had discussed Wilson’s wife’s employment not only with the Vice President, but also with at least six other officials including a senior CIA officer, an Undersecretary of State, Libby’s CIA briefer, the White House Press Secretary, the Assistant to the Vice President for Public Affairs, and the Counsel to the Office of the Vice President. In addition, Libby had already talked about it twice with reporter Judith Miller.</p>
<p>As it stands now, Libby is on record as saying that he first learned Joseph Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA from the Vice President. (That he had to admit, since he had notes reflecting the conversation.) What he now claims is that whatever the Vice President told him fled his brain and he only learned about Valerie Plame, as if anew, when Tim Russert spoke with him in July 2003. Even that encounter, Libby says, failed to jar his memory about previous conversations with the Vice President and seven other people, so that when he talked to Time’s Matt Cooper about it on July 12, he was merely relaying what “other reporters,” not the Vice President, had told him. Indeed, Libby specifically described his defense to the grand jury on March 24, 2004 in this improbable way: “I told a couple reporters what other reporters had told us, and I don’t see that as a crime.” (This statement was in itself odd, considering that he specifically told the grand jury he had learned about Wilson’s wife only from Tim Russert.)</p>
<p>Interestingly, Libby’s formulation of his defense — that the information about Valerie Wilson’s employment was the subject of reporter “chatter” and “gossip” — is precisely the spin that Bob Woodward had been offering in appearances on Larry King Live and other talk shows (before he was revealed as the first reporter to have Plame’s information leaked to him). In turn, the Woodward revelation was preceded on November 15 by a leak from “lawyers close to the defense” to the New York Times indicating that the Libby defense team planned to seek testimony from numerous journalists, not just those named in the indictment, in order to determine what the “media really knew.” As Libby’s lawyer put it on November 16, “Hopefully, as more information is obtained from reporters, like Bob Woodward, the real facts will come out.”</p>
<p>Libby’s defense team should be careful what it hopes for, because the real facts don’t help Libby at all. Woodward’s recent disclosure merely adds another senior administration official to the already large group who were obviously working with Libby to distract the public from a truth the administration had already fessed up to — that the President had made an entirely unsubstantiated claim about an Iraqi search for uranium from Niger in his State of the Union Address. It’s not that “some other dude did it” or that “some other dude did it first.” The more the real facts about smearing and deception by senior administration officials come out, the more obvious it is that lots of them did it — and Patrick Fitzgerald shows no signs of folding up his tent and departing. In the meantime, the SODDI defense is likely to prove not only unhelpful to Libby but a potential disaster for the Bush administration, sweeping yet more people into the case.</p>
<p>Elizabeth de la Vega is a former federal prosecutor with more than twenty years’ experience. During her tenure she was a member of the Organized Crime Strike Force and chief of the San José branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. Her pieces have appeared in the Nation magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and regularly at Tomdispatch.</p>
<p>Copyright 2005 Elizabeth de la Vega</p>
<p>This piece first appeared, with an introduction by Tom Engelhardt, at <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com" type="external">Tomdispatch.com</a>.</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | shortly vice president cheneys former chief staff lewis scooter libby indicted obstructing justice making false statements government agent grand jury libbys attorneys suggested would use standard hesabusymanwhocantremembereverything defense washington post reporter bob woodwards revelation senior administration official libby told midjune 2003 joseph wilsons trip niger arranged wilsons cia operative wife valerie wilson appears libby team added another favorite soddi defense dude unfortunately libby turkey wont fly heres according libbys attorney theodore wells woodwards disclosure bombshell undermines prosecution disproves special prosecutor patrick fitzgeralds alleged contention libby first senior administration official reveal reporter valerie wilson worked cia analyst true starters prosecutors press conference statements irrelevant admissible trial case fitzgerald never said libby first official disclosed information valerie wilson said libby first official known disclosed information important though help libby another administration official dude disclosed classified information valerie wilsons employment order discredit husband libby way woodwards impression disclosure source casual proves nothing whether smearing official knew information leaked classified despite impression newspaper readers may carry away flap woodward libby charged first disclose valerie wilsons employment hes charged disclosing anything criminal trial charges define issues exactly charges five counts count one charges libby obstructing justice deceiving grand jury acquired subsequently disclosed media information concerning employment valerie wilson cia count two charges libby making false statements government conversation nbc news reporter tim russert july 10 2003 count three charges making false statements government agent july 12 discussion time magazine reporter matt cooper four five charge making false statements grand jury conversations essential questions jury would pass judgment trial would 1 libby make statements indictment alleges made 2 statements relate issue material important investigation 3 statements true libby made 4 statements true libby make deliberately knowing false words lie purpose simply make mistake questions jury would consider count two example indictment says libby offered following account fbi agents fall 2003 conversation tim russert nbc news july 10 11 2003 russert asked libby libby aware wilsons wife worked cia libby responded russert know russert replied reporters knew libby surprised statement speaking russert libby recall previously learned wilsons wifes employment vice president question whether libby actually made statement fbi agents related important matter probably contested issues trial surely questions 3 4 whether statement true account discussion russert whether libby deliberately lied determine whether statement true necessary consider multiple assertions 1 conversation july 10 11 russert asked libby aware wilsons wife worked cia 2 libby said didnt know 3 russert told reporters knew 4 libby surprised recall previously learning wilsons wifes employment vice president russert says ask libby whether wilsons wife worked cia libby claimed tell reporters knew governments proof libbys statement knowing falsehood depend whether jury believes russert libby worth mentioning russert easily imaginable reason lying reluctant witness criminally risk motive try incriminate libby important however even without factoring additional information russerts account inherently credible libbys even russert ask whether libby knew wilsons wifes employment nearly impossible believe libby could surprised information accounts extremely intelligent meticulous man admits statement learned fact vice president boss second highest official moreover statement fbi agents passing slip mistake since elaborated six months later told grand jury taken aback russerts question wilsons wife point time recall ever known thought something telling first learning libbys eternalsunshineofthespotlessmind defense harder yet believe given prosecutor apparently prepared prove libby preoccupied since may 2003 wilsons allegations administration knowingly used false claim iraqi attempts purchase uranium niger make case war july 10 libby talked russert discussed wilsons wifes employment vice president also least six officials including senior cia officer undersecretary state libbys cia briefer white house press secretary assistant vice president public affairs counsel office vice president addition libby already talked twice reporter judith miller stands libby record saying first learned joseph wilsons wife worked cia vice president admit since notes reflecting conversation claims whatever vice president told fled brain learned valerie plame anew tim russert spoke july 2003 even encounter libby says failed jar memory previous conversations vice president seven people talked times matt cooper july 12 merely relaying reporters vice president told indeed libby specifically described defense grand jury march 24 2004 improbable way told couple reporters reporters told us dont see crime statement odd considering specifically told grand jury learned wilsons wife tim russert interestingly libbys formulation defense information valerie wilsons employment subject reporter chatter gossip precisely spin bob woodward offering appearances larry king live talk shows revealed first reporter plames information leaked turn woodward revelation preceded november 15 leak lawyers close defense new york times indicating libby defense team planned seek testimony numerous journalists named indictment order determine media really knew libbys lawyer put november 16 hopefully information obtained reporters like bob woodward real facts come libbys defense team careful hopes real facts dont help libby woodwards recent disclosure merely adds another senior administration official already large group obviously working libby distract public truth administration already fessed president made entirely unsubstantiated claim iraqi search uranium niger state union address dude dude first real facts smearing deception senior administration officials come obvious lots patrick fitzgerald shows signs folding tent departing meantime soddi defense likely prove unhelpful libby potential disaster bush administration sweeping yet people case elizabeth de la vega former federal prosecutor twenty years experience tenure member organized crime strike force chief san josé branch us attorneys office northern district california pieces appeared nation magazine los angeles times regularly tomdispatch copyright 2005 elizabeth de la vega piece first appeared introduction tom engelhardt tomdispatchcom | 897 |
<p>So there I was hearing nothing but this wicked whirring Bandit Model Whole Tree Chipper rammed up against a load of Bibles, books, old newspapers, and brown-paper-covered magazines piled high as the Davis Mountains being scooped up and fed to the chipper by a Cat Ultra High Demolition Hydraulic Excavator.</p>
<p>And with the backup alarm blaring from a 469 horsepower Segmented Ejector Truck moving relentlessly into loading position I was finally able to focus my attention on the dusted vinyl lettering that marked every piece of equipment as the property of Ray Wylie Hubbard, Unlimited.</p>
<p>Because when you tune into the opening tracks of Hubbard’s freshly released <a href="" type="internal">“Grifter’s Hymnal</a>” (2012: Bordello Records) you can’t help but thrill to the sound of re-shredding everything you thought you knew.</p>
<p>From the beats of the opening bar of the opening track you can tell that Ray Wylie is in a mood to groove right through this millennial year of long reputed doom.&#160; After all, there’s nothing at risk if your gods are archaic enough to come from places that can’t be undone.&#160; And all powers of such antiquity have something to say about eternal slyness and the essence of trickery that goes by the name of existence.&#160; Go ahead, I dare you, roll tape, then see if you don’t start smiling right away, finding yourself snakebit before you hear the first warning rattle.</p>
<p>Mirothane is one word you might study up on in preparation for track number one.&#160; As defined by its inventors at Mirotone.com, Mirothane PU (TM) is a “flexible sealer with good clarity, superior chemical resistance and resistant to white marking under sharp impact.”&#160; Might be a sign of Hubbard’s acquired taste for custom interiority.&#160; Might not.</p>
<p>By the time we get to track two, we’re tuned up, warmed over, and rockin, but not at <a href="" type="internal" />one of those smokeless, sober, early venues like the kind they put Hubbard through at SXSW.&#160; No, no.&#160; Here we are full tilt throttled for that wide open midnight threshold where everybody grabs everybody else and jumps into the future unknown, crossing over into some other life that may or may not catch you just in time.&#160; Yes, yes.</p>
<p>Then, long after the midnight hour, some random mirror catches you reflecting on life and death.&#160; And if you’ve been reading Gloria Anzaldua lately, you’ll have some additional enrichment to draw upon as Wylie Hubbard sings in track number four about life up against the memory of Lazarus, who only died twice, not five times like Gloria did.</p>
<p>Track four finds us lighting up and looking around on “New Year’s Eve at the Gates of Hell,” somewhat like Dante, finding all these familiar faces and refusing to be all that repentant about it.&#160; So another year comes and goes and we’re still looking at all the souls who haven’t yet been sorted where they’re supposed to be.&#160; As our judgment turns on its own temper, lookout Ma, ain’t nothin all right now.</p>
<p>Nahuatl poetry is what you might be thinking about while you’re listening to track number five.&#160; Indigenous juxtapositions of beauty and death.&#160; The song is called “Moss and Flowers” so you have to know that if eternity is what you’re after then it’s not the kind of eternity that can be measured with an infinity of clocks.&#160; You get a very nice experience of duet here, with the harmonies on the guitar parts split between the buds of your Skullcandy (TM).</p>
<p>While speaking of death, “Red Badge of Courage” takes us into war zones of the mind where we have sent our kids these past decades.&#160; Somehow, you know the song already.&#160; It’s just a matter of hearing it played for the first time.&#160; Track six is an excursion into protest music, with the weariness of our war habits sounding deep down.</p>
<p>“It’s unbelievable” is how I want to sing the opening stanza of track seven’s “Train Yard,” and we are indeed treated to an unbelievable metaphorical trip involving a red hot penny.&#160; Even the great Yeats would nod to the greatness of this hot penny poem, looped in the loops of its steam-powered grip.</p>
<p>“Coochy Coochy” is a plain song of desire with a profoundly felt absence of the one thing that makes everything else sweat.&#160; It’s a fun song, simple, and I reckon it may begin to replace “Snake Farm” as a crowd sing-along favorite the next place Ray Wylie Hubbard plays.&#160; One more sing-along song is not surprising from Mr. Hubbard who, as we say in Texas, writes sing-along songs, “so well, so well, so well.”</p>
<p>If we find ourselves lost in a mood for another Hubbard Mother song, track nine is called “Mother Blues.”&#160; It’s the longest track on the album and may be properly styled epic.&#160; The thing about Hubbard’s Mother songs is you can’t help but find yourself laughing from the gut.&#160; You may want to get yourself checked for hernia after this track, and if a professional is unhandy, perhaps a lay practitioner will have to do.</p>
<p>The genre that Hubbard works in is listed on my iTunes spreadsheet as “Country,” so you’ll not find it out of place for Mr. Hubbard to sing a little song about a rooster, some chickens, foxes, a blackbird, and the way truth stains our memories like wood.&#160; The song is called “Henhouse,” but the whole family is here, including a grandpa with Dixie roots.</p>
<p>The blackbird from “Henhouse” reprises its appearance in track eleven.&#160; “Count My Blessings” is a song that weaves a grifter’s autobiography with reflections on the death of Sam Cooke.&#160; The grifter assures us that three card monty is a lucrative occupation if you keep the game moving fast enough.&#160; And the grifter somehow can’t forget how the jury acquitted Sam Cooke’s killer in fifteen minutes flat.&#160; In such a fast-paced world, an ironic sense of gratitude can some days help a living body try to get by.</p>
<p>Pretty much everything I know about country music is what I’ve learned from Willie Nelson shows, so when country music concerts end with gospel tunes I think of young Willie playing honky tonks all night Saturday and then staying up to play church Sunday morning.&#160; Somewhere the line between Saturday night and Sunday morning gets crossed, you might say.&#160; So when Ray Wylie Hubbard ends this Dionysian romp with a song about God’s light, it’s like we’ve all stayed up through sunrise.&#160; To our day-people’s routines we have been re-delivered.&#160; Nor have we forgotten to tip the night people for the things they come to do.</p>
<p>GREG MOSES&#160;is editor of&#160; <a href="http://www.TexasWorker.org/" type="external">TexasWorker.org&#160;</a>and author of&#160; <a href="" type="internal">Revolution of Conscience: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Philosophy of Nonviolence</a>.&#160; He can be reached at&#160; <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p> | true | 4 | hearing nothing wicked whirring bandit model whole tree chipper rammed load bibles books old newspapers brownpapercovered magazines piled high davis mountains scooped fed chipper cat ultra high demolition hydraulic excavator backup alarm blaring 469 horsepower segmented ejector truck moving relentlessly loading position finally able focus attention dusted vinyl lettering marked every piece equipment property ray wylie hubbard unlimited tune opening tracks hubbards freshly released grifters hymnal 2012 bordello records cant help thrill sound reshredding everything thought knew beats opening bar opening track tell ray wylie mood groove right millennial year long reputed doom160 theres nothing risk gods archaic enough come places cant undone160 powers antiquity something say eternal slyness essence trickery goes name existence160 go ahead dare roll tape see dont start smiling right away finding snakebit hear first warning rattle mirothane one word might study preparation track number one160 defined inventors mirotonecom mirothane pu tm flexible sealer good clarity superior chemical resistance resistant white marking sharp impact160 might sign hubbards acquired taste custom interiority160 might time get track two tuned warmed rockin one smokeless sober early venues like kind put hubbard sxsw160 no160 full tilt throttled wide open midnight threshold everybody grabs everybody else jumps future unknown crossing life may may catch time160 yes yes long midnight hour random mirror catches reflecting life death160 youve reading gloria anzaldua lately youll additional enrichment draw upon wylie hubbard sings track number four life memory lazarus died twice five times like gloria track four finds us lighting looking around new years eve gates hell somewhat like dante finding familiar faces refusing repentant it160 another year comes goes still looking souls havent yet sorted theyre supposed be160 judgment turns temper lookout aint nothin right nahuatl poetry might thinking youre listening track number five160 indigenous juxtapositions beauty death160 song called moss flowers know eternity youre kind eternity measured infinity clocks160 get nice experience duet harmonies guitar parts split buds skullcandy tm speaking death red badge courage takes us war zones mind sent kids past decades160 somehow know song already160 matter hearing played first time160 track six excursion protest music weariness war habits sounding deep unbelievable want sing opening stanza track sevens train yard indeed treated unbelievable metaphorical trip involving red hot penny160 even great yeats would nod greatness hot penny poem looped loops steampowered grip coochy coochy plain song desire profoundly felt absence one thing makes everything else sweat160 fun song simple reckon may begin replace snake farm crowd singalong favorite next place ray wylie hubbard plays160 one singalong song surprising mr hubbard say texas writes singalong songs well well well find lost mood another hubbard mother song track nine called mother blues160 longest track album may properly styled epic160 thing hubbards mother songs cant help find laughing gut160 may want get checked hernia track professional unhandy perhaps lay practitioner genre hubbard works listed itunes spreadsheet country youll find place mr hubbard sing little song rooster chickens foxes blackbird way truth stains memories like wood160 song called henhouse whole family including grandpa dixie roots blackbird henhouse reprises appearance track eleven160 count blessings song weaves grifters autobiography reflections death sam cooke160 grifter assures us three card monty lucrative occupation keep game moving fast enough160 grifter somehow cant forget jury acquitted sam cookes killer fifteen minutes flat160 fastpaced world ironic sense gratitude days help living body try get pretty much everything know country music ive learned willie nelson shows country music concerts end gospel tunes think young willie playing honky tonks night saturday staying play church sunday morning160 somewhere line saturday night sunday morning gets crossed might say160 ray wylie hubbard ends dionysian romp song gods light like weve stayed sunrise160 daypeoples routines redelivered160 forgotten tip night people things come greg moses160is editor of160 texasworkerorg160and author of160 revolution conscience martin luther king jr philosophy nonviolence160 reached at160 gmosesxgmailcom | 632 |
<p>Beirut</p>
<p>“I’ve got these [expletive deleted] just where we want them Maura! Watch the 1000 slow cuts as we shred Hezbollah–who do they think they are? And we’ll do it by using 1757 and this time we’re going all the way. I told Israel to stay out of Lebanon because the IDF can’t defeat Hezbollah plus the whole region would burn. I will handle this and it will be my Christmas present to Lebanon.”</p>
<p>So, reportedly, said Jeffrey Feltman in conversation with his former office staffer, now US Ambassador to Lebanon, Maura Connelly during October 17, 2010 visit with MP Walid Jumblatt at his Clemenceau residence.On December 12, 2008, Naharnet.com reported that “Former US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman presented Prime Minister Fuad Siniora with what the American diplomat described as his personal Christmas present to Lebanon. Mr. Feltman assured PM Siniora that he will force Israel out of Ghajar village before the end of 2008.”</p>
<p>As it turned out, Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Lebanon never did receive Feltman’s promised 2008 Christmas present and Israel has its tanks and troops in Lebanon’s Ghajar village even as pressure mounts for ending its four-year illegal occupation of North Ghajar which, in violation of UNSCR 1701, Israel invaded in July 2006 and from which it has refused to withdraw. Feltman is now again assuring his Lebanese allies that he’s Santa Claus and Hezbollah’s head will adorn his sleigh during his Christmas eve rounds. The reason for his optimism is that US and Israel are quietly confident that they can achieve with UNSCR 1757 what was intended but fell short with UNSCR 1559, stripping Lebanon’s Resistance of its defensive weapons. On November 11th, Vice Premier and Regional Development Minister Silvan Shalom predicted that “a Special Tribunal for Leban (STL) indictment against Hezbollah will lead to the implementation of Resolution 1559 and the forced disarming of the Party as well as the collapse of the effort at a Syrian-Lebanese-Iranian-Turkish alliance.”</p>
<p>The US-Israel plan includes the expectation that members of Hezbollah, possibly even Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, will be indicted, tried and convicted, in absentia of course, of involvement in the February 14, 2005 murder of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.The US State Department Office of the Legal Adviser has proudly assured the White House that because its office insisted back in 2005 that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon be established under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, anyone who the STL convicts will face sure UN sanctions. Chapter Seven allows for the use of unlimited international armed force to implement any verdict that the STL hands down. Washington and Tel Aviv intend that those convicted will not escape the full power of the United Nations system anymore than others earlier, including former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.</p>
<p>Israel, serial violator of international law including more than 60 UN Resolutions is also busy boastlng that international law supports the Tribunal and that high priced law firms around the world can be hired if necessary to back up the legal work of the STL office of the Prosecution, led by Daniel Bellemare of Canada.Within hours of Israel instructing Secretary of State Clinton, not to worry, that there is no way for the STL to be stopped or its final judgment sidetracked and all the US has to do is fund it, the White House announced an additional $ 10 million for the Tribunal and got the UK to pony up another $ 1.8 million. More cash is expected from France. Today the STL is flush with cash and it will likely remain so.</p>
<p>Based on interviews with two former staff members of the Office of the STL prosecution, as well as numerous public statements by US officials, there are reasons to take seriously the “all the way” intensions of Jeffrey Feltman and Silvan Shalom. Their governments assert the that STL is legitimate under both international law, given that it was established in accordance with a U.N. Security Council resolution issued under Chapter 7, and also under Lebanon’s legal and constitutional principles contrary to what is being claimed by Hezbollah and STL’s adversaries in Lebanon.</p>
<p>In addition, the US State Department points out that the preamble to the Lebanese constitution provides that “Lebanon is a founding and active member of the United Nations Organization and abides by its covenants and by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Government shall embody these principles in all fields and areas without exception.” Moreover, the Charter of the United Nations obliges U.N. member states to “accept and carry out the decisions of the (U.N.) Security Council.”According to one State Department lawyer, “If the STL indicts and convicts one member of Hezbollah we win. A driver, a boy scout, we don’t care. The Security Council can do a dozen things to topple Hezbollah. For example, can you imagine the effect of Iranian style sanctions if applied against Lebanon until the killers are handed over? The Lebanese only care about money and with all those sects hating each other anyhow, the country will quickly implode in recriminations and civil war if they’re forced to diet a bit…And very tough sanctions against Syria? The US and Israel will only have to collect the pieces and do what should have been done half a century ago and that was to install governments that understand regional and international realities.”</p>
<p>Efforts by Hezbollah and Syria to derail the STL are viewed in Tel Aviv and Washington as futile, because Lebanon is thought to have nothing to say about the STL. It is created by the UNSC and nothing the Lebanese Parliament, Cabinet or people do will affect it. The only reason Lebanon is in the picture at all is that it is the crime scene. And it happens to harbor some suspects. Apart from that Lebanon is essentially irrelevant to the STL work.</p>
<p>Following the STL indictments, assuming they include Hezbollah, Washington sources expect that the Israel lobby will launch an international media campaign of defamation against Hezbollah, Syria and Iran and they will be joined by the US government and some of its European allies.The objective will be to essentially unite the world against the presumed Shia killers of the Sunni Prime Minister. More than a dozen US-Israel projects that failed in Lebanon over the past decade, from an airbase in Kleiat to street battles to cutting optic telecommunication lines may come back into play when stamped with the imprimatur of international law and full UN Security Council legitimacy.</p>
<p>The coming media campaign will employ especially sharp personal attacks on Hassan Nasrallah.</p>
<p>Hezbollah’s assessment</p>
<p>On November 11, 2010 Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah discussed the Special Tribunal at a neighborhood Martyr’s day gathering in South Beirut. He told his audience that Hezbollah knows the US-Israel strategy, which he explained is:</p>
<p>“Let’s accuse Shiite men of assassinating the most important Sunnite leader and consequently issue an indictment in this regard. We will call on the Lebanese government which had signed an agreement with us to arrest these men. The latter would set to arrest them and dispatch army troops and security forces which would be engaged in a clash with the Resistance.”</p>
<p>Nasrallah continued,</p>
<p>“Primarily this is the plot. It is not important for the Americans, the Israelis and the sponsors of the STL what would happen or what might happen in Lebanon. Lebanon in itself is not important, neither is martyr PM Rafiq Hariri, the Sunnites, the Shiites, the Muslims, the Christians, the Future Movement, March 14 Bloc nor March 8 Bloc. What is important is Israel, and Israel’s interest is that the Resistance be hit, eliminated, isolated, besieged, weakened, snatched away from its popular environment and its image be distorted. Its morals, belief and will must be harmed and consequently, it would be ready to be hit or to surrender to this plot.”</p>
<p>Hezbollah MP Nawaf Mousawi, one of the most sought after Hezbollah officials for discussions by visiting American and foreign delegations, advised the media a short time later that: “The Resistance party is prepared for all scenarios”, adding that “nothing would surprise Hezbollah…. Hezbollah has prepared a series of responses. Every option corresponds to a specific scenario. Thus if things are positive, we’re ready. But if things are negative and the efforts failed in reaching a solution to the crisis, we’re also ready. In brief, we’re ready to face all options.”</p>
<p>FRANKLIN LAMB is doing research in Lebanon and can be reached at <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
<p>&#160;</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | beirut ive got expletive deleted want maura watch 1000 slow cuts shred hezbollahwho think well using 1757 time going way told israel stay lebanon idf cant defeat hezbollah plus whole region would burn handle christmas present lebanon reportedly said jeffrey feltman conversation former office staffer us ambassador lebanon maura connelly october 17 2010 visit mp walid jumblatt clemenceau residenceon december 12 2008 naharnetcom reported former us ambassador jeffrey feltman presented prime minister fuad siniora american diplomat described personal christmas present lebanon mr feltman assured pm siniora force israel ghajar village end 2008 turned prime minister fuad siniora lebanon never receive feltmans promised 2008 christmas present israel tanks troops lebanons ghajar village even pressure mounts ending fouryear illegal occupation north ghajar violation unscr 1701 israel invaded july 2006 refused withdraw feltman assuring lebanese allies hes santa claus hezbollahs head adorn sleigh christmas eve rounds reason optimism us israel quietly confident achieve unscr 1757 intended fell short unscr 1559 stripping lebanons resistance defensive weapons november 11th vice premier regional development minister silvan shalom predicted special tribunal leban stl indictment hezbollah lead implementation resolution 1559 forced disarming party well collapse effort syrianlebaneseiranianturkish alliance usisrael plan includes expectation members hezbollah possibly even secretarygeneral hassan nasrallah indicted tried convicted absentia course involvement february 14 2005 murder lebanese prime minister rafiq haririthe us state department office legal adviser proudly assured white house office insisted back 2005 special tribunal lebanon established chapter 7 un charter anyone stl convicts face sure un sanctions chapter seven allows use unlimited international armed force implement verdict stl hands washington tel aviv intend convicted escape full power united nations system anymore others earlier including former serbian president slobodan milosevic israel serial violator international law including 60 un resolutions also busy boastlng international law supports tribunal high priced law firms around world hired necessary back legal work stl office prosecution led daniel bellemare canadawithin hours israel instructing secretary state clinton worry way stl stopped final judgment sidetracked us fund white house announced additional 10 million tribunal got uk pony another 18 million cash expected france today stl flush cash likely remain based interviews two former staff members office stl prosecution well numerous public statements us officials reasons take seriously way intensions jeffrey feltman silvan shalom governments assert stl legitimate international law given established accordance un security council resolution issued chapter 7 also lebanons legal constitutional principles contrary claimed hezbollah stls adversaries lebanon addition us state department points preamble lebanese constitution provides lebanon founding active member united nations organization abides covenants universal declaration human rights government shall embody principles fields areas without exception moreover charter united nations obliges un member states accept carry decisions un security councilaccording one state department lawyer stl indicts convicts one member hezbollah win driver boy scout dont care security council dozen things topple hezbollah example imagine effect iranian style sanctions applied lebanon killers handed lebanese care money sects hating anyhow country quickly implode recriminations civil war theyre forced diet bitand tough sanctions syria us israel collect pieces done half century ago install governments understand regional international realities efforts hezbollah syria derail stl viewed tel aviv washington futile lebanon thought nothing say stl created unsc nothing lebanese parliament cabinet people affect reason lebanon picture crime scene happens harbor suspects apart lebanon essentially irrelevant stl work following stl indictments assuming include hezbollah washington sources expect israel lobby launch international media campaign defamation hezbollah syria iran joined us government european alliesthe objective essentially unite world presumed shia killers sunni prime minister dozen usisrael projects failed lebanon past decade airbase kleiat street battles cutting optic telecommunication lines may come back play stamped imprimatur international law full un security council legitimacy coming media campaign employ especially sharp personal attacks hassan nasrallah hezbollahs assessment november 11 2010 hezbollah leader hassan nasrallah discussed special tribunal neighborhood martyrs day gathering south beirut told audience hezbollah knows usisrael strategy explained lets accuse shiite men assassinating important sunnite leader consequently issue indictment regard call lebanese government signed agreement us arrest men latter would set arrest dispatch army troops security forces would engaged clash resistance nasrallah continued primarily plot important americans israelis sponsors stl would happen might happen lebanon lebanon important neither martyr pm rafiq hariri sunnites shiites muslims christians future movement march 14 bloc march 8 bloc important israel israels interest resistance hit eliminated isolated besieged weakened snatched away popular environment image distorted morals belief must harmed consequently would ready hit surrender plot hezbollah mp nawaf mousawi one sought hezbollah officials discussions visiting american foreign delegations advised media short time later resistance party prepared scenarios adding nothing would surprise hezbollah hezbollah prepared series responses every option corresponds specific scenario thus things positive ready things negative efforts failed reaching solution crisis also ready brief ready face options franklin lamb research lebanon reached fplambgmailcom 160 | 794 |
<p>On the edge of the Sahel, Niger</p>
<p>“Sahel” in Arabic means “coast” or “shoreline”.&#160; Unless one was present 5000 years ago when, according to anthropologists, our planets first cultivation of crops began in this then lush, but now semiarid region where temperatures reach 125 degrees F, and only camels and an assortment of creatures can sniff out water sources, it seems an odd geographical name place for this up-to-450 miles wide swatch of baked sand that runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.</p>
<p>Yet, when standing along its edge, the Sahel does have the appearance of a sort of dividing shoreline between the endless sands of the Sahara and the savannah grasses to the south. Parts of Mali, Algeria, Niger, Chad, and Sudan, all along the Libyan border fall within this supposed no man’s land.</p>
<p>Today the Sahel is providing protection, weapons gathering and storage facilities, sites for training camps, and hideouts as well as a generally formidable base for those working to organize the growing Libyan Liberation Front (LLF). The aim of the LLF is to liberate Libya from what it considers NATO-installed colonial puppets. The Sahel region is only one of multiple locations which are becoming active as the Libyan counter revolution, led by members of the Gadahfi and Wafalla tribes, make preparations for the next phase of resistance.</p>
<p>When I entered an office conference room in Niger recently to meet with some recent evacuees from Libya who I was advised were preparing to launch a “people’s struggle employing &#160;the Maoist tactic of 1000 cuts” against the current group claiming to represent Libya,” two facts struck me.</p>
<p>One was how many were present and did not appear to be scruffy, intensely zealous or desperate but who were obviously rested, calm, organized and methodical in their demeanor.</p>
<p>My colleague, a member of the Gadhafi tribe from Sirte explained “More than 800 organizers have arrived from Libya just to Niger and more come every day”.&#160; &#160;An officer in uniform added, “It is not like your western media presents the situation, of desperate Gadhafi loyalists frantically handing out bundles of cash and gold bars to buy their safety from the NATO death squads now swarming around the northern areas of our motherland. Our brothers have controlled the borderless routes in this region for thousands of years and they know how not to be detected even by NATO satellites and drones.”</p>
<p>The other subject I thought about as I sat in an initial meeting was what a difference three decades can make. As I sat there I recalled my visit with former Fatah youth leader Salah Tamari, who did good work at the Israeli prison camp at Ansar, south Lebanon during the 1982 aggression, as the elected negotiator for his fellow inmates. Tamari insisted on joining some of them at a new PLO base at Tabessa, Algeria.&#160; This was shortly after the PLO leadership, wrongly in my judgment, agreed to evacuate Lebanon in August of 1982 rather than wage a Stalingrad defense (admittedly minus the nonexistent expected Red Army) and the PLO leadership apparently credited Reagan administration promises of “ an American guaranteed Palestinian state within a year. You can take that to the bank” in the words of US envoy Philip Habib. Seemingly ever trustful of Ronald Reagan for some reason, PLO leader Arafat kept Habib’s written promise in his shirt pocket to show doubters, including his Deputy, Khalil al Wazir (Abu Jihad) and the womenfolk among others in Shatila Camp who had some grave misgivings about their protectors leaving them. &#160;At Tabessa, somewhere in the vast Algerian desert, the formerly proud PLO defenders were essentially idle and caged inside their camp and apart from some physical training sessions appeared to spend their days drinking coffee and smoking and worrying about their loved ones in Lebanon as news of the September 1982 Israeli-organized massacre at Sabra-Shatila fell on Tabessa Camp like a huge bomb and many fighters rejected Tamari’s orders and left for Shatila.</p>
<p>This is not the case with Libyan evacuees in Niger. They have the latest model satellite phones, laptops and better equipment than most of the rich news outlets that showed up with at Tripoli’s media hotels over the past nine months. This observer’s question, “how did you all get here and where did you secure all this new electronic equipment so fast?” was answered with a mute smile and wink from a hijabed young lady who I last saw in August handing out press releases at Tripoli’s Rixos Hotel for Libyan spokesman Dr. Musa Ibrahim late last august. On that particular day, Musa was telling the media as he stood next to Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Kaim, a friend to many Americans and human rights activists, &#160;that Tripoli would not fall to NATO rebels and “we have 6,500 well trained soldiers who are waiting for them.”&#160; As it turned out, the commander of the 6,500 was owned by NATO and he instructed his men not to oppose the entering rebel forces. Tripoli fell the next day and the day after Khalid was arrested and is still inside one of dozens of rebel jails petitioning his unresponsive captors for family visits while an international, American organized, legal team is negotiating to visit him.</p>
<p>The LLF has military and political projects in the works.&#160; One of the latter is to compete for every vote in next summer’s promised election.&#160; One staffer I met with has the job of studying the elections in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere in the region for possible applications to Libya.</p>
<p>Another LLF committee is &#160;&#160;putting together a Nationalist campaign message plus specific campaign planks for their candidates to run on and putting together lists of recommendations of specific candidates.&#160; Nothing is firmly decided yet, but one Libyan professor told me “for sure Women’s rights will be a major plank.&#160; Women are horrified&#160;&#160; by NTC Chairman Jalil said &#160;while seeking support from Al Qaeda supporters who threaten to control Libya, about polygamy being the future in Libya and the fact that women will now longer be given the home when divorced.&#160; Libya has been very progressive with women’s rights as with Palestinian rights.”&#160; Aisha Gadhafi, the only daughter of Muammar who is now living next door in Algeria with family members including her two-month old baby, was a major force behind the 2010 enactment by the Peoples Congresses of more rights for women.&#160; She has been asked to write a pamphlet on the need to retain women’s rights which will be distributed if the 2012 elections actually materialize.</p>
<p>While their country lies in substantial NATO bombed ruins, the pro-Gadhafi LLF has some major pluses on its side.&#160; One are the tribes who during last summer were starting to stand up against NATO just as Tripoli fell before they launched their efforts which included a new Constitution. The LLF believes the tribes can be crucial in getting out the vote.</p>
<p>Perhaps even a more powerful arrow in the LLF’s quiver as it launches its counter revolution&#160; are the 35 years of political experience by the hundreds of&#160; Libyan People’s Committees long established in every village in Libya along with the Secretariats of the People’s Conferences. While currently inactive (outlawed by NATO–truth be told) they are quickly regrouping.&#160;Sometimes the subjects of ridicule by some self-styled Libya “experts,” the People’s Congresses, based on the Green book series written by Gadhafi, are actually quite democratic and a study of their work makes clear that they have increasingly functioned not as mere rubber stamps for ideas that floated from over the walls of Bab al Azziza barracks.&#160; A secretary general of one of the Congresses, now working in Niger, repeated what one western delegation was told during a late June three hour briefing at the Tripoli HQ of the national PC Secretariat. &#160;Participants were shown attendance and voting records as well of each item voted on, for the past decade and the minutes of the most recent People’s Congress debates. They illustrate the similarities between the People’s Congresses and New England Town Meeting in terms of the local population making decisions that affect their community and an open agenda where complaints and new proposals can be made and discussed.&#160; This observer particularly enjoyed his 4 years term representing Ward 2A in the Brookline, Massachusetts Town Meeting while in college in Boston, sometimes sitting next my neighbors Kitty and Michael Dukakis. While we both won a seat in the election, I received 42 votes more than Mike but he rose politically while it could be said that I sank, following my joining Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the ACLU and the Black Panthers all in one semester as an undergraduate Boston University, following an inspiring meeting with Professor Noam Chomsky and Professor Howard Zinn in Chomsky’s office at MIT.&#160; The Town Meeting debates were interesting and productive and “Mustafa”, the National Secretary of the Libyan People’s Congress, who studied at George Washington University in WDC and wrote a graduate thesis on New England Town Meetings, claimed his country patterned their People’s Congresses on them. Unfortunately, “Mustafa”is also now incarcerated by the NTC, according to mutual friends.</p>
<p>Who LLF candidates will be if an election is actually held is unknown but some are suggesting that Dr.Abu Zeid Dorda, now recovering from his “suicide attempt” (the former Libyan UN Ambassador was thrown out of a second floor window during interrogations last month by NATO agents but he survived in front of witnesses so is now recovering in prison medical ward).</p>
<p>Contrary to media stories, Saif al Islam is not about to surrender to the International Criminal Court and, like Musa Ibrahim, is well. &#160;Both are being urged to lay low for now, rest, and try to heal a bit from NATO’s killing of family members and many close friends.</p>
<p>Many legal and political analysts think the ICC will not proceed with any trials relating to Libya for reasons of the ICC convoluted rules and structure and uncertainly of securing convictions of the “right” suspects. &#160;Whatever happens on this subject, if a case goes forward, researchers are preparing to fill the ICC courtroom with documentation of NATO crimes during its 9 month, 23,000 sorties and 10,000 bombing attacks on the five million population country.</p>
<p>Some International Criminal Court observers are encouraged by the ICC Prosecutor’s office pledge this week and as reported by the BCC: “to investigate and prosecute any crimes committed both by rebel and pro-Gadhafi forces including any committed by NATO.”</p>
<p>As one victim of NATO crimes, who on June 20, 1911 lost four of his family members including three infant children, as five NATO American MK-83 bombs were dropped and two missiles fired on the family compound in a failed assassination attempt against his father, a former aide to Colonel Gadhafi, wrote this observer yesterday from his secret sanctuary, “This is good news if it is true.”.</p>
<p>As NATO moves its focus and drones to the Seral, it is possible that its&#160;nine months of carnage against this country and people will not in the end achieve its goals.</p>
<p>Franklin Lamb is reachable c/o <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a>.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | edge sahel niger sahel arabic means coast shoreline160 unless one present 5000 years ago according anthropologists planets first cultivation crops began lush semiarid region temperatures reach 125 degrees f camels assortment creatures sniff water sources seems odd geographical name place upto450 miles wide swatch baked sand runs atlantic ocean red sea yet standing along edge sahel appearance sort dividing shoreline endless sands sahara savannah grasses south parts mali algeria niger chad sudan along libyan border fall within supposed mans land today sahel providing protection weapons gathering storage facilities sites training camps hideouts well generally formidable base working organize growing libyan liberation front llf aim llf liberate libya considers natoinstalled colonial puppets sahel region one multiple locations becoming active libyan counter revolution led members gadahfi wafalla tribes make preparations next phase resistance entered office conference room niger recently meet recent evacuees libya advised preparing launch peoples struggle employing 160the maoist tactic 1000 cuts current group claiming represent libya two facts struck one many present appear scruffy intensely zealous desperate obviously rested calm organized methodical demeanor colleague member gadhafi tribe sirte explained 800 organizers arrived libya niger come every day160 160an officer uniform added like western media presents situation desperate gadhafi loyalists frantically handing bundles cash gold bars buy safety nato death squads swarming around northern areas motherland brothers controlled borderless routes region thousands years know detected even nato satellites drones subject thought sat initial meeting difference three decades make sat recalled visit former fatah youth leader salah tamari good work israeli prison camp ansar south lebanon 1982 aggression elected negotiator fellow inmates tamari insisted joining new plo base tabessa algeria160 shortly plo leadership wrongly judgment agreed evacuate lebanon august 1982 rather wage stalingrad defense admittedly minus nonexistent expected red army plo leadership apparently credited reagan administration promises american guaranteed palestinian state within year take bank words us envoy philip habib seemingly ever trustful ronald reagan reason plo leader arafat kept habibs written promise shirt pocket show doubters including deputy khalil al wazir abu jihad womenfolk among others shatila camp grave misgivings protectors leaving 160at tabessa somewhere vast algerian desert formerly proud plo defenders essentially idle caged inside camp apart physical training sessions appeared spend days drinking coffee smoking worrying loved ones lebanon news september 1982 israeliorganized massacre sabrashatila fell tabessa camp like huge bomb many fighters rejected tamaris orders left shatila case libyan evacuees niger latest model satellite phones laptops better equipment rich news outlets showed tripolis media hotels past nine months observers question get secure new electronic equipment fast answered mute smile wink hijabed young lady last saw august handing press releases tripolis rixos hotel libyan spokesman dr musa ibrahim late last august particular day musa telling media stood next deputy foreign minister khalid kaim friend many americans human rights activists 160that tripoli would fall nato rebels 6500 well trained soldiers waiting them160 turned commander 6500 owned nato instructed men oppose entering rebel forces tripoli fell next day day khalid arrested still inside one dozens rebel jails petitioning unresponsive captors family visits international american organized legal team negotiating visit llf military political projects works160 one latter compete every vote next summers promised election160 one staffer met job studying elections tunisia egypt elsewhere region possible applications libya another llf committee 160160putting together nationalist campaign message plus specific campaign planks candidates run putting together lists recommendations specific candidates160 nothing firmly decided yet one libyan professor told sure womens rights major plank160 women horrified160160 ntc chairman jalil said 160while seeking support al qaeda supporters threaten control libya polygamy future libya fact women longer given home divorced160 libya progressive womens rights palestinian rights160 aisha gadhafi daughter muammar living next door algeria family members including twomonth old baby major force behind 2010 enactment peoples congresses rights women160 asked write pamphlet need retain womens rights distributed 2012 elections actually materialize country lies substantial nato bombed ruins progadhafi llf major pluses side160 one tribes last summer starting stand nato tripoli fell launched efforts included new constitution llf believes tribes crucial getting vote perhaps even powerful arrow llfs quiver launches counter revolution160 35 years political experience hundreds of160 libyan peoples committees long established every village libya along secretariats peoples conferences currently inactive outlawed natotruth told quickly regrouping160sometimes subjects ridicule selfstyled libya experts peoples congresses based green book series written gadhafi actually quite democratic study work makes clear increasingly functioned mere rubber stamps ideas floated walls bab al azziza barracks160 secretary general one congresses working niger repeated one western delegation told late june three hour briefing tripoli hq national pc secretariat 160participants shown attendance voting records well item voted past decade minutes recent peoples congress debates illustrate similarities peoples congresses new england town meeting terms local population making decisions affect community open agenda complaints new proposals made discussed160 observer particularly enjoyed 4 years term representing ward 2a brookline massachusetts town meeting college boston sometimes sitting next neighbors kitty michael dukakis seat election received 42 votes mike rose politically could said sank following joining students democratic society sds aclu black panthers one semester undergraduate boston university following inspiring meeting professor noam chomsky professor howard zinn chomskys office mit160 town meeting debates interesting productive mustafa national secretary libyan peoples congress studied george washington university wdc wrote graduate thesis new england town meetings claimed country patterned peoples congresses unfortunately mustafais also incarcerated ntc according mutual friends llf candidates election actually held unknown suggesting drabu zeid dorda recovering suicide attempt former libyan un ambassador thrown second floor window interrogations last month nato agents survived front witnesses recovering prison medical ward contrary media stories saif al islam surrender international criminal court like musa ibrahim well 160both urged lay low rest try heal bit natos killing family members many close friends many legal political analysts think icc proceed trials relating libya reasons icc convoluted rules structure uncertainly securing convictions right suspects 160whatever happens subject case goes forward researchers preparing fill icc courtroom documentation nato crimes 9 month 23000 sorties 10000 bombing attacks five million population country international criminal court observers encouraged icc prosecutors office pledge week reported bcc investigate prosecute crimes committed rebel progadhafi forces including committed nato one victim nato crimes june 20 1911 lost four family members including three infant children five nato american mk83 bombs dropped two missiles fired family compound failed assassination attempt father former aide colonel gadhafi wrote observer yesterday secret sanctuary good news true nato moves focus drones seral possible its160nine months carnage country people end achieve goals franklin lamb reachable co fplambgmailcom 160 | 1,075 |
<p>As we went to print the military forces of the US and its smaller but eminently zealous war partner, Tony Blair’s Britain, were set to launch a massive air and ground invasion of Iraq, the one certain result of which is the utter destruction of a once prosperous Arab nation, already devastated by two wars and 11 years of crippling sanctions.</p>
<p>As the clock was ticking towards the deadline set on Tuesday by US President George W Bush for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave the country and rejected by Hussein (4am Iraq time today, Thursday), tens of thousands of coalition troops were moving into the demilitarised zone straddling the Iraq- Kuwait border and extending 10km into Iraqi territory.</p>
<p>“Troops walked into the DMZ this morning around 11am (0800GMT),” a Kuwaiti security source announced yesterday. “American troops are still driving towards Umm Qasr [near the Iraqi-Kuwaiti border].” One of the first objectives of the invasion forces, according to US military officials, will be to overwhelm regular Iraqi army units and take the Iraqi city of Basra, about 65km from the Kuwaiti border and 550km southeast of Baghdad.</p>
<p>With 280,000 US and British troops deployed in the Gulf — 175,000 are in Kuwait — US military commanders were promising a war “unlike anything anyone has ever seen before,” according to the US naval commander in the Gulf, Vice Admiral Timothy Keating. Speaking to reporters on board USS Abraham Lincoln, Keating waxed poetic on the forthcoming invasion. The coalition troops would go “about this particular conflict… in a way that is very unpredictable and unprecedented in history — remarkable speed, breathtaking speed, agility, precision and persistence.”</p>
<p>Keating was referring to the Pentagon’s “Shock and Awe” doctrine, an aerial bombardment of such precision and intensity, it is claimed, that it will isolate Saddam and his leadership and stun the Iraqi army into submission. Upward of 3,000 satellite-guided bombs and cruise missiles will be unleashed from sea and air on targets the Pentagon deems vital to Saddam’s government.</p>
<p>“Shock and Awe” is the brainchild of Harlan Ullman, veteran military strategist and co-author of the 1996 book Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance. The doctrine recommends “nearly incomprehensible levels of massive destruction” to achieve an “overwhelming level of shock and awe against an adversary on an immediate or sufficiently timely basis to paralyze its will to carry on.”</p>
<p>The doctrine was inspired by the impact of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and “the comatose and glazed expressions of survivors of the great bombardments of World War I and the attendant horrors and death of trench warfare.”</p>
<p>The levels of death and destruction the application of this doctrine, very likely within the next 48 hours, will wreak on Iraq and its population of 20 million is likely to prove as “unprecedented and incomprehensible” as Keating promises.</p>
<p>The three-paragraph formal justification of the war sent by the White House to Congress yesterday predicted a quick victory but added: “Americans have to be prepared for loss of life.” For his part Keating said that “hopefully [the war] will be quick, [though] we are prepared for it to take however long it takes.”</p>
<p>In Baghdad Iraqi officials were making promises of their own. An emergency session of the Iraqi parliament yesterday sent a letter to Saddam in which they pledged to “follow the path of heroism and martyrdom… defending Iraq.”</p>
<p>Iraqi Information Minister Mohamed Said Al-Sahhaf told a press conference that the US was deceiving its soldiers by insisting “invading Iraq will be like a picnic.” He added: “This is a very stupid lie… what they are facing is definite death.” Meanwhile dozens of Ba’ath Party members, armed with Kalashnikovs, were deploying in clusters of fours and fives across Baghdad, according to AP, with groups of them manning the hundreds of sandbagged fighting positions that have been erected around the Iraqi capital during the past two weeks.</p>
<p>The duration of the war and its likely death toll remain as impossible to predict as the regional and global ramifications of what is likely to become a lengthy US military occupation of Iraq. The one thing that is certain is that these will be of such momentous proportions as to change the face not just of the region, but of the world.</p>
<p>Arab leaders, who in recent months have appealed to the Bush administration to desist from actions that threaten to drive the region into chaos, have in the last two days accepted the inevitability of the invasion of Iraq, adopting, as one observer put it, a strategy of minimising the potential losses to the security and stability of their states and the region as a whole.</p>
<p>In a televised address to the nation yesterday morning, President Hosni Mubarak sounded an ominous note. “During the past few hours,” Mubarak said, “the question of Iraq’s WMD capabilities and of their divesting passed through a crucial turning point, one that threatens grave ramifications not just for the stability of the Middle East region and its persistent pursuit of prosperity and development, but also in terms of the ability of the United Nations, and particularly the Security Council, to undertake its crucial role in managing the international mutual security system and safeguarding international peace and security.”</p>
<p>Mubarak reviewed Egyptian and Arab efforts to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Iraqi crisis, asserting the basic principles upon which Egyptian policy on this issue was based — international legitimacy, protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq and the indivisibility of the peaceful resolution of the region’s conflicts, foremost among which that of the Palestinian question.</p>
<p>Concern with regional dangers was echoed by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. “When I was saying this war was going to open the gates of hell I meant it,” Moussa says in an exclusive interview with Al-Ahram Weekly. (see p.5)</p>
<p>“The destruction and negative consequences are not going to be just about Iraq. No. It will affect the whole region and beyond. It will probably affect the international system as well,” Moussa added.</p>
<p>Among the many casualties commentators point to the collapse of the UN system, put in place at the end of World War II. At the UN Security Council yesterday the foreign ministers of France, Russia and Germany condemned the American-led war and affirmed its illegality under the UN Charter.</p>
<p>“We have to state clearly under the current circumstances that the policy of military intervention has no credibility… There is no basis in the UN Charter for a regime change with military means,” German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told the council. Germany, he said, “emphatically rejects the coming war”.</p>
<p>Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was equally emphatic. “Not one of these decisions authorises the right to use force against Iraq outside the UN Charter. Not one of them authorises the violent overthrow of a sovereign state,” he said.</p>
<p>French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin warned of the fallout of war. “To those who think that the scourge of terrorism will be eradicated through what is done in Iraq, we say that they run the risk of failing in their objective,” he said.</p>
<p>On board USS Abraham Lincoln, Admiral Keating addressed hundreds of his men telling them: “When it’s all done… and they rewrite history, because that is what you are going to do, your names will be written in gold on those pages.”</p>
<p>Before that gilding begins history will have to be effaced, not rewritten. An illegal war waged in blatant violation of the UN Charter and of international law; a war against which 30 million people throughout the world have already demonstrated before a single shot is fired on streets from Los Angeles to Tokyo; a war to which opinion polls in virtually all the world’s nations, with the exception of the US and Israel, have produced a definitive ‘no’ — how can such a war be recorded except in infamy?</p>
<p>And this, before the body count.</p>
<p>HANI SHUKRALLAH writes a weekly column for the Cairo-based <a href="http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/" type="external">al-Ahram</a> newspaper.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | went print military forces us smaller eminently zealous war partner tony blairs britain set launch massive air ground invasion iraq one certain result utter destruction prosperous arab nation already devastated two wars 11 years crippling sanctions clock ticking towards deadline set tuesday us president george w bush iraqi president saddam hussein sons leave country rejected hussein 4am iraq time today thursday tens thousands coalition troops moving demilitarised zone straddling iraq kuwait border extending 10km iraqi territory troops walked dmz morning around 11am 0800gmt kuwaiti security source announced yesterday american troops still driving towards umm qasr near iraqikuwaiti border one first objectives invasion forces according us military officials overwhelm regular iraqi army units take iraqi city basra 65km kuwaiti border 550km southeast baghdad 280000 us british troops deployed gulf 175000 kuwait us military commanders promising war unlike anything anyone ever seen according us naval commander gulf vice admiral timothy keating speaking reporters board uss abraham lincoln keating waxed poetic forthcoming invasion coalition troops would go particular conflict way unpredictable unprecedented history remarkable speed breathtaking speed agility precision persistence keating referring pentagons shock awe doctrine aerial bombardment precision intensity claimed isolate saddam leadership stun iraqi army submission upward 3000 satelliteguided bombs cruise missiles unleashed sea air targets pentagon deems vital saddams government shock awe brainchild harlan ullman veteran military strategist coauthor 1996 book shock awe achieving rapid dominance doctrine recommends nearly incomprehensible levels massive destruction achieve overwhelming level shock awe adversary immediate sufficiently timely basis paralyze carry doctrine inspired impact nuclear bombing hiroshima nagasaki comatose glazed expressions survivors great bombardments world war attendant horrors death trench warfare levels death destruction application doctrine likely within next 48 hours wreak iraq population 20 million likely prove unprecedented incomprehensible keating promises threeparagraph formal justification war sent white house congress yesterday predicted quick victory added americans prepared loss life part keating said hopefully war quick though prepared take however long takes baghdad iraqi officials making promises emergency session iraqi parliament yesterday sent letter saddam pledged follow path heroism martyrdom defending iraq iraqi information minister mohamed said alsahhaf told press conference us deceiving soldiers insisting invading iraq like picnic added stupid lie facing definite death meanwhile dozens baath party members armed kalashnikovs deploying clusters fours fives across baghdad according ap groups manning hundreds sandbagged fighting positions erected around iraqi capital past two weeks duration war likely death toll remain impossible predict regional global ramifications likely become lengthy us military occupation iraq one thing certain momentous proportions change face region world arab leaders recent months appealed bush administration desist actions threaten drive region chaos last two days accepted inevitability invasion iraq adopting one observer put strategy minimising potential losses security stability states region whole televised address nation yesterday morning president hosni mubarak sounded ominous note past hours mubarak said question iraqs wmd capabilities divesting passed crucial turning point one threatens grave ramifications stability middle east region persistent pursuit prosperity development also terms ability united nations particularly security council undertake crucial role managing international mutual security system safeguarding international peace security mubarak reviewed egyptian arab efforts achieve peaceful settlement iraqi crisis asserting basic principles upon egyptian policy issue based international legitimacy protecting sovereignty territorial integrity iraq indivisibility peaceful resolution regions conflicts foremost among palestinian question concern regional dangers echoed arab league secretarygeneral amr moussa saying war going open gates hell meant moussa says exclusive interview alahram weekly see p5 destruction negative consequences going iraq affect whole region beyond probably affect international system well moussa added among many casualties commentators point collapse un system put place end world war ii un security council yesterday foreign ministers france russia germany condemned americanled war affirmed illegality un charter state clearly current circumstances policy military intervention credibility basis un charter regime change military means german foreign minister joschka fischer told council germany said emphatically rejects coming war russian foreign minister igor ivanov equally emphatic one decisions authorises right use force iraq outside un charter one authorises violent overthrow sovereign state said french foreign minister dominique de villepin warned fallout war think scourge terrorism eradicated done iraq say run risk failing objective said board uss abraham lincoln admiral keating addressed hundreds men telling done rewrite history going names written gold pages gilding begins history effaced rewritten illegal war waged blatant violation un charter international law war 30 million people throughout world already demonstrated single shot fired streets los angeles tokyo war opinion polls virtually worlds nations exception us israel produced definitive war recorded except infamy body count hani shukrallah writes weekly column cairobased alahram newspaper 160 | 752 |
<p />
<p>Thomas Mowle, an associate professor of political science at the US Air Force Academy, a former member of the strategy branch, Multi National Forces-Iraq (MNF-I), and editor of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hope-Not-Plan-Inside-Green/dp/0275994457" type="external">Hope is Not a Plan: The Iraq War from Inside the Green Zone</a>, offers these observations about <a href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/20070911_POLICY/Petraeus_Slides.pdf" type="external">Petraeus’ slides</a>, with reference to his <a href="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/world/20070911_POLICY/Petraeus_Testimony.pdf" type="external">testimony</a>. He emphasizes that the below are all his own assessments, not official ones.</p>
<p>Slide 1: Interesting that the PKK is included, though not the MeK (Mujahedeen e-Khalq) or Pezak (the Iranian offshoot of the PKK, also known as PJAK). No reference to the Kurd-Arab/Turkomen violence around Kirkuk. All the yellow boxes list threats… except “anti-AQI Tribal Success” in Anbar –unless that success is being counted as itself a threat to Iraq. Foreign fighters appear to come only from Syria, not Saudi Arabia.</p>
<p>Slide 2: Probably the most effective slide. Long view, since October 2004. al-Askariyah shrine destruction appears to NOT have sparked an overall increase in attacks, but is merely a point on a steady increase from about March 2005 through December 2006. Mid-February listed as “Baghdad Security Plan,” with testimony saying “forces began to flow in January.” Most reports I’ve seen suggest the “surge” began in March; this has been difficult to track down. “Surge” was complete in June 2007, at which point the # of attacks drops rapidly. Not clear what is meant by “attacks:” does this include all acts of violence in Iraq, or only those aimed at coalition or Iraqi government targets? If the latter, that could explain the lack of a spike after Samarra, and also the discrepancy between the timing of this drop in attacks and the drop in deaths noted on later slides.</p>
<p>Slide 3: Starts in January 2006. Civilian deaths are down since Dec 06, by 50% in Iraq and 75% in Baghdad. Trend since Jan 06 is up 200% in Iraq and up 400% in Baghdad. Most of the decline is from Dec 06 to Feb 07 — during the surge period, deaths in Iraq are down 15% and in Iraq down 33%. Baghdad now represents a smaller share of the violence: about 70% at the peak, but now only 33%. That is about its “share” of the Arab population of Iraq, but suggests that violence may have been tranferred to other places.</p>
<p>Slide 4: Maps start in December 2006, Graph in May 2006. The different starting dates are very strange. Looking ahead, other charts start in June 2006, October 2006, June 2006, August 2006, May 2006, January 2007, 15 June 2007, July 2007, and November 2005: 13 different sets of graphics, with 12 different start dates. Very odd. In any case, what are “clearly ethno-sectarian” deaths? Would AQI on cigarette-smoking clean-shaven Sunni Arab count? In maps of Baghdad, the demographic characteristics of neighborhoods never changes — is this meant to imply there have been no changes, ignore such changes, or mere difficulty in coming up with a new map?</p>
<p>Slide 5: Lots more caches found this year. Is “cache” the best measure? Are these caches the same size as before, or are they smaller, meaning no more weapons have been captured? Does finding more caches suggest progress in finding them, or that there are more caches to be found?</p>
<p>Slide 6: IEDs: trend is good, corresponds to the surge… “Total IEDs = IED explosions + IEDs found + IED hoaxes?” What exactly is an “IED hoax?” Are there many cases of truly faked IEDs, or does this include situations where soldiers see something they think is an IED, but isn’t? Could the decline in Total IEDs reflect only a decline in hoaxes, leaving the real categories unchanged?</p>
<p>Slide 7: Anbar attacks. We know this good news story. Peak shown for al-Anbar is October 2006. Attacks down 33% before the surge, and another 60% while the surge got up and running. Suggests that the success in al-Anbar has nothing to do with the surge.</p>
<p>Slide 8: Trends in Salah ad-Din, Baghdad, al-Anbar, and Ninewah. Why not Diyala? Would that graph look so good? Violence trends up while surge beginning, then down once complete, except in al-Anbar where the whole trend is down, and in Ninewah, where the downward trend is very minor. Measure is of violence, which = attacks + “murders events.” What is a “murders event?” Why do the slides shift from deaths, to attacks, to level of violence?</p>
<p>Slide 9: High Profile attacks — fits the surge story. Peak is in March 2007, then down except for suicide vests.</p>
<p>Slide 10: State of AQI. Almost impossible to comprehend without a story, which is not provided.</p>
<p>Slide 11: Lots of security volunteers, mostly Sunni.</p>
<p>Slide 12: # of “Fully Independent” battalions unchanged from April 2006-present. # of “Iraqi Lead with Coalition Support” battalions unchanged from September 2006-present. # of “Fighting Side by Side” unchanged over that same period. One would think that units would move steadily from level IV to level I over the nearly two years depicted. Possibilities: 1) It takes much longer to progress in capabilities than I think, so the lack of change is reasonable; 2) Units are progressing in capabilities, but once they become “fully independent” they get so cut up in battle that they regress all the way back to “fighting side by side.” 3) Units are progressing to “fully independent,” and then vanishing. 4) Not much progress is being made in developing independent capabilities for Iraqi Security Forces — which is OK as long as they are not being counted upon.</p>
<p>Slide 13: Notable lack of dates after July 2008. Unclear what is going on with the stars and their location. If forces are drawing down, three possibilities: 1) ISF will backfill the capability as they become ready (“we stand down as they stand up”). Based on prior slide, that could be a while. 2) ISF will not be needed, because coalition forces will not withdraw until violence is down and stays down, and will not go back up later. 3) Coalition forces withdraw, ISF are not capable, and …Probably not a victorious scenario.</p>
<p>“All of the above are my own assessments, not official ones — but I stand by them as a professional.”</p>
<p>Posted with permission.</p>
<p>Cheers,</p>
<p>Tom Mowle US Air Force Academy</p>
<p /> | true | 4 | thomas mowle associate professor political science us air force academy former member strategy branch multi national forcesiraq mnfi editor hope plan iraq war inside green zone offers observations petraeus slides reference testimony emphasizes assessments official ones slide 1 interesting pkk included though mek mujahedeen ekhalq pezak iranian offshoot pkk also known pjak reference kurdarabturkomen violence around kirkuk yellow boxes list threats except antiaqi tribal success anbar unless success counted threat iraq foreign fighters appear come syria saudi arabia slide 2 probably effective slide long view since october 2004 alaskariyah shrine destruction appears sparked overall increase attacks merely point steady increase march 2005 december 2006 midfebruary listed baghdad security plan testimony saying forces began flow january reports ive seen suggest surge began march difficult track surge complete june 2007 point attacks drops rapidly clear meant attacks include acts violence iraq aimed coalition iraqi government targets latter could explain lack spike samarra also discrepancy timing drop attacks drop deaths noted later slides slide 3 starts january 2006 civilian deaths since dec 06 50 iraq 75 baghdad trend since jan 06 200 iraq 400 baghdad decline dec 06 feb 07 surge period deaths iraq 15 iraq 33 baghdad represents smaller share violence 70 peak 33 share arab population iraq suggests violence may tranferred places slide 4 maps start december 2006 graph may 2006 different starting dates strange looking ahead charts start june 2006 october 2006 june 2006 august 2006 may 2006 january 2007 15 june 2007 july 2007 november 2005 13 different sets graphics 12 different start dates odd case clearly ethnosectarian deaths would aqi cigarettesmoking cleanshaven sunni arab count maps baghdad demographic characteristics neighborhoods never changes meant imply changes ignore changes mere difficulty coming new map slide 5 lots caches found year cache best measure caches size smaller meaning weapons captured finding caches suggest progress finding caches found slide 6 ieds trend good corresponds surge total ieds ied explosions ieds found ied hoaxes exactly ied hoax many cases truly faked ieds include situations soldiers see something think ied isnt could decline total ieds reflect decline hoaxes leaving real categories unchanged slide 7 anbar attacks know good news story peak shown alanbar october 2006 attacks 33 surge another 60 surge got running suggests success alanbar nothing surge slide 8 trends salah addin baghdad alanbar ninewah diyala would graph look good violence trends surge beginning complete except alanbar whole trend ninewah downward trend minor measure violence attacks murders events murders event slides shift deaths attacks level violence slide 9 high profile attacks fits surge story peak march 2007 except suicide vests slide 10 state aqi almost impossible comprehend without story provided slide 11 lots security volunteers mostly sunni slide 12 fully independent battalions unchanged april 2006present iraqi lead coalition support battalions unchanged september 2006present fighting side side unchanged period one would think units would move steadily level iv level nearly two years depicted possibilities 1 takes much longer progress capabilities think lack change reasonable 2 units progressing capabilities become fully independent get cut battle regress way back fighting side side 3 units progressing fully independent vanishing 4 much progress made developing independent capabilities iraqi security forces ok long counted upon slide 13 notable lack dates july 2008 unclear going stars location forces drawing three possibilities 1 isf backfill capability become ready stand stand based prior slide could 2 isf needed coalition forces withdraw violence stays go back later 3 coalition forces withdraw isf capable probably victorious scenario assessments official ones stand professional posted permission cheers tom mowle us air force academy | 587 |
<p>Today, the talk of people’s power in Nepal is the order of the day. Even the Mainstream Media, Moriarty, Manmohan and their intellectual goons are full of that. Evidently they are having hysterical fits intensified by the return of the Cold War paranoia. The possibility of the Maoists’ coming over ground and their revolutionary agenda — targeting the Nepali dependency — being constitutionalized is definitely a grave crisis for Indo-American imperialism in South Asia. And in order to have a scope for diplomatic engineering, they need sanitized expressions like people’s movement, people’s power etc without identifying who the people are and without detailing their demands.</p>
<p>Definitely the mainstream hatred against the Maoists knows no bound. The media campaign to denigrate the Maoists has never been so vigorous as now, showing the crisis and desperation in the imperialist camp — its failure to color and control the democratic upsurge in Nepal as in East Europe and other parts of the world. As one of the coup organizers against Chavez in Venezuela, Vice Admiral Ramírez Pérez told a private channel just after the coup on April 11, 2002, “We had a deadly weapon: the media.” And as Pablo Neruda, once reminded us, “He’s the skulking coward hired to praise dirty hands. He’s an orator or journalist. Suddenly he surfaces in the palace enthusiastically masticating the sovereign’s dejections”. 1. People’s Movement: a New Phase in the People’s War?</p>
<p>Just a cursory reading of the mainstream media headlines on Nepal and the Maoists today show that they increasingly concentrate on Maoist “extortions” and other “criminal” activities. One needs to just go through the reports under those headlines to have a glimpse of the conscious game plan. Only to cite a couple of examples:</p>
<p>1. As reported, recently, Indian company Dabur suspended its operations in Nepal. The headline and the first paragraph of the report in Telegraph (May 20), one of the mainstream newspapers in India, told it was because the company refused “to buckle under the extortion threats of the Maoist rebels”. But the same report subsequently went on: “The Maoist-affiliated trade union, All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF), on May 15 issued a 22-point charter of demands to all the units in the Bara-Parsa-Birgunj industrial belt. They demanded scrapping of the labour contract system, payment of a minimum monthly wage of Rs 5,000 and provisions of housing, medicare and education facilities to the workers and their families. The union warned of dire consequences if its demands were not met within a week.” So the genuine workers movement and its demands in the Nepali sweatshops controlled by Indian imperialists are extortions.</p>
<p>2. The prestigious International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) issued a media release on May 19, where a subheading said – “Maoists attack radio station” (later “attack” was changed to “threaten”). It is obvious that many people who have the habit of reading just headlines will interpret — Oh! These gun-trotting “polpotists” must have raided the radio station. But no! “The Maoist-aligned All Nepal Trade Union Federation issued a letter on May 12, 2006 accusing the two FM radio stations of exploiting their respective staffs, dismissing staff without reason, extreme excesses and mental torture of the staff, and called for the immediate termination of the Kalika FM station director, alleging him to be a pro-royalist.” So, this was an attack!</p>
<p>In order to understand the impact of such unambiguous media reports, one needs to remember how even a great novelist from the Left Jose Saramago went on to dub the great guerrilla movement under the Frente Armada Revolucionaria de Colombia (FARC) as an “armed gang” dedicated “to kidnapping, murdering, violating human rights.” One can only imagine what will happen in the case of Nepal.</p>
<p>The international left movement divided into innumerable sects is taking its toll on the Nepali movement too. So we find even sober Marxist analysts indulging in subjective analyses of the peasant movement in Nepal displaying their rich repertoire of inter-sect abuses ready for the Maoists just because they have learnt from the Chinese peasant movement and call themselves Maoists. The irresponsible reactive armchair leftism ever online enamored of the rights discourse and neutrality too in its efforts to justify its own passivity is increasingly involved in this media redbaiting. As James Petras noted in his open letter to Saramago (Counterpunch, December 22, 2004):</p>
<p>“[T]here are many types of “communists” today: Those who stole the public patrimony of Russia and became notable oligarchs; Those who collaborate with the US colonial regime in Iraq; Those who have struggled for forty years in the factories, jungles and countryside of Colombia for a society without classes; And those “communists” who fear the problem (imperialism) and fear the solution (popular revolution) and make it all a question of personal preferences.”</p>
<p>All kinds of media and ideological manipulations are going on endeavoring to disrupt the New Phase of People’s War in Nepal — its extension to the urban streets with its own peculiarities, to the urban proletarian struggle – with the increased Maoist interventions in urban mobilization and trade union activities. We find rosy words being showered on the People, while denigrating their War. The rightists, “leftists” and imperialists are all united in this propaganda campaign.</p>
<p>Personalities who were never on the streets to suffer police beatings and face bullets were the first ones to declare victory of the People’s Movement with the King’s pronouncements. The desperate Indo-US imperialism and its media touts were booed when they prematurely partied after the King’s April 21 invitation to the parties to name the prime minister, which every force in the movement duly rejected, including the nervous parliamentary leaders. However the panicky US-EU-India interests ultimately found loyal agency in this “responsible leadership” when it unilaterally accepted the April 24 declaration restoring the defunct parliament.</p>
<p>And thus started the sanitization program — of talking about People’s War vs. People’s Movement, of the failure of the first against the successes of the latter as proof of the virtue of non-violence. The hidden agenda is very apparent, that is to restore the sanctified institutions of State Terror while disarming the People by preaching them non-violence. The neutral apostles of Human Rights do this by treating the State’s offence at par with the Popular defense. Imperialisms do this via their “Community Faces” too – through well funded “Civil Society” groups and NGOs, who specialize in administering and selling the social agenda of Neoliberalism, providing “Social Cushion” in the face of the growing marginalization and social unrest. As perfect plainclothesmen, all these apostles of non-violence can be spotted here and there in the Nepali unrest with their clear job of policing the movement from within. After the so-called “victory” of April 24, their additional job has been to write anecdotes about their participation in the “Turn-the-other-cheek-Revolution” with the mainstream and “civil society” media ever ready to channel the processes of sanitization and betrayal.</p>
<p>In this regard, it suffices to quote Black revolutionary Malcolm X who was himself the epitome of Popular Suffering, Anger and Movement right in the belly of the beast:</p>
<p>“I don’t go for anything that’s non-violent and turn-the-other-cheekish. I don’t see how any revolution-I’ve never heard of a non-violent revolution or a revolution that was brought about by turning the other cheek, and so I believe that it is a crime for anyone to teach a person who is being brutalized to continue to accept that brutality without doing something to defend himself. If this is what the Christian-Gandhian philosophy teaches then it is criminal-a criminal philosophy.”</p>
<p>2. The Nepali Movement Beyond Sectism</p>
<p>There is far more to a movement than just its personalities and ideologico-cultural labels – Zapatistas, Chavistas and Maoists. However, there is always a mainstream tendency to relegate these movements to a few personalities, symbols and ideological lineages. This definitely benefits the status quo as the movements are effectively portrayed as sects with some innate pathological tendencies. The failures and problems of the older movements whose idioms the present movements have adopted and adapted to mobilize and organize the masses are extrapolated to vilify the latter. The fundamental issues of the changed conjuncture and the composition of the movements are effectively swept aside through this exercise, ideologically arming the status quo to contravene the ‘subversive’ forces.</p>
<p>Feeding to this is the widespread sectism prevalent within the Left, which aids the hegemonic forces in this regard. The leftist dissection, labeling and libeling are more effective than any repression and mainstream media propaganda in forming and deforming the opinion, as they can be projected as internal dissensions. Karl Marx while summarizing his experience in the First International rightly notes in his letter to Friedrich Bolte (November 23, 1871):</p>
<p>“The development of the system of Socialist sects and that of the real workers’ movement always stand in inverse ratio to each other. So long as the sects are (historically) justified, the working class is not yet ripe for an independent historic movement. As soon as it has attained this maturity all sects are essentially reactionary.”</p>
<p>The recent upheaval in Nepal has once again brought this sectism to the center-stage as people everywhere are trying to cope up with the Maoist element in it. We find Mao’s failures and Pol Pot’s barbarism discussed more than what the Nepali Maoists have done in Nepal – how they have energized the issues of land, land reforms, decadent forms of gender, national and ethnic oppressions, neo-liberal commercialization, distress migration etc as their central concerns.</p>
<p>In the hands of the Maoists, the issue of the constituent assembly, which was forgotten by the democrats, became a rallying point for uniting the rural and urban downtrodden. It was the Maoists’ strength with the growing influence of their slogans and radicalism on the lower leadership and the mass base of the petty bourgeois parliamentary parties that shattered the Nepali ruling machinery’s ability to control the growing rage of the people’s war. Eventually the 1990 historic “compromise” between the royalty and the democrats brokered by the imperialist interests in the region collapsed leading to the latter’s historic alliance with the Maoists in 2005.</p>
<p>This alliance triggered the mass upsurge that we witnessed throughout April this year. The imperialist onlookers were awe-stricken by the response to the General Strike called by the Seven Party Alliance facilitated by the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Maoists in the Kathmandu region with an increased armed assault on the (then Royal) Nepalese Army in other regions. US Ambassador went on with his rumor mongering and presented the situation as “pre-revolutionary” in one of his interviews, which was correct but was meant to terrorize the Nepali petty bourgeois leaders and mobilize international opinion against the revolutionaries. India, who has the history of utilizing the unequal treaties with Nepal for changing the internal political arrangement that best suited India’s interests that necessarily used to include a cosmetic democracy, this time was (and is) desperate to preserve the monarchy. However the Indian response has been moderated due to the immense mobilization within India in solidarity with the Nepali democracy movement.</p>
<p>The petty bourgeois leaders of the parliamentary parties feared direct action in the rocking streets and burning fields of Nepal destroying every institution that mothered them. Instead of the path of revolution, they chose the path of legislation, which allows manipulation and compromise. Afraid of the revolutionary ‘uncertainty’ they found a ready opportunity to withdraw their support to the movement when the King restored their parliamentary privileges. But the movement continued as the Maoists and the grassroots of these parties rejected this compromise and sustained the spontaneous upsurge in popular consciousness, ever vigilant of the old leadership returning to its old habits and forcing some concrete progressive “concessions” that we hear in the news today. 3. Hands Off Nepal: Rebuff the possible ‘Plan Nepal’</p>
<p>Today, most dangerously, all imperialist manipulations, media propaganda and the parliamentary drunkenness in Nepal might prepare the background for something like Plan Colombia, which derailed the similar process of overgrounding of the peasant and people’s upsurge in Colombia under the leadership of the FARC. The FARC in 1999-2001 suspended their armed struggle and negotiated with the Pastrana regime, insisting on a demilitarized zone, putting forth “a political program of agrarian reform, national public control of strategic resources, and massive public works programs to generate jobs”. All these radical measures were destined to destroy the reactionary political economic institutions that allowed the imperialist network to operate in the country, devastating the peasantry, indebting the economy and entrenching corruption in the state structure. Therefore, “with the backing of the US government the Pastrana regime abruptly broke off negotiations and launched an attack on the demilitarized zone” and restarted funding, training and arming the drug traffickers and private armies of the landlords as para-military forces to harass and destroy the people’s movement.</p>
<p>There are well-documented evidences of the drug mafia network under the CIA of which “The King of Nepal” has been an important part. Last year there were reports that Crown Prince Paras “has been allegedly in the drug business for seven years, but his stakes and that of the Nepali royal family have grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years[T]he crown prince is now reported to be operating his network beyond South Asia.” (Newsinsight.net, July 6, 2005) With the history of the linkages between the drug trade and the US’ counter-insurgency drive, one cannot ignore the possibility of a Plan Nepal in the pipeline until and unless the revolutionary Nepali people are vigilant enough forcing the country’s ever shaky “democratic” leadership to facilitate the ‘overgrounding’ of the Maoists and the crushing of the military leadership trained for imperialist wars, thus thwarting the danger of any imperialist manipulation.</p>
<p>Remember the US insists to keep the Maoists on their terror list, which allows it to intervene and manipulate regimes beyond the seven seas for their domestic security interests. The first thing that the US did after “welcoming” the April 24 proclamation was to sit with the military leaders, not even with the King. The parliamentary forces might remove R(oyalty) from the name of every institution, might add Secular in the official name of Nepal, but the country needs the negation of the whole system nurtured by 200 years of semi-colonialism, that allowed the imperialist powers to use the Nepali people, army and resources as reserve for crushing liberation struggles internationally (in India, Afghanistan among others), as canon-fodder. And all these in exchange with a promise that the Nepali royalty and elite could handshake and dine with the White Royalty, while the Nepali people suffered dual exploitation, and later, in exchange with rents in the form of foreign aid.</p>
<p>In the age of neo-liberalism, when the Nepali soldiers are not sent for killing, they can be used as guinea pigs too for pharmaceutical researches. Recently, there was news about “the American government’s exploitation of Nepali soldiers as human guinea pigs to find a Hepatitis vaccine.” As Jason Andrews wrote in The American Journal of Bioethics:</p>
<p>“Noting the millions of dollars, military training, and arms that the State Department and Military have been giving to the RNA to help them put down the Maoist rebellion, it seems plausible that the resultant military and economic dependence of the host institution/population (RNA) upon the research sponsor (the U.S. Military) threatened the voluntary nature of the institutional and individual participation in the trial. That is, the RNA probably was not in a good position to say ‘no’ to the small request by their generous benefactor.”</p>
<p>Servility and loyalty towards global imperialism entrenched in the Nepali state structure and elites can never be removed only by legislations — it needs a complete structural transformation, it needs a revolution, which has just begun and can go anywhere from here. With the growing imperialist counseling to the newly formed Nepali government, and the consensual ideological campaign endeavoring to alienate the movement from its revolutionary leadership through ‘neutral’ rights discourse and by media, any complacency on the part of the revolutionary masses of Nepal at this juncture will curb the process of democratization of the Nepali society and state.</p>
<p>PRATYUSH CHANDRA can be reached at: <a href="mailto:[email protected]" type="external">[email protected]</a></p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | today talk peoples power nepal order day even mainstream media moriarty manmohan intellectual goons full evidently hysterical fits intensified return cold war paranoia possibility maoists coming ground revolutionary agenda targeting nepali dependency constitutionalized definitely grave crisis indoamerican imperialism south asia order scope diplomatic engineering need sanitized expressions like peoples movement peoples power etc without identifying people without detailing demands definitely mainstream hatred maoists knows bound media campaign denigrate maoists never vigorous showing crisis desperation imperialist camp failure color control democratic upsurge nepal east europe parts world one coup organizers chavez venezuela vice admiral ramírez pérez told private channel coup april 11 2002 deadly weapon media pablo neruda reminded us hes skulking coward hired praise dirty hands hes orator journalist suddenly surfaces palace enthusiastically masticating sovereigns dejections 1 peoples movement new phase peoples war cursory reading mainstream media headlines nepal maoists today show increasingly concentrate maoist extortions criminal activities one needs go reports headlines glimpse conscious game plan cite couple examples 1 reported recently indian company dabur suspended operations nepal headline first paragraph report telegraph may 20 one mainstream newspapers india told company refused buckle extortion threats maoist rebels report subsequently went maoistaffiliated trade union nepal trade union federation antuf may 15 issued 22point charter demands units baraparsabirgunj industrial belt demanded scrapping labour contract system payment minimum monthly wage rs 5000 provisions housing medicare education facilities workers families union warned dire consequences demands met within week genuine workers movement demands nepali sweatshops controlled indian imperialists extortions 2 prestigious international federation journalists ifj issued media release may 19 subheading said maoists attack radio station later attack changed threaten obvious many people habit reading headlines interpret oh guntrotting polpotists must raided radio station maoistaligned nepal trade union federation issued letter may 12 2006 accusing two fm radio stations exploiting respective staffs dismissing staff without reason extreme excesses mental torture staff called immediate termination kalika fm station director alleging proroyalist attack order understand impact unambiguous media reports one needs remember even great novelist left jose saramago went dub great guerrilla movement frente armada revolucionaria de colombia farc armed gang dedicated kidnapping murdering violating human rights one imagine happen case nepal international left movement divided innumerable sects taking toll nepali movement find even sober marxist analysts indulging subjective analyses peasant movement nepal displaying rich repertoire intersect abuses ready maoists learnt chinese peasant movement call maoists irresponsible reactive armchair leftism ever online enamored rights discourse neutrality efforts justify passivity increasingly involved media redbaiting james petras noted open letter saramago counterpunch december 22 2004 many types communists today stole public patrimony russia became notable oligarchs collaborate us colonial regime iraq struggled forty years factories jungles countryside colombia society without classes communists fear problem imperialism fear solution popular revolution make question personal preferences kinds media ideological manipulations going endeavoring disrupt new phase peoples war nepal extension urban streets peculiarities urban proletarian struggle increased maoist interventions urban mobilization trade union activities find rosy words showered people denigrating war rightists leftists imperialists united propaganda campaign personalities never streets suffer police beatings face bullets first ones declare victory peoples movement kings pronouncements desperate indous imperialism media touts booed prematurely partied kings april 21 invitation parties name prime minister every force movement duly rejected including nervous parliamentary leaders however panicky useuindia interests ultimately found loyal agency responsible leadership unilaterally accepted april 24 declaration restoring defunct parliament thus started sanitization program talking peoples war vs peoples movement failure first successes latter proof virtue nonviolence hidden agenda apparent restore sanctified institutions state terror disarming people preaching nonviolence neutral apostles human rights treating states offence par popular defense imperialisms via community faces well funded civil society groups ngos specialize administering selling social agenda neoliberalism providing social cushion face growing marginalization social unrest perfect plainclothesmen apostles nonviolence spotted nepali unrest clear job policing movement within socalled victory april 24 additional job write anecdotes participation turntheothercheekrevolution mainstream civil society media ever ready channel processes sanitization betrayal regard suffices quote black revolutionary malcolm x epitome popular suffering anger movement right belly beast dont go anything thats nonviolent turntheothercheekish dont see revolutionive never heard nonviolent revolution revolution brought turning cheek believe crime anyone teach person brutalized continue accept brutality without something defend christiangandhian philosophy teaches criminala criminal philosophy 2 nepali movement beyond sectism far movement personalities ideologicocultural labels zapatistas chavistas maoists however always mainstream tendency relegate movements personalities symbols ideological lineages definitely benefits status quo movements effectively portrayed sects innate pathological tendencies failures problems older movements whose idioms present movements adopted adapted mobilize organize masses extrapolated vilify latter fundamental issues changed conjuncture composition movements effectively swept aside exercise ideologically arming status quo contravene subversive forces feeding widespread sectism prevalent within left aids hegemonic forces regard leftist dissection labeling libeling effective repression mainstream media propaganda forming deforming opinion projected internal dissensions karl marx summarizing experience first international rightly notes letter friedrich bolte november 23 1871 development system socialist sects real workers movement always stand inverse ratio long sects historically justified working class yet ripe independent historic movement soon attained maturity sects essentially reactionary recent upheaval nepal brought sectism centerstage people everywhere trying cope maoist element find maos failures pol pots barbarism discussed nepali maoists done nepal energized issues land land reforms decadent forms gender national ethnic oppressions neoliberal commercialization distress migration etc central concerns hands maoists issue constituent assembly forgotten democrats became rallying point uniting rural urban downtrodden maoists strength growing influence slogans radicalism lower leadership mass base petty bourgeois parliamentary parties shattered nepali ruling machinerys ability control growing rage peoples war eventually 1990 historic compromise royalty democrats brokered imperialist interests region collapsed leading latters historic alliance maoists 2005 alliance triggered mass upsurge witnessed throughout april year imperialist onlookers awestricken response general strike called seven party alliance facilitated unilateral ceasefire declared maoists kathmandu region increased armed assault royal nepalese army regions us ambassador went rumor mongering presented situation prerevolutionary one interviews correct meant terrorize nepali petty bourgeois leaders mobilize international opinion revolutionaries india history utilizing unequal treaties nepal changing internal political arrangement best suited indias interests necessarily used include cosmetic democracy time desperate preserve monarchy however indian response moderated due immense mobilization within india solidarity nepali democracy movement petty bourgeois leaders parliamentary parties feared direct action rocking streets burning fields nepal destroying every institution mothered instead path revolution chose path legislation allows manipulation compromise afraid revolutionary uncertainty found ready opportunity withdraw support movement king restored parliamentary privileges movement continued maoists grassroots parties rejected compromise sustained spontaneous upsurge popular consciousness ever vigilant old leadership returning old habits forcing concrete progressive concessions hear news today 3 hands nepal rebuff possible plan nepal today dangerously imperialist manipulations media propaganda parliamentary drunkenness nepal might prepare background something like plan colombia derailed similar process overgrounding peasant peoples upsurge colombia leadership farc farc 19992001 suspended armed struggle negotiated pastrana regime insisting demilitarized zone putting forth political program agrarian reform national public control strategic resources massive public works programs generate jobs radical measures destined destroy reactionary political economic institutions allowed imperialist network operate country devastating peasantry indebting economy entrenching corruption state structure therefore backing us government pastrana regime abruptly broke negotiations launched attack demilitarized zone restarted funding training arming drug traffickers private armies landlords paramilitary forces harass destroy peoples movement welldocumented evidences drug mafia network cia king nepal important part last year reports crown prince paras allegedly drug business seven years stakes nepali royal family grown leaps bounds last yearsthe crown prince reported operating network beyond south asia newsinsightnet july 6 2005 history linkages drug trade us counterinsurgency drive one ignore possibility plan nepal pipeline unless revolutionary nepali people vigilant enough forcing countrys ever shaky democratic leadership facilitate overgrounding maoists crushing military leadership trained imperialist wars thus thwarting danger imperialist manipulation remember us insists keep maoists terror list allows intervene manipulate regimes beyond seven seas domestic security interests first thing us welcoming april 24 proclamation sit military leaders even king parliamentary forces might remove royalty name every institution might add secular official name nepal country needs negation whole system nurtured 200 years semicolonialism allowed imperialist powers use nepali people army resources reserve crushing liberation struggles internationally india afghanistan among others canonfodder exchange promise nepali royalty elite could handshake dine white royalty nepali people suffered dual exploitation later exchange rents form foreign aid age neoliberalism nepali soldiers sent killing used guinea pigs pharmaceutical researches recently news american governments exploitation nepali soldiers human guinea pigs find hepatitis vaccine jason andrews wrote american journal bioethics noting millions dollars military training arms state department military giving rna help put maoist rebellion seems plausible resultant military economic dependence host institutionpopulation rna upon research sponsor us military threatened voluntary nature institutional individual participation trial rna probably good position say small request generous benefactor servility loyalty towards global imperialism entrenched nepali state structure elites never removed legislations needs complete structural transformation needs revolution begun go anywhere growing imperialist counseling newly formed nepali government consensual ideological campaign endeavoring alienate movement revolutionary leadership neutral rights discourse media complacency part revolutionary masses nepal juncture curb process democratization nepali society state pratyush chandra reached chpratyushgmailcom 160 160 | 1,499 |
<p>The exit of Bush from the White House is already anticipated in the Arab region with sighs of relief. But what is ahead under the next US president; more of the same, regardless of who wins, or change?</p>
<p>True, Obama has promised some degree of withdrawal from Iraq and a level of communication with Iran. But even these promises are ambiguous and can be easily modified to fit political interests and lobby pressures at any time. Any military redeployment in Iraq would, now we are told, be matched with greater military build up in Afghanistan, a sign that the militant mentality that motivated the war hawks in the Bush administration is yet to change; the valuable lesson that bombs don’t bring peace, yet to be heeded.</p>
<p>Even talking to Iran is an indistinct promise. To begin with, various officials in the Bush administration have already been talking to Iran — in less touted meetings, but they have engaged Tehran nonetheless — in matters most pertinent to US, not Israeli, interests (i.e. the Iraq war). Moreover, in what was widely seen as “a shift of policy”, senior US diplomat William Burns joined envoys from China, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and the EU in their talks with Tehran in Geneva 19 July. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised US participation and the “respect” the US envoy had shown during the meeting.</p>
<p>Obama’s statements to assure Israel on his proposed talk with Iran are most alarming. He has tirelessly repeated that the “military option” remains on the table to ensure Israel’s security. Isn’t this the exact same policy trademark infused during the Bush administration, which eventually led to the war on Iraq? The US will exhaust every diplomatic channel, but the “military option” remains on the table. This was the gist of the message repeated by the warmongers of the White House through Bush’s two terms. Does one need any proof of why such an attitude is not reflective of well-intentioned diplomacy?</p>
<p>What is equally dangerous in Obama’s uttering is that he might be, and is already, feeling pressured to balance his seemingly soft attitude towards Iraq and Iran by exaggerating his country’s pro-Israel stance in a way that will derail any possibility for a peaceful solution to the Palestinian- Israeli conflict, at least during his term. In fact, ominous signs of that pressure, and his succumbing to it are ample, the last of which was his statement, prior to his visit, that Jerusalem must remain undivided, a position that negates international law and the consistent tradition of various US administrations, including Bush’s.</p>
<p>One need not repeat what Obama has said during his visit to Israel, for such rhetoric is becoming most predictable. His “commitment” to Israel and to the ever “special relationship” that unites both nations were generously invoked. Obama promised to do his utmost to keep Israel secure and to stop Iran from obtaining the atomic bomb. As for the Palestinians, he seems keenly interested in engaging their non-democratic forces and shuns those who dare to challenge his country’s biased official line that has contributed in myriad ways to the ongoing conflict.</p>
<p>Obama insists on disregarding the US official blind spot that has continued to destabilise the Middle East for generations. If he is indeed interested in straightening the distorted course of his country’s foreign policy in this region, then he is certainly viewing it from an Israeli looking glass, the same as that used by the Bush neoconservative clique that led America into an unrivalled downfall in Mesopotamia.</p>
<p>But Obama is not alone. If he wins the presidential race he will join a growing club of Western leaders who refuse to heed to common sense and who behave erratically, even against the wishes of their own people.</p>
<p>Starting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Israel last March, to French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s in June, to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s in July, no one has failed to deviate from the predictable mantra: Israel first and foremost. True, some like Sarkozy dared voice some criticism of Israel’s settlement policy in Jerusalem — one that Obama cannot dare repeat, even in private — but the underpinnings are the same: Israel, a country of a few million, remains the primary concern of the West in a region of hundreds of millions. Those leaders’ brazen “commitment” to Israel, regardless of the consistently brutal policy carried out by the latter, is surely bizarre to say the least; bizarre, and in fact non-Democratic.</p>
<p>An international poll, conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org examined the views of people from 18 countries, including France, the UK and the United States. The findings of the poll were released 1 July and were most telling. In 14 countries “people mostly say their government should not take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just three countries favour taking the Palestinian side (Egypt, Iran and Turkey) and one is divided (India). No country favours taking Israel’s side, including the United States, where 71 per cent favour taking neither side.” The entire hoopla about the “common cause” and “special relationship” and “promised land”, and the fear mongers of the Armageddon crowd, failed to sway the views of the great majority of Americans.</p>
<p>Why then, doesn’t the “candidate of change”, Obama, listen to his people and truly change his government’s destructive path regarding Palestine and Israel? Why doesn’t the UK’s Brown and France’s Sarkozy listen to their peoples, considering that an equal percentage in both of their countries — 79 per cent — is beseeching them to do the same? These results have of course been consistent with public opinion in Western countries for years. It might behove these leaders to respect the cannons of democracy in their own countries before lecturing others.</p>
<p>Following his Israel trip, Obama kick-started a European tour that took him to Germany, France and the UK. The moods were described as “cheerful” and the expectations as “high” everywhere the senator went, including Israel. As for the Palestinians, it’s more of the same for them: the same arrogant demands, same unfair policies, and ever-historic bias.</p>
<p>In the southern Israeli town of Siderot, a widely grinning Obama received a t-shirt that read, “Siderot loves Obama”. Obama, of course, didn’t visit the Gaza concentration camp to find out what Palestinians there thought of him, considering his ardent defence of Israel’s brutal policies against the Strip in recent years. One can only imagine what a Gazan t-shirt for Obama might have read.</p>
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<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | exit bush white house already anticipated arab region sighs relief ahead next us president regardless wins change true obama promised degree withdrawal iraq level communication iran even promises ambiguous easily modified fit political interests lobby pressures time military redeployment iraq would told matched greater military build afghanistan sign militant mentality motivated war hawks bush administration yet change valuable lesson bombs dont bring peace yet heeded even talking iran indistinct promise begin various officials bush administration already talking iran less touted meetings engaged tehran nonetheless matters pertinent us israeli interests ie iraq war moreover widely seen shift policy senior us diplomat william burns joined envoys china russia france britain germany eu talks tehran geneva 19 july iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad praised us participation respect us envoy shown meeting obamas statements assure israel proposed talk iran alarming tirelessly repeated military option remains table ensure israels security isnt exact policy trademark infused bush administration eventually led war iraq us exhaust every diplomatic channel military option remains table gist message repeated warmongers white house bushs two terms one need proof attitude reflective wellintentioned diplomacy equally dangerous obamas uttering might already feeling pressured balance seemingly soft attitude towards iraq iran exaggerating countrys proisrael stance way derail possibility peaceful solution palestinian israeli conflict least term fact ominous signs pressure succumbing ample last statement prior visit jerusalem must remain undivided position negates international law consistent tradition various us administrations including bushs one need repeat obama said visit israel rhetoric becoming predictable commitment israel ever special relationship unites nations generously invoked obama promised utmost keep israel secure stop iran obtaining atomic bomb palestinians seems keenly interested engaging nondemocratic forces shuns dare challenge countrys biased official line contributed myriad ways ongoing conflict obama insists disregarding us official blind spot continued destabilise middle east generations indeed interested straightening distorted course countrys foreign policy region certainly viewing israeli looking glass used bush neoconservative clique led america unrivalled downfall mesopotamia obama alone wins presidential race join growing club western leaders refuse heed common sense behave erratically even wishes people starting german chancellor angela merkels visit israel last march french president nicolas sarkozys june british prime minister gordon browns july one failed deviate predictable mantra israel first foremost true like sarkozy dared voice criticism israels settlement policy jerusalem one obama dare repeat even private underpinnings israel country million remains primary concern west region hundreds millions leaders brazen commitment israel regardless consistently brutal policy carried latter surely bizarre say least bizarre fact nondemocratic international poll conducted worldpublicopinionorg examined views people 18 countries including france uk united states findings poll released 1 july telling 14 countries people mostly say government take sides israelipalestinian conflict three countries favour taking palestinian side egypt iran turkey one divided india country favours taking israels side including united states 71 per cent favour taking neither side entire hoopla common cause special relationship promised land fear mongers armageddon crowd failed sway views great majority americans doesnt candidate change obama listen people truly change governments destructive path regarding palestine israel doesnt uks brown frances sarkozy listen peoples considering equal percentage countries 79 per cent beseeching results course consistent public opinion western countries years might behove leaders respect cannons democracy countries lecturing others following israel trip obama kickstarted european tour took germany france uk moods described cheerful expectations high everywhere senator went including israel palestinians arrogant demands unfair policies everhistoric bias southern israeli town siderot widely grinning obama received tshirt read siderot loves obama obama course didnt visit gaza concentration camp find palestinians thought considering ardent defence israels brutal policies strip recent years one imagine gazan tshirt obama might read 160 160 160 160 | 601 |
<p>Way back in the 1940s, before he went into the field of higher education—a less glamorous branch of the entertainment business—my father was a prodigy of stage magic.&#160; He was especially gifted at what’s called “close” magic—those in-your-face card tricks, disappearing coins, and other dazzling acts of prestidigitation (let’s keep that word from going extinct!)&#160; As a teenaged magician in New York City he even patented two of his own tricks, which were published in The Linking Rings, the trade journal for magicians; I remember that one of his illusions was called “The WOKSE Effect,” which involved letters appearing in a mirror to form the backwards spelling of the family name.</p>
<p>But, to paraphrase The Buggles 1980s hit, video killed the prestidigitation star: close magic, especially those tricks that depended on sleight-of-hand, couldn’t survive the brutal close-ups of television cameras.&#160; But long after my old man had abandoned smoky nightclubs for the leafy halls of academe and leapfrogged into the bourgeoisie, he kept his hand in—quite literally.&#160; All the neighborhood kids came over to our house to be awed by my father.&#160; He never stopped practicing his cardwork—deceptive shuffles, fans, and “forces”—making you pick one specific card from the deck of 52 when you’re absolutely, positively sure you chose it of your own free will.&#160; This kind of magic demands an exquisitely fine touch, which can only be maintained by constant practice.&#160; Even when he’d become a college president, whenever my father sat down at presidential desk—to ponder weighty issues, to talk on the phone, whatever–he kept working a silver dollar across the back of his knuckles, slowly, right to left and then back again, the tendon of each finger rising and falling in turn as the heavy coin rolled hypnotically from one knuckle-crevice to the next.</p>
<p>Though I became the guinea-pig for his latter-day prestidigitation, my father always kept faith with the magicians’ code, and never once told me how a trick was done. &#160;&#160;Maybe he secretly hoped I’d grow so desperate to acquire his secret knowledge that I would plunge into the mysteries of his ancient Linking Rings, and by doing so join the ancient brotherhood.&#160; In any case, he would always deflect my questions about his tricks with two simple bits of instruction.&#160; “One–remember that whatever I’m doing, &#160;it’s not actually magic.&#160; And two: never look where I’m trying to make you look.”</p>
<p>Much later, I realized he was teaching me lessons that extended far beyond magic.&#160; He was teaching me not to be A Mark.</p>
<p>If only dementia would loosen its death-grip on my father’s brain for just a few hours, and he could give that second piece of advice to the gullible rubes of the American media!</p>
<p>It’s all about misdirection, Rachel!&#160;</p>
<p>Don’t look where they’re trying to make you look, Lawrence!</p>
<p>It’s kind of hilarious–in a heart-breaking way–to see the smug grins on those pancaked faces as they report what they call “the news”—especially those well-fed, unlined faces on MSNBC.&#160; They’re so proud—so knowing!&#160; They’re the cognoscenti, the clear-eyed few who always pick the right card, who know which of the three-card-monte cups is hiding the little ball.</p>
<p>Yep! Can’t fool us!&#160; It’s the cup marked RUSSIA!</p>
<p>It reached one of a thousand summits of absurdity when Trump bowed to the MSNBC/neo-con pressure and bombed a Syrian airfield (killing 16 civilians, which they have never seen fit to mention) in order to show he really and truly hated those Commies (Joy Reid insists it’s still a Red Leninist Hell!)&#160; Mentally gobsmacked by this break in the narrative, Lawrence O’Donnell speculated that…Putin had ordered Trump to do it!</p>
<p>Meanwhile, enjoying the blessings of this misdirection, the war merchants and the water-poisoners and all the other oppressors go about their dark work unobserved.</p>
<p>But the MSNBC faces never change; they run breathless Breaking News updates about memos and meetings and dumb underlings doing dumb underling things, but there are never any real twists to their story.&#160; Whenever I chance to watch for ten minutes, a line from Dylan’s epic song “Senor” springs to mind: “The last thing I saw before I stripped and kneeled/Was a trainload of fools bogged down in a magnetic field.” (Parenthetical note: that is an amazing couplet, enough to quash the Noble Prize debate, and I will climb up proudly on Ezra Pound’s table in my cowboy boots and shout it out loud.)&#160; They’re always auditioning lousy new mottos—remember “Lean Forward?”—how about this one: MSNBC–Proudly Bogged Down for The Rest of Time!&#160; No matter the hour, day, or week, any time you tune in to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s favorite network—vaguely hoping they might move on, say, to cover our racist prison system, or our continued genocide of Native Americans, or any of a dozen societal horrors that any Counterpunch reader can&#160; tick off in his/her sleep, and probably does–the Rachels and Joys and Aris will always be sitting there in the parlor car, blissfully unconcerned with prison or Indians, paralyzed but unaware of it, gazing out the windows slack-jawed and endlessly mistaking Dylan’s magnetic waves for a fast-moving landscape of mountains and forests, as the ruling elite pipes in pre-recorded moving-train sounds to reinforce the illusion for them. &#160;RUSSIA, whisper the moving train-wheels on the omnipresent soundtrack; RUSSIA…RUSSIA…RUSSIA…picking up speed now…RUSSIA-RUSSIA-RUSSIA—and instead of “whoo-whoo,” the whistle says “poo-ooo-tin!”&#160; Listen: it’s entrancing, isn’t it, Rachel?</p>
<p>I’m not the card mechanic my old man was, but I’d sure like to find that magnetic field, sneak onto the parlor car, and deal a few hands of high-stakes draw poker to the MSNBC faces: sophisticated as they think they are, in fact they’ve become The Ultimate Marks.</p>
<p>&#160;</p> | true | 4 | way back 1940s went field higher educationa less glamorous branch entertainment businessmy father prodigy stage magic160 especially gifted whats called close magicthose inyourface card tricks disappearing coins dazzling acts prestidigitation lets keep word going extinct160 teenaged magician new york city even patented two tricks published linking rings trade journal magicians remember one illusions called wokse effect involved letters appearing mirror form backwards spelling family name paraphrase buggles 1980s hit video killed prestidigitation star close magic especially tricks depended sleightofhand couldnt survive brutal closeups television cameras160 long old man abandoned smoky nightclubs leafy halls academe leapfrogged bourgeoisie kept hand inquite literally160 neighborhood kids came house awed father160 never stopped practicing cardworkdeceptive shuffles fans forcesmaking pick one specific card deck 52 youre absolutely positively sure chose free will160 kind magic demands exquisitely fine touch maintained constant practice160 even hed become college president whenever father sat presidential deskto ponder weighty issues talk phone whateverhe kept working silver dollar across back knuckles slowly right left back tendon finger rising falling turn heavy coin rolled hypnotically one knucklecrevice next though became guineapig latterday prestidigitation father always kept faith magicians code never told trick done 160160maybe secretly hoped id grow desperate acquire secret knowledge would plunge mysteries ancient linking rings join ancient brotherhood160 case would always deflect questions tricks two simple bits instruction160 oneremember whatever im 160its actually magic160 two never look im trying make look much later realized teaching lessons extended far beyond magic160 teaching mark dementia would loosen deathgrip fathers brain hours could give second piece advice gullible rubes american media misdirection rachel160 dont look theyre trying make look lawrence kind hilariousin heartbreaking wayto see smug grins pancaked faces report call newsespecially wellfed unlined faces msnbc160 theyre proudso knowing160 theyre cognoscenti cleareyed always pick right card know threecardmonte cups hiding little ball yep cant fool us160 cup marked russia reached one thousand summits absurdity trump bowed msnbcneocon pressure bombed syrian airfield killing 16 civilians never seen fit mention order show really truly hated commies joy reid insists still red leninist hell160 mentally gobsmacked break narrative lawrence odonnell speculated thatputin ordered trump meanwhile enjoying blessings misdirection war merchants waterpoisoners oppressors go dark work unobserved msnbc faces never change run breathless breaking news updates memos meetings dumb underlings dumb underling things never real twists story160 whenever chance watch ten minutes line dylans epic song senor springs mind last thing saw stripped kneeledwas trainload fools bogged magnetic field parenthetical note amazing couplet enough quash noble prize debate climb proudly ezra pounds table cowboy boots shout loud160 theyre always auditioning lousy new mottosremember lean forwardhow one msnbcproudly bogged rest time160 matter hour day week time tune debbie wassermanschultzs favorite networkvaguely hoping might move say cover racist prison system continued genocide native americans dozen societal horrors counterpunch reader can160 tick hisher sleep probably doesthe rachels joys aris always sitting parlor car blissfully unconcerned prison indians paralyzed unaware gazing windows slackjawed endlessly mistaking dylans magnetic waves fastmoving landscape mountains forests ruling elite pipes prerecorded movingtrain sounds reinforce illusion 160russia whisper moving trainwheels omnipresent soundtrack russiarussiarussiapicking speed nowrussiarussiarussiaand instead whoowhoo whistle says poooootin160 listen entrancing isnt rachel im card mechanic old man id sure like find magnetic field sneak onto parlor car deal hands highstakes draw poker msnbc faces sophisticated think fact theyve become ultimate marks 160 | 546 |
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