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On Sibel Edmonds blog today, this heroic naturalized citizen reminds us "home-groaners" of our responsibilities:
Here comes our Fourth of July. Surely what is left of our Bill of Rights is worth celebrating, and just as surely what has been taken away is worth fighting for. So let us enjoy that cold beer, savor that hot dog, and while doing that let us reflect and renew our pledge to fight for those irreplaceable American liberties that have been taken from us; the fight against our 'real' foes. Are we prepared to make the same pledge those founding fathers made 233 years ago?
Edmonds was fired from her position as a language specialist at the FBI's Washington Field Office in March, 2002, after she accused a colleague of covering up illicit activity involving foreign nationals, alleging serious acts of security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of intelligence which, she contended, presented a danger to the United States' security. Since that time, court proceedings on her whistleblower claims have been blocked by the assertion of State Secrets Privilege. On March 29, 2006, she was awarded the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award in recognition of her defense of free speech as it applies to the written word.[5]
Both Franklin and Jefferson, two of the smartest guys to whom we attribute the inspiration for the Founding, repeated sentiments like these (the rhyme is Franklin's, I believe): "Those who would be both safe and free desire that which never was, nor ever will be."
Not long ago I found a disconcerting message on my answering machine. It said simply, "Don't send me any more emails. We went bankrupt." It is a message that has been reverberating through towns in America mostly below the radar screen of the mainstream media.
The businesses filing for bankruptcy range from manufacturers to auto dealers. Some of them are national, many of them are regional, and quite a few are local, the anchors of many small towns. A lot of them are niche businesses. By that I mean they operate in specialized markets often as suppliers to larger firms.
"We're all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn't. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing. "
- Charles Bukowski
The dazzling propaganda onslaught conducted by the financial sector has been shock and fucking awe as the amazing resuscitation of the FIRE industry roars into the next quarter. A dirty as a pig in shit corporatist media waged total war against reason, morality, facts, history and the law itself in allowing the treasonous looters from Wall Street bounce back off of the ropes and reassert their control over the government and the country at large. Now under the cover of the saturation coverage of the Michael Jackson freak show (I doubt that I will see this shit end in my lifetime) the still annoying little trickles of doom, like the impending implosion of Arnoldland are stomped on by gatekeepers who just play another card from the Whacko Jacko deck of jokers. Face it people, we are fucked! With the celebrity infatuated lemmings in this rotting from the insides empire it is only a matter of time until they start seeing the great one's ghoulish visage appearing on tortillas and grilled cheese sandwiches. If there were such a thing as a truly American Jesus it would be Michael Jackson. Neverland will become the bastardized equivalent of Lourdes, Jerusalem and Graceland uniquely spliced together to resemble our sick, twisted and mutated national DNA.
A Woman Injured Monday In An Anti-Coup Demonstration
The Thursday confrontation between deposed Honduran president Manual Zelaya and the Roberto Micheletti and his Honduran military coup has been delayed until Saturday.
I remember a line from a book or movie, having no recollection of the source material itself, where someone asked this genius what he thought about most of the day. They were sitting outside, and the genius had this far off look of wonder on his face, staring out into the world. He answered his curious friend, who was sitting there, palpably concentrating, trying to "figure out" the workings of his mind,"Colors, mostly."
"Colors?"
"Yeah, I like all the greens a lot."
I really liked that line a lot. I loved the bafflement of the listner, who was so busy trying to figure out the answers to everything, he totally forgot how to live in "time."
To be fully aware, you have to live in the now, the scents, the colors, the sounds, the tastes, right in your skin, and appreciate the full wonder of the moments that pass before you.
I'm acutely aware of time, I live in time more than space. History is cool and all, but the greatest of philosophies happened because the people living them wrote to their times unheeding of those before them, and only paying minor attention to the future.
Honduran police clash with pro-democracy demonstrators
The military coup that deposed Honduran President Manual Zelaya has been denounced by almost everyone except the Honduran military. President Obama said about it, "We stand on the side of democracy, sovereignty and self-determination." The OAS has condemned the coup. ALBA has condemned the coup. The UN General Assembly has condemned the coup. Central American nations have sealed their borders with Honduras. Most (except El Salvador) have also withdrawn their ambassadors. Roads are blocked in the country.
In 92 when Clinton was elected President, people think of it as the beginning of the end.
No my friends, it goes much further back than that. In 1980, the year before I graduated, my father was still making 20,000 dollars a year, enough to put us soundly in the middle class, although his decision to spend much of that putting his 5 children through Catholic Indoctrination ate much of that.
He deeply resented that my fresh out of High School eldest brother, living at home, was working for Detroit Diesel and out-earning him by far. He had started as a "chipper," a sweeper, and within a couple years was on the line. He would make "production" in a few hours, then spend the rest of the time reading. 8 years older than me, he was my "book dealer" since I was 10. (We were all voracious readers) I was reading Heinlien's "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Future Shock" at 10.
By High School, he had made Electrician, and I was scoring his pot for him. By the time he moved out, his car cost more than my Dad's house, and he and his girlfriend working also as an electrician at Wixom Ford, could barely scrape to buy an average house.
Suddenly my Father realized that their combined 80,000 dollars now bought less than his 20,000 did, then his lower one income ever could. These two could not POSSIBLY raise one child, let alone two on one income.
The slow boil of the frog had started.
My Shock Doctrine, my Future Shock starts then.... he only missed what Naomi filled in, the INTENT.
Toffler argues that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a "super-industrial society". This change will overwhelm people, the accelerated rate of technological and social change leaving them disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation" - future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems were symptoms of the future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock, he also coined the term information overload.
Michael Jackson made perfectly disposable music everybody was in love with for 15 minutes back in the 80s. It got real tired real fast, and, uh, let's see how long this rebirth in sales for his old trite shit lasts. Not. v. long.
Here's the real meaning of Michael Jackson:
Joe Jackson beat his children to turn them into pop stars. For that he was rewarded with the American Dream, fame and fortune. Why don't we celebrate that?
the consequences of how "we wake up in the morning to hear and watch the newest tragedy that has swept the world's media attention"--whether it's "the tragic crash of an airplane" or "the death of a star." Meanwhile:
Serious events and acts are taking place everyday which merit serious social debate, yet because of the fact that our societies are deeply fragmented, broken and clashing between each other, we are unable to grant ourselves the necessary pause, required for conciliation and unity.
Because of this, we are easy to control as a mass of isolated individuals, which is held together by norms and regulations, bureaucracies, military and police, and concepts such as the nation state, the church and the corporation.
If we are to stay in this model of society, I fear we will live in perpetual war until we destroy ourselves by not paying attention to the fact that something is drastically wrong.
Ouziel's digest of exactly what is wrong reads like a list of topics steadfastly avoided by corporate media in the U.S.: "We are living in societies plagued with corruption at all levels, we are constantly expanding our militarized societies surveilled by police forces and colonizing armies, which are rapidly eroding our freedoms." (See the FAIR magazine Extra!: "The Media Ignore Their Core Duty: Arianna Huffington & Glenn Greenwald on Media Accountability" (9-10/08).)
Isolation, ironically, has ALWAYS been part of the telos of "massification," through alienation. The increased development of 'niche markets' exaggerates alienation. Alone in the crowd, we are puppets of the media who pull our strings and push our buttons while driving us, aas individuals, even further apart. This is not surprising fiven that 1) the media are owned by the CorpoRats, and the 'solidarity' of members of related groups is utterly inimical to the CorpoRat interests in authoritarianism, globalism, and increased, oppressive surveillance.
As the Green Revolution twitters in and out of the time/space continuum on the wings of western psy-ops mixed with honest yearnings for liberty and justice; as people around the world cheer the Green Revolution's popular mobilization to protest in the streets the tyranny of a far-right authoritarian regime; as Tyranny responds with murder, as it will, as the body count mounts the Green Revolution melts away. Same as it ever was.
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