Monday, March 20, 2006

Three Years of Goddamn



They ask me if I feel remorse and I answer, Why of course:
There's so much more I could have done if they'd let me - Nick Cave


There's a lot I want to say about a number of things, but I can't seem to find those words until I scream some others.

Have you read the Iraqi police report of last week's little Helter Skelter outside Tikrit? From Knight Ridder:

At 230 of 15/3/2006, according to the telegram (report) of the Ishaqi police directorate, American forces used helicopters to drop troops on the house of Faiz Harat Khalaf situated in the Abu Sifa village of the Ishaqi district. The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people, including 5 children, 4 women and 2 men, then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals (map coordinates 098702).

They were:

Turkiya Muhammed Ali, 75 years
Faiza Harat Khalaf, 30 years
Faiz Harat Khalaf, 28 years
Um Ahmad, 23 years
Sumaya Abdulrazak, 22 years
Aziz Khalil Jarmoot, 22 years
Hawra Harat Khalaf, 5 years
Asma Yousef Maruf, 5 years
Osama Yousef Maruf, 3 years
Aisha Harat Khalaf, 3 years
Husam Harat Khalaf, 6 months

(Signed)

Staff Colonel Fadhil Muhammed Khalaf
Assistant Chief of the Joint Coordination Center

3/16/2006

Three years into this atrocity circus, and the already pathetic annual demonstrations against the war are shrinking and growing quieter. Understandably so. As I've said, we're habituating to it. Meanwhile, the vicarious revolutionaries were in the theatres getting a fix of serotonin from V for Vendetta. "When are they going to ban the movie?" I've actually read, as though anything that keeps our asses fixed to upholstered seats were a threat to those who stake claim to both the streets and our behinds. Winning the weekend box office does not a revolution make.

Husam Harat Khalaf, 6 months. She probably had a tooth or two coming in. She must have been wailing as the strangers shouted foreign words to her family and pointed those shiny black things, and at the noise that they made. Unless she was the first.

If all we can do is feel bad, and think we've accomplished something by having been moved, then perhaps we deserve to be judged with Husam's murderers. Because then we're scavenging the losses of others and making them our own, garlanding ourselves in tragedy, building an anti-war sentiment upon how upsetting it is to us. In that event, we won't be seeking justice, we'll just be looking to feel better. And the illusion of action will be more satisfying than its ambiguous reality.

Information warriors. Jesus Christ, how precious of us.

75 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The eternal question: What CAN we do to fight the Empire?

2:01 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i think v for vendetta is meant to provoke action

2:19 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

organization. We need millions of people donating $100.00 per month to create: The United People's Corporation (a private business owned in part by each contributor). Which will then use it's vast cash-flow to buy up profitable enterprises of all sorts, build a mamoth conglomeration totally self sufficent if need be. Put the old evil bastards out of business. Then with all that money and the power that comes with it we start getting into the "security" business. We assemble forces sufficent to send blackwater and the rest running like hell. Then we chase them - right back to hell.

2:37 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

At this point it does not matter to me whether actions are taken on some people's part "simply" so that they will feel better. The desire to feel better means empathy is being experienced, and we can use as much of that now as is available.

2:41 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i'm starting to get sick of that question: how do we fight them? i mean its obvious how you do it. but then what ever that thing is, you suddenly feel completely usesless and neutered. and we then say 'oh, not now...just a little bit longer until the rest of the country catches on'....

the truth is they won't all just SNAP and wake up. it has NEVER happened that way. i bet you a solid block of 80 million people in this country are cheering for the unjust and mindless slaughter of iran now. many people are predicting the invasion of iran will happen in a week and a half. and the sad thing is, i don't think they're wrong. and boy that will entrench us now. 3 countries in 5 years.



i don't know if you know this but in 1933 hitler became dictator of germany after the reichstag caught on fire, blamed the communists for attempting a coup d'etat.

from Wikipedia:

'Adolf Hitler had been named chancellor of Germany and invited by President von Hindenburg to lead a coalition government only four weeks previously, on January 30, 1933. Hitler's government urged von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and to call elections for March 5.

On the evening of February 27, 1933 — six days before the parliamentary election — fire broke out in the Reichstag chambers. While the exact circumstances of the fire remain unclear to this day, what is clear is that Hitler and his supporters quickly capitalized on the fire as a means by which to speed their consolidation of power. Seizing on the burning of the Reichstag building as the opening salvo in a communist uprising, the Nazis were able to throw millions of Germans into a convulsion of fear at the threat of Communist terror.'



it was 12 years later that it all finally ended in 1945.

2001-2012

its now 2006, lets look 6 years into Nazi rule:

on march 15th 1939, German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist; beginning hostilities leading to WWII

2:53 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

on march 29th the US entered Iran, beginning hostilities leading to WWIII.

2:58 p.m.  
Blogger Youngfox said...

Of course all of the hard sacrifices being asked of Western citizens as their armies march for empire amount to – none.
War is just another lifestyle accessory floating in the background of the shallow din.

Brangelina wedding rumours, hot new fashions for spring, 45 found dead in field hands tied bullets in head, hot celebs unwind in spa luxury, envy, envy, they are so big, you are worthless, want, want, Bird flu will rob you of your firmer skin, roadside bomb kills eleven, Operation Enduring Orwell, suspected insurgents, Madonna is old but loves Botox, colour your hair because your worth it, age defying makeup, loose twenty pounds in two weeks, depression, envy, tired of all that scrubbing, because YOUR WORTH IT, you are worthless, act now, live like the desperate housewives, Operation Swarmer, Can’t get a good nights sleep take these,
Goodnight.

3:09 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

it's that good ol' "Clawing on the lid of our coffins feeling." Somethings gonna give, and I think it's the lid of the box. The dirt's still loose and a one inch puch can pack a remarkable amount of inertia

3:12 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness - and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe.

"The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling - their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.

"Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them."
Arundhati Roy
Porto Alegre, Brazil, January 27, 2003

http://www.hermes-press.com/gentry_boycott.htm

3:35 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I feel more and more these days like the brother who, when confronted with the misbehaviors and indiscretions of a sibling, just sighs and thinks or says "I know..he's always been like that. I'm sorry he/she – robbed your store/raped your sister/broke your window/killed your dad – but what do you expect ME to do about it?"

I picture you, Jeff, up there in Canada, mostly removed and unrelated to me and the horrors committed by my insane, amoral, unrepentant (geographical and/or nationalistic) relations and feel both affront and shame. Unless, of course, it's the human family (and not just the American one) that is so afflicted...then I guess we share genes with these despicable black sheep who commit such atrocities...

5:13 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The virus is fascism.

We agree.

As an American, my apology is trite. I do not know where redemption can be found.

"If you could return to 1933 and kill Hitler," said the hypothetical question I heard as a kid, "Would you?"

Of course.

Who shall I eliminate now?

Unlike anyone else I know, I foresee a military coup in the U.S. The Neo-Fascists need a new boogeyman, a Hillary Clinton Presidency, so they can regain pure victim status.

And they'll swoop in and burn the Reichstag for real, with all the Democrats inside.

And they'll pin the blame on 2 "Al Qaeda Sympathizers" who "infiltrated" the USAF.

And they'll say the perpetrators were "inspired" by "V Is For Vendetta," found on their video iPod along with Kanye West.

What can I do?

Try to find others like me?

But they're only here, at this blog, and on the Net.

Do you know anyone in your personal lives who shares an anti-fascist concern?

Who thinks about it as much as you do?

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

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;

The best lack all convictions, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.
"

Willam Butler Yeats,
"The Second Coming," 1920

Something tells me
we all underestimate
what intense lengths
the Neo-Fascists will go to.
And what they will achieve.
A Second Great Depression.
A Global War.
The Restoration of Slavery.
A World Police State Apparatus.
Bush's ridiculous-yet-telltale denial of "Human-Animal Hybrids."
Experiments that Nazis couldn't dream of.

The virus is fascism,

and nobody believes it's real.

5:14 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I believe that it is impossible to discuss this issue IN DEPTH, without examining "the unmatched power of the Israel Lobby” and its relationship with the majority of prominent Christian evangelicals here in the U.S.

The authors of America’s “Clean Break” into this new world of unwarranted vengeance and perpetual suffering (Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser) and the Christian Coalition’s subservient support are inextricably linked to this country’s seemingly inexhaustible thirst for chronic hegemony, at the expense of her own citizens rights.

Please refer to the excellent article by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt appropriately entitled “The Israel Lobby”.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/print/mear01_.html

5:18 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

For god's sake...is it possible to have any discussion on any thread on the RI board or in response to anything Jeff writes without it always and mostly irrationally coming back to this?

5:47 p.m.  
Blogger Peter M said...

Does anyone care as much as you do? Well besides your neighbors and those who are not so far away, i say even the zombie people care. i have been badgering them for 5 years, and they all tend to agree with me now! and i'm just a talker. of course we have examples of organizers in Gandhi, MLK, Jefferson & Jackson, etc., as well as those who meet up to go to Seattle, Porto Allegre, Naderites, the Punjab Tenants Association... All accross the spectrum there are progressive elements with a ghostly presence in our shared institutions. Now more than ever they are waiting for your help to make strong alliances that will integrate the vast majority of people in the "center" who know something's wrong and desperately need leadership. most shockingly of all, libertarians and traditional conservatives are ripe to join this coalition, a historical opportunity that must be taken and directed toward the ecological question. don't wait for people to already agree with you, just remember the most important point: now most people know that what TV says we think isn't really what we think. the future is an open question that can only be answered with praxis. Don't get hysterical, ORGANIZE!

5:51 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous 3:21,

I find it kind of funny that you would respond to my question on how to fight the Empire with references to a blog run by a blogmaster who wants to lay waste to everyone who disagrees with him. I've read that PopOcculture space before and was totally turned off by the demeanor of the kid who runs it. I picture him being a high school nerd who gets beat up by jocks on a daily basis and has created his own "Empire" where he can be all powerful. That's why I hang out here instead of there. Rigorous Intuition it ain't.

I understand what we can do in our own small ways, but the Empire seems to have a life of its own. I think I remember from Roman history something about the sheer enormity of the bureaucracy that kept the Empire clunking along. Perhaps we have this here, too.

But, as a student of history it seems like life in the US appears more like Egypt's Old Kingdom than Rome...

A war with Iran can't happen, m'ijos. We've gotta get off our asses for that one.

Saludos, Hildita

5:56 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We hear your frustration, JW. But don't blame the film for the U.S. policy. Please don't blame a film which shows the media in their true light (as a propaganda arm of the state)for the omissions in reporting of the real-world news media.

You could have attacked 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' on similar grounds. Mass movements don't begin overnight. Look at the curve on Bush's popularity: it's taken a long time to bring it down to 33% (a number certainly imbued with semiotic significance, right?--sorry, an aside): if the film helps to serve up an anti-state, pro-individualist message, then why attack it? What would peace marches accomplish today that massive world-wide marches didn't accomplish just before the war began?
Perhaps what is needed, ultimately, is a Gramscian march through the ranks, where decent people infiltrate elite institutions and begin the slow process of reversing decades of incursions on civil liberties. Of course, it'll never happen: elite institutions are very effective at weeding out the decent.

And to JudasDisney. Nice name. We like Yeats, too, but actually, a lot of people I know are talking about the Bill of Rights, impeachment, and the trajectory of American democracy.

6:22 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, Hildita. Yes.

6:27 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is the opposite of "Empire"?

About James Blunt (his name is unforgettable, is it not?)

His hit song, "Your Beautiful" is cheesy and way too earnest, but the video is hypnotic. He sings while looking like Tom Cruise, emptying his pockets, then disrobes, turns and jumps, lemming-like, over a snowy cliff into a British ocean (he can do his own stunts cause he's an elite royal soilder, like Prince Harry)

He was on Oprah, making all the ladies misty, last week.

Ya, blue-blooded Royal Mounted elite warriors are cool too.

He stayed while recording his album and being schooled in sensative rock dude manners
at Carrie Fisher mans in LA.

She had a big time Republican lobbiest OD at her house too, what's up with that?

6:29 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for those words. I think I have become "habituated" in my thinking in the last year. I'd forgotten what is appropriate behavior in days like these.

I do believe peaceful protest has won before and will win again. So I will be getting back to my peaceful anti-war activities - thanks again for the post.

7:12 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is not a solution to war but if you want to help injured Iraqi children, go to DemocracyNow.org and listen to or read the interviews from today's show. It will break your heart but they offer ways to help.

7:38 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"The virus is fascism,

and nobody believes it's real."

Good post but I would argue that fascism and crypto fascism really are distinct (the latter having IMHO, only existed in a significant sense for 200 years tops). After a blunt attempt by the big news outlets to sully the notion of democracy and actively promote American fascism (~1920-1940), they found it wasn't really that easy to sell servitude over perceived self-determination. The difference, and this is the point I wanted to make, is in to which groups they appeal. The fascist putzches (sp?) of the 20s-30s appealed to a fairly broad swath of its elite, openly saying, "this democracy thing is messy and innefficient, those huddled masses never use it anyway, and when they DO, boy do they make a mess of things". Crypto fascists on the other hand must and do take on the trappings of "the common man", while personally actually accomplishing nothing but parasitism. Bush, in other words is the archetypal crypto-fascist.

By way of answering the question posed, I would say we should look (yes this is going to be gradual)
at the Dubai deal failure and the failure of the loosening of FCC restriction. We should look at the Dubai deal, avoid anyone invlolved in both sides of the whole deal and avoid them and all of their advice. Then we should remember the FCC deal and try to create similar successes while always being vigilant against infliltration by Ramsey Clark or any other those people who were on the "right side" of the Dubai issue.

I also think that better understanding the intellectual origins of fascism and crypto fascism, not all of which is malevolent. Indeed I would rather live under an enlightened, benevolent fascist regime than under a real democracy. Problem is benevolent fascist regimes dont come around much and they never stay benevolent. I am a big fan of Nietzsche's criticisms of democracy... his solutions? Not so much. I will soon undertake to read a goodly portion of Hegel's important works as he is the fascist most studied and lauded by heavily educated people. The one most closely tied to the Bushies and intentional obfuscation fascism for the "good" of everyone, is Strauss, who Ive actually only read excerpted bits of, but who sounds much less compassionate or enlightened than Nietzsche who thought non-violence and democracy were evil crutches that undermined our developement as a species. When you look at Americans who don't visit this or any political blogs and yet think they are well educated members of a well educated, unimpeachibly moral society, well maybe democracy has had some downsides, insofar as it ever existed.

Its also interesting/important to view the ideological continuity from Nietzsche to Freud to hitler, each becoming less insightful, more manipulative and more disdainful of humanity on the whole. Interestingly, probably the most prominent big fan of Nietzsche is Kurt Vonnegut. Harrison Bergeron, the short story is a good succinct summation of the dangers of democracy. Frighteningly, by the time Showtime brought it to the screen, it was expanded from 2-3 pages to a full script and had added explicitely crypto-fascist elements. I think that the relationship between short story and script are brilliant metaphors for the differences between basic and crypto fascism. Here's very breif summation of short story and movie plot.

Short story: in the future, no one can be smart or good at anything because its antidemocratic and are punished/handicapped for acheiving in any area.

Movie: In the future there will be a mass unemployment which will cause massive rioting proving the failure of democracy. This will lead to the aforementioned handicapping, but in Showtimes version they explicitly portray a "show" government of handicapped everymen while the country is really run by a hugely talented and morally pretty strong group of politico-scientists in some Utopian retreat. Similar to V, its significance can be read in 2 ways: It ends on a bittersweet highnote of children actually resisting the handicaps, so it could be said to be an indictment of hidden powers. On the other hand it normalizes the notion, creates what really is a pretty nice nation to live under them in, and in the end all that these kids are really aspiring to is to join the politico-scientists, hardly as reassuring an interpretation. In any case the nature of the changes is, probably a lower class lower profile of Huxley or Orwell.

Well, if you read this far, thanks. I also liked the idea of a company owned by a significant portion of Americans not acting vicariously through the govt. A couple provisions in its charter could and should set limits on how few people own what amount of it and that they be at least modestly geographically dispersed. But if anyone were to setup such a system, I'd gladly buy in.

Cheers,
Daniel

7:38 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

V for Vendetta brings to mind, M, http://www.horror-wood.com/m.htm

7:44 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Expect nothing to happen because of the peace movement, or the left, or the paleo-isolationist right in the US. The war is just another TV show to Americans. Folks are getting tired of the show, but the remote's broken and they're too fat and lazy to get up from the sofa and turn it off.
It's up to the Iraqis to boot the US out, not for the US to decide if, when and how to leave.

8:02 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My intution suggests the impulse in Iraq is to kill all the people of meaning, especially the fakirs and holy people, pedify the kids into mindcontrol zombies and uranize the mer'kin soliders.

8:46 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I came across a few comments today. Before posting them let me suggest to you that you cannot possibly underestimate how sodden the American Dream is and with that how utterly contrived is the American Way of Life. Now what that has produced is artifact people who are thoroughly dispirited, atomized and all in all ineffectual. Caricature nation. These Peace Marches do at times seem to have a festival like atmosphere about them. We are permanently mediated so feel little for our own circumstances let alone empathetic for our brothers and sisters in Mesopotamia.

Where is the fire and soul in the Anti-War movement? Perhaps its been doused by ipods, cellphones and assassinations.

Now three quotes from people I don't know:
"As a US AID Refugee Advisor in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, I saw these atrocities on a regular bases. GI's carried photos about in plastic pouches of atrocities they'd committed and posed for. One of the most popular was a GI holding a servered head by the hair in either hand with a lit cigarette in either hand. It was the smug smile on the GI's face that was most disconcerting.

Then there were the barbacue runs. Napalm drops on defenseless villages. Burning everyone alive. Oh, we Americans are a nice people. Giving candy to children and then shooting them."

And This:
"I am absolutely outraged at the killing of these children. In England, for such a crime by a civilian, natural life sentence would be mandatory. If you are a member of the armed services, you can do what you like, I have heard testimony from a former national services member that shootings of civilian household members in Northern Ireland, including children, went unreported and unpunished, these incidents never having come under any form of proper legal scrutiny due to 'd' notice enforcement (complete ban on publication). In regard to this, please refer to the draconian nature of the English influence over Northern Ireland as elucidated in a book called 'A Fatal Shore'. What sickens me most is the utter cowardice of the British and American people to physically march on their respective houses of representatives and take these criminals and insist on genuine court proceedings to imprison them (at the very least, but execution is too soft an option for these evil souls). Churchill had the tanks on the streets in London many years ago against a popular uprising. A human wave approach on the houses of representatives, without armaments, nonviolent, to physically oust these so called representatives, and the subsequent and inevitable totalitarian military response would easily demonstrate that these 'leaders' are prepared to kill majority representatives of their own electorate in order to maintain 'government for the benefit of the government and not for the people'. Surely some troops and police could be appealed to, and turn against their masters.
'Demonstrations', 'petitions', and the like are impotent and futile orchestrations often designed by agents provocateurs (I have had this confirmed by a senior official in the British establishment) for the dual purposes only of satisfying a vague public concern that 'someone' is doing something', and that such efforts are entirely ineffectual. Such a small sacrifice resulting from more sincere approaches would surely then serve to wake up the people that we are now in the grip of a primarily parasitic influence. The members of government involved are not truly bothered about the 'horrific' losses of life they daily publish in their newspapers to create a screen of ink to whip up hysteria over extremely localised, daily killings in domestic incidents, killings by released mental patients etc., they only desire to bombard the mental faculties of the electorate with information which is entirely irrelevant to them, till their attention span and critical faculties are uselessly expended and entirely exhausted, so that no one even dreams of searching out sites on the internet concerning birth defects in children resulting from depleted uranium. Just imagine some politician scattering depleted uranium in America or England near children and those who are about to procreate, and, witnessing the horrendous birth defects and fatal cancers produced by their actions, with repeat effects anticipated for another 4.6 billion years. Then, say, we are bringing freedom and democracy. Of course, if you are the government, it is ok, and we are physically scared to do anything, (been beaten up by the police recently?) but if it were to be an individual perpetrating these inconceivably sadistic, extremely distressing and horrific acts whilst not being 'authorised' as a government employee, he would of course be sentenced to natural (whole) life sentence in a top security mental hospital like Broadmoor, or Rampton, and be utterly torn to pieces for decades in the national media. Just what is the fear we feel that disables us from coordinating together to remove these criminally insane psychopaths from power? Let us look deep inside ourselves. Perhaps it was the damage from thiomersal in our vaccinations, the fluoride in our water and toothpaste, or maybe the aspartame in our cola, or the TV and media propaganda hypnosis? Why are we all dying spiritually?. Is is time for a little more than just chanting and walking on demos? Think about it please."

And this:
" To the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Africa, South America and many more, whose peoples endured sufferring from exploitations of coveted resources, and tests of weapons/tactics of mass destruction, I, as an American, do deeply and sincerely apologize for what has been done. I promise that I shall do all in my power to end these atrocities, bring the criminals and liars to justice, and to see that reparations are made.

In 1968, as my brother and I were enlisting in the Marines, my father told us of an old warriors saying...
"Shed no tears for the fallen soldier, for if you come to kill, you must be ready and willing to die should that be your fate." He then brought out that old flag that draped the coffin of his brother, a Marine, killed in WWII in the Pacific. He told us that we represent the people of America and to carry ourselves in a manner of respect so that the sacrifice of his brother and so many more like him would not be dishonored.

The "great statesman" Henry Kissinger revealed a most sinister aspect of American foreign policy when he said...
"Depopulation of third world countries should be a highest priority, as the US economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals, especially from undeveloped countries.
Kissinger also said, in the presence of General Alexander Haig, that "Military men are DUMB, STUPID ANIMALS, to be used as pawns for US foreign policy."

The oil consumption of the US military is as much as the entire country of Greece. When the oil stops, so does the military. The military Industrial Complex knows this and is trying to secure the worlds oil supply as it is essential to their goal of FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE.

If those who profit from war and the misery of others spent their money for peace this could be a better world for all people.
Thank you."

10:02 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I see several things that need to be done -- always assuming favorable conditions, of course:

1) We need to stop thinking of ourselves as outsiders. Protest marches don't cut it. They both put you at the mercy of the media and solidify your outsider status. We need to get rid of 60's-style thinking and remind ourselves that we are not in any sense unAmerican. We are the real Americans -- the defenders of democracy and constitutional rights.

2) Assuming the Bush administration implodes Nixon-style, the right is going to be most dangerous in the years immediately following. The period from 1976 to 1979 is when the right got its act back together after Watergate -- and in far more dangerous form than before. That's when the wingnuts, the conscienceless Young Republicans, and the Dr. Strangelove types took over the Republican Party. Almost every problem we have today is rooted in the events and coalitions of those years.

3) But in the long run, what we need more than anything is for money to be invested in the future of a democratic alternative. Ever since the early 70's, the right has been pouring money into their think-tanks and other institutions.

Not only that -- they've regularly sought out promising youngsters and brought them aboard. Jack Abramoff and pals were taken into the Council on National Policy through its youth movement when they were just out of college, and were given well-funded organizations to run. Groups like the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute are still at it today.

The left has never done that. Young lefties either starve or sell out. They have no other options.

(Forgive me, by the way, for using the terms "right" and "left." They may be apt for the 1970-2000 period, but I understand they're quickly becoming obsolete. Accept them as stand-ins for whatever new division is in the process of emerging.)

The question of money is not an easy one to answer, because the neo-left can clearly not afford to be indebted to the Soros's of this world the way the late 20th century right was to Joseph Coors, Richard Mellon Scaife, or Reverend Moon. The money might be obtainable in a grassroots sort of way -- but then who would be trusted with investing it, especially in individuals and institutions which might not pay off for many years?

The problem should be solvable -- it is, after all, a subset of the same problem our society faces as a whole: How do we ensure that both government and private funds will be invested wisely, and with an eye to long-term benefit rather than short-term profits? But the answer won't necessarily be either simple or obvious.

So fight the bastards all you like. At this point we have no alternatives. But keep in mind that the real problem facing us is: What do we do after we win?

10:35 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In the book of life, committing atrocities on civilian men, women and children makes you a Fourth Reich Nazi and sanctioned serial killer. Torturing people and killing children makes you a 2-legged piece-of-shit in my book, who deserves the full, unfettered wrath of God and the masses upon him. There's no nobility in sadism and sickness, there's also no support nor excuse for demons who prey on the helpless.

Just remember one thing that the blood-lusting, unrepentant psychopaths who are plying their trade in terror-democracy abroad will be coming back here to our quiet little communities. Bringing their practised brands of savagery and sado-murder with them, they've made their deals with the devil. Do you think they'll be able to just switch it off once they're back in "the real world"?

11:00 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

''{Do you think they'll be able to just switch it off once they're back in "the real world"? }''
can you say primed/trained for dark-side op's/underworld lab police/death squads??

11:31 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oops -- that 10:35 post was me. Don't know how it got through as anonymous.

11:52 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well starroute....I for one, had a good hunch it had to be you. It was just what I would expect from you. This is praise, btw.

12:43 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The eternal question: What CAN we do to fight the Empire?

End all Occupations against you.

2:46 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said..."

I'm about to agree wildly with "anonymous"'s post. But please, pick any name just for reference. So I can refer to which "anonymous" I'm referring to.

Henceforth, "anonymous," I'll dub thee "MintyFresh."

"Anonymous" MintyFresh writes astutely:

"I see several things that need to be done -- always assuming favorable conditions, of course:

1) We need to stop thinking of ourselves as outsiders. Protest marches don't cut it. They both put you at the mercy of the media and solidify your outsider status. We need to get rid of 60's-style thinking and remind ourselves that we are not in any sense unAmerican. We are the real Americans -- the defenders of democracy and constitutional rights."

Bravo.

"2) Assuming the Bush administration implodes Nixon-style, the right is going to be most dangerous in the years immediately following. The period from 1976 to 1979 is when the right got its act back together after Watergate -- and in far more dangerous form than before. That's when the wingnuts, the conscienceless Young Republicans, and the Dr. Strangelove types took over the Republican Party. Almost every problem we have today is rooted in the events and coalitions of those years."

Goddamn double-bravo. U.S. Democrats seemed to believe "the KKK was done" after the 60s, "COINTELPRO was done" after the Church Committee, "Watergate was done" after Nixon resigned, and "Reaganism was done" after Clinton was elected.

The fault lies with the "irrational exuberance" Democrats, or perhaps, the Vichy Democrats -- because perhaps the Democrats are infiltrated.

The "No Conspiracies" crowd can't all be sincere, in the face of Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia, Tyco, and the biggest "conspiracy theory" of all, that "Al Qaeda" was responsible for 9/11.

Yes, the Right is going to be exceedingly dangerous after they're impeached or imploded.

Think Tom DeLay's going to fade quietly?

Think Karl Rove's finished if he's imprisoned?

Think the salivating Christianist Right (they're not Christians, they're Christian-ists who follow an identity-based ideology that's divorced from What Jesus Would Do) are ever going to be satiated? Ever?

Think there won't be another 9/11?

We won't get another 9/11 with a Republican in office. Because this would taint their "We Keep You Safe" Brownshirt Track Record.

When a non-Republican holds office, preferably a cartoon Democrat like Hillary who can be easily intimidated & serve as a Boogeyman, that's when the next 9/11 will be served-up.

Probably with a "Gloria Arroyo Moment" thrown into the mix, to make Hillary look like an "authoritarian" crying wolf about shadowy coup phantom menaces.

"...the right is going to be most dangerous in the years immediately following..."

Bravo.

"3) But in the long run, what we need more than anything is for money to be invested in the future of a democratic alternative..."

Here's where I disagree. Yes, think tanks are needed. Before that, however, we've got bigger imminent problems:

"Young lefties either starve or sell out. They have no other options."

Not completely true: we were offered Howard Dean. Among others. And his movement was an insurgency that was mysteriously assassinated, without obvious fingerprints.

I watched it unfold, recognized what was happening, and not even Dean supporters would admit the obvious: he was taken down in a very co-ordinated effort (that I don't have time or space to get into here).

Likewise, the recent "assassination" of Paul Hackett in Ohio. Even Paul Hackett says he was betrayed by the DLC Leadership that told him to back-off.

The Democratic Party is infiltrated or at least has a Vichy wing which wants very much to cooperate with Neocon Fascism as a Kabuki Opposition Party.

Look at Argentina 1976 for what's going to happen in the U.S.

"So fight the bastards all you like. At this point we have no alternatives. But keep in mind that the real problem facing us is: What do we do after we win?"

No, we do have alternatives. "What do we do after we win" is the least of our problems: We have plenty of vision, including the visionary neglected/murdered past, including the brilliance of Social Security, which lasted 70 years without a hitch. FDR's Economic Bill of Rights is a starter point for "vision."

"What do we do after we win" is not a question that Bolivians are asking of themselves, for example.

"What do we do after we win" is not a question that Venezuelans are asking of themselves. Nor campesinos.

No, the problem is this:

Among us are wolves in sheep's clothing who want to dismantle the New Deal, the social safety net, any social contract between individuals, and restore a slave labor underclass.

Among us are those who wish to "Starve The Beast" until there can be no such thing as "Government."

Among us are True Anarchists, not of the Utopian Left but of the Dystopian Plutocratic Theocratic Right.

If you don't believe in government, then you cannot govern. You do not govern.

That is what we have. That is what Democrats, and even much of the Left, refuse to acknowledge.

World War 2 never ended. "What we do after we win" is bear witness to the Fascist Impulse in humanity, and sacrifice everything to restore and enshrine Checks & Balances.

This is what the Bolivians & Venezuelans are doing. Without needing to ask themselves about it.

"What can we do to fight the Empire?" Checks & Balances. Across the board. No exceptions, no excuses. And the biggest Check & Balance is just what we're all doing here: Bearing Witness.

But even here: guard against the COINTELPRO/Mockingbird track record. Because the False Witness worms are eternally busy.

Thanks to Minty Fresh. Pick a pen-name.

4:50 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

pen name goddamn

"In that event, we won't be seeking justice, we'll just be looking to feel better. And the illusion of action will be more satisfying than its ambiguous reality."

That's why them Yankee boys don't have a draft.

Anyone appealing to the concept of American democracy is just dumb. America was designed to be considerably less democratic than the British system and it still is despite determined efforts by Thatcher and Blair.

All you have to do is select both presidential candidates and in the USA that is spectacularly easy in a money driven electoral system, same with the actual election and that's forgetting Diebold.

In addition , Americans are very poorly educated compared with more advanced societies.

The criminal justice system is satanic, if they'll accept that, they'll sanction any form of atrocity against foreigners.

5:25 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As these people in power are alligned by occult forces, obviously in the end this war is on your soul. So prepare for defence : above all, love. Invest in your soul , people ! Meditate, pray, sing a song for my part, but let your spirit be enlightened by positive action.
Inform others as much as you can, in the end it matters...

5:32 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Goddamn

THE US GULAG PRISON SYSTEM
THE SHAME OF THE NATION AND CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
by Stephen Lendman
March 15, 2006

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stephen__060315_the_us_gulag_p
rison_.htm

5:35 a.m.  
Blogger Sounder said...

Information is a necessary but not sufficient element to create a proper analysis of our situation. Facts are context dependent, therefore only a new context or framework for understanding will change the relative values of various facts. Our current context has shaped the general psyche to defer to authority for many centuries now. We are cultural adolescents, frozen by the threats of rapacious paternal figures.

Realize, we only grow up when we go beyond rote and reactive responses towards integrating new elements into our psyche. Thus the only ‘doing’ going on, is effort designed to help transition society from adolescence to young adulthood. We gots to move out of the house and learn to pay our own bills.

Also,hope and despair are melodramatically paralyzing responses that tend to defer responsibility from oneself. Cheerio.

6:02 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The old saying goes: if a tree falls in the woods and nothing is there to perceive it, then the tree did not fall. Well then, as information warriors we are witnessing a massive clear-cutting. This puts an ax in our hands too – we instantly assume co-responsibility for this reality. Not implication, but responsibility. We are implicated if we bury the hatchet, wield it irresponsibly, or forget what we have witnessed. We fall as the trees.

The protagonist of Albert Camus' "The Fall" is walking alone one foggy night along a bridge over the river Seine. He passes a distraught woman gazing out over the river. A few moments later, he hears her scream and the splash. The woman has jumped. He is witness. What on Earth should he do? Risk his own life to save her, or keep on walking, hoping that no one has seen his evasion. The man, a respected judge, walks on and tries to forget. But it does not forget him.

8:15 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

These comments are an excellent example of why nothing will ever change.

Think about it.

8:56 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you're not ANGRY, GET ANGRY.

If you're already ANGRY, STAY ANGRY.

Be happy when you express your anger, chances are you deserve it.

Be happy when you find other angry people, chances are you can help each other.

Against Leviathan!

9:48 a.m.  
Blogger Kratoklastes said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

10:45 a.m.  
Blogger Kratoklastes said...

Anonymous 6:29... rather than "Beautiful", take a look at the clip for "Goodbye my Lover". Have a look at the lyrics: basically a sick obsessive.


In that light, the lyrics for "Beautiful" can then be seen as the underlying vapid, callow idealistic view of 'love' that drives the obsessive.


You can see the same development in Lennon's writing - from "If I catch you talking to that boy again" in "You can't do that" to "I would rather see you dead little girl, than to be with another man" in "Run for your life".

Eventually, the idealism gets slapped down, and this leads to a psychotic over-reaction.

YoungFox - a good take on how the mainstream is used to drown dissent... although you have to admit that most of the useless eaters are a priori capable of dissent anyhow.

Here in France we have had bourgeois students (middle class uni students) rioting as a result of a change to employment law that is of little consequence - these same kiddies had better things to do when the rape of Iraq was being contemplated, and now that Iran is in the crosshairs they would rather bleat about something that only affects them (the change to the law makes it easier to fire layabouts)

Just goes to show - folks will only 'arc up' against something when it is in their interests to do so. And as Jeff said, it is deplorable when people are demanding change simply in order to 'feel better' - rather than because of the belief that the policy is morally wrong to begin with. "Make my pain go away" rather than "Don't do that to those poor Iraqis".

Cheerio for now,




GT...

10:46 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

First off... Thank you, Jeff, for doing what you're doing. It's rare to find someone writing on the fringe, or rather, as you put it, in the depths, that doesn't devolve into hysterical ranting. Keeping a cool head (or a cool hand at the keyboard at any rate) is difficult when dealing with the issues you tackle.

As to what we can do... We need to wake up. Turn off your TV immediately, and never turn it on again. Stop buying things that you don't TRULY need. Put the culture on the ground and back away slowly.

What has us all paralized, unable to take action against the Empire, is that we're all complicit. We watch as the atrocities pile up and do nothing, because we know that to reject them is to reject what it takes to maintain our lifestyle. It is a FACT that pursuing the 'American Dream' REQUIRES someone to suffer the 'American Nightmare'. We all need to WAKE UP!

10:51 a.m.  
Blogger Kratoklastes said...

Sorry for the double-up on the previous comment - I got a Blogger error and resubmitted the comment.

Angry Anonymous: the problem with getting angry is that it can make you look like a looney.

The public has been habituated to the idea that anyone who shows obvious passion is slightly unhinged.

Think of the difference between Howard Dean's "Woo Hoo", and the smug certainty of the fixed psychotic glazed expressions of Bill Kristol or Richard Perle.

I know which one to be scared of - and it's not the guy doin' the hollerin'.

But The Masses are not capable of that level of discernment - if someone talks to them like they are 4 years old, their primitive 'seek nurture' drives kick in and they follow (particularly once they have been given something to be scared of).

Mine is an unpopular view, but I think we can learn a lot from the Nazis. After all, Hitler actually wrote in Mein Kampf that it was his INTENTION to suborn democracy. To use the machinery of democracy to gain power, and then effectively to abandon the democratic principles once power had been attained. It was all laid out in black and white (Goebells write something similar in "Angriff"). From there, they did exactly what they said they would do.

And so it ought to be with 'us' (the Remnant, for want of a better term). We ought to use the machinery of 'democracy' against itself (democracy is a false dawn in any case - only RANDOMOCRACY has any hope of generating a non-warlike nation-state).

Problem is, the current farce that paints itself as democracy is effectively two branches of one Party, who exchange control roughly once every decade - with the tacit agreement that both parties will unite whenever necessary to prevent the rise of any third party.


But one day, we will recognise that the only stable non-tyrannical political structure is where political officeholders are selected at random from among the population.

At bottom though, the initial point is that getting mad doesn't help.

It leads one to make bad tactical decisions (a good boxer - in fact ANY good fighter - never gets mad).


I am in an internet cafe in Rue Soufflot in Paris - a hundred yards from the Sorbonne. Outside there are riot police, and a horde of young ANGRY students. What do you think those kiddies will achieve?

In another two days the government will have enough evidence to start to make the public-relations counterstrike against them... "look at these thankless hooligans, burning cars and so on. These people are not interested in negotiation" they will say... and the Herd will believe the government, and the initiative will be lost.


Cheerio,



GT...

11:28 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Test results are in; the cancer is malignant. Now a Decision must be made.

There are two paths which can lead to the restoration of health. There is the bloody path wherein the patient goes under the knife to exorcize the tumor(s) and then there is the non-invasive path wherein the size of the tumor is slowly reduced via targeted procedures.

So the body (politic) must decide what course of treatment to pursue because to continute to do nothing virtually guarantees the patient (and those near him) will die and agonizing death.

Invasive procedure...

We know where the malignant cells are located... They are in the halls of the Necon New World Order Collectivist Council on Foriegn Relations. There are roughly 1000 of them to our billions. For the body to live, they must go.

The Non-invasive procedure...

For this to work the people must first restore the integrity of the vote. As long as election results can be rigged, they will be and thethe non invasive technique cannot work. (at least) The last two elections were stolen via massive voter fraud occuring mostly that the CFR controlled diebold (diablo devil) central tabulators. We the people must demand that fair and accurate accounting of the vote happens everwhere everytime. Only then can we deal with the roughly 80 billion braindead sychophantic supporters of the New World Necon Fascist order plans for global domination.

The doc says its decision time people. Do we live or do we die? What's the patient' treatment plan to be?

11:59 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anonymous One,Delta Forces turned loose on the women and children,is this fucken place at the edge looking over,or are we already in hell and don't know it? I watched Bush talking at one of his famous town hall meetings yesterday. The handlers let the questions go off script for the first time in many meetings.If you get a chance check out when the woman asked the shit head about armagedon,there isn't much you can say about his response,except the man is out there.The last time a country followed a man down the road to hell like this he had a silly moustache. I am afraid things are going to get much worse,we are dancing to the devils tune. Merican's have lost their fucken minds,to dumbed down to even give two shits about the rest of the poor world. I ingauge many people everyday at the large hospital I work at,some think I should be locked up for thinking the way I do about this country,and if they have a chance in the future this place will be just like Germany in the 30's,turn anyone in,even your family members. So here we are left with what we have become,the monsters of the midway,waiting for our orders from the Wizard of OZ,later.

12:14 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It needs to be the United States again, instead of the United congresscritters and their United, greedy, corporate benefactors. This nation's states need to reclaim their independence, and realize all over again the costs and benefits of our alliance of 50.

12:19 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As caregiver to my ancient old mother, I'm disgusted every day by the vultures and wolves who call her on the phone, and send her mail, really shitty people working on commission I guess but it makes me think that Empire only works because of its footsoldiers, who only care about bringing home a weekly paycheck, whether women and children's lives are destroyed in the process or not--
"We have met the enemy . . ."

1:33 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Randolph Bourne wrote in l917 that War is the health of the state. It is so because it is War that invigorates the State with power.

Since l917 the human being has been under a state of seige. Humanity is being replaced by thingification. If anything can be done to slow or halt the War machine it can only be a metaphysical revolt comarable to the Falun Gong. Witness must be borne with the ultimate stakes not being physical death which happens to everyone but the metaphysical death of living the lie.

1:40 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just the energy put into these posts is encouraging.

No, we don't need uniformity in response to this, but unity will help.

The problem is that THEY control the executive, the legislature and soon they will completely control the courts. THEY control the military and the resources of the large corporations and educational institutions.

What do we have? Our minds. Our hope.

I wish all prgressives of all ages would get themselves into law programs, business schools and economics programs and learn how the society operates from the inside out and redirect resources towards the ends that are enriching to the nation. The whole system needs to be turned upside down and inside out.

Everyone has something they can do - learn to farm, quit your corporate job, boycott certain products. Kill your TV!!

For me I have to quit my corporate job, but I have to be smart about it. I need to arrange health insurance and figure out how to pay my rent. It can be done.

There is a *next step* each individual needs to take - everyone needs to figure out what that is and do it.

2:23 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just a quick note:

Konrad Heiden, Hitler's antiNazi biogrpaher, documented the plan for a 2000 year Anglo-American-Nordic Reich uniting, as was Hitler's plan, wall street, corporate fascism and fascist idealogy.

This was documented in 1935 in the book "A History of National Socialism"

He also documents further what we are up against now in the 1945 "Der Fuehrer"

Both are essential to understand what is happening now and since the Bushes were backing Hitler in 1935 we all know what this means with respect to what is in store for us.

This is a truly frightening article Jeff.

I propse we spread it around the net with its source and hopefully it will be like My Lai in terms off how it affects the US consciousness.

Simply awful.

We have to educate ourselves

5:47 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

GT,

The stupid kids are biting the hand that may potentially feed them. I understand the change in policy is in supposed to foster employability (is that a word...?) among those rioting. And yes they could be using that angst to foster a more useful end in other places. But oh well so it goes.

BTW the Empire will crumble, just give it a little bit more time. Replaced with what as yet who knows...

5:54 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You're not going to like this, but it must be said: Americans are not, nor have they ever been,intellectuals. Yes, they are full of common sense and are clever but, historically, have always been suspicious of and perjorative towards the well educated. That being said, can one wonder how it came to pass that we lost our republic and disintigrated into a democracy?

And, yet, you ask (and what's more, expect an answer to) what "we're going to do?" First, stop believing all the propaganda Hollywood has been spoon feeding you all of your lives that your are great and then take a real, slow look around at your fellow citizens. Most folks would really prefer that someone else would continue doing their thinking for them and let them sink back down into their lazyboys (apt name) and swill their beer and smoke their American dreams of endless sports days on cable TV.

We are exactly where we deserve to be - this nation is too immature, arrogant, and intellectual undeveloped to be anywhere else. Only this time, there is no new frontier to escape into wherein to hone those fine cowboy/farmer skills. Yes, we are now a two-class system: the smart and the stupid - and smart always trumps stupid every time.

6:18 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Still need more proof?
15 Iraqi civilians murdered in cold blood by U.S. Marines, 3 of them terrified children. Check out the story and ABC News video here:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=1743981&page=1

Serial killers in uniform and coldly planned and executed genocide by any other name. Assholes like this will be coming back as Blackwater rent-a-thugs, cops, mercenaries, black-Ops stooges, prison guards, detention camp guards, that crazy neighbor down the street, freelance hit-men and Captain Snap who follows his programming to go on a synthetic terror shooting spree.

I've a feeling that this is the rule and far from the exception. There's a special place in Hell for scum like these, and there's no place among civilized people for serial predators. I feel sick to my stomach that these Reichsland stormtroopers dare to define themselves as Americans, much less human beings.

6:47 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The moonbats bark thrice at midnight.

Soon, my brothers.

7:06 p.m.  
Blogger Civic Center said...

The contempt you put into your last line about "information warriors" is telling. Next time go to a protest march like I did in San Francisco. The physical exercise is good for you and it's healing to be in a group of like-minded people who don't need to be convinced about the horror that is currently taking place thanks to our demented leadership.

Anyway, you're doing awesome work as an "information warrior" so don't put yourself down for one second, dude.

9:21 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the answer is transparency. when everybody sees whats going on, the bad things have to slow down. secrecy is exploited for dysfunctional means when no one's watching.

9:35 p.m.  
Blogger Jesse Jensen said...

in this world, this universe, there is nothing but Empire. it is the very will to live, as expressed through physical matter. to live, you must kill, and drain and suck the energy; whether thoughtfully, gracefully, or maddeningly obtuse, we all must do it to survive. EVIL IS WHAT THE HUNGRY MAN CALLS FOOD HE CAN'T AFFORD TO PURCHASE.

9:43 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the goal ought to be about seeking balance, Autochronicus Metachromatix. what you just said is the exact excuse these manhandlers with the reins of power use to continue sucking.

9:53 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

and also this isn't about envy of what we can't have, as your comment suggests.

9:55 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

*WARNING*
Here is a link to graphic images of the children who were murdered by stormtroopers with the "Coalition of the Killing".

http://www.chris-floyd.com/march/

Please be advised that these images are intensely heartbreaking, sickening and infuriating. This is the handiwork of sadistic, monsters who have all paid their fares to go straight to Hell. Those responsible should have their pictures circulated worldwide, and if their fecal forms should ever float back to our shores, they should be forced to register and have their communities alerted to their presence.

Their heroes welcome should be a jail cell, and their medals should be copper-jacketed. I am so sick of the blood-soaked America credit card being trotted around the world ringing up genocide and horror in the American people's name.

10:15 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jeff wailed: "Information warriors. Jesus Christ, how precious of us."

Did ya ever think that the myth of democracy, the myth that all we need to do is get together, is yet another great lie? Let's get real - the empire has always existed, it existed during the 60's, during the 30's, a thousand years ago, as long as human history goes (because empire INVENTED history) It is a story that the story tellers tell, and we, the powerless, we basically watch the narrative. Even the apparent victories of the "people" (American revolution, etc.) appear to have been planned long ago by the story tellers. So can we stop flagellating ourselves because we aren't living the story of our choosing? Do you suppose that Romans felt guilty because their Emperer/God just invaded yet another country?

Not that there aren't times when we ARE actually given a small part to play, and then, well, we occasionally rise to the role, but come on, people act like this world is all of our making, right now. Well, it isn't. It's been a long time coming, and we have our bit parts, but it's going to play out, with or without our blessing.

11:35 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's obvious we've already won against the Empire.

1:25 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The soldiers that have committed these
murders have been arrested. They've
been brought to trial and sentenced
to life in prison.

1:34 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Americans pay respect to the lives
lost on both sides of the war in Iraq daily.

1:37 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This year, millions of Americans will
make a pilgrimage to the Middle East
in the first attempt to make amends for the war.

1:41 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Many decide to live there permanently.

1:44 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The names, photos, and background information on the soldiers responsible for the
massacre are circulated throughout the Internet.

1:51 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Terrorist violence ceases in Iraq.

1:58 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Americans spend a considerable amount hunting down information on the military's involvement in Iraqi cities, eventually becoming more informed than the government itself on the day to day events in the country.
Lives are saved as a result.

2:02 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

American citizens become more involved in the decision making process concerning war. People begin to tightly control and regulate the use of weapons in overseas conflicts.

2:06 a.m.  
Blogger Kratoklastes said...

Nigil 'Incubator' Jones -

You're exactly right - on all points.

The bourgeois kiddies are arguing their own interests - those in charge of the protests are wannabe-union-leaders and future politicians (remember that Phoney B-Liar was also a student politician).

Furthermore, the CPE ("Contrat Premiere Embauche") is likely to INcrease the employment of 'banlieue' (outer suburban, poor, coloured) kids, and INcrease the rate at which University graduates get laid off.

At present, in France the employment path goes something like this:

You are initially hired on a 'CDD' (contrat de duration determiné - fixed-term contract) for six months.

At the end of six months, the employer can sack you or make you permanent (put you on a 'CDI' a contrat de duration indeterminé - long-term contract).

Once you are 'CDI', you are almost impossible to get rid of.

If the employer sacks you at the end of the CDD, he cannot employ another person in the same role unless that person is a CDI.

Anyhow... that's the bare bones, and this is not the forum for discussion of French labour law. But frankly the Uni kiddies are up in arms because THEY are the kids that the current system favours, an they stand to face a longer,. sterner test once they finish university.

Of course their leaders are interested only in the 'spectacle' - doing things that show their political masters that they will one day be fit to run for political office (it's the same with student politicians the world over).


more interesingly, your view on the death of the Evil Empire (make no mitake - the US in now the Evil Empire.... it imprisons its own at rates far in excess of the Soviet Union during the Gulag... it stifles dissent... its political system is rotten and corrup... and it commits war crimes daily.)

I actually forecast (in late 2000 or early 2001) that the US would be three (or four) separate countries before the middle of this century. One big attack would do it (I was thinking a nuke probably planted by the 'Mooj'), because the resultant militarist flailing would drive an already-credit-driven economy over the edge of the abyss.

I can't say it has been FUN watching it happen in real time, but it has certainly been interesting.


Cheerio,




GT

9:13 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The pen is mightier than the sword.

However, where the sword brings about a quick death the pen acts more like a poison so patience is required.

9:15 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

very true paul. i was thinking about jeff's closing statement of frustration last night.

Information warriors. Jesus Christ, how precious of us.

and what you said paul is true. and what one hopes is that they can create the perfect article to shock the system so hard people begin to move to fight.

information warriors...not a war with bullets but with information to combat mind viruses, memes, fascists and ignorance.

and what do you do when no one recognizes theres a war going on....?

11:20 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If it will a 'provocation' to 'justify' the next invasion of a Middle Eastern nation, what form will that 'provocation' take?

And if the US invades Iran/Syria/Jordan/Lebanon/wherever, how will that be possible without new troops, perhaps 250,000 or more?

Things may get interesting for the young. Watch out for the reactivation of your local Selective Service board.

4:45 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"If theres a problem with building 7, theres a problem with the whole damn thing." - Charlie Sheen's comment on the event of 9/11

live in studio footage as Alex Jones talks to Charlie Sheen about his serious doubts on the official 9/11 story

Controversial Charlie Sheen 9/11 interview begins to attract media attention

CNN Produces Balanced Piece On Sheen 9/11 Comments

Charlie Sheen responds: 'Challenge Me On the Facts'

http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/showbiz.tonight/

6:12 p.m.  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Google