No Negotiating With Terrorists

 

"No negotiating with terrorists!"

Now that's something I can get behind.

A terrorist not only doesn't share the same goals as you and I, they also don't play by the same rules.  
Terrorists are the ultimate bullies.  They will lie, cheat, steal, even murder, in order to get their way.  The ends justify the means.  They're right, we're wrong.  Terrorists can't fathom compromise, so what is the point of negotiating?

We face terrorism on many fronts and at many levels because sociopathy and barbarism are not subtle or selective.  Perhaps they represent bad wiring in some small but wickedly destructive sub-class of humans, or maybe we all carry the defect, but it only rises up to preempt the better instincts among a minority of us.

In either case, if we don't want to be "terrorized" into submission, we must decisively stand our ground and entertain no compromise.

"No negotiating with terrorists!"

The United States has become a terrorist nation.

Not you and I as such . . . because regular folks like us are generally peaceful and sane.

Unfortunately, we no longer have any say in the decisions and direction of the country.

But there is a national agenda, driven on many fronts at many different levels, promoted in our names as citizens of the country, which has transformed the U.S. into the greatest scourge in the history of the planet.  We have unbridled power coupled with no coherent political philosophy, fueled by unchecked imperial ambition and delusions of world rule, unimpeded by considerations of morality or sensitivity to the value of human life.

U.S. terrorism expresses itself internationally as wars, regime changes, special operations missions, economic manipulation and interference, cyber and propaganda warfare, and is implemented with the forward-basing of troops, NGOs, embedded intelligence agents, foreign mercenaries, and often outright military occupation of over 140 countries.

All of this is conceived, planned, and coordinated from within our own borders.  Often it reflects official, if not always publicly-known, foreign policy.  Sometimes it grows out of legacy policies and practices, the product of a group-think world view which has a life of its own established over decades, one which embraces the unquestioned and until recently unchallenged role of the U.S. as the world's policeman and sole superpower.

While we can find fault in the workings of the loose collective of institutions which make up what is now called the Deep State, much direct blame for our terrorism can be assigned to the CIA.  This 70-year-old agency has become the main engine for projecting U.S power, providing the foot soldiers, technology and weaponry, for a vast majority of catastrophes we have precipitated over the past sixty years.  The list of sovereign nations the U.S. has illegally meddled and decisively interfered with -- compiled by the brilliant and highly-acclaimed historian and geopolitical analyst William Blum -- is as formidable as it is disgraceful (please note: *indicates the successful overthrow of a government):

• China 1949 to early 1960s
• Albania 1949-53
• East Germany 1950s
• Iran 1953 *
• Guatemala 1954 *
• Costa Rica mid-1950s
• Syria 1956-7
• Egypt 1957
• Indonesia 1957-8
• British Guiana 1953-64 *
• Iraq 1963 *
• North Vietnam 1945-73
• Cambodia 1955-70 *
• Laos 1958 *, 1959 *, 1960 *
• Ecuador 1960-63 *
• Congo 1960 *
• France 1965
• Brazil 1962-64 *
• Dominican Republic 1963 *
• Cuba 1959 to present
• Bolivia 1964 *
• Indonesia 1965 *
• Ghana 1966 *
• Chile 1964-73 *
• Greece 1967 *
• Costa Rica 1970-71
• Bolivia 1971 *
• Australia 1973-75 *
• Angola 1975, 1980s
• Zaire 1975
• Portugal 1974-76 *
• Jamaica 1976-80 *
• Seychelles 1979-81
• Chad 1981-82 *
• Grenada 1983 *
• South Yemen 1982-84
• Suriname 1982-84
• Fiji 1987 *
• Libya 1980s
• Nicaragua 1981-90 *
• Panama 1989 *
• Bulgaria 1990 *
• Albania 1991 *
• Iraq 1991
• Afghanistan 1980s *
• Somalia 1993
• Yugoslavia 1999-2000 *
• Ecuador 2000 *
• Afghanistan 2001 *
• Venezuela 2002 *
• Iraq 2003 *
• Haiti 2004 *
• Somalia 2007 to present
• Honduras 2009
• Libya 2011 *
• Syria 2012
• Ukraine 2014 *

Among these, at the urging and with the active partnering of the CIA, are 35 countries ruled by horrifyingly oppressive dictators, fascist regimes, drug lords, and jihadists.

This has not just dramatically, malignantly, affected the international order.  It has also created enormous resentment, and generated enemies where there were none before.  In that sense, it is a self-perpetuating reign of mayhem and chaos, keeping the world in flux and disarray, constantly producing even more threats to our country which then, in the adversarial and combative mindset of the CIA, requires further meddling and mayhem.

We have to be honest with ourselves and judiciously apply the same standards across the board when judging such anti-democratic, autocratic abusers of power.  If we've been able thus far to rationalize distressing signs that the CIA was slowly becoming a rogue security agency -- dismissing sordid leaks and disturbing discoveries as isolated rare instances of individual acts of overzealousness and insubordination -- the recent revelations provided by Wikileaks with the publication of their Vault 7 documents provides concrete proof that the CIA has been completely out-of-control for a very long time, and what should truly disturb us is that such behavior is not the exception but the rule.

With terrorist organizations like the ISIS, al Nusra, al Qaeda, and now our own CIA, it is impossible to integrate them with more tempered and balanced institutions, especially in what is portrayed as the institutional framework of a democracy.  These elements violate national and international law and treaties, arrogantly scoff at diplomatic protocol, are adverse to power-sharing, spurn the time-honored boundaries of common sense and decency, and are ruthlessly callous and amoral.

It's the way unchecked power evolves, how a parasite will ultimately kill its host.

We now have little choice.  The CIA and all traces of it must be eradicated, except for an archival installation in the Smithsonian Institute as a warning to future generations.

This is now a matter of survival for the U.S. and perhaps the human race.

We have inadvertently created a monster and lost control.  The CIA is incompatible with the survival of a free, open, just, democratic society.

Understandably, the CIA will plead the case for its own institutional survival.

But the case is closed.  There is nothing more to discuss.

"No negotiating with terrorists!"



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



No Negotiating With Terrorists

Americans . . . GET A GRIP!

 

Since 9/11, a grand total of 45 Americans have been killed by terrorists.

45!

That's about 3 per year.

I'm not going to callously marginalize the tragedy of 45 deaths. All these were people who had families, friends, dreams about the future. Each one is a sad example of what it means to live in a dangerous world.

But think about it . . . only 45 people have been killed by terrorists in the last 14+ years.

Last year alone, there were 16,121 HOMICIDES.  11,208 of those were people killed by firearms!  That more than one gun killing PER HOUR!

Every 51 minutes in America, someone is killed by drunk driving.  Almost 11,000 a year!

Last year 1,658,370 new cancer cases were diagnosed.  589,430 people died of cancer! That's 1,615 A DAY!  67 people PER HOUR!

Over 102,000 people die every year from hospital associated infections -- by the time you finish reading my article, two people will have died from filthy medical facilities.

Get this:  Even greater numbers, meaning in excess of 216,000, die every year because of medical error!  Yes, you read that correctly.  Almost 600 people die EVERY DAY because of misdiagnosis or error in reading medical charts. "Golly gee. I'm sorry. It said 20.00 cc. I was sure it was 2000 cc. Oops! Can you notify the family of the deceased for me?"

I could go on and on.  But this offers some perspective:  Rare as it is to be electrocuted in a storm, you are seventeen times more likely to get killed by lightning than by a terrorist.

Let's cut to the chase . . .

Since 2001, the U.S. has spent over $3 trillion on the War on Terror.

That's $3 trillion with a 't'.

For $3 trillion we could have outfitted everyone with bulletproof vests, cured cancer, put breathalyzer shut-offs on every single car to keep drunks from getting behind the wheel, disinfected every hospital in America, outfitted every single American with a lighting rod, and probably had some money left over to train nurses and doctors how to read a chart.

What's going on in this country . . . home of the brave, land of the free?

Oh yes, indeed we are free.  Free to wake up frightened, go to bed frightened, live every moment frightened because . . . THERE ARE TERRORISTS LURKING EVERYWHERE!  They hate us, they hate our freedoms, they want to chop off our heads, rape our women!

I agree about one thing for sure . . .

We should be afraid!

We should be afraid that our priorities are completely whack and that our government is overrun by self-serving lunatics, at the beck and call of our out-of-control military!

Here are some questions we should ask ourselves . . .

How many of you have known a friend, relative or neighbor who has died of cancer?

How many of you have known someone who has a family member killed by a drunk driver?

How many of you live in a community where someone was murdered?

Contrast your answer with . . .

How many of you know someone who was attacked by a Muslim?

How many of you know someone who was killed by a terrorist?

Folks . . . the War On Terror is a fraud!

It's just a cash cow for our bloated military-industrial complex.

All I can suggest is this:  Every time one of the fear mongers come on TV and show you guys in ski masks and tell you to hide under your bed . . . GET A GRIP!

You are more likely to get hit by a bus while you're under your bed, than be attacked by a terrorist while standing at a bus stop.

Here, folks, is my prediction for each and every one of you for 2016.

Ready? 

You WILL NOT BE KILLED by ISIS or al Qaeda or al Nusra or by boko haram guerillas.

Actually, you're much more likely to be killed by your local police.


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


Americans . . . GET A GRIP!

Putin’s War on America’s Christmas!

 

Without a doubt, it is extremely difficult keeping up with the news. There's so much happening everywhere on the international stage, it's enough to make your head swim.

I've learned that it's often necessary to go beyond what's available from the usual news sources, to dig deep and explore alternative avenues for discovering what's really going on behind-the-scenes. It's hard work but at the end of the day quite rewarding. Because after getting ALL of the information that's available through the miracle of the internet, everything starts to make sense. Many of the things which are on the surface puzzling suddenly become clear.

For example, why did Turkey shoot down the Russian SU-24 bomber?

President Erdogan is claiming it was just a standard response to a pilot error.

I have discovered by using some of the same highly reliable "deep data" sources that our own CIA uses -- Facebook and Twitter -- the real reason the Russian plane was destroyed.

Turkey was protecting a Christmas ornament factory!

Here is one such facility in the town of Bidama, near the Turkish border. Look at how it was mercilessly bombed to rubble by the Russian air campaign.



Granted, the "whoops-sorry-about-that" official position of Turkey is plausible. After all, the U.S. military has had a few minor slip-ups itself -- two months ago bombing a facility making the highly dubious claim it's a hospital, then just last week killing Iraqi soldiers. Hey, these things happen! Nothing's perfect. Haven't we all had the tab break off a soda can making it nearly impossible to open?

But it wasn't an impulsive or anomalous response when Turkey had its F-16s shoot down the Russian plane. Matter of fact, I've learned from deep sources right in the Middle East that Turkey's entire military campaign on the Syrian-Turkey border is now dedicated to standing up to the attack Russia is mounting on our most holy -- and most profitable -- holiday of the year.

Yes, I am talking about . . . Vladimir Putin's war on America's Christmas!

 

Now I'm not saying I approve of crazy jihadists making money, even if it's by manufacturing what have widely been judged to be the finest and most stunning Christmas ornaments available today.

Furthermore, it's not at all consistent with our long-range intent -- that of defeating terrorism -- to have thousands of tons of contraband holiday decorations "smuggled" into Turkey, then shipped to America to be distributed to shopping malls from one end of the country to the other, so that rampaging bands of cutthroats and mad suicide bombers have the funding to buy even more weapons, ski masks, and SUVs. 

But these are nice terrorists, as is evidenced by the excellent contribution they are making to the beauty of America's Yuletide trimmings and overall good cheer.

So lighten up!  It's Christmas!  Where's your holiday spirit?

I can tell you where Vlad the Impaler's holiday spirit is . . . at the end of a barrel!

While he would like to enjoy Christmas at the helm of a reconstituted Soviet Empire, with all his comrades sitting around a Christmas tree drinking vodka, or doing their trademark "gunslinger" strut across Russia's newly-conquered vassal state of Crimea, he plans on us here in America being deprived of the beautiful holiday ornaments produced in villages of liberated Syrians, and sticking us with cheap, sweat-factory junk from China.

Yes!  The plot thickens!

Like I said, spend a little time on the internet, and everything starts to make sense.

See, Putin and Xi Jinping are chums.  And now we get to the whole truth behind Russia's military campaign in the Middle East, and its alleged war on ISIS . . .

Russia is destroying the Christmas ornament factories in northern Syria of well-meaning and industrious entrepreneurs -- jihadists who are America's good buddies -- to enhance its partnership with China. The endgame is that the Chinese will continue to monopolize the mistletoe-ornament-tinsel-manger-scene market and use the money to buy advanced new military weaponry from . . .

Who else?

Russia!

I have to hand it to Putin. He is one cagey character!

Or is that KGB character?


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Putin’s War on America’s Christmas!

Oratory as a Weapon of Mass Deception

 

I used to say President Obama is a great orator.

In retrospect, particularly in view of his speeches over the past two years, I would have to modify my appraisal: Mr. Obama is a mind-numbingly effective orator -- with major emphasis on 'mind-numbing' -- whose powers of persuasion are both awe-inspiring and reality-altering.

But great? I think not.

You see, great orators don't insult their audiences by lying and using their enormous gifts to wreak havoc on the world, demean other world leaders, and generally inflict listeners with self-serving propaganda.

Great orators ennoble, enlighten, inspire!

There is so much deception, obfuscation, manipulative innuendo, faulty logic, sheer raw hypocrisy in his recent U.N. speech, I could write volumes. But it's not worth your time or mine, since so many of the lies upon which he built this petty and self-aggrandizing show have been repeated with such relentless regularity, they are part of the accepted collective wisdom of both the American public and the government propaganda apparatus, aka the main stream media.

I'll just throw out a few comments.

"But we cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated. If that happens without consequence in Ukraine, it could happen to any nation gathered here today."

Like Yemen being bombed by the U.S.-supported tyrannical government of Saudi Arabia? Like Iraq? Or Libya? Or Afghanistan? Or any of the 30+ countries the U.S. has attacked or effected regime change by proxy?

Here's a real gem.

"It is not a conspiracy of U.S.-backed NGOs that expose corruption and raise the expectations of people around the globe; it’s technology, social media, and the irreducible desire of people everywhere to make their own choices about how they are governed."

Oh really? One of America's favorite 'NGOs' is the National Endowment for Democracy. First of all even calling it an NGO is a laugh. Everyone knows -- at least in the crowd I run with -- that the NED was created by the CIA and is funded by Congress. For some reason, whenever it shows up on the scene, countries become immersed in chaos and insurrection, with regime change soon to follow. The most recent victim of its handiwork is Ukraine, where it fomented the overthrow of the legitimate democratically-elected government, then installed a chocolate puppet doll to do the bidding of the U.S.

Here the President deftly conflated bragging and threats, as in, "See how we've messed up things for you, Russia? If you don't tow the line, you ain't seen nothing yet, baby!"

"Sanctions have led to capital flight, a contracting economy, a fallen ruble, and the emigration of more educated Russians."

Then, just when I though it was safe to stop gagging and listen further, I picked up on this.

"When a dictator slaughters tens of thousands of his own people, that is not just a matter of one nation’s internal affairs — it breeds human suffering on an order of magnitude that affects us all."

Which is why we supplied chemical weapons to Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein in order to get the job done right back when he was one of our buddies? Which is why we overthrew the democratically-elected leader of Chile and replaced him with a brutal autocrat who then proceeded to kill tens of thousands of his people? Of course, I could go on with many more examples. But it's tedious and pointless, as hypocrisy is apparently now considered one of the great virtues in the Empire of Chaos.

"Assad reacted to peaceful protests by escalating repression and killing that, in turn, created the environment for the current strife."

Really? Is that the whole story? Or just the one the U.S. creates for its fairy tale version of every uprising it seeds and supports to overthrow governments it doesn't like?

Oh yes . . . about those crazy Muslims running around beheading people, driving tens of thousands to flee their native lands and seek refuge in Europe:

"We know that ISIL — which emerged out of the chaos of Iraq and Syria — depends on perpetual war to survive."

Like the U.S. military-industrial complex? Or the U.S. itself which can't stop bombing countries into complying with its dictates?



Credit where credit is due, however:  Our president did stumble into the truth a few times. Thus, here is absolutely my favorite quote from his speech . . .

"On this basis, we see some major powers assert themselves in ways that contravene international law. We see an erosion of the democratic principles and human rights that are fundamental to this institution’s mission; information is strictly controlled, the space for civil society restricted. We’re told that such retrenchment is required to beat back disorder; that it’s the only way to stamp out terrorism, or prevent foreign meddling."

. . . because it perfectly describes the United States of America, in particular the policies aggressively promoted by Mr. Obama himself.

---

Watch President Obama's entire speech and judge for yourself whether this man is ever capable of doing anything but creating a smokescreen for America's malfeasance in the world, its monomaniacal fixation with its power, its self-proclaimed right to lecture and dictate to others how the world should be run.

[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Obama’s Neocons and Other Hawkish Lunatics

 

People often don't see the obvious.

I constantly get criticized for maintaining that Obama is a warmonger. The
president's actions are proof positive:  His escalating of the war in
Afghanistan, his engineering the destruction of Libya, his manufacturing
the crisis in Ukraine, his demonizing Putin and resurrecting the Cold War 
with Russia, his infamous kill lists and callous use of drones in countries 
like Pakistan and Yemen.

Most recently, there was his request for unlimited war powers,
a new AUMF, a shrewdly and deceptively worded legislative authorization
which allows him to attack any country, anywhere on the earth,
targeting individuals, groups and nations which he alone decides are
deserving of some tough love __ aka annihilation by military force.

If this weren't incriminating enough, just look at the people he is surrounded by.

First, the hard-core psychopaths . . .



Ashton Carter is Obama's new Secretary of Defense. He wants confrontation with Russia; advocates a "preventive war" on North Korea, i.e. blow them to kingdom come now rather than later; and thinks we need to mount an aggressive campaign to fight ISIS. I guess he finds it easy to overlook the fact that our other aggressive campaigns created ISIS, that they are using the armaments we introduced into the region for their aggressive campaign, that every aggressive campaign we have mounted in the Middle East has recruited more fanatics and terrorists,
a fact which has been verified by our own security agencies. Carter is
an unapologetic proponent of projecting America's military across the
globe, without respect for the national interests of any other sovereign
powers and without patience for the niceties of diplomacy.

 

James Clapper is Director of National Intelligence, and is by any measure
Spy-Master-In-Chief.  He recently distinguished himself by 
lying under oath to the U.S. Congress,
evidence that he believes that as head of a major law enforcement
agency, he himself is above the law. Like other neocon exceptionalists,
he believes the U.S. itself is above the law, thus entitled to
ignore treaties, international legal precedents, and anything America
finds bothersome. He recently threw his flaming hat into the ring of
international politics by advocating sending lethal weapons to Ukraine,
violating the terms of the Minsk II agreement which is offering some
hope for the end of the bloody conflict, and more destructively,
antagonizing Russia, which has over the past year worked relentlessly to
broker peace there. But why would Clapper want peace? That might end up
reducing his bloated share of the federal budget.

 

Victoria Nuland is Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and married to Robert Kagan, one of the founders of the neocon Project for the New American Century.
She was instrumental in turning the Maidan demonstrations into a full-blown coup, an illegal, violent overthrow of the admittedly corrupt but still democratically elected government. She continues to sabotage any hope for a negotiated solution to the crisis she helped to orchestrate
and create. She is virulently anti-Russian and militantly in favor of
dismembering the country to expedite the control and plundering of
Russia's abundant natural resources, as well as those of the Ukraine,
for the benefit of American-backed banks and corporations.


 

General Philip M. Breedlove, is the current Supreme Allied Commander Europe
(SACEUR) of NATO Allied Command Operations. He has had a remarkable career indeed, but his recent detachment from reality and delusions of grandeur have made him the major proponent for war on Russia in the E.U. theater of command. His constant spewing of venomous anti-Russian rhetoric and wild claims have made him both a laughingstock and a thorn in the side of the saner members of the European community, who for some reason
don't want Europe to become an incinerated pile of rubble in service to
the American dream of world hegemony. If Russian troops and equipment
had invaded Ukraine as many times as General Breedlove has claimed __
against all evidence to the contrary __ half of the Russian military
would be set up in vast emplacements visible from the moon with a cheap
pair of binoculars. But you know those cagey Russians! They made
everything invisible! They're there! Really. Just ask Breedlove.

 

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt is a California guy with a very shallow, checkered career in the diplomatic services, which makes him the perfect tool to go about the business of spreading propaganda, sidling up to chocolate king Petro Poroshenko __ current President of Ukraine __ for photo ops and general glad-handing, and promoting the depraved neocon agenda, unburdened by a comprehension of the complexities of international
relations, indifferent to the human suffering being inflicted on
citizens in the East of the country, and cavalier about the potential
for nuclear war the machinations of the U.S. is creating. Snatching war
and death from the jaws of peace and harmony? All in a days work!


Then, there are those without official neocon credentials but who embrace undisguised bullying and unrestrained militarism.

 

Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, seemed over the course of
much of her career to have her heart in the right place. She cared so
much about victims of genocide, she even wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning
book about it, A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide.
She has stood strong for religious freedom, human rights, women's and
LGBT rights, and campaigned against human trafficking and for protection
of refugees and religious minorities.

Unfortunately, lately she's become very confused. She wants to accomplish these noble
things by bombing everyone into submission. She was instrumental in the destruction of Libya,
and now her weepy voice can be heard spreading propaganda and
subjecting the world to her acrimonious diatribes promoting chaos and
violence at the United Nations. Power issues shrill catcalls demonizing Putin, rails against Russia, then without blinking prevaricates about the actual role the U.S. has played in the Ukraine. What happens to these people? Is there some mutant strain of warmongering meningitis going around?

Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry put a unique spin on an old
tactic. Instead of doing the familiar GOOD COP/BAD COP routine, these
veteran clowns do BAD COP/WORSE COP __ each of them vying to be more
obnoxious, deceptive, and counter-productive than the other.

 

Joe Biden has always been a straight-talker, unafraid to lay it on the
line, paint stark images in bold strokes. He shoots from the hip and
often ends up with his foot in his mouth. The problem now is not his
candor. It's his rancor. That and his willingness to ignore facts and be a complete stooge for policies which at best are misguided, or at worst will plunge America and Europe into another major war. He and Kerry have already alienated Russia, undone years of diplomacy, unraveled the trust that had slowly built over decades, and launched Cold War 2.0, a frightening confrontation which has the potential to bankrupt the country, if not trigger the nuclear holocaust of World War III.
Joe just can't shut the fuck up. Maybe the gaffs were funny before, but
it's hard to get a giggle going when we're facing human extinction.


 

Unlike Biden who is a full-out puncher, the more guileful John Kerry is a master of the feint and duck. He'll often use the Rope-A-Dope to keep everyone off-balance, as if
this vindicates the havoc he will in the end remorselessly inflict. His pronouncements combined with Obama's has turned a peaceful and generally promising detente with Russia into a hostile and dangerous game of chicken. Along the way, Kerry has managed to alienate many of America's most trusted allies, and create panic and hysteria among many former nations of the Soviet
bloc. When not hiding behind his adorable impersonation of Pepe Le Pew,
he's threatening, intimidating, bullying, and overall a bombastic
buffoon.

If these lunatics are allowed to continue, they will not rest until they destroy the world.

These folks are so blind, so arrogant, so incapable of perspective and moral sensibility, so drunk on power and possessed by delusions of imperial grandeur and world conquest,
so out of touch and incapable of common sense and common decency, so
lacking empathy and basic kindness, they are happy risking nuclear
annihilation to see their misguided priorities and psychopathic visions
prevail.

Obama's foreign policy is a box of chocolates. Except you always
know what you're going to get __ more war, more bombing, more drone
assassinations, more innocent civilian deaths, more illegal regime
change, more chaos and destruction.

Then again, what else can we expect? It's the company he keeps. Obama is surrounded by bloodthirsty, arguably mad, imperialist warmongers, megalomaniacs who see themselves as saviors of the Universe, chosen by
destiny and blessed with infallibility. Were any of them to undergo
sound and objective psychological testing, they would immediately be
committed to maximum-security institutions for the criminally insane.

However, America treats them differently.

It elevates them to the highest positions of power.


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Distractions

 
Magicians are adept at distraction, as are card sharks, pickpockets and politicians.

And when you throw in the main stream media as a partner in crime, you have the perfect storm for a misinformed and malleable public.

It goes without saying that Americans are constantly bombarded with stories and images provoking fear. Just in the past couple months, we've had ISIS sleeper cells, the certainty that Ebola would be spreading like a plague across the land, a cyber attack by North Korea on our sacrosanct movie industry and our freedom of speech, last but not least, the threat of a reconstituted Soviet Union under the rule of that barbarian Vladimir Putin, raining nuclear-tipped ICBMs down on us. 

These are what I would call the "pro-active" distractions, ones which disable our ability to think rationally and turn us into trembling bowls of paralyzed Jello.

But I've decided that perhaps the most insidious distractions are the "passive" variant, the on-the-surface innocent ones that monopolize our attention with crises which are beyond trivial, drain us of energy and focus better directed to important issues that makes a real difference, make a mockery of anything resembling meaningful conversation, and upend and distort both our personal and national priorities.

I could go on for months on these distractions. We all know what they are. They include everything from celebrity gossip, to scandals involving iconic figures in sports, politics, business, and so on.
Just last week, there was a "scandal" which monopolized huge swaths of American media. Everyone had to weigh in, even allegedly serious journalists like Ed Schultz. Frankly, I was tempted to throw my hands up in the air, throw my hat in the ring, maybe throw up.

This was the whole business about the amount of air in the footballs thrown by all-star Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots. I don't have to explain this "crisis" in technical detail, because if you had your television on at any point, you already know that America demanded to know whether there was the legal minimum amount of air pressure in the footballs Mr. Brady used in his glorious ascent to football stardom.

While one third of America's school children are now officially living in poverty . . .

While despite the rosy figures spewed by our government, the truth is America's economy is in decline and a major economic crash is coming, probably sooner than later . . .

While we as ordinary citizens are being treated as the enemy, with constant surveillance and spying, and a militarized police presence which is often brutal and not adverse to killing innocent people, especially people of color . . .

While the planet is heating up at rates far beyond the most pessimistic predictions, boding unparalleled depletion of food resources, displacement of millions of people, setting the stage for massive global conflict over water and arable land . . .

While the banksters and Wall Street criminals go unprosecuted for their prior malfeasance and fraud __ e.g. the crash of 2008 __ and continue to loot the national treasury . . .

While TTP and TTIP, so-called "free trade agreements" which will be the nail in the coffin for an economy which serves the needs of the majority of citizens in our country, are being rammed down the throats of good, decent, hard-working people to serve the interests of the oligarchy . . .

While the neocon lunatics now in control of America's foreign policy are busy rallying the nation for an unnecessary, unjustified, lethal confrontation with Russia __ a major war, folks, as in World War III! . . .

We are wringing our hands over the amount of air in a football?


[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

 

Conscious . . . Conscience

 
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, being 'conscious' means being "awake
and able to understand what is happening around you."

And 'conscience' is defined as "the part of the mind that makes you aware of
your actions as being either morally right or wrong."

People who have no conscience because they are unconscious due to no fault of
their own can hardly be criticized for their lack of morality __ e.g. the brain dead, 
coma victims.

People who are fully conscious but have no conscience are often referred to as sociopaths.

People who are fully conscious but choose to have no conscience might be categorized 
as full-blown psychopaths.

My quandary is how do we deal with people who are fully conscious,
basically stable and mentally sound, have a conscience, but who ignore
what that conscience is saying to them.

# Native Americans slaughtered and dispossessed of their land:  Tens of thousands.

# Vietnamese killed in unnecessary and unsuccessful Vietnam War:  882,000

# America soldiers killed in unnecessary and unsuccessful Vietnam War:  58,220

# innocent citizens killed by death squads of U.S. backed El Salvador government: 35,000.

# innocent citizens killed by death squads of U.S. backed Guatemala government: 60,000.

# Iraqi children starved to death by U.S. sanctions 1993-2000:  500,000.

# Iraqi citizens killed in illegal and unjustified Iraq War:  Over 460,000.

# innocent citizens killed in illegal drone warfare (Pakistan, Yemen):  400-600

# innocent people killed (so far) in Eastern Ukraine by U.S. installed coup government, one which includes neo-Nazis:  Almost 2600.

# innocent people about to be killed in Iraq War 3:  To be announced.
 
"No man is an island . . . ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." 

Riiiiight! No man is an island.  Great stuff.  Ha ha.  Totally!  I hear ya, babe!
Boo hoo hoo. Anyone with a violin up for playing "Hearts and Flowers"?

"Exactly what's your point, John Rachel? . . .

. . . are you in the running for this year's Bleeding Heart Liberal Award?
Mother Theresa and all that cow poop. Maybe you and Bono can do tequila
shots in the back of his limo."

Hmm. What's this about?

Oh, now I remember!

I'm not in a coma.



[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]