Absentee Patriotism

 

It's no secret that I am very critical of the policies of this
administration, and the general direction America has been taking for
the past three decades.

As a result, infrequently but uncomfortably too often, I get this remark from
some rabid, myopic super-patriot who gets their understanding of our
political system from the box that his hot glue gun came in:

"You don't even live here. You have no right to criticize America."

It's one of those battle cries from desperately small minds which on the surface
offers some common sense logic but with bare minimum scrutiny falls
apart like stale Saltines.

Let's imagine . . .

It's 1938 and I am a Jew who has been living in Nazi Germany. I am getting
increasingly uncomfortable with developments both locally in my village
and nationally. So I leave and become an expatriate, a German citizen
living in a foreign country.

While living outside the sphere of the Reich and its pervasive propaganda
machine, I see that my discomfort was more than justified, that there
are horrible things going on in my home country which threaten not only
my fellow Jews, but threaten other individuals and the peace and
stability of the whole European continent. I learn from other
expatriates about the forced labor and concentration camps, and what
appears to be a well-planned program being put in place for the
extermination of millions of people. I learn of a massive build-up of
military machinery which portends provocations of neighboring countries
and promises massive military confrontation.

Are the people who question my now living overseas saying I would have had
no right to warn people about the developments I had learned about? That I
was disqualified by my foreign mailing address from speaking out against the
policies of "my country"? That I would not have had the right to at
least warn other Jews __ my fellow citizens __ and urge them to
escape as soon as possible or face possible extermination?

I would argue that not only would I have the right to be critical of my country, I would have a moral obligation, a duty to do so, openly and aggressively.

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."  -  Edmund Burke

Am I making a comparison between today's U.S. and Nazi Germany?

Yes and no. Of course, anytime anyone wants to provoke a hysterical public
outcry on any matter these days, they just yell 'Nazi' or 'Hitler' or
'holocaust' and the knee jerk response is right there for the having.
That's not what I'm doing here. The U.S. is slowly descending into a
form of autocracy, a totalitarianism quite unlike Nazi Germany in many
respects. But I believe it is potentially as thoroughly and ultimately
menacing.

We can fret and argue about whether that's correct but that's not the point I'm making.

The simple point here is that, regardless of where I live or choose to travel, I share 
with every other American citizen the duty
to keep a watchful eye on what my government is doing in my name, and
to speak out when and where I see objectionable plans, policies,
declarations, or provocative acts towards other countries. It is
especially incumbent on me __ it is my responsibility as a citizen __ to
share from out here what is not available from within
U.S. borders, because of what is clearly massive censorship of the news
there by the government and main stream media, which have become
Siamese Twins joined at the pocketbook.

It is particularly my duty to warn others in America who are not as I am in a 
position to live elsewhere, of developments which portend the worst and pose 
threats to them.

We all see the signs. Often we don't know what to make of them. The incessant
puerile prattle of politicians and pundits creates a constant stream of
obfuscation and confusion.

But it is the duty of every single American citizen to try to make sense
of our increasingly precarious situation, and to share their insights with
their fellow citizens. It is our duty to call out the official
lies, the gross imbalance of power, the horrific inequality of wealth,
the ongoing and systematic efforts by our government to promote and
prosecute in our names policies and initiatives, foreign and domestic,
which if the public had full knowledge of, it would steadfastly reject.

It takes a lot of courage these days to speak out against the government,
especially the current administration, which has done a phenomenal job
of PR and spin, and certainly makes no secret of its intent to squash
dissent in America.

Yet,  despite massive surveillance of citizens by the security agencies, the
watch lists, the no-fly lists, the kill lists, the persecution of
whistle blowers, the beatings and arrests which the most peaceful
demonstrators now endure at the hands of the police, the suspension of
habeas corpus, gross abuses of the FISA Act and the National Defense
Authorization Act, there are still many courageous individuals and
organizations which continue the daunting but necessary battle to expose
the deeply entrenched and dangerous corruption which now poisons our
system of government.

I make no claims to be on the same level as these exemplary patriots, speaking
truth to power under the threat of persecution, an unconstitutional
repression of free speech and basic human rights, the whole of which is
more and more is beginning to exhibit parallels with some of the more
oppressive regimes in history.


 

Right or wrong, I'm just an ordinary citizen merely doing my duty.

Just like you.

I watch. I listen. I speak out. I vote.

I do what little I can.

I wish it were more.



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

Irony Deficiency Anemia

Our government has become oblivious to the ignominious irony of its policies and actions. Therefore, it blunders on, never questioning why often much of what it does produces the very opposite of either its stated or actual intentions.

Without intended irony, it arms the rest of the world to make it safer. Anyone with a checkbook can obtain weaponry from America. The U.S. is by a huge margin the biggest supplier of military hardware to the international community. We are then shocked when these same weapons end up pointing at us, now in the hands of bin Laden, al Qaeda and other militant extremists.

Without intended irony, it incentivizes corporations to export America's jobs, reasoning that the healthier these corporations are, the sounder will be the economy of the country, evidence of spreading poverty and grotesque income inequality be damned. TPP and TTIP are the latest virulent initiatives toward transferring national sovereignty to multinational corporations, strengthening America by draining it of its self-determination and economic vitality. These so-called trade agreements are NAFTA on steroids. We just hope there's an open seat at future Third World economic
conferences and those countries don't despise us for plundering their natural resources all these years.

Without intended irony, the President declares himself the "environmental president" while promoting the greatest surge in domestic oil and gas production in our history, including the use of fracking and opening up vast stretches of pristine land and fragile offshore sites to ruinous exploration and drilling. The U.S. still refuses to sign the Kyoto Treaty, only marginally participates in world conferences on the environment, and most certainly fails to provide much-needed leadership on issues like climate change and the rapid and dramatic decline in the health of the oceans. The only environment we have protected is a business environment which worships plunder for profit.

Without intended irony, America holds itself up as the beacon of democracy in the world while supporting ruthless despots and grotesque tyranny throughout the world, likewise tolerating the corruption of the electoral system in America itself. Welcome to a world where money buys politicians and the voice of the common citizen is silenced both by oligarchical monopoly of the national conversation and voter disenfranchisement.

Without intended irony, the U.S. promotes democracy in the Ukraine by encouraging the overthrow of an elected government and replacing it in a coup with neo-nazi thugs and plutocrats, who then rig the next election which they of course claim validates their rule, then training and supplying the neo-Nazi National Guard with weapons. As we should suspect, this is part of a bigger plan
which has nothing to do with spreading democracy, and in fact reignites
old antagonisms with Russia and puts us all at risk for World War III.
Nice work, eh?

Without intended irony, the U.S. affirms its commitment to ridding the world of nuclear weapons by spending more now on upgrading our existing stockpiles and R&D on new more destructive nuclear devices, than we did at the height of the Cold War.  With over 4,800 nuclear warheads in its current arsenal __ enough to destroy life on Earth many times over __ we negotiate agreements with our allies to expedite the efficient use and deployment of our bulging arsenals of collective mass suicide.

Without intended irony Obama promised to foster transparency in his administration, yet has increased secrecy, prosecuted whistle blowers at a record rate, has fanatically clamped down on leaks, drastically curtailed freedom of the press by attempting to force journalists to reveal their sources, classified more government documents and communications than any president in our history, has overseen massive and intrusive surveillance by the NSA and other national security agencies of innocent Americans, foreign nationals and even heads of state of America's allies, and continues to
expand the capacity of government agencies to unconstitutionally monitor and record every interaction by U.S. citizens.

Without intended irony, it honors its "responsibility to protect" by attacking other nations, killing a lot of innocent people, creating fear and animosity in the rest of the world, and as a result it fails
its responsibility to protect the people it is most responsible for, American citizens. With our cavalier use of military force, we are more feared, resented, despised than ever. Serious blowback is inevitable. How ironic, eh?

Without intended irony, we scold other countries, like Russia and China, for being bullies, while we ignore resolutions and concerted efforts of the United Nations, refuse to join the ICC or acknowledge its legal authority over us, reserve the right to use our military at any time and place of our choosing, skirt the Geneva conventions by using torture, harass and bomb countries we are not at war with using drones and special ops troops, and talk about needed cooperation among members of the international community while economically strangling with sanctions any country which does not bend to our unilateral dictates.

Yes, we fail to see the irony in all of this. We choose to turn a blind eye to the deceptions and self-sabotaging contradictions. This has indeed made our country sick, an anemic and feckless nation of sheeple, vis-a-vis the noble ideals we once held and now unconvincingly espouse. We struggle with buckling knees in an increasingly futile attempt to prop up the political house of cards we've built of self-deception and delusions.

No house of cards can rise forever. The longer we pile rationalizations and faulty logic on imperialistic hubris and sociopathic fantasies, the closer we come to its ultimate collapse.

It's no longer a question of 'if' but 'when'.

It will collapse.

Let's hope it doesn't take the foundations of our once great nation with it and we are still left with something upon which to rebuild.


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

What if . . . ?

 

I love reading stories to kids.

How about you?

Here's one of my favorites.

A modern classic.

Ha ha ha. I love that story!

It's so thought-provoking.

Can you imagine a world like that?

Sadly I can't find any kids that want to sit down and listen to a story any more.

Hmm.

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

Militarizing The Police – Part 3

 


It's prudent to be prepared.

So . . .

The Department of Homeland Security is purchasing 1.6 billion rounds __ yes, you read that correctly . . . 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. Half of the order is for hollow point bullets and the other half for special armor and wall piercing ammunition. Hollow point bullets are forbidden by international law for use in warfare, so these cannot be for the battlefield. They are more expensive than regular bullets, so it doesn't make sense that, as claimed by a spokesperson for DHS, they are being used for "target practice". Besides, they only use about 15 million bullets a year on government
target ranges. 1,600,000,000 rounds is enough to keep them practicing for over a hundred years.

Along similar lines, the DHS will be taking delivery of some unspecified number of the 2,717 MRAPs __ mine-resistant and protected combat vehicles __ retrofitted by Navistar Defense, their manufacturer, for use here in America. As the linked article sensibly asks: "Why would they need such over-the-top vehicles on U.S. streets to withstand IEDs, mine blasts, and 50 caliber hits to bullet-proof glass? In a war zone … yes, definitely. Let’s protect our men and women. On the streets of America …?"

President Obama with his March 16, 2012 signing of the National Defense Resources Preparedness Executive Order effectively establishes the right to impose Martial Law, at his own discretion even under peace time conditions, claiming full control over all of the resources of America, including even the labor of its citizens. This executive order expands his already extensive authority under the NDAA, which he signed on New Years Eve 2011 while none of us were paying much attention.

To make sure that no act of "terrorism" within our borders goes undetected, the DHS has established an expansive system of fusion centers coordinating its activities with those of local law enforcement
agencies, sharing information on U.S. citizens and intelligence about their movements and activities. The legality of collecting much of this data is questionable but it goes on because no one is able to challenge it. As we certainly know from the reaction of most public figures to the Snowden revelations, there is virtually no evidence in the national conversation or will in Congress of wanting to put a stop to this.

Yes, it's prudent to be prepared.

But . . .

We need to be asking ourselves, or maybe more appropriately those in charge of
rolling over the Constitution, chipping away at the privacy and legal
rights of American citizens, while quietly engineering and implementing
our New American Police State . . .

What is our government preparing for?


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