Winter Patriot Community Blog

Here's an article tangentially related to the hot topic of the week
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html?src=mv
NYTimes Poll on Tea Party: Educated, Rich, White, & Racist

I wish I could elaborate but I must get some sleep now.

g'nite all!

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good. - Gandhi

On the Sunday after the 9/11 attacks, Vice-President Cheney appeared on Meet The Press, where he famously told the late Tim Russert the following:

"We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We’ve got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we’re going to be successful. That’s the world these folks operate in, and so it’s going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective."

Cheney's fascination with the dark side has produced a country that fears shadowy villains, and a society that, on the surface, is psychologically unable to examine the slimy details of what the dark side truly entails, and who governs it. The election of Obama did not stop America's dance with death in the dark side, in fact, the music of violence is now even louder, and the movement of the empire's steps are speeding up. It seems like the party in the war room won't crash until the roof caves in. But we have to avert that. Obama is already singing the tune of a war with Iran. And we all know, that the ramifications of an attack on Iran for humanity and modern civilization are beyond unthinkable.

The suffering caused by such a earth-shattering attack will either unleash mass love, or mass violence. And my money is on the latter. But since I don't have any money, I'm working to unleash mass love. That is the reason why I write. If I don't try to create a deeper public understanding of the crises that are currently facing us, and expand the potentialities for forgiveness, justice, and societal restoration, then I will have let myself down.

In order to gain some understanding, we can't be afraid to examine the many troubling truths about the lack of democracy, justice, and liberty in contemporary society. To be clear, America's fall into tyranny started generations ago. Many people believe that the creation of the Federal Reserve began the whole ordeal, but even before 1913, state terrorism was an everyday reality for Black Americans, so we have to ask ourselves, when has America ever been truly free for all its peoples? No era comes to mind.

A lot of progressives have the unhistorical notion that the Bush Administration is responsible for anything and everything that is bad in America. But that view is way too narrow. The CIA operated in the dark side long before Cheney, so although Cheney is best suited to put on a Darth Vader mask, the derailment of American democracy and the attack on public liberty did not not begin during the Bush Administration, and it has not even begun to reach its apex.

Joan Mellen, author of "A Farewell to Justice" believes that the crisis of democracy was brought about by the assassination of President Kennedy, a sitting head of state, and the immediate cover-up by the American government and the mass media. In her speech entitled "How the Failure To Identify, Prosecute and Convict President Kennedy's Assassins Has Led To Today's Crisis Of Democracy," delivered on January 24, 2006 in New York, Mellen said:

"I would like to suggest that the truth about the Kennedy assassination, far from being a matter of interest only to historians, and not even to most of them, will help us understand how we have arrived at a point where people as respectable as New York attorney Martin Garbus are comparing the current U.S. government with the rise of fascism in the mid-twentieth century. It's my belief that the present state of our political culture is a direct result of the fact that those responsible for the murder of President Kennedy have never been brought to justice.

To sum up: “A Farewell To Justice” suggests that the clandestine service of the CIA not only covered up the truth about the Kennedy assassination - that's easy to demonstrate from the four million documents now residing at the National Archives - but organized the event itself. That the CIA escaped without penalty, this extraordinary fact, has been integrated over these forty-two years into the body politic. It has produced a political culture where the unthinkable has become accepted practice. Meaningful freedom of the press has fallen into serious jeopardy."

Mellen also mentions the ever-dominant National Security State, which pretends to shepherd the weak and protect them from foreign enemies, but as it turns out, the dangers facing America's liberties and well-being originate from the military establishment itself. As Stephanie Westbrook writes in "Occupied Washington, DC," the always present military establishment does not serve America's national interest. People who are kept in constant fear are less secure, and less willing to defend themselves because they believe that they require protectors to get out of any dangerous situation. And the corruption of violence by the country's ungrateful leaders trickles down to potential revolutionaries who view the path of violence as the only path to redress grievances. As Westbrook says:

"The signs of militarism in our country are ever-present to the point of becoming virtually invisible, while subconsciously persuading us to accept violence and war as not only a suitable solution to conflict, but the only one."

Commentators on the Left fear that right-wing militias could resort to violence to overthrow such corrupt leaders, but rarely do they take a step further, and critique the full-blown police state, that has been masked with a young and liberal face. They are forgetting a key lesson from Martin Luther King Jr. How can you object against violence by the oppressed, and say nothing of the violence by the government oppressors? Dark deeds are not being advanced in foreign lands alone, but in places all across America, in Waco, LA, New York, and every other city. It's not just the CIA who acts in the dark side, but many government agencies do.

Wendy McElroy lists the characteristics of a police state in her article, "When is a government a police state," and according to her, America is a police state, but the judgment is not final. There is still hope she says. But not if we shut our eyes to agencies like the BATFE and crimes like the Waco slaughter. McElroy:

"In America today, enforcement agencies often act with no accountability whatsoever. For example, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) is notorious for invading homes without warrants, destroying property and harassing legitimate gun owners. Even the dozens of deaths caused by BATFE's 1992 armed seige and storming of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas did not bring down penalties against BATFE or its agents. Instead, BATFE continues to operate with neither transparency nor accountability. Indeed, it operates virtually 'in secret', which is another characteristic of a police state."

If those on the Left wants to get serious, then they must join forces with anti-war libertarians and conservatives, and make it their chief aim to hold such corrupt agencies accountable, and end the illegal wars overseas. Silence in the face of institutional murder and crime has undermined America's democracy, national pride, and the people's liberties. It is no longer acceptable to tolerate wide-scale government abuse and fraud. A new political coalition, made of principled progressives and principled libertarians, along with the many politically independents, is not a pipe dream anymore, it can become a reality.

"The Accountability Movement," as described by authors Kristina Borjesson, Charlotte Dennett, and Peter Dale Scott, can become politically feasible as public anger continues to rises, and the crimes of the government are further exposed. People across the political spectrum can come to very substantial agreements and move forward in union. Justice is not a partisan issue. Everyone has a stake in creating a just world. Where we go wrong is when we try to recruit others to our political sides, and get mad if they refuse to join us. Many progressives are eying disgruntled students, the unemployed, and returning vets, as potential progressive fighters, but what they don't seem to realize is that it's not about left vs. right anymore. It's about preserving the Constitution, restoring civil liberties, restricting government bailouts to Wall Street, and holding America's criminal leaders accountable for their crimes. I'm sure a wide political tent can be created to voice that agenda. And it doesn't have to a progressive label or a libertarian label on it.

The country is in such a dangerous state that stationing oneself one on political camp, and fighting for potential converts to one's side, is anti-productive, and very stupid. Party, class, and race differences must be laid side for the country, the Constitution and the rule of law. To say that America, and Canada as well, is under a military occupation is not as paranoid as it once sounded. This blog describes the twenty reasons why America might be a fascistic police state. The good news that can come from such a situation is that under an occupation, people generally tend to come together to throw the occupiers out, and restore popular sovereignty and their liberties. The problem is that the propaganda in America is so huge that to suggest the country is under a military occupation makes you an outcast. But I hope that will change, as people's experience and knowledge of the present evil system grows, and come to discover that the national interest can be served by coming together, and then to collectively face the national dark side rather than deny the truth and divide oneself along traditional class, race, and party lines.

When WWII ended, George Orwell wrote that the people of Europe learned a very significant lesson about the reality of national survival under Nazi rule. "The experience of German occupation," said Orwell, "taught the European peoples something that the colonial peoples knew already, namely, that class antagonisms are not all-important and that there is such a thing as national interest." In a fully-expressed police state, Americans may too realize that, and even reach into its own history to see how a people united in liberty can defy tyranny.

The articles that are mentioned in this post are linked at my blog, if you want to read them in full.

http://disquietreservations.blogspot.com/2010/04/facing-dark-side-bipart...

There's a new post at my main blog.

You can read it there and/or comment on it here, if you wish.

I hope to return soon with more.

My physical condition, which has precluded my blogging for most of the past year, has taken a sudden and unexpected turn -- for the better!

I am still struggling with pain (and painkillers!) and still having problems with mobility and strength, but these aspects of my daily grind are much improved recently.

I expect to be able to blog again, if only on a very limited basis.

None too soon, I might add.

Being a person who shares certain political values and views of the world, including deep skepticism of 9/11, has led me over many years to seek out others in the blogosphere who share my views, and Winter Patriot has been one of the most eloquent of those bloggers. I have especially appreciated his thorough deconstruction of what I refer to as "phony terrorism" such as the "liquid bombers" fiasco.

Being a person who is Jewish and who holds these beliefs is a much more daunting task, akin to swimming in shark-infested waters. I should be clear that my Judiasm is of a very "weak" sort: I was raised in a Jewish family, but I don't really believe in a deity, I don't have an interest in organized religion (and see it as a largely destructive force in the world), and I don't "practice" my religion in any day-to-day sense.

Nonetheless, in large part as a result of the family loyalties that most of us feel, and of the general sense that who I am is inevitably shaped by my background, I identify myself as Jewish. You could say that my Judaism is mainly a "cultural" Judaism. It consists of little more than partaking in several of the major Jewish holidays during the year (e.g. a Passover seder) and sending my kids to "religious school," so that they may be exposed to other ideas and people of a similar background -- in a community where there are very few Jewish people, and non-Jewish people are likely to have misbegotten notions about Jews. (Years ago a friend asked me in all seriousness if I had horns. That hasn't happened here, where I live, but only slightly less bizarre ideas have bubbled up every so often.)

If you were paying attention to the first paragraph, you might conclude that I hold very strong political views -- including an outspoken outrage at the horrible, ongoing human rights crime Israel perpetrates on the Palestinian people. During the horrific, criminal bombing of Lebanon in 2006, I took part in active protests. I have basically come to be an advocate of the "one-state solution" that posits a homeland for both Jews and non-Jews. I believe that American politics are far too influenced by Israel (though I do not share the belief that they are our "puppetmasters"), and I share others' suspicions that there may have been Israeli involvement in 9/11 (but I cannot, nor has anyone else, proven it).

I am aware that there is a tendency for critics of Israel to be labeled "antisemitic," and for this tactic to be used to foreclose legitimate criticism. I run the risk of being called antisemtic myself, or a "self-hating Jew" -- a rather bizarre charge, when you think of it, since I make no secret of my heritage or how I identify myself, and feel no shame about it.

The crux of the matter is this: The ranks of the far left blogosphere (I only use this for lack of a better term; Chris Floyd uses something better like "leftist-anarchist," I think) -- and especially of those who are active 9/11 skeptics -- are rife with unabashed, hate-spewing, genuine-article antisemites, and their links can be found with little difficulty on the right side of this page.

For a prime example of this, please see (if you can stand it) today's posting on "Kenny's Sideshow" (yeah, it's there, on the right): "A Zionist Jewish Lesbian Feminist Not So Free Speech Friendly Nominee for the Supreme Court." To attempt to deconstruct this hateful screed would take more time and energy than I have and, frankly, more than it deserves. Allow me to quote just a few choice morsels (not all his own, but some lifted from other writers I don't even want to know about):

"Jews as one-third of the Supreme Court seems sure to raise the eyebrows among people like me who think that Jewish identity often makes a big difference in attitudes and behavior. And if there is one area where mainstream Jewish political identity has had a huge effect (besides anything related to Israel), it’s in attitudes and behavior related to multiculturalism." OK, so the point of this is -- WTF? That Jews are trying to eliminate Protestantism from the country? And we're going to do that exactly...how? And isn't that rich, in a country where Protestant refugees from Europe eliminated and marginalized the people who lived here before?

"Viewed at its most abstract level, a fundamental agenda is thus to influence the European-derived peoples of the United States to view concern about their own demographic and cultural eclipse as irrational and as an indication of psychopathology." Yep. I guess that is our agenda. We use mind-control methods you don't even know about. (Those horns come in awfully handy.)

"Kagan seems to have lived a charmed life, with perhaps a whiff (or even a stench) of ethnic networking." "Ethnic networking is nothing if not reciprocal." Yeah, it's a Jewish thing. You wouldn't understand.

"As I noted elsewhere, Jews are represented in elite American academic institutions at levels far higher than can be explained by IQ." Contrary to popular belief, it's not just our being Jewish. It's that we're particularly good at fucking our professors/students. That's why I work at an elite institution of higher education. (Horns = Horny?)

"An all Catholic and Jewish Supreme Court? No Protestant justices on the court for the first time ever?" Well, now, we can't have that, can we? And while we're at it, an all-black presidency? WTF?

Of course, "Kenny" does not spew his hatred only on Jews. He doesn't care much for Lesbians and non-Protestants either, clearly. Hey, if you're going to be a hate-mongerer from the depths of Tennessee, you might as well go all the way and be a homophobic, antisemitic, white supremacist (for all I know) asshole.

Sorry, I don't mean to cast aspersion on all my good-hearted friends from Tennessee. Not all Tennesseeans are like the asshole "Kenny," but of course ALL Jews are out to getcha, "liberal or conservative."

The key point to keep in mind, if you decide to head over to Turdville and read the entire posting, is that nowhere does it say anything about Kagan's Zionist views, if she has them. It's just the fact of her being Jewish and having Jewish friends. Likewise, there isn't even an attempt to explain why being Lesbian or a Feminist would have any bearing on her being a Supreme.

I'm pretty sure I've asked WP to decommission these people from his blogroll before. I gave up on Mike Rivero's WRH blog long ago because it was overflowing with antisemitic invective, although it was one of the first blogs I came to after 9/11.

And please, don't give me chapter and verse about free speech. We all choose, ultimately, who/what we support. No one has to censor antisemitic blogs like "Kenny's Sideshow" or "Facts Not Fairies," but there's no reason their links can't be booted off WP.

Till then, I'm outta here. I'll stick to the vastly superior Chris Floyd and the god-damned brilliant homo (and probably Jew), Arthur Silber.

"Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us." - Martin Luther King Jr. (April 4, 1967)

Exactly a year after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech about America's moral responsibility in the world and its unsustainable militarism, he was assassinated. The date of his death has probably had a greater effect on the nation's psyche than December 7, 1941, when the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor. In his speech, the revolutionary non-violent sage called for an end to the "tragic war" in Vietnam, but he also revealed his skepticism about America's willingness to make the right decision about its destiny in history, saying "the world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve." Forty three years later, America is still not mature enough to take the right course. Will it disengage from needless conflicts around the world, and terminate its war machine and criminal empire, or will it continue its unjust and destructive ways? Before such a decision can be made, the American people must look within the shadows of the nation, and face the darkness that King said "seems so close around us."

The country has been buried in silence about MLK's tragic death, due in large part to the national media, but not everybody has been quiet and lethargic. The King family carried on the tradition of seeking truth and justice through non-violent means. In December 1999, Coretta Scott King and her children took a huge step towards healing the country's psyche, by recovering the details about the murder of their husband and father in a civil court. Twelve jurors reached the still unmentioned verdict that the death of Martin Luther King Jr. was the result of a criminal conspiracy, consisting of the Mafia, and local, state, and federal government agencies. At the trial's end, Mrs. King and the King family addressed a small gathering of reporters, expressing their gratitude for the American justice system, and their commitment to reconciliation and love.

Mrs. Coretta Scott King:

"There is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. And the civil court's unanimous verdict has validated our belief. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. This verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory for America. It is a great victory for truth itself. It is important to know that this was a SWIFT verdict, delivered after about an hour of jury deliberation. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. I want to make it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. Instead, our sole concern has been that the full truth of the assassination has been revealed and adjudicated in a court of law. As we pursued this case, some wondered why we would spend the time and energy addressing such a painful part of the past. For both our family and the nation, the short answer is that we had to get involved because the system did not work. Those who are responsible for the assassination were not held to account for their involvement. This verdict, therefore, is a great victory for justice and truth. It has been a difficult and painful experience to revisit this tragedy, but we felt we had an obligation to do everything in our power to seek the truth. Not only for the peace of mind of our family but to also bring closure and healing to the nation. We have done what we can to reveal the truth, and we now urge you as members of the media, and we call upon elected officials, and other persons of influence to do what they can to share the revelation of this case to the widest possible audience."

Though many commentators on the left and right will laud the man on the forty-second anniversary of his death this Sunday, few will draw attention to his uncompromising words about restoring peace in the world, and sanity in the nation. At a time when the war in Afghanistan is declared as being "absolutely essential" by President Barack Obama, there is not a King in the land who can stand up and raise the conscience of the country. The people are yearning for a leader with the moral courage and wisdom of Martin Luther King Jr, but no one has risen to the occasion yet. The pain is carved too deep, the problems are too great, if any man was to step forward and lift the ills of the country he would have to be a Messiah. If such a leader is unlikely to emerge, then the destiny of the country falls on the shoulders of the people; but can the people be great? If they can settle their petty political differences, and come together as one, then a leader won't have to be a Christ figure, or a Saint, he would just have to be competent and honest enough to voice the concerns and love of the people.

In "The Silence of the Liberal Lambs" Chris Floyd addresses the silent left who have bowed down to Obama's war on Osama, the same bunch who only two years ago denounced the criminal imperial policy of the Bush administration. Floyd writes:

"Unless there is some profound shift in American consciousness, of the sort that Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to effect in his last years, all of this will continue -- even if we have genuine health care reform, genuine rescue of those ravaged by our financial sharks, genuine environmental protection, and so on."

The time to raise our collective voice is greater now than when King was alive. Many are predicting a summer of hell in Afghanistan. The Washington Post reported in February that nearly 1,000 American combat troops have already died in that country. All to ensure "democracy" and "women's rights." But despite the President's strong commitment to troop escalation, the consensus in the government is not as it appears in press reports and news releases. In November of last year, Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, made his frustrations known by sending classified documents to the New York Times. It was a move reminiscent of Daniel Ellsberg, the famous whistle-blower whose efforts in leaking the Pentagon papers helped bring the Vietnam war to an end. Ellsberg, who was once described as the "most dangerous man in America," by Henry Kissinger, recently told Democracy Now:

"There is no prospect of any kind of success in Afghanistan, any more than the Soviets achieved in their ten years there, just as in Vietnam we really had no realistic prospect of more success than the French. But countries find it very hard to learn from the failures of other countries."

It would be miraculous if America avoided the fate of not just the Soviet Union, but the Roman Empire. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are producing empty coffers at home, and filled coffins abroad. Financial and moral bankruptcy of the current criminal regime is certain. The American sleep will come to an end. But it is not up to a president to declare a national nightmare over, as Gerald Ford prematurely did upon the resignation of Richard Nixon, rather, the entire country has to breathe a sigh of relief after a prolonged national crisis. And that may take a long time. Only a great and virtuous people are capable of bringing justice to their deprived leaders, and correcting the wrongs endorsed by generations of government officials. But if there ever was a people in history who could pull off such a task, it is the American people.

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