“This Time Vote For An American”

This is an email we recently sent to the Republican National Committee:

We are apolitical. Our reasoning is as follows: With the Supreme Court decision in United Citizens vs. FEC our individual votes were diluted, if not rendered, downright meaningless. Money buys influence. Influence wins elections. PR works. (see Edward Bernays).

One thing that really rankles me though, among the many other things that I’ve covered here, is the ability for a Martian to be elected president simply because his mother happened to be visiting earth, (if in fact she was), more specifically the US, when she gave birth. Now he’s going to have us all living the Dreams of His Favorite Martian. These are not the dreams of Our Favorite Martian, much less My Favorite Martian.

Look for this bumper sticker/slogan, which just came to us, to saturate the landscape sooner than later this year: THIS TIME VOTE FOR AN AMERICAN.

jaxoons

P.S.: Don’t ask us for money. We don’t have any.

“For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie–deliberate, contrived and dishonest–but the myth–persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. “ -John F. Kennedy

What are the implications? Is it sinking in yet?

Were the Soviet Union to sink tomorrow under the waters of the ocean, the American military-industrial establishment would have to go on, substantially unchanged, until some other adversary could be invented. Anything else would be an unacceptable shock to the American economy.”― George F. Kennan 1947 (Chief State Department foreign policy strategist)

“We should cease to talk about vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better.”
― George F. Kennan 1947 (Chief State Department foreign policy strategist)

“. . . There is no such thing in America as an independent press . . . We are the tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes . . . Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”-John Swinton, former New York Times Chief of Staff

“We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.”
David Rockefeller, founder of the Trilateral Commission, in an address to a meeting of The Trilateral Commission, in June, 1991.

In the following article Mr. Lofgren rightly points out “the crippling costs both human and financial” of the war in Iraq. But what he doesn’t address is where, or rather, to whom, the money went. Cui Fucking Bono, people? Ask it. Then Answer it. Who pays? Who receives? Cui Bono? The oldest legal question on the books. Someone Loses. Someone wins. As John F. Kennedy said, “Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.”

Cui Bono, Indeed:

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.  – Benito Mussolini

December 20, 2011

Are Our Leaders Stupid, or Do They Think We are? 

(this has got to be rhetorical, right? -jaxon)

Propagandizing for Perpetual War

by MIKE LOFGREN

According to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has appropriated $806 billion for the direct cost of invading and occupying Iraq. Including debt service since 2003, that sum rises to approximately $1 trillion. The White House estimates the number of U.S. military wounded at 30,000; the web site icasualties.org states that U.S. military fatalities from the Iraq war now stand at 4484. It is impossible to estimate precisely the numbers of Iraqi civilian deaths, but they are frequently cited as being in excess of 100,000. There are now around two million internally displaced Iraqis in a country of 30 million inhabitants. As United States armed forces (but not up to 17,000 State Department employees, contractors and mercenaries) leave the country, Iraq is plunging into a sectarian and ethnically-fueled political crisis. Even if it survives that crisis and remains a unitary state, it will almost certainly be pulled closer to the orbit of Iran, our bogeyman du jour.

In view of the crippling costs both human and financial as well as the strategic and moral disaster the invasion of Iraq precipitated, what sort of verdict do you think our leaders – leaders representing a presidential administration ostensibly opposed to the invasion and promising hope and change – bother to offer us? While junketing in Turkey on December 17, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told the press the following:

As difficult as [the Iraq war] was, I think the price has been worth it, to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world.

One’s only reaction to this statement is to blink in disbelief and wonder: is Panetta that stupid, or does he think that we, the supposedly self-governing citizens of this country, are that stupid? The kindest thing one can conclude is that this is some sort of throw-away line intended to provide solace to the families of those killed, or consolation to survivors who were maimed. But that is pretty thin gruel; one imagines those people, and their kin, have formed their own opinions about what happened and do not require a patronizing justification. And, in any case, if it was “worth it,” why shouldn’t we keep doing it, not only in Iraq but all over the world? Perpetual war for stable government, one might call it.

Another explanation that comes to mind is the propaganda aspect of it: some government hacks really do believe if they repeat something over and over, no matter threadbare or false, a large number of people will believe it. Republicans have used this technique for years, and it appears Democrats are well on their way to equaling them in mastering it. It seems to be at least a partially successful tactic: after all the bloodshed and the waste, a plurality of 48 percent of Americans still believes invading Iraq was the right decision, according to a Pew Research survey.

But, as Honest Abe said, you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. That same survey showed 46 percent, almost as many, believed it was the wrong decision. But even here, Panetta’s statement, and countless other ridiculous statements by government officials, are not without their utility. Most of us think of propaganda as brainwashing – as convincing people to believe something they would otherwise disbelieve. But we may underrate another, more subtle, utility of political propaganda.

In one of his wartime essays, George Orwell remarked on some of the patently ridiculous claims of totalitarian propaganda. In his view, the point wasn’t whether it was believable or not; in fact, the more ridiculous the better. The point was that government functionaries got to make the statement knowing full well it was ludicrous; news organizations dutifully printed it as if it were fact; and the public sphere was blanketed with the absurd propagandistic claim. As Orwell said about the goosestep march of totalitarian armies: yes, it looks ridiculous, but you dare not laugh.

That is the underrated objective of false government claims: even when they do not convince, they demoralize. Panetta’s statement will receive respectful coverage in the mainstream media; satraps of the establishment like David Gregory or Bob Schieffer will not argue with him on the Sunday morning talk shows beyond at most a very polite demurral; for all intents and purposes he will get away with it. And no ordinary citizen will ever be in a position to get in his face and tell him he’s shilling for destructive policies that are bankrupting us.

Because that’s how democracy, and truth, work in the United States these days.

MIKE LOFGREN retired in June 2011 after 28 years as a Congressional staffer. He served 16 years as a professional staff member on the Republican staff of the House and Senate Budget Committees.

via Propagandizing for Perpetual War » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names.

FACT: There were no lone gunmen.

JFK     MLK    RFK

“For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie–deliberate, contrived and dishonest–but the myth–persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. “

                                          -John F. Kennedy

 

'A day that will live in infamy'. Do you really know why, or are you whistling in the dark?

The Mother of All Conspiracies

“…everything that the Japanese were planning to do was known to the United States…” ARMY BOARD, 1944

Sacrifice at Pearl Harbor

The Real Deal

“For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie–deliberate, contrived and dishonest–but the myth–persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. “ -John F. Kennedy

We might find the following questions interesting for consideration and reflection based on American history since WWII. The facts do not even come close to resembling the myth.

But then, what else is new?

1. if we accept the fact that FDR had foreknowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor we might ask whether WWII was a concession to his class or just part of the plan.
2. was the New Deal merely a means of ‘manufacturing consent’ among the public?
3. ironically, did WWII actually represent the end of the American democratic republic?

Three New Deals: Why the Nazis and Fascists Loved FDR

Mises Daily: Friday, September 22, 2006 by David Gordon

Three New Deals:

Reflections on Roosevelt’s America, Mussolini’s Italy, and Hitler’s Germany, 1933-1939. By Wolfgang Schivelbusch. Metropolitan Books, 2006.

Critics of Roosevelt’s New Deal often liken it to fascism. Roosevelt’s numerous defenders dismiss this charge as reactionary propaganda; but as Wolfgang Schivelbusch makes clear, it is perfectly true. Moreover, it was recognized to be true during the 1930s, by the New Deal’s supporters as well as its opponents.
Continue reading →

United States Healthcare Statistics

50th in Life Expectancy (CIA World)
47th in Infant Mortality
50 Million People Without Health Insurance

A New View

Below you will find a T.E.D. video with Hans Rosling the founder of Gapminder, the interactive statistical charting site and software.  Everyone should avail themselves of this remarkable tool. It is now possible to transcend myth and begin to build a mindset, or belief system, if you will, that is based on factual information.

An excellent example of how this might alter one’s views can be found in the statistics above. Many people that watched (or didn’t watch) Michael Moore’s documentary film Sicko accuse it of being disinformation. They point to statistics in the film as being either false, misleading, or discount these statistics by citing supposed long waits and exorbitant taxes related to universal health care coverage.

Regardless of what you might think of Michael Moore, the raw data above reveals that the disinformation is not coming from Moore and his film, but rather, from those that apparently are ignorant of the statistics, have an agenda based on selfish interest…or  have fallen prey to those with an agenda.

For people who wish to continue wrapping themselves in Old Glory and ignoring the relevance of statistics, things might begin to get a bit confusing…if they haven’t already. The Old Guard loves Old Glory. But it blinds many to their own best/self interests. We all love the “concept” of America and the “idea” of a democratic republic. But do we have this? It is not too difficult to connect the dots and realize that we are on a collision course with our most basic American principles.

A Boom With A View

BIG change is coming. Actually, it’s a tidal wave. It cannot be stopped. What kind of change do we want it to be? Do we have a choice? Here are a few statistics that might help clarify things:  U.S. population was 63.7% white in 2010. Of course, this means that 36.3% of U.S. population is non-white. The statistic which points most to change is that 90% of the population growth in the U.S. since 2000 has been minorities.  And 58% of this growth was Latino. What are the implications? We might want to think carefully about this as we consider the social and political changes that have occurred in the last decade…or even the last 5 years.

It is interesting when we look back at history and realize that huge changes took place that we were not fully aware of. It’s a bit like seeing children after a prolonged absence. Add to this the fact that most Americans are so overwhelmed with keeping up with life’s immediate demands, that their vision can be somewhat blurred. This can make one vulnerable to influence. One of the  techniques employed in hypnotism is to overload the mind, or consciousness, to a point where the individual will take direction subliminally. When masses of people are in such a state, very profound change can occur outside their awareness. They are susceptible to disinformation and, subsequently, manipulation.

One of the schools of thought regarding methods of problem solving, learning, and discovery is referred to in psychology as heuristics.  In psychology, heuristics are simple, efficient rules, hard-coded by evolutionary processes or learned, which have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgments, and solve problems, typically when facing complex problems or incomplete information. These rules work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases lead to systematic errors or cognitive biases.

It is important to remember events like the repeal of Glass Stiegall and the public’s apparent indifference to it. Where did that lead us? It is vitally important to remember that there were beneficiaries of the subsequent financial collapse and it’s aftermath. But who has the time, or energy to ponder such things, right? Much less, take action. It might bubble up into consciousness occasionally,  but after a long day of work and worry, we might ask ourselves, “what can we do about it anyway?”. Right?  Right. Checkmate.

Here are a few changes that have occurred recently that might help us see what lies before us. Each heading is a link. :

Citizens United vs. Federal Election Committee

National Defense Authorization Act

The National Defense Authorization Act greatly expands the power and scope of the federal government to fight the War on Terror, including codifying into law the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects without trial. Under the new law the US military has the power to carry out domestic anti-terrorism operations on US soil. Worse yet, it authorizes the military to detain even US citizens under the broad new anti-terrorism provisions provided in the bill, once again without trial.

Obama signed this piece of crap into law…but don’t worry, he said that “he never intends to use it on Americans.”  Phew…I feel a lot better knowing that, don’t you?

The USA PATRIOT Act
In May 2011, Congress voted to extend the following sections of the USA PATRIOT Act through 2015:
• The government’s power under PATRIOT Section 215 to obtain secret court orders for “any tangible thing”—including Internet, phone, and business records—that the government believes is relevant to a terrorism investigation. Current legislation before Congress would reauthorize this power for six years.
• The government’s power to use non-specific “roving” wiretaps to monitor any phone number, email account, or other communications facility that the government believes is being used by its target. Current legislation before Congress would reauthorize this power for six years.
• The “lone wolf” wiretapping power, which allows the government it to monitor individuals who have no connection to any foreign power or terrorist group.

TSA

The Militarization of Police

Bill of Rights Be Damned

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. ~ Benjamin Franklin

1. Warrantless Wiretapping — In December 2005, the New York Times reported the National Security Agency was tapping into telephone calls of Americans without a warrant, in violation of federal statutes and the Constitution. Furthermore, the agency had also gained direct access to the telecommunications infrastructure through some of America’s largest companies. The program was confirmed by President Bush and other officials, who boldly insisted, in the face of all precedent and the common understanding of the law, that the program was legal. And, the agency appears to have been not only eavesdropping on the conversations of Americans in this country without warrants, but also using broad “data mining” systems that allowing it to analyze information about the communications of millions of innocent people within the United States.

2. Torture, Kidnapping and Detention — In the years following 9/11, our government illegally kidnapped, detained and tortured numerous prisoners. The government claims that it has the power to designate anyone, including Americans as “enemy combatants” without charge. Since 2002, some “enemy combatants,” have been held at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, in some cases without access by the Red Cross. Investigations into other military detention centers have revealed severe human rights abuses and violations of international law, such as the Geneva Conventions. The government has also engaged in the practice of rendition: secretly kidnapping people and moving them to foreign countries where they are tortured and abused. It has been reported the CIA maintains secret prison camps in Eastern Europe to conduct operations that may also violate international standards. Congress made matters worse by enacting the Military Commissions Act, which strips detainees of their habeas rights, guts the enforceability of the Geneva Conventions’ protections against abuse, and even allows persons to be prosecuted based on evidence beaten out of a witness.

3. The Growing Surveillance Society — In perhaps the greatest assault on the privacy of ordinary Americans, the country is undergoing a rapid expansion of data collection, storage, tracking, and mining. The FBI’s Investigative Data Warehouse, as an example, has grown to over 560 million records. Over and above the invasion of privacy represented by any one specific program, a combination of new technologies, expanded government powers and expanded private-sector data collection efforts is creating a new “surveillance society” that is unlike anything Americans have seen before.

4. Abuse of the Patriot Act— Several provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire at the end of 2005 and, despite opposition from across the political spectrum and more than 400 community and state resolutions expressing concern about the Patriot Act, Congress reauthorized the law without reforming its most flawed provisions to bring these extraordinary powers back in line with the Constitution. Since then, the Justice Department’s Inspector General found that the FBI has issued hundreds of thousands of national security letters, a majority against U.S. persons, and many without any connection to terrorism at all.

5. Government Secrecy — The Bush administration was one of the most secretive and nontransparent in our history. The Freedom of Information Act has been weakened , the Bush administration led a campaign of reclassification and increased secrecy by federal agencies (including the expansion of a catch-all category of “sensitive but unclassified”), and made sweeping claims of “state secrets” to stymie judicial review of many of its policies that infringed on civil liberties. It even refused to grant government investigators the security clearances they needed to investigate the illegal and unconstitutional NSA wiretapping program. The Bush administration also expressed interest in prosecuting journalists under the Espionage Act of 1917: essentially trying to quell the media’s role in exposing questionable, illegal and unconstitutional conduct, including the maintenance of secret CIA prisons abroad and the NSA wiretapping program.

6. Real ID — Although the full implementation of this travesty may be in doubt, at least in it’s original form, it raises a very serious question: Who thinks this stuff up?

The 2005 Real ID Act, rammed through Congress by being attached to a unrelated, “must pass” bill, lays the foundation for a national ID card and makes it more difficult for persecuted people to seek asylum. Under the law, states are required to standardize their drivers licenses (according to a still undetermined standard) and link to databases to be shared with every federal, state and local government official in every other state. Conservative estimates place the cost of the program at $10 to 12 billion. Opposition to the bill and its implementation remains fierce, and comes from groups such as the National Governor’s Association and the National Council of State Legislators.

7. No Fly and Selectee Lists —Now I think I understand TSA a little better. Since there have been, quite literally, zero, as in NADA, terrorists acts committed within our borders since 9/11, I was beginning to wonder. Let’s see…we’ve spent how much? The argument is that because of TSA blah, blah, blah…OK, how many actual attempts have there been? And in the ten years prior to 9/11 how many were there? Well, at least it provides jobs. Kind of like building bridges to nowhere. Just don’t make any waves or you might find yourself on the Selectee list. Stop it…DON’T TOUCH ME THERE!

The No-Fly list was established to keep track of people the government prohibits from traveling because they have been labeled as security risks. Since 9/11 the number of similar watch lists has mushroomed to about 720,000 names, all with mysterious or ill-defined criteria for how names are placed on the lists, and with little recourse for innocent travelers seeking to be taken off them. These lists name an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 people. The lists are so erroneous several members of Congress, including the late Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), had been flagged.

8. Political Spying — Government agencies — including the FBI and the Department of Defense — have conducted their own spying on innocent and law-abiding Americans. Through the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU learned the FBI had been consistently monitoring peaceful groups such Quakers, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Greenpeace, the Arab American Anti-Defamation Committee and, indeed, the ACLU itself. In August 2007 the Pentagon announced that it would be shutting down its TALON database program, which illegally gathered information on anti-war activists across the country.

Note: On the other hand, how many of us knew about it at the time. What makes us so sure we know anything about what our government is doing?

9. Abuse of Material Witness Statute — In the days and weeks after 9/11, the government gathered and detained many people — mostly Muslims in the US — through the abuse of a narrow federal technicality that permits the arrest and brief detention of “material witnesses,” or those who have important information about a crime. Most of those detained as material witnesses were never treated as witnesses to the crimes of 9/11, and though they were detained so that their testimony could be secured, in many cases, no effort was made to secure their testimony. The government apologized for wrongfully detaining 13 people as material witnesses. Some were imprisoned for more than six months and one actually spent more than a year behind bars!

10. Attacks on Academic Freedom — The Bush administration used a provision in the Patriot Act to engage in a policy of “censorship at the border” to keep scholars with perceived political views the administration did not like out of the United States. The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging this ideological exclusion, charging that it was being used to prevent United States citizens and residents from hearing speech protected by the First Amendment. Additionally, government policies and practices have hampered academic freedom and scientific inquiry since 9/11, creating a system where science has come under siege. The government has moved to over classify information and has engaged in outright censorship and prescreening of scientific articles before publication.

Until next time. Good luck.

jaxon

P.S.: Wonder why that white van with the dish on it’s roof has been parked across the street all day? Hmmm…think I’ll go over and check it out.)

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Will Justice Be Served?

The Great Abyss

Home values have dropped on average about 5% nationwide in the last year. Since 2006 home values have lost $9 trillion (with $1.7 trillion of that being lost in 2010 alone [see Zillow]). At their height, average home prices reached almost $270,000.00. Today average home price is at $165,000.00.Of course, these numbers vary by region, but on average, the losses are similar.

Homes, by and large, represent collateral on the majority of loans held by banks. They are foreclosing at a rapid rate, but whether legal or not, what are they doing with all these homes? The bottom has fallen out of the housing market and continues to slide. What is going on here?

Question: Where is all this debt? Taxpayers ponied up $700 billion of their family’s future. The Fed soaked up a little and has been giving the banks free money for the last 3 years. Actually, worse than that, they’ve  been paying interest on it. But we’re talking TRILLIONS here. Shouldn’t the banks be bankrupt, or are they, and we just don’t know it? Can someone enlighten me?

Question: What about homeowners who have lost 40-60% of their home’s value?  In many cases this represented the major portion of their net worth.

What next?

jaxon

Dude! Board of Directors NOT surfboard.

By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
Updated 6/13/2011 7:31 PM

U.S. funding for future promises lags by trillions

The federal government’s financial condition deteriorated rapidly last year, far beyond the $1.5 trillion in new debt taken on to finance the budget deficit, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

The government added $5.3 trillion in new financial obligations in 2010, largely for retirement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

That brings to a record $61.6 trillion the total of financial promises not paid for.

This gap between spending commitments and revenue last year equals more than one-third of the nation’s gross domestic product.

Medicare alone took on $1.8 trillion in new liabilities, more than the record deficit prompting heated debate between Congress and the White House over lifting the debt ceiling.

• STORY: Government’s mountain of debt

Social Security added $1.4 trillion in obligations, partly reflecting longer life expectancies. Federal and military retirement programs added more to the financial hole, too.

Corporations would be required to count these new liabilities when they are taken on — and report a big loss to shareholders. Unlike businesses, however, Congress postpones recording spending commitments until it writes a check.

The $61.6 trillion in unfunded obligations amounts to $528,000 per household. That’s more than five times what Americans have borrowed for everything else — mortgages, car loans and other debt. It reflects the challenge as the number of retirees soars over the next 20 years and seniors try to collect on those spending promises.

“The (federal) debt only tells us what the government owes to the public. It doesn’t take into account what’s owed to seniors, veterans and retired employees,” says accountant Sheila Weinberg, founder of the Institute for Truth in Accounting, a Chicago-based group that advocates better financial reporting. “Without accurate accounting, we can’t make good decisions.”

Michael Lind, policy director at the liberal New America Foundation‘s economic growth program, says there is no near-term crisis for federal retirement programs and that economic growth will make these programs more affordable.

_____________________________________________

“The false claim that Social Security and Medicare are about to bankrupt the United States has been repeated for decades by conservatives and libertarians who pretend that their ideological opposition to these successful and cost-effective programs is based on worries about the deficit,” he says.

USA TODAY has calculated federal finances based on standard accounting rules since 2004 using data from the Medicare and Social Security annual reports and the little-known audited financial report of the federal government.

The government has promised pension and health benefits worth more than $700,000 per retired civil servant. The pension fund’s key asset: federal IOUs.