A Dallas jury, a week ago, caused a mistrial in the government case against this country’s largest Islamic charity. The action raises a defiant fist on the sinking ship of American democracy.
If we lived in a state where due process and the rule of law could curb the despotism of the Bush administration, this mistrial might be counted a victory. But we do not. The jury may have rejected the federal government’s claim that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development funneled millions of dollars to Middle Eastern terrorists. It may have acquitted Mohammad el-Mezain, the former chairman of the foundation, of virtually all criminal charges related to funding terrorism (the jury deadlocked on one of the 32 charges against el-Mezain), and it may have deadlocked on the charges that had been lodged against four other former leaders of the charity, but don’t be fooled. This mistrial will do nothing to impede the administration’s ongoing contempt for the rule of law. It will do nothing to stop the curtailment of our civil liberties and rights. The grim march toward a police state continues.
Constitutional rights are minor inconveniences, noisome chatter, flies to be batted away on the steady road to despotism. And no one, not the courts, not the press, not the gutless Democratic opposition, not a compliant and passive citizenry hypnotized by tawdry television spectacles and celebrity gossip, seems capable of stopping the process. Those in power know this. We, too, might as well know it.
The Bush administration, which froze the foundation’s finances three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and indicted its officials three years later on charges that they provided funds for the militant group Hamas, has ensured that the foundation and all other Palestinian charities will never reopen in the United States. Any organized support for Palestinians from within the U.S. has been rendered impossible. The goal of the Israeli government and the Bush administration-despite the charade of peace negotiations to be held at Annapolis-is to grind defiant Palestinians into the dirt. Israel, which has plunged the Gaza Strip into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, has now begun to ban fuel supplies and sever electrical service. The severe deprivation, the Israelis hope, will see the overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza and the reinstatement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has become the Marshal Pétain of the Palestinian people.
The Dallas trial-like all of the major terrorism trials conducted by this administration, from the Florida case against the Palestinian activist Dr. Sami al-Arian, which also ended in a mistrial, to the recent decision by a jury in Chicago to acquit two men of charges of financing Hamas-has been a judicial failure. William Neal, a juror in the Dallas trial, told the Associated Press that the case “was strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence.”
Such trials, however, have been politically expedient. The accusations, true or untrue, serve the aims of the administration. A jury in Tampa, Chicago or Dallas can dismiss the government’s assaults on individual rights, but the draconian restrictions put in place because of the mendacious charges remain firmly implanted within the system. It is the charges, not the facts, which matter.
Dr. al-Arian, who was supposed to have been released and deported in April, is still in a Virginia prison because he will not testify in a separate case before a grand jury. The professor, broken by the long ordeal of his trial and unable to raise another million dollars in legal fees for a retrial, pleaded guilty to a minor charge in the hopes that his persecution would end. It has not. Or take the case of Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who in 2002 was spirited away by Homeland Security from JFK Airport to Syria, where he spent 10 months being tortured in a coffin-like cell. He was, upon his release, exonerated of terrorism. Arar testified before a House panel this month about how he was abducted by the U.S. and interrogated, stripped of his legal rights and tortured. But he couldn’t testify in person. He spoke to the House members on a video link from Canada. He is forbidden by Homeland Security to enter the United States because he allegedly poses a threat to national security.
Those accused of being involved in conspiracies and terrorism plots, as in all police states, become nonpersons. There is no rehabilitation. There is no justice.
“He was never given a hearing nor did the Canadian consulate, his lawyer, or his family know of his fate,” Amnesty International wrote of Arar. “Expulsion in such circumstances, without a fair hearing, and to a country known for regularly torturing their prisoners, violates the U.S. Government’s obligations under international law, specifically the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.”
You can almost hear Dick Cheney yawn.
The Bush administration shut down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development six years ago and froze its assets. There was no hearing or trial. It became a crime for anyone to engage in transactions with the foundation. The administration never produced evidence to support the charges. It did not have any. In the “war on terror,” evidence is unnecessary. An executive order is enough. The foundation sued the government in a federal court in the District of Columbia. Behind closed doors, the government presented secret evidence that the charity had no opportunity to see or rebut. The charity’s case was dismissed.
The government has closed seven Muslim charities in the United States and frozen their assets. Not one of them, or any person associated with them, has been found guilty of financing terrorism. They will remain shut. George W. Bush can tar any organization or individual, here or abroad, as being part of a terrorist conspiracy and by fiat render them powerless. He does not need to make formal charges. He does not need to wait for a trial verdict. Secret evidence, which these court cases have exposed as a sham, is enough. The juries in Tampa, Chicago and Dallas did their duty. They spoke for the rights of citizens. They spoke for the protection of due process and the rule of law. They threw small hurdles in front of the emergent police state. But the abuse rolls on. I fear terrorism. I know it is real. I am sure terrorists will strike again on American soil. But while terrorists can wound and disrupt our democracy, only we can kill it.
Chris Hedges, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, is the author of “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.“
©2007 TruthDig.com
Any revolution talk is really just nonsense. It will be crushed in an instant, as will the people who lead it.
Well said, Chris.
But let’s make explicit what’s implicit in your piece. Given a connected laptop and 30 minutes or less, anybody can learn how frighteningly far along the road to a police state the US has come.
Where’s the outcry? Where are the outraged questions to prospective candidates? Where are the millions of protest letters to the Dept of Justice, to the President, to members of Congress, to the TV networks, to local radio & TV stations and newspapers?
They are few and far between. It’s not just the Bush administration. Most of the US population is yawning along with Cheney.
Most of the US population will never see this story. You won’t see much about it in the corporate press. A search in my local paper’s website (www.denverpost.com) found a very brief article that focused more on an odd detail of how the verdict was delivered. Any implications as to the rejection of the US case was not in the article.
And if you did see it and know the implications from reading between the lines of the US corporate press, would you write a protest letter? Would you really believe the Justice Dept would care that you sent them a protest letter? Would you believe the President would? Or any of the members of Congress who routinely rubber-stamp such police state actions and who would never speak up on something like this. Would you believe the corporate press would care what you think about this?
So, why bother to write letters when you know the outcome? Its plain in this country that no one would care if you did write the protest letters.
I would like to see the people of Iowa and NH ask about this to the candidates. After all, they are the only people who actually get to talk to the candidates sometimes and ask questions. By the time the campaign moves beyond those states, it will all just be TV ads and press conferences at the airport when the candidates touch down for a short time.
There is a minority in the US that is racist and anti-Muslim enough to support the US govt on this. But don’t assume most Americans would. If most Americans saw this article and had the case presented to them in this fashion, they’d be a bit alarmed about the actions of their government. Which is exactly why the case is presented like this (http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_7253340) hidden in the bottom of a newspaper somewhere.
Serious question to historians out there: How were other Fascist states stopped? From within, or from the outside? Is there any reason to think it’ll be different for the US?
COMarc:
There’s nothing to stop millions of Americans from reading this piece, or hundreds like it. There’s nothing to stop millions of Americans from reading outside the corporate media.
Nothing, that is, except conformist credulity.
Yes, a couple of million letters to the White House, a few thousand letters to your senator, a march of a million or so to the Lincoln Memorial … any and all of those would make a difference. Not enough citizens care enough to make it happen.
More great news from Dallas: after twenty years working and flying for the same company out of DFW, my brother is now on a “watch list” and gets to spend lots of extra time hanging with TSA patriots before every flight. Of course, they don’t know nothing about no list… Now, when he’s delayed, he has the choice of either telling his boss that he’s on a government watch list - always a career booster - or lying, which, as a rule, he does not do.
Dallas, and America, will be all better once the Loonitary Decider opens his “Freedom Institute” dealybob thingamajig just down the street from Piggies Pies and Bubba’s BBQ Shack…
KaneJeeves:
Nazi Germany’s totalitarianism was subdued from without, a fate that’s not unthinkable for the United States if it continues bullying the rest of the world. How long before the other major powers have their fill and decide that war against the U.S. is the lesser of two evils, the other being to continue tolerating its behavior?
The Soviet Union’s totalitarianism largely did itself in by crushing the spirit of its people by inflicting terror upon the citizens and depriving them of freedom and economic opportunities. The last few decades of the Soviet Union were marked by the apathy of the public, an apathy of which the elite seemed largely unaware. The Soviets supposedly used to joke of their masters that, “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.” The factors that led to the demise of the Soviet Union are evident in the U.S. today, and increasingly, so is the apathy.
Chinese totalitarianism is alive and well and, ironically, it’s also where the U.S. may be headed. The Chinese started out communist, added a little capitalism, and ended up fascist. The U.S. started out capitalist (in reality, fascist-lite), added a little socialism and a little totalitarianism, and ended up overtly fascist.
pzbrawl:
I think Americans are content to be entertained by corporate/mainstream media because they’re basically lazy. It takes some small effort to browse the Internet for alternative news. It takes still more effort to try to understand what one is reading and connect the dots, so to speak. It’s far easier to vegetate in front of the TV and be mesmerized by pseudo-news. As long as there are plenty of sporting events, auto races, and American Idol’s to watch – i.e. circuses – not to mention plenty of fast food and junk food to eat, the people are content.
I also think Americans have been cowed into submission. These highly publicized cases of people being tried in kangaroo courts, brutalized, tasered, and killed by cops, and held incommunicado in Guantanamo have successfully sent the message to Americans that they risk everything if they don’t submit to authority.
And finally, there’s the old head-in-the-sand trick. Most people would rather do that than fill their heads with troubling news, especially if they feel powerless to do anything about it.
Dave
that’s what im sayin… A domestic revolution will be crushed-mostly because, 95% of the country doesn’t have the cojones to fight it, or contribute to it.
Forces outside the US will have to beat the imperialism back. Thanks to the neo-con fascists, America has been gradually been isolating itself internationally, while alienating traditional allies.
Placing our vast military abroad is a key tactical error on part of the Neo-cons. An American military at home cannot be beaten, and imagine the uprising if anyone tried to attack/invade the US- people would line up in droves to defend the US and their homes.
If the current abroad military is defeated, there will most likely be little to no outcry from the American public. The war doesn’t really affect them. Nevertheless, a defeat of the current military will have a two pronged affect, erosion of US power internationally, and given rise to other powers.
Which is why I can’t understand why the Neo-cons are intent on running this country and it’s military into the ground with their crazy agenda. They’re going to get us defeated. There’s something strange going on. It doesn’t seem right that they’d try to manipulate us into a third world war, they don’t have the public support and they know they won’t get it.
My best guess is along the lines that the dollar is collapsing, along with other signs of economic disaster. This coupled with the vastly sweeping and increasing signs of the police state, spying, quelching of dissent, curbs on civil liberties, centralization of executive power. They must know that a collapse of the American economy is not that far off- and they’re doing everything they can to prepare for the backlash.
mastershake:
I think you are correct that all the repressive laws passed in the last few years, not to mention the detention camps built by Halliburton, are meant to cope with economic collapse here in the U.S. These laws and facilities aren’t meant for terrorists or invading illegal aliens; they are meant to deal with unruly Americans who lose their jobs, their houses, and have no food to eat. I believe this turmoil is coming. In fact, we may be in the midst of the beginning of it, what with foreclosures skyrocketing, oil and food prices soaring, the dollar plummeting, and companies starting to lay people off.
Dave
Thanks DaveEriqat. And I think you hit the nail on the head about Americans. No deeper analysis is needed. I’ve seen peoples eyes glaze over if I even mention in a neutral fashion something like Iraq, or “executive orders”. But mention some TV show and they light right up. It’s safe territory.
DaveEriqat:
Yep, junk education, junk news and junk entertainment reassure consumers of that drivel that they are “free” in the world’s “greatest” country. Horrifying.
I am not certain that the bushit government could quell any sort of mass (or even small mass) uprising. They have so bankrupted the country, that even their private mercenaries are bailing. Maybe this is just wishful thinking, but maybe darth cheneybush will soon be struggling for breath. They really do not see how bankrupt, morally, physically, and spiritually, they truly are.
“I fear terrorism. I know it is real. I am sure terrorists will strike again on American soil. But while terrorists can wound and disrupt our democracy, only we can kill it.”
here again we have someone who is either unable or unwilling to draw parallels between the term “terrorist: the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion ” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrorist and the current administration.
acts of terrorism ARE occuring EVERYDAY!!!! on american soil. the terrorists are the cancer that feeds on the LIFE blood of AMERICA. WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!!
in the case of g.w. bush and the meaning of “terrorism”, if it LOOKS like a lame duck and QUACKS like a lame duck, it’s either a duck or a terrorist in a clever disguise.
And then there are the people (many of my friends) who “just want to be happy” and don’t want to talk, or think about negative things because it “brings them down” and they get annoyed at me for bringing up any serious issues. They say that I should lighten up and stop reading all these “negative things” and should stop going to political meetings and protests, etc. Life is short, they say, so why dwell on anything negative? aaaagggghhhhhh!!!!!
I just finished carrying a sign at an anti-war protest here in Canada: “USA has mad cowboy disease”. Got a few smiles and thumbs up from passers-by and a few dirty looks.
There are many types of revolution…strikes, various passive resistance methods, civil disobedience et al. A blood letting revolution should obviously be the last resort of a civilized citizenry. Will it come to that? Who knows. One would certainly hope not. Let’s not forget that America was formed with blood letting and it hasn’t stopped since. But, given the present tyrannical leadership with the same in sight, it may be necessary. It’s certainly a gruesome possibility that we would all rather avoid. But, can we? We MUST try every method…and sincerely, genuinely…before the last resort. I’ve proposed a People’s Referendum”…an attempt, in essence, to recall the entire corrupt government. If the majority of the population of this United States DEMAND that the present government step down, what choice do they have against those kind of numbers? It’s an idea.
I think people have to experience things personally before they begin paying attention. In Ontario Canada in the 90’s a Conservative victory followed the slogan “The Common Sense Revolution”. Phrases such as “Welfare Bums” became common and accepted. Promises were made by the Conservative Party to cut way back on social programs. My older sister was an ensthusiastic backer of these ideas. That is until it hit home. The cuts hit senior citizen care and the homes for the eldery suddenly found themselves unable to provide the care necessary. Less nurses, caregivers, janitors etc. Our mother was one of those affected by the cuts which also hit the schools, water quality inspections and on and on. The Walkerton E-Coli tragedy caused many deaths and sickness. “We” became “Them” and “They” became “Us”. It had become personal. We all were Welfare Bums. Shortly after, the Conservative Party was voted out of office but it has taken many years for things to return to normal.
Having been in Bolivia when successful national strikes have been carried out, I often fantasize about their application - and probable outcome - in the U.S. The foregone conclusion is that we would be killed, arrested, fired or otherwise destroyed. America was formed, as Willybill states, with bloodletting, yet it has always and will always use those of us without great wealth as merely expendable fodder. While it would be nice if people communicated these ideas outside of this forum and tuned out the MSM, the result won’t change. U.S. is far down the slippery slope of fascist totalitarianism.
WAKE UP CONGRESS. IMPEACH THESE NAZIS.
whenscott,
“U.S. is far down the slippery slope of fascist totalitarianism.”
I began moving left as Bill Clinton & the DLC took the Dems toward the right, with his “100,000 new cops” program, as well as the enthusiastic participation of the Justice Department in the “war on drugs,” which helped acclimate americans to assaults on their civil liberties in the name of protecting us. Under Lewis Lapham’s editorship, Harper’s magazine chronicled the destruction of the Fourth Amendment. Any candidate who would seriously discuss restoring civil liberties & ending the war on drugs or the WOT would be shut out as immediately as, say, Kucinich .
I am so sick of these willy nilly folks who insist that because the Americans are so lazy, fat, over-entertained, and under-informed, they will never revolutionize or at least start a revolutionary movement in earnest. Listen, and listen good:
NO REVOLUTION IN HISTORY WAS STARTED BY EVERYBODY ALL AT ONCE! REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS BEGIN BECAUSE OF SMALL GROUPS OF HIGHLY INFORMED AND FOCUSED INDIVIDUALS WHO MAKE A DECISION NOT TO ACCEPT THE BULLSHIT OFFICIAL STORY! When informed people, like those who read Common Dreams, come on here and bitch and moan about why a revolutionary movement will not succeed are nothing more than cop-outs! Just admit what you are!
I will admit right here and now that while I cannot talk directly about the folks I am working with, there are folks who are talking about very big things; very empowering things that involve reviving the middle class in this country and the social democratic economics that must be in place to do it. These are people in powerful positions that have the ability to gain interest from very large amounts of people. Bottom line is leadership. Who, of all of us informed and active people are going to stand up and take on the leadership roles necessary to build a movement?
Deal with that question before you start talking about what will NOT work. It is the worship of individualism that has killed this country, from the get-go. It’s time to think as a community, a society, and a demos. But it will start with small, focused groups of informed and active individuals.
When the lazy, over-entertained masses see folks like us making business as usual impossible, they will take note. We must actually stop the various machines from operating on a regular basis, until people realize that something planned and intensive is going on. The peaceful vigils will continue as well, but there must be people unafraid - without weapons - to effectively throw their bodies upon the cogs of the machine, to stop it from working! When this happens, the depoliticized and uncaring masses will start to feel the pangs of guilt by association. But most importantly, they will begin to feel that their privileged place in this world is no longer just, and they will join the rising tide of discontent. That’s how revolutions begin! Romantic? No, just reality.
More than two million people are held in U.S. prisons and jails. The jails do not resemble the jail on Andy of Mayberry. They mirror what you read about in novels like “1984″ and “Fahrenheit 451.” They are Orwellian dehumanization facilities, and are employed in a grossly disproportionate manner against people of color.
The charge has mattered more than the verdict for the overwhelming majority of people for many, many years. If you don’t know that it just means that no one in your family or immediate circle of friends has been unlucky enough to get ensnared in the teeth of the monster.
Defense attorneys expect cash in advance in the mid six figures to say hello. You don’t have $50,000 cash laying around?
Get ready for a few years in a steel cage shitting in the same fixture you brush your teeth over, and don’t expect toothpaste, shampoo or privacy. And when you get out your resume says “Slave laborer only.”
That’s FIVE figures, sorry.
In the jurisdiction where I live the last time the District Attorney had to run for reelection he campaigned on the fact that since the previous election he had brought 1006 criminal charges and only 6 had gone to trial. The rest had been “settled.” So much for the right to trial by jury of your peers as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Settled in most cases means the defendant was threatened until he pleaded guilty, knowing full well that an actual defense was so expensive it was either completely beyond their means or not worth the huge expenditure it would entail. Prosecutors are out of control all across the U.S.A.
I agree with Leobixby. It is hard to read that we have already lost when we have not begun to resist.
There are many methods for bringing about change. The first of which is identifying the need for it. Many of those lazy, over entertained, underinformed Americans do not recognize that our basic human rights are eroding before our eyes. Many do not care, as long as they have their triple Wopper with cheese, and a nice SUV to drive thru with. Others are busy earning enough money to keep their families fed and housed.
The media is not only not helping to inform, but intentionally obfuscating. Step one of the next revolution is to educate the masses. Step two can go a hundred different ways. But until the average self proclaimed christian understands that things are not going well in Murka, there will be no change. Objective: Prompt the media to report news that is worthy of the average citizen’s attention, not faux news that promotes the status quo or scares us into giving up more human rights. How do we accomplish this? WE make it a business. Write those letters to advertisers, instead of CONgress. Let the manufacturers know that we will not be purchasing their goods until the media on which they advertise begin doing their jobs. The bottom line is this is all about money. If we make it cost them money, their unity will waver, their capability to coordinate and make laws and buy elections will fade. Their grip on our American experiment will slip. Withhold your money from the wealthiest corporations. It’s they that control you and your “S”elected officials.
KaneJeeves - “And I think you hit the nail on the head about Americans. No deeper analysis is needed. I’ve seen peoples eyes glaze over if I even mention in a neutral fashion something like Iraq, or “executive orders”. But mention some TV show and they light right up. It’s safe territory.” So, so, so true. You cannot engage people in real issues. They don’t want to hear about it, think about it or especially, talk about it. — Sad state of affairs.
When the student is ready the master will appear. People are still asleep because things are not yet bad enough. When this site is shut down, we are identified, and tied to a water board, when people YOU know start to disappear and nobody will talk about it, when, on your way to work, you see front doors standing open, belongings strewn all over the lawn, then it will be bad enough.
It will also be too late.
leobixby: Boy, do I wish I could share your optimism that a movement could reignite in this country. What I fear is that another terror attack or a financial debacle will happen before the movement you speak of can get underway. It is true that people with influence are starting to take public stands. Sean Penn is one example. A more recent one is Naomi Wolf author of “The End of America.” But an indisputable truth is that the majority of Americans feel disempowered and demoralized by forces they believe are beyond the reach of ordinary citizens. I think that the possibility of full-fledged fascism here is now about 80% or more. We are one big terror attack or financial meltdown away from that threshhold. It was so much easier to overcome individualism in the 60’s and 70’s, but now social isolation is well-entrenched in American society. How do you get people to realize that there is an alternative to extreme individualism when there are few models out there for them to learn from? Social democracy is a non-category here. People have never heard of the term and for a reason. They are not supposed to know about it.
THIS thread reminds me of an edgy interview an angry jimmy baldwin gave after a disappointing meeting he had with the putatively liberal atty gen,bobby kennedy,in the aftermath of some long ago alabama church bombing,or other sordid jim crow atrocity.he sniffed that the average black child knows as a five year old,what the white boy learns at thirty-that life is needlessly brutal,and unjust-and then you die.the latter is shocked into psychodrama,and psychotherepy.on some level we all know that we are not afraid of the police state per se-for blacks,native americans,and hispanics this has always been a police state.no,we are afraid, to paraphrase bill kunstler,that step by step ,this time the state may be targeting us.just rachet down the histrionics-if the bushies were facists,even nice california surfer facists,let alone nazis,you would not be reading this ’cause the common dreamers would be bustin’ rocks somewhere.please don’t make our current predicament out to be worse than it actually is.nihilism isn’t the answer.peace.
Rush Limbaugh’s greatest crime against American Democracy is that he convinced everyone that it’s impossible to have a civilized and respectful conversation about politics.
We’re no longer willing to speak frankly with our co-workers, neighbors, and fellow churchgoers, because we expect the discourse to degenerate into a melee of shouting and ridicule.
But speak we must. The apathetic majority doesn’t read the blogs, or even the letters to the editor. But they are influenced by those who personally demonstrate faith in their convictions.
If we cannot talk to our neighbors about what we learn here on CommonDreams, then we’re just wasting our time.
We can’t win a frontal assault agains the MSM, but we can win a “stealth” campaign to activate our fellow citizens, one person at a time.
I know it sounds trite… but “Think Globally, Act Locally” really is the way to go.
When Americans saw that nothing would be done, they began to lose heart… and their identity. Nevertheless we felt that eventually something would be done. When it became too much … that was more than enough… we all saw that there had been plenty of cause for something to be done yet still it wasn’t. Americans then began retreating from whom we thought we were. It has been too much and too often and still nothing is done about it… took away our understanding of who we are. Worse it has scared us badly.
The land of the free became the land of warrantless searches, data mining, royal decrees … um… I mean signing statements, corruption unchecked much less punished, tax cuts for the wealthy even when troops needed body armor, enron, exxon and haliburton war profiteering, billions in actual cash sent to Iraq but no records kept of where it went, we are told the throne can suspend a citizen’s rights and nothing was done and on and on… and nothing was done … or IS done. We lost the sense of what it meant to be free. Freedom redefined …becomes something other than what it was dosn’t it?
… and home of the brave? Everyone sees we grow afraid more and more. Are we a nation of law yet still? We could impeach over a personal indiscretion but not all this? We grow afraid.
You say you want a revolution… but what you really want is for an impeachment process to be initiated. That would restore our faith in ourselves and in our laws and in our democracy. Without it we increasingly grow disheartened as nothing is done and our cherished beliefs in who we are become unsustainable. So we retreat because in fact we aren’t that dumb and know it is long past that something should’ve been done.
The only fear we need fear is … fear of our own freedoms.
… and that nothing will be done about losing them too.
No… again. Any revolution is destined to be crushed. you’re wasting you’re time.
OK, enough with the “we’re all doomed, everybody in the US is a pathetic sheep” BS. Take a look at the polls, my friends - people are fed up.
In terms of what the multitude in the US believes: actually, most people tend towards progressive values, unless they’ve been completely cowed into submission by Big Brother-like fear-mongering. Also, ditto to what Dodger Dave said - the kind of nihilism that is rooted in despair is more well-suited to “solving” problems with a bottle or a school massacre then effective social change. The best agents of true social change, including revolutionary social change, have *always* had great hope and love for humanity. Not sometimes, not on occasion - ALWAYS. Cheer up, peoples - hope is on the way.
Bugsbbunny, You said it best, right on dude!
Our country has been hijacked by the corporations. No more more democracy, no more constitution.
RUN, DON’T WALK, TO THE BOOK STORE AND GET
“BLESSED UNREST ” (THE STORY OF THE BIGGEST MASS MOVEMENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD) by
Paul Hawken
!!!!!!!
read and pass it around! you will not be disappointed
Mastershake: I rest my case. You have already given up. You, my friend, are a major part of the problem. There are only six degrees of separation as they say. Strong actions on your behalf can have profound effects upon a profound number of people, but only if you are brave enough to tell the fear to go fuck itself, dig? Whether everything has to come crashing down first, or people eventually wake up before the shit really hits the fan, this country will revolutionize, as will many others across the globe. If we do indeed have to be totally defeated before we revolutionize, we will not give you any credit for being right. Instead, we will simply pass you buy as one of the losers who helped to make things worse.
I pity you.
Want a good scare? Read the text of HR1955, that describes the fear that domestic or “home grown” terrorists are having on our oppressors (oops, I mean leaders). I guess that they’re afraid there might be some backlash when enough Americans are homeless, broke and hungry. With the dollar on the decline and all this Bushit about WWIII, it could happen any time soon. Those camps that Halliburton has built are not for illegal aliens. They’re for us.
As Jack Nicholson once said,”Maybe this is as good as it gets!
Strikes work. Stay home from work. Agree on a day.
Gandhi tried this revolution thing, didn’t he? What did it accomplish? FUCK ALL!
The british didn’t leave india because Gandhi gave them a hug and made them cry, the british left because some bureaucrat decided india was worthless.
After 50 years of independence, guess what?? India STILL IS WORTHLESS! Only a small proportion of its people are even able to feed themselves.
And what did the indians do after the british left? Live peaceful happy, prosperous lives? Fuck no! Like the tribal, worthless idiots they are, they start a civil war that partitions the country!
All Gandhi accomplished was to offer a mirage for hippies and other suggestible people (like myself) that the human race may be lifted above savagery, brutality, ignorance and grinding poverty and misery.
Only a minority of the human species aspires to enhance and lift the human existence up spiritually. Only a minority understands human dignity and beauty. The most beautiful things are also the most vulnerable, and sadly, it is the seers, thinkers, artists and creators that are thrown into the fire first by the multitude of dangerous, weaponized apes we are forced to share this planet with.
The best you can do is live day to day, and try to make and leave something beautiful for alien archaeologists to find eons from now after the extinction of the human species, so they too may say “what a wonderful civilisation full of gifted people must have once lived here”, as we now say of the Mayans and others.
bastard_lunatic:
Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Argentina…
restive:
Thats an excellent list. Maybe human evolution will favour robust social structures that can adapt intelligently and efficiently without collapsing.
On too rare an occasion, intelligent and inspiring leaders have existed in history and tried to create this and protect its legacy.
George Washington and Ataturk come to mind. They both secured a constitution demanding an educated and empowered citizenry as the key to improving the world.
However, what the father secures and teaches, in time, the sons too often squander, debase and destroy.
The lesson waiting to be learned is that even if you spend decades of your life heroically building a grand edifice and temple to glorify and free mankind, lesser people, greedy, brutal, honourless people, left free to rampage unchecked, will ruin and debase it given enough time.
Give it 200 years, and you end up with a deeply humiliating George Bush in charge of a country that was once admired by the world.
bastard_lunatic,
thanks for your reply. you say, “Give it 200 years, and you end up with a deeply humiliating George Bush in charge of a country that was once admired by the world.” this brings to mind a William Morris quote:
“Men (sic) fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and then it turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name.”
Also, I don’t think the solution is building edifices, but building a sustainable culture of resistance that is rooted in raised consciousness. That way, if whatever methodologies of organization we implement fall, we can continue. It ain’t called “lucha” for nothing…
Ahem…
This is the revolution, right here and right now. It started in the 1980’s when Reagan began buying radio stations. You should know that whoever controls the information has an advantage. Remember, the revolution will not be televised. Ring any bells?
bastard_lunatic,
Good screen name; would be good for a candidate, too.
I’ve changed mine to KindandSane - just to create polarity balance.
If we ran with these two names as a 3rd party ticket, we’d have all of the voters’ emotional needs covered. Pretty much, anyway….
Whad’ya think?
PS - doesn’t matter to me who takes the Prez slot.
How many people are in the U.S.A.? In the neighborhood of three hundred million, isn’t it? And if only half of the eligble voters exercise their right to vote, then how many of the disaffected are young men and women with a conscience who are physically and mentally able to fight?
When Fidel Castro sailed into Cuba on the yacht Granma with his eighty men they were going to war against a modern army, navy and air force which was supplied and trained by the U.S. They were discovered as they made their way to shore and were ambushed soon after, losing most of their force. When the scattered remnants of the guerrilla force managed to meet up on a farm a couple of days later they had a dozen or so men and seven rifles and do you know what Fidel said when he saw that they managed to keep seven rifles? “Now we’ll win for sure!”
Anyone who is serious about revolution should be preparing themselves by getting their homes independant of the power grid and securing food and water supplies because the way the system is set up now those resources could be shut off in a twinkle. That should probably be done anyway, independant of any revolutionary mindedness, because a severe drought seems to be setting in over the U.S. and, if it’s anything like the one that until recently afflicted Cuba, it could hang around for years and the crops will wilt and the U.S. will have to start taking their nuke plants off-line. And, at all times, be prepared for any trigger which will obligate the revolution to get started in earnest, such as the government instituting a draft, because you know for sure that they have been monitoring just about everybody and whoever they think could possibly be a threat to them would most certainly find themselves in the front line of the fading empire’s new war. It would be like when that legion rebelled against Caesar until they got better pay and food. Like he said himself, he acceded to their demands and then kept putting them in the most hazardous positions until they were all used up.
A good article, and some thoughtful comments above, -in amongst the others!
Meanwhile, back in Toytown, DC:
“More than 3,400 evangelical Christians have arrived in Washington to lobby lawmakers as part of the first annual summit of Christians United for Israel.”
read the full article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5193092.stm
-and be amazed…
… at how very, VERY brainwashed people can still be so very lost, that they give even a scintilla of credence to the likes of some dummy-head evanjello ‘pastor’ such as this ‘Pastor Hagee’ zombie, and wish to support the darkness that is Israel, -come what may…
And yes, the book *Blessed Unrest* by Paul Hawken is an inspiration!
-for reviews see:
http://www.amazon.com/Blessed-Unrest-Largest-Movement-Coming/dp/0670038520
I’m not so optimistic that Americans will ever “rise up” against this cancerous tyranny. They are too docile. Yes, before they will even consider such action they will have to be touched personally: by seeing someone they know thrown in prison, by themselves ending up living on the street, or by themselves being abused one too many times by the authorities. But as some here have pointed out, by the time that revelation occurs to very many Americans it will probably be too late. The government is working overtime laying the groundwork for a repressive, total control state.
And one more thing to keep in mind, and this is perhaps the most important thing. A large percentage of Americans possess authoritarian personalities and will be perfectly happy to witness the government cracking down on us hooligans, so long as the government leaves them be, which they can ensure by playing along with the government. In other words, those who profess adulation toward the government and its repressive policies will get along just fine. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who will do just that, perhaps more people than will resist. The rest of the people will simply ebb and flow with the tide of history.
Dave
Before Americans rise up to stop this “riding shotgun down the avalanche” there will be, I fear, thousands & thousands killed and\or in camps. This has been the case in every anti-dictatorial movement throughout history.
This article points out the cultural phenomena of indifference that is exhibited by many people who follow up on the choices given by a popularly mediated center; the many arenas of the press pass out ‘tickets’ of comfort which when ‘purchased’, allow the buyer to apply the salve to the higher powers of reason. Like a drug, this many scented balm lulls many folks into complacency; one can then work the daily routine with an almost smug attitude. “Politics is a game.” “All politicians are crooks, no use appealing to them.” “Yeah, write your Congressman: not!” We could all write similar platitudes heard daily on the street. The end result of this process is political inertia and cultural numbness.
An important point to note: the above process is a conscious process; the analogy to taking a drug is appropriate, the drug user knows exactly what the attendant scene involves. So with the purchaser of those ‘tickets’ mentioned already; a ‘medication’ is sought to ease the pain (pictures of slaughtered innocents); the press releases on divas steeped in wealth and pornography only serve to replace a diet that would otherwise allow the ‘buyer’ to view the painful reality of oppressive fascist forces. Once hooked on ‘news’ regarding sexcapades, the buyer can retreat over the rainbow.
I close with a quote:
A reasonably just and well-ordered democratic society might be possible, and . . . justice as fairness should have a special place among the political conceptions in
its political and social world . . . [M]any are prepared to accept the conclusion that a just and well-ordered democratic society is not possible, and even regard it as obvious. Isn’t admitting it part of growing up, part of the inevitable loss
of innocence? But is this conclusion one we can so easily accept?
The answer we give to the question of whether a just democratic society is possible and can be stable for the right reasons affects our background thoughts and attitudes about the world as a whole. And it affects these thoughts and attitudes before we come to actual politics, and limits or inspires how we take part in it. . . If we take for granted as common knowledge that a just and well-ordered democratic society is impossible, then the quality and tone of those
attitudes will reflect that knowledge. A cause of the fall of Weimar’s constitutional regime was that none of the traditional elites of Germany supported its constitution or were willing to cooperate to make it work. They no longer
believed a decent liberal parliamentary regime was possible. Its time had past.
The regime fell first to a series of authoritarian cabinet governments from 1930 to 1932. When these were increasingly weakened by their lack of popular support, President Hindenburg was finally persuaded to turn to Hitler, who had such support and whom conservatives thought they could control.
~ John Rawls “Political Liberalism” pg. lx
There is literally nothing that comes out of this administration that can be taken seriously let alone wholly believed! They lost all creditability years ago. When they talk about terrorist’s most of us are left to wonder what they are talking about? If they are talking about a real live bona fide terrorist’s or what the Bush administration has deemed a terrorist organization? These people have thrown the word out there so many times and so abused it’s use in furthering their own agenda. Most of us are left to wonder if any of them have a clue what a terrorist is anymore. Or they deem anyone who doesn’t agree with their right wing rhetoric as a terrorist. I really don’t think they do! Maybe the Charity provided funds to Hamas maybe they didn’t who the hell knows? The point is our own government can not be relied upon to tell us the truth anymore. They twist the facts to suit their own sick agenda. It is always colored to suit the point they want to get across. I listened last night for a few minutes to one of the talking heads on Fox News. They were talking about Islamofascism that is seeping into our colleges. Students apparently booed at David Horowitz. These people were truly horrified by this happening. Well, if they would stop and think about it where do they think this influence has come from? It has come from our government having lied to us so many times what comes out of their mouths isn’t remotely believable anymore. People have grown extremely cynical about what they have to say. Most of us don’t buy a word of their rhetoric. Most college students are not seeing the horrible Islamic Extremist’s as a threat anymore. Any educated person knows the biggest threat we have is right in our own back yard from the Fascist nuts who are in power! Most college students are brighter than the ‘right wing nuts’ give them credit for being. They can see very clearly who the enemy is in the story. They aren’t like the rednecks who spend their days getting a fix of Rush venom just to make it through the day. Who swallow their rants whole and aren’t educated enough to see through the rhetoric. So in so many words they are the ones who are to blame for it happening. They have desensitized us with threats of another 9/11 and terrorist coming to our shores where anything they have to say on the subject is rendered moot!!!!! So they are the ones who are to blame for the problem if it actually is one.
Bastard Lunatic: It is clear that you cite India out of total ignorance and bias. Ghandi not only accomplished a minor revolution, but created a seat at the table for himself and several others. And those seats were directly relevant to the British deciding to leave India. Furthermore, his actions were by no means as safe as the actions frequently taken by American peace protesters, for example. Here, folks sit in vigils singing folk songs and shit, and expect a bunch of fascists in the White House to take notice. That kind of stuff only matters to the fascists when EVERYONE is doing it. That’s why Ghandi led peaceful marches fearlessly into places and situations that were far from safe. Peaceful, but quite dangerous. People died, regularly, and yet he still marched down to the salt flats. You need to rent the movie Ghandi at the very least.
What happened after that is another discussion. It truly seems that what you are saying is that revolutions are pointless, because countries that revolutionize always end up just as fucked as they were before the revolution. How convenient an outlook! You are like those folks who call themselves “realists”, when what they really are is “pessimists”. Optimism is practical, because it necessarily considers all methods and paths to success before thinking about what to do in case everything fails. Practical optimism would mean that, plus spending adequate time sorting out the possible pitfalls along the way. If we were all “practical optimists”, much more would be going on in this country.
I guess I’m wasting my breath, but I still feel the need to inform people like you that the effect that a small, focused, and highly informed group of people can have upon government and/or the society at large is boundless. The reason we no longer have that kind of activity in America is because we have been successfully sold the rotten logic that says we are powerless. The right wing has won over people like you, because you have admitted failure. That’s how they win.
You could say our culture is dying, and there comes a moment when all certainty of what we thought we knew, is swept away. Nothing works any more, no effort avails us, unexpected things happen, chaos is unleashed. We can become angry, rigid and obsessed, attempting the same efforts over and over. If the chaos extends more than a few hours or days, we become depressed (apathetic), even suicidal, or even homicidal.
I see this happening now, panic-driven homicide on a global scale. We are in a catastrophe, we are participating in a mass extinction event of all species that is in full swing already. All I can say right now, from my own experience, when things are looking dark and impossible, is to give up the result I want and become fascinated with the process instead.
I accept that change does not occur through a dialectical process, a conflict of opposites (i.e., protest), but through an attraction to higher levels of functioning. The most subversive activity to the status quo is the use of imagination. For me, change is inevitable and evolutionary, and I can be an agent of change by being utterly convinced there is another shore, and that we are moving toward it, carried by winds that we cannot see. When I indulge in self-pity, regrets, blame, or anger, I am tearing my own sails.
This is our opportunity for us to become stronger, more resourceful, more imaginative and creative, more response-able, and that strength is contagious. We discover the irrational truth of our own inner spirit that cannot be damaged or lost, our equality with each other.
When we see our place in the grand scheme of things, we are more likely to become active participants in solving what otherwise might seem to be overwhelming problems.
The analyses above are very interesting.
It is difficult for me to find a present or past social model that I can use for comparison in order to understand what is happening in today’s US Imperium.
I lived in Honduras for a couple of years and I can observe several similarities between that country and the US: fraudulent elections, two parties whose candidates run for and win elections and then forget the average person, a large mostly useless military, a great social divide between the haves and have-nots, rampant corruption and cronyism, a dysfunctional educational system, and cancerous environmental degradation.
However, in contrast, Honduras is filled with hundreds of civic organizations that regularly hit the streets, the depth and width of poverty is unbelievable, the country’s oligarchy does not possess a global network of military bases, client states and dependencies, Honduras does not regularly invade other nations, most people are still peasants, and its economy still depends on exporting only a few items.
Pre-nazi Weimar is evoked. But Weimar Germany
was the setting of lots of street politics. Each political party had its street protesters and fighters, its military was limited by Versailles (though the High Command got aroung some limits), Germany had very little international presence, and it possessed a large welfare state, efficient bureaucracy (that everyone admired), a great educational system, a highly functionally literate population, and a respect for craftmenship, learning and culture.
The only similarity between today’s US and late-Weimar is the increasing disconnect between the political elite and the general German population. Yet, even this isn’t quite similar. Because of proportional representation, Germans had the feeling that their votes counted.
Last, the world economic Depression was a major contribution to the collapse of Weimar.
And this economic shut down was related to Germany’s over-reliance on an export-oriented, industrial policy.
Last, one might compare today’s US to post-WWI Britain. Its antiquated industrial base was increasingly hollowed out, its steam-driven infrastructure was crumbling and out of date, the financial institutions became predominant, it possessed a global network of bases, client states and dependencies, Britain was involved in constant wars and occupations, its working class had been smashed and cowed by the aftermath of the general strike of 1924, the average Brit felt little affinity between the Liberal and Tory Parties (Labour had gained little political presence), and the pound sterling was starting to lose its position as the international trade currency.
London’s financial oligarchs pressed for Free Trade and economic Liberalism, and, as a result, England’s economy was losing out to the US and Germany. Any attempt at taxing the rich was violently attacked by the right-wing, penny dreadful MSM. (The first property tax imposed by the pressures of WWI was called the Red Tax.)
The public sphere was starved and its development was blocked by the oligarchs at every level. There was no public health, the workhouse was still in place (welfare reform?), and public schools were a joke.
I think if the UK didn’t have the US elite backing it during the two related world wars, England would probably have taken a more fascist route after the onset of the Great Depression.
In other words, it was the English elite instigating both world wars (they declared war on Germany both times) that helped reorganized the world economy for US hegemony and British support.
Very well stated “Davoid”. I think you have hit a very important point; that we are in a point in our history that is quite unlike other periods, in that we are faced with situations that call for new and unique approaches. I suggest, for one, that the labor and environmental movements should come together to fight for a more middle-class based approach to sustainable development. The environment is one issue that every human being can rally around, as are solid family-supporting middle class jobs. Just an idea.
What is so different about this age is that the whole world is able to discern the geopolitical situation in virtually real time and all nations are being forced to view the world community as a single, global, unit and they are being forced, by nature, to get their shit together and start acting like responsible people. While the population that currently inhabits this planet seems large at the moment, that amount of people is a hardly noticable blip in the fabric of future generations that will need to live on this small planet. To allow the kind of stupid human trash that currently is ruining this planet to continue forever as they are is not an option. So, prepare to defend yourselves.
Your culture is dying? Help us all and you’ll take us all down with it, globally. I see no other outcome here. A general strike is the answer. Worked in Poland. The government won’t shoot you for the comapny you work for but it can’t go unnoticed. Choose a day. Choose a day per week. Cripple the market or business then see if they listen.
Of course, there aren’t enough thinkers to do so. Most of society sleeps still and won’t wake up.
You need a new minutemen or new weathermen. Look those up.
Well some of you have it correct I’ve been saying for a long time their will not be another election for president. That the team we have in office in office good old Georgie boy and Dickie boy will be the last ones. As they will find a way to declare martial law and suspend our remaining constitutional rights for what they are now worth. (well they do look good on paper at least) As far at our military power status.Our ground force may be a bit depleted. However our Navy and Air Force Are still totally intact. Any country thinking about pissing us off just has to read about how a so called mistake was made by accidentally loading a group of nuclear armed cruse missiles aboard a B-52 for a trip across the states. If my memmory serves me correctly we did sign an arms treaty with USSR to remove such items from active inventory back in the early yo mid 80’s (SALT II).Yet we still have them in a flight ready configuration. Makes one wonder if that was a error or a message being subtly to someone. And our Trident submarines can reach out and touch anyone any where any time any place. And your friendly local yocals now can stock the newest thing in crowed control the new and exciting passive microwave skin heating device self contained in the back of a black Chevy saburin. And I total Agree with many of you as long as the masses are kept being feed with the tipple whopper’s and who ever is the next what ever on tv, they will be happy. Just don’t ask them to have to think about any thing hard about anything. That does bring the look of pain to their faces.
I read the jury had something like 400 pages and 279 charges to check off yes or no against each of the five individuals. What this case points out to me is the overzealous and crazed lawyer doused proescutors and DA’s and US Attourney’s who splay hundreds of arcane charges against defendants, then complain when the jury “doesn’t get it”.
I also take offense when the writer declares one guilty charge as inconsequential. It seems to me that if the stupid prosecutors controlled their raging superiority pile on stupidity, one charge is all that is really needed.
Nowadays, they reel out xxx many charges, then try to plead “the guilty” down to something unreasonable, but far less eggregious than the initial puffed up fairy tale the “legal beagles” birddog stand and point to.
This case points to the ridiculous insanity that our massively overcomplex and bureacucratic millionaire lawyers system has turned into.
No longer is truth and justice present, it’s the journey, not the destination.
Prosecutors and defense teams train in the psychological entrapments of the human mind, and if you read some of the recent famous cases, you clearly see the lawyers spewing lie after lie while the defnedants correct them from the stand.
The idea is, if you pretend and act like they are guilty of a thousand cuts, there is no way the jury can disagree. It’s a foolish and corrupt system, but by no means does it mean the defendants in this case were unaware of their support for terrorists (freedom fighters for them).
After US Johnny Sutton, Bush buddy, reeked his insane protection upon the 700 lb. foreign drug dealer, handed him a us taxpayer vehicle and free Sutton border pass, and incarcerated our upright and protective Border Guards, throwing away the key for a decade each, letting them get beat by imprisoned gang members to within an inch of their lives, and denying them medical services and tossing them in solitary “for their own good”… anything is possible.
When political cases rear their ugly heads, this place is no more or no less than Cuba or any other police state, it just has a very different face presented to the public, and the justice moves as a snails pace, but in the end, it isn’t much different.
Criminals get away with it, like in this case, and in the border case, and good people are belittled, harrassed, drained of life savings, spit upon in the press, and eventually imprisoned and forgotten about.
Crimes are becoming open and entrenched in the massive federal buraucracy that never change when administrations change their uncomplimentary .05% of people working in the system.
The machine rages on, and the misdeeds and angles and corruption is seething away, before and after every election, unhindered, and indeed helped, everytime the fake top guard switches places in this republic, and the entrenched can change and adjust any never do well issues they are currently perping upon the USA.
Well as far as I am concerned Mr. Hedges lost all his credibility with these words:
“I fear terrorism. I know it is real. I am sure terrorists will strike again on American soil.”
Yawn! What a bunch of crap! I am not afraid of terrorists, I am afraid of fascists and stupid sheeple who buy into fear mongering.
“Terrorism” is not the problem, it is not even a wart on the nose of the evil witch of the west. Chris Hedges and all who give credence to the myth that terrorism as something to be feared are merely shills for the global fascist corporatocracy. In the USA you have more chance of having your family die tomorrow in a car accident driving the kids to little league than of being the victim of terrorism. For cryiyng out loud, look at the rest of the world. The twin towers are not a pimple on the ass of the death and destruction that is wrought by corporations day in and day out in their never ending quest for new markets and cheap resources.
spaceridder,
You are mistaken. Giuliani will be the last president. George is tired of playing the role, especially since his advisers started warning him against playing dress-up too often. That was all he liked about the job. And if George goes, Dick goes, though Dick will do his best, in his own twisted way, to ease the pain of contemplating his impending death by ensuring that he will cause the demise of so many more before his last breath passes.
Many of us feel that a revolution in political power is the only thing that can reverse the systemic rot of our society; we might ask by what means is this possible. Given that for the last seventy years, our national achievement in science and technology has been largely military, and that it is now possible to have almost total surveillence of all of society, the idea of any sort of guerilla warfare, urban or otherwise, is unthinkable. Moreover, the use of violence justifies a national military government. I suggest that a non-violent general strike is the only answer. In these days of political apathy, such an action may seem an idle dream. Yet our government goes on each day as though made mad by the gods, destroying our employment, Constitution, culture, economy, the very social compact. Who can say where the tipping point will be, when even the dullest of our fellow citizens will finally have had enough? In the interim, we might begin by boycotting the entire commercial media. To hell with the TV, it is only a monitor to watch film! New York Times, Washington Post? Never heard of them. Cable? Only for the internet. Begin the grand project of the general strike by refusing to support in any way our present commercial media.