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TechnoratiIzzy Stone, Patron Saint of Bloggers
It was nineteen years ago this week that I.F. (Izzy) Stone died. The legendary blogger was 81.
Confused? You say he died years before web blogs were invented?
Well, yeah, but when I think of today's blunt, fact-based online hell-raisers, my mind quickly flashes on Izzy Stone. You may think of Josh Marshall or Glenn Greenwald or Arianna Huffington. I think of Izzy.
Before there was an Internet, Izzy Stone was doing the work we associate with today's best bloggers. Like them, he was obsessed with citing original documents and texts. But before search engines, Izzy had to consume ten newspapers per day -- and physically visit government archives and press offices, and personally pore over thousands of words in the Congressional Record. That's how he repeatedly scooped the gullible, faux-objective MSM of his day in exposing government deceit, like that propelling the Vietnam War.
Izzy was the ultimate un-embedded reporter. His journalism was motivated by a simple maxim that resonates loudly in our era of Cheneys and Rumsfelds and WMD hoaxes: "All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out."
Month after month from 1953 to 1969 I.F. Stone's Weekly (biweekly through 1971) exposed deceptions as fast as governments could spin them. His timely and timeless dispatches are gathered in an exceptional paperback, The Best of I.F. Stone.
In real time in August 1964, Izzy was virtually alone in challenging the Gulf of Tonkin hoax, an imaginary "unprovoked attack" on U.S. warships used by the Johnson administration to send several hundred thousand American troops into Vietnam. How did Izzy do it? By citing international law texts and finding nuggets of truth in the Congressional Record of the Senate debate (no C-SPAN then) and in contradictory reporting in mainstream publications.
Izzy's expose began boldly: "The American government and the American press have kept the full truth about the Tonkin Bay incidents from the American public." He fumed at the credulous MSM: "The process of brain-washing the public starts with off-the-record briefings for newspapermen." Only two senators, Oregon's Wayne Morse and Alaska's Ernest Gruening, had voted against the Tonkin Resolution; Izzy noted that the press had "dropped an Iron Curtain weeks ago on the antiwar speeches of Morse and Gruening."
Like today's online journalistic entrepreneurs, being his own editor and boss allowed Izzy the freedom and space to parse out the distortions of government in detail. A year before the Tonkin hoax, he wrote: "In this age of corporation men, I am an independent capitalist, the owner of my own enterprise." While most journalists "find their niche in some huge newspaper of magazine combine, I am a wholly independent newspaperman, standing alone."
Bloggers battle today's McCarthyites who smear Iraq War opponents as un-American abettors of our country's enemies. Izzy battled the original Joe McCarthy, in issue after issue of his weekly. Indeed, he launched his publication the same month -- January 1953 -- McCarthy became chair of the Senate Operations Committee, enhancing his powers of intimidation. Izzy warned prophetically: "McCarthy is in a position to smear any government official who fails to do his bidding. With such daring and few scruples, McCarthy can make himself the most powerful single figure in Congress."
Three months later, he wrote: "The most subversive force in America today is Joe McCarthy. No one is so effectively importing alien conceptions into American government. No one is doing so much to damage the country's prestige abroad. . . .If 'subversion' is to be met by deportation, then it is time to deport McCarthy back to Wisconsin."
Not until 11 months later did Edward R. Murrow air his first report on McCarthy.
Today, online media critics and bloggers expose the bigotry and fallacy gushing forth from Fox News and talk radio and the Rev. Moon-owned Washington Times, long-edited by Wes Pruden Jr. They blog about MSM being stenographers to rightwing extremists. When racists in Little Rock were obstructing court-ordered school desegregation in 1958, Izzy was on the scene reporting: "A staff correspondent in Little Rock quoted the Reverend Wesley Pruden the segregationist leader, as saying, 'The South will not accept this outrage, which a Communist-dominated government is trying to lay on us.' This was my introduction to a regional journalism which prints such statements matter-of-factly."
The Communist-dominated regime referred to by Pruden Sr. was headed by Eisenhower.
Izzy loved to tell the story of how he found -- hiding in plain view in different editions of the New York Times -- one-paragraph "shirrtail" wire stories indicating that our country's first underground nuclear test in Nevada in 1957 was detected in Toronto, Rome and Tokyo. Months later, just as hawks in Washington were preparing to attack a test ban treaty with the Soviets on the basis that nuclear tests could not be detected more than 200 miles away, Izzy found a seismologist in the Commerce Department who told him the test had also been detected as far away as Alaska and Arkansas. Izzy's reporting obstructed the government's lie before it could get its shoes on.
Starting out in his teens, Izzy was a daily reporter, editor and columnist. After moving to D.C. in 1940 to become Washington editor of The Nation, he exposed U.S. corporations still doing business with Hitler's Germany. He was one of the first to sound the alarm about the Nazi holocaust, referring in 1942 to "a murder of a people." An anti-racist, he battled the all-white National Press Club over exclusion of black journalists.
Izzy's cantankerousness and "hound-dog tenacity" -- in the words of his biographer -- would make even the most stubborn blogger blush. Although he was a lifelong progressive, his journalistic hallmark was independence: "I felt that party affiliation was incompatible with independent journalism." His writings show deep admiration for Franklin Roosevelt, yet his article on FDR's death criticized his "deplorable disrespect for the constitutional amenities" in resisting a reactionary Supreme Court that knocked down one New Deal bill after another.
He wrote books passionately supporting the birth of Israel, but strongly criticized it for mistreatment of Palestinians. He advocated peace and negotiations with the Soviet Union, while increasingly vocal in denouncing its rulers: "The worker [in Russia] is more exploited than in Western welfare states."
He despised racists, but fought for their free speech rights, and everyone's: "Once you put ifs and buts in the Bill of Rights, nobody's civil liberties will be secure.'' That he marched to his own drummer can be seen in his dispatch from the 1963 March on Washington for civil rights, in which he criticized "respectables" for muting "Negro militancy" into support of JFK's inadequate program, and referred to Martin Luther King as "a little too saccharine for my taste."
Born of immigrant parents, Izzy was an American patriot who worshipped the Bill of Rights: "You may think I am a red Jew son-of-a-bitch, but I'm keeping Thomas Jefferson alive."
And he worshipped our country's tradition of press freedom: "There are few countries in which you can spit in the eye of the government and get away with it. It's not possible in Moscow." But Izzy was never naíve about American traditions that threatened freedom, and he had a 5,000-page FBI spy file to prove it.
Today's muckraking bloggers are often belittled for working from their homes, far removed from the corridors of power. Izzy worked out of his home. If he were alive, he'd be applauding the Josh Marshalls and other independents, urging: Keep your distance from power.
I made no claim to inside stuff. . . I tried to dig the truth out of hearings, official transcripts and government documents, and to be as accurate as possible. . . I felt like a guerilla warrior, swooping down in surprise attack on a stuffy bureaucracy where it least expected independent inquiry. The reporter assigned to specific beats like the State Department or the Pentagon for a wire service or a big daily newspaper soon finds himself a captive. State and Pentagon have large press relations forces whose job it is to herd the press and shape the news. There are many ways to punish a reporter who gets out of line. . . But a reporter covering the whole capitol on his own - particularly if he is his own employer -- is immune from these pressures.
Imagine the obstacles Izzy faced -- did I mention his impaired eyesight and hearing? -- launching a weekly and finding an audience at the height of McCarthy's witch hunts (even at $5 for an annual subscription).
Far fewer obstacles face today's bloggers who seek to follow in Izzy's footsteps -- blessed as they are with relative freedom and this awesome research and outreach tool known as the Internet.
As these upstarts speak truth to power, I see Izzy Stone watching over them, from the heavens.
Jeff Cohen is the director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College. He first saw I.F. Stone's Bi-Weekly at a D.C. peace march in 1969. Soon after Cohen launched the media watch group FAIR in 1986, Izzy Stone signed on to its first formal protest, a telegram to ABC News on the exclusion of progressive voices.
31 Comments so far
Show AllThere is a difference between being wrong, and being ACTIVELY wrong, as Izzy was on the JFK assassination.
His statements were clear and wrong at a key early stage in the evolving fiasco of its' coverup. An early wrong turn issued that clearly can have huge impact in the social psychology of a shocked populace.
It is not nearly enough to point out the endless lies required for illegitimacy to hold power. We need a way forward, and 'Izzy' surely did not provide that, nor did Jeff.
Let the famous cowards cringe, but PissantNobody has a tongue - at least for the moment: There is no freedom from war, poverty and greed outside of international proletarian socialist reviolution. The terms may sound antiquated, but that just reflects that this task is way overdue. Real heroes will be building the party of world communism, not trying to patch up and cover up the profound inadequacies of imperialism. How about you?
Clay Shaw was a Mossad operative. The U.S. mafiosi were Zionists. JFK was actively stopping the state of Israel from developing nuclear weapons. He was demanding inspections of the Dimona nuclear plant. Three months prior to 11/22/63, the Israeli PM resigned in anger, saying that the U.S. president was trying to destroy Israel. CIA offical James Jesus Angelton was Israel's top Mossad mole in the CIA. Even Jack Ruby started his career in the Zionist mob as a gun runner for Israel. Wake up. The sanctioned progressive-left does put out some informative material to be found nowhere else. But it's also necessary to gain a wider perspective, or you'll always be under the thrall of gatekeepers.
It was a pretty huge mistake that is still being felt in the infinitely fragmented left today.
The tactical nature of the CIA funding that you describe is important to understand. The CIA funded left publications, with the explicit intention of letting them speak freely on issues that would develop a loyal following ON CONDITION THAT they could be used to stop further inquiry in other critical areas of the National Security State. The best book to read on this topic is Frances Stonor Sounders The Cultural COld War THe CIA and the World of Arts and Letters.
I strongly recommend the absolutely incredible new book called JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and WHy It Mattters. Chomsky and Cockburn are put to shame by this masterwork.
Little Brother [June 17th, 2008 11:42 am], Glenn Greenwald and, maybe, Jeremy Scahill for his work on Blackwater and Iraq, and a few others. Jim Hightower is not so much of a reporter, but he has taken on vested corporate interests and occasionally uncovers a story along the way. Of course, the late Molly Ivins was great, and her sometime writing partner Lou Dubose is still around. Wayne "Bush's Brain" Slater has broken well-researched stories about Bush family corruption and Karl Rove's connivance. BTW, I seem to recall hearing Amy Goodman say she didn't want to chance squandering her credibility in certain areas unless there was proof positive, and not just conjecture or circumstantial evidence. She may have been referring to 9/11 by that. Still, she does a great job on Democracy Now -- every bit helps.
peacenow [June 17th, 2008 1:21 pm], that's true but, adding to the list above, there's Raw Story, Think Progress, TPM and Bob Somerby's Howler site, all of which have broken stories of importance, some of them picked up by the Big Media.
Nathaniel Heidenheimer [June 17th, 2008 2:06 pm], in the 1950s and 60s, it was common for the FBI and other federal agencies to clandestinely support left-wing organizations and publications unbeknownst to the group's members or the publisher. It's possible that the FBI, et al, donated money or took out subscriptions to Stone's newsletter but, from reading him, I don't think it's plausible that he knew of their contribution.
As far as Stone accepting the Warren Commission report, Stone was human and humans make mistakes. To my mind, that does not take away from the great investigative work he did one iota. If Stone on rare occasion contradicted himself, that's also part of the human condition. If you have achieved perfection in your own life, good for you. In the meantime, the rest of us mortals sometimes make errors in judgment, and sometimes with the best of intentions.
Grateful that a couple people pointed out Izzy's total support of the Warren Commission whitewash. His October 5th, 1964 edition said "the Commission has done a first rate job on the level that that does our country proud.." E.Martin Schotz wrote in HISTORY WILL NOT ABSOLVE US that he attempted to get a meeting with Stone in order to present him with evidence, mostly photographic, regarding the JFK assassination. Stone's answer was loud and clear : "I don't care about that asshole case" he bellowed before hanging up.
Which is entirely similar to Left gatekeepers today, such as Jeff Cohen, who has referred to people who question the official conspiracy theory on 9/11 as "Conspiracy Theorists". THE NATION magazine plays the same role today regarding 9/11 as they did in 1964 when they, too, supported the Warren Commission and ridiculed those who questioned it.
Sigsep:
If you read the other responses on the I.F. Stone thread on Education Forum, I am sure you will find a balance of opinion, re the possibility mentioned above.
It is worth emphasizing Tom Braden's admission, however, that many of the CIA-subsidized publications were on the left, because it was a good way of dividing the opposition over key nodal points in US foreign policy.
Again, read the whole thread, particularly those comments published in Minority of One from 1964.
-----------posted on Education Forum Thread--------------
M.S. Arnoni, "A Commentator Fights a Reporter," The Minority of One, November 1964 (Vol. VI, 11 [60]), p.5:
QUOTE
I.F. Stone, who puts out I.F. Stones's Weekly, is Washington's most honest reporter. But I.F. Stone, the reporter, is often at odds with I.F. Stone, the commentator, the latter possessing a distinct dislike of the former. The source of the conflict is the fact that the reporter keeps embarrassing the commentator, frequently digging up facts which no one but leftist dissenters want to hear anything about. That's why the commentator about once a year comes up with something spectacular to restore the reporter's good political graces with a few remaining lunch-time friends in various government offices.
Last year, an opportunity was provided by a New York rally of students who had just returned from a trip to Cuba, unauthorized by the State Department. Mr. Stone promised to address the rally, but when next its organizers heard from him it was the good offices of the daily press to which he sent a cancellation of engagement plus a renunciation of his would-be hosts as "out-of-this-world-leftists."
It is obviously time to place this year's sacrificial lamb on Stone's personal altar of an imaginary shred of respectability. The sacrifice-bearer ostentatiously announces the high cost of this choicest of lambs: Let it be known that I pay my gods dearly, that I put at their feet not just anybody, but "my dear and revered friend, Bertrand Russell." And to impress the anti-Russell veterans who might not think too much of this-Johnny-come-lately act, the penitent Mr. Stone offers oozing and cloying derision of the American left, which, in a new application of the Equal Guilt Doctrine, is equated with the HUAC, the Eastland Committee and the late Joe from Wisconsin.
Since Stone too sets a limit on thoughts which may be considered about America, anyone who, unlike himself, does not accept the Warren Commission's Report "as conclusive" need not be debated; that man's facts, charges, thoughts, suspicions, considerations are "dishonourable" and he is himself "either unscrupulous or sick." Indeed, the very Mr. Stone who spends half of his professional life on perfectly legitimate conjecture, speculation and deduction, believes any and all conjecture pertaining to The Assassination to be a virtual crime.
Having duly delivered his sacrifice and having also thrown in a few smaller lambs to boot, it is now time to bow to the priests of the temple. Thus, pious Mr. Stone comes to the defense of Senator Russell of Georgia and Congressman Boggs of Louisiana as "highly respected" men, whose racist views have nothing "to do with their probity." Of the other members of the Warren Commission, John J. McCloy is purified through the reliable process of having been Stone's acquaintance, and Allen W. Dulles emerges as a man so remote from the faintest suggestion of intrigue that it is inconceivable that he would ever conspire against anyone and anything, particularly "with the secret service." The crescendo of his hymn is reached when Mr. Stone laughs off any suggestion that such organizations as the FBI, the CIA and the Secret Service would ever conspire to keep something secret. (Does Congress pay them for much else?)
Like many sacrificial rituals, Mr. Stone's too has certain unmentionables. Therefore his quotes from Lord Russell's "16 Questions on the Assassination" (Sept. TMO) are orphaned as far as source is concerned. Which is understandable, if one considers that Mr. Stone's October 5th newsletter was his annual petition for political respectability.
No doubt, about one year from now commentator Stone will again try to exculpate reporter Stone by carrying another sacrifice to the gates of Washington's official residences. It is all because commentator Stone is terribly afraid of reporter Stone; he is also very inferior t him in intelligence, integrity and perceptiveness.
Harry E. Beller, M.D., "From Readers' Letters: Stone's Days of Atonement," The Minority of One, December 1964, (Vol. VI, 12 [61]), p.43:
QUOTE
Your shrewd dissection of I.F. Stones, the reporter, and I.F. Stone, the commentator, in the November 1964 issue deserves commendation and confirmation.
I have regularly subscribed to Stone's weekly, but just as ritualistically as Mr. Stone exhibits his "Al Chait Shechatanu ['For the sins we have committed…,'a prayer on the Jewish High Holidays – Ed.] at least once a year, I have written him about his Day of Atonement.
I also subscribe to The Nation and have read and studied Professor Herbert L. Packer's article on "The Warren Report" in the November 2nd issue. Both Stone and Packer, with their egos showing, use a discrediting technique. In effect they say, "We have studied this report, it is objective and reasonable. This who do not accept this gestational effort are personally or politically myopic." Such predetermined conclusion dares one to read the report, for it is a covert threat challenging one to arrive at a dissenting opinion. With such disdain – book burning is not needed!
I shall continue to read Stone's lucid, frequently revelatory Washington tidbits shunned by the daily press, and The Nation's cleverly calmative analyses. For courage, decision, action I must pay homage to the likes and heirs of such as the Freedom Marchers.
If Stone is the patron saint of bloggers, I think that very very few of the bloggers out there are members of the true faith, or rather they aren't living up to his example. Stone actually did the grunt work, looking through the archives to find the real story. But bloggers mostly just regurgitate what has been presented in other media. Very few do anything resembling actual reporting.
My instinctive predilection for Questioning Authority received a boost during my mid-teens when my older brother recommended Stone's "the Hidden History of the Korean War"-- which is the book referenced above by ChrisHorton, I believe.
If Stone were alive and in good form in 2001, I'd like to think that he'd have taken on the taboo subject of the events of 9/11-- although I might have to reconsider that, if it's true that he bought into the Official Version of the JFK assassination. But I can imagine Stone fearlessly building one of his elaborate mosaics pointing out the vast and overwhelming inconsistencies in the Official Story, regardless of the scorn and disapprobation from ALL groups in the political spectrum.
I think Glenn Greenwald comes closest to Stone in terms of sheer diligence and careful sourcing. While I appreciate and admire Amy Goodman, she seems most comfortable with conventional progressive stories; last I heard, she was one of the cautious reactionaries who refused to be drawn into the 9/11 controversies, lest she acquire the dreaded tinfoil stink. And Arianna is no radical scourge of orthodoxy either, at least not consistently.
Izzy Stone's independent critical journalism, sadly, is still very much the exception when it should be the rule.
Izzy Stone's efforts highlight another failing of supposed "journalists" working in corporate media: laziness. Too many of that ilk would rather write from the script handed to them and then cash their paycheck than actually pursue the craft as it was intended.
AD [June 16th, 2008 1:45 pm], you're absolutely right -- Seldes and, of course, George Orwell, in the columns he wrote in England prior to his novel '1984,' as well as, to a lesser extent, Drew Pearson. The last newspapermen who could hold a candle to Stone were Jack Anderson and Mike Royko, and they both died years ago.
"Keep your distance from power." As well as his quote that "All governments lie" this is probably one of the most important things I.F. Stone ever said. In my misspent youth, I once worked in radio news and nearly became sucked in by the schmooze-the-powerful banquets, long martini lunches with pols and businessmen, and the chummy one-hand-washes-the-other cocktail party deals that serve to keep real news out of our print and broadcast media.
After being canned for reporting a story embarrassing to the local government and the owner of the station that employed me, I came to my senses and moved into another line of work.
Today, when I hear of a 'journalist' maintaining 'access' I know exactly what they really mean -- puckering up for the hindquarters of the power elite -- and it makes me want to reach for an airsickness bag.
Good for Jeff Cohen for reminding us of a man who embodied real journalistic integrity and courage. Suffice it to say that the recently deceased host of NBC's Meet the Press, currently in the process of deification by his cronies in the Big Media, would not have come anywhere close to Stone's standard of true journalism.
Thanks for the great quote, Laguna [June 16th, 2008 1:53 pm].
ChrisHorton [June 16th, 2008 6:22 pm], no doubt Izzy is in heaven, busy keeping God and the other angels honest. Certainly Satan's 'guests' wouldn't want Stone around, bothering them all over again.
Lacking the documentary, and acccess to the best libraries, the convenient (if selective) access to his courage and genius is contained in the I.F. Stone's Weekly Reader, Neil Middleton (ed.), Random House/Vintage, 1973/74, available in all your best second hand bookshops.
I'd also recommend Stone's: The Killings at Kent State, written at the peak of the Vietnam protests.
A documentary called (I believe) I F Stone's Weekly came out in the early 70's, but I have not been able to find a link to it.
I F Stone was a great journalist.
Stone, there on the ground, was totally supportive of the creation of the state of Israel.
But on 12 June 1967, he wrote:
'Israel's swift and brilliant military victory only makes its reconciliation with the Arabs more urgent. Its future and world peace call for a general and final settlement now of the Palestinian problem. ... It was a moral tragedy - to which no Jew worthy of our best prophetic tradition could be insensitive - that a kindred people was made homeless in the task of finding new homes for the remnants of the Hitler holocaust. Now is the time to right that wrong ... This alone can make Israel secure.'
Forty years later ...
Dear Nathaniel Heidenheimer,
In connection with your comment
"For another view of I.F. Stone see . . . "
I looked up your link, and what a "view" it is! Some guy there goes so far as to speculate that Stone might have been paid off by the CIA to "agree" with the Warren Commission's report on Kennedy's assassination!
For anyone who has read/known I.F. Stone, that speculation is totally without merit and would have been completely out of character for Stone. Who knows, Stone could have been wrong in agreeing with the lone-killer theory of the Kennedy assassination; after all these years we still don't know for sure what happened. But there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that Stone believed what he wrote.
And he may have been "proud" to show off his once-in-a-lifetime belief in the conventional wisdom when that conventional wisdom made sense to him. I know that Stone did things like that. Just as he once explained to me how he liked to contrast his sometimes radical views with the use of a very conservatively formatted newsletter.
Felix.
For another view of I.F. Stone see
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=12116
This is not to say that Stone did not do some great writing. Before one scoffs at this link, it might do some good to read about the finding background of many left-liberal publications.
" Only two senators, Oregon's Wayne Morse and Alaska's Ernest Gruening, had voted against the Tonkin Resolution; Izzy noted that the press had "dropped an Iron Curtain weeks ago on the antiwar speeches of Morse and Gruening."
Wow, 98 complicit. I wonder how many mia culpas? Shows the power of the Milatary Industrial Corporate/Media/Congressional Complex even then.
Thanks for the remembrance of the great I.F. Stone. But Ariana Huffington a hell raiser?? Heck stirrer, maybe, at best.
What a coincidence; I wrote about IF Stone yesterday to my correspondents! What brought him to mind was a discussion of how old the story is of the mass media colluding to kill or distort vital news stories.
Just this past spring, the story finally was covered by some of our media - as a result of it being a really big story in South Korea - about how our allied government (read client state) in South Korea in 1950 systematically murdered large numbers of prisoners, communist sympathizers, labor leaders and peasant leaders all across its territory; and about how American authorities and the American press colluded to keep this story from the public. I speculated that Stone (whom I called a blogger, how else can you describe what he did? At the time it was so unique it had no name!) had talked about the brutality of this regime in his newsletter and in the collection of reports on Korea that he published as a book titled something like "The Secret History of Korea". This book, which I can't find reference to but remember well from my childhood, told a story about the Korean war that was so at variance with what was published in the major media (and now in the school history texts) that even many of his supporters and admirers dismissed it as of doubtful veracity; but now the survivors and descendants of the victims are digging up the bones of the death-squad victims he talked about!
I wish I could believe that Izzy was some place like Heaven, watching today's blogger revolution and smiling!
Jeff Cohen,
A beautiful tribute to the greatest reporter of all time, I. F. "Izzy" Stone. I used to wildly anticipate each Weekly/Biweekly, and on its arrival would devour it with fascination.
I met him once, and he invited me to accompany him on the day's quick tour of the Capitol, where he knew precisely where to go to pick up the materials he sought. A born skeptic, and an amazing intellect with incredible independence and courage. I often find myself wishing he were still here.
Felix.
Whenever I begin to fear that the internet will be taken away from us, I cast my mind back to I.F.Stone and I know that even should that happen, it would still be possible to get the truth out. He set the example, and a shining one it was.
Fanman -
Yes, they are chickenshits.
But they are free to hire private mercenary contractors or enlist paramilitary thug volunteers to do their dirty work for them, if violent tumult in the streets is what you envision as necessary.
Bill from Saginaw
We would all be better off if we smoked hashish.
Excellent piece, Jeff Cohen, except for one item: you neglected to mention I.F. Stone's very great book "The Trial of Socrates."
Socrates and Plato, Plato and Socrates we have been told forever are the two greatest philosophers of all time. It's astonishing to learn from Izzy that they were the two greatest reactionaries of all time. Brilliant book!
Kent S
You are correct in the assertion that it will take nothing less than our own lives to turn this country around. The Fascists who wield power are quite comfortable playing their game of divide and conquer. BUT... they, are at heart CHICKENSHITS, who will never put their own lives on the line. IF you are willing to trump them at their own game - YOU WIN!!!
But... you cannot accomplish this from behind a TV monitor dramatizing the last contenders for "American Idol".
You need to put your own life on the line!!!
It's unlikely that more than a scant few millions of humans will survive the 21st Century, but with some important lessons learned, they may be the harbinger of a future deviod of the reptilian past.
I think you are correct, Laguna. And that goes for physical resistance. If some of us are not willing to go to prison or lose our lives the country is lost to fascism. Voting? The system is too far gone. You might as well fart into a hurricane for all the effect your vote has today. Its time to throw a few kegs of tea into a few harbors. Its time to go looking for a few sturdy lamp posts. Either that or we, as the United States actually never was but always claimed to be, are lost forever.
Today it is Amy Goodman.
"The only kinds of fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose, because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins. In order for somebody to win an important, major fight 100 years hence, a lot of other people have got to be willing-for the sheer fun and joy of it-to go right ahead and fight, knowing you're going to lose. You mustn't feel like a martyr. You've got to enjoy it." - I.F. STONE
I F Stone followed in the footsteps of George Seldes, with the same muckraking spirit and complete independence and was also Jewish and the son of immigrants.
He had no peer. He still has no peer. Independent, supported by his readership, he never was a media enabler for whatever administration was running the country.
No corporate-fawning, pentagon-loving, reporter he.