Medical workers of the John F Kennedy hospital of Monrovia show the aprons they have been wearing during a strike. Photograph: Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images
It seems that the militarization and military dominance of the Western World Powers are in full swing. Of course they experiment first on the least able to resist their control and then move towards the higher stakes.
There are many fields of conquest taking place at this moment, a sign that the steady plan by plan operations do not work reminiscent of how at the end of the battle all the ammo that is left is hoisted upon the enemy. Western powers are losing their dominion over the world, economically, politically and spiritually. There desire for a New World Order by culling the masses has become exposed for all to see. As a result, they have found the need to resort to even more treacherous strategies. Ebola is bio-chemical warfare, hence the need for boots on the ground. They care not who they endanger as those wearing the boots are just as expendable as those who are affected by this virus.
The design of worldwide population reduction is in full swing and they are now testing one of the deadliest man-made virus in recent history. When the initial outbreak occurred the loss of life was not astronomical. Now they have gotten to a people on the African continent who were already broken and now even more so, hence their inability to fight the infection. The human’s immune system can be render useless with varying conditions of stress, strife, struggle, heart break, wars and various other events that happen in the life of human beings on this planet.
From my point of view, it is quite clear that the propaganda campaign that has been launched against the virus and the African people is a clear indicator that this disease has been set loose on the African populations. We must also look at the natural resources in the areas hit hardest by the outbreak and connect the dots.
Western Powers are plummeting into the depths of despair. Economically, politically and spiritually they are losing control over the masses as seen by the many protests against their governments. Their economies are collapsing as we speak and once the great Euro-American Empires collapse all those entrenched in their way of life will collapse as well. It will go down in the annals of time as the True and Unequivocal fall of man.
Africans who have lusted after the Western Way of Life, have forsaken their ancient values for Capitalism. Once a beacon in the world for Community and support for family and traditional institutions; Africa’s Leaders have become Westernized in their climb to the so-called top of the ladder. They are finding out slowly but surely that the Euro-Americans and their schemes for advancement cannot be trusted.
While the “Obama Trojan” horse was set loose on
unknowing masses of Blacks in Africa, the Black leaders are lining their pockets with promises of riches, Western riches…. Ignoring their own profitability in their home grown resources as well as ingenuity. Euro-American Powers want to trump the advancement of China into Africa. This is a war on many fronts and all not done with weapons of mass destruction as they have been deployed in the past.
It is an insidious, creeping into the very fiber of the African being, a scraping away of all ethical and community connections; a masking of a great cancer that has rendered Africans in their quest for acknowledgement and acceptance by the beast who colonized it in the first place.
We are definitely living in some seriously trying times as wars wage across the planet. Our host Mother Earth has seen nothing like this before in her history, as we are much more populated and given to warring with each other than ever before.
Is there any hope? I am not too sure of that. In my opinion, attempting to gather together a Union of African countries numbering 50+ (as some countries have seceded and formed additional countries on the continent) the division among African people as a whole is daunting. Where are the true African leaders who will or can bridge the gap? Qaddafi is gone along with so many others. Where are the true leaders of the African people who have the vision to see that their dependence on Euro-American assistance is a death knell?
I believe that Africans swallowed the Euro-American belief systems, religious, economic and political. These systems are antithesis to what ancient traditional Africa stood for. It flies in the face of the Ancient Ancestral traditions. It is a divide and conquer mechanism that has destroyed the very “immune” system of the Continental African. Ebola is just a sign of a deeper and more shattering phenomenon. Africa is infected with Western ideology, and as a result, Africa will fall ill with its disease and suffer a great loss until the cure is discovered. What is the cure?
Sankofa!
Self Reliance!
Deporting any and all Euro-American ideology in all its forms. Taking back its true nature from the vulture who consumed it.
Until then, Africa will drown in the sinking ship of Western Imperialism.
Whether she is Instagramming her butt, or spending$827,000 on gold-plated toilets for her new mansion, or in her latest exploit, posing nude on silver sheets for GQ, Kim Kardashian has the American media in a fawning frenzy of non-stop headlines.
Kardashian represents the pinnacle values of late-stage American-style capitalism: opportunism, effortless celebrity, obsession with wealth and image, narcissism, and above all, making a fortune doing nothing useful.
In her ripened curves, the fruits of unbridled capitalism are made flesh. In her dogged ambition to be rich and be seen, she is the Lady Bountiful of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex, endorsing any product that will have her, no matter how contradictory. Diet systems? Of course! McDonald’s? Mais oui! The mirror image of the market stripped of regulation, she is the marketer unburdened by responsibility.
Turning the world into a camera, Kardashian takes self-obsession to new heights: She is the queen of the selfie, compiling a 352-page series of snaps into an unpublished book called “Selfish,” soon available to all in hardcover. Her smartphone gaming app, “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,” invites players to follow her animated image as she frolics through a commercial playground. The app is already worth $200 million after a midsummer release, its candy-colored cartoons perfectly reflecting the infantile ethos she represents.
Kim Kardashian is simply the id of capitalism run wild, the narcissistic force that wants what it wants, when it wants it, an incarnation of the fulfilled wish to talk and think about absolutely nothing while rolling in snuggly designer sheets. Unattached and oblivious, the spoiled child becomes the American avatar of freedom and self-expression, something elevated and even holy.
Americans love to fetishize wealth, viewing a person’s monetary success as a direct sign of righteousness. So revered is the act of marketing the self that Kardashian’s cartoon image accrues metaphysical weight. For a certain strain of Gen Y, Kim Kardashian is held up as a feminist icon: Katie Gonzalez of Elite Daily gushes that “Kim has become another voice that attempts to uplift her fellow females,” while Suchi Sundaram of Feminspire explores her mythic dimension: “From Helen of Troy to Kim Kardashian, women have been constantly defining their roles and powers in a patriarchal society.”
Not only can you be famous for absolutely nothing, you can be feminist, too. Why not a Nobel Prize winner? The poet laureate? No need for action or insight. Accumulation and consumption are the only skills required.
So why are we stuck with her? The answer lies in the fact that the American economy is in a stage where most people are not getting what we need, much less what we want. As we become more alienated and work harder and harder for our neo-feudal overlords, our dreams are constricted and our futures foreclosed. Celebrities are the gods we create to distract ourselves from our own incompleteness, from the hunger for things we cannot have. We spend our lives following their every move to get our attention away from the lack that we will always feel until this system is overthrown.
Kim Kardashian has just been named British GQ magazine’s Woman of the Year, but perhaps she is more than that. She is the woman of the era, the most visible symptom of our society’s particular sickness. In a healthy society, the id cannot dominate, and milking a twisted system for all it’s worth is not seen an act of heroism, but the mark of a person for whom the human condition is nothing more than perpetual imprisonment in the self. Appropriately, Kim Kardashian is very fond of corsets. She is the illusion of bounty and freedom that covers the deformation and restriction of the human spirit.
Is it all her fault? Of course not. She’s the prison we made for ourselves.
Lynn Parramore is an AlterNet senior editor. She is cofounder of Recessionwire, founding editor of New Deal 2.0, and author of “Reading the Sphinx: Ancient Egypt in Nineteenth-Century Literary Culture.” She received her Ph.D. in English and cultural theory from NYU. She is the director of AlterNet’s New Economic Dialogue Project. Follow her on Twitter @LynnParramore.
Rising greenhouse emissions could tip off aliens that we are a rapidly expanding threat, warns a report.
It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.
Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth’s atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.
This highly speculative scenario is one of several described by a Nasa-affiliated scientist and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University that, while considered unlikely, they say could play out were humans and alien life to make contact at some point in the future.
Shawn Domagal-Goldman of Nasa’s Planetary Science Division and his colleagues compiled a list of plausible outcomes that could unfold in the aftermath of a close encounter, to help humanity “prepare for actual contact”………….
It’s saying maybe the threat of being annihilated by ETI could stop humanity from destroying itself and the planet. Baa Humbug, I say to that. Where were they thousands of years ago before Atlantis was destroyed? Where were they when the so-called great flood happened? Where were they when Mars, supposedly destroyed itself? What about their intercession when Venus was in trouble?
Too funny, if they are smart, they will not bother us, cause we can take em on!!! And we can still destroy our planet and move out into the Cosmos with our diseases in the mind, body and spirit.
Don’t they know that they cannot wipe us out??We are like roaches.. We will come back as we have done over and over again. We have suffered through all types of calamities. Wars, hunger, drought, wars, pestilence, death and destructions, wars and atom bombs, mini nukes, Fukishimo, Oil Spills, fracking, tornadoes, volcanoes, hurricane Katrina.. wars and starvation, Ebola and Boko Haram. We will survive ISIS and the New World Order. Don’t they know that is how we got here in the first place.
Don’t they know that they sent the worse of the worse here because we were so incorrigible we couldn’t make it there?
Silly, Aliens, they think they can deter us from destroying our planet, filling our seas with plastic and drying up our water supplies. They oughta know we will take them vaccines, plug all kinds of micro-chips in us, become cyborgs, and travel to other planets for safe refuge.
Don’t they know that our underground bunkers are no match for their stupid technology. Don’t they know we been hiding out here on the edge of our Galaxy for eons just so we could show them how powerful and resilient we are?
Who cares how big they are? We tame the wildest and biggest beasts in the jungle. Ain’t nobody scared of no darned Aliens.
We got weapons in space and we can see them coming and we are practicing on downing asteroids before they hit the planet. We are holding them off already in space, and every time we get one of them, we hear weird sounds all over the place on earth, they tell us we are winning.
Don’t they know that we are covering the earth with chemtrails so that their stupid technology can’t pierce through our cloud of barium, aluminum and nano particles of blood plasm. Shucks, them Aliens better wake up and find some other planet to mess with, cause we ain’t going out like that!!!!!
Whether she is Instagramming her butt, or spending$827,000 on gold-plated toilets for her new mansion, or in her latest exploit, posing nude on silver sheets for GQ, Kim Kardashian has the American media in a fawning frenzy of non-stop headlines.
Kardashian represents the pinnacle values of late-stage American-style capitalism: opportunism, effortless celebrity, obsession with wealth and image, narcissism, and above all, making a fortune doing nothing useful.
In her ripened curves, the fruits of unbridled capitalism are made flesh. In her dogged ambition to be rich and be seen, she is the Lady Bountiful of the Celebrity-Industrial Complex, endorsing any product that will have her, no matter how contradictory. Diet systems? Of course! McDonald’s? Mais oui! The mirror image of the market stripped of regulation, she is the marketer unburdened by responsibility.
Turning the world into a camera, Kardashian takes self-obsession to new heights: She is the queen of the selfie, compiling a 352-page series of snaps into an unpublished book called “Selfish,” soon available to all in hardcover. Her smartphone gaming app, “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,” invites players to follow her animated image as she frolics through a commercial playground. The app is already worth $200 million after a midsummer release, its candy-colored cartoons perfectly reflecting the infantile ethos she represents.
Kim Kardashian is simply the id of capitalism run wild, the narcissistic force that wants what it wants, when it wants it, an incarnation of the fulfilled wish to talk and think about absolutely nothing while rolling in snuggly designer sheets. Unattached and oblivious, the spoiled child becomes the American avatar of freedom and self-expression, something elevated and even holy.
Americans love to fetishize wealth, viewing a person’s monetary success as a direct sign of righteousness. So revered is the act of marketing the self that Kardashian’s cartoon image accrues metaphysical weight. For a certain strain of Gen Y, Kim Kardashian is held up as a feminist icon: Katie Gonzalez of Elite Daily gushes that “Kim has become another voice that attempts to uplift her fellow females,” while Suchi Sundaram of Feminspire explores her mythic dimension: “From Helen of Troy to Kim Kardashian, women have been constantly defining their roles and powers in a patriarchal society.”
Not only can you be famous for absolutely nothing, you can be feminist, too. Why not a Nobel Prize winner? The poet laureate? No need for action or insight. Accumulation and consumption are the only skills required.
So why are we stuck with her? The answer lies in the fact that the American economy is in a stage where most people are not getting what we need, much less what we want. As we become more alienated and work harder and harder for our neo-feudal overlords, our dreams are constricted and our futures foreclosed. Celebrities are the gods we create to distract ourselves from our own incompleteness, from the hunger for things we cannot have. We spend our lives following their every move to get our attention away from the lack that we will always feel until this system is overthrown.
Kim Kardashian has just been named British GQ magazine’s Woman of the Year, but perhaps she is more than that. She is the woman of the era, the most visible symptom of our society’s particular sickness. In a healthy society, the id cannot dominate, and milking a twisted system for all it’s worth is not seen an act of heroism, but the mark of a person for whom the human condition is nothing more than perpetual imprisonment in the self. Appropriately, Kim Kardashian is very fond of corsets. She is the illusion of bounty and freedom that covers the deformation and restriction of the human spirit.
Is it all her fault? Of course not. She’s the prison we made for ourselves.
Lynn Parramore is an AlterNet senior editor. She is cofounder of Recessionwire, founding editor of New Deal 2.0, and author of “Reading the Sphinx: Ancient Egypt in Nineteenth-Century Literary Culture.” She received her Ph.D. in English and cultural theory from NYU. She is the director of AlterNet’s New Economic Dialogue Project. Follow her on Twitter @LynnParramore.
“Can we turn the loss of this artist we loved so much into something that pushes back against the ravages of despair” Alan Alda
Sometimes, I just can’t understand the rationale that we stand on when a celebrity dies. It’s as if they have some sort of super power, some beyond human experience, existence that makes them more of an IDOL, than a real living breathing human.
The adoration and adulation is so displaced. A great attention given to a person who barely knows who he/she is outside of the admiration thrust upon them by their audience. In real life, beyond the big scream, they cry, they fart, they throw up and catch the flu. But on screen they are more than human, they are more than super human, they are GODS.
Somewhere in the human psyche we need to have these GODS, these DEITIES, who seem to give us this false sense of hope and a false sense of reality. We never see them sweat except as part of the act. We don’t see what it takes to get one scene together to fit the big screen. But alas, we are manipulated and mezmorized by their “bigger than life” persona.
Yet, by the same token we will walk over a homeless person lying in the gutter. Some of us will actually bring harm to them, as if they are not human and deserving of being treated as a living, breathing human manifestation of the Divine. We are also the same ones who will vote for the killing of thousands of children in other people’s homes. How is that possible? How do these two opposing beliefs come from the same species. Even in the animal kingdom you see a compassion that far outweighs what we tend to portray for one another, particularly in the more privileged side of the human family.
Robin Williams, brought us all a taste of a world beyond our own abilities to manifest in the sense that he could be all of us and none of us at the same time. He could be almost any character and make it so real, we really believed it. Yet who was he, and did he hurt every time he heard that another Palestinian home had been bombed and another 50 children killed in an areal assault? Did he pay attention to what was happening in the world outside of his fame? I tend to believe he did, but that could simply be a personal bias.
My point is this… Here we are mourning the likes of a ROBIN WILLIAMS, another human being who had the opportunity to make us laugh so hard, we’d better stop before we damage our hearts, yet, we are divorced from the sadness, the grief, the despair, the depression of others who are not on the Big Screen.
What gives them carte-blanche to our sympathies? What makes their pain bigger than any one else’s and what makes them so important, even more important than the thousands of Yazidi fleeing into war torn Syria. What kind of world is this? Imagine just for a moment what that must feel like, when 20 members of your immediate family is killed in an instance and you are the only one who survives. Would you consider the fact that this lone survivor could give into the deepest darkest despair and kill himself or become a suicide bomber? Would his suicide make headline news??
Why are we so divorced from the chemical, electro-magnetic impact that death and destruction has on all of us, in every single corner of this globe. Is one death and its reason more significant than the death of an old man who gave up after being shut away in an old folks’ home for 20 years where no one came to visit him? How is it, that Robin’s depression is a clarion call for folks to focus on remedies for it, and questions about it and how can we avoid it in others….?? How is that possible when we are constantly bombarded with all types of violence against one another and others we don’t even know? How in the same breath, we weep and cry and wish we knew before it was too late, and then say that Israel’s disproportionate force against Gaza is justifiable? How do we support the arming of rebels around the globe who have no compassion at all for their victims and their families as they slaughter, maimed and behead them. What type of mind do we as a human family have that we can go so deep into the mirror over a superficial SUPER STARwho told us himself that“NO MOVIES ARE REAL!” yet we are lacking in our ability to comprehend, respond or change the conditions of our world where distress, pain and misery lie.
Seriously, is the fact that Robin Williams was depressed more of a headline than the deep despair that Liberian Mother feels whose child succumbed to Ebola? Or the Ferguson’s mother whose son was shot several times and killing all his chances to go to college this coming September? How displaced is our attention, concern and adulations when it comes to a so-called Hollywood Celebrity than for our family and neighbors who live in our midst? How displaced is our concern when we spend ours and dollars on Pop Culture and ignore the pain of those who are on the other side of the globe, who are awakened from their sleep in the middle of the night to the rhythmic sequence of bombs falling on their neighborhood, a neighborhood they could not escape. What about their despair, what about their depression, grief and feelings of loss?
And finally, how can we avoid it? Sometimes, I think the Universe let’s it happen to us so we can see what it feels like and maybe, just maybe we will have more empathy for others. I wonder how effective that method is however. It seems we get more self gratification weighing in on our favorite celeb, sports start or politician than we do on the real issues. We are all one human family sharing one home, Earth, and surely, whatever is happening anywhere in the world is happening everywhere.
We hear so much about honoring the dead, honoring their families, giving the families of these famous deceased folks their privacy, etc., etc. ad infanitum, yet, who honors those that are killed by our tax dollars and warmongering Politicians? Who stops and places a yellow ribbon on their hearts for them. Who refuses to participate in their annihilation? If it meant that the way we could save Robin from his ill fated demise meant that we stop supporting the industry that killed him, would we do it. Would we release ourselves from the joys of his mania and allow him, the artist to live in peace? Would we rally around programs that brought peace into his life if it meant he would make no more movies for our gawking eyes and selfish idol worship to enjoy? Would we stop if it meant that we would have to find something else to entertain us or find a way to entertain ourselves without destroying the idol of our worship? Would we? Could we? Are we all crying out loud because we cannot live without Robin Williams, our major distraction from what is really happening in the real world????
Yes, another IDOL has succumbed to the ravishes of an industry that kills it. And to what does that mean? Save we shall simply find another distraction and move ever more from reality and deeper into the matrix of mind control.
I hope that Robin is doing well, wherever he is. I hope he realizes that our worshipping of him was a sickness as much as his desire to be worshipped and that if he comes back he will love himself, more than any mass of emotionally starved and derranged human beings could ever love him. Rest In Power, Robin Williams, and all those who preceeded you and all those who follow and particularly the forgotten ones whose physical bodies are wasting away under the rubble of human ignorance and cruelty.
Opinion
Alan Alda: A Niagaraof Wit Falls Silent Aug. 12, 2014Can we turn the loss of this artist we loved so much into something that pushes back against the ravages of despair?
Within minutes we were telling one another he was gone. His genius, that had burned so hot, was cold, and the whole country felt the chill at once. For years, we had watched with awe as a Niagara of wit poured from his unconscious. Where did that manic waterfall of funny have its source? And where did his fearlessness come from? The night that he and Jane Fonda and I hosted the Academy Awards show together, he kept coming up with outrageous jokes in the wings. But before he went out on stage, he seemed to be using me as his taste monitor. He would think of a line and say, “Is that too tasteless?” Invariably, I’d say, “Yes, it’s too tasteless,” and invariably he’d go on stage, say the line and kill with it. Unfortunately, sometimes the mind that runs so fast it can’t keep up with itself also has its down time. I didn’t know he suffered from depression, although it doesn’t surprise me. But it makes me want to dosomething. I hope it makes us all want to do something. While the whole country, and much of the world, feels this moment of sadness at his death, can we turn the loss of this artist we loved so much into something that pushes back against the ravages of despair? Can we educate one another to recognize the early signs of depression? Can we make it clear to one another how dangerous it is? We all know now that drunk driving kills. But, when I looked up the numbers, I was astonished. Each year there are more than twice as many suicides attributed to depression as deaths on the road due to alcohol. Maybe our grief can be transformed into an awakening. The man who enriched our lives could be the focus of saving countless other lives. Robin Williams could be with us a little longer.
Published 8 August 2014 The killing train transcends each separate war, inequity, and injustice, and ultimately, and this is, of course, the point – so must our opposition. The killing train is fueled by poverty, disease, starvation, indignity, death squads, racism, sexism, class division, bombs, and more bombs.Many years back, moved by the first Gulf War, I wrote a piece with the above title, Stop the Killing Train. I am revisiting the same subject because, regrettably, the topic remains at the forefront even if the precipitating violence is different.
For the purpose of the exercise, please use your imagination.
Suppose a hypothetical god got tired of what we humans do to one another and decided that from January 1, 1991 onward all corpses unnaturally created anywhere in or by the hand of the “free world” would cease to decompose. Anyone dying for want of food or medicine, anyone hung or garroted to death, shot or beaten to death, raped or bombed to death, anyone dying unjustly and inhumanely for want of clean air or water or other necessities of life, would, as a corpse, persist without decomposing. The permanent corpse would then automatically enter a glass-walled cattle car attached to an ethereal train traveling monotonously across the U.S., state by state, never stopping. The hypothetical God would tirelessly display our achievements for us all to see.
One by one the corpses would divinely load onto the cattle cars. After every thousand corpses piled in a car, a new car would hitch up and begin filling in turn. Mile after mile the killing train would roll along, each corpse visible through the train’s transparent walls. We can suppose it fills at the rate of 200 new corpses a minute, or one new car every five minutes, day and night, without pause.
By the end of 1991, on its first birthday, the killing train would easily measure over 2,500 miles long. Traveling at 20 miles an hour it would take about five days to pass any intersection across the U.S. Imagine you are sitting at a railroad crossing. You watch this horror go past, 24 hours a day, for five full days. Every car contains 1,000 corpses, all clearly visible. This hypothetical God knows how to communicate so we can’t ignore reality.
By the year 2000, assuming no dramatic change in institutions and behavior, the train would stretch from coast to coast about seven times. It would take about six weeks from the time its engine passed the Statue of Liberty to when its caboose would go by. Would the God still wonder when pitiful, aspiring humanity would get the message?
By 2014 – you can safely just double the ugly statistics. Deaths accelerate, unless, of course, we had gotten the message. So, coast to coast it would stretch, about 14 times. Every corpse an indictment.
Think how a young child sometimes points to a picture in a book or magazine and asks for an explanation, “Tell me about a tree?” A car? A boat? Or a train? A big train? The killing train? Go ahead, try to answer that one. Perhaps that explains why this image isn’t, in fact, a common one on our TVs and in our never-ending streams of information.
Bad enough, way worse than bad enough, it could even get worse. Consider that climate change will before long start to wrack up even larger kill lists. But, of course, those dead would pile into the killing train too, since with only modest exceptions they too are preventable.
The killing train, in any event, no matter how each moribund commuter who need not have been on board got his or her ticket, is horrendous.
Imagine the lost opportunity and lost love. Imagine as well the network of negative influences that radiate from the unnecessary deaths displayed by the killing train stretching from coast to coast and back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. Consider the horrendous impact, not only on those on board, but on every person that any of those corpses ever loved or would have loved, fed or would have fed, taught or would have taught.
Who rides the killing train? Certainly citizens of the “Third World,” selling their organs for food, selling their babies to save their families, suffering disappearances and starvation. They live in Brazil, the Philippines, El Salvador, but also New York. They enter the killing train, every day. It isn’t a peace train. It isn’t a justice train. It isn’t a love train. It is a killing train. Its current most bloody loading platform: Gaza. But don’t forget those who starve and die of preventable diseases in the Third World and in the first world too. All are onboard.
Is the gigantic sprawling disgusting image exaggerated? 10 million kids die yearly for lack of basic medical aid that the U.S. could provide at almost no cost in countries whose economies Exxon and the Bank of America have looted. Preventable death fills the killing train. To the sane, it is mass murder. The grotesque image I offer is actually understated.
Bloated diseased bodies are victims of murder just as surely as bullet-riddled bodies tossed into rivers by death squads, or shrapnel shredded bodies prone in the piles of blasted hospitals and homes. Denying medicine by out of reach pricing or preventable shortages is no less criminal than denying medicine by blowing up pharmacies and demolishing hospitals is no less criminal than supplying torture racks, stealing resources, and paving roads with bomblets. Bombing electric power stations and pulverizing hospitals enlarges the train. Deaths by starvation and disease are no less unnatural than those by bomblet and bullet, and enlarge the train.
Evolution has given humans the capacity to perceive, think, feel, and imagine. During war time—as now exists in so many places —if we get aroused to action we begin to see the whole train as it persists day in and day out. When this happens, what do we do about it? Do we become depressed? Cynical? Anguished? Cry? Daydream of Armageddon? Daydream of justice? Or do we hand out a leaflet?
Once we begin to see the killing train, how do we face the killing train? Part of me says these crimes are so grotesque, so inhumane, that the perpetrators deserve to die, now. A little tiny killing train for the killers and no more big killing train for everyone else. An eye for a million eyes. What other step makes more sense? Was this the hypothetical God’s plan?
But, of course, that’s not the way the world works. Yes, people give the orders. People wield the axes, withhold the food, pay the pitiful salaries, blow up the power stations, spew the garbage, lie, steal, cheat, obey – and produce corpses. But institutions create the pressures that mold the people.
When an institutional cancer spreads through the human patient, what kind of surgeon can cut it away? Is the imprint of accumulated repression so deep it can never be excised.
At first, becoming attuned to our country’s responsibility for the corpses stacked behind transparent cattle-car walls makes handing out leaflets, or writing essays, or arguing for peace with a co-worker, or urging a relative to think twice about paying taxes, or going to a demonstration, or sitting in, or doing civil disobedience, or even taking over a workplace, seem insignificant. But the fact is, these are the acts that the hypothetical God, tired of our behavior, would be calling for if she were to actually parade the “free world’s” corpses down our main streets in killing trains. These are the acts that can accumulate into a firestorm of informed protest that raises the cost of profiteering and domination, of war making and pollution so high that the institutions breeding such behavior start to buckle.
The fact is, when fighting a behemoth, “You lose, you lose, you lose, and then you win.” Every loss, understood properly to learn its lessons, is part of the process that leads to transforming institutions so that there can be no people as vile as Hussein or Bush, as Netanyahu or Obama. No more “Good Germans” or “Good Americans.” No more incinerated Jews or decapitated, starved, poisoned, starved, bulleted Palestinians.
War is invariably unjustly motivated. War is always horrendously harmful. War is an orchestrated atrocity that mandates our militant, unswerving opposition. But so too does exploitation, racism, sexism, the systematic deprivation of any one community at the hands of any other.
But even after the Gaza crimes of the little thug Israel and of its guardian angel the big thug, America, ends, the on-going U.S. war against “free world” people who it has consigned to ride the killing train will, if it continues, remain a enormous crime against humanity. The killing train transcends each separate war, inequity, and injustice, and ultimately, and this is, of course, the point – so must our opposition. The killing train is fueled by poverty, disease, starvation, indignity, death squads, racism, sexism, class division, bombs, and more bombs. The power plant of the death, destruction, and generalized deprivation is our basic institutions.
Leaked documents reveal one of New Zealand’s richest families was for a time at the heart of a major international tax haven company that hit the news in the United States last week. John Spencer, New Zealand’s richest man in the 1980s and still incredibly wealthy, was – with his family – majority owners of the company called TrustNet, whose extremely secret client records have been leaked en masse to a Washington DC-based journalism organisation. The leaks reveal the identity of tens of thousands of people who use tax havens: some involved in dodgy activities and evading tax, others in lawful activities including companies doing business across political borders and individuals living in multiple countries or legitimately minimising their tax.
Surprisingly, the leaks show New Zealanders are involved extensively in this shadowy world of offshore companies and secret bank accounts.
The company at the centre of the Washington leaks was set up by New Zealanders, has been staffed by many New Zealanders and for 14 years was majority-owned by the Spencers.
The Spencers have courted controversy. John Spencer waged a 19-year battle to stop public access to the Stony Batter gun emplacement on his Waiheke Island farm, including barricading a public road. The Star-Times revealed in 2005 that his son Berridge and daughter Mertsi were secret National Party donors. And now Spencer is the Kiwi connection to secret tax haven records that may be the largest leak of financial information in history.
They expose the hidden activities of wealthy, secretive or criminal people in around 150 countries and territories. In total, about one-and-a-half million documents were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), an independent network of reporters who work together on cross-border investigations. There is currently hot debate around the world about corporations which don’t pay tax and the respectable bankers and lawyers who assist them.
The Tax Justice Network and other organisations are pushing for governments like New Zealand’s to stop tolerating tax havens and work together to close them down. TrustNet has helped set up and manage companies, trusts and bank accounts in tax havens for about 80,000 individual clients.
According to overseas news stories based on the leaks, they include the mega-rich, corrupt regimes, corporations dodging tax, fraudsters, companies shifting wealth out of poor countries, companies with controversial or secretive business, mercenaries and spies, and also many ordinary people who want to move their money and business “offshore”.
The Tax Justice Network estimates that about one-third of the world’s wealth is held offshore and about half of all the world’s trade flows through tax havens. New Zealanders have had occasional glimpses of the offshore world. Star-Times stories have exposed: * Geoffrey Taylor, and his sons Ian and Michael, setting up companies in New Zealand for North Korean arms trading and organised crime; * an Auckland Burger King cook was a director for some of these companies; * and a Nelson woman who supposedly owned a Moldovan TV station, again through a chain of Taylor companies. Mostly these people and their shell companies have been pawns in a much bigger system.
KIWIS IN KEY ROLES The TrustNet leaks show New Zealanders in key roles helping to run the system. TrustNet markets itself today as the largest independent offshore services company in Asia. It was set up 25 years ago by Kiwis in what was then the newly established Cook Islands tax haven.
In the early 1980s business lobbyists from New Zealand and Australia persuaded the Cook Islands government that becoming a tax haven would bring riches to the small island group. These lobbyists included New Zealander lawyer Trevor Clarke, “father of the Cook Islands tax haven”, who with others used the new tax haven laws to build a company called European Pacific.
Documents about European Pacific’s tax schemes were leaked and tabled in the New Zealand Parliament by MP Winston Peters, igniting the Winebox scandal (see breakout).
Another key figure was New Zealand lawyer Mike Mitchell, the Cook Islands solicitor-general in the early 1980s and main government adviser as the tax haven was established. He resigned from that role in 1986 to move into the offshore business himself. On April 29, 1987, he established an offshore services company called Pacific Trustee Company. The company was later renamed TrustNet, the company at the centre of last week’s leaks.
TrustNet’s first chief executive was another New Zealand lawyer, Steve Breed, who was joined a few years later by fellow Auckland law school graduate David Sceats. Early staff included people who’d worked on the Cook Islands Winebox schemes. The European Pacific tax expert accused in court of leaking the Winebox documents, New Zealand lawyer George Couttie, had moved on to work for TrustNet in Hong Kong. But soon after this accusation was made, according to internal documents, senior TrustNet staff recorded a terse company resolution that “accepted” his resignation “effective from the date hereof”. In contrast, European Pacific’s former senior executive Geoff Barry was later hired by TrustNet and rose to become the chief executive officer. Today, 10 years later, he is executive director of TrustNet’s Hong Kong office.
Spencer’s ownership of TrustNet was never publicised. It came to light only during analysis of the leaked records. A note about an obscure offshore entity says “Client is our big boss, John Spencer”. Spencer, who had inherited his family’s Caxton toilet paper empire, owned, with his family, a majority share of TrustNet from July 1990 until September 2004, through a Bahamas company called International Trustee Holding Company Limited. John and Berridge Spencer also used TrustNet to place some of their own money and investments in a complex web of offshore companies and trusts. These were based in the British Virgin Islands and Cook Islands, with names such as Northern Lights Trust, Star One Trust and Tristar Capital Service Limited. A spokesperson for the Spencer family said neither John nor Berridge Spencer have been New Zealand residents since the 1990s and in those circumstances it was hardly surprising that the family have assets invested outside of New Zealand.
With the Spencers’ backing TrustNet grew quickly, opening offices in Hong Kong in 1991, the British Virgin Islands in 1993 and Singapore in 1994. The early clients included a controversial Indonesian rainforest logging tycoon named Prajogo Pangestu, who had four British Virgin Islands companies.
TREVOR CLARKE Another TrustNet client was the former European Pacific manager Trevor Clarke. He had his own set of offshore companies and trusts administered by TrustNet. They were home to millions of dollars of assets, the leaked documents reveal, and TrustNet staff were given special instructions about keeping them secret. One document reads: “We are to contact Trevor by phone only unless otherwise instructed . . . No documents are to be kept here. All docs are to be held in our Hong Kong office.”
Clarke was appointed chair of the Cook Islands’ new Financial Supervisory Commission from 2003 until 2010, which was set up to oversee the offshore industry. Throughout those years he had the secretive offshore trusts and companies. Clarke responded that he was not “a user of any Cook Islands entities” – his companies and trusts were in Samoa and the British Virgin Islands – and said these were set up well before his role as FSC chair. He had disclosed them to a number of authorities. He said there were lots of reasons for people to want to have assets outside the country where they live. The secrecy instructions did not come from him, he said.
The TrustNet files also show a close relationship between the company and the BNZ and ANZ banks, which had dedicated staff for offshore banking. The leaked documents show bank staff routinely helping TrustNet move money in and out of its clients’ offshore bank accounts held at the BNZ Singapore branch and ANZ Cook Islands branch.
In September 2004, the Spencers sold TrustNet to a Singaporean offshore lawyer named David Chong. But many of the New Zealanders, especially lawyers, continued to work in the company and be part of tax haven politics.
Lawyers created the offshore world and lawyers and accountants run it. They lobby in each tax haven for special laws to attract clients and often actually write the laws themselves. The leaked TrustdhNet papers show this clearly in the minutes of the Cook Islands Trusdhtee Company Association. The offshore services company heads are seen sitting around deciding what laws they want, putting the hat around for money to have them drafted and then arranging to predhsent the new laws to the Cook Islands government. The same lawyers then use these laws to help their clients.
They also deal with the problems when things go wrong. One of TrustdhNet’s New Zealand lawyers Penny Purcell was on duty, for instance, when two officers from the Hong Kong Commercial Crime Bureau turned up on August 20, 2007, at TrustNet’s harbour-front offices. They were investigating a fraud case involving a British Virgin Islands company called Sound Financial Management Limited.
The secret TrustNet files include Purcell’s written record of the meeting. Detective Sergeant Steven Lam produced a formal letter from the Hong Kong commissioner of police requesting ‘‘all relevant documents’’ about Sound Financial Management Limited and details of the company’s director and shareholder. Purcell replied that the officers would need to contact TrustNet’s British Virgin Islands office and, according to her own notes, assured them ‘‘we do not keep any files or records here’’.
She said the police ‘‘were surprised’’ the office had no records and asked how this could be ‘‘if the client is based here in Hong Kong’’. ‘‘I then explained,’’ Purcell wrote, ‘‘that we acted as a marketing/secretarial office but that all information including the registers of the Company were kept in its registered office.’’ Detective Sergeant Lam tried one last time, she wrote, asking if they kept any information there in Hong Kong, including correspondence. ‘‘I said no,’’ Purcell wrote. A few days later TrustNet repeated the denial by letter. ‘‘Portcullis TrustNet (Hong Kong) Limited does not hold any corporate or statutory records of the Company, nor is it required to,’’ the letter said. However, the details the police were looking for would have been instantly available on Purdhcell’s computer. The leaked TrustdhNet documents show that she routinely used the company’s Offshore Management Information System (OMIS), which was available in all the TrustNet offices and contained all the client records.
The OMIS database, which was leaked to ICIJ, lists Sound Financial Management’s director and shareholder as Glen Douglas Crankshaw, a Canadian living near Bangkok. TrustNet helped his company open a bank account at the Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong branch, located on the ground floor of the same building as TrustNet. According to Purcell’s notes, she told them none of this. Two years later the Hong Kong police issued an arrest warrant for Crankshaw for ‘‘dealing with property known or reasonably believed to represent the proceeds of indictable crime’’. They had traced him through a different offshore company, with the similar name ‘‘GS Sound Management Limited’’.
Purcell has since returned to help run TrustNet’s office on Auckland’s North Shore. She remains part of a network of New Zealand offshore lawyers scattered in tax havens around the world. They include former TrustNet lawyer Barry Mitchell who, according to court documents, gave assistance during the setting up of the Trinity investment scheme, New Zealand’s largest tax avoidance case; and Act Party-aligned blogger Cathy Odgers (‘‘Cactus Kate’’) who has worked as an offshore lawyer in the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong.
Various offshore lawyers have brought their skills home, taking advantage of New Zealand’s loose company and trust law. The original TrustNet lawyers, Breed and Sceats, came home and set up Nexus Trust, promoting New Zealand’s tax haven potential to foreign clients. Two other former Cook Island lawyers, Nick Shepherd and (former European Pacific executive) Mike Reynolds set up Anchor Trustees which offers services to ‘‘non-resident families and corporates’’.
Long-term TrustNet client Tim Brears on Auckland’s North Shore offers clients advice on the ‘‘advantages of moving ownership and control of assets and investment offshore out of New Zealand’’.
Nicky Hager has worked in a multi-country team for the past 15 months analysing the leaked materials and co-ordinating local journalists in Asia, Africa and part of Europe who collaborated in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists project, www.icij.org.
Fear of The Unknown Is Creating Hysteria In Every Part of Our Lives And It’s Becoming Accepted As The Norm
Being afraid of the unknown is not a new concept. From birth to death we’ve been trained to fear everything for a very long time. The dangers of modern life have a stranglehold on people’s imaginations. Sociologists call the phenomenon a risk society, describing cultures increasingly preoccupied with threats to safety, both real and perceived, but most definitely imagined. Most institutions today, whether they be academic, medical, religious, government and all others, would not exist in the way, shape or form they do today if it were not for the element of fear. The Earth you see before you today and the Earth of the future will be at a distinct contrast when it comes to how afraid we are of the unknown. Many of you see it coming already.
It’s why wars exist. It’s why modern medicine exists. It’s why politics exists. It’s why laws exist. We fear everything, so we must naturally attempt to control or prevent what we fear most. A majority of people will agree that the world is more dangerous than ever before. Even in the face of evidence that negates this misperception, there is no relief. We lock our doors, say our prayers, marvel at our own pessimism and then wonder why we still can’t get to sleep. We are immersed in a culture of fear.
Neurolinguistic programming, emulating psychosis, television, advertising, the illusion of terrorism and several other remarkable concepts affect every facet of our lives and our world at the expense of our health, safety and security.
If there is a disease, we must develop a vaccine or drug. If there is a terrorist, we must develop anti-terrorist measures. If there are criminals, we must create laws. If there are bullies, we must create anti-bullying policies. It is our nature. It is human nature. Well at least when it comes to modern humans.
Try and access any social media platform on the internet without getting bombarded by a fearful audience. It’s impossible. People are scared of everything. So they criticize, argue, belittle, antagonize and resort to ad hominem attacks that focus on the character of others because they cannot fathom a truth which is not their own. It’s a protective measure to guard against the unknown.
What Does Fear Do To Us?
Fear keeps us focused on the past and constantly worried about the future. It creates desperation and indecision that paralyzes our logic, thinking and actions. We can’t live freely because we can’t stop living in fear.
People who are fearful are very hesitant to explore new concepts or embrace other possibilities. You can always estimate the level of a person’s fear by how they explore new surroundings and inspect objects around them. This ultimately affects our personality and how other behavioral traits affect our physiology including what kind of impacts these traits have on our overall health and life span.
There is an international consortium of scientists who are working aggressively to find ways to control fear in both the public and military. Is this the answer to our fearful ways? Certainly not as the initiatives themselves stem from fear.
Fear is tearing our society apart. In the past, fear has engendered solidarity, but today it throws wedges between all of humanity. This isolation, in turn, renders the public ever more fearful. What’s more, media outlets, politicians, modern medicine and businesses all have learned to capitalize on this distinctly modern sense of dread, and thus profit from finding ways to cultivate it. Until we find a way to resist fear, we’ll live at the mercy of these emotional entrepreneurs–and in doing so, be party to the personal, cultural, and political consequences.
Much of our concept of ourselves and our attitudes as individuals in control of our destinies underpins much of our reality or what we think about our existence.
A Negative Attitude Is The Basis of Cyclical Fears
When people retain negative attitudes about anything that disagrees with their own version of reality, they are more likely to experience a continued sense of fear than people whose attitudes are less negative. Physiological markers such as heart rate and anticipatory anxiety always increase when measurements are taken in people whose attitudes remain negative.
Some of these attitudes are often based on a powerful association between a fear and a negative feeling that is so strong, that many people can’t see or even think about the fear without experiencing that automatic negative reaction. For example, many people around the world devoted to their religion absolutely fear atheists. They refuse to relate to their position. They will not even conceive the right of atheists to their own opinions and feel extremely threatened by any content promoting the principles of atheism. The same can be true if we reverse the two roles. Neither position will ever advance the other if each can only think negatively about the other. This creates self-righteousness, divisions of superiority and of course ignorance.
Negative reactions to the unknown instills a sense of weakness in our character, specifically a lack of strength in our own convictions. When people have the need to strongly chastise others for their opinions and information they present, it shows a genuine deficit of attributes related to confidence about our own belief systems, morals and values.
Those who have confidence in their doctrines do not have to identify all those things they dislike so much in others or attempt to magnify those flaws to please their own conscience. In essence, they feel they must right-fight to support their own belief system since in their minds, a competing system must be incorrect.
Modern Fear Is Viral
What’s unique about 21st-century fear is how people experience fear. Since the 1980s, society at large has bolted frantically from one panic to the next. Fear of crime reduced us to wrecks, but before long we were also howling about deadly diseases, drug abusers, online pedophiles, avian flu, ebola, teens gone wild, mad cows, anthrax, immigrants, environmental collapse, and–let us not forget–terrorists.
“There isn’t a single fear that defines our era,” says sociologist Frank Furedi, author of Culture of Fear: Risk-Taking and the Morality of Low Expectation and Politics of Fear: Beyond Left and Right. “What we have is a more promiscuous, pluralistic form of fearing. The very important implication to this is that while my parents feared together, you and I have a more isolated, private experience. We fear on our own.”
Our brains are poorly equipped to weigh risks that don’t result in immediate negative consequences. Marketers, politicians, and entertainers grasp with precision how brains misfire, and they apply this knowledge to great gain. Few can doubt how well fearmongering has worked for pharmaceutical companies who use the fear of disease to sell drugs and vaccines by the billions.
As networks battle for ratings and newspapers grasp at disappearing readers, the urge to lead with sensational stories grows. The gap between the reported and the commonplace skews our subconscious stockpile of reference points, while hunger for the next big story inevitably broadens our catalog of things that go bump in the night.
It’s Time To Abandon Fear To Change This World
People need not abandon fear altogether. Our ability to judge risk is sophisticated, and instinctual decisions often serve us well. But when something doesn’t quite seem to sync up, gut to head, then it’s time to pause and at least question what’s causing the discrepancy.
The new Earth will see people working to reduce or eliminate fear like never before. If you have a fear, first understand the nature of the object that arouses it. Let us say you are afraid of your future. What you really fear is the uncertainty that surrounds events yet to happen. By living totally in the present and by planning ahead you can reduce the uncertainty and fear. You cannot plan for all uncertainties but being prepared to an extent reduces your fear of uncertainties. Learn the art of enjoying it, too.
The psychological programming inside you, your subconscious mind, should change before any real change can happen. Your subconscious mind comprises engrams — mental traces that have been created over life experiences. These consist of both positive and negative associations and act like computer programmes. So long as the programming remains the same, the computer will function only in the manner dictated by that programme.
Similarly, we have to change the programming of our mind. Wise thinking leads to discrimination of the good and the bad. When you have changed your programming, you start perceiving and acting positively. So it is wise thinking that holds the key to a positive frame of mind.
Once people start thinking this way, it’s impossible to stop: Every television program, every advertisement, every stump speech that hangs its hat on scare tactics will be thrown into acute relief. That is where we are headed. We are all eventually going to give up allowing fears to define us, and focus instead on which ones are worth tackling together. When we do that, we won’t just free politicians from fear-inducing rhetoric or stymie fearmongering marketers; but we’ll also give ourselves some much-needed relief.
A Liberian health official says the Ebola outbreak is now above the control of its government.
“Our government has declared this now as a humanitarian crisis that is above the control of the national government,” Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia’s assistant minister of health, told CBS News.
More than 700 people have died in four western African nations during the largest Ebola outbreak ever, with over 320 known cases in Liberia alone. One American died while contracting the virus in Liberia. Two other American medical missionary workers also contracted Ebola.
Model State Emergency Health Powers Act “could turn governors into dictators” Federal health authorities could exercise authoritarian powers to control an Ebola outbreak if the deadly disease hits the United States under the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, legislation passed in the wake of 9/11 which attracted controversy at the time for its draconian scope.
With the Ebola outbreak in West Africa having been declared the worst in history by the World Health Organization, concerns are mounting that the disease could spread via international air travel. Asked whether the virus could arrive in the United States, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said, “It’s going to happen at some point.”
The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act, drafted during the 2001 anthrax attacks, has since been adopted in whole or in part by 33 states. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons warned that the legislation “could turn governors into dictators,” while constitutional lawyer Phyllis Schlafly labeled it “an unprecedented assault on the constitutional rights of the American people.”
Truth Raider Warns of Ebola False Flag The federal government already has the authority to round people up against their will Ebola Vaccines: Poor Market Potential and Lack of Subjects for Clinical Trials Holding Up Testing The most promising one is stuck in safety testing for the simple reason there is no money for a vaccine that has no market. Most big pharmaceuticals do not like to sink assets into developing any drug with low potential. That leaves the playing ground largely to the government and small, niche companies.
Western governments are now issuing alerts to doctors to be on the lookout for symptoms of the disease after an infected Liberian man was found to have traveled through a major transport hub in Nigeria. The World Health Organization has called the outbreak the worst on record, while Doctors Without Borders says the situation is “out of control.”
Back in April, the Department of Defense announced that it had deployed biological diagnostic systems to National Guard support teams across the U.S. in readiness for any potential Ebola outbreak.
An NHS doctor has urged the world to wake up to the growing threat of Ebola after risking his life working 24-hour hospital shifts trying to save pregnant women struck down by the disease.
If the worst Ebola outbreak in recorded history reaches the United States, federal law permits “the apprehension and examination of any individual reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease”. These individuals can be “detained for such time and in such manner as may be reasonably necessary”. In other words, the federal government already has the authority to round people up against their will, take them to detention facilities and hold them there for as long as they feel it is “reasonably necessary”. In addition, as you will read about below, the federal government has the authority “to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill”. If you want to look at these laws in the broadest sense, they pretty much give the federal government the power to do almost anything that they want with us in the event of a major pandemic. Of course such a scenario probably would not be called “marital law”, but it would probably feel a lot like it.
By David Swanson Remarks at Veterans For Peace Convention, Asheville, NC, July 27, 2014.
I started seeing graphics pop up on social media sites this past week that said about Gaza: “It’s not war. It’s murder.” So I started asking people what exactly they think war is if it’s distinct from murder. Well, war, some of them told me, takes place between armies. So I asked for anyone to name a war during the past century (that is, after World War I) where all or even most or even a majority of the dying was done by members of armies. There may have been such a war. There are enough scholars here today that somebody probably knows of one. But if so, it isn’t the norm, and these people I was chatting with through social media couldn’t think of any such war and yet insisted that that’s just what war is. So, is war then over and nobody told us?
For whatever reasons, I then very soon began seeing a graphic sent around that said about Gaza: “It’s not war. It’s genocide.” And the typical explanation I got when I questioned this one was that the wagers of war and the wagers of genocide have different attitudes. Are we sure about that? I’ve spoken to advocates for recent U.S. wars who wanted all or part of a population wiped out. Plenty of supporters of the latest attacks on Gaza see them as counter-terrorism. In wars between advanced militaries and poor peoples most of the death and injury is on one side and most of it — by anyone’s definition — civilian. This is as true in Afghanistan, where war rolls on largely unchallenged, as in Gaza, about which we are newly outraged. Well, what’s wrong with outrage? Who cares what people call it? Why not criticize the war advocates rather than nitpicking the war opponents’ choice of words? When people are outraged they will reach for whatever word their culture tells them is most powerful, be it murder or genocide or whatever. Why not encourage that and worry a little more about the lunatics who are calling it defense or policing or terrorist removal? (Eight-year-old terrorists!)
Yes, of course. I’ve been going after CNN news readers for claiming Palestinians want to die and NBC for yanking its best reporter and ABC for claiming scenes of destruction in Gaza that just don’t exist in Israel are in fact in Israel — and the U.S. government for providing the weapons and the criminal immunity. I’ve been promoting rallies and events aimed at swaying public opinion against what Israel has been doing, and against the sadistic bloodthirsty culture of those standing on hills cheering for the death and destruction below, quite regardless of what they call it. But, as you’re probably aware, only the very most open-minded war advocates attend conventions of Veterans For Peace. So, I’m speaking here backstage, as it were, at the peace movement. Among those of us who want to stop the killing, are there better and worse ways to talk about it? And is anything revealed by the ways in which we tend to talk about it when we aren’t hyper-focused on our language?
I think so. I think it’s telling that the worst word anyone can think of isn’t war. I think it’s even more telling that we condemn things by contrasting them with war, framing war as relatively acceptable. I think this fact ought to be unsettling because a very good case can be made that war, in fact, is the worst thing we do, and that the distinctions between war and such evils as murder or genocide can require squinting very hard to discern.
We’ve all heard that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. There is a parallel belief that wars don’t kill people, people who misuse wars, who fight bad wars, who fight wars improperly, kill people. This is a big contrast with many other evil institutions. We don’t oppose child abuse selectively, holding out the possibility of just and good incidents of child abuse while opposing the bad or dumb or non-strategic or excessive cases of child abuse. We don’t have Geneva Conventions for proper conduct while abusing children. We don’t have human rights groups writing reports on atrocities and possible law violations committed in the course of abusing children. We don’t distinguish UN-sanctioned child abuse. The same goes for numerous behaviors generally understood as always evil: slavery or rape or blood feuds or duelling or dog fighting or sexual harassment or bullying or human experimentation or — I don’t know — producing piles of I’m-Ready-for-Hillary posters. We don’t imagine there are good, just, and defensible cases of such actions.
And this is the core problem: not support for bombing Gaza or Afghanistan or Pakistan or Iraq or anywhere else that actually gets bombed, but support for an imaginary war in the near future between two armies with different colored jerseys and sponsors, competing on an isolated battlefield apart from any villages or towns, and suffering bravely and heroically for their non-murderous non-genocidal cause while complying with the whistles blown by the referees in the human rights organizations whenever any of the proper killing drifts into lawless imprisonment or torture or the use of improper weaponry. Support for specific possible wars in the United States right now is generally under 10 percent. More people believe in ghosts, angels, and the integrity of our electoral system than want a new U.S. war in Ukraine, Syria, Iran, or Iraq. The Washington Post found a little over 10 percent want a war in Ukraine but that the people who held that view were the people who placed Ukraine on the world map the furthest from its actual location, including people who placed it in the United States. These are the idiots who favor specific wars. Even Congress, speaking of idiots, on Friday told Obama no new war on Iraq.
The problem is the people, ranging across the population from morons right up to geniuses, who favor imaginary wars. Millions of people will tell you we need to be prepared for more wars in case there’s another Adolf Hitler, failing to understand that the wars and militarism and weapons sales and weapons gifts — the whole U.S. role as the arsenal of democracies and dictatorships alike — increase rather than decrease dangers, that other wealthy countries spend less than 10 percent what the U.S. does on their militaries, and that 10 percent of what the U.S. spends on its military could end global starvation, provide the globe with clean water, and fund sustainable energy and agriculture programs that would go further toward preventing mass violence than any stockpiles of weaponry. Millions will tell you that the world needs a global policeman, even though polls of the world find the widespread belief that the United States is currently the greatest threat to peace on earth. In fact if you start asking people who have opposed every war in our lifetimes or in the past decade to work on opposing the entire institution of war, you’ll be surprised by many of the people who say no.
I’m a big fan of a book called Addicted to War. I think it will probably be a powerful tool for war abolition right up until war is abolished. But its author told me this week that he can’t work to oppose all wars because he favors some of them. Specifically, he said, he doesn’t want to ask Palestinians to not defend themselves. Now, there’s a really vicious cycle. If we can’t shut down the institution of war because Palestinians need to use it, then it’s harder to go after U.S. military spending, which is of course what funds much of the weaponry being used against Palestinians. I think we should get a little clarity about what a war abolition movement does and does not do. It does not tell people what they must do when attacked. It is not focused on advising, much less instructing, the victims of war, but on preventing their victimization. It does not advise the individual victim of a mugging to turn the other cheek. But it also does not accept the disproven notion that violence is a defensive strategy for a population. Nonviolence has proven far more effective and its victories longer lasting. If people in Gaza have done anything at all to assist in their own destruction, it is not the supposed offenses of staying in their homes or visiting hospitals or playing on beaches; it is the ridiculously counterproductive firing of rockets that only encourages and provides political cover for war/ genocide/ mass murder.
I’m a huge fan of Chris Hedges and find him one of the most useful and inspiring writers we have. But he thought attacking Libya was a good idea up until it quite predictably and obviously turned out not to be. He still thinks Bosnia was a just war. I could go on through dozens of names of people who contribute mightily to an anti-war movement who oppose abolishing war. The point is not that anyone who believes in 1 good war out of 100 is to blame for the trillion dollar U.S. military budget and all the destruction it brings. The point is that they are wrong about that 1 war out of 100, and that even if they were right, the side-effects of maintaining a culture accepting of war preparations would outweigh the benefits of getting 1 war right. The lives lost by not spending $1 trillion a year in the U.S. and another $1 trillion in the rest of the world on useful projects like environmental protection, sustainable agriculture, medicine and hygiene absolutely dwarf the number of lives that would be saved by halting our routine level of war making.
If you talk about abolishing war entirely, as many of us have begun focusing on through a new project called World Beyond War, you’ll also find people who want to abolish war but believe it’s impossible. War is natural, they say, inevitable, in our genes, decreed by our economy, the unavoidable result of racism or consumerism or capitalism or exceptionalism or carnivorism or nationalism. And of course many cultural patterns interact with and facilitate war, but the idea that it’s in our genes is absurd, given how many cultures in our species have done and do without it. I don’t know what — if anything — people usually mean when they call something “natural” but presumably it’s not the provocation of suicide, which is such a common result of participating in war, while the first case of PTSD due to war deprivation has yet to be discovered. Most of our species’ existence, as hunter-gatherers, did not know war, and only the last century — a split-second in evolutionary terms — has known war that at all resembles war today. War didn’t used to kill like this. Soldiers weren’t conditioned to kill. Most guns picked up at Gettysburg had been loaded more than once. The big killers were diseases, even in the U.S. Civil War, the war that the U.S. media calls the most deadly because Filipinos and Koreans and Vietnamese and Iraqis don’t count. Now the big killer is a disease in our thinking, a combination of what Dr. King called self-guided missiles and misguided men. Another hurdle for abolishing war is that the idea rose to popularity in the West in the 1920s and 1930s and then sank into a category of thought that is vaguely treasonous. War abolition was tried and failed, the thinking goes, like communism or labor unions and now we know better. While abolishing war is popular in much of the world, that fact is easily ignored by the 1% who misrepresent the 10% or 15% who live in the places that constitute the so-called International Community. Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come or weaker than an idea whose time has come and gone. Or so we think. But the Renaissance was, as its name suggests, an idea whose time came again, new and improved and victorious. The 1920s and 1930s are a resource for us. We have stockpiles of wisdom to draw upon. We have example of where things were headed and how they went of track.
Andrew Carnegie took war profits and set up an endowment with the mandate to eliminate war and then to hold a board meeting, determine the second worst thing in the world, and begin eliminating that. This sounds unique or eccentric, but is I believe a basic understanding of ethics that ought to be understood and acted upon by all of us. When someone asks me why I’m a peace activist I ask them why in the hell anyone isn’t. So, reminding the Carnegie Endowment for Peace what it’s legally obligated to do, and dozens of other organizations along with it, may be part of the process of drawing inspiration from the past. And of course insisting that the Nobel Committee not bestow another peace prize on a war-thirsty presidential candidate or any other advocate of war is part of that.
I find the case to be overwhelming and suspect many of you would agree. In fact Veterans For Peace and numerous chapters and members of Veterans For Peace have been among the first to sign on and participate. And we’ve begun finding that thousands of people and organizations from around the world agree as people and groups from 68 countries and rising have added their names on the website in support of ending all war. And many of these people and organizations are not peace groups. These are environmental and civic groups of all sorts and people never involved in a peace movement before. Our hope is of course to greatly enlarge the peace movement by making war abolition as mainstream as cancer abolition. But we think enlargement is not the only alteration that could benefit the peace movement. We think a focus on each antiwar project as part of a broader campaign to end the whole institution of war will significantly change how specific wars and weapons and tactics are opposed.
How many of you have heard appeals to oppose Pentagon waste? I’m in favor of Pentagon waste and opposed to Pentagon efficiency. How can we not be, when what the Pentagon does is evil? How many of you have heard of opposition to unnecessary wars that leave the military ill-prepared? I’m in favor of leaving the military ill-prepared, but not of distinguishing unnecessary from supposedly necessary wars. Which are the necessary ones? When sending missiles into Syria is stopped, in large part by public pressure, war as last resort is replaced by all sorts of other options that were always available. That would be the case anytime any war is stopped. War is never a last resort any more than rape or child abuse is a last resort. How many of you have seen opposition to U.S. wars that focuses almost exclusively on the financial cost and the suffering endured by Americans? Did you know polls find Americans believing that Iraq benefited and the United States suffered from the war that destroyed Iraq? What if the financial costs and the costs to the aggressor nation were in addition to moral objections to mass-slaughter rather than instead of? How many of you have seen antiwar organizations trumpet their love for troops and veterans and war holidays, or groups like the AARP that advocate for benefits for the elderly by focusing on elderly veterans, as though veterans are the most deserving? Is that good activism?
I want to celebrate those who resist and oppose war, not those who engage in it. I love Veterans For Peace because it’s for peace. It’s for peace in a certain powerful way, but it’s the being for peace that I value. And being for peace in the straightforward meaning of being against war. Most organizations are afraid of being for peace; it always has to be peace and justice or peace and something else. Or it’s peace in our hearts and peace in our homes and the world will take care of itself. Well, as Veterans For Peace know, the world doesn’t take care of itself. The world is driving itself off a cliff. As Woody Allen said, I don’t want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen, I want to live on in my apartment. Well, I don’t want to find peace in my heart or my garden, I want to find peace in the elimination of war. At WorldBeyondWar.org is a list of projects we think may help advance that, including, among others:
Creating an easily recognizable and joinable mainstream international movement to end all war.
Education about war, peace, and nonviolent action — including all that is to be gained by ending war.
Improving access to accurate information about wars. Exposing falsehoods.
Improving access to information about successful steps away from war in other parts of the world.
Increased understanding of partial steps as movement in the direction of eliminating, not reforming, war.
Partial and full disarmament.
Conversion or transition to peaceful industries.
Closing, converting or donating foreign military bases.
Democratizing militaries while they exist and making them truly volunteer.
Banning foreign weapons sales and gifts.
Outlawing profiteering from war.
Banning the use of mercenaries and private contractors.
Abolishing the CIA and other secret agencies.
Promoting diplomacy and international law, and consistent enforcement of laws against war, including prosecution of violators.
Reforming or replacing the U.N. and the ICC.
Expansion of peace teams and human shields.
Promotion of nonmilitary foreign aid and crisis prevention.
Placing restrictions on military recruitment and providing potential soldiers with alternatives.
Thanking resisters for their service.
Encouraging cultural exchange.
Discouraging racism and nationalism.
Developing less destructive and exploitative lifestyles.
Expanding the use of public demonstrations and nonviolent civil resistance to enact all of these changes.
I would add learning from and working with organizations that have been, like Veterans For Peace, working toward war abolition for years now and inspiring others to do the same. And I would invite you all to work with WorldBeyondWartoward our common goal.
David Swanson is Director of World Beyond War, host of Talk Nation Radio, author of books including War No More: The Case for Abolition, War Is A Lie, and When the World Outlawed War.
I laughed at the trailer. I can also relate. I can relate to the father. I went to catholic school grade school and high school, and off to an all girls’ college who was seeking to reach a quota for federal funding and PR. My mother was strong about being black in America, but she did not do it to the point of identifying with her culture from Africa, or not even identifying with African American culture. She did it because it had become a popular thing to do. We are talking about the 60’s.
Angela DavisMy mom was one of the first people I knew to have an Afro hairstyle. But again, not for the cultural aspect of it, but because it was popular. She had fried our hair up until that point. In fact, she fried the hair of other friends in the community we lived in. I can still remember that smell of frying hair.
She didn’t talk about black power, or to be young gifted and black, nor did she wear a dashiki, or any other African garb. She wasn’t a nationalist, socialist, communist or a fan of Angela Davis. She was always changing her hairstyle so I guess, it was just a change of hairstyle that she was after. And let me not forget, my mother was a rebel, in her own right, and since wearing an Afro meant you were rebelling against the system, well she did it, just to be rebellious.
Left, me with my Afro @graduation, 1969 At the time, I did not see it as rebellion. I thought she was expressing her strong sentiment about her African heritage. Quite frankly, I took that literally and want one myself, just like mom so I could identify with her and possibly make her happy one day????? Like I said, I can relate to this story line.
We grew up in North Philadelphia, a part of Philadelphia, where we were constantly being reminded of how it used to be all white years ago and how after the “blacks” moved in the property value and neighborhood went down, down, down. There was an elder gentleman who had a shoe shine stand on the corner of 29th & Dauphin Streets… He would hire young boys in the area to help him shine shoes. That would be his story, whenever you walked by you would hear him talk about all the white folks that use to live in the area, and now look at it. Well, the area had become all black. Black business, black stores, black churches, black dentist, black doctor, black shoe repair man, black milk man, black post man. In fact, the entire area was “black” except for the insurance man who visited homes on Saturday morning, the landlords, and the man who owned the fish store. Well, I must admit that the school, though full of black people, only had white priests, and nuns… In fact, though I wanted to grow up and be the only black nun I knew, I doubted that I would NOT be the only Black nun in the entire world!! Ha, I found another in college years later.
Somehow, I managed to truly identify with my African culture. I was inclined towards African dance, and
Me @ African Dance Performance, 1968African fabrics, and while I didn’t have access to African fabrics during those days, I managed to create something from some fabrics that looked African, at least to me. I doubt that my emphasis on African culture would have happened had it not been for my perception that my mother was into it.
When I went to college, there were 7 African Americans on campus of 1500 students. My mother told me to go to that college. She knew about racism. I knew she knew, though it was not spoken aloud, except the little innuendos that were said when we shopped in a store that was not black owned. I would watch my mother transform and speak “proper” English so that she could impress the cashier. She would do that on the phone too, when she was making important business calls. It was funny to watch her transformation, but we knew deep inside, she wanted to appear educated and talking like we did in the house among ourselves, friends and family, did not make us appear educated. So again, I can relate.
My mother’s agenda for encouraging me to go to an all white, catholic girls college was simple. “You are a fly in a bowl of milk. They will not, not teach their own, simply because you are there.” We knew what that meant on so many levels. I would definitely get a good education because they give their own a good education. I may miss my “black” friends, but that’s no problem, I can always come home on school breaks to be with them, and… after college, I will still be “black in America”. Yeah, I can relate. Plus, I really wouldhn’t have too much trouble getting along there, my high school was 75% white. It wasn’t too popular for African Americans to be Catholic during those days. Those of us who went to Catholic School were often teased and called “stuck-up” mainly because Catholic school was not free, like public school, and if your family could afford Catholic school, you must have had some money. At least enough to put you in a class slightly upper than the rest of the neighborhood folks. This perception was hard to comprehend, since we lived in the same neighborhood as everyone else, but Catholic education was considered elite during those days. It was brutal, but that’s a topic for another blog.
In 1969, I went to Marywood College, in Scranton, PA. I have to admit it was a culture shock. Grass, trees,
Marywood Universitymountains and open spaces????? Full meals cooked 3X’s a day??? Food I had never seen eaten before. White people doing the laundry, cutting the grass, picking up the trash and serving us meals in the Dining Hall?? Yeah that was a culture shock for certain. I had to get used to that. In fact, when they hired ONE African american Service Staff person, they called me in to ask, “How should we treat her?” I was baffled by the question. We never wondered how we should treat white people, what was the problem? My response may have been a bit abrupt but I said, “Treat her like a human being, like you treat everyone else around here.” Not quite the answer she expected, but I was not going to give her a crash course on race relations because they decided to hire ONE Black person as personnel. I wondered who she asked when she got the 7 black students to come to her college.
I am not sure if it was the times, the protests or my desire to affirm my identity, but after a while I had to do something. I started to lose myself, the way I spoke changed. I began to speak “proper, just like my mom. I did not like that one bit, and I made a concerted effort to reclaim my identity by speaking Ebonics (Black English). Of course I did not use it in my research, term papers and tests, but out of the class, I had to, it was all I had to hold on to. My roommate made innocent fun of me, she would mimic my saying “Maf” and Baf” “You’re going to Maf class and you gonna take a baf.” She was wonderful and very very cool, we would laugh together, and her mother made excellent brownies, but I digress. After a while I found myself speaking Ebonics on purpose, I was getting lost in the sauce.
One day, Arthur Hall Afro-American Dance Ensemble came to Scranton! What a shot in the arm that was for me. I seemed to remember that I was African, Black and that I could hold on to my identity and still attend an all white college. I totally embraced this concept and started a black power movement on campus. I started a Black Student Union. BOSS, Black Organization of Students in the Struggle, by now there were 9 of us. We represented the Macrocosm, as every single type of “us” was there.
Arthur Hall Afro-American Dance Ensemble I read “Black Muslims in America”, “The Souls of Black Folks”, “Black Cargoes” “The Outsider”, “Black Rage” Nikki Giovanni and several other books about Black Americans that I found, interestingly in the College Library. Imagine that!
I started wearing the “Black Power” pins and pendants, red, black and green hat and belts, a khaki jacket and walked around campus like I was a genuine black panther. My English Professor, called me a Pink Panther…. I didn’t take it to mean she was racist or demeaning. Besides, when I found out what the Black Panthers were really about I knew what she meant.
Nevertheless, I became a spokesperson for everything black. Being the most outspoken and outgoing of all the other Black Students on campus, it fell upon me to explain it all to them. There I was in the middle of conversations about being black in America. I would discuss what growing up was like for me in my neighborhood, where we never used the term impoverished, deprived or ghetto. We were resourceful and creative, making a way of no way, making a dollar out of 15cents.
I was in the middle of discussion attempting to explain to folks that Flip Wilson, WAS NOT YOUR AVERAGE BLACK MAN IN AMERICA, when that is all they knew. I was in the middle of discussion with folks who had never seen an Black person up close and were extremely curious as to why my hair grew up and out instead of down. I became the First African American Freshman Class President! Why?? Because I stood out, imagine that, and they didn’t know each other or who to vote for, so why not our token black girl.
I was in the middle of my own desperation along with a Black Classmate, who could tolerate being in that all white environment anymore!!! So one night, we made flyers and put them under the doors of the Nuns who lived in the dorms with us, along with other adult staff who lived in the dorms with us. What did our signs say? BLACK IS BEAUTIFULPOWER TO THE PEOPLE BLACK POWER We did that, it was a desperate attempt to retain, reclaim, reaffirm and identify with our heritage, a heritage we knew so little about, but one we felt the need to hold onto at all costs. So yes, I can relate.
Baba Tunde Olatunji-Drums of PassionWe knew we were black in a bowl of milk, and that racism was alive and well, no matter how much those around us pretended it wasn’t. We were in the middle of the Civil Rights movement, they had just raided the Black Panthers in Philadelphia, strip them naked, and posted that on the front of Newsweek. They were fire bombing, lynching and terrorizing black folks in the south. They had just opened the restaurants for black folks to come to along with white patrons. They had just killed Dr. Martin Luther King! Yeah, we were certainly aware of the racism but we knew little about our African Culture. And for certain, the administration of the school knew little as well, so when they asked me to do an African Dance for their World Cultures Course, they never knew I was making those steps up and dancing to Baba Tunde Olatunji Drums of Passion. I may have been a fly in a bowl of milk, but I never lost my wings, or my desire to fly.
I remember my trips home, and how different I felt being among African Americans in my familiar environment than I did on campus. Every trip home required a major adjustment.
Me. 1969 Freshman in CollegeI mentioned the Microcosm of the Macrocosm… truly we were. Each one of us represent a different experience being in the African Diaspora. During my stay there I manage to find out where each of these young ladies’ head were. Again, the Microcosm of the Macrocosm. We are as varient in our expression in the African diaspora as we are in our skin color. Our identities span the gamut of Black Nationalism to Integration. How did we each experience our own bowl of milk?? 1. Me (Freshman) – I have already explained my role. 2. KG (Freshman) – from South Philadelphia and sincerely not interested in being in this bowl of milk. She looked forward to leaving next semester and made no bones about wanting to get out!! She didn’t hate white people she just did not want to live anywhere near them. 3. BJ (Freshman) – she came from Northfolk, VA… there was no question in her mind about her identity or racism, she had experienced it first hand, and did not trust a single white person. She was a deep thinker, so deep she spent much of her time being depressed. She also wanted to leave. 4. CF (Sophomore) – who had completely assimilated into her environment, she came there with several white friends and had no problem continuing to talk their talk and relate with them as her best of friends. She did have an Afro though which showed on some levels that she hadn’t completely assimilated, but was basically taking the path of least resistance. If you can’t beat em, you might as well join em. 5. DS (Sophomore) – in a dark room, it would be hard to tell where she came from, or whether she was white or black. There was no indication in her voice that she was anything but a white girl who happened to have black (darkest out of all of us) skin. She was not interested in joining anything that was about Black, for Black, by Black or with Black. She was a person, a human being and she did not relate to the skin she was in at all. 6. VS (Sophomore) She was from the Virgin Islands and due to the color of her skin, she was considered white. Her family was elite and well off. That she would come to the US for an education had her as upper class. She was completely intolerant and disdainful of all that Black stuff, and told me clearly, she considered herself white, as she was considered white where she lived. 7. Novice (Senior) She was so intriguing to me, a black nun. What made her pursue it and stick to it to the point that after Senior year she would complete her training and be a real Nun. I later learned that the IHM order of nuns, had more African Americans in it than any other. And since I was taught by the Sisters of St. Joseph, I had no idea. She was sweet and cordial and very much into being a nun. Her main focus was on continuing her training and completing her journey. She was definitely not going to join BOSS! Next Semester, lost two students and gained 4 black students, one female and one male in the School of Social Work and one Freshman and one Sophomore. 8. DC (Freshman) came from Philadelphia, and she also attended Catholic High School, which at that time were majority White students there. She did not seem to have any trouble getting along with the other students but she was extremely homesick. She cried every night for the first semester it seemed, I could hear her in the hallway as I passed her room. She identified with me to the point of at least being able to have someone familiar to cling to. Her position was not political or religious, she just wanted to get through it all. 9. BS (Sophomore) came from a family that had already assimilated. Nice car, nice, house, 2.5 children, two car garage, father a professional and recognized by the White Professional World, mother an educator who had taken time from her career to raise her children. They were very color struck in my estimation as I remember it being said that she was not allowed to bring anyone home darker than her. In fact, I could hardly tell if she was black or white due to the paleness of her skin and the way she blended. And of course she would not join BOSS. She did wear a curly Afro which she flattened on the weekends when she returned home. No way on God’s green earth would her parents allow her to wear an Afro!!! And since at that time, the Afro was our clarion call to arms, anyone without one was certainly not part of the struggle. 10. JR (School of Social Work).. was from Philadelphia as well. She was older and more refined. She was more accepting of each of us being so different from one another and would often function as a mediator when we couldn’t come to terms with our differences. Primarily, I had become emboldened as I had never really learned about the Transatlantic Slave trade, or much else about African history predating Slavery. . It seemed there was none, well especially not in an inner city Catholic School. And here I am on an all white college campus, learning about these things and so much more. My mom used to remark how they learned about what Black people did in her school. She lived in Virginia and the educational system was actually better than in the Northern City. She was quite surprised that we were not taught Black history as she was. 11. RH (School of Social Work) was a male student from Harrisburg. It quickly became clear that he was going to be the most sought after Black “man” on campus. The numbers themselves showed the imbalance. He was the only male student on campus as the School of Social Work had opened to male students while the undergraduate school was not. Coming from Harrisburg he had some experience interacting with White folks, being the only black man on campus, he also became the star of every show, that is, those white women who were not adverse to interracial relationships sought him out and so did I. When I think about it, I really didn’t have any competition with the Black women on campus, because none of them were really interested in him. It was more of “he is the only one and that’s all you got”??? But for some reason, I was interested in him and attempted to get him to join our organization to no avail, he was content, just being the only male student on campus. I think he shared mutual interest but I got the impression that he preferred white girls. Thus coming up from the rear is another aspect of the African diaspora, a black man who prefers dating white women.
By my junior year, two other black female students had come to Marywood. I won’t describe how they presented except to say that one was totally blind, and the other was also from Philadelphia, and the same high school I attended.
My identity crisis came to a head during my junior year. I became a Black Muslim. It was a radical change that made me feel completely uncomfortable on campus. I made the decision to quit college and return to Philadelphia and get married. Another long story.
I would like to note that today, Marywood College is now Marywood University and is coed and has Black folks in numbers. Something that I would have never imagined. I returned there a few years ago with my group, the “Voices Of Africa” Choral & Percussion Ensemble, and to my surprise there were Africans there from the continent!!! Along with the Nun who asked me to do an African dance for her World Cultures Course! Now I don’t know if I opened the door for that or if it is just a sign of the times or maybe a bit of both, but I was floored to find them there, along with African Americans functioning as administrative staff. The black population during my time there was a little over 300 and now they have staff members of color.
From Negro, to Black, to Afro-American, to African-American to African descendant… we have continuously been trying to identify ourselves in a world that is foreign to us, and no matter how much we assimilate, in a world (not just a nation) that has taken up the discourse about the superiority of a race based on skin color… it is quite evident that there will be several attributions made by each of us. These attributes will be affected by the way we are raised, along with how we process our reality.
So yes, I may watch this show from time to time, I don’t have a TV so I will see if it comes on the internet. But again, my own experience, helps me to relate and gives me some insight to the various challenges we face, trying to find our identity in a society that has stripped us of it, and caused us to look upon our heritage with disdain.
I am not sure which direction I want to take this rant.
Do I go on about the current news story and reactions from the so-called World about the kidnapping of over 200 young ladies sold into slavery or marriage, or both?
Do I go on about the self righteous out cry from folks whose backyard has to be filled with bullshit clutter?
Do I go on about how this thing has been going on for quite some time and that it only just hit the news after 3 weeks and the Nigerian Government had done little or nothing to resolve this issue?
Do I go on about the so-called Afri-Con logo??
Yeah, maybe I will start here.
Folks, are we too blind to see? What does this symbolize? Looks like a vagina to me!!! Looks like it is encased in a red oval, looks like them same NWO leaves embracing this red oval, and looks like they are focusing on 4 stars, 4 star nations… I am sure Nigeria is one of them…. then Sudan, which they have already made sure that it was split apart. Libya of course, Man Made River, water resources, gold…
But for sure they are concerned with the whole continent. Where are the African voices against this tyranny? Is the idea to birth a New Era for African Nations, Peoples, Resources, Commodities, Wealth? A New Era of domination by Euro-Western powers (NATO)? This image is scary. Where does it display cooperation between nations. There are 54 nations in Africa…. Or should I say 55 countries in Africa, how do they intend to Command 55 Nations? and draw them into their new womb, web of Command??
How ludicrous, how blatantly arrogant to think that one small country can claim dominion over a whole continent! What if it were reversed and Africa decided to create the United Africa USA Command and put all 50 states and its various land claimed territories around the world.
And the most unfortunate thing about this impetus is the so-called Leader of the Free World, has a Black Face. How utterly disappointing!
Africa has risen in importance to the United States. US tax dollars are pouring into the nations of that continent. The continent is in constant struggle between tribes and religions, with no end in sight. All the while, the US military presence is growing in some places, while others are glaring in the lack of troops. Here is a look at the amount of troops involved in this very unstable continent.
U.S. Africa Command has approximately 2,000 assigned personnel, including military, U.S. federal civilian employees, and U.S. contractor employees. About 1,500 work at the command’s headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Others are assigned to AFRICOM units at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, and RAF Molesworth, England. The command’s programs in Africa are coordinated through Offices of Security Cooperation and Defense Attache Offices in approximately 38 nations. The command also has liaison officers at key African posts, including the African Union, theEconomic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping and Training Centre in Ghana.
AFRICOM is part of a diverse interagency team that reflects the talents, expertise, and capabilities within the entire U.S. government. The command has four Senior Foreign Service (SFS) officers in key positions as well as more than 30 personnel from more than 10 U.S. government departments and agencies, including the Departments of State and Homeland Security, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The most senior is a career State Department official who serves as the deputy to the commander for civil-military engagements. Our interagency partners bring invaluable expertise to help the command ensure its plans and activities complement those of other U.S. government programs and fit within the context of U.S. foreign policy. Read More: Page 2Page 3
News story and reactions from the so-called World about the kidnapping of over 200 young ladies sold into slavery or marriage, or both?
There is so much more to this story than is being told. Corporate media needs another distraction. The spin is nauseating. We can always find reason to point fingers, how many of these heralders are willing to undo the damage their ancestors did to the African when they were colonizing it. How many Africans were kidnapped, raped and murdered? What about the hundreds of years when Africans, male and female, were denied the right to read thru fear of punishment? How many of them became rich families due to slave labor? Where is the outcry? The retribution? The reparations? The acknowledgment that they too are guilty. Not to mention the underlying theme of Destabilization to create a reason for invasion. Be careful. Haven’t they learned yet?
The Obama administration is dispatching military officials and hostage negotiators to Nigeria to aid in the recovery efforts of more than 250 girls kidnapped by the militant group Boko Haram, whose leader recently boasted “I will sell them in the market” Read More: http://time.com/89665/boko-haram-nigeria-girls/
US Army Prepares for Nigeria’s Possible Break-up (2015) -The article below and related articles raise pertinent questions- 1. Is the United States promoting a breakup, in what’s known as the ’tissue scarcity scare’ scenario, where the suggestion and promotion of a concept leads to its manifestation. Nigerians skeptical about the possibility of a breakup get reassured that best analysis from the US suggests its high possibility of success and parties in favor of this go ahead in full force to make this so-called expert analysis a reality? Or is a natural breakup indeed the reality?
The US has been known to be at the center of important breakups in the past. Countries like Vietnam and Korea had the US play a major skewed role, and when these Nations divided into North and South, the US stationed its troops at the border to defend usually the Southern territory, and the Northern usually became a rejected, isolated rudiment.
In Nigeria the North, currently the power holding block, which is majorly Muslim, and lacks petroleum resources will almost certainly be turned into an Arab aligned, possibly terrorist ‘axis of evil’, Nation. While the US will according to experts defend and instill puppet rule over the resourceful South, which it is believed it will assist in secession if a breakup war occurs.
cover of Newsweek magazine, dated January 11th, 2010The US will likely favor such a breakup for obvious reasons- the current leader of Nigeria thumped his finger in the US nose, clearly rejecting the installation of US AFRICOM military command in Nigeria. Nigeria’s government has also of recent signed deals with Russia and Iran for major resource, military and power(Nuclear generation) mutual ventures. This alliance possibly does not sit well with the US. In addition, Nigeria has been promoting development, not by serving US interest but by cooperation’s with so-called third world Nations like Brazil……………………………………………….. Read More: http://www.nairaland.com/833643/cia-mossad-divide-nigeria-soon#9845155
Nigerian church at Christmas 2011
Nigeria is reported to be used as a major drug transit and money laundering centre for the proceeds of the CIA drug trade. (CIA Agents & Nigeria.)
The CIA takes a strong interest in NIGERIA
Former Nigerian leader Ibrahim B. Babangida is reported to be a Mossad or CIA agent (CIA Agents & Nigeria.)
“IBB is a Mossad/CIA asset, as was Abiola and Umar Muttalab (father of the crouch bomber and former Chairman of Nigeria’s premier bank, First Bank) amongst others like Orji Uzor Kalu.
“Mossad’s chief operative in Nigeria is Alon Nelken, an Israeli and owner of Megaplaza shopping mall in Victoria Islands, Lagos.
“In Nigeria, one would find a clear infiltration of foreign bodies posed as foundations and organizatonal institutions all geared toward influencing government policies in the oil and gas sectors.” (THE CIA IN NIGERIA)
by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley May 7, 2014 “The last thing Nigeria needs is a foreign military presence to prop up its corrupt government.”
Bring back our girls. The message is a simple one that resonates with millions of people around the world. Those four words were first seen in a now famous twitter hashtag in the aftermath of the kidnapping of 280 teenagers from a school in Chibok, Nigeria on April 14, 2014. The Boko Haram group which is fighting that country’s government admits to holding the girls captive.
Only people who closely follow international news were aware of this situation until last week. It is right that so many people are concerned for the girls’ safety. Unfortunately, the effort to draw attention to this horror is of little use without a deeper understanding of Africa’s political situation.
Because western nations continue to interfere in Africa’s affairs and place compliant “strong men” in power, nearly every government on that continent is weak. Presidents and prime ministers exist only to enrich elites and ensure that valuable resources reach the western capitalist nations. It seems ludicrous that Nigerian president Goodluck Johnathan at first denied that the kidnap had taken place, and then vacillated between claiming that the girls had been recovered or that the number captured was smaller than reported. Hashtags and petitions are a poor substitute for a government whose infrastructure is dedicated to producing and delivering oil to the West but not doing very much for its own citizens………………………………… Read More: http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-how-not-%E2%80%9Cbring-back-our-girls%E2%80%9D
People need to get their own house in order before pointing fingers backed with little or no knowledge of what is really happening. Not to mention the resources that are mysteriously missing from this equation.
Self Righteous outcry from folks whose backyard has to be filled with bullshit clutter? Oh and did I mention child prostitution? Real men? Don’t buy children, organs, drugs, politicians, land from the indigenous, poor education, toxic chemicals to be sprayed in the air, nuclear weapons, I can’t even think about this. There are billions of things that real me should never buy, but it is done daily without a second thought.
Please, we really need to wake the hell up!
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Prosperity Of Black Women (POBW)
May 6 “wow, it’s sad when you have more white celebrity men speaking more against this than the black celebrity men, but are we really that surprised??”
Then someone posts this picture of Jamie Fox, yep that certainly fixes that issue.
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6lmc1DV2U1qzkvnro1_400.jpg Folks really need to research stuff before they get on the band wagon. I don’t know how many of these pics were photoshopped or how many celebs agreed to be posted with these signs, but for information about where it came from in 2011 check out this article.
The Popdust Files: Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, drake, justin timberlake, viral video
It’s noble that celebrity power couple Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are attempting to use their fame and hypnotic hold on the internet for a worthwhile cause such as raising awareness of child sex slavery. Enlisting some of their more popular friends for a series of ads on the subject, attempting to go viral with the campaign, getting creative with the message—all commendable. But watching through one of their “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls” spots, something just feels wrong about the entire venture. Not immoral, not insensitive, but rather simply misguided, in a very fundamental way.
In case you haven’t seen them yet, the “Real Men Don’t Buy Girls” spots are under-a-minute-long shorts based around male celebrity cameos—including pop stars Drake and Justin Timberlake—which feature them doing goofy, irresponsible things (Drake beats up a robot, Justin shaves with a chainsaw) in order jokingly to demonstrate what “Real Men” do (view robots with distrust and prefer a close shave, respectively). This pronouncement, voiced by an unseen narrator, is then immediately followed by another pronouncement: “Real Men don’t buy girls.” Read More: http://popdust.com/2011/04/12/why-real-men-dont-buy-girls-just-doesnt-work/
Do I go on about how this thing has been going on for quite some time and that it only just hit the news after 3 weeks and the Nigerian Government had done little or nothing to resolve this issue?
A few years ago, I was listening to NPR, believe it or not, it was my lucky day, and the information that came across the airwaves about Nigeria was daunting to say the least, then a few years before that, the Women protested topless against the Oil Moguls, then another article about how the regulations are next to nil when it comes to how the oil is refined, the toxic waste in the water, the debate over GMO foods, the so-called Goodluck and the cronies gathering the riches into their coffers and leaving the rest to suffer and die in poverty and lack of good educational facilities. The influence of the IMF and WB and the backroom deals that were/are going on. The internal agitation and disposition between so-called warring factions. It was just a matter of time before Nigeria began to tumble. Its support of the toppling of Qaddaffi was key. I have sat among Nigerians and heard them discuss the state of affairs in their beloved country and the corruption of the leadership. My heart cried out for my brothers and sisters in Ghana, especially when they found oil reserves there. The BEAST can only prevail when there is fighting and antagonism amongst the people. “United we stand, divided we fall.” Nigeria is falling because it is divided… this issue is just the tip of the iceberg and it demonstrates a deeper problem that has been going on for decades. The Nigerians can call for Global Assistance from NATO (North Atlantic Terrorist Organization) but they obviously are short-sighted and forgetful about what that cry has done to other Nations around the world, and particularly what it has done to Libya!!! Here’s an article that you may want to archive…
NewsRescue[Op-ed] In the aftermath of the unfortunate bombings and sporadic attacks that took place in Damaturu the Yobe State capital and environs on the last Sallah Day, the Embassy of the United States in Nigeria hastily put out a public statement declaring that such like bombings should be expected in three well known hospitality establishments in Abuja the nation’s capital.
To discerning observers not only did that score high marks for bad manners as that was hardly what a nation still grieving and coming to terms with its losses expected from a supposedly friendly nation, but that the US embassy was being economical with information on what it actually knew about the incident, and more significantly, the role the US government itself has been playing in the whole gamut of acts of destabilization against Nigeria.
This meme really got me going in more ways than seven. I have always had an issue with the term “real men” or “real women” as opposed to fake ones? I would always ask. Who determines what is real and what is not real and who determines who is more of a man/woman than another? Certainly, the Western man who goes to the gym and eats out three times a week finds himself much more privileged than the man who has to hunt for his food. And women who have gotten their education in the so-called “finest” western institutions of learning feel themselves more “real” than a woman who feeds her family by farming. But more than these examples is the blatant bias and bigotry that these memes convey. Without further details, the picture says it all. We, Eurocentric White Males are “Real” and anything other than what we convey is “not real”. And that means all of you out there who are not “privileged” to be a part of our class. We are looking at celebrities, people! We are looking at people who have been bred into one of the most corrupt industries the Western world has to offer. We are looking at people who cover their own guilt and complicity with a sign signaling that they are “better” and more “real” than the rest. They are telling their “fans” who have made them “rich” through their hard work and support, that they are better than them, and the fans don’t get it, as they are mesmerized by the very idol, they idolized. Does it really matter how many celebrities carry this sign when these same celebrities give blood diamonds to their to be spouses? Does it matter when these same folks own more things that they could ever use, at the expense of slave labor in some godforsaken land? Does it matter that these celebrities eat at the finest restaurants being served by folks who do not even make minimum wage. Does it matter that these celebrities have enough money to buy all the “fashion models” they want and fill their parties with them. Does it matter that these celebrities have their pick of the finest wines, glasses and drugs that wars have been fought over to satisfy their elitist palates. Does it matter that the core belief that these celebrities were bred on was the superiority of their stock over all of humanity. Does it matter that pedophilia, child porn and child prostitution runs rampant in the Cult of Entertainment. Does it matter that they ate a few opponents on their way to the top? And with that and much more, does it matter that these celebrities carry a sign……. A sign that singularly drenches its carrier in disgusting bigotry!
I say, put down the sign, and clean out your own backyard. Confess your own hypocrisy and move to change the world YOU LIVE IN!
Children today are rather keen and determined about their media gadgets. Two weeks ago, I introduced my Anisa Joseph – Amma Tacheampong to Gummy Bear. Now her older brother, Kwesi, who is now 10 years old introduced me to Gummy Bear. This was several years ago, maybe he was about 4 or 5 years old. At that time he was confined to the computer. He did not have his own cell phone and sat for hours watching Gummy bear playlist I made for him on YouTube. Now, forward to 5-6 years later and cell phones have become small computers that can connect through wifi to the internet, whether it makes calls or not. So, instead of throwing your cell phone away, it can become an alternate computer. But who guessed it would create such a ruckus with the little ones who not only know how to watch it, but know how to manipulate the touch screen, navigate to the movies they want on Netflix, or YouTube and stare at that tiny screen for hours upon hours.
This is exactly what my granddaughter does. She has our discarded cell phones and uses them to surf the net for movies she wishes to watch. And I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t mention that she will throw a tantrum if you don’t give her a phone. She does understand that the phone dies when the charge is all gone, she also has come to understand that she can only use her phone, not anyone else’s. That was a tough one, cause we had to learn that too. If you put it in her hands just to show her something, she will NOT LET YOU TAKE IT BACK!
Fortunately, she rarely watches movies that are not suitable for her to watch, she has her own account on Netflix and knows exactly how to access it in order to watch the movies that are for children her age.
I don’t get a chance to post all the movies and pics and stories I have of her, but I had to stop whatever I was doing and post this one. SMDH…….. LIttle people know their way around this technology better than most people over 40. They are growing up with this technology and leaving the old stuff behind.
Anisa doesn’t know how to use a standard mouse, but she certainly knows how to use her little finger on a touch screen to navigate her way around the internet. I don’t know, part of me is really really worried about this, and another part of me is amazed at how smart she is. She will be having her 3rd birthday June 11, 2014.
SHE FOUND THIS VIDEO!!!!!!!
Anisa and her gadgets. She is proficient at using the Kindle and her Cell phone to navigate the Netflix videos and Youtube videos. She knows how to click on the app that she wants to work with. From the photo gallery; to watching videos of herself, to playing music, especially the silly ringtones; to Netflix account that has videos for her, and she knows how to go to Youtube and click on videos she would like to watch. She does this for hours until the charge goes on the kindle or phone. Fortunately she has been watching appropriate videos. And BTW, she loves Dora!!! Anyway, I am not sure if she is going to be quite vain or not. All I know is that I was in my 40’s before I saw a video of myself and it was weird watching myself. She watches videos of herself from age 5 months to now, she will be 3 years old, June 11, 2014
The jury is still out on this one for me. Mainly because of how much time I spend on my computer and interacting with social media. My granddaughter is 3 years old, she has been using cell phone since she was a little younger than 2years of age, maybe younger. I am amazed at her abilities. Everyone around her has a gadget. Her older brother would use the Kindle and she would mimic his way of using it. He didn’t really have to show her, she would watch him. He would find games and movies on the Kindle and she did it too. She will be 3 years old come June 11. She is still intrigued by nature and her surroundings, and will play in the yard for hours, but her older brother, well, he would rather play with his gadgets. We shall see if the gadgets will totally consume her as she gets older.
Who is Ole Nellie, you may ask. Well, she is part of a family of Nellie’s. In fact, once we have gotten all that we can get out of her, she is replaced with a new Nellie. But she is never called New Nellie, as that has absolutely no catchy ring to it. So now my once New Nellie, named ole Nellie has gone to the Great Car Heaven in the Sky. I feel very sad about that right now.
My first Nellie was a 1976 Toyota Corolla. I never really learned to drive by someone teaching me, I learned by watching other folks drive. A few years after college I was ready and passed my test with a minor error, I leaned to the side when I made the turn. The lady didn’t know I was a low rider, but she let me pass.
First car came from GMC, paid off and good credit rating to boot. She was just what we needed, for our family of 5 at the time. Everybody was little, and we didn’t have a bulky car-seat taking up room in those days. Unfortunately, she died for lack of lubrication over many, many months. Engine locked up and that was it!!
Found a New Nellie, a little while later. Great car for growing children and friends children too. We only had one issue with this one, the hatch had a tendency to not catch. So we would slam it extra hard till we broke it and then would have to repair it, especially after we lost a kiddie out the back door. Hairy scary times. I was speechless, how could I explain to the little boy’s mom, that he fell out the back of the car into oncoming traffic. The Angels saved him so he could live and continue to drive his family up the wall, but that’s another story. This Nellie had engine trouble early on. Had a great mechanic in the Northeast who did all he could, several times to bring her back to life. But she ultimately left us for the Great Car Heaven in the Sky but not after we got good use out of her!!
Now, here I vaguely remember another Nellie. But she was very, very short lived. Her engine caught on fire one day, and that was that. Another one bit the dust and went to the Great Car Heaven in the Sky.
Every Nellie was a gift in some way or other. They got me out of tight squeezes and provided a great service that I am still grateful for to this day. Whenever they broke down, there was always a car Angel around to help me out with a carload of children they were certainly heaven sent.
Then Came the Greatest Nellie Of Them All!!!
Why do I say that? Well, for a number of reasons, four reasons to be exact. My 4 younguns who were terribly embarrassed to rid in this New Nellie. Puuuulease!!! They simply did not realize that this New Ole Nellie was a Cadillac! I mean, power steering, disk breaks, power windows, air conditioning, seats that did all kinds of stuff. Who cared if she was once a cab??!! And for $50 and a title, who could beat that, especially since we had been walking and taking the bus everywhere. No one understands what it feels like to have the stares of well meaning folk pitying me as I would climb on the bus with 4 little people going in four different directions. The youngest did not like sitting next to anyone, the second oldest was always falling asleep and had to be awakened at least 20 minutes before we got off. The second daughter loved to wear her clothes and shoes on backwards…. um, before it was a style and the oldest one, well he was quite helpful, but he was just a little tike himself. I had 4 children in 6 years. Yay, me!!!! So imagine the adventure we went on whenever we boarded an inner train or bus. To me this car was a Godsend… To my young’uns, quite the contrary. They were mortified, they were embarrassed, they hated that car!!! The jeers they got from neighboring children yelling “Taxi”!!! Jeez, children can be cruel, but that car was awesome, little did they realize they were riding in style in an expensive gift car, painted like a taxi.
And right around the corner, was a wonderful mechanic who did all he could to keep her on the road. I think that is why I am writing this blog post. I have certainly been blessed with cars right at the right time when they were most needed and when there was a wonderful mechanic not to far away. I’m talking about a mechanic that didn’t see a woman coming and decide to take advantage. I am talking about a mechanic who saw this woman coming with a carload of children and did all he could to keep me on the road with them.
Well as the story goes, Ole Nellie died and she stayed dead for 10 years. Imagine, ten years without a vehicle!! Living in the inner city did make it a bit easier, but I rode my bike and homeschooled during this time. We walked to wherever we had to go or took the bus, and again, they were a bit older, but not much different and certainly quite noisey. Nothing like the chatter of stairsteps, enjoying each others company or not!
It took Ole Nellie 10 whole years to re-incarnate. I would question myself as to why I was back on foot. Did I offend the Great Car Heaven God in the Sky by the way I treated his servant? Did I drive his servant into the ground, so now it was my turn to take another look and be more circumspect about how I would be treating Nellie, when she incarnated again?? I don’t know if I ever figured that out. Nevertheless, another gift came, and Ole Nellie re-incarnated as a Ford Station Wagon. It was once used as a cab but I dared not to tell my children. By now the boys were gone and only the girls remained. New/Ole Nellie was a blessing as well. Someone I knew had her and sold her to me for cheap. She only last 2 years but I was grateful to have her for that long. She blew a hose in her engine and caught on fire that would have cost more than she was worth to fix. I think I had her towed away, or sold her for parts but I don’t remember. Something about trauma and how it affects your memory.
But this time Nellie decided to come back a little faster this time around. She manifested as a 1988 Toyota Corona Station Wagon. And guess what, I paid $1 for her and the registrations fees. Long story short, she had been sitting there waiting for her other owner who moved away and never came back to get her. She was a gift from the Gods cause surely, I really needed a car so I could get to some of VOA events without having to spend money on rentals. Ha, I spent so much money on rentals I could have bought at least three luxury cars.
But of course the VOA folks love luxury, and preferred to ride in the new cars instead of my Ole Nellie, so many times we would pack them in the rental and I would take Nellie, we had an unbelievable bond, we did!!!! True story..
New/Ole Nellie lasted for about 2 or 3 years.. Again, I had a great mechanic who did all he could to keep her on the road. She was old and tired and while she was willing to get me from point “A” to point “B”, she didn’t feel like it all the time. So sometime we would leave her for another traveling option cause she was a bit finicky. But still a wonderful companion that I totally appreciated, especially for only $1!!!!!
She carried our VOA instruments and one day, someone decided to break into the car and take them out. Now that was the funniest ever. We could barely figure out why anyone would go through the trouble of stealing a bunch of African drums, agogo bells and shekeres that they could not sell on the black market. Ha, we could barely sell them on the open market. And if folks didn’t know how to use them or play them, then what??
We later found out that they took them to a thrift/boutique store who gladly took them off their hands, cause she knew what they were. Ironically, most folks aren’t gonna buy drums off the street peddler anyways. I mean really!!! And what would they do with this thing?
Well, it was late January, and after the news outlets were informed by my enraged daughter that we had been robbed, they all flocked to my door questioning us over and over again about this event. It had become a “Black History Month” Story that everyone wanted to tell. Strange indeed. For an entire week, our lives belonged to the media, they were in our hair for 7 days straight. We had TV cameras in our faces, we were on the radio and we had a serious 15 minutes of fame, that brought folks out of the woodwork to donate drums and instruments to us, along with money to buy more stuff!! It was incredible!! The outpouring of love from the community was overwhelming and we went on tour with all new instruments but at least we had some!!!!! Even a Jewish Agency called us up and offered to raise money for us to get new instruments! Now imagine that!!!!!
I must say, that every single Nellie brought a wonderful experience with her. She did her part and made up for the parts she couldn’t do. Like she didn’t have an alarm so she was able to be robbed, but she got her picture took by NBC news and ended up in the paper and that made headlines. She smiled and I was so thankful for all her help!!!
And for a little bit of Poetic Justice, in May, a temporary office assistant arrived to work in the office. When I told her about the Event she said: “Oh was that your stuff?? My brother tried to sell it on the corner to some Africans who were walking by and they said they didn’t want it.” That was absolutely too funny. There she was working in the office of the person whose car her brother broke into and stole the contents. Which were partially found by the way.
Then Ole Nellie got the call.. It was a small call, a short call at first, a little kink here and another kink there, but she held off. She did not break down in some dark deserted place where I was in danger. And the few times she did break down, the Car Angel was right there to pull her through. Wonders…!! But she was old and tired. She had sat too long and it was a little harder for her to completely revive herself for the long journeys and traveling back and forth that I needed her to do. But she did give me a good trade in and with that she was reborn into my current New/Ole Nellie.
Ole NellieThe current New/Ole Nellie had only been in my possession for approximately 11 of the 12 weeks she was under factory warranty, she decided to break down in NY city! Needless to say, I was dumbfounded, I barely had her and she was breaking down?? Of course the Car Angels showed up and tried all they could to figure out her problem but to no avail. She had to be towed. I had two choices, tow her to Philly, or get her fixed in NY. Triple A’s mechanic claimed to have fixed her, and after borrowing $300 from my godmother and driving home two days later, she cut off again. I took her back to where I bought her just within the warrantee time and they fixed her, free of charge. They fixed her so good she never had a serious problem again!!!! It was a clogged up engine. Turns out these Toyota Sienna’s 2000, were known for that problem. She did me good for 10 years folks!!!!! TEN WHOLE YEARS!! I swear by Toyota’s they are really good cars. The only weather Nellie didn’t like was rainy weather, she always started right up. Even now. Again I had a wonderful mechanic, in fact I used the same mechanic I had till I moved to Darby, and would you believe it, another wonderful mechanic was one block away from my house. He was marvelous and did not overcharge me at all!!! I would refer him to anyone who needs a good mechanic.
Even now, she cuts on, but she leaked all her transmission fluid out and she won’t go. Now I not only need the Car Angel, but I need another Car Angel who wishes to gift me with a new car, or a New/Ole Nellie.
I ain’t mad at her, not one bit, she kicked it out, really hard for me. We have many, many shared memories. The journeys we took with her were each adventures in their own way. She was the most awesome of all the Nellie’s that preceded her, in respect to her endurance and functionality. She road as far north as Wisconsin and as far south as Florida. She has only the dents I put in her, her tires are in good shape and she has a few quirks but other than that, she was a darned good car!!! She also hauled around the VOA paraphernalia and with good measure.
But I get the feeling this is it for her. She won’t go.
Last August, I moved to New Jersey.
I am happy about my move. And didn’t think that I would move here of all places, and not have a vehicle. I am sure there is a lesson in here somewhere, but when it came down to making the choice between getting the car fixed and paying my rent… well, I guess you could say I did the thing that makes most sense. I paid the rent.
Meanwhile, Ole Nellie is collecting dust from not having moved in over 2 weeks. About the same amount of time I have been a bonafide NJ-ite.
I feel some kinda way about all this…. just not sure what way that is right now.
I guess I am writing this for several reasons
1. to pay homage to parts of my life that I may have taken for granted.
2. to have a memorial for Ole Nellie
3. to ask the Universe to let her re-incarnate in the magical way she has done over and over again
Here’s the irony, the little part that most of these reporters on this situation are grossly overlooking. The “lands” that supposedly belong to the ranchers belonged to the Indigenous people before the European came and decided to take it over. In taking it over with the belief that they could and had the authority to do so, the whole of North and South America was “captured”. Now these people whose Ancestors did it to the Natives are crying out about how unfairly they are being treated. I always say, “When the shoe is on the other foot, it’s a tight squeeze.”
This government and its agents are doing exactly what they have been doing since they first came here. They feel they have the right to claim any land, anywhere they so desire and for any reason. Remember, the first settlements were in the Eastern Region of North America, then they decided to “Go West”. I am almost certain that that land which the Bundy ranch is on did not originally belong to anyone named “Bundy”! And to compare being there since 1870’s or so to being there for thousands upon thousands of years is a small fry of an argument to a government that not only feels it can claim land in its jurisdiction, but it can claim territory and it’s people’s way of life, all over the world.
How many of these same ranchers and citizen militias fought in the wars overseas? How many of them voted for war against a contrived enemy? How many of them hold prejudices and biases against “Immigrants”?
Federal Land Per StateMy point is, if you support a government that oppresses others, steals from others, lies to others and creates chaos with others, what makes you think that that same government is not going to perpetuate that same abuse upon you? Your Ancestors laid down this government, this constitution, these laws…… exclusive of the Indigenous people, the Africans and women. You blatantly support your governments actions in creating a “Constitution” that was derived with these inherent exclusions. And now, you want that same government to treat “you” differently. Is this collective cognitive dissonance or is it ignorance or is it the idea that because your Ancestors did it to others, you believe that the fine print reads that you are exempt???
This is my major departure from this video and this reporter. It is as if he, Stefan, lives in the twilight zone, or on another planet or other reality. He seems grossly unable to connect these dots, that is, this land does not belong to the US government, State government, or city government. It was inhabited by a people who were brutally displaced and pushed into reservations so that invaders can take it over, settle on it, and claim that their family has been there for 2 centuries! I am sure that the few remaining tribes left in the area find this quite comical and a form of “chickens coming home to roost.”
I don’t know the land rights laws that are implied in the Constitution of the US or the State Constitution of Nevada, but what I do know is that everything is in Divine order and what goes around comes around. Humanity has this thing about owning land and its resources, they have been fighting wars over it since the beginning. What does that say about human beings? They are territorial, insecure, fearful beings who feel threatened by another territorial, insecure, fearful being. Rather than negotiating amicably, they would rather fight! Some are so bold to take their “flag” to another celestial body and plant it as if to claim that territory as well. In fact, they sell stars and plots of land on the Moon. Really??? This situation is simply a tiny pimple on the mound of a much bigger problem. Man’s disconnection from Source and therefore its disconnection from everything around him including the Sun, Moon, Stars and this here, Planet Earth. Indian Reservations Map of Nevada, pdf
An anti-government protester waves a flag in front of the seized office of the SBU state security service in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine April 14, 2014. (Reuters / Shamil Zhumatov)
I’m confused. A few weeks ago wewere told in the West that people occupying government buildings in Ukraine was a very good thing. These people, we were told by our political leaders and elite media commentators, were ‘pro-democracy protestors’.
The US government warned the Ukrainian authorities against using force against these ‘pro-democracy protestors’ even if, according to the pictures we saw, some of them were neo-Nazis who were throwing Molotov cocktails and other things at the police and smashing up statues and setting fire to buildings.
Now, just a few weeks later, we’re told that people occupying government buildings in Ukraine are not ‘pro-democracy protestors’ but ‘terrorists’ or ‘militants’.
Why was the occupation of government buildings in Ukraine a very good thing in January, but it is a very bad thing in April? Why was the use of force by the authorities against protestors completely unacceptable in January, but acceptable now? I repeat: I’m confused. Can anyone help me?
Pro-Russian activists gather outside the secret service building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk on April 14, 2014. (AFP Photo / DimitarDilkoff)
The anti-government protestors in Ukraine during the winter received visits from several prominent Western politicians, including US Senator John McCain, and Victoria Nuland, from the US State Department, who handed out cookies. But there have been very large anti-government protests in many Western European countries in recent weeks, which have received no such support, either from such figures or from elite Western media commentators. Nor have protestors received free cookies from officials at the US State Department.
Surely if they were so keen on anti-government street protests in Europe, and regarded them as the truest form of ‘democracy’, McCain and Nuland would also be showing solidarity with street protestors in Madrid, Rome, Athens and Paris? I’m confused. Can anyone help me?
A thousand people gather in front of fences blocking the street leading to the Spain’s parliament (Las Cortes) during an anti-government demonstration in Madrid (AFP Photo / Javier Soriano)A few weeks ago I saw an interview with the US Secretary of StateJohn Kerry who said, “You just don’t invade another country on phony pretexts in order to assert your interests.” But Iseem to recall the US doing just that on more than one occasionin the past 20 years or so.
Have I misremembered the ‘Iraq has WMDs claim’? Was I dreaming back in 2002 and early 2003 when politicians and neocon pundits came on TV every day to tell us plebs that we had to go to war with Iraq because of the threat posed by Saddam’s deadly arsenal? Why is having a democratic vote in Crimea on whether to rejoin Russia deemed worse than the brutal, murderous invasion of Iraq – an invasion which has led to the deaths of up to 1 million people? I’m confused. Can anyone help me?
AFP Photo / Pool / Mario TamaWe were also told by very serious-looking Western politicians and
media ‘experts’ that the Crimea referendum wasn’t valid because it was held under “military occupation.” But I’ve just been watching coverage of elections in Afghanistan, held under military occupation, which have been hailed by leading western figures, such as NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen as a “historic moment for Afghanistan” and a great success for “democracy.” Why is the Crimean vote dismissed, but the Afghanistan vote celebrated? I’m confused. Can anyone help me?
An Afghan policeman keeps watch as Afghan voters line up to vote at a local polling station in Ghazni on April 5, 2014. (AFP Photo /Rahmatullah Alizadah)Syria too is rather baffling. We were and are told that radical Islamic terror groups pose the greatest threat to our peace, security and our ‘way of life’ in the West. That Al-Qaeda and other such groups need to be destroyed: that we needed to have a relentless ‘War on Terror’ against them. Yet in Syria, our leaders have been siding with such radical groups in their war against a secular government which respects the rights of religious minorities, including Christians.
When the bombs of Al-Qaeda or their affiliates go off in Syria and innocent people are killed there is no condemnation from our leaders: their only condemnation has been of the secular Syrian government which is fighting radical Islamists and which our leaders and elite media commentators are desperate to have toppled. I’m confused. Can anyone help me?
AFP Photo / Amr Radwan Al-HomsiThen there’s gay rights. We are told that Russia is a very bad and backward country because it has passed a law against promoting homosexuality to minors. Yet our leaders who boycotted the Winter Olympics in Sochi because of this law visit Gulf states where homosexuals can be imprisoned or even executed, and warmly embrace the rulers there, making no mention of the issue of gay rights.
Surely the imprisonment or execution of gay people is far worse than a law which forbids promotion of homosexuality to minors? Why, if they are genuinely concerned about gay rights, do our leaders attack Russia and not countries that imprison or execute gay people? I’m confused. Can anyone help me?
US President Barack Obama shakes hands with King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia (AFP Photo / Saul Loeb)
We are told in lots of newspaper articles that the Hungarian ultra-nationalist party Jobbik is very bad and that its rise is a cause of great concern, even though it is not even in the government, or likely to be. But neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalists do hold positions in the new government of Ukraine, which our leaders in the West enthusiastically support and neo-Nazis and the far-right played a key role in the overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected government in February, a ‘revolution’ cheered on by the West. Why are ultra-nationalists and far-right groups unacceptable in Hungary but very acceptable in Ukraine? I’m confused. Can anyone help me?
Chairman of the far-right parliamentary JOBBIK (Better) party Gabor Vona (C) reacts for the result of the parliamentary election with his party members at Budapest Congress Center in Budapest on April 6, 2014. (AFP Photo / Peter Kohalmi)
We are told that Russia is an aggressive, imperialist power and that NATO’s concerns are about opposing the Russian ‘threat’. But I looked at the map the other day and while I could see lots of countries close to (and bordering) Russia that were members of NATO, the US-led military alliance whose members have bombed and attacked many countries in the last 15 years, I could not see any countries close to America that were part of a Russian-military alliance, or any Russian military bases or missiles situated in foreign countries bordering or close to the US. Yet Russia, we are told, is the ‘aggressive one’. I’m confused. Can anyone help me?
Neil Clark is a journalist, writer and broadcaster. His award winning blog can be found at www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. Follow him on Twitter
Today I took a trip to the NJ MVC (NJ Motor Vehicle Commision). After 8 months the pressure was on to conform to the rules of the land, or be without the convenience of paying more dues to it! My car has been acting weird and she really sounded weird today, but she got me there.
When I stepped outside, all I could do was shake my head at the big giant X that stretched across the entire sky. I had no time to dally with the sky phenomenon today so I quickly got into my car and turned on my GPS and headed towards Runnemede, NJ.
The panic I felt the few days before going there was immeasurable. They have a 6 point checklist of things you need to prove you are who you are and that you belong here on this planet. And if you don’t they will flatly send you home and tell you try it again. Fortunately, I was able to gather all that I needed and a little some for good measure. My goal, to get a photo ID. I was under the impression that I would have to take the NJ driving test so I opted for the ID card.
The “citizen slave” receptionist told me I had just what I needed and asked me, “Are you sure you want to surrender your PA driver’s license?” The word surrender” sounded so ominous. “Surrender?” I asked, “you mean I have to give it up in order to get a NJ ID card?” “Of course,” he respond candidly, “You cannot have several ID cards.” (Like lady, what do you think this is?? Do you work for the CIA? Or some other top brass official organization, cause they the only ones allowed to have more than one ID card. In fact, some of them have several and depending on the occasion they will flash them for you, but you little comely “citizen slave” is only allowed one.) I am stumped, now what do I do. “You can just get a NJ driver’s license and that will be sufficient.” “But how will I go about doing that? Do I have to take the driver’s lesson over again?” “Oh no!” he responded as if he were just so happy to tell me that the slaves that come to his state need only surrender their other slave master’s jurisdiction and they are welcomed with open arms. “You can do that today. You can get your NJ driver’s license today.” He smiled so nicely at me. It almost tricked me into feeling relieved. He actually believes in his slave master and that his slave master is one of the nicest slave masters around.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see in a picture frame, hanging on the wall behind him, the smiling face of Governor Chris Christie, whose face seemed to smile even broader now that he has been exonerated from that NJ BridgeGate Scandal. Even as I was leaving, the little happy “citizen slave” receptionist, went out of his way to bid me a fond farewell.
Standing in the MVC in Runnemede, NJ, I watched as “citizens slaves” renewed their vehicle registrations, their driver’s license, and get new ones. I watched “citizen slaves” pay $46.50 for vehicle registrations, $24.00 for ID cards, and $34.00 to transfer your license from another state to NJ.
I watched “citizen slaves” line up for their numbers and ID cards and had flashbacks of South Africa, when you could travel no where without an ID card. I watched the little old lady receptionist “citizen slave”, check the paperwork of other “citizen slaves” to make sure it was all there according to the law.
One “citizen slave” was so distraught, he wanted to register a vehicle in his name, a vehicle that belonged to a deceased or long gone relative. In his haste he started erasing the name of this relative on the registration document and then quickly caught himself before he erased everything. But, to his chagrin, he had altered the document which made in inadmissible. He was completely outdone, as he begged the other “citizen slave” to allow his document to pass. She flatly refused, fearful of her job being jeopardized as he begged and pleaded. She demanded that he get another document and get the person whose name is on it to get a new one. “But he’s dead!” he cried. “Dead?’ she responded. “Well, he’s missing, he’s gone, I don’t know where he is. We can’t find him!” he responded frantically. “Is there anything you can do?” “No, you need another document, you altered this one, we cannot take it.” She responds definitively.. “But isn’t there anything I can do?” the poor little “citizen slave” begged. “Well, you can declare the car abandoned. Then you can take ownership of it.” Crestfallen, the “citizen slave”, walked away as I wondered why and how we are so anxious to add another chain to our ankles.
After several months, I finally am standing in this line to tell the world, I am no longer a “citizen slave” of Pennsylvania, but have transferred my slave owner to New Jersey. Then it was my turn, after standing in the wrong line for over an hour, I step up, to become a “citizen slave” of New Jersey.
The little old “citizen slave” representatives busily worked away in their pastel blues and spring
yellows. The younger “citizen slave” customer servant agent had perched on her desk a picture of her fiancé, totally clad in dressed army uniform. And as she faded away for a minute, creating a soft pause between herself and her paperwork, I wondered if that “citizen slave” representative was wondering if she would ever see her “citizen slave” soldier again.
Then she called my number, 67. Her diamond ring sparkled on her finger as she thumbed through my paperwork. She takes a soft break, and I traveled with her wondering how he is doing and will she ever see her fiancé again, and if she does, what kind of physical and mental condition will he be in. She was kind and courteous and most likely looking forward to getting out of there in contrast to her senior “citizen slaves” who appeared quite competent, white haired, deep glasses busily typing the information into the MVC standard software on their computers. I wondered how long they had been there. Was it Nepotism or genuine qualifications that had them there long past retirement age.
It’s lunch time and the “citizen slaves” lined up, one by one, almost two by two.
The young “citizen slave” customer servant agent looked at my head wrap and said, “Um, it’s part of your religion, right?” I nodded, she never looked up, and said, “Right, it’s your religion, it’s okay” in a moving-right-along tone.
Then I felt compelled to tell her how outraged I was when they questioned me when I got my PA license renewed for 2014. I had been wearing my headwrap for these many years, which I politely did not state, and showed her my other license and passport with my headwrap and now they want me to take it off??!! She chuckled at my story, admitting that they would never take anyone of their “citizen slaves” through that as long as it’s their religion!! Again, the citizen slaves are not allowed to wear any head wear unless it’s for religious reasons. Though they are aware that some just want to wear the headwrap to cover their messed up hair. I can understand covering messed up hair, but I only thought that, avoiding the look I would have gotten if I changed my story. But seriously, many of us who wear headwraps ain’t wrapping up a new do, that’s for sure.
Then SNAP!!!!!!!
I questioned myself, wondering why didn’t I feel jubilant!! What’s up with that? It’s finally done, I have all I need for anything, anywhere to prove I am a registered “citizen slave”. I can use this card to open a bank account, register to vote, get a passport update, show proof of address all over the place. I am in like Flint! but somehow I just don’t feel like happy days are here again. Where’s Pharrell Williams when you need him?
And then on the mechanical side of life, Ole Nellie, my car is acting up. She is leaking transmission fluid and had to be towed home after the ordeal at the NJ MVC. But Ole Nellie, she is a blessing, she came to a complete stop after several others, near home base, and quietly allowed herself to be drawn onto the tow truck and moved through the streets of NJ to my front door. I wondered if she felt my own conflicting feelings and since she had trouble with her transmission fluid leaking, I wondered if she was manifesting my own reticence to transition from PA Law to NJ Law.
I guess I am writing this to get a grip on how I feel about this. The irony of it all, is that as hard as you may attempt to get off the grid, consuming only a very little, at some point, you have to prove to somebody that you have the right to be here. How is it that human beings have to prove that they belong on the land they were born on?
Watching people have a glimpse, a tiny glimpse of “mission accomplished” as their paperwork past the acid test, and then slowly as they made their way to the door, you could hear the rattle of the prison guard keys and the slam of the prison gate, as each person knew, this was temporary, until that next date when they would have to stand in that line, once more, or else!!
Many of them have no idea of how they turned themselves in to the “citizen slave” master’s prison guards. They do not realize that by registering themselves, their property, their lives; at any point, at any time a law can be enacted to take them, their property, their lives away. The story of their life and survival on this prison planet is at the forefront of their minds. And if they register to vote, bequeath an organ, pay their taxes, they will be free. Free to live in America, the so called “greatest” country in the world. So the truth that they/we are walking around in a prison without bars is incomprehensible to most of those folks I saw today. They pride themselves in being good “citizen slaves”, doing their civic duty and staying within the extent of the law. And since it ain’t gonna change any time soon, I too stood in the line, felt that momentary sense of freedom and walked out, with my badge, my imprint, my chip, my picture and my acceptance into the “citizen slave” state of NJ.
I guess, I am feeling a little mournful. A deja vu of my ancestors who were transported to a new slave master, after they had just gotten used to the ways and wiles of the old one. Delving into the unknown can be a bit scary… then you pull yourself together and realize, it ain’t unknown, it’s the same slave master, just a different slave state.
So, I won’t just promise my poet friend I met in the line that I will come out and engage with him and his art; but I will go, because quiet as it’s kept, it is through our creativity that we can transcend slavery on this prison planet or at least find some joy.
It was interesting as I was surrendering myself to the banking system as a self employed “citizen slave”, the “citizen slave” Bank rep, chose to identify my Performing Arts rather than my Mental Health Profession as my main source of income. Ha! Could that be a sign, a signal, a message, that he inadvertently gave me? We are all in this boat together, at least pursue your Cultural Performing Arts to get that fleeting sense, “yeah, we live on a prison planet, but we can find some freedom through the arts.” He whimsically mused as he told me about his singing days and desire to go back to them.
I am grateful, I am blessed, I am honored to have the knowledge I have about this world, I would not give it back for any reason at all. It just felt like I had stepped into the twilight zone today, standing in the NJ MVC line adding another nail in the coffin of “citizen slavery”.
It’s over, it’s done, I am now a bonafide member of the human slave population of NJ. And what a cute little colorful chipped license they gave me. New address, new face, new license, but for some reason, it didn’t feel joyful, not at all.
Do you like this dude?? Actually, I really don’t care for his science, but this article is interesting, I should call it an interesting spin on Science, because clearly, the scientists and the fundamentalists are flip sides of the same coin.
What they each call “provable evidence” is based on a belief system that is hardly verifiable due to the limited analysis they both stand use. Neither will move outside of their own paradigm. Neither will budge in the face of facts that do not align with their world view. Each of them have conferences, write books, set up educational systems, debate and demonize others who do not comply with their belief systems.
Science is a belief system that works in some cases but is subject to continued experimentation and analysis, all the while claiming each new discovery as the final “truth”. The extreme of fundamentalists on the other hand, will continually refer to their world view as the fundamental and true frame of reference.
Both extremes keep these two teams battling within and without their circle for dominance of their position. However, there is a deeper meaning of life than what can be scientifically proven, tested and verified, there is more to life than can be reference in the fundamentalists doctrine. There is the unseen, the unpredictable, the unknowingness, the indescribable and definitely the unmeasurable that neither the Scientists can “physically” prove it exists, or the fundamentalists can gather references in their doctrines.
Additionally, they both want to believe that they “know” what happened when the Universe was created. They pull together a series of proofs with such authority that to question it makes you a skeptic, heretic or conspiracy theorist. For this reason, such limited science and religion will have these two groups spinning around on their self created treadmill, both fearful of the unknowable.
Indeed the one system they both defy is the paranormal. Until they realize this, the strides they make into understanding the universe and all that’s in it from a scientific or spiritual/religious point of view will continually be flawed.
Unfortunately, what typically happens is the so-called “death bed” confessions. By then it is too late. The Masses have all been brainwashed. The impact of changing your story midstream can be catastrophic to those who “follow” without question and conform without inner discernment. Ultimately, the “deathbed confession” is cast aside, considered the ravings of a madman, or creates such cognitive dissonance that many will simply go back to sleep.
Thus, the two institutions on this Human Planet, who have the responsibility to bring Humanity to the deepest knowledge of self and science… fails!!!!!! Humanity continues to process and reprocess the fallacious doctrine of the scientists and the fundamentalists. Humanity becomes polarized and remains unable to balance the two extremes within themselves. IE, scientists cannot espouse a spiritual doctrine and fundamentalists cannot espouse a scientific doctrine.
Humanity remains cemented to 3D reality of polar opposites for eternity until such time as this major bridge is gapped. Let me just add, that this is ONLY the fate of those who conform to the Western modalities of Science and Religion. Indigenous societies for as long as humanity has inhabited this planet are at the center. Their science and spiritual beliefs support each other.
THURSDAY, MAR 27, 2014 07:50 AM EDTCosmic terror: Why Neil deGrasse Tyson has religious fundamentalists so freaked
Religious belief systems prefer a universe with mankind firmly at its center. No wonder “Cosmos” is so threatening
ADAM LEE, ALTERNET The new Cosmos TV series airing on Fox is a worthy reboot of Carl Sagan’s original. Following in Sagan’s footsteps, host Neil deGrasse Tyson takes viewers on a voyage through the outer reaches of the solar system and beyond, showing how our sun is just one star out of a hundred billion in the majestic spiral of the Milky Way galaxy, and even the Milky Way itself is a speck in the observable universe. As in the original series, he compresses the history of the universe into a single year, showing that on that scale, the human species emerges only in the last few seconds before midnight on December 31.Sagan’s Cosmos was due for an update, and not just because our computer graphics are better. Since the original series aired, we’ve sent robotic rovers to Mars, sampling its rocks and exploring its history. We’ve detected hundreds of alien planets outside the solar system, finding them by the slight gravitational wobble they cause in their home stars, or by the brief dips in light as they pass across the star’s face as seen from Earth. We’ve found the Higgs boson, the elusive and long-theorized particle that endows everything else with mass. We’ve discovered that the expansion of the Universe which began with the Big Bang is accelerating, driven by a mysterious force called dark energy. All these scientific advances deserve to be recognized and celebrated.The story of Cosmos is also the story of human beings. For the vast majority of our history as a species, we were wanderers, small hunter-gatherer bands. Civilization is a recent innovation, arising within the last few thousand years, and science is more recent still, appearing only in the last few hundred. But in just those few short centuries, we’ve made dramatic strides, from wooden sailing ships to space shuttles, bloodletting to bionic limbs, quill pens to the Internet. We’ve drawn back the curtain on ancient mythologies and glimpsed the true immensity of time and space. Compared to that vastness, we’re unimaginably small and insignificant; yet we possess an intelligence and a power of understanding that, as far as we still know, is unique among all the countless worlds. As Carl Sagan said, “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” Read entire article here: http://www.salon.com/2014/03/27/cosmic_terror_why_neil_degrasse_tyson_has_religious_fundamentalists_so_freaked_partner/?source=newsletterThis article originally appeared on AlterNet.
Sandy Hook- Operation Open Eyes-Mind Control In America
OPERATION OPEN EYES MIND CONTROL IN AMERIKA Five Easy Steps To CreateA Manchurian Candidate IntroductionOPERATION OPEN EYESAn Overview of a Government Mind Control ProgramFive Easy Steps To Create A Manchurian Candidate by Gunther Russbacher From his own ExperiencesProject Clear EyesHow Sleepers are ProducedAdditional Information on Project Open EyesExcerpted from page 4 of The Wilcher Report: Mass Murder at Ranch ApocalypseJonestown: The Whole Story IntroductionGunther Russbacher sent the original pieces of this article to his wife, Rayelan in 1996. In December of 1996, Rayelan pieced together Gunther’s many letters, and published the original article on “Mind Control in America” in the print edition of Rumor Mill News. Several days before the Columbine shootings, a man from Austria came to California to meet with Rayelan and clear up some of the hard to understand passages in the original article. The man said he was Gunther’s boss in Austrian Intelligence. Since Rayelan had never met Gunther’s boss, the man provided information that only Rayelan, Gunther and Gunther Austrian Intelligence superior would know. The Austrian told her he had helped Gunther write the first part of the article on “Operation Open Eyes.” The original article was hand written by Gunther and sent to Rayelan in several different letters. The man from Austria said that he had personal knowledge of the 5 Levels of programming, and that was the part of the article he had helped Gunther write. The second part of the original RMNews article was taken from other letters written by Gunther, alone. The man from Austria said he could only correct the part that he had helped write because he had no personal knowledge of Gunther’s own mind control experiences, or how the United States used this method of mind control. Shortly after the Austrian met with Rayelan, the tragedy at Columbine happened. Rayelan now believes that the Columbine killings were the beginning of the final push to take all guns out of the hands of the American people. One month, to the day, after Columbine, another similar shooting occurred in Georgia. These killings are not random acts of teenage violence. These school killings are a planned, methodical attack on the American Constitution and the freedom which is enjoyed but taken for granted by citizens of the United States of America. The method of the attack is designed to inflame anger and hysteria in the American public. The media whips up the anger and hysteria and keeps it fresh in America’s mind, with continual graphic, around the clock, “overkill” coverage and commentary of the dead and wounded victims, the pain and suffering of the families, and the traumatic scars left on America’s children. The President uses the hysteria of the moment to blame guns for the problems in Americas schools and with America’s children. In the heat of hysteria, Congress is pressured to pass more guns laws. The hysteria and anger towards guns, propelled by the President and the media, continues to sweep across America. No one in media or being interviewed by the media, is allowed to speak rationally on the subject of guns. Rational people are shouted down by talk show hosts, as in the infamous Rosie O’Donnell interview with Tom Selleck. Members of Congress who try to point out the fact that existing gun laws don’t work, because the Clinton Administration doesn’t enforce them, are portrayed by the media as being “on the take” from the NRA. No one is permitted to step back from the hysteria and consider, that no matter how many gun laws are enacted by governments, not even the total ban and destruction of guns could have stopped what happened at Columbine. If there were no guns available to the two young men and their accomplices at Columbine, the killings would have happened anyway. A gun was not used to blow up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. Guns were not used to kill the 800,000 TsuTsis who were killed in Rwanda by the Hutus. The children at Columbine and at the other schools across America were killed by other children. The “child killers” used guns, but they could just as easily used machetes or bombs. The man who drove his pick up truck through the window of Luby’s restaurant in Killean, Texas used a high powered assault rifle to murder dozens of people. He could just as easily thrown a bomb through the restaurant window. The bomb would have killed more people than the gun, and the killer would have escaped alive. But a bomb would not have accomplished the first step in the planned take-over of America. That first step is the elimination of all guns in the hands of the American public! Many of the mass murderers in the recent decade have committed suicide at the site of the killings, or they are killed by a law enforcement officer, once the various government agencies arrive. In several cases of school shootings, the “child killers” have been stopped by teachers or principles who had guns. If the adult school officials had not had guns, by the time the law enforcement officers arrive, more victims would have been killed. It is also possible that the “child killers” would have “self destructed” by committing suicide. Dead men and boys, tell no tales. With the “child killers” dead, there is no way to trace back, to its origin in mind control programming, the true cause of the killing spree. If these children have been programmed using a Manchurian Candidate type of mind control, that has been around since the 1920’s, and actively used since the Korean War, a trained psychiatrist can find the mind control tracks! For the psychiatrist to do his job, he needs a live “killer”, and he needs the cooperation of the local law enforcement officials. The only way to stop these shootings is to make the public realize that “Manchurian Candidates” do exist, and the kids who are committing these tragic crimes are victims of government mind control. The purpose of the shootings is to inflame the public against guns so that they force Congress to pass restrictive gun laws. Once the guns are out of the hands of the American public, another twist in random mayhem will begin. More programmed “Manchurian Candidates” will begin anarchistic attacks on the public using bombs, knives, fires, Molotov cocktails, baseball bats and any other item that can be used as a weapon. Anarchy will sweep the streets of the United States. The public will be disarmed and unable to protect themselves. Therefore, the government will step in and become everyone’s protector and Big Brother! The government will do this by suspending the last threads of our barely surviving Constitution, declaring martial law, rounding up the dissidents, patrolling our streets with armed United Nations or NATO military, instituting curfew, and shooting anyone who disobeys any of the newly imposed laws. In other words, a totalitarian government will take control, and if you oppose them, you will be sent to the Gulags. If the school killings escalate as a Rumor Mill News Source said they will, Congress will be bribed, blackmailed or threatened to pass the bills which will take away out guns. If this happens in 1999 or the year 2000, Bill and Hillary Clinton will be the permanent totalitarian rulers of the United States! Programmed “Manchurian Candidates” as well as political and government leaders whose own personal agendas have been replaced with mind controlled New World Order “overlays”, will work in tandem to bring the United States under the iron fisted rule of a One World Government. There is enough research on mind control to convince any rational person that mind control and programmed assassins exist. Congress will not investigate this. Our Congress is either bribed with money or promises of high positions in the New World Government, or they are blackmailed and/or threatened with death or the death or their loved ones. The only hope America has of exposing this and stopping it, is for a courageous community to demand that their district attorney look into the mind control aspect of the shootings. This courageous community must stand together as a united front. If only a handful of residents try to force their local government to investigate and expose the mind control behind the killing rampages, then that handful can be broken and defused using simple techniques of “divide and conquer”, and “smear and attack” These courageous residents will be painted as mentally unstable, or as criminals and pedophiles. If these simple techniques of “breaking and diffusing the opposition” don’t work, then the heavier guns of bribery, blackmail, threats and murder will be used. Only a well coordinated and informed public, with NO LEADER OR SPOKESPERSON, can expose the horror of what is really happening in America. Why no leader or spokesperson? Because you can never be sure you are not putting a government infiltrator in charge of the attempt to expose the truth. In other words, the only person whose agenda you can trust is your own. This means, if you want the truth exposed, YOU have to do it. One of the places where an investigator can begin research is with Satanic cults and children’s mental institutions and in house drug rehabilitation programs. Almost all of the children involved in the school killings had attended a Satanic cult or had been in a mental hospital.. These are the two main ways of programming children without parental knowledge. The local authorities or researchers and investigators need to start there. There have been many books written about CIA mind control programs, but no document or book has exposed the method used to create a programmed assassin. This article covers the basics of the program. Once you read this, you will understand how and why mass murders such as Columbine, take place. In the case of the mass murders using guns, these mind controlled assassins are being used to sow terrorism in order to force Congress to pass tougher, more draconian gun laws which do not stop terrorism, but take away freedoms Americans take for granted. In the case of the children being murdered by children. This is a “CIA modified” “Hegelian Dialectic” technique. In other words, if you want society to become something different than it is, you must set up the conditions which will bring about the desired results. The German philosopher, Frederich Hegel called it: Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis. The CIA calls it: Crisis Creation, Crisis Solution, Crisis Control. (Navy Captain Trenton Parker describes how the CIA uses this technique in foreign countries to influence politics. See end of article for information.) In the case of Columbine and other similar shootings the scenario is as follows: THESIS:An armed AmericaANTITHESIS:Horrific violence and mass murders committed by people with gunsSYNTHESIS:Draconian antigun laws which disarm America The CIA’s version of Hegel’s Dialectic omits the Thesis, their version starts with the antithesis:Crisis Creation replaces Antithesis:Horrific violence and mass murders committed by people with guns, who were either programmed or in the employee of the CIA or other government agenciesCrisis Solution replaces Synthesis:Draconian gun laws which take the guns away from everyone, including law abiding citizens.Crisis Control Becomes the New ThesisIn the case of gun violence, the new thesis will resemble a police state, where only the government will have guns To further illustrate the point. America is a nation full of guns and guaranteed the right to own and bear arms, by the Constitution of the United States. America cannot be taken over by the New World Order and their socialist/communist agenda, if Americans are armed, (this is the Thesis, an armed citizenry), therefore conditions must be created that will cause the American public to demand that their Constitutional right to bear arms be rescinded. These created conditions are called “The Antithesis” by Hegel; it is called Crisis Creation by the CIA. In the case of an armed citizenry, the antithesis, or anti-thesis, is random, senseless and horrific murders using guns as the weapon. When these two conditions, i.e.; an armed citizenry and horrific gun violence, exist simultaneously, public hysteria can be whipped up making the public demand that their Congressional representatives outlaw all guns. This is called “The Synthesis” by Hegel; or Crisis Solution by the CIA.. The “synthesis” then becomes the new “Thesis” for a new triad in Hegel’s Dialectic. In the CIA’s version of Hegel’s Dialectic, the synthesis i.e.; the Crisis Solution brings about the new Thesis which is called: Crisis Control. When Hitler wanted to wipe Jewish DNA from all of Europe, he created similar “antithesis” conditions which allowed the passage of similar anti gun laws. If all Jews in Germany had been armed, how easy would it have been for Hitler to send them to concentration camps? An armed citizenry can protect itself from its government. Hitler’s plan to eliminate all gun from German citizens was so successful that Connecticut Senator Thomas J. Dodd, father of today’s Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, used Hitler’s model to frame the Gun Control Act of 1968. (More information at end of article.) The Government’s Diabolic Plan Must Be ExposedIf this horrendous, diabolic plan to disarm America is not exposed, we can expect to see many more killings like the ones at Columbine. Each subsequent episode will be 100 times worse than the others. In Columbine, the real people behind the killings were sending a subtle message to anyone who can decipher it: The bombs that were found were not intended to go off. They were merely there to let “key people” in Congress know what will happen the next time. In other words, instead of 15 people being killed, hundreds, maybe even thousands will be killed. More than likely, there was a “Control Officer” handling these boys. If an honest police unit uncovers him, he will be sacrificed, just like Tim McVeigh. He will be portrayed in the exact way the Tim McVeigh has been portrayed. In other words, he will be part of “The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy”, he will be a “gun nut”, he will belong to an Aryan Christian group. Once you read how “Manchurian Candidates” are created, you will fully understand what is behind the incidents like the school killings, the crash of Ron Brown’s plane, The North Hollywood bank robbery, the massacre at Luby’s, and the killings at the Capitol, (Tom DeLay was the intended target at the Capitol. Maybe he would be interested in how his would be assassin was created.) * * * * * OPERATION OPEN EYESGovernment insiders revealHow the United States Government Finds, Chooses and Creates “Sleepers”Mind-controlled, programmed zombies, also known as:Manchurian CandidatesAn Overview of a Government Mind Control ProgramHow the Subjects are Chosen A preset group of our people (from the intelligence community) canvasses the county hospitals and immigration centers in order to find viable candidates. We locate and select people who have no close family or friends. Once they have been selected, they are put under heavy, Level One hypnosis. At this time a clear and definitive pattern of their usefulness is determined by our psychiatrists and field officers. If the candidate possesses a relatively high IQ, he will be filed in a category file, called “call file. “ Levels One and Two If the tested applicant has more than 120 IQ, a “recall” command and an accompanying “trigger” word will be written into his personality during the Level One hypnosis session. This “trigger” will activate his recall program when we are ready for him. We then systematically do a background search and create a file for future reference. If there are no relatives, to speak of, the subject will be “recalled” and taken to a location of our choice. Further tests for vulnerability will be conducted at this location. If he passes these tests, he is then brought to Level 2 hypnosis where specific instructions are “written” (placed through hypnotic commands and suggestions) into his personality and he is given diverse small orders. If the subject, upon release, shows that he has retained the instructions which were “written” into his personality, and if he carries out the small and unimportant work duties which were assigned under Level 2 hypnosis, he will receive a “recall service notice”. The timing of a “recall service notice” depends on how quickly we can determine that the programming which was “written” into the subject’s personality has enabled him to complete his Level 2 work assignments properly. Once this determination has been made, a “recall service notice” will be given to him by a person, or “handler” to whom we have introduced him. If the subject was not given a “trigger” word, the “handler” will use a quick and powerful form of hypnosis similar to Neural Linguistic Programming. The subject will be told when and where to report. The subject will have no memory of being given these instructions, he will just report on time to the proper location. IF the subject was given a “trigger” word or symbol. He will report to the designated location upon activation of the “trigger”. Level 3 The next step is Level 3 hypnosis, where the subject will become an “overwrite” upon his own personality. An “overwrite” is a new identity or personality. It is similar to having multiple personalities, except the original personality is repressed or hidden under the “overwrite” and will not surface for a set period of time which is determined by the Programmer. The “overwrite” is not a complete new identity. There is just enough information written into the subject’s personality for us to determine his viability. In the case of a Field Operative, Level 3 hypnosis is how the operative is prepared for a covert mission which requires a temporary new identity. Just enough information will be written in for the operative’s alias and story to be believable by everyone, including law enforcement officials. In the case of a field operative who will be using this alias for only one occasion, his normal personality is not repressed, it is made recessive, but left alert. For the field operative who is being prepared for a deadly covert mission, a Level 3 “overwrite” can eliminate all fear and nervousness, and allow him to function under the nose of his enemies without the added stress of being discovered. All operatives have to go to, and through these 3 Levels before they are fielded! Sometimes they go through Level 3 many times. During Level 3 programming sessions, the new subject is told that anything his “friends”, i.e. programmers, ask him to do, is okay, even though it may be against all laws of the land. At Level 3, the subject is also programmed to believe that he must and can do everything his “friends” i.e., programmers ask him to do. Once Level 3 Programming has been “overlaid” upon the new subject’s own personality, he/she is once again given a “recall service order” and is then discharged. The subject will be monitored to see how well he functions with his new personality. If everything goes well, he will be recalled for further programming. The higher the IQ of a given subject, the further the programming goes! If the IQ is high enough we will study his abilities and our needs, and determine how the subject can be further used. Once this determination is made, the subject will be brought to “The Farm” or one of our numerous facilities throughout the U.S. and Canada for further and final programming. (Doctors Hospital in Dallas, TX is one of our main centers!) Level 4 Once at the facility, we will put the subject into Level 4 hypnosis, a place where he no longer differentiates between right and wrong. The subject will be told he is a “Super Human” and all laws are written for other people. The subject’s moral code, respect for the law, and fear of dying is replaced with new “Super Human” feelings. This is the Level that turns a subject into a “Clear Eyes”, i.e., a fully programmed “sleeper” assassin, who can commit crimes as serious as murder, and afterwards have no shame, guilt, or remorse. The Level 3 Super Human “overwrite” replaces the subject’s own morality and/or religious ethics with a program that makes him believe he is beyond all human laws. If the intent of the programming is to create a programmed assassin who will kill on cue, all morality, fear, and revulsion of bloody body parts must be eliminated. The Super Human “overwrite” eliminates both. The Super Human “overwrite” also gives the subject the feeling of immortality and invincibility. If he has to perform a particularly suicidal or important assignment we do our job at Stoney Mountain facilities. At Level 4, diverse programs can be written/or overwritten into the brain. Any command is accepted at this level. At Level 4 you can give the test subject a completely new personality and history. You are able to make him/her believe anything the program requires for the accomplishment of the desired project. In this case, a completely new person is being created, not just a partial personality as is Level 3. Once the Level 4 programming is complete, the subject will be a different person with no memory of his former life. He will not be an amnesiac, he will have memories. Ones which we gave him. He/she will be relocated to a new state and town and given a new life. Everything to complete the construction of the new person will be provided. Items such as driver’s licence, car, bank accounts, passport, credit cards, and birth certificate will be created or supplied by us and will be valid and legal. The subject will also be provided with all the small things that ordinary people have in their lives, such as photos of his family. His family won’t really exist, but he won’t know this. He will have all the feelings of love, hurt or anger that normal family members feel for each other. The photos of family and friends will be of deep cover agency personnel. If ever a mission goes “sour” and the news media starts looking for his family, the “agency created family” will be produced for a news conference or an interview. Agency personnel have been well coached and are trained actors and actresses. They will fill their roles perfectly, usually letting the public know that the “Clear Eyes” subject has always had a deeply troubled and violent past. The media will present the “Clear Eyes” as a nut case who went on a tragic and senseless rampage. Within a month, the public will have forgotten the incident. Completing the new life and home, will be souvenirs from trips the subject has never taken, but yet remembers. There will also be small mementos of a life he has never lived, yet believes he has. Upon the completion of Level 4 Programming, the subject and patient (one and the same) now has an agenda that he believes is his own. In other words, if the subject is going to be used to infiltrate a patriot group, religious commune, political campaign or environmental movement, the subject will be given all the knowledge and beliefs that are commonly held by people in his targeted group. The subject will believe that his fervently held opinions are his own. He will be believable to other members of the group. Many politicians and government officials on a world wide level have been given “new agendas” through the use of Level 4 programming. Their own beliefs are replaced with the agenda of the programmers. They are given super human talents such as a photographic memory, and the ability to lie convincingly. President Clinton is an example of a world leader who has been programmed with this technique. Senator John McCain and Secretary of State Madeline Albright are two other examples of an “agenda overlay” being “overwritten” onto the subjects own personality. In the cases of these people, their own personalities and memories are still present, to a large extant, although childhood and early adolescent memories are sometimes erased when this technique is used. Once the future government leader is programmed, he will be recalled on a yearly basis and given hypnotic reinforcement of the original programming, or new programming will be “inserted” to modify the original programs. If no new programming is needed, the reinforcement programming can be done on a mass scale. In other words, “programmed sleepers” who are part of a lecture audience or a “think tank retreat”, can have their programming “reinforced” through a lecture or film. The rest of the audience, such as wives and children, will notice nothing out of the ordinary. Upon completion of Level 4, the subject who has been chosen to become a “programmed sleeper assassin” is fully prepared for Level 5. Level 5 At Level 5, the “trigger” which activates the program is inserted. At Level 5, very carefully, a code word, sequence of numbers, or a voice imprint is “etched” into the subject’s brain. This is commonly known and referred to as the “trigger” which will activate the subject into action. At this time, the subject will also be implanted with a coded tracking device so that his location will always be known. Once Level 5 programming is complete, the subject is released to live a very normal and sometimes useful life. The subject will have no memory of being involved with the intelligence community, and will have no memory of the hypnosis sessions. The “sleeper” who has been given a complete new identity will have no memory of his “former” life, therefore he will never question who he is. The subject will live a normal life as a doctor, an airline pilot, a politician, an eccentric loner, or a movie star until the subject is required to perform the missions for which he was created. These missions or programs were implanted/written into Level 4 hypnosis. Once the the Level 5, programmed “sleeper” assassin is finished with the programming , he is referred to as a “Clear Eyes”. A “Clear Eyes” is a “sleeper assassin” who is capable of being triggered, i.e. activated. Once a “Clear Eyes” is “triggered”, accidently or on purpose, the subject is beyond recall. A Level 5 “Clear Eyes” can only be approached after he carries out his program or operation. Because of the programming, the subject will not be able to associate with the crime he has just committed. Such a programmed subject is Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert Kennedy. To this day Sirhan cannot recall anything about shooting Senator Kennedy. Only psychiatrists trained in our method of sub mental behavior programming, overwrites and overlays, will be able to find any tracks leading to post Level 1 or 2 mind control. In other words, a regular psychiatrist may discover that the subject has been hypnotized in the past, and may even discover the original personality. But a regular psychiatrist will never be able to discover the location in the brain or memory, where Levels 3, 4 and 5 programs are stored. Without an activation “key”, a normal psychiatrist will never uncover the programming unless by accident. If the programmed subject is told to walk into an armed camp and assassinate an enemy leader, the subject will carry out his program with no regard to his personal welfare, whether he lives or dies, or how he is supposed to escape. In most cases of programmed “Clear Eyes” who commit murders or assassinations, the subject is killed on the spot, either by an innocent bystander who kills only to end the killing, or by an agency operative who is on site to insure nothing goes wrong, in other words, that the subject “self destructs” or is killed. In some cases the subject is captured and not killed. Due to the type of programming used in “Operation Open Eyes”, the subject will not be able to divulge any information. Even if the subject is brutally tortured, he will not be able to remember the actual killing or terrorist act, let alone why he did it. This is because all programming is buried deep within long forgotten childhood memories which were recalled under Level 3 hypnosis. (This is the level where real childhood memories are accidently destroyed in politicians and other officials who have agendas “overwritten” on their own personalities.) Even under the ‘truth serum” drugs, the subject cannot reveal the truth because his conscious mind has no access to it. Using “Operation Open Eyes”, the government can create the perfect assassin, saboteur or terrorist. One who will perform on cue, not be able to remember anything, or self destruct before being captured. OPERATION OPEN EYESFive Easy Steps To Create A Manchurian Candidate by Gunther Russbacher From his own ExperiencesI have personally witnessed Levels 1-5 programming, and was myself a subject of level 3 programming. In Level 3 programming five different sets of primary aliases were created for me. It takes two years to fully create a new personality. All the small gestures, such as grimaces, laughs, smiles and frowns have to be created, as well as an accent, a specific way of walking and carrying himself… his bearing. If a subject has a high IQ, around 130-140, the subject is very quick to learn anything fed to him/her during the programming sessions. All major patriot groups, government offices and. government contract corporations have at least one or more “sleepers” attached to them. Project Clear Eyes This is the placing of a “sleeper” or “sleepers” in radical groups, religious communes, or any other place that a “sleeper” is needed. The the bombing of the Murrah Building was a clear cut case of project “Clear Eyes”. Tom Valentine’s radio show as well as the Spotlight newspaper are vehicles we have employed in the past to trigger our subjects. In other words, the “Clear Eyes” subject has been given the suggestion to listen to certain shortwave broadcasts or read certain newspapers. Knowing that the “Clear Eyes” has been programmed to listen, religiously, to a certain radio program, a guest or caller will give the “trigger words” that will activate the “Clear Eyes.” If the subject has been told by his “programmers” to subscribe and read a certain newspaper each day, or week, the “trigger” will be a classified ad or letter to the editor. If the newspaper happens to be an Agency creation or proprietary, the “trigger” word or phrase will be worked into an article. There are some “sleepers” who are kept active by the constant re-enforcement of their programming through key words and phrases that are published in Agency newspapers. These “Agency Papers” are usually publications of new age cults or Christian Identity groups. They usually have a readership of less than five thousand people. Waco was a “Open Eyes” operation. There were seven “sleepers” in the compound. These seven “sleepers” had been programmed to carry out a specific job. The specific mission was written into their personalities during Level 4 programming. They had not yet received their Level 5 programming, and should not have been capable of being triggered to carry out their the Level 4 programmed mission. The Davidian group was created to perform a terrorist acts similar to the sarin gas that was released in the Japanese subway by the Aum Shin Riko cult. Shortly after the Waco holocaust, attorney Paul Wilcher was briefed on the Waco mind control operation by members of the Delta Force Group that oversaw the programming operation. These men were sent in to neutralize only the 7 “sleepers”. Their programming had somehow been prematurely activated, and they were creating a device for mass destruction. Randy Weaver, of the Ruby Ridge incident, was a control subject that ended up “out of control.” (RMNews: Russbacher never gave further information on this.) Robert Hunt is a sleeper that was put on hold. At some, not too distant date, you will see Bob Hunt performing his true and final role. (RMNews Editor: Bob Hunt is a Navy SEAL and covert operative who was instrumental in leaking classified documents to Rodney Stich. These documents confirmed that the government operatives who came forward and broke their cover to tell the truth, were indeed who they said they were. Whenever a government covert operative breaks his cover and begins to tell the truth, he/she is either jailed or killed. Robert Hunt is currently in prison. Others, who are listed on the documents he released are either dead, in prison or in hiding. Robert Hunt is quoted on p. 10 of the November issue of RMNews. He is discussing a group of programmed assassins that he personally trained at Camp Perry. When you combine the information he released plus other information on the Pegasus Assassination Unit, you begin to understand that the men and women who make up these units have all been programmed at least up to Level 3. Some, who are trained for suicide missions, are programmed up to Level 4 and 5. The man who killed all the people in Luby’s restaurant in Killean, Texas was probably programmed to Level 5, but he could have been accidentally “triggered”. The Tasmanian mass murderer was also programmed to Level 5 and to self destruct, but he didn’t. If the governments of the world really were serious about getting to the bottom of random acts of terrorism, they would take apart this man’s brain, one engram at a time, until they discovered the “Open Eyes” program. But since the Australian government is using the massacre in Tasmania as an excuse to confiscate all the guns, it is unlikely that they will want to let anyone do a psychological profile of the Tasmanian killer. In fact, if any country tries to press the issue, the killer will probably just commit suicide, or be “suicided”.) Gunther Russbacher continues: “I hope it is becoming clear to you the various levels that are used by the Intel community to get their job done. Remember Jonestown? It was one of ours that went sour because a “Clear Eyes” was in the group. “When he, the “Clear Eyes”, began firing on the runway, it all self destructed. Congressman Leo Ryan, who was killed, knew it was a government operation. The “Clear Eyes” was accidently, through a lone sequence, activated! There was no way to stop the killings. All members of the cult were programmed to at least level 3. There were only 3 deaths attributable to cyanide, the rest died of gunfire. Now you know little more about our line of work. I am glad I am out of it.” (RMNews: On p. 14 on the September 1996 issue we printed a letter called: Jonestown: The Whole Story, Project Blue, The Guiana Operation. The letter is attached at the end of this article.) Russbacher Continues: How Sleepers are Produced “The initial stages of hypnosis are derived by subconsciously distracting a person to where he/she does not realize that hypnosis is taking place. If the procedure is done in a doctor’s office, or in the emergency room of a hospital, a Level One hypnosis, with a post hypnotic suggestion, to return for another session on a specified day, time and location, can be all be given in less than five minutes. At an emergency room, the doctors have to be far more cautious because of the others (emergency room workers) who are about him. At any rate, a second and far more detailed appointment is made where Levels Two and Three can be attained within a matter of 2-3 sittings. At Level Two, a light program is already in place, that makes the subject pliable to the will of the hypnotherapist. At Level 3, the program is expanded to include specific trigger words; i.e. “stepdown”. A Level Four program can only be attained by completely removing the already altered, conscious state of Level three. This procedure is done under drugs! The needle is inserted into one of the veins of the lower legs, sometimes on the back of the leg. The needle is never inserted in an easily visible spot where it can be seen and questions asked as to where such a needle stick came from. With the IV fluids of the drugs and the 3 levels already attained, brainwashing takes effect. Complete blocks of intact memory are taken out and removed. The “overwrite” is generally placed next to and/or in addition to childhood memories. The area we choose to attach our program to is pre puberty. It can range from age 9-12. That’s where the “overwrite” is placed. A complete set of instructions are then entered into the void space and are assimilated immediately, by the brain as belonging there–and having always been there. At this point the complete instruction package has been set. It is no trouble at all to create an unspace (an emptyness of several days time–time being removed and rewritten into the main brain.) lasting up to several days or a week. The team, performing the “erase”, “new program” and “transfer of data”; at random, choose a period of time where there was no event of special interest to the patient. The Level Four stage permits the team to go back, one day at a time, in the victim’s life. It is an easy accomplishment to find such an ordinary fragment of time where nothing occurred. Remember that the brain assimilates the “rewrite” immediately as its own. The program entry can be so well covered and truly hidden that if you were to revive the patient-without a level 5 trigger in place to bring the subject to that spot of their lives, the complete program would be lost forever. Since the brain has continual wave lengths, level 5 is implanted as a trigger command (just like in a computer) to bring that person, instantly (by preplanted hypnotic suggestion) to that moment of their lives where this violent or non-violent program is located. If it is to be a one time mission (with suicide built-in) a complete remake of the victim is made at level 4. We can take Subject-A, and impose on them all personality traits, customs and beliefs of a person we call subject-B… or reverse them. That means my subject will have to remain in the lab until a complete recycling has been achieved. At that point I can make him believe anything 1 tell him. Example: If I tell him that he is a construction worker, and feed him all the data required to perform the job, he will believe just that. If I tell him to take another name, change his entire being, leave his family and become someone else in another town, he will follow through on the command, but only if I insert a level 5 trigger command instructing him to do that when he hears certain words; i.e., a nursery rhyme or any trigger word that I implant. Certain major corporations and Madison Avenue advertising agencies have a long history of working with the government. Nursery rhymes such as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” can be worked into the advertisements that are played on television and radio. These ads can be targeted to population areas where programmed “sleepers” or “sleeper” are living, thereby activating only certain sleepers without having to have personal contact in any manner. The other viable alternative, for most of the case subjects under our control, is to implement a “rider package” that will compel him/her to fulfill the functions of our level four programming, by placing an appropriate trigger in his mind. He or she will continue to lead a perfectly normal life until made active by a command from a command file. Any number of unrelated triggers can be implanted hypnotically–just in case the first one has been lost in the deep fog when you bring the subject back to the Pre-Level One stage (state). We always have a least 300-400, one way mission, Level 5’s running about leading relatively functional lives in the different cities where we have placed them. At times a man will leave his wife (or vice versa) and just move away. We don’t take into consideration if these men have children. We use them, because they are tailored to a specific task we see coming up in the foreseeable future. However, please bear in mind that most of our level 5 cases lead very normal lives until they are activated. At that point, the Level Four program takes precedence in the subject’s life, above all else, such as family or job (RM Editor; One of our Sources told us that the pilot of Ron Brown’s airplane was a “sleeper.” Up until the moment he was “activated” by a “trigger” word, the program to crash the plane was activated, he was just an average, ordinary person. The “control” who gave him the “trigger” word, was the ground radio operator at the Dubrovnik airport, who was later found shot to death… suicided? ” None of the other so-called explanations for the crash make any sense, until someone uncovers the real cause of the Ron Brown crash, RMNews will believe that the pilot was a “sleeper” who was “triggered” and a preset program was activated which made him fly the plane into the hillside.) Russbacher Continues: “To fully create a new person; give them a history or something that they can cling to when sad or lonely, it takes a team of lab experts numerous weeks or even months. I don’t know the name of the chemicals (several of them) used by the teams but they can hold a subject comatose for a few days to even months. A total transfiguration requires a catheter in the neck, urinary and digestive track, to keep their physical balance. Usually a Level 5, complete transfiguration will require a cover story like a serious automobile accident or something of similar nature. We have never been exposed for any of the Level 5 subjects we created. Most liable to exposure are level 3 subjects who can remember bits and pieces of their downing after not have been to the “shop” (lab) for a couple of years. (RMNews: Randy Weaver?) Level 3 Operatives will always know that they have been worked on or modified- -because they sign a document that goes into their personnel file. All case officers and field operatives are Level 3 clan. The chemical used for Level 4 is not merely a hypnotic drug but also contains proportionate levels of anesthesia. The idea is to keep the subject at the very edge of consciousness during the programming. One last set of statements about Operation Open Eyes. There are some aspects (areas) of the United States. One, and the first of them, is Project Fallingrock; Project Behemoth; Project Tinyrock; Project mountainside, just to name a few. All of these projects fall under the auspices of “Operation Open Eyes”. Project and/or Operation Monarch was a completely fictitious series created and released to the public simply to side track serious investigators. You can always judge the authenticity of serious reporters or investigative journals by paying attention to the things they have said about Project/Operation Monarch. This does not mean that the “victims” of Monarch are not real, what it means is that the entire Project was created as a cover story to keep people busy following the Project Monarch leads, while the real work went on in hospitals and doctors’ offices around the country. There are government sponsored investigative journals which are designed to sow misinformation or disinformation. I have been able to spot the newspapers that are putting out bogus information by paying attention to how they treat Operation Monarch. Afterthoughts From Gunther Russbacher: The poor guys/gals who are forced to leave family and all behind in order to fulfill their one way program, sadden me. Although they have a completely new set of memories, they are all usually such bad memories, that they gladly jump from area to area to avoid the direct pain of these memories. They seek company in sleazy bars and are usually limited to one night stands. By day, they work, and by night, they usually sit–frustrated as hell– in front of their TV’s. This is why the trigger words presented in television ads are so effective. More Afterthoughts: In the event that you have any interest in how my Level 3 programming was done, and how it was found by the therapist here, (in Austria) I’ll be glad to give you a run down. First of all, bear in mind that I went in on my own. I wasn’t one of the other cases I have so often made reference to in my letter. They gave me 2-mg. of Valium to calm my nervous system. Then I was hooked up to a polygraph machine, and the hypnotherapist led me to Level One–deep sleep. Then at that stage a color combination pattern was fed to my mind. Then I was dropped to level two. Outside monitors, such as an EEG, were attached to my head. I was fed music or better said, winding jungle rhythms to concentrate upon. (RMNews: Similar colors and rhythms are found in some of the video games our children play.) “At that state ( Level 2), it was determined that I was patriotic enough to be of use to them. A film, between a good agent and Joe Blow down the street, was played to determine my threshold to cross (under specific orders!) from being a full legal to being an instrument for their causes. All the patriotic nonsense in the world was fed to me at Level 2. Then came the “what if situations.” What if you had to sanction a man because of the good for the country? (In the October 1996 Issue of RMNews, p. 1, “Black Operations Commander Implicates Presidents in Drug Smuggling,” you will find reference to an order to kill Ross Perot. Fortunately for Ross Perot, Chip Tatum, was not a Level 4 or 5 “Sleeper”. He was able to overide the command.) “What if it (the order) meant willfully breaking the law in order to do as your employer asks? After hour upon hour of this play, a recall program–reaching me anywhere’ a voice could travel–was pounded into my skull. Always, the wishes of the employer had to come first. Then I was covered with the ability to slip in and out of many aliases, during and after doing my job for them. The Level 3 program consisted of more loyalty bullshit and a number of specific triggers that would activate my mode which made me believe that I was indestructible. I went back for up-dates on the programming every 2-3 years. I was also polygraphed 3 times in the field office, and annually at the main center. Sodium Ambutal was their drug of choice at that time. I would be pulled out of circulation 2 days at a time, when I went in for my annuals. The hypno-therapist over here (in Austria,) accidentally hit on the entire program because they subjected me to all these color combinations. I began to talk during the session and they key was found quite by accident. They researched up and down this Level 2 stage until I disclosed, under deep hypnosis, the entire program, inclusive of all parts. The trigger mechanism was less easy to find because it was cloaked by an Oklahoman Thanksgiving party. (RMNews: Russbacher was raised from age 12 to 17 in Oklahoma) The therapists over here had never heard of such a thing. I talked until they found the mental file that contained all my triggers. They told me the whole thing, and in a conscious state, I repeated it all to them. They now have a big thick file on what has been done to me, and regretfully, the means to replicate it on others. I knew a great deal of what had been done to me at the Center. After all, I saw them doing Level 5 work on others. I also know that they had various ways and means to get the job done. I knew all along that I was a Level 3 sleeper. Hell, I signed so that it could be legally done to me. The Agency doesn’t employ Level 5 sleepers as Case Officers or Operatives. Additional Information on Project Open Eyes Single words are the designation for a single Project. Two words are the way to title an Operation. See: Operation “Open Eyes” or Project “Behemoth”. “Clear Eyes” was an exception to the standard rule of title in our coding a project. All phrases that have two words are ongoing Operations. (This is the reason for the apparent misspelling of Project Fallingrock.) Project Mirror An Above Top Secret Project In Mind Control and Assassination This is a very covert operation. Only 30-40 people know of its existence. Project name: Mirror (NSA operation number DOM 3416-A-2) Project priority: To establish/create a force of no more than 30 individuals who are capable of perceiving pre-set, or configured circumstances where certain leaders of nations are rowed according to their specific cause and importance. Project Order: Liquidate certain individuals according to rowed importance. Project Assumblage: Seek and find: prediagnosed individuals of various schizophrenic attributes. Gender of individual of no import. Age of subject must range 18-35. Coded for Operation Open Eyes. Test individuals must meet the criteria as being of good health, and compatible with standard Level (4) preconditioning. Language–no barrier Such individual will receive orders to activate upon visually seeing prestated ranged figures on all media accessible to the average citizens of the media country or nationality of the subject. Subject will follow Level (4) preconditioning, as well as Project Mirror required staunchness of being. Upon such ranged assembly of members of diverse and pre indoctrinated aspects of Project Mirror, “recall” and “discern target” pre-conditioning is “overwritten”. Subject will then be activated to “restore about the 26 tranquility” (or as such described in DOM 3416-A-2) Upon termination of target, subject shall, according to medical advice–return to a rehabilitation center for initial debriefing, or shall in accordance with Level (5) instructions, proceed with self sanction or destruction. It is imperative that all data retrieved during the case of medical rehabilitation be forwarded, via preordained method to DOM personnel. There shall not be more than 5 prime candidates in waiting, during the course of any fielded operation of stated project. The remains of self sanctioned personnel are to be cremated upon notification, by local or regional sources Operations Nu: 6317-ABL-4 Project team leader: DOM 3416-A-2 The Directive to form and proceed with this operation comes out of Ft. Meade, MD. Signatory to the project order was originally Stansfield Turner. Project Mirror is still on the books. End of Russbacher’s Story * * * * * Excerpted from page 4 of The Wilcher Report: Mass Murder at Ranch Apocalypse “Thursday, March 11th, 1993–12 days after the initial BATF raid on Sunday, February 28th-when I received initial information: (1)That “cult” leader David Koresh had an extensive CIA background. (2) That he was known in CIA circles as a ” sleeper” –someone who had been subjected to extensive CIA “mind control” training and programming. (3) That it was not just a mere coincidence that all these events were occurring in or near Waco, TX–since Waco is a major center for such CIA “mind control” experimentation and programming-with much of this activity occurring at the CIA’s Leadership Management Institute (LMI) in Waco.” RMNews: Paul Wilcher was an attorney living in Washington D.C. As a result of being a victim of Chicago’s crooked bankruptcy courts, Wilcher had moved to the Capitol trying to expose the fraud and corruption in the bankruptcy courts around the nation. He sadly discovered there was nothing he could do, alone. He began researching government crimes, corruptions and cover-ups. Wilcher made contact with Gunther Russbacher, the ONI and CIA operative who was currently in prison. Russbacher claimed he was in prison because the Bush Administration was trying to silence him regarding the October Surprise. Wilcher was the only person to conduct an exhaustive debriefing of Russbacher, which he recorded on 53 ninety minutes tapes. Russbacher introduced Wilcher to members of his SEAL team. These men and others are the government employees who gave Paul Wilcher the information he put into the 100 page letter he wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno. In the letter he explained, as well as he could, various government mind control experiments. He felt he had to give Reno the background on mind control operations in the Waco area so she could fully understand what was really going on at the Branch Davidian compound. Wilcher was told that something had gone wrong at Waco. The “sleepers” were waking up from their programming. Not only were they waking up, one or more of them had been accidentally “triggered”. The Waco “Sleepers” were programmed to make and deliver, a biological or chemical device that could kill everyone in a city the size of Oklahoma City or Houston. Information received by their “handlers” stated that the program had been accidently triggered and the 7 “Sleepers” had started building the device. According to information from a government “plant” inside the compound, the device was only days from completion. A CIA/Delta Force team was fielded to go into the compound and “neutralize” the problems. When the BATF learned that a CIA/Delta Force Group was going into the Branch Davidian compound, the BATF decided to raid the compound first. The BATF had no idea why the CIA/DFG team was going in. The BATF had been carrying on an independent surveillance of the compound. It would not have been unheard of for the BATF to have discovered the mind control project that was going on at the Davidian Compound. Mind control operations are common near the Waco area. Waco was the first major center for CIA mind control schools. No one has ever known if the BATF knew that Koresh and a few others were mind control subjects, or if they had just been tracking David Koresh because he dealt in guns. The Source who provided this information to RMNews said he had not been able to access the BATF records to discover why the Davidians were under BATF surveillance. Our source commented, “they (the BATF) had no idea what they were walking into.” According to our Source, by the time the FBI got involved, Janet Reno had already been briefed about the device. Her orders to the FBI were to contain and destroy the device. On the day of the Waco inferno, a Delta Group Force was inserted into the compound. Their orders were to kill the seven “sleepers” and disarm the device. The “sleepers” were killed, but the DFG group never had the time to find the device and disarm it. The compound exploded in flames. The DFG team barely made it out alive. It was their belief that the FBI, the Department of Justice and the Clinton Administration intended to kill them also. This is why they gave their story to Paul Wilcher. In an operation like this, each person is “compartmented” and only told their part of the mission. The DFG team had no idea that Janet Reno knew about the existence of the device. It is not known if she knew about the mind control project or just thought the Davidians were a terrorist group with a device that could wipe out hundreds of thousands of Americans. When the DFG group briefed Paul Wilcher, they did not tell him Reno knew about the device, because they did not know this. After Wilcher was briefed, he wrote a 100 page letter to Janet Reno. In the letter he described various government mind control projects, and described what had happened at Waco. He made an appointment to hand deliver the letter to Attorney General Reno. The morning of his meeting with the Attorney General, he was met outside her office by two men who threw him up against the wall and beat him. The 100 page document was taken from him and he was threatened. He disappeared shortly after this incident. His body was found one month later. Wilcher’s good friend, Sarah McClendon, the senior White House correspondent, was the one who alerted the Washington DC police that Paul had been missing for a long time. When the police broke into his apartment, they discovered his body. The FBI immediately sealed the apartment and confiscated all of Wilcher’s research. When they finally returned the computer and discs to Wilcher’s family, everything had been wiped from them. There was no record whatsoever of the 100 page document that Paul had tried to deliver to Janet Reno. Over a year after Paul had been murdered, Sarah McClendon was going through her papers and discovered a bunch of documents Paul had given her. They appeared to be documents he had written when he was helping Gunther Russbacher, the October Surprise pilot. McClendon is a friend of Russbacher’s wife, Rayelan. Sarah called Rayelan and asked her if she wanted Wilcher’s papers. Thinking they were reports he had prepared for the October Surprise Taskforce, Rayelan asked Sarah to send them to her. When the documents arrived, Rayelan realized immediately what she had. She knew she had the only copy, outside of the FBI, of Wilcher’s 100 page report. When she called Sarah to thank her for the documents, she purposely referred to them as the October Surprise documents. Then she said no more to anyone about them. She didn’t even tell her husband, Gunther, what she had. She believed that her telephone lines were still bugged by the government. Gunther was in prison at the time, and she did not dare put this information in a letter and mail it to him. She hid the document in a safe place and waited for a chance to make copies of it. During the years that she and her husband were trying to expose George Bush for the October Surprise, Rayelan had been followed everywhere she went. At the time she received the Wilcher Report, she was unsure if she was still being followed. She was also unsure if her home was still bugged. Her schedule was routine and dull at that time. She went to work at the same time, came home at the same time. The only reason she went out was to shop for groceries. Going to a copy shop to make copies of a hundred page document would have been out of character for her at the time. She figured that if anyone was watching her, they would wonder why she was taking a large document to a copy shop. She waited until a appropriate opportunity arose. And it did. One of her friends mentioned that her husband had just bought a new copy machine for his office. The friend told Rayelan that she was welcome to use it anytime. One afternoon, after lunch, Rayelan and her friend made many copies of the document. Some were left with her friend, and some were put in pre addressed priority mail envelopes and mailed anonymously to people or groups that would copy and distribute the letter. Rayelan never told anyone she had the original copy of the Wilcher Report until she was sure that there were many copies in the hands of many different people, and the existence of the Report was well known. * * * * * p. 14 Dateline: September 17, 1996 Jonestown: The Whole Story Project Blue Operations Directorate of State Department, Section 6 Project Blue was/is the Guiana operation. Project Searchlight was the cover name for Project Blue: Resettlement of 34 Level 4 subjects. Level 4 refers to the degree of mind control that the subject has been programmed to. Level 4 “sleepers” are programmed assassins, the co-called Manchurian Candidate. Jim Jones was only one of the project leaders. The actual project was headed by Wessley Baker of the Department of State. He introduced Jim Jones to Gary Monroe in the States. Hallucinogenic drugs, supplied by DOS, were put on the consecrated communion hosts. The doses of Trichloral-trimital was fed, in limited form to the entire church population. Mass hypnosis and the drug laced communion “hosts” were the primary tools used to determine the candidates for the inner circle. All experiments were produced within the church walls. They used no outside sources or vehicles. The first doctor, flown in, and made a member of the congregation, came from Baltimore, and was a family practitioner of Martin, Delahny and Danvers. The doctor that was sent to be part of the select team was Dr. Danvers. Danvers was approached by AGENCY personnel in Tran Loc, Viet Nam. (He became one of the first US Army majors to join the Company as a consultant. He was, again approached in 1969 to participate in Operation Strike Back, where he treated RVN soldiers as well as V.C. and sent them back into the field. This too, eventually fell under Operation Open Eyes (the overall name for the government mind control operation) It is still carried on the original Operations page. Dr. Danvers was a close associate of Jim Jones, and the inner circle of cult members who had arrived, already trained, in part. Each member was assigned a group of three congregation members, whom they put through their paces until complete obedience was achieved. The congregation grew very slowly. The majority of those who went with him to Guiana, came from other church sites. Programming was only applied to those past the age of eight. The manual that they used to program the children up to age 20 was a book called “Cornflower”. It is part of the CIA training manual used in Honduras and Belize. It is still used in San Salvador today. Project Blue was/is a systematic program used to continue and maintain the level of programming already installed in the small churches, from which the members came, from all over the U.S. and Canada. Then, the DOS sent 65 trained field experts down to oversee the daily programming and training schedule. Leaving the actual number of people on site aside for the moment, there were often 450-500 of our people in the encampment at a time. Three 10 ml (milliliter) vats of potassium cyanide were delivered from Ft. Meade on a C-123 transport. This amount would have only provided lethal does for 10 men/women. The actual danger to the camp people, was a self styled chain link fence with shooting platforms. The entire project went sour as some of the “less” programmed began to rebel against Jim. The selection process for membership was faulty, as all congregational members had not received a full dose of Level 3 and 4 programming prior to being brought on site. They rebelled against his “way of life”, and wanted to take their young and leave. No one was permitted to ever leave before they were fully programmed to performed specific tasks. (Ranging from small tasks to tasks of vital importance.) Gun positions were mounted around the entire perimeter to prohibit the flight of any camp member. After two attempts at escape, security was ordered to deal with problems by “fire on sight”. Trips out of Jonestown were only permitted by armed escort. No phones were allowed for anyone other than Jim and his closest staff. The program was monitored closely by DOS. They even sent numerous delegations to “Jonestown”, to monitor the process of this mass “type” experiment. The Project deteriorated from week to week. Soon Jones’ own council began to supercede his orders. Jim originally came into our (CIA) hands because of his cocaine and heroin (speed balls) addiction. We didn’t clean him up, we merely put a heavy Level 4 program in his head. The Level 5 trigger was to activate programming which would annihilate the entire group through gun fire. Nowhere was potassium cyanide part of his trigger. Task Force 151 supplied the arms, AK-47’s and AR 15’s with silencers. The revolt and the massacre took place more than 3 hours before the C-127 touched down in Jonestown. His own council was liquidated the day before–one person at a time-gun shots in the back of the head. The Congressman and his group weren’t fired upon as they deboarded. He saw what took place before he was gunned down, and brought by jeep back to the plane. He was a direct representative from Project Blue. Jones and 12 of his guards were still alive at that time. An Englishman then took the cargo from the plane. 4 pounds of cyanide in plastic. The cyanide canister bore the usual markings and the name of Union Carbide of India. Parts of the shipment was produced by our company called Shalimar (the chemical weapons and munitions part of Shalimar perfumes). The Englishman waved to the crew to take off before dusk set in. All twelve of the shooters fled the country on an English cutter called the M.S. Dunbar. The cyanide kool aid was then put in the open mouths of many of the dead. Cyanide was not the cause of any death. Contrary to what has been written, Jim destructed on his own using a .357 Python. At that time Project Blue was canceled. The autopsies were all a big cover-up. That experiment failed, but the data they gathered was integrated into new projects. The next year Project Phoenix was born. It is the same as today’s Contact Operation. It was run by DOS (at the beginning, and funded with AGENCY money.) An operations fund of $400,000 was granted to Project Phoenix by the DIA. That’s when it changed hands. Contact/Phoenix books and newspapers contain subliminal type of programs designed to keep the programmed “sleepers” walking the Company line, years after the programming was put in. The Jonestown experiment was one that had gone sour and had to be terminated. However, enough was learned from the Jonestown experiment to use on other “cults” around the world. Waco was one that was successful, so successful in fact that they were just about to carry out their programmed “terrorist” act, when the government sent in a Delta Force team to neutralize seven “sleepers” who were part of the Branch Davidian Church and had been accidently “triggered”. Somehow, the NWO part of the FBI and BATF decided that they were going to take over the operation and use it to teach America some lessons. The rest of the Waco story is history now. The cult in Japan was financed by the same NWO part of the CIA that experimented with Jonestown. The Temple of the Solar Order in Switzerland and Canada were also terrorist sleepers who were programmed to release biological and chemical weapons in targeted cities. Programmed terrorists are used by the NWO governments around the world to cause the citizens to give up their freedom and demand a police state to keep them safe. Once the police state is in place, the lessons learned from experiments like Jonestown can be used to program and re-educate the population in concentration camps, or as they will be called “Re-education and Training Camps”. This is part of the “school to work” legislation that is being rammed through Congress. Those people who have not been indoctrinated in the schools of today, will not be allowed to get a job unless they go back for re-education. The techniques used in Jonestown-like mind control experiments will quickly shape and mold people into good little NWO robots. If they don’t agree to enter one of these re-education camps, they will not be able to get a job, therefore, they will not be able to support themselves or buy food or shelter. If they become homeless they will be forced to enter a homeless camp in which they will be “taught” skills. All the forests and wild lands will have become part of the world’s biospheres, there will be no place for dissenting citizens to run. Those citizens who cannot be reprogrammed will “disappear”. Children will be separated from parents, and husbands from wives. You will be sent to whatever area of the country that your skill is needed. Old and useless people will be sent to “nursing” homes, and will “disappear”. Families will be split asunder, and as a result of the programming, no one will even notice that they no longer have their loved ones around them. No one will ever be missed. Jonestown may have been a failure, but what they learned from it has been incorporated into the plan for the One World Government. 1984 should be must reading for everyone these days, because Big Brother is upon us. Gunther Russbacher was Source for this information * * * * * The February, 1999 Edition of The Liberty Pole ran the following: Nazi Nexus The gun control Act of 1968 was mainly framed by Senator Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut. This is significant, for have managed America’s prosecutors at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals, Dodd was intimately familiar with Der Fuhrer’s methods of people control. Adolph Hitler had made effective use of Weimar Republic gun owner registration lists. Senate records from mid-July 1968 reveal that Dodd asked the Library of Congress to translate his own fifty-year-old personal copy of the Third Reich’s gun control law passed 18 March 1938. Section 25(1): “It is forbidden to manufacture…. and to import: Firearms which fold down, break down, are collapsible, or are speedily dismantled-beyond the common limits of hunting and sporting activities.” One obvious purpose of GCA ‘68 then, was to wench the right to arms from its constitutional moorings and philosophical root. Repeated evidence of success is revealed every time the president of the United States (whom no one seems inclined to ask what type of weapon the Secret Service uses to defend him and his family) declares unchallenged, “You do not need an Uzi to go deer hunting and you do not need an AK-47 to go skeet shooting.” … as though our illustrious Framers had in mind target shooting or hunting when articulating that most sacred palladium of individual liberty. Germany’s pre-war citizen disarmament laws also help answer the question of how many Jews with guns walked into Nazi ovens.” The Liberty Pole is the publication of The Lawyer’s Second Amendment Society, Inc. http://www.thelsas.org http://www.guntruths.com 18034 Ventura Blvd. No. 329 Encino, CA 91316 1.818.734.3066 Source http://www.rumormillnews.com/RMN%20FOUNDERS%20GUNTHER%20AND%20RAYELAN.htm Pasted from <http://www.whale.to/b/rm8.html>
It’s been over a year since I saw Venus Noire (Black Venus) at the New York Film Festival in the fall of 2010, and it never received a stateside release; actually I’m not sure it got much of a release outside of the international film festival circuit and a few European territories.
So I’m betting most of you have never seen French/Tunisian filmmaker Abdel Kechiche’s problematic though worth-watching Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman, otherwise derogatorily known as the Hottentot Venus film, which starred newcomer Yahima Torres in the title role.
The subject matter certain isn’t one that will attract audiences to the theater en masse; and the fact that the film is almost 3 hours long, with subtitles, likely didn’t exactly make potentially interested American distributors salivate at the film’s box office potential.
But if you’re in Los Angeles during the month of February, and you’re at all interested in seeing the film, here’s your shot! It’s either now, or you wait for a stateside home video release (though it’s on DVD in parts of Europe and Canada; just not in the USA).
But I’d recommend a theatrical viewing.
It’s a challenging work, and one that I’m sure will piss a lot of people off, not only because of its content, but also the manner in which it’s handled by the director. It’s just something you should see for yourselves.
I wrote a lengthy review of it last year, after I saw it; and, as I said in that write-up, I was left with conflicting thoughts on the film. Unfortunately, I never got to see it again, even though I wanted to. I’ll be at the PAFF this year, so I just might see it again on the big screen, if my schedule allows for it
In the meantime, below you’ll find my initial review, as well as a trailer for the film, a clip from it, and an interview with star Yahima Torress…
And finally here’s my 2010 review: So there I was waiting for the subway train after my screening of Venus Noire (Black Venus), and what did I see plastered almost all over one of those ubiquitous tunnel newsstands? Covers for various magazines, many unabashedly featuring the barely covered-up plump bottoms of predominantly black women in seductive poses – 2 dimensional images of voiceless bodies, objectified, exotified, envied, denigrated, and more; depending on the viewer. And with that picture, Obvious Guy asks, so, really, has much changed in the 200 years since Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman found herself victim of the same kind of mixed gaze? Of course, there’s the perceived independence, and even false sense of power and control some might claim those in the present-day wield over their spectators (an illusory brand of feminism as I’ve heard others suggest), and they aren’t introduced in cages by a man carrying a whip (well, actually, some are), and Saartjie’s experiences were more direct and literal; but, frankly, the similarities can’t be ignored. I even considered that Saartjie’s torment was strictly race-based, and a result of its time; but I was able to dismiss that notion in realizing that there still certainly exists a racial “otherness” that precedes and influences the various gazes I mentioned above. For example, I still (unfortunately) hear stories about enthralled white women asking black women if they can touch their hair, ignorant of the sensation the request itself provokes. The film opens in 1815, France, some time after Saartjie’s death, as a French academic, addressing what look like his peers, with a physical mold of Saartjie’s body on display, makes his scientific and historic case for why her “species” is inferior to theirs. The lengthy opening lecture is met with applause from his audience of all white men. The matter-of-fact nature of the entire sequence is revelatory in that it shows just how ignorant, yet assured of themselves these leaders of the world were, and helps explain their callous treatment of their perceived inferiors – a trend that continued long after they themselves perished. Following that opening sequence, we travel back in time, 5 years, to 1810, London, some time after Baartman had been taken from Cape Town, with promises of wealth, via exhibition, in Europe. And so the tragic tale of the “freak show attraction” known as the Hottentot Venus began… Like those women on the magazine covers, Saartjie is mostly mute throughout the film, her body language representative of her thoughts, and clearly, she isn’t exactly cherishing the spectacle that’s being made of her physical self – much of it some will find difficult to watch, as it should be. Writer/director Abdellatif Kechichemakes sure of that, with numerous scenes running quite lengthy – possibly 10 minutes or more in some cases. Given the style in which the film is made, it felt almost like a documentary. Kechiche does little to distract from the narrative; the performances from the entire cast are realistic (you believe them), including Yahima Torres(as Baartman), Andre Jacobs, Olivier Gourmet, Elina Lowensohn, Francois Marthouret, Michel Gionti, andJean-Christophe Bouvet; there’s virtually no soundtrack (any music heard occurs naturally within the scene); the mostly hand-held camera moves but, oddly, you forget that it’s there – partly due to the stark nature of the physical settings, and also of the subject matter itself; you may feel guilty enough to look away, but you can’t. In reading some early reviews of the film before I saw it, I expected to be turned off by what some seemed to suggest would be gratuitous on the part of the director. But I didn’t feel what they felt, and I do wonder if the reactions to Venus Noire will be similar to a film like Precious (a story about a character whose physical self was also arguably a character in its own right), in that they will be separated along color lines. I could certainly make sense of a white film critic being made uncomfortable by the inhumane treatment Saartjie endured; her captors are white. And as I’ve already suggested, one can’t help but see connections to the present-day race- and sex-based prejudices that still exist. There’s a reason (amongst many) that films that center on whites-as-saviors-of-“others” continue to be produced. They like to see themselves in that light. Rarely do we see stories told that detail the inhumanities whites have dished out intently and indiscriminately on the darker-skinned “others” across the world, without retribution. In a way, it’s like a revision of history. But no one comes to save Saartjie here; she lives a brutal life, and dies just as punishingly, with the film not necessarily making it clear who we are supposed to point our fingers to, for blame. Although, I felt numb to it all, and I wonder if my reaction would mirror those of other people of African descent. By most accounts, I should have been appalled, disgusted, and completely turned off by Kechiche’s lengthy scenes showing all the horror that Saartjie endured before her early death. But, little of it actually disturbed me. In thinking about it further, I realized that it wasn’t necessarily because the filmmaker had failed in creating moments within the film that would elicit specific reactions out of me (although, who am I to say what the filmmaker intended); I felt numb because, again, as I eluded to above, we have and still are so bombarded with similar parades of images of women’s bodies (specifically black women’s bodies), accentuating specific attributes, whether still or moving, that what I saw on screen, as revolting as it was, seemed almost, dare I say, “ordinary” to me. From music videos, to magazines… however, less obvious and even deceptive are those studies, surveys, investigations into the so-called black experience that suggest an “otherness;” different, and thus must be observed and studied like monkeys in a cage. Whether it’s CNN’s redundant, surface “Black In America” series, the recent article about how black people use Twitter, or more direct, scientist claims that people of African descent are less intelligent than whites, and so on. I’ve rallied against most of these ideas and occurrences on this blog and elsewhere, and will continue to do so. However, the point here is that this long-standing, continuous assault on our senses, all suggesting an inferiority as the basis for marginalization of a group of people, have had an effect on how I react to similar instances (real or fictional). Numb – which can be a dangerous place to be, because it could lead to a lessened desire to act against like injustices. Saartjie doesn’t speak very much in the film, as I already stated; usually only when spoken to; we don’t really get a sense for how she feels. Certainly, as I said above, her body language leaves little doubt that this isn’t the kind of life she thought she would be leading, or that was promised to her by the man who brought her to Europe (he lied, telling her and her slave owner that she’d essentially be a song and dance act, not the circus freak show he would eventually convince her to be); but I would have liked to hear her wrestle with her predicament; here she is, seemingly a willing (coerced) participant in an act, sharing in the benefits afforded by the booty (no pun intended), though unequally, with her captors; but struggling to come to terms with the truth of who (or rather what) she is to the ignorant, yet curious and enchanted audience that pays to watch her perform. To contemporize it, think of the strippers who are “trapped” by the money they earn used to feed, house and clothe themselves, but who struggle with the impact the work they do has on their lives, and the perception others have of them. Not exactly the same thing as what Saatjie endured, but I’m trying to make sense of what I felt was one of the film’s notable deficiencies. We see Saartjie through the eyes of her captors and the audiences that pay to see her – as a lottery ticket, and a spectacle respectively – but we get few glimpses into the mind of the woman that the body belongs to. From the film, we know she despised her treatment, she’s outright defiant in moments, and the filmmaker does attempt to humanize her, giving her some 3-dimensionality; and I never once felt like he was being exploitative; but, as is, it’s still questionable just how much control she really had over her predicament (although we know that she was a slave). In the film, she remains something of a mystery, and I can’t say whether that was all intentional on the filmmaker’s part, as, I’d guess, he tried to piece together a personality based on limited availability of information, written by others about her. There’s also that saying about the the presence of mental shackles even in the absence of tangible ones. Director Kechiche’s film isn’t a lecture on the matters it documents. Each scene is presented “as is,” without any obvious commentary, you could say. It’s neither what I’d describe as a call to action. You are simply witness to an ugly injustice, an accomplice even, and your reaction to it is just that… your reaction, based on your own life experiences, which will also determine what you choose to do about whatever it is you felt, assuming you’re inspired to act in any way. Don’t go into this looking for a biopic of Baartman, as you will be disappointed. It’s more a document of a very specific part of her life, that which she’s most known for. And despite the title of the film, she instead feels like one of several equal players in this tragedy, instead of its star center. There’s also what I’d call a disconnect between the filmmaker and the material. Like I said, he doesn’t necessarily take sides. In fact, the film played out more like a series of filmed news reports. It does take a few creative liberties, however, the script remains fairly close to the true story of Saartjie Baartman. At almost 3 hours in length, some editing could have been done to trim it a bit, without losing its substance; and that running time makes it a tough sell for audiences outside of the expected art-house crowd – especially here in the USA. Although, I certainly hope it does receive a wide enough release. I’m curious about global reactions to the film. I suspect most aren’t at all familiar with Saartjie Baartman’s story, or are even aware of the derogatory “Hottentot Venus.” In a way, I actually envy those who’ll be seeing the film ignorant of the real-life story it’s based on. Most importantly, it means that one is less likely to spend time comparing the film’s details to what they know of the historic figure the characterization is inspired by. I can only imagine what their reactions would be, but I expect sharply contrasting sets of opinions. I’m left with conflicting thoughts on the film, and I wasn’t even sure how I would review the film. I feel like I could write volumes on the experience I had watching it. But maybe that’s all a good thing. I think a second viewing might be helpful in clarifying my thoughts. If anything, it’s not a film one walks out of the theater and immediately forgets. Other reviews I’ve read thus far have expressed concern about the film being hard to watch – not because it’s a bad film, but due to the contemptible scenarios Baartman lived through as explicitly documented in the film. As I’ve said before, the subject matter is already controversial enough, that any film made about Baartman will find it impossible to escape controversy. Kechiche’s handling of it is obviously crucial, and I’d say he handles it better than I expected. It certainly should inspire further discussion, especially with regards to contemporary correlations. Pasted from <http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/venus-noire-black-venus-controversial-hottentot-venus-film-will-screen-at-pan-african-film-fest>
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