tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.comments2023-07-20T01:37:08.382-07:00ideas in motionfChhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08007305273044171670noreply@blogger.comBlogger364125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-37475685681248343142021-09-28T16:17:26.363-07:002021-09-28T16:17:26.363-07:00'However, for me work is a way of suppressing ...'However, for me work is a way of suppressing emotions, primarily.'<br /><br />Sure enough! When they turned money into an object of desire, it's become akin to a black hole for many an emotion.<br /><br />fChhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08007305273044171670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-19182395076822545982020-09-25T13:18:42.489-07:002020-09-25T13:18:42.489-07:00Absolutely! He was captured in the White House. Fr...Absolutely! He was captured in the White House. From a distance, I think the Democrats will be in power soon.... Crescentsihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430950362582686303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-5402078957399602292014-01-06T08:56:19.818-08:002014-01-06T08:56:19.818-08:00I think time as a method of control is a bit diffi...I think time as a method of control is a bit difficult for some people to comprehend. That sounds terribly patronising, but some people really do struggle with the concept of time, apart from the measurable, linear version that we eat, sleep and breath! Of course, time is used as a method of controlling people's behaviour,in the workplace and increasingly beyond. The harder we try to "create" more time by using "quicker" electronic/mechanical devices, the less time we have. Time saving devices don't save time, they shift time, or at least our attention. Of course, time has neither slowed down or speeded up, it is constant it is how we behave that changes. <br /><br />I take your point that time has become a method of control, moreso than it was in the past, or atleast that is what I understand you to mean. However, for me work is a way of suppressing emotions, primarily. This, I believe, is why we are rewarded with cash. However, the workplace is cluttered with politics and control can be acheived through various methods. <br /><br />Perhaps I'm not seeing the whole picture that you are painting, but, yes I understand the idea of time as a method of control and I see the oddity of our perception shift, yet time remains constant.<br /><br />:-)Crescentsihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430950362582686303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-19022033134318072032013-10-09T16:42:50.855-07:002013-10-09T16:42:50.855-07:00Keeping us safe is a pretext. The aim of the mass...Keeping us safe is a pretext. The aim of the massive security state is to have control over the people. And it’s in the interest of private industry to maintain bloated surveillance programs when 70 percent of the intelligence budget is outsourced.<br><br>NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake: Snowden Saw What I Saw: Surveillance Criminally Subverting the Constitution <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/12/snowden-surveillance-subverting-constitution" title="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/12/snowden-surveillance-subverting-constitution" rel="nofollow">http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/12/snowden-surveillance...</a><br><br>“This executive fiat of 2001 violated not just the fourth amendment, but also Fisa rules at the time, which made it a felony – carrying a penalty of $10,000 and five years in prison for each and every instance. The supposed oversight, combined with enabling legislation – the Fisa court, the congressional committees – is all a KABUKI DANCE, predicated on the national security claim that we need to ‘find a threat.’<br><br>“The reality is, they just want it all, period.<br><br>“To an NSA with these unwarranted powers, we're all potentially guilty; we're all potential suspects until we prove otherwise. That is what happens when the government has all the data.<br><br>“The NSA is wiring the world; they want to own internet. I didn't want to be part of the dark blanket that covers the world, and Edward Snowden didn't either.<br><br>“What Edward Snowden has done is an amazingly brave and courageous act of civil disobedience.”RLS Virginianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-59680949961381950072013-09-29T18:46:28.753-07:002013-09-29T18:46:28.753-07:00All nations gather intelligence. They don't al...<br />All nations gather intelligence. They don't all do this. This is different.<br /><br />For example, all nations send military attaches to watch each other's military. That is allowed. It does not allow other forms of spying out of the same embassy on the same military. Some intelligence gathering is within the rules, and some isn't.<br /><br />We can find examples of others doing it? Your mother told you the answer to that when you were five.<br /><br />There is no slightest question that if anyone did this to us, we'd be very clear it was outside the rules. Just days before we were caught, we were accusing the Chinese of doing this to us. That went silent when we were outed. That may be a big part of the reason our leaders were so furious with Snowdon -- their hypocrisy was smashed beyond all repair.<br /><br />Not only is there no excuse for this, we have harmed ourselves. We have damaged our industry in the field, and encouraged new competition whose selling point is that the NSA isn't in it. When we abuse our soft power, we put a high premium on others getting free of our role in that industry, which is to say a huge subsidy to damage our industrial position.<br /><br />We are doing the same thing to the reserve currency role for the dollar, to our banking position, to our international role in insurance, and to much else. Already there are military systems with the sales point that they have no US content that could empower a US veto on sales or support or resale. It is a pattern. It is self destructive.<br /><br />Mark Thomason Clawson, MI<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-29112745466023127422013-09-24T11:06:01.900-07:002013-09-24T11:06:01.900-07:00I think it was Obama with Putin's help, aka Ke...I think it was Obama with Putin's help, aka Kerry's 'mistake,' that saved the day. The feeling of inevitability must also have shaken the Iranians into making their offer. <br /><br />In any case, I expect something in writing to come out first. That's going to give us an idea if we have a deferment or abatement of open war. <br /><br />As for our Congress, I think it shows its limits in that some lobby or another kind of wags the dog. Indeed, take Obama's recent declaration about weapons and crime in America.fChhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08007305273044171670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-3570903920409970772013-09-15T09:03:33.248-07:002013-09-15T09:03:33.248-07:00Have Russia (with Syria's co-operation) saved ...Have Russia (with Syria's co-operation) saved the day? Although I had some hope that there wouldn't be military action, I felt there was an inevitability about it. Hopefully, the plan to hand over their chemical weapons and have them destroyed will work and we will avoid more long-term military intervention. For once, can our leaders actually co-operate sensibly without blowing each other off "this mortal coil"? I hope so. It's fortunate that Obama is US President. He may be handicapped by congress, but I very much doubt that Bush Junior would have shown such patience!SImonhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/thecrescentnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-106789349320946852013-09-08T07:02:56.384-07:002013-09-08T07:02:56.384-07:00
Proponents of intervention in Syria often refers...<br /><br />Proponents of intervention in Syria often refers to the attack on Kosovo in 1999, which also happened without UN autorisation. But Kosovo was not a sovereign nation at the time.<br />The seriousness of this — proposed — intervention is that Syria is a sovereign country, a proud member of the UN. So if — God and all honest men and women in the world united in opposing Israeli schemes of letting the rest of the world take out it enemies one by one — this foul undertaking was to go ahead — God and all honest men and women in the world united in opposing Israeli schemes of letting the rest of the world take out it enemies one by one — this would then only be the second instance ever that the UN was deliberately bypassed before an attack on a sovereign country took place – the first being Iraq, which was invaded in March 2003 on a lie of non-existent so-called “WMD”s and link to AQ – the greatest strategic blunder in the history of The United States of America.Kenneth Sorensennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-85889633480165815562013-09-08T07:02:15.139-07:002013-09-08T07:02:15.139-07:00Proponents of war use to refer to Syria as a signa...<br /> <br />Proponents of war use to refer to Syria as a signatory of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which bans chemical weapons. But it deals only with chemical weapons used externally, it simply doesn’t mention chemical weapons used inside your own country. Then it can be argued that a consensus has emerged since the mid 90′s that “it also covers CW used internally” (see some lawyers debating it here: http://www.vertic.org/pages/posts/syria-international-law-and-the-use-of-chemical-weapons-345.php), but it is important to remember that there is no legal text which states that it is banned to use them inside your own country.<br /> <br />So it is a little rich to be willing to bomb a country in defense of “a norm”, which isn’t written down anywhere.[and ironic if the bombs used for the intervention is more deadly than the CW's, which latter actually are very crude weapons and difficult to use on the battlefield] Indeed as John Mearsheimer says in this interview from Aug. 28, that's why Obama always talks about ‘norms’:<br /> <br />Money quotation:<br />JOHN MEARSHEIMER: The Arab League has not sanctioned an attack. You can’t get Security Council approval. The Russians and the Chinese will veto it. And, in fact, if we do go to war, it will not be a legal war. This is why President Obama talked about norms ad nauseam in his comments and didn’t talk about international law, because he knows he can’t do this legally.<br /> <br />Mearsheimer continues:<br />But the fact is that the United States has no vested interest in what is going on in Syria. This is not a strategically important country. It’s deeply regrettable that people are being killed. It’s deeply regrettable that’s there’s a civil war going on, but it’s not the United States’ responsibility to get into the middle of it, because every time we do this, we end up in a situation like Afghanistan, a situation like Iraq.<br />We take a situation that’s bad and we just make it worse. The idea that we have some magic formula that can fix these problems is simply not the case. And the historical record is very clear on this. So my bottom line is, stay out militarily, and do everything that we can to shut it down diplomatically.<br /> <br />-----------<br />http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec13/syria_08-28.html<br />Kenneth Sorensennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-175448548421236352013-09-08T06:57:46.532-07:002013-09-08T06:57:46.532-07:00Very good points. here's another one from Ste...Very good points. here's another one from Steve Walt:<br /><br />Some wise words from the late Dorothy Sayers, from the 1942 short story "Talboys." In the story, one of Lord Peter Wimsey's sons is accused of stealing peaches from a neighboring farmer. Lord Peter investigates and clears his son of the crime, while fending off the well-intentioned but naive interference of a nosy governess. Along the way he offers his son, Bredon, the following advice:<br /><br /> <br /><br />"I'll tell you a secret, Bredon. Grown-up people don't always know everything, though they try to pretend they do. That is called 'prestige,' and is responsible for most of the wars that devastate the continent of Europe."<br /><br />Or the Middle East, one might add. I don't mean to make light of the tragedy that has been unfolding in Syria, but Sayers's observation -- in the voice of Lord Peter -- has always struck me as of considerable relevance to contemporary foreign policy-making, especially in the credibility-obsessed USA.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-49934639278272454942013-09-08T05:52:43.331-07:002013-09-08T05:52:43.331-07:00From the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc, we can ta...From the dissolution of the Soviet Bloc, we can take it that the Russians would not think twice about selling out on Assad--as they sold their whole bloc to the West. This time, I think the US has been on a drive to lower the price of energy/gas, thus taking the air off from the Russian balloon. <br /><br />Now, if lower price of oil were the sole objective, it beats me as why you wouldn't cut on the profit of the 7 sisters before going head to head with the Russians, while the Chinese are ever so happier to see its main rivals expend each other to irrelevance. <br /><br />Apparently, the lesson of the revisionist school of history in Britain, according to which the UK sped up its own decline by launching itself in the continental war--about 100 years ago--has not reached the shores of Potomac. This shows not only how clueless western leaders are about how to extricate capitalism from its worst, but also how ignorant they are about history.<br /><br />The vote of your MPs was a good move, for unlike France, the UK, and the US for that matter, has no dog in this fight. I'd keep an eye on the Germans though... <br /><br /><br />fChhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08007305273044171670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-77933388704161146042013-09-07T08:45:54.886-07:002013-09-07T08:45:54.886-07:00We await the bombings.... Hopefully the indecisio...We await the bombings.... Hopefully the indecision will continue and (after the ballsy rhetoric) they can all get round a big table and talk it through. Russia and China; they are just too big and powerful to kick in the balls.<br /><br />I like this photographer's take on the current situation. Inertia has never been so desirable!<br /> http://www.flickr.com/photos/approximatingart/9687417279/<br /><br />Crescentsihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430950362582686303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-11702290092232005422013-09-04T09:40:11.040-07:002013-09-04T09:40:11.040-07:00Interesting and illuminating perspective! :-)
Si...Interesting and illuminating perspective! :-)<br /><br />SimonAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-86686766465136375242013-09-02T05:03:43.986-07:002013-09-02T05:03:43.986-07:00Russia can still inflict a lot of damage, both dir...Russia can still inflict a lot of damage, both direct and asymmetrical. So much so that another cold war would be the best outcome of all potential disasters. For example, watch those EU and NATO member countries that used to formally be under the Soviet sphere of influence. <br /><br />For now, I think Obama was very clever to send his influencers to the Congress…fChhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08007305273044171670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-54133144175140523352013-09-01T06:40:31.077-07:002013-09-01T06:40:31.077-07:00Simon, thank you for your well stated comment. Pl...Simon, thank you for your well stated comment. Please see the latest posting On Syria. <br /><br />http://imotion.blogspot.com/2013/09/on-syria.htmlfChhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08007305273044171670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-41995845893529765582013-08-31T09:22:43.796-07:002013-08-31T09:22:43.796-07:00Syria and the Western response is a related and in...Syria and the Western response is a related and interesting phenomenon. Certainly Cameron's intent to attack Syria without going through the UN is extremely foolish and trigger-happy. Fortunately, he was defeated by the House of Commons on the first of two votes. Whereas no sane person would condone the attacks by the Syrian Government upon its own people, convincing and accurate evidence should be sought before, yet another war is started. I await the US response with interest and, personally, I can't see how air strikes will benefit the Syrian situation in any way, certainly not (as legislation states) on humanitarian grounds!<br /><br />Commonsensically, discussion and debate from around the world should take place before military action is presumed the best action. This is a complex situation and it is far from the first incidence of what are essentially, attempts to forge democracy from dictatorships, across the Middle East and North Africa.<br /><br />Of course, the main motivation for military action from the West, would be to send a message to the Syrian Government that they should not be using chemical weopons, rather than the legally stated "humanitarian grounds". The West doesn't want a military attack from the Eastern/North African countries. However, in the Syrian situation, I feel that military action will achieve very little, possibly sending the country into greater chaos. The risk from Russia and China is also notable, once again rendering gung-ho politics foolhardy and pointless. The phrase "a last resort" springs to mind, when considering such drastic action.<br /><br />SimonAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-4984441474067907582013-08-26T12:46:30.315-07:002013-08-26T12:46:30.315-07:00Absolutely! Indeed, a fatal flaw of Capitalism. :...Absolutely! Indeed, a fatal flaw of Capitalism. :-)<br />SimonCrescentsihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430950362582686303noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-47002676135827862562013-08-26T06:29:35.980-07:002013-08-26T06:29:35.980-07:00
The more things change,the more they stay the sa...<br /><br />The more things change,the more they stay the same.We must never forget the massacre at My Lai of old men,women and children by US soldiers under direct orders from Saigon.Lt.William Calley was the commanding officer who gave the final order to carry out this atrocity.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley<br /><br />The above link will serve as a refresher.Since the end of the second world war,the US has become the biggest trouble maker in it’s quest for world domination through intimidation and the all too mighty Industrial Military Complex.The American people are living under fear that if they retaliate or mock the system,they may end up in the slammer accused of terrorism and/or espionage.It is long overdue that Americans take back their country from the grips of Washington who have absolutely no regard for the safety of their citizens.They are just a bunch of rogue criminals that need to be brought to justice (if such a word exists anymore).They have managed to convince the people,that terrorism is their “new enemy”….which some of us know as being bogus.Washington created this atmosphere starting with 9/11.<br /><br />It is terribly sad that a nation with people of great minds and accomplishments are finding that their efforts are no longer being recognized in the manner that they should be.Heck if a first term President (Obama) received the Nobel Peace Prize shortly after his first inauguration for doing absolutely nothing is becoming the norm,then there is something drastically wrong with society.Meanwhile,the only real ‘safe’ way of communicating is by writing a handwritten letter with a stamp on it to the intended recipient.The worst that can happen here is that some crook working at the Post Office might steal it thinking it contains cash or maybe even gift cards.This,clearly,is a lose lose situation.Americans are in for dismal future as it stand snow until Washington is cleaned up….thoroughly.Meanwhile…my highest regards to two American heros….Snowden and Manning.At least they showed some fortitude in hopes of saving their doomed country.<br />Menoshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-37682818983390467092013-08-26T06:28:48.812-07:002013-08-26T06:28:48.812-07:00
When we were in France I got to see RT for the ...<br /><br /><br />When we were in France I got to see RT for the first time and what I saw was a terrifying documentary on the Louisiana oil spill and how BP conspired with the Obama administration to not only allow the BP executives literally get away with murder, it also helped cover up the true extent of the damage and what happened to anyone who spoke out against it and could not be intimidated or bought off.<br />One of the facts reveled was how the reason why BP is so powerful is because it is the soul supplier of fuel to the American military, something the American military would rather die than talk about.<br /><br />What RT also talked about is the hunger strike in Guantanamo Bay and how the military is force feeding the prisoners using the most painful methods possible. The American media has chosen to totally ignore it altogether.<br />Ben Johnsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-5701937229619191992013-08-26T06:27:36.483-07:002013-08-26T06:27:36.483-07:00
China`s Taoists warned, “you become what you hat...<br /><br />China`s Taoists warned, “you become what you hate.” The present powers in the US are surely proving that to be true. Because of the cold war rhetoric and propaganda, we were all lead to believe, that anything and everything Russian, or rather Soviet, was backward, archaic and inherently evil. And while some of it may have a foundation in truth, a lot of it, as we learned later, was sheer propaganda to get the peoples of the west to hate intensely enough, that they would be willing to lay down their lives in defense of what they were made to believe was the ‘God-given’ duty as citizens of what is known as the so-called ‘free world’. Mikhail and Raisa Gorbachev soon proved that picture to be warped and untrue, when they met Ronnie and Nancy so many years ago. Raisa seemed so self-assured, while Nancy seemed to trip over her astrological beliefs.<br />Manning and Snowden are discovering first hand, what that definition of freedom really is. No more than just another lie, like the official story of 9/11 and the causes and justifications for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br />After that Vietnam fiasco, which had the same earmarks, we ought to have known better than to fall for it again.<br />John Le Carré was right-on with his assessment of America and may I add a lot of other countries as well about that ‘temporary’ psychosis, except that the term temporary must be seen here as relative. The same thing applies to the McCarty induced psychosis of the fifties. In fact it would be hard to differentiate between psychosis here and the religiously induced fear by means of the propaganda machine, that seems to get the best oiling and maintenance of all the government machinery. The loss and shame of the Vietnam war seems to have been so traumatic, that it made that psychosis an almost permanent characteristic, judging by what the MSM allows us to detect between the lines of their propaganda lies.<br />“The dramatic revelations of fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden brings back sharp memories of Soviet-era dissidents, jailed, banished, locked in foul psychiatric hospitals for daring to speak the truth.” I read here. But what are the conditions, that Bradley Manning has endured, still endures and like will endure for a long time yet, for doing, what the soldiers were taught, when they went to Vietnam?<br />Because of the mention of José Padilla here, I consulted wikipaedia on this topic and there was a description of what happened to this man. It is a horror story, that would have been perfect fodder against Stalin`s regime, which we are lead to believe, was the worst the world ever experienced. Of course the US has its own Stalin in GWB, complete with Rumsfeld playing the role of Molotov and the CIA amply fills the shoes of the old KGB.<br />Military justice sure is an oxymoron and may I add, the entire present US justice system as well, if we properly define ‘justice’.<br />Ciceronoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-71259629028444631322013-08-26T06:23:36.726-07:002013-08-26T06:23:36.726-07:00
While I agree with all that has been said by M...<br /><br /><br /><br />While I agree with all that has been said by Mr Margolis and my fellow responders, I seek to see connections through the filter of written history; perhaps our best teacher of current conditions.<br />.<br />I did not have to look to far into the past for one of the greatest wordsmith and essayist, the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson.<br />.<br />Quote: “Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence”.<br />.<br />What has happened in America then and recently can be seen in ancient Rome; also well documented.<br />.<br />One can only hope that a literate tech savvy youth can focus through the myriad distractions, before it is to late, and take to heart this message from the same orator:<br />.<br />Quote: “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive”<br />.<br />Further evidence of this corruption is in a new book I recently purchased. I heard about it on the show Fareed Zakaria GPS. (Global Public Square). He has a segment called “My Take”, and mentioned last sunday this book: “THIS TOWN Two parties and a Funeral In America’s Gilded Capital” by Mark Leibovich. What struck me was a few of the points Mr Zakaria mentioned:<br />.<br />1. Representatives and Senators spend 3 out of 7 days each week Fundraising.<br />2. 42% of Representatives and 50% of Senators become Lobbyists after their time in Congress.<br />3. Why Washington works well for Lobbyists and not so well for US Citizens.<br />.<br />To all beliefs, religious or not, I respond; God or Reason Save the United States of America.<br />.<br />ad iudicium<br />solum temptare possumusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-34496933495537134082013-08-26T06:22:28.697-07:002013-08-26T06:22:28.697-07:00ARE WE BECOMING WHAT WE ONCE HATED?
The Republica...ARE WE BECOMING WHAT WE ONCE HATED?<br /><br />The Republican far right calls Snowden and Manning traitors; some demand the death penalty. Snowden’s lawyers warn he faces torture and possibly execution if he returns home; Manning has already had a long term in solitary confinement, which is itself a form of psychological torture.<br /><br />We recall the horrific case of a Chicago gang member Jose Padilla during 9/11 hysteria. In an order signed by President George W. Bush, Padilla was accused on the flimsiest grounds of being an enemy combatant and stripped of all legal rights. He was held for over three years in solitary, tortured, sleep and sensory deprived, and injected with psychotropic drugs. Padilla was broken physically and mentally, then sent to prison for 17 years.<br /><br />Such a gruesome fate could await Manning and Snowden.<br /><br />I don’t know if PFC Manning took his charges of war crimes and other illegalities up the chain of command, the proper course for soldiers. He would, of course, have gotten nowhere – just look at the crimes committed at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Going out of the command structure insured that Manning would have faced serious charges. Releasing a sea of details about US foreign policy inevitably courted severe punishment.<br /><br />But as far as we know, Manning’s revelations didn’t harm America, it only embarrassed Washington by making it look bullying, two-faced and utterly cynical. Bureaucrats hate embarrassment much more than spying.<br /><br />Snowden followed candidate Barack Obama’s pre-election call on whistleblowers to reveal waste and wrongdoing. America’s intelligence agencies have clearly overstepped their bounds and likely violated the law. A majority of Americans don’t buy the claim they were spied on to protect the nation from vague terrorist threats.<br /><br />Snowdon and Manning were, in my view, patriotic Americans warning their nation that its ruling elite, obsessed with power and global hegemony, had veered way off course and were violating the US Constitution. However foolhardy, they acted with courage and honor.On behalf of Eric Margolisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-42407114647352991252013-08-26T06:21:37.092-07:002013-08-26T06:21:37.092-07:00ARE WE BECOMING WHAT WE ONCE HATED?
In the late 1...ARE WE BECOMING WHAT WE ONCE HATED?<br /><br />In the late 1980’s, an old friend of mine based in Moscow was calling her husband in the USA late one night. She said it was a “typical dumb husband/wife call,” mostly about a broken garage door.<br /><br />Around midnight, a gruff voice broke into the call. “This is your KGB listener. This is the most boring, stupid call I’ve ever listened to. Shut up and go to bed!”<br /><br />Ah, those innocent Cold War days. Today, Big Brother listens to your calls, reads your email, and follows your internet searches on silent cat’s feet.<br /><br />China’s Taoists warned, “you become what you hate.” They are right: the September 2001 attacks on the US, as John Le Carré wrote, producing a period of temporary psychosis. America was knocked back to the ugly days of Sen. McCarthy’s Red Scare of the 1950’s. The big difference was that today the bogeymen of “terrorists” have replaced menacing Marxists. And today, terrorists were everywhere.<br /><br />When I enlisted in the US Army during the Vietnam War, we were taught that it was our duty as American soldiers to report all war crimes and violations of the Geneva Convention, and to refuse to obey unlawful orders from superiors as established at post WWII Nuremburg trials At the time, I was proud to serve in America’s armed forces.<br /><br />Today, the military trial of document leaker PFC Bradley Manning has echoes of the Soviet era: a show trial in which a lonely individual is slowly crushed by the wheels of so-called military justice, an oxymoron.<br /><br />The dramatic revelations of fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden brings back sharp memories of Soviet-era dissidents, jailed, banished, locked in foul psychiatric hospitals for daring to speak the truth.<br /><br />In my day, those seeking justice and freedom used to defect from the East Bloc to the United States and Britain. Now, ironically, we see a major defector, Ed Snowden, fleeing to Russia.<br /><br />While the corporate-owned US news networks sugarcoat or obscure the NSA and Afghanistan War scandals, it’s left to Russian TV (RT) to tell Americans the facts. Who would have thought?<br /><br />We journalists used to mock Pravda and Trud as party mouthpieces. Today, it’s the party line all the time from the big US networks, online news, and newspapers.<br /><br />On behalf of Eric Margolisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-35971909404896338812013-07-09T09:52:23.503-07:002013-07-09T09:52:23.503-07:00It is in this spirit that Sam Adams Associates for...It is in this spirit that Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence are proud to confer on Edward Snowden the Sam Adams Award for 2013.<br /><br />The Sam Adams Award, named in honor of the late CIA analyst Sam Adams, has been given in previous years to truth-tellers Coleen Rowley of the FBI; Katharine Gun of British Intelligence; Sibel Edmonds of the FBI; Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan; Sam Provance; former U.S. Army Sergeant at Abu Ghraib; Maj. Frank Grevil of Danish Army Intelligence; Larry Wilkerson, Colonel, U.S. Army (ret.), former chief of staff to Colin Powell at State; Julian Assange of WikiLeaks; Thomas Drake, former senior NSA official; Jesselyn Radack, Director of National Security and Human Rights, Government Accountability Project; and Thomas Fingar, former Assistant Secretary of State and Director, National Intelligence Council.<br /><br />Editor’s Note: Further helping to explain why Snowden should be honored for his brave actions – and responding to some of the criticism of his decisions from the mainstream news media – are: Daniel Ellsberg’s op-ed in The Washington Post, “Snowden Made the Right Call When He Fled the US” and Ray McGovern’s “Obama Needs to Take Charge on NSA Spying Scandal.”<br /><br />Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence was established in 2002 by colleagues and admirers of the late CIA intelligence analyst Sam Adams to recognize those who uphold his example as a model for those in intelligence who would aspire to the courage to speak truth to power. In honoring Adams’s memory, SAAII confers an award each year to someone in intelligence or related work who exemplifies Sam Adam’s courage, persistence, and devotion to truth — no matter the consequences.<br /><br />It was Adams who discovered in 1967 that there were more than a half-million Vietnamese Communists under arms. This was roughly twice the number that the U.S. command in Saigon would admit to, lest Americans learn that claims of “progress” were bogus.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10875994.post-31866210135610115202013-07-09T09:52:10.390-07:002013-07-09T09:52:10.390-07:00Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence...Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, an organization of former national security officials, has honored NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, praising his decision to reveal the extent of U.S. government electronic surveillance of people in the United States and around the world.<br /><br />Edward Snowden, an ex-contractor for the National Security Agency, has been named recipient of this year’s award for truth-telling given by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, the group announced Monday.<br /><br />Most of the Sam Adams Associates are former senior national security officials who, with the other members, understand fully the need to keep legitimate secrets. Each of the U.S. members took a solemn oath “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”<br /><br />When secrecy is misused to hide unconstitutional activities, fealty to that oath – and higher duty as citizens of conscience – dictate support for truth-tellers who summon the courage to blow the whistle. Edward Snowden’s disclosures fit the classic definition of whistle-blowing.<br /><br />Former senior NSA executive Thomas Drake, who won the Sam Adams award in 2011, has called what Snowden did “an amazingly brave act of civil disobedience.” Drake knows whereof he speaks. As a whistleblower he reported waste, fraud, and abuse – as well as serious violations of the Fourth Amendment – through official channels and, subsequently, to a reporter. He wound up indicted under the Espionage Act.<br /><br />After a lengthy, grueling pre-trial proceeding, he was exonerated of all ten felony charges and pleaded out to the misdemeanor of “exceeding authorized use of a government computer.” The presiding judge branded the four years of prosecutorial conduct against Drake “unconscionable.”<br /><br />The invective hurled at Snowden by the corporate and government-influenced media reflects understandable embarrassment that he would dare expose the collusion of all three branches of the U.S. government in perpetrating and then covering up their abuse of the Constitution. This same collusion has thwarted all attempts to pass laws that would protect genuine truth-tellers like Snowden who see and wish to stop unconstitutional activities.<br /><br />“These are the times that try men’s souls,” warned Thomas Paine in 1776, adding that “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com