Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Taking Liberties
I wonder how the disillusionment of Trump supporters will play out. Will they remain in denial as so many Obama supporters did throughout his first term? Time will tell, but when the group you started with was united by an agenda to turn back the clock on Civil Rights to the 1950s, you can't expect brilliant epiphanies. What you can expect is more uninhibited rhetoric and erratic behavior.
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Coming Home
Rupa Marya, MD and professor of medicine at UCSF, says
veterans who served in the oil wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are
supporting the Lakota at Standing Rock, and are ready to serve the
people now, rather than the corporations. “These oil wars,” she says,
“have come home.”
Monday, November 28, 2016
U.S. v Sioux-2
Streaming from Media Hill, at the Standing Rock Sioux treaty encampment of Oceti Sakowin, Jenni Monet reports that the major media blackout of the conflict is finally over. With the U.S. Army and U.S. Marshals poised to forcefully evict the Sioux and their supporters, the stand-off is reminiscent of 19th Century battles between the Sioux and the United States Army. Only this time, it's online.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Crime and Corruption
Anticipating intimidation of journalists by the media-hostile President Trump, independent American media can take heart from the recent investigative journalism award-winners Lindita Cela in Albania, and Artsiom Harbatsevich in Belarus.
Exposing the violent and criminal aspects of the incoming Trump administration requires courage, but compared to exposing organized crime and official corruption in Albania, or Russian paramilitary violence in Belarus, it is a piece of cake. Although, with the exception of a handful of online publications like The Atlantic, Harper's and The Intercept, independent American media is practically nonexistent.
Exposing the violent and criminal aspects of the incoming Trump administration requires courage, but compared to exposing organized crime and official corruption in Albania, or Russian paramilitary violence in Belarus, it is a piece of cake. Although, with the exception of a handful of online publications like The Atlantic, Harper's and The Intercept, independent American media is practically nonexistent.
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Pentecostals Not Welcome
Indigenous leaders in northern Colombia expelled a group of evangelical Christians from their community recently, saying the missionaries were contributing to the “physical, cultural and spiritual extermination of our ethnic group” according to a press statement.
Read more here.
Friday, November 25, 2016
United States v Tennie White
The conspiracy to convict Tennie White--a black environmental lab analyst in Jackson, Mississippi--in order to protect companies poisoning poor black communities in the Deep South, is the textbook case of what is termed 'environmental racism'.
Thursday, November 24, 2016
U.S. Cabinet
The Cabinet of the United States consists of the Vice President and 15 Secretaries*, appointed by the President of the United States, and confirmed by a simple majority of U.S. Senators.
These department heads play vital roles in American society, and help to execute national policy, as defined by the President and Congress. The 7 offices below comprise 'cabinet-level officials' .
*The Attorney General, who heads the Justice Department, and the Secretary of State are the ones to watch, as they oversee the enforcement of civil and human rights.
- Agriculture
- Commerce
- Defense
- Education
- Energy
- Health and Human Services
- Homeland Security
- Housing and Urban Development
- Interior
- Justice
- Labor
- State
- Transportation
- Treasury
- Veterans Affairs
These department heads play vital roles in American society, and help to execute national policy, as defined by the President and Congress. The 7 offices below comprise 'cabinet-level officials' .
- White House Chief of Staff
- Director of the Office of Management and Budget
- Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
- Trade Representative
- Ambassador to the United Nations
- Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers
- Administrator of the Small Business Administration
*The Attorney General, who heads the Justice Department, and the Secretary of State are the ones to watch, as they oversee the enforcement of civil and human rights.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
The Ghost of Gates
While Public Media talking heads claim to be guardians of the truth, the truth is that they are on the corporate payroll, too. The corporate money might be laundered through corporate foundations, but the corrupting influence of corporate power is the same as elsewhere.
The insidious aspect of so-called public media is that it reads from a more subtle corporate script than in-your-face right-wing corporate media, a script designed to create doubt in the minds of liberal listeners on topics such as GMO agriculture and nuclear power--both of which are major corporate scams promoted by magnates like Bill Gates.
Public media seduces reasonable readers obliquely, suggesting these doomsday machines might help 'save the planet' and 'feed the hungry', even as they obliterate biological diversity and threaten all life. We saw this in full force at COP21, but it goes on daily in news items, where corporate-friendly scientists release statements about such nonsense as "assisted evolution."
The insidious aspect of so-called public media is that it reads from a more subtle corporate script than in-your-face right-wing corporate media, a script designed to create doubt in the minds of liberal listeners on topics such as GMO agriculture and nuclear power--both of which are major corporate scams promoted by magnates like Bill Gates.
Public media seduces reasonable readers obliquely, suggesting these doomsday machines might help 'save the planet' and 'feed the hungry', even as they obliterate biological diversity and threaten all life. We saw this in full force at COP21, but it goes on daily in news items, where corporate-friendly scientists release statements about such nonsense as "assisted evolution."
Monday, November 21, 2016
Civil War
The United States Attorney General is the head of the U.S. Department of Justice, that sets legal policy in the areas of environmental enforcement, anti-trust enforcement, and civil rights. In law enforcement alone, the attorney general is the head of three
separate agencies, each of them with sweeping powers—the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Enforcement.
Trump's choice for U.S. Attorney General is former U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions, who considers the ACLU "un-American," and used the power of his office to 'humiliate and intimidate African American voters'. As Attorney General of Alabama and U.S. Senator, Sessions fought against racial equality, women's rights, due process for immigrants, and voting rights.
Trump's choice for U.S. Attorney General is former U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions, who considers the ACLU "un-American," and used the power of his office to 'humiliate and intimidate African American voters'. As Attorney General of Alabama and U.S. Senator, Sessions fought against racial equality, women's rights, due process for immigrants, and voting rights.
Friday, November 18, 2016
Stand-Off
The Battle at Standing Rock video exposes the ‘white power’ plan behind Trump’s idea of Making America Great Again–terminating American Indians. Mourning in America.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Anti-Indian President
President Trump--like many Anti-Indian/Wise Use entrepreneurs invested in oil and gas--sees American Indians as in the way of his making money. As a gambling casino owner, he views Native American tribes that have gaming facilities as having an unfair advantage over other Americans.
President Trump thinks reservations should be abolished, which is consistent with his campaign courting white nationalists from the American Freedom Party, and his choice of a Christian supremacist running mate, now Vice President Pence. To my knowledge, Trump is the first US president to be endorsed by the American Nazi Party.
This is not the beginning of difficult times; it is the prelude to civil war.
President Trump thinks reservations should be abolished, which is consistent with his campaign courting white nationalists from the American Freedom Party, and his choice of a Christian supremacist running mate, now Vice President Pence. To my knowledge, Trump is the first US president to be endorsed by the American Nazi Party.
This is not the beginning of difficult times; it is the prelude to civil war.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Transition Forecast
Monday, November 14, 2016
The Last Emperor
As the sun sets on the American Empire, it won't matter so much which
fool plays the role of the last emperor, the war-mongering career crook
Hillary Clinton, or the pussy-grabbing frat boy Donald Trump.
--Poet Garcia Madero
--Poet Garcia Madero
Sunday, November 13, 2016
American Purgatory
Commander-in-Chief, thanks to Obama, is now synonymous with emperor. President Trump–whose reign was made possible by elite Democrats–will act accordingly. As will Vice President Pence–a Christian supremacist–whom Trump said will be in charge of both foreign and domestic policy, including the ‘enemies list’.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Father Knows Best
From God the Father to Papa Doc and Baba Abdic, male superiority is ingrained in societies descended from the heat stroke 'desert religions'. In America, where an overt misogynist was elected president with a Christian male supremacist running mate, a reversion to the non-feminist culture of the 1950s is soon to be the official policy of the White House.
To supporters of the absolute Daddy cult, fraud and aggression are not signs of character flaws, but rather symbols of strength by a man of action. Hitler capitalized on this deep-seated cult, and although his method of recovery for Germany from the Great Depression differed significantly from that of Roosevelt and the New Deal, he was greatly admired by his countrymen.
Consolidating a fascist state of strongmen in the US under a Republican government is now a possibility, although that will require putting people to work, with government funding. The neo-feudal, sweatshop state of Honduras offers insight into how that works: ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples, murder of journalists, and the incarceration of political opponents.
To supporters of the absolute Daddy cult, fraud and aggression are not signs of character flaws, but rather symbols of strength by a man of action. Hitler capitalized on this deep-seated cult, and although his method of recovery for Germany from the Great Depression differed significantly from that of Roosevelt and the New Deal, he was greatly admired by his countrymen.
Consolidating a fascist state of strongmen in the US under a Republican government is now a possibility, although that will require putting people to work, with government funding. The neo-feudal, sweatshop state of Honduras offers insight into how that works: ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples, murder of journalists, and the incarceration of political opponents.
Friday, November 11, 2016
1964
There are moments in history*--i.e. when Jack Minnis met James Forman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the prelude to Mississippi Freedom Summer (1964), or when Cathal Goulding of the Irish Republican Army met Bernadette Devlin of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association at Maghera during the Civil Rights Campaign (1964-1972)--that resonate down through the ages.
*The moments in history that I use as examples are only referenced anecdotally, thus difficult to describe in detail, although I include a pertinent quote from the memoir of Jack Minnis. It is the marriage of strategists and tacticians, or analysts and organizers, that I mean to emphasize.
Monday, November 07, 2016
New Horizons
Eighteen years ago, I came to San Francisco looking for adventure and new horizons. Including a
brief summer tour of Europe in 1999, I've spent those eighteen years
discovering interesting people and ideas I would never otherwise have
known.
Engaging in the successful rent-control battle of 2000, and the unsuccessful fight to save New College in 2007, I got to know the City of Love in ways perhaps most new-comers don't. Watching the massive march against war in 2003 from the steps of City Hall--where in 2006 four thousand gay and lesbian marriages were performed by Mayor Gavin Newsom--stirred my imagination in ways that only San Francisco can.
Dining in a French restaurant with my new friends from Hong Kong and Shanghai in 2008, I listened to a native San Franciscan recount growing up in The Mission in the 1930s, when the district was home to mostly Irish-Americans. Whatever one might say about Fog City, it's never boring, and it's the place I consider home.
One of the interesting people I discovered in 2002 is San Francisco artist and photographer Mark Gould, who was the internet portal developer at New College of California when I was attending graduate school there. Mark had a long career in broadcast news and journalism, and spends his time helping writers like myself understand such esoteric knowledge as semiotics and typography, which are fundamental to comprehending the art of media.
Over the thirteen years I lived in Marin (on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge), Mark and I met at cafes in The Mission, Haight-Ashbury, Marina, and Russian Hill to discuss developments in communication, consciousness and social engineering in the US. Now that we are both retired, we manage to keep our hand in with projects like Medium and INSiGHT Journal.
Engaging in the successful rent-control battle of 2000, and the unsuccessful fight to save New College in 2007, I got to know the City of Love in ways perhaps most new-comers don't. Watching the massive march against war in 2003 from the steps of City Hall--where in 2006 four thousand gay and lesbian marriages were performed by Mayor Gavin Newsom--stirred my imagination in ways that only San Francisco can.
Dining in a French restaurant with my new friends from Hong Kong and Shanghai in 2008, I listened to a native San Franciscan recount growing up in The Mission in the 1930s, when the district was home to mostly Irish-Americans. Whatever one might say about Fog City, it's never boring, and it's the place I consider home.
One of the interesting people I discovered in 2002 is San Francisco artist and photographer Mark Gould, who was the internet portal developer at New College of California when I was attending graduate school there. Mark had a long career in broadcast news and journalism, and spends his time helping writers like myself understand such esoteric knowledge as semiotics and typography, which are fundamental to comprehending the art of media.
Over the thirteen years I lived in Marin (on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge), Mark and I met at cafes in The Mission, Haight-Ashbury, Marina, and Russian Hill to discuss developments in communication, consciousness and social engineering in the US. Now that we are both retired, we manage to keep our hand in with projects like Medium and INSiGHT Journal.
Sunday, November 06, 2016
The Empire Struck Back
Winning the World War in 1945 made America top dog, positioning the US
to assume the imperial role previously held by Great Britain. As the US
soon learned, however, ruling the world is no cakewalk. Some countries
like to rule themselves, and find the notion of foreign armies setting
up military bases in their homeland repulsive.
Still, social democracy was popular in the aftermath of the World War, and the US went to great pains to quash it. In countries like Greece, Iran and Chile, the US CIA had to work with some nefarious characters to derail social democracy. Many innocent people died, but the American empire was preserved.
With social democracy dead except in Scandinavia, the door was open for fascists and religious fanatics to recruit the disillusioned and downtrodden. Which brings us to the present. For six months, Bernie Sanders breathed life into the gasping philosophy that saved Americans from the Great Depression, but alas, the empire struck back.
Still, social democracy was popular in the aftermath of the World War, and the US went to great pains to quash it. In countries like Greece, Iran and Chile, the US CIA had to work with some nefarious characters to derail social democracy. Many innocent people died, but the American empire was preserved.
With social democracy dead except in Scandinavia, the door was open for fascists and religious fanatics to recruit the disillusioned and downtrodden. Which brings us to the present. For six months, Bernie Sanders breathed life into the gasping philosophy that saved Americans from the Great Depression, but alas, the empire struck back.
Saturday, November 05, 2016
Obama's Legacy
Fracking Bakken and the Gulf of Mexico are Obama's legacy.
That, and death squads to protect US-supported sweatshop states like
Indonesia and Honduras. Lucky for him he got his Nobel Peace Prize in
advance.
Friday, November 04, 2016
Week in Review
A 20-year-old woman in Texas was arrested after she rear-ended a police
car while trying to take a topless selfie, and a 28-year-old man in Florida fell out of and then had
his leg run over by his pickup truck on his way home from a strip club.
Thursday, November 03, 2016
Only on NPR
Under the I Knew It! category, this news about scientific evidence
linking extreme poverty and mental disorders has to be a game-changer.
Imagine, poverty causes depression. Who’d
have thought?
Wednesday, November 02, 2016
A Supportive Environment
On October 12, the Seattle School Board unanimously approved a resolution calling for the federal government to extend treaty rights and benefits to the Duwamish tribe.
The resolution states that the school board’s approval would contribute
to “a supportive environment for Native education in Seattle Public
Schools.”
With state-mandated Native American history now part of the Washington public schools curricula, it appears that education is a beneficial pathway. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, herself a resident of Seattle, has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to leave a legacy to the Emerald City.
With state-mandated Native American history now part of the Washington public schools curricula, it appears that education is a beneficial pathway. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, herself a resident of Seattle, has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to leave a legacy to the Emerald City.
Tuesday, November 01, 2016
DAPL notes
As reported by Rose Aguilar, what gets lost in the chatter of vacuous talking heads--both for and against the Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL)--is the fact that the route was altered to avoid crossing the Missouri River upstream of the (white) capitol Bismarck, with the new route crossing at the doorstep of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Cited in the documents used to argue for the rerouting was concern for Bismarck's water system, a threat that has now been dumped on the Sioux.
