Over the past eight years the violence in American has only increased. We've become terrified and paranoid, suspicious and divided. We are, for the most part, armchair warriors, barricaded in our homes, thoroughly convinced we know who our enemies are and that we'll recognize them so we'll be able to shoot first.
As Trump operates from his pseudo-Mussolini playbook whole troves of Americans willingly and enthusiastically submit to fascism; it's absolutely astounding. They're begging for it. And I'm left without any ideas on how to proceed politically. The wind is out of my sails.
I have no doubt we will overcome. Whole new paradigms, ways of thinking and seeing, ways of living are being developed and implemented. Many of the innovators and creatives are working quietly and steadily out of the limelight. As with all great movements of social change the outcomes will benefit the majority though most will never have even the faintest clue.
In the meantime these words seem to be especially relevant as the American people choose their destiny:
"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them." Frederick Douglass
Amerika, a video protesting the annihilation of our civil liberties.
We need to be more like dogs.
Comfort dogs in route to Oklahoma after working in Boston. Prior to that they were in Newtown.
Amazing cooperation.
An amazing piece of journalism by Vic Pittman: link to the rest of the story
Salem-News.com (Apr-18-2013 16:52)
EXCLUSIVE: Cowardice Redefined, The New Face of American Serial Killers
“I saw men, women and children die during that time. I never thought I would kill that many people. In fact, I thought I couldn’t kill anyone at all.” - Former US drone operator Brandon Bryant
(SAN BLAS, Mexico) - A little after 10:00 p.m., and a serial killer is getting ready to make his move. He has watched and waited for this moment for some time.
He watches his victim get out of a cab and dig in his pockets for money. Two of his children run out to the porch to greet their daddy. The killer presses a button and watches as the victim, the taxi driver and the two children are vaporized. Other people in the house, the man's wife, parents and three other children are badly injured and burnt by the high explosive.
The house next door partially collapses, killing an elderly woman and injuring her grandson. But this is just the beginning.
Dr. Mona Kazim Shah with a drone strike victim
Neighbors and emergency personnel arrive and begin trying to help the victims. There is chaos...children screaming, people wailing and the cries of the burnt and injured. Several people are trapped under rubble.
When enough people have gathered, the killer presses the button again. Fifteen seconds later, all those at the scene are vaporized or blown to shreds. The killer high-fives his partner. In two hours he will be off work! They are planning on driving in to Las Vegas, have some cocktails maybe pick up some girls.
An attempt to blame Muslims for all the violence in the world usually goes something like this (simplified version):
"Who was the carnage in New York, Washington, London, Istanbul, Bali, Beslan, Buenos Aires, Jerba, Jakarta, Jerusalem, Madrid, Mombassa, Moscow, Mumbai, Yemen, Dafur, Nigeria, Kashmir, Zhengzhou, Pakistan, Mali and now Boston.. carried out by? Hunh??"
"Who was the carnage in New York, Washington, London, Istanbul, Bali, Beslan, Buenos Aires, Jerba, Jakarta, Jerusalem, Madrid, Mombassa, Moscow, Mumbai, Yemen, Dafur, Nigeria, Kashmir, Zhengzhou, Pakistan, Mali and now Boston.. carried out by? Hunh??"
To which the rebuttal is:
"You forgot Baghdad, Fallujah, Kabul, al-Majala, Gaza, Ramallah, Beirut, Damascus, Managua, San Salvador, Khartoum, Somalia, Waziristan, Panama City - to say nothing of Vietnam."
Good reading: Terrorism and the other religions, Juan Cole: link.
***
The following is from President Obama's speech at the National Archives on May 21st, 2009:
"Meanwhile, instead of serving as a tool to counter terrorism, Guantanamo became a symbol that helped al Qaeda recruit terrorists to its cause. Indeed, the existence of Guantanamo likely created more terrorists around the world than it ever detained.
"So the record is clear: Rather than keeping us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security. It is a rallying cry for our enemies."
April 7, 2013, Afghanistan.
NATO madness obliterates eleven more kids.
This shit has got to stop.
It is not our freedom they hate us for.
Yo! Obama! Remember this?
"The capacity of human beings to think up new ways to kill one another proved inexhaustible, as did our capacity to exempt from mercy those who look different or pray to a different God."
-- Barack Obama, Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony, December 10, 2009, Oslo, Norway
Yet another study - this one by the National Climate Assessment - showing the steps being taken to reduce emissions are "not close to sufficient" to prevent the most severe consequences of climate change.
But who cares about a 1,000-page study by more than 300 scientists and experts? In America we can engage in magical thinking!
In 2004 the United States tested a horrific arsenal of chemicals and explosive devices on the innocent civilians of Fallujah, including white phosphorous and depleted uranium.
Hospital records from January, 2012 show 672 cases of infants born without eyes, without a brain, with their intestines outside of their bodies, and other severe birth defects. Countless numbers of babies born with serious abnormalities have gone unreported.
672. In just one month. Eight years later.
"Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war."
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." --Albert Einstein
"The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
Carl Sagen