ancianita

ancianita's Journal

September 30, 2015

Wikileaks: TPP To Be Signed This Week

On September 26, a meeting between negotiators from all 12 nations involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will commence in Atlanta, Georgia. The meeting will run through September 30, followed by two days of meetings with trade ministers.

The TPP is not only facing resistance from electronic privacy groups, but from grassroots activists and concerned professionals around the world. On October 1, the group #StopTheTPP Atlanta is planning on hosting protests and rallies outside the building where the negotiations are being held.

More here:
http://theantimedia.org/tpp-negotiators-meeting-this-week-to-finalize-corporate-trade-deal

I fear that the goal of Wikileaks to get complete transcript of the trade bill has failed.

In this video, at least Bernie Sanders stands against the entire TPP agreement on behalf of the American people.

I feel sick at heart at our massive helplessness in the face of the global oligarchy. We all should.

September 30, 2015

Ta-Nehisi Coates on Joe Biden: "Biden cast Democrats as the true party without mercy."

Coates' essay in the latest issue of The Atlantic Monthly quotes Joe Biden in 1994:

Let me define the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is now for 60 new death penalties...the liberal wing of the Democratic Party has 70 enhanced penalties...The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 100,000 cops. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 125,000 new state prison cells.

Coates has influence over whether African Americans and other minorities trust this party, and it looks as if he's not particularly trusting either party. His research must be recognized as a valid source of questioning any and all party candidates. Joe Biden is no exception.

Here is where we can find his voting record on crime.

http://www.ontheissues.org/Joe_Biden.htm

If "today’s Democratic party is female, professional, black and Hispanic," as others in these threads have described, then Joe Biden has some 'splainin' to do about his own words, or eat them. And soon.

Joe Biden will have to answer to Democrats now for his "tough on crime" stance THEN.

September 28, 2015

Hidden Realities of The War On Drugs: "Kill The Messenger"

Because of our traditional historical narratives, Americans have a hard time handling the truth.

The first to call out governmental crimes and corruptions are usually marginalized in American history. They are side barred "messengers," the first to call out official wrongdoing. Gary Webb, reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, deserves a place among the "firsts" who provide balance to American history.

Webb's story -- of this country's CIA's and military's complicity in cocaine shipping, the mass arrests and encarceration of South Central LA civilians; the CIA's stalking and intimidation of him, the American media's impugning of his ethics -- should be in a chapter devoted to our history of whistleblowers.

We must learn to tell modern American history differently. No more "great man/strong man" framing. No more "enemy" framing or "aren't we wonderful" stories that lull us into "sheltering in place."

An American history of positive "firsts" -- Paine's visions, founders' documents, presidents and innovators -- must be balanced by firsts that reveal ugly truths, as well. Such has been the goal of objective investigative reporting.

This movie -- as the story of one of our first whistle blowers -- reveals one whistleblower's history as a reality check on old American narratives.

September 21, 2015

NEW: FEEL THE BERN!!!

Feel The Bern! Produced by Corbet

The Pied piper Bernie Sanders for the middle class,
while the GOP wants to put our interest last,
he’s gon give it to you raw, no hesitation,
with the right ideas to lead this great nation,
no hand outs no special interests groups,
he don’t lie to get votes he’s telling you the truth,
and while the media wants to down play him,
He’s still gonna fight tell em all he ain’t playing,
pushing for higher wages so we all can feed our families,
The only one I know who can conquer this Insanity,
of this wall street bickering, belittling
the poor, dollar bills only thing they’re considering,
when people need health care, kids need school,
when it comes to politics Bernie’s breaking,
no attack ads on the competition needed,
he’s running on the facts and its something that we needed...

Feel the Bern, make em Feel the Bern, all the way to the White House Feel The Bern,
Feel the Bern, make em Feel the Bern, tell the haters on the Right, They can feel the Bern,
Feel the Bern, make em Feel the Bern, all the way to the White House Feel The Bern,
Feel the Bern, make em Feel the Bern, tell the haters on the Right, They can feel the Bern...

You hear them scared shook, “he’s a democratic socialist”,
but they don’t even know what it means they just roll with it,
get over it, check the resume, fighting for civil rights ever since the first day,
while other candidates, still with their handouts,
we do it old school grassroots standout,
cuz this is our time to have our voices heard,
you fat cats had your chance now it’s our turn,
they say he can’t win cuz he’s just too liberal,
way too extreme, too honest, too cynical,
they want another robot politician
the same old rhetoric,
now they’re gonna listen...

September 16, 2015

Kanye West’s "Yeezus 2020" Campaign Commercial! Do It For The Human Race!

I'm taking a break from the burning intensity of primary issues, to give a shout out to one of my all-time favorite artists.

I'm not being ironic here, either, even if the New Yorker is.

https://s3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Ulp9QCjj1DK0JTn4tY9ikA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztxPTg1O3NtPTE7dz02MzA-/

September 14, 2015

Shooting Reported at Delta State University

Source: Mother Jones

The victim has been identified as history professor Ethan Schmidt, according to Bolivar County Deputy Coroner Murray Roark.

One person is dead after a shooting at Delta State University in Mississippi, the school confirmed on Monday. The Clarion-Ledger reports the victim is a professor of the school. Approximately 4000 students attend the school in Cleveland, Miss.

As of this time, the shooter remains at large and the school is under lockdown.

Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/09/active-shooter-reported-delta-state-university

?ve=1&tl=1

September 14, 2015

Garrisoning the Globe: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Undermine National Security and Harm Us All

More on the military from Chris Hedges.

I've brought up the idea that American civilians and their presidents have lost command and control of the U.S. military. From what I can tell, since I've seen no evidence to the contrary, our military also runs our foreign policy narratives -- of containment, exceptionalism, terrorism, regime change, etc. Here, Hedges explains the massive network that our tax dollars are buying worldwide.

I also see that our miltary's narratives have infected our civilian leadership such that our own "homeland" is really one big miltary base, with all the martial weaponry sitting in nationwide police stations, with our country legally becoming a "battleground" per the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act.

I can't recall reading that any DU'ers have been exposed to U.S. military life -- either from living on bases, serving or now being veterans, so I've wondered whether our exposure is insufficient. I'd say the more we know about what we own and pay for running, the more we get a handle on runaway defense contractors.

Our 800 bases outside the 50 states and Washington, D.C., come in all sizes and shapes. Some are city-sized “Little Americas”—places like Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, and the little known Navy and Air Force base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. These support a remarkable infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, power plants, housing complexes, and an array of amenities often referred to as “Burger Kings and bowling alleys.” Among the smallest U.S. installations globally are “lily pad” bases (also known as “cooperative security locations”), which tend to house drones, surveillance aircraft, or pre-positioned weaponry and supplies. These are increasingly found in parts of Africa and Eastern Europe that had previously lacked much of a U.S. military presence.

Although the military vacated about 60% of its foreign garrisons in the 1990s, the overall base infrastructure stayed relatively intact. Despite additional base closures in Europe and to a lesser extent in East Asia over the last decade and despite the absence of a superpower adversary, nearly 250,000 troops are still deployed on installations worldwide... Since the start of the Cold War, the idea that our country should have a large collection of bases and hundreds of thousands of troops permanently stationed overseas has remained a quasi-religious dictum of foreign and national security policy. The nearly 70-year-old idea underlying this deeply held belief is known as the “forward strategy.” Originally, the strategy held that the United States should maintain large concentrations of military forces and bases as close as possible to the Soviet Union to hem in and “contain” its supposed urge to expand.

By my very conservative calculations, maintaining installations and troops overseas cost at least $85 billion in 2014—more than the discretionary budget of every government agency except the Defense Department itself. If the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and Iraq is included, that bill reaches $156 billion or more.

While bases may be costly for taxpayers, they are extremely profitable for the country’s privateers of twenty-first-century war like DynCorp International and former Halliburton subsidiary KBR. As Chalmers Johnson noted, “Our installations abroad bring profits to civilian industries,” which win billions in contracts annually to “build and maintain our far-flung outposts.”

Meanwhile, many of the communities hosting bases overseas never see the economic windfalls that U.S. and local leaders regularly promise. Some areas, especially in poor rural communities, have seen short-term economic booms touched off by base construction. In the long-term, however, most bases rarely create sustainable, healthy local economies. Compared with other forms of economic activity, they represent unproductive uses of land, employ relatively few people for the expanses occupied, and contribute little to local economic growth. Research has consistently shown that when bases finally close, the economic impact is generally limited and in some cases actually positive—that is, local communities can end up better off when they trade bases for housing, schools, shopping complexes, and other forms of economic development.

Oops! Forgot to link it!

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/us_military_bases_abroad_undermine_national_security_and_20150914

September 14, 2015

From Prince Ea -- Dear Future Generations: Sorry

We have the nerve to call this destruction "progress"...

... this future I do not accept it.
Because an error does not become a mistake
Until you refuse to correct it.
We can redirect this.

How?
...If a farmer sees a tree that is unhealthy
They don't look at the branches to diagnose it
They look at the root.

So like that farmer we must look at the root
And not to the branches of government
Not to the politicians run by corporations
We are the root
We are the foundation, this generation
It is up to us to take care of this planet
It's our only home.

We must globally warm our hearts
And change the climate of our souls
And realize we are not apart from nature
We are a part of nature
And to betray nature is to betray us
To save nature is to save us.

Because whatever you're fighting for
Racism or poverty, feminism, gay rights
Or any type of equality
It won't matter in the least
Because if we don't all work together
To save the environment
We will be equally
Extinct.

September 7, 2015

Chris Hedges: The Enemy Is Within

This essay is a warning.

You've heard about "The Golden Rule" = Those who got the gold make the rules, right? Well, "The Gun Rule" trumps the golden rule -- Those who got the guns make the rules.

Since the Kennedy coup d'etat in 1963, we have lost civilian command of the military. It's NOT "our" military. It hasn't been for 51 years. Because the military stole our command from us, and because in 2013, Congress named its own country a "battleground" that allows total military control under any commander-in-chief.

Those who care about the Constitution continuing as the law of the land must care about the finalizing of that coup by 2013. The Military Code is nowhere near the same as civilian law. Read up on it.

As undeclared wars (from Korea to Iraq) have circumvented the War Powers Act, so too has undeclared martial law circumvented civilian justice.

One of the most important recent comments made by a fellow DU'er here (I'm sorry I forgot your name!) is that under George W. BushCo.'s pre-crime Patriot Atrocity, here's the gift that Congress gave to the military:

1. There are secret laws.

2. You can unknowingly break those unknown secret laws;

3. You can be charged with breaking those laws you didn’t know existed, and you’re not allowed to tell anyone;

4. You can be tried in a secret court for breaking the secret laws you didn’t know about, and you’re not allowed to tell anyone;

5. You can be indefinitely detained -- effectively "disappeared" from the face of the earth -- and no one will be allowed to know why, where you are, who/what caused your disappearance.

Are we so frightened by the Patriot Act, NDAA of 2013 and our constant undeclared war imperialism that we can't even talk about this? Are we too frightened to conduct our own research into this?

The real enemy is not the left, right, foreigners, the uneducated, ignorant, immigrants or even gun nuts. The enemy is the military that brand you -- me -- or any of us as enemy or insurgent if/when any of us even try to impose -- nevermind regain -- civilian command.

Climate change is important. Taking money out of politics is important. Education and politics are important. But until we regain civilian command of the entire Military Industrial Corporate Complex -- Military Schools, War Colleges, The Pentagon, Defense Contractors -- we won't ever change any those things except by military endorsement. That's why an issue like climate change can recently be labeled a "national security" issue.

This is why Hedges' essay is important. Especially during Labor Day Weekend.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_real_enemy_is_within_20150906

Profile Information

Gender: Do not display
Hometown: New England, The South, Midwest
Home country: USA
Current location: Sarasota
Member since: Sat Mar 5, 2011, 12:32 PM
Number of posts: 36,018

About ancianita

Human. Being.