Category Archives: war

Caging Birds

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I was flipping through the channels and saw that PBS was going to air a Nature spot featuring Hummingbirds.  Ah, I thought, a nice evening’s show.

Nope.

First, the hummers were doing their thing and going from flower to flower to get the nectar.  It showed ones with the ruby throat, ones with super-long beaks, and so on.

Then the show flips to the laboratory where a scientist is studying them.  The camera zooms into a hummer striking the glass “wall” in its confusion.  As the narrator tells the story of the scientist wanting to study the endurance of the hummer, it shows them attaching what looked to be a row of paper clips to the hummer’s feet, as it struggles to fly upward.

Well, that was it for me.

I can’t stand seeing animals caged.  I can’t understand why a scientist feels the need to, in essence, torture this bird that was once free to fly wherever it wanted.

And to those who would say, “hey, it’s getting food and is sheltered from predators…what’s the big deal…?”

To that I would say “Freedom is a big deal.”

That bird losing its ability to roam wherever and whenever and  just being let alone without someone poking at it –well, that’s what Spirit is about.  That’s what feeds the Soul. If that bird could talk, it would tell you the same thing.

Remember Fu Manchu?

The really chilling thing is….we’re not that far behind…

Rick Ross

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I edited the previous blog on the Webb story.  I can’t stop thinking about it–it is so compelling.  So…

I went looking for more of the story with Rick Ross. 

I wondered about his background.  I started with wiki, but there wasn’t much there.  Next I found the above site and it seems that it was the inability to read that sent him down the drug road.  It must have been devastating to him to have the talent of playing tennis well, especially in the time of doors being opened by Arthur Ashe,  (a side note~ how ironic that there is a picture of Ashe shaking Reagan’s hand, when Reagan’s ignoring the AIDS epidemic unfolding around him could be blamed for Ashe’s demise)  and not be able to see that through.  He is probably an undiagnosed dyslexic…possibly toxic (yeah, I know, some of you are groaning, but seriously…people are more affected by toxins than even they can recognize…and black folk who live in poor sections of town are more likely to be exposed to toxins dumped.  And don’t forget poor whites, too.)

This doesn’t mean that I excuse the behavior, because many who are dyslexic struggle but somehow compensate and overcome it.  ( I know that I had to read something two or three times while in school and college in order to understand and remember it.  )

–Rick Ross could have been affected while in school, and this in turn perhaps affected his ability to read and do well in school Just sayin’

It’s also important to note that without customers, Rick Ross had no busine$$.  It wasn’t just the poor blacks, as this article states, but the wealthy customers, too.  They’re just as guilty.

As I read the article on Ross, I began to think of all the devastation of cocaine.

David Crosby has said that cocaine was responsible for the end of the 60s.  Well, the love and peace and Light of it, anyway…

<sigh>

When a reporter touches a nerve…

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…and scoops a big newspaper…look out.       (**edited to clarify)

I can’t say that I remember the Gary Webb episode.  And you would think this would have been huge enough to be covered in my journalism classes or any of the communications classes I had at the university I attended.  Nope.  Perhaps it was too new at the time–and the facts were not well known.

The story is so compelling.  Not only for the bullying of Webb, but how crack cocaine was spread through the country.

Webb was vindicated by a 1998 CIA Inspector General report, which revealed that for more than a decade the agency had covered up a business relationship it had with Nicaraguan drug dealers like Blandón.

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If you click on the Dateline video on the fdl website, the reporter asks Rick Ross  if he had any responsibility in what happened (his pushing drugs among African Americans?)   And he answers that it was his responsibility for it.

The question arose about whether Webb thought the CIA wanted to get the African American community hooked on drugs….Yes, it is someone’s responsibility for taking drugs…if you don’t take it, then you can’t get addicted to it.  I don’t do drugs, but from what I have heard, cocaine is highly addictive—so…if the drug pushers know this (and I’m pretty sure if they were selling it in Nicaragua, they knew of its addictive qualities)—then they knew all they had to do is to get someone to take it once, and they had a customer for life…kind of like the tobacco industry trying to get people hooked on cigarettes.

…and why aren’t the “ruthless billionaires” in jail, too??

The  Webb story is a sad commentary on competitiveness, bullying, exposing criminal activity and doing what you think is the right thing…makes one wonder if we truly want to do good in this country?

I just wish Webb could have seen that what he did was important.  But to not get his ego wrapped around his career–that he had much to contribute in whatever path he took.  If he would have held on a couple more years, he would have been amazed at the internet, and perhaps his investigative skills would have been used for internet reporting.  (I’m also wondering why LAWeekly didn’t give him a job after the bullying episode left him unable to secure a position with other papers?)

Manning trial starts today

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(hat tip commondreams)

If they are successful with prosecution, we can kiss our Consitution good-bye.  The First Amendment guarantees one the right to speak out to air one’s grievances against the government.  I don’t believe that this was the only way that Bin Laden could have gotten his information or even if it was paramount to him attacking us.  They attacked us on 9/11 without the help of Manning…but the agencies knew of Osama and their own mistakes allowed the attack.  It’s so much easier to make someone else the fall guy when trying to deflect attention from your own mistakes.  And I don’t believe the charge of “aiding the enemy” is true in this case.  Intention is *everything* in criminal trials and I don’t believe that Manning’s intention was aiding bin Laden, but to highlight what was happening to inform the American public, which was not being informed by the mainstream media.

 

And if you read to the end, you see that the chilling effect is already taking place…whistleblowers are afraid to come forward with information.

Chilling, indeed.

Blackwater, Monsanto, and Gates Foundation

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In keeping up with all the dirty little deeds the Gates Foundation promotes….here is an article on the link between Gates, Monsanto, and Blackwater.   Really disturbing.

The article mentions The Nation with Jeremy Scahill—while looking for the Scahill article, I happened upon this with a scathing reply by the authors:

We agree that it will ultimately be up to farmers to decide what is best for them. Our concern continues, however, to be that the choices farmers face is systematically skewed, with some ideas being amplified over others. Any policies that involve redistribution–such as land reform–are off the Gates agenda, despite being a live concern to many African farmers’ movements. This demonstrates our broader point. Despite the foundation’s best efforts to be accountable once the policy has been laid down, the Gates Foundation’s interventions reflect, at heart, the undemocratic vision of a single very powerful and ultimately unaccountable organization.

Sincerely,

RAJ PATEL
ERIC HOLT-GIMENEZ
ANNIE SHATTUCK
www.foodfirst.org

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(italics are mine.)
Jeremy Scahill’s article here.

One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the “intel arm” of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.

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More on Rosen and the attack on investigative journalism

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I missed this from Glenn Greenwald.  It’s more in-depth on the specifics…and what it means to investigative journalists.  In essence, it is criminalizing the act of journalism.

From the article:

Under US law, it is not illegal to publish classified information. That fact, along with the First Amendment’s guarantee of press freedoms, is what has prevented the US government from ever prosecuting journalists for reporting on what the US government does in secret. This newfound theory of the Obama DOJ – that a journalist can be guilty of crimes for “soliciting” the disclosure of classified information – is a means for circumventing those safeguards and criminalizing the act of investigative journalism itself.

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Our democracy depends on being able to inform the citizens of their government’s actions, so that they can make informed decisions towards that government.  As Greenwald points out—the media was silent with Julian Assange…and only now are they starting to squawk now that AP has been caught up in the assault on the freedom of speech and the press…

 

Closer to Nixon?

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commondreams has this up–on President Obama’s assault on the Freedom of the Press and the further charges of interference with information gathering.

It’s quite chilling.  As a commenter noted, however, the press remained quiet while they took Bradley Manning and put him in jail without charges being brought….and now they want to scream about the 1st Amendment….

 

Syria

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A really good piece here  on Syria and the general Middle East.  I like how it addresses the entire problem, not just the problem du jour.  Just in the last few days, have I heard of the Hezbollah connection to Assad’s side.  This is major news.  And helps one to understand why Israel suddenly starts launching an attack.  They can say what they want, but it would appear that Israel is in it for the entire conflict, not a specific target, as they claim.

On CSPAN this morning, a writer for daily beast/Newsweek (sorry, forgot the name) was addressing Syria and Benghazi.  A caller calls in with a foreign accent and speaks of how many in Syria have been against Assad, but are now so afraid.  He asserts (and I agree) that most Muslim people do not condone what Al Queda has done–they are aghast at the violence and will not participate in it.  But they are cornered–they are in fear for themselves and their families and they have to be able to get food and water and shelter.  The CSPAN host asks where he is from?  Answer:  Syria.  Do you still have family there?  Answer:  Yes.  How are they doing?  Answer:  They are afraid and want Assad out.  I believe he said they wanted democracy, too.

Another caller had said that we are broke.  We can’t afford to get into another war.  We need a war tax if we’re going to go in.

I have to admit I’ve been torn about Syria.  I feel strongly against letting some creep murder people.  At the same time, like the guy said, we’re broke.  We cannot afford to go in again to a country and wage war.  Only if they tax the rich can we afford to go in….because the middle class and the working poor can’t do it–they can barely put food on the table for their own families.

 

Living History

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Henry Ettinger was a “Monuments Men” who helped rescue stolen art work by the Nazis and spoke of his experience recently.

The article mentions that Hitler was into natural art and resented the turn towards impressionism and interpretative art, and instead of accepting that, he decided to destroy the art.  But that sentence doesn’t make sense, because they put the art into the mines to preserve them and protect them from bombs instead of outright destroying them.   Yeah, I know that some could be sold on the black market to raise money for the war….but they also had an “exhibition” of the artworks, which also makes no sense–why put them on display at all if they were disgusting to Hitler?  Why go to all of the trouble to transport them through a tour in Germany and Austria?

In addition to the Monuments Men, Ettinger’s family history is also very intriguing.  As the story goes, his family lived in Germany before being forced out by the Nazis in 1938.  The part that leaps out at me was  this simple passage:

“My family dated back 600 years in Germany,” Ettlinger said. “My father had an elegant women’s fashion store, with 40 employees. But when the Nazis came to power in 1933, it was immediately boycotted.”

The Nazis, said Ettlinger, didn’t immediately start killing the Jews. Instead they made it impossible for them to make a living.

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Am I entirely too cynical or conspiracy theorist to look at how our jobs have been shipped overseas and the ones left are poverty-level wages, making it impossible to put any money away for savings/retirement/vacations/emergencies….and that the union jobs are being replaced with low wage workers…?  Yeah, I suppose it is too conspiracy theorist…but the effect is still the same–making it impossible to earn a living…