The 'White Flag' Kerfuffle - An Opportunity to Return to COMMON SENSE

Consider the white flags that were  flying over the Brooklyn Bridge and Americans' reactions.

While certain media outlets, as we've come to expect, have wallowed in hysteria and fear, like the New York Daily News bawling: "This time it's a flag, next time it will be a bomb" - most of the reactions to the bleached white American flags hung over the Brooklyn Bridge have  been more tempered.  Theorizing, of course,  is rampant as it would be expected to be after any strange occurrence, particularly involving a high profile location in a major U.S. city - that was previously attacked on 9/11.

But this is exactly why now is the time for reason and common sense to prevail, and not to allow reactionaries to dominate discussion. First, it's obvious it was no "terror" attack and anyone claiming so needs committing to a mental institution. From what it was not, theories then veer to what it was or meant. There are at least ten such theories now, including that "aliens set it up" - which again merits the loony bin for any who say so.

I already provided my own theory in the previous post but now the NYPD seems to be focused on "skateboarders, young men between 19 and 21". This would make the incident more in line with a random juvenile prank and no message would likely have been involved at all.  This would also eliminate the  "theory" that a bunch of disaffected "leftists" did it.  No, if the Left did it, they'd be sending a serious message as I pointed out a blog post earlier. In other words, the bleached flags would have plausibly telegraphed our nation's surrender to corporate governance and domination.

The Righties, for that matter, could also have done it and some theories put it on disaffected Tea Baggers, upset over Obama's latest moves - or non-moves (Despite the fact that a recent poll shows 65 percent of Americans absolutely want NO impeachment proceedings, as some in the GOP have been belching about)

Now, time for more common sense. Was there any flag "defacement" or desecration involved?  After all, these guys - whoever they were - bleached two American flags and then put them up.

Of course not, because the First Amendment regards all such manifestations as protected symbolic speech. So calling for these guys to be "hung" over the bridge on the basis of a flag prank is simply more hysteria.

Let's first admit logically that bleaching a flag and hanging it up is less offensive speech than actual flag burning. But in the case Texas v. Johnson (1989) flag burning was upheld as symbolic free speech which could not be curtailed under the 1st amendment.

In 1990 another conservative congress tried to pass a law to outlaw burning the flag but again it went down.  This was in the case United States v. Eichman, 496 U.S. 310 (1990).  While the Johnson decision only affected a Texas state law this decision was broader. . In the wake of the earlier decision, the federal government  had enacted a law that also prohibited flag burning. In order to try to get around constitutional challenges, that federal law prohibited all types of flag desecration, with the exception of burning and burying a worn-out flag, regardless of whether the action upset others.

The Supreme Court held that this law did not cure the constitutional defect and the same 7-3 majority from Johnson held that the law still impermissibly discriminated upon viewpoint and struck it down.

Common sense here also tells us that the SYMBOL of a nation cannot have more import or viability than the principles it is supposed to protect.  Nor have soldiers "fought and died for the flag".  No, you do not fight and die for a piece of fabric, you fight and die for the PRINCIPLES the flag stands for - all listed under the Bill of Rights (including free speech)

One hopes as this story progresses and the culprits are finally found and brought forward to face the consequences of their youthful indiscretion, the rest of our citizens keep their cool and don't allow their judgment to be derailed by emotions.
 

Now, as we approach 9/11 once more, common sense is perhaps the most crucial commodity needed, that is all too often in short supply. In terms of the treatment of American flags, let me paraphrase one justice's common sense take: "So long as you are burning YOUR own flag and not someone else's you are exercising your form of speech as protest."   Changing burning to "bleaching" and you have a parallel to the Brooklyn Bridge case.

Advice we'd all best follow before shooting from the hip!

 

 

Obama the "Worst President" Since WWII? Are Americans Freakin' STUPID?

On the eve of Independence Day, modern day Americans have proven they're the stupidest, most historically uninformed, ignorant bunch of mutts ever. According to  a new Quinnipiac University Poll, 33% named Obama the worst president since World War II, and 28% put Bush at the bottom of post-war presidents.  What are these morons drinking, or more appropriately how did their brains end up in their asses? Have these fools NO recollection of history at all? Are their memories truly competitive with those of gnats? It seems so, especially if they rank Ronnie Raygun at the top.

According to Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll:

"Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel"

REALLY? On what basis? Feelings? You got it from FOX news? That doesn't count. Even more preposterous, the Quinnipiac poll also reports that 45% believe the nation would be better off had Mitt Romney defeated Obama in the 2012 presidential election. Which makes me wonder what brand of historical imbecile we are now producing with our education system.

The worst insult? Ronald Reagan topped the poll as "the best president" since World War II, with 35%. He is followed by presidents Bill Clinton (18%) and John F. Kennedy (15%).

Which proves to me that the voters polled ought to have their voting credentials revoked and sent back to kindergarten.

Look, let's clear up the bullshit and nonsense one time. As I noted before I've got lots of bones to pick with Obama, including endorsing the NSA overreach, ramping up a new surge in Afghanistan after he received the Nobel Peace Prize, actually proposing a "Debt commission" and a chained CPI to cut Social Security, I have also complained about Obama's tendency to not stand on principles and have the courage to act on them, thereby failing to become the transformative President he might have been e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2014/03/why-obama-failed-to-become.html

But failing to become a transformative President isn't the same as being the worst! Gimme a break!

The preponderance of these voters claim that Reagan is "the best President". Let me try to clear their heads. Reagan, recall, is the character who once opined that in an emergency, “submarine-fired missiles could be recalled”.

This is the guy who single-handedly destroyed the Trade Union movement (and back bone of the Democratic party) by firing 12,000 air traffic controllers, a move that's taken that industry the better part of two decades to compensate for, with hundreds of “near misses” along the way.

Reagan is also the shameless cretin who pulled critical social spending as he sliced taxes to their lowest levels in history (also helping to fire up the deficit) – leading to more than a half million mentally ill patients being tossed out of their hospital beds. Where did they end up? Most found themselves on the street, while the lucky few managed to somehow survive.

He also -while slicing taxes  - ran up a $2,2 TRILLION dollar defense budget debt (think $3,500 apiece toilets,  $150 hammers) that in fact turned the country into a DEBTOR nation for the first time in modern history.   Reagan's economic policies, bottom line, paved the way for the continuing debt crisis in which this nation finds itself.

But as seriously bad as all that was it still wasn't as bad as GeeDumbya Bush, who:

- Stole the Presidency in 2000 thanks to his brother Jeb and Kathleen Harris placing 40% of black democratic voters in Duval County on Felon's lists - so they couldn't vote. (See Chapter 1 of Greg Palast's expose, 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy')

- Ignored a security brief in August, 2001, warning of a likely strike by bin Laden using hijacked airliners.  Within weeks 9/11 followed.

- Used the ploy of 9/11 to pose as the "security President" while attacking Afghanistan then demanding Saddam be linked to that terror attack despite no evidence whatsoever.

- Launched the Iraq invasion and occupation thereby emulating Hitler's invasion and occupation of Poland in October, 1939. Thereby he also became the first president ever to violate the Nuremberg statutes against pre-emptive wars.

- Was responsible for an estimated 600,000 dead Iraqis (according to the World Health Organization) and over 4,400 Americans while running up $4 TRILLION in debt and not implementing higher taxes to pay for his adventures. (He actually CUT taxes, the first time ever in so-called "war time" and told Americans to "go shopping")

And you're going to tell me this bozo isn't the worst ever?

As for the Mittster, Americans really do prove they have the memories of gnats if they believe he'd have been better.  Here are a few things for the morons to cogitate on:

- By the end of his first term Romney - an elitist asshole of the one percent - would have cut taxes for the wealthiest, vastly increasing existing inequality. To pay for these cuts, he would have -with the cooperation of the Reeptard House- cut food stamps even more than they already have, and raised taxes on the poorest (those earning $20,000/year or less) in response to the then popular Repuke outcry that "the poor pay no income taxes!"

- Romney, again along with his Reepo House, would have cut Social Security - probably via the chained CPI and also by increasing Medicare premiums.

-In league with his chosen VP (Paul Ryan) Romney likely would also have ushered Ryan's Medicare voucher plan through. That would have meant seniors getting maybe $10,000 a year (if that) to purchase all their health care- whether operations, or preventive care - like colonoscopies.

- Romney, in line with his vows in the national security Presidential debate in Oct. 2012, would have attacked both Syria and Iran, likely embroiling the U.S. in two new conflicts that would have sucked even more precious treasure - while allowing the country to fall into rack and ruin.

So how should the Presidents be rated since World War II? Based on my own grasp and understanding of recent American history - the top three Presidents would be as follows::

1) John F. Kennedy (Irrespective of what assorted nitwit pundits have blathered, Kennedy did more positively for this nation than all the Reepos together - but most importantly - had he not acted with courage against the Joint Chiefs we'd all have been destroyed in a nuclear war (during the October Missile crisis) and we wouldn't even be having this conversation. See also:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/10/thanks-to-jfk-we-still-have-civilization.html

2) Jimmy Carter: Started no wars nor did he launch invasions. Attempted to get Americans to focus on energy conservation for the future.

3) Barack Obama: He implemented the nation's first broad-based health care system which despite its flaws has given the less fortunate access that didn't exist before other than via costly emergency room visits. He collaborated with Vladimir Putin to avoid being ensnared in a Syrian war, and also refused to bomb Iran - as Romney would have done. Let me also remind my forgetful peers that Obama's 2009 economic stimulus - though it likely wasn't enough - saved this country from descending into another Depression after the 2008 credit crisis.  Despite his flaws, Obama merits position as 3rd best President, not the worst.

Now the three worst:

12) George W. Bush: For all the reasons given earlier.

11) Ronald Reagan: For all the reasons given earlier.

10) Richard Nixon:  Think 'Watergate' and bombing Cambodia while ramping up the Vietnam War.  Think having thugs break into Daniel Ellsberg's  psychiatrist's office and using the IRS as a weapon against political enemies. (For those wondering, Nixon's "saving grace - why he's 10th and not 11th) is that he gets credit for increasing Social Security COLAs to extend the life of the program.)

As for the Quinnipiac University Poll, it's worthless if based on responses from people who are either brainwashed Fox-ites or who know little or nothing of recent American history.

See also:
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/05/ronald_reagan_stuck_it_to_millennials_a_college_debt_history_lesson_no_one_tells/

and:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/09/1053088/-An-open-letter-to-the-people-who-hate-Obama-more-than-they-love-America?detail=email#

The U.S. : Rogue State or Global Citizen? The Jury Is Out

"The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough—more than enough—of war and hate and oppression."- John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963 (Speech at American University)

In the horrific 1983 British film Threads, the nuclear destruction and termination of human civilization is effected after the U.S. and NATO intervene in Iran and exchanges lead to the accidental sinking of the Russian ship Kirov in the Straits of Hormuz.

Subsequently,  an accidental exchange of 2 tactical nuclear weapons (with radiation blowing over Pakistan) leads to escalation and a full scale nuclear war  within 24 hrs.- with 3,000 megatons exchange (210 megatons on the UK alone).

After the final exchange, when 80 megatons land on Sheffield, UK, the focus is on a family huddled inside their shock -wave blasted home as the radioactive debris descends - leading to non stop vomiting by all the members, then deaths of the parents (after losing all their hair and skin sores) then the daughter giving birth (9 months later) to a monster, that can best be described as a 'Rosemary's Baby' look- alike. The final scene shows the baby after its live birth, porcine features with rat-like ears and teeth exposed on its epidermis- while the poor, malnourished girl who just delivered it screams at the top of her lungs.

'Threads'  is not a film for the squeamish, nor was it meant to be. It was intended to be a cautionary tale against rash human actions - laden with arrogance and hubris - with the perpetrators unable to see ahead to the consequences of their  actions. It was intended to send the message: "Look, you idiots! It doesn't matter whether YOU think you're in the right for any given action or not! If by god you fuck it up - launch an aggressive strike with unintended consequences, there may be no turning back for any of us!"

Such warnings apply now as a congress all too willing in the past to be 'yes men' to the executive, is once more being drumbeaten into taking reckless action for "humanitarian purposes". But what kind of humanitarian purpose will it be if 1 million more Syrian refugees are created by our Tomahawk attacks, and they pour into adjacent Turkey and Jordan which already are at their tipping points?  You call that humanitarian? It's stupidity! Plus, we will likely kill as many or more via collateral damage as perished in the gas attacks (And contrary to the nattering nabobs - including liberals like Krystal Ball on MSNBC - we still don't know WHO was responsible!)

The money consumed by destroying those cruise missiles ($1 billion est.) by lobbing them into Syria ought to be used instead to provide support for the 2 million refugees already in Turkey and Jordan. This was the suggestion yesterday by Rep. Alan Grayson (FL) as he addressed a media simpleton on MSNBC who tried to compare not taking action to the Chamberlain appeasement at Munich. Well, Grayson raked the Neolib twerp's ass over the coals, drawing attention to his historical attention deficit disorder, for that one! (The correct comparison, as Grayson noted, was the run-up to the Iraq fiasco.)

Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies(appearing on MSNBC's 'The Cycle)  laid it on the line this afternoon that NO the U.S. isn't "following the world" (on any issuance of a "red line")  to address any humanitarian concerns in Syria,  it is pushing the world to follow its lead. But this could have severe repercussions because no matter what we believe, our aggression and attacks will be regarded by the Syrians (as well as the Russians, Iran and other actors) as an act of war- inviting full retaliation which could assume myriad forms - from massive cyber attacks, knocking down power grids,  to Iranian missile attacks on the U.S. fleet, to Russian bombing of U.S. destroyers in retaliation for any collateral damage.

Kerry basically said there's nothing to fret over re: Russia, but he's an idiot. How he has managed to get to the position of Secretary of State is beyond me. I guess politics and friendly Repukes (who relish his MA Senate seat) can make a difference. Anyway, as Lt. Col. Shaffer said, neither the Syrians or others affected will take any attack lying down. Besides, there are many ways the Russians could get involved, from an accidental strike on their naval base, to the accidental killing of their technicians who help maintain the Syrian air force. Think Putin wouldn't retaliate for killing Russian techs or other personnel? Think again!

Then there are the 50,000 Iranians who also are there in country, helping Assad's forces. Kill any of them and also watch as the Iranians retaliate. Who knows in what ways, but bear in mind, as with 9/11, the blowback can take years to unfold. Ask Chalmers Johnson who predicted (in Blowback) the 9/11 attacks because of our aggressive Middle East policies. Another thing, as Howard Fineman asked on the same MSNBC segment: 'Since when did the Democratic Party become the War Party'?

The notion we can just hurl cruise missiles into Syria with impunity and do whatever we like  (as self-proclaimed cop of the world- lacking any moral authority to be said 'cop')  is such a noxious, insane notion it is beyond the pale and makes us a rogue state, above the law - certainly above international law-  no matter what congress authorizes or not.

Lt. Col. Shaffer admonished Obama for his decision to go it alone, even with just the puny cover of congressional authorization. He stated that what must be done, to show the world we are not above the law - international law- is to take our case to the UN Security Council and behind the scenes make the political moves to get China and Russia invested in the proposal that it's in THEIR best interests to get Assad removed from power. But....contrary to asshole and idiot Bill Krystal (one of the foremost instigators of regime change in Iraq) it is NOT OUR business to regime change Assad.

But if we fire off a missile attack on Syria without UN concurrence,  we will expose ourselves as the outlaw rogue state everyone in the world believes we are. Worse, we will help to create a scenario that will likely quickly get out of control no matter how many supposed precautions we take.

In that case, a near future such as depicted on Threads may well be our sorry- ass lot. 

It's Past Time to Ditch the "9/11" Meme!

"Why of course the people don’t want war...But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they’re being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.” - Hermann Goering, Nuremberg, 1946



Enough is enough! It's now past time to move beyond the meme that reinforces national victimhood, future penury and a permanent victory by a dead Terrorist freak - by saying "No MORE!" We have had ten years of it: "remembrances", vigils, services, speeches, memorials and whatnot...now it's time to stop. The more we enable and feed this self-serving, maudlin pool of pseudo-national sanctity the poorer we become as a people, as a valid power for good in the world, and as worthy benefactors for our future generations. The longer we remain trapped in this mindset, the more power the dead bin Laden holds over our thought processes and worse, the more we become his hostages by continuing to do exactly what he wanted us to all along!

A good example of this meme was on display today in a piece by Tom Brokaw in PARADE magazine in which he wrote:

"In the years since 9/11 we've been beset by our economic excesses and failure to honor the fundamental laws of financial risk"

Observe first he resorts to false composition in his use of the pronoun "we've" (trying to impugn ALL Americans, citizens ....from poor, to middle class and others) when the actual culprits represented a small cabal of greedy bastards on Wall Street that devised horrific financial instruments - called "credit default swaps" - and sent the nation careening into a financial meltdown and tailspin in 2008, with over 8 million jobs lost and we're still not out of the woods. He then makes the inextricable link to supporting the War State as evident in most displays of the meme:

"We've gone about our lives with too little connection to the sacrifices of those fighting for us far away and the sacrifices of of their families.."

But he glosses over the fact Americans were prepared to sacrifice but the leader at the time (Bush Jr.) demanded nothing but they "go out and shop". He then invaded two Muslim nations, one which had nada to do with 9/11 - ramped up over a trillion in costs, and asked NO ONE to pay any higher taxes! The first ever so-called "war" conducted on credit! And then he wonders why average citizens don't take them seriously or have any connections? Is he nuts, or just stupid?

Think I'm alone in expressing such reservations and complaints? Think again! They are all over the freaking net if one looks. Cripes, even our local right wing-libertarian rag has recognized what's gone down the past ten years and how we've allowed the rubble of 9/11 to continue long past the actual physical devastation - by devastating our lives, and economy as well!

In today's editorial ('We Hav e Imploded Since 9-11"), of my 'Libbie-wingnut' oriented paper (http://www.gazette.com/), I actually found these words:

"We take this opportunity to mourn what has become of our country since Sept. 11, 2001. We survived, but we have not recovered successfully. It is not the editorial board’s mission to sugarcoat reality in order to appear patriotic. Our goal is to publish truth, to the best of our ability, and today the truth is unpleasant.

Since the day of history’s worst attack on American civilians, our country has squandered liberty, hemorrhaged wealth and imprisoned individualism, with a government that has doubled its cost on an economy that produces less. Government has indebted Americans so severely that we find ourselves at the mercy of developing countries. We have embroiled ourselves in costly foreign wars that have cost the lives nearly 5,000 Americans so far —

As Americans struggle to find jobs and to feed their families, our behemoth government nation-builds in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention in Libya, Pakistan and Yemen. Financially, our Sept. 11-inspired wars have cost Americans $1.36 trillion in direct-war allocations for Iraq and Afghanistan alone — and Iraq had no legitimate nexus to the Sept. 11 attacks. Add that to the cost of Homeland Security and related expenditures and our country has spent a whopping $8 trillion on national security over the past decade. None of those figures includes the ongoing costs of dead and severely injured service personnel. Dead people no longer provide for their families or produce wealth for our country or provide tax payments for government."


What caught my attention were the words: "Since the day of history’s worst attack on American civilians, our country has squandered liberty, hemorrhaged wealth and imprisoned individualism", which the daydreamers and memory-meme purveyors would like to sweep under the rug.

In my last blog on why I'm a 9/11 cynic:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2011/09/why-i-remain-cynic-re-wars-on-terror.html

I noted:

"So long as the War state collects blank checks at the expense of our real (or feigned) sorrow and victimhood, we are the real victims of this whole sordid process. Year after year we are coughing up more of our domestic blood and treasure for "wars" that can never be won, even as millions of our own languish without enough food, or shelter"

Which is the core of the issue! Because in our 9/11 fetish and obsession, which is obviously what it is, we are unconsciously feeding an entrenched and growing War state that won't be satisfied until it gobbles up all available domestic resources for its own use! I mean look how the War state's defenders and protectors squeal like stuck pigs anytime anyone even broaches cutting their ghastly, overblown budget beyond the measly planned $350b over TEN years (or a piddling $35b a year relative to $800b/yr received!) This despite, as reported on ABC News today, over $6 TRILLION has been squandered on military budgets and bullshit since 9/11! Then many wonder why we have such monstrous deficits, and people are soon to be sucked down an austerity spending drain? People who even now can't get their food stamps to last to the end of a month and stand to have them cut in half if the war-mongering Reeps get their way.

But this is exactly what Osama bin Laden wanted! Back to today's Gazette editorial:

"parasites like bin Laden despise liberty. When they attacked our institutions and killed our loved ones in 2001, they must have known we would spare no expense to protect ourselves from future attacks. They must have known we would go to war. They must have known we would tie ourselves in pretzels trying to stay safe. That was their biggest reward."

This is exactly the crux of the matter! Bin Laden knew us better than we knew ourselves! (No doubt because he was our hireling after the Russians invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and we armed him to help drive the Russkies out). He knew that he could parlay about $500,000 of investment (in box cutters, flight trainings, plans, hijacker air fares etc.) into getting a mighty superpower to react like a scalded mother bear and lash out aimlessly in every direction. And in the process spare no expense, even if that meant bankrupting itself, having its future credit rating down graded and sending over 40 million citizens into destitution. He knew we would pay that foolish price, and in so doing, he could be the ultimate victor - because he believed we'd set up an endless perma-war meme based on the day's destruction and spend ourselves into oblivion!

All of this was highlighted in detail in my earlier May 4 blog, to do with Rachel Maddow's mind-bending report on Osama bin Laden's true intent:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2011/05/rachel-maddows-analysis-terrifying.html

As noted therein, Bin Laden's bragging didn't center over the number of deaths in Washington or New York or the physical damage inflicted but the financial costs to the country. As Maddow pointed out, this was where his head and major purpose inhered, though Americans have always ben led to believe (by the 9-11 meme) it was about death, destruction. Which, on the face of it is not terribly surprising, since Americans struck by a sneak attack on the proportions of 9-11 would inevitably be monopolized by death tolls and devastation rather than any economic undercurrents or objectives - which most don't grasp that well anyway. But Bin Laden's own words in a 2004 video were the dead giveaway on his true intentions, and what constituted victory for him:

"We are continuing the ploy of bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy"

And he's still doing it! With every year's extension to remain in Afghanistan, and with every new "supplemental" war budget or Pentagon budget! We are giving him victory after victory though he's buried at sea. We are weakening our domestic security - financial, political and social - at the behest of a fucking dead man! We seem unable to say 'NO!' to the War -Security state! Again, from The Washington Post's Ezra Klein (May 3) who wrote:

"For Bin Laden, success was not to be measured in body counts. It was to be measured in deficits, in borrowing costs, in investments not made in our country's domestic economic strength."

So, in other words, so long as deficits keep piling up with these occupations, interventions....including pissing $20b a year to Pakistan, we are doing Bin Laden's bidding. How long before we realize or grasp that the "9-11" meme confers validity on this destruction of financial and domestic security? That in the end, all the trillions we're pissing overseas in brain addled "nation building" amount to more rubble in our own nation, already reeling from cracking water mains, sewer lines and highways - to the tune of $2.2 trillion needed in repairs. But where is our stupid attention? On the fucking DOW's movements, and on the 9-11 meme! (No surprise then that the organ of finance capital, The Wall Street Journal, has played both themes to the hilt this past week. They know that capital and war are tied at the hip like a domme whore and her john!)

How powerful has this meme become? To the extent that every time 9-11 rolls around many Americans crawl under their beds, fearful of some new attack. But just how great are those odds? Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman, as I noted in a previous May 4 blog,

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2011/05/gideon-gets-it-exactly-right.html

Puts them at slim and about none. Citing security expert John Mueller, Rachman notes that the number of Americans killed by terrorists since 1960 is "about the same as the number killed over the same period in deer accidents". For example, cars careening into a deer and being driven into a ditch. Rachman then cites a report for the Rand Corporation by Brian Jenkens who makes a similar point:

"The average American has about a 1 in 9,000 chance of dying in an automobile accident and about a one in 18,000 chance of being murdered.".

Meanwhile, in the five years after 9/11 (including the people killed there) "the average American had only a one in 500,000 chance of being killed in a terrorist attack".

By way of comparison, the chance of dying in an airline crash is 1 in 346,000 and the chance of being annihilated by a monster asteroid (> 0.5 km dia.) in a collision with Earth, is the same, according to Sir Martin Rees ('Our Final Hour'). So in other words, the chance of being killed in a terrorist attack is much much less than the chance of being wiped out in an asteroid collision. So why the fuck are people so obsessed over this essentially negligible fear? More obsessed than we (of the 60s) were when JFK erected the naval blockade to stop Soviet ships from entering port in Cuba, while 93 intermediate nuclear missiles were aimed at the U.S.!

Well, because fear spreads as well as sells, and also, as author Michael Sherry has noted (In the Shadow of War) serves to disable the rational or objective thought processes of a population, making it more amenable to the power and security mongers' bidding. People will then be more likely not only to capitulate in yielding their constitutional rights ("We must be safe!") but also to support the expense and burden of invasions, occupations that drain our Treasury. After all, as Sherry points out, who wants to be that citizen that's against defense of the country or homeland? This is what the War state is betting on, and Hermann Goering's words remain a reminder.

And how extensive and entrenched has the security state alone become? The Washington Post's expose ('Top Secret America') pointed out that:

"In Washington and the surrounding area, 33 building complexes for top secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since September, 2001. Together they occupy the equivalent of almost three Pentagons.. "

Adding :

"that is just the organizations created since 9/11, whle the CIA and NSA were hardly modest or under-resourced operations before the war on terror. Indeed, now - at least five counties within 150 miles of D.C. are the richest in the country, in terms of median income, and all are beneficiaries of this monstrous security state".

One in which I used to live, Howard County, Maryland, is the 5th wealthiest and features the NSA headquarters, the subject of an extensive investigative piece when I lived in Columbia, MD ('No Such Agency: America's Fortress of Spies', by Scott Shane and Tom Bowman, The Baltimore Sun Special Section (Dec. 3-15, 1995)). Of course, NSA has vastly grown since then, with its budget more than quadrupled. No wonder they can now afford to peer on every Facebook page and "wall" as well as sort through 5 billion emails a day looking for signs of terrorists.

But the expense is one which is burdening us, as well as the expense of supporting a cancerous Military-Industrial complex.

What this shows is that one of the primary casualties of the 9-11 meme has been the sense of national priorities and perspective, now badly eviscerated. It is this that gives rise to ridiculous reactions such as Sen John Kyl's the other day, who warned that if proposed defense budget cuts exceed the $350b for ten years planned, he will leave the super committee. It's also reflected in placing massive Medicare benefits cuts vs. defense spending cuts (with enormous preferences among the power elites for the former) and the Repukes' continued refusal to cut defense spending in any significant way, though they refuse to pay for it with new taxes (though the fuckers are happy to demand extension of unemployment benefits be "paid" with more deficit - ramping tax cuts, and that additional FEMA aid to Hurricane Irene stricken Vermont, New Jersey and Virginia be paid with "offsets" or cuts to benefits elsewhere, including Medicaid.) Is it any wonder the 9-11 meme is driving us off a fucking cliff?

And is it any wonder that Osama bin Laden is laughing from his grave fifty fathoms below the sea level as we continue to do his bidding? When will we wake the fuck up and see the nation we have to save is right before us, right here and now - bleeding from every pore of every unemployed, hopeless person who must get food stamps, and every one of the current 24 million undernourished kids? Our attention and energy must be to focus on righting our ship of state NOW, not being hostage to an event ten years in the past, which - no matter how dastardly- is being exploited to drive us further into perdition and becoming a Third World Banana Republic.

I leave readers with the words of one letter writer, in today's Denver Post. Ponder them, and then hopefully, re-read this blog and consider the need to leave 9-11 behind, and finally rip off that old, moldy bandaid to expose the wound to fresh air!

"I'm tired of 9/11 and would like to move on. 9/11 was a tragic event for those who perished and their loved ones. While those most affected by it won't put it aside anytime soon, the nation should. Yet we don't. Why do we keep picking and scratching at the scab?

For one, I believe 9/11 along with the "hallowed ground at ground zero" is a political candy store. Politicians associate themselves with it, and the aftermath of it, as much and as often as possible.

Hyping 9/11 also keeps hundreds of millions of dollars rolling into the coffers of Homeland Security without a whimper from taxpayers....

Keeping 9/11 alive helps to justify our present wars, and the terrible cost to the finest of our young who serve in them.

Some try to equate 9/11 with Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor cast us into a global conflict that put the very existence of our country at stake.It cost millions of wounded and dead. 9/11 is not this. Not anywhere near.

Let's place 9/11 in perspective along with other great challenges our country has faced in the past, and honor it accordingly."

- Bob Benham


I could not agree more!

Why I Remain A Cynic Re: 9/11 & "Wars on Terror".

"Ask yourself this: ten years into the post-9/11 era, haven't we had enough of ourselves? If we have any respect for history or humanity or decency left, isn’t it time to rip the Band-Aid off the wound, to remove 9/11 from our collective consciousness? No more invocations of those attacks to explain otherwise inexplicable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and our oh-so-global war on terror. No more invocations of 9/11 to keep the Pentagon and the national security state flooded with money. No more invocations of 9/11 to justify every encroachment on liberty, every new step in the surveillance of Americans, every advance in pat-downs and wand-downs and strip downs that keeps fear high and the homeland security state afloat." - Tom Engelhardt ('Let's Cancel 9/11 and Bury the War State's Blank Check at Sea' at http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/tom-engelhardt/38315/lets-cancel-9-11-and-bury-the-war-states-blank-check-at-sea)

Little did I realize that merely two years after living through the worst terror attack in the Western Hemisphere before 9/11, I'd be in another - while in London, in July, 1978 - when an IRA bomb strike left dozens dead or wounded. Indeed, the bloody images in The Guardian and Telegraph (including of Grenadier horses blown to bits) were enough to turn my stomach from eating any breakfast. I couldn't believe people could be so cowardly and bloodthirsty!

Earlier, much worse occurred in the island state of Barbados, on October 6, 1976, when Cubana Airlines Flight 455 was detonated over the island's territory with the loss of all 73 on board. This dastardly terror strike lives on in infamy in the minds of all who were there at the time, including me. (I had first arrived in Barbados in July, 1971 in Peace Corps, then after leaving my PC service in Aug. 1975, began work for the Ministry of Education in September the same year.)

Certainly the event is just as emblazoned in Barbadian neurons as the 9-11 attack for those in New York. Maybe worse since the scale of Barbados is radically smaller than New York, or the U.S. On a national scale of devastation, that Cubana Air bombing took out a percentage of people equal to 0.03% of the total populace, while numerically as a %, 9-11 took out roughly 0.0001%. Thus, in purely proportionate numerical terms, Cubana 455 was much deadlier. It was also personal for me, as I had to watch - on Paradise Beach - with my visiting nieces, as the hundreds of bloody body parts washed ashore. Terror was near and personal, not just some distant image on a TV screen.

My nieces, even now as adult women, are still traumatized by the event and have nightmares about the floating, bloody body parts. They also - when visiting Barbados (as in 2003)refused to go near that particular beach again. I believe they all suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome because of it. For myself, I sometimes awaken in the dead of night following a dream of being on a blood-soaked beach littered with skulls, lacerated bowels, and human organs stretching as far as the eye can see. Fortunately, the nightmares have receded over the years.

Only in the aftermath, after years, did the information eventually surface that the terror strike was CIA-orchestrated, using a group of anti-Castro hirelings named Freddy Lugo, Hernan Ricardo, Orlando Bosch (of "Alpha 66" fame) and Luis Carriles Posada. Declassified U.S. documents show that soon after the Cubana plane was blown out of the sky on Oct. 6, 1976, the CIA, then under the direction of George H.W. Bush, identified Posada and Bosch as the masterminds of the bombing. But in the fall 1976, Bush’s boss, President Gerald Ford (the same Ford that fudged and altered JFK assassination wound placements), was in a tight election battle with Democrat Jimmy Carter and the Ford administration wanted to keep intelligence scandals out of the newspapers. So Bush and other officials kept the lid on the investigations to assist Ford. It didn’t work, of course, but that fell move assisted Posada later.

Despite this political setback , the facts were well known. According to a secret CIA cable dated Oct. 14, 1976, intelligence sources in Venezuela relayed information about the Cubana Airlines bombing that tied in Bosch, who had been visiting Venezuela, and Posada, who then served as a senior officer in Venezuela’s intelligence agency, DISIP. The Oct. 14 cable said Bosch arrived in Venezuela in late September 1976 under the protection of Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez, a close Washington ally who assigned his intelligence adviser Orlando Garcia “to protect and assist Bosch during his stay in Venezuela.”

On his arrival, Bosch was met by Garcia and Posada, according to the report. Later, a fundraising dinner was held in Bosch’s honor. “A few days following the fund-raising dinner, Posada was overheard to say that, ‘we are going to hit a Cuban airplane,’ and that ‘Orlando has the details,’” the CIA report said. Meanwhile, those of us living in Barbados had no remote notion of the bloody act to come, nor of the U.S. complicity in it. The CIA Report went on to read:

“Following the 6 October [1976] Cubana Airline crash off the coast of Barbados, Bosch, Garcia and Posada agreed that it would be best for Bosch to leave Venezuela. Therefore, on 9 October, Posada and Garcia escorted Bosch to the Colombian border, where he crossed into Colombian territory.”

Note there the sanitizing of the language- "crash" instead of bombing, or what we call "collateral language", which would be but a prelude to that employed by the power-lings and lackeys in the wake of 9-11, to get all on board with the security mindset and fear mongering. (The better to get the abominable Patriot Act passed, and launch invasions of Afganistan and Iraq later).

Meanwhile, Venezuelan police began rounding up suspects. Two Cuban exiles, Hernan Ricardo and Freddy Lugo, who got off the Cubana plane in Barbados, confessed that they had planted the bomb and they named Bosch and Posada as the architects of the attack. A search of Posada’s apartment in Venezuela turned up Cubana Airlines timetables and other incriminating documents. Alas, Posada never received the justice he deserved because numerous presidents chose to turn him loose, including one (George H.W. Bush) who actually issued a pardon.

So call me cynical when I hear or see all this mawkish, overblown remembrance crap about 9/11 when no one recalled or remembered those slain on 10-6-76! Also, call me cynical when it's obvious the current 9/11 events are largely based on processed PR to keep the American masses in the dark about what's happening right under their noses. (Including driving us off the cliff with monstrous deficits to fund an overblown military-war state that uses this 9/11 media obsession and hype like crack cocaine - see e.g. Peggy Noonan's blather in today's WSJ). Saturate them with all that teary-eyed victimhood, and make out like their country is white as the driven snow, and hey....tell them to go shopping at the malls (as Gee Dumbya Bush did) in the aftermath.

Lastly, spare me all the chest beating political rectitude when the nation that adopts it had allowed the previous most horrific terror attack to go unpunished, and the main perpetrators to receive comparable slaps on the wrists. "Oh, oh but many more were killed in 9/11!" Sorry, as I noted, in a proportionate sense, Barbados suffered much worse on 10-6-76 than the U.S. on 9-11-01.

In a September 13, 2001 interview with the magazine In These Times, Chalmers Johnson (the author of ‘Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire’) was said to “have seen the September 11 catastrophe coming”. Johnson’s 2000 book argued that U.S. interventionist foreign policy and military overextension would lead to unintended and unpredictable consequences, including "blowback" if it didn't desist. Those who would pay for its malignant policies and decisions, such as keeping American bases set up in Saudi Arabia following the 1990 Gulf War, would be innocent citizens, collateral victims. Just as traumatized Cubans and still PTSD-affected Bajans were collateral victims of the U.S. terror war against Castro's Cuba.

In the latter case, one could actually find - via Freedom of Information Act documents- evidence that from as far back as 1962 the U.S. wanted to perpetrate strikes on innocents to try and justify a war against Cuba. Two pages of those (now) declassified documents are posted here. There are more than ten in all, many of which later paved the way for the infamous "Operation Northwoods" which readers can google. Note the tactics include: blowing up ships in harbor, conducting funerals for 'mock victims', and using 'Remember the Maine' incidents that include "blowing up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay to blame Cuba".

The balmy piffle of airy-headed conspiracy theorists? Fuck NO! Actual text from propositions invoked in U.S. documents, and under the orders of Gen Edward Lansdale. Lansdale at the time was Director of the Pentagon's Office of Special Operations - the unit responsible for reporting to the NSA. (The same massive security outfit now sifting through all your emails, thanks to provisions in the Patriot Act).

This background is important, because without it one comes away with the erroneous notion that the U.S. is a goody two shoes country whose own butchery, terror, and wars of choice merit no consequences. We can do as we please, because we're "God's gift to the planet". But many, even in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, never saw it that way and indeed, saw the attacks as the ultimate end point for a behind the scenes, aggressive foreign policy that took no prisoners. The problem is most of these voices were shut up or suppressed in the "rah-rah" flag waving and pseudo patriotism that followed. Why "pseudo-patriotism"? Because if the event merited all the gravitas as had been portrayed, people: 1) would not have been told to go out and "shop" - as Bush Jr. told them, and 2) would have been informed they may have to pay higher taxes as costs to inflict harm on the enemy.

BushCo let citizens off the hook with (1) and omitting 2. (And Obama still hasn't allowed the Bush tax cuts to expire to at least pay for being in Afghanistan until 2014) Indeed, instead of demanding higher taxes to pay for the invasions and occupations that Bush knew were coming (the plans had been on the boards since before 1992 and would've been implemented had George Sr. been re-elected in '92), he allowed TWO massive tax cuts to go through. (Helped along by the pusillanimous, no-balls Dems, as usual. 12 Dem Senators voted for the first and most expensive tax cuts in 2001, instead of understanding the damage they would inflict on our deficits. Just as these morons extended the Bush tax cuts past their normal expiry date last December). So my point is the government then, just as now, was never serious - but merely crafted ways to justify parlaying tax money into funding a massive and abominable War-Security State. Thus blogger Tom Engelhardt's take (ibid.) is correct:

"It’s commonplace, even today, to speak of Ground Zero as “hallowed ground.” How untrue. Ten years later, it is defiled ground and it’s we who have defiled it. It could have been different. The 9/11 attacks could have been like the Blitz in London in World War II. Something to remember forever with grim pride, stiff upper lip and all."

Beyond the contradictory moves to what was being mouthed, other aspects crept in, especially via collateral language. The idea was to forge a kind of "Newspeak" to drumbeat people into accepting the notion of a perpetual war on "terror". This way, immense defense budgets could be justified, with huge profits for the defense contractors. No surprise then that after 9/11 the Pentagon's budget doubled! It is now beyond the point of being cancerous (as NY Times columnist Frank Rich called it in a New Yorker piece) and is at risk of destroying the domestic security foundations even as it ramps up the yap about having to stay in Afghanistan until the last dog is hung....and oh yes, we must also build those 2,443 F-35s at a cost of a third of a billion (on paper).

Anyway, the authors of Collateral Language: A Users’ Guide to America’s New War (2002), note the purpose of collateral language is to pervert thought, more than enlighten or inform it. This was accomplished in the early days following 9/11 via a plethora of related terms including "axis of evil", 9/11 as an "Act of war", the "war on terror" and "terrorist" itself (which definition is so wide open that virtually any opponent of gov't policy, or even an environmental protestor can now be labeled so). The authors' concern was that as we yield and submit to the phony gravitas and meaning in those euphemisms and bogus terms, we surrender the independence of uniqueness and our thoughts, and thereby allow them to be forged and crafted by others, and hence permit the manipulation of our consent. Once we permit manipulation of consent, it's game over. We have become like beaten whelps towing the party line and could as well be automatons.

This was horrifically demonstrated in the run up to the Iraq invasion on March, 15, 2003, with months of brow beating by the corporate media, following orders from the Bushites, that Saddam had those terrible WMDs, and after all, they did find "yellow cake from Nigeria" didn't they? I wrote down and noted that as of Oct., 2002, 65% of Americans had been against invasion, but this had turned to 83% for by early March. Game fucking over.

The molding of language is important, because it helps to mold thought. By molding thought, the architects of current 'acceptable' language also are able to pre-emptively exclude certain issues, and protests or make their exercise much more difficult. Even today, with the tenth anniversary of 9/11 upon us, coming out against the homogenized thought reflexes of investing more victimhood and defense-mindedness is viewed as gauche, if not traitorous. We must all think alike, the story line goes, we were struck as a nation and must all feel the same grief. Well, maybe, when those poor souls blown up over Barbados receive the same!

The "freedom" line or worse, "them terrorists hate us for our freedoms" is the most pathetic codswallop. Especially given that in the wake of the security and 4th amendment violations following 9/11, most Americans couldn't even name three of the Bill of Rights. Well, no surprise because rights tend to vanish when left unused, just like muscles! Let's also bear in mind what this abandonment of conceptual rights led to: in the same aftermath the UK and the U.S. both abandoned the criminal model of justice and instead adopted brutal, fascist methods more comon to Nazi Germany. Namely using "extraordinary rendering" whereby terror suspects were abducted, sedated, blindfolded and shackled before being put on a plane to Egypt or Syria for interrogation and torture.

Again Engelhardt's take is spot on:

"If September 11th was indeed a nightmare, 9/11 as a memorial and Ground Zero as a “consecrated” place have turned out to be a blank check for the American war state, funding an endless trip to hell. They have helped lead us into fields of carnage that put the dead of 9/11 to shame."


So long as the War state collects blank checks at the expense of our real (or feigned) sorrow and victimhood, we are the real victims of this whole sordid process. Year after year we are coughing up more of our domestic blood and treasure for "wars" that can never be won, even as millions of our own languish without enough food, or shelter. And who now, because of that selfsame war spending, stand to have their remaining benefits and meager supports cut (as John Kyl the AZ Asshole put it - as one of the Super Committee of 12, he will leave the committee before allowing any cuts beyond $350 b over ten yrs. for the Pentagon! When it ought to he $450b A YEAR! Well don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out, Kyl, you fuckin' SOB!)

Hell, the visiting firemen and other first responders and people who unselfishly showed up to dig out from the rubble of 9/11 still can't get the government to put cancers on the list for their compensation! (They're told there's "no evidence" of any "causal" cancer connections to the toxins.) Many suffer from terrible lung, gastric reflux and skin diseases, and can get no relief. Does money mean more than honoring their service? Sure as hell fucking seems so! But if that's so, why all the pie-eyed remembrances if we can't or won't assist the LIVING who need the help now!! Meanwhile the scumbag hedge funders, investment bankers and traders on Wall St. are making higher killings than ever, off the "dumb order flow", even when the DOW tanks as it did yesterday (by 304).

I defy anyone to convince me this country doesn't have all its priorities wrong, ass -backwards, and isn't using 9/11 to milk gullible citizens and taxpayers into the support of a perpetual war state, and maybe....maybe...I will drop my cynicism!

But don't hold your breath!