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And, yes, I DO take it personally: 07/03/2011 - 07/10/2011
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"Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it."
- Noam Chomsky
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And, yes, I DO take it personally

Saturday, July 09, 2011

The U.S. continues to generate the threat that justifies its National Security and Surveillance State

glenn...
In just the past two months alone (all subsequent to the kihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflling of Osama bin Laden), the U.S. Government has taken the following steps in the name of battling the Terrorist menace: extended the Patriot Act by four years without a single reform; begun a new CIA drone attack campaign in Yemen; launched drone attacks in Somalia; slaughtered more civilians in Pakistan; attempted to assassinate U.S. citizen Anwar Awlaki far from any battlefield and without a whiff of due process; invoked secrecy doctrines to conceal legal memos setting forth its views of its own domestic warrantless surveillance powers; announced a "withdrawal"plan for Afghanistan that entails double the number of troops in that country as were there when Obama was inaugurated; and invoked a very expansive view of its detention powers under the 2001 AUMF by detaining an alleged member of al-Shabab on a floating prison, without charges, Miranda warnings, or access to due process. That's all independent of a whole slew of drastically expanded surveillance powers seized over the past two years in the name of the same threat.

[...]

I long believed that the most patently irrational American policy -- the one that would cause future generations to look back in baffled disgust -- was the Drug War: imprisoning huge numbers of citizens for years and years for nothing more than possessing or selling banned substances to consenting adults. But now I think it's this: that the U.S. Government is able to persuade the populace to continue to support and pay for blood-spilling and liberty-destroying policies in the name of Terrorism when nothing sustains and exacerbates the threat of Terrorism more than those very policies. Just like the FBI continues to manufacture its own Terrorist plots that it then flamboyantly boasts of thwarting, the U.S. continues to generate the threat that justifies its National Security and Surveillance State.

ok, so, ya gotta ask... who benefits...? that's not a hard one to answer... since our super-rich elites profit hugely from the defense industry and all the industries associated with the national security and surveillance states and the death and destruction that ensues, why wouldn't they be heavily invested in making sure that absolutely no stone is left unturned in terms of keeping the endless wars going and adding to them whenever and wherever possible...? how do they keep them going...? that's an easy one too... they buy elected officials to do their bidding... those elected officials make a pretense of representing their constituents, but we all know who makes up their real constituency -- and it ain't us...

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Very tardy photoblogging

i've been negligent on my photoblogging...

i was in montana a couple of weekends ago, hiking around with my son, his wife and their dog, enjoying the wonderful air and the spectacular rockies... the first four photos are from dearborn canyon north and slightly west of helena... the second-to-last photo is of a mother and a baby loon on clearwater lake in minnesota where i spent this past 4th of july weekend, out on a pontoon boat, kicking back and listening to the loons call... the last photo is the sunset on clearwater lake later that same evening...


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Wild iris in a meadow
Dearborn Canyon, Montana


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Eagle in a treetop
On the way home from Dearborn Canyon, Montana


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Wildflowers
Dearborn Canyon, Montana


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Dearborn River
Dearborn Canyon, Montana


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Loons
Clearwater Lake, Minnesota


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Sunset
Clearwater Lake, Minnesota

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A truly frightening unemployment chart

from business insider via kevin at cryptogon...

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and, when none of us can afford to feed and clothe ourselves and our families and find ourselves out on the street, dumpster-diving and pushing our worldly belongings around in shopping carts, what next...?

p.s. commenter, mettle, has the answer to that question...

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Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Just can't get it up

so much for a bait-and-switch headline...

basically, i just can't seem to get the energy to post on what seems to be the eternal bullshit that continues to go on literally everywhere... i am SO-O-O-OOO ready for good news and i'm not talkin' about fluffy bunny, cute puppy, little girl dancing good news, i'm talkin' 'bout the REAL GODDAM THING... you know, like bankers arrested and thrown in jail, war criminals indicted, a wholesale global turn to solar energy, ceasefires in all of our numerous goddam wars, you know, stuff like that...

what i've been posting on ever since i started this blog are bits and pieces of what i see as the larger pattern of what's been going on, not only in the u.s., but around the world, and i think i've done a pretty good job... i haven't done exhaustive research, to be sure, but, given my daily tour through myriad news sources coupled with my extensive travel and work in many other countries, i've managed to cobble together what i believe are many of the key pieces of the planetary puzzle - what's actually going on, who's involved and some pretty good guesses as to why... most of it, unfortunately, has been pretty grim...

quite frankly, i'm losing interest in digging up more things to be outraged about... yes, we're being taken to the cleaners by our global, super-rich elites, people solely interested in amassing staggering quantities of money and power without the least regard for how it's obtained or who has to suffer and die in the process... yes, the vast majority of people in the world are paying the price for their greed and, yes, our so-called leaders at the top of world governments are either themselves part of that super-rich elite class or, at minimum, their bought-and-paid for toadies... yep, i got the picture... all the rest is just details...

so, when can i look for the good stuff, the turn-around, the tipping point...? my friends, it's way, WAY overdue...

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