Inside jobs and the violence that keeps secrets

If 9/11 was an inside job, as I believe, who is keeping the lid on those who know what really happened? Or individual aspects of what happened that prove the Towers collapsed in a controlled demolition?
How were the top people in the CIA, et al, kept silent - those who knew the truth of the assassinations of the American Dream that were the murders of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy?
Would it not take powerful and violent threats to life and limb, not only made to those people, but also to their families and descendants? Wouldn't someone in high places have possibly wanted to come clean - but didn't/couldn't?
I submit three entities, and don't claim to be the first to suggest this. In the matters of the 60s assassination of Kennedy - the man who threatened to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds" - the CIA and the Mafia. Duh. Same with Martin and Bobby, I think.
In the matter of 9/11 - the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex (read CIA, et al) and Saudi Arabia, both known anti-Democracy forces perfectly willing to torture and kill.
If you believe or harbor the fear of a 9/11 betrayal, you need to go here to the 9/11 Truth Film Festival page and see detail after detail pointing towards the big lie we are asked, and threatened, into believing.
For more on the Saudi/Bush family alliance and the questions it raises, try Lawrence Wright's New Yorker article, here. You know, do you not, that they behead people in Saudi Arabia? That they played a key role in the drastic rise of oil prices that helped bring down Jimmy Carter? That they are a key US ally, as was Pakistan? (bull....)
A neat summary of that article is on AlterNet, James Ridgeway's article, here.

An Immodest proposal to reinstate the draft and pay for war as we go

The biggest threat to the USA is not ISIS or Russia. It is the gullibility of the American voter in the face of a union among the media and the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex. General Electric and its subsidiary NBC are prominent examples. Norman Solomon is well informed on this and you can read one of his articles on the Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting website here:  http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/the-military-industrial-media-complex/

We The People are in the dark and so are most reporters. We just don’t know what the secret institutions of our government are up to. I argue that, in our imposed ignorance, we must use our minds, our hearts, and our guts in a kind of three-branch exercise of reaching conclusions. I believe that our government either utterly failed us in the months before 9/11 or that components of our government were involved. Either way they were nothing short of criminal and incompetent. Their answer was to spend trillions of dollars on war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the creation of a new bureaucracy, Homeland Security that does more to add to the national debt and militarize our police forces than it does to protect us. The CIA, et al, failed us so let’s create a new agency to add to the confused and deadly menace. Jeez. The military incursions have been proven through the hands of ISIS and the Taliban to be more deadly than helpful. Our troops were pawns in the hands of the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison complex. The fact that they died and were maimed in numbers far less than in the Viet Nam War results in fewer and smaller protests, though the wars were equally dismal failures.

I hear Vice-President Joe Biden say we will follow ISIS to “the gates of hell.” The upcoming Presidential campaign will pit two main candidates against each other in a bid to outdo each other in hawkish rhetoric. Voices of peace will be called traitorous and weak – un-American. President Obama will be trashed by both Republicans and Democrats. In short, Mr. Biden, we are more likely to follow our terrorist enemies to the halls of bankruptcy and ruin than to the gates of hell. We will spent a trillion here and a trillion there and end up with more terrorists than we started with.

Our willingness to be bled dry leads us to give terrorists their cheapest weapon. We are more than willing to bleed money. And terrorism, like education, is such a handy issue to spout off about in campaigns while never admitting that our actions don’t fix anything in the long run.

 I have an idea that would work, I think.

 Let’s reinstate the draft with new provisions. One provision is to draft every single able-bodied young man and woman of average and above-average intelligence into service. Conscious Objectors, in my plan, would be defined in the same way they were during Viet Nam. As I remember, and know from a Mennonite friend from those days, one needed a family history of belonging to a pacifist sect. You can’t become a pacifist at age 16 or 17 and have it recognized by the government. The way to prove you are a  pacifist will be to accept non-combatant service in and near the most dangerous places or to go to jail for the length of mandated military service. No college exemptions. No mental health exemptions. They can be weeded out and placed in treatment facilities in which the living conditions are no better than field conditions for the fighting private. No deferments. No cushy jobs for the kids of the rich. Come to think of it, since we are so gung-ho about privatization, let’s no longer allow cushy, but necessary, jobs to be military positions. Privatize those jobs, no deferments. Congress must prove its patriotism by passing a law that all non-pacifist children of Congressmen/women currently serving or out of office be put on the battlefield or in the most dangerous locations. We must, I’m afraid, exempt the Congressmen and women or we will never have young people eligible to run and hold office.

In addition to the draft law, there will be funding/tax laws. No more credit card warfare. When Congress (or the president or any damn thing public or private) wishes violence to be done in the name of We The People, we will have an immediate flat tax imposed to pay for it. As costs increase, so will the tax rate.

There. In a short, but impolitic phrase,  Americans must feel the pain of what we do in the world. It’s done in our name. We must share the burden or not pick up the load at all! Oh wait! If we are sharing the burden, why the hell do we allow General Electric, et al, to profit? It’s more insane than my proposed laws.

We are the cannon fodder, the future collateral damage.

Hillary Clinton is campaigning against Barack Obama's foreign policy. I don't remember her ever campaigning against George W. Bush's foreign policy, do you? She wants more American involvement in the world! Yeah! I'm so tired of all this isolationism. Get those troops overseas poking at ever more hornet's nests. It's worked so well for usI realize lately that I am utterly at a loss, not for opinions, but for the will to express them. I can tune into the Colbert Report online and get my ironic dose of sanity. I can replay George Carlin on YouTube. What I can't get going is any sense of optimism. Of course, George was no optimist, but didn't we revel in his nihilism while still retaining our view that it was humor, not utter truth? I think it was utter truth and that's no joke.

You can't trust the Government, but there are still positive aspects of government. Many elements of our government do good work. There are counties and cities with progressive attitudes. There are agencies with positive agendas. but over all is the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex and neither Republicans or Democrats are motivated to tackle that. Well, they are that.

So, at age 64 I sort of feel I have other things to blog about. One thing is to get right with the Power of the Universe. Both heaven and hell exist within us; I want more of heaven right now. But don't worry, I'm not going to blog that. That's for living out.

It feels as though my generation is in its death throes so why the fuck don't the young rise up politically and kick our asses out?! Oh, well, we were the Baby Boomers, the vast army of the young and look how we changed things! Sexually, culturally, yeah. Pot and blow jobs are plentiful now. Politically? Too many of us went the Abby Hoffman route instead of the Martin Luther King route. Our generation's radicals provided the scare that helped take Nixon and his evil spawn (Reagan, Bushes, et. al.) over the top.

I can't think of too many countries that had a revolution before its people were in misery. (The United States was arguably one in 1776, but that's another blog.) The revolutions of 1989 certainly come to mind. The United States has still a long way to go before enough people are poor enough to realize that we have a common interest in overthrowing the status quo. The Democrats, as a national party, just argue about how to fuck with the world, not IF we should fuck with it. Ron Paul was a ray of light, but his heir Rand is waffling on what appears to be the BIG issue - the unblinking financing of Israel's military. Hell, we're not even paying the bill for our own wars, yet we rack up more debt to finance the Israeli hawks.

We back Saudi Arabia, the homeland of radical Islam, with God only knows what devastating future results. We just keep poking those hornet's nests. I truly believe that, just as our leaders tell us to go shopping when the economy is down, our leaders provoke war just to feed cash into the war economy. The vast industrial might of America has corporate-raided - you know bought by vast wealth so it can be dismantled into its component parts and sold to the highest bidder. And the highest bidder so far is Communist China! So nothing makes any sense anymore to me.

America is not about to rise up and throw off the corporate yoke. We're more likely to descend into gang-like warfare. Or, our public voices will be stifled by the ubiquitous presence of guns at our political rallies and voting stations.

See, I'm a curmudgeon, and if I can't be a great curmudgeon, what's the point? I think there might be hope in a political party, call it the Eisenhower Party, who appeal to common sense - bring back the tax rates that paid for WWII and built a great infrastructure, bring back the laws that oversaw a strong and diverse media presence - but then, I must admit one thing. The man who named the Military/Industrial Complex did not stop it. He did not name names. He may have been the last person who could have stopped it.

If I were rich enough I would move my family out of the US. I wonder, what did people think about those first Jews to flee Germany? Unpatriotic? But at some point the same action became smart. America is at that point. Some people will say I am disloyal, but I say look at the super-rich. They have taken their tax money outside of the "homeland," they have residences outside the "homeland," they could walk away from any disaster. That's the foundation of super-richness - we are above it all. 

They are above it all because they own the government. We are the cannon fodder, the future collateral damage.

Now, here is the point where I want to pontificate my solutions which I've already noted are pointless.

An exercise in futility.

You know what is not futile when you are 64? Going outside. Breathing deeply. Playing with grandkids and dogs (whichever are at hand). Pursuing that dream, no maybe not the get-rich-quick one that eluded you for 64 years, but the one that is spiritually rewarding. Don't spend your inheritance. Leave it to the young. The world was made for the young.

When fascism comes to America ...

Jimmy Carter was the last Democratic President of the United States, in my 'humble' opinion. That he remains a maligned man in U.S. history, media, and politics is a function of the same political dynamics that continue today. The dynamics that have led to unprecedented drilling in the name of 'energy independence,' yet allow the sale of oil, gas, and coal to foreign nations, thus ensuring a sooner-rather-than-latter return to dependence on Middle Eastern oil. The dynamics that perpetuate news cycles wherein Obama, in particular, and liberal Democrats in general, are painted as unwilling to talk to and compromise with, a Republican party that states outright that all they want is the demise of true opposition.
Here is a link to the Salon.com article that details the role of "Christians" in the death of decency in American politics.

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/25/jimmy_carters_evangelical_downfall_reagan_religion_and_the_1980_presidential_election/

This is a fascinating excerpt from Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter by Randall Balmer.

For anyone interested in the stranglehold conservative "Christians" have on my country, I recommend the following sources:    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsnzLDNwKcU

In this video you get a short rundown of the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, narrated by a leader of Texas Baptist Committed, the unfortunate name of a group of Texas churches which refuse the dictatorial leadership of the new Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the denomination President Carter once belonged to. Texas Baptists Committed believes in that quaint concept, the separation of church and state.

http://www.sbctakeover.com/TakeoverBook.pdf

This is a link to about 100 pages of a summary of the SBC's takeover by conservatives with source material.

Why does all this matter? It paints a picture of the most powerful religious group in American politics and where their vast influence is taking us. It matters because these "Christians" and their ilk are the primary movers influencing such issues as the American gulag of private prisons, the ongoing pressure for the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex that is perfectly willing to rob us of civil liberty and, ultimately, will lead to the complete moral and financial bankruptcy of the United States. The SBC provides a framework of totalitarian control, and not simply of their churches, but also of complete submission to government control (whenever the male SBC leadership declares it). The members of the SBC are America's brownshirts - as in this quote attributed to Sinclair Lewis -

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

Yes, and armed with guns thanks to the National Rifle Association. 

the grass roots must be watered, the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex must be starved.

Ted Cup's editorial in the US edition of the Guardian states his belief that the CIA may face a formidable challenge in the US Senate. One can only hope. I believe that, given a world in which so many facts are utterly unavailable to the public, it makes sense to go with one's gut reactions. If one takes no stand until the facts are known then no stand will ever be taken. And a stand against the United State's spy network is long overdue. It has broken faith with the expressed ideals of the nation and the world. It has become the enemy of truth and freedom. It creates the very conditions it argues it must fight against!
I don't know yet what to think of President Obama's reaction. Just because he is letting the disagreement between Senate overseers and the CIA stew in their own juices for now does not mean he will not take the right stand in the end. The right stand, in my mind however,  goes well beyond slapping the CIA for lying to and intimidation of the Senate. There are, no doubt, existing spy agencies within our government that the public does not even know about. Hell, there are likely to be PRIVATE outsourced spy agencies with no oversight at all. In this sick age of privatization, our government allowed the company-formerly-known-as-Blackwater to run a private army. The nation that set up protocols and rules of behavior after WWII has blatantly thumbed its nose at the entire world. WE can do anything WE want and we'll rub your nose in it after.
I fear their is no evil the US government could do that will rouse the People to righteous indignation. I fear we are all too scared of losing our jobs, of being painted as unAmerican. We let the Supreme Court elect a President, to allow billionaires to spread propaganda. We are allowing states to gerrymander and change election laws in ways that will make it impossible for the People to change the government through the electoral process. We won't even stand en masse to demand rational, Constitutional gun laws. And now Democrats are using the open carry of guns as an issue to try to win over a few nuts to their side!
My gut reaction? WE THE PEOPLE have surrendered our government to the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex. Who we elect no longer matters. The Complex is entrenched. No one person, such as a new Martin Luther King, could survive long enough to rally us. Somehow there must be a nonviolent uprising of hundreds and then thousands and then tens of thousands of Americans. How? Well, all I know is that I will begin my search for a group to join- a local group with whom I personally interact. The internet will not save us. Sitting back and watching the show will not save us. I once participated in an action in which young liberals took control of the Alaskan Democratic Party. Grass roots.
Pete Seeger said, "Find a place you love and dig in." I love my country. Let us all begin by expressing our views whenever we hear contrary views expressed, at work, at church, in schools. The right speaks out loud, but the left just thinks to themselves. The right organizes, the left merely votes.

Clarence Thomas' approval by the Senate was a Cassandra moment in the U.S.

Clarence Thomas was approved for a seat on the Supreme Court by a vote of 52-48. Eleven, yes 11, Democrats voted yea. By the time of his hearings the Republican push for a radically conservative Court was clear. There can be no doubt that Clarence Thomas was meant to be a vote in the pocket of the most dangerously conservative people in United States government. And yet, Democrats could not summon the political nerve or savvy to unite against an obviously flawed candidate. As ever, they "went along to get along."
The Supreme Court majorities that elected George W. Bush, the attempt to cement lax gun laws as the "will" of our founding fathers, the opening of corporate money to buy our democracy, the opening up of voter intimidation - all these things and many more are the result of a failure for only three, 3, of those Democrats to foresee the future! However, if those men were true to the liberal nature of the American people, the vote would have been 59-41 against Mr. Thomas. Of course, most other Supreme Court justices have voted with Thomas on key issues.
The American electorate, I think, believed the election and reelection of President Obama was going to ensure a liberal America and their disappointment is focused wrongly on the President. That's a big part of what's wrong with America.
Remember Nixon's Southern Strategy and his "Hard Hat" politics? The rise of the religious right? That is what ensured a radically conservative politics that shows every sign of sweeping back into control of both houses of Congress in the next election. The United States is a liberal nation with a dysfunctional ability to ascend to power.
Who should bear the blame? Republicans? Hell no, they just do what they do. It's the other party, who, despite the illusion of opposing the radical conservatives, mostly capitulate at key moments. That's why we don't have a reasonable regulation of the "militia" - gun laws, I mean. That's why we don't have Medicare-for-all. That's why we spend far too much on a military whose missions do not enhance our security, but merely enrich the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex.
And that is why I think that even the seeming victory for Gay Rights in the defeat of Arizona's bill to allow religious views to justify discrimination could end up backfiring.
Do you think that Democrats could have acted in inspiring ways to prevent the Nixon/Reagan agenda from taking over most of the states? I do. Lyndon Johnson knew when he signed the Voting Rights Act that he was handing over the South to Republicans, but why did we lose most of the rest of our liberal nation to the new "Red" menace? (Red States = Republican victories)
And why does it seem that we are going to hand over a Republican Congress to Hillary Clinton?

PS.
Who runs the U.S. - and has no need for subtlety - no fear of backlash?! Wall Street warns Reublicans
Thanks, Supremes, for Citizens United.

about WWII allies

Thank you, Russia. And thank you Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua for offering asylum to Snowden. Considering the history of the U.S. in South America it showed amazing courage. Courage beyond the call of duty, indeed.
Since, officially or not, Russia and all of the former Soviet Union are on the list Bush called "the Evil Empire" I would have preferred my EU fantasy to come true.
It seems to me that the Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex that truly rules America grew for the purpose of making fortunes immediately following WWII. Now they can't even honor the alliance that won WWII with the U.S.
Of what Franklin Roosevelt called "The Big Three" WWII allies (USSR, U.S., Great Britain) the sacrifice of the Soviet Union was not acknowledged by the people of the U.S. Indeed they became the first enemy of the now eternal quest for enemies America needs to justify the eternal expansion of military power.
Another ally, France has become the butt of jokes and even hatred in recent years by American politicians.
China was once called by Roosevelt one of the world's needed "Four Policemen" (before Mao) along with the Big Three. Well, of the four (U.S., USSR, Great Britain, and China) China (internally) is a dictatorship. The U.S. is a prison Empire. The USSR is no more. What exists is a group of countries whose developments  unfortunately were distorted by the U.S. and are considered more or less evil according to how much they cooperate with America's sick "Complex."
That leaves Great Britain. Expanding beyond Great Britain is the entire EU and all of Central and South America. I would like to see this group ban together to oppose the worst excesses of the Empire. I know it is the American People who should fix America, our fight, our fault, etc., but don't bet on it.
So I hope the entire world applauds Russia's action and works through its diplomatic abilities to protect those countries which take stands against the cancer of our Military/Industrial/Secrecy/Prison Complex. The little but brave countries need some help.
As for Russia. They can take it. WWII proved that. But the impact of a group of major allies upon thinking Americans (we do exist) and thinking politicians might work wonders!

It would be lovely if you'd search for me at your favorite music download site or Spotify or Jango Radio.