Netanyahu in Congress - Deferring Sanity

This article is mirrored from CounterPuch.

MARCH 03, 2015

Deferring Sanity

Netanyahu in Congress

by JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN

The special US-Israeli relationship is as secure today as it has ever been. There is no danger that Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress will have a “destructive” effect on our commitment to Israel’s “security”. After listening to National Security Adviser, Susan Rice’s, speech to AIPAC this evening, I shut off the television and realized, to my chagrin, that, if anything, Israel may even benefit from the international media soap opera touched off by Netanyahu’s hubris: shame on our political leaders, news commentators and spin doctors for allowing the personal animosity between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, divert us, yet again, from the real issues.

Bypassing President Obama, Netanyahu accepted an invitation by Senate Majority Leader, John Boehner, to address the US Congress on the topic of Iran. It would hardly surprise me to learn that this invitation was deliberately engineered to humiliate Obama publicly; to bolster the mainstream Republican agenda on Iran; and to elevate Netanyahu’s standings in the upcoming Israeli elections this March 17th. Whether his speech to Congress will, in fact, have a positive effect on the latter is arguable and depends, to some extent, on just how outrageous and duplicitous the content of Netanyahu’s lecture turns out to be.

A few things remain unclear: either Netanyahu doesn’t read the news, he is hoping that nobody else notices Israel’s de facto alliance with ISIS, or he is more concerned with poking Obama in the eye publicly than in the future of his country, a fact that would not surprise me. Focusing on the dangerous forces lurking in his “neighborhood”, Netanyahu singles out Iran, Lebanon (by which he presumably means Hizbullah), Syria, and Hamas. Unlike most Americans, Netanyahu views the potential of a nuclear capable Iran as a greater threat to regional stability than the spread of ISIS and extremist groups, such as al-Qaida.

With even Saudi Arabia, fearing Blowback, reversing course on its official policy toward ISIS by making it illegal for its nationals to fight in foreign wars (an about face from the nation whose extremist, fundamentalist form of Islam — Wahhabism — has been among its leading exports for over 40 years, and certainly its deadliest) it is that much more disturbing to note the silence echoing from Tel Aviv.

Instead Netanyahu has regaled us with tirade after tirade on the ramifications of an Iranian nuclear bomb and the existential threat it poses little Israel — ironic since Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has categorically stated that his country doesn’t want one.

Why would he lie? A nuclear-armed Iran would be its country’s suicide note to the world before being “obliterated” (to use former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton’s, word) by the United States. Iran would like to acquire nuclear technological know-how – not an atomic arsenal – the sanest possible acquisition in a ‘neighborhood’ where the only nuclear-armed power, Israel, threatens Iran’s destruction almost daily, and has wreaked havoc on the region routinely for nearly 7 decades. How else might Iran succeed in deterring Israeli militarism, and how else might Iran – a country whose conventional armed forces barely allow a defensive capability – move forward into a future in which it is not bullied and brow-beaten into submission, preferring instead to seek the option of independent energy efficiency, and freedom from a regional hegemon whose godfather already enjoys unrivaled authority over most of that hemisphere?

All speculation aside, what strikes me as the most obvious piece of information to re-emerge from the tempest now brewing in Washington is that Benjamin Netanyahu is an unscrupulous, scheming, vile man who has taken the meaning of “chutzpah” to new heights in his display of unseemly and undiplomatic behavior. That no world leader has yet demanded that he and his regime be made to answer for its brutally criminal, scandalous policies time and again compels us to recognize how grievously weak and flawed the ‘international community’ is, and by extension, how depraved those leaders are whose actions are considered most synonymous with it. It takes the unknown human rights organizations on the ground in the Gaza Strip, the Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestine Center for Human Rights, to have to beseech the world repeatedly, day after day, to compel Israel and the United States to adhere to the most fundamental precepts of international law and accepted standards of humanitarian and diplomatic behavior.

What we are watching today, and have been a party to for the past few weeks is yet another media-political circus for the sake of narrow sectarian interests. A genuine rift in US-Israeli relations would manifest itself in long overdue concrete policies the US would demand of its client regime: an immediate end to the building of illegal Jewish settlements on all occupied Palestinian land; recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state; a full moratorium on the on-going theft and use of natural resources outside the boundaries of the Green Line, or borders that existed prior to June 4th, 1967; a complete withdrawal of all military checkpoints and barriers within occupied Palestinian land; an immediate halt to the blockade of the Gaza Strip, the withholding of tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, and the closure of crossing points into and out of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

It would mean the end to all restriction of movement by Palestinians to and from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, and the right of any Palestinian to return to that land now recognized by a majority of the world’s nations as a Palestinian state.

In short, a genuinely ‘destructive’ rift in US-Israeli relations would suggest at the very least a beginning to the end of America’s unconditional support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine. It would commence the end to an occupation whose accompanying militarization and brutalization has had ramifications for countries as far away as Iran and that will continue to contribute to the growing havoc and destruction Western colonial and United States’ imperial history have wrought on the region we know as the Middle East.

Jennifer Loewenstein is a human rights activist and faculty associate in Middle East Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She can be reached at: amadea311@earthlink.net

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Some additional information on this subject from Noam Chomsky.

--Joe

Welcome to America's Gaza

[UPDATE II :: No First Amendment Rights for "war combatants"]

What happened to the Palestinian people in the so-called occupied territories, primarily in Gaza is exactly what is happening in America and for basically the very same reasons. First lets demonstrate the complete disconnect in reality when dealing with two similar peoples. Barack Obama says, when discussing the beheading death of James Foley Wednesday, August 20, 2014 by the Islamic State:

"They declared their ambition to commit genocide against an ancient people. So ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just god would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day. ISIL has no ideology of any value to human beings. Their ideology is bankrupt. They may claim out of expediency that they are at war with the United States or the West, but the fact is they terrorize their neighbors and offer them nothing but an endless slavery to their empty vision and the collapse of any definition of civilized behavior." 

Now look at a similar people, as Obama characterizes, driven by nihilistic ideologies.  They conduct themselves in the same barbaric hateful terroristic ways, just change a couple of his words:

(Nihilism: 1. total rejection of established laws and institutions. 2. anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity. 3. total and absolute destructiveness, especially toward the world at large and including oneself.)

Let’s be clear about Israel (ISIL). They have rampaged across cities and villages killing innocent, unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence. They abduct women and children and subject them to torture and rape and slavery. They have murdered Palestinian Muslims, both Sunni and Shia), by the thousands. They target Christians and religious minorities, driving them from their homes, murdering them when they can, for no other reason than they practice a different religion."

The only real difference in the beheading of innocent people between ISIL and Israel is that Israel doesn't behead with a knife. They are far more sophisticated and efficient - their barbarism is an art form. While the literal slaughter of the Palestinian people by Israel is about as depraved and abhorrent as it can get, it is the literal destruction of a whole generation of Palestinian Gazans that is the reality. To see exactly how just read the interview on Democracy Now with Pernille Ironside, chief of UNICEF’s Gaza field office.

Pernille Ironside: "Today, the future of Palestinian children in Gaza is extraordinarily bleak. The entire population has experienced a deep form of trauma, and there isn’t a single family in Gaza who hasn’t experienced personally death, injury, the loss of their home, extensive damage, displacement. The psychological toll that has on a people, it just cannot be overestimated, and especially on children. I’ve met children who have experienced extraordinary wounds, who have watched as family members were dismembered before their eyes, obliterated. You know, shortly after that terrible incident on the beach." *** "Across from the al-Deira Hotel and where four children were killed. And I met with the surviving three boys, who had watched and who had just barely escaped with their lives. They were in a deep state of trauma. I mean, the impact and the type of weaponry that’s being used is literally shredding and obliterating people, and particularly children, who are so small and vulnerable." [Emphasis mine]

Barack Obama managed to speak some words of truth when he said what needs to be done to resolve the "cancer" threatening all humanity:

From governments and peoples across the Middle East, there has to be a common effort to extract this cancer so that it does not spread. There has to be a clear rejection of this kind of nihilistic ideologies. One thing we can all agree on is that a group like Israel (ISIL) has no place in the 21st century. Friends and allies around the world, we share a common security and a common set of values that are rooted in the opposite of what we saw yesterday (and today). And we will continue to confront this hateful terrorism and replace it with a sense of hope and civility.

Gaza body count mounts to 2,065 as Israel intensifies attacks - Press TV
In photos: Gaza families return home to horror and devastation - EI
As war rages in Gaza, West Bank routine of violence and arrests unabated - HAARATZ

"Arrests, expulsions, home demolitions, land seizure and settlers harassing Palestinians continues: Since the beginning of the fighting in the south on July 8, soldiers and police have injured 2,139 Palestinians in the West Bank."

So, what is the American Gaza? Take a good look. This is not where it ends, but it is not where it starts either.

Ferguson shooting & protests - CNN
Racial Repression and the Murder of Mike Brown - Why Words of Reconciliation Ring Hollow - CounterPunch
Second fatal St Louis area shooting stokes tensions in Ferguson - The Guardian
Ferguson: No justice in American police state - Press TV: 

"Today, Americans have no more protection against state violence than Germans had under National Socialism."

It starts here, with people like these bigoted, racist thugs. Here is just one example, Eric Kirk in his own words on his own blog, read the comments, full of nothing more than rote propaganda and moronic stupidity, hate and violence:

August 20, 2014 at 10:10 am 

Eric Kirk

Its one more example that your superficial encounters with American Jewish people are worse than useless as a basis to characterize Israeli society. To my mind, your lumping together Jews of different nationality as to their social and cultural practices, is a form of antisemitism. Though I believe in your case it comes not from maliciousness but from arrogance and intellectual laziness. 

First of all, I do not endeavor to “characterize” Israeli society. Israel is among the most racially diverse countries in the world. 

Secondly, my “superficial encounters” are family based and close friend based, as well as having been immersed in socialist left wing politics all of my life which is very heavily Jewish influenced – from my grandmother who was a communist and Abraham Lincoln Brigade veteran to a woman in college who is also hardcore leftist and staunch zionist to attending a high school in SF which was two-thirds Jewish in which debates about Israel raged and I was smart enough to watch from a distance. 

I don’t “characterize” Israel as anything except that culturally it has forged a nationalism which is probably stronger than any other partly in the aftermath of the Holocaust and history of European pogroms, but also because even the peace activists there do not feel safe. The woman I knew was in Israel and heard the booms of the rockets as they landed in the distance, only to have her work take her to France where she had to hide from a massive anti-Semitic near-riot. 

Yes, they are a very diverse people. But they are brought together by the fact that they are broadly hated in the west as “Zionists,” “Christ killers,” and in recent decades “infidels.” In the past week, Jews and their supporters planning to demonstrate were silenced in social democratically tolerant Sweden due to threats of violence. And the Palestinian Authority, the “moderates,” approve of school curriculum materials based upon false assertions about Judaism originating with Stormfront, a Nazi website. This along with a history of Palestinian resistance sending teenage girls strapped with bombs into dance halls to kill herself and other children – and where a friend of mine inadvertently leaves a backpack on a bus leading to a bomb scare. 

I will read the article, but from the intensity of my in-law Jewish family on the subject, including my wife’s communist grandmother, and so many old friends and people I’ve worked with for so many years – many of whom oppose Israeli policies – all of them read the Hamas charter with visceral terror. All of them. [Emphasis mine]

Noam Chomsky's speaks about this:

So, for example, the electoral program of Israel’s governing party, Likud, states explicitly that there can never be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. And they not only state it in their charter, that’s a call for the destruction of Palestine, explicit call for it. And they don’t only have it in their charter, you know, their electoral program, but they implement it. That’s quite different from the Hamas charter.

The disconnect with normal, rational sanity is almost palpable. You cannot treat people like sub-human mongrel dogs, dispossess them from their rightful land and slaughter them at will for 70 years and not engender an undying hatred. Then use that hatred to justify your own existence. If ISIL is a terrorist nation now then so is Israel. They both operate from the same base.

So, if you haven't figured out what, where and who are the American Gaza, odds are it is YOU.

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[UPDATE]
Tim Martin's column in the Times-Standard this Sunday, August 24, 2014: Bullies with badges and weapons: Tim says:

"We have made a serious mistake by militarizing our police force. They have become bullies with automatic weapons who feel it's their duty to stifle public dissent, arrest members of the press, and threaten citizens." 

"Threaten citizens" with brutal beatings and summary death.
What people in their right mind would vote for that?

American police in whatever configuration equals de facto, violence incarnate. Welcome to the American Gaza, Tim. How do you like being a Palestinian? Do you feel the hate?

--Joe

Suck Eggs, Eric Kirk

When I listened to Noam Chomsky on Democracy Now I thought about Eric Kirk and his plethora of corrupt and degenerate attitudes and disease-ridden filthy lies puked out on his blog, SoHum Parlance II, about the Palestinian people and their struggle to be recognized and accepted as such. "Hideous. Sadistic. Vicious. Murderous. That is how Noam Chomsky describes Israel’s 29-day offensive in Gaza that killed nearly 1,900 people and left almost 10,000 people injured." And literally decimated the infrastructure - leaving thousands homeless. That's how I describe Kirk and his supporters' war on the truth, and everything that is held decent and right in our society and community with their constant "repetition of the most vulgar Israeli propaganda."

Click here to watch Part 1 of the interview.
Click here to watch all of Part 2 of the interview.

Part 1 - NOAM CHOMSKY: It’s a hideous atrocity, sadistic, vicious, murderous, totally without any credible pretext. It’s another one of the periodic Israeli exercises in what they delicately call "mowing the lawn." That means shooting fish in the pond, to make sure that the animals stay quiet in the cage that you’ve constructed for them, after which you go to a period of what’s called "ceasefire," which means that Hamas observes the ceasefire, as Israel concedes, while Israel continues to violate it. Then it’s broken by an Israeli escalation, Hamas reaction. Then you have period of "mowing the lawn." This one is, in many ways, more sadistic and vicious even than the earlier ones. 

Part 2 - NOAM CHOMSKY on BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, we don’t really have to listen to CBS, because we can listen directly to the Israeli propaganda agencies, which he’s quoting. It’s a shameful moment for U.S. media when it insists on being subservient to the grotesque propaganda agencies of a violent, aggressive state. As for the comment itself, the Israel comment which he—propaganda comment which he quoted, I guess maybe the best comment about that was made by the great Israeli journalist Amira Hass, who just described it as "sadism masked as compassion." That’s about the right characterization.

About the issue of "recognition," or refusal to recognize, that justifies the "destruction of Israel" as illegitimate - Something of which Eric Kirk is an expert.

AMY GOODMAN: But you hear repeatedly, Hamas has in its charter a call for the destruction of Israel. And how do you guarantee that these thousands of rockets that threaten the people of Israel don’t continue? 

NOAM CHOMSKY: Very simple. First of all, Hamas charter means practically nothing. The only people who pay attention to it are Israeli propagandists, who love it. It was a charter put together by a small group of people under siege, under attack in 1988. And it’s essentially meaningless. There are charters that mean something, but they’re not talked about. So, for example, the electoral program of Israel’s governing party, Likud, states explicitly that there can never be a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River. And they not only state it in their charter, that’s a call for the destruction of Palestine, explicit call for it. And they don’t only have it in their charter, you know, their electoral program, but they implement it. That’s quite different from the Hamas charter. [Emphasis mine]

Suck eggs. When I think of a "egg-sucker" I think of a weasel or lying, deviate skunk. However, there is another meaning, quoting Wikipedia: "Teaching grandmother to suck eggs is an English language saying meaning that a person is giving advice to someone else about a subject that they already know about (and probably more than the first person." That's why I let Noam Chomsky do the talking.

The degradation and evil ways of the Zionist Jews and their ability to act with such deprivation and sadistic immoral beliefs and thinking that permeates their souls to the core did not happen in a day. It's been with them from the beginning as Golda Meir's statement attest. Quote: "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children," she said, "but we can never forgive them for forcing us to kill their children." This is the most corrupt and depraved way of thinking and is the root of all war and violence. Yet local people seem to think they have that right. Another example of death-dealing thinking from dead souls.

The Bible's Jesus spoke of these Jews in his time, words of truth and wisdom that still apply to this day.

A Tree and Its Fruit "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. -Matthew 7:15-20.

--Joe

A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL

[UPDATE :: Thursday, August 7, 2014]

Noam Chomsky - Joins the Living

Hideous. Sadistic. Vicious. Murderous. That's how Noam Chomsky describes Israel’s 29-day offensive in Gaza that killed nearly 1,900 people and left almost 10,000 people injured.

"A Hideous Atrocity": Noam Chomsky on Israel’s Assault on Gaza & U.S. Support for the Occupation

Watch: Democracy Now! talks to Noam Chomsky,...

DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG

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In the face of evil, insanity, deprivation and lawlessness, WHO has the guts, the courage to speak up - to take a stand for what is right, good, decent and true? In America, damned few, that's who. It is time to take a firm stand for life and vehemently reject death. Simply STOP COOPERATING with the liars, the rapists and the murderers. A special place in hell is reserved for them.

--Joe

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As in INfERNO "The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who, in the face of a great moral dilemma, maintain neutrality."

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A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL

C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.

I have many favorite quotes but for much of my life the top one is from Dante's INFERNO, the first part of his DIVINE COMEDY.

The various parts of Hell are:

Limbo

Lust

Gluttony

Greed

Envy

Heresy

Violence

Fraud and

Treachery

And it is the soul's search for recognition and rejection of the nine sins that are the theme of DIVINE COMEDY.

Gandhi succinctly summed it up in his 7 deadly Sins
Wealth without work

Pleasure without Conscience

Knowledge without character

Commerce without morality

Science without humanity

Religion without sacrifice

Politics without Principle

From the beginning of the Christian Church 2000 years ago, the Church has been a prime example of these sins, from the Romans who fed Christians initially to the lions, then the abrupt conversion of Constantine, one of the great murderers of all times, the Church's vicious murders of infidels-heretics, and the Inquisition right up to the current failure to address the prevalent malignant pedophilia.

Virtually every major empire has been built upon the widespread slaughter of millions of innocent people. In our own country the Civil War was the beginning of its descent into the Inferno. Holland, Spain, Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire all had their days/years of widespread murder and violence.

The last Great War was the last of true moral endeavors. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq are all prime examples of deception and fraud. Currently the United States has unleashed upon the world the greatest war in history-the destruction of all economic and social activity with derivatives, with numerous other deviant activities in smaller deadly subterfuge activities in Libya, Africa, and the Ukraine. There is significant suspicion that the murder of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and at least 9/11 and even the Boston marathon attack were events manufactured by the Evil Empire.

Behind the scenes the Club of Rome and British West India Company morphed into The Committee of 300, with its Bilderberg,Trilateral Commission and scores of other secret organizations, all of which appear to be The Evil Empire, perhaps as satirized in Lucas' great allegory!

As in INfERNO "The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who, in the face of a great moral dilemma, maintain neutrality."

From NONE DARE CALL IT CONSPIRACY, to THE COMMITTEE OF 300, to

THE BIGGEST SECRET, to THE PERCEPTION DECEPTION and AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES the evidence is overwhelming that the great moral dilemma is the behind the scenes destruction of the United States Constitution. Refer back at the nine parts of Hell, and you see that at least 99% of the media and over 90% of Congress are, at best, pimping prostitutes for The Evil Empire!

John Kerry admits Israeli Apartheid; and 5 Ways he is Understating It

John Kerry admits Israeli Apartheid; and 5 Ways he is Understating It (via http://www.juancole.com)

(By Juan Cole) In a closed-room meeting of the Trilateral Commission last Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that Israel is on the verge of becoming an Apartheid state, according to a recording obtained by The Daily Beast. The remark will…

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"what makes us exceptional"

"That’s what makes America different."

--President Obama in a national address from the White House Tuesday night, September 10, 2013.

American's are exceptionally different alright, but not in the way Obama wants to say.  You can believe President Barack Obama's pack of uncontested lies or you can stick to the facts.

Naom Chomsky sets forth seventy years worth of facts in his latest conversation on Democracy Now.

Here's an excerpt as he comments on the Presidential address of September 10, 2013, regarding his plans to go to war with Syria.  If you want to know how the whole world sees America you need to read his complete commentary.  At some point decent, God-fearing people always put down the rogue bully.

NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, the Russian plan is a godsend for Obama. It saves him from what would look like a very serious political defeat. He has not been able to obtain virtually any international support for this—the action he’s contemplating. Even Britain wouldn’t support it. And it looked as though Congress wasn’t going to support it either, which would leave him completely out on a limb. This leaves him a way out. 

He can maintain the threat of force, which incidentally is a crime under international law, that we should bear in mind that the core principle of the United Nations Charter bars the threat or use of force, threat or use of force. So all of this is criminal, to begin with, but he’ll continue with that. The United States is a rogue state. It doesn’t pay any attention to international law. 

He—it was kind of interesting what he didn’t say. This would be a perfect opportunity to ban chemical weapons, to impose the chemical weapons convention on the Middle East. The convention, contrary to what Obama said, does not specifically refer just to use of chemical weapons; it refers to production, storage or use of chemical weapons. That’s banned by the international norm that Obama likes to preach about. Well, there is a country which happens to be—happens to have illegally annexed part of Syrian territory, which has chemical weapons and is in violation of the chemical weapons convention and has refused even to ratify it—namely, Israel. So here’s an opportunity to eliminate chemical weapons from the region, to impose the chemical weapons convention as it’s actually formulated. But Obama was very careful not to say that he—for reasons which are too obvious to go into—he—and that gap is highly significant. Of course, chemical weapons should be eliminated everywhere, but certainly in that region. 

The other things that he said were not unusual, but nevertheless kind of shocking to anyone not familiar with U.S. political discourse, at least. So he described the United—he said that for seven decades the United States has been "the anchor of global security." Really? Seven decades? That includes, for example, just 40 years ago today, when the United States played a major role in overthrowing the parliamentary democracy of Chile and imposing a brutal dictatorship, called "the first 9/11" in Latin America. Go back earlier years, overthrowing the parliamentary system in Iran, imposing a dictatorship; same in Guatemala a year later; attacking Indochina, the worst crime in the postwar period, killing millions of people; attacking Central America; killing—involved in killing—in imposing a dictatorship in the Congo; and invading Iraq—on and on. That’s stability? I mean, that a Harvard Law School graduate can pronounce those words is pretty amazing, as is the fact that they’re accepted without comment. 

So what he said is I’m going to lie like a trooper about history; I’m going to suppress the U.S. role, the actual U.S. role, for the last seven decades; I’m going to maintain the threat of force, which is of course illegal; and I’m going to ensure that the chemical weapons convention is not imposed on the region, because our ally, Israel, would be subjected to it. And I think those are some of the main points of his address.

It always comes back to protecting Israel, doesn't it?  Ever wonder why Israel is so important to America? Both Israel and the United States a violent military states.  A historical reality that decries their legitimacy as a sovereign country.

Read the first part of th interview here on Democracy Now.
and 
The second part of the interview (Chomsky on 9/11, Syria’s "Bloody Partition" and Why U.S. Role Ensures Failure of Mideast Talks) here.
and
The third and final part of the interview (Noam Chomsky: U.S. Has Been "Torturing" Iran for 60 Years, Since 1953 CIA-Led Coup).

-Joe

And Then There Is Joe -- Blow, That Is

"The more one dissents from political orthodoxies, the more the attacks focus on personality, style and character." So says Glenn Greenwald in his latest article about Noam Chomsky. And people wonder why I blog as "Joe Blow."

It is bad enough that I have had to put up with the likes of some locals such as Ernie Branscomb, Eric Kirk, Hank Sims and not to forget the illustrious newspaper opinionater, Dave Stancliff, but to subject my family to the consequences of their juvenile rancorous invectives was a bit much.

Glenn's "How Noam Chomsky is discussed" expresses my sentiments on this issue to perfection. He begins by saying:

"One very common tactic for enforcing political orthodoxies is to malign the character, "style" and even mental health of those who challenge them. The most extreme version of this was an old Soviet favorite: to declare political dissidents mentally ill and put them in hospitals. In the US, those who take even the tiniest steps outside of political convention are instantly decreed "crazy", as happened to the 2002 anti-war version of Howard Dean and the current iteration of Ron Paul (in most cases,what is actually "crazy" are the political orthodoxies this tactic seeks to shield from challenge). 

This method is applied with particular aggression to those who engage in any meaningful dissent against the society's most powerful factions and their institutions. Nixon White House officials sought to steal the files from Daniel Ellsberg's psychoanalyst's office precisely because they knew they could best discredit his disclosures with irrelevant attacks on his psyche. Identically, the New York Times and partisan Obama supporters have led the way in depicting both Bradley Manning and Julian Assangeas mentally unstable outcasts with serious personality deficiencies. The lesson is clear: only someone plagued by mental afflictions would take such extreme steps to subvert the power of the US government. 

A subtler version of this technique is to attack the so-called "style" of the critic as a means of impugning, really avoiding, the substance of the critique. Although Paul Krugman is comfortably within mainstream political thought as a loyal Democrat and a New York Times columnist, his relentless attack against the austerity mindset is threatening to many. As a result, he is barraged with endless, substance-free complaints about his "tone": he is too abrasive, he does not treat opponents with respect, he demonizes those who disagree with him, etc. The complaints are usually devoid of specifics to prevent meaningful refutation; one typical example: "[Krugman] often cloaks his claims in professional authority, overstates them, omits arguments that undermine his case, and is a bit of a bully." All of that enables the substance of the critique to be avoided in lieu of alleged personality flaws. 

Nobody has been subjected to these vapid discrediting techniques more than Noam Chomsky." 

 To continue reading the rest of the article, please click this link.

Glenn says in defense of Chomsky, and I offer this paragraph for Eric Kirk's benefit:

"But the strangest attack on Chomsky is the insinuation that he has changed nothing. Aside from the metrics demonstrating that he has more reach and influence than virtually any public intellectual in the world, some of which Edemariam cites, I'd say that there is no living political writer who has more radically changed how more people think in more parts of the world about political issues than he. If you accept the premise (as I do) that the key to political change is to convince people of pervasive injustice and the need to act, then it's virtually laughable to depict him as inconsequential. Washington power-brokers and their media courtiers do not discuss him, and he does not make frequent (or any) appearances on US cable news outlets, but outside of those narrow and insular corridors - meaning around the world - few if any political thinkers are as well-known, influential or admired (to its credit, the Guardian, like some US liberal outlets, does periodically publish Chomsky's essays)." 

 Glenn concludes by saying and I quote:

"But what is at play here is this destructive dynamic that the more one dissents from political orthodoxies, the more personalized, style-focused and substance-free the attacks become. That's because once someone becomes sufficiently critical of establishment pieties, the goal is not merely to dispute their claims but to silence them. That's accomplished by demonizing the person on personality and style grounds to the point where huge numbers of people decide that nothing they say should even be considered, let alone accepted. It's a sorry and anti-intellectual tactic, to be sure, but a brutally effective one." [Emphasis mine]

 In that, to be sure, as an avatar, I should know.

--Joe

Show Me The Difference

[Update] [Update II] [Update III - Kym Kemp's latest]

President Barack Obama                                                   Mendocino Sheriff Tom Allman

'If you can't catch him, kill him'

If you see him, shoot him down like a dog.

'If you can't catch him, kill him': Obama's secret death warrant on al-Awlaki revealed - article from Mail Online posted October 9, 2011. Then there's the September 30, 2011, report from Obama of al-Awlaki's assassination:  Anwar al-Awlaki: Steely-jawed Obama triumphant at al-Qaeda loss - Someone said: "A very bad man had a very bad day." 

[UPDATE :: Wednesday, October 19, 2011]  Reuters: Two Awlaki teenage relatives killed in Yemen attack: family and from the New Yorker: An American Teen-Ager in Yemen.

[UPDATE II :: Thursday, October 20, 2011] To all of you that believe with all your heart that the press releases Sheriff Tom Allman puts out tells the whole and absolute truth, such as Kym Kemp in her latest propaganda would have everyone believe, I encourage you to read this article about President Obama's wanton murders of natural-born American citizens.

MacLeodCartoons

Twitter observation on this: "I condemn the Libyans for killing one of their own citizens without giving him due process and fair trial. We never do that in the US."

Now, compare that to this:
Authorities shoot, kill murder suspect Aaron Bassler; suspect had finger on trigger, officials say - Finger on the trigger, HUH?

Compare with today Tuesday, October 18, 2011, Times-Standard white-wash from the Ukiah Daily Journal: Items found in Bassler's backpack raise questions. [T]hree-man SWAT team from Sacramento County opened fire on him from high ground as he walked on a logging road, killing him almost instantly.” That's not what this reporter says in the first paragraph and if that's all you read you'd get the idea there was a fight between Tom Allman and Aaron Bassler: "[F]ollowing the final confrontation that ended in Bassler's death on Oct. 1." Confrontation, HUH?

Allman says without any apparent question, that there was NO shoot to kill order. The facts, as reported, say otherwise. Allman's justification of the ambush assassination speaks for itself. Bassler was ONLY a SUSPECT being chased for something Tom Allman accused him of doing. There was no proof of anything. Only police officer accusations. The fact the Bassler was in the area or that some eagle eye could see "his finger on the trigger" doesn't prove anything. 

An 'UNPERSON' SUSPECT - "A very bad man had a very bad day." Noam Chomsky has an interesting take on what these two "officials" did and what or who had a very bad day:

Some may remember, if you have good memories, that there used to be a concept in Anglo-American law called a presumption of innocence, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Now that’s so deep in history that there’s no point even bringing it up, but it did once exist. Some of the critics have brought up the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which says that no person — "person," notice — shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Well, of course, that was never intended to apply to persons, so it wasn’t intended to apply to unpeople. [Emphasis added] 

 Do you know the difference between "people" (Like: "We the People.") and "Unpeople"? You should. There are two separate laws for each decided by the "authorities" or the "officials" as they choose to interpret them.

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[UPDATE :: Tuesday, October 25, 2011] 

Kym Kemp's latest attempt at try to help whitewash the unjustified murder of Aaron Bassler is her link to the Press Democrat: The Hunt for a Killer. Like local reporting, nothing more than repeated unproven accusations (other than the dead body) to try justify the arbitrary murder. Kym's support for this type of police action, reminiscent of all tyrannical dictators, speaks volumes about what's happened to American society. When people give the police the right (for whatever pretense) to be accuser, judge, jury and executioner, equal protection under the law is long gone. 

  --Joe

As It Stands II

[UPDATE Below]

After Thanksgiving, you'd think all this Report has to do is write about Dave Stancliff's Opinion “As It Stands” in the Sunday Times-Standard. Not true. After taking a couple of weeks off I needed something easy to deal with. His artful article for November 28, 2010, is: As It Stands: Thank you, Janet Napolitano, for saving us from pot terrorists – a rather satirical commentary and good for a laugh or two.

He makes a valid point or two and concludes:

As It Stands, forgive my sarcasm, but sometimes I have the feeling our government marches to a different tune than the rest of us.

Since “our government” is a representative democracy, I wonder what “government” he's talking about. It certainly couldn't be that one a majority of voters put into office a couple of years ago, now could it? Or maybe it was the one just put in and recently finalized a major change. So, who's really marching “to a different tune than the rest of us”? That minority that didn't vote for the present administration? In a Democracy their supposed to roll-over and submit to the will of the majority, aren't they? Of course, in the Obama Administration that means he does everything the Republicans want.

We all know that President Barack Obama has done everything he promised America that he would do – been a bastion of HOPE & CHANGE for the country. Everyone that bought into his spiel deserves what they get. Personal accountability starts with and ends with the VOTER. If it actually is, and it certainly seems to be, as Dave Stancliff alludes, then maybe it's time to start holding these voters accountable. Maybe next time they'll demand a choice of substantive people they can actually believe in. A good place to start is right here in Humboldt County with EVERY elected official.

The reason why is outlined in this interview with Noam Chomsky where he show how the WikiLeaks cables reveal a “Profound hatred for democracy by US and Israeli political leadership.” And we certainly know who they represent, the political and religious Elite.

Dave Stancliff's satire is well taken, but there are some serious SUBSTANTIVE issues confronting everyone of us in this country that needs to be thought about, considered and addressed. Ultimately Democracy works when responsibility and ACCOUNTABILITY are applied to the people. Maybe it's time to start thinking about your authoritarian, mean-spirited Republican neighbor that wants to take away your Social Security and Medicare benefits or your complicit, gutless, milquetoast Democrats in the looting and destruction of America.
[Source]

[UPDATE :: Tuesday, November 30, 2010]

Glenn Greenwald in his WikiLeaks reveals more than just government secrets - lays out what some of these "serious substantive" issues are. He begins by saying:

The WikiLeaks disclosure has revealed not only numerous government secrets, but also the driving mentality of major factions in our political and media class.  Simply put, there are few countries in the world with citizenries and especially media outlets more devoted to serving, protecting and venerating government authorities than the U.S. [Emphasis added]

His sober assessment of what's happening in America should be a real eye-opener. He lays the fault right at the feet of those responsible for the ongoing war on Democracy. Be nice to see local Dave Stancliff types step up and substantively distinguish themselves here on the North Coast for a change.

--Joe

Nanny State Future

Noam Chomsky: "The Center Cannot Hold: Rekindling the Radical Imagination"


Is the “Tea Party Movement” slated for greatness? If you think they're just a “flash in the pan” you might want to read what Noam Chomsky says about what is happening in America. More and more the lines between corporate America and the working poor are being drawn tighter and tighter. Obama's message of “hope” is shown more and more a joke on everyone that voted for him. Freedom-loving American voters believe they have some say in their government. Obama has shown everyone that they do not. Government betrayal of their people is universal. “Radical Imagination” is something nearly beyond reach for most of humanity. For the people to practice actual democracy would require taking responsibility for their actions and then standing accountable what they do or do not do. Continuing to cooperate with these criminals by voting in one corrupt politician year after year rank stupidity or deliberate criminal complicity. As the people start to move so do the thugs that protect and defend the multinationals, the financial conglomerates and their Washington cohorts. Who wins? Who loses? If history has anything to say about it, our future as a free people looks extremely bleak.
 
Move beyond the propaganda and read or listen to Noam Chomsky's speach compliments of Democracy Now: Noam Chomsky: "The Center Cannot Hold: Rekindling the Radical Imagination"
 

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Or you can read the complete speach here:

--Joe