tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53377912024-03-12T21:46:12.118-05:00THOLOS OF ATHENA<p align="center">window of conscience</p>Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.comBlogger429125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-49928122706857353102016-01-15T13:48:00.000-06:002016-01-15T13:50:28.326-06:00copeland morris ENTWINED SONNET<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Her shaded eyes, her necklace black velvet, onyx.<br />
Anguish she spoke; and he carried on, obsessed<br />
As only a young man could. An odd harmonics<br />
Existed within the voice of a mourning dove.<br />
She prepared him for the higher world above.<br />
There and again she has safely seen him off;<br />
They ought to rummage about, for hats to doff.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The birds compare notes: the tunes and chirps of freedom,<br />
The house wrens too, in the garden her dream possessed,<br />
Whose likeness is with proverb or season or kingdom,<br />
Companion in sorrow, salt of Ishmael's tears,<br />
The silver wake under which the mountain appears.<br />
For whom else do their shadows make so bold--<br />
To whom they reply in song a thousandfold?</blockquote>
<br />
Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-44704579211910391182015-07-22T13:43:00.001-05:002015-08-01T00:00:18.855-05:00copeland morris BALAO<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The rain and shadow of raindrops, tinsel curtain,<br />
<br />
Refrain and shadows<br />
Of raindrops fall.<br />
<br />
The gone man is a thief of all to be certain:<br />
<br />
Shangri-La, Balao,<br />
The Fillmore, Dreamland.<br />
<br />
He could fill them up now; his fingers fly<br />
<br />
Like redbuds, crepe myrtle,<br />
Whipped by the wind.<br />
<br />
He meets his love on the little square in Balao.<br />
<br />
An owl endowed<br />
With tender hoots,<br />
<br />
A tiny shiver, watches their awkwardness die.</blockquote>
<br />
<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-11065221852240797382015-06-01T00:00:00.000-05:002015-06-01T03:54:56.690-05:00WITH DEMOCRACY GONE, ...JUSTICE ITSELF IS UNDER PRIOR RESTRAINT<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...Too much freedom wandering around loose in the streets and too many people having thoughts of their own undermine the ambitions of the state; long before the evil date of 9/11, the rapidly metastasizing national security agencies were separating the homegrown damned from the homegrown saved. The recent and even more rapid technological upgrades attest to the pathology of a government so afraid of its own citizens that it classifies them as probable enemies.<br />
<br />
Hydra-headed databanks target schoolchildren and the mothers of schoolchildren, church congregations, credit card members, and Facebook friends, anybody at work or at play with a tracking device sold under the label of an iPhone. An NSA device code-named COTTONMOUTH-I can remotely monitor anybody's computer; the CANDYGRAM asset is capable of setting up a telephone tripwire to mimic a cell phone tower. Tens of thousands of surveillance cameras conduct "truth maintenance" and "event prediction". If all goes well, what comes up on the screens is an American democracy as safely dead as a pheasant under glass.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
--Lewis H. Lapham, <i>LAPHAM'S QUARTERLY</i>, Winter 2015, Volume VIII, #1</div>
</blockquote>
At this hour, the US Senate is locked in a debate over the renewal of the PATRIOT ACT, or the retiring of it, (it's sunset clause fulfilled at midnight), May 31st, 2015. <br />
<br />
Come July, JADE HELM 2015, a three month military exercise, is due to be conducted across parts of Texas , Utah, and California; and as such, it will spread over a huge swath of land. It is seen as practice for civil unrest, --interacting with civilian population,--which is something quite unusual. Yet while it may be the butt of jokes, at the expense of those who are projecting their political agendas and ambitions onto it; there surely must be some valid reasons to inquire about its nature, its objectives. The very scale of it geographically, and the duration from July to September, is meant to teach a number of specialists what?--about confronting enraged civilians, about arresting and detaining civilians? "Mastering the human domain" is its sales pitch--whatever in the hell that means!<br />
<br />
Well, we have enough bugs in our bonnets already without troubling ourselves unduly about our own military, rumbling around in our rural communities, trying to gauge the level of our "permissiveness", how it feels having special forces troops milling around amongst us, as they go about their business hobnobbing with crisis actors: just a big training exercise for a time when--heaven forbid--they should have to subdue, arrest, and <b>detain </b>civilians. But enough about that. <br />
<br />
The question is about democracy that expires in the presence of absolute surveillance, and about the prior restraint that is placed on justice, in that repressive sort of environment. <br />
<br />
Justice, after all, is about the treatment of persons. Justice is an ideal toward which we must strive as a community. There is a question of a competing balance of rights, as one would weigh two claims upon a scale: the right of those who are injured, against the rights of those accused of doing the injury.<br />
<br />
One looks in vain to find justice in a surveillance state. What disappears is that side of the scale which respects the rights of the accused. The rights of the injured can be ignored too, as everyone is treated like a bug under a microscope<br />
<br />
Surveillance information is used to ensnare people with trivial arrest records or trouble with immigration; and the FBI or other intelligence services coerce them into working as informants. Being blackmailed this way, these unlucky are sometimes put in dangerous situations. The justice that should be afforded to them is sacrificed. Sometimes they are sacrificed as patsies, so that a political trick or illusion can further beguile the public.<br />
<br />
And so the state breaks the laws, shreds our civil rights, grinds the pawns and small fry into dust, and keeps on recording all our personal data and our conversations. The state looks over our shoulders, as technology permits, to glean what they may from our thoughts. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-63745922631790806202015-03-18T03:00:00.002-05:002015-03-18T03:37:55.949-05:00PRESIDENT MADURO WRITES AN OPEN LETTER TO U.S. CITIZENS<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<br />
<b>LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES: VENEZUELA IS NOT A THREAT</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
We are the people of Simon Bolívar , our people believe in peace and respect for all nations.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>Freedom and independence</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
More than two centuries ago, our fathers founded a Republic on the basis that all persons are free and equal under the law.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Our nation made the greatest sacrifices to guarantee South American people their right to choose their rulers and to enforce their own laws today. The historical legacy of our father, Simón Bolívar, is always remembered. Bolívar was a man who gave his life so we would inherit a nation of justice and equality.<br />
<br />
<b>We believe in Peace, National Sovereignty and International Law</b><br />
<br />
We are a peaceful people. In two centuries of independence, we have never attacked another nation. Our people live in a region of peace, free of weapons of mass destruction, and in freedom to practice all religions. We uphold respect for international law and the sovereignty of all people of the world.<br />
<br />
<b>We are an Open Society</b><br />
<br />
We are a working people, we care for our families, and we have freedom of religion. Immigrants from around the world, live among us, whose diversity is respected. We have freedom of the press and we are enthusiastic users of social media.<br />
<br />
<b>We are friends of the American people</b><br />
<br />
The histories of our people have been connected since the beginnings of our struggle for freedom. Francisco de Miranda, a Venezuelan hero, fought with the American people during their independence fight. We share the idea that freedom and independence are fundamental elements for the development of our nations.<br />
<br />
The relations between our peoples has always been peaceful and respectful. Historically, we have shared business relations in strategic areas. Venezuela has always been a responsible and trustful energy provider for the American people. Since 2005, Venezuela has provided "heating oil" through subsidies for low-income communities in the United States, thanks to our company, CITGO. This contribution has helped tens of thousands of American citizens survive in harsh conditions, giving them relief, and necessary support in times of need, evidencing how solidarity can create powerful alliances across borders.<br />
<br />
<b>Incredibly, the US government has declared our country a threat to its national security and foreign policy</b><br />
<br />
In a disproportionate action, the government of Obama has issued a "National Emergency" declaring Venezuela as a threat to its national security (Executive Order, 03-09-2015). This unilateral and aggressive measure taken by the United States Government against our country is not only unfounded and in violation of basic principles of sovereignty and self-determination under international law, but also has been unanimously rejected by all 33nations of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the twelve member states of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). In a statement made on March 14, 2015, UNASUR reiterated its firm rejection of these coercive measures that do not contribute to the peace, stability and democracy in our region and called on President Obama to revoke his Executive Order against Venezuela.<br />
<br />
<b>We reject unilateralism and interventionism</b><br />
<br />
President Obama, without any authority to interfere in our internal affairs, unilaterally issued a set of sanctions against Venezuelan officials with potentially far-reaching implications, interfering in our constitutional order and our justice system.<br />
<br />
<b>We advocate for a multipolar world</b><br />
<br />
We believe that our world must be based on the rules of international law, without interference in the internal affairs of other countries. We are convinced that the relationship of respect between all the nations is the only path for strengthening peace and coexistence, as well as for ensuring a more just world.<br />
<br />
<b>We honor our freedoms and uphold our rights</b><br />
<br />
Never before in the history of our nations, has a president of the United States attempted to govern Venezuelans by decree. It is a tyrannical and imperial order and it pushes us back into the darkest days of the relationship between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean.<br />
<br />
In the name of our long-term friendship we alert our American brothers and sisters, lovers of justice and freedom, of the illegal aggression committed by your government on your behalf. We will not allow our friendship with the people of the United States to be affected by this senseless and groundless decision by President Obama.<br />
<br />
We demand:<br />
<br />
1- The U.S government immediately cease hostile actions against Venezuelan people and democracy.<br />
<br />
2- President Obama abolish the Executive Order that declares Venezuela a threat to U.S. national security, as has been requested by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).<br />
<br />
3- The U.S. Government retract its libelous and defamatory statements against the honorable Venezuelan officials who have just obeyed our laws and our constitution.<br />
<br />
<b>Our sovereignty is sacred</b><br />
<br />
The principles of the founding fathers of the United States of America are followed today with the same dignity by the people of Simón Bolívar. In the name of our mutual love for national independence we want the government of President Obama to think about and rectify this dangerous precedent.<br />
<br />
We are convinced that the defense of our freedom is a right that we shall never give up because the future of the humanity lies also in our country. As Simon Bolivar said, "The freedom of the New World is the hope of the universe".<br />
<br />
"Venezuela is not a threat, but a hope...Independence or nothing" --Simon Bolivar</div>
<div style="left: -99999px; position: absolute;">
We are the people of Simon Bolívar, our people believe in peace and respect for all nations. <br />
<br />
This content was originally published by teleSUR at the following address: <br />
<a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuelas-Maduro-Writes-Letter-to-US-Citizens-20150317-0011.html">http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuelas-Maduro-Writes-Letter-to-US-Citizens-20150317-0011.html</a>. If you intend to use it, please cite the source and provide a link to the original article. www.teleSURtv.net/english</div>
Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-33810453673061936582015-02-28T04:46:00.000-06:002015-02-28T04:50:32.594-06:00copeland morris THE YEARNING<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Serene and beautiful winter be considerate of us, <br />
Shining of intricate clouds, the saffron and crimson,<br />
Flight and foraging of little sparrows and doves.<br />
It opens a scene where lovers have words, avoid <br />
Further words, and depart. See the bodies shrink,<br />
As small and almost as tense as the birds', at times:<br />
Fault lines under the horns of the moon and Venus.<br />
<br />
When skies were whited-out we looked for snow<br />
Hoping winter would treat us at once with mercy<br />
After the Norther blew itself out; and strangely<br />
The yearning fit perfectly in place, when flurries<br />
That whirled lay still, and it was just barely morning.<br />
So the fire and the warm house invite our thoughts;<br />
Yet the sky, so fixed and gray, is still sleeping.</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-29181259002677570272015-01-31T23:59:00.000-06:002015-02-01T19:58:36.776-06:00GREEK PRIME MINISTER, ALEXIS TSIPRAS, AND SYRIZA PARTY, MAY FOIL BANKSTER'S CRIMINAL CARTEL<br />
The scofflaws of Wall Street and their criminal cohorts within the FED, the Central Bank administrations in Europe, the IMF and their international, vampire-like partners, are openly embarked on a grab for political power. This, of course, involves the seizure of as much money, and as many fiscal and physical objects as their can lay their hands on. So they proceed, right under our noses, in their attempt to reduce everything, including human rights, national sovereignty, individual and natural assets, --even including the fundamental health and well being of all of us,-- into mere toys for amusement, and objects at their disposal.<br />
<br />
They have bought and sold governments. But Prime Minister Tsipras and the Syriza Party say that Greece and its legacy will not be sold off.<br />
<br />
It is shocking that these criminal forces have gotten as far as they have: traffickers in human flesh, ghouls who have dismembered whole societies with military and financial weapons at the ready. These are people who have had nations plundered, and who arrange or foment devastating wars; and indeed, they have tried to turn organized, industrial scale murder into a cultural artifact, a perpetual cost of doing business.<br />
<br />
But the resistance to this empire is global, and people have become more conscious of its methods, and of what is at stake, in terms of basic human decency, democratic process, and justice.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O_-6RIQzAPs/VM3WKSAdHSI/AAAAAAAAAZY/FaY43Jg82ts/s1600/B8hnjFNIcAA3YRl.jpg%3Alarge.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O_-6RIQzAPs/VM3WKSAdHSI/AAAAAAAAAZY/FaY43Jg82ts/s1600/B8hnjFNIcAA3YRl.jpg%3Alarge.jpeg" height="400" width="268" /></a></div>
<br />
Austerity regimes, imposed by criminal financial institutions, are not constructed in order to help any nation pay off its debt; but rather austerity is designed to further weaken and disable the target nation, the victim of the scam, and to suppress that nation's economic growth, while pretending to bolster it with further loan installments. The so-called "bail-out" project is insidiously designed to force the country to sell off its assets, as well as its effective sovereignty, and turns the country into another stock to be traded on the market. What was unique, beautiful, the people's dignity and history, cultural autonomy, self-determination, possessions, lands, even monuments, would be liquidated on the auction floor.<br />
<br />
Let us resolve not to let this happen! In whatever country we call our own, a promise must be made to oppose, to resist this kind of oppression.<br />
<br />
The system of government must become honest again, and reflect the honesty and exertions of its people, their insistence on the rule of law, their own just laws. It is up to them, in a democracy, to see that the laws are just, and are applied equally. <br />
<br />
Prime Minister Tsipras, and Syriza, have inspired many others beyond the borders of Greece. Now is the time to remember what was said about the importance of Greeks, the spirit and fulfillment of human possibilities, when they stood to enter the European Union. A French politician remembered the ancient democracy, what Greek democracy means everywhere, and its heritage. He said the event should not be described as their entry into the Union; but rather that "Europe has joined Greece".<br />
<br />
This is one promise that has yet to be redeemed.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZJFK1p1t3iA/VM3oOJ13h-I/AAAAAAAAAZo/GFlzgYF9F4U/s1600/20150129_twipras.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZJFK1p1t3iA/VM3oOJ13h-I/AAAAAAAAAZo/GFlzgYF9F4U/s1600/20150129_twipras.jpg" /></a></div>
Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-26758435162304725712014-12-01T03:19:00.000-06:002014-12-27T19:33:12.388-06:00FEAR IS NOW THE MAIN INSTRUMENT OF ENSLAVEMENT<br />
The fabric of jurisprudence, the law that governs and constrains presidential power, and the covenant that binds the will of the people with those who are presumably elected, has become dangerously weakened; and now, after thirteen years of this corruptive process, we are clearly in for hard times.<br />
<br />
Looking at this power projected overseas, as the nation's foreign policy, even watching it as it gradually brings psychological insecurity and fear to our own cities and countryside; we end by observing the same undeniable strategies at work. The longest continuous period of war in our history is happening now; and it is matched by the longest chapter of war propaganda that the people have ever had to endure.<br />
<br />
Considering the repetitious and absurd series of scares, the never-ending cast of new bogeymen, the multiplicity of "Hitlers", of which there never seems to be an end; only a gullible people, or a people driven into a stupor by endless propaganda, would pay any mind to such tactics. The repeated lies have worn down the will of some, and leave so many numb, or in an unsettled state of fear.<br />
<br />
Fear is the driving force of the oppressive war propaganda, fear is used as a marketing tool, and is used to gain the acceptance and normalization of the NSA Surveillance State. Fear is finally omnipresent when one has become a slave, or is acting as a good citizen in a fascist state. <br />
<br />
As James Risen has written in his new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pay-Any-Price-Greed-Endless/dp/0544341414/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416948975&sr=1-1&keywords=risen+pay+any+price">Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Fear is hard to question. It is central to the financial well-being of countless federal bureaucrats, contractors, subcontractors, analysts, and pundits. Fear generates funds.</blockquote>
<a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/11/25/talking-james-risen-pay-price-war-terror-press-freedoms/">The Intercept</a> has an interview of James Risen by Glenn Greenwald, which I recommend to readers.<br />
<br />
But when fear is a means to an end, and the goal of US policy is the fragmentation and destruction of other people's societies,--even to the undoing of their culture;-- then going past war's previous destruction, to a new stage of chaos, is also a more corrupt and vicious kind of aggression. This is what has been done, and is still being done, to what remains of Iraq and Syria.<br />
<br />
The US leadership, congressional and presidential, is implicated in a history that has continued for years. This is a process of subversion, carried out on the Dark Side, beyond public scrutiny, and abetted by cable and broadcast networks, with the falsification of events by these propaganda organs.<br />
<br />
Libya's society has been cast into the outer darkness, by nations whose leaders have expressed no remorse, and who have used the breakdown of authority in that land, as a cover, in order to move arsenals of weapons into the hands of real extremists, the same extremists to whom our hypocrite president refers, in public, as America's sworn enemies. The former president of France, M. Sarkozy, one of the schemers behind this double war crime, first attacked Libya, and then covertly transfered the aggression toward Syria. He has only recently resumed his post as the leader of French conservatives, instead of being brought to justice for these crimes. <br />
<br />
Turkish authorities continue to <a href="http://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2014/11/breaking-germanys-dw-reports-isis.html">facilitate transfers of supplies</a> to Islamic extremists, funneled like the arms the CIA previously smuggled out of Libya into this very dirty game; but it is nothing new. The United States has been busy training those religious extremists whose mission is to destroy a lawful government in Syria. The most terrible of the bogeymen, the multi-national ISIS, or ISIL, as Obama insists on calling it, has been receiving converts from the ranks of those the US trained, in Jordan, and has been armed from many sources, the Gulf States and Saudis, as well as by having weapons which the Americans have spread around. <br />
<br />
The United States has a history of promoting state terror through proxy armies, using zealots and psychotics who are happy to do what they are inclined to do. From arming the Contras in Nicaragua, which was done illegally in the 1980s, we come to the latest craze of advancing sectarian, or religiously inspired terror, as Obama's policy of lies and hysterical claims permits. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://rt.com/op-edge/209747-isis-iraq-hussein-war/">Andre Vltchek</a>, a novelist and war correspondent, brings us to an understanding of the ends our country has been pursuing in Iraq. At personal risk, he traveled deep into the Kurdish land of northern Iraq, where the Kurdish Peshmerga has pushed back against ISIS troops, regaining their villages to the west, coming within 15 kilometers of Mosul. He writes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the evening I am having a cup of tea with an old scientist, a
nuclear physicist, Ishmael Khalil, originally from Tikrit
University, now a refugee. We are in the ancient tearoom in the
center of Erbil.
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>“All that I had was destroyed... I have no idea what is left
of my university... Western allies supported the IS: Saudis,
Qataris, and Turks. Americans are the main reason for this
insanity – for total destruction of Iraq. Not just me, ask any
child and you will hear the same thing... We all used to belong
to a great and proud nation. Now everything is fragmented, and
ruined. We have nothing – all of us became beggars and refugees
in our land,”</i> Khalil says.
</blockquote>
<br />
To take what has been fragmented by violence and terror, and to use fear<br />
in a canny way to further atomize and divide a society, can be a means to an extreme where society breaks down, and a nation's culture is wounded. And what empires inflict on their prey, they bring back with terrible results to their people at home. Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-73932119629554568682014-10-01T00:38:00.000-05:002014-10-01T00:38:49.662-05:00william blake THE HUMAN ABSTRACT<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: left;">
PITY would be no more</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
If we did not make somebody Poor;</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And Mercy no more could be</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
If all were as happy as we.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And mutual fear brings peace,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Till the selfish loves increase:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Then Cruelty knits a snare,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And spreads his baits with care.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
He sits down with holy fears,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And waters the ground with tears;</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Then Humility takes its root</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Underneath his foot.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Soon spreads the dismal shade</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Of Mystery over his head;</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And the Catterpiller and Fly</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Feed on the Mystery.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And it bears the fruit of Deceit,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Ruddy and sweet to eat;</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And the Raven his nest has made</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
In its thickest shade.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The Gods of the earth and sea</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree;</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
But their search was all in vain:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
There grows one in the Human Brain.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-51244945078087118192014-09-14T11:47:00.000-05:002014-09-14T11:58:30.125-05:00WHO ARE THE REVOLUTIONARIES? By Grayson <br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">Grant Wood's most famous
painting </span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">features
</span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">an iconic farmer,
his prim daughter and a pitchfork. His most satiric painting was
</span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><i>Daughters of
Revolution. </i></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Three
white-haired ladies pose with raised teacup before a recreation of
</span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><i>George
Washington Crossing The Delaware. </i></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">With
their hatchet mouths and squinty, almost feral, eyes, they seem to
gloat over the mere fact of their birth.</span></span>
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">Wood
completed the painting in 1932 when the country was deep in
depression, thousands out of work, homeless. Breadlines were
common. Wood makes the point—still relevant today—that the
robber barons surely had nothing to fear from the polite, pampered
ladies of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who are about as far from real revolution as one
could get.</span>
</div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">I
often wonder how a country so enamored of its revolutionary origins
could produce so many obedient apostles of the status quo, which
always aligns itself with wealth and power against those who have
neither.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">For
example: all those who sided with the insurance industry against
universal health care, including the so-called “Tea Party”
Republicans, who have been known to dress up in the costumes of their
revolutionary idols.</span>
</div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">As
I understand it, the kinds of revolutionaries celebrated by the DAR
and the Tea Party don't usually side with the well-fed and complacent at the top, but arise
from below, when the have-nots begin to suspect the political and
economic cards are stacked against them. </span>
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">This
seems to be where we are now: record numbers of people in poverty,
who, in spite of their best efforts, even working full time, still
struggle to get ahead. Among them are many former middle class
people—nice, decent folk who woke up one morning to find they couldn't
send their kids to college. Now many of </span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><i>them</i></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
can't even adequately feed their families or keep a roof over their
heads. </span></span>
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">In
Detroit, where the price of tap water has soared above the average and
many are jobless, the city has cut the water off for thousands of
people, mostly black, who can't pay their bills—a move condemned by
the United Nations as an international human rights violation. </span>
</div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">Hard
to believe this is the U.S.A.! In fact, it's what happens when you
have a small cadre of multimillionaires deciding the fate of the rest
of us—which campaign to back, which legislators to buy, whether or
not we'll have health care or keep Social Security, and where the
next war will be. Literally life and death decisions, rarely
motivated by decency or ethics, but strictly driven by profit. </span>
</div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">The
result is a wholesale attack on the Commons—to wipe out pension
funds, destroy unions, slash public education, and turn everything,
even the right to clean water, over to corporations. </span>
</div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">And
rest assured, if it succeeds in Detroit, it can happen anywhere.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">A
stellar example of this mentality is Texas' own Greg Abbott,
candidate for Governor, and enthusiast for privatizing just about
everything, including education. In 2011, Abbott supported cuts to
Texas schools by $5.4-billion, resulting in job losses for 12,000 teachers across the state. </span>
</div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">As
Attorney-General, Abbott ruled to keep confidential the locations of
dangerous chemicals, like ammonium nitrate, the stuff that
blew up the fertilizer plant in West, Texas, obliterating dozens of
homes, a middle school and a fifty-unit apartment complex. </span>
</div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">Abbott's
campaign receives funding from the billionaire Koch family, which has
interests in the chemical-fertilizer industry. </span>
</div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">Clearly,
the playing field is out of plumb. And it's not apt to change for
the better so long as those in power remain virtually
indistinguishable from the robber barons they serve.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Nor
can we expect much support from the likes of the </span></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><i>“Daughters
of Revolution” </i></span><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">or
the Tea Party, those stalwart celebrants of our first war for
freedom, who, had they actually been there, likely would <em>not</em> have been throwing tea in Boston Harbor, but would have sided with the Tories, just
as they side with those in power today. </span></span>
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">Indeed,
there's nothing particularly honorable or noble in polite conformity.
It would be hard to name a single positive change in our world
achieved by that crowd. Conformists did not cross the color line to
occupy lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, nor did
they risk their lives registering blacks to vote in Philadelphia, Mississippi in
'64. Conformists did not end child labor laws or bring women the
right to vote. They had no hand in creating Medicare or Social
Security. And just as they were absent in the marches to end the
Vietnam War, they're now missing in the struggle to end our current wars, including the latest senseless provocations toward Russia. </span>
</div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">
If somehow we manage to get workers unionized, if we succeed in
raising pay to a living wage, if we start making corporations pay
their fair share, and make college available to all, you can bet it
will be the conformists—the power-brokers and their apostles—who
will stand in the way, as they always do.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype, serif;">As
most revolutions start from below by people without wealth or power,
so this one will, too. The Occupy Movement was the beginning. Let
the conformists stay home.</span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype;"></span> </div>
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<em><span style="font-family: Palatino Linotype;">First published in Fort Worth Weekly.</span></em></div>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal;">
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14955615907131912537noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-76635093949100659812014-08-12T13:38:00.000-05:002014-08-12T14:01:58.260-05:00CHRIS HEDGES AT NYC GAZA RALLY: "GODS COVENANT IN THE PROMISED LAND"<iframe width="480" height="261" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FWYrtwUO52I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-65816313531009647092014-07-29T21:38:00.000-05:002014-07-29T22:05:28.643-05:00ISRAEL IGNORES WORLD OPINION, AS IT CONTINUES ITS MASSACRE IN GAZA<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gq0RHQXLTbs/U9hXSk0V4LI/AAAAAAAAAV8/kJ7F00-InbE/s1600/papa-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gq0RHQXLTbs/U9hXSk0V4LI/AAAAAAAAAV8/kJ7F00-InbE/s1600/papa-1.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">AFP Photo/Marco Longari </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
London's <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/10984259/Revealed-the-Palestinian-children-killed-by-Israeli-forces.html"><i>Telegraph</i></a> has reported that Israel's IDF has killed more children, more than the total of Hamas fighters killed, during the latest outbreak of carnage in Gaza.<br />
<br />
Well over 1,000 people have been killed by IDF forces. <br />
<br />
The Israelis have bombed hospitals, and paramedics,--and grade schools,-- even those under the protection of the UN, serving as shelters for civilians. Drones and snipers, tanks, have pushed deep into Gaza, and it is as though the population of Palestinians is being squeezed in a vise. The Israeli government seems incapable of hearing about, or assuming any responsibility for bombing <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/10984259/Revealed-the-Palestinian-children-killed-by-Israeli-forces.html">UN monitored facilities</a>, or other civilian structures. They have become deaf to accusations.<br />
<br />
There is always cruelty and sadism performed by the occupier over a subject people; and it exists in the hearts of those who cheer and pull up lawn chairs, to watch high explosives turn Palestinians and their dwellings into rubble and blood. Israel's barking voice, Netanyahu, its strange leader, has admitted recently that there will be <a href="http://972mag.com/netanyahu-clarifies-the-occupation-will-last-forever/93372/">no two state solution</a>, There was never going to be such an agreement. And really it must be concluded that all Israeli negotiations have been examples of bad faith,--a deception undertaken in order to steal Palestinian land. It was always about building more settlements for Israelis, while cornering the Palestinians into ghettos, into places where water is scarce, where farmers come under sniper fire as they try to till their land, where fishermen are harassed and bottled up close to shore. <br />
<br />
Most Americans are unaware of the harsh and arbitrary limitations placed on foodstuff that is allowed to enter Gaza. Israel puts a stranglehold on the allotted calories that each person is Gaza is expected to consume. They have bragged about putting Palestinians "on a diet". This is no joke. It has been calculated scientifically; and this stingy allotment of nourishment has been coldly calculated.<br />
<br />
The worst element of the massacre is that Netanyahu manufactured his obscene case for bombing and ground invasion; and it turns out that he was in too much of a hurry to wait for Israeli police to get to the bottom of the investigation into the killing of the three Israeli teenagers. The fact persists, that Netanyahu manipulated events and prolonged uncertainty about the kidnapped kids, even though he had been informed, privately, that they were killed soon after being taken.<br />
<br />
The Israeli leader drove his country into its present tantrum of destruction. And it turns out that political Hamas, the party elected to govern Gaza, was <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/07/how-netanyahoo-lied-to-get-his-war-on-gaza.html">not responsible</a> for the deaths of the Israeli teens.<br />
<br />
<br />
These events have come to shatter a relatively quiet period in Gaza, that has existed for a while between Hamas and the Israeli authorities. But now, the terrifying destruction of civilians cannot be called war; for it is primarily a slaughter. It is murder. No comparison exists between the arsenal of US arms, that Israel has, and the homemade rockets Hamas uses. What an occupied people has done, is to resist, to face the colonial power that will not allow their underlings any foothold of sovereignty, or any allowance of dignity. Colonial Israel doesn't offer them even second class citizenship; it will only administer the lives of its subjects.<br />
<br />
Netanyahu did not let out that the kidnapped teenagers were dead; and he stirred up anxiety and public dread, and used the uncertainty as a pretext to commence attacks on Hamas , in Gaza, on July 1st, before an investigation could have properly identified the perpetrators. And this was <b>prior</b> to the Hamas retaliation, with its rudimentary, unguided rockets.<br />
<br />
Naftali Frankel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach were killed in a car that was abandoned later by their kidnappers; and their bodies, as reported by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/30/bodies-missing-israeli-teenagers-found-west-bank"><i>The Guardian</i></a>, were found in a valley near Hebron.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Following the discovery of the bodies the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, blamed <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/hamas" title="More from the Guardian on Hamas">Hamas</a>
for the murders, warning the militant group will pay a heavy price for
the deaths. "Hamas is responsible, and Hamas will pay ... [They] were
kidnapped and murdered in cold blood by wild beasts," Netanyahu said in a
statement.</blockquote>
But Netanyahu went with collective guilt, once more, which he managed to heap upon Hamas and the people of Gaza; and he never intended to rein in the revengeful power he was unleashing. At the funeral of the slain Israeli youths, he cried out, "They sanctify death, we sanctify life...They sanctify cruelty, and we mercy and
compassion. That is the secret of our strength."<br />
<br />
But the Prime Minister was painting a target on Gaza again.<br />
<br />
But needless to say, the duly elected government in Gaza is not using those whom it serves as human shields; and Palestinians love their children as much as Israelis love their own kids. And yet the corrosive propaganda would have us believing the absurd. <a href="http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/israel_is_captive_to_its_destructive_process_20140714">Chris Hedges</a> recently wrote that Israel cannot seem to self-correct: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When all this does not work, when it becomes clear that the Palestinians
once again have not become dormant and passive, Israel will take
another step, more radical than the last. The “process of destruction”
will be stopped only from outside Israel. Israel, captive to the
process, is incapable of imposing self-restraint.</blockquote>
When Palestinian leaders reject passivity, and respond as soon as the community is attacked, Netanyahu calls them terrorists.<br />
<br />
What kind of terrible judgment is being enacted when Israel's huge fragmentation bombs obliterate whole families? How will killing four little boys who are playing on the beach,--all of them wiped out by an Israeli airman who takes special care to pick them off, --how will this settle accounts with God? After Israel saturates Gaza with a deluge of blood, how will the garden grow? They are clearly insane if they think the climate will improve.<br />
<br />
This kind of behavior is in no way moderated by self-reflection. A different leader with a different mindset, whose goals were really expressions of compassion, could have included some remorse for the tragic killing of the other teenager, 17 year old Mohammed Abu Khdeir. The Palestinian boy was forced to drink gasoline, and then burned to death, by a couple of Israeli teens, who thought they were exacting revenge for the deaths of young Frankel, Shaar, and Yifrach. <br />
<br />
The opportunity was never grasped by Netanyahu (who called the killing of Khdeir "loathsome"). But the Prime Minister was focused on ending a great many Palestinian lives; and he did what he could to whip up the rage of the Israeli public.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
***</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Trembling</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
by Hilmy Salem</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: left;">
We can resist the sectarian kings</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
With a single turn in the opposite direction.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
But given how nimble we are</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The strong ones tremble</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Every time two people exchange a smile.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
But for those who trade in doubt</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Before love, and after it,</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Our gift to them: a crutch.</div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
--translated from the Arabic by Dima Hilal and Idra Novey </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-67416033853590483042014-06-30T23:30:00.000-05:002014-07-01T03:02:57.809-05:00O SAY CAN YOU SEE BY THE DAWN'S BURLY BLACKWATER?<br />
An article today, in <a href="http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_06_30/US-strategy-for-Russia-new-ambassador-old-war-5193/">The Voice Of Russia</a>, points out the inclination of the US administration to abandon any path to improve relations with Russia. The new US candidate for ambassador to that country comes with some interesting diplomatic baggage. John Tefft, now awaiting Moscow's approval, has had previous service as US ambassador to Georgia and Ukraine, when US meddling in the domestic politics of those two countries was at a critical stage. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div id="p_40">
Though summoned out of retirement, Tefft's diplomatic
career is also somewhat interesting. Under Barack Obama's presidency,
from 2009 through 2013, he was US Ambassador to Ukraine. Under George W.
Bush, from 2005 through 2009 – to Georgia. These two countries have
recently signed association agreements with the EU, one of the main
points of discord between them and Russia.</div>
<div id="p_50">
Experts unanimously believe the new appointment will bring no improvement to relations with Russia. In fact, Dmitry Suslov,
deputy director of comprehensive European and International studies at
the Higher School of Economics, says many already call it a new cold
war.</div>
<i>"I think that relations are at their lowest
point since the end of the cold war. Many observers in the US and Russia
are talking about a new cold war,"</i> he told Radio VR.<span id="ctrlcopy"></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div id="p_60">
<span id="ctrlcopy"> <a href="http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_06_30/US-strategy-for-Russia-new-ambassador-old-war-5193/">http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_06_30/US-strategy-for-Russia-new-ambassador-old-war-5193/ </a></span></div>
</blockquote>
These prior appointments put Tafft on the spot. During the war started by Georgia's president, Saakashvili, there was a surprise attack against Russian peacekeepers; and Moscow had to swiftly send in its military to thwart the aggression. It was a piece of history that was blacked out, in 2008, and smothered under an <a href="http://tholosofathena.blogspot.com/2008/08/america-is-led-nearer-to-destruction-by.html">avalanche of lies</a> in the mainstream US press and TV.<br />
<br />
The news of the past few weeks is astonishing. After a coup in Ukraine was sponsored and paid for by the US government, in secret, and the payment for its logistics confirmed later, by Victoria Nuland, a high State Department official, we have seen Russia accused of intervening there, though there is no evidence whatsoever of that. On the contrary, the thugs who have taken the reins in Kiev, have been blasting away with artillery at eastern Ukrainian cities, where people oppose the <i>coup d'etat</i>, and a presidential election that basically reflected only the will of the western region, where the forcible takeover was organized.<br />
<br />
There was a public rally in Kiev yesterday, with the Right Sektor, the fascist cadre that spearheaded the seizure of power, crying for the blood of those Ukrainians who oppose the new regime.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The protesters held a “<i>people’s assembly</i>,” during which
they warned Poroshenko that “this Sunday campaign may be the last
peaceful one,” Itar-Tass reported.
<br />
<br />
The demonstrators called on the newly-elected president to
“l<i>isten to the real holder of power – the Ukrainian
people</i>.”<br />
<br />
<i>They added that if the president didn't “<i>hear [their]
demands,”</i> they would “<i>consider him a traitor of the
country</i>” and “<i>he will share the same fate as [ousted
President Viktor] Yanukovich.”</i>
--<a href="http://rt.com/news/169240-ukraine-rally-ceasefire-martial/">RT</a></i></blockquote>
<br />
The Obama administration has been committing crimes and covering up the wrongdoing with lies and distortions. There is even confusion about who is calling the shots in this Empire run amok. Is it the CIA?--the president?--the State Department?--or the peculiar Hydra-head mercenaries, like <b>Blackwater</b>, operating in Baghdad? <br />
<br />
This picked up speed under President G. W. Bush; and the descent of the United States into hell seems to be accelerating. Read the article, <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-06-30/how-blackwater-survived-iraq-probes-being-above-law-threaten-kill-investigators">How Blackwater Survived Iraq Probes Of Being "Above The Law" - By Threatening To Kill Investigators</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at
Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, The NY Times reports that the State
Department began investigating the security contractor’s operations in
Iraq. However, as James Risen reports, a <b>senior official of the
notorious private security firm allegedly threatened to kill a
government investigator leading the probe into the firm’s Iraqi
operation</b>. Stunningly (or not), the US embassy sided with him and forced the inspector to cut the visit short.</blockquote>
What the Obama Team has been pushing since they conspired with the British and French to destroy Libya, and then by continuing on against Syria, is the empowerment of extremist Islamic radicals, jihadists--or whomever they find in the rank of mercenaries, to do the dirty work for them. That is to say, to cause the destruction of governments, if not societies; and they don't seem to care if it is one or the other.<br />
<br />
Now there is the open conspiracy to force NATO into Russia's sensitive borderland, to threaten Russian naval installations in Crimea, to interrupt Russia's commerce and energy trade with Europe,--in other words to screw with that country--while simultaneously vilifying it.<br />
<br />
Washington no doubt is inviting a proxy war in Iraq. Look at this new batch of over-ambitious, gleaming, well-provisioned, supremely confident rogues, who are tearing through the Iraqi countryside! There they are: crucifying the "moderate" extremists who were fighting Syria's president, making videos as they execute prisoners in Iraq, driving in long convoys of shiny new Toyota trucks.<br />
<br />
I wonder who is paying for all those spiffy uniforms? Obama just recently asked Congress to fork over $500 million for weapons, to be given to the so-called moderates who are attacking Syria. If those weapons end up in the hands of the new killers, the glory-seeking, self-styled rulers of the whole Muslim world, it's probably just another installment on America's extended mercenary army.<br />
<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-34265098452740650212014-05-31T23:59:00.001-05:002014-06-01T00:03:12.425-05:00"A BIRD DOESN'T SING BECAUSE IT HAS AN ANSWER, IT SINGS BECAUSE IT HAS A SONG."<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rlllbD4foeU/U4qvXfRA9bI/AAAAAAAAAUg/uCCEDuRvOzU/s1600/xmaya-angelou.jpg.pagespeed.ic.sMJluTmRg-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rlllbD4foeU/U4qvXfRA9bI/AAAAAAAAAUg/uCCEDuRvOzU/s1600/xmaya-angelou.jpg.pagespeed.ic.sMJluTmRg-.jpg" height="209" width="320" /></a></div>
Maya Angelou (1928-2014) </blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
--<a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/maya-angelou">Poetry Foundation</a>:</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Angelou’s most famous work, <i>I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings</i>
(1969), deals with her early years in Long Beach, St. Louis and Stamps,
Arkansas, where she lived with her brother and paternal grandmother. In
one of its most evocative (and controversial) moments<i>,</i> Angelou
describes how she was first cuddled then raped by her mother's boyfriend
when she was just seven years old. When the man was murdered by her
uncles for his crime, Angelou felt responsible, and stopped talking.
Angelou remained mute for five years, but developed a love for language.
She read black authors like <a class="author-bio-link" href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=3340">Langston Hughes</a>, W. E. B. Du Bois, and <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/paul-laurence-dunbar">Paul Lawrence Dunbar</a>, as well as canonical works by <a class="author-bio-link" href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=6176">William Shakespeare</a>, <a class="author-bio-link" href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81652">Charles Dickens</a>, and <a class="author-bio-link" href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=81604">Edgar Allan Poe</a>.
When Angelou was twelve and a half, Mrs. Flowers, an educated black
woman, finally got her to speak again. Mrs. Flowers, as Angelou recalled
in her children’s book <i>Mrs. Flowers: A Moment of Friendship </i>(1986)<i>,</i>
emphasized the importance of the spoken word, explained the nature of
and importance of education, and instilled in her a love of poetry.
Angelou graduated at the top of her eighth-grade class. </blockquote>
I once saw Maya Angelou on stage, where she was giving a lecture on poetry and retelling her life experience. She was a fascinating and beautiful person, a unique American poet, linguist, a gifted raconteur, and had a remarkable knowledge and appreciation of history. Her presence before us was quite powerful; and her soul seemed to embrace the whole audience. It is a cherished memory for me.Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-23327272677674656622014-04-23T16:36:00.005-05:002014-04-28T00:24:16.003-05:00ARE WORLDS ABOUT TO COLLIDE IN EUROPE AGAIN?... WHO IS THE AGGRESSOR?<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
That morning they lifted above their heads<br />
what appeared to be a doll in a christening gown<br />
and we stood in the blasted haze waiting for long white<br />
plumes to stanch the fires quickening through<br />
carpets and bedclothes, a tea service, a tender curtain,<br />
and we did not turn away, nor did we photograph the child,<br />
—except at the moment of its being raised—<br />
but later we walked to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Place des Martyrs</span><br />
where a stillness had been created entirely<br />
by small arms-fire that had blistered walls, blackened shops<br />
and taken from the movie-house all but its blank screen,<br />
where once all manner of figures had shone,<br />
wavering, composed of light through what was<br />
now nothing: a country. Or such was the hope.<br />
<br />
--Carolyn Forché, <i>Place des Martyrs</i></blockquote>
<br />
<i>Tholos</i> now marks an anniversary of eleven years, on the 23rd of April. What counts as the result of our labor, and the labor of others like us, has to be measured in terms of awareness across the realm of readers, and among the ripples that spread from that awareness.<br />
<br />
But the war hysteria and thunder being raised against Russia during this month has gone to the heads of liberal and conservative alike, even beyond the usual circles of corrupt media. Eleven years ago, our attention was focused with horror on George W. Bush, and his invasion of Iraq, in which he often sputtered, and struck his warlike poses, to the praises and exultation of a news media that was eager to join him and play their part. This war on Iraq was not undertaken to go after those responsible for the 9/11 attack; but went to the wild edge of the furious spectacle, whose primitive, bloody urges, and barren language, worked with its criminal abandon and profane show of force. This was the road to American war crime, to full-throttled, global war making. The empire can be defined, or described now, by the curse it leaves on the land: all the lasting bitterness, torments and hatred, scenes of murder, and poisoned land, for which it will be remembered.<br />
<br />
Neither Americans, nor anyone else, should ever forget what that debacle was about, because it destroyed the nation that was invaded, and ruined as well, the United States, the nation that committed the crime. Iraq is in ruin, still, and is wracked by political killings, if not smoldering urban war. But the US, too, is become a lean shadow, a long spineless shadow, of what it was when we were growing up. The war of absurd rhetoric on "Terror", and the other war of "Full Spectrum Dominance" (to use the language of empire) are two different things. The first is the silly, cartoon version; and the second is <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/23/putins-dilemma/">the real state of affairs</a>. <br />
<br />
Insane and endless war will bankrupt a nation, and our country is no exception. More dangerous, more desperate and foolhardy gambles, are history's messages, scrawled on the walls by dying empires. The diplomacy of Obama and his Secretary of State, Kerry, has a most terrifying logic: the logic of <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/18/the-strangelove-effect/">unrelenting confrontation</a>, the bankrolling of mercenaries, <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/04/ukraine-anti-terrorism-campaigns-follow-visits-from-us.html">stooges</a>, and extremists of various stripes, in the overthrow of elected and legitimate governments, in bribery and blackmail, and targeted assassinations. And then there is the hallmark of aggression, that leads ominously to war: bad faith in negotiations, and signatures on agreements that are soon disowned by the signers. This bad faith and deception has happened twice in a few weeks.<br />
<br />
Coincidence? No way. <br />
<br />
History has proceeded so madly during the Bush and Obama years, that in terms of the hell we're in, looking forward and looking back seem almost indistinguishable now. And the lies that have lodged in the mouths of corrupt leaders and news people, give consent to the architecture of military aggression, which is the central point of the empire. We live in a basically fascist oligarchy, in an airtight surveillance society; and we are practically suffocated during this Ukrainian crisis by the most childish propaganda.<br />
<br />
Some fools, such as U.S. Senator John McCain, are saying that we should already be in military conflict with Russia.<br />
<br />
When the United States appears with its European sidekicks, small nations start dropping like flies. And nations like Iraq and Afghanistan, in which the US exhausts itself with long military occupations, are not fixed ever, but are left in chaos, and finally just abandoned in the hands of warring militias, or in the care of armed drug cartels, or under the protection of white slavers, --or for instance-- in the case of the coup government in Kiev, under the thumb of fascist street thugs.<br />
<br />
The Obama administration mirrors the interests of the Central Banks and the blood-sucking IMF, that methodically rapes entire nations, with its debt-schedules and predatory interest rates. But the real muscle behind the shakedown comes along later, when economic sanctions are not persuasive enough.<br />
<br />
Of course, economic sanctions in the hands of an American president, adds up to an act of war by itself. <br />
<br />
Nothing else is revealed by our exaggerated image of ourselves, except our moral collapse as a society, in our trance-like fingering and thumbing of the infernal cell phones, as Obama, the president, boasts that our army can lick Russia's army.<br />
<br />
It was Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Sooner or later, everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences."</blockquote>
<br />
Americans and Europeans, we are still in the prison of our own device, this empire that is bankrupt now. Where is our sense of humility, in consideration of <b>our</b> nations' crimes? Where is our sense of history as we approach the 100th anniversary of World War One? <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-19560977488052254442014-04-09T23:02:00.000-05:002014-04-09T23:05:02.946-05:00copeland morris HORSES WATCH MY DREAMS <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There were millions of years, at least<br />
Of petite horses, slipping inconspicuously<br />
<br />
Beneath primordial fronds, hiding in<br />
The ground cover, peeping from under<br />
Bromeliads, almost as shy as chameleons.<br />
When did their articulate little hooves begin<br />
To thunder?--filling out their long strides?<br />
<br />
We inherit some movement known to them,<br />
Their noble way of standing idle, gazing<br />
Into the pasture. Their need to dream exists,<br />
A fragrance of grass on which they feed.<br />
May they watch your dreams, my dear one,<br />
As they have watched mine. And may they ever<br />
Approach your open hands, in peace. </blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-13481494978784045522014-03-16T21:23:00.001-05:002014-03-20T23:24:05.178-05:00REFERENDUM IN CRIMEA MAKES HISTORY<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9YyHZfUNiLI/UyZb2StfiUI/AAAAAAAAAS0/IZ7k_7sn3Nc/s1600/05.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9YyHZfUNiLI/UyZb2StfiUI/AAAAAAAAAS0/IZ7k_7sn3Nc/s1600/05.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">People sing the Russian national anthem as they celebrate in
Simferopol's Lenin Square on March 16, 2014 after exit polls showed that
about 95.5 percent of voters in Ukraine's Crimea region supported union
with Russia (AFP Photo / Dimitar Dilkoff)</span></blockquote>
<br />
The celebrations were widespread throughout the Crimea today; and despite the claims by nations in Europe, backed with the threat of consequences to Russia by the US, their spirits were not dampened. They voted for association with the Russian Federation. Those in favor numbered around 93%.<br />
<br />
The White House is scowling today, declaring that a principle of self-determination which is set down in the United Nations Charter should be ignored; and that instead, we are to respect a rump, illegal clique of fascists, who overthrew a legitimate, elected government, in Kiev. But it is madness to satisfy the greedy ends of a small collection of neocons and central bankers. These seem to be the people who are using the military muscle of the US , and presidents, who are nothing but hollow creatures, who will willingly murder anyone and overturn any society, if there is a profit down line for this morally decrepit Empire.<br />
<br />
This recent crisis which forced Russia into a defensive position, next to its coastline, and its primary naval defense installation, in the Crimea, is something that concerns the essential Borderland, in Ukraine, that reaches back to the foundational beginnings of Russia, deep into its history. But our public has been told lies about this crisis. Those lies have been told and repeated in almost every major US and European news media. They will tell the people that the coup is not crawling with fascists at all. They don't tell the people about the horrific fascist sympathies embedded in the World War II history of the region of Western Ukraine. American audiences didn't get to hear about how, during the recent <i>coup d'etat</i>, the sniper shootings of both police and protesters, turned out to be the work of the same snipers.<br />
<br />
President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, and all the pusillanimous leaders of the Empire's vassal states, will tell you with one voice, that it's only the Ukrainian Constitution that matters now, without mentioning how those fascist freaks of the Right Sektor and the Svoboda have crashed the party. The United States can now apparently void diplomatic agreements within days after the paper is signed. The February 21st agreement, said that the Ukrainian president would remain in office for an interim period, as those from the Maiden Protest and the opposition were eased into a power-sharing arrangements, pending a scheduled election. All the parties to this document were responsible for its implementation.<br />
<br />
But what happened? Ukraine's president had to run for his life, people just came into Parliament, tossing the regulars out of their seats; and in an undignified haste they didn't even follow constitutional procedures for impeachment. When Russia asked the US about its responsibility for seeing that the party in power live up to the agreement, whose ink was still virtually drying, the US position was, "different facts now on the ground, forget it".<br />
<br />
One astonishing fact after another came to light. Victoria Nuland (who is married to a bona fide <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-neocons-project-for-the-new-american-century-american-world-leadership-syria-next-to-pay-the-price/5305447">PNAC</a> neocon) and who is, herself, Assistant Secretary of State for Europe, has admitted that $5 billion from our US Government had been the seed money for this "revolution".<br />
<br />
And John Kerry rattles on about consequences. There will be consequences for this and that, and consequences over the referendum.<br />
<br />
But there will be no consequences for Russia that will not also land heavily on the backs of Americans and Europeans. And this has been the most desperate overreach and the most wicked foreign policy initiative thus far, by the Obama Administration, one which might have led to the mutual destruction we have always feared, if it had been further bungled.<br />
<br />
So all hail the Constitution of a country, the poor Ukraine, whose broken legitimate government, the United States had a big hand in breaking. This is not the first country that has been broken and brought to despotism, chaos, or ruin, by the CIA and those fraudulent NGOs who provide cover for acts of subversion. Nothing Obama or Kerry has done has been for the benefit of Ukraine's people. And people in the US are beginning to wise up. They are not interested in this kind of absurdity any more. All of us who understand are beginning to hate all this hollow military posturing, this repulsive war making, which is ever advanced by the deception of our corrupt President and Secretary of State.<br />
<br />
Hooray for the people of the Crimea today! At least they have the freedom of the ballot box, and can decide and celebrate their choice, one at which they have freely arrived. <br />
<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-73298115538731053582014-02-24T22:04:00.000-06:002014-02-24T23:47:58.846-06:00copeland morris SWEET RESOLUTION<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Repair is going on under moonlight.<br />
But what is the moon?--her holiness now<br />
Linked to imagination? Fireflies flash;<br />
But where is the fine control of my instinct<br />
While this wildfire burns my heart?<br />
<br />
From sparks of appreciation, light expands <br />
Upon this moon that has risen at dusk.<br />
From such cold fire comes flame.<br />
She is the bride that holds white roses;<br />
And when she wanes I still see<br />
The dark of her. Forever her precise,<br />
Hurried words, explain the tide going out,<br />
Where I dreamt I knew what peace meant.</blockquote>
Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-25318623610050546342013-12-25T13:31:00.000-06:002013-12-25T13:32:25.467-06:00copeland morris EARLY SNOW<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Soon Eurydice, there is early snow,
<br />
When the nightingale puts down her head.
<br />
Whenever bobbie pins mark the places in Auden,
<br />
A suitcase is snapping shut. A taxi signals.
<br />
<br />
Ribbons of narrow cursive begin to print,
<br />
A sleepless cigarette in your other hand,
<br />
The snow, my ghostly sense of falling back,
<br />
Jumping overgrowth with wheels on my feet.
<br />
<br />
Later, in your arms, I have dreamed of skating;
<br />
And where we turn into autumn, words appear,
<br />
A poem beside a sidewalk buried in snow.</blockquote>
Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-42818646333469922312013-12-20T14:37:00.001-06:002013-12-20T14:48:22.933-06:00IT'S ALSO A GRAVEYARD SMASH, A CASCADE OF BLOOD, AND EMPTY PLACES AT THE TABLE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bXNpxgJ8utk/UrSSiQXT3zI/AAAAAAAAARI/5zJrGFtes6g/s1600/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bXNpxgJ8utk/UrSSiQXT3zI/AAAAAAAAARI/5zJrGFtes6g/s1600/unnamed.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
If we are not transformed for the better in our hearts, how can all the political theater in the world save us? If we are not able to do better as individuals to prevent the hurt that is being inflicted on helpless humans; then desperate, last ditch appeals to common sense will not be enough to save us, either. For if human beings can not, or will not, prevent the poisoning of their own bodies, the genetic damage being done to their children,...and if people remain apathetic when shown the ruinous and reductive effect of war on their own society; then all that's been shown is a stupid acceptance of war as an integral part of capitalist organization, and the future holds nothing good for any of us.<br />
<br />
But a change is coming, whether any of us likes it or not. Even the scandals now, that have taken over the headlines, concerning the unbridled power of the state or empire to spy on everything and everyone, is only a symptom of our dull bondage to the present system. We are collectively the prisoners of a throwaway society, in which human beings are thrown away, in which the rule of law is thrown away, in which decency toward others is increasingly forgotten and discarded.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And once the storm is over, you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about. --Haruki Murakami</blockquote>
<br />
The miracle has happened if you are no longer afraid. And the healing of the world is in your hands.<br />
<br />
<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-21715975606455536722013-12-09T01:22:00.000-06:002013-12-09T11:52:20.733-06:00NELSON MANDELA, MAY HE REST IN PEACE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y-u9kW_mkqk/UqVgh1x8srI/AAAAAAAAAQU/A2W3UZI1S1g/s1600/mandela.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y-u9kW_mkqk/UqVgh1x8srI/AAAAAAAAAQU/A2W3UZI1S1g/s1600/mandela.jpg" height="226" width="320" /></a></div>
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the
African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have
fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a
democratic and free society in which all persons live together in
harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to
live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am
prepared to die.”<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Mandela and his organization suspended the armed struggle only once the
apartheid regime conceded to democracy. He was no pacifist; on the
contrary, he never hesitated to pick up arms when he perceived his
people were confronted with the choice between submission to tyranny and
armed resistance. But nor was he a militarist: He never hesitated to
take the political path when that presented itself. And in that example,
he has much to teach the world. --<a href="http://tonykaron.com/2005/07/20/free-mandela-from-the-prison-of-fantasy/">Tony Karon </a></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4lhzB3_hJt0/UqVhc1dX4XI/AAAAAAAAAQg/Nt6o_H3JxxU/s1600/Boxing2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4lhzB3_hJt0/UqVhc1dX4XI/AAAAAAAAAQg/Nt6o_H3JxxU/s1600/Boxing2.jpg" height="320" width="288" /></a></div>
Nelson Mandela opposed racial injustice, apartheid, colonialist, and imperialist power, with his whole being. <br />
And his struggles on behalf of his comrades in arms and his people in South Africa required a lot of sacrifice.<br />
<br />
Mandela became a man of his people, the father of modern South Africa. This implied a solidarity with diverse people in the armed struggle, and a wider and equally profound support from peaceful demonstrators from across the world. For the fight to liberate South African people, black people, all people, from the oppression of minority rule, was one of the greatest tests and victories of moral conscience that we have seen in this world.<br />
<br />
Mandela became the symbol of the resistance during his long imprisonment. Reflecting upon this history, not all that he wanted to achieve has been realized; but apartheid, compulsory racial segregation, and minority rule, was defeated; and every South African can be proud of that. And the world celebrates that, as it celebrates his life.<br />
<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-71789408703513053792013-11-22T15:45:00.001-06:002013-11-22T16:49:45.621-06:00PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY ON FREE INQUIRY AND SECRET SOCIETIES<iframe width="475" height="267" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zdMbmdFOvTs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
And there is President Kennedy's important speech about peace:
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Y_cPQiLBrUA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-5947319634594830522013-10-31T19:09:00.000-05:002013-10-31T23:03:02.027-05:00GETTING OFF THE ROAD TO PERDITION,--OR IS THAT FUKUSHIMA?Each of us is capable of being the weakest or strongest link in this present struggle for our world. At issue, is whether this world's affairs will be arranged on any principles of moral agency and compassion ; or, if we are so irresponsible, that we will tolerate our own subservience upon a Global Plantation, under an unlimited, and eventually armed surveillance, where everything rests finally on the blood and misery of slaves. And yes, this implies our blood too, our misery. Our slavery.<br />
<br />
In the American-administered empire, everything continues to run on war, or the threat of war, or by those economic wars that presidents call sanctions. We are held by a paramilitary shadow government that includes organization steeped in criminal underworld business, and in the laundering of billions of dollars of crime money by major banks, and the collusion of our elected leaders in criminal wars, leaders who are amenable enough to a whole spectrum of other criminal activities that are run off the books.<br />
<br />
How we come to this sorry situation must be obvious at this point, since the control of the power to issue money and to effectively regulate banking, is not really in the purview of the people or those we elect to run the government; and the transnational corporations have slowly but certainly gained the upper hand. These globalist powers have gone from seducing local government officials with money and the elixir of power, to that of obtaining the power to write the laws themselves, which they submit to the forgone approval of those who are bribed, and stay bribed.<br />
<br />
And the regulation of campaign financing is a shambles.<br />
<br />
If we allow this situation to continue; then it will have the effect of destroying us. It's possible to see how this new business model is working on the grounds of Fukushima Daiichi, in northeastern Japan, site of the world's immediate and devastating nuclear catastrophe. After two years the cleanup is still left to the corporation TEPCO, that is proven to lack the resources to deal with what has happened. The corporation has continually lied to the Japanese public about the extent to which the radiation has spread; and the most crucial immediate information about the meltdowns of three reactors has been filtering out only over time. As a story, we are left to our own curiosity and tireless alternate
media; but the corporate news organizations and cable networks pontificate, with nothing better to do most of the time than to amuse their audience. <br />
<br />
What is important to the leadership in both the corporate world and the governments they control, is to protect their investments. The public interest and safety is a distant concern to them. Corporate heads will ask government to change the rules about what level of radiation is mandated as safe in the food we eat, and it is done. That's all there is to it, as the sloshing over, and spills of radioactive waste water in Japan have continued, week after week, for two years.<br />
<br />
The<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36649.htm"> Fukushima story </a>is indeed about the physical meltdown of reactor cores and the precarious position of over ten-thousand highly radioactive, and deteriorating fuel rods, which could mean sickness, or result in a terminal condition for tens of millions of people over the northern half of the world.<br />
<br />
Well honestly, such a disaster is also about the broader story that ought to be told as well. There is a way in which corporate powers are trying to become immune to the established legal process of sovereign states.<br />
<br />
The Japanese government, like the American one, is beholden to corporate interests; and it has papered over the insufficiency of this TEPCO operation to deal with the magnitude of the crisis at the reactor site. The government has been covering for the company and its lies, by the repetitions of those same lies; and it has worsened the disaster with its own propaganda and diversions. We can expect the same government performance here because the reactor design, by General Electric, exists in several instances in our own country; and under the same circumstances we would see the same feckless government cover up. In fact, we are seeing a diversion here too, in the way the story remains unreported.<br />
<br />
Most Americans remain unaware that the crisis over there in Japan, around Fukushima Daiichi, is poised right now to become a catastrophe of global proportions. They are not even aware that the three melted radioactive cores are gradually driving a stake into the heart of Tokyo, which has over 10% of Japan's population, and which was tallied at over 13 million, in 2011.<br />
<br />
There is a bigger story now that Americans had better wake up to. It was a story covered up by the mindless and economically self-destructive tirades of the budget-in-captivity, and the government shutdown of meat inspection, national monuments, public buildings, and other things. <br />
<br />
For one thing, October had been earmarked for the passage through Congress of the TPP bill, and the certain signature of the president, whose administration has been pushing this treaty. The <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/4/a_corporate_trojan_horse_obama_pushes">Trans-Pacific Trade Pact</a> is notable as being a well kept secret, from the public; but in a more global sense of the word <i>secret</i>, than we have heretofore known. It has been from stem to stern (except for a few leaks) over a long period of foreign and corporate negotiation, a thoroughly <b>secret law</b>. Yes, a secret law in the United States. And when it's finally nudged under the noses of Congress, it will be too huge to read in a timely manner, and the members of Congress will have had no forewarning or previous chance to know much about it.<br />
<br />
The very transnational corporate business model is being changed by treaty, in a way that will be fundamentally hard to undo; and the essence of the treaty is that it will upend and nullify national and local government authority to control, to regulate, or fine transnational business, whenever and wherever these companies might wreck havoc on local communities,-- for instance--polluting water, poisoning the citizenry, or doing anything that proves unlawful or dangerous to the public welfare. Undoubtedly, this breaks the covenant between the people and their government, it also blows democracy to smithereens; and it finally gives the powers of finance, through their henchmen, the power to nullify national, regional, and municipal control over anything those elites might wish do in the name of "the invisible hand of the market place".<br />
<br />
Because legal liabilities would come into play, and there would be court proceedings, if a corporate entity was in any way responsible for a nuclear power core melting down in this country, no one should be surprised that the corrupt mainstream press does the bidding of Washington's political class, and is as quiet as the grave when it comes to the Fukushima story.<br />
<br />
The largely unreported story from Fukushima is about the worsening of the situation there. This goes far beyond the existential threat to the City of Tokyo, and its millions of souls, the danger that is caused by the molten, and radioactive cores that are burrowing into the Earth's crust, an event which is bound to contaminate the city's water over time. No, it is the whole safety of all people in the Northern Hemisphere, those who are bound together and implicated in the unspeakable event that could happen if Reactor Building #4, or specifically the tank holding thousands of fuel rods, should collapse.<br />
<br />
Beginning in early November, an operation to remove these rods, the ones that have already been damaged by excessive heat, is scheduled. The operation, if it goes without a hitch, is estimated to take about a year. But neither the US government or any of its big Media Dogs has explained the grave danger to the people, should there be a mishap, or another severe earthquake near Fukushima. If the Building #4 or the part that holds the fuel rods collapses,--what then?<br />
<br />
TEPCO has not consistently been able to keep the rods from overheating, and the special metal cladding on them has become brittle. If the whole thing tips over somehow; then the rods burst into flames and burn fiercely. The compound in them contains Plutonium; and if this burns and goes into the atmosphere and circulates on the winds, we will learn what the word catastrophe means, to be sure.<br />
<br />
<span class="userContent">In the worst case scenario, the entire
Northern Hemisphere of the planet will be gradually irradiated with
deadly isotopes. Instead of confronting this crisis, a threat to all
humanity, an existential threat, our national leaders remain busy,
tediously focused on bullying other nations, threatening some others
with war, economic sanction, and violent regime change.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-36613958105729625702013-09-29T15:39:00.000-05:002013-09-29T15:41:00.297-05:00copeland morris THE WHITE GOOSE<br />
<br />
<br />
When my heart hangs low, how the white goose rises; <br />
And brings to a hush, the careless, languishing sky.<br />
<br />
In the shimmer of time that buoyant body is shaped; <br />
Though how perturbed is its effort no one can say.<br />
<br />
It enfolds the sacred language of blessing and loss,<br />
And foretells the ripples where the river must fork.<br />
<br />
And even a child can praise those joyous pursuits <br />
In white flowing feathers as someone's good news.<br />
<br />
And each stroke of wings, all strenuous and satin,<br />
Must jar the four winds of yearning and caution.<br />
<br />
Dreams are so pure enfolding the years before<br />
Winter and summer bright in the white goose.<br />
<br />
The summer left like a ghost and the city fades;<br />
But the children raise their hands to celebrate.<br />
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<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-28755943038982715302013-09-11T15:22:00.000-05:002013-09-11T16:17:11.833-05:009/11 JUST DOESN'T GO AWAY
<blockquote>The word about 9/11 is a lot clearer after years of research.</blockquote>
<iframe width="460" height="259" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Ddz2mw2vaEg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337791.post-59865691290335921312013-08-27T01:58:00.000-05:002013-09-04T12:20:11.025-05:00U.S. AND NATO LEADERS KEEP TO THEIR SCHEDULE OF WAR AND DECEPTION<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a09fnVrVco4/Uhwh-0O0wiI/AAAAAAAAAN8/nkhbW3HBmOI/s1600/_69348511_69348046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a09fnVrVco4/Uhwh-0O0wiI/AAAAAAAAAN8/nkhbW3HBmOI/s400/_69348511_69348046.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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A world at war? A general war? The US and its NATO allies seem to be edging us all in that direction, against Syria (or even Russia), with the most perfidious abandon and deception, not seen since George W. Bush and Tony Blair led the United States and Britain into war, torture, and crimes against humanity in Iraq, in March 2003. <br />
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The scene above represents the flight into exile of a huge chunk of Kurdish society, who are fleeing into Iraq to escape murderous persecution, the killing and harassment by the Islamic extremists, those zealots called <i>takfiri</i>, who are the Syrian rebels. Besides fighting government soldiers, these rebels, who are mostly from outside the country, have been making life impossible for other religious believers who live in Syria. Whenever whole peoples are driven out on the roads like this, and have to run for their lives, it's undeniable that something horrible, something on a most frightening scale has been set in motion.<br />
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War by deception is the mark of President Obama. Only a few days ago his rhetoric was styled with an abundance of caution; and he was reckoning and reasoning that the situation in Syria was just too complicated, and that jumping rashly into military action had to be weighed against the constraints of international law. But a short time later he decides to hell with international law. Don't bother with the United Nations or the Security Council. Russia would certainly veto a sudden and ruthless attack on Syria's armed forces. And what is worse--and contrary to Obama's stipulation for cruise missiles--is the detailed case that Russia would make before the Security Council, with proof and argument, pointing to the Syrian rebels as the ones who are responsible for the chemical attacks, and the stacked corpses of Syrian children. <br />
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The rebels, many of whom are religiously intolerant, and not unlike al-Qaeda in most ways, are terrorizing and killing Christians and Shi'a Muslims. And the rebels are repeating this false flag tactic, this trick they tried before in Allepo. Moreover, the rebel fighters got caught doing this on a smaller scale, months ago. It was a chemical attack they did themselves, as provacateurs, and tried to blame the crime on President Assad's government. Their intent was the same; and their strategy was the same. And most telling is the matter of their timing; which is typically set to coincide with visits to Syria by UN officials.<br />
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The American president is not going to seek the advice or any vote of approval of Congress, before firing up this madness and mayhem. And only ten percent of Americans, as measured by poll, want an attack on Syria.<br />
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The Big Lie in the hands of any government is the most insidious betrayal of the trust that people place in their leaders. The Assad government would have absolutely zero incentive to do a chemical attack on civilians, only five kilometers from the center of Damascus, just at the time when a UN diplomat is in the city for talks with Assad's people. But the US government, with the British and French, are the ones that are the most invested in removing Assad from power. And the fact is, that a return to negotiations for a peaceful settlement, the future round of talks at Geneva, has been shaping up well for the current Syrian government, because the Army has been winning the war against the rebels for months. When events are seen in this light, the possible coordination of this gas attack between desperate rebels and the true belligerent-in-chief of the United States, does not seem so outlandish.<br />
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Make no mistake about this: the United States, aided and abetted by the purse strings of the Saudi king, assisted by Britain and France, is gathering a task force in Cyprus, a hundred miles from the Syrian coast, where it is evident that the decision to attack Syria has been made. Obama and his criminal partners have no interest in waiting for any kind of investigation of facts by the UN or anyone else. They are counting on the emotional onslaught of events, the images of the dead, gassed children, and the propaganda that assigns blame for their deaths. Behind the scenes, behind all the authoritarian manipulation and the cynical and farcical ballyhoo about their "responsibility to protect" there lies the same deranged calculations of dominance and the blood of another war.<br />
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Russian officials have come to regard American war policy as "a terrible rush to judgment." The chair of the State Duma's international affairs committee, Alexi Pushkov, voices the Russian sense of dismay at these preparations:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"To us, it looks
as though [George W.] Bush, [Dick] Cheney and [Donald] Rumsfeld never
left the White House," ..."It's basically the same policy,
as if US leaders had learned nothing and forgotten nothing in the past
decade. They want to topple foreign leaders they regard as adversaries,
without even making the most basic calculations of the consequences. An
intervention in Syria will only enlarge the area of instability in the
Middle East and expand the scope of terrorist activity. I am at a
complete loss to understand what the US thinks it is doing," </blockquote>
(<a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0826/As-world-prepares-to-act-on-Syria-Russia-scrambles-to-apply-brake">Fred Weir</a>, <i>Christian Science Monitor</i>) <br />
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<b>Addendum:</b></div>
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<a href="http://stormcloudsgathering.com/the-road-to-world-war-3">THE ROAD TO WORLD WAR 3</a><br />
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UPDATE: I changed the link above from the Leaked Documents story, to this one, because <i>Stormclouds Gathering</i> had concerns of authenticity about the leaked e-mails on which their story was based, and they pulled that video.<br />
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UPDATE II: <a href="http://www.moonofalabama.org/2013/09/syrian-oppo-dead-syrian-ex-minister-defects-to-turkey.html">Bernhard</a>, host at <i>Moon of Alabama, </i>has a humorous and amazing story that concerns a dead man (former Defense Minister) who has allegedly defected to the rebel side in the Syrian War.<br />
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<br />Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04861880932612995589noreply@blogger.com0