Focus: The Hillary Clinton's FBI Investigation - Nov 2, 2016
Huma Abedin new focus of Clinton email Investigation - freebeacon.com
Perjury? Huma Abedin swore to turn over all devices containing State Department emails - townhall.com
Flashback: Huma Abedin got three paychecks from State Dept., the Foundation, and Clinton-affiliated consulting firm - townhall.com
VIDEO: Hacktivist group Anonymous release video about Huma Abedin - YouTube
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FBI's Clinton Foundation investigation now 'a very high priority,' sources say - Fox News
DOJ Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik gave Clinton camp 'heads up' about testimony - Fox News
Feds knew about, helped secure Clinton's server In 2011 - The Daily Caller
VIDEO: Former FBI Asst. Director: Original Clinton probe ‘not a real investigation' - Fox News
Hacked Emails show Clinton campaign communicated with State - ABC News
McCaul: If elected, Hillary Clinton could be impeached - POLITICO
POLLS: Independents leaning toward Trump in polls after FBI furor erupts - McClatchy DC
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
When Charlottesville Was Nuked
Thirty-seven years ago, the United States Congress commissioned and published a work of fiction, an account of what life in Charlottesville, Virginia, might be like during a nuclear war. It's contained in a longer report called The Effects of Nuclear War which came out in May of 1979. It's widely available online.
I take an interest for 15 pretty solid reasons:
- I live in Charlottesville.
- The world still has enough nuclear weapons with which to destroy itself many times over.
- We pay a lot less attention to preventing such a disaster now than we did 37 years ago.
- More nations have nukes now and many more are close to having them.
- We know more now about the numerous nuclear accidents and misunderstandings that have nearly killed us all over the decades.
- India and Pakistan are actually at war.
- The United States and Russia are as close to war as they've been in 98 years.
- The United States is investing in newer and smaller, "more usable" nukes.
- This Congressional best case scenario for a U.S. city during a nuclear war is deeply disturbing.
- We now know that even a limited nuclear war would produce a nuclear winter, preventing the production of crops depicted in this tale.
- It's not so clear to me that Charlottesville would still rank last on a list of targets for nuclear missiles. It is, after all, home to the Army JAG school, the National Ground Intelligence Center, various weapon makers, a heavily militarized university, and the CIA's underground hideout.
- The United Nations has just set up negotiations for the coming year of a global treaty to ban nuclear weapons, and it's worth trying to understand why.
- If we survive our possession of nuclear knowledge, we still have climate catastrophe to quickly and miraculously evade or prepare for.
- The Republican candidate for U.S. president.
- The Democratic candidate for U.S. president.
So, here are a few excerpts that I encourage you to consider:
Of Veterans and Black Mirror Roaches
If you're a fan of the Netflix show Black Mirror, go watch the episode called "Men Against Fire" before reading this. It's the one about war.
In this 60-minute science fiction show, soldiers have been (somehow) programed so that when they look at certain people they see them as freaky monsters with pointed teeth and bizarre faces. These people look frightening and non-human. They are thought of as objects, not as people at all. In reality they are themselves terrified, unarmed, ordinary looking people. And they have a tool with which to protect themselves, a stick with a green light. It doesn't kill or injure. The stick deprograms a soldier so that when he looks at someone he sees them as they really are without the monstrous distortion.
Of course a deprogramed soldier is of no use to the military. In "Men Against Fire" the military offers a deprogramed soldier two choices. He can re-experience on an endless loop a recent reality in which he murdered helpless human beings, but this time experience it while seeing them as human beings instead of as "roaches" (what the military calls the intended victims made to appear monstrous), or he can be reprogramed and get back to the untroubled work of extermination.
While this story is more fiction than science, some reality breaks into the Netflix drama. During World War I, we're told accurately, a commander beat troops with a stick to get them to shoot at enemies. Troops we're also routinely drugged for the same purpose. During World War II, we're told, also on the basis of actual studies, only 15% to 20% of U.S. troops fired at opposing troops. In other words, 80% to 85% of the Greatest Heroes of the Greatest War Ever were actually a drain on the killing campaign, whereas the conscientious objector featured in the new Mel Gibson movie or, for that matter, the guy who stayed home and grew vegetables contributed more to the effort.
Killing and facing killing are extremely difficult. They require the closest human reality to programing. They require conditioning. They require muscle memory. They require thoughtless reflex. The U.S. military had so mastered this programing by the time of the war on Vietnam that as many as 85% of troops actually fired at enemies -- though some of them also fired at their own commanders. The real trouble came when they didn't remember these acts of murder as the extermination of "roaches" but as the reality of what they were. And veterans remembered their acts of murder on an endless loop with no option to be re-programed out of it. And they killed themselves in greater numbers than the Vietnamese had killed them.
The U.S. military has advanced not an inch in the matter of reconciling its killers to what they have done. Here's an account just published of what that means for veterans and those they know and love. You can easily find another such account every day online. The top killer of members of the U.S. military is suicide. The top killer of the people who live in "liberated" nations during their liberations is members of the U.S. military. This is not coincidental. Veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (only a disorder from the perspective of those who'd like to suppress healthy inhibitions), moral injury (what a veteran friend calls "a fancy word for guilt and regret"), and neurocognitive disorder/brain injury. Often the same individual suffers all three of these types of harm, and often they are hard to distinguish from each other or to fully diagnose prior to autopsy. But the one that eats your soul, the one solved only by science fiction, is moral injury.
Of course science fiction only works when it overlaps with nonfiction. U.S. troops conditioned to kick in doors in Iraq or Syria and view every person inside as a non-human threat don't use the term "roaches," preferring "hadjis" or "camel jockeys" or "terrorists" or "combatants" or "military aged males" or "Muslims." Removing the killers physically to a drone piloting booth can create psychic "distance" aided by reference to victims as "bugsplat" and other terms in the same vein as "roaches." But this approach to producing conscience-free killers has been a spectacular failure. Watch the real suffering of the real drone killers in the current movie National Bird. There's no fiction there, but the very same horror of the roach-killing soldier re-experiencing what he's done.
Such failures and shortcomings for the military are never complete failures of course. Many kill, and kill ever more willingly. What becomes of them afterward is not the military's problem. It couldn't possibly care less. So, awareness of what becomes of those who kill won't stop the killing. What we need is the real life equivalent of a little stick with a green light on it, a magic tool for deprograming members of every military on earth, every potential recruit, every investor in weapons dealing, every profiteer, every willing tax payer, every apathetic observer, every heartless politician, every thoughtless propagandist. What can we use?
I think the closest equivalents to the stick with the green light are passports and telephones. Give every American a passport automatically and free. Make the right to travel inviolable, including for felons. Make the duty to travel and to speak multiple languages part of every education. And give every family in every nation on the Pentagon's potential enemies list a phone with a camera and internet access. Ask them to tell us their stories, including the stories of their encounters with the rarest of species: the newly appearing Unarmed American.
Focus: Hillary Clinton Emails - Nov 1, 2016
Clinton aide left classified info behind on 2010 China trip - Fox News
Podesta paid $7,000 a month by top Clinton campaign donor - POLITICO
Analysis: The Clinton e-mails are critical to the Clinton Foundation investigation - National Review
Clinton camp questions FBI release of Marc Rich pardon files - POLITICO
WikiLeaks: Sheikh agreed to pay Bill Clinton $2 million per trip to Ethiopia - LifeZette
Wikileaks: Turkey's Erdogan was attempting to buy favor with Clinton campaign - freebeacon.com
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Let's Reduce the U.S. Nuclear Arsenal
At present, nuclear disarmament seems to have ground to a halt. Nine nations have a total of approximately 15,500 nuclear warheads in their arsenals, including 7,300 possessed by Russia and 7,100 possessed by the United States. A Russian-American treaty to further reduce their nuclear forces has been difficult to secure thanks to Russian disinterest and Republican resistance.
Yet nuclear disarmament remains vital, for, as long as nuclear weapons exist, it is likely that they will be used. Wars have been fought for thousands of years, with the most powerful weaponry often brought into play. Nuclear weapons were used with little hesitation by the U.S. government in 1945 and, although they have not been employed in war since then, how long can we expect to go on without their being pressed into service again by hostile governments?
Talk Nation Radio: James Marc Leas on Canceling the F-35
https://soundcloud.com/davidcnswanson/talk-nation-radio-james-marc-leas-on-canceling-the-f-35
James Marc Leas is a founding member of the Stop the F-35 Coalition in Burlington Vermont. He has published some two dozen articles on the F-35 and F-35 basing. To highlight the F-35 issue statewide, he ran for the office of Vermont Adjutant General, the leader of the Vermont National Guard, in 2013, which is elected by the legislature.
Before becoming a patent attorney James was an engineer at IBM, and he holds over 40 patents for his inventions. While an IBM employee he led a vigorous campaign among employees to end IBM sales to South Africa. He also served as a staff physicist for the Union of Concerned Scientists in its Washington, DC office for a year in the aftermath of the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. He is a graduate of MIT and completed all but the dissertation toward a PhD in physics from the University of Massachusetts. He is a member of the Vermont Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the National Lawyers Guild.
Sign the petition to cancel the F-35:
https://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12514
Learn more:
http://stopthef35.com
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
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Tomgram: Ann Jones, Donald Trump's Open Carry
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
Recently, the New York Times produced a veritable thesaurus of Trumpian twittery -- every insulting tweet of The Donald’s that their researchers could find since he declared his candidacy. It’s quite a collection in which he goes after 282 people, places, and things in his uniquely abusive fashion. (Don’t even get me started on his tweets about Hillary Clinton; you’d be reading until tomorrow.) Here, instead, is a relatively limited list of his, a tiny entry of classic nastiness aimed at a peripheral character in this year’s election campaign, Senator Elizabeth Warren:
The choice this year is easy: Why No Leftist, Progressive or Liberal Should Vote for Hillary Clinton
By Dave Lindorff
With one week to go in this year’s presidential election -- an astonishing and depressing contest in which the two least-liked and least-trusted candidates in history are the two choices put up by our two main political parties -- it’s time to look at why left and liberal people should not vote for the Democratic Party’s nominee, Hillary Clinton.
This Natural Disaster Assistance Law Is Why Other States Are Policing Dakota Access Pipeline Protests
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
Almost exactly 20 years ago, President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill creating an interstate agreement for emergency management. That inconspicuous law has opened the door for the current flood of out-of-state law enforcement agents present at the continuing protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in North Dakota.
Focus: FBI Investigation of Hillary Clinton - Oct 31, 2016
Grassley wants to know if Justice Dept. blocked Clinton Foundation probe - Washington Examiner
Letter of Senator Grassley to Comey on the Clinton investigation - judiciary.senate.gov
F.B.I. begins review of Clinton aide’s emails - The New York Times
Donald Trump warns of a 'constitutional crisis' if Hillary Clinton wins - LA Times
FBI agents pressed Justice unsuccessfully for probe of Clinton Foundation - The Washington Post
Clinton Foundation got $28 million for favors to Morocco - The Daily Caller
ARCHIVE: The Clinton Foundation left a toxic legacy in Colombia, critics say - Fusion
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Security Firm Running Dakota Pipeline Intelligence Tied to U.S. Military Work in Iraq, Afghanistan
Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog
TigerSwan is one of several security firms under investigation for its work guarding the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota while potentially without a permit. Besides this recent work on the Standing Rock Sioux protests in North Dakota, this company has offices in Iraq and Afghanistan and is run by a special forces Army veteran.
Tomgram: Nate Terani, One Veteran's War on Islamophobia
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
Recently, I was asked a question about Kill Anything That Moves, my history of civilian suffering during the Vietnam War. An interviewer wanted to know how I responded to veterans who took offense at the (supposed) implication that every American who served in Vietnam committed atrocities.
I think I softly snorted and slowly shook my head.
What Keeps the F-35 Alive
Imagine if a local business in your town invented a brand new tool that was intended to have an almost magical effect thousands of miles away. However, where the tool was kept and used locally became an area unsafe for children. Children who got near this tool tended to have increased blood pressure and increased stress hormones, lower reading skills, poorer memories, impaired auditory and speech perception, and impaired academic performance.
Most of us would find this situation at least a little concerning, unless the new invention was designed to murder lots of people. Then it'd be just fine.
Now, imagine if this same new tool ruined neighborhoods because people couldn't safely live near it. Imagine if the government had to compensate people but kick them out of living near the location of this tool. Again, I think, we might find that troubling if mass murder were not the mission.
Imagine also that this tool fairly frequently explodes, emitting highly toxic chemicals, particles, and fibers unsafe to breathe into the air for miles around. Normally, that'd be a problem. But if this tool is needed for killing lots of people, we'll work with its flaws, won't we?
Now, what if this new gadget was expected to cost at least $1,400,000,000,000 over 50 years? And what if that money had to be taken away from numerous other expenses more beneficial for the economy and the world? What if the $1.4 trillion was drained out of the economy causing a loss of jobs and a radical diminuition of resources for education, healthcare, housing, environmental protection, or humanitarian aid? Wouldn't that be a worry in some cases, I mean in those cases where the ability to kill tons of human beings wasn't at stake?
All Governments Lie, The Movie
Picture, if you will, video footage of vintage (early 2016) Donald Trump buffoonery with the CEO of CBS Leslie Moonves commenting on major media's choice to give Trump vastly more air time than other candidates: "It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS."
That's the introduction to a powerful critique of the U.S. media. A new film screens in New York and Los Angeles this week called All Governments Lie: Truth, Deception, and the Spirit of I.F. Stone.
The website AllGovernmentsLie.com has screening dates, a list of lies, and a list of good journalists who expose lies. The lists on the website are not identical to the content of the film, but there's a good deal of overlap -- enough to give you a sense of what this project is about.
I'd have made various changes and additions to the film. In particular, I'm tired of all the focus on Iraq 2003. This film touches on war lies since then, but still gives that one particular set of war lies prominence.
Still, this is a film that should be shown in cities, homes, and classrooms across the United States. It includes and is driven by Noam Chomsky's analysis of how the media system is "rigged" without those doing the rigging believing they've done anything at all. It's a survey of skullduggery by corporate media. It's an introduction to numerous journalists far superior to the norm. And it's an introduction to I.F. Stone. It includes footage of a presentation of the annual Izzy Award which goes to journalists acting in Stone's tradition.
Focus: FBI Director James Comey - Oct 30, 2016
Harry Reid's letter to FBI Director Comey about the Clinton email investigation - reid.senate.gov
Clinton campaign asks ex-prosecutors to criticize FBI Director James Comey - The Daily Beast
In op-ed, former Dem and GOP deputy attorney generals say 'Comey is damaging democracy' - NBC News
FBI Director James Comey begins briefing Congressional leaders on email review - ABC News
GOP House Judiciary Chair Goodlatte: Comey asked to release as much as he could - newsmax.com
FBI obtains warrant to examine Clinton emails: U.S. media - Reuters
DOJ objected to FBI disclosure of new steps in Clinton probe, sources say - ABC News
FBI in internal feud over Clinton Foundation probe - WSJ
Judicial Watch sues for FBI records of Loretta Lynch, Bill Clinton tarmac meeting - BizPac Review
POLL: Trump behind 1 percent, Clinton hurt by FBI bombshell - Washington Examiner
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Punishment is Violent and Counterproductive
Punishment is a popular pastime for humans. Parents punish children. Teachers punish students. Employers punish workers. Courts punish lawbreakers. People punish each other. Governments punish 'enemies'. And, according to some, God punishes evildoers.
What is 'punishment'? Punishment is the infliction of violence as revenge on a person who is judged to have behaved inappropriately. It is a key word we use when we want to obscure from ourselves that we are being violent.
Focus: The Iraqi Shiite Militias and the Mosul offensive
A spokesman for the Iraqi Shiite militias said thousands of fighters "started operations this morning to clean up the hotbeds of Daesh (Islamic State) in the western parts of Mosul”. Accordong to Reuters, “their goal is to cut off any option of retreat by Islamic State insurgents into neighboring Syria or any reinforcement for their defense of Mosul." Iraqi Shiite militias are backed by Iran, but first of all they are Iraqi patriots strongly dedicated to fight Islamic State. Their contribution is essential to win this battle. They will weaken Islamic State and help the Iraqi army and the U.S. troops who are suppporting this operation (5,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Iraq.)
Amnesty International has reported that Iraqi Shiite militias in previous campaigns have committed "serious human rights violations, including war crimes" against Sunni civilians. The Iraq government says that violations were limited and were investigated, denies that they were widespread and systematic. It is up to the Iraq government and army to make sure that in the Mosul offensive the Shiite militias’ conduct complies with the international humanitarian law which seeks to protect civilians who are not participating in hostilities and regulate the means of warfare available to combatants. But the fact is that in Iraq the Shiites have been the victims of the Sunni Islamic State terrorism. Recently there has been a spike in violence perpetrated by the Islamic State against the Iraqi Shiites with frequent bombings on streets, markets, mosques, army and police stations. According to a July statement of a senior Baghdad police officer, there are around six to ten explosions every day.
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Michael Moore Owes Me $4.99
Michael Moore has made some terrific movies in the past, and Where to Invade Next may be the best of them, but I expected Trumpland to be (1) about Trump, (2) funny, (3) honest, (4) at least relatively free of jokes glorifying mass murder. I was wrong on all counts and would like my $4.99 back, Michael.
Moore's new movie is a film of him doing a stand-up comedy show about how wonderfully awesome Hillary Clinton is -- except that he mentions Trump a bit at the beginning and he's dead serious about Clinton being wonderfully awesome.
This film is a text book illustration of why rational arguments for lesser evilist voting do not work. Lesser evilists become self-delusionists. They identify with their lesser evil candidate and delude themselves into adoring the person. Moore is not pushing the "Elect her and then hold her accountable" stuff. He says we have a responsibility to "support her" and "get behind her," and that if after two years -- yes, TWO YEARS -- she hasn't lived up to a platform he's fantasized for her, well then, never fear, because he, Michael Moore, will run a joke presidential campaign against her for the next two years (this from a guy who backed restricting the length of election campaigns in one of his better works).
Disobey or Die
Back in the winter of 1982, Air Florida flight 90 took off from National Airport. The first officer noticed dangerous readings on some instruments and pointed them out to the captain. The captain told him he was wrong, and he accepted the captain's authority. He did nothing. Thirty seconds later the plane crashed into the 14th Street Bridge. Everyone on board died except for four passengers rescued out of the icy river.
During the latter decades of the 20th and first part of the 21st century, millions and millions of first officers on spaceship earth noticed that climate and nuclear dangers loomed. But every authoritative captain in sight, from elected officials to CEOs to media pundits, said "Don't be a fool. I've got this." And millions upon millions sat back and mumbled "Oh, all right, if you're sure."
The people pushing through the vote this week at the United Nations to create a treaty next year banning nuclear weapons are engaged in necessary disobedience to mainstream authority and acceptance. The people putting their bodies in the way of a pipeline in North Dakota are disobeying immoral orders.
Ira Chaleff's book, Intelligent Disobedience, re-examines the lessons of the Milgram and Stanford prison experiments, and other more recent demonstrations of the severe dangers of uncritical obedience. Chaleff highlights some techniques that can facilitate intelligent refusals to obey.
Focus: Turkey's President Erdogan - Oct 27, 2016
Obama, Erdoğan discuss fight against ISIL in Iraq, Syria - hurriyetdailynews.com
Turkish minister says US must 'keep its word' on Manbij - aa.com
Turkish and Saudi weapons supplied to ISIS found in Mosul, says Shia leader - Iraqi News
Turkey’s new maps are reclaiming the Ottoman Empire - Foreign Policy
Iran, Russia, Syrian FMs to meet in Moscow - hurriyetdailynews.com
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Turkish Justice Minister: Fethullah Gulen is our Osama bin Laden - ABC News
Human Rights Watch report accuses Turkish police of torture - VOA
Turkey replaces most province police chiefs, shake-up continues - Reuters
Turkey detains dozens of air force pilots in coup probe - hurriyetdailynews.com
Violence flares in Turkey's tense southeast after mayors' arrest - Reuters
Turkey cuts Internet for 6M people in 11 Kurdish cities to ‘prevent protests’ - The Daily Dot
Turkey launches probe into Kurdish leader after speech - Middle East Eye
Journalist on trial in Turkey for alleged pro-PKK tweets - ABC News
Interview: U.S. judge says Turkey's judiciary ‘taken over' by Erdogan - rferl.org
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Public vs. Media on War
A new poll from an unlikely source suggests that the U.S. public and the U.S. media have very little in common when it comes to matters of war and peace.
This poll was commissioned by that notorious leftwing hotbed of peaceniks, the Charles Koch Institute, along with the Center for the National Interest (previously the Nixon Center, and before that the humorously named Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom). The poll was conducted by Survey Sampling International.
They polled 1,000 registered voters from across the U.S. and across the political spectrum but slanted slightly toward older age groups. They asked:
"Over the last 15 years, do you think U.S. foreign policy has made Americans more or less safe?"
Tomgram: Nomi Prins, Too Big to Fail, Hillary-Style
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
Irish Peace Groups Question Peace Award to John Kerry
Five peace group have come together to oppose the awarding of the Tipperary International Peace Prize to US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday next (October 30th). Galway Alliance Against War, the Irish Anti-War Movement, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, Shannonwatch and Veterans for Peace also intend to hold protests at Shannon Airport and at Aherlow House Hotel in Tipperary where the award ceremony will take place.
Speaking on behalf of the five organisations, Edward Horgan of Veterans for Peace posed the question: “What peace has John Kerry achieved and where?”
“The award of peace prizes should be based on truth, integrity and justification” continued Dr Horgan. “Unfortunately, this is not always the case. The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded in the past to several people who were guilty of starting or being complicit in wars of aggression and human rights abuses. Henry Kissinger is a case in point. Another example is Barack Obama who was awarded his Nobel Peace Prize just before he began authorising targeted assassinations and bombings that killed thousands of innocent civilians.”
“John Kerry and the United States of America claim to be defending the civilised world against Islamic terrorists and dictators” said Jim Roche of the Irish Anti War Movement. ”Yet the reality is that the United States has killed many multiples of the numbers killed by Islamic terrorists in its so-called War on Terror. US led wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria were all initiated without UN approval and with appalling consequences.”
“Terrorist acts by individuals, rebel group and militaries cannot be condoned, and neither can acts of aggression by states” said Roger Cole of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance. “The government that John Kerry represents is guilty of state terrorism. Since 1945 the US has overthrown fifty governments, including democracies, crushed some 30 liberation movements, supported tyrannies, and set up torture chambers from Egypt to Guatemala – a fact pointed out by journalist John Pilger. As a result of their actions countless men, women and children have been bombed to death.”
“This is not the type of government that the Tipperary Peace Convention should be bestowing a peace prize upon” added Mr Cole.
“While state terrorism, and state human rights abuses are not confined to the US, they are the ones using Shannon Airport to wage wars of aggression in the Middle East” said John Lannon of Shannonwatch “We oppose the US military use of Shannon and we oppose the US policies that lead to conflict rather than resolving it, it is important therefore that we show our opposition to all forms of misguided support for these policies here in Ireland.”
The U.S. National Bird Is Now a Drone
Officially, of course, the national bird of the United States is that half-a-peace-sign that Philadelphia sports fans like to hold up at opposing teams. But unofficially, the film National Bird has it right: the national bird is a killer drone.
Finally, finally, finally, somebody allowed me to see this movie. And finally somebody made this movie. There have been several drone movies worth seeing, most of them fictional drama, and one very much worth avoiding (Eye in the Sky). But National Bird is raw truth, not entirely unlike what you might fantasize media news reports would be in a magical world in which media outlets gave a damn about human life.
The first half of National Bird is the stories of three participants in the U.S. military's drone murder program, as told by them. And then, just as you're starting to think you'll have to write that old familiar review that praises how well the stories of the victims among the aggressors were told but asks in exasperation whether any of the victims of the actual missiles have any stories, National Bird expands to include just what is so often missing, and even to combine the two narratives in a powerful way.
Brief note about Trump adviser General Michael Flynn's article about the Middle East
I strongly disagree with the opinions of Trump adviser General Michael Flynn in his article about the Middle East. I hope that, if Trump becomes President, will reject his advices. A few excerpts from the above mentioned article:
"Today, the Shiite Crescent is a real threat, not only to our Sunni allies, especially Egypt and Jordan, but also presents a direct threat to the national security of the United States.”
"a government [Iraq] that is influenced and controlled by Iran, the number one state sponsor of radical Islamic terrorism.”
"There is no difference between the ideology of ISIS and the Iranian regime, except ISIS is Sunni and Iran is Shiite. They both have goals of establishing an Islamic global caliphate using military force."
This is my take: The real enemy in the Middle East and elsewhere (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, etc) is not Iran, but Sunni terrorism (Islamic State and other groups) sponsored primarily by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar. The President of Iran Hassan Rouhani is a moderate reformist open to dialogue with United States. It is in the interest of United States to engage and talk with him and avert a return of the anti-American hardliners at the helm of the Iran government.
To contact Bartolo email peaceloverblog[at]yahoo[dot]com (replacing [at] with @, [dot] with .)
Anti-Pipeline March on Hillary Clinton's Office
Antiwar March on Hillary Clinton's Office
Antiwar demo on Saturday, November 5th, rallying at Brooklyn Boro Hall (209 Joralemon Street) on the steps at 1 pm, and then marching to Hillary Clinton's office:
Organizations Endorsing:
Brooklyn Greens / Green Party
Veterans for Peace-NYC, Chapter 34
Popular Resistance
World Can't Wait
U.S. Peace Council
The Nuclear Resister
Friends of Brad Will
Center for Global Justice
World Beyond War
Free Radicals (freerads.com), Houston TX
Individuals Endorsing:
Steve Ault, long-time activist
David Barouh, ActionGreens
Medea Benjamin,
Betsy Bowman, Center for Global Justice - Mexico
Howard Brandstein, Director, Sixth Street Community Center, NYC*
Lenni Brenner, author, Zionism In The Age Of The Dictators
Ellen Brown, Attorney & Public Banking advocate
Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa, Nuclear Resister ( www.nukeresister@igc.org)
Mitchel Cohen, former Chair WBAI radio Local Station Board*
Carolina Cositore Sitrin, Raging Grannies/NJ Green Party*
Curtis Cost, Author and Community Activist
Dawn Real, community-based technologist
Ecegul "AJ" Elterman, member of Public Citizen*
Terri Ginsberg, Assistant Professor of Film, The American University in Cairo
Margaret Flowers, MD, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland
Robert Gold, Brooklyn Greens
Marcy Gordon, attorney, singer-songwriter
Michael Hirsch, New Politics magazine*
Ron Jacobs, writer
Edwin Johnston, Houston TX anti-war activist
Chris Kinder, coordinator of the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Sallie Latch, artist
Patricia Mann, author "On the Precipice", in Radical Philosophy Review*
Alfred R. Marder, President, U.S. Peace Council
Joel Meyers,
Bertell Ollman, professor & author
Christopher Reed, environmental activist
Jack Shalom, Math Teacher
Alice Slater, World Beyond War*
Bob Stone,
Alice Sturm Sutter, retired nurse practitioner, NYC Metro Raging Grannies*
David Swanson, WarIsACrime.org
Debra Sweet, World Can't Wait
Daniel Vila, Green Party candidate for Congress, 13th C.D., NYC
Kevin Zeese, co-director of PopularResistance.org
*For ID purposes only
Lost drug war: Pot Decriminalization Yields $9-million in Savings for Philadelphia
By Linn Washington, Jr.
A vivid example of value from decriminalization of possessing small amounts of marijuana occurred at the Philadelphia airport recently, a few days after the release of a report from two prominent organizations that called for the national decriminalization of personal use/possession of marijuana and other illicit drugs.
Talk Nation Radio: Timeka Drew on Protecting Voter Rights
https://soundcloud.com/davidcnswanson/talk-nation-radio-timeka-drew-on-protecting-voter-rights
Timeka Drew is National Director of the Liberty Tree Foundation, a position she has served in since February of 2016. Previously she served as Liberty Tree's Communications Director and worked as lead organizer of the Global Climate Convergence. Timeka came to the Liberty Tree community via her work with the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) and local democracy, food sovereignty, and anti-racist organizing in Los Angeles and her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
For more information, see http://libertytreefoundation.org and http://NoMoreStolenElections.org
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
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Slavery Was Abolished
By David Swanson, World Beyond War
I recently debated a pro-war professor on the topic “Is war ever necessary?” (video). I argued for abolishing war. And because people like to see successes before doing something, no matter how indisputably possible that thing is, I gave examples of other institutions that have been abolished in the past. One might include such practices as human sacrifice, polygamy, cannibalism, trial by ordeal, blood feuds, dueling, or the death penalty in a list of human institutions that have been largely abolished in some parts of the earth or which people have at least come to understand could be abolished.
Of course, an important example is slavery. But when I claimed that slavery had been abolished, my debate opponent quickly announced that there are more slaves in the world today than there were before foolish activists imagined they were abolishing slavery. This stunning factoid was meant as a lesson to me: Do not try to improve the world. It cannot be done. In fact, it may be counter-productive.
But let’s examine this claim for the 2 minutes necessary to reject it. Let’s look at it globally and then with the inevitable U.S. focus.
