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America is Dying (But don't blame me, I'm just the messenger)
By Vincent L. Guarisco
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" ~~Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), Strength to Love, 1963
Over the years I have written many articles about issues I felt are prevalent. For damn good reasons I have sounded the alarm bell for most of my life. And, for those who have paid attention and have answered the call to action while others have not, our country truly thanks you. For the rest of you, at least we have the satisfaction of knowing that in your absence, we have given it our best and we'll continue to do so, regardless of your silent ineptness, but don't blame me when I say our country is dying. I'm only the messenger, not the culprit.
Many of my essays on a variety of topics are published at OpEd News. All I can suggest for those who keep their heads buried in FOX News sand -- either get wise, get active, or get busy digging a big grave for our national corpse.
If you want a great example of what it means to selflessly give part of yourself to society, a few years ago I wrote an essay honoring my parents, both whom were mavericks for hope and change. This tribute piece was the hardest thing I will ever attempt to write in my lifetime. When I submitted it to Consortium News back in 2008, editor-in-chief Robert Parry wrote a sobering introduction to the article -- one that I consider a prime example of where I came from in the activist role-model department:
Israeli Lobby Power in America
by Stephen Lendman
In 1949, the American Zionist Council (AZC) was established. It operated until 1962. It was ordered to register as a foreign agent.
It failed to do so. It transferred its responsibilities to AIPAC. It calls itself "America's Pro-Israel Lobby. It operates as an unregistered foreign agent.
It's done so since 1953. With rare exceptions, no one in Congress confronts it. It wields enormous influence over US foreign policy. It fronts for Israeli lawlessness. It's one of 52 major US Zionist organizations.
James Petras' important book titled "The Power of Israel in the United States" discussed its enormous influence on US policy. It's done so for over half a century.
Rap’n About Wrapping
or “What Kind of Maple Syrup is This?
by Nancy DeLucrezia
I was shopping with my friend, Stew, the other day and I saw this pretty young woman load three large cases of small plastic bottles of drinking water onto the lower deck of her shopping cart as she chatted playfully with her little girl, sitting in the front of the cart. I wanted to say something but what does one say in that situation, “Excuse me, but do you have any idea how reckless it is to so blatantly contribute to the destruction of our beautiful planet, not to mention doing it in right front of your daughter?” OK – probably not so appropriate, and yet how appropriate is it for us to continue going through 1,500 plastic water bottles PER SECOND (in the U.S. alone) – even many of us who know better, or should know better, or might know better (help me here) – what the (@*#$*@#$ are we thinking?
I recently returned from Out-to-lunchville about this enough to ask the students at my school not to bring plastic water bottles into the building anymore, and figured I would at least put together a cohesive list of reasons that might inspire them to join me in an effort to contribute to the solution rather than the problem. I don’t personally drink water from plastic bottles because I don’t particularly care for the taste of plastic and I’m not fond of thinking about it floating around and accumulating in my system. A friend once told me that he boiled down water from plastic bottles for a few days like maple syrup and ended up with a sheet of plastic in the bottom of the pan that was thick enough to play Frisbee with (oh, what we do with our spare time). There’s currently, for those of you who don’t know, a growing “garbage patch” of plastic estimated to be more than twice the size of Texas floating in the North Pacific Ocean. Hello!!! How is that OK?
One new student came to enroll the other day and I drafted him a program-contract to take home and review. As he was leaving I pointed to the plastic water bottle in his hand and gently mentioned that he would not be allowed to bring it into the school once he enrolled and gave him a copy of my handout. He was very cool about it and explained that his girlfriend was trying to get him to drink more water. When he came back the next day to sign his contract he thanked me for mentioning it saying that he had taken my handout back to his girlfriend along with a beautiful reusable travel bottle he had bought her as a gift, and that she converted with less resistance than he expected.
“See that,” I said, “ I wake up and decide to create a handout, I give it to you, you give it to your girlfriend…”
“I guess that’s how it happens,” he answered.
Yes, indeed, that IS how it happens!
And while we’re at it, how hard is it to throw a couple of reusable shopping bags in the back seat of the car rather than participate in the practice of handing out plastic one’s at the checkout like tissues at an Italian funeral?
OK – I’m not a rapper but I just channeled this the other night at 2 a.m.:
Another Anti-Assad False Flag
by Stephen Lendman
Since early 2011, Obama's been waging proxy war on Syria. Imported death squads masquerade as freedom fighters. The scheme's familiar. It repeats. It reflects US imperialism's dark side.
In the 1980s, CIA-recruited mujahideen fighters battled Afghanistan's Soviet occupiers. Ronald Reagan called them "the moral equivalent of our founding fathers." He characterized Contra killers the same way.
Naked aggression is called humanitarian intervention. New wars follow earlier ones. Ravaging humanity is called liberation. Nations are destroyed for their own good. Propaganda convinces people that America is threatened. Truth is turned on its head.
Syria is Washington's latest target. Plans haven't gone as expected. Ousting another government was supposed to be easy. US-enlisted terrorists are no match against Syria's military superiority.
Israelis Protest Austerity Harshness
by Stephen Lendman
On May 11, thousands of Israelis protested publicly. They did so for social justice. More on that below.
In summer 2011, widespread social justice protests erupted. They continued for weeks. Others followed in summer 2012.
Several Israelis protested by self-immolation. Moshe Silman's remembered best. He died for justice denied. During a July 14, 2012 protest, he poured gasoline over his body. He set himself ablaze. He left a letter saying:
""The state of Israel stole from me and robbed me. It left me helpless."
US watchdog turns blind eye to Israel’s religious rights violations
Stuart Littlewood
It's hilarious.
I'm still rolling on the floor laughing my socks off at a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
What's the joke? Well, it’s no joke really. The USCIRF has just released its 2013 Annual Report pdf on the world’s worst violators of religious freedom. And... you simply won't believe this... it doesn’t even mention the worst offender of all, Israel.
I am regularly bombarded with reports of Israel's religious persecution of Christians and their Muslim brothers and sisters in the Holy Land.Truly. It's like Israel doesn't exist...
Trans-Pacific Partnership – Is It Really that Bad?
By Tracy Turner
If you read the statement of SIFMA on Japan negotiations in the TPP, then look at exactly what (not who, but what) SIFMA represents – it gives you a feel for TPP expanding the ‘rights’ of securities firms, banks and asset managers. In plain English, TPP expands the rights of the uber rich and reduces the rights of the ordinary. SIFMA Statement on Japan Joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership. ... "that for a 21 st century ... should remain an integral part of our current trade agenda." ... In very plain English, Japanese TEPCO, which built 150 nuclear reactors on top of a volcano, should enjoy a bill of rights that strips you and I of our Bill of Rights...
Most Americans do not bother looking at the official positions and talking points of Green Peace and the Sierra Club on TPP. The Sierra Club's introduction paragraph: "An Explosion of Fracking? One of the dirtiest secrets of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement. The United States is quietly negotiating an expansive trade agreement with ten other countries that could dramatically increase exports of liquefied natural gas to overseas markets without any domestic oversight. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, therefore, could increase dirty fracking and carbon emissions; put sensitive ecological areas at risk; and increase natural gas and electricity prices, impacting consumers, manufacturers, workers, and increasing the use of dirty coal power". More Here by Sierra Club. Read GreenPeace New Zealands' position on TPP.
THE NINE STAGES OF CIVILIZATION ~ WE'RE ENTERING THE EIGHTH, DEPENDENCE
Allen L Roland
The United States is now firmly entering the eighth stage of all civilizations ~ Dependence with only Bondage ahead of it. Apathy has allowed our constitution to be shredded in stage seven which led to our current state of Dependence on the state ~ but soon an IRS monitored Obamacare program of 'Shared responsibility, or else' will usher in the Orwellian ninth stage of militarized Bondage:
Last year I wrote that the average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been two hundred years and that these nations have progressed through a nine stage sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacence to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again into bondage. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/03/19/the-nine-stages-of-civilization-were-in-the-seventh-apathy/
Thirdworldizing America
by Stephen Lendman
Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Dean Baker calls poverty America's "new growth industry." The state of today's America is deplorable.
In his latest May 3 analysis, economist John Williams said "April "employment and unemployment data were nonsense: the economy remains in serious trouble."
About 23% of Americans wanting work can't find it. Most jobs are temp or part-time low pay/poor or no benefit service ones with no futures. Conditions are getting worse, not better.
Federal, state and local government jobs were lost. Construction shed 6,000 jobs. Zero manufacturing jobs were created. Most good ones are overseas. They've been offshored to low-wage countries.
Eroding Freedom in America
by Stephen Lendman
US democracy is illusory. America never was beautiful. It's not the land of the free and home of the brave. It wasn't created that way. More than ever, it's not now.
Freedom is a four-letter word. It's fast disappearing. It's an endangered species. Wealth, power and privilege alone matter. America's war on terror priorities advance them.
International, constitutional and US statute laws are spurned. Rogue state ruthlessness replaced them. Boston's unprecedented lockdown suggests what's coming. It covered a two hundred square mile area. An important threshold was crossed. Martial law terrorized city residents. Constitutional rights were suspended. Perhaps it was prelude to what's coming. It can happen anywhere across America. It can show up nationwide.
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