It seems like only yesterday that I reported on Saudi Arabia’s plan to allow Internet Usage with approved Licenses, and banned Wikileaks from its country. It seems like only yesterday when I decried the horrific seizure against free speech, and commented on how our “ally” the Saudis had sickening regime full of human rights abuses. It seems like yesterday because it WAS yesterday.

So, imagine my surprise when today, our own US government under the watchful guise of a supposed Liberal Democrat (insert eye~roll here) quietly introduces a plan to emulate this ultra-conservative plan set by the Saudi Royalty for controlling American’s right to Free Speech on our own Internet.

I guess locking out hand held devices through the Net Nuetrality bullshit was not enough. So here comes the quiet “beta test” of the next set of lock downs, far more insidious and terrifying…. ones I assure you, in the wake of Wikileaks will become law.

Scared yet? You will be when you read more, below.

Well, that didn’t take long. Mouthpieces for the Rabid Right are already howling that the Left is mean and unfair to them for correctly pointing out the factual recent history of the use of violent language in context to the Tucson shootings.

I wrote the story up, trying to paint a broader view of violence as a result of a whole societal fabric fail, I was subjected to immediate and unwarranted attack by a Conservative:

“political hacks on the left try to bloody their opposition while the bodies are still warm.

And then they want the Right to be kind and nice. We are not kind and nice. Not to that kind of opposition.”

Perhaps the problem is the Left is too kind and nice – no matter what opposition we face. The right is ready to invoke 2nd Amendment solutions to anything or anyone who shows the slightest inclination to oppose anything they do.

Under 8 years of George W Bush’s regime, the Democrats were not allowed to even be in the room at any committee meeting, they were absolutely shut out at every level of governance. Under Barack Obama, they screamed for bipartisanship and were given full access. They rallied around Hate Speech, forming frothing Tea Party events and sending people openly carrying AK-47’s to Obama events.

Tine and again, the Left and its very weak representation in this Country curls up and plays nice, hoping to defuse the anger and violence of the Right. We concede the game with 16 pieces still on the chess board, trying to play nice to the Bullies.

We reach out, and are told to submit, we stand up, and are slapped down. We try and negotiate in good faith and are cowed by our own sense of propriety into giving them another chance, while they rail against us in the most scathing terms possible. We are told to reach out to them, since they are half the people in this nation, families of “good people” who are “just like us.” They are NOT like us… but perhaps we need to be more like them, willing to utterly crush and demonize any opposition.

Thus far, playing the codependent abused spouse routine has not worked very well for us, in fact our own complicity has destroyed any possibility of any Leftward movement in this nation, and cemented the march into Right-wing Fascism.

6 dead. 13 wounded. A disturbed individual who loves “We the Living” a virulently anti-communist manifesto, as well as “Mein Kampf,” Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto,” and parrots Glenn Beck’s obsession with a Gold Standard.

A Nation fed and bred on fear since before 9/11, a Nation in which the siege mentality extends far past the “with us or against us” vitriol extended to Countries we have invaded, but within our shores against one another.

If you recall, I attended a Tea Party in Brighton Michigan, as an activist and reporter for the Left. I saw first hand the violent and divisive vitriol that rippled out from the stage, inciting the people to almost a blood lust fervor.

If you recall, as well, the pages of Wild, Wild, Left and its affiliated radio show have spoken often about human time bombs as a result of the conditions in this Country. Gottlieb and I have spoken and written extensively on the subject for several years, pretty much as sole voices on the topic. Sadly… our predictions have proven true time and again.

I will not, cannot, in good faith point blame solely at Sarah Palin’s cross-hair poster, nor the violent imagery and allegory painted daily by the extremists of the Right on Fox News as directly responsible for this tragedy. I can and do, however, blame them for the promotion of Politicians who have pushed this country into an increasingly militaristic and fascist direction, one that enables bigotry, one that crushes the economy of the many for the profit of the few, one that glorifies our Unjust Wars of Aggression and as such, cause the deaths of millions of people across the Globe.

It is left to me to repaint the broader Political climate that creates these human time bombs, and while tragic, and my heart goes out to all those effected with love and empathy, remind this community that far more people die every hour both at home and abroad because of that climate.

In the beginning there was trade, and trade beget currency, and currency beget power, and power beget usury, and usury beget compounded interest, and compounded interest beget more currency and power.

After that? Pretty much power and money cycling in a incestuous orgy wherein the planet and all its denizens were their personal concubines, to be used and disposed of at will.

I could end the story there. Its truly the only story ever told, though the rationales (religion, race, political affiliations) have changed, and the transitions between the retelling have slightly differed.

I cannot, however, while thinking-therefore-I-am, and drawing the ever diminishing amount of my allotted breaths abandon my appointed role in this telling into which I have been thrust. This is only the latest retelling of the Only Story Ever Told.

It is the Revolutions between the Stories I want to address.

The Revolutions need to be the “Only Story” now, more than the Failed Empires.

This is our turn, our story now……

(Editor’s note: Reprinted in full with the kind permission of Juan Frost. Original post can be read in English at Cyberpueblo.)

For those of you who don’t have the basic details of the gross injustices of August 4th in Tenacatita, I recommend these two videos.

broken in this story since I last wrote it, and I had promised to update my readers.

THE TIME SLOT HAS BEEN CHANGED TO 4:30 PM EST DUE TO A SCHEDULING PROBLEM FROM PROFESSOR CHOMSKY’S DEPARTMENT… SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE! (the alternative was waiting until February 4th, and I did not want to put you all off that long)

(the ad will reflect changes shortly)

As promised, this week I am opening this thread for your input…

The show is only an hour, so I cannot possibly ask every question nor take every caller.

So what my intent is here, is to ask you what you would like to ask him, and hopefully take your various answers and combine them into a streamlined format that will satisfy everyone’s needs.

I intend on asking about the epic fail of our institutions of higher learning as chronicled last week in my Walmart University for Social Work essay.

I intend on asking him about the humanitarian efforts in Israel/Palestine, and his positions about what is happening there.

I am just swarming with questions about how the movement failed in the 60’s and how we can possibly revive it.

This is a political show, so I won’t be getting into Linguistics – totally not my field. My command of the English language wouldn’t be too gawd~awful were it my second language and I was a fifth grader, so I won’t even attempt to go there as neither. Seriously.

So, I will check this thread until Friday, and all serious inquiries will be considered.

You count to me, this is about letting we “little” (ughh, I despise using that term – but there it is) people who rarely have the chance to tap a brilliant mind, and have a conversation as equals.

 

(crossposted from The Wild Wild Left)

Welcome to the beginning of whatever comes next.

It is around 50 degrees here, the snow has all melted and the air smells like Spring in my house. It feels incredible to have cracked the doors and windows and let new air in. There is something so appropriate about that too for the first day of 2011. Fresh air!

It is all arbitrary, this date-system, how we all accept the Gregorian model. It really makes more sense for the 1st day of the year to correspond with a Solstice. I mean, I get more excited when the 21st of December comes and the sun is returning. I don’t think that the Dianian Calender is going to gain acceptance any time soon, so here we are. Stuck with it.

One’s head has to be in a specific place to do the internal inventory of “opportunities lost” or “mistakes made” as …well as the “changing goals” or “self improvement” that every human is prone to do at times. My head is there all the time, not just because a calender says to. Yet, culture seems to have made me prone to do so anyway on this day. Or maybe I just am glad to be done with 2010.

2010 had some really polluted air, stinky air, air that no freshener could renew and no perfume could mask. Its time for me to quit trying to deal with the stale air, let the new air in and close the windows on the old air for once and for all. Besides, its going back into the 20’s by tomorrow. Heh.

There are many paths to the Costa Rica in your minds. The only thing I know for sure is you cannot get there by walking backwards. The pleasures of Costa Rica are right there for the taking, so enjoy all the souls you meet along the way, and be open to finding ever new companions for the journey. The path IS the Costa Rica.

I can smell it from here…. it smells like fresh air.

and wishing you a Happy Fucking New Year…..

Well, I could be doing that, but I’d really rather surf porn or something. Or maybe break out Mr. Vape and watch all 5 seasons of “Weeds” that my boys got me for Xmas in some giggle-fest marathon.

But really, I should be thinking of the good things, like “His cancer is going into remission,” and telling you all how grateful I am for this past year. I should be waxing my usual sentimental self about how next year is an opportunity, full of hopey shit and wonder.

2010 has been nothing but fuckedinthethroatalicious for almost all of us. Not us in the WWL sense, but for humans on the planet. Wars are still raging, torture is still legal, what is left of our privacy is a voyeuristic wet dream and I cannot think of one piece of legislation that passed that was a victory in any sense except for the rat-bastard rabid weasels called the Elite Class devouring our flesh.

After two days of unfuckingbelievably hard physical labor and a year of stress and unidentified ailments, my body feels like it has been run wholesale through one of those chipper shredder things and been put back together by Picasso. My face is melting in to bags and baggage, flab hangs off my body in not just the regular places, but new and strange places of its own volition, despite the fact I almost eat nothing now, because every time I eat I hurt, my back feels like a sumo wrestler is tap dancing on it, and my feet feel like they have zircon encrusted swords embedded in them. Pointy side up!

But, hey, at least my body is in better shape than my psyche, which despite my “I can handle anything, I’m fiiiiiiine,” bullshit facade of bravado, still wants to go fetal in agony from the hardships, pain, rejections, and losses I have endured this year. I am so sick of being tough. I want someone to take care of me. I want a Mommy, not my Mommy though, she mostly sucked. Nah, thats not what I really want, either. I think I really just am in more need of a good lay than anyone on the Planet. I swear I’d go find some strange if the idea of me naked wouldn’t make even the most desperate fucker on the planet run screaming, clawing their own eyes out, with their pecker so turtled it would have to be surgically extracted.

As I open the “present” of 2011, all I can think is the words of a friend, “Is there heroin in there?”

Things aren’t going to get much better financially, as the twisted system of cash-for-torture called AFLAC ends with his treatments done, and who knows if/when he can return to work, if ever?

And now, the safety net is going to be run by the Tea Party. I can hardly fucking wait!

2011.

Really. Really fucking really! I can hardly fucking wait.

Seriously. Does it come with heroin?

and wishing you a Happy Fucking New Year…..

Well, I could be doing that, but I’d really rather surf porn or something. Or maybe break out Mr. Vape and watch all 5 seasons of “Weeds” that my boys got me for Xmas in some giggle-fest marathon.

But really, I should be thinking of the good things, like “His cancer is going into remission,” and telling you all how grateful I am for this past year. I should be waxing my usual sentimental self about how next year is an opportunity, full of hopey shit and wonder.

2010 has been nothing but fuckedinthethroatalicious for almost all of us. Not us in the WWL sense, but for humans on the planet. Wars are still raging, torture is still legal, what is left of our privacy is a voyeuristic wet dream and I cannot think of one piece of legislation that passed that was a victory in any sense except for the rat-bastard rabid weasels called the Elite Class devouring our flesh.

After two days of unfuckingbelievably hard physical labor and a year of stress and unidentified ailments, my body feels like it has been run wholesale through one of those chipper shredder things and been put back together by Picasso. My face is melting in to bags and baggage, flab hangs off my body in not just the regular places, but new and strange places of its own volition, despite the fact I almost eat nothing now, because every time I eat I hurt, my back feels like a sumo wrestler is tap dancing on it, and my feet feel like they have zircon encrusted swords embedded in them. Pointy side up!

But, hey, at least my body is in better shape than my psyche, which despite my “I can handle anything, I’m fiiiiiiine,” bullshit facade of bravado, still wants to go fetal in agony from the hardships, pain, rejections, and losses I have endured this year. I am so sick of being tough. I want someone to take care of me. I want a Mommy, not my Mommy though, she mostly sucked. Nah, thats not what I really want, either. I think I really just am in more need of a good lay than anyone on the Planet. I swear I’d go find some strange if the idea of me naked wouldn’t make even the most desperate  fucker on the planet run screaming, clawing their own eyes out with their pecker so turtled it would have to be surgically extracted.

As I open the “present” of 2011, all I can think is the words of a friend, “Is there heroin in there?”

Things aren’t going to get much better financially, as the twisted system of cash-for-torture called AFLAC ends with his treatments done, and who knows if/when he can return to work, if ever?

And now, the safety net is going to be run by the Tea Party. I can hardly fucking wait!

2011.

I can hardly fucking wait.

Seriously. Does it come with heroin?

I’ve been researching just how deep the Corporate Hand has reached into the bowels of the Universities of America, and just how much it directs curriculum and policy thereof in preparation for my interview with Noam Chomsky.

Even a jaded cynic as myself found my flabber thoroughly gasted by what I have discovered. It goes far beyond the Economic or Business School’s infiltration one would expect. The right-wing Chicago Boys model has infiltrated even the traditionally most Liberal of Departments: Social Work.

The list of donor’s to Washington University – St. Louis’ Brown School of Social Work reads a who’s who list of Neo-Conservative Think Tanks,

Citigroup is on the lengthy list, as are the following: MasterCard, Levi Strauss Foundation, MetLife, the Federal Reserve Bank, Ford, the Kellog Foundation….and yes, that really is the New America Foundation on the list…the same NAF with ties to the Council on Foreign Relations and that is funded by fabulous characters like Goldman Sachs, Walmart, and Google–just to name a few.

Small wonder that the Chair for the Center for Social Development, Michael Sherraden, has concluded that the poor are only poor because they don’t invest enough in banks. Small wonder, funded by banks and insurance companies, that Timothy McBride PhD, health economist and associate dean for public health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis recently opined that mandated health care purchase is a MUST to address social health problems.

“In particular, insurance companies need to know that everyone will be required to purchase insurance so that the insurance pools are large enough to cover those with pre-existing conditions who will be required to be covered under the legislation, without penalty for their health conditions.”

Universities are churning out young men and women who at every level have been indoctrinated into “free market capitalism” (read predatory capitalism) as the only viable solution to society’s every woe.

And you wonder why we call them sheeple?