tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10326996751594668622024-03-05T18:53:44.851-08:00Jottings While the Fat Lady Prepares to Sing . . .USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-38662103174375289052024-02-28T20:38:00.000-08:002024-02-28T20:38:00.960-08:0013 Short Perfect Novels for reading during the PandemicWhile in the midst of reading Louise Erdrich's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sentence-Louise-Erdrich-ebook/dp/B08TWYG991" target="_blank">The Sentence</a>, I stopped on page 186 of the book and worked on this WWW page for the 13 "Short Perfect Novels" she puts in a list in her book ( it wasn't until I reached the concluding 7 pages of the book that I realized another post would be required to list the suggested book lists to enhance one's understanding of the American Indians living in what was once their country of origin ):
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Too-Loud-Solitude-Bohumil-Hrabal/dp/0156904586" target="_blank">Too Loud a Solitude</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohumil_Hrabal" target="_blank">Bohumil Hrabal</a>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Train-Dreams-Novella-Denis-Johnson/dp/1250007658" target="_blank">Train Dreams</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Johnson" target="_blank">Denis Johnson</a>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sula-Toni-Morrison/dp/1400033438" target="_blank">Sula</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison" target="_blank">Toni Morrison</a>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Line-Joseph-Classics-Literature-Annotated/dp/B0B8BDNXGY" target="_blank">The Shadow-Line</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad" target="_blank">Joseph Conrad</a>
<br>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/All-Novel-Jeannette-Haien-ebook/dp/B002SR2Q8M" target="_blank">The All of It</a> by <a href="https://billmoyers.com/content/jeannetie-haien-piano-novelist/" target="_blank">Jeannette Haien</a>
<br>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Blood-James-Welch-ebook/dp/B07YRSZ2HJ" target="_blank">Winter in the Blood</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Welch_(writer)" target="_blank">James Welch</a>
<br>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Swimmer-Secret-Sea-William-Kotzwinkle/dp/0811807150" target="_blank">Swimmer in the Secret Sea</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kotzwinkle" target="_blank">William Kotzwinkle</a>
<br>
<br>
<a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Blue-Flower-A-Novel-Pre-Owned-Paperback-0544359453-9780544359451-Penelope-Fitzgerald/631685375" target="_blank">The Blue Flower</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penelope_Fitzgerald" target="_blank">Penelope Fitzgerald</a>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/First-Love-Ivan-Turgenev-ebook/dp/B08R8YJQTV" target="_blank">First Love</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Turgenev" target="_blank">Ivan Turgenve</a>
<br>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wide-Sargasso-Sea-Jean-Rhys/dp/0393352560" target="_blank">Wide Sargasso Sea</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Rhys" target="_blank">Jean Rhys</a>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Dalloway-Virginia-Woolf-ebook/dp/B08LPNHW6M/" target="_blank">Mrs. Dalloway</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf" target="_blank">Virginia Woolf</a>
<br>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Barbarians-J-M-Coetzee-ebook/dp/B01M9ICTC0" target="_blank">Waiting for the Barbarians</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee" target="_blank">J. M. Coetzee</a>
<br>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Mountain-Anita-Desai/dp/006011066X" target="_blank">Fire on the Mountain<a/> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Desai" target="_blank">Anita Desai</a>
As always, ENJOY!
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-40930335541807926002023-06-21T07:12:00.236-07:002023-07-02T02:00:09.281-07:00Ideology and Utopia<table style="width:600px" background-color: white;>
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You know the more and more that we mature, the more the stuff - all of the
<br />
<br />
stuff - we have gathered over the ages begins to weigh heavily on not only
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<br />
our bodies but also our minds . . . . And, eventually we make the move
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<br />
to begin downsizing - going through boxes of old papers in the attempt to
<br />
<br />
determine what should be thrown in the shred-it bag this time . . . . And,
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<br />
ocassionally we find a paper of importance that we still want to keep.
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<br />
Such is the case with an 11 page paper that I wrote as a professional student for
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<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Thomas_Kraabel" target="_new">Dr. A. Thomas Kraabel</a>'s “religious studies” class in the Classics Department at the University
<br />
<br />
of Minnesota almost 50 years ago.
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<br />
Why do I want to keep it? It's a damn good paper and at it's beginning has Dr. Kraabel's
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<br />
hand-writen determinnation - “60 points” ( out of 60 ); and at it's conclusion his comment
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<br />
“Perceptive - You've been at this a long time.”
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<br />
In addition, portions of the paper relate parts of the background(s) to our
<br />
<br />
current political situation.
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<br />
The link above gives a good bit of Professor Kraabel's background. I am a
<br />
<br />
student of the Jewish background of Christianity to this day.
<br />
<br />
In 1978, with the birth of my son, I named him Paul Thomas, his middle name
<br />
<br />
after Dr. Kraabel.
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The original paper was written on an old, portable, Smith-Corona typewriter and has Dr. </pre>Kraabel's<pre> notes
scattered throughout in red ink. I </pre>OCR'd<pre> the paper into a Microsoft .rtf file, edited it for readability in
Libre Office Writer before exporting it as an HTML document. Because of what I consider garbage in the
generated HTML syntax, I ran the .rtf file through Open Office and also saved it as an HTML file. Almost the
same outcome. So, I wrote the same paper in my slimmed down version of HTML for this presentation.
If I recall correctly, then one of the questions for Takehome Essay A was </pre>“<pre>Why are Plato and apocalyptic
literature studied in this class?</pre>”
<br />
<br />
<pre>
A note on sources: An attempt has been made to present links to the latest sources which as you might
imagine after some 50 years may have been updated with pages added / deleted, etc. I will be visiting various
and sundry libraries ( and utilizing Inter-Library Loan ) to track down the exact location of a reference,
so give this octagenarian some leeway in that task . . . .
Here it begins . . .
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<pre>
Peter Lawrence Boatman
Classics 3071
Professor Kraabel
Fall, 1976
Takehome Essay A
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<h1 align="center">Ideology and Utopia</h1>
<br />
<h2 align="center">Part I</h2>
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<pre>
Nilsson points to the importance of Plato for this course when he writes,
. . . [ O ]nly one [ religious ] genius arose in Greece, Plato. Even he wished to be regarded as a philosopher rather than as
a prophet, and he was accepted as such by his contemporarires. The religious importance of his thought did not come to
the fore until half a millenium after his death, although since that time all religions have been subject to his influence.</pre><a href="#Endnote1"><sup>1</sup></a>
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<pre>
Because Guthrie points out the importance of the socio-anthropological perpective to his understanding of the task of the historian of Greek
religion,</pre><a href="#Endnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> <pre>it is not surprising to find Greek religion intimately bound to the city-state organization of society. What should one expect, then,
when that organization is called into question as it was, not only by the proponents of natural philosophy, mysticism, and sophism, but also by
the fact of inter-state rivalry, beginning about 450 BCE?
Looking for the hot and cold on the continuum of response to this crisis, Guthrie suggests two possible courses of action:
Either . . . join with the disruptive forces, consign the city-state with all its institutions and convictions to the past, and
out of the different elemets that had brought about the downfall build up a new society and a new religion to take its
place; or else . . . uphold the city-state, refuting its opponents when they were wrong, and using them only to add
strength to the framework when they were right and represented an element whose lack was a weakness in the existing
order. ( G:335 )
In choosing the conservative option and upholding the ideal of </pre>“<pre>a reformed society based on the purification and strengthening . . . of the
city-state</pre>” <pre>( G:335 ), Plato had to confront the three threatening movements of thought mentioned above.
About 450 BCE, speculation concerning </pre>“<pre>the One and the Many</pre>”<pre> had culminated in the opposite extremes of Eleaticism
and atomism, the one declaring that all motion was illusion and the real world nothing but immovable plennum, the other
that the only realities were atoms and the void and all perceptible qualities merely subjective. ( G:338 ).
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<pre> With the absence of absolute values and standards, the sophists held a sceptical attitude toward philosophical issues and concentrated on the
practical conduct of human affairs. This presented a problem for Plato, however, for if there are no absolute values or standards, then his conduct
is determined only by what is most advantageous at the moment. There is no final justification for his elite position in society.
Faced with this ultimate concern, Plato argued that there is a reality apart from action, and that just like the atoms of the atomists it
cannot be identified with any objects or actions in the perceptible world. It is, in fact, an ideal world outside space and time; that which
inspires us, our soul ( ψυχή ), really belongs to that ideal world.</pre><a href="#Endnote3"><sup>3</sup></a>
<center>[ 2 ]</center>
<pre>
It has had many lives, and before and between them, when out of the body, has had glimpses of the reality beyond. Death
is not an evil for it, but a release from imprisonment in the body enabling it to fly back to the world of Ideas with which
it had converse before its life on earth. Immediately before incarnation it has drunk the waters of Lethe . . . and forgot-
ten all or most of its knowledge of that other world; but in perceivng through the senses, which are now its only instru-
ments, the imperfect approximations here below, it is daily reminded of the full and perfect knowledge which it once had.
All knowledge acquired in this world is in fact recollection, and once set on the way by sense-perception, the philosopher
will ignore the body as far as possible and subdue its desires, in order to set free the soul . . . and allow it to rise above the
world of sense and regain its awareness of the perfect forms. ( G:346-7 )
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Platonism stood for a view of reality as spiritual, ideal, invisible; the external, visible objects in the universe being only<br />
copies or shadows of the invisible realities.<a href="#Endnote4" target="_new"><sup>4</sup></a>
<br />
<br />
<pre>
At first a principle of epistemology, Platonism carried over into the first century CE in an ontological form influencing, among others, Philo
and, in general, the Judaism of the Greek-speaking Jews of the Diaspora.
A comparison of the following summary of Philo's thought with that of Plato's above will show Plato's influence on Philo:
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Philo maintains a sharp dualism of soul and body or of the rational and sensual elements in man, and insists on the necessity
of man's liberating himself from the power of the sensual. Virtue is the only true good, and in regard to the passions apathy
is to be aimed at . . . . [ M ]an's task is to attain the greatest possible likeness to God. This is an interior task and so public
life is discouraged because of its distracting influence, while science is to be pursued only in so far as it is an aid to the
soul's inner life . . . . The passive state of ecstasy thus becomes the highest stage of the soul's life on earth, as it was later
to be in the Neo-Platonic philosophy.</pre><a href="#Endnote5" target="_new"><sup>5</sup></a>
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<center>[ 3 ]
<h1>Ideology and Utopia</h1>
<br />
<h2>Part II</h2>
</center>
<pre>
One turns to apocalyptic literature. Thanks to the rich promises of the Second Isaiah, the Jews who returned from the Babylonian Exile
looked forward to a glorious future, when all the sorrows of the Exile would be forgotten in joy and prosperity. Promises! Promises!
For the glory of post-exilic Jewry is the story of dreams that never materialized. There were the short-lived successes of Judas
Maccabaeus, Simon, John Hyrcanus, and Alexander Jannaeus but not without internal strife which weakened the nation.</pre><a href="#Endnote6" target="_new"><sup>6</sup></a>
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Looking for the hot and the cold on the continuum of response to this crisis, Kee suggests two possible lines of development for the covenant
people:
[ I ]t could repeat the hopes of the ancient prophets, and leave to God the time and circumstances under which the promises
would be fulfilled, or it could assess the national calamities as the work of a demonic power opposed to God and shift the sphere
of the final triumph of God from the chronological future to the cosmic </pre>realms.<a href="#Endnote7" target="_new"><sup>7</sup></a>
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The latter of these two options is expressed in a genre of literature called apocalypse and then apocalyptic.</pre><a href="#Endnote8" target="_new"><sup>8</sup></a>
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<pre>
For the past fifty years, the method of approach to this literature has been the phenomenological method of comparison. The book of Daniel in
the Old Testament is singled out as the earliest apocalyptic work ( </pre></u>ca</u>. 166 / 165 BCE ),<a href="#Endnote9" target="_new"><sup>9</sup></a> and its characteristics are noted.
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<pre>
These characteristics are then contrasted with the characteristics of pre-exilic prophecy, and the conclusion drawn is that there is no
essential connection between the two types. The picture one gets can best be illustrated as follows:</pre><a href="#Endnote10" target="_new"><sup>10</sup></a>
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Prophecy
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Apocalyptic
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Eschatology:
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Native, monistic
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Foreign ( Iranian ) and dualistic
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Object of hope:
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Fulfillment of Creation
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Dissolution of Creation by a different type of world
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Judgment:
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Coming event announced to the unrepentant; not irrevocable
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Unalterable final event with firmly fixed date
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One can go either of two ways to interpret the discontinuity between the lists, either view apocalyptic </pre>“<pre>as a decadent late
development with no religious worth ( Buber ) or as a new phenomenon without primary connections to prophetic Yahwism
( von Rad ).</pre>” ( H:15 )
<br />
<br />
<pre>
Pursuing the latter of these two options, one looks for an outside influence which is usually found in Zoroastrianism, an ancient Perso-
Babylonian religion mediated by Hellenistic culture and civilization to Palestine.
</pre>
<a name="Endnote11_return"></a>
<pre>
Norman Snaith provides a brief sketch of the Zoroastrian conception of the world which we can use to understand its essential notions:
</pre>
<center>[ 5 ]</center>
<pre>
The Persian ( Iranian ) conception . . . evisages four world-periods, or ages, each of 3000 years in duration. In the
first age the creation was entirely spiritual and invisible. From before the beginning there were two spirits, Ahura
Mazda, the good spirit, and Angra Mainyu, the evil spirit. When Angra Mainyu saw the light of this first creation he
sought by every means to defeat the good spirit, Ahura Mazda.
All the efforts which he made were unavailing during the second Age of 3000 years. They were years of blessedness, a
veritable Golden Age.
But in the third period of 3000 years the evil spirit gained an ascendancy and created every kind of evil thing . . . .
At the end of this period of 3000 years Zarathushtra ( in the Greek Zoroaster ) appears and the victory of Ahura Mazda
begins.
At the end of each 1000 years a deliverer ( Shaoshyant ) appears, born of the line of Zarathushtra, though earlier tradi-
tions suggest that this Shaoshyant is always Zarathushtra himself. At last there comes the great consumation when Angra
Mainyu ( Ahriman ) is cast into the abyss by Ahura Mazda ( Ormuzd ), and the end of the world takes place. Then the
dead will be raised and all men will be judged. Fire will descend from heaven and all things will be burned. All men
will pass through this purifying fire, but finally all will be saved, and a new Age will begin with new heavens and a
new earth. All will be happiness, and there will be no evil, nor sorrow.</pre><a href="#Endnote11" target="_new"><sup>11</sup></a>
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<pre>
Most textbooks describe the essential notions of apocalyptic by drawing on the following list of J. Lindblom:
transcendentalism, mythology, cosmological survey, pessimistic historical surveys, dualism, division of time into periods,
teach of Two Ages, numerology, pseudoecstacy, artificial claims to inspiration, pseudonymity, and esoterism.</pre><a href="#Endnote12" target="_new"><sup>12</sup></a>
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<pre>
To which Russel adds:
the idea of the unity of history and the conception of cosmic history which treats of earth and heaven; the notion of
primordiality with its revelations concerning creation and the fall of men and angels; the source of evil in the
universe and the part played in this by angelic powers; the conflict between light and darkness, good and evil, God
</pre>
<center>[ 6 ]</center>
<pre>
and Satan; the emergence of a transcendent figure called 'the Son of Man' the development of belief in life after
death with its various compartments of Hell, Gehenna, Paradise, and Heaven and the increasing significance of the
individual in resurrection, judgement, and eternal bliss. ( R:105 )
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Unfortunately, this method leaves much to be desired.
Among its adverse results, Paul Hanson lists the following:
(1) the sources of apocalyptic are misunderstood,
(2) the period of origin is centuries off the mark, meaning that the resulting typology of apocalyptic literature is grossly inaccurate,
(3) the historical and sociologicial matrix of apocalyptic is left unexplained,
(4) the essential nature of apocalyptic is inadequately clarified. ( H:7 )</pre><a href="#Endnote13" target="_new"><sup>13</sup></a>
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<pre>
What then is “the sociological matrix of apocalyptic”? Not surprizingly, it developes out of events not unlike those which
stimulated Plato.
The surrender of Jerusalem ( March 16, 597 BCE ) and its eventual destruction ( July, 587 BCE ) ( B:323 ff. ) were decisive events for the
social history of Israel. When the time came to restore the community ( 538 BCE ) (B:360 ff.), there were two groups suggesting models for its
reconstruction. The result, as often in time of crisis, was a bitter struggle for legitimization.
Briefly ( and over-simplified ), the argument runs as follows: A unified eschatological ideal originating in a community sympathetic to
Second Isaiah is to be found in a polemical form throughout the last eleven chapters of Isaiah ( Third Isaiah ). The polemical form suggests that
</pre>
<center>[ 7 ]</center>
<pre>
the prophetic community was engaged in struggle with the uneschatological community that controlled the official cult and threatened to
compromise the eschatological ideal upheld by the prophetic group. Because of the oppression suffered by the minority prophetic community
at the hands of the "hierocrats" the prophetic oracle was transformed and the development of prophetic eschatology toward apocalyptic eschatology
began.</pre><a href="#Endnote14" target="_new"><sup>14</sup></a>
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<br />
<pre>
For what happens to a nation's eschatology which hitherto was construed in the historical terms of Yahweh's restoration of
the nation to its original political autonomy and integrity when that nation is no longer a recognizable historical entity,
when the historical boundary demarcating Israel from the nations is replaced by the spiritual boundary setting Israel off
from Israel? . . . [ R ]estoration was seen more and more as an event of the new era, an event losing connections with the
concrete realities of history, an event removing the elect from any relation of responsibility to the present political
order, an event no longer interpreting divine action in the historical terms of Yahweh directing the destiny of nations and
kings, but tending to be viewed in terms of a more direct forensic intervention whereby Yahweh separates the righteous from
the wicked. ( H:150-51; cf. 209-10 )
Viewed in this manner, the inclusion of Plato and apocalyptic literature in this class enables one to see two contrasting mentalities. Plato
a proponent of ideology, a member of the ruling class, so interest-bound to existing structures that he posits them as "absolute and eternal."
And the apocalypticist, a proponent of utopia, a member of an oppressed group, whose thinking is marked by a harsh incongruity between the vision
and the actual state of reality.
And, with Hanson, one can see the application to our own time:
When the utopian thinking becomes a direction for action, as it always threatens to become, it leads to the destruction of
existing structures in the attempt to realize the utopia. It is thus understandable why representatives of the given order
try to render the utopian notions socially innocuous by confining them to a realm beyond history and society, where they are
unable to disturb the status quo. But . . . in a period of national disaster, such control of the utopian impulse is no longer
possible, and therefore it bursts forth in new vigor. (H:213)
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<sup>1</sup> Martin P. Nilsson, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Greek-folk-religion-Martin-Nilsson/dp/B0007DSXFO" target="_new">Greek Folk Religion, p. 4</a><br />
<pre>Plato is of extra-primary importance for this course because he found it profitable to employ his leisure time ( σχολή ) near the sanctuary of the hero</pre><br />
<pre>Academus, thus establishing the first European university. Even in America the most recent statistics suggest that only one out of ten persons is
able to be similarly employed. One wonders at our participation in this minority institution.
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<td><sup>2</sup> W. K. C. Guthrie, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Greeks-their-gods-W-K-C-Guthrie/dp/B0007FKL3O" target="_new">The Greeks and Their Gods, pp. 16-17; 334</a><br />
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<td><sup>3</sup> Guthrie remarks, “. . . [ O ]ne of the most fruitful developments of twentieth-century anthropology has been a
growing awareness that religion is a function of the whole personality, and that the personality is intimately bound<br />
up with the contemporary organization of society.” ( G:16-17 )
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<td><sup>4</sup> Frederick C. Grant, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hellenistic-Religions-Federick-Grant/dp/0672510561" target="_new">Hellenistic Religions, p. xxvii</a>.
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<td><sup>5</sup> Frederick Copleston, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/History-Philosophy-Vol-Pre-Socratics-Plotinus/dp/0385468431" target="_new">A History of Philosophy</a>, Vol. I, Part II, p. 205; cf. Charles K. Barrett, Editor, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-Testament-Background-Selected-Documents/dp/0060608811" target="_new">The New<br />Testament Background: Writings from Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire that Illuminate Christian Origins</a>, Revised Edition, pp. 252-268.
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<td><sup>6</sup> For fuller background on this, indeed, turbulent time, the Wikipedia article on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Maccabeus" target="_new">Judas Maccabeus</a> has sub-links for<br /> most of the family members cited in the text for which this endnote was generated.
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<td><sup>7</sup> Howard Clark Kee, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Origins-Christianity-Howard-Clark-Kee/dp/0281037914" target="_new">The Origins of Christianity: Sources and Documents</a>, p. 171.
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<td><sup>8</sup> From the Greek: αποκαλυψις, meaning revelation; first used with this meaning in the New Testament Apocalypse<br />of John ( 1:1 ) where it is also first used to designate a book; cf. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-Testament-Apocrypha-Apostles-Apocalypse/dp/0718805984" target="_new">Edgar Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. II:<br />Writing Related to the Apostles, Apocalypse, and Related Subjects</a>, pp. 582 ff.
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<td><sup>9</sup> John Bright, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/History-Israel-Fourth-Westminster-Scriptures-ebook/dp/B00APMP5OY" target="_new">A History of Israel, 4th Edition ( with an Introduction and Appendix by William J. Brown )</a>, p. 426;<br /> subsequent references to dates in parentheses following the dates in the text, e. g., ( B:426 ).
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<td><sup>10</sup> Paul D. Hanson, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Apocalyptic-Paul-Hanson/dp/0800618092" target="_new">The Dawn of Apocalyptic: The Historical and Sociological Roots of Jewish Apocalyptic<br /> Eschatology</a>, Revised Edition, p. 5; originally in Martin Buber, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kampf-um-Israel-Martin-Buber/dp/B001TBWUIO" target="_new">Kampf um Israel; Reden und Schriften</a> ( Berlin:<br /> Schocken Verlag, 1933 ), pp. 59 ff.; subsequent references to dates in parentheses following the dates in the text,<br /> e. g., ( H:5 ).
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<td><sup>11</sup> Norman H. Snaith, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jews-Cyrus-Herod-Norman-Snaith/dp/0687202280" target="_new">The Jews from Cyrus to Herod</a>, pp. 95-96.
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<td><sup>12</sup> David Syme Russell, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Method-Message-Jewish-Apocalyptic-Testament/dp/0664205437" target="_new">The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic: 200 BC - AD 100</a>, ( The Old Testament<br /> Library ), pp. 95-96.
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<td><sup>13</sup> Cf. p. 6 where Hanson states, “The origins of apocalyptic cannot be explained by a method which juxtaposes seventh- and second- century compositions and then proceeds to account for the features of the latter by reference<br /> to its immediate environment.”
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<sup>14</sup> “. . . [ T ]he originally separate salvation and judgment oracles were fused into one hybird oracle, thereby enabling<br /> the visionary to deliver a word which was simultaneously a word of salvation and a word of judgment. The <u>Sitz</u><br /> <u>Im</u> <u>Leben</u> of this hybrid oracle was a new situation in the post-exilic community within which there was no <u>one</u><br /> Israel being promised either salvation or judgment, but <u>two</u> Israels, one the object of Yahweh's saving acts, the other<br /> of his wrath and judgment.” ( H:404 )
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<h1>
Bibliography
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Works Cited In the Text
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<br />
Barrett, C. K. The New Testament Background: Selected Documents. Harper Torchbooks. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1961.
<br />
<br />
Bright, John. A History of Israel. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1972.
<br />
<br />
Copleston, Frederick. A History of Philosophy, Vol. I, Part II: Greece & Rome. Image Books. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday
<br />
& Company, Inc. 1962.
<br />
<br />
Grant, Frederick C. Hellenistic Religions. The Library of Liberal Arts. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1953.
<br />
<br />
Guthrie, W. K. C. The Greeks and Their Gods. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955.
<br />
<br />
Hanson, Paul D. The Dawn of Apocalyptic. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975.
<br />
<br />
Hennecke, Edgar. New Testament Apocrypha. 2 Vols. Edited by Wilhelm Schneemeleher. Translated by R. McL. Wilson.
<br />
Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965.
<br />
<br />
Kee, Howard Clark. The Origins of Christianity: Sources and Documents. Englewood Cl1ffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1973.
<br />
<br />
Nilsson, Martin P. Greek Folk Relig1on. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972.
<br />
<br />
Russell, D. S. The Message and Method of Jewish Apocalyptic: 200 BC – AD 100. The Old Testament Library. Philadelphia:
<br />
Westminster Press, 1964.
<br />
<br />
Snaith, Norman H. The Jews from Cyrus to Herod. New York: Abingdon Press, [n.d.] -
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<h1>Other Works Consulted</h1>
</center>
<br />
<br />
Copleston, Frederiok. A History of Philosophy, Vol. I, Part I: Greece & Rome. Image Books. Garden City. N. Y.: Doubleday
<br />
& Company, Inc., 1962.
<br />
<br />
Hanson, Paul D. “Jewish Apocalyptic Against Its Near Eastern Environment”. Revue Biblique, 78 ( January, 1971 ), 31-58.
<br />
<br />
Mannheim, Karl. Ideology and Utopia, an Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. Translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils.
<br />
New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1936.
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10
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<br />
Schmithals, Walter. The Apocalyptic Movement: Introduction and Interpretation. Translated by John E. Steely. Nashville:
<br />
Abingdon Press, 1975.
<br />
<br />
Weber, Max. The Sociology of Religion. Translated by Ephraim Fischoff. Introduction by Talcott Parsons. Boston: Beacon
<br />
Press, 1963.
</center>
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USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-27037067997160946832022-05-03T07:24:00.003-07:002022-05-03T07:27:51.224-07:00Thank God for Norma Leah Nelson McCorvey's lawyers . . .<p>Whoa, a superprecedence event ( the “leak” of a “swinging for the fences,” “a 21 gun salute,” of “a withering takedown” of Roe v. Wade in a February 10, 2022 draft majority opinion in this decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of <a href="https://tinyurl.com/45d6y95s" target="_blank">Dobbs vs Jackson Women's Health Organization</a> ) has me feeling like I'm spiraling, reeling ( and almost any of the <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y3bw4jju" target="_blank"> 58 other synonyms</a> for reeling ) back to the early '70s of the 20th century, remembering all of the energy I put into insuring a woman's right to choose, to have control over their own body, beating ( for once ) what is and has been the Republican patriarchy's mantra - “keep them barefoot and pregnant” - without hope of equality . . . ( in other words, as Jung suggests, “their jealousy of a woman's power to give birth” ).
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And, only because it's a draft version, I'm not going to get suckered into mourning what might turn out to be the loss of this almost 50 year victory for democracy, but rather just put the following three proposed theories out there for you to discuss as to the question: “Why the leak?” ( much thanks goes to New York University Law Professor Melissa Murray for setting me on this path ).
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One theory, as unlikely as it is, is that the draft decision could have been leaked by one ( or more ) of the three ( or, perhaps, four ) dissenting judges.
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A second theory, is that it could have been leaked by someone “in the middle,” wanting to stress test how a decision like this would play out in the public space.
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Or, finally, it may have been leaked by one of the five ( or, perhaps, six ) majority justices who fears that there could be defectors from the majority opinion. This is a way to backwalk the majority justices into a corner and make certain that they stay “on sides” in the “absolutist decision” that “takes no prisoners” and “really undermines and eviscerates” all of Roe v. Wade ( not to mention the possiblility of a whole series of other “rights” which rely on Roe v. Wade [ and its history ] and could be decided in the same way ).
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<p>
Have at it ( in the "Enter Comment" section [ below ], if you feel up to it )!
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-44352848672172433662022-05-01T19:07:00.076-07:002022-05-01T20:03:43.639-07:00Smiling All the Way to the Bank - The "military-industrial-banking" complex<p>If you've seen the movie “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963178/" target="_blank">The International<a>,” then you may have been struck by the following dialogue between Interpol agent Louis Salinger who is interviewing the International Bank of Business and Commerce's ( IBBC ) Security Chief, Wilhelm Wexler ( who is a former Russian Stasi Colonel and Communist hardliner ), with the Manhattan Assistant District Attorney, Eleanor Whitman, secretly listening in ):
</p>
<p>
<u><b>Louis</b></u> <u><b>Salinger</b></u>: <i>Skarssen [ head of IBBC ] and that bank [ IBBC ] need to answer for what they've done. They have to be brought to justice. You can help me do that</i>.
</p>
<p>
<u><b>Colonel</b></u> <u><b>Wexler</b></u>: <i>Justice . . . is not possible</i>.
</p>
<p>
<u><b>Salinger</b></u>: <i>Why not?</i>
</p>
<p>
<u><b>Wexler</b></u>: <i>Because, Agent Salinger . . . your idea of justice is an illusion. Understand the very system that you serve and protect . . . will never allow anything to happen to Skarssen or the bank. On the contrary. The system guarantees the IBBC's safety . . . because everyone is involved.</i>
</p>
<p>
<u><b>Salinger</b></u>: <i>What do you mean, “everyone”?</i>
</p>
<p>
<u><b>Wexler</b></u>: <i>Hezbollah. CIA. The Colombian drug cartels. Russian organized crime. Governments of Iran, Germany, China, your government. Every multinational corporation, every one. They all need banks like the IBBC . . . so that they can operate within the black and gray latitudes. And this is why your investigative efforts . . . have either been ignored or undermined . . . and why you and I will be quietly disposed of . . . before any case against the bank ever reaches a court of law</i>.
</p>
<p>
This was illustrated so beautifully on MSNBC back in March in a segment entitled: “<a href="https://tinyurl.com/mpnkr277" target="_blank">How Giant Investment Bank Goldman Sachs Is Profiting On Ukraine War.</a>”
</p>
<p>
And, once again, I'm reminded of these lines from the movie script for the movie “American Gangster” ( modified for the illegal war crimes of Putin's war against Ukraine ):
</p>
<p>
<b><u>Detective</u></b> <b><u>Richie</u></b> <b><u>Roberts</u>:</b> <i>They don't want this to stop. It employs too many people. Lawyers, judges, military officers and non-commissioned soldiers, prison guards, county social workers. The day a war is stopped, hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs</i>.
</p>
<p>
We don't hear a peep from the 16 or 17 intelligence agencies about the place of the banks in the “military-industrial-banking complex” war effort . . . .
</p>
<p>
Which led me to ask the question on Google Search - “Which country is the largest arms dealer in the world?” And, of course, it's still the United States.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://www.ediguys.net/images/The_Worlds_Biggest_Arms_Exporters.jpeg" alt="The Worlds Biggest Arms Exporters" width="612" height="612">
</p>
<p>
With the United States supplying arms to 100 of the 195 countries in the world today.
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://www.ediguys.net/images/Where_the_US_exports_weapons_to.jpeg" alt="Where the US Exports Weapons To" width="612" height="612">
</p>
<p>
To reiterate how that translates to per capita war spending in 2021? Statistica states, “$2,651.62” ( in 2021 dollars ) for every man, woman, and child!
</p>
<p>
<img src="http://www.ediguys.net/images/Per_capita_war_expenditures_of_the_United_States_from_1995_to_2021.jpg" alt="Where the US Exports Weapons To" width="733" height="459">
</p>
<p>
And, if the sanctions against Russia were to work ( cf. the findings on the Giant Investment Bank Goldman Sachs above ), then we could almost redistribute the Russian percentage in the graphic in the graphic's proportions to the other players in the graphic, resulting in a 45.8% slice of the pie for the military-industrial-banking complex in the United States - and we're talking $801,000,000,000.USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-7872545803814574122021-11-10T18:10:00.000-08:002021-11-10T18:10:57.112-08:00Review of Trump timeline on the VirusThis is a long snippet of an email response to my next youngest brother written September 28, 2020 ( previous to the Woodward / Costa book “Peril” ):
<p>
As you recall, you had a question as to why the Dems are so concerned about the Covid-19 infection rate:
</p>
<p>
Well, one reason that has been in the back of my mind for quite some time is the fact that the Trumpenführer needs to be re-elected in order to remain immune ( no pun intended ) from all of the criminal investigations at the state level in which he is named. And, his Republican party sycophants are going to continue to use everything in their power to ensure that the President will be re-elected. This includes the Covid-19 fatality rate amongst the plethora of other means ( the gerrymander, non-working voting machines and voting apps, closing or moving polling places, stricter voter ID rules, requiring notarization of absentee ballots, discounting the voting in states, and directly appointing the delegates to the Electoral College, not to list any more ) that are being used.
</p>
<p>
Think of it. The President lost the popular vote by ~ 3,000,000 votes. So, if the Trump Administration can find a way to have 3,000,000 persons die, then the President is that much closer to being able to win the election by popular vote ( it would be the second time since 1992 that the Republicans will have won the popular vote ).
</p>
<p>
How does this work, you might ask? Appoint the Fox News Radiologist, Scott Atlas ( who had been spouting the “Herd Immunity” line for at least 4 months previous to being appointed ), as Coronavirus Task Force czar. And, preach “Herd Immunity.”
</p>
<p>
Michael Osterholm ( Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota ) has stated for a long time that around 65 - 70% of the U. S. population would need to become infected with Covid-19 to achieve “herd immunity.”
</p>
<p>
With the U. S. population of ~328,000,000 and assuming just a 1% fatality rate ( the current fatality rate is something like 2.97% ), to reach the 65% threshold would require 2,130,000 deaths while the 70% threshold would require 2,293,850 deaths.
</p>
<p>
The target the Trump administration has been aiming for is a 91.55% infection rate. This would require 3,000,025 deaths. And that is why their PanCap Adapted U. S. Government COVID-19 Response Plan, dated March 13, 2020 and marked “NOT FOR PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION OR RELEASE” ( which was released in March of this year ) suggested that the virus would last at least 18 months ( July, 2021 ).
</p>
<p>
On January 21, 2020, federal officials reported the first case of COVID-19 in the United States, to which the President responded, “It's one person, coming from China. It's going to be just fine.”
</p>
<p>
January 22, 2020 during a CNBC interview on the sidelines of the economic forum in Switzerland, “We have it totally under control.”
</p>
<p>
January 24, 2020 tweet “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
</p>
<p>
January 28, 2020, from Woodward's book - during a top secret intelligence briefing, national security adviser Robert O'Brien gave Trump a “jarring” warning about the virus, telling the President it would be the “biggest national security threat” of his presidency. Trump's head “popped up,” Woodward writes. O'Brien's deputy, Matt Pottinger, concurred, telling Trump it could be as bad as the influenza pandemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, including 675,000 Americans. Pottinger warned Trump that asymptomatic spread was occurring in China: He had been told 50% of those infected showed no symptoms. Nevertheless, Trump continued to publicly downplay the danger of the virus, often comparing it to the flu. February was a lost month ( https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/04/politics/trump-covid-response-annotation/ ). Woodward views this as a damning missed opportunity for Trump to reset “the leadership clock” after he was told this was a “once-in-a-lifetime health emergency.”
</p>
<p>
On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General declared that the 2019-nCoV outbreak constituted a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
</p>
<p>
January 30, 2020, during a trade event in Michigan: “Hopefully it won't be as bad as some people think it could be. But we're working very closely with them and with a lot of other people and a lot of other countries. And we think we have it very well under control.”
</p>
<p>
On January 31, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary declared a U. S. public health emergency in response to 2019-nCoV.
</p>
<p>
Also on January 31, the president signed a “Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Persons who Pose a Risk of Transmitting 2019 Novel Coronavirus,” which limits entry into the United States of persons who traveled to mainland China to U. S. citizens and lawful permanent residents and their families.
</p>
<p>
February 2, 2020, during a Fox News Super Bowl interview - “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.”
</p>
<p>
February 4, 2020, during the State of the Union address ( the only reference to the virus ): “My administration will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from this threat.”
</p>
<p>
When on February 5, 2020, the CDC posted the first week's Morbidity and Mortality Report ( Patel A, Jernigan DB. Initial Public Health Response and Interim Clinical Guidance for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak - United States, December 31, 2019 - February 4, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020:69:140-146. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm690531 ) covering what was then known of the “novel” Coronavirus outbreak in mainland China ( FN 1 ), already a total of 20,471 confirmed cases, including 2,788 with severe illness,* ( 13.6% infection rate ) and 425 deaths ( 2.1% mortality rate ) had been reported by the National Health Commission of China ( FN 2 ). Cases had also been reported in 26 locations outside of mainland China, including documentation of some person-to-person transmission and one death ( FN 2 ). And 11 cases had been reported in the United States ( 9 of the 11 exposed in Wuhan, China ).
</p>
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<td colspan="6" style="white-space: nowrap">
Characteristics of initial 2019 novel coronavirus cases (N = 11) — United States, January 21–February 4, 2020
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="6" style="white-space: nowrap">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="white-space: nowrap">
Case
</td>
<td>
State
</td>
<td style="white-space: nowrap">
~ Age ( yrs )
</td>
<td style="white-space: nowrap">
Sex
</td>
<td style="white-space: nowrap">
Place of Exposure
</td>
<td style="white-space: nowrap">
Date Laboratory Confirmation Announced
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td span="6">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
1
</td>
<td style="white-space: nowrap">
Washington
</td>
<td>
30s
</td>
<td>
M
</td>
<td>
Wuhan
</td>
<td>
01/21/20
</td>
</tr>
<td>
2
</td>
<td>
Illinois
</td>
<td>
60s
</td>
<td>
F
</td>
<td>
Wuhan
</td>
<td>
01/26/20
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<tr>
<td>
2
</td>
<td>
Illinois
</td>
<td>
60s
</td>
<td>
F
</td>
<td>
Wuhan
</td>
<td>
01/26/20
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
3
</td>
<td>
Arizona
</td>
<td>
20s
</td>
<td>
M
</td>
<td>
Wuhan
</td>
<td>
01/26/20
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
4
</td>
<td>
California
</td>
<td>
30s
</td>
<td>
M
</td>
<td>
Wuhan
</td>
<td>
01/27/20
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
5
</td>
<td>
California
</td>
<td>
50s
</td>
<td>
M
</td>
<td>
Wuhan
</td>
<td>
01/27/20
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
6
</td>
<td>
Illinois
</td>
<td>
60s
</td>
<td>
M
</td>
<td>
Household
</td>
<td>
01/30/20
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
7
</td>
<td>
California
</td>
<td>
40s
</td>
<td>
M
</td>
<td>
Wuhan
</td>
<td>
01/31/20
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
8
</td>
<td style="white-space: nowrap">
Massachusetts
</td>
<td>
20s
</td>
<td>
M
</td>
<td>
Wuhan
</td>
<td>
02/01/20
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
9
</td>
<td>
California
</td>
<td>
50s
</td>
<td>
F
</td>
<td>
Wuhan
</td>
<td>
02/02/20
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
10
</td>
<td>
California
</td>
<td>
50s
</td>
<td>
M
</td>
<td>
Wuhan
</td>
<td>
02/02/20
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
11
</td>
<td>
California
</td>
<td>
50s
</td>
<td>
F
</td>
<td>
Household
</td>
<td>
02/02/20
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</p>
<p>
Abbreviations: F = female; M = male.
</p>
<p>
* Includes any of the following: dyspnea, respiratory rate >30 breaths per minute, hypoxemia, or chest x-ray with multilobar infiltrates or >50% progression of pulmonary infiltration within 24–48 hours per WHO. (https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200123-sitrep-3-2019-ncov.pdf ).
</p>
<p>
FN 1: World Health Organization. Novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). Situation report 1. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2020.
</p>
<p>
FN 2: World Health Organization. Novel coronavirus(2019-nCoV). Situation report 15. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2020.
</p>
<p>
The opinion of the 180 2019-nCoV CDC Response Team members was for more cases to appear in the United States.
</p>
<p>
Now how does all of this play into the revelations in Bob Woodward's new book - Rage ( New York, NY.: Simon & Shuster, September 15, 2020 [ which goes way beyond the revelations in his previous book on Trump - Fear - Trump in the White House, { New York, NY.: Simon & Shuster, 2018 } ] interspersed with a small selection of news reports beginning February 7, 2020 ):
</p>
<p>
February 7, 2020 to Woodward: “It goes through the air, Bob. That's always tougher than the touch . . . you don't have to touch things, right? But the air, you just breathe the air . . . And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”
</p>
<p>
February 10, 2020, at a rally in New Hampshire: “It looks like by April. You know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away . . . . I think the virus is going to be - it's going to be fine.”
</p>
<p>
February 26, 2020, at the White House during a coronavirus task force meeting: “The 15 ( case count in the U. S. ) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero . This is a flu. This is like a flu. There's no reason to panic because we have done so good there's no reason to be panicked about it.” Link to transcript of entire press conference https://factba.se/transcript/donald-trump-press-conference-white-house-coronavirus-february-26-2020?format=text.
</p>
<p>
Despite the warnings in that January 28th intelligence briefing ( recall note above for that date ), Trump continued to publicly downplay the danger of the virus often comparing it to the flu. February was a lost month ( https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2020/04/politics/trump-covid-response-annotation/ ). Woodward views this as a damning missed opportunity for Trump to reset “the leadership clock” after he was told this was a “once-in-a-lifetime health emergency.”
</p>
<p>
March 6, 2020, during a visit to the Atlanta, GA headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - “You have to be calm. It'll go away.”
</p>
<p>
March 7, 2020, after a working dinner with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro - “No, I'm not concerned at all. No, I'm not. No, we've done a great job.”
</p>
<p>
March 13, 2020, during a Rose Garden announcement declaring a national emergency - “We've done a great job because we acted quickly. We acted early. And there's nothing we could have done that was better than closing our borders to highly infected areas.”
</p>
<p>
March 16, 2020, during a White House briefing - “I've spoken actually with my son. He says, ‘How bad is this?’ It's bad. It's bad. But we're going to — we're going to be, hopefully, a best case, not a worst case. And that's what we're working for.”
</p>
<p>
March 19, 2020 to Woodward: “Now it's turning out it's not just old people, Bob. Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It's not just old - older. Young people too, plenty of young people. I think, Bob, to really be honest with you. I want to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don't want to creat a panic.”
</p>
<p>
March 19, 2020 at the White House: “And if people would have known about it, it could have been stopped right where it came from - China.”
</p>
<p>
March 22, 2020 tweet: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF.”
</p>
<p>
March 24, 2020 at the White House: “We lose thousands and thousands of people a year to flu. We don't turn the country off.”
</p>
<p>
March 30, 2020, responding to a reporter's suggestion that he offered false assurance to Americans – “I want to keep the country calm. I don't want panic in the country. I could cause panic much better than even you.”
</p>
<p>
Report from Fox News, April 5, 2020 – “Some 430,000 persons flew from China to the US after coronavirus was first detected; 40,000 after the Presidential proclamation ( cited above ).”
</p>
<p>
During Woodward's last interview in July – “The virus has nothing to do with me, it's not my fault. It's – China let the damn virus out.”
</p>
<p>
August 5, 2020, during a White House briefing on opening the schools – “If you look at children, children are almost – I would almost say definitely – but almost immune from this disease. So few – they’ve gotten stronger. Hard to believe. I don't know how you feel about it, but they have much stronger immune systems than we do, somehow, for this. And they don't have a problem. They just don't have a problem.” Meanwhile, according to an article published in the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal “Emerging Infectious Diseases” – “Researchers in South Korea have found that children between the ages of 10 and 19 can transmit Covid-19 within a household just as much as adults.”
</p>
<p>
On August 6, 2020, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington estimated 300,000 deaths in the United States by December 1, 2020. Will that number scale 10 times by that July, 2021 date? You do the math.
</p>
<p>
September 9, 2020, talking to reporters and dismissing Woodward's book as a “political hit job” – “I love our country and I don't want people to be frightened. I don't want to create panic, as you say. Certainly, I'm not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy. We want to show confidence. We want to show strength.”
</p>
<p>
With all of the internal links in just these few references ( cf. for just one example the Altmetric links in that PubMed article cited up in the note for the February 5, 2020 date ), this is all of the documentation that I need because as we continue to see – while the United States “burns” ( no pun intended ), El Narcissismo Solipsismo fiddles ( euphemism for “plays golf” ). And, as Jared Kushner says of his father-in-law ( quoting the Cheshire cat in “Alice in Wonderland” ) “If you don't know where you are going, then any path will get you there.”
</p>
<p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="http://www.ediguys.net/pages/images/The_Cheshire_Cat_from_Alice_in_Wonderland.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="691" src="http://www.ediguys.net/pages/images/The_Cheshire_Cat_from_Alice_in_Wonderland.png"/></a></div>
</p>USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-79483530402330836882021-07-13T06:30:00.000-07:002021-07-13T06:30:09.451-07:00<p>
WTF is wrong with the Stalinist party ( aka formerly the Republican party ) in Amerika?
</p>
<p>
A mainly Stalinist committee ( 3 of 4 members ) of the Michigan State Legislature writes a 55 page report detailing their investigations of voter fraud in the 2020 election in Michigan and finds that there was no fraud ( as expected ).
</p>
<p>
While after that finding it is still suggested in the Stalinist majority Michigan State Legislature that the Cyber Ninjas “fraudit” group come to Michigan to run another audit ( just to assure the voters in Michigan that all sides on the issue have been heard? )
</p>
<p>
In a book by Stalin's secretary, Boris Bazhanov ( The Memoirs of Stalin’s Former Secretary [ Moscow: III Tysiacheletie, 2002 ] ), he quotes Stalin as uttering in reference to a vote in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1923 the following: «Я считаю совершенно неважным, кто и как в партии будет голосовать; но что чрезвычайно важно, так это то, кто и как будет подсчитывать голоса ». Transliterated as
«YA schitayu sovershenno nevazhnym, kto i kak v partii budet golosovat'; no chto chrezvychayno vazhno, tak eto to, kto i kak budet podschityvat' golosa ». And, roughly, in English, “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.” ( <i>cf</i>. the historical thoughts on Draco's “Constitution” [ 620 BCE; where supposedly the only penalty for every crime was death ] with the “Draconian” voter registration laws being written in Stalinist Legislatures throughout Amerika .)
</p>USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-33058346619305415922020-04-26T22:10:00.000-07:002020-04-26T22:10:55.826-07:00Following the previous post this evening . . . one on how "fake news" gets started . . .<p>
Interestingly enough, even Paul Craig Roberts had a number of references (15) to Hal Turner's WWW site with regard to some <b><u>unreported</u></b> remarks of VP Pence to the personnel at the Air Force base in Minot, ND last Friday (October 27, 2017 - <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-airmen-minot-air-force-base-vice-president-pence/" target="_blank">link</a> to <b><u>reported</u></b> remarks).
</p>
<p>
Now Hal Turner is a reported White Nationalist under employ by the FBI to disseminate news (on his shortwave radio program [WBCQ 7490 AM] and WWW site) to split and confound the American populace (and beyond as we shall see below).
</p>
<p>
Those reportedly <b><u>unreported</u></b> remarks of VP Pence were as follows (from Hal's WWW site): “We are entering a very dangerous time, and I have come here personally to tell you that you may receive a Launch Order in the near future. I want you to know that we have planned for all contingencies, but it is POSSIBLE that things may escalate beyond what we believe will take place. If you receive a properly formatted launch order, you launch. Don't waste time trying to confirm the order, because it is not standard operating procedure for you to delay like that. If you get a launch order, carry it out.”
</p>
<p>
Besides a reference link (which may wrap) on every article (most recent count - 67) on Hal's WWW site, these reportedly <b><u>unreported</u></b> remarks spread far and wide to at least the following WWW sites (in alphabetical order; number of reference links [cached - unless otherwise specified] not counting “Advertisements”):
</p>
<p>
<ol>
<li>
64.66.227.27 ‐ Before It's News (3) [link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:tilITezpf6QJ:64.62.227.27/alternative/2017/10/mike-pence-we-are-entering-a-very-dangerous-time-and-i-have-come-here-personally-to-tell-you-that-you-may-receive-a-launch-order-3567671.html+&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
<li>
Chat Brat Anonymous [link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:whQLTjzm6KUJ:z7.invisionfree.com/Chat_Brat_Anonymous/index.php%3Fshowforum%3D1+&cd=41&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
<li>
Indy Watch All News World Feed [link: {uncached but archived daily} http://wire.indywatch.org/archiver/wire.indywatch.org/resources/allworld.html]
</li>
<li>
Kiwi Watch (11) [link: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IrdJrYIvH64J:https://www.kiwiwatch.org.nz/coming-bear-market-robert-j-shiller-project-syndicate/+&cd=31&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
<li>
Nunez Report [link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:SSLZW1eVliMJ:nunezreport.blogspot.com/2017/10/mike-pence-we-are-entering-very.html+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
<li>
Путь Странника WWW site [link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:N4vtxyYKkbsJ:https://irina-irinayurevna.blogspot.com/+&cd=108&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
<li>
Seemorerocks [link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PUr49nyaf1EJ:robinwestenra.blogspot.de/2017/10/dprk-blacks-out-evacuates-cities-in.html+&cd=39&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
<li>
Steve Quayle's WWW site [link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Y22mAd2eqGEJ:www.stevequayle.com/+&cd=107&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
<li>
The Deep State [link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ca0KwlwTXLcJ:thedeepstate.com/+&cd=70&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
<li>
The Lifeboat News [link:nbsp; http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:7g3hadgOIXQJ:members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1509449745.html+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
<li>
The Tribulation Now (5) [link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:M2swJgbtZ-sJ:www.tribulation-now.org/show-notes/+&cd=105&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
<li>
Whistle Blower Jeff / Holy Spirit Wind (4) [link: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gx1HyMrKDzoJ:whistleblowerjeff.holyspiritwind.net/2017/10/12/10-things-that-just-dont-add-up-about-the-las-vegas-mass-shooting/+&cd=49&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]
</li>
</ol>
</p>
<p>
So, depending upon where you read the "fake news," if you didn't do your homework, then you wouldn't know that it was "fake" . . . .
</p>
<p>
As always, ENJOY!
</p>
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-62245482531781135422020-04-26T19:52:00.000-07:002020-04-27T06:32:19.768-07:00In light of the Senate Committee's Volume 4 Report . . .<p>
I put together a History of El Narcissimo Solipsismo's Ukraine Spiel in conjuction with Russian Hacking of the 2016 U S Presidential Election HTML file and thought that it would fit nicely into a blog entry. So, here goes:
<br>
<br>
<h1>History of El Narcissimo Solipsismo's Ukraine Spiel</h1>
</p>
<p>
<h2>In conjuction with Russian Hacking of the 2016 U S Presidential Election</h2>
</p>
<p>
<h3>Precursors</h3>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Christian Science Monitor, June 17, 2014: “<a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2014/0617/Ukraine-election-narrowly-avoided-wanton-destruction-from-hackers" target="_blank">Ukraine election narrowly avoided ‘wanton destruction’ from hackers</a>”</li>
<li>New York Times Magazine, June 2, 2015: “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html" target="_blank">The Agency</a>” (the Russian Internet Research Agency)</li>
<li>Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2015: “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-cyberwars-hottest-front-1447121671" target="_blank">Ukraine: Cyberwar's Hottest Front</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h3>Nuts and Bolts . . .</h3>
</p>
<p>
<h4>June 16 - 29, 2016</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Ars Technica, June 16, 2016: “<a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/guccifer-leak-of-dnc-trump-research-has-a-russians-fingerprints-on-it/" target="_blank">‘Guccifer’ leak of DNC Trump research has a Russian's fingerprints on it</a>”</li>
<li>Secure Works Blog, June 16, 2016: “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190125193146/https:/www.secureworks.com/research/threat-group-4127-targets-hillary-clinton-presidential-campaign" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Russian Threat Group Targets Clinton Campaign</a>” <font color="red"><b>*</b></font></li>
<li>Threat Connect Blog, June 17, 2016: “<a href="https://www.threatconnect.com/blog/tapping-into-democratic-national-committee/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rebooting Watergate: Tapping into the Democratic National Committee</a>”</li>
<li>Washington Post, June 20, 2016: “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cyber-researchers-confirm-russian-government-hack-of-democratic-national-committee/2016/06/20/e7375bc0-3719-11e6-9ccd-d6005beac8b3_story.html?utm_term=.9cf2cb7b83f8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cyber researchers confirm Russian government hack of Democratic National Committee</a>”</li>
<li>SecureWorks Counter Treat Unit (CTU), June 26, 2016: “<a href="https://www.secureworks.com/research/threat-group-4127-targets-google-accounts" target="_blank">Threat Group-4127 Targets Google Accounts</a>”</li>
<li>Threat Connect Blog, June 29, 2016: “<a href="https://threatconnect.com/blog/guccifer-2-0-dnc-breach/" target="_new">Shiny Object? Guccifer 2.0 and the DNC Breach</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>July 7 - 29, 2016</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Threat Connect Blog, July 7, 2016: “<a href="https://threatconnect.com/blog/whats-in-a-name-server/" target="_blank">What's in a Name Server?</a>”</li>
<li>Threat Connect Blog, July 20, 2016: “<a href="https://threatconnect.com/blog/reassesing-guccifer-2-0-recent-claims/" target-"_blank">Guccifer 2.0: the Man, the Myth, the Legend?</a>”</li>
<li>The Hill, July 26, 2016: “<a href="https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/289296-guccifer-20-used-russian-language-vpns-to-leak-documents" target="_blank">Evidence mounts linking DNC email hacker to Russia</a>”</li>
<li>Threat Connect Blog, July 26, 2016: “<a href="https://threatconnect.com/blog/guccifer-2-all-roads-lead-russia/" target="_blank">Guccifer 2.0: All Roads Lead to Russia</a>”</li>
<li>Vocativ, July 26, 2016: “<a href="https://www.vocativ.com/343010/guccifer-2-0-dnc-hack/" target="_blank">Guccifer 2.0 Is Likely A Russian Begging Us To Write About DNC Hack</a>”</li>
<li>Reuters, July 28, 2016: “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-cyber-democrats-exclusive-idUSKCN1082Y7" target="_blank">Exclusive: FBI probes hacking of Democratic congressional group - sources</a>”</li>
<li>Threat Connect Blog, July 29, 2016: “<a href="https://threatconnect.com/blog/fancy-bear-it-itch-they-cant-scratch/" target="_blank">FANCY BEAR Has an (IT) Itch that They Can't Scratch</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>Auguust 12 - 19, 2016</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>The Smoking Gun, August 12, 2016: “<a href="http://thesmokinggun.com/documents/investigation/tracking-russian-hackers-638295" target="_blank">Tracking The Hackers Who Hit DC, Clinton, Republicans</a>”</li>
<li>Threat Connect Blog, August 12, 2016: “<a href="https://threatconnect.com/blog/does-a-bear-leak-in-the-woods/" target="_blank">Does a BEAR Leak in the Woods</a>”</li>
<li>Threat Connect Blog, August 19, 2016: “<a href="https://threatconnect.com/blog/fancy-bear-anti-doping-agency-phishing/" target="_blank">Russian Cyber Operations on Steroids</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>September 2, 2016</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Treat Connect Blog, September 2, 2016 “<a href="https://threatconnect.com/blog/state-board-election-rabbit-hole/" target="_blank">Can a BEAR Fit Down a Rabbit Hole?</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>December 13, 2016</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>New York Times, December 13, 2016: “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/us/politics/russia-hack-election-dnc.html?_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Perfect Weapon: How Russian Cyberpower Invaded the U.S.</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>January 6, 2017</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>New York Times, January 6, 2017: “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/06/us/politics/document-russia-hacking-report-intelligence-agencies.html?_r=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Intelligence Report on Russian Hacking</a>” (includes full copy of the official U.S. Intelligence and Law Enforcement Agency report):</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>March 5 - 30, 2017</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Wired Magazine, March 5, 2017: “<a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/article/dnc-hack-proof-russia-democrats" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hunting the DNC hackers: how Crowdstrike found proof Russia hacked the Democrats</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-kmandia-033017.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Senate testimony of Kevin Mandia, March 30, 2017</a>”</li>
<li>“<a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/os-trid-033017.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Senate testimony of Thomas Rid, March 30, 2017</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>July 7 - 20, 2017</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Washington Post, July 6, 2017: “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/07/06/heres-the-public-evidence-that-supports-the-idea-that-russia-interfered-in-the-2016-election/?utm_term=.57502a10a57a" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Here's the public evidence that supports the idea that Russia interfered in the 2016 election</a>”</li>
<li>Daily Beast, July 20, 2017: “<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/microsoft-pushes-to-take-over-russian-spies-network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Putin's Hackers Now Under Attack ‐ From Microsoft</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>August 14, 2017</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>The Hill, August 14, 2017: “<a href="http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/346468-why-the-latest-theory-about-the-dnc-not-being-a-hack-is-probably-wrong" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Why the latest theory about the DNC not being hacked is probably wrong</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>November 2, 2017</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>AP, November 2, 2017: “<a href="https://apnews.com/3bca5267d4544508bb523fa0db462cb2?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Russia hackers pursued Putin foes, not just US Democrats</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>January 25 - 26, 2018</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>De Volkskrant, January 25, 2018: “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWaEUYlOpsc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dutch Intelligence Watched Russian Hackers Attack the U.S</a>”</li>
<li>AP, January 26, 2018: “<a href="https://www.apnews.com/ef3b036949174a9b98d785129a93428b/Report:-Dutch-spies-caught-Russian-hackers-on-tape" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Report: Dutch spies caught Russian hackers on tape</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>March 22 - 23, 2018</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Tech Crunch, March 22, 2018: “<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/22/more-evidence-ties-guccifer-2-0-to-russian-intelligence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">More evidence ties alleged DNC hacker Guccifer 2.0 to Russian intelligence</a>”</li>
<li>Ars Technica, March 23, 2018: “<a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/03/dnc-lone-hacker-guccifer-2-0-pegged-as-russian-spy-after-opsec-fail/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DNC “lone hacker” Guccifer 2.0 pegged as Russian spy after opsec fail</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>June 13, 2018</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>U.S. Department of Justice Indictment, June 13, 2018: “<a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1080281/download" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Case 1:18-cr-00215-ABJ”</a>”</li>
<li>Daily Beast, June 13, 2018: “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/mueller-indicts-12-russian-officers-for-hacking-dems-in-2016?ref=home" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Mueller Indicts 12 Russian Officers for Hacking Dems in 2016”</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>October 4, 2018</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Security Week, October 4, 2018: “<a href="https://www.securityweek.com/dnc-hacker-indictment-lesson-failed-misattribution" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“The DNC Hacker Indictment: A Lesson in Failed Misattribution”</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>July 17, 2019</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Daily Beast, July 17, 2019: “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-missing-dnc-server-is-neither-missing-nor-a-server/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Trump's ‘Missing DNC Server’ Is Neither Missing Nor a Server”</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>September 25 - 30, 2019</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Washington Post, September 25, 2019: “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/25/trumps-mention-crowdstrike-call-with-ukraines-president-recalls-russian-hack-dnc/" target="_blank">In call to Ukraine's president, Trump revived a favorate conspiracy theory about the DNC hack</a>”</li>
<li>Wired, September 25, 2019: “<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/trump-ukraine-call-crowdstrike-dnc-russia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“How Trump's Ukraine Mess Entangled CrowdStrike”</a>”</li>
<li>Daily Beast, September 25, 2019: “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/crowdstrike-the-truth-about-trumps-insane-ukraine-server-conspiracy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“The Truth About Trump's Insane Ukraine ‘Server’ Conspiracy”</a>”</li>
<li>CNN Business, September 26, 2019: “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/tech/what-is-crowdstrike/index.html" target="-blank">What is CrowdStrike and why is it part of the Trump whistleblower complaint?</a>”</li>
<li>AP / Washington Post, September 27, 2019: “<a href="https://apnews.com/12d7f500b18d4412bbd330f17b30751a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Why Trump asked Ukraine's president about ‘CrowdStrike’”</a>”</li>
<li>CNN, September 30, 2019: “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/30/politics/crowdstrike-donald-trump-ukraine/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Don’t miss the totally debunked conspiracy theory Donald Trump pushed in the Ukraine call”</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>November 24, 2019</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>NBC News Now, November 24, 2019: “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jDac0D1-SI" target="_blank">Debunking The Crowdstrike Conspiracy Theory</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h4>December 29, 2019</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>NBC News, Meet the Press (transcript), December 29, 2019: “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meet-press-december-29-2019-n1106036" target="_blank">Special Edition: “Alternative ‘Facts’</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h2>From the horse's mouth . . .</h2>
</p>
<p>
<h4>January 22, 2020</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>Crowdstrike, January 22, 2020: “<a href="https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/bears-midst-intrusion-democratic-national-committee/" target="_blank">Crowdstrike's work with the Democratic National Committee: Setting the Record Straight</a>”<br>See especially, the June 14, 2016 Blog entry by a founder of the company!</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h2>Rectification!</h2>
</p>
<p>
<h4>April 21, 2020</h4>
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf" target="_blank">Link</a> to January 6, 2017 .pdf report of the United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence's assessment of Russian activities and intentions in recent US elections<br><br></a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Report_Volume4.pdf" target="_blank">Link</a> to the highly redacted (by the Trump Administration) Volume 4: “REVIEW OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT WITH ADDITIONAL VIEWS”, (released Tuesday, April 21, 2020), of the UNITED STATES SENATE'S REPORT of the SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE ON RUSSIAN ACTIVE MEASURES CAMPAIGNS AND INTERFERENCE IN THE 2016 U.S. ELECTION (<b><u>Senators are</u> <u>expected</u> <u>to</u> <u>release</u> <u>one</u> <u>final</u> <u>chapter</u> <u>after</u> <u>the</u> <u>November</u> <u>2020</u> <u>election,</u> <u>examining</u> <u>contacts</u> <u>between</u> <u>the</u> <u>Trump</u> <u>campaign</u> <u>and</u> <u>Russia</u></b>).<br><br></li>
<li>New York Times, April 21, 2020: “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/us/politics/russian-interference-senate-intelligence-report.html" target="_blank">3 Year Republican-led Review Backs Intelligence Findings on Russian Interference</a>”</li>
<li>The Hill, April 21, 2020: “<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/493889-bipartisan-senate-report-reaffirms-intelligence-community-findings-that" target="_blank">Bipartisan Senate Report Reaffirms Intelligence Community Findings that Russia Interfered in 2016 Election</a>”</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
<h3>Note from June 20, 2016</h3>
</p>
<p>
<font color="red"><b>*</b></font> The Figure in the article is missing but another report still has the references which are included below
<br>
<br>
Code for the phishing site acco<b><u>o</u></b>unts.google.com/. . . along with the associated Google Acco<b><u>o</u></b>unts login page (both originally from www.phishtank.com):
<br>
<br>
<img src="http://www.ediguys.net/images/Image_Google_Accoount_Phishing_WWW_site.jpg" alt="Google Acco<b><u>o</u></b>unt Phishing WWW site image" style="width:647px;height:512px;">
</p>
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-51777620998886125492020-02-24T10:30:00.003-08:002021-06-28T15:43:11.873-07:00A short history of my political awakening . . .This old codger (having begun my 78th year), officially retired for soon to be 11 years ( but really “semi-retired” since turning 35 years young ), has been ruminating on my life's journey ( part of a book my daughter and I are writing - “Dad and St Francis: Inconsequential Memories“ ). So, it has struck me to try and think through when “politics” came into my mind ‐ it certainly wasn't a topic for discussion around the family dinner table ( or any other family meal's table, for that matter ). Being from a lower middle class family, we were all struggling to make ends meet ( my brother and I with paper routes and snow shoveling, my Dad with one full-time and one halftime jobs, and my Mom with a halftime job ).
<br>
<br>
I guess it was when I was a Sophomore in high school, our Social Studies teacher ( Mr. McDonough [ Southwest High School, Mpls ], 1958 ] ) had a homework assignment for teams of two ( in my case, myself and Steve A. ) to choose two news magazines ( we chose Time and Newsweek ) and critique their political stance - as a naive youngster, where to begin?
<br>
<br>
So, I remember going downtown on the streetcar to the old Minneapolis Public Library ( 10th and Hennepin ) and doing some “card file research” only to be befuddled by the enormity of the task. And, of course, our presentation was lackluster to say the least.
<br>
<br>
Then, there's my next youngest brother ( two years younger then myself ) and, until recently, a constant searcher for “the truth” ( now a dyed-in-the-wool member of the Trumpistan universe ). Who, a couple summers after graduating from high school ( 1962 ), joined the U. S Marines ( 1964 ). But after the first summer of boot camp in Quantico, VA., and a trek out west to a Bible camp ( Holden Village, Chelan, WA ), and a growing disillusionment with the conduct of the Vietnam War ( this really began for us both in 1965, after the philosophy professors at the University of Minnesota testified for the illegality of the war in front of the ROTC armory on campus and, later, the Vietnam War “teachins” at the University; Students for a Democratic Society [ SDS ] was now a candidate for truth ), on the turn of a dime, drops out of college, and goes to Cuba in 1969 with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venceremos_Brigade" target="_new">Venceremos Brigade</a> ( the FBI was calling our home at least once a week with the question [ mostly answered by my mother ] “Do you know where your son is?” ‐ Duh)! He shook hands with Castro after the 10th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution and linked up with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Johnstone" target="_new">Diana Johnstone</a>, for a trip to Paris, meeting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Th%E1%BB%8B_B%C3%ACnh" target="_new">Madame Binh</a>, at the peace talks being held there. Somewhere in this timeline, he switched to the Socialist Worker's Party ( SWP ) and was involved for a number of years selling Monthly Review books across the United States. Recently, I attended a reunion of old SWPers ( myself not being one [ I've voted Democratic since voting for JFK in 1960 ] but swept in on the coattails of my brother ) at the Green Mill restaurant in Saint Paul, MN. ( For a more in-depth look at my brother's background see his <a href="http://www.ediguys.net/pages/Glenwood_Boatman_his_life.doc" target="_blank">Hell Raiser: The Life and Times of an Organizer</a>. )
<br>
<br>
There was a succession of projects ‐ <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeywell_Project" target="_new">The Honeywell Project</a> ( he inside, ostensibly working for Honeywell; me outside testifying for alternatives to the Vietnam War, climbing over the fence at the Honeywell Corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, enjoying donuts from the Bouza Bakery [ Tony Bouza was the Chief of Police in Minneapolis and his wife, Erica, was an ardent supporter of the Honeywell Project ] ) while being held in jail, <a href="https://ushanabi.blogspot.com/2015/02/three-strikes-and-youre-out.html" target="_new">The Burlington Northern Project</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Sanguine#Project_ELF" target="_new">Project ELF</a>, Citizens Against Trident-ELF (CATE) testifying for a saner alternative to Project ELF over in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest near Clam Lake, Wisconsin, while living at the <a href="https://www.ediguys.net/Dorea_Peace_Community.html" target="_new">Dorea Peace Community</a>, near Turtle Lake, WI, War Tax Resistance ( until the IRS garnished my MSRS retirement account while I was employed by the University of Minnesota ), managing the Catholic Worker Farm near St. Joseph, MN, etc.
<br>
<br>
Early on he suggested to me ( a 15-16 year old to a 17-18 year old [ we used to read to each other interesting articles that we found in the various volumes of the American People's Encyclopedia from our parent's bookcase ] ) that I read Paul Goodman's 1960 book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-Absurd-Problems-Organized-ebook/dp/B0060B6H3C/" target="_new">Growing Up? Absurd! Problems of Youth in the Organized Society</a>” and that was the real beginning for me on the journey to what I call Conservative Christian Anarchism ( in order to hide it's more “radical” [ in the sense of going to the root { or “Root” cf. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+11%3A1-10&version=MSG" target="_new">Isaiah 11:1-10</a> } ] foundation ). Indeed, there was a saving grace throughout in the example of the man Jesus ( not the hocus-pocus stuff ) but the care, concern, respect, ability to respond, knowledge, and provision shown in his relationship with others.
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Now, on Medical Assistance with an Elderly Waiver, and fighting invasive squamous cell carcinoma ‐ I'm too old to be much of a fisherman ( with reference to Morris West's 1963 book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shoes-Fisherman-Vatican-Trilogy-Morris-ebook/dp/B0753W8CKX/" target="_new">In the Shoes of the Fisherman</a>” [ and the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063599/" target="_new">1968 movie</a> ] ). But I keep thinking that I'm fishing the Blackfoot River. “Alone, in the half-light of the canyon . . . and, the sound of the waters in the river . . . cut by the world's great flood, running over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless rain drops, under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.”
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I guess I would have to say that the assembly of my memories are not that “inconsequential” being based on that line from the 1936 book length poem by Carl Sandburg “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/People-Yes-Carl-Sandburg-ebook/dp/B00SEUB8CC/" target="_new">The People, Yes</a>”: “This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers. There are [ persons ] who can't be bought.”
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And, we recall, Ernest Becker's words on page 4 of the “Introduction” to the second work in his <i>magnum opus</i> - “Escape From Evil” - “The Human Condition: The Dread of Insignificance"”: “[ M ]ankind's age-old dilemma in the face of death . . . is the meaning of the thing that is of paramount importance: what [ human beings ] really [ fear ] is not so much extinction, but extinction <i>with insignificance</i>. [ Human beings ] want to know that [ their ] life has somehow counted, if not for [ themselves ], then at least in the larger scheme of things, that it has left a trace, a trace that has meaning. And in order for anything once alive to have meaning, its effects must remain alive in eternity in some way. Or, if there is to be a ‘final’ tally of the scurrying of [ human beings ] on earth - a ‘judgement day’ - then this trace of one's life must enter that tally and put on record who one was and that what one did was significant.” USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-7461173026359793382019-11-18T15:36:00.000-08:002019-11-20T13:54:19.339-08:00<center>
<h1>In Memory</h1>
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As I was searching for an appropriate musical piece to commemorate the <b><font color="blue"><a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/11/15/779628824/remembering-the-1989-massacre-of-jesuits-in-el-salvador" target="_new"><u>memory of the 1989 massacre of Jesuits in El Salvador</u></a></font></b> (like We Shall Overcome), I finally landed upon Bruce Springsteen's rendition of Bob Dylan's "<b><font color="blue"><a href="https://tinyurl.com/rvmoc2x" target="_new"><u>Chimes of Freedom Flashing</u></a></font></b>" sung at a concert in East Germany in 1988 (one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall). An estimated 200,000 - 300,000 East Berliners were in attendance and there were 165 curtain calls for the entire concert - highlighting these phrases in the words of the song which follow:
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Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
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Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked
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Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake
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Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
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Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
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For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
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Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll
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We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
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As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
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Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
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Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
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Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
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An’ for each an’ ev’ry underdog soldier in the night
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An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
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In the city’s melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
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With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
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As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin’ rain
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Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
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Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
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Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked
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Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake
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An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
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Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
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The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
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That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
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Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
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Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
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Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
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An’ the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
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An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
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Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
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For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
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Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
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All down in taken-for-granted situations
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Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute
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Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
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For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an’ cheated by pursuit
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An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
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Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
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An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
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Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
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Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
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Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
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For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
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An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
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An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
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Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
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Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
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As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
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Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
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Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
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For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
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An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
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An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-47751624686473733032019-07-02T07:44:00.001-07:002019-07-02T16:28:37.986-07:00Well, the Muses are at it again . . .. . . as you can tell from the early hour of this (attempt at a “stream of consciousness”) entry . . . and, this, after sitting in the comfortable chair in the living room and looking out the floor to ceiling (the ceiling is one of those cathedral 22 footers) windows on the rain-washed (yes, quite a bit of rain lately [the folks from Iowa are saying that this is the rainiest it's been since the weather bureau began keeping records there in 1875 {probably one of the “climate change” cycles . . . (yes, but which one you ask? [the subject for another blog, I suppose])}]) attempt at a garden (and, so, why am I [suddenly] reminded of Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire's “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Candide-Voltaire-ebook/dp/B076J4HT4T">Candide</a>”? [Voltaire vs Leibnitz {Master Pangloss' “metaphysico-theologo-cosmolonigology” - to catch Voltaire's “drift” (if you get my meaning [you just have to love that Voltaire])}] on "Optimism" {<i>Cela est bien dit, mias il faut cultiver notre jardin</i> ‐ <i>ad infinitum . . .</i>} not to mention John Milton and Alexander Pope]) for about one hour (after awakening at around 1:30 AM 'til around 2:30 AM . . . ). And, then the approximately one-half hour "setup" (which is what I would like to describe to you) to get online to this blog . . . .
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So, gathering the computer bag (with items from yesterday's work [printing labels and stuffing, closing, labeling, and stamping some 90+ envelopes for a Bible school Anniversary Reunion {100th year since the founding, etc.}]) and assorted items which were left on the desk (because two big [and heavy] to carry on the bus [the 8 TB backup HDD, for example]) from the lower level, and heading back upstairs to the desk in the upper level bedroom (where it is a little warmer [hot air rises and the air conditioning seems to favor the lower level {cooler air sinks}]) . . . just the mass of it all is, rather, . . . unnerving . . . .
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And, all of the wires, coiling like serpentine snakes from the 7-socket Belkin surge protector (the "Python" of the group) . . . . First, plugging in the 8 TB HDD (and attaching the 120 GB [SSD] and 60 GB [HDD] [from previous computers {which have either “bitten the dust” (“[God] told the Man: “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from, ‘Don't eat from this tree’, the very ground is cursed because of you; getting food from the ground will be as painful as having babies is for your wife; you'll be working in pain all your life long. The ground will sprout thorns and weeds, you'll get your food the hard way, planting and tilling and harvesting, sweating in the fields from dawn to dusk, until you return to that ground yourself, dead and buried; you started out as dirt, you'll end up dirt . . . .” <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Genesis%203%3A19">Genesis 3:19</a> [ or been upgraded to SSDs . . . }] to it . . . ).
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Next, a USB extender (as there are only three USB ports on this laptop [one of which is reserved for the USB “mouse” ‐ I often run out of room on the desktop {having 6 USB ports}]) to which I have, just now, plugged in two 2 GB PNY USB “sticks” - it's alphabet soup on the file explorer.
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And, finally, the power source for the laptop (which utilizes the other plugin on the electrical wall socket closest to the desk [and, therefore, this - let it be said - “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w">Rube Goldberg Machine</a>”]).
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And, so, this part of my day begins . . . .
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But, having written all of this (and read the pdf version of William F. Bottiglia's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Voltaires-Candide-throughout-University-Enlightenment/dp/0729400646">Voltaire's Candide: Analysis of a Classic</a> (amongst other works [IN RE: Voltaire]), I now return to the “land of Nod” and leave you (upon awakening for the second time and completing the editing) with OK Go's “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJKythlXAIY">This Too Shall Pass</a>.”
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-7522836267634653492018-05-22T02:08:00.001-07:002018-05-22T03:11:55.437-07:00Another "Headbangers Ball" . . . Me[n]tal Mayhem?Wow, the Trumpenfüher's most recent Tweet storm is - like - raising the dead . . . .
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So, how does one trace the "shadowy" figure of Stefan Halper?
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Should we begin with Leslie H. Gelb's, July 7, 1983 article <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/07/us/reagan-aides-describe-operation-to-gather-inside-data-on-carter.html" target="_blank">Reagan Aides Describe Operation to Gather Inside Data on Carter</a> in the New York Times?
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Or, the more recent exposés in the New York Times (NYT - <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/us/politics/trump-fbi-informant-russia-investigation.html" target="_blank">F.B.I. Used Informant to Investigate Russia Ties to Campaign, Not to Spy, as Trump Claims</a>) and Washington Post (WaPo - <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-fbi-source-for-russia-investigation-met-with-three-trump-advisers-during-campaign/2018/05/18/9778d9f0-5aea-11e8-b656-a5f8c2a9295d_story.html" target="_blank">Secret FBI source for Russian investigation met with three Trump advisers during campaign</a> - <b>turn off your ad blocker</b>)?
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Glenn Greenwald in a follow-up story in The Intercept to the NYT and WaPo "revelations" suggests (as if we didn't already know it) that something is fishy in D. C. - see story (<b>and read the comments</b>) <a href="https://goo.gl/KPSFmz" target="_blank">here</a>.
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And, for even more information (in other words, "follow the money"), read Tyler Durden's story (<b>and the comments</b>) on ZeroHedge - <a href="https://goo.gl/WcBhvQ" target="_blank">also here</a>.
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Now, tell me whether or not your experience was a little like mine, in that the only thing I could think of after kludging through the readings and comments was a picture of a young mother hanging out of the broken window of a Southwest jet going 500 MPH - a real "headbanger" to be certain . . . .
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<img src="http://www.ediguys.net/images/Screen_Shot_2016-03-12_at_10.16.41_am.png" width="277" height"166">
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More and more often now I have the feeling that Pontius Pilate had the right question - "What is truth?"
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As always, ENJOY! And, feel free to comment . . .
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-23304897766768879272018-05-19T23:53:00.004-07:002020-09-02T06:53:37.662-07:00"Give and Take" for the "average American"I took the opportunity awhile ago to post a reply on The Daily Kos and received some interesting feedback to which I also responded.
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It's all copied below, but my question is ‐ <b>Would an average American understand the “give and take”?</b>
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Please feel free to comment . . . .
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As we continue our journey on the way to peace, we place ourselves at a psychological disadvantage with the use of the word “protest” because it has been tainted by what President Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex.
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More simple, and to the point, is the meaning of the word “protest”: “to testify for” (infinitive) “testifying for” (gerund). Simply ‐ the white supremacists are testifying for the supremacy of the white race (a position which was previously tested and found wanting during World War II) and in the United States such advocates will constantly be up against those continuing the “experiment” by testifying for the equality of all persons as specified in the Fourteenth Amendment to the U S Constitution.
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We face a similar situation in the United States with the continued use of the word “first-strike” (in conjunction with nuclear weaponry). There's only one nation on earth that has gone insane and actually used a nuclear weapon ‐ twice, in fact. And, in this day and age, it looks as though a “<b>third-strike</b>” from the United States means that we are all out . . . .
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Today while the entire U. S. society is crumbling around an archaic CIA-congressional-corporate-educational-FBI-financial-industrial-presstitute-media-medical-military-NSA-police-political-prison-Secret-Service-terrorism-expert complex (or “hero-system”), unrelated to the needs and challenges of contemporary life, we see an apparent incapability and / or lack of imagination in our people to reconstruct the society around goals of peace and social justice. More importantly, the margin that nature has been giving to our cultural fantasy is suddenly being narrowed down drastically with the consequences that for the first time in history we, if we are to survive, have to bring down to zero the large fictional element in our hero-systems.
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As Sam Keen wrote in his instructive introduction to the most recent edition of Ernest Becker's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Denial-Death-Ernest-Becker-ebook/dp/B002C7Z57C/" target="_blank">The Denial of Death: Human Character as the Vital Lie</a> (1997): “[S]ome individuals are awakening from the long, dark night of tribalism, and nationalism and developing what Tillich called a transmoral conscience, an ethic that is universal rather than ethnic. Our task for the future is exploring what it means for each individual to be a member of earth's household, a commonwealth of kindred beings. Whether we will use our freedom to encapsulate ourselves in narrow, tribal, paranoid personalities and create more bloody Utopias or to form compassionate communities of the abandoned (cf. Bonhoeffer's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Papers-Prison-Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-ebook/dp/B004PYDAXG/" target="_blank">Letters and Papers from Prison</a>) is still to be decided. So long as human beings possess a measure of freedom, all hopes for the future must be stated in the subjunctive ‐ we may, we might, we could. No prediction by any expert can tell us whether we will prosper or perish. We may choose to increase or decrease the dominion of evil. The script for tomorrow is not yet written.”
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So, we are faced with “good” and “evil.” And, I would suggest that we testify for “good,” so that we and our children may live.
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<b>Here is Tess' response:</b>
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<i>What?????? What are you talking about???? I don't think the average American would think that what you've said here should prevent them from protesting - yes, protesting - when their democracy fails them. I am proud to protest things that are patently unfair and harm others.</i>
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<b>To which I responded:</b>
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Almost 50% of average Americans get livid at the words “protest,” and “protesters” because of its long history of negative connotation.
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All I'm saying is change the word to a positive connotation that will carry that 50% away from the dark side feelings and ideas associated with that long history of negative connotation.
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For example, when interviewed, and the interviewer attempts to put you in their frame of reference utilizing the word “protest” or words associated with “protest” ‐ “protesting,” “protester,” etc., say something to the effect of “This is not a ‘protest,’ we are testifying for . . . .” “I'm not protesting, I'm testifying for . . . .”
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The “white supremacist” example is really a good one in that the people testifying for “white supremacy” are placed in a less powerful position (being associated, after all, with the National Socialist German Worker's Party [Nationalsozialismus] of the 1920s ‐ 1940s) and the feelings and ideas associated with the long history of negative connotation to the word “Nazi”!
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Meanwhile, the people continuing the “Great American Experiment” (see, Alexis de Tocqueville’s, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Democracy-America-II-Optimized-Kindle-ebook/dp/B00307S1MY/" target="_blank">Democracy in America</a> [two volumes — 1862 CE]) by testifying for the equality of all persons included in “We, the people . . .” (Declaration of Independence) and the U. S. Constitution (especially Article XIV) can bask in the long history of the positive connotations of those documents (and their impact on governments around the world).
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A more recent example, when speaking to a representative of the CIA, would be the dialogue between Donovan and Hoffman around the “rule book” meme in the movie “Bridge of Spies:”
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<b>MAN:</b>
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Ok, well listen, I understand attorney-client privilege. I understand all the legal gamesmanship and I understand that that's how you make a living. But I'm talking to you about something else ‐ the security of your country. I'm sorry if the way I put it offends you, but we need to know what Abel is telling you. You understand me, Donovan? We need to know. Don't go Boy Scout on me ‐ we don't have a rule book here.
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<i>Donovan takes a beat, sizing the man up.</i>
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<b>DONOVAN:</b>
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You’re agent Hoffman, yeah?
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<b>MAN:</b>
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Yeah.
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<b>DONOVAN:</b>
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German extraction?
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<b>HOFFMAN:</b>
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Yeah, so?
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<b>DONOVAN:</b>
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My name is Donovan, Irish. Both sides, mother and father . . . . I'm Irish, you're German, but what makes us both Americans? Just one thing, one one one. The rule book. We call it the Constitution. We agree to the rules, and that's what makes us Americans, it's all that makes us Americans. So don't tell me there's no rule book and don't nod at me like that you sonofabitch.
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<i>The man stops nodding and just looks at Donovan appraising him.</i>
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<i>Donovan smiles and gets up from the table, gathers his things.</i>
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<b>HOFFMAN:</b>
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Do we need to worry about you?
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<b>DONOVAN:</b>
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Not if I’m left alone to do my job.
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Of course, in our (more modern?) era, one must take into account recent President's estimations that the Constitution is “just a god-damned piece of paper” (to quote, President George W. Bush [though also keep in mind President Obama's executive orders, e. g., suspending <i>habeas corpus</i> for American citizens]) and the neo-conservative “Unitary Executive” theory (see, <a href="http://wiki2.org/en/John_Yoo" target="_blank">John Yoo</a>) underlying the destruction of the traditional governmental “checks and balances.”
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The “battle” is, indeed, for public opinion. Begin to phrase the arguments in a way that sways public opinion to the positive side of the “city upon a hill” (if it would be considered “fair” to reference <a href="https://winthropsociety.com/doc_charity.php" target="_blank">John Winthrop’s sermon</a> [1630 CE]) . . . .
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-8152014485345701462018-02-14T18:57:00.000-08:002018-02-14T19:07:30.420-08:00Afghanistan - the war without end (within a war without end) . . .Well before my pastor at the Community of St Martin became pastor there he had written a book in 1989 ‐ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/War-Against-Poor-Low-Intensity-Christian/dp/0883445891" target="_blank">War Against the Poor: Low-Intensity Conflict and Christian Faith</a> ‐ which, again, was well before the 1991 - 1992 “One World Superpower” formulations of The Project for the New American Century (<a href="http://pnac.info/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf" target="_blank">PNAC</a>) members - Dick Cheney (then U. S. Secretary of War [euphemistically, Defense throughout), Paul Wolfowitz (then Principal Deputy Under Secretary of War for Policy), and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby (then Principal Deputy Under Secretary of War for Strategy and Resources) - in the War Department's War Planning Guidance (leaked to the New York Times in March, 1992 [see this <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20080303000951/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb245/index.htm" target="_blank">link</a> as well as the PNAC link above for further background]).
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This history is insightful in relation to these two outtakes from the 2009 film “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963178/" target="_blank">The International</a>” (ostensibly about the International Bank of Credit and Commerce [IBCC]):
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<b>Off the record interview with Umberto Calvini, head of Calvini Defense Systems ‐ just before his assassination . . .</b>
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<b>Eleanor Whitman (New York District Attorneys Office):</b> Mr. Calvini, we'd like to know why the IBCC, a bank, would be purchasing millions of dollars worth of missile guidance and control systems from your company
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<b>Calvini:</b> The IBCC has purchased billions of dollars worth of Silkworm missiles from the People's Republic of China which they have pre‐sold to clients in the Middle East contingent upon the missiles being equipped with VOLCON guidance systems. My company's one of only two in the world which produce the VOLCON . . . .
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<b>Whitman:</b> But why is the bank committing so much capital and resources to the sale of these missiles?
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<b>Calvini:</b> It's a test. Small arms are the only weapons used in 99 percent of the world's conflicts and no one has the capacity to manufacture them faster and cheaper than China. What Skarssen [head of IBCC] is attempting to do is to make the IBCC the exclusive broker of Chinese small arms to the Third World. And the missile deal is the gateway transaction.
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<b>Louis Salinger (Interpol agent):</b> Yeah, but billions of dollars invested simply to be a broker? There can't be much profit for them.
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<b>Calvini:</b> No. This is not about making profit from weapons sales. It's about control.
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<b>Whitman:</b> Control the flow of weapons, control the conflict.
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<b>Calvini:</b> No. No, no. The IBCC is a bank. Their objective isn't to control the conflict. It's to control the debt that the conflict produces. You see, the real value of a conflict . . . the true value . . . is in the debt that it creates. You control the debt. You control everything. You find this upsetting, yes? But this is the very essence of the banking industry . . . to make us all, whether we be nations or individuals . . . slaves to debt.
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<b>Interpol agent Louis Salinger's interview (Eleanor Whitman secretly listening in) with Wilhelm Wexler (IBCC Security Chief [and former Russian Stasi Colonel and Communist hardliner]):</b>
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<b>Louis Salinger:</b> Skarssen [head of IBCC] and that bank [IBCC] need to answer for what they've done. They have to be brought to justice. You can help me do that.
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<b>Colonel Wexler:</b> Justice . . . is not possible.
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<b>Salinger:</b> Why not?
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<b>Wexler:</b> Because, Agent Salinger . . . your idea of justice is an illusion. Understand the very system that you serve and protect . . . will never allow anything to happen to Skarssen or the bank. On the contrary. The system guarantees the IBCC's safety . . . because everyone is involved.
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<b>Salinger:</b> What do you mean, “everyone”?
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<b>Wexler:</b> Hezbollah. CIA. The Columbian drug cartels. Russian organized crime. Governments of Iran, Germany, China, your government. Every multinational corporation, every one. They all need banks like the IBCC . . . so that they can operate within the black and gray latitudes. And this is why your investigative efforts . . . have either been ignored or undermined . . . and why you and I will be quietly disposed of . . . before any case against the bank ever reaches a court of law.
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United States participation in the war in Afghanistan began at 9:00 PM (local time) on Sunday, October 7, 2001 (for a timeline of the "modern" wars in Afghanistan see this <a href="https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/static/afghanistan/index.html" target="_blank">link</a> [scrollable]).
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I would also suggest that you read this insightful article from a little over a dozen years ago - “<a href="http://pnac.info/2005/afghanistan-the-war-without-end/" target="_blank">Afghanistan: The War Without End” (within a war without end)</a>.
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As always, ENJOY!
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-83190475286911680532017-12-05T11:15:00.000-08:002017-12-05T11:20:29.402-08:00No Meal, No Drink, No Bed, No Clothes, No VisitationInstitute Emeritus Professor, MIT Department of Linquistics and Philosophy, and author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Who-Rules-World-Noam-Chomsky-ebook/dp/B01AGIOEGGW" target="_new">Who Rules the World?</a>, Noam Chomsky, wrote a very good background article regarding the history of the oligarchy “movement” which appeared in the <b><i><u>Huffington</u> <u>Post</u></i></b> back in 2012 entitled “<a href="http://goo.gl/XMPLMo" target="_new">Plutonomy and the Precariat</a>”. As, I wrote to my Senator upon her visit to Cuba in August, 2015, the fact that we are referred to as “dead peasants” in the three 2005 and 2006 <font color="red"><b>Citigroup</b></font> "Plutonomy" memos, well, I'm reminded of the “Five Points” and the “Dead Rabbits” in Herbert Asbury's 1928 non-fiction book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gangs-New-York-Informal-Underworld/dp/0307388980" target="_new">The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld</a> (fictionalized in Martin Scorsese's 2002 movie <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gangs-New-York-Blu-ray-Digital/dp/B004SIP7US" target="_new">Gangs of New York</a>)! Those “<font color="red"><b>Plutonomy” memos</b></font> paint quite a different picture than the one that follows . . . .<br />
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“And, in <b>His</b> address to the House and the Senate in Joint Session, after speaking to the ‘righteous sheep’ on <b>His</b> right (those on <b>His</b> right would be the Democrats), <b>He</b> will turn to the ‘goats,’ the ones on <b>His</b> left (the ones on <b>His</b> left are the Repugnantcans), and say, ‘Get out, worthless goats! You're good for nothing but the fires of hell. And why? Because ‐<br />
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I was hungry and you gave me no meal,<br />
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I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,<br />
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I was homeless and you gave me no bed,<br />
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I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,<br />
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Sick and in prison, and you never visited.’<br />
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Then those ‘goats’ (on <b>His</b> left, the Repugnantcans) are going to say, ‘<b>Master</b>, what are you talking about? When did we ever see <b>You</b> hungry or thirsty or homeless or shivering or sick or in prison and didn't help?’<br />
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<b>He</b> will answer them, ‘I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was <b>Me</b> ‐ you failed to do it to <b>Me</b>.’<br />
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Then those ‘goats’ will be herded to their eternal doom, but the ‘righteous sheep’ ‐ the true men ‐ to their eternal reward.”<br />
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Though it is difficult to choose between the <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&version=AMPC" target=+_new">Amplified “Classic” Version</a>, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&version=MSG" " target="_new">The Message Version</a>, and the <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25%3A31-46&version=PHILLIPS" target="_new">J. B Phillips Version</a> when reading <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025%3A31-46&version=AMPC;MSG;PHILLIPS" target="_new">Matthew 25:31-46</a>, I'm uncertain as to how the Repugnantcans can miss the point of the story in almost any version of the New Witnessing!
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-4423434046803712122017-04-17T01:50:00.000-07:002017-06-17T10:38:23.828-07:00Preliminary Words to Faith . . .<p>
Over the years in various conversations around Ernest Becker's Pulitzer Prize winning book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Denial-Death-Ernest-Becker/dp/0684832402" target="_blank">The Denial of Death: Human Character as a Vital Lie</a> (for an example, this “give-and-take” with a <a href="http://dwellingintheword.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/week-2c/#comment-34" target="_blank">Bible camp director</a> - <a href="http://dwellingintheword.wordpress.com/2009/05/14/week-2c/#comment-44" target="_blank">my response</a>), I've come to agree with Becker's statements regarding “a new anthropodicy” We must have an abstract, full-field theory of human nature in order to compel agreement on a new science of human beings in society . . . . But we cannot wait for such a theory, since it will never be “full”
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AND
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We must use our reading of nature as a guide to the paradigm which will be offered up for option, but we cannot continually lean on a passive reading of nature; we must make a willful option that is at all times based on incomplete knowledge.
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More problematic is Becker's third essential element of a science of human being - The science of human being is characterized by a natural fusion of fact and value. If the heart of a science of human being in society is half empirical and half ideal, then it must merge with religion (it cannot take over the full task of religion because it is not a theodicy: it would limit itself to the use of human powers effecting whatever they can to overcome avoidable evil.)
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So, today, Easter Sunday, 2017, I finished reading a chapter (pp. 19 - 27) in a little book by Oscar Cullmann, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Immortality-Soul-Resurrection-Dead-Testament/dp/1608994724" target="_blank">Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament</a> [London: The Epworth Press, 1958] (encapsulating a lecture he delivered in Andover Chapel at Harvard University, April 26, 1955). And I thought that it added to the on-going conversation around Becker's book.
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See what you think.
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<p>
<h3>THE LAST ENEMY: DEATH</h3>
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<h2>SOCRATES AND JESUS</h2>
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NOTHING SHOWS more clearly than the contrast between the death of Socrates and that of Jesus (a contrast which was often cited, though for other purposes, by early opponents of Christianity) that the biblical view of death from the first is focused in salvation-history and so departs completely from the Greek conception. <a href="#footnote1" target="_blank"><sup>1</sup></a>
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In Plato's impressive description of the death of Socrates, in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Plato-Euthyphro-Apology-Classical-Library/dp/0674996879" target="_blank">Phaedo</a>, occurs perhaps the highest and most sublime doctrine ever presented on the immortality of the soul. What gives his argument its unexcelled value is his scientific reserve, his disclaimer of any proof having mathematical validity. We know the arguments he offers for the immortality of the soul. Our body is only an outer garment which, as long as we live, prevents our soul from moving freely and from living in conformity to its proper eternal essence. It imposes upon the soul a law which is not appropriate to it. The soul, confined within the body, belongs to [19] the eternal world. As long as we live, our soul finds itself in a prison, that is, in a body essentially alien to it. Death, in fact, is the great liberator. It looses the chains, since it leads the soul out of the prison of the body and back to its eternal home. Since body and soul are radically different from one another and belong to different worlds, the destruction of the body cannot mean the destruction of the soul, any more than a musical composition can be destroyed when the instrument is destroyed. Although the proofs of the immortality of the soul do not have for Socrates himself the same value as the proofs of a mathematical theorem, they nevertheless attain within their own sphere the highest possible degree of validity, and make immortality so probable that it amounts to a ‘fair chance’ for man. And when the great Socrates traced the arguments for immortality in his address to his disciples on the day of his death, he did not merely <i>teach</i> this doctrine: at that moment he lived his doctrine. He showed how we serve the freedom of the soul, even in this present life, when we occupy ourselves with the eternal truths of philosophy. For through philosophy we penetrate into that eternal world of ideas to which the soul belongs, and we free the soul from the prison of the body. Death does no more than complete this liberation. Plato shows us how Socrates goes to his death in complete peace and composure. The death of Socrates is a beautiful death. Nothing is seen here of death's terror. Socrates cannot fear death, since indeed it sets us free from the body. Whoever fears death [20] proves that he loves the world of the body, that he is thoroughly entangled in the world of sense. Death is the soul's great friend. So he teaches; and so, in wonderful harmony with his teaching, he dies ‐ this man who embodied the Greek world in its noblest form.
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And now let us hear how Jesus dies. In Gethsemane He knows that death stands before Him, just as Socrates expected death on his last day. The Synoptic Evangelists furnish us, by and large, with a unanimous report. Jesus begins ‘to tremble and be distressed’, writes Mark (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Mark%2014:33" target="_blank">14:33</a>). ‘My soul is troubled, even to death’, He says to His disciples. <a href="#footnote2" target="_blank"><sup>2</sup></a> Jesus is so thoroughly human that He shares the natural fear of death. <a href="#footnote3" target="_blank"><sup>3</sup></a> Jesus [21] is afraid, though not as a coward would be of the men who will kill Him, still less of the pain and grief which precede death. He is afraid in the face of death itself. Death for Him is not something divine; it is something dreadful. Jesus does not want to be alone in this moment. He knows, of course, that the Father stands by to help Him. He looks to Him in this decisive moment as He has done throughout his life. He turns to Him with all His human fear of this great enemy, death. He is afraid of death. It is useless to try to explain away Jesus' fear as reported by the Evangelists. The opponents of Christianity who already in the first centuries made the contrast between the death of Socrates and the death of Jesus saw more clearly here than the exponents of Christianity. He was really afraid. Here is nothing of the composure of Socrates, who met death peacefully as a friend. To be sure, Jesus already knows the task which has been given Him: to suffer death; and He has already spoken the words: ‘I have a baptism with which I must be baptized, and <i>how distressed</i> (or <i>afraid</i>) <i>I am</i> until it is accomplished’ (Luke <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Luke%2019:50" target="_blank">19:50</a>). Now, when God's enemy stands before Him, He cries to God, whose ommipotence He knows: ‘All things are possible with thee; let this cup pass from me’ (Mark <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Mark%2014:30" target="_blank">14:30</a>). And when He concludes, ‘Yet not as I will, but as thou wilt’, this does not mean that at the last He, like Socrates, regards death as the friend, the liberator. No, He only means this: If this greatest of all terrors, death, must befall Me according to Thy will, then I submit to this horror. Jesus knows that in [22] itself, because death is the enemy of God, to die means to be utterly forsaken. Therefore He cries to God; in face of this enemy of God He does not want to be alone. He wants to remain as closely tied to God as He has been throughout His whole earthly life. For whoever is in the hands of death is no longer in the hands of God, but in the hands of God's enemy. At this moment, Jesus seeks the assistance, not only of God, but even of His disciples. Again and again He interrupts His prayer and goes to His most intimate disciples, who are trying to fight off sleep in order to be awake when the men come to arrest their Master. They try; but they do not succeed, and Jesus must wake them again and again. Why does He want them to keep awake? He does not want to be alone. When the terrible enemy, death, approaches, He does not want to be forsaken even by the disciples whose human weakness He knows. ‘Could you not watch one hour?’ (Mark <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Mark%2014:37" target="_blank">14:37</a>).
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Can there be a greater contrast than that between Socrates and Jesus? Like Jesus, Socrates has his disciples about him on the day of his death; but he discourses serenely with them on immortality. Jesus, a few hours before His death, trembles and begs His disciples not to leave Him alone. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who, more than any other New Testament author, emphasizes the full deity (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Hebrews%201:10" target="_blank">1:10</a>) but also the full humanity of Jesus, goes still farther than the reports of the three Synoptists in his description of Jesus' fear of death. In <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Hebrews%205:7" target="_blank">5:7</a> he writes [23] that Jesus ‘with loud cries and tears offered up prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save Him’. <a href="#footnote4" target="_blank"><sup>4</sup></a> Thus, according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus wept and cried in the face of death. There is Socrates, calmly and composedly speaking of the immortality of the soul; here Jesus, weeping and crying.
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And then the death-scene itself. With sublime calm Socrates drinks the hemlock; but Jesus (thus says the Evangelist, Mark <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Mark%2015:34" target="_blank">15:34</a> ‐ we dare not gloss it over) cries: ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ And with another inarticulate cry He dies (Mark <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Mark%2015:37" target="_blank">15:37</a>). This is not ‘death as a friend’. This is death in all its frightful horror. This is really ‘the last enemy’ of God. This is the name Paul gives it in 1 Corinthians <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Corinthians%2015:26" target="_blank">15:26</a>, where the whole contrast between Greek thought and Christianity is disclosed. <a href="#footnote5" target="_blank"><sup>5</sup></a> Using different words, the author of the Johannine Apocalypse also regards death as the last enemy, when he describes how at the end death will be cast into the lake of fire (<a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Mark%2020:14" target="_blank">20:14</a>). Because it is God's enemy, it separates us from God, who is Life and the Creator of all life; Jesus, who is so closely tied to God, tied as no other man has ever been, for precisely this reason must experience death much [24] more terribly than any other man. To be in the hands of the great enemy of God means to be forsaken by God. In a way quite different from others, Jesus must suffer this abandonment, this separation from God, the only condition really to be feared. Therefore He cries to God: ‘Why hast thou forsaken me?’ He is now actually in the hands of God's great enemy.
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We must be grateful to the Evangelists for having glossed over nothing at this point. Later (as early as the beginning of the second century, and probably even earlier) there were people who took offense at this ‐ people of Greek provenance. In early Christian history we call them, Gnostics.
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<p>
I have put the death of Socrates and the death of Jesus side by side. For nothing shows better the radical difference between the Greek doctrine of the immortality of the soul and the Christian doctrine of the Resurrection. Because Jesus underwent death in all its horror, not only in His body, but also in His soul, (‘My God, why hast thou forsaken me’), and as He is regarded by the first Christians as the Mediator of salvation, He must indeed be the very one who in His death conquers death itself. He cannot obtain this victory by simply living on as an immortal soul, thus fundamentally <i>not</i> dying. He can conquer death only by actually dying, by betaking Himself to the sphere of death, the destroyer of life, to the sphere of ‘nothingness’, of abandonment by God. When one wishes to overcome someone else, one must enter his territory. Whoever wants to conquer death must die; [25] he must really cease to live ‐ not simply live on as an immortal soul, but die in body and soul, lose life itself, the most precious good which God has given us. For this reason the Evangelists, who none the less intended to present Jesus as the Son of God, have not tried to soften the terribleness of His thoroughly human death.
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<p>
Furthermore, if life is to issue out of so genuine a death as this, a new divine act of creation is necessary. And this act of creation calls back to life not just a part of the man, but the whole man ‐ all that God had created and death had annihilated. For Socrates and Plato no new act of creation is necessary. For the body is indeed bad and should not live on. And that part which is to live on, the soul, does not die at all.
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<p>
If we want to understand the Christian faith in the Resurrection, we must completely disregard the Greek thought that the material, the bodily, the corporeal is bad and <i>must</i> be destroyed, so that the death of the body would not be in any sense a destruction of the true life. For Christian (and Jewish) thinking the death of the body is also destruction of God‐created life. No distinction is made: even the life of our body, is true life; death is the destruction of <i>all</i> life created by God. Therefore it is death and not the body which must be conquered by the Resurrection.
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<p>
Only he who apprehends with the first Christians the horror of death, who takes death seriously as death, can comprehend the Easter exultation of the primitive Christian community and understand that the whole thinking of the New Testament is governed by belief [26] in the Resurrection. Belief in the immortality of the soul is not belief in a revolutionary event. Immortality, in fact, is only a <i>negative</i> assertion: the soul does <i>not</i> die, but simply lives on. Resurrection is a positive assertion: the whole man, who has really died, is recalled to life by a new act of creation by God. Something has happened ‐ a miracle of creation! For something has also happened previously, something fearful: life formed by God has been destroyed.
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<p>
Death in itself is not beautiful, not even the death of Jesus. Death before Easter is really the Death's head surrounded by the odor of decay. And the death of Jesus is as loathsome as the great painter Grünewald depicted it in the Middle Ages.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixISFbEZGFwkoagpMh3z_-eCNI2yXtgufpn1KewqsW7_iaQ9kL9MVWMUf78nhyphenhyphenRrkQBghgUT44rFfUm7iSlOCI8a4ybLruuvQoQidk2uNdEoTQyblzaJO9zf777ZyHz7XceGJMh3HbIC_HD0A/s1600/Grunewald_Crucifixion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixISFbEZGFwkoagpMh3z_-eCNI2yXtgufpn1KewqsW7_iaQ9kL9MVWMUf78nhyphenhyphenRrkQBghgUT44rFfUm7iSlOCI8a4ybLruuvQoQidk2uNdEoTQyblzaJO9zf777ZyHz7XceGJMh3HbIC_HD0A/s1600/Grunewald_Crucifixion.jpg" /></a></div>
<p>
But precisely for this reason the same painter understood how to paint, along with it, in an incomparable way, the great victory, the Resurrection of Christ: Christ in the new body, the Resurrection body.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmanr5oXfgDPmZMDHwDQiov_74E9gRp1q5qLy4fntF9kjqbDfyY4sAXiw-vfdomVi2K5zeIQl6vXPGtmgS8J4aHdN-RNF9OGtYKNbtJcLzgLaAsgPNZzTVpRfUsOO6i5qQ4t1oQA8YKPpOFOc/s1600/Grunewald-the-resurrection-of-christ-right-wing-of-the-isenheim-altarpiece.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmanr5oXfgDPmZMDHwDQiov_74E9gRp1q5qLy4fntF9kjqbDfyY4sAXiw-vfdomVi2K5zeIQl6vXPGtmgS8J4aHdN-RNF9OGtYKNbtJcLzgLaAsgPNZzTVpRfUsOO6i5qQ4t1oQA8YKPpOFOc/s1600/Grunewald-the-resurrection-of-christ-right-wing-of-the-isenheim-altarpiece.jpg" /></a></div>
<p>
Whoever paints a pretty death can paint no resurrection. Whoever has not grasped the horror of death cannot join Paul in the hymn of victory: ‘Death is swallowed up ‐ in victory! 0 death, where is thy victory? 0 death, where is thy sting?’ (1 Corinthians 15:54f). [27]
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<a name="footnote1"></a>
<b>1</b> Material on this contrast in Ernst Benz, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=0W6NQQAACAAJ" target="_blank"><i>Der gekreuzigte Gerechte bei Plato im N. T. und in der alten Kirche</i></a> Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Klasse, No. 12 [Verlag der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, 1950], pp. 46.
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<b>2</b> Despite the parallel in Jonah <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Jonah%204:9" target="_blank">4:9</a> which is cited by Erich Klostermann, Das Markusevangelium, 4th Edition (1971), ad loc., and Ernst Lohmeyer, Das Evangelium des Markus (1967), ad loc., I agree with Johannes Weiss, Das Markusevangelium, 3rd Edition (1917), ad loc., that the explanation: ‘I am so sad that I prefer to die’ in this situation where Jesus <i>knows</i> that He is going to die (the scene is the Last Supper!) is completely unsatisfactory; moreover, Weiss' interpretation: ‘My affliction is so great that I am sinking under the weight of it’ is supported by Mark <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Mark%2015:34" target="_blank">15:34</a>. Also Luke <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Luke%2012:50" target="_blank">12:50</a>, ‘How distressed I am until the baptism (=death) takes place’, allows of no other explanation.
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<a name="footnote3"></a>
<b>3</b> Old and recent commentators (Julius Wellhausen, Das Evangelium Marci, 2nd Edition [1909], ad. loc., Julius Schniewind in N.T. Deutsch [1934], ad. loc., Ernst Lohmeyer, Das Evangelium des Markus [1967], ad loc.), seek in vain to avoid this conclusion, which is supported by the strong Greek expressions for ‘tremble and shrink’, by giving explanations which do not fit the situation, in which Jesus already knows that He must suffer for the sins of His people (Last Supper). In Luke <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Luke%2012:50" target="_blank">12:50</a> it is completely impossible to explain away the ‘distress’ in the face of death, and also in view of the fact that Jesus is abandoned by God on the Cross (Mark <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Mark%2015:34" target="_blank">15:34</a>), it is not possible to explain the Gethsemane scene except through this distress at the prospect of being abandoned by God, an abandonment which will be the work of Death, God's great enemy.
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<b>4</b> The reference to Gethsemane here seems to me unmistakable. K. Héring, <i>L'Epitre aux Hébreux</i> (I954), ad loc., concurs in this.
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<b>5</b> The problem is presented in entirely false perspective by Johannes Leipoldt, <i>Der Tod bei Griechen und Juden</i> (1942). To be sure, he correctly makes a sharp distinction between the Greek view of death and the Jewish. But Leipoldt's efforts always to equate the Christian with the Greek and oppose it to the Jewish only become comprehensible when one notes the year in which this book was published and the series (Germanentum, Christentum und Judentum) of which it is a part.
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USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-26301479778475400312017-04-04T10:25:00.000-07:002017-06-18T11:03:03.570-07:00Old words - still appropriate for this new setting . . .Sometimes you stumble upon a writing from days in the past that you are amazed to find is still current in a present setting. And such it is with this piece which at the time was voted my best non-published article of 1997 by my colleagues at Macmillian Publishing. It's a Letter to the Editor, Minnesota Daily, in response to the “<a href="http://www.mndaily.com/article/1997/05/may-1972-antiwar-protests-become-part-u-history" target="_blank">Eight Days in May 1972</a>” Series that they published May 12 - 14, 1997.
<br>
<br>
It's been twenty-five years already since those heady days of manning (today I would say “personing”) the barricade on Washington Avenue, attending the anti-war teach-ins, and participating in the preparation of “dis-orientation week” (scheduled for the arrival of new students in the fall of 1972). On the day after President Nixon announced the mining of Haiphong Harbor, I and a significant other donned black, monk-like, hooded robes with black veils over our faces and paraded up and down Nicollet Mall at lunch time as well as wearing them to our classes that week. That summer we decided to take time off from school in order to figure out where we stood politically. We moved up north to a friend's summer house (which we “winterized”) and lived off the land for fourteen months, reading about the background to the Vietnam War and the other wars the United States had been involved with and hammering out a political stance with which we and a majority of the world's people could live. It was a rich and enriching experience which few could afford (timewise).
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<br>
I was a Vietnam veteran and having been stationed for a time at G-3, CINCPACFLEET, Manila, Philippines handling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticomm" target="_blank">CRITICOMM</a> traffic to NSA (National Security Agency), DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), etc., knew enough of the bullshit that our government was trying to foist upon the “silent majority” of Americans (the Pentagon Papers only added fuel to the fire). So, I would agree with Officer Lee that we have become very cautious of the continuing daily doses of political double-speak. We learned from these experiences to question authority. Taking, as a standard, this quote attributed to John Pilger - “Official truths are often powerful illusions.”
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<br>
Of course, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-That-Non-violent-Revolutionary/dp/1932472894" target="_blank">Marv Davidov</a> continues to be an inspiration ever since first hearing of him when my next youngest brother all of a sudden decided to go to Cuba back in the early '60s (the FBI was calling our house, sometimes more than once a week, to ask my mother if she knew where her son was). And I readily agree with him that as part of the experience of the “eight days in May” we changed our way of doing “business as usual” even though we continue our participation “in the heart of the Beast” here at the University (with reference to President Eisenhower's mid-50s’ warning of the impact of the “military-industrial[-educational-{political}] complex”) - a rich and enriching experience which fewer and fewer can afford (moneywise).
<br>
<br>
So, what has our activism been like during the past twenty-five years? Besides seeking alternatives in everything from birthing (we delivered our first child with the help of a mid-wife at University Hospitals twenty-three years ago, and delivered our second child at home with the aid of a mid-wife nineteen years ago) to raising our youth (home-schooling from day one with the emphasis, not surprisingly, on life-long education) and otherwise trying to choose ways to live and love that kill as few other human beings as possible, we began looking for small communities in which to participate ‐ <a href="http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00074.xml" target="_blank">North Country Co-op</a> was a beginning. And in 1973, we helped found what is today <a href="http://www.hampdenparkcoop.com" target="_blank">Hampden Park Co-op</a>. After living in a couple of house communities beginning in 1977 - one in Minneapolis, the other, Holly House, in Saint Paul - and participating in a house church (Agora Community Church, Saint Paul), in 1983, we moved to the land-trust <a href="http://www.ediguys.net/Dorea_Peace_Community.html" target="_blank">Dorea Peace Community</a> (northeast of Amery, WI). The two years our family lived there were an experience of a lifetime. We worked half-time procuring income to keep the community going and the other half protesting (in the sense of “<b>testifying for</b>”) life as opposed to the various death industries - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeywell_Project" target="_blank">Honeywell (Alliant Tech)</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Sanguine#Project_ELF" target="_blank">ELF Project</a>, the <a href="http://ushanabi.blogspot.com/2015/02/three-strikes-and-youre-out.html" target="_blank">Burlington Northern Project</a> - and establishing a War Tax Alternative Fund in support of peace and justice activities (e. g., a home for battered women). I had been working as an analyst / programmer in the Administrative Data Processing Department at the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities Campus, but after the IRS qarnered my University pension funds and the University would not pay me just $1.00 to work, I quit that job and went on to teach at Brown Institute and Globe College of Business. More recently our work, besides the Hampden Park Co-op, has centered around financial support of <a href="http://www.lakotamall.com/allies/" target="_blank">Allies of the Lakota</a> (helping to provide better health care and communications to the Lakota People on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation) and <a href="http://sisterparish.org" target="_blank">Sister Parish</a> (connecting mainstream church people in the US with church people in the poverty stricken countries of the third [and fourth] world[s]).
<br>
<br>
I believe that the words that best express what the University as an institution needs to learn from the experiences of the “eight days in May” come from anthropologist Ernest Becker's, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Evil-Ernest-Becker/dp/0029022908" target="_blank">The Structure of Evil: An Essay on the Unification of the Science of [Human Being]</a>. (New York: The Free Press, 1968). Pp. 38 - 41.
<ul>
<li>
We are in a rare position today to savor the climate of opinion in Europe just after the French Revolution, and during the dilemmas of the Industrial one. In two-thirds of our world we are re-experiencing the same dilemmas, the same hopes and fears. What price order? What price industrialization? What should one keep of the beneficial order of traditional society while attempting to do away with its injustices and inequalities? How can one keep what is good, and reject the bad? Is industrialization an unmitigated good ‐ can its ill effects be foreseen and remedied? What directions shall it take ‐ under what kind of government? What exactly does the free vote contribute to this process ‐ what does it really mean in the hands of an ignorant peasant? Is an uninformed vote a fetish ‐ or, perhaps worse, an active obstacle to intelligent change? What kind of commodities are fetishes, and who is to proscribe them if people “really want” them?
</li>
<li>
The questioning is anguished ‐ and it is often very well informed, informed by the lessons of our own failures and successes during these [200] years of our history in the West. But the new elite of the two-thirds of the world who are asking these questions are often better informed about our own problems than we are ourselves. Thus, they go back again and again to questions that we have stopped asking: “When hereditary class privilege and aristocracy ‐ the first pillar of feudalism ‐ are destroyed, is it enough? Doesn't the second pillar of feudalism also have to be eliminated, namely, the private ownership of land? If both pillars of traditional society are not removed, can one really make an effective transition to industrial democracy in the service of the common good? Without this twofold change, isn't parliamentary democracy merely a new kind of spoils system ‐ with new owners and new classes redividing the old and the new privately owned wealth? If this is true, then isn't industrial democracy merely a new kind of domination, a quick change of costume that leaves fundamental problems untouched? If not ‐ if industrial democracy is really making more and more wealth available to more and more people ‐ is this enough? Is it enough just to spread more and more goods, thoughtlessly, to turn [human beings] into . . . clever consumer ape[s], eyeing greedily the dangling things?”
</li>
<li>
These are anguished and urgent questions. We do not examine the French Revolution and its aftermath, the Industrial Revolution, in these terms today, in our schools and colleges. Is it because, in the West, we have abdicated facing up to the problems which two-thirds of the world now has to face? The answer is that we have . . . .
</li>
</ul>
We learned from the political committee investigations and the managed news during this twenty-five year period that it is the questions that aren't asked that are the important ones.
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-46077646276315627712017-03-27T11:23:00.000-07:002018-07-10T07:15:55.059-07:00PNAC historical documentation and even Democrats enamored with all things Russian . . .<H1>. . . Not Admitting The Most Essential Lessons Of History</H1>
<h5>(I've recently been getting “rants and raves” emails from one of my United States senators [a Democrat {which in this era of endless war, with its attendant deceptions, dishonesty, untruths, hateful speech, alternative facts, and reductive curating, certainly doesn't mean much}] with regard to all things “Russian” [<a href="http://www.ediguys.net/Amy_Klobuchar_example_email.jpg" target="_blank">example</a>]. In the few words allowed on her email WWW site, I noted that it's been 9,196 days since the publication [February 18, 1992] of the DOD “<a href="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb245/doc03_extract_nytedit.pdf" target="_blank">Defense Planning Guidance</a>” for 1994-1999 and referred her to this blog which spells out in some detail [with thanks to Paul Craig Roberts for his reference on his <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/" target="_blank">Institute for Political Economy</a> blog to the <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/12/08/essential-lesson-history-one-wants-admit/" target="_blank">analysis</a> of Thad Beversdorf and the documentation references of the “<a href="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ebb245/" target="_blank">Nuclear Vault</a>” of the National Security Archive at George Washington University] the unadmitted historical background.)</h5>
<p>Ron Paul wrote an eye opening 2014 <a href="http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2014/december/04/reckless-congress-declares-war-on-russia/" target="_blank">article</a> about some legislation that had just been signed in Congress, namely <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-resolution/758/text" target="_blank">House Resolution 758</a>. While not a new law, as seen in the discussion which follows, it does provide a foundation of facts that will be called upon in future actions. <b>Essentially the resolution suggests that Russia behaved badly in various ways and if congressmen signed on to the resolution, then they were agreeing to the "factuality" of its assertions.</b> Now just because a group of persons elected as representatives of the people stand around in a tax-revenue financed chamber and say “yeah” to several statements, those actions do not make those statements factual (except here in the United Orwellian States of America). Those statements that were voted to be fact (similar to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea" target="_blank">First Council of Nicaea</a>) will now be taught to our children as factual history - actually having happened that way (the idea of American manifest destiny was learned by all of us utilizing similar methodologies [now see, for example, F. William Engdahl's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Manifest-Destiny-Democracy-Cognitive-Dissonance-ebook/dp/B07BTN7MSW" target="_new">Manifest Destiny: Democracy as Cognitive Dissonance</a> {Wiesbaden, GDR: mine.Books, 2018, 224 pp.}]).</p>
<p><u><b>While essentially a dishonest method (the ignorance it creates is reason enough not to sign on), as Dr. Paul clearly points out, the real purpose of the resolution is to legally build the foundation for a future war, the planning for which has been active for many years now.</b></u> The U. S. sponsored coup in Ukraine, sold to us as simply a necessary response to the Ukraine situation, was rather a flash in the pan to set off a much larger explosion.</p>
<p><b>OK, what is this? “Another conspiracy theory? Why can't it ever just be that the U. S. government thinks what they are doing is best for Americans”? Ideally, one would suppose that it could be. Never, if ever, anymore. Lies (with or without “false flag[s]”) are told and public opinion is manipulated. As good as the strategy of war must be on the ground, it must be every bit as good theater in the presstitute presentations.</b> And, what makes war so ugly, is the pressitute theater. Again, ideally, you would want to fight a war (as brutal and unfortunate as that plays out) in which one believes. The ugliness? Attempting to fight a war based on lies and deceit which only benefits those telling the lies - something incomprehensible. Except for the “Beltway” sociopaths.
</p>
<p>
And,so, we offer up some facts (that many don't know about) as to how it came to be that we invaded Iraq and Syria — the truth is still very much hidden from common knowledge.</p>
<p>While the 9 / 11 event actually seemed to bring the world together, it very quickly turned into a launching pad for war. One could think it reasonable, given the extent of the tragedy that took place in New York, that a mighty nation like America would want retribution from those responsible. However, the United States abandoned the attack on those responsible and, instead, initiated a war ‐ the planning for which had been in the works for many years.</p>
<p>At this point, it is pretty common knowledge that the U. S. pulled out of Afghanistan to focus their forces and objectives toward Iraq. Of course, to get the world onboard with this focus, incredible lies were promulgated about Iraq not only having some connection to 9 / 11 but that they were also building enormous stockpiles of ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ and that they were hell bent on using those against western nations. Again, we now know that none of these assertions were true. <b>And we know our legislators were aware that no credible evidence existed to support such views.</b> And we know that despite knowing those assertions were false they still made the decision to lie not only to the American people but to the world. The lies were told in an effort to build support so that parents around the world would see a righteous cause in sending their sons and daughters to their potential deaths or to be maimed in unimaginably horrifying circumstances.</p>
<p><u><b>Now, just think about that for a moment and don't just read over that and move on. Because this is the essence of what our government has become in America today. They knowingly lied to the world so that the world would be willing to sacrifice their children, believing it was a necessary and righteous cause to do so.</b></u> <i>And in the end the truth came to light that there was no righteous cause. That all these young men and women from around the world had been used as pawns to fulfill the ambitions of a few. It is truly one of the ugliest atrocities to ever have been carried out by an elected government against its own citizens. And yet today because of our state presstitute media, most will not acknowledge that such an atrocity took place. The imperative to understanding is that it has to be made very clear that Iraq was not a consequence of poor intelligence or bad decisions in the wake of post 9 / 11 emotions. The invasions of both Iraq and Syria were being planned and discussed for many years before 9 / 11. It has been said that if you don't learn from history, then you are doomed to repeat it. The antidote is that history can be used to change the future.</i></p>
<p><b>So, what are those historical events?</b></p>
<p>In 1996, Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, sponsored an ad hoc think tank named <i>The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies - Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000.</i> From this think tank came a <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1438.htm" target="_blank">report</a> that was the beginning of a powerful lobby movement. Here's a look at a few main points that come from that 1996 report:</p>
<p>
<i>Israel's quest for peace emerges from, and does not replace, the pursuit of its ideals. The Jewish people's hunger for human rights — burned into their identity by a 2000-year old dream to live free in their own land — informs the concept of peace and reflects continuity of values with Western and Jewish tradition.
</p>
<p>
Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria's regional ambitions.
</p>
Syria challenges Israel on Lebanese soil. An effective approach, and one with which America can sympathize, would be if Israel seized the strategic initiative along its northern borders by engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran, as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon, including by:
</p>
<p>
<ul>
<li>striking Syria's drug-money and counterfeiting infrastructure in Lebanon, all of which focuses on Razi Qanan.</li>
<li>paralleling Syria's behavior by establishing the precedent that Syrian territory is not immune to attacks emanating from Lebanon by Israeli proxy forces.</li>
<li>striking Syrian military targets in Lebanon, and should that prove insufficient, striking at select targets in Syria proper.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>To anticipate U.S. reactions and plan ways to manage and constrain those reactions, Prime Minister Netanyahu can formulate the policies and stress themes he favors in language familiar to the Americans by tapping into themes of American administrations during the Cold War which apply well to Israel. If Israel wants to test certain propositions that require a benign American reaction, then the best time to do so is before November, 1996.
</i></p>
<b>Now, who would the authors of such a report have been?</b> A report that seems to promote the idea of constraining, manipulating and achieving a benign American reaction. We'll have a look at the authors of this document below. They should be familiar to most of you as they are U. S. policymakers rather than Israeli policymakers, which is odd because again this is an Israeli state sponsored project with objectives that are clearly focused on the well being of Israel, not the U. S. or the American people.</p>
<p>Richard Perle, <i>American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D. C.</i>, Study Group Leader, </p>
<p>James Colbert, <i>Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Washington, D. C.</i>
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Charles Fairbanks, Jr.,<i>Johns Hopkins University / SAIS, Baltimore, MD</i>
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Douglas Feith, <i>Feith and Zell Associates</i>
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Robert Loewenberg, <b>President</b>, <i>Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies</i>
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Jonathan Torop, <i>The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington, D. C.</i>
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David Wurmser, <i>Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies</i>
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Meyrav Wurmser, <i>Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD</i>
</p>
<p>
<b>Then, subsequent to that 1996 report being released, there was a <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5527.htm" target="_blank">letter drafted and sent to President Clinton</a> in January 1998 that provides us some additional clarity on the war policies of the new millennium.</b> Here's a look at that letter:</p>
<p>
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<td width="100%">
<p align="left">Archived from: http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
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<b><font size="5">PNAC letters sent to President Bill Clinton</font></b>
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<br>
January 26, 1998
<br>
<br>
The Honorable William J. Clinton
<br>
President of the United States
<br>
Washington, DC
<br>
<br>
Dear Mr. President:
<br>
<br>
We are writing you because we are convinced that current American policy toward Iraq is not succeeding, and that we may soon face a threat in the Middle East more serious than any we have known since the end of the Cold War. In your upcoming State of the Union Address, you have an opportunity to chart a clear and determined course for meeting this threat. We urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power. We stand ready to offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor.
<br>
<br>
The policy of “containment” of Saddam Hussein has been steadily eroding over the past several months. As recent events have demonstrated, we can no longer depend on our partners in the Gulf War coalition to continue to uphold the sanctions or to punish Saddam when he blocks or evades UN inspections. Our ability to ensure that Saddam Hussein is not producing weapons of mass destruction, therefore, has substantially diminished. Even if full inspections were eventually to resume, which now seems highly unlikely, experience has shown that it is difficult if not impossible to monitor Iraq's chemical and biological weapons production. The lengthy period during which the inspectors will have been unable to enter many Iraqi facilities has made it even less likely that they will be able to uncover all of Saddam's secrets. As a result, in the not-too-distant future we will be unable to determine with any reasonable level of confidence whether Iraq does or does not possess such weapons.
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<br>
Such uncertainty will, by itself, have a seriously destabilizing effect on the entire Middle East. It hardly needs to be added that if Saddam does acquire the capability to deliver weapons of mass destruction, as he is almost certain to do if we continue along the present course, the safety of American troops in the region, of our friends and allies like Israel and the moderate Arab states, and a significant portion of the world's supply of oil will all be put at hazard. As you have rightly declared, Mr. President, the security of the world in the first part of the 21st century will be determined largely by how we handle this threat.
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<br>
Given the magnitude of the threat, the current policy, which depends for its success upon the steadfastness of our coalition partners and upon the cooperation of Saddam Hussein, is dangerously inadequate. The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction. In the near term, this means a willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing. In the long term, it means removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy.
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<br>
We urge you to articulate this aim, and to turn your Administration's attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power. This will require a full complement of diplomatic, political and military efforts. Although we are fully aware of the dangers and difficulties in implementing this policy, we believe the dangers of failing to do so are far greater. We believe the U.S. has the authority under existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf. In any case, American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.
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<br>
We urge you to act decisively. If you act now to end the threat of weapons of mass destruction against the U.S. or its allies, you will be acting in the most fundamental national security interests of the country. If we accept a course of weakness and drift, we put our interests and our future at risk.
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<br>
Sincerely,
<br>
<br>
Elliott Abrams Richard L. Armitage William J. Bennett
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Jeffrey Bergner John Bolton Paula Dobriansky
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<br>
Francis Fukuyama Robert Kagan Zalmay Khalilzad
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William Kristol Richard Perle Peter W. Rodman
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Donald Rumsfeld William Schneider, Jr. Vin Weber
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Paul Wolfowitz R. James Woolsey Robert B. Zoellick
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<br>
Archived from: http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm</p>
</tr>
</table>
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<p>
<b>Again we see a very explicit and aggressive lobby effort to persuade the U. S. to invade Iraq.</b> And aren't these authors even more interesting. Many of the same authors of the 1996 recommendation are also authors of this lobby effort. Only this time they are acting as benefactors of America. Odd though that they are pushing the very same agenda that just 18 months earlier these same folks were pushing as benefactors to a foreign nation. It almost seems as though the authors are indeed attempting to manage and constrain the American people's reaction, as discussed in the first report, to their desired recommendations that the U. S. use its military to engage various nations in war.
</p>
<p>
<b>Let's think about this rationally for a moment. In 1996 we had a foreign government sponsor a think tank staffed by very prominent U. S. policymakers with the objective benefiting that foreign sponsor nation. And then two years later we see a follow on letter to the President of the United States from not only the same U. S. policymakers that authored the 1996 report but now additional prominent U. S. policymakers. The recommendation of both the '96 report and '98 letter to the President were lobbying for the U. S. to invade and overthrow Iraq and Syria. However the original recommendation was for the benefit of Israel and the latter recommendation was being sold as necessary for America.</b> And remember, 9 / 11 had not happened yet, but we already see these very powerful, very prominent policymakers pushing very hard to invade Iraq and Syria.
</p>
<p>
<b><u>The problem is Americans didn't want another Iraqi war.</u></b> Times were good in the late 1990's. People were happy. The cold war was over, jobs were a plenty and the world felt safer than it had for decades. And as such, there was no way Americans were going to go to war for the benefit of a foreign nation. The U. S. had decided Hussein was actually a stabilizing force there in the Middle East and as such we wanted him there. But then an election happened and the “little Texas Scrub” / “ol' Dubya” was chosen by the Supreme Court to be President of the United States. Along with him came all those names we just saw authoring the two dossiers recommending that the U. S. invade Iraq and Syria. The authors were given titles such as Chair of the Defense Policy Board (Richard Perle) and Secretary of Defense (Rumsfeld), etc. And so all of a sudden the same group of people who were championing the invasion of Iraq and Syria back in the late 1990's were now in a position to make it happen by way of their own authority. What luck! Shortly thereafter the worst attack on U. S. soil took place in New York and the rest is, as they say, history.
</p>
<p>
<b>To believe we went into Iraq because our fearless and integrity driven leaders truly and honestly believed it was the morally and justifiable thing to do based on the tragedy of 9 / 11 is just ignorance.</b> There was a small group of men, called Neocons, that had derived these military actions some 10 years prior to the operations themselves and some 5 years prior to the events that were used to sell these war efforts to the American people and the world. We can't change any of that. The ultimate point here is to learn from what happened with Syria and Iraq and see if it squares exactly with what is happening with Russia today.
</p>
<p>
<b>
More history . . . .
</b>
</p>
<p>
<b>A letter written by Bill Kristol and Donald Kagan to the</b> <a href="http://www.aei.org/publication/an-open-letter/" target="_blank">Heads of State and Government Of the European Union and NATO.</a> This 2004 letter does not mince its words. It is very much pushing for European support of what would obviously be a U. S. military stand off with Russia. The letter is sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which is a neoconservative think tank. In fact, one of the prestigious awards handed out by the AEI is called the Irving Kristol award. Irving Kristol (father to Bill Kristol) is known as the godfather of the neocon movement in the U. S. So, again, this is essentially the same crowd from '96 and '98, pushing for support of a U. S. military operation, this time with Russia. <b>This is back in 2004 mind you before the recent events in Ukraine had even been imagined.</b> The letter was signed by many but of particular interest is that many of the same names from the 1996 report and 1998 letter to President Clinton pushing for war against Iraq and Syria also signed this letter.</p>
<p>
<b>Again we see the aggressive recommendations to back a military operation many years before the catalyst event takes place.</b> That is the event that is being sold as the moral justification for a military operation. But this letter tells us that this military objective against Russia has been promoted for many, many years now, far before Ukraine was an issue. This is again, a push from the same folks that lied to us about Iraq and then trained, equipped, and funded ISIS in order to get into Syria and are now working hard to create a catalyst for an offensive with Russia.
</p>
<p>
<b>For years before 9 / 11 it was determined by those warmongering policymakers that we would be invading Iraq and Syria. All we needed was a catalyst.</b> 9 / 11 provided that for Iraq. ISIS provided that for Syria. And, now, Ukraine has provided that for Russia. 9 / 11 was used as a catalyst to lie to the American people about the need to invade Iraq. It has also been fully admitted by our government that we did in fact, train, equip, and fund ISIS, ‘mistakenly though’. And finally we have recordings of senior U. S. diplomats discussing our involvement in the coup in Ukraine.
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<b>And so one can only conclude here that again Americans are being manipulated to accept the recommendations from a powerful group of warmongering policymakers to go to war with a nation that has posed absolutely no threat to the American people in more than 25 years.</b> And we are being led down this path by lies and propaganda. Quite specifically things like H. Res. 758. And if we do not make a stand against these policymakers we are most certainly headed for what could very well be the war to end all wars.
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<b>For the West is clearly looking to fortify its power hold over the world by destroying Russia economically and, thus, disable them militarily in an effort to prevent a Sino-Soviet alliance.</b> On January 11, 2010, former World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, made a <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/john-wolfensohn-there-will-be-monumental-shift-economic-power" target="_blank">presentation</a> to a political science class at Stanford University. Ironically, the moral to his story was to challenge them to figure out a way, in the face of a rising East soon to control a higher share of the worlds assets than the West, to retain the West's global control. He stressed it was something his generation did not have to deal with but that today's Western up and coming political class must consider. You see China is a powerful nation but without an alliance with Russia, China can be contained due to its lack of energy. Because China is both a more difficult opponent and one that has much more trade with the U. S., Russia is the obvious target to prevent a fully formed Sino-Soviet alliance.</p>
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<b>However, it is difficult to imagine a scenario where China does not clearly identify such a strategy being played out.</b> And so they will come to the defense of Russian energy, as we've already seen with the <a href="http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/russia-china-gas-deal-implications-and-ramifications" target="_blank">signings of the world's largest energy deals</a> between those two nations. If push comes to shove, the Chinese defense will not be limited just to economics. <b>And we will be put in the midst of the most powerful nations in the history of the world fighting for ultimate power. This small group of horrible people are willing to put the world on the line so their lineage can continue to rule the world while the rest of us struggle to simply stop the financial bleeding that has become a 15 year epidemic.
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This all sounds like the stuff of fiction novels but unfortunately the facts tell us this is all too real.</b> What is difficult to believe is that we so readily ignore and deny the most essential lessons of history. Perhaps the foremost being that the political class will always be willing to sacrifice the working class in order to retain its power. And so we find ourselves again on the precipice of being asked by our political class to offer our young men and women up to be sacrificed for the ‘greater good’. However, while they try to convince us that the cause is one of morals and righteousness, in the end, it is the same cause it has been since post WWII (and some will argue the same cause it has always been), which is for their interests and their victories, not ours.
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USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-86118688669702576242017-02-18T08:03:00.001-08:002017-03-23T11:54:39.000-07:00On beginning my 75th year<!DOCTYPE html>
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So, serendipitously this morning, I somehow clicked on a link in the bookmarks bar for the <a href="http://www.historyofinformation.com/index.php?category=Religious+Texts+%2F+Religion" target="_new">History of Information</a> WWW site (whose “index” is set to “Religious Texts / Religion”) which has a photo from The Encyclopedia Britannica entitled “The Sorcerer”
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(whose “link” tells not only the story of the painting from around 12,000 BCE, but also the fascinating story of <a href="https://wiki2.org/en/Therianthropy" target="_new">therianthrope</a> cave drawing; which when you read about it from our time and space, engenders many SNL skits (;-) . . . ).
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One of the references in the “Sorcerer” article is to Mary E. Boyles' 1952 translation of Abbe Henri Brueil's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/hundred-centuries-Translated-Realized-Windels/dp/B001NXXJ7E" target="_new">Four Hundred Centuries of Cave Art</a> which “trumps” my three-quarters of a century by a large margin.
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Next time I'm down at the O. Meredith Wilson Library at the University of Minnesota, I'm going to have to look this one up (Folio 302.43 B757fE - unfortunately, they don't have the translated version but the photos of the cave art don't depend on the French language, do they?)
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Update: I had occasion to go to the O. Meredith Wilson Library on my way to World Storytelling Day at the Landmark Center in Downtown St Paul yesterday (March 21, 2017 [close to the first day of Spring]) and was able to locate the volume mentioned above. Much to my surprise it was the translated English version. And what a wealth of material - in addition to the text descriptions, photos and drawings from the Big Six sites of cave art beginning from around 40,000 years ago!
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USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-78297143124301693232015-05-05T22:30:00.000-07:002016-08-17T01:17:22.259-07:00"Unbound Convergence" and the "Distributed Mesh" . . . surprises along the way . . .<a name="footnote1_return"></a>
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Aristotle (384 ‐ 322 BCE [approximately 2,370 years ago]) proposed “natural,” “violent,” and “local” modes of motion with the rule that “nothing moves unless it is moved by a mover” <a href="#footnote1" target="_blank"><sup>1</sup></a> And for about 1,950 of those years, <b>scholars</b> attempted to improve on this philosophical viewpoint but without much success. In fact, the Italian astronomer and physicist, Galileo Galilei (1564 ‐ 1642 CE), proposed the idea that since asking the "why?" of moving things had not been very productive, perhaps just simply describing "how" things move would be more productive. And, thus, the “science” of physics was born ‐ with two new philosophical topics: “matter” and “energy.”
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But, it was up to the English physicist and mathematician (“natural philosopher”), Sir Isaac Newton (1642 ‐ 1726), to propose the three laws of motion <a href="#footnote2" target="_blank"><sup>2</sup></a> which hold sway in classical mechanics:
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an object tends to continue in its motion at a constant velocity until and unless an outside force acts on it;
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an outside force is any action that causes an object to change the speed or direction with which it is moving; <a href="#footnote3" target="_blank"><sup>3</sup></a> and
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for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction.
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Then, more recently, the German theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein (1879 ‐ 1955), proposed the theories of general and special relativity, which deal with the observed gravitational and <b>electrical field</b> effects between masses (that even Newton was struggling with) due to the “warping” of the space-time continuum. His further work opened up the field of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_quantum_mechanics" target="_blank">quantum mechanics</a>. And even now, a number of open questions remain, the most fundamental of which is how general relativity can be reconciled with the laws of quantum physics to produce a complete and self-consistent theory of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_gravity" target="_blank">quantum gravity</a>.
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Fast forward to a recent (April 21, 2015) <b>MIT Technology Review</b> (May / June 2015) article ‐ “<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/536786/machine-dreams" target="_blank">Machine Dreams</a>” ‐ which highlights the possible impact of a new kind of memory ‐ memristor (“memory resistor”) <a href="#footnote4" target="_blank"><sup>4</sup></a> ‐ on the "ancient" computer architecture still in use from the 1940s (75 years old). That old architecture of two-tiers ‐ storage and memory ‐ stores its operating system, programs, and files on either a hard disk or flash drive. And, in order to run a program or load a document, the data has to be retrieved from the drive over metal wiring and loaded into a form of random access memory (RAM) that is faster but can't store data very densely or hold on to it when the power to the machine is turned off. The new architecture scraps the distinction between storage and memory, not only utilizing this new form of memory, which is faster than RAM, holds it data when the machine is powered down, and can store more data than comparable hard drives of today, <a href="#footnote5" target="_blank"><sup>5</sup></a> but also passing the data via photonics (light and fiber optics) to a group of specialized energy-efficient processors.
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As stated in the MIT article, “Tests with the closest thing to a working version of the Machine ‐ a simulation running inside a cluster of powerful servers ‐ hint at what Carbon [the MACHINE's operating system {see below}] and the new computer might be able to deliver once up and running. In one trial, the simulated Machine and a conventional computer raced to analyze a photo and search a database of 80 million other images to find the five that were most visually similar. The off-the-shelf, high-powered [Hewlett-Packard {HP}] server completed the task in about two seconds. The simulated Machine needed only 50 milliseconds.” <a href="#footnote6" target="_blank"><sup>6</sup></a> All of this while sipping only a little bit of energy. And, at the “MACHINE” announcement presentation, HP CEO, Meg Whitman, compared that with the energy used by cloud computing today ‐ “[I]f cloud computing were a country, in terms of energy, it would rank fifth in the world.”
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Of course, this “MACHINE” will require a new operating system, and HP is hoping for a June, 2015 release of a Linux version (Linux++) which will include simulated hardware for the memory and processor systems. The real operating system for the “MACHINE” has been named “Carbon” and is slated for beta release in 2017.
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If we take the beginning of the nanotechnology movement as the coining of the term by Professor Norio Taniguchi, formerly of Tokyo Science University, at the International Conference on Production Engineering in Tokyo in 1974, <a href="#footnote7" target="_blank"><sup>7</sup></a> then it is interesting to note that in 1995, HP hired UCLA chemistry professor, R. Stanley Willams, to establish HP's first fundamental research program, investigating whether organic molecules could be smaller replacements for silicon transistors. The reasons:
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costs of fabrication plants for silicon ($30 billion not unheard of for 2010) were forcing silicon industry leaders out of the business; and
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fundamental physics and materials limitations as things get smaller and smaller (not to mention the physics of traditional lithography).
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Even in 1999, other research teams were working hard to make a single brick and hoping that once it was made there might be a way to connect it in a circuit or a system. Williams' team approach was to look at the architectural drawing of the entire system and then look for the best methods and materials to make (or remake, if necessary) the system. And the surprises?
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From the MIT article, “After a few years, [Williams] could make devices with the right kind of switchlike behavior by sandwiching molecules called rotaxanes between platinum electrodes. But their performance was maddeningly erratic. It took years more work before Williams realized that the molecules were actually irrelevant and that he had stumbled into a major discovery. The switching effect came from a layer of titanium, used like glue to stick the rotaxane layer to the electrodes.” And even more surprising, versions of the devices built around that material fulfilled a prediction made in Professor Chua's 1970 paper of a completely new kind of basic electronic device ‐ the “memristor”.
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Williams and his team announced their findings in <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7191/abs/nature06932.html" target="_blank">Nature</a>, May 1, 2008, and have been going strong ever since; especially since 2012, when Martin Fink, HP CTO, put memristors at the heart of the blueprint for the <a href="http://h30507.www3.hp.com/t5/The-Next-Big-Thing/The-machine-video/ba-p/165522#.VUxWrPlViko" target="_blank">MACHINE</a>.
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Further Background:
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HP Discover, 2014 - June 11th Announcement of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxn5ru7klUQ" target="_blank">The Machine</a> - CEO Meg Whitman and EVP and CTO Martin Fink
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UCSD Center for Networked System's Winter Research Review January, 2010 - R. Stanley Williams' <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKGhvKyjgLY" target="_blank">keynote presentation</a> on memristor technology
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Updates:
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June 12, 2015 - TechRadar reports “<a href="http://www.techradar.com/us/news/world-of-tech/future-tech/hp-s-the-machine-changes-its-spots-1296639" target="_new">HP's ‘The Machine’ changes its spots</a>”
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<b>1</b> In his Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις (eight books of philosophical lectures on nature [or "The Physics"]), in response to which:
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Martin Heidegger once wrote: “The <i>Physics</i> is a lecture in which [Aristotle] seeks to determine beings that arise on their own, τὰ φύσει ὄντα, with regard to their being. Aristotelian "physics" is different from what we mean today by this word, not only to the extent that it belongs to antiquity whereas the modern physical sciences belong to modernity, rather above all it is different by virtue of the fact that Aristotle's "physics" is philosophy, whereas modern physics is a positive science that presupposes a philosophy . . . . This book determines the warp and woof of the whole of Western thinking, even at that place where it, as modern thinking, appears to think at odds with ancient thinking. But opposition is invariably comprised of a decisive, and often even perilous, dependence. Without Aristotle's <i>Physics</i> there would have been no Galileo.” (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Principle-Reason-Studies-Continental-Thought/dp/0253210666" target="_blank">The Principle of Reason</a>, translated by Reginald Lilly, [Indiana University Press, 1991], pp. 62–63.)
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Bertrand Russell opined: "“[The <i>Physics</i> was] . . . extremely influential, and dominated science until the time of Galileo ... The historian of philosophy, accordingly, must study [it], in spite of the fact that hardly a sentence in [it] can be accepted in the light of modern science.” (<a href="https://archive.org/download/westernphilosoph035502mbp/westernphilosoph035502mbp.pdf" target="_blank">History of Western Philosophy</a>: <u>and its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day</u>, {George Allen & Unwin, 1946]. p. 226 [see the entire chapter "Aristotle's Physics," pp. 226-230.)
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Mathematically, the force of an external mover acting on an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by its velocity of motion (or speed <i><b>F = m * s</b></i> - where speed is the force of the external mover divided by the resistance of the medium through or against which it is moving).
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<b>2</b> In his <i>Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica</i> ("Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy"), first published in 1687; see also the more recent (1936) "chymistry" (and χρυσόποιεῖα) <a href="http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/index.jsp" target="_blank">works</a>);
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<b>3</b> Mathematically, the force exerted on an object is equal to the mass of the object multiplied by the acceleration of the object (<i><b>F = m * a</b></i> - where acceleration is how fast the velocity of the object is changing and in what direction).
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<b>4</b> First named and described in a September 15, 1970 technical report (TR-EE-70-39) for the School of Electrical Engineering at Purdue University (Lafayette, Ind.) by Professor Leon O. Chua. Basically proposed as a fourth class of electrical circuit (along with the resistor, capacitor, and inductor) exhibiting its properties primarily at the nanoscale. The surprise along the way was actually predicted by Professor Chua in his article when recognizing the impact of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_tunnel" target="_blank">reality tunnel</a> / <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias" target="_blank">confirmation bias</a> / <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus_reality" target="_blank">consensus reality</a> (or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0595196640" target="_blank">trance</a>)" thinking on his colleagues - that electrical circuits could only be produced utilizing resistors, capacitors, and inductors - and the sway of the v (voltage) - i (current) curve (from those similar perspectives), he wrote in the paper's concluding remarks, "Although no physical memristor has yet been discovered in the form of a physical device without internal power supply, the analyses presented in . . . [this paper] . . . make plausible the notion that a memristor device . . . could be invented, if not discovered accidentally. . . . Perhaps, our perennial habit of tracing the v-i curve of any new two-terminal device has already misled some of our device-oriented colleagues and prevented them from discovering the true essence of some new device, which could very well be the missing memristor."
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The heading for the HP Lab team's May 1, 2008 article in <i>Nature</i> (453:80-83) announcing the discovery is "<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v453/n7191/abs/nature06932.html" target="_blank">The Missing Memristor Found</a>".
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<b>5</b> On June 13, 2013, HP EVP and CTO, Martin Fink, gave a 20 minute presentation at HP Discover in Las Vegas, NV, covering HP's plans for “memristor”; view it <a href="http://h30614.www3.hp.com/Discover/OnDemand/LasVegas2013/SessionDetail/d78699c4-1a41-4eec-8d98-be19db7932f2" target="_blank">here</a>.
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<b>6</b> See the following HP Labs YouTube link for a presentation on “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sUjSBZxPPc" target="_blank">Extreme Similarity Search</a>”.
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<b>7</b> Very close to the time of Professor Chua's report, Professor Taniguchi's use of the term was specifically in relation to precision machining - the processing of a material to nano scale precision utilizing primarily ultra-sonic machining. Subsequently, Professor Taniguchi was deeply involved in the research and application of electron beam processes for nano-fabrication. See the <a href="http://www.nano.gov/timeline" target="_blank">nano-technology timeline</a> and in that timeline compare that 1959 visionary lecture of Professor Richard Feynman entitled “<a href="http://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html" target="_blank">There's plenty of room at the bottom</a>” delivered to the American Physical Society.
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<br />USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-82729624334945502482015-04-01T13:44:00.002-07:002023-07-12T07:13:33.373-07:00The Dinkytown UprisingAl Milgrom at 92 has finished up a film ‐ <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4419022/" target="_blank">The Dinkytown Uprising</a> ‐ the pieces of which resided in his basement until 2003 when he decided to begin to put them together (with the help of editor Dan Geiger [Coen brothers' “Fargo” and Prince's “Graffiti Bridge”]). It's premiering this year at the Minneapolis ‐ St Paul International Film Festival on Sunday, April 12th with another showing on Monday, April 20th both at the St Anthony Main Theater in downtown Minneapolis.
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Here's an updated comment piece I wrote to a Minnesota Daily article from last fall ‐ “<a href="http://www.mndaily.com/news/campus/2014/12/12/local-legend-documents-dinkytown" target="_blank">Local legend documents Dinkytown</a>” ‐ with regard to the film and some of its history:
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I'll never forget the day, Wednesday, May 10, 1972, sitting in Al's Art of the Film class in the basement auditorium of Ford Hall at around 3:00 PM, and all of a sudden the room is filled with tear gas. A Minneapolis police helicopter was spraying tear gas at students (University High and college) and other “hangers‐on” testifying over in Dinkytown for the end of the “illegal” war in Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Laos. The police had to have used quite a bit of tear gas as the cloud worked its way all the way over to the University Hospitals.
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And, even though I was on the GI Bill, that was the end of schooling for me. We lived near campus in the old Harvard Apartments on the corner of Harvard Street and Washington Avenue. So, it was an easy trip to walk over to the occupation of Washington Avenue (closing down the Washington Avenue bridge) carrying pillows and sleeping bags and staying there most of the night into the wee hours of the morning. The National Guard was called in at around 1:00 AM.
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So, we packed everything up and trekked up north to a summer home of a friend on the creek between Big Balsam and Little Balsam lakes northeast of Bovey, MN. We were there for fourteen months trying to figure out what the right-wing politics of death for profits had to do with our nation. “Think globally and act locally” was the mantra. And we have yet to give up testifying for positive alternatives to all of the political illegalities since that time.
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For a period of time during the 1980s, I returned to work at the University. We were devoted war tax resisters. So, when the IRS garnished my University pension funds, it was time for another move - to <a href="http://www.ediguys.net/Dorea_Peace_Community.html" target="_blank">Dorea Peace Community</a>, north of the unincorporated village of Range, WI, on Polk County Road D. We have yet to give up testifying for positive alternatives to all of the political illegalities since that time.
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Another thing that stood out during that time was an excerpt from Carl Sandburg's “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-People-Yes-Carl-Sandburg/dp/0156716658" target="_blank">The People, Yes</a>” that graced every issue of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ringing-Wilderness-Selections-North-Country/dp/0930100638" target="_blank">The North Country Anvil</a> (which we modified slightly) ‐ “This old anvil laughs at many broken hammers. There are [ <b>persons</b> ] who can't be bought!” We find that a strong place from which to stand against the right-wing politics of death for profits during this time of political illegality!!
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The playful trailer for Al's documentary has disappeared, but here's a link to an interview done for the Minneapolis - Saint Paul International Film Festival in 2015 at which the documentary was to be presented for the first time <a href="https://vimeo.com/123963665" target="_blank">Al Milgrom</a>.
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As always, ENJOY!
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-65977336142080461402015-02-22T17:56:00.000-08:002020-04-04T19:35:36.484-07:00A Veteran's Response to the National Security Agency<a name="footnote1_return"></a>
Here is my citizen's disclaimer to the NSA <a href="#footnote1" target="_blank"><sup>1</sup></a> and which I will be attaching to everything I write from now on!
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My personal statement to the first sychophant (and hangers-on [aka police / military person{s} <a href="#footnote2" target="_blank"><sup>2</sup></a> who might arrest me]) of the <a href="http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/04/11/offshore-and-underground/" target="_blank">0.1%</a> is as follows:
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“It is not an honorable action to torture those who are testifying for their Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of assembly and speech. <a href="#footnote3" target="_blank"><sup>3</sup></a> Those taking such shameful actions can only be seen as enforcers - terrorsymps - for the terroristic 0.1%. And as a Vietnam veteran, and then a person testifying for (the meaning of protest, after all) alternatives to the Vietnam (and succeeding Imperialistic) War(s), and now a supporter of Veterans for Peace, and a Third Order Lutheran Franciscan Associate, I take the suggestion of Stéphane Hessel - to return to the values of the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/" target="_blank">1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights</a> (values for which so many veterans fought during WW II) as the foundation from which to become outraged as the financial war being waged by the terrorist 0.1% against the activist 99.9% continues to take its toll. To proclaim again that:
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<ol><li> ‘disregard and contempt for human rights [by the terrorist 0.1%] have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind’ and </li><li>the highest aspiration of the common people - the activist 99.9% - is ‘the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want’”<b>!</b></li></ol>
I still see the best overall review of the situation we face as being expressed in this 22+ minute video: “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Xh5eN2fXY" target="_blank">Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine</a>”<b>!!</b> <a href="#footnote4" target="_blank"><sup>4</sup></a>
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<a name="footnote1"></a>
<b>1</b> Also known as <i>Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit</i> (<b>MfS</b>) oder <i>Staatssicherheitdeinst</i> (<b>SSD</b>) fur seine <i>Strumabteilung</i> (<b>SA</b>), <i>Schutzstaffel</i> (<b>SS</b>), <i>Sicherheitzpolizei</i> (<b>SiPo</b> [<b>Gestapo</b> und <i>Kriminalpolizei</i> {<b>Kripo</b>}]), und <i>Ordnungspolizei</i> (<b>Orpo</b>) Untergebenen - eine Art Nachkriegs <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODESSA" target="_blank">ODESSA</a>. <i>Cf</i>. the covert counterintelligence branch of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (<b>FBI</b>) located in South America during World War II - the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Intelligence_Service" target="_blank">SIS</a> - (<b>Special Intelligence Service</b>), and the <a href="https://archive.org/details/FBI-Special-Intelligence-Service-History/page/n5" target="_blank">documents from the Internet Archive</a>.
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<a name="footnote2"></a>
<b>2</b> As David Graeber reminds us *, “Police represent the state; the state has a monopoly of the legitimate use of violence within its borders; therefore, within that territory, police are by definition incommensurable with anyone else. This is essential to understanding what police actually are. Many sociological studies have pointed out that maybe 6% of the average police officer’s time is spent on anything that can even remotely be considered ‘fighting crime’. Police are a group of armed, lower-echelon government administrators, trained in the scientific application of physical force to aid in the resolution of administrative problems. They are bureaucrats with guns, and whether they are guarding lost children, talking rowdy drunks out of bars, or supervising free concerts in the park, the one common feature of the kind of situation to which they’re assigned is the possibility of having to impose ‘non-negotiated solutions backed up by the potential use of force’. ** The key term here I think, is ‘non-negotiable’. Police do not negotiate ‐ at least when it comes to anything important ‐ because that would imply equivalency. When they are forced to negotiate, they pretty much invariably break their word.” ***
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* David Graeber, <a href="http://www.ediguys.net/On_the_Phenomenology_of_Giant_Puppets.pdf" target="_blank">ON THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF GIANT PUPPETS</a>: broken windows, imaginary jars of urine, and the cosmological role of the police in American culture, p.28.
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** Egon Bittner's phrase from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Aspects-Police-Work-Egon-Bittner/dp/1555530699" target="_blank">Aspects of Police Work</a>. See also Mark Neocleus, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fabrication-Social-Order-Critical-Theory/dp/0745314848" target="_blank">The Fabrication of Social Order: A Critical Theory of Police Power</a>.
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*** Consider here the fact that “police negotiators” are generally employed in hostage situations; in other words, in order to actually get the police to negotiate, one has to literally be holding a gun to someone’s head. And in such situations police can hardly be expected to honor their promises; in fact, they could well argue they are morally obliged not to.
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<a name="footnote3"></a>
<b>3</b> In spite of former President George W. Bush's statement that the Constitution is “just a God-dammed piece of paper.”
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After his 8:30 PM (EDT) address to the nation from the Oval Office on September 11, 2001, President G. W. Bush, went immediately to the Emergency Operations Center (his first visit there), where he centered the discussion on the new war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
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Late in the discussion, Secretary of War, Donald Rumsfeld, noted that international law allowed use of force only to prevent future attacks and not for retribution.
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The President nearly bit his head off, yelling in the conference room, "No . . . I don't care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass." (Richard Allen Clarke, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Against-All-Enemies-Inside-Americas/dp/0743260457" target="_new">Against All Enemies: Inside America's War On Terror</a>. [New York: Free Press, 2004], p.24).
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<i>Cf</i>. the transcript of Leslie Stahl's (CBS News 60 Minutes) <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/bush-sought-way-to-invade-iraq/" target="_new">interview</a> with Paul O'Neill (former Treasury Secretary under President George Bush) as the source for Ron Suskind's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Price-Loyalty-George-Education-ONeill/dp/0743255461" target="_new">The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill</a> which demonstrates (based on 19,000 internal documents) the impact of the <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf" target="_new">PNAC</a> "praetorian guard" on the "new American century." That is to say, that plans were put in place, at least eight months before 9/11, for the invasion of Iraq. Here's a YouTube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJg4ISm52qU" target="_new">link</a> to the interview in case you're not a subscriber to 60 Minutes.
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The comments of the person, Jon Gold, posting the above video are also quite instructive: “What qualifies as suspicious behavior? Bush telling his principals 10 days after his inauguration to "go find me a way" to go into Iraq? Cheney meeting with nearly every oil executive in existence and discussing Iraq's oil fields months before 9/11, even though those executives denied meeting with him before Congress? People in the Bush Administration discussing creating a "cassus belli" for war with Iraq prior to 9/11? FBI Superiors blocking subordinates from doing their jobs? The CIA seemingly protecting at least 2 of the hijackers? The NSA lying about not knowing the location of two of the hijackers in San Diego? NORAD lying about their air response that morning? Multiple people in the Bush Administration denying that there were any warnings even though at least 14 countries warned us, and even though Bush received the <a href="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB116/" target="_new">August 6th, PDB</a> [Presidential Daily Brief] and a multitude of PDBs that are supposedly worse than that one that we're not even allowed to see? Cheney having a "back channel" to the different intelligence agencies prior to 9/11? Bush fighting against having an investigation? Bush refusing to cooperate fully with investigations? A Bush lackey being put in charge of the so called "Independent" 9/11 Commission? Money connected to 2 of the hijackers supposedly (and most likely) coming from a friend of the Bush family? People like Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice planning for war with Iraq within hours of the attacks? Bush using 9/11 to go to war with Iraq? Nobody being held accountable, and instead people that didn't deserve it being rewarded and promoted? Does any of it?” Now, compare the 2017 film "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4758646/" target="_new">War Machine</a>"!
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And, the rest, as they say, is ongoing history!
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<a name="footnote4"></a>
<b>4</b> Other references of interest:
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"<a href="https://tinyurl.com/b3jll79" target="_blank">Could this be part of the problem?</a>"
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In a TEDx talk, Lawrence Lessig fleshes out the Anonymous Banker's presentation with his own fix - "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJy8vTu66tE" target="_blank">Our democracy no longer represents the people . . . .</a>"
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While, Noam Chomsky, puts much more of the big picture in context with his presentation - "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZnuc-Fv_Tc" target="_blank">Requiem for the American Dream</a>"
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And recently, the Honorable Paul Craig Roberts (economist, and former United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy in the Reagan Administration [and noted as a co-founder of Reagonomics] and editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and the Scripps Howard News Service) was invited to address an important conference of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in Moscow, in celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Yalta Conference. Dr. Roberts gave a two part address on “The Threat Posed to International Relations By The Neoconservative Ideology of American Hegemony” both of which are available for perusal on his <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/02/26/neoconservative-threat-world-order-paul-craig-roberts/" target="_blank">Institute for Political Economy</a> WWW site.
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USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-26776136694616796862015-02-19T04:29:00.000-08:002019-12-18T06:59:32.156-08:00Three Strikes and You're Out<h3>THREE STRIKES AND YOU'RE OUT: Toward a Legal Philosophy and Spiritual Approach for the Pro-life (i.e., anti-nuclear war) Movement</h3>
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(Homily prepared to kick off the establishment of the Burlington Northern Project and delivered at the Burlington Northern Railroad Company's corporate headquarters [which used to be in downtown Saint Paul, MN] on Sunday afternoon, August 5, 1984 with the title “CONNECTIONS: Past, Present, and Future”. In memory of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings of World War II, we stayed up all night, taking turns reading through John Hersey's <a href=http://www.amazon.com/Hiroshima-John-Hersey/dp/0679721037" target="_new">Hiroshima</a> and folding hundreds of origami cranes (see the story of <a href="http://www.buddhistcouncil.org/bodhitree/Books/Story_of_the_Peace_Crane.pdf" target="_new">Sadako Sasaki</a>) before passing them out to Burlington Northern employees as they entered the building for work on Monday morning.)
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It was a little over a year ago that the seed for the Burlington Northern Project was planted by my reading an article on the “white death train” and seeing the picture of the big green Burlington Northern locomotive pulling it in the Fellowship of Reconciliation magazine. But the events leading up to the formation of the Burlington Northern Project really began with our government's use of nuclear weapons beginning on August 6, 1945. President Truman justified the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the claim that by forcing the Japanese to surrender without having to invade the home islands, he saved the lives of a million GIs (an invasion was planned for Nov. 1, 1945).
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However, Japan had sued for peace fully six weeks before the dropping of the atomic bomb. In mid-June they requested not only the USSR, but also Switzerland and Sweden to open negotiations for surrender. U. S. officials, including the President, were well aware that Japan's surrender was at most a matter of months away, regardless of any invasion. Yet the United States acted as if nothing was happening, and issued an ultimatum along with China and Britain to the Japanese on July 26, 1945. The ultimatum was issued during the Potsdam conference and called upon the Japanese to surrender unconditionally or face “prompt and utter destruction”.
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Japan was beaten and suing for peace. No invasion of the Japanese home islands was scheduled until November. Why, then, did the United States choose to obliterate the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
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The answer is given in the diary of Admiral James Forrestal, who recorded a conversation with Secretary of State James Byrnes on July 28, two days after the ultimatum to Japan. “<i>Byrnes said that he was most anxious to get the Japanese affair over with before the Russians get in . . . . Once in there, he felt it would not be easy to get them out . . . .</i>” The U. S. was determined to force the surrender at once - without any prolonged negotiations. This was to ensure that the Soviet Union would not be involved in the negotiations and would have no role in Japan following the war. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki represented the opening salvo of the cold war - an example of the fate that awaited any people or power that dared stand in the way of American domination of Asia.
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As we continue our journey on the way of peace, we place ourselves in a position of psychological disadvantage by referring to “first strike” capabilities. While this terminology may be useful in describing countries which have not yet gone insane and actually used these weapons, as we have seen, our government continues in its insane hope that their “third strike” will bring peace to the world. No matter how you visualize it, more and more of the world's population is coming to see that that “third strike” means we are all out.
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In fact, this is the same conclusion reached by the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal after World War II and reiterated in the whole series of treaties and conventions on the rules of war since that time - most notably the Geneva Protocols concluded in 1977.
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In essence, planning, preparing, and initiating war is a crime against humanity and anyone who is aware that crimes of state are being committed has an obligation to take what action they can to prevent those crimes from occurring.
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In response to the excesses of the Nazi regime, to the fact that the death trains went by - nobody looked, nobody saw - that there was a tremendous silence, and that the assembly line of death, destruction, and dehumanization in Nazi Germany was furthered by many and protested by few, the Nuremberg Tribunal placed responsibility upon individuals to refrain from committing an act which violated the principles of international law, even though commanded by their country to do it. So, we have a principle adopted which says that you have to interpose your estimate of the conduct, and not simply obey.
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Our constitution says that international law is the supreme law of the land. This has been affirmed by the Supreme Court with regard not only to treaties, but also to so-called customary international law which includes the law of war. If you take the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons and match them up against the prohibitions for their use, you will find that nuclear weapons are outlawed for a variety of reasons.
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When it comes to its nuclear strategy, “third strike” weapons, and the war plans that have recently been published, it is a reasonable thing for reasonable people to believe that our government is in violation of international law in a Nuremberg sense. In other words, that it is planning in some way to wage aggressive war. If that is the case, then individuals who are aware of this situation, if anything, are not doing enough, given the gravity of the evil that is involved and the danger, and given the understanding at Nuremberg that everyone has a responsibility to the enforcement of international law.
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In this situation, the churches and synagogues, because they are the repositories of long term values, have a particularly important role. Unfortunately, that role for the most part has been abdicated. As Americans with various religious tradition or belief systems, we find that we are part of a people who have been seduced into idolatry. Our idol is a rebellious system, a legitimate governmental service to its citizens which has gathered its own momentum, gone out of control, and now demands sacrificial obedience and promises security and benevolence. We are part of a nation that has come to worship power, especially as that power is manifested in nuclear weapons.
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How can we give up our reliance on militarism? We first have to realize that if we give up our reliance upon militarism and begin instead to resist it, we will not only lose its protection, but will eventually become its victims - not in the relatively short and voluntary periods allowed by our current non-violent direct actions, but in more serious ways, ways which we will no longer control.
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In preparation for that time - a time of loving acceptance of the violence that will be necessary to bring about this fundamental change - we will need to look to our belief systems and develop out of them a disciplined non-violence rooted in that power of love that wells up from our hearts. Only then will we be able to go beyond our own needs for security and our own fears and allow the power of love to work through us.
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Beyond examining our lives for continuing reliance on the fruits of militarism, and taking as many steps as possible to reduce our complicity, Shelley Douglass from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action suggests a modification of the Buddhist Karuna meditation to help us reach our goal:
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<center><pre><i>We might sit in stillness and visualize the person whom we most love
in the world. We surround that person with our love and care, praying
for them or holding them in our hearts. Then we invite into that
caring the people next closest to us and surround them with the same
love and care. We move out with our invitations, out to an ever-
widening circle of people, inviting them all into the same warmth
of love that enveloped the most beloved. At the end of our medi-
tation we invite into our love the people from whom we feel most
estranged, those whom we dislike, fear, or hate. We invite them
into our love and keep them there in prayer .... [s]uch constant
practice in love can help us to become more deeply loving people.</i></pre></center>
USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-9795447552824379652014-11-05T13:46:00.000-08:002015-09-16T08:48:40.585-07:00Therapists or The Rapists: Checking the Mind-fucker's Queen<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
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This is an article that originated on an old Wintel 3.1 machine (which was gonna die come New Year's Eve, 2000). In fact, I had to “edit” (using edit.com which called qbasic.exe) a .txt file to pull it over to a “new” Wintel '95 machine so as to format the file into the “new” HTML format for its presentation at that time.
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The “article” was submitted to the Twin Cities Men's Center Newsletter (it, unfortunately, was never published).
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Along the way I was reminded of an article on “e-CEOs” in <i>Fortune</i> magazine (<a href="http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/05/24/260239/index.htm" target="_new">May 24, 1999</a>)
which characterizes them as “evangelists [for their cause].” We've not come that far from the religion of “religion” to the “religion of technology”.
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Therapists
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Or
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The Rapists:
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Checking the Mind-fucker's Queen
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<span style="color: silver;">
There's so much you don't know about me.
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Cannot ever, no matter how hard I try to make it otherwise.
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I have been places, done things impossible to recount . . .
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if you're lonely and you're hurting, then you're human . . .
</span>
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<br />
<span style="color: grey;">
Chris Locke (a. k. a. RageBoy) in
<a href="http://www.rageboy.com/0.60.html" target="_new"><i>Dust My Broom</i></a>
</span>
</center>
<br />
While in attendance at a male friend's birthday lunch, I often heard the word “denial” used in contexts similar to “you're sure you're not in denial,” as if, accepting the iatrogenic pathology, “everybody's doing it.” Being no foreigner to the taunt, myself, I thought I would share a perspective on denial that I have been working through for more than twenty-five years, though it is only in the last four years that the pieces of the puzzle have come together with some clarity. (There is something perverse about a university education when it fails to show one the authentically cumulative tradition of thought. One has to discover the vital thinkers on their own and serendipitously; professors, if anything, pooh-pooh the very people one should be studying, and needless years are spent just randomly and with luck coming to understand one's heritage.)
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<br />
<a name="backto1"></a>
A
<i>
terminus a quo
</i>
- an adolescent's amazement at the repression of sexual expression in society, fired by Paul Goodman's
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394700325/qid=927291972/sr=1-5/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>Growing Up?</i></a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394700325/qid=927291972/sr=1-5/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>Absurd!</i></a>
(1960), and fueled since then by, amongst others, any of Wilhelm Reich's works written during the period
<a href="http://www.ediguys.net/Wilhelm_Reich_Bibliography_1927-1936.html" target="_new">1927-1936</a>,
Gershon Legman's
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/087817012X/qid=927292148/sr=1-1/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>Love & Death:</i></a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/087817012X/qid=927292148/sr=1-1/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>A Study in Censorship</i></a>
(1963), any of Michel Foucault's works, but especially
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679724699/o/qid=927292226/sr=2-2/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>The History of Sexuality</i></a>
(1980) [read in the light of his earlier
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067972110X/qid=927292287/sr=1-51/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>Madness and Civilization</i></a>
(1965)], and any of Ernest Becker's works, but especially the second edition of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0029021901/o/qid=927292343/sr=2-2/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>The Birth and Death of Meaning:</i></a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0029021901/o/qid=927292343/sr=2-2/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>An Interdisciplinary Perspective On The Problem of</i> [Human Being]</a>
(1971) and
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684832402/o/qid=927292343/sr=2-1/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>The Denial of Death</i></a> (1974). All of these works grappling with the question, as posed by Ernest Becker: How do we move from childhood toward the practical self-deceit, the well-organized tyranny, of “normal” adult sexuality to accept the sublimation of the body-sexual character of our Oedipal project? Or, in other words, how do I work through the real differences between a childish impossibility - I can have anything and everything I want - and an adult one - I can live forever? Either way, leading naturally to the fundamental matters of sexuality and death. <a href="#Footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a>
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<a name="backto2"></a>
I became, of course, acquainted with the most widely accepted answer to the question: that sexual repression is the <i><u>sine</u> <u>qua</u> <u>non</u></i> of civilized life and that a whole raft of devices are used by one's “ego” to defend itself from the demands of the “id,” “superego,” and environment. <a href="#Footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> But this did not satisfy me leading as it did to the rather dismal and pessimistic view of human being as expressed in Freud's
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393301583/o/qid=927292460/sr=2-1/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>Civilization And Its Discontents</i></a>.
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In addition, my work in the history of the philosophy of science brought me to the following interesting quote from Karl Popper's
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415043182/qid=927292540/sr=1-1/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>Conjectures And Refutations:</i></a>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415043182/qid=927292540/sr=1-1/002-5207846-5648845" target="_new"><i>The Growth Of Scientific Knowledge</i></a>
(revised edition, 1972, pp. 34-38):
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<br />
<div class="popper">
<i>
I should perhaps briefly describe the atmosphere in which</i> [I began my work] <i>and the examples by which it was stimulated. After the collapse of the Austrian Empire there had been a revolution in Austria: the air was full of revolutionary slogans and ideas, and new and often wild theories. Among the theories which interested me . . . were . . . Freud's</i> [theory of] <i>psycho-analysis, and Alfred Adler's so-called 'individual psychology'.
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It was during the summer of 1919 that I began to feel more and more dissatisfied with these . . . theories . . .; and I began to feel dubious about their claims to scientific status. . . .</i> [W]<i>hat worried me was neither the problem of truth, at that stage at least, nor the problem of exactness or measurability. It was rather that I felt that these . . . theories, though posing as sciences, had in fact more in common with primitive myths than with science; that they resembled astrology rather than astronomy. . . .
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These theories appeared to be able to explain practically everything that happened within the fields to which they referred. The study of any of them seemed to have the effect of an intellectual conversion or revelation, opening your eyes to a new truth hidden from those not yet initiated. Once your eyes were thus opened you saw confirming instances everywhere: the world was full of verifications of the theory. Whatever happened always confirmed it. Thus its truth appeared manifest; and unbelievers were clearly people who did not want to see the manifest truth; who refused to see it . . . because of their repressions which were still 'un-analyzed' and crying aloud for treatment</i> [or, as would be stated today, because they were in denial]<i>. . . .
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<a name="backto3"></a>
The Freudian analysts emphasized that their theories were constantly verified by their 'clinical observations'. . . .</i>
<a href="#Footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a>
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<i>What, I asked myself, did</i> [this] <i>confirm? No more than that a case could be interpreted in the light of the theory. But this meant very little, I reflected, since every conceivable case could be interpreted in the light of Adler's theory, or equally of Freud's. . . . I could not think of any human behaviour which could not be interpreted in terms of either theory. It was precisely this fact - that they always fitted, that they were always confirmed - which in the eyes of their admirers constituted the strongest argument in favour of these theories. It began to dawn on me that this apparent strength was in fact their weakness. . . .
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The two psycho-analytic theories were . . . simply non-testable, irrefutable. There was no conceivable human behaviour which could contradict them. . . .</i> [This] <i>. . . mean</i>[s] <i>that those ‘clinical observations’ which analysts naively believe confirm their theory cannot do this any more than the daily confirmations which astrologers find in their practice. And as for Freud's epic of the Ego, the Super-ego, and the Id, no substantially stronger claim to scientific status can be made for it than for Homer's collected stories from Olympus.</i> <a href="#Footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a>
</div>
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<a name="backto5"></a>
The humanist critique of the psychological myth of paradise through self-knowledge recalls to us that we are all human beings - like children, discovering a strange world, not knowing where we came from or where we are going, we play games, we cry and laugh, we want to be “Big Daddy” Warbucks or Gina Rinehart, G. I. Jane or G. I. Joe, Dick Tracy or Brenda Starr, Kenneth or Gloria Copeland, Peter or Elizabeth Popoff.<a href="#Footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> We have bad dreams now, we get sick when we eat certain foods, we have impossible fantasies of sexual fulfillment, we want everybody to listen to us with great respect. And very soon we shall all be dead. When a person comes into our experience claiming to hold the keys to the inner door of this astonishing journey, we must begin by recognizing them as another human being. A human being is speaking, who was also a child and with whom other foods disagree and whose significant other is over-weight and who will also die one day. We may then listen to what this person has to say. But we shall take the attitude that it is just another human being that we are listening to. Most of those working in the therapeutic or “helping” agencies (organizations designed to do away with doubts about how <i>their</i> particular view of the world works [and in our addictive society there is a vast network of psycho-therapists, counselors, and social workers with just this function]) cannot put up with this attitude very well. Having identified with <i>their</i> particular <i>causa sui</i> project, they regard the attitude as an act of sacrilege in itself and as proof of the depravity of the one who maintains it. Their goal is not communication but conversion. They do not wish to understand but to conquer. As Ernest Becker has pointed out, the reasons for this response are most human ones indeed. But this does not mean that the psycho-therapeutic nomenclature should continue as an empirical measure within cultural conventions supporting the punishment of dissent, social control of deviants, or, at its most innocuous, fitting people uncritically into <i>their</i> standard hero-games.
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<a name="backto6"></a>
Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz raises four questions concerning the nature, scope, methods, and values of the psychotherapeutic enterprise; questions we would do well to ask our own therapists:
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<div class="popper">
1) Is the scope of psychotherapy the study and treatment of medical conditions, or the study and influencing of social performances? In other words, are the objects of psychotherapeutic inquiry diseases or roles, happenings or actions?
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2) Is the aim of psychotherapy the study of human behavior, or the control of human (mis) behavior? In other words, is the goal of psychotherapy the advancement of knowledge, or the regulation of (mis) conduct?
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3) Is the method of psychotherapy the exchange of communications, or the administration of diagnostic tests and curative treatments? In other words, what does psycho-therapeutic practice actually consist of - listening and talking, or prescribing drugs, operating on the brain [in the case of psychiatry], and imprisoning persons labeled as 'mentally ill'?
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4) Finally, is the guiding value of psychotherapy individualism or collectivism? In other words, does psychotherapy aspire to be the servant of the individual or of the state? <a href="#Footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a>
</div>
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Szasz suggests that contemporary psychotherapy hedges on all of these questions. And that indeed the mandate of the contemporary psychotherapist - that is, of the professionally loyal, “dynamic” or “progressive” psychotherapist - is precisely to obscure, and indeed deny, the ethical dilemmas of life, and to transform them into medicalized and technicalized problems susceptible to professional solutions.
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<a name="backto7"></a>
Today while the entire U. S. society is crumbling around an archaic CIA-congressional-corporate-educational-FBI-financial-industrial-media-medical-military-NSA-police-political-prison-Secret-Service-terrorism-expert complex (or “hero-system”), unrelated to the needs and challenges of contemporary life, we see an apparent incapability and / or lack of imagination in our people to reconstruct the society around goals of peace and social justice. More importantly, the margin that nature has been giving to our cultural fantasy is suddenly being narrowed down drastically with the consequences that for the first time in history we, if we are to survive, have to bring down to zero the large fictional element in our hero-systems. Men of good will could begin with the therapeutic relationship, recalling Paul Feyerabend's description of the role of the “expert” in a free society:
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<br />
<div class="popper">
[E]xperts are humans just as we are; . . . they have therefore the ability to produce bright ideas and the related ability to commit grievous mistakes. <a href="#Footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a>
</div>
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<table border="0" style="width: 97%px;">
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<td align="center" valign="top"><span style="color: silver;">
One way or another, we're all baying at the moon.
</span>
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<br />
<span style="color: grey;">
Chris Locke (a. k. a. RageBoy) in
<a href="http://www.rageboy.com/0.60.html" target="_new"><i>Dust My Broom</i></a>
</span>
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THE END
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<a name="Footnote1">1</a> There's a real bias being expressed here as
all of these works are written by men. One of my growth areas during
the past four years is to have started reading the women's perspective
on this issue; cf. e. g., Kate Millet, <u>Sexual</u> <u>Politics </u>(1970),
Susan Brownmiller, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0449908208/qid=947987596/sr=1-1/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">Against
Our Will: Men, Women and Rape</a> (1975), Andrea Dworkin, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452267935/qid=947987708/sr=1-12/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">Pornography:
Men Possessing Women</a> (1981), Susan Griffin, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060909153/qid=947987849/sr=1-23/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">Pornography
and Silence: Culture's Revenge Against Nature</a> (1981), Adrienne
Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence," <u>Signs</u>
5(4), Margaret Jackson, "Sexual Liberation or Social Control?" and "Sex
Research and the Construction of Sexuality: A Tool of Male Supremacy"
in Coveney, L., et al., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0091569710/qid=947988114/sr=1-12/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">The
Sexuality Papers: Male Sexuality And The Social Control Of Women</a>
(1984), Anne Wilson Schaef, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062507702/qid=947988288/sr=1-13/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">Women's
Reality: An Emerging Female System in the White Male Society</a>
(3rd edition, 1992), Margaret Jackson, "“'Facts of Life' Or The Eroticization
of Women's Oppression? Sexology and the Social Construction of Heterosexuality”'
in Pat Caplan, ed., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415040132/qid=947988396/sr=1-2/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">The
Cultural Construction of Sexuality</a> (1987), Anne Wilson Schaef, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0062548549/qid=947988462/sr=1-12/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">When
Society Becomes An Addict</a> (1987).
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<a name="Footnote2">2</a> Sigmund Freud had originally proposed nine “defense
mechanisms” - regression, repression, reaction formation, isolation, undoing,
projection, introjection, turing against the self, and reversal - to which
his daughter, Anna, added a tenth, sublimation. I believe the most
recent count is twenty-four, including: acting out, avoidance, <u>denial</u>,
aestheticism, altruistic surrender, clowning, compliance, counterphobia,
whistling in the dark, not to mention any more (before all of human being
is included as a defence mechanism).
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<a name="Footnote3">3</a> See <a href="#Appendix1">Appendix 1</a> for
a footnote from Popper which clarifies what the Freudians meant by 'clinical
observations'. Cf. <a href="#fourfromthree">Footnote 4.</a>
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<a name="Footnote4">4</a> More recently, Paul Kline, in a review of research
on Freudian hypotheses, found large numbers of studies that failed one
or more of the simple criteria for satisfactory research design (Paul Kline,
"Sexual Deviation: Psychoanalytic Research and Theory," in Glenn
D. Wilson, ed., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801834643/qid=947989332/sr=1-2/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">Variant
Sexuality: Research And Theory</a> [Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1987], pp. 150-175. Compare also: Hans J.
Eysenck, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801834643/qid=947989332/sr=1-2/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">Decline
And Fall Of The Freudian Empire</a> (Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1985),
Adolf Grunbaum, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520050177/qid=947989558/sr=1-2/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">The
Foundations Of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique</a> (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1984), Jeffrey M. Masson, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671025716/qid=947989594/sr=1-1/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">The
Assualt On Truth: Freud's Suppression Of The Seduction Theory</a>
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984).
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<a name="fourfromthree">4</a> More recently, Paul Kline, in a review of
research on Freudian hypotheses, found large numbers of studies that failed
one or more of the simple criteria for satisfactory research design (Paul
Kline, "Sexual Deviation: Psychoanalytic Research and Theory," in
Glenn D. Wilson, ed., <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801834643/qid=947989332/sr=1-2/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">Variant
Sexuality: Research And Theory</a> [Baltimore: John Hopkins
University Press, 1987], pp. 150-175. Compare also: Hans J.
Eysenck, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0801834643/qid=947989332/sr=1-2/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">Decline
And Fall Of The Freudian Empire</a> (Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1985),
Adolf Grunbaum, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520050177/qid=947989558/sr=1-2/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">The
Foundations Of Psychoanalysis: A Philosophical Critique</a> (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1984), Jeffrey M. Masson, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671025716/qid=947989594/sr=1-1/102-8424547-6349604" target="_new">The
Assualt On Truth: Freud's Suppression Of The Seduction Theory</a>
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984).
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Click <a href="#Footnote3">here</a> to return to article
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<a name="Footnote5">5</a> See the 1992 American dramedy “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkMqRDBKUwM" target="_new">Leap of Faith</a>” starring Steve Martin and Debra Winger (amongst others). A story about Jonas Nightengale. the fradulent faith
healer, and Jane, his friend and manager (both loosely based on Peter and Elizabeth Popoff), who make a living traveling around America holding revival meetings and conducting 'miracles'.
Read more about the loosely based couple in James Randi's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Faith-Healers-James-Randi/dp/0879755350" target="_new"><b><i><u>The Faith Healers</u></i></b></a>.
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Click <a href="#backto5">here</a> to return to article!
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<a name="Footnote6">6</a> Thomas S. Szasz, “Crime, Punishment, and Psychiatry,”
in Abraham S. Blumberg, ed., <u>Current</u> <u>Perspectives</u> <u>On</u> <u>Criminal</u> <u>Behavior:</u>
<u>Essays</u> <u>On</u> <u>Criminology</u>, 2nd ed. (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1981), pp. 342-363.
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<a name="Footnote7">7</a> Paul Feyerabend, “Experts In A Free Society,”
<u>The Critic</u>,
Nov. - Dec., 1970, p.69.
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<center>
<a name="Appendix1"></a>Appendix 1
</center>
<br />
Footnote 3 to Chapter 1 of Karl Popper's <u>Conjectures</u> <u>And</u> <u>Refutations</u>:
<br />
<br />
'Clinical observations', like all other observations,
are <u>interpretations</u> <u>in</u> <u>the</u> <u>light</u> <u>of</u> <u>theories</u>
. . .; and for this reason alone they are apt to seem to support those
theories in the light of which they were interpreted. But real support
can be obtained only from observations undertaken as tests (by 'attempted
refutations'); and for this purpose <u>criteria</u> <u>of</u> <u>refutation</u>
have to be laid down beforehand: it must be agreed which observable
situations, if actually observed, mean that the theory is refuted.
But what kind of clinical responses would refute to the satisfaction of
the analyst not merely a particular analytic diagnosis but psycho-analysis
itself? And have such criteria ever been discussed or agreed upon
by analysts? Is there not, on the contrary, a whole family of analytic
concepts, such as 'ambivalence' . . . which would make it difficult, if
not impossible, to agree upon such criteria? Moreover, how much headway
has been made investigating the question of the extent to which the (conscious
or unconscious) expectations and theories held by the analyst influence
the 'clinical responses' of the patient? (To say nothing about the
conscious attempts to influence the patient by proposing interpretations
to her, etc.) Years ago I introduced the term '<u>Oedipus</u> <u>effect</u>'
to describe the influence of a theory or expectation or prediction <u>upon</u> <u>the</u>
<u>event</u> <u>which</u> <u>it</u> <u>predicts</u> or describes: it will
be remembered that the causal chain leading to Oedipus' parricide was started
by the oracle's prediction of this event. This is a characteristic
and recurrent theme of such myths, but one which seems to have failed
to attract the interest of the analysts, perhaps not accidentally.
(The problem of confirmatory dreams suggested by the analyst is discussed
by Freud, for example in <u>Gesammelte</u> <u>Schriften</u>, III, 1925,
where he says on p. 314: 'If anybody asserts that most of the dreams
which can be utilized in an analysis . . . owe their origin to [the analyst's]
suggestion, then no objection can be made from the point of view of analytic
theory. Yet there is nothing in this fact', he surprisingly adds,
'which would detract from the reliability of our results.')
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[Click <a href="#Footnote3">here</a> to return to the article]
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USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1032699675159466862.post-87311435461372187282014-08-17T07:56:00.000-07:002019-11-18T16:09:15.498-08:00African Americans vs. "evil rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places" (aka rich Republicans and / or neo-conservatives [including their Democratic sychophants], and hangers-on) . . .<p><a name="Footnote1_return"></a>
Well, I've read Orwell's <b><u><i>1984</i></u></b>, was in the deep South during the race riots that began in Greensboro, NC, February 1, 1960, and in the late '70s (early '80s?), read and have an affinity with Paul Feyerabend 's general description of the “political process” (see below). <a href="#Footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a>
<br />
<br />
From these perspectives, the events unfolding in Ferguson, MO the past few days (since the “police” [four different police forces have been involved] shooting of an unarmed teenager there on August 9, 2014) underscore the questions asked in my last blog entry (July 9, 2014 “My response to John Whiteheads June 10, 2014 ‘<a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/06/10/john-whitehead-guest-column-washington-arming-public/" target="_blank">guest column</a>’” on Paul Craig Roberts' Institute for Political Economy <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/" target="_blank">WWW site</a>) and further provide examples in line with analogies in the rest of the world as exclamation points.
<br />
<br />
<a name="Footnote2_return"></a>
Before we begin with a 9 minute 37 second news clip of the St. Louis County Police Department's “infantry battalion” <b>response?</b> on the evening of August 13 to the concerned citizens of Ferguson, MO “testifying for” their right to know and understand the background behind the killing of the unarmed teenager, I would like to point out that “testifying for” is the meaning of the word “protest.” And that as we continue our journey on the way to peace, we place ourselves in a position of psychological disadvantage if we use the word “protest” because it has been tainted with a negative connotation by the <u><b>military-industrial-CIA-corporate-educational-FBI-financial-media-medical-NSA-police-political-prison-Secret-Service-terrorism-expert</b></u> complex (or “hero system”). <a href="#Footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ediguys.net/St_Louis_County_Police_Open_Fire_Into_Peaceful_Testifying_Neighborhood.mp4" target="blank">St. Louis County Police Open Fire on Peacefully Testifying Neighbors</a> (news clip)
<br />
<br />
<a name="Footnote3_return"></a>
Before looking at the demographics (which are certain to have some impact) of the social problems presented by this situation, I mentioned Paul Feyerabend's general description of the “political process” above:
<br />
<br />
“<i>The way in which social problems, problems of energy distribution, ecology,<br />
education, care for the old and so on are ‘solved’ in our societies can be roughly<br />
described in the following way. A problem arises. Nothing is done about it.<br />
People get concerned. Politicians broadcast this concern. Experts are called in.<br />
They develop a plan or a variety of plans. Power-groups with experts of their<br />
own effect various modifications until a watered down version is accepted and<br />
realized. The role of experts in this process has gradually increased. Intellectuals<br />
have developed theories about the application of science to social problems.<br />
‘To get ideas’ they ask other intellectuals, or politicians. Only rarely does it<br />
occur to them that it is not their business <u>but</u> <u>the</u> <u>business</u> <u>of</u> <u>those</u> <u>immediately</u><br />
<u>concerned</u> to decide the matter. They simply take it for granted that their<br />
ideas and those of their colleagues are the only important ones and that people<br />
have to adapt to them.</i>” <a href="#Footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a>
<br />
<br />
<a name="Footnote4_return"></a>As <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/14/1321440/-Michael-Brown-s-School" target="_blank">Mike Summer</a> points out in his diary (read the comments to his diary also), the Normandy School District (a merger of two of the poorest, most heavily minority populations ‐ Normandy and Wellston ‐ around St. Louis) has a poverty rate of 92% (Wellston's poverty rate is 98% and 100% minority). <a href="#Footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a>
<br />
<br />
<a name="Footnote5_return"></a>How much does a box of Swisher Sweets cost? A 60 count box for $21.99 at Good Luck Wholesale ($44.00 - $50.00 retail). What would be the selling price in the “black” market for one of those cigarillos? $1.50? $2.50? There must have been a market! <a href="#Footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> Though as <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/07/1327452/--No-it-really-was-just-an-effort-to-smear-Michael-Brown" target="_blank">Hunter</a>'s diary suggests, why are we even dwelling on this question?
<br />
<br />
More interesting is the “politics” of the school district (stay with me through Mike's description):
<br />
<br />
“. . . [T]he state education board voted to <a href="https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/20009/missouri_school_board_votes_to_merge_wellston_school_district_into_normandy_;" target="_blank">merge</a> the districts in 2010 (the first change to state school district boundaries in thirty-five years). Plagued by white flight, crashing property values that destroyed tax revenues, and a loss of state funds as the better‐off residents of the area sent their children to private schools, the resulting district is short of everything. Residents of the district voted again and again to raise their own property taxes, until their rates were actually the highest in the state, but a higher percentage of nothing was still nothing, and district revenues trended steadily down.
<br />
<br />
After the merger, the state board proceeded with the next step in their plan. In 2012, they rated Normandy as a failed district, removed its accreditation, and placed it under direct state control. The idea was to reform the district to the state board's design, only there was one problem: the Missouri State Supreme Court ruled that students in a failed district had the right to go to other districts. Hundreds of Normandy students signed up to do just that, heading for classrooms in surrounding districts, some of which were majority white. At first, this <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/white-district-sends-black-kids-back-failed-schools" target="_blank">generated tension</a>.
<br />
<br />
News of the Supreme Court's upholding of the transfer law initially sparked anger<br />
and fear among some white Francis Howell parents.
<br />
<br />
“I deserve to not have to worry about my children getting stabbed, or taking a<br />
drug, or getting robbed,” one mother said during a school board meeting,<br />
referring to the prospective arrival of Normandy students.
<br />
<br />
“We don't want this here in Francis Howell,” another parent said.
<br />
<br />
But for the most part that attitude didn't last. Normandy students settled in at their new districts, and despite a financial drain ‐ Normandy had to cover the cost of transportation and pay tuition to the other districts for those students who transferred ‐ things seemed on an upswing in the district.
<br />
<br />
“...the remaining students and school community came together to celebrate<br />
a spirit of new beginnings. They held pep rallies and welcome‐back‐to‐school<br />
gatherings. Students at Normandy High School said they began tutoring each<br />
other to improve the school's academic ranking...
<br />
<br />
“Indeed, walking the halls of Normandy High School at the beginning of the<br />
school year, there was a sense of optimism despite the dire state of things.
<br />
<br />
Well, you know what they say about optimists.
<br />
<br />
Funding the transfer students was costing the district more than it cost to educate students within the district. Part of that was transportation, but most of it was the simple fact that other districts spent far more on their students than the poverty‐stricken Normandy district.
<br />
<br />
The state board of education took over the district's finances, but rather than providing a new stream of revenue, they figured out a simple way to <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/state-school-board-adjusts-normandy-s-accreditation/article_98176510-4160-5a2f-a0fd-02017227b260.html" target="_blank">reduce costs</a>:
<br />
<br />
“On Friday afternoon, the board met in a hastily called meeting to change<br />
Normandy's accreditation status ‐‐ or at least how that accreditation is<br />
described. Normandy now has ‘accreditation as a state oversight district,’<br />
the revised June minutes now read.
<br />
<br />
Get that? The state board, which had taken away the accreditation, now argued that Normandy was accredited, magically, without having the district actually meet any of the standards they had set. How did that happen?
<br />
<br />
“The Missouri State Board of Education, pursuant to its statutory authority<br />
to waive its rules, including those regulating accreditation, has accredited<br />
the Normandy Schools Collaborative and thus its schools, the state's motion<br />
to the court says. Because of that accreditation, the Plaintiffs are not entitled<br />
to relief . . . .”
<br />
<br />
The school is now accredited because the board has the right to ignore the law the board claimed it was enforcing in the first place, and parents now have no right to transfer their kids to another district ... because the school is accredited.
<br />
<br />
Naturally, the case is headed <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/once-again-a-judge-holds-the-fate-of-hundreds-of/article_f91ccaf8-57bc-5dfb-807e-b0f4692826fc.html" target="_blank">back to court</a>. And if the accreditation by decree isn't enough for you, there's another bit of magic applied by the board. That transfer law? It only applies to school districts. But see, Normandy Schools are no longer in a school district. Normandy schools are now in a special <a href="http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/missouri-board-education-approves-replacing-normandy-school-district-new-organization" target="_blank">collaborative</a> and, according to the state board, “are not in any district in this state.” So there you go. You can't transfer from a district if you're not in a district, and if you happen to be in a district, it's magically accredited. Problem solved.
<br />
<br />
So, who actually runs the school district that Michael Brown attended? Well, the president of the board of education is Peter F. Herschend of Branson, Missouri. Herschend isn't a former teacher, or a former principal, and doesn't have any training in the education field. He's the owner of <a href="http://www.hfecorp.com/" target="_blank">Herschend Family Entertainment</a>, which runs Silver Dollar City in Branson (amongst other amusement parks) and owns the Harlem Globetrotters. He's also one of the biggest contributors to the Republican Party in the state.
<br />
<br />
So, when you're wondering who runs Michael Brown's school district ‐ when you're wondering who's in control of an urban, minority district so poor that a student has to steal a bunch of cigarillos to survive ‐ it's a white Republican millionaire from out state.”
<br />
<br />
<a name="Footnote6_return"></a>Finally, at the Federal level, it is interesting to note that the St Louis County Police Chief was amongst a host of other county police chiefs from around the country who have attended <a href="http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/251178/3/St-Louis-County-Police-Chief-Timothy-Fitch-visits-Israel-for-counter-terrorism" target="_blank">counter-terrorism training in Israel</a>! <a href="#Footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a>
<br />
<br />
Lately the words of Amos to Israel from the Hebrew Original Witnessing (echoed by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Haggai to Judah) have been ringing clear: “<i>Woe to you who turn justice to vinegar and stomp righteousness into the mud. Do you realize where you are? . . . People hate this kind of talk. Raw truth is never popular. But here it is, bluntly spoken: Because you run roughshod over the poor and take the bread right out of their mouths, you're never going to move into the luxury homes you have built. You're never going to drink wine from the expensive vineyards you've planted. . . . Justice is a lost cause. Evil is epidemic. Decent people throw up their hands. Protest and rebuke are useless, a waste of breath. . . . Hate evil and love good, then work it out in the public square. . . . Go out into the streets and lament loudly! Fill the malls and shops with cries of doom! Weep loudly,</i> ‘Not me! Not us! Not now!’ <i>Empty offices, stores, factories, workplaces. Enlist everyone in the general lament. . . . I can't stand your religious meetings. I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I'm sick of your fund‐raising schemes, your public relations and image making. . . . Do you know what I want? I want justice ‐ oceans of it. I want fairness ‐ rivers of it. That's what I want. That's all I want.</i>”
</p>
<p>
<a name="Updates_return"></a>Updates:
<ins>
<ul>
<li>
August 16, 2014 ‐ <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/judge-rules-in-favor-of-normandy-families-who-want-to/article_7e8882af-c282-5b49-ac47-91ec70d1102b.html" target="_new">Judge rules in favor of Normandy families who want to transfer schools</a> unfortunately, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article filed with static and pop-up advertisements often blotting out the news.
</li>
<li>
August 19, 2014 ‐ Looks like the people of Ferguson hold quite a bit of power afterall . . . See Walt starr's <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/19/1323089/-The-People-of-Ferguson-Have-the-Power-To-FIRE-the-Entire-Police-Force" target="_blank">diary</a> on the Daily Kos . . . .
</li>
<li>
August 20, 2014 ‐ Apparently a pattern has been established . . . <a href="http://www.ediguys.net/Kajierne_Powell_Police_killing.mp4" target="_blank">video</a> of the St. Louis Police killing of a black, mentally ill 25 year old just four miles from where the August 9 killing took place . . . .
</li>
<li>
August 29, 2014 ‐ Best overall analysis of the situation not only in Ferguson, MO but also in the United Orwellian States of Amerika ‐ “"<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ferguson-wasnt-black-rage-against-copsit-was-white-rage-against-progress/2014/08/29/3055e3f4-2d75-11e4-bb9b-997ae96fad33_story.html" target="_blank">Ferguson isn't about black rage against cops. It's about white rage against progress</a>” . . . .
</li>
<li>
September 7, 2014 ‐ <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/08/1328006/-Guardian-Reports-Stunning-New-Facts-Re-White-Cop-s-Murder-of-Black-Wal-Mart-Shopper-Crawford" target="_blank">New light</a> on an old story (August 5, 2014 police killing of a 24 year old black shopper in a Wal‐Mart store in Beavercreek, OH) . . . .
</li>
<li>
November 24, 2014 ‐ In response to the St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch's ‐ how shall we say it? “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subornation_of_perjury" target="_blank">subornation of perjury</a>” ‐ in the “handling” <a href="#Footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a> of the St. Louis Grand Jury to return <b><u>his</u></b> verdict of “No True Bill” indictment, I must now add that in the past I've also read Kafka's <b><i><u>The</u> <u>Trial</u></i></b>. And, in particular, the inclusion in that book of the fable “<a href="http://www.germanlawjournal.com/pdfs/Vol14-No2/04%20PDF_Vol_14_No_02_405-422_Articles_Teubner.pdf" target="_blank">Before the Law</a>” previously published by Kafka. . . . <a href="#Footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a>
</li>
<li>
December 9, 2014 ‐ Calling the kettle <b>white</b> ‐ “<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/09/1350586/-Thug-Kills-White-Prosecutor-and-Wife-in-Texas" target="_blank">Thug Kills White Prosecutor and Wife in Texas</a>” ‐ and the difference being <b>white</b> makes . . . .
</li>
<li>
December 11, 2014 ‐ The reports just keep pouring in from around the country . . . Georgia man killed in drug raid was “<a href="http://reason.com/blog/2014/12/11/georgia-man-killed-in-drug-raid-was-face" target="_blank">face down when shot in the head</a>” . . . and back . . . .
</li>
<li>
December 18, 2014 ‐ Angela Davis ‐ “Right on!” again ‐ “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/01/michael-brown-assata-shakur-racist-state-of-america" target="_blank">From Michael Brown to Assata Shakur, the racist state of America persists</a>” . . . .
</li>
<li>
December 31, 2014 ‐ the folks over at “<a href="http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/ target="_blank">Mapping Police Violence</a>” have done a real service in analyzing at least 1,175 of the persons killed by police in 2014. At least twenty-six percent of that number (302) were African-American while at least eight percent of that number (98) were white. African-Americans make up approximately thirteen percent of the population of the United States. So, African-Americans were killed by police at twice the rate of their representation in the general population. See the map, notes, and charts on the WWW site link above.
</li>
<li>
January 5, 2015 ‐ A member of the St. Louis County Grand Jury in the determination of the “No True Bill” indictment in the Ferguson, MO killing of the unarmed teenager is <a href="http://www.aclumo.org/files/4214/2047/0504/Grand_Jurur_Doe_Complaint_1-5-15.pdf" target="_blank">suing the suborner</a>! . . . .
</li>
<li>
May 4, 2015 ‐ A <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/04/1381774/-A-White-Son-Of-Ferguson-On-Why-St-Louis-Can-t-Change" target="_blank">White Son Of Ferguson On Why St. Louis Can't Change</a> ‐ a long history . . . .
</li>
<li>
May 5, 2015 ‐ <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/federal-judge-says-st-louis-county-grand-juror-s-request/article_34b4827c-d8ee-5d7d-970d-2ea1a534ff46.html" target="_new">Federal judge says St. Louis County grand juror's request to talk about Ferguson belongs in Missouri court"</a>
</li>
<li>
May 15, 2015 ‐ Ken Burns' <a href="http://www.ediguys.net/Ken_Burns_Commencement_Address_St_Louis_University_20150515.html" target="_blank">Commencement Address</a> to the 2015 Graduates of St Louis University . . . .
</li>
<li>
March 26, 2017 ‐ a series of artistic updates:
</li>
<ul>
<li>
Hell You Talmbout ‐ Hanelle Monáe and Wondaland's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fumaCsQ9wKw" target="_blank">music video</a> ‐ repetition of names of the many African-Americans killed by police over the years
</li>
<li>
Washington Post writer Wesley Lowery's 2016 book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/They-Cant-Kill-All-Baltimore/dp/0316312479" target="_blank">They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement</a>
</li>
<li>
Miguel's <a href="http://soundcloud.com/miguel/how-many-ruff-1" target="_new">How Many</a> (<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/hear-miguels-black-lives-matter-song-how-many-20160708" target="_blank">Rolling Stone's backgrounder</a>)
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<center>
<img src="http://www.ediguys.net/images/Tes_One_Stand_Our_Ground_Poster.jpg" alt="Tes One's “Stand Our Ground” Poster" height="659" width="480">
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<b>Tes One's “Stand Our Ground” Poster</b>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hate-U-Give-Angie-Thomas/dp/0062498533" target="_blank">The Hate U Give</a> - Angie Thomas' 2017 best selling book for teens and young adults
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Background on the <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/grand-juror-cant-write-about-serving-on-michael-brown-case/" target="_new">Missouri courts decisions to dismiss</a> Grand Juror Doe's lawsuit vs the "suborner" - St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert P. McCulloch.
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</ul>
</ul>
</ins>
To tell the truth - what a tangled web we weave!
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<a name="Footnote1">1</a> The quoted reference in the subject of this blog post is to a verse in the Christian Belated Witnessing ‐ <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Ephesians%206%3A12" target="_blank">Ephesians 6:12</a>. As <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/12/11/cia-torture-report/" target="_blank">Paul Craig Roberts</a> writes, “The only exceptional thing about the US is the extent of the evil that resides in Washington, D.C.” In addition, see his “<a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2014/12/12/brink-war-economic-collapse-paul-craig-roberts/" target="_blank">On the Brink of War and Economic Collapse</a>”. While outside “the Beltway,” consider what U. S. Marine General Smedley Butler said of his service in Central America, “<i>I served in all commissioned ranks from second lieutenant to Major General. And during that period I spent most of my time being a high‐class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street, and for the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism</i>.”
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<a name="Footnote2">2</a> Peace is war for the neo-conservatives (<a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf" target="_blank">Project for the New American Century</a>) and their puppet in the White House (<i>Cf</i>. for examples, Dr. Cornel West [Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary] on the “<a href="http://www.ediguys.net/Niggerization_of_America_Prof_Cornel_West.mp4" target="_blank">Niggerization of America</a>” and “<a href="http://www.ediguys.net/Cornell_West_Goes_OFF_on_Obama.mp4" target="_blank">Going Off on Obama</a>” and my more recent blog entry based on a reference on Paul Craig Robert's <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/" target="_blank">Institute for Political Economy</a> blog to Thad Beversdorf's recent analysis, in addition to the "Nuclear Vault" in the National Security Archive at George Washington University, and David Keen's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Useful-Enemies-Waging-Important-Winning/dp/030016274X" target="_blank">Useful Enemies: When Waging Wars is More Important than Winning Them</a> ‐ “<a href="http://ushanabi.blogspot.com/2017/03/pnac-historical-documentation-and-even.html" target="_blank">PNAC Historical Documentation and even Democrats enamored with all things Russian . . . not admitting The Most Essential Lessons of History</a>”; also see the items for the August 29th, December 18th, and May 4th “Updates” at the conclusion of this blog post.)
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<a name="Footnote3">3</a> <b><i><u>Science</u> <u>in</u> <u>a</u> <u>Free</u> <u>Society</u></i></b> [London, England: NLB, 1978], pp. 117 ff. For an even more realistic view (taking into account the importance of money in the media / political process) see Bill Moyer's interview with Marty Kaplan (Norman Lear Professor of Entertainment, Media and Society at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California) “<a href="http://billmoyers.com/segment/marty-kaplan-on-big-moneys-effect-on-big-media/" target="_blank">Big Money's Effect on Big Media</a>”.
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<a name="Footnote4">4</a> See the 2010 Census Block Data <a href="http://www.ediguys.net/images/2010_Census_Block_Data_St_Louis_MO.jpg" target="_blank">graphic</a> for St. Louis, MO. Click <a href="http://www.coopercenter.org/demographics/Racial-Dot-Map" target="_blank">here</a> for further information on the methodology. <i>Cf</i>. the recent <a href="http://www.ediguys.net/images/New_Yorker_Cover_20141208.jpg" target="_blank">New Yorker cover</a> and Jessie Hagopian's blog on what can be called the “<a href="http://iamaneducator.com/2014/08/" target="_blank">school-to-prison vs. school-to-grave</a>” pipeline for African-American children. And, remember “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/05/us/herman-wallace-held-41-years-in-solitary-dies-at-71.html" target="_blank">the Angola 3</a>” (see also one or more of the three documentary films “<b>In The Land of the Free</b>”, “<b>Hard Time</b>”, and “<a href="http://hermanshouse.org/" target="_blank">Herman's House</a>”).
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<a name="Footnote5">5</a> See the more recent strangling death of a black person (Eric Garner) by a white police officer <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-xHqf1BVE4" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT66U_Ftdng" target="_blank">also here</a> for <b><u>selling</u> <u>cigarettes</u></b>!
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<a name="Footnote6">6</a> Again, in case you missed it from its reference in footnote 2, see for deep background, my more recent blog entry based on a reference on Paul Craig Robert's <a href="http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/" target="_blank">Institute for Political Economy</a> blog to Thad Beversdorf's recent analysis, in addition to the "Nuclear Vault" in the National Security Archive at George Washington University, and David Keen's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Useful-Enemies-Waging-Important-Winning/dp/030016274X" target="_blank">Usefull Enemies: When Waging Wars is More Important than Winning Them</a> ‐ “<a href="http://ushanabi.blogspot.com/2017/03/pnac-historical-documentation-and-even.html" target="_blank">PNAC Historical Documentation and even Democrats enamored with all things Russian . . . not admitting The Most Essential Lessons of History</a>”!
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<a name="Footnote7">7</a> For a beginning look at how the suborner “handled” the grand jury process see <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/25/1347320/-The-questions-no-one-asked-St-Louis-prosecutor-Bob-McCulloch" target="_blank">Questions No One Asked</a>!
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<a name="Footnote8">8</a> For additional insightful background on <b><i><u>The</u> <u>Trial</u></i></b>, see Jacques Derrida's article “Before the Law” in his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/reader/0415900573" target="_blank">Acts of Literature</a>; see also (if you can find it in English translation) his <b><i><u>Force</u> <u>of</u> <u>Law:</u> <u>The</u> <u>Mystical</u> <u>Foundation</u> <u>of</u> <u>Authority</u></i></b>, 1990.
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</p>USHANABIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06514628397678582761noreply@blogger.com0