Activism: Quality, Not Quantity

Activism: Quality, Not Quantity

By Mickey Z
Counterpunch.org
November 30, 2014

In the Vietnam War protest song “Five to One,” Jim Morrison
of The Doors sings:

The old get old/And the young get stronger
May take a week/And it may take longer
They got the guns/But we got the numbers
Gonna win, yeah/We’re takin’ over

In my youth, I took solace in the whole “we got the numbers” thing
but it eventually became crystal clear that the ones with the guns
have had it all figured out for a very, very long time.

Philosopher David Hume, in 1758, explained it this way:

“As force is always on side of the governed, the governors have
nothing to support them but opinion. It is, therefore, on opinion
only that government is founded and this maxim extends to the
most despotic and most military governments as well as to the
most free and most popular.”

“The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the
wonders of the Western world,” added Gore Vidal.

“No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely
from its media all objectivity, much less dissent.”

This potent combination of muscle and misinformation manifested
itself in the events leading up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

On Feb. 15 of that year, tens of millions of earthlings marched and
carried signs to declare their unambiguous disapproval of America’s
plan to drastically ratchet up what had essentially been a 12-plus
year war against the people of Iraq.

But…

* The massive global protests were ignored by the elites.

* The shock-and-awe invasion went on as planned.

* The occupation, violence, and despair continue to this day.

Doesn’t say a whole lot for “having the numbers,” huh?

“We” have had the numbers time and time again since then.

Even at the overhyped climate parade in September 2014,
roughly 125,000 humans marched in NYC.

But, as long as America’s ruling elite has no intention of changing
the dominant paradigm, we remain on a runaway train to ecocide
— no matter how many of us show up.

In these and countless other cases, “we” have had the numbers.

“We” still have the numbers.

Morrison’s “they,” however, give no indication they’ll be
surrendering their guns any time soon.

As a result, dissent in America is pretty much limited to permitted
marches, protests, boycotts, petitions, candlelight vigils,
documentaries, free speech zones, the occasional vote for a third
party candidate, and articles like this one.

All of these methods (at least in their safe-for-mass-consumption
versions) are deemed “legal” by those with the guns and, in their
own way, legitimize the power held by those with the guns.

Thus, all such tactics are ultimately futile in terms of provoking
systemic, long term change.

If you don’t believe me, ask yourself why you haven’t taken your
rebellion beyond the methods listed above.

Your answer is likely the same as mine:

“We got the numbers, but they got the guns.”

Maybe author Derrick Jensen had it right when he said:

“We still think we have something to lose. That’s what’s
stopping us. As soon as we realize we have nothing left to
lose we’ll be dangerous.”

After all, in “Five to One,” Jim Morrison also sang:

“No one here gets out alive.”



Mickey Z. is the author of 12 books, most recently Occupy this
Book: Mickey Z. on Activism.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/11/28/activism-quality-not-
quantity

I Stopped Caring Today

I Stopped Caring Today

Via - Charlie Delta
By Lt. Daniel Furseth
November 28, 2014

Today, I stopped caring about my fellow man.

I stopped caring about my community, my neighbors, and those
I serve.

I stopped caring today because a once noble profession has
become despised, hated, distrusted, and mostly unwanted.

I stopped caring today because parents refuse to teach their kids
right from wrong and blame us when they are caught breaking the
law.

I stopped caring today because parents tell their little kids to
be good or “the police will take you away” embedding a fear
from year one.

Moms hate us in their schools because we frighten them
and remind them of the evil that lurks in the world.

They would rather we stay unseen, but close by if needed,
but readily available to “fix their kid.”

I stopped caring today because we work to keep our streets safe
from mayhem in the form of reckless, drunk, high, or speeding
drivers, only to be hated for it, yet hated even more because we
didn’t catch the drunk before he killed someone they may know.

Nevertheless, we are just another tool used by government
to generate “revenue.”

I stopped caring today because Liberals hate the police
as we carry guns, scare kids, and take away their drugs.

We always kill innocent people with unjust violence.

We are called bullies for using a Taser during a fight, but are
condemned further for not first tasing the guy who pulls a gun
on us.

And if we do have to shoot, we are asked “why didn’t you just
shoot the gun out of their hand?”

And when one of us is killed by the countless attacks that do
happen (but are rarely reported in the mainstream media) the
haters say, “Its just part of the job.”

I stopped caring today because Conservatives hate us as we are
“the Government.”

We try to take away their guns, freedoms, and liberty at every
turn.

We represent a “Police State” where “jackbooted badge-wearing
thugs” randomly attack innocent people without cause or concern
for constitutional rights.

We are Waco, Ruby Ridge, and Rodney King all rolled into one
lone police officer stopping to help change an old lady’s tire.

I stopped caring today as no one wants us around, but instantly
demands answers, results, arrests, when a crime takes place.

If a crime isn’t solved within the allocated 60 minutes it takes CSI
on television, we are inept, incompetent, or covering something
up.

If we do get “lucky” it was just that and everyone with a Facebook
account can post wonderful comments of how “they” would solve
the case and how “we” are not nearly as clever.

I stopped caring today because a video of a cop six states away,
from a department that you never heard of, screws up and forgets
his oath of honor, thus firing up an internet lynch-mob of cop haters
even though 99% of us work twice as hard not to end up in the news
and to still be “the good guys.”

We are “militarized” because we wear body armor and kevlar
helmets when shots are fired or rocks thrown at us and carry
scary looking rifles even though everyone knows that they
are easier to shoot and are more accurate than a handgun or
a shotgun.

I stopped caring today because the culture of today’s instantly
connected youth is only there to take and never give back.

To never accept responsibility for ones actions, but to blame
everyone else instead of themselves.

To ask “what is in it for me?” versus “what can I do for you?”

To idolize gangsters, thugs, sexually promiscuous behavior,
and criminals over hard work, dedication, and achievement.

To argue that getting stoned should be a right, yet getting
a job or an education is a hassle.

To steal versus earn.

To hate versus help.

Yes, I stopped caring today.

But tomorrow, I will put my uniform back on and I will care again.



Daniel Furseth is a Lieutenant with the DeForest, Wisconsin Police Department.

Confessions Of A Saint

Confessions Of A Saint

Via - Thomas Martini
By Benjamin Watson
November 26, 2014

At some point while I was playing or preparing to play Monday
Night Football, the news broke about the Ferguson Decision.

After trying to figure out how I felt, I decided to write it down.

Here are my thoughts:

I'M ANGRY because the stories of injustice that have been passed
down for generations seem to be continuing before our very eyes.

I'M FRUSTRATED, because pop culture, music and movies glorify
these types of police citizen altercations and promote an invincible
attitude that continues to get young men killed in real life, away
from safety movie sets and music studios.

I'M FEARFUL because in the back of my mind I know that although
I'm a law abiding citizen I could still be looked upon as a "threat"
to those who don't know me.

So I will continue to have to go the extra mile to earn
the benefit of the doubt.

I'M EMBARRASSED because the looting, violent protests, and law
breaking only confirm, and in the minds of many, validate, the
stereotypes and thus the inferior treatment.

I'M SAD, because another young life was lost from his family, the
racial divide has widened, a community is in shambles, accusations,
insensitivity hurt and hatred are boiling over, and we may never
know the truth about what happened that day.

I'M SYMPATHETIC, because I wasn't there so I don't know exactly
what happened.

Maybe Darren Wilson acted within his rights and duty as an officer
of the law and killed Michael Brown in self defense like any of us
would in the circumstance.

Now he has to fear the backlash against himself and his loved
ones when he was only doing his job. What a horrible thing to
endure.

OR maybe he provoked Michael and ignited the series of events
that led to him eventually murdering the young man to prove a
point.

I'M OFFENDED, because of the insulting comments I've seen that
are not only insensitive but dismissive to the painful experiences
of others.

I'M CONFUSED, because I don't know why it's so hard to obey
a policeman.

You will not win!!!

And I don't know why some policeman abuse their power.

Power is a responsibility, not a weapon to brandish and lord over
the populace.

I'M INTROSPECTIVE, because sometimes I want to take "our" side
without looking at the facts in situations like these.

Sometimes I feel like it's us against them.

Sometimes I'm just as prejudiced as people I point fingers at.

And that's not right.

How can I look at white skin and make assumptions but
not want assumptions made about me?

That's not right.

I'M HOPELESS, because I've lived long enough to expect
things like this to continue to happen.

I'm not surprised and at some point my little children are going
to inherit the weight of being a minority and all that it entails.

I'M HOPEFUL, because I know that while we still have race issues
in America, we enjoy a much different normal than those of our
parents and grandparents.

I see it in my personal relationships with teammates,
friends and mentors.

And it's a beautiful thing.

I'M ENCOURAGED, because ultimately the problem is not
a SKIN problem, it is a SIN problem.

SIN is the reason we rebel against authority.

SIN is the reason we abuse our authority.

SIN is the reason we are racist, prejudiced and lie to cover
for our own.

SIN is the reason we riot, loot and burn.

BUT I'M ENCOURAGED because God has provided a solution for
sin through the his son Jesus and with it, a transformed heart
and mind.

One that's capable of looking past the outward and seeing what's
truly important in every human being.

The cure for the Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and
Eric Garner tragedies is not education or exposure.

It's the Gospel.

So, finally, I'M ENCOURAGED because the Gospel gives mankind
hope.



Benjamin Watson is an American Professional Football Player for
the New Orleans Saints.

The Solomon Islander Who Saved John F. Kennedy

The Solomon Islander Who Saved John F. Kennedy

Via - Debbie Tolson
November 24, 2014

On Aug. 2, 1943, a Japanese destroyer rammed a U.S. torpedo
boat patrolling a strait in the Solomon Islands.

A fireball lit up the night sky, and the Navy recorded
Lt. John F. Kennedy and his 12-man crew as dead.

But Kennedy and 10 others had survived the crash, and they swam
for hours—with the young lieutenant towing a mate by gripping the
man’s life jacket strap in his teeth—before reaching dry land.

Yet those heroics would have gone for naught without Eroni Kumana
and Biuku Gasa, two Solomon Islanders who found the crew three
days later, subsisting on coconuts on a small island.

The pair took an SOS message from Kennedy, which he scratched
onto a green coconut, and paddled their dugout canoe nearly 40
miles through hostile Japanese territory to an allied base.

The crew, and the future president, were rescued on Aug. 8, 1943.

Born in the Solomon Islands, then a British protectorate, Kumana
“never knew precisely how old he was,” said The Boston Globe.

He was a teenager when he started working as a scout for the Allies
during World War II, tracking Japanese movements around the
South Pacific archipelago.

It was a dangerous job—locals who collaborated with the Allies
risked torture and death, and Japanese patrols “often used the
native canoes as target practice,” said The Times (U.K.).

Kennedy never forgot the risks taken by Kumana, and Gasa,
to save his crew.

He kept the engraved coconut on his White House desk
and even invited the two men to his inauguration.

“But they were reportedly prevented from attending by
colonial officials embarrassed by their homely appearance.”

“Kumana had hoped to see Kennedy again and was devastated
to learn of his assassination in 1963,” said The Washington Post.

“My sadness was great,” he said.

In 2002, Kumana was visited by the president’s nephew,
Max, and burst into tears when he was presented with a
bust of Kennedy that became his most treasured possession.

Max said Kumana’s son translated their conversation and
told him his name was John Fitzgerald Kennedy Kumana.



Eroni Kumana (1925–2014) passed away at the age of 96
on August 03, 2014 in his native village of Kongu.

The Day The World Changed

The Day The World Changed

By Christopher Bollyn
November 23, 2014

Why does the murder of President John F. Kennedy still matter?

It matters because the murder of President Kennedy was not only a conspiracy but a true coup d’état.

The powers behind the assassination took control over the government and orchestrated the cover-up.

It matters because a coup d’état that is successfully kept secret in a democratic country means, by default, that the succeeding government is illegitimate.

It matters because the American government is still lying about the Kennedy assassination, which essentially means that the powers that killed John F. Kennedy are still in charge to this very day.

Therefore, the Kennedy assassination is NOT just an historical event of a distant past.

It is an event that changed the course of history and set the stage for the political situation of today.

In short, it has affected all our lives to some extent, but we do not know exactly how or why.

http://www.bollyn.com/14972

Violence And Resistance In Palestine

An African American Perspective on Israel/Palestine

By Ajamu Baraka
Dissident Voice
November 19th, 2014

For the many thousands of tourists who fly into Israel/Palestine
every year, landing in the modern Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv
marks the beginning of a great adventure in the “holy land.”

But for members of the “African Heritage” delegation, flying into
Ben-Gurion was fraught with tension and foreboding.

Before departing the U.S. on October 27, our delegation rehearsed
how we would move and act, role-playing what to say and what to
avoid when we would face Israel’s first line of defense – its custom
officials at the airport.

The normally simple act of landing, showing that prized blue book
that is the U.S. passport and passing effortlessly through customs
and into the country, was something that we understood might not
be automatic for us.

And indeed it wasn’t – within an hour of our landing our
delegation’s co-leader, a young Palestinian woman, was
detained.

We later found out that she was interrogated, held overnight,
and deported the next day.

As our delegation slowly made its way through Israel’s entry process
those first couple of hours at the airport, we did not quite grasped
that our experience at the airport would not be the first of the
strange dualities that we would experience and witness of life in
Israel/Palestine.

The gaggle of wide-eyed excited tourists that were happy to be in
the country greatly contrasted with our already lived experience of
Israel as a police state on guard against all threats, real and
imagined.

The Delegation and Program:

The African Heritage delegation was made up of activists,
educators, journalists, clergy, students and folks representing
the full spectrum of African American life in all of its diversity.

Sponsored by the Interfaith Peace Builders, an organization of
dedicated young activists experienced in organizing delegations
to Israel/Palestine, the individual members of our delegation had
various positions and motivations for being a part of the delegation.

But a genuine feeling of solidarity with the plight of the Palestinian
people and a desire to better understand the situation in order to
share what we observed with our constituencies where we lived and
worked emerged as the common denominator that united most of
us.

Our ambitious agenda included meetings and visits that
took us across the country.

From East Jerusalem to “Israel proper” through to the West Bank and down to the Negev desert, we met with peace activists, political activists, clergy, the settler community of Hebron, Palestinian-Arab Bedouin women, and lived with Palestinian families in Bil’in and the Deheisheh refugee camp.

It was an exhilarating and emotionally exhausting experience that touched us all in very personal ways.

The never ending conflict?

The deeply troubling impression that I came away with was that a negotiated, relatively “peaceful” resolution of the conflict is impossible and that those individuals who believe that the Israeli state would grant sovereignty and respect the human rights of Palestinians within the context of either a one or two state solution are either naive regarding the nature of Israel’s settler project or fundamentally dishonest.

The obscene level of investment in the infrastructure of repression in the occupied territories along with the most aggressive settlement policies since the 67 war clearly demonstrates that the Israeli state has no interest in a negotiated settlement with Palestinians.

Indeed the “facts on the ground” all point toward policies of permanent control of Palestinian life and land.

Those facts include the over six hundred thousand Israeli settlers in the West Bank and settlement expansion into Palestinian East Jerusalem, the so-called security wall that is more an enclosure wall to expropriate Palestinian land, and the emergence over the last 15 years of a right-wing, militarized Israeli civil society symbolized by the popular support given to the governing coalition anchored by the right-wing Lukid party.

These facts coupled with the complete collapse of what is referred to as liberalism within Israel, suggest that the current political alignments and power relations shatter any illusions that a domestic constituency strong enough to counter the hegemony of the Zionist positions exist anywhere in Israel.

On the Palestinian side, there are deep divisions among the leadership of Hamas and Fatah, the two main Palestinian organizations, despite the so-called unity government that was established in June of this year.

I was struck by the number of people who have lost all faith in the Palestinian authority created out of the Oslo process. Yet at the level of the “people,” Palestinians living in the occupied territories are still united in their steadfast commitment to resist the occupation.

Unity on the issue of Palestinian resistance stems primarily from the daily indignities of life under military occupation and the repressive brutality that is a permanent feature of Palestinian life.

Our delegation observed and experienced, if only briefly, life under military occupation as we moved through military checkpoints throughout the country but especially in the West Bank.

In the village of Bil’in, a community in resistance that was documented in the Academy Award nominated film Five Broken Cameras, our delegation was hosted by the village’s popular resistance committee.

As part of our visit we were taken down to the separation wall or what many of us call the apartheid wall.

Without provocation or warnings of any kind, the delegation suddenly found itself on the receiving end of a barrage of Israeli gas grenades.

After having to run back to our cars through gas, we were informed by our hosts that since the authorities were aware that internationals were in the town for the night we should be aware that there was a possibility that soldiers might raid houses that night to arrest us, something that has happened before.

Two days later, we once again experienced the duality of experiences reflected in the lives and positions of Palestinians.

In the morning we met with the Holy Land Trust, an organization that is committed to developing what it calls a spiritual, pragmatic and strategic approach to the ongoing conflict.

It sees its work of reconciliation between Palestinians and Jews as a viable model for realizing a joint community that respected each other and was committed to justice, political equality and peaceful coexistence.

That evening, however, we stayed in the Deheisheh refugee camp, a camp located near Bethlehem that was established after the expulsion of the more than 750,000 Palestinians in the war of 1948 that resulted in the creation of the state of Israel.

Our hosts at Deheisheh were clear that for them, peaceful coexistence was impossible in a settler-colonial context that did not allow them to recoup all of the land that they argue was stolen by the Israeli state.

A week after returning from the super-charged, repressive environment that is Israel/Palestine, it is not surprising that Jerusalem is now being consumed by an intensification of violence.

From what I observed, the allegations that Israeli settlers lynched Yousuf al-Ramouni, a Palestinian bus driver in Jerusalem that then sparked the retaliatory killing of four Israeli’s, is not surprising nor beyond the realm of possibility.

Settler and state violence are central components of the colonial project.

And violence as part of Israel’s colonial project has always been strategically deployed.

It is used as a means of social control but by manipulating issues to evoke Palestinian resistance it is used to support Israel’s narrative as victim.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon adroitly used this device to provide the pretext for destroying the last vestiges of the Oslo process and the functionality of the Palestinian Authority.

In the aftermath of the disastrous assault on Gaza that resulted in a public relations defeat for Israel and has even led to some European governments to recognize a Palestinian state, it appears that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has gone back to the Sharon playbook.

The closure of the A-Aqsa Mosque a few weeks ago had the predictable results of Palestinian Muslim resistance that Israel is attempting to use to its advantage.

The consciously provoked violence in Jerusalem also has another effect. It diverts attention away from political and material basis of the “conflict” – Israel’s brutal occupation and illegal theft of Palestinian land.

As one activist framed the political conundrum: “if a two state solution in which Palestinians were offered the 28% land mass of historic Palestine with borders between this state and Israel that approximated the 67 green line and a just solution to Palestinian refugees as part of the Oslo process in the 90s, it would have been hard to accept but it might have been viable.”

But for this activist and many others in Palestine, it is now clear that the Israeli state never intended to seriously consider establishing a viable Palestinian state or resolving the issue of Palestinian refugees in a just manner.

Difficult as it was, traveling to Palestine and seeing first hand the realities on the ground was a political necessity and an eye opener.

One can read about the repression, the growing expressions of racism, and see images from time to time of Israeli brutality, but nothing really prepares you for being thrust into that oppressive reality.

And for those of us who reside in oppressive communities where our lives and dignity are also under constant attack, we can feel the humiliation and degradation experienced by Palestinians which after a few days becomes emotionally overwhelming.

During my activist life I have traveled to many of the counties that Western colonial/capitalist leaders characterized as despotic totalitarian states – the old Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba before 1989 – but in none of those states did I witness the systematic mechanism of population control and scientific repression that I witness in “democratic” Israel.

The security walls, towers, checkpoints, and armed settlers created an aura of insecurity and impending assault on one’s dignity at any time.

I left that space wondering how anyone with a modicum of humanity and any sense of morality could reconcile living in that environment from the spoils of Palestinian dispossession and degradation and how any nation could support the Israeli political project.



Ajamu Baraka is a long-time human rights activist and veteran of the Black Liberation, anti-war, anti-apartheid and Central American solidarity Movements in the United States.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/11/violence-and-resistance-in-palestine

House Resolution 707

House Resolution 707

H.Res.707 - Condemning all forms of anti-Semitism and rejecting
attempts to justify anti-Jewish hatred or violent attacks as an
acceptable expression of disapproval or frustration over political
events in the Middle East or elsewhere.

[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[H. Res. 707 Engrossed in House (EH)]

H. Res. 707

In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

September 18, 2014.

Whereas there is clear evidence of increasing incidents
and expressions of anti-Semitism throughout the world;

Whereas on April 30, 2014, the United States Department of State
released the International Religious Freedom Report for 2013 and
noted that,

``Throughout Europe, the historical stain of anti-Semitism
continued to be a fact of life on Internet fora, in soccer stadiums,
and through Nazi-like salutes, leading many individuals who are
Jewish to conceal their religious identity.'';

Whereas anti-Semitic acts committed and recorded in 2014 around
the world, including countries in the Middle East, Latin America,
Europe, and North America, include incidents of murder at Jewish
sites, violent attacks and death threats against Jews, as well as gun
violence, arson, graffiti, anti-Semitic cartoons, and other property
desecration at Jewish cemeteries, places of worship, and communal
activity;

Whereas a survey by the Anti-Defamation League of attitudes
towards Jews in more than 100 countries around the world,
released in May 2014 found that over a quarter of the people
surveyed (26 percent), and nearly three quarters of those surveyed
in the Middle East (74 percent) hold anti-Semitic views, a stunning
indicator of the stubborn resilience of anti-Semitic beliefs, even in
countries where few Jews reside;

Whereas the Anti-Defamation League survey also found that
a majority of people surveyed overall have either not heard
of the Holocaust or do not believe it happened as has been
documented by factual accounts and recorded by history;

Whereas President Barack Obama said in his remarks at the USC
Shoah Foundation Dinner on May 7, 2014, ``. . . if the memories
of the Shoah survivors teach us anything, it is that silence is evil's
greatest co-conspirator. And it's up to us--each of us, every one
of us--to forcefully condemn any denial of the Holocaust. It's up
to us to combat not only anti-Semitism, but racism and bigotry and
intolerance in all their forms, here and around the world. It's up
to us to speak out against rhetoric that threatens the existence of a
Jewish homeland and to sustain America's unshakeable commitment
to Israel's security'';

Whereas in 2004, Congress passed the Global Anti-Semitism Review
Act, which established an Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-
Semitism, headed by a Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-
Semitism;

Whereas the United States Government has consistently supported
efforts to address the rise in anti-Semitism through its bilateral
relationships and through engagement in international organizations
such as the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the Organization of American
States (OAS);

Whereas in recent decades there has been a clear and troubling
pattern of increased violence against Jewish persons and their
property, purportedly in connection with increased opposition
to policies enacted by the Government of Israel;

Whereas during Israel's 2014 Operation Protective Edge aiming to
stem the rocket fire and terrorist infiltrations by Hamas, Jews
and Jewish institutions and property were attacked in Europe and
elsewhere, including attempts to invade a synagogue in Paris, fire-
bombings of synagogues in France and Germany, assaults on Jewish
individuals, and swastikas spray-painted in a heavily Jewish area of
London and also in Rome's historic Jewish quarter;

Whereas anti-Semitic imagery and comparisons of Jews and Israel to
Nazis have been on display at demonstrations against Israel's actions
in Gaza throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East and
Latin America, including--

(1) placards comparing Israeli leaders to Nazis, accusing Israel of
carrying out a ``Holocaust'' against Palestinians, and equating the
Jewish Star of David with the Nazi swastika, and

(2) demonstrations that have included chants of ``Death to Jews'',
``Death to Israel'', or expressions of support for suicide terrorism
against Israeli or Jewish civilians;

Whereas the Governments in France, Germany, and Italy, the three
countries where the majority of incidents have occurred, have
strongly condemned anti-Semitism as unacceptable in European
society and have all made clear statements that such attacks on
their Jewish communities are intolerable, and they have matched
those words with strong law enforcement;

Whereas some civil society leaders have set strong examples,
including the condemnation by the Union of Mosques of France,
on behalf of their 500 mosques, called the attacks ``morally unjust
and unacceptable'', and stated, ``nothing can justify any act that
could harm our Jewish compatriots, their institutions or their places
of worship'';

Whereas the largest newspaper in circulation in Germany, Bild,
featured statements against anti-Semitism from politicians,
business leaders, civic leaders, media personalities and celebrities
with ``Never Again Jew Hatred'' on the front page; and

Whereas Congress has played an essential role in illustrating and
counteracting the resurgence of anti-Semitism worldwide: Now,
therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) unequivocally condemns all forms of anti-Semitism and rejects
attempts to justify anti-Jewish hatred or violent attacks as an
acceptable expression of disapproval or frustration over political
events in the Middle East or elsewhere;

(2) decries and condemns the comparison of Israel to Nazis as an
insult to the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust and an
affront to those who survived and their children and grandchildren,
the righteous gentiles who saved Jewish lives at peril to their own
lives and to those who bravely fought to defeat the Nazis;

(3) applauds those foreign leaders who have condemned anti-
Semitic acts and calls on those who have yet to take firm action
against anti-Semitism in their countries, to do so;

(4) reaffirms its support for the mandate of the United States
Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism as part of the
broader policy priority of fostering international religious freedom;

(5) supports expanded Holocaust educational programs that
increase awareness, counter prejudice, and enhance efforts
to teach the universal lessons of the Holocaust; and

(6) urges the Secretary of State to--

(A) maintain combating anti-Semitism as a United States foreign
policy priority;

(B) ensure that the instruments of United States public diplomacy,
including the United States Representative to the

Organization of Islamic Conference, are utilized to effectively
combat anti-Semitism;

(C) ensure high-level United States participation in the 2014
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) high
level event marking the 10th anniversary of the 2004 OSCE Berlin
Declaration against anti-Semitism;

(D) urge governments to ensure that adequate laws are in place
to punish anti-Semitic violence against persons and property;

(E) continue robust United States reporting on anti-Semitism by the
Department of State and the Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor
Anti-Semitism;

(F) provide necessary training and instruction for personnel posted
in United States embassies and missions to analyze and report on
anti-Semitic violence against persons and property as well as the
response of governments to those incidents;

(G) ensure that United States Government efforts to train law
enforcement personnel and prosecutors abroad incorporate tools
to address anti-Semitic violence against persons and property; and

(H) strongly support the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe's specialized efforts to monitor and address anti-
Semitism, including through support for its law enforcement and
civil society training programs.

Attest:

Clerk.

https://www.congress.gov/…/113th-…/house-resolution/707/text

All Of My Friends Are Dying

All Of My Friends Are Dying

A Veteran Commits Suicide Every 65 Minutes In The USA, With Over
30% Of Veterans Having Considered Suicide.

By Vince Emanuele
Telesurtv.net
November 12, 2014

Today, for the second time in less than a month, a veteran in my
circle of activist-friends has committed suicide.

His name was Ethan. Last month, my friend Jacob, another anti-war
veteran, took his life in rural Arkansas.

Earlier this year, I lost two members of the platoon I served in; they
died of cancer; neither of them smoked or drank.

In fact, both Stephen and Sinbad were some of the most straitlaced
veterans in our platoon.

In the previous three years, two other anti-war veterans died
prematurely—Anthony from a drug overdose and Joshua of cancer.

As the years roll along, I'm beginning to better understand Plato's
statement on war.

I've now lost more friends since returning home than I did in the
combat-zone.

The first time I read Plato's famous quote, I was thinking about
personal struggles, how to remember, or forget, the war, and how
to move forward.

I didn't expect my friends to keep dying. But they are vanishing
at an astounding pace.

The Center for Public Integrity reports that, "Veterans are killing
themselves at more than double the rate of the civilian population
with about 49,000 taking their own lives between 2005 and 2011."

To put it another way, a veteran commits suicide every 65 minutes in the USA, with over 30% of veterans having considered suicide.

Increasingly, these stories and statistics are making headline news.

Many journalists, such as Aaron Glantz, have made it their
duty to report on veterans issues.

Still, today, most Americans are unaware of the catastrophic
consequences of never-ending wars of aggression.

And while many stories highlight the plight of veterans, very little
is written about the devastating effects the wars have had on the
civilian populations who endure such brutality.

But that's expected in a society as introverted as ours.

Surely, Americans are blind to the fact that they live in an Empire.

In Empires, soldiers, civilians and veterans die, and often.

Personal Struggles

I returned home from my first deployment to Iraq, back in June,
2003.

As the war raged on, Americans busied themselves with banal
forms of entertainment and mindless politics.

There was an anti-war movement, but it was marginal at best
and totally impotent at worse.

The 2004 Presidential Election was an utter farce.

John Kerry, the Democratic candidate that year, stumbled over
himself with such ease, it almost seemed as though he was
throwing the election for Bush.

In fact, Kerry, in many ways, represents the absolute bankruptcy
of modern-liberal-ideology.

Once a prominent anti-war activist, the Massachusetts Senator
quickly switched gears, bootlicking his way to the top of American
political society.

In the meantime, young GIs fought another endless war abroad,
this time in the Middle East.

At the time, I was largely politically ignorant.

I grew up in a home filled with Democrats.

My father was a union ironworker and my grandfathers were
union steelworkers.

Many of my cousins, aunts and uncles worked, or still work,
in steel mills or manufacturing industries.

It was a union home.

In some ways, one could say that I grew up class-conscious.

My father always told me that rich people ran the show.

He told me that cops, judges and lawyers were corrupt and
couldn't be trusted.

However his analysis didn't go much deeper.

When I told him I was joining the Marine Corps, he told me
that I would end up fighting another senseless war.

He reminded me of his friends who came back from Vietnam
in the late-1960s, early 1970s, depressed, addicted and violent.

During the summer of 2003, my friends were returning home
from their first year at college.

Most of them attended state schools, primarily Indiana University.

They shared their stories of late-night romps with various sexual
partners, drug-induced parties and intellectually stimulating
classes.

The classes interested me the most, as I had my own drug-induced
experiences in the Marine Corps, with plenty of late-night adventures.

Perched around our parents' kitchen tables, we talked about
politics, society, art, death and war.

Subjectively, their biggest concern was whether or not they were
going to pass these classes, graduate and eventually get a decent
paying job.

My biggest concern was whether or not I'd ever see them again,
as our unit was gearing up for a second deployment to Iraq.

Quickly, it became apparent that my journey through life was going
to be drastically different from the vast majority of Americans.

Now, to be clear, some Americans' experiences are similar to
veterans.

For example, young African Americans and Latin Americans living
in the most violent American neighborhoods have a good idea what
it means to be a veteran, or a victim of war.

After all, they're veterans of a different kind of war: The War
on Drugs.

Constant news of dead friends, suicides, shootings and drug
overdoses plague the discourse in crumbling neighborhoods.

The same is true for veterans.

Just as most Americans are afraid of the Ghetto, they also
shy away from the brutal reality of America's wars abroad.

Both struggles seem too distant, too strange for the average
American to comprehend.

In some ways, it's true: Americans who do not live in the Ghetto
have no idea what Ghetto entails; and people who have not
experienced war cannot comprehend what it's like to be in war.

Throughout the course of my second deployment, I became
increasingly opposed to the war.

This happened for many reasons, but primarily because of the
insane brutality inflicted on the Iraqi people by my fellow Marines.

They took it upon themselves to shoot at innocents, torture
civilians and enemy combatants, steal goods from the local
populations, mutilate dead bodies, take pictures with corpses
and cover-up any evidence of said actions.

According to MSNBC, CNN and FoxNews, we were the good guys.

Hell, many veterans didn't even believe such nonsense.

But most Americans did.

They bought the hype.

And the so-called anti-war movement wasn't much better.

Their critique of the war in Iraq wasn't principled, nor was
it serious.

If they were serious, they wouldn't have disappeared once
Obama took office.

In hindsight, the movement was more of an anti-Bush/Cheney/GOP
struggle than it was an anti-war social movement, committed to
identifying and confronting militarism throughout American society.

In any case, by the time I returned home from my second tour,
it was more than obvious how different my life was going to be.

First of all, I was badly addicted to drugs, alcohol and violence.

Yes, violence.

There is an addictive quality to extreme forms of subjective violence.

The act of killing someone is not simply traumatic and brutal,
it's also invigorating and powerful.

The drugs and alcohol only staved away my violent urges.

If someone didn't say "thank you" at the supermarket, I thought
about the various ways in which I could torture them.

When someone at the local gas station wouldn't hold the door
open for the next patron, I fantasized about killing them.

Their lack of discipline and manners made me physically ill.

Sometimes, when I drove around town, I'd find myself dreaming
about a confrontation with someone, anyone.

I wanted to show them what war was all about.

I wanted to release my anger through violence, often imagining
the most gruesome scenarios.

Really, I wanted them to feel the same anxiety and anger that
I felt during those days.

My thinking was shallow: Why should they go through life
unscathed by war?

Of course, all of this had a tremendously negative impact
on my life.

I've lost friends, intimate partners and family members due
to my personal battles with PTSD.

Indeed, I still struggle with these ailments.

The nightmares stalk my nightly sleep.

Violent urges shadow my daily activities.

Each day is a struggle.

The more I try and put the war behind me, the more the dog
of war bites at my heels as I run away from the grief.

One day, my mother asked me to stop smoking in her and my
father's garage.

I picked up a garbage can, threw it at the wall and threatened
to kill her.

Two hours later I was sobbing, head in hands, trying to explain
to my friend what happened.

He didn't know what to say.

How could he?

Activism As Therapy

I first became involved with the anti-war movement in 2006.

The first event I attended was at Valparaiso University.

It was a roundtable discussion, with three panelists in favor
of the war in Iraq, and three against the occupation.

After each participant spoke, they opened the event to a
question and answer segment.

Listening to people talk about the war made me uncomfortable,
even the folks promoting an anti-war message.

How could they know?

How did they know?

Finally, I stood up and said, "I'm a combat veteran who was
deployed to Iraq on two separate occasions and I agree with
the three panelists who are against the war."

Heads began to turn.

People started to whisper.

Some in the crowd started to clap their hands.

Even the panelists seemed dumbfounded.

Three years into the war and it was still out of the ordinary for
people on a college campus to hear the opinion of an anti-war
veteran.

Amazing, indeed.

After the event, a Vietnam veteran came up to me and
introduced himself as "Nick."

He continued, "I'm so glad to meet you!

Do you realize how important your testimony is going to
be to the movement?

There's a couple of veterans I'd like you to meet so come
out to our next event."

Nick handed me a flier and we exchanged phone numbers.

I remember driving home and thinking about how significant
this minor event meant to me.

For once, I felt powerful again.

I knew that my story, my emotions, my life, mattered.

For so many years I had viewed my life as worthless,
easily discardable.

Suicide was always an option.

Homicide was always a fantasy.

Now, I had a new commitment: the anti-war movement.

I wanted to turn the tide, roll back the negativity and
participate in something positive.

Eventually, I linked up with Iraq Veterans Against the War.

To me, this was a new beginning.

So far, my anti-war feelings had been relegated to poems,
music and art.

Now I was contributing to an organization that aimed to stop wars,
stand in solidarity with the Iraqi and Afghan people, and assist
returning veterans with their healthcare and educational benefits.

I remember being outlandishly happy about the whole process.

I mean, here I am, a working-class kid who barely graduated high
school, talking with college-educated activists about ending the
wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was the first time I felt genuine happiness in a long, long time.

Plus, the activists were great.

Many of the veterans I started to work with had similar stories.

They too came from small towns and working-class backgrounds.

Unlike my time in the Marine Corps, I felt comfortable in the
anti-war community.

I cannot properly recall the amount of organizing workshops,
protests, writing workshops, fundraisers, speaking events and
street theatre actions we conducted during my first few years
with IVAW.

But it was a lot of work, both emotionally and physically.

Members came and went.

Some stuck around for several years. Others are still involved.

This work has kept many of us out of jail and alive.

For this, I will always be grateful to the anti-war community.

It would take weeks for me to name all of the veterans whose
lives are better off today due to the work of anti-war activists
and community organizers.

Where politicians and doctors failed, many of these folks
have succeeded.

Turns out, many of us simply needed a new mission, a mission
dedicated to peace and justice, not war and destruction.

Nonetheless, activism isn't enough, as time has illustrated.

Our activist friends are not immune to suicide.

In fact, I would venture to assume activists are more prone
to suicide than their non-activist counterparts.

It's difficult to commit one's self to the world of political activism.

Engaging in lengthy conversations about suicide, genocide, ecocide,
racism, patriarchy, capitalism, poverty, mass incarceration, etc.,
is, at times, overwhelming.

For me, reading history has helped.

I try to remember that I'm a part of a long line of political activists
fighting for revolutionary change.

I try to remember that I'm a part of a long line of veterans enduring
the emotional and physical burdens of war.

Throughout the history of Western Civilization, soldiers have fought
for imperial interests in far-away lands, only to come home to a
farcical society, void of decent values.

Fighting To Live

This year, US citizens have been inundated with stories about
suicide, from Phillip Seymour Hoffman to Robin Williams, the
topic remains on the tip of every American's tongue.

In the veteran community, suicide is often joked about.

The same way that nurses joke about ill patients, or coroners about
corpses.

Often, the only way to engage with death is to obscure the darkness
with a fog of humor.

Indeed, comedy often dovetails the absurd.

It's the only way to deal with extreme levels of violence and death.

Dark humor, as it's often called, helps us deal with the emptiness
of death.

But the jokes only function as a topical ointment.

At home, alone, or with loved ones, we're reminded of this
emptiness.

It's an emptiness that will not go away.

At the same time, our efforts are needed now more than ever.

The casualties of US wars do not have the luxury of VA hospitals
or pro-bono therapy sessions.

Victims of US aggression, unlike US veterans and their families,
are not awarded preferential medical treatment, educational
programs or disability benefits.

They live, like so many around the globe, in a constant war-zone.

While veterans like myself hope to catch a decent night's sleep,
Iraqis and Afghans are lucky to have a bed to sleep in.

This isn't a "race to the bottom"; it's simply a recognition of
the insanity endured by the primary victims of US aggression.

Sure, veterans have it bad.

But those we occupied have it much worse.

This dynamic must be recognized and confronted in a serious
fashion if we ever hope to bridge the gap between justice and
absurdity.

Meanwhile, my friends continue to die—my Iraqi friends, my Afghan
friends, my Syrian friends, my Libyan friends, my Pakistani friends,
my Palestinian friends, my Somalian friends, my veteran friends…

http://www.telesurtv.net/…/All-of-My-Friends-are-Dying-2014…

Political Bunraku

Political Bunraku

By John Chuckman
Dissident Voice
November 10, 2014

For those who are not familiar, Bunraku is an old form of Japanese
puppet theater, its distinctive characteristic being that the
puppeteers are on the stage with their puppets, dressed in black so
that the audience can pretend not to see them.

While many old art forms have conventions that are unrealistic by
modern standards, there is something particularly unsatisfying
about bunraku: you can pretend not to see the puppeteers but you
cannot fail to see them.

Bunraku, as it happens, offers a remarkable metaphor for some
contemporary operations of American foreign policy.

So many times – in Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Venezuela, Egypt – we see
dimly the actors on stage, yet we are supposed to pretend they are
not there.

We can’t identify them with precision, but we know they are there.

Most oddly, the press in the United States, and to a lesser extent
that of its various allies and dependents, pretends to report what
is happening without ever mentioning the actors.

They report only the movements of the puppets.

One of the consequences of this kind of activity is that many
people, including many of your own, come simply not to believe
you, no matter what newspapers and government spokespersons
keep saying.

Another consequence is that because many knowledgeable people
no longer believe you, when it comes time to enlist the support of
other nations for your activities, you must use behind-the-scenes
pressure and threats, stretching the boundaries of alliance and
friendship.

After all, your major government friends and allies have
sophisticated intelligence services themselves and are
often aware of what you are trying to do.

Still another consequence is that many people start doubting
what you are saying concerning other topics.

In the United States, a fairly large segment of the population does
not believe the official version of a great deal of comparatively-
recent American history, including explanations of John Kennedy’s
assassination, of events around 9/11, of the downing of TWA Flight
800, of what Israel was doing when it attacked an American spy
ship in 1967, and of the CIA’s past heavy connections with cocaine
trafficking – just to name a few outstanding examples.

Government in America feels the need only to go so far in it's
efforts to explain such matters because the doubters and
skeptics, though many, are not a big enough segment of the
population to matter greatly in political terms, and it is
simply brutally true that the great passive mass of people are
never well informed about anything outside their own lives.

America is a place, as relatively few people abroad understand,
where people must work very hard.

It's industrial working class went through a great depression since,
say, 1960, many of them now holding low-paid service jobs.

It's middle-class workers have seen real incomes decline for
decades, something providing part of the incentive for both
parents in a family to work and for them to move into America’s
great suburban sprawl of lower land costs as well as to embrace
stores such as Wal-Mart with their bare-bones costs.

Many Americans work so hard, they have little time to be concerned
or informed about government, satisfying themselves that a few
minutes with corporate television news is adequate, a phenomenon
favoring the government’s interests since on any important and
controversial subject the television networks (and the major
newspapers) do the government’s bidding, mostly without being
asked.

American corporate news, especially in matters of foreign affairs,
resembles nothing so much as nightly coverage of a banraku
performance.

Selling stuff, whether it’s widgets or religion or political ideas, is
at the core of American life, and America’s one unquestionably
original creation in the modern world involves the disciplines of
marketing, advertising, and public relations – all highly artful
aspects of selling stuff.

The success of these methods has long been proved in American
commerce, but they are no less effective when applied to other
areas.

So, it should hardly surprise that the same “arts” are heavily
employed by, and on behalf of, government in propaganda
and opinion-manipulation around its acts and policies.

Indeed, we see America’s entire election system today having been
reduced to little more than a costly, massive application of these
crafty skills, and no department or agency of government is ever
without its professional, full-time spokespeople and creative back-
up staff, making sure that whatever words or numbers are spoken
or printed never slip beyond what those arts have conjured up.

Unacceptable photos, say those of women and children smashed
by bombs or missiles hurled into the Mideast, are made simply to
disappear much as they were in 1984.

Government knows, too, that the American political system is
heavily stacked against people with doubts ever gaining serious
influence.

Ninety-five percent of Senate elections go to incumbents, and
because only one-third of the Senate faces re-election at any
given election, a majority on some new matter is virtually
impossible to build.

The presidential candidates of the only two parties with a hope of
being elected are almost as carefully groomed and selected as the
party chairman of a former communist-bloc country, and generally
about as surprising in their views.

And always, time makes people forget, even with the most
terrible issues.

After a generation or two, there are relatively few people
who are even aware there was an issue.

In the case of the most overwhelming and terrifying event of
my life, the Vietnam War, polls show a huge number of young
Americans today don’t know what it was or when it occurred.

These are the key factors permitting an American government to
commission horrific acts abroad resembling those of the bloodiest
tyrant, all while it smilingly prances across the international stage
as democracy’s self-designated chief representative and advocate.

As for the great mass of people, the 95% of humanity living
outside the United States, no one in America’s government
ever gives them a moment’s thought, unless they step out
of line.



John Chuckman lives in Canada and is former chief economist
for a large Canadian oil company.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/11/political-bunraku

The Secret Covenant Of The Illuminati

The Secret Covenant Of The Illuminati

Via Susan Elridge
November 3, 2014

An illusion it will be, so large, so vast it will escape
their perception.

Those who will see it will be thought of as insane.

We will create separate fronts to prevent them from
seeing the connection between us.

We will behave as if we are not connected to keep
the illusion alive.

Our goal will be accomplished one drop at a time so
as to never bring suspicion upon ourselves.

This will also prevent them from seeing the changes
as they occur.

We will always stand above the relative field of their
experience for we know the secrets of the absolute.

We will work together always and will remain bound by
blood and secrecy.

Death will come to he who speaks.

We will keep their lifespan short and their minds weak
while pretending to do the opposite.

We will use our knowledge of science and technology in
subtle ways so they will never see what is happening.

We will use soft metals, aging accelerators and sedatives
in food and water, also in the air.

They will be blanketed by poisons everywhere they turn.

The soft metals will cause them to lose their minds.

We will promise to find a cure from our many fronts, yet
we will feed them more poison.

The poisons will be absorbed through their skin and mouths,
they will destroy their minds and reproductive systems.

From all this, their children will be born dead, and we will
conceal this information.

The poisons will be hidden in everything that surrounds
them, in what they drink, eat, breathe and wear.

We must be ingenious in dispensing the poisons for they
can see far.

We will teach them that the poisons are good,
with fun images and musical tones.

Those they look up to will help.

We will enlist them to push our poisons.

They will see our products being used in film and will grow
accustomed to them and will never know their true effect.

When they give birth we will inject poisons into the blood
of their children and convince them its for their help.

We will start early on, when their minds are young, we will
target their children with what children love most, sweet
things.

When their teeth decay we will fill them with metals that
will kill their mind and steal their future.

When their ability to learn has been affected, we will create
medicine that will make them sicker and cause other diseases
for which we will create yet more medicine.

We will render them docile and weak before us by our power.

They will grow depressed, slow and obese, and when they
come to us for help, we will give them more poison.

We will focus their attention toward money and material
goods so they may never connect with their inner self.

We will distract them with fornication, external pleasures
and games so they may never be one with the oneness of
it all.

Their minds will belong to us and they will do as we say.

If they refuse we shall find ways to implement
mind-altering technology into their lives.

We will use fear as our weapon.

We will establish their governments and establish
opposites within.

We will own both sides.

We will always hide our objective but carry out our plan.

They will perform the labor for us and we shall prosper
from their toil.

Extract from 'The Secret Covenant Of The Illuminati.'