Morning Joe on MSNBC had an interesting segment yesterday that overflowed into The Ed Show in the afternoon.
Lawrence O'Donnell was fed up with the Cheney lies a Bush II speech writer, Marc Thiessen, was fostering on the public during the segment, and said so. Thiessen has released a book that says President Obama is inviting terrorist attacks on the U.S. by stopping CIA torture programs.
The fact is that it was the Bush II policy up to and after 9/11 which increased and enhanced al Qaeda recruiting, and even enhanced terrorism around the globe.
A book by Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies, tells the story of the Bush II regime's utter and wide spread unawareness of the terrorist threat that was looming according to U.S. intelligence.
He tried repeatedly to tell them something was coming, but they would not listen.
Wolfowitz felt that there could be no attack against the U.S. without a state sponsor, and the rest of the regime was soft on terrorism as well.
Eventually Clarke resigned because the bushies were clueless, and were ruining the reputation of the U.S. in the world.
For the Bush II propagandist Thiessen to release his book claiming the Obama Administration is not as alert as the bushies were is the ultimate falsehood and hypocrisy.
The Dredd Blog has an ongoing series of posts dealing with what we have called the currency wars.
Even though MOMCOM is experiencing a boom like never before, there are indications of a bigga badda boom coming to the "home land".
Like we don't have one already?
I guess the famous last words "It could not get worse" should be considered.
At least we should consider the words of some watch-dog types who have an ear to the economic ground and who say they hear thunder approaching:
China has ordered managers of its vast currency reserves to withdraw from risky dollar assets and retreat to core debt guaranteed by the US government, a clear sign that Beijing is battening down the hatches for fresh trouble on global markets.
(China Orders Retreat, bold added). Add to that the words of a specially appointed watch-dog:
Today's latest report from the Congressional Oversight Panel makes it very clear that while things may feel relatively stable right now on the commercial real estate front, the real bomb hits in 2011. Banks could lose $200 - $300 billion, and 'every American' could be affected ...
(Banks Will Be Rocked, bold added). Maybe MOMCOM will become a bank and loan us some of our own money?
In Afghanistan the building boom has produced 700 military bases where the sounds of prosperity can be heard everywhere in the air, along with the screams of ... well never mind ... its a boomy thing.
While our home infrastructure crumbles she builds new stuff on foreign soil with the unlimited funds our liberal congress and president give her highness.
Guess we can all hope the liberal president and liberal congress never become conservative warmongers and support the troops (heh heh).
Can you imagine how it would help Americans if they could work on 700 cities here, instead of 700 boom bases in Afghanistan?
Then, along with those 700, to let Americans work on another 1000 cities in America, instead of the other 1000 MOMCOM military bases around the world in foreign nations?
Wow, work just might work to produce work ... here in the "homeland"?
In fairness to MOMCOM, I guess those who want to militarily dominate the world do have an argument that if we don't have 1000 + 700 bases we can't dominate the world.
Dominate the world?
To those berserk delusion plagued ideologues I say we need to dominate the needs of Americans, to get over the red neck neoCon fascist imperialistic primitive urges to "control" what no empire ever "controls".
An empire's dream is always a vain mental disease that merely animates the fantasy of "control".
So, when are you suicidal psychopaths going to figure out what planet you are on, and what cosmos that planet is in?
The "snowpocalypse" is seen by the science challenged neoCons as "the end of the global warming myth".
They hope for the dawn of a new age of oil baron drills, coal tar, and grease.
That is because some of the more mouthy of that ilk are located in areas where it is snowing like it never has snowed before.
Literally, records are being broken even as we blog.
The clue that this change (from "never happened before" to "it really is happening now") is related to climate change evidently never reached their cognitive faculties.
Some minds just do not light up I suppose, so those minds can be convinced that global warming is false just because the refrigerator still keeps their Budweiser cold.
I can imagine them standing on the permafrost of Alaska, where it is very cold, and saying "this place can never be warm". This confuses them from the reality that Alaska can, however, get warmer.
The neoCon politicians are confusing the reality of "warming" with a human feeling we call "warm".
Thus they are not getting the point that "warmer" also applies to the situation where it was -50 below zero then, but it is only -40 below zero now.
In that case it is "warmer", but still not "warm".
Too bad the neoCon language is different from English, or they would understand that "warming up" can even happen in a refrigerator with Budweiser in it.
Just turn the refrigerator's temperature dial down and you will have a warmer cold. Hope that did not confuse Senator Inhofe or Representative Boehner.
The parochial mentality of these Washington neoCon politicians generates an "All Weather Is Local" circular reasoning process inside their cranium, which they cannot seem to break free of.
Perhaps they reason "if NASCAR goes in circles thinking can too, because that's how you win a race".
The old proverb "What Goes Up Must Come Down" is a lesson for the day of the snowpocalyse, then, and the ice melt currently taking place across the globe is a beginning point for thinking about this.
When the ice and snow on mountain tops, glaciers, polar ice caps, and Greenland melt, the moisture goes up.
Then when the conditions morph, that moisture comes down.
When more is going up more is also going to come down, until eventually captured by the oceans.
Then the oceans will also go up, that is, they will rise until we have a new sea level. Yes, puddles drain into creeks, creeks drain into streams, streams drain into rivers, and finally rivers drain into the oceans.
Hey neoCons, go see the movie "Waterworld" for an extreme implementation of that concept, or ask your pastor about the Noah thingy.
There is no true free press in the United States, when 5 corporations own 90% of the news media.
One of those five who own 90% of the media is the 5th largest corporation in the nation, and all the other top contenders are oil baron enclaves, except one.
The lack of freedom is especially noticeable when the government wants to suppress the free speech of those who oppose government opinions, and the 90% of the "free" press "willingly" oblige.
It is not that way in all countries, however, for there are some good examples of a true and more free press out there.
UPDATE: We can add the British Press to those who are not intimidated by MOMCOM.
They just released a report, under threat of the U.S. government not to do so or else, about the U.S. torture of British citizens.
The following seven paragraphs had been redacted. The U.S. government threatened the British government not to release the information:
It was reported that a new series of interviews was conducted by the United States authorities prior to 17 May 2001 [*possible typo?] as part of a new strategy designed by an expert interviewer.
v) It was reported that at some stage during that further interview process by the United States authorities, BM had been intentionally subjected to continuous sleep deprivation. The effects of the sleep deprivation were carefully observed.
vi) It was reported that combined with the sleep deprivation, threats and inducements were made to him. His fears of being removed from United States custody and “disappearing” were played upon.
vii) It was reported that the stress brought about by these deliberate tactics was increased by him being shackled in his interviews
viii) It was clear not only from the reports of the content of the interviews but also from the report that he was being kept under self-harm observation, that the inter views were having a marked effect upon him and causing him significant mental stress and suffering.
ix) We regret to have to conclude that the reports provide to the SyS made clear to anyone reading them that BM was being subjected to the treatment that we have described and the effect upon him of that intentional treatment.
x) The treatment reported, if had been administered on behalf of the United Kingdom, would clearly have been in breach of the undertakings given by the United Kingdom in 1972. Although it is not necessary for us to categorise the treatment reported, it could readily be contended to be at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities
Today we take a look at what MOMCOM thinks a great political movement is, focusing on the "T"-party (Republicans), whether astroturf or actual grass roots, who have caused a twinkle in the eye of the nostalgic MSM.
The press, a.k.a. MSM, tinkers with an explanation of the practice of "letting off steam" as if it was the industrial revolution deja vu all over again.
The great convention where Sarah Palin spoke, and poked "hopey changey" fun at the center and left (composed of performers in an election that carried 9 Bush II states away from the right wing, away from her) garnered a whopping 1,100 souls.
That is fewer zealous participants than the first day of shopping after Christmas mob that literally tramples people to death with "excitement".
That shopping movement happens every year in good political times and bad in many malls around the country.
Nevertheless "the T movement" is being touted as a major movement by MSNBC and other "neutral" news media. But not the venerable Fox News of course (hehe).
The MSM portion of MOMCOM is trying to have a baby by saying there is a lot of unrest in the country.
Ok so they are aware of that reality. Good. So is everyone else.
But they want to paint a false scenario by saying that this unrest is totally encapsulated in the far right frustration with losing the last big elections big. Bad. Nobody really believes that.
Thus, as Bart Simpson says, someone needs to tell the MSM that they are only going to have a cow with this strategy.
Both the left and the center are just as frustrated as the right.
The major frustration emerges from one good thing and one bad thing.
When the voters reject "W" with their votes, a good thing, they want it rejected by those they elected.
The major frustration also comes from a bad thing: politicians don't get it or don't care about the vote of the people after the election.
Are we going to have a generation of frustration, because the "W" compass is the only one they sell in Washington, no matter how the people feel about it?
The slow train that runs on that steam is a different kind of slow:
People starving and thirsting, grain elevators are bursting
Oh, you know it costs more to store the food than it do to give it.
They say lose your inhibitions, follow your own ambitions,
They talk about a life of brotherly love, show me someone who knows how to live it.
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
(Slow Train, Dylan). That train is harder to stop, once it gets going, than it is to get it going at first.
The view from the tallest building in the world looks down on the flats that are, at the highest, 52 feet above sea level; the building they like to call the Burj Khalifa.
The sea port within sight is called Jebel Ali, and is alleged to be the largest sea port.
So, they took the oil out of the ground and converted it into buildings with a port at sea level.
One interpretation of a Dylan song mixed in with some climate change science renders a picture the UAE probably doesn't want to see or think about:
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
(The Times They Are A Changin'). If Edgar Cayce or Nostradamus had written those lyrics there are some who would have said it is a vision of the future.
But Dylan would not have agreed, instead he would have grumbled something about the power of metaphor.
Be that as it may, the waters around us have grown, and in a worse case scenario could rise 30 feet.
The disruption would start 20 years before the most serious destruction started.
The buildings and facilities nearest to the water front would flood or be impaired at only 5 feet of sea rise, about 17% of the maximum, which would cause an economic catastrophe of sorts, because the investment community would balk and walk away.
Why did the sheiks, the rulers of Dubai, for more than a hundred and fifty years now, not see it coming?
Did the oil barons from MOMCOM tell them global warming is a hoax like they did with Sarah Palin's pals?
Will all those people be angry with MOMCOM when they have to start swimming or sink like a stone?
I also wonder if the sailboat hotel they made was a form of thumbing their noses at the environmental scientists.
Scientists who said, like Dylan, that the waters around them were going to grow if they did not stop peddling the number one drug in the world?
One thing is for sure, it will look more and more like a boat as the waters rise.
They may have to change its name to the mother of all water worlds or something like that.
It may turn out to be one of the wonders of irony of the world in our life time.
In the mean time in the U.S. lots of homes, businesses, jobs, and hopes are underwater in a different sort of way.
To the contrary, I think the problem, for Dubai and for us, is our ideology.
After all, here in the U.S. we have recently changed congress and the presidency in a major way, at least in the abstract, the theoretical.
However, if our ideology, our compass, endures through each election cycle and everyone we elect has one, we will only be putting more stewards into office who follow the compass of our unchanging ideology.
One of the top 50 people who influence public and social discourse is a "9/11 Truther".
He is number 41 of the 50, which means that whatever he is doing or has done is getting traction.
Notice what a left leaning British magazine has to say about his efforts:
Conspiracy theories are everywhere, and they always have been. In recent years, one of the most pernicious global myths has been that the US government carried out, or at least colluded in, the 11 September 2001 attacks as a pretext for going to war. David Ray Griffin, a retired professor of religion, is the high priest of the "truther" movement. His books on the subject have lent a sheen of respectability that appeals to people at the highest levels of government - from Michael Meacher MP to Anthony "Van" Jones, who was recently forced to resign as Barack Obama's "green jobs" adviser after it emerged that he had signed a 9/11 truth petition in 2004.
(The New Statesman). Some U.S. periodicals wonder why in the world the British press folks put him in the top 50, and attempt to explain why it could be a valid 41:
One of these choices, however, is beyond surprising - it is astounding.
I refer to the person in the 41st position: David Ray Griffin, a retired professor of philosophy of religion and theology who, in 2003, started writing and lecturing about 9/11, pointing out problems in the official account of the events of that day. By the time the New Statesman article appeared, he had published 8 books, 50 articles, and several DVDs. Because of both the quantity and quality of his work, he became widely regarded as the chief spokesperson of what came to be called “the 9/11 Truth Movement.” It was because of this role that the New Statesman included him in its list, calling him the “top truther” (the “conspiracy theorist” title went to Dan Brown, who was placed in the 50th slot).
(Global Research). Cass R. Sunstein, one of the government's theorists about how to neutralize Dr. Griffin and others, points out in his theory that popularity of the movement will dictate when the government should intervene by:
(1) Government might ban conspiracy theorizing. (2) Government might impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories. (3) Government might itself engage in counterspeech, marshaling arguments to discredit conspiracy theories. (4) Government might formally hire credible private parties to engage in counterspeech.
(The Empire Strikes Back). Sounds a bit Orwellian no? If they ban conspiracy theorizing many criminal prosecutions will be stopped, since they happen every day in the courts of the land (prosecutors use conspiracy theories: "they conspired to" do thus and such, which is considered to be good law).
Perhaps Obama's privacy official means banning conspiracy theories that are not official government conspiracy theories?
Where are we going when government officials advocate and teach torture, then are promoted to the highest levels in the judicial part of government, but others can not have conspiracy theories?
Some of these guys, like Cass, teach constitutional law at Harvard Law School? They evidently would not have to know the 4th or 1st Amendment now would they?
Here are some of the other people besides Dr. Griffin whose free speech they will be banning if they get all patrioty mavericky and go rogue:
Major General Albert Stubblebine, U.S. Army (ret) – Former Commanding General of U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, 1981 - 1984. Also commanded the U.S. Army’s Electronic Research and Development Command and the U.S. Army’s Intelligence School and Center. Former head of Imagery Interpretation for Scientific and Technical Intelligence. 32-year Army career. Member, Military Intelligence Hall of Fame ...
... or Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, PhD, U.S. Air Force (ret) – Director of Advanced Space Programs Development under Presidents Ford and Carter. U.S. Air Force fighter pilot with over 100 combat missions. (PhD in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering, Cal Tech). Former Head of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering and Assistant Dean at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology. 22-year Air Force career. Also taught Mathematics and English at the University of Southern California, the University of Maryland, and Phillips University.
(The Patriots). Both of those intellectuals have literally fought to protect the First Amendment right to be a 9/11 Truther, and both are 9/11 Truthers.
MOMCOM "Momma" Cass, I think that you have bitten off more than you can chew. Time to get real. You can't demonize liberals and conservatives at the same time so as to ban their First Amendment rights.
The next post in this series is here, the first post in this series is here.
Morning Joe on MSNBC had an interesting segment yesterday that overflowed into The Ed Show in the afternoon.
A book by Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies, tells the story of the Bush II regime's utter and wide spread unawareness of the terrorist threat that was looming according to U.S. intelligence.
