The OWL

Saturday, June 7, 2014

"BUBBA" in North Carolina ...

.. Workin' His "Magic"??

Once again, we see a white ex-President, "on-stage", praising a black woman who, in life, had been "chosen", first, by whites, as "special". I was sick to my stomach when the Bush(s), both Daddy and "W", were on stage during the funeral of Coretta King. Who really believes that a "Bush" respects anybody black, after "Stand Your Ground" gun laws, and "A Fine Job, Brownie" treatment of Katrina? I understand the impact that Maya Angelou had on black women; my own daughters, for a fact. But, like Martin Luther King, she can be manipulated in death to benefit mostly those groups who are not black.

During my twenty years as an Air Force Officer, begun less than ten years after Truman's Executive Order went into effect, I met soldiers, mostly Air Force, but also Army and Navy in "Joint" assignments. They ranged in age from World War II, to post-Sputnik; were all colors; and were from every part of our country.

The variety in backgrounds and beliefs was amazing, and shocking. Remember, military "integration" "took hold" in the teeth of the Civil Rights explosions that followed the assassination of President Kennedy.

The racial strife within the military was a topic of my Master's Thesis, completed in 1972.

The variety of beliefs, and even the character, of black soldiers, was the most shocking. Those from deeper in the old South were the most "religious" and least likely to show any respect for themselves. Their belief in a "white" God was unshakable. We can see from Oprah, and others like her, where that rigid belief in a white God comes from. "Bubba" understands the power of that belief in a way that the Bush(s) will never grasp. If you have seen God Loves Uganda,, you witnessed how some of the lowest life forms Missouri produces "flipped" an entire nation in a direction of Rwandan genocide; all in the name of their white, evangelical "Jesus". The Reverend P. Thomas Stanford cited this phenomenon in his book, published more than a hundred years ago. Moctezuma believed it! Had he not, Cortes surely would have been defeated, and there would not have been a Chattel Slave Trade, inspired by Bishop Las Casas!

Black women in the United States have to be wary of the power they give others while they, child-like, believe that they are awakening some "moral force" in whites that will "save" them from the kind of sexual, gender and racial violence they face.

Stage Vigilant! Undisciplined Emotions in this age of Social and Propaganda Media can be dangerous.

Friday, June 6, 2014

NEEDED!! A (world-wide?) "Crash-Course" in FASCISM!!!

Save Yourself!, Save Your Country?

Seventy years ago today, I was an "ageing" 4-year-old. My generation still holds vivid memories of those "black-out" years of World War II, and KNOW; unlike the generations that followed us, that all of those who fought and died, or were injured, or returned needing mending in non-medical ways, did so to DEFEAT FASCISM!! Today, very few people understand what that was.

We hear a lot about NAZI(s), and HITLER, but no explanation of who they were, what they believed, and what they did. How did a Democracy lose its form of government to the Tyranny and Brutality of Nazism? Could it happen again? Joe Stalin, a Communist, was our Ally in World War II. Like the "flipping of a switch", our national awareness of Nazism was extinguished and replaced by a militant and virulent Anti-Communism in the United States. The Cold War further served to obliterate awareness of Nazism. We may have done this at our peril!

Elections throughout Europe this year, and politics in the United States since 1960, show drifts to the Hard Right! Today, we are in a place where, politically, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Carter, Johnson and Clinton(?) would not have been considered "Centrist" enough to win national election. The power of Media, Corporations, and Computer-driven FINANCE are crowding out Democracy in favor of policies that limit choice for the Public; in voting, in access to earned income, among economic issues like wages, jobs, and access to health care. Inflation is rising steadily in all areas impacting child-rearing. The Middle Class and the public at large feels "strangled" as a new "Red-Tide" sweeps across the nation. The U.S. Constitution is under attack from persons elected and selected to "Uphold and Defend" it! The Media deliberately eschews Truth and Fact in favor of Gossip, Innuendo, mis-information, partial-information, and outright lies!. The frustration and disillusionment with self-government grows steadily.

The spread of Fascism across Europe, following the end of World-War I, is a subject that desperately needs re-visiting today. Economic hard-ship, the nurturing "soup" of Fascism in the last century, in once-again stalking the planet. This time, with computing power, and "Social Media", Fascist movements can spread more widely and rapidly.

Stay Vigilant! Don't read the new books by "Talking Heads" in our Media. You've already heard them as scripted news! Read books written before 1980!!

Thursday, June 5, 2014

the PRESIDENT (of the U.S.) is NOT a "REPRESENTATIVE"

Too Many of the "Koch-Hyenas" don't "Get-It"

Not the brightest people in the U.S., the Tea Party Republicans think the President of the United States should "Represent" them, and act accordingly. NOT! If these people could possessed functioning education at 6th grade-level or above, they'd KNOW better. It is the genius of our Founders that provided us with a system with divided powers, three co-equal branches, one of which is EXECUTIVE! Because Abraham Lincoln understood this, we survived our Civil War, divided, but intact. Unlike virtually all of the other males who occupied the Presidency, he was willing and able to withstand the murderous opposition of a nation to save it from itself! Barack Obama is able, and willing, but it remains to be seen whether that long-divided nation will survive the current domestic insurgency that is viewed as Neo-Conservatism by some, and Neo-Fascism, by others. The venom is real, widespread, well funded and organized. All three branches of government at the federal level is infected, and that infection has been growing rapidly since 2000.

A quick look will convince all who have eyes and a functioning brain, that the current convergence of powerful Media, Corporate Greed, a "broken" Economy, and a public hooked on Propaganda and gossip in place of NEWS, makes the final outcome, this time around, "too close to call"!

The President has to be a damned good "Politician" to gain office; but has to be an exceptional Executive to prevail; in times like these. Not since President Lincoln has the personal attributes of the holder of the position been the core driver of the insurgency. It is a sad fact of our racial history that even the most intellectually limited white person firmly believes that he or she is a better Executive than any person of color!

What looks like "irrational" and "outlandish" behavior becomes "perfect sense" when racial ingredients are acknowledged. Putin, hungry and ambitious for Russia to re-gain the world stage, is ever-mindful of the power of "blood-ties" as a tool for stirring up sh*t on a global scale. Europeans don't know what the Hell they should do, as a result! The rise of Neo-Fascism is evident from recent European election results. While, for decades and generations, all attention has been placed on the threat of Communism; no attention was paid to the slowly-growing Fascism in our midst.

"Representatives" can be; and most are, "bought and paid for". Today, in the U.S. Representatives are abandoning their perches to become high-paid personages in the Media.. Classic Fascist tactics are visible to all who will open their eyes, read a few old books, and use their brains. Media darlings, today, read from scripts, have to have the "right" look on camera, and have minimal "acting" skills.

The current crop of "Hyenas" vary in personal motivation from "sour grapes", to regional imperatives based in the outcome of our Civil War, and, most dangerously, ambitions for personal, tyrannical power!

Stay Vigilant! These are, indeed "troubled" times. "God" helps those who know how to help themselves??

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

STATE DEPARTMENT and PRISONERS OF WAR

"Revolutionary Change"??

Diane Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss?? Now there's a strange pair of bedfellows!! But, if you think more carefully about what we're seeing, the State Department has come to the fore in Foreign Affairs in a way and at a level unparalleled since 1948. Dean Acheson, a key figure in the Marshall Plan, Bretton Woods, and NATO, is also known as the "architect" of the Cold War. His State Department term saw the attack of McCarthy and his hyenas; and he was succeeded by John Foster Dulles. The newly formed, then, Defense Department (formerly the War Department) subsumed the State Department in Foreign Affairs as the Cold War Progressed. Eisenhower, alarmed at what he was seeing, warned us in 1959. Truman, alarmed at what he saw the CIA doing, openly admitted that it was a mistake to have created that agency.

When I was commissioned in 1962, I received mandatory training on how to behave as a Prisoner of War. I was told a story that POW bodies dug up after the Truce in Korea, showed no physical harm to the decedents. They reportedly lacked the "will to live". We were told that the Koreans simply told the prisoners about the "history" of the United States and it literally destroyed them. Remember, a huge percentage of U.S. troops, both in World War II and Korea, did not know how to read!

Over the intervening years, the Defense Department quickly grew in strength, well beyond anyone's ability to manage well. All the "wheels came off" once Cheney began mucking around in our "Intelligence", and, prior to 9/11, it was known that plans were being drawn to attack Iraq.

Fourteen years later, with the detritus of Iraq, 9/11, Abu Ghraib, behind us; and Afghanistan fading in our rear view mirror, its becoming clear that fundamental changes in warfare have occurred, and we are long overdue in making the proper adjustments. Just about all of Acheson's safeguards, post World War II, militarily, diplomatically, and economically are in severe need of overhaul.

Against this background, the decision of the Malignant Right to pick a fight with President Obama over the negotiated release of a Prisoner of War, appears extremely bizarre, and puzzling! Especially so, when we recognize that the leading attacker, Senator John McCain, is, himself, a former Prisoner of War with questionable behavior as a prisoner! http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2013/05/29/john-mccain-war-hero-or-something-less/.

"There is something rotten in Denmark!", as the old saying goes. Thinking citizens who care deeply for the future of their country and their children, should WANT TO KNOW what it is!! Look to MISSISSIPPI, and we might find an answer. The Koch-Hyenas are advancing there, and in Iowa.

Stay Vigilant! Serious Attackers don't announce their identity, their true intentions, or their activities!

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

"KOCH-HYENAS" GATHER in MISSISSIPPI

Busily Building "Jim Crow-2014"??

Citizens of the U.S. (all colors) should visit the Deep South; from Texas to the Carolinas, and make it a point to visit the BLACK SIDE of town (rural), or the ghettos, in the cities. You will witness the "left-overs" from JIM CROW, started down there in the 1860s! The current Republican Hyenas (Palin, Rubio; Santorum; the usual suspects) are in Mississippi; "busy", spending Koch money to renovate the old Jim Crow system into what they hope to operate in 2014. THIS TIME IT WILL BE DIFFERENT, however! Rubio is hoping that citizens like him whose skin shows too much Indios lineage will be inducted into White status; the way Jews in the U.S. were accepted as White (outside the South; but not so in Missouri) in the 1950s. Also, this time, Poor Whites, who formerly were "Middle Class" (according to Reagan) are forced to join the Blacks on the bottom rung of our economy and in our Society. No one who "works" for a living is happy with their "pay", or their "quality of life", these days. If the Republicans get their way at the polls in 2014 (and, if they can cripple Hillary before 2016), these conditions will only get worse! Check out the evolution of the KLAN(s) into the Neo-Conservative, or Neo-Nazi organizations of today. You can Google Ku Klux Klan and get the entire history.

The MEDIA is in cahoots! NBC, ABC, CBS, Cable, C-Span, (take your pick); there is no one who is taking a stand against the run-away, Gossip-driven, Propaganda that is disguised as NEWS these days!

It is taking on dangerous, Neo-Nazi trends, as evidenced by the MOB-and SOCIAL MEDIA nature of the Shinseki "Lynching". The real victims were our nation's veterans, but the prize for the Koch-Hyenas is the vast sums of money now available to them in a "Headless" VA!

Hot off their victory against their Shinseki Target (really Obama); they "pivot" to the destruction of newly-freed Sgt Bowe Bergdahl! Kudos to his home town for standing up against the gossip being spread by this Media-Mob! If this campaign succeeds, we will be back to a practice that led to our defeat in Vietnam: "every man for himself" in war. If we let these Hyenas get away with this, nothing makes any sense! Fewer than 10% of the families in the U.S. had even a hang-nail on the line in the defense of this nation in the Cheney/Bush Wars. They followed "W"'s advice, and "went shopping"! Now these chicken-shits demand to sit in judgment of those who served! The Decent People of this nation should be enraged at the Republicans! Especially those who have shut down our Government by turning our House of Representatives into a Stable for Hyenas!

Stay Vigilant! Vote your RAGE against these B*st*rds!!

Monday, June 2, 2014

"WE'RE 'SHOCKED'!" .. Say The WHITES??

Ignoring the "Gold Mine" in the Drug War!!

Some White film-maker is on the T.V. hyping his film to "expose" the failures of the War on Drugs; begun some three decades ago by Mad Ronnie Reagan and other Republicans. Where was he (probably in diapers?) when Ollie North appeared before Congressional Committees with pages missing from his log book that implicated the CIA in dealing drugs in Los Angeles in support of Central America Wars in places like Nicaragua and El Salvador?

He wants the viewers of his film to believe that the new initiatives by President Obama and Attorney General Holder to draw our attention to the failures of the War on Drugs will relieve the Police of "distractions" caused by drug-dealing on our streets. Where was he when Nancy Reagan grabbed the media spotlight, along with "Mr. T", as Swat Teams dramatically busted into Drug Dens? Where is the follow-up of the money trail leading to Idaho, and retired cops, among others, who've amassed fortunes selling confiscated drugs? Why has the Christopher Commission's report on corruption of the LAPD been "buried"? Corruption and MONEY are synonymous!

Could it be that now, when whites are losing their "asses" in record numbers; as the "1%" throws them under the bus, they NOW are aware of corruption and other costs of the Drug War? And, to its overall "FAILURE"?? Gimme Me A Break! The expect the general public to fall for just about anything. I guess it never occurred to them that there was something strange about all those black and brown people in prisons in this country. I guess they think those people are in jail so the rest of the public can "entertain" themselves by watching them on television! I wonder if the "Prison Industry" sells access for "content" to the Cable Industry? More 21st Century "Jim Crow"?

Stay Vigilant! Ask the Republicans if this is their way of "creating jobs" as they promised in 2010??

Sunday, June 1, 2014

"a black crime" (committed by white men)?? "against all men"

The Road Ahead?

President Obama, in his Foreign Policy Speech to the graduating Cadets at West Point, quoted Eisenhower's definition of "War" (my parenthetical added). One talking head in the Media advised us to "read the speech". That is good advice. Don't think for a moment that accepting anyone else's interpretation is fair to the speech, the President, or to you! You will receive messages from the reading that you might not if you only listen to it.

Reflect back, then, as far as your memory can be trusted, and try to put what the President is telling us into your context. My memories stretch back to Truman, and a few years of FDR. I've always felt that we would not be in this mess today, if only Truman had decided to run, and won again, in 1952. As it turned out, we had back-to-back Presidents from the bordering states of Missouri and Kansas. Truman's background was shaped by the Ku-Klux-Klan; Eisenhower's roots go back to "Bleeding Kansas, and John Brown. Both are tangled in deeply held beliefs in White Supremacy. Truman took bold steps toward the end of Racism as he knew it; by integrating the Armed Services. Eisenhower, by contrast, did nothing to slow or halt McCarthyism, and inserted "Under God" into our Pledge of Allegiance within days of the Supreme Court Ruling on Brown v. Board. Truman started the process toward the Desegregation of our Society; while Eisenhower passively allowed Fascism to root in the U.S., Post-War-II. A silent race war has been waged in this country, lasting through Vietnam, the 4 Assassinations, Urban Riots, School Desegregation, Voting Rights, and the current Dysfunction of our national government due to a "Divide" rooted in the racism of the Republican Party.

The 2008 election of the First Black President brought our widely dispersed and entrenched racial beliefs out into the open for the entire world to witness. They dog every step taken by our country to address the severe problems caused by political activities during the 2000-2008 terms of "Cheny/Bush" The current race-based opposition clearly wants "war" in response to Libya, Syria, Benghazi,, and Crimea. They are viscerally opposed to efforts to assist Veterans, and push to destroy the Veterans Administration.

The President's Speech lays out a road-map for rationally facing the evolving threats that face us at home and abroad. It's long overdue!

Stay Vigilant! The Safety and Sanity of all citizens demands that we read and reflect on ideas that can work and lead us out of our current conflicts.