Mista Charlie and the Chocolate Factor - Pt. I
2/25/2008 at 9:09 PM
Part I: The Invention of the White Race: Racism Subverts the Poor
"Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war and until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes. And until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, there is war. And until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained... now everywhere is war." - Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia 1930-1974
In the days of slavery in America, it was popularly referred to as "The Peculiar Institution". Peculiar is an appropriate word because, in all the years of slavery and since its abolition almost 150 years ago, a peculiar sort of mythology has been woven into the fabric of our understanding of "race relations", an odd kind of doublethink that makes poor whites - who actually suffer themselves from the effects of racism - participants in their own oppression. America is obsessed with race, and equally obsessed with pretending we are not obsessed with race.
If I were to say that blacks and whites have always struggled to coexist, not many people would challenge me. Racism is generally viewed in America as an innate quality, a social phenomenon as old as civilization itself. This idea, however, is false. Race is generally seen as the obvious physical manifestation of one's genetic origins. The "Black" or Negro race originated in Africa, the "White" or Caucasian race in Europe, etc. While geographic origins can be proven, the rest of this assertion again could not be further from the truth.
The "White", or Caucasian race is actually a conglomeration of the many peoples of "multiracial" Europe. That's what the anthropologists call it - MULTI-racial. THERE IS NO TRUE WHITE RACE. Additionally, the traditional designations of Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Negroid completely fail to adequately address the sublety of the genetic adaptations to the geography of our respective ancestors. A millennium of intermingling and a century or three of interbreeding shouldn't be so arbitrarily pigeonholed.
For one thing, Blacks didn't really sell blacks into slavery as we are taught, and racism was not endemic in early America, nor even in the early American labor movement. The first blacks arrived with the Jamestown colonists in 1619 as indentured servants, not slaves. Indentured servitude was a CLASS phenomenon, a labor issue and not a racial one, and while there was certainly an existing general acknowledgement of racial differences, there was also a great willingness to make common cause. Even in Europe there was certainly a recognition of black people's HUMANITY.
Theodore William Allen, in his acclaimed volumes, The Invention of the White Race, parts 1 & 2 discusses racism and the institution of American racial slavery as an aspect of the struggle between the ruling and working classes.
He mades 3 essential arguments: 1) Slavery and white supremacy in America were created and fostered by the ruling class as a response to the problem of labor solidarity among the poor. 2) The system of racial privilege to white workers was deliberately instituted to establish the idea of a "white race". This was subsequently used as a means of controlling the working class. 3) The consequences of this were not only disastrous for blacks - even freed blacks - but to white workers as well.
Between 1663 and 1682, Virginia had at least ten revolts of the poor and servant classes. Blacks and whites fought side by side in these struggles, including in Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, which began as a dispute between elite and sub-elite planters over "Indian policy" but quickly degenerated into civil war against the ruling class. The result of these and other labor insurrections however, was the establishment of racism as US policy to appease poor whites, who were also considered a degenerate class of inferior breeding; Poor White Trash. In 1670 Virginia legally dubbed blacks "Servants for life" and barred all nonwhites from owning slaves. That same year, Virginia limited voting rights to landholders only, a significant setback for poor whites and blacks alike.
The ruling class understood that everyone, no matter how lowly in class, has an ego. Everybody needs to feel better than someone, especially when in reality they are at the bottom of the economic ladder. So they began to appeal to the egos of poor whites. They argued for the innate superiority of the white race using emotional arguments and biblical references rather than logic, similar to what fearmongers and hatemongers like former Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan or the unfair and probably unbalanced Bill O'Reilly do today. Blacks and Indians were denounced as heathens and savages, unworthy of consideration as human beings. Poor whites latched onto this reorganization of priviledge, even though all it gave them was license to place others below them; it raised them up not a notch.
In fact, poor whites suffered from slavery themselves. Slavery dealt a blow to the fledgling labor movement in America by eliminating all black labor from the equation. Southern farmers were gradually forced to sell small land holdings, creating the entrenched southern plantation gentry and the economic exclusion of all other whites. Many had to seek work in the larger towns where they still had to compete with leased slave labor. This further entrenched poor white's resentment of even enslaved blacks while providing great economic leverage to wealthy business- and land-owners. Things got no better with the abolition of slavery. In th south, the luckiest blacks were the ones who were simply adopted into the exisiting system of indentured servitude, while both blacks and whites looking for work in the North had to accept some truly horrific working conditions.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Part II will examine the further development of white / black relations, the Abolitionist movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction, which just didn't go down like it was supposed to. At least for black folks. We'll also look at black music, at images in advertising and at the Civil Rights movement, which desperately needs a shot of adrenaline.
I'll holla.
"Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, everywhere is war and until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation, until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes. And until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race, there is war. And until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained... now everywhere is war." - Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia 1930-1974
In the days of slavery in America, it was popularly referred to as "The Peculiar Institution". Peculiar is an appropriate word because, in all the years of slavery and since its abolition almost 150 years ago, a peculiar sort of mythology has been woven into the fabric of our understanding of "race relations", an odd kind of doublethink that makes poor whites - who actually suffer themselves from the effects of racism - participants in their own oppression. America is obsessed with race, and equally obsessed with pretending we are not obsessed with race.
If I were to say that blacks and whites have always struggled to coexist, not many people would challenge me. Racism is generally viewed in America as an innate quality, a social phenomenon as old as civilization itself. This idea, however, is false. Race is generally seen as the obvious physical manifestation of one's genetic origins. The "Black" or Negro race originated in Africa, the "White" or Caucasian race in Europe, etc. While geographic origins can be proven, the rest of this assertion again could not be further from the truth.
The "White", or Caucasian race is actually a conglomeration of the many peoples of "multiracial" Europe. That's what the anthropologists call it - MULTI-racial. THERE IS NO TRUE WHITE RACE. Additionally, the traditional designations of Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Negroid completely fail to adequately address the sublety of the genetic adaptations to the geography of our respective ancestors. A millennium of intermingling and a century or three of interbreeding shouldn't be so arbitrarily pigeonholed.
For one thing, Blacks didn't really sell blacks into slavery as we are taught, and racism was not endemic in early America, nor even in the early American labor movement. The first blacks arrived with the Jamestown colonists in 1619 as indentured servants, not slaves. Indentured servitude was a CLASS phenomenon, a labor issue and not a racial one, and while there was certainly an existing general acknowledgement of racial differences, there was also a great willingness to make common cause. Even in Europe there was certainly a recognition of black people's HUMANITY.
Theodore William Allen, in his acclaimed volumes, The Invention of the White Race, parts 1 & 2 discusses racism and the institution of American racial slavery as an aspect of the struggle between the ruling and working classes.
He mades 3 essential arguments: 1) Slavery and white supremacy in America were created and fostered by the ruling class as a response to the problem of labor solidarity among the poor. 2) The system of racial privilege to white workers was deliberately instituted to establish the idea of a "white race". This was subsequently used as a means of controlling the working class. 3) The consequences of this were not only disastrous for blacks - even freed blacks - but to white workers as well.
Between 1663 and 1682, Virginia had at least ten revolts of the poor and servant classes. Blacks and whites fought side by side in these struggles, including in Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, which began as a dispute between elite and sub-elite planters over "Indian policy" but quickly degenerated into civil war against the ruling class. The result of these and other labor insurrections however, was the establishment of racism as US policy to appease poor whites, who were also considered a degenerate class of inferior breeding; Poor White Trash. In 1670 Virginia legally dubbed blacks "Servants for life" and barred all nonwhites from owning slaves. That same year, Virginia limited voting rights to landholders only, a significant setback for poor whites and blacks alike.
The ruling class understood that everyone, no matter how lowly in class, has an ego. Everybody needs to feel better than someone, especially when in reality they are at the bottom of the economic ladder. So they began to appeal to the egos of poor whites. They argued for the innate superiority of the white race using emotional arguments and biblical references rather than logic, similar to what fearmongers and hatemongers like former Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan or the unfair and probably unbalanced Bill O'Reilly do today. Blacks and Indians were denounced as heathens and savages, unworthy of consideration as human beings. Poor whites latched onto this reorganization of priviledge, even though all it gave them was license to place others below them; it raised them up not a notch.
In fact, poor whites suffered from slavery themselves. Slavery dealt a blow to the fledgling labor movement in America by eliminating all black labor from the equation. Southern farmers were gradually forced to sell small land holdings, creating the entrenched southern plantation gentry and the economic exclusion of all other whites. Many had to seek work in the larger towns where they still had to compete with leased slave labor. This further entrenched poor white's resentment of even enslaved blacks while providing great economic leverage to wealthy business- and land-owners. Things got no better with the abolition of slavery. In th south, the luckiest blacks were the ones who were simply adopted into the exisiting system of indentured servitude, while both blacks and whites looking for work in the North had to accept some truly horrific working conditions.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Part II will examine the further development of white / black relations, the Abolitionist movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction, which just didn't go down like it was supposed to. At least for black folks. We'll also look at black music, at images in advertising and at the Civil Rights movement, which desperately needs a shot of adrenaline.
I'll holla.
STILL MY N-WORD
11/28/2007 at 6:23 AM
YOU'RE STILL MY N-WORD
Recently, a group of wealthy and/or famous African-Americans came together in an effort to “bury” the “n-word”, to effectively erase it from the public vocabulary. Their reasoning was that if society would only cease to use the word, the thoughts and actions associated with it would soon cease as well.
My boys and I still laugh about that one. By that logic, any reality we steadfastly refuse to acknowledge will cease to exist. So if we all stop using the words “poor” and “poverty”, it will help to shrink the income disparity between the haves and have-nots. Wow. I’ve got a lot of words we should stop using. How about, “climate change”, “war”, “hate”… “FEAR”. Yeah. Not much chance of that, huh?
Some distinguished “Afro-Saxons” have even argued that enough progress has been made in the last century or so to declare the end of racism in America. And these are people other than Clarence Thomas! I’d really like a chance to sell them a bridge, or some land in Florida three feet under swamp water.
Now, don’t think I am oblivious to the negative effects of the word. Despite its biblical origin (Simon of Niger, anyone? Check your bibles – Acts 13:1), the “n-word”, in all it’s racially and culturally loaded permutations continues to be the spark of many a conversation about race. And many a confrontation over the same as well, of course. For one thing, non-blacks, and even some of our own often think of blacks who use the word “nigga” as somehow “ghetto” or “thuggish”, reflective of all that is wrong with Black America today. There is an unspoken assumption that these are the negroes who conform to many, if not all of the pervasive and negative stereotypes assigned to blacks in America today. Nor am I ignorant of the continued usage of the demeaning “nigger” by the many racist and bigoted whites (and other races) spread across this great land. There are many valid arguments made by those who go on to disparage the word as offensive; an across-the-board outrage.
I answer most of them with the old tried-and-true: In the timeless oral tradition that brought us “bad meaning good”, we have transmogrified our own usage of the word into a common expression, like “man”, “dude”, or “homie”. Young Mexicans commonly refer to each other as “fool”. Does this mean they have no faith in the intellectual capacity of their entire race? Of course not. It is simply an expression, a term of endearment, even, like the word muthafucka as defined by The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English.
They then argue that calling feces flowers doesn’t make it stink any less, that this word more than any other is still stained with the blood of African princes and stinks of the holds of transatlantic cargo ships. An emotionally effective argument, but one that only looks at the surface, the history of the word and not the context assigned it by the flippers of the script themselves. Us.
The Niggas themselves.
We have taken things a step or two beyond bad/good transpositions. It is 2007, after all, and the new millennium nigga is a cerebral muthafucka.
As far as I and many other black folks are concerned, this word is an integral part of our response to societal racism and to the resurgence of institutional racism, even as individual, one-on-one racism “appears” to be losing some of its grip, at least among the young and urban. Because the deeply entrenched roots of institutional racism are becoming more and more faceless, nameless, hidden behind logos and policies and proprietary protocols (not to mention nepotism and old-boy backroom deals), society can pretend that racism is nonexistent, or at least on its way out, and individuals don’t ever have to confront their own unconscious racial prejudices and biases.
I believe that the day we as a people let go of the n-word is the day we begin to agree with and empower these deniers of reality, to surrender some of that which caused some mighty righteous white folks to believe black people to be the salvation of America. We MUST not be silent. The word, “Nigga” has become a check; a cultural acid test; a way of forcing everyone hearing it to confront the reality of an insubstantial – some would say intangible – fact of everyday life. Racism is still extremely pervasive and this is what they think about you/me/us. Our white friends understand this and don’t have a problem with our usage. They respect that it cannot mean to them what it means to us and consequently do not use the word themselves.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that white people in general are not the root of the problem. The roots are white, but whites are not themselves the problem. Whiteness does not by default equate with racism. If not for the American Abolitionist movement (created and led by whites), black people would most likely never have gained even the current facade of freedom in this country. Good, honest, unbiased white people remain the cornerstone of the American Way of Life.
One root of the problem is America’s obsession with race and our concomitant refusal to admit to – and thus deal with - this obsession. Another root is institutionalized racism, the de-facto, systemic second-class citizenship of all non-whites that has become fully imperceptible for many in this country who do not suffer its effects. This racism is fomented and sponsored by a corporate class that understands all too well the principle of “divide and conquer” and uses it to deflect onto nonwhites the blame for so many problems of their own making.
It is a testament to the inability – or unwillingness – of many whites to even try to truly understand what it means to be black in America that they continue to question our own use of the word while – even more amazing to me – asserting that our usage somehow gives them permission to use the word, too. As Bay Area schools successfully argued not too long ago, the reality is that black folks in America are actually speaking a completely different language. So, no matter how cool you are, my white brotha, you can be MY nigga, but don’t EVER call me yours. It just does not – and cannot - mean the same thing.
For any whites reading this, I freely acknowledge that here is the knife’s edge of a double standard. But please understand: we (black folks) call each other nigga all the time. We will even call YOU nigga, and say, “that nigga” and “y’all” niggas when talking about men of any race. We’ll even be sitting there watching TV, point at George W. Bush – Whitey himself – and say, “man, I can’t stand that nigga!” Our constant, unselfconscious use of the word – and blunt refusal to allow any but our own to do so – is probably the most consistently obvious reminder of the pervasiveness of racism in America. In itself it exposes racism, proven by the fact that many whites used the aforementioned “burial” as a soapbox to eulogize that old faded idea, American Racism.
But we Niggas knew better. We use a much better barometer than these black sons of privilege and lickers of boots. And until there are no “niggers” of any race, until the word nigga is as empty of racial overtones to ALL of YOU as it is to so many of us, we will continue to be the Niggas of the black race. The ones who call bullshit on bullshit and call a spade a spade.
And y’all gon still be my niggas.
Recently, a group of wealthy and/or famous African-Americans came together in an effort to “bury” the “n-word”, to effectively erase it from the public vocabulary. Their reasoning was that if society would only cease to use the word, the thoughts and actions associated with it would soon cease as well.
My boys and I still laugh about that one. By that logic, any reality we steadfastly refuse to acknowledge will cease to exist. So if we all stop using the words “poor” and “poverty”, it will help to shrink the income disparity between the haves and have-nots. Wow. I’ve got a lot of words we should stop using. How about, “climate change”, “war”, “hate”… “FEAR”. Yeah. Not much chance of that, huh?
Some distinguished “Afro-Saxons” have even argued that enough progress has been made in the last century or so to declare the end of racism in America. And these are people other than Clarence Thomas! I’d really like a chance to sell them a bridge, or some land in Florida three feet under swamp water.
Now, don’t think I am oblivious to the negative effects of the word. Despite its biblical origin (Simon of Niger, anyone? Check your bibles – Acts 13:1), the “n-word”, in all it’s racially and culturally loaded permutations continues to be the spark of many a conversation about race. And many a confrontation over the same as well, of course. For one thing, non-blacks, and even some of our own often think of blacks who use the word “nigga” as somehow “ghetto” or “thuggish”, reflective of all that is wrong with Black America today. There is an unspoken assumption that these are the negroes who conform to many, if not all of the pervasive and negative stereotypes assigned to blacks in America today. Nor am I ignorant of the continued usage of the demeaning “nigger” by the many racist and bigoted whites (and other races) spread across this great land. There are many valid arguments made by those who go on to disparage the word as offensive; an across-the-board outrage.
I answer most of them with the old tried-and-true: In the timeless oral tradition that brought us “bad meaning good”, we have transmogrified our own usage of the word into a common expression, like “man”, “dude”, or “homie”. Young Mexicans commonly refer to each other as “fool”. Does this mean they have no faith in the intellectual capacity of their entire race? Of course not. It is simply an expression, a term of endearment, even, like the word muthafucka as defined by The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English.
They then argue that calling feces flowers doesn’t make it stink any less, that this word more than any other is still stained with the blood of African princes and stinks of the holds of transatlantic cargo ships. An emotionally effective argument, but one that only looks at the surface, the history of the word and not the context assigned it by the flippers of the script themselves. Us.
The Niggas themselves.
We have taken things a step or two beyond bad/good transpositions. It is 2007, after all, and the new millennium nigga is a cerebral muthafucka.
As far as I and many other black folks are concerned, this word is an integral part of our response to societal racism and to the resurgence of institutional racism, even as individual, one-on-one racism “appears” to be losing some of its grip, at least among the young and urban. Because the deeply entrenched roots of institutional racism are becoming more and more faceless, nameless, hidden behind logos and policies and proprietary protocols (not to mention nepotism and old-boy backroom deals), society can pretend that racism is nonexistent, or at least on its way out, and individuals don’t ever have to confront their own unconscious racial prejudices and biases.
I believe that the day we as a people let go of the n-word is the day we begin to agree with and empower these deniers of reality, to surrender some of that which caused some mighty righteous white folks to believe black people to be the salvation of America. We MUST not be silent. The word, “Nigga” has become a check; a cultural acid test; a way of forcing everyone hearing it to confront the reality of an insubstantial – some would say intangible – fact of everyday life. Racism is still extremely pervasive and this is what they think about you/me/us. Our white friends understand this and don’t have a problem with our usage. They respect that it cannot mean to them what it means to us and consequently do not use the word themselves.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that white people in general are not the root of the problem. The roots are white, but whites are not themselves the problem. Whiteness does not by default equate with racism. If not for the American Abolitionist movement (created and led by whites), black people would most likely never have gained even the current facade of freedom in this country. Good, honest, unbiased white people remain the cornerstone of the American Way of Life.
One root of the problem is America’s obsession with race and our concomitant refusal to admit to – and thus deal with - this obsession. Another root is institutionalized racism, the de-facto, systemic second-class citizenship of all non-whites that has become fully imperceptible for many in this country who do not suffer its effects. This racism is fomented and sponsored by a corporate class that understands all too well the principle of “divide and conquer” and uses it to deflect onto nonwhites the blame for so many problems of their own making.
It is a testament to the inability – or unwillingness – of many whites to even try to truly understand what it means to be black in America that they continue to question our own use of the word while – even more amazing to me – asserting that our usage somehow gives them permission to use the word, too. As Bay Area schools successfully argued not too long ago, the reality is that black folks in America are actually speaking a completely different language. So, no matter how cool you are, my white brotha, you can be MY nigga, but don’t EVER call me yours. It just does not – and cannot - mean the same thing.
For any whites reading this, I freely acknowledge that here is the knife’s edge of a double standard. But please understand: we (black folks) call each other nigga all the time. We will even call YOU nigga, and say, “that nigga” and “y’all” niggas when talking about men of any race. We’ll even be sitting there watching TV, point at George W. Bush – Whitey himself – and say, “man, I can’t stand that nigga!” Our constant, unselfconscious use of the word – and blunt refusal to allow any but our own to do so – is probably the most consistently obvious reminder of the pervasiveness of racism in America. In itself it exposes racism, proven by the fact that many whites used the aforementioned “burial” as a soapbox to eulogize that old faded idea, American Racism.
But we Niggas knew better. We use a much better barometer than these black sons of privilege and lickers of boots. And until there are no “niggers” of any race, until the word nigga is as empty of racial overtones to ALL of YOU as it is to so many of us, we will continue to be the Niggas of the black race. The ones who call bullshit on bullshit and call a spade a spade.
And y’all gon still be my niggas.
HOW DID IT GET THIS BAD?
9/25/2007 at 5:34 AM
"There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings." - Dorothy Thompson
Part II: NAZIS IN AMERICA
Recently , I came across a quote by Mark Phillips stating, "THE NAZIS DIDN'T LOSE WWII, THEY JUST SWITCHED SIDES.". In researching this statement I came across some startling history. He was right. And they came to America.
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Allied forces ransacked Germany for war spoils. German technology and propaganda had reached new heights in the war effort, placing them at the forefront of world science and Russia and America, understanding that whoever possessed this knowledge would gain an important leg-up, raced feverishly to claim it for themselves. American officials were soon faced with a difficult decision. What to do with the hundreds of German scientists who had contributed so greatly to the success of the Axis vermacht, or war machine? Since it was illegal for Nazi officials to emigrate to the USA, they brought them to the States for "interviews and questioning", announcing they would soon be returned to Germany.
They never were.
CIA director ALLEN DULLES, himself a Nazi sympathizer, met with former Nazi Intelligence leader Reinhard Gehlen and basically adopted Gehlen's intelligence unit, still operational in Russia and elsewhere, into the CIA. Then, after convincing President Truman of the value of these scientist's knowledge, he authorized OPERATION PAPERCLIP, allowing selected German scientists to come work for America, specifically the military and the CIA. Propulsion and rocket scientists, and propaganda specialists and psychologists were brought into the states for years. Documentation of these scientist's Nazi connections was erased and destroyed, clearing their names and allowing them to be put to work for the government of the United States.
A lot of attention has been paid to the resulting advances in rocket, aircraft and space technology by scientists like Werner Von Braun which directly resulted from this operation. Less attention has been devoted to the results of the work done by the propagandists and psychologists.
So what did come out of their work?
One direct result of their contributions was the CIA's MK ULTRA program, AMONG OTHERS, that used military personnel and civilians in mind-control and personality-alteration experiments involving drugs and methods of torture and abuse.
Another was the huge growth of Television and the Advertising Industry, where subliminal and repetitive imagery is used to condition people to believe a certain way or to desire a certain product. There is an astounding amount of documentation on the use of SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING on unsuspecting readers and viewers by the media. A 1998 NAGGING STUDY showed the power of the messages reaching kids is a direct contributor to consumption, significantly increasing the chance a parent will purchase a particular item for their children.
In Aldous Huxley's book, "BRAVE NEW WORLD", education has been renamed "conditioning" and is basically repeated exposure to images and situations that reinforce a particular state of mind. The phrase "A thousand repetitions equals one truth" pretty much sums it all up. The goal of these conditioning programs was to develop new ways of conditioning "normal" people to accept conditions they would normally never accept. George Orwell's brilliant book "1984", published in 1941, introduces the concept of "DOUBLETHINK" as "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." A great example is THE AMERICAN WAR ON DRUGS, in which people are convinced that drugs are wrong while they placidly fill their Zanax prescription and give suicide-encouraging PROZAC to their kids, all while the people and Congress ignore the fact that the CIA ARE IMPORTING THE DRUGS INTO AMERICA in the first place! We in America are being conditioned by television and other media to be experts at doublethink. We deny the existence of persistent institurionalized racism, for example, while Affirmative Action repeal is resulting in dropping minority admissions to universities all over the country. We believe that terrorism is wrong, yet fail to see that to many around the world, WE ARE THE TERRORISTS!
Because we are conditioned to think of our government as being fairly benevolent, we even fail to see when they are actively acting against our best interests. When we do see this, we believe it must be a few "rogues" in power working to undermine the benevolent work of the rest. This may be true, but the silence of the others is their implicit consent and in accepting the actions and lies of the few, they give them the power of the many. It is in the interest of politicians of both parties to create VOTER APATHY, particularly among the poor, whom they have no interest in representing anyway. They even admit this in private but if it ever comes out they just place an acceptable "spin" on it so it sounds like whatever they want us to believe they said.
These revelations are startling, frightening. And there are more.
It is a known and accepted fact that Prescott Bush, THE PRESIDENT'S GRANDFATHER WORKED CLOSELY WITH THE NAZIS, even after Pearl Harbor.
He later became a U.S. Senator, and knowledge of his Nazi past was buried. It is a less known fact that this same PRESCOTT BUSH PLANNED AN ATTEMPTED COUP OF THE FDR WHITE HOUSE, along with POWERFUL WALL STREET INTERESTS and they would have succeeded, too, but the GENERAL RECRUITED TO LEAD THE COUP FOILED IT HIMSELF.
The would-be American Fascists didn't stop there, but began quietly building the framework for a silent fascist takeover. COINTELPRO was a secret program to identify and silence dissent. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Panther Party may have been its most prominent targets.
When COMPARING BUSH'S ACTIONS WITH THE 14 POINTS OF FASCISM, it becomes apparent that this administration is deliberately leading the American people down the path to a complete and total lack of real freedom while steadfastly repeating the lie that we must surrender our freedoms in order to counter the threat of terrorists. This is accomplished partly by the government's use of PSYOPs, "political, military, economic and ideological actions planned and conducted to create in neutral or friendly groups the emotions, attitudes, or behavior to support achievement of national objectives."
The roots of this were planted long ago. Whenever the people of America refused to abide by the wishes of these elitists, they still managed to coerce us. FDR KNEW ABOUT PEARL HARBOR before it happened. THE LIE THAT STARTED THE VIETNAM WAR has also been exposed. Information on OPERATION NORTHWOODS is readily available, detailing the government's plan to destroy a decoy aircraft over Cuba as a pretext for an invasion of the island in the 1960's.
Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Scooter Libby and Donald Rumsfeld were all founding members of the PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY, an organization whose members are now in charge of the White House and the Pentagon. PNAC is dedicated to the principles of American Hegemony, and has been EXPOSED AS AN IMPERIALIST AND GLOBALIST GROUP with little regard for the wishes, safety or even lives of average Americans.
In 1997, COUNCIL OF FOREIGN RELATIONS member Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote "THE GRAND CHESSBOARD", in which he argued that the American people would HAVE TO BE DECEIVED in order to establish American economic and political dominance."
Well before September 11, 2001 several arch-conservatives, many within the government, pointed out the need for a "galvanizing event", a NEW PEARL HARBOR, that would crush American reticence to allow political and corporate interests to impose their will on the middle east and elsewhere. Whether our government actively participated in the events of 9/11 or simply allowed them to happen I cannot say. However, given the historic behavior of our leaders and those they use to impose their will upon the people of America and the world, I say it doesn't matter. Our President is the grandson of a known fascist, the son of an ACCUSED SATANIST and admitted elitist, and is himself a war criminal at best. What will it take to get the majority of Americans to realize this?
And will it be too late when they do?
More Info:
SILENT WEAPONS FOR QUIET WARS 1
SILENT WEAPONS FOR QUIET WARS 2
SATANISM IN WORLD POLITICS.
HITLER'S OCCULT OBSESSION
STEW WEBB.COM.
Peace.
Part II: NAZIS IN AMERICA
Recently , I came across a quote by Mark Phillips stating, "THE NAZIS DIDN'T LOSE WWII, THEY JUST SWITCHED SIDES.". In researching this statement I came across some startling history. He was right. And they came to America.
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Allied forces ransacked Germany for war spoils. German technology and propaganda had reached new heights in the war effort, placing them at the forefront of world science and Russia and America, understanding that whoever possessed this knowledge would gain an important leg-up, raced feverishly to claim it for themselves. American officials were soon faced with a difficult decision. What to do with the hundreds of German scientists who had contributed so greatly to the success of the Axis vermacht, or war machine? Since it was illegal for Nazi officials to emigrate to the USA, they brought them to the States for "interviews and questioning", announcing they would soon be returned to Germany.
They never were.
CIA director ALLEN DULLES, himself a Nazi sympathizer, met with former Nazi Intelligence leader Reinhard Gehlen and basically adopted Gehlen's intelligence unit, still operational in Russia and elsewhere, into the CIA. Then, after convincing President Truman of the value of these scientist's knowledge, he authorized OPERATION PAPERCLIP, allowing selected German scientists to come work for America, specifically the military and the CIA. Propulsion and rocket scientists, and propaganda specialists and psychologists were brought into the states for years. Documentation of these scientist's Nazi connections was erased and destroyed, clearing their names and allowing them to be put to work for the government of the United States.
A lot of attention has been paid to the resulting advances in rocket, aircraft and space technology by scientists like Werner Von Braun which directly resulted from this operation. Less attention has been devoted to the results of the work done by the propagandists and psychologists.
So what did come out of their work?
One direct result of their contributions was the CIA's MK ULTRA program, AMONG OTHERS, that used military personnel and civilians in mind-control and personality-alteration experiments involving drugs and methods of torture and abuse.
Another was the huge growth of Television and the Advertising Industry, where subliminal and repetitive imagery is used to condition people to believe a certain way or to desire a certain product. There is an astounding amount of documentation on the use of SUBLIMINAL ADVERTISING on unsuspecting readers and viewers by the media. A 1998 NAGGING STUDY showed the power of the messages reaching kids is a direct contributor to consumption, significantly increasing the chance a parent will purchase a particular item for their children.
In Aldous Huxley's book, "BRAVE NEW WORLD", education has been renamed "conditioning" and is basically repeated exposure to images and situations that reinforce a particular state of mind. The phrase "A thousand repetitions equals one truth" pretty much sums it all up. The goal of these conditioning programs was to develop new ways of conditioning "normal" people to accept conditions they would normally never accept. George Orwell's brilliant book "1984", published in 1941, introduces the concept of "DOUBLETHINK" as "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." A great example is THE AMERICAN WAR ON DRUGS, in which people are convinced that drugs are wrong while they placidly fill their Zanax prescription and give suicide-encouraging PROZAC to their kids, all while the people and Congress ignore the fact that the CIA ARE IMPORTING THE DRUGS INTO AMERICA in the first place! We in America are being conditioned by television and other media to be experts at doublethink. We deny the existence of persistent institurionalized racism, for example, while Affirmative Action repeal is resulting in dropping minority admissions to universities all over the country. We believe that terrorism is wrong, yet fail to see that to many around the world, WE ARE THE TERRORISTS!
Because we are conditioned to think of our government as being fairly benevolent, we even fail to see when they are actively acting against our best interests. When we do see this, we believe it must be a few "rogues" in power working to undermine the benevolent work of the rest. This may be true, but the silence of the others is their implicit consent and in accepting the actions and lies of the few, they give them the power of the many. It is in the interest of politicians of both parties to create VOTER APATHY, particularly among the poor, whom they have no interest in representing anyway. They even admit this in private but if it ever comes out they just place an acceptable "spin" on it so it sounds like whatever they want us to believe they said.
These revelations are startling, frightening. And there are more.
It is a known and accepted fact that Prescott Bush, THE PRESIDENT'S GRANDFATHER WORKED CLOSELY WITH THE NAZIS, even after Pearl Harbor.
He later became a U.S. Senator, and knowledge of his Nazi past was buried. It is a less known fact that this same PRESCOTT BUSH PLANNED AN ATTEMPTED COUP OF THE FDR WHITE HOUSE, along with POWERFUL WALL STREET INTERESTS and they would have succeeded, too, but the GENERAL RECRUITED TO LEAD THE COUP FOILED IT HIMSELF.
The would-be American Fascists didn't stop there, but began quietly building the framework for a silent fascist takeover. COINTELPRO was a secret program to identify and silence dissent. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Panther Party may have been its most prominent targets.
When COMPARING BUSH'S ACTIONS WITH THE 14 POINTS OF FASCISM, it becomes apparent that this administration is deliberately leading the American people down the path to a complete and total lack of real freedom while steadfastly repeating the lie that we must surrender our freedoms in order to counter the threat of terrorists. This is accomplished partly by the government's use of PSYOPs, "political, military, economic and ideological actions planned and conducted to create in neutral or friendly groups the emotions, attitudes, or behavior to support achievement of national objectives."
The roots of this were planted long ago. Whenever the people of America refused to abide by the wishes of these elitists, they still managed to coerce us. FDR KNEW ABOUT PEARL HARBOR before it happened. THE LIE THAT STARTED THE VIETNAM WAR has also been exposed. Information on OPERATION NORTHWOODS is readily available, detailing the government's plan to destroy a decoy aircraft over Cuba as a pretext for an invasion of the island in the 1960's.
Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Scooter Libby and Donald Rumsfeld were all founding members of the PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY, an organization whose members are now in charge of the White House and the Pentagon. PNAC is dedicated to the principles of American Hegemony, and has been EXPOSED AS AN IMPERIALIST AND GLOBALIST GROUP with little regard for the wishes, safety or even lives of average Americans.
In 1997, COUNCIL OF FOREIGN RELATIONS member Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote "THE GRAND CHESSBOARD", in which he argued that the American people would HAVE TO BE DECEIVED in order to establish American economic and political dominance."
Well before September 11, 2001 several arch-conservatives, many within the government, pointed out the need for a "galvanizing event", a NEW PEARL HARBOR, that would crush American reticence to allow political and corporate interests to impose their will on the middle east and elsewhere. Whether our government actively participated in the events of 9/11 or simply allowed them to happen I cannot say. However, given the historic behavior of our leaders and those they use to impose their will upon the people of America and the world, I say it doesn't matter. Our President is the grandson of a known fascist, the son of an ACCUSED SATANIST and admitted elitist, and is himself a war criminal at best. What will it take to get the majority of Americans to realize this?
And will it be too late when they do?
More Info:
SILENT WEAPONS FOR QUIET WARS 1
SILENT WEAPONS FOR QUIET WARS 2
SATANISM IN WORLD POLITICS.
HITLER'S OCCULT OBSESSION
STEW WEBB.COM.
Peace.
THE INSIDE STORY
6/10/2007 at 7:32 AM
Part 1: An Economic Hit Man
John Perkins was recruited right out of college by the National Security Agency (NSA). His job was to operate as an "economic hit man". His books, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" and "The Secret History of the American Empire" are taking America by storm, exposing an extremely disturbing pattern of worldwide American Hegemony.
Posing as an employee of various multinational and American companies, Perkins would travel to countries such as Panama and Ecuador in order to corrupt the leadership of that country by convincing them to accept huge loans which these countries' economies could never hope to repay. These leaders were presented with an option: accept the economic incentives offered to them by the NSA thru these front corporations and grow rich, or die.
Leaders who refused this aid, such as Allende in Chile or Lumumba in the Congo were "dealt with" (killed). In fact, Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos and President Jaime Roldos Aguilera of Ecuador both refused Perkins's offers and died in airplane crashes within 2 months of each other.
Perkins' words are undeniably those of an insider, someone familiar with the techniques of economic takeover and corruption in order to further enrich the already super-rich and create a situation of de-facto economic slavery in the Third World.
Alex Roslin, in his Amazon.com review writes: "Perkins... economic projections cooked the books Enron-style to convince foreign governments to accept billions of dollars of loans from the World Bank and other institutions to build dams, airports, electric grids, and other infrastructure he knew they couldn't afford. The loans were given on condition that construction and engineering contracts went to U.S. companies. Often, the money would simply be transferred from one bank account in Washington, D.C., to another one in New York or San Francisco. The deals were smoothed over with bribes for foreign officials, but it was the taxpayers in the foreign countries who had to pay back the loans. When their governments couldn't do so, as was often the case, the U.S. or its henchmen at the World Bank or International Monetary Fund would step in and essentially place the country in trusteeship, dictating everything from its spending budget to security agreements and even its United Nations votes. It was, Perkins writes, a clever way for the U.S. to expand its "empire" at the expense of Third World citizens."
The link below is an MP3 of the popular 1-hour radio show "Democracy Now", hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. Perkins spends the entire hour with Goodman, offering the details of his recruitment and his work, as well as more information on how the global elite have manipulated economies and politics for decades and have created a truly global empire that threatens all freedom, everywhere. He also has some very insightful ideas about combating this system and paving the way for truly representative democracy and economic parity.
Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/05/149244
MORE LINKS:
http://www.johnperkins.org/
http://www.internetpirate.com/airplane.htm
John Perkins was recruited right out of college by the National Security Agency (NSA). His job was to operate as an "economic hit man". His books, "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" and "The Secret History of the American Empire" are taking America by storm, exposing an extremely disturbing pattern of worldwide American Hegemony.
Posing as an employee of various multinational and American companies, Perkins would travel to countries such as Panama and Ecuador in order to corrupt the leadership of that country by convincing them to accept huge loans which these countries' economies could never hope to repay. These leaders were presented with an option: accept the economic incentives offered to them by the NSA thru these front corporations and grow rich, or die.
Leaders who refused this aid, such as Allende in Chile or Lumumba in the Congo were "dealt with" (killed). In fact, Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos and President Jaime Roldos Aguilera of Ecuador both refused Perkins's offers and died in airplane crashes within 2 months of each other.
Perkins' words are undeniably those of an insider, someone familiar with the techniques of economic takeover and corruption in order to further enrich the already super-rich and create a situation of de-facto economic slavery in the Third World.
Alex Roslin, in his Amazon.com review writes: "Perkins... economic projections cooked the books Enron-style to convince foreign governments to accept billions of dollars of loans from the World Bank and other institutions to build dams, airports, electric grids, and other infrastructure he knew they couldn't afford. The loans were given on condition that construction and engineering contracts went to U.S. companies. Often, the money would simply be transferred from one bank account in Washington, D.C., to another one in New York or San Francisco. The deals were smoothed over with bribes for foreign officials, but it was the taxpayers in the foreign countries who had to pay back the loans. When their governments couldn't do so, as was often the case, the U.S. or its henchmen at the World Bank or International Monetary Fund would step in and essentially place the country in trusteeship, dictating everything from its spending budget to security agreements and even its United Nations votes. It was, Perkins writes, a clever way for the U.S. to expand its "empire" at the expense of Third World citizens."
The link below is an MP3 of the popular 1-hour radio show "Democracy Now", hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez. Perkins spends the entire hour with Goodman, offering the details of his recruitment and his work, as well as more information on how the global elite have manipulated economies and politics for decades and have created a truly global empire that threatens all freedom, everywhere. He also has some very insightful ideas about combating this system and paving the way for truly representative democracy and economic parity.
Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/05/149244
MORE LINKS:
http://www.johnperkins.org/
http://www.internetpirate.com/airplane.htm
HOW DID IT GET THIS BAD? PART 1
6/8/2007 at 9:09 PM
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." - David Hume, philosopher
1946: THE FEDERAL RULES OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
In light of the recent scandal over the firings of several federal prosecutors, the 1946 Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure take on a very ominous light, revealing a deliberate plan to circumvent the Constitution and eliminate a crucial means for citizens to enact justice when government will not.
Recently, a California citizen's group attempted to convene a grand jury to investigate and hand down indictments of government officials in connection with the events of 9/11. Were this to become a reality and if the many scientists and witnesses this group had gathered were able to present sufficient evidence to warrant charges (against Dick Cheney? David Rockefeller? George W. Bush? Them and many others?) in connection with the crimes, a federal prosecutor would still have to grant the grand jury permission to convene. Since 1946, a federal grand jury has been completely dependent upon the prosecution to bring cases and gather evidence.
Before 1946, a federal grand jury was an important "check" on federal prosecutors, insuring that the government acted not in it's own interest, but in the interest of the people. It didn't need the permission of a federal prosecutor to indict or investigate for "infamous" crimes. This means that the grand jury could act independently and even in direct opposition to often biased federal prosecutors. Policemen, Mayors and other public officials were prosecuted and sentenced to prison for illegal activities after citizen initiated and funded investigations, often in the face of the District Attorney's opposition.
How valuable could that have been to Leonard Peltier? To Mumia Abu-Jamal? So many examples of suspected bias and railroading come to mind. What stunning truths could be revealed by a careful investigation into the tragic events in Waco, Texas? How about the JFK / MLK / RFK assasinations, the CIA's involvement in the drug trade, the horrifying events of 9/11?
Independent grand juries could have investigated and charged the responsible parties, including public and government officials in connection with any and all of these crimes, and many others. They also could have brought more comprehensive investigations into crimes that actually were prosecuted, such as the $71 billion manipulation of the California energy market. Incidentally, the SEC's files on this energy scandal were destroyed when World Trade Center 7 imploded around 5:40pm on 9/11, essentially ending the investigation and killing the case.
And of course, grand juries who are free to do other than the bidding of federal masters would have the freedom to reject such political "witch hunts" such as the ridiculous impeachment of Bill Clinton in connection with the Monica Lewinsky affair. Not that Bill "No More Welfare" Clinton is a hero, but, COME ON! Stains on a dress, y'all?
David Burnham of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse ("TRAC"), reports that statistical evidence "overwhelmingly supports what practicing lawyers have known in an anecdotal way for many years: One of the basic safeguards promised by the Fifth Amendment is a fraud." Of 785 federal grand juries convened in 1991, grand jurors voted against the prosecutor in only 16 of the 25,943 matters presented to them. 0.01% of the time. And that number goes down even more when you think about all the "old boy" cases that the prosecutor deliverately "throws" because he owes a favor or has a personal stake in losing the case.
Even our own Justice Department agrees. An internal report from 1983 says that the imbalance of power in today's courtrooms "makes grand jury effectiveness largely dependent on the good will and ethics of the courts and prosecutors." In other words, IT ALL GOES DOWN AT THE WHIM OF THE MAN.
This is just one example of how long-sighted and systematic these people are, and how effectively they have corrupted our democracy. As the puzzle pieces come together, concerned citizens of conscience have an obligation, not as patriots but as lovers of freedom, to call bullshit on bullshit. We must first tell others, then take organized action.
SOURCES:
1. Citizen's group info/short overview at: 911GrandJury.info
2. Extensively footnoted article (thanks to Roger Roots) at: "IF IT'S NOT A RUNAWAY, IT'S NOT A REAL GRAND JURY."
1946: THE FEDERAL RULES OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
In light of the recent scandal over the firings of several federal prosecutors, the 1946 Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure take on a very ominous light, revealing a deliberate plan to circumvent the Constitution and eliminate a crucial means for citizens to enact justice when government will not.
Recently, a California citizen's group attempted to convene a grand jury to investigate and hand down indictments of government officials in connection with the events of 9/11. Were this to become a reality and if the many scientists and witnesses this group had gathered were able to present sufficient evidence to warrant charges (against Dick Cheney? David Rockefeller? George W. Bush? Them and many others?) in connection with the crimes, a federal prosecutor would still have to grant the grand jury permission to convene. Since 1946, a federal grand jury has been completely dependent upon the prosecution to bring cases and gather evidence.
Before 1946, a federal grand jury was an important "check" on federal prosecutors, insuring that the government acted not in it's own interest, but in the interest of the people. It didn't need the permission of a federal prosecutor to indict or investigate for "infamous" crimes. This means that the grand jury could act independently and even in direct opposition to often biased federal prosecutors. Policemen, Mayors and other public officials were prosecuted and sentenced to prison for illegal activities after citizen initiated and funded investigations, often in the face of the District Attorney's opposition.
How valuable could that have been to Leonard Peltier? To Mumia Abu-Jamal? So many examples of suspected bias and railroading come to mind. What stunning truths could be revealed by a careful investigation into the tragic events in Waco, Texas? How about the JFK / MLK / RFK assasinations, the CIA's involvement in the drug trade, the horrifying events of 9/11?
Independent grand juries could have investigated and charged the responsible parties, including public and government officials in connection with any and all of these crimes, and many others. They also could have brought more comprehensive investigations into crimes that actually were prosecuted, such as the $71 billion manipulation of the California energy market. Incidentally, the SEC's files on this energy scandal were destroyed when World Trade Center 7 imploded around 5:40pm on 9/11, essentially ending the investigation and killing the case.
And of course, grand juries who are free to do other than the bidding of federal masters would have the freedom to reject such political "witch hunts" such as the ridiculous impeachment of Bill Clinton in connection with the Monica Lewinsky affair. Not that Bill "No More Welfare" Clinton is a hero, but, COME ON! Stains on a dress, y'all?
David Burnham of the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse ("TRAC"), reports that statistical evidence "overwhelmingly supports what practicing lawyers have known in an anecdotal way for many years: One of the basic safeguards promised by the Fifth Amendment is a fraud." Of 785 federal grand juries convened in 1991, grand jurors voted against the prosecutor in only 16 of the 25,943 matters presented to them. 0.01% of the time. And that number goes down even more when you think about all the "old boy" cases that the prosecutor deliverately "throws" because he owes a favor or has a personal stake in losing the case.
Even our own Justice Department agrees. An internal report from 1983 says that the imbalance of power in today's courtrooms "makes grand jury effectiveness largely dependent on the good will and ethics of the courts and prosecutors." In other words, IT ALL GOES DOWN AT THE WHIM OF THE MAN.
This is just one example of how long-sighted and systematic these people are, and how effectively they have corrupted our democracy. As the puzzle pieces come together, concerned citizens of conscience have an obligation, not as patriots but as lovers of freedom, to call bullshit on bullshit. We must first tell others, then take organized action.
SOURCES:
1. Citizen's group info/short overview at: 911GrandJury.info
2. Extensively footnoted article (thanks to Roger Roots) at: "IF IT'S NOT A RUNAWAY, IT'S NOT A REAL GRAND JURY."