NYPD makes me Blue. Occupy America!

"¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!"

Capitalism has always been a failure for the lower classes. It is now beginning to fail for the middle classes. ~ Howard Zinn, A People's Hisotry of the United States

Well, as a Police Officer I am dismayed and sickened by the behavior of the New York Police Department, but not surprised. The Occupy Wall Street demonstration is in the middle of the Rapacious Thieves mere blocks away from the heavily fortified NYPD headquarters. Bloomberg and his Corporate Masters will not suffer a poor person to been seen for once you become a Big Enough Thief the Police work for you.

In any Police Force one can find a power hungry less than scrupulous cop ready to do what he's told. NYPD Lieutenant Anthony Bologna appears to be one of the police officers who make the job harder for the rest of us. Bologna can be seen in a video walking up to a female protester who's been herded off, like so much cattle, behind orange plastic flexible fencing and maliciously spraying her in the face. Bologna has a history of ill-treatment towards protestors with whom he disagrees, having been named in a Civil Rights Violation suit stemming from allegedly making an illegal arrest of a man for protesting the Republican National Convention in 2004.

Take a look at the treatment of this protest. The People have had Enough!

Like, the Wisconsin protestors, the Anti-War Protests, the Protests at the Republican Conventions, the Right Wing Media is ready and willing to tarnish these protests because they don't serve the Faux News/Dick Armey/Koch Brothers crafted Hate-riots efforts to pin the collapse of the Middle Class and Generational Theft of Trillions onto one black guy.

Don't just look but, actively SEE the difference. During the 2009-/2010 Conservative Hate-riots the police were ordered far away and the most racist, vile, filthy, threatening ignorant trash walked in the open, displaying their weapons and threatening violent warfare against the government.

But, a Rally against the Criminals who've stolen Billions on Wall Street? The Police are mobilized and instructed to beat, pepper spray, cordon off and detain without provocation.

Power does not surrender itself. Power will never surrender itself. Those with the power will not heed your requests for clean drinking water or safe working conditions or healthcare. There is too much money at stake. Citizens United is just another Orwellian twist of Language the Rich have engaged in, just another system of control. For, when Money and Power beckon and call enough miscreants will take up truncheon and mace and hold the people down.

Howard Zinn noted and hoped the Guardians of the Wealthy would realize their situation and rise up and throw off the shackles of control and side with the 99% against their Corporate Masters.

[T]he Establishment cannot survive without the obedience and loyalty of millions of people who are given small rewards to keep the system going: the soldiers and police, teachers and ministers, administrators and social workers, technicians and production workers, doctors, lawyers, nurses, transport and communications workers, garbagemen and firemen. These people-the employed, the somewhat privileged-are drawn into alliance with the elite. They become the guards of the system, buffers between the upper and lower classes. If they stop obeying, the system falls.

Don't lead a life of quiet desperation! Occupy Chicago! Occupy Every Downtown! Stop Obeying your Corporate Masters! Rise Up!

Related:
The elites and the media loathe and will never provide coverage of the Occupy Wall St movement. (From Firedoglake)

May Day, Haymarket and the FOP

On May 4, 1886 an agent provocateur, most likely a member of the Pinkerton's (The Blackwater of the 19th century), lobbed a bomb at a labor rally, at Haymarket Square, which killed a Police Officer and started a riot in which 11 more people lost their lives.

125 years ago Police Officers could be counted on by the Plutocracy to beat, shoot, arrest and disrupt pro-Union demonstrations. They were the buffer, as Howard Zinn put it, The Guards of the System.

Today the Plutocracy has continued it's string of victories over the American People. However, the Kleptocrats can no longer count on their traditional Guards to defend their Rich Privilege and they have thus turned to the Republican and Democratic Parties.

With very few exceptions elected politicians can be counted on to enact legislation which aids, succors and provides comfort to the Rich Kleptocrats. Again as the late great Howard Zinn, artfully identified the enemy of the American People;

the Establishment-that uneasy club of business executives, generals, and politicos.

In the past the Establishment, the Kleptocrats, have been content to take a significant portion of America's Wealth but now, thanks mainly to Republicans, they find themselves in a position to hold a Majority of the Wealth of this Nation.

So, the Police who were once counted on to defend the Plutocrats have turned. FOP members and I stood shoulder to shoulder with our Wisconsin brother officers and with fellow Unions members up north.

The Fraternal Order of Police recognizes an attack when they see one. Once expected to bust up Unions, keep minorities and immigrants in their place and ensure the transfer of Wealth to the Rich Klepocrats, Police Officers are now counted amongst the class of people the Establishment wishes to marginalize and oppress.

Your law-enforcement training and experience have taught you how to protect yourself, your fellow officers, and citizens from criminals. Some of those criminals want nothing more than to do harm to an officer. You know to be on your guard, ready to act, and to do what is necessary to protect yourself and others.

Nothing in your formal training has prepared you for the new attack that we are facing as law enforcement officers. Now the criminals are not the only ones that want fewer officers on the streets. Now the criminals are joined by politicians in State capitols across the country. These politicians are doing what criminals everywhere have long hoped for; they are shrinking police forces, putting fewer officers on the streets, and undermining the safety of the officers left on the front lines.

Your job is on the line. Your pension is on the line. Your salary is on the line. Your safety is on the line. You must be on the front line defending your rights against these attacks.

Are you ready to act? Are you ready to protect yourself and your fellow officers? Are you ready to defend your family?

You have been targeted. You have been blamed for the financial crisis. You will be a victim of government mismanagement and scapegoating if you don't fight back.

But, while the filth-ridden Republican scum Governor's Scott Walker, Rick Snyder, Rick Scott, Jon Kasich, Chris Christie are clearly enemies of America they are merely hired foot soliders, akin to Iraqi Republican Guards, while the Koch Brothers are the Uday and Qusay Husseins of America.

And the Uday and Qusay Koch Brothers want more. Thus the attack on Public Employees. It is but one of their sorties against the American People. One of the tactics the Establishment is using to reduce the American People to frightened Wage Slaves.

The Passing of a Generation: Howard Zinn and JD Salinger

Howard Zinn and JD Salinger both passed away recently. They belonged to that near mythical generation of Americans (like my beloved and missed Grandparents) who survived the Great Depression and World War II to witness the birth of American Supremacy.

Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye never had the Holden Caulfield rebellion effect on me because I read it much too late. I was already 25 and firmly ensconced (or so I thought) in my persona. However, reflecting on it today, I recognize in it a kernel of my irritation with authority.

But, I first picked up a copy of A People's History of the United States in 1993 after Clinton's victory and when I was listening to Conservative Talk Radio. It was fascinating. How could the stories by true? My American History classes never touched on these plights or the struggles of the poor and oppressed.

Ludlow? The IWW? I'd never heard Mark Twain wrote against War, and more directly against Organized Religion, Governments and the Elites than just in his heavily cloaked but indisputable polemics starring Huck and Tom. And even though I'd lived in the Chicago land area for 20 years I had never heard of Haymarket Square or the subsequent events of the now widely dissembled Weathermen.

Reading the stories of the workers struggles planted the nascent seed pods of my journey to Liberalism, which flowered along the banks of the Euphrates 10 years later, and away from anti-human conservative pathology.

Of course, the Punk Ass Bitch Conservatives over at She Who Shall not be Named 2's site have only evil things to say about a World War II veteran and staunch defender of the poor and exploited, who fought passionately for Civil Rights and stood courageously against the Vietnam War. They (still) hate Zinn because he stood against warfare and oppression, and Conservatives love to oppress and kill people.

Democracy Now has a fitting Tribute to Howard Zinn and the Real News Network often interviewed Zinn because of his great moral integrity and they way he fundamentally changed the way We the People should view our deference to authority and our acceptance of the Outrage of War.



Related:
NPR's All Things Considered asked David Horowitz to comment on Howard Zinn's passing: Not surprisingly Horowitz as a radical chicken hawk anti-human punk ass bitch conservative who hates the poor and oppressed and loves war insulted and slandered Zinn because Howard Zinn fought for those crushed under the iron heel of anti-human conservatives.

Fort Hood and the Costs of War

The Horrible Incident at Fort Hood, in which at least 13 service members died and 29* were wounded is unquestionably a Terrorist Attack. And the perpetrator, Nidal Malik Hasan, appears to be a Sleeper Agent.

If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory.

That comment and his extremist posts lauding muslim suicide bombers now seem to be advance warning of a plan to conduct an attack from within on Americans for the faith. An acquaintance, Colonel Terry Lee alleges Hasan stated, "Muslims should stand up and fight the aggressor and that we should not be in the war in the first place." And that Hasan said he was "happy" when a US soldier was killed in an attack on a military recruitment centre in Arkansas in June.

How does this incident factor into the current American wars? Well, strategically as far back as the Punic Wars Generals have realized the most effective way to undercut deployed troops is to stage attacks back on their homes instead of on the actual deployed army. This had the effect of dividing their attention and undercutting their morale.

Scipio Africanus engaged in such slash and burn tactics forcing the Carthaginians to recall Hannibal from the Italian Peninsula and into direct combat with his Scipio, leading to the Roman Victory over Hannibal at Zama.

Sherman's March to the Sea and the devastation it wrought pulled the Confederate forces from the fight up north not only through the material destruction and interruption of the South logistics but through the psychological impact on the Southern soldiers.

Now, we have this... tragedy. American soldiers unsafe on base in CONUS and unsafe with a Doctor who was, ostensibly charged with, helping them cope and adjust.

Another cost of war... Another calculation Chicken Hawk Punk Ass Bitch Warmongering Neo-Conservatives merely put down in the "it's worth it" side of the cost/benefit analysis warfare ledger... This one, single attack is a terrorists' best weapon as it will shake and disrupt US society profoundly. Although I'm certain Sean Hannity and Liz Cheney are delighted as they will no doubt try and use this to blame Obama somehow...

As for Hasan, after his trial and conviction, his execution by firing squad or hanging needs to be done the same day.

Additional:
I am struck by two incidents which are to me somewhat comparable. First the infamous Columbine Massacre. One theory purports Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold committed the slaughter in retaliation for the alleged rampant bullying they were subjected to in school and there are allegations Hasan was subjected to slurs and harassment for being a muslim post 9/11.

The second was recounted by Howard Zinn in A People's History of The United States,

A twenty-year old New York City Chinese-American named Sam Choy enlisted at seventeen in the army, was sent to Vietnam, was made a cook, and found himself the target of abuse by fellow GIs, who called him "Chink" and "gook" (the term for Vietnamese) and said he looked like the enemy. One day he took a rifle and fired warning shots at his tormenters. "By this time I was near the perimeter of the base and was thinking of joining the Viet Cong; at least they would trust me." ~ pg. 495-496.

However, in no way do these comparisons justify or mollify the murderous actions of Hasan.

Columbus Day Health Scare

The Republicans (and Democrat traitors) have their Corporate Insurance Masters orders to provide the American People with the same level of Health Care Columbus provided the Arawak upon landing in the Caribbeen, i.e. slavery and death. And like Columbus, Republicans make official declarations (about Health Care) which are complete lies.

Columbus's report to the Court in Madrid was extravagant. Because of Columbus's exaggerated report and promises, his second expedition was given seventeen ships and more than twelve hundred men. The aim was clear: slaves and gold.
[T]hey ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months.
When it became clear that there was no gold left, the Indians were taken as slave labor on huge estates, known later as encomiendas. They were worked at a ferocious pace, and died by the thousands. ~ From Howard Zinn's work, A People's History of the United States

Insurance Compaines don't provide coverage. They will take your premiums but if you actually need to use their "coverage" the first thing the company will do is deny your claims and if that doesn't work for them, Insurance Companies simply drop you.

From a Washington Times story: Guardian Life Insurance Co. executive called high-cost patients such as Mr. Pearl "dogs" that the company could "get rid of." Legally barred from discriminating against individuals who submit large claims, the New York-based insurer simply canceled lines of coverage altogether. Guardian, a 150-year-old mutual company, reported profits of $437 million last year, a 50 percent increase over $292 million in 2007.

Insurance Companies make money by pretending to provide you coverage but if you are actually sick or become sick they will drop your insurance. Republicans delight in Americans working themselves to death in pursuit of Corporate profits and then being denied care. Its what the Republicans are striving to achieve for their masters. Republicans delight in hating you and watching you die.

Having been stationed at Swamp Lejeune North Carolina, one of the things I learned about was the quality of the ground water. Camp Lejeune (that's a US Marine Corps base for the Chicken Hawks out there) has had decades worth of chemicals leach into the ground and metals from ammo launched into the hinterland from various weapon systems. Because of that the groundwater was contaminated, and one of the effects has been a spike of Male Marines, who were stationed at Lejeune from the 1960's through the 1980's getting Breast Cancer. Male Breast Cancer is rare, extremely rare.

But, while these Marines get coverage from the VA (a government run option), Insurance companies would view this as a "pre-existing" condition and would deny them coverage. America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) blames Veterans for rising prices, just like the Republican Party and The Bush Administration:

The AHIP study shows that nearly half of this apparent increase in Medicare expenditures can be explained by controlling for the use of services received through the Veterans Administration (VA) or at military facilities.

AHIP and Republicans want Veterans to die because as David S. Chu the Pentagon's Undersecretary of Personal and Readiness, under President George W. Bush, said, "The amounts have gotten to the point where they are hurtful. They are taking away from the nation's ability to defend itself."

Like gangsters and criminals, AHIP the national association representing nearly 1,300 member companies providing health insurance coverage to more than 200 million Americans, brazenly threatened Congress and the American people that they will simply raise prices if any real Health Care Reform occurs.

Eventually, if Republicans are allowed to, they will help Health "Insurance" Companies simply take your money and disavow every disease as a pre-consisting condition and allow all Americans to die.

Toyota, Republicans favorite Cars

Real Americans love Chevys and Fords, Punk Ass Bitch Republicans love Toyotas and other foreign cars. Why? Because they hate American Workers. Republicans want American Workers to work hard while young and when you get old die quickly. That's what Republicans want for Americans to work themselves to death. This is why Republicans are always against Unions and have been fighting against Health Care all of 2009.

Unions, like the UAW, and a more fair Health Care helps Americans, Republicans are against everything which helps extend the lives of the poor and middle class in America. Foreign Auto Makers, especially with automotive plants in the South are allowed to pay cut throat capitalism wages and disbar unions while receiving US Government Subsidies and tax incentives to treat American workers unfairly.

Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama ensured Mercedes -Benz received $253 Million USC, Honda $158 Million USC and Hyundai $234 million USC tax breaks for building plants in in his state, Republican scum Bob Cooker gave Volkswagon $577 million USC for a factory in Tennessee and "Mississippi paid $284 million for a new Toyota plant; Kia got $324 million from Georgia. Texas had to fork over only $133 million for Toyota's Tundra plant in San Antonio, while Tennessee gave $197.6 million so Nissan would move its American headquarters to Nashville."

Republicans use the power of the Government and these tax "breaks" to break and destroy the UAW which doesn't vote for Punk Ass Bitch Republicans.

But, this also means that sacrifices have to be made this year the Republican Party and their Punk Ass Bitch Conservative fanatics decided General Motors was to be allowed to wither and die. Ostensibly, the Punks on the Right declared because GM made inferior products and held aloft Worldwide #1 Car Maker Toyota as the paragon of True Car Making Genius.

And Toyota Mythical Awesomeness is falling apart. All makes and models of Toyotas are being recalled for a variety of reasons.

Late 90's and early 00's Toyota Tundras and Tacomas are failing apart from rust and corrosion.

Dealing with rusted pickup frames and the subsequent fallout is nothing new for the Japanese automaker. About 1.4 million Tacomas were involved in rust-related defects that caused the automaker to make concessions last year to customers. That year, Toyota agreed to buy back Tacoma pickups from 1995 to 2000 with frames rusted so badly that they were beyond repair.

More frighteningly than your vehicle failing apart around you from Rust is the floor mat accelerator sticking problem, where pedals become trapped under floor mats, causing vehicles to continue to speed up after drivers lifted their foot off the pedal. Toyota issued a recall for the following 4 million models:

• 2007 – 2010 Camry
• 2005 – 2010 Avalon
• 2004 – 2009 Prius
• 2005 – 2010 Tacoma
• 2007 – 2010 Tundra

Defects like the floor mat/accelerator issue or rust problem "could" be excused as planning or poor oversight concerning the manufacturing process.

But, completely inexcusable would be the deliberate destruction and concealment of evidence and obstruction of justice by Toyota into the rollover deaths, which

Dimitrios Biller, a former Toyota corporate lawyer involved in the rollover cases, contends in his lawsuit that the Japanese automaker's executives "made every effort" to quash investigations from 2004 through 2007. Biller alleges Toyota TM destroyed data.

And of course, Toyota lost $1.7 Billion in 2008 and lost $6.9 Billion(!!!) in the first quarter of 2009.

Yet a Toyota Avalon was the vehicle Republican Punk Ass Bitch and Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney longingly pinned for when he penned his magnificent Op-Ed Let Detroit Go Bankrupt, writing:

Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product

Romney further blamed the American worker for not dying quickly enough for Romney's tastes,

First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced.

Romney wants American workers to make less and die quickly after they have used up their youth. And he hopes for the destruction of Detroit and the elimination of jobs and retiree benefits. Of course, Romney's worked for Government and never had to worry about where his paycheck or benefits are coming from or their elimination.

Punk Ass Bitch Republicans and Conservatives like and protect Foreign Auto Makers because they hate Americans and want you to die.

Update:
I forgot to include the famous Who Could Ask For Anything More Toyota Ad Campaign. That sentiment is precisely the Republican Party mantra and intent for the poor and middle class. The Republican Elite and Corporatist Establishment, "cannot survive without the obedience and loyalty of millions of people who are given small rewards to keep the system going". How dare the poor and middle class, who have been given so much Trickle Down wealth demand more, be content with the "small rewards" from the Republican table.

Mark Sanford, Republican Scum

"You're a lying member of a no good race." ~ Sean Connery's tough Chicago Street Cop Malone from The Untouchables

Ah the Republicans, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Sanford's actions are part and parcel of the lying, cheating, hypocritical cowardly Chicken Hawk Pro Human Pain and Suffering Party of Deferments.

The ridiculous hypocrisy is the most galling component. And when a Cowardly Republican Liar (like John Ensign) is caught in an affair his being caught is somehow cause for his championing (read the ignorant and nauseating Kathyrn Jean Lopez Ensigns Road to Redemption as an example), especially if he talks up protecting marriage and chastises others for the "sin" of infidelity. Evil Liberals must be pilloried.

For example here is the moronic moral coward Sean Hannity declaring how lying, cheating, hypocritical cowardly Chicken Hawk Pro Human Pain and Suffering Party of Deferments Republican John Ensign reminds him of a liberal democrat. Hail to Media Matters!



But it's Sean's job to lie to the Fox news watchers. And it's Fox's job to label all disgraced Republicans as... Democrats (From Crooks and Liars).

Of course, as long as everything is consensual and with age limits, I don't care with whom Sanford (or anyone) has relations, but the hypocritical sanctimonious scumbag unfaithful Newt Gingrich Republican Party of Chicken Hawks have duped their ignorant supporters into voting for a group of cowards who want the American people to work themselves to death. Who fight to obliterate Unions, Social Security, Healthcare, Restrictions on Pollution and work to destroy all the hard won progressive achievements and force Americans to fight with workers in Nigeria and Laos over wages which would roll back the standard of living for Americans to the bronze age.

The goal of the Republican Party is to make sure most Americans die young having worked themselves to death in War or Industry supporting and advancing the Party.

Update:
They don't get it. She Who Shall Not Be Named 2 does not understand. She labels Sanford a Bastard. The Redstaters petulantly demand You Do Not Get To Judge. Why because the Right Wing Extremist Moral Morons hate people. They are the Righteous Ones! They deem who is worthy and who is not. And this is the problem they are demonizing Sanford for sex. Sanford's crime is not sex it is the same as the Republicans and their toxic followers the hating and devaluing of people.

The great Bertrand Russell laid bare the Toxic Rights' irrational hatred of humanity and demonization of human nature in his essay Our Sexual Ethics.

Update 2:
Ha ha, Erick Erickson, of the site RedState which angrily declared to Democrats on June 24thWe Police Our Own and You Do Not Get To Judge, sent emails to Sanford on June 23rd hoping to help cover up the affair. According to uncovered emails Erickson related the following: “I wasn’t trying to be a reporter. I wanted to curtail the story.” Republicans are so Sucktastic!

Self-Hating Veterans

You know who you are! The nasty and brutish vets who voted for a Hussein!

As the shift in voting patterns moves more people towards the Democratic Party and away from the insane Republicans, efforts are made to proclaim the vast majority of veterans are still republicans, this recent gallup poll shows veterans are more likely to be Republican, than the general public, but 62% identify themselves as Democrat/Independent. While it is fatuous to declare the parties have no difference whatsoever, I agree with words of Gore Vidal (“There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party ... and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat.") and Bill Maher (The Democrats are what the Republicans used to be).

Today the Democrats occasionally support progressive liberal issues but, most often kow-tow to the Corporate Power which controls this Nation and uses the government and veterans to enrich their off-shore bank accounts.

But, perhaps today there is a chance as The Pimp and The Prostitute Liz Dick continue their Media Tour, young vets will move away from the Pro Human Pain and Suffering Right Wing Chicken Hawks and towards the progressive liberal self-hating views of Pat Tillman and afford the poor and the middle class a chance to do something with their lives other than be allowed the Freedom to protect the property of the rich.

To all the Veterans out there... Ooh-Rah.



I add this here because I forgot one of principle problems with the Pro Human Pain and Suffering Republican America of today. Ideology trumps all in their eyes. Because of this veterans who do not hold to conservative ideals are ignored or ridiculed. Therefore, ignorant conservative fanatics ensure The Veterans of Foreign Wars supported a non-veteran Peter Roskam over Tammy Duckworth, a wounded veteran of a foreign "war" for political office. Or vehemently defend their decisions to support Saxby Chamblis over Max Cleland. One of the two went to Vietnam and was severely wounded one received 4/5ths the number of deferments Dick Cheney received.

Update:
This comment by Wile E. Quixote sums up nicely the current Conservative/Republican, a cowardly chicken hawk who more than willingly talks tough and ensures others go to fight for him/her. The Republican Party, the Party of Deferments:

American conservatives have less than zero credibility on military matters. Rush Limbaugh dodged the draft. Dick Cheney got five deferments during Vietnam (he needed five because he lost two of them for drunk driving). George W. Bush pulled strings to get into a champagne squadron of the Texas Air National Guard. Mitt Romney fagged off to France to be a missionary for a couple of years (All of the Mormons I knew in the Army did their two year missions and then once they were done, enlisted. Guess that never occurred to Mittens). Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Glen Beck, Michael Steele, Michael Savageweiner, William Bennett, Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Kathryn Jean Lopez, Rudy Giuliani, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Max Boot, Jonah Goldberg, William Kristol, John Podhoretz, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, are there any prominent conservatives under the age of 70 who have ever signed up, taken the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, put on a uniform and served their country?

Zinn and Chomsky

They are right Vote for Obama most definetely the less of the two evils.

http://www.reason.com/news/show/129599.html

Know The Real Enemy

Listen up. Zach, Tom, Tim and Brad get it. Know the Real Enemy.

"I suspect some of the police may actually even be fans of Rage Against the Machine. I suspect some of the police come from working class and middle class backgrounds like we do and like you do. I suspect the Cops here today have much more in common with this band, with you people than with the people of the RNC." - Tom Morello addressing the People

The Controllers of this Nation do not represent you, they don't like you. You are to be controlled, You are to be used for their interests, You are to submit to their will. You are their cog in the machinery of War and Industry.

"I must study politics and war

that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study paintings, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." ~ attributed to John Adams, 1st US Vice-President

This sentiment has been cruelly and cynically manipulated by National Leaders in the US since it's beginning. In the 1946 drama Tomorrow is Forever Orson Welles' character proclaims a similar theory. Bush and his minions have often invoked the "Long War" and need for continued support Ad infinitum.

Every ruling administration has feed the same line to the American People. Trust Us, they say, You have to put up with hard times, a loss of certain liberties, and sacrifices in order so your sons shall not.

Every generation falls for it, at first because education was a hard thing to come by in early America. Not that people were stupid, far from it. Earlier Americans had to cope with problems people today wouldn't know how to address. But, after education became funded and accessible to all the curriculum needed to be controlled and decided by those in power. Education then became a tool to craft the masses of America into cogs for the Machinery of War or Business. And since the nation was (and still is) controlled by a cadre of Captains of Industry, Governmental Rulers and the Leadership of the Military, children must continually be molded through the patriotic lens of America.

It's a natural human feeling government is exploiting. Mankind has always felt willing to (except for the 70s and 80s when the Baby Boomers decided it was all about them) put up with hardship so their children would not have to. Humans have evolved sense of kinship and feelings of love of family. The military has for years latched onto this natural instinct and attempted to brain wash it's young applicants into identifying with the military as family. Once a Marine, Always a Marine.

What political leadership has done over the years is attempt to expand the idea of family. Patriotism is the effort by which feelings of kinship are transferred to a larger group of people, i.e. America. That's why the Warmongers always invoke the term America to cloak their goals, which quite frankly are continued and expanded war. You and America are the same. Let me assure you, Erik Prince, CEO of Blackwater and Dick Cheney have the same goals and desires as you. Every single one of the 300 million people in the country is the same. War is in Our National Interest.

As Howard Zinn pointed out, "What struck me as I began to study history was how nationalist fervor--inculcated from childhood on by pledges of allegiance, national anthems, flags waving and rhetoric blowing--permeated the educational systems of all countries, including our own." - A People's History of the United state, pg.659.

Patriotism is still exploited today. Genuine feelings of loss, pride, and sorrow are used by the unscrupulous to divide people. Watch Ari Fleschier's (of the infamous Americans better watch what they say) Freedomwatch use the same language I've highlighted:

I'm not going to post the actual videos but a link. Watch the last two videos.

In Rememberance of a Travesty

Today marks the anniversary of the labor rally (in favor of the pernicious 8-Hour work day) and riot at Haymarket Square. During the rally, after August Spies concluded his speech, an explosive device was thrown by a agent provocateur, most likely by a member of the Pinkerton's (The Blackwater of the 19th century) and an invective was coined The Bomb Throwing Anarchist.

The explosive device killed Police Officer Degan. What happened after the device exploded is infamous. A general melee occurred, in which at least 11 people were killed and unknown numbers wounded, mostly by the police. And the incident was used by members of the Kleptocracy to rid themselves of men whom they deemed dangerous to the standing social order.

Eight men were arrested: August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden and Oscar Neebe.

The following trial was a mockery. The jury included a relative of one of the killed police officers and had been picked by a court officer who publicly stated, "These fellows are going to be hanged as certain as death." No evidence connected the convicted to the bomb and two (Oscar Neebe and Louis Lingg) were not at Haymarket.

This was not justice but the use of the system by the state's attorney Juluis Grinell and others to divide people. The history of the US is this system of divide and conquer, keep the people apart and under the control of the system.

As Howard Zinn wrote in his Magnum Opus, A People's History of the United States pg 646, 647, 648,

"The American system is the most ingenious system of control in world history. There is no system of control with more openings, apertures, lee-ways, flexibilities, rewards for the chosen, winning tickets in lotteries. There is none that disperses its controls more complexly through the voting system, the work situation, the church, the family, the school, the mass media - none more successful in mollifying opposition with reforms, isolating people from one another, creating patriotic loyalty.

It is very important for the Establishment - that uneasy club of business executives, generals, and politicos - to maintain the historic pretense of national unity, in which the government represents all the people, and the common enemy is overseas, not at home, where disasters of economics or war are unfortunate errors or tragic accidents, to be corrected by the members of the same club that brought the disasters."

I think about the Last Chapter of A People's History often.

who was told what to do by the man,
who was broken by trained personnel,
who was fitted with collar and chain,
-- Pink Floyd, Dogs