Category Archives: Politics

Articles, Politics, reviews

Zinn’s Last Work

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I believe this was Howard Zinn’s final written piece; it was written for
The Nation and it regards his usual cynical outlook on our leaders, of course now, Obama.

I’ve been searching hard for a highlight. The only thing that comes close is some of Obama’s rhetoric; I don’t see any kind of a highlight in his actions and policies.

As far as disappointments, I wasn’t terribly disappointed because I didn’t expect that much. I expected him to be a traditional Democratic president. On foreign policy, that’s hardly any different from a Republican–as nationalist, expansionist, imperial and warlike. So in that sense, there’s no expectation and no disappointment. On domestic policy, traditionally Democratic presidents are more reformist, closer to the labor movement, more willing to pass legislation on behalf of ordinary people–and that’s been true of Obama. But Democratic reforms have also been limited, cautious. Obama’s no exception. On healthcare, for example, he starts out with a compromise, and when you start out with a compromise, you end with a compromise of a compromise, which is where we are now.

I thought that in the area of constitutional rights he would be better than he has been. That’s the greatest disappointment, because Obama went to Harvard Law School and is presumably dedicated to constitutional rights. But he becomes president, and he’s not making any significant step away from Bush policies. Sure, he keeps talking about closing Guantánamo, but he still treats the prisoners there as “suspected terrorists.” They have not been tried and have not been found guilty. So when Obama proposes taking people out of Guantánamo and putting them into other prisons, he’s not advancing the cause of constitutional rights very far. And then he’s gone into court arguing for preventive detention, and he’s continued the policy of sending suspects to countries where they very well may be tortured.

I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president–which means, in our time, a dangerous president–unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.

– http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100201/forum/6

Chris

Crime, pictures, Politics

Question of the Week

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To give some background information before I pose the question, the famous above photo was taken following the My Lai masacre during the Vietnam War in 1968. Hundreds of innocent, unarmed civilians, mostly women and children were brutally murdered. Even though over a dozen soliders particpated in the crime, only one was convicted, officer William Cally, who ordered the masacre. He initially was given a life sentence, but Nixon eventually paroled him. At the time, many protested Cally’s conviction, mostly patriotic/chauvinistic Americans, but also critics of the war and the miltary’s policies. The latter’s logic being that millions of innocent civilians had been murdered throughout the war and that this was not an isolated incident, but rather a common policy. Now, my question is should we imprision such individuals for their crimes or ignore them because others clearly do not receive the same treatment?

Chris

News, Politics, Random

‘Negro’ Stays On

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This is pretty messed up:

(New York Times)…when Americans receive their census forms this year, the category for race will include Negro as one of the options. So why, in 2010, is Negro still on the census?

“The intent was not to offend,” said Robert Groves, the director of the United States Census Bureau. “The intent was to make sure that everybody could find themselves with the words there and check the box that fits.”

In an interview, Mr. Groves explained that a research study found many older African-Americans who still referred to themselves as Negroes. In the 2000 census, he said, about 50,000 additional people wrote in the word Negro in a line that asked people how they wished to be identified. Half of those, he said, were 45 years old or younger.

“This was a surprise,” Mr. Groves said. “No one expected this.”

Art, Articles, Crime, Culture Jamming, economics, Entertainment, humor, pictures, Politics, Quotes, rant

FUCK THE TROOPS!

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Alright, so let’s take turns shoving our cocks inside these brave men and women to show our support! Kidding…. In fact, the truth is I have never professed to such narrow minded slogans as “fuck the troops” or “support the troops” blah blah blah. Of course I support them; support as in wish them no harm. Now, if you mean support as in condone their activity, then fuck no! I personally don’t believe they are defending our freedom and civil liberties. But, those that support the military seem to espouse to this ignorant way of thinking and yet they so blatantly contradict themselvse often. As I mentioned before they claim that they fight for our freedom and yet whenever such (often tasteless and cruel) groups like “fuck the troops” arise, they are the first ones to petition for it’s censorship. Welly welly well, here’s a pickle. Why would you remove the free speech you supposedly die for?! Free speech is free speech. An extremely apropos Noam Chomsky quote comes to mind whenever I see such behavior: ” If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don’t like. Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re in favor of freedom of speech, that means you’re in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise.” Let’s not mince words here. I wholeheartedly sympathize for our brave men and women, whom selflessly thrust themselves into harm’s way and in many cases parish for what they see as a noble cause. That’s really intesne and admirable. They definitely don’t deserve to be treated like trash. So, how do we solve our little dilemma? For starters, we can inform ourselves of what is actually happening instead of blindly following traditional doctrine. I suggest those that favor free speech to be consistent in their views, no matter how they feel about the military or foreign policy. I recommend the pansies that initate these mean groups like FTT to consider the sacrifices their fellow men and women are making and more importantly how ineffective and destructive their means of speech is to the antiwar movement. Finally, y’all military brats and friends and family of such to open your eyes to the atrocious crimes our governement is committing and has always committed against millions of innocent people each day, including our once again brave soldiers, whom are mere pawns in this rotten machine’s sick game of greed.

P.S. I don’t necessarily agree with the slogan triumphantly displayed in the above photo, but I found it humorous and it reminded me of something Jerry Rubin once demanded.

Chris

Art, Books, business, Crime, Culture Jamming, Drugs, economics, Entertainment, Femmes, Health/Science, humor, Lists, Music, pictures, Politics, Random

My MAIN Influences

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Of course I have encountered several diverse voices over the years that have influenced me in various ways, but there are a select few that have strongly shaped my specific perspective/philosophy. With that being said, technically my environment has been my biggest influence, but just for fun here’s some real people in no particular order.

Bill Hicks: Biting, caustic social/political satire. Love KO Fear!



Noam Chomsky: Dissent of mainstream American media and American foreign (as well as domestic) policy. Basic anarchist ideas such as the necessity of the state to justify its actions or it should be dismantled.

Rage Against the Machine: Perhaps my oldest influence; their music drew me to such topics and increased my cynicism/hatred for the American government. They also led me to discover Chomsky.



John Lennon: “Give Peace a Chance” :)



Howard Zinn: Brought new meaning to the words “history,” “patriotism,” and “resistance,” for me. Helped me understand that the people on the bottom rung of society make the fundamental changes and not those on top.

Ralph Nader: It is possible to create change within the system and run honest campaigns, even if you don’t win them! Often refer to him for current politics.

Timothy Leary: Fantastic propagandist and overall champion of social change through new ways of experimentation.

The Yippies!: Chiefly Abbie Hoffman (right) and Jerry Rubin (left). Their wacky/bizarre media tactics and dissection of Amerika has been one of my biggest influences on both my writing and philosophy. I adore the equal importance of fun and revolution. After all, how can you have liberation without some kind of joy?

Hunter S. Thompson: Sarcastic social commentary; major influence on my own writing/sense of humor and early social/political influence.

Malcolm X: Provided with the great insight into the hardships of blacks in America and how we raped them of their culture. This doesn’t mean I can relate to this personally, but it does offer me a perspective and has shaped my opinions on these matters. His speeches, writings, etc. have also stood as great examples of how to make an argument with integrity and also how what the institution teaches you is usually false with the complete opposite intent. So, for Malcolm it was White is NOT right and Black is beautiful. For me it’s the media’s purpose is to (Mis)inform the public.

Emma Goldman: The beauty and basic principles of Anarchism.

Dave Dellinger: One of the greatest models of a nonviolent revolutionary; he was the American Gandhi. Stressed the importance of love and social justice in all movements. I’m proud to say one of the most inspiring Americans shares the same hometown as me!

Jello Biafra: Culture Jam! Pranksterism. Perhaps some of my first glimpses at anarchism. Similar to Yippies! but with more serious objectives: Anti-War, end War On Drugs, and so much more. Like Chomsky, Nader, and others, Jello is one of my key political references. For many that probably sounds frightening haha!

Judge James P. Gray: I owe much of the factual basis for my arguments for bringing down this filthy machine known as the War on Human Rights, excuse me, excuse me, I mean the War on (certain!) Drugs to my boy Jim. My views on this topic were basically already there, but I can sharply back them up with the help of the judge’s wise and so obviously reasonable suggestions. Since, he falls from the center-right on the political spectrum, he and I would more than likely disagree on a host of issues. With that being said, he is spot on with his indictment of our current prohibition and I highly recommend his book, Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It.



Mumia Abu-Jamal: His strikingly accurate views on a plethora of issues, particularly race relations and constant investigation of this corrupt and sick government. His story serves as one of the best arguments for how fucked up our criminal/prison system really is. FREE MUMIA NOW!



Steve Albini: Tearing down major labels and any other faggedy artist in sight in the most offensive way. Merciless satire at its finest!

Ian Mackaye: DIY Punk Ethic/Aesthetic. You can’t put a dollar sign on your art and if you do then you should be in a different business!

Chris

Art, humor, Politics, Random, rant

Random Musings

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This is a somewhat old rant of mine that I came across while searching for my list of must see movies haha. Some of the material has appeared in previous writings and perhaps will appear in future writings. Either way enjoy!

The way I look at it, there’s two schools of thought here 1) the “socialist” point of view: end or strongly decrease spending on military, police, and similar institutions and causes. Increase or maintains taxing of benificiary things like health care. I call this the “socialist” view (even tho libs might support it) because the results could be that everyone is on the same page, economically equal. 2) the Libertarian, anti-federalist, Ron Paul Republican position: decrease all forms of taxation or do away with them and programs that take money out of citizen’s pockets. This would decrease and possibly wipe out debt, and lead to prosperity for individuals, and more importantly the country as a whole and yeah sure there are government programs for the people, but these are fought for, and ultimately benefit the elite, because it appeals to their constituents. Every Dem has used the same tactic of liberal social polices for health care (they campaign on this, but never follow through, we’ll have to see what Obama does), welfare, and other things, while they foster a gigantic military and aggressive policy abroad, whatever the higher elite tell them to do, they’re just puppets and what’s one of the most terrifying thing about Obama is the fact that he can be so openly hawkish. That’s what 8 years of Bush and Neocons has done to the American people. If you look at every Dem prez and their rhetoric, all throughout American history, esp. post-war times, all of them propose to do the opposite of the previous Republican adm. they propose to decrease the military budget, and to not get into or end wars. Of course all of them did the exact opposite. But, now were at the point in America, where Obama doesn’t even need to conceal his objectives, he can just predict the future. And by “conceal his objectives” I mean in terms of increasing military spending. Just look at what Truman, Kennedy (followed Rep. Eisenhower), Johnson, (supposed to end the conflict with Vietnam, which Jack said he wanted to do) but he escalated it, which Kennedy probably would’ve done the same, Carter (followed the Ford- Nixon years), Clinton (followed the Regan-Bush years). Honestly look at what they campaigned on. But not with Obama (save Iraq, and he proposes diplomacy for some yap yap). Here’s a big clue if someone says they want to strengthen the military, what are they strengthening it for? Well, for one thing it means more weapons and what not for foreign affairs aka foreign massacres. But also it concerns us domestically with the sharp increase in police state. What’s it like 20,000 military personnel for Homeland INsecurity and a 1 million police brigade? You see right now, Americans, at least with radical political sensibilities, need to unite. Most, if not all of us are fighting against the same things: Big Military, intrusive and illicit government, imperialism, corporate capitalism, illicit, atrocious, and unnecessary wars, and numerous other issues. By the same token, we may not be fighting specifically for the same things, but generally we are all fighting for what we see as freedom, liberty, equality, peace, and social and economic justice. We are wasting our time and only doing the “bad guys” a favor by badgering about our personal politics. Whether or not universal health care is good or bad, for example. Slave ships don’t wait

I guess you haven’t noticed, but I take bits and pieces of what I like from everyone and everything and they shape my own views, that’s how I think most people should. With that being said, there are individuals that stand out, and I generally see eye to eye with. Many of these persons are my heroes, but this is not always true, and by that token, I have heroes, who I don’t always see eye to eye with. Chomsky would be a good example and Ron Paul and Alex Jones would be examples of influences that I only take bits and pieces from and I love reading all different views/sides, it all fascinates me. I watch Faux News and Democracy Now.

I’m all for higher thinking right now.
Revolution is always on my mind.
Petty, everyday concerns are for the weak.we’re programmed to concern ourselves with small issues and this separates us
If you think too much about what your country is doing wrong, then you become a kook… but that’s bullshit.
Television makes us keep our “crazy” ideas to ourselves, instead of communicating them with others and organizing.
The media makes us misinformed
The news media’s main societal function is to keep people misinformed
Mass Media anyway.
Standards for sanity and reason are pathetic.
I want to be insane when compared to our standard of sanity in the social and political climate. Of course, I’m unstable, if moral and mental stability is approving of unjust causes.
Our brains become anomalous entities. They get “Americanized,” programmed to not think about or question, but believe in authority.
Sufficed to say, I lost my brain, well that would be the first step to properly using my mind
The funny thing is, I feel I’m more patriotic than most Americans
Not the commercialized patriotism championed by the likes of Bill O’ Reiley and most citizens, but rather a conscious form of Patriotism in the traditions of Thomas Jefferson, Howard Zinn, Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, Ron Kovic, and countless others.
The way I see it, dissidents, such as myself, are not Anti-America. Nah, Anti-evil, Anti-Imperialism, Anti-Racism, Anti-Capitalism, Anti-Authoritarian and all that good stuff!
For example, let’s take the most Imperialist nation on this planet, America. Now, just because it’s our home doesn’t let it off the hook, and in fact this should make us far more critical. Here’s just one of several analogies I have conjured up, about my brand of patriotism. I think of America as one big family that bitches too each other and wants to kill each other and at the same time sticks up for one another and wants to remain united. Well, if the family’s values are supposedly for peace, freedom, justice, etc. and the Papa completely violates these values, wouldn’t the other family members try their damndest to stop their flesh and blood from committing what they see as evil. I should think so. Well, that’s how I feel about American policies and Patriotism. For someone to say I’m or others that think like minded are Anti-American is ignorant. It just seems so obvious. It’s common sense to me, but, I’m patient and understand that not everyone perceives common sense the same way cause I’m retarded when it comes to several “normal” or “easy” tasks, but I’m working on it and doing my best and I just ask for patience from others, so I will offer the same.
I don’t think of myself as better than anyone else or more intelligent. I am more informed than many, but, that is at my own doing, and anyone is qualified for that. At the same time, I am very proud that I am psychologically free from the constraints of western civilization, the barricades that placed over every human beings’ minds. It’s our job to tear these barricades down, and this is the first step in achieving freedom, as any Bob Marley fan should know: “Redemption Song.” I, am privileged, or spoiled is more apropos, enough to be freer legally than most people around the world, and even in my homeland.
But, yes, I am extremely happy and proud that I am an outsider, outside of the mainstream ways of thinking- see Americanized Brian theory. There’s only so many that are this way today, but it is important to remember that anyone can be this way. They just have to free themselves. And we help each out on this road to freedom

The American Government is like a rapist or a murderer. No no, a murdering rapist, a real sick fuck of the Ted Bundy tradition multiplied by millions and still doesn’t even come close. So, now if you make some bad comments about this sick fuck, but never actually say he should stop raping and killing people and in fact never even say that he is raping and killing people. Then you have made NO CRITICISM
mainstream media of our government is akin to me saying “Ted Bundy, that blundering fool. He used to shoplift and he flunked out of law school twice!” Wow, look I didn’t say anything positive about him, that was such a harsh criticism. BUT THERE WAS NO MENTION OF HIS RUTHLESS CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY EITHER!

Though the media has blatantly lied on several occasions, it’s clear that deception through omission of the most valuable facts is the most effective lie.

That was written over a year ago I think. I’m guessing sometime in between Obama’s election and inauguration. I agree most of it, but some things I would probably change if I wrote it today. The main perspective and purpose are still there. I like it.

Chris