Shallel Octavia's Posts - 9/11 Scholars Forum
2024-03-19T05:37:47Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
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Human population 7,999,964,900 (Worldometer).
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2022-11-15:3488444:BlogPost:189675
2022-11-15T03:30:24.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<p><span>Population estimates cannot be considered accurate to more than two decimal digits. Your mileage may vary; not to be combined with any other offer. May cause distress, diarrhea, hair loss, weight gain, depression, anxiety, liver damage, double vision, and death by wet bulb temperature..</span></p>
<p><span>Population estimates cannot be considered accurate to more than two decimal digits. Your mileage may vary; not to be combined with any other offer. May cause distress, diarrhea, hair loss, weight gain, depression, anxiety, liver damage, double vision, and death by wet bulb temperature..</span></p>
Tyranny
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2021-01-11:3488444:BlogPost:152100
2021-01-11T03:09:55.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<p><span>If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States.</span></p>
<p><span>If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States.</span></p>
Executive Order on Modernizing Influenza Vaccines in the United States to Promote National Security and Public Health
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2020-08-04:3488444:BlogPost:86686
2020-08-04T15:49:38.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<div class="page-header page-header--small-title"><div class="page-header__wrap"><h1 class="page-header__title"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-modernizing-influenza-vaccines-united-states-promote-national-security-public-health/">https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-modernizing-influenza-vaccines-united-states-promote-national-security-public-health/…</a></span></h1>
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<div class="page-header page-header--small-title"><div class="page-header__wrap"><h1 class="page-header__title"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-modernizing-influenza-vaccines-united-states-promote-national-security-public-health/">https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-modernizing-influenza-vaccines-united-states-promote-national-security-public-health/</a></span></h1>
<div class="meta meta--mobile-wrap"><div class="meta__issue"><p class="issue-flag"><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/healthcare/">HEALTHCARE</a></p>
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<p class="meta__date"><span class="meta__label">Issued on:</span> September 19, 2019</p>
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<p>By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, it is hereby ordered as follows:</p>
<p>Section 1. Findings. (a) Influenza viruses are constantly changing as they circulate globally in humans and animals. Relatively minor changes in these viruses cause annual seasonal influenza outbreaks, which result in millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and tens of thousands of deaths each year in the United States. Periodically, new influenza A viruses emerge from animals, including birds and pigs, that can spread efficiently and have sustained transmission among humans. This situation is called an influenza pandemic (pandemic). Unlike seasonal influenza, a pandemic has the potential to spread rapidly around the globe, infect higher numbers of people, and cause high rates of illness and death in populations that lack prior immunity. While it is not possible to predict when or how frequently a pandemic may occur, there have been 4 pandemics in the last 100 years. The most devastating pandemic occurred in 1918-1919 and is estimated to have killed more than 50 million people worldwide, including 675,000 Americans.</p>
<p>(b) Vaccination is the most effective defense against influenza. Despite recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that nearly every American should receive the influenza vaccine annually, however, seasonal influenza vaccination levels in the United States have currently reached only about 45 percent of CDC goals.</p>
<p>(c) All influenza vaccines presently in use have been developed for circulating or anticipated influenza viruses. These vaccines must be reformulated for each influenza season as well as in the event of a pandemic. Additional research is needed to develop influenza vaccines that provide more effective and longer-lasting protection against many or all influenza viruses.</p>
<p>(d) The current domestic enterprise for manufacturing influenza vaccines has critical shortcomings. Most influenza vaccines are made in chicken eggs, using a 70-year-old process that requires months-long production timelines, limiting their utility for pandemic control; rely on a potentially vulnerable supply chain of eggs; require the use of vaccine viruses adapted for growth in eggs, which could introduce mutations of the influenza vaccine virus that may render the final product less effective; and are unsuitable for efficient and scalable continuous manufacturing platforms.</p>
<p>(e) The seasonal influenza vaccine market rewards manufacturers that deliver vaccines in time for the influenza season, without consideration of the speed or scale of these manufacturers’ production processes. This approach is insufficient to meet the response needs in the event of a pandemic, which can emerge rapidly and with little warning. Because the market does not sufficiently reward speed, and because a pandemic has the potential to overwhelm or compromise essential government functions, including defense and homeland security, the Government must take action to promote faster and more scalable manufacturing platforms.</p>
<p>Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the United States to modernize the domestic influenza vaccine enterprise to be highly responsive, flexible, scalable, and more effective at preventing the spread of influenza viruses. This is a public health and national security priority, as influenza has the potential to significantly harm the United States and our interests, including through large-scale illness and death, disruption to military operations, and damage to the economy. This order directs actions to reduce the United States’ reliance on egg-based influenza vaccine production; to expand domestic capacity of alternative methods that allow more agile and rapid responses to emerging influenza viruses; to advance the development of new, broadly protective vaccine candidates that provide more effective and longer lasting immunities; and to support the promotion of increased influenza vaccine immunization across recommended populations.</p>
<p>Sec. 3. National Influenza Vaccine Task Force. (a) There is hereby established a National Influenza Vaccine Task Force (Task Force). The Task Force shall identify actions to achieve the objectives identified in section 2 of this order and monitor and report on the implementation and results of those actions. The Task Force shall be co-chaired by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, or their designees.</p>
<p>(b) In addition to the Co-Chairs, the Task Force shall consist of a senior official from the following executive branch departments, agencies, and offices:</p>
<p>(i) the Department of Defense (DOD);</p>
<p>(ii) the Department of Justice;</p>
<p>(iii) the Department of Agriculture;</p>
<p>(iv) the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA);</p>
<p>(v) the Department of Homeland Security;</p>
<p>(vi) the United States Food and Drug Administration;</p>
<p>(vii) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;</p>
<p>(viii) the National Institutes of Health (NIH);</p>
<p>(ix) the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); and</p>
<p>(x) the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).</p>
<p>(c) The Co-Chairs may jointly invite additional Federal Government representatives, with the consent of the applicable executive department, agency, or office head, to attend meetings of the Task Force or to become members of the Task Force, as appropriate.</p>
<p>(d) The staffs of the Department of State, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the National Security Council, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Domestic Policy Council, the National Economic Council, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) may attend and participate in any Task Force meetings or discussions.</p>
<p>(e) The Task Force may consult with State, local, tribal, and territorial government officials and private sector representatives, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.</p>
<p>(f) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Task Force shall submit a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The report shall include:</p>
<p>(i) a 5-year national plan (Plan) to promote the use of more agile and scalable vaccine manufacturing technologies and to accelerate development of vaccines that protect against many or all influenza viruses;</p>
<p>(ii) recommendations for encouraging non-profit, academic, and private-sector influenza vaccine innovation; and</p>
<p>(iii) recommendations for increasing influenza vaccination among the populations recommended by the CDC and for improving public understanding of influenza risk and informed influenza vaccine decision-making.</p>
<p>(g) Not later than June 1 of each of the 5 years following submission of the report described in subsection (f) of this section, the Task Force shall submit an update on implementation of the Plan and, as appropriate, new recommendations for achieving the policy objectives set forth in section 2 of this order.</p>
<p>Sec. 4. Agency Implementation. The heads of executive departments and agencies shall also implement the policy objectives defined in section 2 of this order, consistent with existing authorities and appropriations, as follows:</p>
<p>(a) The Secretary of HHS shall:</p>
<p>(i) through the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and BARDA:</p>
<p>(A) estimate the cost of expanding and diversifying domestic vaccine-manufacturing capacity to use innovative, faster, and more scalable technologies, including cell-based and recombinant vaccine manufacturing, through cost-sharing agreements with the private sector, which shall include an agreed-upon pricing strategy during a pandemic;</p>
<p>(B) estimate the cost of expanding domestic production capacity of adjuvants in order to combine such adjuvants with both seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines;</p>
<p>(C) estimate the cost of expanding domestic fill-and-finish capacity to rapidly fulfill antigen and adjuvant needs for pandemic response;</p>
<p>(D) estimate the cost of developing, evaluating, and implementing delivery systems to augment limited supplies of needles and syringes and to enable the rapid and large-scale administration of pandemic influenza vaccines;</p>
<p>(E) evaluate incentives for the development and production of vaccines by private manufacturers and public-private partnerships, including, in emergency situations, the transfer of technology to public-private partnerships — such as the HHS Centers for Innovation and Advanced Development and Manufacturing or other domestic manufacturing facilities — in advance of a pandemic, in order to be able to ensure adequate domestic pandemic manufacturing capacity and capability;</p>
<p>(F) support, in coordination with the DOD, NIH, and VA, a suite of clinical studies featuring different adjuvants to support development of improved vaccines and further expand vaccine supply by reducing the dose of antigen required; and</p>
<p>(G) update, in coordination with other relevant public health agencies, the research agenda to dramatically improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability of influenza vaccine production;</p>
<p>(ii) through the Director of NIH, provide to the Task Force estimated timelines for implementing NIH’s strategic plan and research agenda for developing influenza vaccines that can protect individuals over many years against multiple types of influenza viruses;</p>
<p>(iii) through the Commissioner of Food and Drugs:</p>
<p>(A) further implement vaccine production process improvements to reduce the time required for vaccine production (e.g., through the use of novel technologies for vaccine seed virus development and through implementation of improved potency and sterility assays);</p>
<p>(B) develop, in conjunction with the CDC, proposed alternatives for the timing of vaccine virus selection to account for potentially shorter timeframes associated with non egg based manufacturing and to facilitate vaccines optimally matched to the circulating strains;</p>
<p>(C) further support the conduct, in collaboration with the DOD, BARDA, and CDC, of applied scientific research regarding developing cell lines and expression systems that markedly increase the yield of cell-based and recombinant influenza vaccine manufacturing processes; and</p>
<p>(D) assess, in coordination with BARDA and relevant vaccine manufacturers, the use and potential effects of using advanced manufacturing platforms for influenza vaccines;</p>
<p>(iv) through the Director of the CDC:</p>
<p>(A) expand vaccine effectiveness studies to more rapidly evaluate the effectiveness of cell based and recombinant influenza vaccines relative to egg-based vaccines;</p>
<p>(B) explore options to expand the production capacity of cell-based vaccine candidates used by industry;</p>
<p>(C) develop a plan to expand domestic capacity for whole genome characterization of influenza viruses;</p>
<p>(D) increase influenza vaccine use through enhanced communication and by removing barriers to vaccination; and</p>
<p>(E) enhance communication to healthcare providers about the performance of influenza vaccines, in order to assist them in promoting the most effective vaccines for their patient populations; and</p>
<p>(v) through the Administrator of CMS, examine the current legal, regulatory, and policy framework surrounding payment for influenza vaccines and assess adoption of domestically manufactured vaccines that have positive attributes for pandemic response (such as scalability and speed of manufacturing).</p>
<p>(b) The Secretary of Defense shall:</p>
<p>(i) provide OMB with a cost estimate for transitioning DOD’s annual procurement of influenza vaccines to vaccines manufactured both domestically and through faster, more scalable, and innovative technologies;</p>
<p>(ii) direct, in coordination with the VA, CDC, and other components of HHS, the conduct of epidemiological studies of vaccine effectiveness to improve knowledge of the clinical effect of the currently licensed influenza vaccines;</p>
<p>(iii) use DOD’s network of clinical research sites to evaluate the effectiveness of licensed influenza vaccines, including methods of boosting their effectiveness;</p>
<p>(iv) identify opportunities to use DOD’s vaccine research and development enterprise, in collaboration with HHS, to include both early discovery and design of influenza vaccines as well as later-stage evaluation of candidate influenza vaccines;</p>
<p>(v) investigate, in collaboration with HHS, alternative correlates of immune protection that could facilitate development of next-generation influenza vaccines;</p>
<p>(vi) direct the conduct of a study to assess the feasibility of using DOD’s advanced manufacturing facility for manufacturing cell-based or recombinant influenza vaccines during a pandemic; and</p>
<p>(vii) accelerate, in collaboration with HHS, research regarding rapidly scalable prophylactic influenza antibody approaches to complement a universal vaccine initiative and address gaps in current vaccine coverage.</p>
<p>(c) The Secretary of VA shall provide OMB with a cost estimate for transitioning its annual procurement of influenza vaccines to vaccines manufactured both domestically and with faster, more scalable, and innovative technologies.</p>
<p>Sec. 5. Termination. The Task Force shall terminate upon direction from the President or, with the approval of the President, upon direction from the Task Force Co-Chairs.</p>
<p>Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:</p>
<p>(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or</p>
<p>(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.</p>
<p>(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.</p>
<p>(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.</p>
<p>DONALD J. TRUMP</p>
<p>THE WHITE HOUSE,<br/>September 19, 2019.</p>
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Mike Palecek, Freedom of the Press (for QUESTION EVERYTHING 2020, Austin, TX, 7-8 November 2020)
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2020-08-03:3488444:BlogPost:86680
2020-08-03T02:58:43.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<p><a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/2020/08/mike-palecek-freedom-of-the-press-for-question-everything-2020-austin-tx-7-8-november-2020/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://jamesfetzer.org/2020/08/mike-palecek-freedom-of-the-press-for-question-everything-2020-austin-tx-7-8-november-2020/</a></p>
<div><br></br><div><img alt="" height="377" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Mike-featured-image-expanded.jpg" width="515"></img><div><h1>Mike Palecek, Freedom of the Press (for QUESTION EVERYTHING 2020, Austin, TX, 7-8 November 2020)…</h1>
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<p><a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/2020/08/mike-palecek-freedom-of-the-press-for-question-everything-2020-austin-tx-7-8-november-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://jamesfetzer.org/2020/08/mike-palecek-freedom-of-the-press-for-question-everything-2020-austin-tx-7-8-november-2020/</a></p>
<div><br/><div><img width="515" height="377" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Mike-featured-image-expanded.jpg" alt=""/><div><h1>Mike Palecek, Freedom of the Press (for QUESTION EVERYTHING 2020, Austin, TX, 7-8 November 2020)</h1>
<div><span><a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/2020/08/mike-palecek-freedom-of-the-press-for-question-everything-2020-austin-tx-7-8-november-2020/" rel="bookmark noopener" target="_blank">August 2, 2020</a></span><span> <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/author/reginald/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">James Fetzer</a></span><span><a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/blog/" rel="category noopener tag" target="_blank">blog</a></span></div>
<div><h2>Mike Palacek</h2>
<p><em><strong>[Editor’s note</strong>: Mike Palecek has more integrity in his little finger than most men will ever possess. We were co-defendants (with Dave Gahary, our publisher) in <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/2020/01/jim-fetzer-why-the-sandy-hook-pozner-v-fetzer-lawsuit-matters-whats-really-at-stake/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Sandy Hook “Pozner v. Fetzer” lawsuit</a>, where (for a combination of personal and professional reasons) they settled, Dave following the Summary Judgment, Mike prior to the trial for damages, where the Plaintiff was awarded a judgment against me of $450,000, which may indicate that they knew what they were doing and I did not. I have long regarded Mike as an essayist and down-to-earth, home-spun philosopher in the style of Will Rogers and Mark Twain, which is borne out by what follows her, the presentation he has prepared for the <a href="https://mixnstream.com/qec2020.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">QUESTION EVERYTHING 2020 Conference</a> to be held in Austin, TX (7-8 November 2020). He was the right choice to address “Freedom of the Press”.]</em></p>
<p>Hello. Thank you very much. It is an absolute privilege to be here.</p>
<p>I appreciate being invited. I’ve never been to one of these before, very cool.</p>
<p>… And so, first of all … here’s to Jim Fetzer.</p>
<p>He’s the man, the one who stood up.</p>
<p>Who never wavered.</p>
<p>All praise and honor and gratitude go to him.</p>
<p>Thank you, Jim.</p>
<p>I thought it might be okay to have these slides of some of the covers of Penn Magazine shown while I give my remarks. Penn Magazine is named in honor of Penn Jones, Jr. It ran for a little over a year and is now deceased. I thought this might be a good place for a decent burial.</p>
<p><u><img src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Featured-image-for-Palecek-essay--223x300.jpg" alt="" width="539" height="726"/></u></p>
<p>A rabbi, a priest, a UFO believer, a Bigfoot researcher, a conspiracy theorist, and this one Irish guy who was headed there anyway walk into a bar … and the bartender says, “Is this a joke?”</p>
<p>[ba-dum-bum]</p>
<p>“There are things out there we don’t understand.</p>
<p>Can’t understand. Could be the big guy, could be little green men, or just whatnot.</p>
<p>Proving to us we don’t know everything. But that’s not important.</p>
<p>What’s important is … a reasonable man, a sane man, a healthy man … when he encounters the inexplicable … forgets about it.</p>
<p>— Maurice J. Minnifield</p>
<p>And that’s what I did after I encountered a Sasquatch face to face on a hill in Spearfish Canyon in the Black Hills in 1980, for about twenty years after I ran down the hill.</p>
<p>And I think it might be what we have done, and are doing with regard to Sept. 11, 2001, many of us, most of us maybe. It’s too much and we can more easily go about our day if we don’t think about it. Our newspapers, radio stations and TV networks are more than happy to facilitate, to enable our dysfunction.</p>
<p>A few years ago the terms deep state, and conspiracy theory were heard only in shortwave conversations between the coast of Maine, northern France and Alpha Centauri.</p>
<p>We hear it now from John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Rachel Maddow, Chris Mathews and Aunt Emma.</p>
<p>That is because of the work of people like Mark Lane, William Pepper, Jim Marrs, Jim Fetzer, Jim Garrison, Chris Emery, Mae Brussel, Kevin Barrett, James Tracy, James Douglass, Christopher Bollyn, Penn Jones and hundreds of others.</p>
<p>Oliver, Colbert, Maddow, Mathews and Emma had no choice but to twist like balloons, into demons and dragons, our new vocabulary words because the populace was actually beginning to understand the true nature of their history and their situation and that could not be allowed.</p>
<p>Without the work of the so-called conspiracy theorists nobody would be aware of the truth of the major events of our history.</p>
<p>None of these people were employed by the major media outlets of the United States.</p>
<p>We have learned nothing from these outlets except not to trust them with anything beyond baseball scores, crossword puzzles, the July Bicycle parade photos and Jello salad recipes. These so-called journalists have taken their cue from entertainer Orson Welles, who fooled my mother, among others, with the fake news of an alien invasion, scared the hell out of them, caused them to jump into the Olds sedan and drive around just to be doing something, not wanting to die as sitting ducks in their homes. … and thanks in large part to the likes of Maddow and Anderson Cooper, Lester Holt and dozens of others, we remain sitting ducks, driving just to be going, having no idea where we are headed.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>James Tracy, “War, Media, Propaganda and The Police State”:</p>
<blockquote><p><em> … Indeed, the “conspiracy theory” meme, a propaganda campaign waged by the CIA beginning in the mid-1960s to counter criticism of the Warren Commission report, is perhaps as little-known as Operation Mockingbird, the CIA program where hundreds of journalists and publishers actively devoted their services</em> <em>to spread Agency disinformation. The overall effect of these combined operations has been an immensely successful program that continues to shape the contours of American political life and mediated reality.</em></p>
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<p> </p>
<p><em> </em>After spending an afternoon at <a href="http://unz.com/">Unz.com</a> reading a detailed expose of the CIA’s MK Ultra program and then something more about Walter Lippman, Edward Bernays, George Creel, one could imagine how it has come to this, get a few lingering questions answered in that regard, of how the elite so-called thinkers and doers of our society have focused and evolved their thinking (having nothing better to do, apparently) as to how it might be possible to actually control a country and its people, a world and its inhabitants. You are still forced to imagine why, but not how we came to the point where there are only lies and people are murdered by the thousands and millions with utter contempt and without regard.</p>
<p>The motivation was riches and power, candy for breakfast, lunch and supper, enough stimulus, apparently, to foment the classic all-American spirit required to pull off Dallas, 9/11 and since, all the way up to yesterday and tomorrow, the masking of the globe.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>William Engdahl, in his book “A Century of War” explains that every war is about oil, and only those who will do the actual dying and killing believe it’s even remotely concerned with<em> freedom or patriotism or apple pie or baseball</em>.</p>
<p>That might not be news to the people in this room, but I can assure you it would be major news to anyone in my home town and you might want to call them stupid … but they <em>can</em> read.</p>
<p>And you might think … you would think that just one American newspaper editor or reporter on his way to Dodge City, Kansas might possibly, at some point, experience a mind-blowing epiphany and think to maybe jot that down on a yellow legal pad or sticky note in preparation for the morning news meeting to that effect.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I remember this year, the Presidential primaries, around the time of Super Tuesday when it looked like Bernie Sanders would be the Democratic nominee and we would have some hope for change. And then, poof, magic, it disappeared, we had Joe Biden and we were locked down in our homes and Minneapolis was on fire, just a few blocks from where my son lives. I wonder how something like that happens?</p>
<p>… Sister Ellen stalked into our third grade classroom, hands tucked neatly into the opposite brown sleeve. She was the principal at Sacred Heart elementary, and she only came to the classrooms to announce that the poorest kid in our class and his large family had run off a bridge this morning on the way to school, or lead us down to the gym for the Christmas movie and extra chocolate milk.</p>
<p>So on Nov. 22, 1963, when lean, tall, straight Ellen floated in just after lunch recess — pre-Vatican II sisters had no feet, legs, arms, no hair — we saw the Franciscan specter of death.</p>
<p>Later, Mom ironed while she watched the caisson and “Black Jack,” the riderless horse, on the black and white television in the front room.</p>
<p>This was Norfolk, Nebraska. The Norfolk Daily News and WJAG told us it was Oswald. We just assumed, along with the Omaha World-Herald, that the Warren Commission had been commissioned by God.</p>
<p>Then followed days and decades of lies.</p>
<p>Football on TV, and lies. Pot roast on Sunday, with lies. Turkey and dressing for Thanksgiving. White lies? Dark lies?</p>
<p>Through it all, through the fog of American cultural propaganda, some persisted, some wanted the truth, some like Oliver Stone in “JFK” in 1991, hit hard enough to make the ground quiver for a moment, crack in some places. But the fractures were quickly filled by volunteers with footballs, turkey, dressing, cranberries, credulity.</p>
<p>I’m not an expert at anything really. I <em>am</em> an expert in living in America. I am a Ph.D. in suffering through America, its propaganda, its holiday dinners, football afternoons, coffee conversations, newspaper articles, television news shows, entertainment shows.</p>
<p>I happen to hold several advanced degrees in American Culture — years and decades spent sitting in uncomfortable chairs wearing new Christmas pajamas, balancing a Jethro Bowl of cherry black walnut ice cream in my lap, seeking enlightenment by watching Johnny Carson, Don Rickles, Dean Martin, Ed McMahon. All there is to see and know is what I can see in my peripheral vision while watching Big Red Football, Gunsmoke, Mayberry RFD, Happy Days, Bewitched.</p>
<p>And then going to bed convinced beyond any reasonable doubt there is nothing more. This is what there is. This is life.</p>
<p>That is all our Norfolk High School “U.S. History” books, all my parents, the parish priests, mailman have to tell us.</p>
<p>They were my Socrates and I was their Plato, and in our daily discourse I learned not to ask certain questions.</p>
<p>The amber waves of grain will roll right over you, your children, your house if you stand in their path in any meaningful way.</p>
<p>We will kill you and you and your sons and daughters, grandmothers to get what we want.</p>
<p>What we want with all our heart and souls, more than anything else, is to eat Doritos and watch television in the dark while clutching the cushy pillow.</p>
<p>And no newspaper or radio station or TV station will ever talk about it.</p>
<p>Unless telling us that it never happened. The motto of the Norfolk Daily News:</p>
<p>“We’ll know our disinformation program is a success when everything everyone in Norfolk believes is false.”</p>
<p>We vote and we work and we worry about our children having Ho Ho’s in their lunchbox and friends on the bus, while those in charge create our own reality.</p>
<p>And while we’re studying that reality, they act again, creating other new realities, which we can then study too.</p>
<p>And we will believe them. Because not believing them means figuring out something else to believe. And we have things to do. We have lives to live.</p>
<p>And those lives mean nothing, less than nothing, because they are built, constructed — days laid down unevenly, brick by brick — on lies and murder.</p>
<p>And it goes on and on as if it will never stop.</p>
<p>What we need in America is a Truth Commission like they had in South Africa to heal their broken country.
Our country is surely broken as well.
We need to put certain people on the stand and we need to be allowed to ask questions.
Those who are supposed to ask questions for us refuse to do so.</p>
<p>The United States of America is supposed to be based on the Constitution.</p>
<p>It is actually based on those in power being focused like a laser beam on doing whatever it takes for them to remain in power.</p>
<p>It is based in the shooting of Jack Kennedy from perhaps as many as six vantages in Dealey Plaza. That is the Big Boom – The Big Boom Theory of the creation of this country.</p>
<p>It is based on the collaboration of the U.S. Army, FBI, CIA and Memphis police to murder Martin Luther King. It is also based on the shooting of Robert Kennedy from behind his right ear, rather than from the front, where Sirhan was standing.</p>
<p>We do not make cars anymore in America but we do psy-ops like the Greeks and Romans did philosophy, astronomy and speeches and literature.</p>
<p>These Great Misdeeds are where we honed our master craft, where those who rule founded this country, where our gears, our tool and die were cast.</p>
<p>Forget about the Liberty Bell.
Forget about Mount Rushmore.
Forget about the Grand Canyon.
They are as much window dressing as CNN or NBC News or National Public Radio. The Lorraine Motel in Memphis is our true Plymouth Rock.</p>
<p>Dallas’ Dealey Plaza is our real Mount Rushmore.
The Ambassador Hotel pantry is our actual Grand Canyon. Waco is our Arlington Cemetery.
Oklahoma City is our Yellowstone Park.</p>
<p>The woods near Eveleth, Minnesota where Paul Wellstone’s plane went down is our National Mall.</p>
<p>… We have fake history.</p>
<p>Our junior high and high school history books should be in italics, handed out by the teacher on the first day with a wink: Remember the Maine – Pearl Harbor – Gulf of Tonkin – Waco – Oklahoma City bombing – moon landings – stolen elections.</p>
<p>My parents, Milosh and Isabel, were Czech and Irish. They moved to Norfolk, Nebraska from Winner, South Dakota when Dad got his big break to be an engineer for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad.</p>
<p>They were true believers in the American dream, I suppose, though they wouldn’t have put it that way.</p>
<p>More likely they just believed in working and going to church and mowing the lawn and taking care of your car and watching the ball game or Bonanza if it was on.</p>
<p>Dad brought fish home and maybe a foul ball from the amateur games in Winner when he got a chance to go there and see his brother Jimmy, home from the Pacific war, now with a wife and his own family. Another brother, Albert, served with Patton and later went to South Omaha to work in a box factory. Dad didn’t go to the war because his job with the railroad was considered vital to the war effort. They said Dad was good enough at shortstop to go pro, but he didn’t. Maybe he had to work.</p>
<p>He hauled cases at the pop factory before the C&NW. They did the best they could. It’s sad, a sad state of affairs for a whole nation.</p>
<p>Everyone does the best he can and we end up bombing Hiroshima. Dad cuts the lawn each Saturday morning on his one chance to rest and there go a thousand people in Chile, mowed down by our own CIA.</p>
<p>Mom calls us in to supper and poof! Laos is toast.</p>
<p>Us kids sneak outside for another round of playing after supper. We play hide and seek, catch lightning bugs, tell ghost stories and leave the screen door open just a peep. A couple hundred intelligent poor people in El Salvador are hustled out of their beds and shot.</p>
<p>We suffered and bled along with the perils of Otis The Drunk, but did not have a clue about the people being murdered by our own government in Guatemala. And nobody told us. We weren’t supposed to know.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Freedom of the press, period.</p>
<p>Freedom of the press, question mark.</p>
<p>Do we have freedom of the press in the United States? Why didn’t we know in the 1960s in Nebraska the truth about the Kennedy and King murders?</p>
<p>This spring I read a book by David Icke in which he talked quite a lot about the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and what he feels led up to it and why. I doubt if there was anything he left out that he would have liked to include. There’s also David McGowan on serial killers and other topics, William Blum’s <em>Killing Hope</em>, Graeme McQueen on anthrax, Joe Bageant on <em>Deer Hunting With Jesu</em>s, Philip Corso on Roswell, Mark Rudd on The Weathermen, <em>The Burglary The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI,</em> by Betty Medsger, John Perkins, <em>Confessions Of An Economic Hitman</em>, <em>The Secret Lives of Timothy McVeigh, </em>by Wendy Painting, <em>The Secret Team.</em> by Fletcher Prouty, <em>Mary’s Mosaic</em>, by Peter Janney, <em>The CIA As Organized Crime</em>, by Douglas Valentine, Andre Vltchek, <em>Exposing Lies Of Empire</em>, <em>A Lie Too Big To Fai</em>l, by Lisa Pease, <em>The Martrydom of Thomas Merton</em>, by Hugh Turley<strong>,</strong> also, <em>American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone</em>, by Jim Fetzer and Four Arrows, <em>Holocaust On The High Seas</em>, by Philip Tourney. Also, <em>Truth Jihad, My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Lie</em>, by Kevin Barrett, <em>Break His Bones, The Private Life of A Holocaust Revisionist,</em> by Bradley R. Smith, <em>Manufacturing Consent</em> … <em>The Plot To Kill King</em>, by William Pepper, <em>JFK & The Unspeakable</em>, by Jim Douglas, David Ray Griffin, <em>A New Pearl Harbor</em>.</p>
<p>There are lots of non-fiction books on the cutting edge out there.</p>
<p>Some do get taken down, cut off, by Amazon. It has happened to several of the Moon Rock books list. If <em>Nobody Died At Sandy Hook </em>would not have been removed by Amazon it would have been one of the best sellers of all time and the world would be very different right now.</p>
<p>YouTube used to be very good, too good, so they had to stop that. So maybe we are gaining some traction in moving toward an answer to our question.</p>
<p>There are other places to go: <a href="http://153news.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">153news.net</a>, Bitchute.</p>
<p><img src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/moonrockbooks.com-image-1-4-300x147.jpg" alt="" width="618" height="303"/></p>
<p>And there is False Flag Weekly News, The Real Deal, The Corbett Report, Jimmy Dore, Scott Creighton, Revolution Radio Network, others. Whitney Webb, Mintpress News, 21st Century Wire.</p>
<p>Then we have Snowshoe Films, the company that produced <em>Wellstone They Killed Him </em>and the group that made <em>A Noble Lie</em>, also <em>RFK Must Die</em>, also <em>Waco Rules of Engagem</em>ent, and then a hundred more names, five hundred, the list is essentially endless … people reporting without being on the TV nightly news, without being in the Omaha World-Herald, NY Times, Hartford Courant, Scribner Herald.</p>
<p>If you go on the internet and spend a couple of days or a week you will find dozens of websites and hundreds of people claiming to be investigative reporters seeking the rock-bottom truth of what is happening in the world. And, maybe they are, who am I to say?</p>
<p> </p>
<blockquote><p>“There can be no free country without a free press.” — John McMillan, “Smoking Typewriters, The Sixties Underground Press and The Rise of Alternative Media in America”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>… Also on the subject of the alternative press of the ’60s, “The Movement & The New Media,” by Thorne Dreyer and Victoria Smith, is about underground newspapers and efforts to silence them.</p>
<p><em>Dallas Notes newspaper</em>: Office torn apart twice by cops, in search of “pornography.” Cops confiscated four typewriters, cameras, darkroom and graphic equipment, business records, books, posters, a desk, a drafting table, everything that could be ripped loose and carted off. Kept the spoils. Arrested staffers for possession of “pornography.”</p>
<p><em>Kaleidoscope</em> (Milwaukee): Editor found guilty of “obscenity” — $2,000 and two years probated; being appealed. Obscenity law was written especially for paper. Editor’s car firebombed and windows shot out. Office firebombed.</p>
<p><em>Kudzu</em> (Jackson, Miss.): Staff members busted on “obscenity” rap. Fourteen staffers and friends beaten up by deputy sheriffs. Cameras confiscated, paper evicted from office.</p>
<p>So, is there freedom of the press in the United States or isn’t there?</p>
<p>We, here, <em>must</em> think we do <em>not</em> have freedom of the press, that’s why this hour is labeled freedom of the press, I don’t think it would be called that, if it wasn’t a thing.</p>
<p>What I think would be interesting would be for the thousands of journalism professors in the hundreds of journalism schools around the country in the first day of class to tell their students about Jim Fetzer, about Kevin Barrett, Wolfgang Halbig, Christopher Bollyn, others. Give them an assignment. Tell them they need to do some deep-dive research, investigative reporting, on these people and the issues they are covering and try to take their research even further, and because they are real reporters and are good people, real people, with real backing and budget and an audience to write these stories, get them printed, and do what a real journalist does. And that they should either do that or they should go home right now and get construction jobs.</p>
<p>Would Michael Hastings tell us he believes we have freedom of the press in the United States. Would Gary Webb tell us he believes we have freedom of the press in the United States? How about Karen Silkwood, Danny Casolero? How about Dorothy Kilgallen, Charles Horman, Alan Berg, Philip Marshal.</p>
<p>“I’ve been a journalist for about 25 years, and I was educated to lie, to betray and not to tell the truth to the public.”</p>
<p>— Udo Ulfkotte [cot]</p>
<p>… [and he’s <em>also</em> dead]</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It might be tough for any of us here to get something printed in the <em>New York Tim</em>es or <em>Washington Post</em>. How about getting a job there and getting what we think is the truth printed in one of those papers. I would guess that every editor and reporter at those papers would laugh at the suggestion that they are controlled, that they don’t have the freedom to print what they like.</p>
<p>And they do print what they like. On each anniversary they tell us that Lee Harvey Oswald fired the three shots that killed President John Kennedy in Dallas. For 57 years, that Sirhan Bishara Sirhan killed Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles, that James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther, King Jr. in Memphis. And on each Sept. 11 they repeat the mantra that 19 hijackers flew three planes into three buildings. For 19 years.</p>
<p>These editors and reporters at these papers did not get those parking spots, mouse pads and pencil holder things because they are stupid. They know exactly what they are doing. The question is why.</p>
<p>Analysts from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporters_Without_Borders" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Reporters Without Borders</a> ranked the United States 45th in the world out of 180 countries in their 2020 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Press Freedom Index</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>From Diana Johnstone in her book “Circle In The Darkness”:</p>
<blockquote><p>The war salesmen and women in Washington had the institutional structure to “learn the lessons of Vietnam” and prepare means to prevent another such antiwar movement in the future. They had spies infiltrating the movement to study its mechanisms, they had permanently employed propaganda specialists, they had increasing symbiosis with mass media, they had think tanks, they had Hollywood.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>From the internet:</em></p>
<p>The US government has unbound the legal regulations against using propaganda against foreign audiences and American citizens. The intention is to sway public opinion by using television, radio, newspapers, and social media targeting the American and foreign people in controlled psy-ops.</p>
<p>The newest version of the National Defense Authorization Act has an amendment added that negates the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 and the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 1987.</p>
<p>Wikipedia: Psychological operations are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.</p>
<p>The purpose of <a href="https://military.wikia.org/wiki/United_States" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">United States</a> psychological operations is to induce or reinforce behavior favorable to US objectives. They are an important part of the range of diplomatic, informational, military, and economic activities available to the US. They can be utilized during both peacetime and conflict.</p>
<p>Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, Michael Moore, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Ted Baxter, Murphy Brown. Lou Grant. They wouldn’t lie to us. Right? And beyond that … they would undoubtedly do whatever it took to find a pencil stub, pad of paper, a match for that cigarette, grab their jacket on the way and get out the door to follow that little bit of a lead wherever it went, no matter what, right? No matter what.</p>
<p>As far as <em>I</em> know not even Jimmy Breslin told the truth about 9/11.</p>
<p>He didn’t know? Hmmm.</p>
<p>How about Carl Bernstein?</p>
<p>He doesn’t know?</p>
<p>Hunter Thompson? Don DeLillo. Tom Hanks? … not even Nina Totenberg? Ray Suarez? Susan Stamberg? Tom & Ray from Car Talk?</p>
<p>George Carlin? Rush Limbaugh? Stephen King? Chomsky?</p>
<p>Bill Hicks presumably would have. Oh, well, yeah.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Jim Garrison to John Barbour</em>:</p>
<blockquote><p>“It’s confirmable. The federal government could confirm it easily. It’s the federal government’s witness that killed Tippit, but I’m not at liberty to give his name.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There lies the key to our whole history and way of life on the floor and yet nobody is interested in picking it up? Nobody wants to open that door?</p>
<p>I seem to remember something about Jim Garrison through the fog of third grade, maybe something about crazy, not real, certainly not as real as Petticoat Junction, Bonanza, The Beverly Hillbillies, Johnny Carson or My Favorite Martian, who was far more acceptable in any conversation or comment than the Grassy Knoll.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Many years later I sent a letter to Johnny Carson, after watching a YouTube video of his interview with Jim Garrison:</p>
<blockquote><p>March 2, 2001</p>
<p>Johnny Carson c/o Carson Productions Group</p>
<p>3110 Main St.</p>
<p>Suite 200 Santa Monica, CA 90405</p>
<p>Mr. Carson:</p>
<p>Hello.</p>
<p>I am originally from Norfolk, Nebr., graduated from NHS in 1973. Recently I had a chance to listen to the tape of your interview with attorney Jim Garrison. I don’t recall watching the live interview, but very well could have as watching your show before bed was our regular routine, as it was for many others.</p>
<p>As a fellow Norfolkan, I am curious as to why you treated Garrison as you did. I probably will not get the chance to contact you twice, so I will be frank right away.</p>
<p>You sounded as if you were acting as a spokesman for someone else. Really. Were you protecting the real killers of Kennedy?</p>
<p>Of course, you were. What else can I say, but that it is obvious now with almost forty years of perspective. The Warren Commission was a joke and Garrison was on to something.</p>
<p>Something frightening to be sure. But why did you have so much allegiance to the plotters and none to your dead president? Because he could not pay you from the grave? Is it as simple as that?</p>
<p>Thanks in part to you we have been forced to live in Disneyland since 1963, where everything is unreal, everything entertainment and illusion.</p>
<p>Please tell me, as I will never know myself: Is wealth and power worth the sublimation of the truth?</p>
<p>Thank you for your time.</p>
<p><em>Sincerely</em>, Mike Palecek</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Johnny Carson’s Response:</p>
<blockquote><p>March 9, 2001</p>
<p>Mike Palecek 702 6th Avenue</p>
<p>Sheldon, Iowa 51201</p>
<p>Dear Mr. Palecek,</p>
<p>I’m sending you a copy of a letter I recently received to make you aware that some ignorant asshole is sending out letters over your signature.</p>
<p>You should look into this.</p>
<p><em>Sincerely</em>, Johnny Carson</p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>We <em>do</em> know much of the truth about what has happened, what is happening.</p>
<p>We would like to know more and we would like more people to know what we know. Because, for one reason, it isn’t just about your opinion and my opinion.</p>
<p>There are not just opinions. There are facts and truth and there is real knowledge. And all that leads to actions, events. People die based on these. People live in poverty based on these. It matters.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>The truth is out there</em>. What a brilliant tagline. I discovered the X-Files during the corona lockdown. I had known what it was, but had never watched it. I was more into Northern Exposure I guess.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The truth.</p>
<p>Unpaid volunteers seem to always pop up, sitting at the kitchen table late into the night working on the puzzle. The time-lapse of the kitchen shows these gradually fading away and others taking their places.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And if the internet is shut down, if Amazon only delivers power tools and Gummy Worms, wouldn’t we still find a way?</p>
<p>Without it didn’t we still have Mark Lane, Mae Brussel, Penn Jones, Mort Sahl, Jim Marrs, and many others?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Even in Nazi Germany there was The White Rose. Water finds its way. Samizdat.</p>
<p>But, the problem is … most people, at the Thanksgiving adult big table, if you were to mention most of these names, would say, say what? And when Uncle Bill, in passing the potatoes across, says well, <em>Bucky</em>, And I suppose we didn’t go to the moon, either? it’s on … fight or flight, like Bob Seger in the truck stop, you can either laugh along with the others or go smoke in the garage with the dogs.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This from Frances Shure:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>… in modern Western societies, if a new idea is covered in a serious way on television or in the newspaper, then, and only then, is it considered “real.” Well, at least it becomes discussable in polite company.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p><em> </em>That’s the problem, numbers, and polite company. If we could get the Thanksgiving adult big table we would have this licked. Who cares what Lester Holt, Rachel Maddow, or The View or Tom Hanks or Chris Mathews says anyway. It’s a free country, let them say whatever they want to their dozens of off-beat followers. I know, right?</p>
<p>Someone, maybe Alexander Berkman, maybe Shelly Tambo, said that for a long time it looks as if nothing will happen, that nothing <em>can</em> happen. And then all of a sudden, one day everything is different. … I think we might go a ways in the right direction if we were to have the film “Wag The Dog” shown in our high school classrooms.</p>
<p>And we wonder how we lost the Thanksgiving adult big table. Of course, we never had it, but still, we wonder why that is so.</p>
<p>We wonder why, after we leave InternetLand inside our own head, and go outside, to work or work out and have to actually listen to CNN and see that everyone has their ear buds in, listening to CNN. We just wonder how this could be.</p>
<p>And so we say everyone is stupid. <em>They</em> are <em>so</em> stupid.</p>
<p><em>Hmmmm.</em></p>
<p>I once drove my little car around practically the whole country on a book tour as an unknown self-published so-called novelist thinking I was going to spark a revolution.</p>
<p>I once ran for Congress as a beginning self-published novelist and the only job I had was a paper route for the Sioux City Journal. I think my bio read: former inmate, unpublished novelist, ex-seminarian, used to be newspaper reporter, has paper route.</p>
<p>And <em>yet, I</em> know about Building 7.</p>
<p>People just don’t get a chance to know what’s true because if you have enough money you can control the newspapers, TV and radio, and magazines and movies.</p>
<p>And so there you have it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Frances Shure: <em>The Death of Investigative Journalism</em>:</p>
<blockquote><p>“What is wrong with the Western media? Why have they not jumped at the opportunity to cover the scoop of the century — the wealth of crystal-clear evidence that proves the government has been lying about the attacks of September 11, 2001, for the past sixteen years?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Shure continues …</em></p>
<blockquote><p>“… Within her anthology <em>Into the Buzzsaw</em>, Kristina Borjesson’s article of the same name describes her punishing ordeal as she tried to report evidence contrary to the official assertions about the demise of Flight 800.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She opens her account with:</p>
<blockquote><p>“I had no idea that my life would be turned upside down and inside out — that I’d been assigned to walk into what I now call ‘the buzzsaw.’ The buzzsaw is what can rip through you when you try to investigate or expose anything this country’s large institutions — be they corporate or government — want kept under wraps. The system fights back with official lies, disinformation, and stonewalling.</p>
<p>“You feel like you’re being followed everywhere you go. You feel like you’ve been sucked into a game of Dungeons and Dragons. It gets harder and harder to distinguish truth and reality from falsehood and fiction. The sense of fear and paranoia is, at times, overwhelming. Walk into the buzzsaw and you’ll cut right to this layer of reality. You will feel a deep sense of loss and betrayal. A shocking shift in paradigm. Anyone who hasn’t experienced it will call you crazy. Those who don’t know the truth, or are covering it up, will call you a conspiracy nut.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>Freedom of the press.</p>
<p>Freedom of speech.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>However, I can also report that in reading the long comments section on a video that shows former President of the United States of America George W. Bush laughing and dancing at a memorial for the supposed dead of a recent massacre while holding hands with his wife and Michelle Obama, that there are lots of people who know the truth about 9/11. Maybe way more than we ever dreamed.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When I got out of jail for the last time so far, I was working construction, knee-deep in wet concrete and I swear I had this epiphany, I remembered that I used to be able to write.</p>
<p>I slogged out of that driveway, on a mission, and went straight in the direction of journalism, newspaper work. And I really had high hopes. I read about the early newspapers in New York and the reporters who worked hard to find things out and tell the people and I wanted to do that. … I <em>had</em> to do that because jail and prison was just too hard, that’s the truth. I couldn’t do it anymore. I had once thought that I would spend half my life in prison for a good cause. I was ready to die on a hill with everyone watching, cheering, a hero … <em>if I had to</em>. But short guys can’t be heroes … Doug Flutie, Bob McIlvaine maybe.</p>
<p>But <em>I</em> couldn’t do it. And I was ashamed. I went into journalism because I had to.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… Jim Fetzer asked me to talk about freedom of speech, freedom of the press, which is kind of ironic, given my current situation, as it is ironic that freedom of speech can be tricky.</p>
<p>I went to seminary in Saint Paul in 1979, had never really been anywhere, did not really know anything. I met Fr. Daniel Berrigan while I was in seminary and my life was changed. I’d never heard of Daniel Berrigan before I got to the seminary.</p>
<p>In any case, at that point I kind of became interested in life, in the world. At that point I began to learn about America. My hometown pastor, said no, no, stay away from him. But I didn’t. I protested at the White House, the Pentagon, back in Nebraska at Offutt Air Force Base.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I left the seminary because I felt I needed to go radically into what the gospel was calling for, working with the poor and fighting the military machine and war. I left and for a time I lived and worked at the New York Catholic Worker on the lower east side, then returned to Norfolk. Ruth and I were married in 1980.</p>
<p>I recall the first time I was arrested. It was at Offutt Air Force Base, near Omaha. I was in a large group. It was raining. I was seated on the cement, on the road and it was tough. It was like breaking up with the United States, turning away, very, very difficult.</p>
<p>I eventually went to county jail, then federal prison for protests at Offutt. I served five short sentences, 10 days, 30 days, 50 days, 6 months, 6 months. I was released my last time from prison in May of 1989.</p>
<p>In my jail terms I was in the Douglas County Correctional Center in Omaha, the Lancaster County Jail in Lincoln, the Norfolk City jail for a brief time for refusing to leave the recruiters office at the Sunset Mall, protesting military recruiting … also Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, Terre Haute Penitentiary, was in the prison bus at Marion as we picked up a couple of guys, El Reno FCI, the Midland, Texas city jail on an overnight, overnight in Leavenworth Penitentiary. I remember we ate in the main cafeteria the morning we left, before anyone else was up and you just find yourself looking around and wondering if this is actually happening.</p>
<p>… Also, the Pottawattamie County Jail, Council Bluffs, as well as La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution, outside of El Paso, just over the river from Juarez.</p>
<p>I then went onto newspaper work. I was the reporter, city council, sports, features, layout, everything at the Ainsworth Star-Journal in the Sandhills of western Nebraska. Ruth and I had a young son.</p>
<p>It was the time of the first Gulf War.</p>
<p>Well, I had just convinced the publisher to let me have my own column and wouldn’t you know it, that first column coincided with the launch of the war. In my column I said that I did not support the war, did not support the troops, and if you recall, support the troops was the mantra, the daily saying we all were supposed to recite as we took American communion, and yellow ribbons decorated the landscape, trees, stray cats, car antennas. The column was cancelled by the publisher because people complained and he said he had to please his readers. I thought that was anything but the way a newspaper should be run and I quit. We finally found a small paper to purchase in southeastern Minnesota in a tiny town near Rochester.</p>
<p>During this time Leonard Peltier was having his case heard by the federal court of appeals in Saint Paul and I assigned myself to interview him at Leavenworth Federal Prison. I drove there from Minnesota, parked in the parking lot where I had only months before arrived at Leavenworth in a prison bus at midnight in handcuffs in a rainstorm and I climbed those one million steep steps once again and went inside, this time as a reporter. I talked to Peltier and then went to Minneapolis to interview Nick O’Hara the head of the Midwest FBI office. O’Hara had months before pursued me in Omaha and likened me in the Omaha World-Herald to Charles Starkweather. I had taken refuge, sought sanctuary, in the Omaha Catholic Cathedral rather than appearing at a court date for an Offutt action as a way to draw attention to the Bishop’s support of the policy of nuclear deterrence practiced by Offutt and the U.S., threatening to kill. Rather than submit to arrest in the Cathedral, I fashioned a way to escape and was thus being pursued by O’Hara and the Omaha FBI office.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>We won the Minnesota Newspaper of the Year Award for small newspapers in 1993 and went out of business the following year.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Later we were in Iowa. I ran for Congress, as a Democrat in the 5th District, first as a write-in, receiving eight votes. The next time I actually got on the ballot, won the primary and received 65,500 votes in the general election. The only encouragement I got from the Democratic Party was to quit, change my tune. I took out an ad in the Sioux City Journal, full page, that said shut down the national guard air force base, shut down prisons, more money for the poor.</p>
<p>During the campaign I walked from our home in Sheldon, Iowa to Sioux City to deliver a crossed-out tax form saying why I would not participate in the tax system and support the military and war.</p>
<p>That was the election of 2000, when Bush came to power, as he was supposed to, as he absolutely had to, as we could see from the scene we saw on TV of the Bush family gathered together in some room like a Russian royal family, knowing they were supposed to come to power, but by the looks on their faces, also wondering if maybe folks will figure this all out and they will instead be executed … before the Florida vote came in.</p>
<p>Of course not … it all went according to plan, setting the stage for 9/11.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Well … I also have to tell you …</p>
<p><em>There once was a radio show</em>, really a podcast, but they called themselves a radio show … in America, and that show, the people in that show, thought of themselves as something like the French underground, with the crackly radios and the long cigarettes.</p>
<p>You might be in your basement or in your backyard, but still, you are The Resistance. … You are underground, with only a bit of wine left and a gigantic radio.</p>
<p>Everyone around you
is gulping all your god-damned wine and speaking French in hushed tones, but somehow, you understand.</p>
<p>That big-ass radio just happened to be here next to the cigarettes when you got here, but thank God for it.</p>
<p>Because with it you found there were others.</p>
<p>… This is Andy Rooney reporting for The New American Dream Radio Show.</p>
<p>Forget about the George Bushes riding into the baseball game on national TV to throw out the first ball, then sitting in the front row.</p>
<p>Forget about Bill Clinton or Barack Obama the new liberal Democrats who care about you …</p>
<p>… Sponge Bob, The Simpsons and South Park, Calvin and Hobbes, Snoopy have more to tell us than those guys. …</p>
<p>At least in the Soviet Union, when they saw nonsense and lies printed in <em>Pravda</em> and <em>Tass</em>, at least they knew they were lies. We are still at the infancy stage in our development … of not questioning the lies.</p>
<p>And so the next time there is a bombing or a threat of a bombing or a bevy of blue backpacks found on a brown bench in Bemidji – the healthy American, the true American, the real American – thinks “CIA, FBI, the police” …</p>
<p>… the real patriot refuses to stand for the national anthem, and rather than another knee-jerk reciting of the pledge of allegiance he says – not until I get some questions answered, because …</p>
<p>This is important stuff.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… <em>Tonight’s show is sponsored </em>in part by a grant from … “The Paul Harvey Memorial Concentration Camp For The Journalistically Insane.”</p>
<p>In Tonight’s show we have The Committee To Waterboard Anderson Cooper … sponsored by Mr. Bubble. And now the Committee to Waterboard Anderson Cooper, sponsored by Mr. Bubble would also like to waterboard Chris Hedges, Jon Stewart, Amy Goodman, Rachel Maddow, Mathew Rothschild, Stephen Colbert, Ruth Conniff, Eric Alterman, Bill Moyers, Arriana Huffington, Bill Maher, Gary Trudeau, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Markos Zuniga, Noam Chomsky and Garrison Keillor.</p>
<p>Mr. Bubble wants to know why these liberal so-called radical writers do not ever mention the obviousness of 9/11, and while they think they are radical writers and fighting the good fight, they are either bought and paid for, or they are consciously skirting around the edges of the real issues like frightened waterbugs around a swamp and maybe they should just give up and get construction jobs. …</p>
<p> </p>
<p>While we lived in Omaha during the ’80s I wrote to the archbishop, Daniel Sheehan, as a former seminary student for his diocese, asking how he felt about Offutt Air Force Base targeting millions of people in the Soviet Union with nuclear weapons and spending millions of dollars on weapons that kill rather than on the poor of North Omaha, where we lived.</p>
<p>He said that he agreed with the mission of the U.S. Air Force at Offutt AFB.</p>
<p>Sometimes you have to exert your right to freedom of speech.</p>
<p><u>One</u> Easter Sunday I took a sign with me to the service at St. Cecilia’s Cathedral in Omaha on North 40th Street. I walked up to the front of the packed church while the archbishop gave his Easter homily. I stood next to him with my sign that said: The Omaha Catholic Church Supports SAC: Why? I stood there for a while, holding the sign up over my head, then walked to a side door, then drove away.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When I was doing the Offutt protests my family lived with other people in what we called a Resistance Community, Greenfields, named after the Irish anti-war song The</p>
<p>Greenfields of France. A friend of mine from those days, Kevin, we were best of friends, went to jail together, worked small construction jobs, sent me this letter in response to something from me telling him what I was up to these days.</p>
<blockquote><p>Mike,</p>
<p>Unclear about what to say about the strange shit you are writing these days. … Sounds like you are a tool of the right wing gun freaks (Sandy Hook deniers) and the neo-Nazies (holocaust deniers). I’m not much of a conspiracy guy, personally, but would say that you definitely do write like you are part of a conspiracy and one with which I am very uncomfortable.</p>
<p>Your new friends are my enemies. You be good!, old Friend.</p>
<p>— Kevin</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>And portions of a later letter</em>: ” … I told you … not to send me anymore of this bullshit! …You and fetzer are freaks from the right wing fever swamps and I don’t want the SPLC or the FBI associating me with you and your … buddies. Sincerely hope [they] clean you assholes out to the last pair of socks. … Don’t ever contact me again. Ever!!! Kevin</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… I do not understand. Why is it wrong to take time to study all of this?</p>
<p>Let’s picture a liberal, someone like me, a little taller, who has come across a new website on the internet and been up all night reading. He has just discovered new things about the JFK, RFK, MLK murders, has questions about the Wellstone death, the moon landings, Boston, Oklahoma City. He goes to his friendly neighborhood bookstore or library searching for something that will explain, tell him he’s on the right track. He’s listening to NPR while he looks through The Nation, The Progressive, Village Voice, Rolling Stone, searching for support, for validation, and he finds none.</p>
<p>Why i<em>s</em> that?</p>
<p>… <em>How can those who are a part of this, on the other side, the perpetrators, keep</em></p>
<p><em>going?</em> I often wonder about that. They either believe in what they are doing … but how can they. They’re not stupid.</p>
<p>… They cannot go back, that’s why, they cannot pause one moment to reflect because that would be a life-changer. So, I believe that the only way for them is forward, keep pushing the false narrative, push it like a dealer in Times Square and it’s 1979. Keep the background stories coming, keep the patsies in jail, ensure they die in prison. What other choice do they have? If the shark stops swimming it will die.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em>Of course</em> we all know about how the CIA coined the term conspiracy theory and how that continues to do the job for them. And Operation Mockingbird, Senator Church interviewing CIA Director William Colby about the CIA employing journalists.</p>
<p>Do they ever quit something once begun?</p>
<p>I think probably not.</p>
<p>And also about Sunstein’s famous plan of cognitive infiltration.</p>
<p>It all seems to be working.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… It is very hard today to produce for mass consumption a meaningful movie, a newspaper, radio show, TV program, a novel, next to impossible. It’s all pretty well covered.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In about 2014 Jim Fetzer and I formed Moon Rock Books.</p>
<p>In December of 2018, along with Dave Gahary, we were featured in the <em>New York Times</em> under a headline that said CONSPIRACY KOOKS, LOSERS, ANTI-AMERICAN, SHIT FOR BRAINS, GET THEM!</p>
<p>What a night that was, of course, no sleep.</p>
<p><em>The New York Times?</em></p>
<p>No sleep the next day as well.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I recall That Day, capital letters, in June 2019, in Madison, when Jim and I were handed our loss in court, charged with owing one million dollars.</p>
<p>After we left the courtroom I was in my car following Jim, headed to a restaurant for tacos. Jim got through the light, and I, my heart still pounding and my head full of a thousand thoughts, considered running the yellow. I was going pretty fast, down a big hill, the whole downtown Madison panorama in front of me. Jim goes through. I see a yellow light.</p>
<p>I think. I can make it. If I don’t, I’ll lose Jim and I will be lost forever, in Madison.</p>
<p><em>A million dollars.</em></p>
<p><em>My wife. My family. Shit.</em></p>
<p>At the very last moment I slammed on the brakes and to my great embarrassment was the focus of attention from people standing on both sides of the street, including the whole prosecution team.</p>
<p>I sat there as they crossed the street, waving and smiling, laughing. …</p>
<p>Jim and I had tacos and root beer and told each other how our wives would kill us and that probably already we were worldwide headlines, and not in a good way.</p>
<p>I said, we can’t win, Jim.</p>
<p>If we win, they lose, Obama, the FBI, all of them, and that cannot happen. …</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… We have heard this over the years.</p>
<p>Is this the revolution?</p>
<p>Is THIS the revolution?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Marxism. Marx. USSR. Black Marias.</p>
<p>Socialism. Bernie.</p>
<p>Democracy. Democrats.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>FREEDOM of Speech</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Solzhenitsyn, Voinovich.</p>
<p>Vonnegut/Steinbeck/Bradbury.</p>
<p>Orwell/Huxley/Kerouac/Ginsberg, Bukowski, etc. etc.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Those writers and their books have been thought/said to be revolutionary.</p>
<p>We sometimes refer to them for some help dealing with today’s</p>
<p>pain.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Fahrenheit 911.</p>
<p>Michael Moore? Stephen Colbert? Jon Stewart?</p>
<p>Not really.</p>
<p>Phil Donahue. Yes, maybe.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But where are today’s books?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Regarding novels, I would say they are in fact, nowhere.</p>
<p>That <em>I</em> know of.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Where is the investigative journalist who will get to the bottom of all of this.</p>
<p>And where would she publish?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Jim Fetzer, Kevin Barrett.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>THIS is the revolution. Right here.</p>
<p>That’s why we get what we get. Are getting.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… “Jumpers” is a short novel, by me, about a guy attending an annual gathering of his high school friends at a local coffee shop. He is the only homeless person in the group. He holds them hostage there at their table in order to tell them the truth about 9/11, to make them think for a moment about those who leaped to their deaths from the World Trade Center.</p>
<p>This section is about the news media, on that day, and we recall that Bryant Gumbal was the first to report about the planes, the planes.</p>
<p>… Ten seconds. Nine. … Five. Showtime. This is your host. …</p>
<p>… And of course it had been planned for weeks, for months, that they would come on the air as usual and have this regular news program and then have this happen and callers telling them what they saw and of course they saw airplanes flying into buildings. And others planted elsewhere saying it was bin Laden and then on the street telling that the buildings came down due to the heat from the jet fuel.</p>
<p>Of course. All of that is of course, a matter of course. And, of course it was believed, oohed, aahhed, commercials sold, brains dissolved, by burning jet fuel.</p>
<p>Something that would be so interesting to see would be the clips showing those meetings leading up to the early morning shows that depicted the 9/11 attacks, never asking how an airplane could dissolve into a building like that, without any plane parts, body parts or peanut bags falling to the street.</p>
<p>Never asking how a plane could disappear into the Pentagon like that, leaving behind no plane parts, body parts or peanut bags, never asking how a plane could disappear into a patch of ground like that, leaving behind no plane parts, bodies or peanuts.</p>
<p>This would be TV Worth Watching, to see how the whole thing was planned, before, during, and also now, after, because as far as the media coverage goes, it’s still the same day. Just as with the JFK, MLK, RFK, Wellstone operation and any other event they plan, they commit to a lifetime of lies and coverage.</p>
<p>It is actually very impressive. Very impressive. That is where the health care goes, and the roads and the bridges and the help for the poor. It goes to this expertise of starting war, making war and covering all of that up and keeping it going for basically forever. Because they have never-ever been caught.</p>
<p>And they do not intend to be. They are full-time, with benefits.</p>
<p>They do these things and then come out smiling the next day like the champs they are, going to work, to the theatre, to the ballgame.</p>
<p>They keep going and they will never stop. So very impressive.</p>
<p>You have to admit. They <em>are</em> different from us.</p>
<p>We could never do this.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We slaughtered ten million Native Americans to steal their land. We are responsible for the war of terror. And yet we have no national shame as Germany is forced to endure because of its supposed acts in World War II.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>For about 8 1/2 years I worked with Chuck Gregory to produce The New American Dream online radio show, every Thursday night.</p>
<p>This is from one of those programs:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And now it’s time for “My Big Fat American Book” with your host Charlie Rose.</p>
<p>As we zoom in on our host at his big round table, sitting all alone in the studio before tonight’s guest arrives, we are able to look over his shoulder as he writes notes for tonight’s show.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What is Charlie Rose writing?</p>
<p>Let’s have a look, shall we?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… What we <em>really</em> need is a manifesto or a great novel that will once and for all show us what we already know.</p>
<p>What we knew in our hearts in 1963 and every year and day since then.</p>
<p>There should be this essay or this novel that’s not too long, or maybe really long like a Russian novel that when we read it, we would all say, <em>oh, yeah, that’s just how it is.</em></p>
<p>And then they would bring in all the high school history books and start going through them and start putting in the right stuff.</p>
<p>They’d put big teacher red pen marks through all the made-up shit like the moon and the Pearl Harbor attack and WMD and anthrax and the Gulf of Tonkin and Wellstone’s plane crash and put in the real stuff, the stuff they had in these other books in these big old cardboard boxes that they never were going to show us — like the old photos in grandma’s closet with her and grandpa drinking beer and smoking cigarettes sitting on top of the ol’ model A.</p>
<p>And the late night comedians would talk about real stuff, like what used to be in the high school history books and about how they used to talk about how one truck bomb did that to the Murrah Building and how they used to say that jet fuel took down those big NYC buildings and how we used to say a whole airplane disappeared into that little hole in the Pentagon and that little hole in the ground in Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>They’d say jokes about that stuff just as easily as Bob Hope used to talk about golf and airplane food and we all thought it was the funniest crap ever.</p>
<p>And then, all because of this one novel that said things everybody already knew, a bunch of people would walk to the CIA building and the FBI building and the Homeland Security Building and they would walk right in, because they paid for this piece of crap building anyway, and then they would walk over to the fence with the razor wire and they would cut it down and they would help the people through and they would put up this homemade sign, maybe with cardboard and crayons and tack it up on a baseball bat or a branch or a shovel and it would say “America” on it.</p>
<p>That’s what might all happen as soon as the person is born who will write this manifesto or clear, concise, inexpensive novel that will tell us all the things we already know.</p>
<p>And all we have to do now is wait. …</p>
<p>… “<em>Oh, hello</em> … I’m Charlie Rose and this is ‘My Big Fat American Book’.</p>
<p>Tonight’s guest is the author of the Walmart, Target and Barnes & Noble big sellers, “Fifty Shades Of Vampire Blood,” “The Six Sexy SuperHeroes Who Saved Sacramento,” as well as “Biggest Kitchen, Bigger Hamburger and Brighter Bathroom.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We’ll be right back after a word from the good ol’ boys at Soapy Suds … Detergent.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… And so, what to say about freedom of the press in America. Again, those in the business would say to us, what <em>are</em> you talking about?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… Diana Johnstone: … the government rarely censors. Censorship is privatized. Free discussion is increasingly restricted by the informal imposition of a “common discourse” on a range of key issues … imposed not by direct repression but by social conformism.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… The ones telling us about Covid were the same ones we trusted to tell us about 9/11, and Boston and Aurora, San Bernardino, Tucson.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They were the same ones we trusted to tell us the truth about World War II, Pearl Harbor, about Korea, about Vietnam. ..<em>. Epstein … George Floyd, Building 7.</em></p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p>Dan Rather’s website is called <em>News & Guts</em>, with offices in New York, San Francisco and Austin.</p>
<p>A search found nothing about the truth about the JFK murder, nothing about the truth about 9/11.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>On Dec. 31, 2019 Rather wrote this.</p>
<p>“All this is to say that we have our moment now for action.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This is Jim Garrison speaking to John Barbour in Barbour’s film <em>The American Media and the Second Assassination of President John F. Kennedy</em>:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Without knowing precisely who they were… I think there had to be assurance, there would be, at least at the outset a few elements of the media that would be cooperative, from the beginning … because they had to start off with a certain momentum from the beginning, before reality started interfering with the building of the illusion.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>Side note: Regarding the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989, Rather was there and for all we know he supports the story that there was a massacre. William Engdahl says there was no massacre. That is also supported by journalist Jeff Brown, who has lived in China for many years, as well as by a 1998 article by Jay Mathews in the Columbia Journalism Review.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>On Rather’s <em>News and Guts</em>:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>“</strong>The long-awaited trial of 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, finally has an official start date.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p>And so it goes on, apparently, forever.</p>
<p>And you might throw in the BBC reporter pre-announcing the destruction of Building 7, as well as the Fox 14 video which shows the on-camera reporter announcing a shooting and then saying under her breath, “oh, that didn’t happen yet,” as well as the videos we saw years ago showing the fake shooting of the camera crew. There are others.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Penn Jones had this to say:</p>
<p>“The greatest criminal in this nation, we think, is a dishonest newsman. Newsmen have been given the highest gift a nation can give a group: a right. Newsmen have been given this right of freedom of the press and freedom of speech in the expectation they would report the truth as honestly as humanly possible. Ordinary criminals kill individuals, but dishonest newsmen are involved in killing a nation — in this case, this democracy. Which brings us to native Texan Dan Rather, a longtime Houstonian, and his new book, <em>The Camera Never Blinks</em>…</p>
<blockquote><p><em> “There are laws to protect the press’s speech, but none to protect the people from the press.” — Mark Twain</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Business is business, and it’s a murder most foul.</p>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p><em>Andre Vltchek</em>:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The neo-liberal system created entire nations that cannot think independently and creatively. US is definitely one of them. People were bombarded with propaganda slogans that they are free, enjoying liberties. But when the day to act arrived, there has been nothing substantial in terms of new, revolutionary ideas. Just one enormous void. Nothing that could inspire the nation and the world.</p>
<p>“The outrage over the brutal police killing propelled millions of people to the streets. The mood has been truly rebellious, revolutionary, geared for big changes.</p>
<p>“But then, nothing!</p>
<p>“Revolution is being postponed. Opportunities lost. Postpone by how many years?</p>
<p>“The truth is – there are no shortcuts. Those who sincerely want to change the United States will have to follow the revolutionary formula from other countries. The formula is mainly based on education, knowledge, and determined, selfless work for the country and the world, called “internationalism.”</p>
<p>“Unless the US comes up with an absolutely new strategy, formula, but right now, frankly, it seems to be extremely far from coming up with it!”</p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<p><em>John Whitehead</em>:</p>
<blockquote><p>“It was only when the colonists finally got fed up with being silenced, censored, searched, frisked, threatened, and arrested that they finally revolted against the tyrant’s fetters.</p>
<p>“No document better states their grievances than the Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson.</p>
<p>“A document seething with outrage over a government which had betrayed its citizens, the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, by 56 men who laid everything on the line, pledged it all—’our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor’ — because they believed in a radical idea: that all people are created to be free.</p>
<p>“Labeled traitors, these men were charged with treason, a crime punishable by death. For some, their acts of rebellion would cost them their homes and their fortunes. For others, it would be the ultimate price — their lives.</p>
<p>“Yet even knowing the heavy price they might have to pay, these men dared to speak up when silence could not be tolerated.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em> </em></p>
<p>I repeated the following declaration many, many times on The New American Dream Radio Show over 81/2 years.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>… The New American Dream means never having to say some question or idea is not valid.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>We are allowed to ask any questions that we have … there are no wrong questions.</p>
<p>There is no hidden black military budget, there are no UFO files Americans cannot see, no JFK documents that will not be opened during our lifetimes, no destroyed RFK murder photos by the L.A. police, no evidence from Ground Zero taken away before we can even look at it — we are not the U.S.S.R. of the 1960s — this is supposed to be America. That is our dream, to become America,</p>
<p>The New America, the real hope of the world. …</p>
<p>… We have a dream …</p>
<p>… of bringing the United States politicians, journalists and generals who have brought about these long wars and debacle to trial — and put on TV just like O.J. — every afternoon — so every American can watch … just like the McCarthy Hearings and the JFK funeral procession …</p>
<p>What we need is a New American Dream.</p>
<p>Not of new homes and toasters and microwaves, but of becoming the type of country we always thought we were.</p>
<p>Right now we live on lies. We subsist on lies, but it’s not really living.</p>
<p>911 was an inside job.</p>
<p>They all know that.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>What we need in America is a Truth Commission like they had in South Africa to heal their broken country. We need to put certain people on the stand and we need to be allowed to ask questions.</p>
<p>Our country is surely broken as well.</p>
<p>The troops are not protecting us. That is someone’s spin on the day’s news – somebody’s advertising slogan — someone else’s sermon.</p>
<p>The troops serve the empire. They are not heroes.</p>
<p>They kill and plunder for the empire. American bases overseas serve nobody but the empire. The heroes in our country are the protesters, the ones who go face to face with the empire, those in the Plowshares Movement, The Truth Movement for example.</p>
<p>You have to know that Donald Trump knows the whole truth about the 9/11 attacks. He is complicit.</p>
<p>He has lied. He has continued the wars everywhere based on a lie. And he knows he is lying.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Trump lies right to our faces on national television just as Barack Obama did when he said that Osama bin Laden had been killed … and buried at sea. …</p>
<p>Osama bin Laden was buried at sea … and Jessica Lynch was rescued heroically, the U.S.A. does not torture, Iraq had weapons of mass destruction,</p>
<p>George Bush won the 2000 election, see, there is a plane there in that hole in Shanksville, it went all the way into that hole and no, there is no blood and no bodies and no luggage scattered … or plane parts … and Osama bin Laden … was buried at sea.</p>
<p>Remember the anthrax letters, which said “Are You Afraid?” Those were not written with a rock and chisel like Fred Flintstone from the recesses of some cave in Afghanistan. Those letters came from persons within our own government.</p>
<p>Like a horror movie and the killer is in the same house with us.</p>
<p>These killers are right here, with us and “they” want us to be afraid.</p>
<p>“We cannot be afraid.”</p>
<p>… And that’s the news from Moon Rock Lake, where all the police and soldiers are thugs, all the Democrats and journalists are cowards, and all the Homeland Security-COINTELPRO lone gunmen are about average.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><img src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Mike-Palacek-image--225x300.jpg" alt="" width="176" height="234"/></p>
<p><em><strong>Mike Palecek</strong>, co-founder of <a href="http://www.moonrockbooks.com/%22%20%5Ct%20%22top" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Moon Rock Books</a>, is a former small-town newspaper reporter, editor, publisher. The tiny paper he and his wife operated won the Minnesota Newspaper of the Year Award for weeklies in 1993. He is a former seminarian for the Omaha archdiocese, leaving in order to work with the poor on the lower east side. He served time in federal prison for anti-war activities. He was the Iowa Democratic Party nominee in the 2000 election for the U.S. House of Representatives, 5th District, receiving 65,500 votes on an anti-military, anti-prison, pro-immigration platform. <a href="http://mikepalecek.newdream.us/author/mikepalecek/%22%20%5Ct%20%22top" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Palecek is a novelist, books for the most part self-published</a>. He has worked with the disabled for nineteen years, currently lives in northern Minnesota. He believes in Bigfoot, UFOs, the Green Bay Packers and a lot of stuff nobody around him seems to believe in.</em></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Poetry in Motion
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2019-11-21:3488444:BlogPost:85774
2019-11-21T07:25:01.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<p>explicit</p>
<p>military aid</p>
<p>government whistleblower</p>
<p>“We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani.”</p>
<p>status</p>
<p>enunciation</p>
<p>investigations</p>
<p>It was no secret</p>
<p>make the boss happy</p>
<p>Again</p>
<p>recurring theme</p>
<p>Giuliani</p>
<p>toxic figure</p>
<p>We weren’t happy</p>
<p>talk with Rudy</p>
<p>personal lawyer</p>
<p>Sleeps upside down</p>
<p>in a closet</p>
<p>hand grenade</p>
<p>*blow everybody up*</p>
<p>apologetic</p>
<p>State…</p>
<p>explicit</p>
<p>military aid</p>
<p>government whistleblower</p>
<p>“We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani.”</p>
<p>status</p>
<p>enunciation</p>
<p>investigations</p>
<p>It was no secret</p>
<p>make the boss happy</p>
<p>Again</p>
<p>recurring theme</p>
<p>Giuliani</p>
<p>toxic figure</p>
<p>We weren’t happy</p>
<p>talk with Rudy</p>
<p>personal lawyer</p>
<p>Sleeps upside down</p>
<p>in a closet</p>
<p>hand grenade</p>
<p>*blow everybody up*</p>
<p>apologetic</p>
<p>State Department</p>
<p>imposing pluto law dogs funeral platform furniture smaller horrible ahead expensive additional point board assassin doubt shock park planned brother barrel chest dreamed village frustrated youth mars river robot hate otherwise grow ate tracks bit cart view surface though layer</p>
Shut Down DC – Global Climate Strike 2019
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2019-09-21:3488444:BlogPost:85091
2019-09-21T19:08:04.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
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<div class="loop-description"><div class="entry-byline"><div class="entry-byline-block entry-byline-cats"><span class="entry-byline-label">IN:</span> <a href="http://www.rallylist.com/category/state/washington-dc/" rel="category tag">WASHINGTON DC…</a></div>
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<div class="loop-description"><div class="entry-byline"><div class="entry-byline-block entry-byline-cats"><span class="entry-byline-label">IN:</span> <a href="http://www.rallylist.com/category/state/washington-dc/" rel="category tag">WASHINGTON DC</a></div>
<div class="entry-byline-block entry-byline-tags"><span class="entry-byline-label">TAGGED:</span> <a href="http://www.rallylist.com/tag/september-23/" rel="tag">SEPTEMBER 23</a></div>
<div class="entry-byline-block entry-byline-comments"><span class="entry-byline-label">WITH:</span> <a href="http://www.rallylist.com/shut-down-dc-global-climate-strike-2019/#respond" class="comments-link">0 COMMENTS</a></div>
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<div id="content-wrap"><div class="entry-featured-img-wrap"><img width="840" height="385" src="http://www.rallylist.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Shut-Down-DC-840x385.jpg" class="attachment-hoot-wide entry-content-featured-img wp-post-image" alt=""/></div>
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<div class="entry-content"><div class="entry-the-content"><p>Youth leaders from around the world have called for a climate strike and global week of action from September 20th-27th. They have been taking the lead so far, but now they are calling on all of us to take action. In Washington, DC we will be answering the call and building on the momentum of the youth climate strikes in a major way:</p>
<p>On September 23rd, we are going to shut down DC.</p>
<p>We will block key infrastructure to stop business-as-usual, bringing the whole city to a gridlocked standstill. Parents, workers, college students, and everyone who is concerned about the climate crisis will skip work and school and put off their other responsibilities to take action on the climate crisis.</p>
<p>We won’t tolerate delay and inaction any longer. We are ready to take the fight for climate justice to the next level. Sign the pledge and join us.</p>
<p>Sign the Climate Strike DC Pledge of Resistance here: <a href="https://actionnetwork.org/forms/pledge-to-resist/?fbclid=IwAR2u-vC7f96WrdMKQ5SMebZ3ujONbi_zDM5Q0cUUnrKby0h1LfWsbWA5EiA">https://actionnetwork.org/forms/pledge-to-resist/?fbclid=IwAR2u-vC7f96WrdMKQ5SMebZ3ujONbi_zDM5Q0cUUnrKby0h1LfWsbWA5EiA</a></p>
<p>Let’s rise to the challenge and shut down DC!</p>
<div class="ap-custom-wrapper"><div class="ap-each-custom"><div class="ap-custom-label">Event Website:</div>
<div class="ap-custom-value"><a href="https://www.strikedc.org/index.php/event/shut-down-dc-global-climate-strike-2019/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.strikedc.org/index.php/event/shut-down-dc-global-climate-strike-2019/</a></div>
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<div class="ap-each-custom"><div class="ap-custom-label">More Info:</div>
<div class="ap-custom-value"><a href="https://actionnetwork.org/forms/pledge-to-resist/?fbclid=IwAR2EuuJG1OjISMNc15VRAcpTE6K0ytc8XndRLQRNTHm7FfqgWY91ZarwX2U">https://actionnetwork.org/forms/pledge-to-resist/?fbclid=IwAR2EuuJG1OjISMNc15VRAcpTE6K0ytc8XndRLQRNTHm7FfqgWY91ZarwX2U</a></div>
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<div class="ap-each-custom"><div class="ap-custom-label">Date of Event:</div>
<div class="ap-custom-value">Monday, 23 September, 2019</div>
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<div class="ap-each-custom"><div class="ap-custom-label">Time of Event:</div>
<div class="ap-custom-value">7:59 AM</div>
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<div class="ap-each-custom"><div class="ap-custom-label">Address:</div>
<div class="ap-custom-value">Washington, DC</div>
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<div class="ap-custom-value">Washington, DC</div>
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Alarm as Trump Requests Permanent Reauthorization of NSA Mass Spying Program Exposed by Snowden ~
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2019-08-19:3488444:BlogPost:84978
2019-08-19T04:09:02.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<p> by <span class="pb-byline"><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/author/jake-johnson-staff-writer" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><span>Jake Johnson, staff writer…</span></a></span></p>
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<p> by <span class="pb-byline"><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/author/jake-johnson-staff-writer" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span>Jake Johnson, staff writer</span></a></span></p>
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<div class="profile-titles clearfix"><span class="pb-byline"><span><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/16/alarm-trump-requests-permanent-reauthorization-nsa-mass-spying-program-exposed">https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/16/alarm-trump-requests-permanent-reauthorization-nsa-mass-spying-program-exposed</a></span></span></div>
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<div class="field field--name-field-main-caption field--type-text-long field--label-hidden"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><p>Former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks via video link as he takes part in a round table meeting on March 15, 2019. (Photo: Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty Images)</p>
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<div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><div><p>Civil liberties groups and privacy advocates raised alarm Thursday after the Trump administration called on Congress to reauthorize an NSA mass surveillance program that was exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.</p>
<p>The <em>New York Times</em>, which obtained the Trump administration's request to Congress, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/us/politics/trump-nsa-call-records-program.html">reported</a> that "the administration urged lawmakers to make permanent the legal authority for the National Security Agency to gain access to logs of Americans' domestic communications, the USA Freedom Act."</p>
<p class="pullquote">"It's long past time that this surveillance program was shuttered once and for all." <br/>—Patrick Toomey, ACLU</p>
<p>"The law, enacted after the intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden revealed the existence of the program in 2013, is set to expire in December, but the Trump administration wants it made permanent," according to the <em>Times</em>.</p>
<p>The administration claimed in its letter to Congress—which was signed by outgoing National Intelligence chief Dan Coats—that the NSA has suspended the spying program, but Free Press Action government relations director Sandra Fulton said in a statement that this "should give little comfort to those whose privacy rights are routinely violated by authorities."</p>
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<p>"The White House is calling for reauthorization of a program that security agencies have used to spy on innocent people, violate their privacy, and chill free speech," said Fulton. "The NSA program permits the mapping of relationships among members of marginalized communities and distant associates of targeted individuals, even when most individuals in those communities were never suspected of wrongdoing."</p>
<p>"Historically, authorities have used such overbroad authority to harass members of these communities," Fulton added, "especially those who speak out when their rights are under threat."</p>
<p>Patrick Toomey, senior staff attorney for the ACLU's National Security Project, urged Congress to ignore the Trump administration's request and let the surveillance program die.</p>
<p>"It's long past time that this surveillance program was shuttered once and for all," Toomey told the <em>Times</em>. "The NSA has been vacuuming up hundreds of millions of Americans' call records as part of a program that is hopelessly complex and lacks any discernible evidence of its value. We should not leave such a sweeping, unaccountable power in the hands of our spy agencies."</p>
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An Open Invitation to Tyranny by Paul Craig Roberts
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2019-08-19:3488444:BlogPost:85174
2019-08-19T02:03:04.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<p><a href="https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/07/" rel="nofollow">August 7, 2019</a> <a href="https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/07/an-open-invitation-to-tyranny/">https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/07/an-open-invitation-to-tyranny/</a></p>
<p>The FBI has published a document that concludes that “conspiracy theories” can motivate believers to commit crimes.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> …</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/07/" rel="nofollow">August 7, 2019</a> <a href="https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/07/an-open-invitation-to-tyranny/">https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/08/07/an-open-invitation-to-tyranny/</a></p>
<p>The FBI has published a document that concludes that “conspiracy theories” can motivate believers to commit crimes.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/420379775/FBI-Conspiracy-Theory-Redacted#download">https://www.scribd.com/document/420379775/FBI-Conspiracy-Theory-Redacted#download</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p>Considering the growing acceptance of pre-emptive arrest, that is, arresting someone before they can commit a crime that they are suspected of planning to commit, challenging official explanations, such as those offered for the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King or the official explanation for 9/11, can now result in monitoring by authorities with a view to finding a reason for pre-emptive arrest.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Presidents George W. Bush and Obama created the police state precedents of suspension of habeas corpus and assassination of citizens on suspicion alone without due process.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> If Americans can be preemptively detained indefinitely and preemptively assassinated,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Americans can expect to be preemptively imprisoned for crimes that they did not commit. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p>As Lawrence Stratton and I explained in our book, <i>The Tyranny of Good Intentions</i>, the historic achievement of forging law into a shield of the people is being reversed in our time as law is being reforged into a weapon in the hands of the government.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/155833/the-tyranny-of-good-intentions-by-paul-craig-roberts-and-lawrence-m-stratton/">https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/155833/the-tyranny-of-good-intentions-by-paul-craig-roberts-and-lawrence-m-stratton/</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p>The FBI document says that conspiracy theories “are usually at odds with official or prevailing explanations of events.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Note the use of “official” and “prevailing.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Official explanations are explanations provided by governments.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Prevailing explanations are the explanations that the media repeats.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Examples of official and prevailing explanations are: Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, Assad’s use of chemical weapons, Iranian nukes, Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the official explanation by the US government for the destruction of Libya.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> If a person doubts official explanations such as these, that person is a “conspiracy theorist.” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p>Official and prevailing explanations do not have to be consistent with facts.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> It is enough that they are official and prevailing.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Whether or not they are true is irrelevant.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Therefore, a person who stands up for the truth can be labeled a conspiracy theorist, monitored, and perhaps pre-emptively arrested.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p>Consider 9/11.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> No forensic investigation of 9/11 was ever officially conducted.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Instead the destruction of the buildings was blamed on Osama bin Laden, and scenarios and simulations were created to support the allegation, not to find the truth.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Architects, engineers, scientists, pilots, and first responders on site cannot reconcile the official prevailing explanation with the facts.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> The scientific and testimonial evidence that they have produced is dismissed as “conspiracy theory.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> It is those experts who stand on the evidence who are defined as conspiracy theorists, not those who created the story of Osama bin Laden’s 9/11 conspiracy.</p>
<p>Consider Russiagate.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Here we have an alleged conspiracy between Trump and Russia that was the official prevailing explanation.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Yet, to believe in the Russiagate conspiracy did not make one a conspiracy theorist as this conspiracy was the official prevailing explanation.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> But to doubt the Russiagate conspiracy did make one a conspiracy theorist.</p>
<p>What the FBI report does, intentionally or unintentionally, is to define a conspiracist as a person who doubts official explanations.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> In other words, it is a way of preventing any accountability of government.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> Whatever the government says, no matter how obvious a lie, will have to be accepted as fact or we will be put on a list to be monitored for preemptive arrest.</p>
<p>In effect, the FBI’s document reduces the First Amendment, that is, free speech, to the right to repeat official and prevailing explanations. Any other speech is a conspiratorial belief that can lead to the commission of a crime.</p>
<p>Every American should be greatly concerned that the government in Washington does not see this FBI document as an open invitation to tyranny, repudiate it, and demand its recall.</p>
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GLOBAL EXTINCTION WITHIN 18 - 34 MONTHS By Malcolm Light
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2019-01-08:3488444:BlogPost:83487
2019-01-08T00:11:59.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-1968088432062071436"><br></br><div class="separator"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-drsAOkFJYNw/XDMPmeCv9yI/AAAAAAAAZrY/FsODwDHUuv0gh5A1GnfJWW4LCs8mhzyQgCLcBGAs/s1600/warning-signs-295x290.png"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-drsAOkFJYNw/XDMPmeCv9yI/AAAAAAAAZrY/FsODwDHUuv0gh5A1GnfJWW4LCs8mhzyQgCLcBGAs/s1600/warning-signs-295x290.png"></img></a></div>
<div class="separator"><a href="http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2019/01/global-extinction-within-18-34-months.html">http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2019/01/global-extinction-within-18-34-months.html</a></div>
<br></br>Humanity is facing…</div>
<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-1968088432062071436"><br/><div class="separator"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-drsAOkFJYNw/XDMPmeCv9yI/AAAAAAAAZrY/FsODwDHUuv0gh5A1GnfJWW4LCs8mhzyQgCLcBGAs/s1600/warning-signs-295x290.png"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-drsAOkFJYNw/XDMPmeCv9yI/AAAAAAAAZrY/FsODwDHUuv0gh5A1GnfJWW4LCs8mhzyQgCLcBGAs/s1600/warning-signs-295x290.png"/></a></div>
<div class="separator"><a href="http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2019/01/global-extinction-within-18-34-months.html">http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2019/01/global-extinction-within-18-34-months.html</a></div>
<br/>Humanity is facing the final, western corporate capitalist, fossil fuel initiated, catastrophic Arctic methane hydrate destabilization and Permian style methane blowout - firestorm that will culminate in 1 to 8 years (2020 to 2027). <br/><br/>We will all be boiled alive like lobsters in a massively humid atmosphere and converted into stardust. <br/><br/>Recent data from the Arctic confirm an exponential rise in the temperature anomaly of the Arctic stratospheric methane which is now 65 degrees C above the normal, while it was only 20 degrees C above the normal, 6 to 8 years ago.<br/><br/>Using this data and the recent Piomass (2017) estimates of the minimum Arctic ice shelf volume it is now possible to estimate the timing of the Arctic - Permian style methane blowout firestorm more accurately and the events are tabled below.<br/><br/><hr align="left" width="30%"/><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ysBE70J6iyE/XDMZ2PcYqFI/AAAAAAAAZrw/cJxI4TizLAoDih4uQCRdhpTJ6wFsa77igCLcBGAs/s1600/Global-Omnicide-1.jpg"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ysBE70J6iyE/XDMZ2PcYqFI/AAAAAAAAZrw/cJxI4TizLAoDih4uQCRdhpTJ6wFsa77igCLcBGAs/s400/Global-Omnicide-1.jpg" width="332"/></a><br/>1. An Arctic blue oceanic event is possible in 2020 due to the fast rise in Summer temperatures (Piomass - Zhang and Rothrock, 2003, Wipneus, 2017, Carana, 2016)<br/><br/><hr align="left" width="30%"/><br/>2. The start of the Arctic Permian style methane blowout event can begin as early as July 15, 2020 at the end of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere if the Mean Yearly Global Warming Potential of Methane is used (119.3959 from Goddard Space Flight Centre Data, NASA 2012)<br/><br/><hr align="left" width="30%"/><br/>3. The Major Arctic Permian Style, Methane Blowout - Firestorm Event which will cause the release of some 50 Gt of methane from the Arctic shelf and slope (Shakhova, 2010), a 10 Degree Centigrade Rise in Mean Global Atmospheric Temperatures causing a Catastrophic Permian Style Global Extinction Event, is timed to begin on 4th September, 2021 using an Atmospheric Methane Global Warming Potential of 100. This is an end Summer event for the Northern Hemisphere.<br/><br/><hr align="left" width="30%"/><br/><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qgaaIAhfGiQ/XDMYyEoDoUI/AAAAAAAAZrk/oqm65xM-WgwxCqjom35e6yAaEuhRMrw1gCLcBGAs/s1600/Global-Omnicide-3.jpg"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qgaaIAhfGiQ/XDMYyEoDoUI/AAAAAAAAZrk/oqm65xM-WgwxCqjom35e6yAaEuhRMrw1gCLcBGAs/s400/Global-Omnicide-3.jpg" width="332"/></a>4. There is a 95% Probability that the Arctic Ice Shelf will have Zero Volume by the 5th of September 2022 (Piomass - Zhang and Rothrock, 2003, Wipneus, 2017, Carana, 2016) which is an end Summer event and exactly one year after the Catastrophic Permian Style Global Extinction Event.<br/><br/>This indicates a total 12 month delay in the atmospheric heat being transferred to the tropical ocean currents (e.g the Gulf Stream) and then being conducted north to heat up the Svalbard current which then destabilizes the shelf and slope methane hydrates in the Arctic ocean releasing methane to the atmosphere.<br/><br/>The Goddard Space flight Centre Arctic shelf data (NASA 2012) indicate a 7 month delay in Summer ocean heating and the release of methane from the Arctic shelf and slope.<br/><br/>The Arctic ice shelf is being melted from below so the ocean needs to be heated first by the methane in the tropical stratosphere and this heat is then transferred by ocean current to the Arctic over at least 7 months. Ice also has a large latent heat of melting adding an additional several months to the delay time for the total Arctic ice shelf melt.<br/><br/><hr align="left" width="30%"/><br/><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vafUjyzZgpI/XDMaUc9fxNI/AAAAAAAAZr4/hCEE89RiGb8dpxZErOIgO8Gzqots-gJCwCLcBGAs/s1600/Global-Omnicide-2.jpg"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vafUjyzZgpI/XDMaUc9fxNI/AAAAAAAAZr4/hCEE89RiGb8dpxZErOIgO8Gzqots-gJCwCLcBGAs/s400/Global-Omnicide-2.jpg" width="351"/></a>WHAT YOU NEED TO DO<br/><br/>The start date of the Permian style global extinction event may be only 18 to 19 months away. This says that you must complete your bucket list of unfulfilled dreams before July to August 2020. A bucket list is a list of unfulfilled actions you need to complete before you die ("kick the bucket").<br/><br/>Do not worry about dying as it comes to all of us in the end, only this time we will all be going together. The Earth will soon after, lose all its oceans and become "Venus Like".<br/><br/>Empathy is organic evolution's key to group survival in a uncaring inorganic universe. Enjoy yourselves and be excellent to each other in these last days and hours on the only remaining habitable planet in this solar system.<br/><br/><hr align="left" width="30%"/><br/>The above message was posted by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/malcolm.light.50">Malcolm Light</a> on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/malcolm.light.50/posts/2049223358489821">January 7, 2019</a>.<br/><br/><b>Links</b><br/><br/>• Planetary Genocide - Ecocide between 2023 and 2031 <br/><a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2015/01/planetary-genocide-ecocide-between-2023-and-2031.html">https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2015/01/planetary-genocide-ecocide-between-2023-and-2031.html</a><br/><br/>• Warning - Global Omnicide<br/><a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/warning-global-omnicide.html">https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/warning-global-omnicide.html</a><br/><br/>• Poster created for Geophysical Congress on methane hydrates, earthquakes and global warming, Nice, France, 2002, by Malcolm Light and Carmen Solana<br/><a href="http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/seismic-activity.html">http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/seismic-activity.html</a><br/><br/><hr width="100%"/><br/>In the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBE9Gf0K1sE">video below</a>, recorded January 5, 2019, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/guy.mcpherson.5">Guy McPherson</a> talks with <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jamen.shively">Jamen Shively</a> and Michael about extinction.<br/><br/><div class="separator"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YBE9Gf0K1sE?wmode=opaque" width="560"></iframe>
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<br/><br/>• Co-extinctions annihilate planetary life during extreme environmental change, by Giovanni Strona and Corey Bradshaw (2018)<br/><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-35068-1">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-35068-1</a><br/><br/>• As El Niño sets in, will global biodiversity collapse in 2019? <br/><a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/11/as-el-nino-sets-in-will-global-biodiversity-collapse-in-2019.html">https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/11/as-el-nino-sets-in-will-global-biodiversity-collapse-in-2019.html</a> <br/><br/><hr width="100%"/></div>
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What the President Could Do If He Declares a State of Emergency
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2019-01-07:3488444:BlogPost:83482
2019-01-07T05:01:29.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<div class="article-above fluid-container"><div class="article-cover"><div class="article-cover-content-wrapper"><div class="article-cover-content" id="main-content"><h1 class="hed"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/">https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/</a></span></h1>
<p class="dek">From seizing control of the internet to declaring martial law,…</p>
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<div class="article-above fluid-container"><div class="article-cover"><div class="article-cover-content-wrapper"><div class="article-cover-content" id="main-content"><h1 class="hed"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/">https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/</a></span></h1>
<p class="dek">From seizing control of the internet to declaring martial law, President Trump may legally do all kinds of extraordinary things.</p>
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<li class="byline"><span><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/elizabeth-goitein/" title="Elizabeth Goitein"><span>ELIZABETH GOITEIN</span></a></span></li>
<li class="date"><a class="issue" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/toc/2019/01/"></a></li>
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I<span class="smallcaps">n the weeks</span> leading up to the 2018 midterm elections, President Donald Trump reached deep into his arsenal to try to deliver votes to Republicans.</div>
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<div class="article-body"><p>Most of his weapons were rhetorical, featuring a mix of lies and false inducements—claims that every congressional Democrat had signed on to an “open borders” bill (none had), that liberals were fomenting violent “mobs” (they weren’t), that a 10 percent tax cut for the middle class would somehow pass while Congress was out of session (it didn’t). But a few involved the aggressive use—and threatened misuse—of presidential authority: He sent thousands of active-duty soldiers to the southern border to terrorize a distant caravan of desperate Central American migrants, announced plans to end <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/575062/us-citizenship/">the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship</a> by executive order, and tweeted that law enforcement had been “strongly notified” to be on the lookout for “ILLEGAL VOTING.”</p>
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<div class="ad-boxinjector-wrapper">These measures failed to carry the day, and Trump will likely conclude that they were too timid. How much further might he go in 2020, when his own name is on the ballot—or sooner than that, if he’s facing impeachment by a House under Democratic control?<br/></div>
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<p>More is at stake here than the outcome of one or even two elections. Trump has long signaled his disdain for the concepts of limited presidential power and democratic rule. During his 2016 campaign, he praised murderous dictators. He declared that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, would be in jail if he were president, goading crowds into frenzied chants of “Lock her up.” He hinted that he might not accept an electoral loss. As democracies around the world slide into autocracy, and nationalism and antidemocratic sentiment are on vivid display among segments of the American populace, Trump’s evident hostility to key elements of liberal democracy cannot be dismissed as mere bluster.</p>
The moment the <span class="caps">president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—he is able to set aside many of the legal limits on his authority.</span><br />
<p>It would be nice to think that America is protected from the worst excesses of Trump’s impulses by its democratic laws and institutions. After all, Trump can do only so much without bumping up against the limits set by the Constitution and Congress and enforced by the courts. Those who see Trump as a threat to democracy comfort themselves with the belief that these limits will hold him in check.</p>
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<p>But will they? Unknown to most Americans, a parallel legal regime allows the president to sidestep many of the constraints that normally apply. The moment the president declares a “national emergency”—a decision that is entirely within his discretion—more than 100 special provisions become available to him. While many of these tee up reasonable responses to genuine emergencies, some appear dangerously suited to a leader bent on amassing or retaining power. For instance, the president can, with the flick of his pen, activate laws allowing him to shut down many kinds of electronic communications inside the United States or freeze Americans’ bank accounts. Other powers are available even without a declaration of emergency, including laws that allow the president to deploy troops inside the country to subdue domestic unrest.</p>
<p>This edifice of extraordinary powers has historically rested on the assumption that the president will act in the country’s best interest when using them. With a handful of noteworthy exceptions, this assumption has held up. But what if a president, backed into a corner and facing electoral defeat or impeachment, were to declare an emergency for the sake of holding on to power? In that scenario, our laws and institutions might not save us from a presidential power grab. They might be what takes us down.</p>
<h3>1. “A LOADED WEAPON”</h3>
<p class="dropcap">T<span class="smallcaps">he premise</span> underlying emergency powers is simple: The government’s ordinary powers might be insufficient in a crisis, and amending the law to provide greater ones might be too slow and cumbersome. Emergency powers are meant to give the government a temporary boost until the emergency passes or there is time to change the law through normal legislative processes.</p>
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<p>Unlike the modern constitutions of many other countries, which specify when and how a state of emergency may be declared and which rights may be suspended, the U.S. Constitution itself includes no comprehensive separate regime for emergencies. Those few powers it does contain for dealing with certain urgent threats, it assigns to Congress, not the president. For instance, it lets Congress suspend the writ of habeas corpus—that is, allow government officials to imprison people without judicial review—“when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it” and “provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, some legal scholars believe that the Constitution gives the president inherent emergency powers by making him commander in chief of the armed forces, or by vesting in him a broad, undefined “executive Power.” At key points in American history, presidents have cited inherent constitutional powers when taking drastic actions that were not authorized—or, in some cases, were explicitly prohibited—by Congress. Notorious examples include Franklin D. Roosevelt’s internment of U.S. citizens and residents of Japanese descent during World War II and George W. Bush’s programs of warrantless wiretapping and torture after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Abraham Lincoln conceded that his unilateral suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War was constitutionally questionable, but defended it as necessary to preserve the Union.</p>
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<p>The Supreme Court has often upheld such actions or found ways to avoid reviewing them, at least while the crisis was in progress. Rulings such as <i>Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company v. Sawyer</i>, in which the Court invalidated President Harry Truman’s bid to take over steel mills during the Korean War, have been the exception. And while those exceptions have outlined important limiting principles, the outer boundary of the president’s constitutional authority during emergencies remains poorly defined.</p>
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<p>Presidents can also rely on a cornucopia of powers provided by Congress, which has historically been the principal source of emergency authority for the executive branch. Throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries, Congress passed laws to give the president additional leeway during military, economic, and labor crises. A more formalized approach evolved in the early 20th century, when Congress legislated powers that would lie dormant until the president activated them by declaring a national emergency. These statutory authorities began to pile up—and because presidents had little incentive to terminate states of emergency once declared, these piled up too. By the 1970s, hundreds of statutory emergency powers, and four clearly obsolete states of emergency, were in effect. For instance, the national emergency that Truman declared in 1950, during the Korean War, remained in place and was being used to help prosecute the war in Vietnam.</p>
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<p>Aiming to rein in this proliferation, Congress passed the National Emergencies Act in 1976. Under this law, the president still has complete discretion to issue an emergency declaration—but he must specify in the declaration which powers he intends to use, issue public updates if he decides to invoke additional powers, and report to Congress on the government’s emergency-related expenditures every six months. The state of emergency expires after a year unless the president renews it, and the Senate and the House must meet every six months while the emergency is in effect “to consider a vote” on termination.</p>
<p>By any objective measure, the law has failed. Thirty states of emergency are in effect today—several times more than when the act was passed. Most have been renewed for years on end. And during the 40 years the law has been in place, Congress has not met even once, let alone every six months, to vote on whether to end them.</p>
<p>As a result, the president has access to emergency powers contained in <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/emergency-powers">123 statutory provisions, as recently calculated</a> by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, where I work. These laws address a broad range of matters, from military composition to agricultural exports to public contracts. For the most part, the president is free to use any of them; the National Emergencies Act doesn’t require that the powers invoked relate to the nature of the emergency. Even if the crisis at hand is, say, a nationwide crop blight, the president may activate the law that allows the secretary of transportation to requisition any privately owned vessel at sea. Many other laws permit the executive branch to take extraordinary action under specified conditions, such as war and domestic upheaval, regardless of whether a national emergency has been declared.</p>
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<p>This legal regime for emergencies—ambiguous constitutional limits combined with a rich well of statutory emergency powers—would seem to provide the ingredients for a dangerous encroachment on American civil liberties. Yet so far, even though presidents have often advanced dubious claims of constitutional authority, egregious abuses on the scale of the Japanese American internment or the post-9/11 torture program have been rare, and most of the statutory powers available during a national emergency have never been used.</p>
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<p>But what’s to guarantee that this president, or a future one, will show the reticence of his predecessors? To borrow from Justice Robert Jackson’s dissent in <i>Korematsu v. United States</i>, the 1944 Supreme Court decision that upheld the internment of Japanese Americans, each emergency power “lies about like a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.”</p>
<h3>2. AN INTERNET KILL SWITCH?</h3>
<p class="dropcap">L<span class="smallcaps">ike all emergency powers,</span> the laws governing the conduct of war allow the president to engage in conduct that would be illegal during ordinary times. This conduct includes familiar incidents of war, such as the killing or indefinite detention of enemy soldiers. But the president can also take a host of other actions, both abroad and inside the United States.</p>
<p>These laws vary dramatically in content and scope. Several of them authorize the president to make decisions about the size and composition of the armed forces that are usually left to Congress. Although such measures can offer needed flexibility at crucial moments, they are subject to misuse. For instance, George W. Bush leveraged the state of emergency after 9/11 to call hundreds of thousands of reservists and members of the National Guard into active duty in Iraq, for a war that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Other powers are chilling under any circumstances: Take a moment to consider that during a declared war or national emergency, the president can unilaterally suspend the law that bars government testing of biological and chemical agents on unwitting human subjects.</p>
The president could seize control of U.S. internet traffic, impeding access to certain websites and ensuring that internet searches return pro-Trump content as the top results.<br />
<p>One power poses a singular threat to democracy in the digital era. In 1942, Congress amended Section 706 of the Communications Act of 1934 to allow the president to shut down or take control of “any facility or station for wire communication” upon his proclamation “that there exists a state or threat of war involving the United States,” resurrecting a similar power Congress had briefly provided Woodrow Wilson during World War I. At the time, “wire communication” meant telephone calls or telegrams. Given the relatively modest role that electronic communications played in most Americans’ lives, the government’s assertion of this power during World War II (no president has used it since) likely created inconvenience but not havoc.</p>
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<p>We live in a different universe today. Although interpreting a 1942 law to cover the internet might seem far-fetched, some government officials recently endorsed this reading during debates about cybersecurity legislation. Under this interpretation, Section 706 could effectively function as a “kill switch” in the U.S.—one that would be available to the president the moment he proclaimed a mere threat of war. It could also give the president power to assume control over U.S. internet traffic.</p>
<p>The potential impact of such a move can hardly be overstated. In August, in an early-morning tweet, Trump lamented that search engines were “RIGGED” to serve up negative articles about him. Later that day the administration said it was looking into regulating the big internet companies. “I think that Google and Twitter and Facebook, they’re really treading on very, very troubled territory. And they have to be careful,” Trump warned. If the government were to take control of U.S. internet infrastructure, Trump could accomplish directly what he threatened to do by regulation: ensure that internet searches always return pro-Trump content as the top results. The government also would have the ability to impede domestic access to particular websites, including social-media platforms. It could monitor emails or prevent them from reaching their destination. It could exert control over computer systems (such as states’ voter databases) and physical devices (such as Amazon’s Echo speakers) that are connected to the internet.</p>
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<h3>Video: Trump’s Emergency Powers Are “Ripe for Abuse”</h3>
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<div class="embed-wrapper">To be sure, the fact that the internet in the United States is highly decentralized—a function of a relatively open market for communications devices and services—would offer some protection. Achieving the level of government control over internet content that exists in places such as China, Russia, and Iran would likely be impossible in the U.S. Moreover, if Trump were to attempt any degree of internet takeover, an explosion of lawsuits would follow. Based on its First Amendment rulings in recent decades, the Supreme Court seems unlikely to permit heavy-handed government control over internet communication.</div>
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<p>But complacency would be a mistake. Complete control of internet content would not be necessary for Trump’s purposes; even with less comprehensive interventions, he could do a great deal to disrupt political discourse and hinder effective, organized political opposition. And the Supreme Court’s view of the First Amendment is not immutable. For much of the country’s history, the Court was willing to tolerate significant encroachments on free speech during wartime. “The progress we have made is fragile,” Geoffrey R. Stone, a constitutional-law scholar at the University of Chicago, has written. “It would not take much to upset the current understanding of the First Amendment.” Indeed, all it would take is five Supreme Court justices whose commitment to presidential power exceeds their commitment to individual liberties.</p>
<h3>3. SANCTIONING AMERICANS</h3>
<p class="dropcap">N<span class="smallcaps">ext to war powers,</span> economic powers might sound benign, but they are among the president’s most potent legal weapons. All but two of the emergency declarations in effect today were issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or <span class="smallcaps">ieepa</span>. Passed in 1977, the law allows the president to declare a national emergency “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat”—to national security, foreign policy, or the economy—that “has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States.” The president can then order a range of economic actions to address the threat, including freezing assets and blocking financial transactions in which any foreign nation or foreign national has an interest.</p>
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<p>In the late 1970s and ’80s, presidents used the law primarily to impose sanctions against other nations, including Iran, Nicaragua, South Africa, Libya, and Panama. Then, in 1983, when Congress failed to renew a law authorizing the Commerce Department to control certain exports, President Ronald Reagan declared a national emergency in order to assume that control under <span class="smallcaps">ieepa</span>. Subsequent presidents followed his example, transferring export control from Congress to the White House. President Bill Clinton expanded <span class="smallcaps">ieepa</span>’s usage by targeting not just foreign governments but foreign political parties, terrorist organizations, and suspected narcotics traffickers.</p>
<p>President George W. Bush took matters a giant step further after 9/11. His Executive Order 13224 prohibited transactions not just with any suspected foreign terrorists, but with any foreigner <i>or any U.S. citizen</i> suspected of providing them with support. Once a person is “designated” under the order, no American can legally give him a job, rent him an apartment, provide him with medical services, or even sell him a loaf of bread unless the government grants a license to allow the transaction. The <span class="smallcaps">patriot</span> Act gave the order more muscle, allowing the government to trigger these consequences merely by opening an investigation into whether a person or group should be designated.</p>
<p>Designations under Executive Order 13224 are opaque and extremely difficult to challenge. The government needs only a “reasonable basis” for believing that someone is involved with or supports terrorism in order to designate him. The target is generally given no advance notice and no hearing. He may request reconsideration and submit evidence on his behalf, but the government faces no deadline to respond. Moreover, the evidence against the target is typically classified, which means he is not allowed to see it. He can try to challenge the action in court, but his chances of success are minimal, as most judges defer to the government’s assessment of its own evidence.</p>
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<p>Americans have occasionally been caught up in this Kafkaesque system. Several Muslim charities in the U.S. were designated or investigated based on the suspicion that their charitable contributions overseas benefited terrorists. Of course if the government can show, through judicial proceedings that observe due process and other constitutional rights, that an American group or person is funding terrorist activity, it should be able to cut off those funds. But the government shut these charities down by freezing their assets without ever having to prove its charges in court.</p>
<p>In other cases, Americans were significantly harmed by designations that later proved to be mistakes. For instance, two months after 9/11, the Treasury Department designated Garad Jama, a Somalian-born American, based on an erroneous determination that his money-wiring business was part of a terror-financing network. Jama’s office was shut down and his bank account frozen. News outlets described him as a suspected terrorist. For months, Jama tried to gain a hearing with the government to establish his innocence and, in the meantime, obtain the government’s permission to get a job and pay his lawyer. Only after he filed a lawsuit did the government allow him to work as a grocery-store cashier and pay his living expenses. It was several more months before the government reversed his designation and unfroze his assets. By then he had lost his business, and the stigma of having been publicly labeled a terrorist supporter continued to follow him and his family.</p>
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<p>Despite these dramatic examples, <span class="smallcaps">ieepa</span>’s limits have yet to be fully tested. After two courts ruled that the government’s actions against American charities were unconstitutional, Barack Obama’s administration chose not to appeal the decisions and largely refrained from further controversial designations of American organizations and citizens. Thus far, President Trump has followed the same approach.</p>
<p>That could change. In October, in the lead-up to the midterm elections, Trump characterized the caravan of Central American migrants headed toward the U.S. border to seek asylum as a “National Emergency.” Although he did not issue an emergency proclamation, he could do so under <span class="smallcaps">ieepa</span>. He could determine that any American inside the U.S. who offers material support to the asylum seekers—or, for that matter, to undocumented immigrants inside the United States—poses “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to national security, and authorize the Treasury Department to take action against them.</p>
Americans might be surprised to learn just how readily the president can deploy troops inside the United States.<br />
<p>Such a move would carry echoes of a law passed recently in Hungary that criminalized the provision of financial or legal services to undocumented migrants; this has been dubbed the “Stop Soros” law, after the Hungarian American philanthropist George Soros, who funds migrants’-rights organizations. Although an order issued under <span class="smallcaps">ieepa</span> would not land targets in jail, it could be implemented without legislation and without affording targets a trial. In practice, identifying every American who has hired, housed, or provided paid legal representation to an asylum seeker or undocumented immigrant would be impossible—but all Trump would need to do to achieve the desired political effect would be to make high-profile examples of a few. Individuals targeted by the order could lose their jobs, and find their bank accounts frozen and their health insurance canceled. The battle in the courts would then pick up exactly where it left off during the Obama administration—but with a newly reconstituted Supreme Court making the final call.</p>
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<h3>4. BOOTS ON MAIN STREET</h3>
<p class="dropcap">T<span class="smallcaps">he idea of</span> tanks rolling through the streets of U.S. cities seems fundamentally inconsistent with the country’s notions of democracy and freedom. Americans might be surprised, therefore, to learn just how readily the president can deploy troops inside the country.</p>
<p>The principle that the military should not act as a domestic police force, known as “posse comitatus,” has deep roots in the nation’s history, and it is often mistaken for a constitutional rule. The Constitution, however, does not prohibit military participation in police activity. Nor does the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 outlaw such participation; it merely states that any authority to use the military for law-enforcement purposes must derive from the Constitution or from a statute.</p>
<p>The Insurrection Act of 1807 provides the necessary authority. As amended over the years, it allows the president to deploy troops upon the request of a state’s governor or legislature to help put down an insurrection within that state. It also allows the president to deploy troops unilaterally, either because he determines that rebellious activity has made it “impracticable” to enforce federal law through regular means, or because he deems it necessary to suppress “insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” (terms not defined in the statute) that hinders the rights of a class of people or “impedes the course of justice.”</p>
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<p>Presidents have wielded the Insurrection Act under a range of circumstances. Dwight Eisenhower used it in 1957 when he sent troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce school desegregation. George H. W. Bush employed it in 1992 to help stop the riots that erupted in Los Angeles after the verdict in the Rodney King case. George W. Bush considered invoking it to help restore public order after Hurricane Katrina, but opted against it when the governor of Louisiana resisted federal control over the state’s National Guard. While controversy surrounded all these examples, none suggests obvious overreach.</p>
<p>And yet the potential misuses of the act are legion. When Chicago experienced a spike in homicides in 2017, Trump tweeted that the city must “fix the horrible ‘carnage’ ” or he would “send in the Feds!” To carry out this threat, the president could declare a particular street gang—say, MS‑13—to be an “unlawful combination” and then send troops to the nation’s cities to police the streets. He could characterize sanctuary cities—cities that refuse to provide assistance to immigration-enforcement officials—as “conspiracies” against federal authorities, and order the military to enforce immigration laws in those places. Conjuring the specter of “liberal mobs,” he could send troops to suppress alleged rioting at the fringes of anti-Trump protests.</p>
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<p>How far could the president go in using the military within U.S. borders? The Supreme Court has given us no clear answer to this question. Take <i>Ex parte Milligan</i>, a famous ruling from 1866 invalidating the use of a military commission to try a civilian during the Civil War. The case is widely considered a high-water mark for judicial constraint on executive action. Yet even as the Court held that the president could not use war or emergency as a reason to bypass civilian courts, it noted that martial law—the displacement of civilian authority by the military—would be appropriate in some cases. If civilian courts were closed as a result of a foreign invasion or a civil war, for example, martial law could exist “until the laws can have their free course.” The message is decidedly mixed: Claims of emergency or necessity cannot legitimize martial law … until they can.</p>
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<p>Presented with this ambiguity, presidents have explored the outer limits of their constitutional emergency authority in a series of directives known as Presidential Emergency Action Documents, or <span class="smallcaps">pead</span>s. <span class="smallcaps">pead</span>s, which originated as part of the Eisenhower administration’s plans to ensure continuity of government in the wake of a Soviet nuclear attack, are draft executive orders, proclamations, and messages to Congress that are prepared in advance of anticipated emergencies. <span class="smallcaps">pead</span>s are closely guarded within the government; none has ever been publicly released or leaked. But their contents have occasionally been described in public sources, including FBI memorandums that were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act as well as agency manuals and court records. According to these sources, <span class="smallcaps">pead</span>s drafted from the 1950s through the 1970s would authorize not only martial law but the suspension of habeas corpus by the executive branch, the revocation of Americans’ passports, and the roundup and detention of “subversives” identified in an FBI “Security Index” that contained more than 10,000 names.</p>
<p>Less is known about the contents of more recent <span class="smallcaps">pead</span>s and equivalent planning documents. But in 1987, <i>The</i> <i>Miami Herald</i> reported that Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North had worked with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to create a secret contingency plan authorizing “suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the United States over to <span class="smallcaps">fema</span>, appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and declaration of martial law during a national crisis.” A 2007 Department of Homeland Security report lists “martial law” and “curfew declarations” as “critical tasks” that local, state, and federal government should be able to perform in emergencies. In 2008, government sources told a reporter for <i>Radar</i> magazine that a version of the Security Index still existed under the code name Main Core, allowing for the apprehension and detention of Americans tagged as security threats.</p>
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<p>Since 2012, the Department of Justice has been requesting and receiving funds from Congress to update several dozen <span class="smallcaps">pead</span>s first developed in 1989. The funding requests contain no indication of what these <span class="smallcaps">pead</span>s encompass, or what standards the department intends to apply in reviewing them. But whatever the Obama administration’s intent, the review has now passed to the Trump administration. It will fall to Jeff Sessions’s successor as attorney general to decide whether to rein in or expand some of the more frightening features of these <span class="smallcaps">pead</span>s. And, of course, it will be up to President Trump whether to actually use them—something no previous president appears to have done.</p>
<h3>5. KINDLING AN EMERGENCY</h3>
<p class="dropcap">W<span class="smallcaps">hat would the</span> Founders think of these and other emergency powers on the books today, in the hands of a president like Donald Trump? In <i>Youngstown</i>, the case in which the Supreme Court blocked President Truman’s attempt to seize the nation’s steel mills, Justice Jackson observed that broad emergency powers were “something the forefathers omitted” from the Constitution. “They knew what emergencies were, knew the pressures they engender for authoritative action, knew, too, how they afford a ready pretext for usurpation,” he wrote. “We may also suspect that they suspected that emergency powers would tend to kindle emergencies.”</p>
<p>In the past several decades, Congress has provided what the Constitution did not: emergency powers that have the potential for creating emergencies rather than ending them. Presidents have built on these powers with their own secret directives. What has prevented the wholesale abuse of these authorities until now is a baseline commitment to liberal democracy on the part of past presidents. Under a president who doesn’t share that commitment, what might we see?</p>
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<p>Imagine that it’s late 2019. Trump’s approval ratings are at an all-time low. A disgruntled former employee has leaked documents showing that the Trump Organization was involved in illegal business dealings with Russian oligarchs. The trade war with China and other countries has taken a significant toll on the economy. Trump has been caught once again disclosing classified information to Russian officials, and his international gaffes are becoming impossible for lawmakers concerned about national security to ignore. A few of his Republican supporters in Congress begin to distance themselves from his administration. Support for impeachment spreads on Capitol Hill. In straw polls pitting Trump against various potential Democratic presidential candidates, the Democrat consistently wins.</p>
<p>Trump reacts. Unfazed by his own brazen hypocrisy, he tweets that Iran is planning a cyber operation to interfere with the 2020 election. His national-security adviser, John Bolton, claims to have seen ironclad (but highly classified) evidence of this planned assault on U.S. democracy. Trump’s inflammatory tweets provoke predictable saber rattling by Iranian leaders; he responds by threatening preemptive military strikes. Some Defense Department officials have misgivings, but others have been waiting for such an opportunity. As Iran’s statements grow more warlike, “Iranophobia” takes hold among the American public.</p>
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<p>Proclaiming a threat of war, Trump invokes Section 706 of the Communications Act to assume government control over internet traffic inside the United States, in order to prevent the spread of Iranian disinformation and propaganda. He also declares a national emergency under <span class="smallcaps">ieepa</span>, authorizing the Treasury Department to freeze the assets of any person or organization suspected of supporting Iran’s activities against the United States. Wielding the authority conferred by these laws, the government shuts down several left-leaning websites and domestic civil-society organizations, based on government determinations (classified, of course) that they are subject to Iranian influence. These include websites and organizations that are focused on getting out the vote.</p>
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<p>Lawsuits follow. Several judges issue orders declaring Trump’s actions unconstitutional, but a handful of judges appointed by the president side with the administration. On the eve of the election, the cases reach the Supreme Court. In a 5–4 opinion written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Court observes that the president’s powers are at their zenith when he is using authority granted by Congress to protect national security. Setting new precedent, the Court holds that the First Amendment does not protect Iranian propaganda and that the government needs no warrant to freeze Americans’ assets if its goal is to mitigate a foreign threat.</p>
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<p>Protests erupt. On Twitter, Trump calls the protesters traitors and suggests (in capital letters) that they could use a good beating. When counterprotesters oblige, Trump blames the original protesters for sparking the violent confrontations and deploys the Insurrection Act to federalize the National Guard in several states. Using the Presidential Alert system first tested in October 2018, the president sends a text message to every American’s cellphone, warning that there is “a risk of violence at polling stations” and that “troops will be deployed as necessary” to keep order. Some members of opposition groups are frightened into staying home on Election Day; other people simply can’t find accurate information online about voting. With turnout at a historical low, a president who was facing impeachment just months earlier handily wins reelection—and marks his victory by renewing the state of emergency.</p>
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<p class="dropcap">T<span class="smallcaps">his scenario might</span> sound extreme. But the misuse of emergency powers is a standard gambit among leaders attempting to consolidate power. Authoritarians Trump has openly claimed to admire—including the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—have gone this route.</p>
<p>Of course, Trump might also choose to act entirely outside the law. Presidents with a far stronger commitment to the rule of law, including Lincoln and Roosevelt, have done exactly that, albeit in response to real emergencies. But there is little that can be done in advance to stop this, other than attempting deterrence through robust oversight. The remedies for such behavior can come only after the fact, via court judgments, political blowback at the voting booth, or impeachment.</p>
<p>By contrast, the dangers posed by emergency powers that are written into statute can be mitigated through the simple expedient of changing the law. Committees in the House could begin this process now by undertaking a thorough review of existing emergency powers and declarations. Based on that review, Congress could repeal the laws that are obsolete or unnecessary. It could revise others to include stronger protections against abuse. It could issue new criteria for emergency declarations, require a connection between the nature of the emergency and the powers invoked, and prohibit indefinite emergencies. It could limit the powers set forth in <span class="smallcaps">pead</span>s.</p>
<p>Congress, of course, will undertake none of these reforms without extraordinary public pressure—and until now, the public has paid little heed to emergency powers. But we are in uncharted political territory. At a time when other democracies around the world are slipping toward authoritarianism—and when the president seems eager for the United States to follow their example—we would be wise to shore up the guardrails of liberal democracy. Fixing the current system of emergency powers would be a good place to start.</p>
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</div>
US Attorney takes First Steps toward convening 9/11 Grand Jury by Jim Fetzer
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-12-11:3488444:BlogPost:82862
2018-12-11T21:26:59.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<p><img alt="" class="start-magazine-post-thumb aligncenter wp-post-image" height="703" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/US-ATTORNEY-TAKES-FIRST-STEPS.jpg" width="637"></img> https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/US-ATTORNEY-TAKES-FIRST-STEPS-272x300.jpg 272w" sizes="(max-width: 637px) 100vw, 637px" /></p>
<div class="article-wrapper"><h1 class="entry-title">US Attorney takes First Steps toward convening 9/11 Grand Jury</h1>
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="posted-on"><a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/2018/12/us-attorney-takes-first-steps-toward-convening-9-11-grand-jury/" rel="bookmark">December 11, 2018…</a></span></div>
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<p><img width="637" height="703" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/US-ATTORNEY-TAKES-FIRST-STEPS.jpg" class="start-magazine-post-thumb aligncenter wp-post-image" alt=""/>https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/US-ATTORNEY-TAKES-FIRST-STEPS-272x300.jpg 272w" sizes="(max-width: 637px) 100vw, 637px" /></p>
<div class="article-wrapper"><h1 class="entry-title">US Attorney takes First Steps toward convening 9/11 Grand Jury</h1>
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="posted-on"><a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/2018/12/us-attorney-takes-first-steps-toward-convening-9-11-grand-jury/" rel="bookmark">December 11, 2018</a></span> <span class="byline"><span class="author vcard"><a class="url fn n" href="https://jamesfetzer.org/author/reginald/">James Fetzer</a></span></span><span class="cat-links"><a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/blog/" rel="category tag">blog</a></span></div>
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<div class="entry-content"><h2>by <a href="http://911scholars.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Jim Fetzer</a></h2>
<p>As the founder of <a href="http://911scholars.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Scholars for 9/11 Truth</a>, I am of course greatly pleased at the prospect that the US Attorney for the Souther District of New York should be taking initial steps to convene a 9/11 Grand Jury, <a href="https://www.ae911truth.org/news/503-u-s-attorney-takes-first-step-toward-prosecuting-explosive-destruction-of" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">as Richard Gage and A&E911 have reported</a>. My concerns, however, arise over the prospect that this reinvestigation might be on a par with the 9/11 Commission investigation, which David Ray Griffin, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/11-Commission-Report-Omissions-Distortions/dp/1566565847" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT: OMISSIONS AND DISTORTIONS</a>(2005), so ably exposed.</p>
<p>I am especially concerned because Richard Gage has advanced a theory about the destruction of the Twin Towers using nanothermite that cannot possibly explain what happened; and, like Judy Wood and her theory of the use of Directed Energy Weapons, will not address the crucial questions of who was responsible and why. For reasons that I explain (<a href="http://911scholars.ning.com/profiles/blogs/on-c-span-richard-gage-leaves-9-11-truth-in-a-tme-warp" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">in a blog that originally appeared on 4 August 2014</a>), another cover-up, even in the context of a Grand Jury proceeding, would not advance the cause of 9/11 Truth.</p>
<p>So while I appreciate the very idea as an advance in the right direction, after years of dealing with Richard Gage and Judy Wood, I know all too well that their organizations represent “limited hangouts” that appear (to me) to have been created as manifestations of Cass Sunstein’s program of “cognitive infiltration”, which David Ray Griffin has also exposed in his brilliant book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Infiltration-Appointees-Undermine-Conspiracy/dp/1566568218" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">COGNITIVE INFILTRATION: AN OBAMA APPOINTEE’S PLAN TO UNDERMINE THE 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORY</a> (2010), meaning <a href="http://www.d.umn.edu/~jfetzer/fetzerexpandedx.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">the real one, not the fake.</a></p>
<h2><a href="http://911scholars.ning.com/profiles/blogs/on-c-span-richard-gage-leaves-9-11-truth-in-a-tme-warp" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">On C-SPAN, Richard Gage leaves 9/11 Truth in a “time warp”</a></h2>
<h3>by <a href="http://www.d.umn.edu/~jfetzer/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Jim Fetzer</a></h3>
<p><em>“9/11 was conceived as an elaborate psychological operation to instill fear into the American people in order to manipulate them into supporting the political agenda of the Bush/Cheney administration”</em>–Jim Fetzer</p>
<p><a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bubbler.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><img class="lazy alignright wp-image-314869 data-lazy-ready" src="https://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/bubbler-264x320.jpg" alt="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" width="238" height="288"/></a><strong>Everyone who’s committed to 9/11 Truth should welcome more coverage from C-SPAN. Perhaps the greatest coverage to reach the public in the past was also from C-SPAN, when it covered <a href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?193155-1/september-11th-terrorist-attacks" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">the panel discussion of the American Scholars Conference, Los Angeles</a>, 24-25 June 2006. But this one might be an exception.</strong></p>
<p><strong>We heard then about nanothermite from Steve Jones, Co-Chair of <a href="http://911scholars.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Scholars for 9/11 Truth</a>. And we heard it again from the founder of A&E911. But a major division has arisen between those who claim that nanothermite can have blown the buildings apart and those who maintain that it isn’t even theoretically possible. <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/06/02/vt-nuclear-education-undeniable-proof-of-911-as-a-nuclear-event/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Recent intel dumps confirm the use of nukes</a> and <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/07/08/vt-nuclear-education-fission-based-thermobaric-weapons/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">explain those small iron spheres as a consequence of the use of spe…</a>.</strong></p>
<p><strong>So what’s with Richard Gage and A&E911 that they are still promoting a theory that T. Mark Hightower and I proved was indefensible in three articles published on <a href="https://911scholars.ning.com/profiles/blogs/has-nanothermite-been-oversold" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">1 May 2011</a>, on <a href="https://911scholars.ning.com/profiles/blogs/is-9-11-truth-based-upon-a-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">17 July 2011</a> and on <a href="https://911scholars.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nanothermite-if-it-doesn-t-fit-you-must-acquit" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">27 August 2011</a>? Why did Gage squander this precious opportunity to advance 9/11 Truth on C-SPAN by endorsing a provably false theory?</strong></p>
<img class="wp-image-8648" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Richard-Gage-on-C-SPAN-on-911-300x173.jpg" alt="" width="401" height="231"/>https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Richard-Gage-on-C-SPAN-on-911-768x442.jpg 768w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Richard-Gage-on-C-SPAN-on-911-400x230.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Richard-Gage-on-C-SPAN-on-911-400x230.jpg</a> 400w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Richard-Gage-on-C-SPAN-on-911.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Richard-Gage-on-C-SPAN-on-911.jpg</a> 949w" sizes="(max-width: 401px) 100vw, 401px" /><br />
Richard Gage propounding the nanothermite theory: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zY9HfwzGPg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">to watch, click here</a><br />
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<h3>The “big three” questions</h3>
<p>Not only that, but there are three major questions in the public mind about 9/11, which are these:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong><em>(a) what happened on 9/11? </em></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><p><strong><em>(b) how was it done?</em></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><p><strong><em>(c) who was responsible and why?</em></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>We know the before and after of the World Trade Center in relation to 9/11, so the answer to (a) is trivial. But Richard Gage had no answer to (c), even though he was asked it several times, and his answer to (b) was false and misleading. Is this the best that Richard Gage and A&E911 can do? It was embarrassing when he was asked the all too obvious question and could not answer it:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Unanswered-questions-.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><img class="lazy aligncenter wp-image-314882 data-lazy-ready" src="https://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Unanswered-questions--640x322.jpg" alt="Unanswered questions" width="518" height="261"/></a></p>
<p>A&E911 is not alone in attempting to place <em>the how</em> ahead of <em>the who</em> and <em>the why</em>, where Judy Wood and her DEW supporters adopt the very same stance. But the American public has limited patience with those who can’t produce answers to such obvious questions, especially more than a decade after the event. And that is why <a href="http://www.operationterror.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">“Operation Terror”</a>, Art Olivier’s reconstruction of the events of 9/11, is a more powerful instrument for opening the mind to what may have happened than the appeal to an obscure causal mechanism–especially when it is misconceived.</p>
<p>All three questions have justifiable answers, but Richard Gage did not deliver them. It was much worse than that, because the host had prepared to defeat any appeal he would make to “thermite”, using NIST as his authority and thereby begging the question, by assuming the position of NIST that is the position in doubt:</p>
<div class="separator"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hPYmmnB3Cko/U-AL4LtUjxI/AAAAAAAACZA/BOwcJHBMWrc/s1600/NIST+response+on+thermite.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><img class="lazy aligncenter data-lazy-ready" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hPYmmnB3Cko/U-AL4LtUjxI/AAAAAAAACZA/BOwcJHBMWrc/s640/NIST+response+on+thermite.jpg" alt="" width="576" height="410" border="0"/></a></div>
<p> </p>
<p>Most Americans are too gullible to realize that this is citing the very source that Gage is disputing. But it could have been worse. He could have pointed out that Neils Harrit, a proponent of the nanothermite hypothesis, has estimated that <a href="http://rt.com/usa/did-nano-thermite-take-down-the-wtc/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">it would have required “hundreds of tons” to do the job</a> (where Harrit has also offered <a href="http://rt.com/usa/did-nano-thermite-take-down-the-wtc/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">the more precise calculation of from 29,000 metric tons to 143,000 …</a>) or that the lab Christopher Bollyn has cited Los Alamos as his source for “explosive nanothermite” told Gordon Duff <a href="http://rt.com/usa/did-nano-thermite-take-down-the-wtc/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">“they couldn’t produce anything smaller than 10 microns and it coul…</a>.</p>
<h3>Why nanothermite can’t cut it</h3>
<p>If this had been an episode of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052520/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">“The Twilight Zone”</a>, it might have made more sense where 9/11 Truth is caught in a time warp. Richard Gage must know by now that nanothermite cannot live up to its capabilities as advanced by Steven Jones, Kevin Ryan, and others, who regard themselves as the custodians and only true practitioners of the scientific method in 9/11 research. Nanothermite (or even “thermite”, which is the term Gage used) has only 1/13 the explosive force of TNT and, whatever contribution it may have made to the collapse of Building 7, cannot possibly have been responsible for blowing apart the Twin Towers.</p>
<p>As Denis Spitzer et al., <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022369709002650" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">“Energetic nano-materials: Opportunities for enhanced performances”, <em>Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids</em> (2010)</a>, observes, given the crucial role of the rapid expansion of gases to perform work by explosives, states, “Gas generating nano-thermites: Thermites are energetic materials, which do not release gaseous species when they decompose. However, explosives can be blended in thermites to give them blasting properties”, which implies that, unless supplemented with explosives, nanothermites are non-explosive. So Mark and I may have been overly generous.</p>
<p><img class=" wp-image-8669 aligncenter" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Deflagratioln-to-Detonation-Dwain-Deets-300x224.jpg" alt="" width="360" height="269"/>https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Deflagratioln-to-Detonation-Dwain-Deets-400x300.jpg 400w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Deflagratioln-to-Detonation-Dwain-Deets.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Deflagratioln-to-Detonation-Dwain-Deets.jpg</a> 448w" sizes="(max-width: 360px) 100vw, 360px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Having published three articles explaining that nanothermite cannot have done it and to inform prominent researchers about this discovery, Mark wrote to Steven Jones, Richard Gage, and others. Dwain Deets, the former Chief of Research Engineering and Director for Aeronautical Projects at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, wrote to Mark and told him that he had listened to our interview on <a href="http://radiofetzer.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">“The Real Deal”</a> and said: “Excellent interview. A step toward trimming back claims that overshoot the evidence.”</p>
<p>Listen here for yourself:</p>
<p>Dwain also sent a diagram illustrating certain detonation velocities as well as the sonic (speed of sound) velocities in various materials. Thus, for a high explosive to significantly fragment a material, its detonation velocity must be equal to or greater than the speed of sound in that material. This law requires a detonation velocity of at least 3,200 m/s to fragment concrete and 6,100 m/s to fragment steel, which is far beyond the highest recorded detonation velocity of 895 m/s for nanothermite.</p>
<h3>“Explosive Evidence”</h3>
<p>It came as no surprise when Richard Gage recommended <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/08/04/on-c-span-richard-gage-leaves-911-truth-in-a-time-warp/%C2%A0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">“Explosive Evidence”</a>, the A&E911 documentary about what happened to the World Trade Center, especially to WTC-7. Since it was published on 12 September 2012, while Mark and I published our studies in May-August 2011, A&E911 must have known that the theory they were presenting had already been shown to be indefensible on scientific grounds. While nanothermite proponents claim to be “scientific”, they violate the canons of science by not revising their views when new evidence or new hypotheses become available.</p>
<p>Indeed, during <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/10/03/the-complete-midwest-911-truth-conference-parts-1-2-and-3/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Midwest 9/11 Truth Conference</a>, which was held in Urbana, IL, on 22 September 2013, we presented “Explosive Evidence” as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIy4LUpSKhA" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">the first hour of the conference</a>, where I advanced a critique of its limitations and shortcomings during the second hour as follows and explained why the currently available evidence now supports the conclusion that the Twin Towers were taken out using a sophisticated arrangement of micro or mini nukes, which appear to have been attached to the core columns of each:</p>
<img class="wp-image-8647" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Midwest-911-Truth-Conference-Part-2--300x197.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="295"/>https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Midwest-911-Truth-Conference-Part-2--768x505.jpg 768w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Midwest-911-Truth-Conference-Part-2--400x263.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Midwest-911-Truth-Conference-Part-2--400x263.jpg</a> 400w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Midwest-911-Truth-Conference-Part-2-.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Midwest-911-Truth-Conference-Part-2-.jpg</a> 943w" sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" /><br />
How we know the nanothermite theory can’t cut it: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAEvw2CjAYQ" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">to watch, click here</a><br />
<br />
<p>Indeed, ample substantiation had already been presented during <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/09/12/911-truth-will-out-the-vancouver-hearings-ii/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The Vancouver Hearings</a>, which were held there 15-17 June 2012, including several presentations that supported the use of nukes on 9/11, the most significant of which was made by Jeff Prager (where Don Fox presented on his behalf). Jeff explained that, in 2002, he set out to prove that, on 9/11, 19 Muslims had hijacked four planes and attacked us. But by 2005, he realized this was false, sold his business, left the US and began to investigate 9/11 full-time. (See his <a href="http://911scholars.ning.com/profiles/blogs/jeff-prager-9-11-america-nuked-free-downloadable-ebook" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">9/11 America Nuked</a>.)</p>
<h3>How it was done</h3>
<p>In <a href="http://donaldfox.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/jeff-pragers-vancouver-powerpoint/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">“Proof of Ternary Fission in New York City on 9/11″</a> he observes (1) that dust samples are the best evidence of what happened on 9/11; (2) that the USGS samples taken over a dozen locations show how various elements interacted prove that fission reaction(s) had taken place; (3) that Multiple Myeloma in the general population at a rate of 3-9 incidents per 100,000 people, but the rate was 18 per 100,000 among first responders; (4) that other cancers relatively unusual cancers have appeared among the responders, including non-Hodgkins lymphoma, leukemia, thyroid, pancreatic, brain, prostate, esophageal and blood and plasma cancers; and (5) that, as of March 2011, no less than 1,003 first responders died from various cancers. The elements found in the USGS dust samples provide a rather astonishing array of proof of nukes:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Barium and Strontium</strong>: Neither of these elements should ever appear in building debris <strong><em>in these quantities</em></strong>. The levels never fall below 400ppm for Barium and they never drop below 700ppm for Strontium and reach over 3000ppm for both in the dust sample taken at Broadway and John Streets.</p>
<p><strong>Thorium and Uranium</strong>: These elements only exist in radioactive form. Thorium is a radioactive element formed from Uranium by decay. <em>It’s very rare and should not be present in building rubble, ever.</em> So once again we have verifiable evidence that a nuclear fission event has taken place.</p>
<p><strong>Lithium:</strong> With the presence of lithium we have compelling evidence that this fission pathway of Uranium to Thorium and Helium, with subsequent decay of the Helium into Lithium has taken place.</p>
<p><strong>Lanthanum:</strong> Lanthanum is the next element in the disintegration pathway of the element Barium.</p>
<p><strong>Yttrium</strong>: The next decay element after Strontium, which further confirms the presence of Barium.</p>
<p><strong>Chromium</strong>: The presence of Chromium is one more “tell tale” signature of a nuclear detonation.</p>
<p><strong>Tritium</strong>: A very rare element and should not be found at concentrations 55 times normal the basement of WTC-6 no less than 11 days after 9/11, which is another “tell tale” sign of nukes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>New research on the use of nukes has provided further confirmation, including studies by Don Fox, Dr. Ed Ward and Jeff Prager, <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/05/01/mystery-solved-the-wtc-was-nuked-on-911/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">show these elements occur in patterns of correlation that make the …</a> (not that Steve Jones, Kevin Ryan and Richard Gage, among others, will not continue to deny it), where Gordon Duff has recently published that <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/05/20/nuke-cancer-from-911-revealed/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">the actual number of New Yorkers who have incurred these unusual 9/…</a>.</p>
<p>And this is not a new issue. In his analysis of <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/09/20/the-pros-and-cons-of-the-toronto-hearings/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">“The Pros and Cons of the Toronto Hearings”</a>, for example, which was published 20 September 2011, Joshua Blakeney observed that Judge Richard Lee was concerned about Kevin Ryan’s appeals to nanothermite and asked whether it had ever been used to demolish a building. If there was even “an embarrassing moment” in the history of the 9/11 Truth movement, this must have been it. So why was Richard Gage repeating the blunder on C-SPAN? <em>Wasn’t once bad enough?</em></p>
<img class="wp-image-8646" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Kevin-Ryan-attempts-to-defend-nanothermite-theory-300x195.jpg" alt="" width="380" height="247"/>https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Kevin-Ryan-attempts-to-defend-nanothermite-theory-768x498.jpg 768w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Kevin-Ryan-attempts-to-defend-nanothermite-theory-400x259.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Kevin-Ryan-attempts-to-defend-nanothermite-theory-400x259.jpg</a> 400w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Kevin-Ryan-attempts-to-defend-nanothermite-theory.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Kevin-Ryan-attempts-to-defend-nanothermite-theory.jpg</a> 839w" sizes="(max-width: 380px) 100vw, 380px" /><br />
Dr. Richard Lee challenges the nanothermite theory: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kJTigupiJc" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">to watch, click here</a><br />
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<p>It is ironic that the nanothermite theory, which was based on dust samples, has been superseded by new research based on more comprehensive dust samples, but that is characteristic of scientific research: the discovery of new data or of new alternatives can lead to the rejection of hypotheses previously accepted, to the acceptance of hypotheses previously rejected and to leaving others in suspense, which is characteristic not only of science specifically but of rationality of belief in general.</p>
<h3> What about Planes/No Planes?</h3>
<p>If the impossibility of nanothermite having blown apart the Twin Towers drives Richard Gage, Steve Jones and Neils Harritt up the wall, questions that have arisen about the 9/11 crash sites and evidence suggests that all four of them were fabricated or faked (albeit in different ways). It was profoundly disturbing, therefore, when Richard Gage implied the 9/11 plane crashes were real, which contradicts the available evidence. <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/02/20/911-planesno-planes-and-video-fakery/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">But we have documentary proof that Flights 11 (North Tower) and 77 …</a> So how could planes that were not even in the air have crashed on 9/11? and how could planes that crashed on 9/11 have still been in the air four years later?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/United-93-still-airborne.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><img class="lazy aligncenter wp-image-314943 data-lazy-ready" src="https://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/United-93-still-airborne-640x229.jpg" alt="United 93 still airborne" width="576" height="206"/></a></p>
<div class="separator"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qOmjWPMOsr8/U-AlKBzPXPI/AAAAAAAACZc/q70Se4mOgTI/s1600/Flight+175+still+in+the+air.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><img class="lazy aligncenter data-lazy-ready" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qOmjWPMOsr8/U-AlKBzPXPI/AAAAAAAACZc/q70Se4mOgTI/s640/Flight+175+still+in+the+air.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="200" border="0"/></a></div>
<p>For many students of 9/11, their brains shut off at the very idea, even though <a href="http://pilotsfor911truth.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Pilots for 9/11 Truth</a> have established that Flight 93 was in the air that day, but that <a href="http://pilotsfor911truth.org/united-93-still-airborne.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">it was over Champaign-Urbana, IL, after it had allegedly crashed in…</a>; and that Flight 175 was also in the air that day, but that <a href="http://pilotsfor911truth.org/WTC2.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">it was over Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, PA, long after it had purpor…</a>. This means that <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/02/20/911-planesno-planes-and-video-fakery/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">the videos we have seen of the planes hitting the North and the Sou…</a>, as I have repeatedly explained.</p>
<p><a href="http://nomoregames.net/2008/06/13/311/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">It won’t do to suggest that real planes of any kind–such as drones …</a> And, as Jack White, a legendary student of JFK, who turned his attention to 9/11, discovered, the engine component found at Church & Murray was under a steel scaffolding, sitting on a relatively undamaged sidewalk, and was the wrong make to have come from a Boeing 767. He also found FOX NEWS footage of men in FBI vests unloading something heavy from a white van, which would have come as sensational news, had Richard Gage made observations of this kind on C-SPAN:</p>
<div class="separator"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jJR6rdQ50KU/U-Aj8N3x-OI/AAAAAAAACZQ/vZ7moj8ju6w/s1600/Pickup+or+delivery%3f.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><img class="lazy data-lazy-ready aligncenter" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jJR6rdQ50KU/U-Aj8N3x-OI/AAAAAAAACZQ/vZ7moj8ju6w/s640/Pickup+or+delivery%3f.jpg" alt="" width="469" height="389" border="0"/></a></div>
<p>That no plane crashed in Shanksville should be apparent to anyone who has seen what a real plane crash looks like, such as the downing of the “Malaysian 17″ in Ukraine. While that case is fascinating in its own right, the proof that we were mislead about the Pentagon extends from violation of laws of aerodynamics and physics entailed by the official flight trajectory to the more obvious consideration that the plane shown in the one frame that the Pentagon claims to show “the plane”, when compared to the image of a Boeing 757 (properly sized for comparison) was far too small to have been a Boeing 757:</p>
<div class="separator"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ledihtOKWSg/UquAVezFpyI/AAAAAAAAB-g/Fynwb0TL2w8/s1600/Sizing+problem+at+the+Pentagon.jpg" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"><img class="lazy aligncenter data-lazy-ready" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ledihtOKWSg/UquAVezFpyI/AAAAAAAAB-g/Fynwb0TL2w8/s640/Sizing+problem+at+the+Pentagon.jpg" alt="" width="458" height="329" border="0"/></a></div>
<p>Issues about the planes would be overwhelmingly more interesting to the public than talking about red-and-grey chips found in the dust, especially when–even if they were <em>bona fide</em> nanothermite–cannot possibly explain how the Twin Towers were destroyed. That none of the 9/11 aircraft actually crashed and none of the passengers aboard them died is an entirely different matter, because it proves the entire “War on Terror” was a fabrication. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Commission-Report-Omissions-Distortions/dp/1566565847" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Too many in the movement seem to forget that a half-dozen or more o…</a> Gage not only made none of the obvious points made here but implied that the 9/11 aircraft were real. Either way, issues are raised about his competence or his integrity.</p>
<h3>Who was responsible and why?</h3>
<p>More disturbing than his failure to discuss the planes that did not crash–and to imply that they were real–was his utter incapacity to answer simple, direct questions about who and why. <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/09/13/james-h-fetzer-911-iran-review-interview/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">9/11 dates from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990-91, which …</a>. It involved collusion between the CIA, the Neo-Cons in the Department of Defense and the Mossad, where Israel would come out of 9/11 as “the big winner”.</p>
<blockquote><p>During The Vancouver Hearings, Susan Lindauer revealed inside information that 9/11 was an “inside job.” <em>She served as the liaison between the CIA and Saddam Hussein, who was so eager to avoid war with the U.S. that he offered to purchase 1,000,000 cars per year for the next ten years. If that was not enough, he said, make it the next twenty! </em> Imagine where the U.S. would be economically if we had only taken up his proposal? Instead, when Susan learned of plans to attack Iraq, she protested vigorously to President Bush. For taking that step, for speaking out about her concerns over the injustice of it all, <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/08/30/911-confessions-of-a-former-cia-asset/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">she was harassed, intimidated, imprisoned and tortured</a>.</p>
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<p>9/11 was conceived as an elaborate psychological operation to instill fear into the American people in order to manipulate them into supporting the political agenda of the Bush/Cheney administration, which included the invasion of several nations in the Middle East to bring about the creation of a new century of American domination of the world for the next 100 years. <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/08/14/peeling-the-911-onion-layers-of-plots-within-plots/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">The evidence supports the inference that 9/11 was a “national secur…</a> It facilitated a reversal of US foreign policy and extraordinary constraints on the Constitution of the United States, which have dramatically increased the centralization of political power in the executive branch and dominating the legislative and judicial branches of government.</p>
<img class="wp-image-8645" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Alan-Sabrosky-on-Mossad-and-911--300x172.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="227"/>https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Alan-Sabrosky-on-Mossad-and-911--768x441.jpg 768w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Alan-Sabrosky-on-Mossad-and-911--400x230.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Alan-Sabrosky-on-Mossad-and-911--400x230.jpg</a> 400w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Alan-Sabrosky-on-Mossad-and-911-.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/Alan-Sabrosky-on-Mossad-and-911-.jpg</a> 950w" sizes="(max-width: 396px) 100vw, 396px" /><br />
Alan Sabrosky on who was responsible and why: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT1AzrKuEtM" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">to watch, click here</a><br />
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<p>The creation of the Department of Homeland Security has been especially ominous, where DHS has now requisitioned more than 2 billion rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammo, which is not even permissible in the conduct of warfare under The Geneva Conventions. <a href="http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/12/11/from-america-to-amerika-the-end-game/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">Combined with more than 300 FEMA camps around the country, every Am…</a>. As a former Marine Corps officer, I am extremely apprehensive over the future of my country, which has been transformed from the most admired and respected nation in the world–along with our “gallant ally”‘ in the Middle East, Israel–to being the most despised and reviled. By 2014, Richard Gage should have known these things, which makes his silence about them all the more telling.</p>
<p><strong>ADDENDUM:</strong></p>
<p>Jim Fetzer, “<a href="https://www.bitchute.com/video/E3YaOLqzcwzF/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">9/11: Who was responsible and why”</a> (2018), provides a summary/overview of what we know about <em>the who, how and why</em> of 9/11:</p>
<p><img class=" wp-image-8660 aligncenter" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-Who-was-responsible-and-why-300x256.jpg" alt="" width="350" height="299"/>https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-Who-was-responsible-and-why-352x300.jpg 352w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-Who-was-responsible-and-why.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-Who-was-responsible-and-why.jpg</a> 742w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></p>
<p>Mike Palecek and Jim Fetzer, eds., <a href="http://moonrockbooks.com/america-nuked-on-9-11/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">AMERICA NUKED ON 9/11: COMPLIMENTS OF THE CIA, THE NEOCONS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND THE MOSSAD</a> (2017) with contributions by 14 experts provides further confirmation:</p>
<p><img class=" wp-image-8651 aligncenter" src="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-front-and-back-covers-300x209.jpg" alt="" width="346" height="241"/>https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-front-and-back-covers-768x534.jpg 768w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-front-and-back-covers-1024x712.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-front-and-back-covers-1024x712.jpg</a> 1024w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-front-and-back-covers-400x278.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-front-and-back-covers-400x278.jpg</a> 400w, <a href="https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-front-and-back-covers.jpg">https://jamesfetzer.org/wp-content/uploads/911-front-and-back-covers.jpg</a> 1028w" sizes="(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px" /></p>
<p> </p>
<p><em><strong>Jim Fetzer,</strong> a former Marine Corps officer, is McKnight Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth.</em></p>
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Doomsday by 2021? by Sam Carena
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-11-08:3488444:BlogPost:82854
2018-11-08T06:05:48.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/11/doomsday-by-2021.html">http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/11/doomsday-by-2021.html…</a></h3>
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<h3 class="post-title entry-title"><a href="http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/11/doomsday-by-2021.html">http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/11/doomsday-by-2021.html</a></h3>
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<br/>The Doomsday Clock, by the <a href="https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/">Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists</a>, constitutes a potent symbol of the danger we're in. When taking the 'minutes to midnight' from statements 1991 to 2018, an added trend points at Midnight by 2021. Will it be Doomsday by 2021?<br/><br/>The <a href="https://thebulletin.org/sites/default/files/2018_Doomsday_Clock_Statement.pdf">2018 Statement</a> said that "world leaders failed to respond effectively to the looming threats of nuclear war and climate change. [ . . ] Global carbon dioxide emissions have not yet shown the beginnings of the sustained decline towards zero that must occur if ever greater warming is to be avoided."<br/><br/>Recently, Fatih Birol, IEA Executive Director, <a href="https://twitter.com/IEABirol/status/1049249280073113600/photo/1">said</a>: "We expect energy-related CO2 emissions will increase once again in 2018 after growing in 2017."<br/><br/>Next to carbon dioxide, the outlook for other greenhouse gases is also very worrying and the situation could deteriorate very rapidly, as further described below.<br/><br/>
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<div><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qfxz1bcsR78/W-EdpaDvE6I/AAAAAAAAZeQ/NRTrjSQuOJMQb94QgsUBc2S7_2MExLKBgCLcBGAs/s1600/Oct-15-2018.jpg"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qfxz1bcsR78/W-EdpaDvE6I/AAAAAAAAZeQ/NRTrjSQuOJMQb94QgsUBc2S7_2MExLKBgCLcBGAs/s320/Oct-15-2018.jpg" width="320"/></a></div>
<div>Here's how. As above image shows, oceans continue to warm up, due to the rise in greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. </div>
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<tbody><tr><td><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HdHfcq5ORgU/W-Eg0zkK4MI/AAAAAAAAZeo/18BrvewoZ18zbQuwdG4wgD_Nhcwn1tI-ACLcBGAs/s1600/Oct-30-2018.jpg"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HdHfcq5ORgU/W-Eg0zkK4MI/AAAAAAAAZeo/18BrvewoZ18zbQuwdG4wgD_Nhcwn1tI-ACLcBGAs/s320/Oct-30-2018.jpg" width="320"/></a></td>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><i>[ click on images to enlarge ]</i></td>
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<span>The image on the right shows sea surface temperature anomalies as high as as 7.1°C (or 12.7°F) in the Bering Strait (at the green circle) on October 15, 2018.</span><br/><br/><span>Warmer oceans result in stronger cyclones. The next image on the right shows that Typhoon Yutu was forecast to reach an Instantaneous Wind Power Density (WPD) as high as 207647 W/m² at 850 mb and wind speeds as fast as 268 km/h or 167 mph at the green circle, i.e. at 18.50° N, 124.00° E, on October 30, 2018, 00:00 UTC.</span><br/><br/><span>Cyclones can suddenly push huge amounts of salty warm water into the Arctic Ocean. The danger is that a strong influx of salty warm water into the Arctic Ocean could trigger destabilization of hydrates in sediments, resulting in massive eruptions of methane from the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, as described in earlier posts such as</span> <a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/10/what-does-runaway-warming-look-like.html">this one</a><span>.</span><br/><br/><span>This methane could cause temperatures to suddenly rise strongly at the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, speeding up decline of sea ice and permafrost, and further deforming the jet stream.</span><br/><br/><span>This could trigger even more extreme weather events, in particular storms, flooding, heatwaves and fires, across the Northern Hemisphere that could devastate crops, take down power grids and threaten meltdowns of nuclear power plants.</span><br/><br/><span>Such fires could add huge amounts of black carbon to the atmosphere. Furthermore, without access to fossil fuel and with the electricity grid down, many people could turn to kerosene lamps for lighting and burning wood for heating and cooking, resulting in even more black carbon emissions that have a huge immediate warming impact. James Hansen (2007) found the GWP for soot (BC) to be approximately 2000 for 20 years, approximately 500 for 100 years and approximately 200 for 500 years.</span><br/><br/>
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<br/><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3dqiU7AJNg/W-PFuulyFDI/AAAAAAAAZfY/QH6BVDDTZ6MwfxA8G_zUaBen5zmfCx9BwCLcBGAs/s1600/ts-10.gif"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y3dqiU7AJNg/W-PFuulyFDI/AAAAAAAAZfY/QH6BVDDTZ6MwfxA8G_zUaBen5zmfCx9BwCLcBGAs/s200/ts-10.gif" width="200"/></a><span>Next to black carbon, there is another type of aerosols that is important, i.e. sulfur. Above image shows sulfur dioxide levels as high as 3597.10 µg/m³ in East Asia on October 24, 2018, indicating that sulfur levels may still be rising.</span><br/><br/>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption"><i>[ From the <a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/extinction.html">Extinction</a> page ]</i></td>
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<span>The image on the right shows IPCC (2000) projections for sulfur dioxide emissions.</span><br/><br/><span>The aerosol masking effect associated with sulfur would be strongly reduced as industrial activity would come to a standstill, thus further driving up warming.</span><br/><br/><span>The events as described above could result in a combined additional warming due to changes in aerosols of up to 2.5°C (4.5°F) in a matter of years.</span><br/><br/><span>The prospect of such a sequence of events makes a Doomsday-by-2021 warning appropriate. The accumulated impact of the various warming elements is illustrated by the image on the right.</span><br/><br/><span>The situation is dire and calls for comprehensive and effective action, as described at the</span> <a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html">Climate Plan</a><span>.</span><br/><br/><br/><b>Links</b><br/><br/><span>• The Doomsday Clock by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists</span> <br/><a href="https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/">https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/</a><br/><br/><span>• What Does Runaway Warming Look Like?</span><br/><a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/10/what-does-runaway-warming-look-like.html">https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/10/what-does-runaway-warming-look-like.html</a><br/><br/><span>• Climate change and trace gases, by James Hansen et al. (2007)</span><br/><a href="http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/365/1856/1925">http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/365/1856/1925</a><br/><br/><span>• IPCC Special Report, Emissions Scenarios (2000)</span><br/><a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/emission/index.php?idp=140">http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/emission/index.php?idp=140</a><br/><br/>
<span>• Climate Plan</span><br/><a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html">https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/climateplan.html</a><br/><br/><span>• Feedbacks</span><br/><a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/feedbacks.html">https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/feedbacks.html</a><br/><br/><span>• Extinction</span><br/><a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/extinction.html">https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/extinction.html</a><br/><br/><span>• Can we weather the Danger Zone?</span> <br/><a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/can-we-weather-the-danger-zone.html">https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/07/can-we-weather-the-danger-zone.html</a><br/><br/><span>• How much warmer is it now?</span> <br/><a href="https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-much-warmer-is-it-now.html">https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-much-warmer-is-it-now.html</a><br/><br/><br/></div>
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Censorship on YouTube and Ning. Watch, share and download this important video before it is censored!
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-11-06:3488444:BlogPost:82916
2018-11-06T06:19:31.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I tried to post this video [ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFkqBAe-hUg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFkqBAe-hUg</a> ] and got this message:</span></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560918692?profile=original" target="_self"><br></br><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560918692?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Then I tried to post this video […</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I tried to post this video [ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFkqBAe-hUg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFkqBAe-hUg</a> ] and got this message:</span></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560918692?profile=original" target="_self"><br/><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560918692?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Then I tried to post this video [ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbnrdQ2Ahr0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbnrdQ2Ahr0</a> ] and it worked fine.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Then I tried again to post the first video [ <span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFkqBAe-hUg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFkqBAe-hUg</a> ] and again got this:</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560921637?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560921637?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/>This is getting out of hand!<br/></a></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span>This is important to anyone who cares about the internet as a free speech platform! </span></span></p>
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<p><span><font size="4">*Mass Flagging Campaign Succeeding - Know More News*</font></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFkqBAe-hUg">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFkqBAe-hUg</a></span></span></p>
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Is The Evidence of Global Warming Too Scary For Humans To Cope With? by Paul Craig Roberts
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-11-05:3488444:BlogPost:82723
2018-11-05T05:11:32.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<h1><span style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/11/02/is-the-evidence-of-global-warming-too-scary-for-humans-to-cope-with/">https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/11/02/is-the-evidence-of-global-warming-too-scary-for-humans-to-cope-with/</a></span></h1>
<h1><span style="font-size: 13px;">Is The Evidence of Global Warming Too Scary For Humans To Cope With?</span></h1>
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<p>I appreciate the numerous emails thanking me for providing an understandable…</p>
<h1><span style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/11/02/is-the-evidence-of-global-warming-too-scary-for-humans-to-cope-with/">https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/11/02/is-the-evidence-of-global-warming-too-scary-for-humans-to-cope-with/</a></span></h1>
<h1><span style="font-size: 13px;">Is The Evidence of Global Warming Too Scary For Humans To Cope With?</span></h1>
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<p>I appreciate the numerous emails thanking me for providing an understandable explanation of the global warming scenario. The book, <em>Unprecedented Crime</em>, about which I reported, caused me to start thinking more seriously about man-made global warming. I already was thinking about it, because capitalism owes its profits to the costs that it imposes on the environment, costs that are external to the capitalist entity. I have been thinking about this since I addressed “external costs” in my 2013 book, <em>The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism</em>. I am thinking that if man-made global warming is indeed in the cards, as the current evidence supports, the external costs of capitalism will far exceed the total value of all the goods produced over the course of the industrial revolution. Past material comforts will be paid for by future curtailment of life on Earth. Greed, gluttony, envy, lust, and pride will have proven to be the five of the seven deadly sins that were deadly for planet Earth.</p>
<p>I hope I can find the time and energy to get around to a book on the subject. For now, like you, I am learning. It struck me, as it strikes many of you, how a one or two degree rise in temperature can cause ice caps, glaciers, and the Greenland ice shelf to melt. We don’t think of the Arctic or glaciers hovering on the temperature border of frozen and melting. It is not intuitive that small changes can make such large differences.</p>
<p>Like you, I also found it puzzling that as carbon dioxide is only a small part of the atmosphere, how its increase can have such dangerous effects.</p>
<p>While struggling to put what I learned into understandable language, I thankfully came across this explanation in <em>Scientific American</em>:</p>
<p>“Small changes in the Earth’s heat balance can lead to large climatic changes. For example, the ice ages during the last several million years–and the warmer periods in between–appear to have been triggered by no more than a different seasonal and latitudinal distribution of the solar energy absorbed by the Earth, not by a change in output from the sun. The geologic record shows that the differences in ice cover, sea level and precipitation as well as in plant and animal populations were quite dramatic between the ice ages and the warm interglacials. Yet the global average temperature differences corresponding to these radically different climates were only about 5 degrees C in the tropics and 8 degrees C in polar regions.”</p>
<p>In case you don’t understand what is being said, the message is that very small differences in temperature are the difference between ice ages and heat extinction ages.</p>
<p><em>Scientific American</em> asks this question—“If carbon dioxide makes up only a minute portion of the atmosphere, how can global warming be traced to it? And how can such a tiny amount of change produce such large effects?”—and Pieter Tans, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Earth System Research Laboratory, provides this answer: <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/if-carbon-dioxide-makes-u/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/if-carbon-dioxide-makes-u/</a> Read it, and you will understand.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that however small the temperature changes seem to you, that it is not a theory but an observable fact that arctic ice, the Greenland ice shelf, and glaciers are melting. Indeed, many glaciers have completely melted away. They are no longer present on Earth.</p>
<p>Ocean acidification is also an observable event. weather.com reports this from the just published <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em>:</p>
<p><em>Human Activity Is Dissolving the World’s Seafloors, Raising Alarm for the Futur</em>e</p>
<p><em>Typically, the seafloor is milky white and comprised of the mineral calcite.<br/>Today, excessive carbon emissions have turned the milky white seafloor a murky brown in some hotspots such as the Northern Atlantic and the southern oceans.</em></p>
<p>Ocean acidification driven by human activity is dissolving the world’s seafloors at an alarming rate, a new study says.</p>
<p>Typically, the seafloor is milky white and comprised of the mineral calcite (CaCO3), which is formed from the skeletons and shells of planktonic organisms and corals, according to the study published this week in the journal, <em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</em> in the United States (PNAS).</p>
<p>Today, excessive carbon emissions have turned the milky white seafloor a murky brown in some hotspots, such as the Northern Atlantic and the southern oceans.</p>
<p>Dissolving calcite helps to neutralize the acidity of carbon dioxide and prevents ocean water from becoming too acidic. However, levels of carbon dioxide are so high in some areas and the water is so acidic that the calcite cannot meet the demand and is dissolving at a rapid rate. Researchers with Canada’s McGill University say it could take decades to see the full impacts of human-caused carbon emissions on the seafloor but the outlook is grim.</p>
<p>“Because it takes decades or even centuries for (carbon dioxide) to drop down to the bottom of the ocean, almost all the (carbon dioxide) created through human activity is still at the surface. But in the future, it will invade the deep-ocean, spread above the ocean floor and cause even more calcite particles at the seafloor to dissolve,” lead author Olivier Sulpis of McGill’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences said in a press release.</p>
<p>Sulpis noted that the rate at which carbon dioxide is currently being “emitted into the atmosphere is exceptionally high in Earth’s history, faster than at any period since at least the extinction of the dinosaurs.”</p>
<p>“And at a much faster rate than the natural mechanisms in the ocean can deal with, so it raises worries about the levels of ocean acidification in future,” he added.</p>
<p>The researchers came to their conclusions by simulating the conditions of the deep sea in the lab. They replicated the bottom currents, seawater temperature, chemistry and sediment compositions.</p>
<p>Comparing the dissolution rates from pre-industrial and current times, the researchers determined recent human activity has significantly sped up the process.</p>
<p><em>“Just as climate change isn’t just about polar bears, ocean acidification isn’t just about coral reefs,” noted former postdoctoral fellow David Trossman, now a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin. “Our study shows that the effects of human activities have become evident all the way down to the seafloor in many regions, and the resulting increased acidification in these regions may impact our ability to understand Earth’s climate history.”</em></p>
<p><a href="https://weather.com/science/environment/news/2018-10-31-seafloor-dissolving-human-activities-acidification-carbon" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://weather.com/science/environment/news/2018-10-31-seafloor-dissolving-human-activities-acidification-carbon</a></p>
<p><em>Nature</em> is the leading British scientific journal. A just published report in <em>Nature</em> concludes that “ocean warming is at the high end of previous estimates, with implications for policy-relevant measurements of the Earth response to climate change, such as climate sensitivity to greenhouse gases and the thermal component of sea-level rise. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0651-8" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0651-8</a></p>
<p><strong>Last but far from least</strong>, here is a report from The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), an independent agency of the United States Government: “Climate Change: How Do We Know?” : <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/</a></p>
<p>This short easy to read NASA report makes clear that scientific evidence for man-made warming of the climate system is unequivocal. The NASA report will help you to regain your powers of independent thought from deniers funded by the fossil fuel industry. Remember, you live in a world of propaganda. Indeed, propaganda dominates our world and our history books. Most people lack the scientific education to judge. Usually, I can figure out what the climate scientists are saying as I graduated from a top ranked scientific and technical institution and then went on to Oxford where my professor was the distinguished physical chemist, Michael Polanyi, teacher of a bevy of scientists who won the Nobel Prize in Science, including E.P. Wigner, Melvin Calvin, and his own son, John Polanyi. You have to decide who to believe—independent scientists who have spent their careers studying climate change or hired guns defending material interests.</p>
<p>I understand that scientists, like all humans, can be mistaken in their view of reality, but at this time the evidence supports the climate scientists, just as the evidence supported the US Surgeon General’s report on the link between smoking and lung cancer. The Surgeon General’s report did not prevent the material interests from casting doubt and preventing action for two decades. According to the evidence we have, we do not have two decades before we act on carbon emissions.</p>
<p>The material interests have the most reassuring story, but they lack evidence.</p>
<p>Humans are, of course, selfish, and they might choose to continue to live well in the present at the expense of the future life of the planet.</p>
<p>Our generations will all be dead. If no one is here in the future, what is the bother?</p>
Unraveling Trump’s Toxic Agenda
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-10-28:3488444:BlogPost:82708
2018-10-28T20:58:11.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
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<p>The administration is on an insane fossil-fuel bender — hastening catastrophic climate change and gambling with our health</p>
<div class="l-article-header__block l-article-header__block--byline"><div class="c-byline"><div class="c-byline__authors"><em class="c-byline__by">By</em><div class="c-byline__author"><a class="c-byline__link t-bold t-bold--upper" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/author/phoebe-neidl/" rel="author noopener noreferrer external">PHOEBE NEIDL…</a></div>
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<p>The administration is on an insane fossil-fuel bender — hastening catastrophic climate change and gambling with our health</p>
<div class="l-article-header__block l-article-header__block--byline"><div class="c-byline"><div class="c-byline__authors"><em class="c-byline__by">By</em><div class="c-byline__author"><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/author/phoebe-neidl/" class="c-byline__link t-bold t-bold--upper" rel="author noopener noreferrer external">PHOEBE NEIDL</a></div>
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<div class="c-byline__author"><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/author/andrea-marks/" class="c-byline__link t-bold t-bold--upper" rel="author noopener noreferrer external">ANDREA MARKS</a></div>
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<div class="c-byline__author"><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-environmenal-agenda-738964/">https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-environmenal-agenda-738964/</a></div>
<div class="c-byline__author"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560919051?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560919051?profile=original" width="440" class="align-center"/></a></div>
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<div class="l-article-content"><div class="c-content t-copy"><p class="p1">Nobody had high hopes for Trump’s environmental policy. He had, after all, said <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/climate-change/" id="auto-tag_climate-change" name="auto-tag_climate-change">climate change</a>was a hoax and sent out more than <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/1/15726472/trump-tweets-global-warming-paris-climate-agreement" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">100 skeptic tweets</a> even before running for president. But the speed, recklessness and spite with which his administration has sought to upend environmental protections has been breathtaking. Climate change aside, even the common-sense need to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink is being challenged as the administration has unleashed a slew of regulatory rollbacks. And his science-denying, fossil-fuel-fetishising policies couldn’t come at a worse time — the UN’s <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/can-earth-survive-climate-change-735067/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> has just published its most dire report yet, advising that if we don’t get to zero carbon emissions by 2050, we’ll blow past a 1.5 C temperature rise, the threshold for disaster.</p>
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<p class="p1">Below, a list of Trump’s most reckless policies yet.</p>
<h1 class="p1">Gutting Fuel Standards</h1>
<p class="p3"><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/donald-trump/" id="auto-tag_donald-trump" name="auto-tag_donald-trump">Donald Trump</a> is promising every American a <i>less</i>-efficient car, so they can spend more money at the gas pump, breathe in more air pollution and cook the globe quicker with carbon emissions. “This is one of the single most damaging rollbacks attacking climate and clean-air safeguards in American history,” says Vickie Patton, general counsel at the Environmental Defense Fund. Standards set in 2012 by Barack Obama would have doubled gas mileage by 2025, but Trump is freezing those improvements (a decision even automakers like Ford and Honda have spoken out against). Plus, he’s trying to strip California of its legal right to set its own <span class="s1">standards,</span> which have historically functioned as a national benchmark. The administration’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-administration-sees-a-7-degree-rise-in-global-temperatures-by-2100/2018/09/27/b9c6fada-bb45-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d_story.html?utm_term=.4821b1ae0194" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">own analysis</a> of the rollback predicts the planet will warm a catastrophic 4 degrees Celsius by 2100, but argues not much can be done to stop it, so why bother trying. Controlling transportation emissions — the largest man-made source of carbon dioxide in the U.S. — would be a good start. According to the research firm <a href="https://rhg.com/research/the-biggest-climate-rollback-yet/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Rhodium Group</a>, this rollback could mean an annual carbon increase greater than the <i>combined</i> emissions of 82 percent of the countries on Earth.</p>
<div id="attachment_739267" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-739267 visible" src="https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/R1321_TRUMPS_TOXIC_LEGACY_C.jpg?w=1024" alt="trump toxic legacy" width="800" height="791"/><p class="wp-caption-text">Illustration by Victor Juhasz for Rolling Stone</p>
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<h1 class="p4">Trump’s Gift to Coal Plants</h1>
<p class="p4">The 76 regulations and counting that Trump is rolling back read like a wish list for the coal industry. Chief among them is the dismantling of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, the first set of federal limits ever placed on pollution from coal- and gas-fired power plants. Its goal was to reduce the energy grid’s carbon emissions 32 percent below 2005 levels, and it was the linchpin to meeting our commitment to the Paris Agreement, the pact signed by every other country in the world to control global temperature rise. Obama’s plan was also projected to prevent as many as 90,000 child asthma attacks a year, while Trump’s could release 12 times as much carbon, and may cause 1,400 premature deaths a year due to pollution.</p>
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<div class="l-article-content__pull l-article-content__pull--left"><div class="c-related"><h4 class="c-related__heading t-bold t-bold--upper">RELATED</h4>
<div class="c-related__img"><div class="c-crop c-crop--size-related"><img width="900" height="600" src="https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/shutterstock_9348834ao.jpg?crop=900:600&width=900" class="c-crop__img wp-post-image visible" alt="(L-R) Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, US Attoney General Jeff Sessions, and US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis watch the State of the Union address in the chamber of the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC, USA, 30 January 2018. This is the first State of the Union address given by US President Donald J. Trump and his second joint-session address to Congress.US President Donald J. Trump delivers his State of the Union to Congress, Washington, USA - 30 Jan 2018"/></div>
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<h5 class="c-related__caption t-bold">White House Cabinet Departures Rumored to Continue After the Midterms</h5>
<h5 class="c-related__caption t-bold">Republicans and Democrats Are Also Divided on Sexual Fantasies</h5>
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<p><span>Coal plants have been closing at a rapid clip since natural gas and renewables have taken over more and more of the energy market – and Trump is doing everything he can to stop it. The Energy Department’s plan to subsidize coal power plants was defeated last year, but a</span> <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/trump-said-to-grant-lifeline-to-money-losing-coal-power-plants-jhv94ghl" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><span>leaked White House memo</span></a> <span>shows the administration is considering an even more drastic measure:</span> <i><span>requiring</span></i> <span>power-grid operators to use coal and nuclear power plants. It’s a big-government interference into a competitive market — the last thing a “pro-business” Republican president should be proposing. The plan would essentially make consumers spend</span> <i><span>more</span></i> <span>money on</span> <i><span>dirtier</span></i> <span>power. </span>“It’s insanity,” says Pat Gallagher, legal director of the Sierra Club. “The Trump administration is not just rolling back Obama rules, they’re basically trying to crush marketplace opposition in favor of their cronies.”</p>
<h1 class="p5">Unleashing Greenhouse Gases</h1>
<p class="p5">They don’t get as much attention as carbon dioxide, but both methane and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) dwarf CO2’s heat-trapping ability. And methane leaks from oil and gas operators have become the second-largest source of industrial greenhouse-gas emissions in the U.S. But Trump is trying to kill regulations that forced operators to reduce the leaks, a rollback that could mean 380,000 more tons of pollution, the equivalent of 2.6 million cars. The EPA is also trying to roll back regulations on HFCs (emitted from air conditioners, refrigerators and aerosols). The “superpollutant” is so powerful, however, that without a worldwide phase-down it could cause a half-degree Celsius of warming by 2100 — enough to single-handedly torpedo the Paris Agreement. And then there’s the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/06/24/lobbyist-tied-to-pruitts-condo-rental-pushed-for-epa-to-hire-family-friend-emails-show/?utm_term=.c275b28b507a" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">corruption</a>: Former EPA head Scott Pruitt, who was forced to step down in July amid 13 investigations into his scandalous tenure, was lobbied about HFCs by J. Steven Hart, whose wife Pruitt rented a Capitol Hill condo from at a third of the market rate.</p>
<h1 class="p1">American Gaslandia</h1>
<p class="p1">In the blitz toward “energy dominance,” Trump has not only been tearing down regulations but also feverishly exploring for more fossil fuels. In 2017, the <span class="s1">government offered 11.9 million acres of public land for oil and gas leasing, a 500 percent increase from the year before. In August, Trump offered the largest oil-and-gas-lease auction ever, for 77 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico. “It’s all up for grabs, and this administration insists on grabbing it,” says Nada Culver of the Wilderness Society.</span></p>
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<p class="p7">Trump also has his eye on land not yet available for grabbing: He ordered reviews of 27 national monuments and 11 marine sanctuaries, and already shrank monuments in Utah by some 2 million acres. “Their playbook is to remove any restrictions on public lands that may interfere with the oil and gas industry,” says Gallagher of the Sierra Club, who also notes there’s been “a bonanza of pipeline development.” Just after his inauguration, Trump approved the fiercely protested Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines. Both would spell disaster if they leaked. The Keystone, for example, runs over the Ogallala aquifer, the largest expanse of freshwater on the continent.</p>
<h1 class="p1">Poisoning the Air</h1>
<p class="p1">The Trump administration is reconsidering a 2011 pollution control on mercury and other toxins emitted from coal plants. Mercury is particularly dangerous for pregnant women and can damage fetal brain health. The regulation has successfully reduced emissions of the pollutant by 70 percent, and it could prevent as many as <i>11,000</i> premature deaths from heart and lung disease annually. Meanwhile, the EPA has already weakened enforcement: EPA assistant administrator Bill Wehrum — a longtime lawyer for chemical and oil companies — issued a guidance making it easier for plants to turn off their pollution controls, which, according to <a href="http://www.environmentalintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Toxic-Shell-Game.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">one study</a>, could more than quadruple the output of toxins and disproportionately impact the poor. “That’s true of most Trump rollbacks,” says Gallagher, “because they favor heavy industries,” which are closer to disadvantaged communities.</p>
<div id="attachment_739275" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-large wp-image-739275 visible" src="https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/R1321_TRUMPS_TOXIC_LEGACY_B.jpg?w=1024" alt="trump toxic legacy" width="1024" height="553"/><p class="wp-caption-text">Illustration by Victor Juhasz for Rolling Stone</p>
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<h1 class="p1">Polluting Waterways</h1>
<p class="p1">When mountaintops are blown up to mine coal, the debris that falls into the valleys below is laden with toxic heavy metals like arsenic and lead, which seep into streams. One of Trump’s first actions in office was to sign the repeal of a law that held coal-mining companies accountable for the polluted waterways. The toxins are being tied to learning disabilities, kidney stones, tooth loss, cancer and, according to one lawsuit, “unremitting diarrhea.” The health impacts are woefully understudied, however, and likely to remain that way: The administration also canceled funding for a major study on the health risks of mountaintop-removal mining.</p>
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<p class="p3">In another giveaway to coal, the administration weakened already modest standards for coal-ash disposal from power plants. “The ash has arsenic and other toxins, and is often stored in unlined pits that can leak in surface water and groundwater, and in fact do,” says water-policy expert Jon Devine of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Some of these are heavy metals that can cause cancer, result in lowered IQ in children, deformities, harm to fish and wildlife — nasty stuff.”</p>
<p class="p3">Perhaps even more troubling, Trump is working to reverse a crucial 2015 change to the Clean Water Act that would expand federal protection to an estimated 2 million miles of streams and 20 million acres of wetlands, which contribute to the drinking water of 117 million Americans.</p>
<h1 class="p8">Endangering Wildlife</h1>
<p class="p8">Since 1973, the Endangered Species Act has been one of the crowning achievements of the environmental movement, with a 90 percent success rate in protecting roughly 1,600 species, including the bald eagle. But the administration has proposed a raft of rule changes that could gut the statute’s effectiveness and clear the way for yet more drilling and mining. “Extractive industries and this push for energy dominance have just pushed every other consideration aside,” says Bob Dreher of the nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife. <span>The new rules could shrink protected habitats, remove default protections for threatened species and force listing decisions to include economic data, undermining the bedrock principle that decisions should be based solely on the best available science. “You can’t do a cost-benefit analysis on life,” says Dreher. </span>Plus, the administration is gearing up to look for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “They risk killing polar bear cubs, interfering with caribou migration,” says Gallagher of the Sierra Club. “It’s the saddest juxtaposition of our natural heritage versus Trump’s insane oil and gas frenzy.”</p>
<h1 class="p1">Suppressing Science</h1>
<p class="p1">Tearing up regulations is a little easier if you can toss out the science they’re based on. The EPA has proposed mandating that only scientific studies with “publicly available” data can be used in drafting regulations. It sounds innocuous, but it could suppress a wide swath of research — anything containing the confidential medical information of participants — including landmark peer-reviewed studies that undergird a range of regulations on air and water pollutants, as well as chemicals and pesticides. These studies “have long been the target of a fringe set of actors in industry,” says Patton of the Environmental Defense Fund. “Those fringe forces have found their voices in the Trump administration.”</p>
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Texans say some voting machines are changing the choices they've made on their ballots
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-10-27:3488444:BlogPost:82823
2018-10-27T22:21:29.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<h1 class="post-headline"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560918594?profile=original" target="_self"><span class="byline-author-name">Will Weissert…</span></a></span></h1>
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<h1 class="post-headline"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560918594?profile=original" target="_self"><span class="byline-author-name">Will Weissert</span></a></span></h1>
<h1 class="post-headline"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560918729?profile=original" target="_self">https://www.businessinsider.com/texans-say-voting-machines-are-changing-their-ballot-choices-2018-10<img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1560918729?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"/></a></span></h1>
<h1 class="post-headline"><span style="font-size: 8pt;">A voter fills our</span> <span style="font-size: 8pt;">a provisional ballot by hand for the midterm elections at a polling place in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014.</span></h1>
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<li>People in Texas are saying that voting machines are incorrectly recording their votes when they try to vote straight-ticket and flipping those votes to another political party entirely.</li>
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<li>This could potentially effect several pivotal races in the state's midterm elections this November, including the closely watched Senate Race between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and his Democratic opponent, Beto O' Rourke.</li>
<li>The machines that seem to be doing this are all Hart eSlate ones, which are used in 30% of the counties throughout the state.</li>
<li>Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the office of Secretary of State Rolando Pablos, told the Associated Press that these problems were due to human error.</li>
<li>The vice president of the machine's manufacturer Hart InterCivic, Steven Sockwell issued similar sentiments, telling the Associated Press that these cases, which have occurred during past elections, were also because of human error.</li>
<li>A representative of the Texas Democratic Party told the Associated Press that this problem was causing its voters to incorrectly vote for Cruz and cast blame on the secretary of state's office for not warning enough people about the malfunctions.</li>
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<div><p class="">AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Some Texas voters are complaining that machines flipped their straight-ticket selections to the other party in key races during early voting, especially the much-watched Senate battle between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O'Rourke.</p>
<p class="">The secretary of state's office said Friday that there have been reported issues with Hart eSlate voting machines, which are used in around 30 percent of counties statewide and feature a wheel for selecting candidates and buttons to move from screen to screen. But it says they are caused by voters themselves and often occur when they complete and submit ballots too quickly.</p>
<p class="">"The Hart eSlate machines are not malfunctioning, the problems being reported are a result of user error — usually voters hitting a button or using the selection wheel before the screen is finished rendering," said Sam Taylor, spokesman for the office of Secretary of State Rolando Pablos, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.</p>
<p class="">The machines are used in around 80 counties, including the state's largest, Harris, which is home to Houston, as well as Travis, which includes Austin, and Tarrant, encompassing Fort Worth. Early voting in Texas began Monday and has featured strong turnout and long lines. It runs through Nov. 2, ahead of Election Day on Nov. 6.</p>
<p class="">Many Hart eSlate machines used in Texas don't provide receipts or other forms of paper trail to voters, but those casting ballots do see a screen that shows their choices before final submission — and can go back and make changes. Similar machines are used in parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia, according to Verified Voting, a nonprofit group focused on ensuring the accuracy of elections.</p>
<p class="">The machine's manufacturer, Hart InterCivic, attributed the Texas issues to 16-year-old technology.</p>
<p class="">"The same story has happened in multiple elections," Steven Sockwell, the company's vice president of marketing, said Friday. "There was no flipping then and there's not any now."</p>
<p class="">Instead, Sockwell said, what typically happens in cases where someone believes his or her vote has been changed is a voter will select a straight-party ticket, then unintentionally change votes in individual races without realizing it.</p>
<p class="">Still, in a statement to supporters, Cruz cited "multiple reports" of race selections changing and added "once you select the Republican party ticket, please be patient and do not select 'next' until the ballot has populated all of the selections."</p>
<p class="">An advisory to county clerks and elections administrators issued earlier this week by Keith Ingram, the secretary of state's office's director of elections, said, "We have heard from a number of people voting on Hart eSlate machines that when they voted straight ticket, it appeared to them that the machine had changed one or more of their selections to a candidate from a different party."</p>
<p class="">The Texas Democratic Party called the issue "a malfunction," said it was causing Democrats to inadvertently vote for Cruz and accused the secretary of state's office of not doing enough to warn voters of potential issues.</p>
<p class="">Party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement that "Texas' Republican government blamed voters and did nothing." He called for a statewide public service announcement to warn voters, training for poll workers on the issue and removal of "all malfunctioning machines."</p>
<p class="">Taylor said Friday that his office "has already trained election officials across the state" while also instructing "election administrators to post additional signage in multiple languages" and requiring county officials to keep "a detailed, meticulous log of any malfunctioning machines, and remove any machines that are malfunctioning."</p>
<p class="">Taylor also said his office "has no legal authority whatsoever to force any" voting machine vendors "to make upgrades if their voting systems are otherwise in compliance with federal and state law," and that Hart eSlate's system was certified in 2009. He said counties are responsible for purchasing their own new voting equipment.</p>
<p class="">"We will continue to educate Texas voters using existing resources," Taylor said, "and urge all Texans casting a ballot to take their time, slow down, and carefully review their ballot before casting one."</p>
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Number of Georgia Voters Purged by Brian Kemp Continues to Climb
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-10-27:3488444:BlogPost:82821
2018-10-27T21:57:18.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<h1 class="l-article-header__row l-article-header__row--title t-bold t-bold--condensed">Number of Georgia Voters Purged by Brian Kemp Continues to Climb</h1>
<p>Investigation reveals 340,000 voters were improperly removed</p>
<div class="l-article-header__block l-article-header__block--byline"><div class="c-byline"><div class="c-byline__authors"><em class="c-byline__by">By…</em><div class="c-byline__author"></div>
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<h1 class="l-article-header__row l-article-header__row--title t-bold t-bold--condensed">Number of Georgia Voters Purged by Brian Kemp Continues to Climb</h1>
<p>Investigation reveals 340,000 voters were improperly removed</p>
<div class="l-article-header__block l-article-header__block--byline"><div class="c-byline"><div class="c-byline__authors"><em class="c-byline__by">By</em><div class="c-byline__author"><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/author/peterwade/" class="c-byline__link t-bold t-bold--upper" rel="author">PETER WADE</a><div class="c-byline__detail"><div class="c-author"><div class="c-author__meta"></div>
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<div class="c-byline__author"><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/brian-kemp-340000-voters-748165/">https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/brian-kemp-340000-voters-748165/</a></div>
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<div class="l-article-content"><div class="c-content t-copy"><p>Republican gubernatorial candidate and current Georgia Secretary of State <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/brian-kemp/" id="auto-tag_brian-kemp" name="auto-tag_brian-kemp">Brian Kemp</a> incorrectly canceled some 340,000 voter registrations, according to a recent investigation. Although Kemp claimed the voters left the state of Georgia or moved to another country, they hadn’t, Greg Palast, who <a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/10/24/greg_palast_sues_georgias_brian_kemp" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">filed suit against Kemp</a>, <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/georgias-kemp-purged-340134-voters-falsely-asserting-they-had-moved/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">wrote in <em>Truthout</em></a>.</p>
<p>According to John Lenser, who is CEO of CohereOne and who led a review of the list of purged voters for Palast, “340,000 of those voters remained at their original address. They should have never been removed from the voter registration rolls.”</p>
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<p>Palast only obtained the list after he filed suit against Kemp. “It began five years ago, when Kemp stonewalled my first requests for information on purges in Georgia, first for <em>Al Jazeera</em> and <em><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/the-gops-stealth-war-against-voters-247905/">Rolling Stone</a>, </em>now for <em>Truthout</em> and <em>Democracy Now!</em>” Palast wrote, “It took my lawyer’s threat of a federal lawsuit, filed last week in Atlanta federal court, to blast the list of the electorally doomed from Kemp’s hands.”</p>
<p>After he received the list, Palast said he analyzed it and discovered that 340,134 voters were purged when they shouldn’t have been. To do this, he consulted experts who cross-referenced voter data with a number of other databases including cell phone bills and tax filings to see if, in fact, any of these voters had actually moved. Many had not. A list of the purged voters’ names is <a href="https://www.gregpalast.com/georgia-voter-purge-list-2018/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">available on Palast’s website</a>. While it is too late for them to register for the upcoming midterm elections, they are still eligible to re-register for the 2020 presidential election.</p>
<p>Kemp used a tactic Palast calls “Purge by Postcard” to remove eligible voters from the rolls. Kemp sent a postcard that could have easily been mistaken for spam to voters who did not vote in the prior election. If a voter did not return the postcard, Kemp purged their registration without informing the voters it was happening.</p>
<p>Thanks to a June 2018 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/us/politics/supreme-court-upholds-ohios-purge-of-voting-rolls.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Supreme Court ruling</a> that reversed the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, this practice is now legal. If a voter misses an election and fails to respond to a notice by mail, the court ruled it legal to remove them from the list of registered voters. In a dissent to the majority opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the practice part of “concerted state efforts to prevent minorities from voting and to undermine the efficacy of their votes” and said they were “an unfortunate feature of our country’s history.”</p>
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<p>Kemp also faces a lawsuit for <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/14/politics/georgia-brian-kemp-voter-data/index.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">exposing the records of 6 million registered Georgia voters</a> and potentially the state’s election system to foreign hackers. Kemp <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/georgia-voter-suppression-736362/">has become notorious</a> for his efforts to cull voter registrations, especially those of Democratic and minority voters. <em>Rolling Stone</em>recently obtained <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/brian-kemp-leaked-audio-georgia-voting-745711/">audio of Kemp</a> speaking to donors, saying his opponent Stacey Abrams’s campaign “continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote.”</p>
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Let’s Be Honest: The Rage Is Partly the Media’s Fault by Matt Lewis
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-10-26:3488444:BlogPost:82693
2018-10-26T18:22:00.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
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<div class="ProfileHeaderCard-joinDate"><div class="Headline"><p class="StoryDescription"><span>Is Trump irresponsible? Of course he is. But he’s not the only one. It’s not Trump who programs and hypes all these crazy media frenzies.…</span></p>
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<div class="ProfileHeaderCard-joinDate"><div class="Headline"><p class="StoryDescription"><span>Is Trump irresponsible? Of course he is. But he’s not the only one. It’s not Trump who programs and hypes all these crazy media frenzies.</span></p>
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<p class="StoryDescription"><span><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/lets-be-honest-the-rage-is-partly-the-medias-fault?ref=scroll">https://www.thedailybeast.com/lets-be-honest-the-rage-is-partly-the-medias-fault?ref=scroll</a></span></p>
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<div class="Swipe__text"><span style="font-size: 1em;">In the wake of being targeted by mail bomb attempts, my media colleagues understandably cast themselves as heroic victims.</span></div>
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<div class="StoryBody"><div class="Body__content"><div class="Mobiledoc"><p>There’s a sense that Donald Trump’s dangerous rhetoric (referring to us as “fake news,” the “enemy of the people,” or boasting about a Republican congressman body-slamming a reporter) might have helped stoke the attempts to deliver mail bombs to CNN’s New York headquarters and to a select group of liberal politicians. But my concern is that we are actually part of the problem.</p>
<p>Let us begin by acknowledging that the evil person (or persons) who sent these bombs is to blame. Then, let’s acknowledge that, yes, words and ideas can encourage or discourage behavior. This is especially true when it comes to the president of the United States of America. He has a uniquely important job, which includes serving as a calming force and a uniting voice for the country. Trump has abdicated this responsibility and, in doing so, has engendered division.</p>
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<p>But while I disagree profoundly with Trump’s comments about the press, <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/25/politics/trump-blames-media-for-anger-after-attacks/index.html">I think that there is some merit to his claim that the media</a> has contributed to the current climate of fear and anger.</p>
<p>I feel weird copping to this. As a Daily Beast commentator and CNN contributor, I am partly to blame. Likewise, as a member of the media, I could be a potential target of some anti-media revenge plot. (In my case, I could be hit by the left, because I’m a conservative, and/or the right, because I’m usually pretty tough on Trump.)</p>
<p>This identity helps inform my opinions about the importance of an independent media. It is vital to have an independent press that holds powerful people accountable. On the other hand, my roles have shown me that we bear some responsibility for fostering a toxic environment that increasingly has turned confrontational, uncivil, and even violent.</p>
<p>Cable news is frequently a shout-fest that brings more heat than light—more passion than illumination (I have sometimes contributed to this state of affairs.) We spend considerable time talking about caravans full of illegals headed to our border, school shootings, family separations, and how (depending on which network you’re watching) you’re either an evil racist who hates immigrant children or a dupe who is fine with terrorists and drug dealers raping our wives and daughters.</p>
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<div class="PullQuote__quote">“The media produces a climate in which Trump and his copycats (see Michael Avenatti) can flourish.”</div>
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<div class="RelatedArticles__articles"><h4 class="RelatedArticles__article-title">Inside Trump’s Media Blitz: He Wants To ‘Flood the Zone’</h4>
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<p>For 99 percent of us, the media frenzy causes a low-grade depression. For a small segment of Americans, though, I suspect it is driving them crazy. Crazy enough to do something horrific—like shoot a Republican congressman on a baseball diamond or try to send a bomb to a former Democratic president (or two).</p>
<p>The problem isn’t that we cover bad or depressing things happening in the world. These important topics deserve news coverage. But the truth is, we don’t just report them―we hype them (coupled with “BREAKING NEWS!!!” alerts, graphics, countdown clocks, music, and the most provocative B-roll footage we can find). Then, we bring on people to fight about the provocative topics. It’s a never-ending cycle. This madness doesn’t infect your home once a day at 6 p.m.—it’s a relentless, 24/7 barrage of negativity. And it’s not just on TV. It’s on talk radio, Twitter, and multiple websites. It is concocted entertainment—a “product” used to generate clicks and ratings.</p>
<p>So when we in the media get on our high horse about our role in defending democracy, we should take a long look in the mirror. When we cast ourselves solely as heroic victims, we consciously ignore the cable news segments, blogs, or tweets that are largely about ratings, buzz, re-tweets, and ginning up anger.</p>
<p>The same self-righteous media also had a hand in creating Donald Trump. It was NBC’s <em>The Apprentice</em> that arguably did the most to propel him to the presidency. The coverage he received on cable news bolstered his campaign. As then-CBS CEO <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/leslie-moonves-donald-trump-may-871464">Les Moonves said of Trump’s theatrics</a> during the 2016 race, “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”</p>
<p>The media produces a climate in which Trump and his copycats (see Michael Avenatti) can flourish. It rewards assholery and never punishes pretend bullies. The result is a sense of lawlessness in political discourse or hopelessness (if you feel like you’re the victim). Just ask Mitch McConnell’s or Ted Cruz’s dinner companions.</p>
<p>I won’t equate McConnell’s ruined dinner with sending someone a bomb. The difference is stark. What I am suggesting is that there is a spectrum of uncivil behavior, and we have run the gamut the last few years (Steve Scalise’s shooting, comments from Eric Holder and Maxine Waters, <em>The New York Times</em> <a class="LinkWrapper LinkWrapper--external" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/23/books/review/trumps-next-chapter.html">fantasizing about Trump’s assassination</a>, Kathy Griffin’s gruesome photo, etc.). In general, I believe we should be consistent in championing civility and condemning rhetoric or action that could spiral out of control. For this reason, I have condemned both Trump and the Democratic “mob” for their misbehavior. (It is interesting that my friends in the media only applauded when I did the former, not the latter.)</p>
<p>The word “media” can encompass Hollywood-inspired infotainment, cable news, and journalism that involves investigative reporting or being embedded in a war zone. The overlap in categories makes it hard to attack the “media” without besmirching the heroism of front-line journalists who really do risk their lives every day.</p>
<p>My advice to the media is similar to what I would tell Trump. It’s what I try to tell myself every morning: Tell the truth, but in a way that is responsible. Eschew things that are salacious or done simply to gin up excitement. Exercise restraint and forbearance. The onus is on us to police ourselves. With great power comes great responsibility.</p>
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Saudi Arabia Sends Assassins To Dismember Entire International Community In Effort To Stifle Dissent
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-10-16:3488444:BlogPost:82524
2018-10-16T00:56:40.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
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<p>NEW YORK CITY—Taking…</p>
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<p>NEW YORK CITY—Taking drastic measures to silence their critics, Saudi Arabia reportedly sent assassins to dismember the entire international community Monday as part of an effort to stifle dissent. “At the order of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, teams of assassination squads were dispatched to all corners of the globe to execute every diplomat, human rights organization member, world leader, and journalist who has spoken out against the regime,” said a source from the United Nations speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of their life, adding that a bloodbath ensued as killers infiltrated embassies, government offices, and private homes around the world with specific instructions to slaughter all detractors of Saudi Arabia. “Anyone who has made even a single critical comment or pulled out of the Saudi’s Future Investment Initiative business conference has been hacked to bloody chunks. Even journalists who reported on the death tolls were systematically butchered.” At press time, U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo was dismembered immediately upon disembarking from his plane to meet with a Saudi delegation to discuss the incident.</p>
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After Math: Space Farce
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-08-13:3488444:BlogPost:82395
2018-08-13T14:30:00.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
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<div class="t-d7@m- t-d4@tp t-d3-b@tl t-d2@d mt-15 mt-25@tp c-gray-3 c-gray-6@m-">Numbers, because how else could you fully appreciate this $3 trillion boondoggle?…</div>
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<div class="t-d7@m- t-d4@tp t-d3-b@tl t-d2@d mt-15 mt-25@tp c-gray-3 c-gray-6@m-">Numbers, because how else could you fully appreciate this $3 trillion boondoggle?</div>
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<div class="grid@tl+"><div class="grid@tl+__cell col-12-of-12@tp col-5-of-12@tl+ vm"><div class="o-article_meta_bar__avatar left mr-20 mr-10@s o-avatar_offset"><div class="w-45@m+ h-45@m+ o-h w-30@s h-30@s"><a href="https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/andrew-tarantola/"><img src="https://o.aolcdn.com/images/dims?thumbnail=45%2C45&quality=80&image_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs.blogcdn.com%2Fwww.engadget.com%2Fmedia%2F2016%2F09%2Fimg20160411082914-1.jpg&client=cbc79c14efcebee57402&signature=f27c8172882cc58d2e33489c78ce1c7dc66ec064" class="inline-block vm circle-mask"/></a></div>
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<div class="t-meta-small@s t-meta@m+"><a href="https://www.engadget.com/about/editors/andrew-tarantola/" class="th-meta">Andrew Tarantola</a><span class="hide@s th-meta">, <a href="https://twitter.com/terrortola" class="th-meta">@terrortola</a></span></div>
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<p><a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/12/after-math-space-farce/">https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/12/after-math-space-farce/</a></p>
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<div class="o-article_block pb-15 pb-5@m- o-subtle_divider" id="engadget-post-contents"><div class="grid@tl+"><div class="grid@tl+__cell col-8-of-12@tl+"><div class="article-text c-gray-1"><p><em><strong>It takes a special breed of bureaucrat to look upon the majesty of the cosmos and think to themself, "man, I can't wait to get up there and start a war,"</strong></em> but these are the times in which we live. So while the Trump administration spent this week eyeing the stars for something to shoot, NASA and the private space industry continued in their missions to explore the solar system without blowing everything up along the way.</p>
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<p><strong>$13 million</strong>: NASA's been on an outsourcing kick as of late. <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/08/nasa-tipping-point-space-partnerships/">The agency has awarded Blue Origin</a> a multimillion dollar deal to develop propulsion systems for its lunar landers and another $13.9 million to ULA for three additional projects in hopes of achieving a technological "tipping point" to usher in the commercial space age in earnest.</p>
<p><img src="https://s.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/a1a79af2e33a31707251725c42c9451a/206586768/garbage.jpeg" alt=""/></p>
<p><strong>6 military branches</strong>: That's one more than we currently have, or really need even, but its the number that we'll get by 2020, <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/09/space-force-plans-pence-military-pentagon/">Vice President Pence announced this week</a>. Because why spend $3 trillion of taxpayer money actually, you know, helping Americans when you can just invent a new armed forces entity and transfer that wealth to your buddies in the defense industry? Eisenhower is spinning in his grave.</p>
<p><img src="https://s.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/81a7984f01e26049b56cfa67516e3bb7/206586767/sunprobe.jpeg" alt=""/></p>
<p><strong>430,000 mph</strong>: The Parker Solar Probe, when it launches later this month, will be heading towards the Sun in a hurry. It will reach speeds of nearly half a million miles an hour -- fast enough to go from Philly to DC in a second -- making it <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/09/nasa-parker-solar-probe-launch/">the fastest manmade object to date</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://s.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/9db9ad36696c038c17248d912f634fc4/206586765/spacex.jpeg" alt=""/></p>
<p><strong>100 launches</strong>: When its not littering the galaxy with automobiles, Space X is busy perfecting its reusable rocket designs. The latest, and final, Block 5 designs should be able to <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/07/spacex-falcon-9-block-5-relaunch/">withstand 100 launches and reentries</a> during their service lives.</p>
<p><img src="https://s.aolcdn.com/hss/storage/midas/a35a31b27b055009eadcd834ceb39552/206586763/rockelab.jpeg" alt=""/></p>
<p><strong>2-by-2</strong>: Rocket Lab is planning on a busy end to 2018. The launch vehicle startup announced that it would attempt <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/06/rocket-lab-launch-two-missions-late-2018/">a pair of missions within two months of each other</a> by year's end.</p>
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A Hate Speech Hypothetical By JOHN SAMPLES
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-08-10:3488444:BlogPost:82287
2018-08-10T18:53:58.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
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<div class="node-body body-text"><div class="field-body"><p><a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/12/01/texas-state-president-blasts-racist-student-column?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=b5ef334b09-DNU20171201&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-b5ef334b09-232032745&mc_cid=b5ef334b09&mc_eid=41c248d193" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The outrage du jour is a newspaper column entitled “Your DNA is an Abomination” published by a student newspaper at Texas State University.</a> The case is no doubt difficult politically and practically for the people involved. But it really is not an interesting case concerning free speech. As Nancy Reagan said, we should “just say no.”</p>
<p>The column was taken down from the newspaper’s website. It should not have been. How can the rest of us assess its arguments absent an authoritative version of the writing? The student body president has called for defunding the student newspaper. He should not be advocating punishing speech he does not like. A few hundred people have signed an online petition calling for the paper to be defunded. But let’s say I proposed an online petition to take away the right to petition the government “for redress of grievances.” If several hundred people sign my petition, would it be right? No, it would deeply offend the First Amendment.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.txstate.edu/news/news_releases/news_archive/2017/November-2017/Statement112917.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas State President Denise M. Trauth has said the column was “racist” and said its themes were “abhorrent.”</a> So far so good. She is responding to speech with more speech. But she also said, “I expect student editors to exercise good judgment in determining the content that they print.” That is a sensible view but also could be taken as a threat. The president adds, “The <em>Star’s</em> editors have apologized for the column and are examining their editorial process.” But what exactly went wrong in the editorial process? And what precisely are the editors apologizing for? The main issue seems to be that the essay offended or angered people. Of course, <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/403/15" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paul Robert Cohen’s jacket that said “F— the Draft” angered and offended people.</a> It was protected speech. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/491/397" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gregory Lee Johnson offended many people (including a couple Supreme Court justices) by burning an American flag.</a> His symbolic speech was also protected by the First Amendment. Living in a free society means you risk occasionally being angered or offended. The important thing is that we can have a reasoned debate about whatever the content of this essay was.</p>
<p>Now imagine there was a “hate speech” exception to the First Amendment. Would such an exception allow public officials to censor “Your DNA is an Abomination?” The author apparently wrote:</p>
<blockquote><p>Ontologically speaking, white death will mean liberation for all. To you good-hearted liberals, apathetic nihilists and right-wing extremists: accept this death as the first step toward defining yourself as something other than the oppressor. Until then, remember this: I hate you because you shouldn’t exist. You are both the dominant apparatus on the planet and the void in which all other cultures, upon meeting you, die.</p>
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<p>So does using the verb “hate” in regard to a group of people constitute “hate speech?” Or are such statements only subject to censorship if the speaker is an “oppressor” but not if they are one of “the oppressed?” Who decides which speakers belong in which categories and thus who can use the verb and who cannot? The courts? Legislatures?</p>
<p>We do know this. Absent a hate speech exception to the First Amendment, this essay has been pulled from a website, its editors have apologized, and the highest-ranking public official involved seems to be obliquely threatening the newspaper and the author of the essay. If “hate speech” were not protected by the Constitution, what would have happened?</p>
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No, Gov. Dean, there is no ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-08-10:3488444:BlogPost:82191
2018-08-10T18:45:16.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
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<div id="article-body" class="article-body content-format-default"><div class="pb-sig-line hasnt-headshot has-0-headshots hasnt-bio is-not-column"><span class="pb-byline">By <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/eugene-volokh/"><span>Eugene Volokh</span></a> </span><span class="pb-timestamp">April 21, 2017</span></div>
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<div class="inline-content inline-photo inline-photo-normal horizontal-photo"><a name="9e1dcbb86a"></a><img class="hi-res-lazy courtesy-of-the-lazy-loader" src="https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_960w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/04/21/Style/Images/Merlin_1042683.jpg&w=1484"/><br/><span class="pb-caption">Howard Dean stands on a platform built on top of a police car during the 40th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley in Berkeley, Calif., in 2004. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press)</span></div>
<p>Former Vermont governor Howard Dean writes:</p>
<div class="content clearfix"><div class="permalink-header"><a class="account-group js-account-group js-action-profile js-user-profile-link js-nav" href="https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean"><span class="FullNameGroup"><strong class="fullname show-popup-with-id u-textTruncate">Howard Dean</strong><span></span><span class="UserBadges"><span class="Icon Icon--verified"><span class="u-hiddenVisually">Verified account</span></span></span><span class="UserNameBreak"> </span></span><span class="username u-dir u-textTruncate" dir="ltr">@<b>GovHowardDean</b></span></a><div class="follow-bar"><div class="user-actions btn-group not-following" style="text-align: center;"></div>
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<p class="u-hiddenVisually">Howard Dean Retweeted Steven Greenhouse</p>
<div class="js-tweet-text-container"><p class="TweetTextSize TweetTextSize--jumbo js-tweet-text tweet-text" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Hate speech is not protected by the first amendment.</p>
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<div class="QuoteTweet u-block js-tweet-details-fixer"><div class="QuoteTweet-container"><a class="QuoteTweet-link js-nav" href="https://twitter.com/greenhousenyt/status/854881174044520449"></a><div class="QuoteTweet-innerContainer u-cf js-permalink js-media-container"><div class="tweet-content"><div class="QuoteTweet-authorAndText u-alignTop"><div class="QuoteTweet-text tweet-text u-dir" lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">5:13 PM - 20 Apr 2017</div>
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<div class="QuoteTweet-text tweet-text u-dir" lang="en" dir="ltr" xml:lang="en">This leads me to repeat what I’ve said before: There is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment. Hateful ideas (whatever exactly that might mean) are just as protected under the First Amendment as other ideas. One is as free to condemn, for instance, Islam — or Muslims, or Jews, or blacks, or whites, or illegal immigrants, or native-born citizens — as one is to condemn capitalism or socialism or Democrats or Republicans. As the Supreme Court noted in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/10/13/the-supreme-court-9-0-on-student-organizations-freedom-to-express-the-thought-that-we-hate/"><em>Christian Legal Society v. Martinez</em> (2010)</a>, the First Amendment’s tradition of “protect[ing] the freedom to express ‘the thought that we hate’ ” includes the right to express even “discriminatory” viewpoints. (The quote comes from the four liberal justices, plus Justice Anthony Kennedy, but the four more conservative justices would have entirely agreed with this, though also extended it to university-recognized student groups’ freedom to exclude members, and not just their freedom to express their thoughts.)</div>
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<p>To be sure, there are some kinds of speech that are unprotected by the First Amendment. But those narrow exceptions have nothing to do with “hate speech” in any conventionally used sense of the term. For instance, there is an exception for “fighting words” — face-to-face personal insults addressed to a specific person, of the sort that are likely to start an immediate fight. But this exception isn’t limited to racial or religious insults, nor does it cover all racially or religiously offensive statements. Indeed, when the City of St. Paul tried to specifically punish bigoted fighting words, the Supreme Court held that this selective prohibition was unconstitutional (<i>R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul</i> (1992)), even though a broad ban on all fighting words would indeed be permissible.</p>
<p>The same is true of the other narrow exceptions, such as for true threats of illegal conduct or incitement intended to and likely to produce imminent illegal conduct — i.e., illegal conduct in the next few hours or maybe days, as opposed to some illegal conduct some time in the future. But these are very narrow exceptions. Dean’s post came <a href="https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/855212805506703361">in response</a> to a Steven Greenhouse tweet saying, “Free Speech Defenders Don’t Forget: Ann Coulter once said: My only regret w/ Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building”; but if Dean meant that such speech by Coulter is constitutionally unprotected, he’s wrong. Indeed, even if Coulter was speaking seriously (which I doubt), such speech isn’t unprotected incitement, because it isn’t intended to promote imminent illegal conduct. Compare, e.g., <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=11624130773709942845"><i>Rankin v. McPherson</i> (1987)</a>, which upheld the right to say, after President Ronald Reagan was wounded in an assassination attempt, “If they go for him again, I hope they get him” — and that was in a case involving a government employee being fired for her speech; the First Amendment offers even stronger protection to ordinary citizens whose speech is more directly restricted by the government.</p>
<p>Returning to bigoted speech, which is what most people use “hate speech” to mean, threatening to kill someone because he’s black (or white), or intentionally inciting someone to a likely and immediate attack on someone because he’s Muslim (or Christian or Jewish), can be made a crime. But this isn’t because it’s “hate speech”; it’s because it’s illegal to make true threats and incite imminent crimes against anyone and for any reason, for instance because they are police officers or capitalists or just someone who is sleeping with the speaker’s ex-girlfriend.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court did, in <i>Beauharnais v. Illinois</i> (1952), uphold a “group libel” law that outlawed statements that expose racial or religious groups to contempt or hatred, unless the speaker could show that the statements were true and were said with “good motives” and for “justifiable ends.” But this, too, was treated by the court as just a special case of a broader First Amendment exception — the one for libel generally. And <i>Beauharnais</i> is widely understood to no longer be good law, given the court’s restrictions on the libel exception. See <i>New York Times Co. v. Sullivan</i> (1964) (rejecting the view that libel is categorically unprotected, and holding that the libel exception requires a showing that the libelous accusations be “of and concerning” a particular person); <i>Garrison v. Louisiana</i> (1964) (generally rejecting the view that a defense of truth can be limited to speech that is said for “good motives” and for “justifiable ends”); <i>Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc. v. Hepps</i> (1986) (generally rejecting the view that the burden of proving truth can be placed on the defendant); <i>R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul</i> (1992) (holding that singling bigoted speech is unconstitutional, even when that speech fits within a First Amendment exception); <i>Nuxoll ex rel. Nuxoll v. Indian Prairie Sch. Dist. # 204</i>, 523 F.3d 668, 672 (7th Cir. 2008) (concluding that <i>Beauharnais</i> is no longer good law); <i>Dworkin v. Hustler Magazine Inc.</i>, 867 F.2d 1188, 1200 (9th Cir. 1989) (likewise); <i>Am. Booksellers Ass’n, Inc. v. Hudnut</i>, 771 F.2d 323, 331 n.3 (7th Cir. 1985) (likewise); <i>Collin v. Smith</i>, 578 F.2d 1197, 1205 (7th Cir. 1978) (likewise); <i>Tollett v. United States</i>, 485 F.2d 1087, 1094 n.14 (8th Cir. 1973) (likewise); Erwin Chemerinsky, <i>Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies</i> 1043-45 (4th ed. 2011); Laurence Tribe, <i>Constitutional Law,</i> § 12-17, at 926; Toni M. Massaro, <i>Equality and Freedom of Expression: The Hate Speech Dilemma</i>, 32 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 211, 219 (1991); Robert C. Post, <i>Cultural Heterogeneity and Law: Pornography, Blasphemy, and the First Amendment</i>, 76 Calif. L. Rev. 297, 330-31 (1988).</p>
<p>Finally, “hostile environment harassment law” has sometimes been read as applying civil liability — or administrative discipline by universities — to allegedly bigoted speech in workplaces, universities and places of public accommodation. There is a hot debate on whether those restrictions are indeed constitutional; they have generally been held unconstitutional when applied to universities, but decisions are mixed as to civil liability based on speech that creates hostile environments in workplaces (see <a href="http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/harass">the pages linked to at this site</a>for more information on the subject). But even when those restrictions have been upheld, they have been justified precisely on the rationale that they do not criminalize speech (or otherwise punish it) in society at large, but apply only to particular contexts, such as workplaces. None of them represent a “hate speech” exception, nor have they been defined in terms of “hate speech.”</p>
<p>For this very reason, “hate speech” also doesn’t have any fixed legal meaning under U.S. law. U.S. law has just never had occasion to define “hate speech” — any more than it has had occasion to define rudeness, evil ideas, unpatriotic speech or any other kind of speech that people might condemn but that does not constitute a legally relevant category.</p>
<p>Of course, one can certainly argue that First Amendment law <i>should</i> be changed to allow bans on hate speech (whether <a href="http://volokh.com/2012/09/13/former-yale-dean-harold-koh-now-attorney-advisor-at-the-state-department-on/">bigoted speech</a>, <a href="http://volokh.com/2012/10/01/organization-of-islamic-conference-head-calls-for-a-global-ban-on-offending-the-character-of-the-prophet-muhammad/">blasphemy</a>, <a href="http://volokh.com/2012/09/13/prof-peter-spiro-on-why-hate-speech-should-be-banned-and-on-how-it-might-be-done/">blasphemy to which foreigners may respond with attacks on Americans</a>, <a href="http://volokh.com/2009/05/14/flag-desecration-and-hate-speech/">flag burning</a>, or anything else). I think no such exception should be recognized, but of course, like all questions about what the law ought to be, this is a matter that can be debated. Indeed, people have a First Amendment right to call for speech restrictions, just as they have a First Amendment right to call for gun bans or bans on Islam or government-imposed race discrimination or anything else that current constitutional law forbids. Constitutional law is no more set in stone than any other law.</p>
<p>But those who want to make such arguments should acknowledge that they are calling for a change in First Amendment law and should explain just what that change would be, so people can thoughtfully evaluate it. Calls for a new First Amendment exception for “hate speech” shouldn’t rely just on the undefined term “hate speech” — they should explain just what viewpoints the government would be allowed to suppress, what viewpoints would remain protected and how judges, juries and prosecutors are supposed to distinguish the two. And claiming that hate speech is already “not protected by the first amendment,” as if one is just restating settled law, does not suffice.</p>
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Statement from The Rutherford Institute Regarding Government Lockdown of Charlottesville in Advance of Aug. 12 Anniversary
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-08-10:3488444:BlogPost:82388
2018-08-10T18:29:19.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
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<div class="byline"><div>August 09, 2018</div>
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<div class="pdfAttachments"><h5 class="LegalActionTitle">DOCUMENTS</h5>
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<p><a href="https://www.rutherford.org/files_images/general/08-09-2018_Statement-on-Cville-Lockdown.pdf"><strong>A PDF copy of The Rutherford Institute's statement is available here.</strong></a></p>
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<p>CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — While it is appropriate that the government and the public work together to ensure that the tragedies of August 12, 2017, are not repeated, locking down the community and enacting measures tantamount to martial law without any credible evidence warranting such extreme measures is not an acceptable solution.</p>
<p>In the absence of any publicized information about credible threats to public safety surrounding the upcoming one-year anniversary of the events of August 12, The Rutherford Institute has grave concerns about 1) the City of Charlottesville’s decision to enact severe lockdown security measures in advance of the upcoming one-year anniversary of the August 12 events, 2) the process that resulted in the adoption of such measures, and 3) the impact they will have on the civil liberties of the residents of the community. </p>
<p>These measures not only directly limit the public’s freedom, but do so indirectly by imposing a chilling effect upon civil liberties. Moreover, these draconian police state measures are presumptuous in their expectation of civil unrest, intentionally alarming, and utterly lacking in transparency.</p>
<p><strong>A declared state of emergency:</strong> By declaring a “state of emergency” and enacting heightened security measures for August 10 through 12, without providing any specific information as to credible threats that might warrant such extreme actions, the City has cast a shroud around the area that makes it akin to a community under martial law. </p>
<p><strong>Massive police presence:</strong> The City has provided no credible justification to the public for the massive influx of police and national guard into the area for those days, reported to be more than 1,000 in number. Barring any credible threat, this overwhelming law enforcement and military presence is unnecessarily intimidating and may deter citizens from lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights to expression and assembly, while also contributing to heightened tensions.</p>
<p><strong>Restricted security area: </strong>While the City has stated its desire to respect citizens’ rights to freedom of speech and to peacefully assemble, the lockdown measures being enacted (restricting access to the Downtown Mall, establishing police checkpoints, limiting movement, prohibiting certain items and articles of clothing) appear to contradict the City’s stated commitment, while sending mixed messages about the City’s objectives. Under the Constitution, public places such as those deemed a “security area” are presumptively open to citizens to exercise their rights of expression and the freedom to come and go as they please, yet the measures planned by the City will significantly limit those rights.</p>
<p><strong>Lack of transparency:</strong> The process by which these measures have been implemented has been wholly lacking in transparency and has increased citizen unease. The City has at no time disclosed it has information which would warrant the drastic measures it has taken. Government officials have actually noted in public information that no events have been granted permits for the downtown parks for August 10 through 12. The extreme steps of imposing a state of emergency and establishing a “security area” only leave the public to guess at whether these are preemptive measures or are based on information giving City officials true cause for concern that violence may erupt.</p>
<p><strong>Recommendations</strong></p>
<p>It is our hope and expectation that in carrying out their duties to protect civil liberties, ensure safety of the community, and maintain law and order in relation to this upcoming August 12 anniversary, the government and its agents will:</p>
<p>1. Inform the public about their plans and any credible threats to public safety.</p>
<p>2. Ensure that police are trained in how to respect civil liberties.</p>
<p>3. Ensure that police are meaningfully trained in how to deal with or de-escalate potential violence.</p>
<p>4. Employ de-escalation tactics or establish clear barriers between warring factions of protesters (if any make an appearance).</p>
<p>5. Protect public safety and instill public faith in the government.</p>
<p></p>
Charlottesville activists alarmed by security plans and other measures - BY BRYAN MCKENZIE
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-08-10:3488444:BlogPost:82188
2018-08-10T18:00:00.000Z
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<div class="caption-container"><div class="caption-inner-0deab6c6-9c2c-11e8-a86c-df5f9c61691d collapse in"><div class="caption-text"><div class="subscriber-preview"><p>Virginia State Police cruisers are seen parked in a lot near Emmett Street on Thursday. Hundreds of state officers will be present for events surrounding the one-year anniversary of the "Unite the Right" rally downtown.</p>
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<div class="caption-text"><div class="subscriber-preview"><p>Officials hang a detailed map of the downtown area showing different restricted zones during a multi-agency press conference at the Virginia State Police Area 18 office regarding preparations for the anniversary of the "Unite the Right" rally on Wednesday. Representatives from the University of Virginia, state and local police, and a variety of other emergency services participated in the press conference to detail safety measures being taken for the upcoming weekend.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-preview"><p>Extensive restrictions on pedestrian and vehicular traffic around downtown Charlottesville worry area activists who have scheduled services and events in the area to mark the anniversary of last year’s violent Unite the Right rally.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-preview"><p>The city also has banned anything that could be construed or used as a weapon, from glass bottles to camera tripods. Police will either block off or man blockades at all downtown intersections between High Street and Water Street, from McIntire Road/Fifth Street to Avon Street.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>Only two police-manned checkpoints will be available for pedestrians seeking access to the Downtown Mall and Market Street and Court Square parks. Police have said they will confiscate any banned items.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>An estimated 700 Virginia State Police personnel are expected to join more than a hundred local police and up to 300 Virginia National Guardsmen are in the area or ready to be mobilized.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>That worries activists.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>“Last year, I was terrified of violence from the Nazis, and this year I am terrified of violence from the police,” said Lisa Woolfork, associate professor of English at the University of Virginia and an organizer with Black Lives Matter Charlottesville.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>“We are seeing an overwhelming show of force to compensate for last year’s negligent police inaction,” she said. “For black and brown folks and other marginalized people, we know this police presence only increases our risk.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>“This state of emergency is an over-compensation for the failures of the state last year,” said the Rev. Brittany Caine-Conley, an organizer with Congregate Cville. “We know, statistically, historically and anecdotally, that state repression and violence overwhelmingly affect marginalized communities. This militarized landscape will only do more harm to those who have been most significantly wounded in the past year.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>Although white supremacist organizations have not officially scheduled any events in the area, police and activists have expressed concerns that some may show up on the anniversary.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>Throughout the day on Thursday, reports surfaced from concerned citizens who believed they saw persons resembling Nazis and white supremacists in locations from office supply stores to coffee shops.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>The possibility of clashes between organized counter-protesters and white supremacists spurred Charlottesville, Albemarle County and state officials to declare states of emergency on Wednesday and authorized police to restrict access to 18 blocks of downtown Charlottesville.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>In declaring its state of emergency, Albemarle County is closing its McIntire Road Office Building to parking beginning at 2 p.m. Friday through the weekend.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>The parking lot will afterward be closed to public parking weekdays from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning all from 10 p.m. Friday through the weekend to 6 a.m. Monday while the local emergency is still in effect.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>“We have not closed anything in the county; however, we will be monitoring everything,” officials said in a statement, adding that citizens may notice an increased police presence.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>New Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall M. Brackney and members of the Charlottesville City Council were criticized Thursday for not revealing the restrictions earlier this week during meetings with residents and activists.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>“There is no doubt that you knew about the pedestrian restrictions before your press conference, but held back that information so there would be little time to criticize and no time to litigate,” said Jeff Fogel, a local attorney who has represented many clients in civil rights lawsuits against local police and defended several counter-protesters charged with crimes after last year’s violence.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>“That smacks of deception, manipulation and lies. That’s why many people do not trust law enforcement and your actions have only reinforced those perceptions, which will linger for a long time,” he said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>City officials did not respond to Fogel’s comments, which were made in an email to the city officials.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>University of Virginia student group DREAMers on Grounds, which supports undocumented students, criticized the housing of some state troopers who are staging from a UVa residence hall.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>“Students have expressed confusion and worry upon seeing hundreds of cars parked in the residential dorm areas. Many are afraid of the potential of being stopped and frisked,” the group wrote in a statement, adding that the fear was greater for undocumented residents.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>“We also urge the removal of most, if not all, state troopers being housed side-by-side to our students’ residential areas,” they wrote.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>UVa officials said no students were displaced to make room for law enforcement and that the university will be reimbursed for housing costs by the state.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>Some area residents also said they were concerned about the possibility that emergency dispatchers and some county employees are being required to sign non-disclosure agreements.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>Allison Farole, emergency management coordinator for the Charlottesville-UVA-Albemarle Emergency Communications Center, said that, generally, any person who was invited and present for regional briefings in which intelligence was shared is required to sign a nondisclosure agreement.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>When asked who specifically was asked to sign an agreement, she said she would not be able to respond because of operational constraints facing her office for the upcoming weekend.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>Albemarle County Deputy County Executive Doug Walker said he was requested to sign, and did sign, an agreement so that he could participate in biweekly briefings and planning sessions.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>He said the agreements help to assure that sensitive information given in the meetings will not be made public before the events.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>“The reasons are, I think, obvious,” Walker said. “It gives some comfort and confidence that [sharing] sensitive information [won’t] compromise the integrity of the public safety planning work that has been going on now for months.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p>The county has used the agreements in the past for confidential economic development projects and personnel matters, he said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p><em>Daily Progress staff writers Ruth Serven Smith and Allison Wrabel contributed to this story.</em></p>
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<div class="asset-tagline text-muted"><p><span>Bryan McKenzie is a reporter for The Daily Progress. Contact him at (434) 978-7271, <a href="mailto:bmckenzie@dailyprogress.com">bmckenzie@dailyprogress.com</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/bk_mckenzie">@BK_McKenzie</a> on Twitter.</span></p>
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'It wasn’t OK. It still isn’t OK': Downtown businesses still reeling after Aug. 12 BY MELISSA CASTRO
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-08-05:3488444:BlogPost:82282
2018-08-05T19:30:01.000Z
Shallel Octavia
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<div class="caption-container"><div class="caption-inner-0bce34f4-9839-11e8-9c08-5365c5a360c7 collapse in"><div class="caption-text"><div class="subscriber-preview"><p>Virginia State Police urged Cecilia and Mike Rodi to shut down their downtown restaurant Rapture as troopers arranged in riot formation to disperse gun-wielding militia members gathered at a nearby fountain on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall on Aug. 12, 2017.</p>
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<div class="caption-text"><div class="subscriber-preview"><p>JACOB CHANG-RASCLE FOR THE DAILY PROGRESS Alicia Walsh-Noel makes a raclette sandwich during a benefit for Unity C'ville, a community nonprofit dedicated to racial and economic justice in our communities, at Brasserie Saison on Saturday. The event featured local breweries, restaurants and specials inside our the local shops.</p>
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<div class="asset-content p402_premium subscriber-premium"><div class="inform-container inform-video-player-1"><div class="inform-embed ndn_embed ndn_embedding ndn_embedContainer ndn-widget-embed-1 ndn_embedded" id="inform-video-player-1"><em><strong>ONE YEAR LATER:</strong> This week, we present a series of stories marking the one-year anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally, looking back and ahead at last summer’s impact on area institutions and individuals.</em></div>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">A few months ago, Cecilia Rodi found herself seemingly suspended upside down in mid-air, just before landing with a thunk on the hood of a white SUV at the intersection of Fourth and Water streets.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">It was May, not August, but the moment was a fitting denouement to the emotionally topsy-turvy year that has passed since another vehicle plowed through that same intersection, shattering lives, endangering livelihoods and robbing “America’s Happiest City” of its sense of innocence.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“I’m thinking to myself, ‘Are you sh*itting me? How can this be happening?’” Rodi said in July from the patio of Rapture, the Downtown Mall restaurant she and her husband, Mike, own. The restaurant is just a few dozen yards from the intersection now seared into Americans’ collective memory by nonstop cable TV footage of Aug. 12.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">At 11:30 the morning of Aug. 12, state troopers were eating brunch on the Rapture patio. Suddenly, they jumped up and raced off en masse, leaving their half-eaten food on their plates.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“Shut it down!” one of the troopers shouted to Rodi as he ran out. That was the first moment the Rodis finally capitulated and closed their business to the public for the day — after ignoring months of intimidating threats from white supremacists, as well as warnings from concerned citizens, who had urged them to shutter for the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">She recalled hustling the remaining brunch patrons — with their mimosas still in hand — off the patio as troopers in riot formation marched past to disperse AR-15-toting militia members gathered at the nearby fountain.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Although they closed their doors, the Rodis continued to allow police, journalists, existing customers and staff to huddle in the restaurant for safety as the situation outside continued to escalate.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Just after 1:41 p.m., the troopers’ radios crackled, and they sprinted out the door again, heading toward Fourth Street.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Mike Rodi suddenly saw a “massive” swarm of people running his direction, screaming.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“I assumed it was an active shooter, so I immediately started grabbing people and pulling them in the restaurant and herding them into the back room,” he said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">He then ventured outside and saw a street littered with bodies and loose teeth, he said. “It looked like 20 to 30 bodies to me,” he said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Among those huddling in the back of the restaurant were a Nepalese woman, who spoke no English, and her 6-year-old daughter, who, despite displaying symptoms of shock, spoke the language perfectly and knew exactly what she had just witnessed.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“The little girl kept asking if the people on the ground were going to be OK,” Cecilia said. “She said she saw it all: The car, the people flying, the bodies on the ground. She saw everything.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Cecilia said she was able to hold herself together for a few hours while she calmed the little girl and helped her process the ordeal.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“But after they left, that’s when I went down to the basement and broke down,” she said. “I couldn’t stop crying.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">At the west end of the mall, two people who had narrowly escaped the Dodge Challenger’s path stumbled into the Whiskey Jar, where they had once worked as servers.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">The Jar’s owner, Wilson Richey, could barely understand his ex-employees.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“They came in just shaking and yelling and screaming,” Richey said. “They were in shock; they just weren’t themselves at all.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">The restaurant had been full of reporters who were charging their devices and filing stories with their editors. “At that point, every reporter in the room just got up and ran toward Fourth Street,” Richey said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">The Jar closed at 5 p.m. that day, after a man with a swastika-tattooed forearm sat down and ordered dinner.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“We let everybody finish their meals and then we just didn’t serve anyone anymore,” Richey said. “My thing is just avoiding trouble for the staff’s sake.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">An hour or so later, while standing guard outside another of his nine downtown restaurants, Brasserie Saison, Richey was hit with military-grade pepper spray, which police had been using on anti-fascist protesters who were blocking the evacuation of an injured white supremacist.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">That evening, after Cecilia Rodi was escorted to her car for safety, she drove home, put her children to bed and locked every single door and window in the house. “It wasn’t OK,” she said. “It still isn’t OK. It’s probably a little PTSD, but we don’t even have time to deal with that.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY" align="center"><strong>* * *</strong></p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">In the 12 months since the Rodis, Richey and others watched neo-Nazis and armed militiamen “invade” their town and their businesses, the fellow downtown business owners have banded together to keep their stores and restaurants afloat and to try to prevent a second violent rally.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">In an interview with National Public Radio the week after the attack, Mike Rodi laid out his perspective:</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“They got what they wanted. They came here, they hurt us, they scared us and they killed us. So, I think we need to go forward and say to this group when they try to get a permit, we must not even concede that they are legitimate political groups. They are terrorists. That is what they’ve shown us. They are coming here to hurt us, and we have a right to defend ourselves,” he said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">To that end, Rodi involved himself in city affairs, lawsuits and legislative efforts, including Democratic state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds’ bill to allow Charlottesville and Albemarle County to prohibit firearms in public spaces, as a few other Virginia municipalities are permitted to do.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">In February, the bill died in committee, with the vote falling almost exactly along party lines.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Two bills penned by Democratic state Attorney General Mark Herring — one dealing with restricting militias and another intended to help combat white supremacist groups and other extremists — also failed.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Another Deeds bill would have allowed localities to prohibit the wearing of clothing or carrying of weaponry that gives the impression one is an active military member. That, too, failed.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Rodi and Joan Fenton, president of the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville, also pushed the City Council in October not to renew City Manager Maurice Jones’ contract until after the independent report by former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy was completed — an effort that may not have been necessary.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Jones was notified in May that his contract would not be renewed, months after the Heaphy report detailed shortcomings in the police and city response to the rally.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Jones’ departure was preceded by the resignations of the city, state and University of Virginia police chiefs and the city attorney in December, and of the city spokeswoman in October.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Rodi also joined at least one lawsuit to prevent similar organized activities in the future.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">That suit reached final settlement in mid-July, with 19 consent decrees and four default judgments prohibiting various groups, including Jason Kessler and Redneck Revolt, from coordinating armed demonstration activities in Charlottesville.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY" align="center"><strong>* * *</strong></p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Meanwhile, as the waning weeks of last summer and then autumn ticked by, Richey, the Rodis and other downtown business owners watched their revenue plummet — and debts mount — as tables seemed to sit empty and inventory went unsold.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Last July already had been a slow month, thanks to the July 8 Ku Klux Klan rally, Richey said. And then Aug. 12 happened.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“The Whiskey Jar was my litmus test, and it was off $20,000 from the previous July. And then August was considerably off, and then September was off,” he said. “Fall is the season when you put on fat to get through the winter, and the season just never happened.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Things did not start to pick up again until February, he said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">As a result, many of Richey’s nine restaurants maxed out all their lines of credit and all of their overdraft protection, he said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Worse, the debts would normally be repaid by now. Instead of the anticipated autumn revenue fattening the coffers for the barren winter months, it will have to be used to pay off debt.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“It just can’t happen again. A lot of [downtown businesses] are in the same boat as I am — our lines of credit are maxed out,” Richey said. “If anything even close happens again, it’s going to kill off a lot of businesses.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Fear and grief may have kept some away from the Downtown Mall in the immediate aftermath, but business owners also believe they were impacted by new parking meters (which were removed almost as quickly as they were installed) and by a “Boycott Charlottesville” Facebook page, which has collected nearly 2,200 followers and remains active.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“There are people who support the Confederate statues, so they want to boycott Charlottesville. There are people who are mad at City Council and the way it’s run, so they want to boycott Charlottesville,” said Fenton, the DBAC president. “It’s misplaced anger, but to them, we are the face of Charlottesville.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Moreover, Fenton said, there was a long stretch of time when the only Google results for the word “Charlottesville” were images of the Unite the Right mayhem. “If you think ‘Ferguson,’ what do you think of? If you think ‘Charlottesville,’ what do you think most people think of?” she said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">For the rest of the summer, Fridays After Five became a non-event, from Mike Rodi’s perspective.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“We went from using five or six servers to needing maybe one, two at most,” he said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">In contrast, revenue from vendor sales at the Friday events did not drop off noticeably, according to Kirby Hutto, who manages the Sprint Pavilion for Red Light Management.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“But Fridays After Five is just such an institution; it’s part of people’s DNA,” Hutto said. “Half the crowd doesn't even know who the band is, and they still come, so we're a little bit immune.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">According to new calculations from the city’s economic development office, the Downtown Mall actually fared a little bit better than the city overall between last July and this April.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">While retail sales tax revenue in Charlottesville dropped 1.34 percent over that period compared with the same period the year before, revenue from the mall increased a little less than 1 percent.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">That said, the mall took a 12 percent hit in revenue last September, while city sales tax revenue overall dropped 8.35 percent during that period.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Fall revenue from the mall did bounce back, but perhaps not enough to rebound from the 12 percent setback, and then the winter months were even slower than usual, according to the data.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">The downtown business association asked the city for a $250,000 recovery package to support a marketing campaign, infrastructure upgrades, office space and support staff.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">In March, the city agreed to provide $75,000 in response to that request and promised to improve communications, update signage and add security cameras. The city also plans to include $94,000 in next year’s budget for lighting improvements.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY"> </p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY" align="center"><strong>* * *</strong></p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">If there was any bright spot to emerge after the events of last summer, it may have been this:</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">“The businesses down here dedicated ourselves to helping each other and bringing back the multicultural feeling of the Downtown Mall,” Mike Rodi said.</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">The business association will be launching the new marketing campaign shortly, Engel said, “to provide a fresh face and compelling reasons for people to visit the mall.”</p>
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<div class="subscriber-only"><p class="BODYCOPY">Or, as Fenton put it, “We’re trying to remind people why they loved the mall in the first place. If you ask people what their favorite place is to visit in Charlottesville, it’s the Downtown Mall. If you ask them where they like to take a walk, it’s the Downtown Mall. If you ask them why they moved to Charlottesville, it’s the Downtown Mall.”</p>
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<div class="asset-tagline text-muted"><p>Melissa Castro is the business editor of The Daily Progress. Contact her at (434) 964-5465, <a href="mailto:mcastro@dailyprogress.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mcastro@dailyprogress.com</a>or on Twitter <a href="mailto:mcastro@dailyprogress.com%3Emcastro@dailyprogress.com%3C/a%3E%20or%20%3Ca%20href=">@cbj_castro</a>.</p>
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The 14 Characteristics of Fascism by Lawrence Britt
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-08-04:3488444:BlogPost:82278
2018-08-04T01:20:12.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<p></p>
<div align="justify"><blockquote><blockquote><a href="https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html">https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html</a></blockquote>
<blockquote><br></br><p>Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," <i>Free Inquiry</i>, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all…</p>
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<div align="justify"><blockquote><blockquote><a href="https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html">https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html</a></blockquote>
<blockquote><br/><p>Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," <i>Free Inquiry</i>, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy.</p>
<p>The 14 characteristics are:</p>
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<ol>
<li><b>Powerful and Continuing Nationalism</b> <br/>Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights</b> <br/>Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause</b> <br/>The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Supremacy of the Military</b> <br/>Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Rampant Sexism</b> <br/>The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Controlled Mass Media</b> <br/>Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Obsession with National Security</b> <br/>Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Religion and Government are Intertwined</b> <br/>Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Corporate Power is Protected</b> <br/>The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Labor Power is Suppressed</b> <br/>Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed . <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts</b> <br/>Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Obsession with Crime and Punishment</b> <br/>Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Rampant Cronyism and Corruption</b> <br/>Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders. <br/><br/></li>
<li><b>Fraudulent Elections</b> <br/>Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.</li>
</ol>
<br/><br/><br/><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Copyright © 2003 <i>Free Inquiry magazine</i> <br/>Reprinted for Fair Use Only.</font> <br/><br/>
<p>This article was based upon the article "The Hallmarks of Fascist Regime" by Skip Stone, at <a href="http://www.hippy.com/php/article-226.html">www.hippy.com/php/article-226.html</a>.</p>
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Memorandums for the President on 9/11: Time for the Truth — False Flag Deep State Truth!
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-07-28:3488444:BlogPost:82179
2018-07-28T13:00:00.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="posted-on"><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/memorandums-for-the-president-on-9-11-experts-say-what-the-9-11-commission-was-too-corrupt-to-address/">https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/memorandums-for-the-president-on-9-11-experts-say-what-the-9-11-commission-was-too-corrupt-to-address/…</a></span></div>
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<div class="entry-meta"><span class="posted-on"><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/memorandums-for-the-president-on-9-11-experts-say-what-the-9-11-commission-was-too-corrupt-to-address/">https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/memorandums-for-the-president-on-9-11-experts-say-what-the-9-11-commission-was-too-corrupt-to-address/</a></span></div>
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<div class="entry-meta"><span class="posted-on"><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/memorandums-for-the-president-on-9-11-experts-say-what-the-9-11-commission-was-too-corrupt-to-address/" rel="bookmark">2018/07/07</a></span></div>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/category/journal/collaboration/collintel-collaboration-journal/" rel="category tag">Collective Intelligence</a>, <a href="https://phibetaiota.net/category/journal/collaboration/culturalintel/" rel="category tag">Cultural Intelligence</a>, <a href="https://phibetaiota.net/category/journal/ethics/" rel="category tag">Ethics</a>, <a href="https://phibetaiota.net/category/journal/communities/government/" rel="category tag">Government</a>, <a href="https://phibetaiota.net/category/journal/collaboration/peaceintel/" rel="category tag">Peace Intelligence</a></p>
<div class="entry-content"><p><strong>FREE ONLINE — AS SENT TO THE PRESIDENT</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/911-POTUS-Final-101-Pages.pdf"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-132769" src="https://phibetaiota.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/911-Cover-1-2-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="600"/></a><br/></strong></p>
<p>PDF (101 Pages): <a href="https://phibetaiota.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/911-POTUS-Final-101-Pages.pdf">911 POTUS Final 101 Pages</a></p>
<p><em>FedEx Replication of Presidential Binder: Color, pages 1-4 single-sided, double-sided thereafter, spiral bound, clear plastic front, black plastic back.</em></p>
<p>NOTE: Links are not active in the FedEx version above, we are working with them to get a version that has all links active, a normal offering within Adobe. In the interim, links are active within the individual pieces below.</p>
<p><span id="more-131917"></span></p>
<p><strong>OLD POST</strong></p>
<a href="https://phibetaiota.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/911-Dick-Cheney.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-120825" src="https://phibetaiota.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/911-Dick-Cheney-300x278.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="278"/></a><br/> 9/11 The Man Behind the Zionist Curtain?<br/> <br/>
<p><strong>SHORT URL:</strong><br/> <a href="https://tinyurl.com/911-POTUS">http://tinyurl.com/911-POTUS</a></p>
<p><strong>Phase I</strong> ends 30 July and will result in a complete color PDF being delivered to the President by a mutual fan with direct access, and also published free online and as #33 in the Trump Revolution Series. The President will receive the contact information (cell number) for each of the authors.</p>
<p><strong>Phase II</strong> will focus on the President’s planned speech for 9/11 2018, and include an international alternative media campaign to put this collection squarely in everyone’s face.</p>
<p><strong>COVER</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/911-Cover-1-2.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-132769" src="https://phibetaiota.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/911-Cover-1-2-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="600"/></a></p>
<p><strong>FINAL IN INDIVIDUAL PIECES (CAN USE TRANSLATE WIDGET)<br/></strong></p>
<p><strong>#911Truth</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/donald-trump-a-promise-about-9-11-truth/" rel="bookmark">Donald Trump: A Promise About 9/11 Truth</a></p>
<p><strong>Letter of Transmittal by Editor</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/robert-steele-9-11-truth-letter-of-transmittal/" rel="bookmark">Robert Steele: 9/11 Truth Letter of Transmittal</a></p>
<p><strong>Overview & Call for A Presidential 9/11 Truth Summit</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/david-ray-griffin-memorandum-for-the-president-proposal-for-a-presidential-9-11-truth-summit/" rel="bookmark">David Ray Griffin: Memorandum for the President: Proposal for a Presidential 9/11 Truth Summit</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/eric-hufschmid-memorandum-for-the-president-please-find-the-courage-to-declare-9-11-a-false-flag-operations/">Eric Hufschmid: Memorandum for the President: Please Find the Courage to Declare 9/11 a False Flag Operation</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/james-fetzer-memorandum-for-the-president-three-proofs-we-have-not-been-told-the-truth-about-9-11/" rel="bookmark">James Fetzer: Memorandum for the President: Three Proofs We Have Not Been Told the Truth About 9/11</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/sander-hicks-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-truth-can-unite-the-public-against-the-deep-state/" rel="bookmark">Sander Hicks: Memorandum for the President: 9/11 Truth Can Unite the Public Against the Deep State</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/andrew-kreig-u-s-attorney-has-received-a-petition-demanding-9-11-grand-jury-investigation-of-wtc-1-2-and-7/" rel="bookmark">Andrew Kreig: Memorandum for the President: U.S. Attorney Has Received a Petition Demanding 9/11 Grand Jury Investigation of WTC 1, 2, and 7</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-domestic-false-flag-operations-and-your-legacy/" rel="bookmark">Robert Steele: Memorandum for the President: 9/11, Domestic False Flag Operations, and Your Legacy</a></p>
<p><strong>Who Did It?</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/christopher-bollyn-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-and-the-war-on-terror-israels-history-of-false-flag-operations-against-the-u-s-a/" rel="bookmark">Christopher Bollyn: Memorandum for the President: 9/11 and the War on Terror: Israel’s History of False Flag Operations against the U.S.A.</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/victor-thorn-memorandum-for-the-president-the-zionist-role-in-planning-funding-and-controlling-9-11/" rel="bookmark">Victor Thorn: Memorandum for the President: The Zionist Role in Planning, Funding, and Controlling 9/11</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/steve-deak-who-knew-what-when-the-new-york-city-cover-up/">Steve De’ak: Who Knew What When? The New York City Cover-Up…</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/nicholas-kollerstrom-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-an-inside-job-osama-bin-laden-framed-fbi-aware/" rel="bookmark">Nicholas Kollerstrom: Memorandum for the President: 9/11 an Inside Job, Osama Bin Laden Framed, FBI Aware</a></p>
<p><strong>Why?</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/tom-scott-gordon-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-wtc-towers-condemned-before-9-11-cost-to-dismantle-2b-2007-deadline-known-to-rudy-giuliani-mayor-of-nyc-from-1994-december-2001/" rel="bookmark">Tom-Scott Gordon: Memorandum for the President: 9/11 WTC Towers Condemned Before 9/11, Cost to Dismantle $2B+, 2007 Deadline, Known to Rudy Giuliani (Mayor of NYC from 1994 – December 2001)</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/fred-burks-memorandum-for-the-president-evidence-9-11-used-to-launder-240-billion-in-covert-securities-in-a-covert-economic-war/" rel="bookmark">Fred Burks: Memorandum for the President: Evidence 9/11 Used to Launder $240 Billion in Covert Securities in a Covert Economic War</a></p>
<p><em>See references for Greater Israel / Yinon Plan</em></p>
<p><strong>How?</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/peter-dale-scott-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-dick-cheney-the-hijacking-of-the-u-s-government/" rel="bookmark">Peter Dale Scott: Memorandum for the President: 9/11, Dick Cheney, & The Hijacking of the U.S. Government</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/susan-lindauer-cias-advance-knowledge-of-9-11-date-including-nuclear-possibilities/" rel="bookmark">Susan Lindauer: Memorandum for the President: CIA’s Advance Knowledge of 9/11 Date Including Nuclear Possibilities</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/ed-jewett-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-the-zionist-rothschild-use-of-agents-ashton-carter-and-philip-zelikow-particularly/" rel="bookmark">Ed Jewett: Memorandum for the President: 9/11 – The Zionist-Rothschild Use of Agents – Ashton Carter and Philip Zelikow Particularly</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/scott-bennett-memorandum-for-the-president-how-9-11-was-funded-the-man-behind-the-missing-2-3-trillion/" rel="bookmark">Scott Bennett: Memorandum for the President: How 9/11 Was Funded – The Man Behind the Missing $2.3 Trillion</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/kevin-barnett-memorandum-for-the-president-muslims-were-framed-for-9-11-fake-news-msm-silences-us/" rel="bookmark">Kevin Barrett: Memorandum for the President: Muslims Were Framed for 9/11 – Fake News MSM Silences Us</a></p>
<p><em><strong>Thermite?</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/richard-gage-memorandum-for-the-president-of-the-united-states-9-11-anomalies-not-addressed-by-the-9-11-commission-as-identified-by-ae911truth/" rel="bookmark">Richard Gage: Memorandum for the President of the United States: 9/11 Anomalies Not Addressed by the 9/11 Commission as Identified by AE911Truth</a></p>
<p><em><strong>Pre-Planted Explosives?</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/t-mark-hightower-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-twin-towers-collapse-and-vaporization-cannot-be-explained-by-nano-thermite-alone/" rel="bookmark">T. Mark Hightower: Memorandum for the President: 9/11 Twin Towers Collapse and Vaporization Cannot Be Explained by Nano-Thermite Alone</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/barbara-honegger-memorandum-for-the-president-pre-planted-pentagon-explosives/" rel="bookmark">Barbara Honegger: Memorandum for the President: Pre-Planted Pentagon Explosives Went Off Almost Eight Minutes Prior to Any Alleged Impact on the Building</a></p>
<p><em><strong>Nuclear?</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/gordon-duff-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-nyc-was-a-nuclear-event-crafted-by-israel-and-saudi-arabia-with-help-and-cover-from-by-dick-cheney/">Gordon Duff, 9/11 NYC Was a Nuclear Event Crafted by Israel and Saudi Arabia with Help and Cover from Dick Cheney</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/joe-olson-memorandum-for-the-president-the-twin-towers-were-destroyed-using-clean-nukes-wtc-7-with-conventional-demolitions/" rel="bookmark">Joe Olson: Memorandum for the President: The Twin Towers were destroyed using “clean nukes”, WTC 7 with conventional demolitions</a></p>
<p><em><strong>Directed Energy?</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/judy-wood-via-robert-steele-memorandum-for-the-president-the-twin-towers-were-vaporized-by-directed-energy-weapons/">Judy Wood by Robert Steele: Memorandum for the President: The Twin Towers Were Vaporized by Directed Energy Weapons</a></p>
<p><em><strong>No Airplanes?</strong></em></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/john-lear-9-11-illusions-of-airplanes-from-hollywood-or-us-air-force-holograms/" rel="bookmark">John Lear: Memorandum for the President: 9/11 Illusions of Airplanes from Hollywood or US Air Force Holograms?</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/john-lear-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-twin-towers-were-not-hit-by-nor-destroyed-by-two-airliners/" rel="bookmark">John Lear: Memorandum for the President: 9/11 Twin Towers Were Not Hit By Nor Destroyed By Two Airliners</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/aeronautical-engineer-memorandum-for-the-president-no-boeing-757-hit-the-pentagon/" rel="bookmark">Aeronautical Engineer: Memorandum for the President: No Boeing 757 Hit the Pentagon</a></p>
<p><strong>Epilogue</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/a-k-dewdney-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-gratuitously-false-narrative-on-use-of-cell-phones/" rel="bookmark">A. K. Dewdney: Memorandum for the President: 9/11 Gratuitously False Narrative on Use of Cell Phones</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/greg-felton-memorandum-for-the-president-9-11-zionisms-great-feeding-frenzy-the-parasite-eats-the-host/" rel="bookmark">Greg Felton: Memorandum for the President: 9/11 Zionism’s Great Feeding Frenzy – The Parasite Eats the Host</a></p>
<p><strong>References<br/></strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/what-israel-fears-most-an-encroachment-to-greater-israel/5564905">The Zionist Plan — The “Greater Israel” or Yinon Plan</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/06/remember-do-not-erase-the-uss-liberty/">Remember the USS Liberty!</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/04/review-enclosure-palestinian-landscapes-in-a-historical-mirror/" rel="bookmark">Review: Enclosure – Palestinian Landscapes in a Historical Mirror</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/?s=Zionism+Strike">Zionism in America – 18 Strikes and Counting</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/06/robert-steele-cia-the-deep-state-mike-pompeo-is-totally-wrong-and-politico-totally-worthless/">CIA and the Deep State – A Threat to the President & The Republic</a></p>
<p><strong>Index</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/9-11-memorandums-for-the-president-index/" rel="bookmark">9/11 Memorandums for the President: Index</a></p>
<p><strong>RELATED</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://www.antiwar.com/justin/j121701.html">9/11 – What Was Israel’s Role by Justic Raimondo</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=55408">9/11 and Zion: What Was Israel’s Role? by Nick Kollerstrom with Jim Fetzer</a></p>
<p><a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#inbox/164db47fecbd7b94">Nine Keys to 9/11 by Nicholas Kollerstrom</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/9-11-reference-original-insurance-report-with-aircraft-strike-estimate-and-tables-of-wtc-1-and-wtc-2-tenants/" rel="bookmark">9/11 Reference: Original Insurance Report with Aircraft Strike Estimate and Tables of WTC 1 and WTC 2 Tenants</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/9-11-dennis-cimino-on-9-11-a-swirling-volcano-of-lies/" rel="bookmark">9/11: Dennis Cimino on 9/11 – A Swirling Volcano of Lies</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/9-11-reference-document-meet-ashton-carter-rothschild-agent/" rel="bookmark">9/11 Reference Document (2015): Meet Ashton Carter, Rothschild Agent?</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/911-pre-cursor-document-zelikow-catastrophic-terrorism/" rel="bookmark">911 Pre-Cursor Document: “Catastrophic Terrorism: Tackling the New Public Danger” — The Elegance of Zionist Information Operations Over Time</a></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2018/07/mongoose-is-rahm-emanuel-in-chicago-to-coordinate-and-then-cover-up-the-next-zionist-false-flag-attack-in-the-usa/" rel="bookmark">Mongoose: Is Rahm Emanuel in Chicago to Coordinate and then Cover Up the Next Zionist False Flag Attack in the USA?</a></p>
<p><strong>REVIEWS RELATED TO 9/11</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2013/03/worth-a-look-911-books-dvds-online-videos-and-other/" rel="bookmark">Worth a Look: 9/11 Books, DVDs, Videos, and Other</a></p>
<p><strong>SEE ALSO:</strong><em><br/></em></p>
<p><a href="https://phibetaiota.net/2016/09/911-phi-beta-iota/">9/11 @ Phi Beta Iota</a></p>
<p> </p>
</div>
There Is No ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card for the President By John W. Whitehead
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-07-17:3488444:BlogPost:82374
2018-07-17T22:06:24.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<h1 class="pageTitle">John Whitehead's Commentary</h1>
<div class="mediaObject"><div class="mediaObjectPrimary"><div class="byline"><div>June 05, 2018</div>
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<div class="mediaObjectAsideLeft commentaryHeadshot"><img alt="John Whitehead" src="https://www.rutherford.org/files_images/general/Commentary_JohnWhitehead_150x150.jpg"></img></div>
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<div><blockquote><p>“<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/trump-time-interview-ex-post-facto/520551/" id="LPlnk165291" name="LPlnk165291">When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.</a>“—Richard…</p>
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<h1 class="pageTitle">John Whitehead's Commentary</h1>
<div class="mediaObject"><div class="mediaObjectPrimary"><div class="byline"><div>June 05, 2018</div>
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<div class="mediaObjectAsideLeft commentaryHeadshot"><img src="https://www.rutherford.org/files_images/general/Commentary_JohnWhitehead_150x150.jpg" alt="John Whitehead"/></div>
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<div><blockquote><p>“<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/trump-time-interview-ex-post-facto/520551/" id="LPlnk165291" name="LPlnk165291">When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.</a>“—Richard Nixon</p>
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<p>Someone needs to alert Donald Trump: there is no “Get Out of Jail Free” card just for being president.</p>
<p>According to Trump’s Twitter feed, he believes that he has an <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1003616210922147841" id="LPlnk552881" name="LPlnk552881"><em>absolute</em> right to pardon himself</a> of any crimes for which he might be charged while serving in office.</p>
<p>He’s not alone in this imperial belief.</p>
<p>Two of Trump’s lawyers have attempted to float the idea that “<a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-pardon-self-20180604-story.html" id="LPlnk258005" name="LPlnk258005">the president’s powers are so broad as to make it impossible for him to have obstructed justice</a>.”</p>
<p>Rudy Giuliani, another of Trump’s enablers, insists that <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-shoot-comey_us_5b145897e4b02143b7cd633e" id="LPlnk838579" name="LPlnk838579">Trump could even get away with shooting the FBI director in the Oval Office and not be prosecuted for murder</a>. “In no case can he be subpoenaed or indicted,” Giuliani argued, claiming a president’s constitutional powers are that broad.</p>
<p>It’s a losing argument.</p>
<p>Back in 1974, four days before Richard Nixon resigned, the Department of Justice concluded, “Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, <a href="https://theweek.com/speedreads/776888/doj-ruled-44-years-ago-that-president-cannot-pardon-himself">the president cannot pardon himself</a>.”</p>
<p>To suggest otherwise, to empower the President to chart his own course and establish his own rules, not bound by the legislative or judicial branches of the government, is to effectively place him “above the law.” </p>
<p>In operating above the law, the president thus becomes a law unto himself—a dictator, an imperial overlord, a king.</p>
<p>Yet the United States government—a constitutional republic—is predicated on the notion that the law is supreme, and that no person, no matter how high-ranking, is able to flout it.</p>
<p>In other words, in America, the law is king.</p>
<p>That is the ideal that Thomas Paine put forth in his revolutionary treatise <em>Common Sense.</em> As Paine observed, “But where, say some, is the king of America? … The world may know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America <em>the law is king</em>. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.”</p>
<p>When we refer to the “rule of law,” that’s constitutional shorthand for the idea that everyone is treated the same under the law, everyone is held equally accountable to abiding by the law, and no one is given a free pass based on their politics, their connections, their wealth, their status or any other bright line test used to confer special treatment on the elite.</p>
<p>When the government and its agents no longer respect the rule of law—the Constitution—or believe that it applies to them, then the very contract on which this relationship is based becomes invalid.</p>
<p>Isn’t that what the American Revolution was all about?</p>
<p>Long before the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/20856/download">DOJ issued its 1974 memorandum</a>, which soundly refutes Trump’s claims to legal immunity, America’s founders issued their own proclamation—the <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/">Declaration of Independence</a>—denouncing the tyrannical dictates of an imperial ruler.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, we’ve been backsliding ever since.</p>
<p>Although the Constitution requires a separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government in order to ensure accountability so that no one government agency becomes all-powerful, the office of the president of the United States has, for all intents and purposes, become a unilateral power unto itself.</p>
<p>Each successive president over the past 30 years has, through the negligence of Congress and the courts, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donald-trump-and-the-dangers-of-a-strong-presidency/2016/07/30/69cfc686-55be-11e6-b7de-dfe509430c39_story.html">expanded the reach and power of the presidency</a> by adding to his office’s list of extraordinary orders, directives and special privileges.</p>
<p>All of the <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/donald-trump-is-coming/483578/">imperial powers amassed by Barack Obama and George W. Bush</a>—to kill American citizens without due process, to detain suspects indefinitely, to strip Americans of their citizenship rights, to carry out mass surveillance on Americans without probable cause, to suspend laws during wartime, to disregard laws with which he might disagree, to conduct secret wars and convene secret courts, to sanction torture, to sidestep the legislatures and courts with executive orders and signing statements, to direct the military to operate beyond the reach of the law, to operate a shadow government, and to act as a dictator and a tyrant, above the law and beyond any real accountability—were inherited by Donald Trump.</p>
<p>These presidential powers—acquired through the use of <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/102856/too_much_presidential_power_--_we've_got_to_address_the_'unitary_executive'_question">executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements</a> and which can be activated by any sitting president—enable past, president and future presidents to act as a dictator by operating above the law and beyond the reach of the Constitution.</p>
<p>This is what you might call a stealthy, creeping, silent, slow-motion coup d’état.</p>
<p>So it’s not all Trump’s fault if he believes that he is untouchable and all-powerful: this abuse of presidential powers <a href="http://www.bu.edu/law/journals-archive/bulr/documents/marshall.pdf">has been going on for so long</a> that it has become the norm, the Constitution be damned.</p>
<p>It’s not just the occupant of the Oval Office that needs to be held accountable to the rule of law, either.</p>
<p>There are hundreds—make that thousands—of government bureaucrats who are getting away with murder (in many cases, literally) simply because the legislatures, courts and the citizenry can’t be bothered to make them play by the rules of the Constitution. </p>
<p>Unless something changes in the way we deal with these ongoing, egregious abuses of power, the predators of the police state will continue to wreak havoc on our freedoms, our communities, and our lives.</p>
<p>It’s the nature of the beast: power corrupts.</p>
<p>Worse, as 19th-century historian Lord Acton concluded, <a href="https://acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-2-number-6/power-corrupts">absolute power corrupts absolutely</a>.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about a politician, an entertainment mogul, a <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/12/28/biggest-corporate-scandals-2016/">corporate CEO</a> or a police officer: give any one person (or government agency) too much power and allow him or her or it to believe that they are entitled, untouchable and will not be held accountable for their actions, and those powers will eventually be abused.</p>
<p>We’re seeing this dynamic play out every day in communities across America.</p>
<p>A cop shoots an unarmed citizen for no credible reason and gets away with it. A president employs executive orders to sidestep the Constitution and gets away with it. A government agency spies on its citizens’ communications and gets away with it. An entertainment mogul sexually harasses actors and actresses and gets away with it. The U.S. military bombs civilian targets and gets away with it.</p>
<p>Abuse of power—and the ambition-fueled hypocrisy and deliberate disregard for misconduct that make those abuses possible—works the same whether you’re talking about sexual harassment, government corruption, or the rule of law.</p>
<p>It’s the arrogance underlying the action that speaks volume.</p>
<p>Case in point: Bill Clinton still <a href="https://www.today.com/news/president-bill-clinton-monica-lewinsky-metoo-whether-his-apology-was-t130189">doesn’t think he did anything wrong</a> by sexually harassing government employees.</p>
<p>Twenty years ago, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/06/05/fact-checking-bill-clintons-meltdown-on-nbcs-today-show/">I was a lawyer for Paula Jones</a>, who sued then-President Clinton for dropping his pants and propositioning her for sex when he was governor of Arkansas. That lawsuit gave rise to revelations about <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/06/bill-clinton-feels-his-own-pain/561956/">Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky</a>, a 21-year-old intern at the White House, and his eventual impeachment for lying about it under oath.</p>
<p>As Dana Milbank writes for <em>The Washington Post</em>:</p>
<blockquote><p>We didn’t know it at the time, of course. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-bill-clinton-cleared-a-path-for-donald-trump/2018/06/04/e024c388-6834-11e8-9e38-24e693b38637_story.html">But in Bill Clinton were the seeds of Donald Trump.</a> With 20 years of hindsight, it is clear. To see the former president — now promoting a mystery he co-wrote with novelist James Patterson — sit down with NBC’s Craig Melvin was to see how Clinton’s handling of the Monica Lewinsky affair was a precursor of the monstrosity we now have in the White House: dismissing unpleasant facts as “fake news,” self-righteously claiming victimhood, attacking the press and cloaking personal misbehavior in claims to be upholding the Constitution. The former president’s offenses were far less serious than President Trump’s. Trump’s many misdeeds — against women, law, facts, democracy and decency — are in a category of their own. But Clinton set us on the path, or at least accelerated us down the path, that led to today.</p>
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<p>It doesn’t matter what starts us down this path, whether it’s a president insisting that he get a free pass for sexually harassing employees, or waging wars based on invented facts, or attempting to derail an investigation into official misconduct. </p>
<p>If we continue down this road, there can be no surprise about what awaits us at the end.</p>
<p>After all, it is a tale that has been told time and again throughout history about how easy it is for freedom to fall and tyranny to rise, and it often begins with one small, seemingly inconsequential willingness on the part of the people to compromise their principles and undermine the rule of law in exchange for a dubious assurance of safety, prosperity and a life without care.</p>
<p>For example, almost 85 years ago, the citizens of another democratic world power elected a leader who promised to protect them from all dangers. In return for this protection, and under the auspice of fighting terrorism, he was given absolute power.</p>
<p>This leader went to great lengths to make his rise to power appear both legal and necessary, masterfully manipulating much of the citizenry and their government leaders.</p>
<p>Unnerved by threats of domestic terrorism and foreign invaders, the people had little idea that the domestic turmoil of the times—such as street rioting and the fear of Communism taking over the country—was staged by the leader in an effort to create fear and later capitalize on it.</p>
<p>In the ensuing months, this charismatic leader ushered in a series of legislative measures that suspended civil liberties and habeas corpus rights and empowered him as a dictator.</p>
<p>On March 23, 1933, the nation’s legislative body passed the Enabling Act, formally referred to as the “Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation,” which appeared benign and allowed the leader to pass laws by decree in times of emergency. </p>
<p>What it succeeded in doing, however, was ensuring that the leader became a law unto himself.</p>
<p>The leader’s name was <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/adolf-hitler-becomes-president-of-germany">Adolf Hitler</a>, and the rest, as they say, is history. </p>
<p>Yet history has a way of repeating itself.</p>
<p>Hitler’s rise to power should serve as a stark lesson to always be leery of granting any government leader sweeping powers.</p>
<p>Clearly, we are not heeding that lesson.</p>
<p>“How lucky it is for rulers,” Adolf Hitler once said, “that men cannot think.”</p>
<p>The horrors that followed in Nazi Germany might have been easier to explain if Hitler had been right. But the problem is not so much that people <em>cannot</em> think but that they <em>do</em> <em>not </em>think. Or if they do think, as in the case of the German people, that thinking becomes muddled and easily led.</p>
<p>Hitler’s meteoric rise to power, with the support of the German people, is a case in point.</p>
<p>On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in full accordance with the country’s legal and constitutional principles. When President Paul von Hindenburg died the following year, Hitler assumed the office of president, as well as that of chancellor, but he preferred to use the title Der Füehrer (the leader) to describe himself. This new move was approved in a general election in which Hitler garnered 88 percent of the votes cast.</p>
<p>It cannot be said that the German people were ignorant of Hitler’s agenda or his Nazi ideology. Nazi literature, including statements of the Nazi plans for the future, had papered the country for a decade before Hitler came to power. In fact, Hitler’s book <em>Mein Kampf</em>, which was his blueprint for totalitarianism, sold more than 200,000 copies between 1925 and 1932.</p>
<p>Clearly, the problem was not that the German people did not think but that their thinking was poisoned by the enveloping climate of ideas that they came to accept as important.</p>
<p>At a certain point, the trivial became important, and obedience to the government in pursuit of security over freedom became predominant.</p>
<p>As historian Milton Mayer recounts in his seminal book on Hitler’s rise to power, <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html"><em>They Thought They Were Free</em></a>, “Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people‑—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies’, without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us.”</p>
<p>The German people were not oblivious to the horrors taking place around them. As historian Robert Gellately points out, “[A]nyone in Nazi Germany who wanted to find out about the Gestapo, the concentration camps, and the campaigns of discrimination and persecutions need only read the newspapers.”</p>
<p>The warning signs were definitely there, blinking incessantly like large neon signs.</p>
<p>“Still,” Gellately writes, “the vast majority voted in favor of Nazism, and in spite of what they could read in the press and hear by word of mouth about the secret police, the concentration camps, official anti-Semitism, and so on. . . . [T]here is no getting away from the fact that at that moment, ‘the vast majority of the German people backed him.’”</p>
<p>Half a century later, the wife of a prominent German historian, neither of whom were members of the Nazi party, opined: “[O]n the whole, everyone felt well. . . . And there were certainly eighty percent who lived productively and positively throughout the time. . . . We also had good years. We had <em>wonderful</em> years.”</p>
<p>In other words, as long as <em>their</em> creature comforts remained undiminished, as long as <em>their</em> bank accounts remained flush, as long as <em>they</em> weren’t being discriminated against, persecuted, starved, beaten, shot, stripped, jailed and turned into slave labor, life was good.</p>
<p>As I make clear in my book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Battlefield-America-War-American-People/dp/1590793099"><em>Battlefield America: The War on the American People</em></a>, this is how tyranny rises and freedom falls.</p>
<p>Beware of those who prioritize their politics over your freedoms.</p>
<p>Beware of those who prioritize their bank accounts over your freedoms.</p>
<p>Beware of those who prioritize their religion over your freedoms.</p>
<p>Beware of those who advocate absolute obedience to those in power.</p>
<p>Beware of those who equate patriotism with submission to the government’s dictates.</p>
<p>Beware of those who shrug dismissively over official misconduct and urge you to turn a blind eye, as well.</p>
<p>Beware of those who wage war against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They are all that stand between us and despotism.</p>
<p>As revolutionary war hero Daniel Webster warned, “Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world.”</p>
</div>
Immigrant children forcibly injected with drugs at Texas shelter, lawsuit claims
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-06-30:3488444:BlogPost:82077
2018-06-30T16:16:32.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<div class="grid_row grid_padded grid_separator grid_wrap--l"><div class="col"><h1 class="headline grid_separator">Immigrant children forcibly injected with drugs at Texas shelter, lawsuit claims</h1>
<p class="story_summary grid_separator">Children held at the Shiloh Treatment Center, a government contractor south of Houston that houses immigrant minors, described being held down and injected, according to federal court filings.…</p>
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<div class="grid_row grid_padded grid_separator grid_wrap--l"><div class="col"><h1 class="headline grid_separator">Immigrant children forcibly injected with drugs at Texas shelter, lawsuit claims</h1>
<p class="story_summary grid_separator">Children held at the Shiloh Treatment Center, a government contractor south of Houston that houses immigrant minors, described being held down and injected, according to federal court filings.</p>
<p id="byline" class="byline grid_separator"><span class="byline--item">BY MATT SMITH AND AURA BOGADO, REVEAL</span> JUNE 20, 2018 </p>
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<p class="byline grid_separator"><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/20/immigrant-children-forcibly-injected-drugs-lawsuit-claims/">https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/20/immigrant-children-forcibly-injected-drugs-lawsuit-claims/</a></p>
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<div class="grid_row grid_wrap--l grid_padded"><div class="series_header grid_separator"><p>The Trump administration's “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which led to the separation of children from adults who crossed the border illegally, has fueled a national outcry. <a href="https://texastribune.typeform.com/to/nRbPm8">Sign up</a> for our ongoing coverage. Send story ideas to <a href="mailto:tips@texastribune.org?subject=Families%20Divided%20Tip">tips@texastribune.org</a>.</p>
<span class="full_story"><a class="unlink" href="https://www.texastribune.org/series/separated-immigrant-families-zero-tolerance/">MORE IN THIS SERIES </a></span></div>
<div class="story_body grid_separator"><p>President Donald Trump’s "zero tolerance" policy is creating a zombie army of children forcibly injected with medications that make them dizzy, listless, obese and even incapacitated, according to legal filings that show immigrant children in U.S. custody subdued with powerful psychiatric drugs.</p>
<p>Children held at the Shiloh Treatment Center, a government contractor south of Houston that houses immigrant minors, described being held down and injected, according to <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4525292-420-2-Exhibit-Vol-2-Exs-21-30-Pages-109-73.html">the federal court filings</a>. The lawsuit alleges that children were told they would not be released or see their parents unless they took medication and that they only were receiving vitamins.</p>
<p>Parents and the children themselves told attorneys the drugs rendered them unable to walk, afraid of people and wanting to sleep constantly, according to affidavits filed April 23 in U.S. District Court in California. </p>
<p>One mother said her child fell repeatedly, hitting her head, and ended up in a wheelchair. A child described trying to open a window and being hurled against a door by a Shiloh supervisor, who then choked her until she fainted.</p>
<p>“The supervisor told me I was going to get a medication injection to calm me down,” the girl said. “Two staff grabbed me, and the doctor gave me the injection despite my objection and left me there on the bed.”</p>
<p>Another child recounted being made to take pills in the morning, at noon and night. The child said “the staff told me that some of the pills are vitamins because they think I need to gain weight. The vitamins changed about two times, and each time I feel different.”</p>
<p>Shiloh is among 71 companies that receive funds from the federal government to house and supervise immigrant children deemed unaccompanied minors.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/migrant-children-sent-to-shelters-with-histories-of-abuse-allegations/">investigation</a> by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and The Texas Tribune found that nearly half of the $3.4 billion paid to those companies in the last four years went to homes with serious allegations of mistreating children. In nearly all cases reviewed by Reveal, the federal government continued contracts with the companies after serious allegations were raised.</p>
<p>At Reveal’s request, forensic psychiatrist Mark. J. Mills assessed materials from 420 pages of children’s medical records and statements filed in California federal court this April.</p>
<p>“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist here; it looks like they’re trying to control agitation and aggressive behavior with antipsychotic drugs,” said Mills, who practices in the Washington, D.C., area and was an expert witness for a <a href="https://www.aclusocal.org/en/news/us-ends-forced-drugging-immigrants-after-shocking-lawsuit">lawsuit that in 2008</a> stopped the federal government from forcibly administering antipsychotic drugs to deportees.</p>
<p>“You don’t need to administer these kinds of drugs unless someone is plucking out their eyeball or some such. The facility should not use these drugs to control behavior. That’s not what antipsychotics should be used for. That’s like the old Soviet Union used to do.”</p>
<p>The records were filed in connection with an <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4525121-ORR-MTE2-Brief-Dkt409-1-041618.html">ongoing class action status lawsuit</a> alleging poor treatment of immigrant children in U.S. custody. An attorney representing the children said youth separated from their parents often become depressed, angry, anxious and, sometimes, unruly, and that in turn encourages prescription of inappropriate medication.</p>
<p>One child was <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4525292-420-2-Exhibit-Vol-2-Exs-21-30-Pages-109-73.html#document/p38/a430928">prescribed</a> 10 different shots and pills, including the antipsychotic drugs Latuda, Geodon and Olanzapine, the Parkinson’s medication Benztropine, the seizure medications Clonazepam and Divalproex, the nerve pain medication and antidepressant Duloxetine, and the cognition enhancer Guanfacine.</p>
<p>Dosage recommendations at Shiloh gave orderlies what Mills called an unusually wide berth to determine how much medicine to give the children.</p>
<p>Maribel Bernardez first suspected her son was being drugged at the Shiloh facility when she saw a video sent by his caseworker via WhatsApp.</p>
<p>“He was completely hypnotized and lethargic,” Bernardez told Reveal.</p>
<p>Bernardez, now reunited with her son in New Orleans and seeking asylum from Honduras, provided Reveal with records showing her son was held at the Shiloh facility for six months. He was 9 when he landed at Shiloh last November after being referred for what staff considered psychological issues. Reveal is not publishing his name at his mother’s request.</p>
<p>Medical records show that Bernardez’s son was administered psychotropic drugs at Shiloh. She told Reveal that she repeatedly objected and did not sign any consent form.</p>
<p>The Shiloh Treatment Center has not responded to a request from Reveal for comment about the case. The government Office of Refugee Resettlement has not responded either.</p>
<p>Side effects of the medications make some children feel even more desperate, leading to the prescription of increasingly powerful medications, said Carlos Holguin, an attorney for the Los Angeles-based Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law. Holguin is asking a judge to require parents’ permission or a court order before children in the country illegally can be medicated.</p>
<p>Shiloh already had a reputation for mistreating children. In December 2014, U.S. Rep. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/sheila-jackson-lee/">Sheila Jackson Lee</a>, D-Houston, called for Shiloh to be shut down, citing reports from the Houston Chronicle of “physical violence, unreasonable and excessive use of physical restraints, administering emergency medications without notice to governmental authorities, and several deaths of minor children while in custody,” <a href="https://jacksonlee.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/shiloh-treatment-center-in-manvel-should-be-closed-by-hhs-for">she said in a statement.</a></p>
<p>But the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services continued sending children and funds to Shiloh – a total of more than $19 million after the congresswoman called for its closure, according to federal payment records.</p>
<p>Shiloh has contracted to house immigrant children since 2013. Last year, the most lucrative yet under its agreement, Shiloh collected $5.6 million.</p>
<p>Children and parents interviewed by the attorneys described being forcibly injected or made to take as many as 18 pills a day. One record reviewed by Mills showed a child taking a battery of shots and pills that included three different types of antipsychotic drugs, which Mills said were improperly prescribed for “agitation” and “aggressive behavior.”</p>
<p>Of the 20 or so children Holguin and his colleagues interviewed, all had been medicated. Parents he interviewed described the results.</p>
<p>“I understand they are requiring (my daughter) to take very powerful medications for anxiety. I have noted that (my daughter) is becoming more nervous, fearful, and she trembles,” one said. “(My daughter) tells me that she has fallen several times and has injured her head and arms, to the point that she ended up in a wheelchair, because the medications were too powerful and she couldn’t walk. She has complained about the medications to the staff, that they make her afraid of people.”</p>
<p>Medical records included in the court exhibits suggest improper use of medications, according to Mills.</p>
<p>Asked how such drugs and dosages would make children feel, Mills said: “They feel like shit. They feel like they have given up their own control. The long-term complications are weight gain and developing adult onset diabetes. These drugs are not benign.”</p>
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The Coming Collapse By Chris Hedges
tag:911scholars.ning.com,2018-05-22:3488444:BlogPost:81748
2018-05-22T18:52:29.000Z
Shallel Octavia
https://911scholars.ning.com/profile/Shallel
<div class="article-item__header"><h1 class="article-item__title"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-coming-collapse/">https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-coming-collapse/</a></span></h1>
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<div class="article-item__content am2-content"><p>The…</p>
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<div class="article-item__header"><h1 class="article-item__title"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-coming-collapse/">https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-coming-collapse/</a></span></h1>
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<div class="article-item__content am2-content"><p>The Trump administration did not rise, prima facie, like Venus on a half shell from the sea. Donald Trump is the result of a long process of political, cultural and social decay. He is a product of our failed democracy. The longer we perpetuate the fiction that we live in a functioning democracy, that Trump and the political mutations around him are somehow an aberrant deviation that can be vanquished in the next election, the more we will hurtle toward tyranny. The problem is not Trump. It is a political system, dominated by corporate power and the mandarins of the two major political parties, in which we don’t count. We will wrest back political control by dismantling the corporate state, and this means massive and sustained civil disobedience, like that <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Statewide_public_education_strikes,_2018">demonstrated by teachers</a> around the country this year. If we do not stand up we will enter a new dark age.</p>
<p>The Democratic Party, which helped build our system of <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/sheldon-wolin-and-inverted-totalitarianism/">inverted totalitarianism</a>, is once again held up by many on the left as the savior. Yet the party steadfastly refuses to address the social inequality that led to the election of Trump and the insurgency by Bernie Sanders. It is deaf, dumb and blind to the very real economic suffering that plagues over half the country. It will not fight to pay workers a living wage. It will not defy the pharmaceutical and insurance industries to provide Medicare for all. It will not curb the voracious appetite of the military that is disemboweling the country and promoting the prosecution of futile and costly foreign wars. It will not restore our lost civil liberties, including the right to privacy, freedom from government surveillance, and due process. It will not get corporate and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/nonprof_summ.php">dark money</a> out of politics. It will not demilitarize our police and reform a prison system that has 25 percent of the world’s prisoners although the United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population. It plays to the margins, especially in election seasons, refusing to address substantive political and social problems and instead focusing on narrow cultural issues like gay rights, abortion and gun control in our peculiar species of <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-politics">anti-politics</a>.</p>
<p>This is a doomed tactic, but one that is understandable. The leadership of the party, the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Tom Perez, are creations of corporate America. In an open and democratic political process, one not dominated by party elites and corporate money, these people would not hold political power. They know this. They would rather implode the entire system than give up their positions of privilege. And that, I fear, is what will happen. The idea that the Democratic Party is in any way a bulwark against despotism defies the last three decades of its political activity. It is the guarantor of despotism.</p>
<p>Trump has tapped into the hatred that huge segments of the American public have for a political and economic system that has betrayed them. He may be inept, degenerate, dishonest and a narcissist, but he adeptly ridicules the system they despise. His cruel and demeaning taunts directed at government agencies, laws and the established elites resonate with people for whom these agencies, laws and elites have become hostile forces. And for many who see no shift in the political landscape to alleviate their suffering, Trump’s cruelty and invective are at least cathartic.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Trump, like all despots, has no ethical core. He chooses his allies and appointees based on their personal loyalty and fawning obsequiousness to him. He will sell anyone out. He is corrupt, amassing money for himself—he made $40 million from his Washington, D.C., hotel alone last year—and his corporate allies. He is dismantling government institutions that once provided some regulation and oversight. He is an enemy of the open society. This makes him dangerous. His turbocharged assault on the last vestiges of democratic institutions and norms means there will soon be nothing, even in name, to protect us from corporate totalitarianism.</p>
<p>But the warnings from the architects of our failed democracy against creeping fascism, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/madeleine-albright-fascism-a-warning-trump-north-korea/">Madeleine Albright among them</a>, are risible. They show how disconnected the elites have become from the zeitgeist. None of these elites have credibility. They built the edifice of lies, deceit and corporate pillage that made Trump possible. And the more Trump demeans these elites, and the more they cry out like Cassandras, the more he salvages his disastrous presidency and enables the kleptocrats pillaging the country as it swiftly disintegrates.</p>
<p>The press is one of the principal pillars of Trump’s despotism. It chatters endlessly like 18th-century courtiers at the court of Versailles about the foibles of the monarch while the peasants lack bread. It drones on and on and on about empty topics such as Russian meddling and a payoff to a porn actress that have nothing to do with the daily hell that, for many, defines life in America. It refuses to critique or investigate the abuses by corporate power, which has destroyed our democracy and economy and orchestrated the largest transfer of wealth upward in American history. The corporate press is a decayed relic that, in exchange for money and access, committed cultural suicide. And when Trump attacks it over “fake news,” he expresses, once again, the deep hatred of all those the press ignores. The press worships the idol of Mammon as slavishly as Trump does. It loves the reality-show presidency. The press, especially the cable news shows, keeps the lights on and the cameras rolling so viewers will be glued to a 21st-century version of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cabinet_of_Dr._Caligari">The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari</a>.” It is good for ratings. It is good for profits. But it accelerates the decline.</p>
<p>All this will soon be compounded by financial collapse. Wall Street banks have been handed <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/traceygreenstein/2011/09/20/the-feds-16-trillion-bailouts-under-reported/#10271bd426b0">$16 trillion in bailouts</a> and other subsidies by the Federal Reserve and Congress at nearly zero percent interest since the 2008 financial collapse. They have used this money, as well as the money saved through the huge tax cuts imposed last year, to buy back their own stock, raising the compensation and bonuses of their managers and thrusting the society deeper into untenable debt peonage. Sheldon Adelson’s casino operations alone <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/05/sheldon-adelson-cuts-30-million-check-to-house-rep.html">got a $670 million tax break</a> under the 2017 legislation. The ratio of CEO to worker pay now averages 339 to 1, with the highest gap approaching 5,000 to 1. This circular use of money to make and hoard money is what Karl Marx called “fictitious capital.” The steady increase in public debt, corporate debt, credit card debt and student loan debt will ultimately lead, as <a href="http://www.nomiprins.com/thoughts/tag/trump">Nomi Prins writes</a>, to “a tipping point—when money coming in to furnish that debt, or available to borrow, simply won’t cover the interest payments. Then debt bubbles will pop, beginning with higher yielding bonds.”</p>
<p>An economy reliant on debt for its growth causes our interest rate to jump to 28 percent when we are late on a credit card payment. It is why our wages are stagnant or have declined in real terms—if we earned a sustainable income we would not have to borrow money to survive. It is why a university education, houses, medical bills and utilities cost so much. The system is designed so we can never free ourselves from debt.</p>
<p>However, the next financial crash, as Prins points out <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/collusion-how-central-bankers-rigged-the-world/">in her book</a> “Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World,” won’t be like the last one. This is because, as she says, “there is no Plan B.” Interest rates can’t go any lower. There has been no growth in the real economy. The next time, there will be no way out. Once the economy crashes and the rage across the country explodes into a firestorm, the political freaks will appear, ones that will make Trump look sagacious and benign.</p>
<p>And so, to quote Vladimir Lenin, what must be done?</p>
<p>We must invest our energy in building parallel, popular institutions to protect ourselves and to pit power against power. These parallel institutions, including unions, community development organizations, local currencies, alternative political parties and food cooperatives, will have to be constructed town by town. The elites in a time of distress will retreat to their gated compounds and leave us to fend for ourselves. Basic services, from garbage collection to public transportation, food distribution and health care, will collapse. Massive unemployment and underemployment, triggering social unrest, will be dealt with not through government job creation but the brutality of militarized police and a complete <a href="https://popularresistance.org/congress-weighs-indefinite-detention-of-americans/">suspension of civil liberties</a>. Critics of the system, already pushed to the margins, will be silenced and attacked as enemies of the state. The last vestiges of labor unions will be targeted for abolition, a process that will soon be accelerated given the expected ruling in a case before the Supreme Court that will <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-janus-20180223-story.html">cripple the ability of public-sector unions</a> to represent workers. The dollar will stop being the world’s <a href="https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=ZuQBW_7uMoSSjwPsho2oDg&q=define+reserve+currency&oq=define+reserve+currency&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i22i30k1.405.2645.0.3800.9.8.0.0.0.0.143.810.5j3.8.0....0...1c.1j2.64.psy-ab..1.8.808.0..35i39k1j0i67k1j0i131k1j0i20i264k1j0i20i263i264k1j0i10k1j0i20i263k1.0.uof-mgLvY8s">reserve currency</a>, causing a steep devaluation. Banks will close. Global warming will extract heavier and heavier costs, especially on the coastal populations, farming and the infrastructure, costs that the depleted state will be unable to address. The corporate press, like the ruling elites, will go from burlesque to absurdism, its rhetoric so patently fictitious it will, as in all totalitarian states, be unmoored from reality. The media outlets will all sound as fatuous as Trump. And, to quote W.H. Auden, “the little children will die in the streets.”</p>
<p>As a foreign correspondent I covered collapsed societies, including the former Yugoslavia. It is impossible for any doomed population to grasp how fragile the decayed financial, social and political system is on the eve of implosion. All the harbingers of collapse are visible: crumbling infrastructure; chronic underemployment and unemployment; the indiscriminate use of lethal force by police; political paralysis and stagnation; an economy built on the scaffolding of debt; nihilistic mass shootings in schools, universities, workplaces, malls, concert venues and movie theaters; opioid overdoses that kill some 64,000 people a year; an epidemic of suicides; unsustainable military expansion; gambling as a desperate tool of economic development and government revenue; the capture of power by a tiny, corrupt clique; censorship; the physical diminishing of public institutions ranging from schools and libraries to courts and medical facilities; the incessant bombardment by electronic hallucinations to divert us from the depressing sight that has become America and keep us trapped in illusions. We suffer the usual pathologies of impending death. I would be happy to be wrong. But I have seen this before. I know the warning signs. All I can say is get ready.</p>
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<div class="people people--in-content" id="17"><a href="https://www.truthdig.com/author/chris_hedges/" class="people__image-link"></a><h5 class="people__name"><a href="https://www.truthdig.com/author/chris_hedges/">Chris Hedges</a></h5>
<div class="people__job-title">Columnist</div>
<div class="people__description">Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, New York Times best selling author, former professor at Princeton University, activist and ordained Presbyterian minister. He has written 11 books,…</div>
<a href="https://www.truthdig.com/author/chris_hedges/" class="people__read-more-link"></a><a href="https://www.truthdig.com/author/mr_fish/">Mr. Fish</a></div>
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<div class="people__description">Mr. Fish, also known as Dwayne Booth, is a cartoonist who primarily creates for Truthdig.com and Harpers.com. Mr. Fish's work has also appeared nationally in The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, Vanity…</div>
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