This is an article you will not see in any mainstream publication, on any cable news show or the nightly news. And yet the message contained therein is essential to rehabilitating the soul of western culture.

The spirit of dissent against authority for the benefit of the masses is alive and well in a person imprisoned and cancer ridden. If Lynne Stewart loves her country, her fellow citizens, freedom & democracy enough to persevere through her travails then why can’t those that aren’t under such dire circumstances fight against the oligarchy & plutocrats that are destroying our culture.

Chris Hedges has written an article that in large part is a series of quotes from this remarkable patriot. He is a conduit allowing her message to reach our minds and hearts. Congratulations Chris for having the courage and wisdom to get this story told.

I consider this article a wake up call to all of us of Lynne Stewart’s generation (especially those of us with legal educations) to fight to improve this corrupt system, to re-start the pursuit for justice we abandoned at the end of our youthful idealism of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s. Our failure to stay the course towards social justice cannot be our legacy.

In many ways Lynne Stewart is America’s Nelson Mandela. All that is missing is the public awareness of her plight & her cause. Unless there is a grass roots movement to create such an awareness her story will be buried by the main stream media and the vested interests that are committed to maintaining the status quo that satisfies their financial and political interests.

Is this the clarion call we need to motivate action?

As terrible as the Boston Marathon bombing was we must remain aware that we must not succumb to irrational fear and we must remain vigilant against government overreach and exploitation of this event to further reduce rights & liberties that made our culture preeminent.

Newly Released Secret Tapes Reveal LBJ Knew but Never Spoke Out About Nixon’s ‘Treason’
Connor Simpson, theatlanticwire.com

Rumors and whis­pers of Richard Nixon’s ‘trea­son’ — sab­o­tag­ing Viet­nam peace talks to help his Pres­i­den­tial cam­paign — have float­ed around for years, but newly released tapes from Lyn­don John­son’s Pres­i­den­cy con­firm that LBJ knew…

Interesting how such an important piece of information can be kept secret for 45 years. In so many ways this era has defined everything that has followed. Nixon, Watergate, Vietnam, Johnson & Kennedy. We are not finding out how our lives were impacted by decisions made by people of those times until almost a half century later. How many decisions since have been made based on false information? Now we learn that Johnson had negotiated an end to the Vietnam War in 1968. Who bears responsibility for the casualties from that point until the final end to hostilities? Is there any wonder why we are so suspicious of authority and the status quo. We are continually discovering that the dissenters were correct.

This is another account of the start of the trial and statements of Bradley Manning.

Interesting comparison made with this matter and the Daniel Ellsberg Pentagon Papers issue from the Vietnam era. The major difference, of course, is 9/11 instigating a vengeful War on Terror. In this context the USA has justified everything as defending against another attack on the “homeland” or as has been described by another would be Empire the “Fatherland”.

There has been little if any support for dissent in the current era as compared with the Vietnam era. Today Ellsberg is considered a hero. What will the future history books say about Bradley Manning?

There is something very disturbing about this Bradley Manning matter.

We are only now getting bits & pieces about the content and context of the information released without authority. The information is very disturbing as it portrays much inhuman conduct by the military. It also appears that the prosecution is pursuing punishment that far outweighs any crimes that may have been committed.

Also there is the aspect that the media has chosen to not report the atrocities but rather has chosen to attack the whistleblower. There is no effort made to hold the military or the government accountable.

This article attempts to bring to the forefront much of the information that has not been emphasized since this case started.

It will be worthwhile to follow this trial.

Peoria, AZ Spring Training 2005

I stumbled upon a neat application at Historypin.com and have made my first posting.

I decided that the most appropriate initial posting should be special. I decided to post a picture of my Dad at one of his favorite places during one of my favorite days.

It was February 26, 2005 at the Peoria Spring Training Complex of the San Diego Padres as he & I relaxed and enjoyed a Spring Training baseball game under crystal clear blue Arizona skies.

I don’t remember who the Padres were playing, I don’t remember the score or who won. But I do remember every minute of a wonderful time he & I spent together talking about baseball, life and family.

We were on the 3rd base side, about 5 rows from the field. We wandered through the complex, had a beer, shopped for souvenirs and, of course, he was able to “haggle” a deal on some merchandise that was left over from the previous year’s Spring Training.

Unforgettable.

I would give every material possession I have to be able to do this again one more time. Miss you Dad.

Glenn Greenwald can write cogent pieces such as “The Premises and Purposes of American Exceptionalism” but he can only get such nuggets published in media outlets such as The Guardian in Great Britain. Thoughts such as these would not find their way into any part of the Main Stream Media oligarchy that disseminates informtion throughout the United States. Interestingly his conclusions are the basis for the explanation as to why these thoughts would not be published in a major American media outlet.

“In sum, think tank ‘scholars’ don’t get invited to important meetings by ‘national security professionals’ in DC if they point out that the US is committing war crimes and that the US president is a war criminal. They don’t get invited to those meetings if they argue that the US should be bound by the same rules and laws it imposes on others when it comes to the use of force. They don’t get invited if they ask US political officials to imagine how they would react if some other country were routinely bombing US soil with drones and cruise missiles and assassinating whatever Americans they wanted to in secret and without trial. As the reaction to Cornel West shows, making those arguments triggers nothing but ridicule and exclusion.

One gets invited to those meetings only if one blindly affirms the right of the US to do whatever it wants, and then devotes oneself to the pragmatic question of how that unfettered license can best be exploited to promote national interests. The culture of DC think tanks, ‘international relations’ professionals, and foreign policy commenters breeds allegiance to these American prerogatives and US power centers - incentivizes reflexive defenses of US government actions - because, ….. that is the only way to advance one’s careerist goals as a ‘national security professional’. If you see a 20-something aspiring ‘foreign policy expert’ or ‘international relations professional’ in DC, what you’ll view, with some rare exceptions, is a mindlessly loyal defender of US force and prerogatives. It’s what that culture, by design, breeds and demands.

…….

This belief in the unfettered right of the US to use force anywhere in the world for any reason it wants is sustained only by this belief in objective US superiority, this myth of American exceptionalism. And the results are exactly what one would expect from an approach grounded in a belief system so patently irrational …”

Another great article from Chris Hedges in TruthDig.com “Profiting from Human Misery” further debunking the great myth that portrays America as the birthplace of freedom and the land of opportunity for all. The first step to making this admirable myth true is to admit the problems that currently exist. 

The sad truth of people & their freedom being used as a commodity for deriving profit in the prison industrial complex.

The summary: “We have abandoned the common good. We have been stripped of our rights and voice. Corporations write our laws and determine how we structure our society. We have all become victims. There are no politicians or institutions, no political parties or courts, that are independent enough or strong enough to resist the corporate onslaught. Greater and greater numbers of human beings will be consumed. The poor, the vulnerable, the undocumented, the weak, the elderly, the sick, the children will go first. And those of us watching helplessly outside the gates will go next.”

Is this what they now mean when they say “Only in America”?

The Frontline program referenced in the article can be viewed on the PBS web site. It is an excellent but disturbing investigation into the decisions made by the DOJ whether to prosecute individuals and institutions for activities that led to the recent financial collapse.

Lanny Breuer a former member of the Clinton Administration, had worked at the Washington office of Covington & Burling LLP alongside Eric Holder the current Attorney General in the Obama Administration.

To a large extent the contents of this investigation serves to demonstrate that Democrats as much as Republicans are controlled by the oligarchs and plutocrats on Wall Street.

We learned that not only were these Banks Too Big to Fail they were also Too Big to Prosecute for their criminal activities..