REMEMBERING A GREAT PROTEST AT THE SPACE CENTER

Bobbie Heinrich was arrested on January 17, 1987 at Cape Canaveral and was one of the leaders of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice.  She got arrested several times at the space center and was an important activist  in her Ft. Myers community.  Bobbie and her husband were avid gardeners who were pioneers in the idea of localization.  They had lived in Africa for many years.

Dr. Benjamin Spock spoke at the January 17 protest at Cape Canaveral.  In his book "Spock on Spock" he ended the autobiography with a photo of him climbing over the base gates.  He wrote, "Every effort made in this direction, every letter and every demonstration, has done some positive good.  Without these protests, things would be much worse."

January 17, 1987 was a special day.  It was the date of the largest peace protest in Florida history when well over 5,000 people marched onto the front gates of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in protest of the planned test launch of the first Trident II nuclear missile.  I was then coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice where I worked for 15 years.  We initiated the call for the protest and asked for help from groups around the country.  Our march to the gates that day was led by famous baby doctor Benjamin Spock and he was the first person to climb a ladder to get over the barbed wire fence. We called the protest "Cancel the Countdown".

In all 186 were arrested for symbolically trying to enter the base to sit on the launch pad where Trident II nuclear missiles would be test fired. About 50 were arrested in the days preceding the January 17 event when they tried sneaking onto the launch center that is located inside the national seashore and surrounded by ocean and swamps.  Some hiked up the beach toward the launch towers along the shore and others trudged through the alligator infested swamp marshes.  Some were arrested at night with military helicopters searching for them.  For a solid week the media around Florida was intensely covering the arrests prior to the January 17 rally.  Peter Lumsdaine from California came to help and was a key organizer of these back country actions at the Cape.

Events really got going two weeks prior to the January 17 rally and march.  We organized a Peace Pilgrimage to Stop the Trident that began with a protest at Kings Bay nuclear submarine base on the Florida-Georgia border.  John and Martina Linnehan took on the responsibility for making the pilgrimage such a success. The peace pilgrimage was led by Buddhist monks and more than 200 people made the two week trek to the space center. 

When Jimmy Carter was president (after saying during his campaign that "the arms race is a disgrace to the human race") he went on to build the huge new Trident sub base in the sleepy north Georgia fishing town called St. Marys. Once the Trident missiles were tested they were to be put inside the nuclear submarines at Kings Bay and at the other Trident nuclear sub base at Bangor, Washington.


As the pilgrimage came south, affinity groups were formed that began to plan the back country occupations of the space center in hopes they could get on the launch pad and delay the launch.  

From Boston a peace train was organized by the national peace coalition called Mobilization for Survival (Mobe).  They reserved several rail cars on Amtrak and the train went from Boston to Orlando stopping along the way holding quick news conferences in major cities at the rail stations and a couple hundred activists jumped on-board the train for the ride to Florida.  It was Mobe who got Dr. Spock, Peter Yarrow and Odetta to come to Florida for the protest.

Other organizers streamed into Florida in the weeks prior to the protest to help and we put them to work across the state helping build turnout.  Thanks to local supporter Smitty Hooper in Cocoa Beach we opened an office there to coordinate local organizing near the space center.

It was my job to coordinate the overall operation and it was one of the most thrilling campaigns I every worked on.  There were lots of threads weaving this protest together and in the days prior to the Internet and Facebook we had to organize the old fashioned way - traveling the state, talking to people, phone calls, mailing leaflets, and the like. One night while speaking to a peace group in southwest Florida I mentioned that we needed to raise $1,500 to pay for a trailer with port-a-toilets for the peace walk.  After the meeting a woman walked up and handed me a check for $1,500.

In the end I spent about five days in jail along with many others, some stayed in the lock up for weeks.  The Brevard County jail was so over crowded the night of January 17 that they had to set up a huge tent in a parking lot to hold the men who had been arrested.  It was cold and raining outside and we chanted for hours demanding better treatment.  Eventually, late in the night, they brought us plastic pads to lay on but I refused to do so.  I held out for us being moved to a warm and dry inside location.  I lost the battle and held tightly to the tent poles through that long and memorable night.  I admit there were moments that I regretted taking such a hard line but my pride was at stake here - I'd made a demand and was going to stick with it - through thick and thin, and cold and rain.

Some years later I was shopping at the Albertson's grocery store in downtown Orlando near where I lived.  In those days they had bag boys push your cart of groceries into the parking lot and they loaded your car.  As we approached my car the young man noticed my bumper stickers and got excited.  He told me a story about the Cape Canaveral protest a few years before and how he and his father were watching the news reports on TV about peaceniks going over the fence.  "I loved it," he said.  "My dad hated it and screamed at the TV."

I realized in that moment that the protest had not just been about the 5,000 people there.  The audience for this public participatory production had been extensive, even national.  It made me wonder even more what other creative ways we could find to get our message beyond our limited confines.

In the end this bold day of action was the kind of direct citizens challenge that we need to mount against the military industrial complex.  We were proud to have organized many of these events at the space center in Florida over the years.

A few other friends yesterday have offered their memories of that protest.

Long-time Catholic Worker activist Patrick O'Neill from North Carolina writes:

"As 5,000 people (from dozens of cities around the nation) converged on the gates of Cape Canaveral 27 years ago today, we soon discovered the Air Force had changed plans on us -- the gates -- which were always open, were closed to prevent our plan to occupy the base to protest the Trident II D-5 missile, the most diabolical first-strike weapon ever made. Undeterred, the late great activist and famous baby book author, Dr. Benjamin Spock, (then 86 years old and leading the march) walked straight up to the 8-foot fence and scaled it with his wife right behind. More than 200 others followed Spock over or around the fence line [by going into the river], joining one of the greatest mass acts of nonviolent direct action ever staged in the South. That day marks one of the strongest efforts ever carried out in opposition to US nuclear policy."

Frank Donnelly (then in Florida but now living in Maine) writes:

"I'll join in on this, 27 yrs ago I along with others rode bus from Lake Worth, Florida to the protest where I saw Patrick for the first time since prison, I was still on probation . I remember that most of the folks on my bus where older Jewish women along with a friend visiting from Maine, he was worried we'd be arrested .It seemed to me there was more than 5,000 but maybe I was just hoping. It was a great day for the peace movement we sure could use lots more like that day. Peace to you both."

Leslie Cagan (then national coordinator of Mobe in New York City) writes:
 

"In the 1980's, Mobilization for Survival was a fairly strong national network of about 125 organizations - mostly local groups with several national organizations as well. Committed to trying to build a strong national peace and justice presence meant we did what we could to help nurture grassroots, community based activism. As is so often the case, the most creative, the boldest and most challenging ideas came from that grassroots activism and our national work was given shape by those initiatives. Such was the case with the plans for an action in Central Florida at the time of the 1st flight test of the Trident nuclear weapons missile. Here was an opportunity to take the widespread opposition to nuclear weapons right to the front door of one of the facilities directly involved. It was a no-brainer - Mobilization for Survival quickly jumped into the work.

We did what we could to let people far and wide know about the plans for the protest in Florida. Most importantly, we encouraged those who could to make the trip there themselves. And we facilitated this by organizing a peace train that came down the East Coast picking up folks along the journey. I don't recall now how many stops it made or how many people got on board. But that didn't really matter since everyone knew the great majority of the people at the demonstration would be Floridians. What did matter was that people in other parts of the country were taking notice, helping in whatever ways they could, and being inspired to think about what anti-nuclear actions they could take in their own backyards.

I had the good fortunate of people able to go to Florida for several days before the action, and of course was there on that great day. It was exciting to watch the buses roll in and to be there as people gathered for the rally and march to the front gate of the facility. I'll never forget the sight of hundreds of senior citizens who had retired to Florida opening up their folding chairs and taking out their lunch baskets...rejoicing in the fact that they did not have to travel all the way up the Washington, DC or New York City (where so many of them had come from) to be part of this protest! Some of these folks were too frail to do the march to the front gate, let alone to climb over the fence that day. But their full support for the action was evident, and inspiring.

It was a great day, and another one of those important reminders that a national movement is grounded in communities all across the nation. Mobilization for Survival was thrilled that we could help build this protest, and I, personally, was honored to have been a part of it."

I thank Patrick for the reminder of this special day.  He is good at remembering these important landmarks in our life and celebrating them.  His joyous and loving personality brings us all great gifts.

SATURDAY NIGHT

LOOK UP

EATING REAL LOCAL

Tim Rinne in Nebraska tends his winter garden and shares his story.

The following guest editorial by friend and GN board member Tim Rinne appeared in the December 8th edition of the Lincoln Journal Star and was reprinted in the Wednesday, December 11th edition of the Grand Island Independent.

How embarrassing.

Here I am, a lifelong resident of one of the premier agricultural regions of the world, whose family has farmed in the state since 1868, and I didn’t get it.

You would have thought that eating at least three times a day for 50 years would have stirred me to take an interest in how that food got on my plate.

But no. I just ate.

It took a quote from an aristocratic British farmer (a member of the House of Lords, no less) to get me to grasp not just the centrality of food production in our lives — but how fragile this system is.

“Nine meals away from anarchy” is how Lord Cameron of Dillington described Britain in 2007.

The first time I came across this statement I wasn’t even sure I knew what he was talking about. But the inspiration for his disquieting comment comes, in part, from our side of the pond. From the experience of Hurricane Katrina.

Our grocery stores (where most of us do all of our ‘hunting and fishing and farming’) operate on what is called ‘just in time delivery.’ Your average grocery outlet carries just three days of inventory — the equivalent of ‘nine meals.’ Any disruption to that delivery schedule and our food security is at risk.

Hurricane Katrina, Lord Cameron declared, provided a textbook case of the social disruption that occurs with a sudden calamity. The first day (meals 1-3), people rush to the grocery store to stock up. The second day (meals 4-6), those who can afford it go back and buy whatever’s left. And the third day (meals 7-9), when the larder’s empty and people are hungry, the social order begins to break down.

Or, in Lord Cameron’s words, “there will be rats, mayhem, and maybe even murder.”

Scarcity does ugly things to a population. “The better angels of our nature” (to use Abraham Lincoln’s phrase) tend not to fare very well when people are hungry and afraid. Our first thoughts are for ourselves and our own, and conflict invariably erupts with our neighbors over competition for resources. The Pentagon, in fact, already is bracing for wars over food and water — and not just in the poor nations of the globe. As Lord Cameron warns, everyone who eats is vulnerable to food insecurity. It’s a world we want to avoid if we can help it.

So to bring this all back home, we need to be asking where that food on our grocery store shelves comes from.

And the answer for more than 90 percent of it is: from somewhere other than Nebraska.

Agricultural powerhouse that we are, barely a tenth of what we grow in the state is consumed locally. The other nine-tenths is exported to out-of-state markets.

It hasn’t of course always been that way. My father assures me that, growing up on the farm in Johnson County in the 1930s, 95 percent of their diet came from within 5 miles of where they lived. They had to buy their coffee and sugar. And they never had fresh strawberries in December. But they ate three times a day and they could tell you where their food came from — because they either grew it themselves or got it from a neighbor.

That kind of food localization is something we need to get back to, particularly those of us living in towns and cities where the single-largest irrigated crop in America is grown: our lawns.

We can’t eat the grass they’re made of. They sap enormous amounts of water, fossil fuels and arable land.

But we religiously nurture them in our yards, while the average bite of food on our plate travels 1,500 miles or more.

This is a recipe for disaster. And with the increased risk that extreme weather events like drought and flood pose to agriculture because of climate change, we frankly have no choice but to develop a more stable — and locally based — food system.

In April of this year, yet another British government official, Agriculture Minister David Heath, warned of coming food shortages and exhorted Britons to replace their lawns with gardens and “dig for survival.”

Call me overly cautious, but I’m taking the minister’s advice. I don’t like missing meals. It makes me crabby.

Tim Rinne is the state coordinator of Nebraskans for Peace. He and his wife, Kay Walter, have converted their entire property in the Hawley Historic District to an ‘edible landscape.’  You can see a whole slideshow of his garden photos here

FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL

A story of pirates in Somalia told from the perspective of a struggling, young Somali fisherman. Among other awards, this short film won the Grand Jury Prize in short filmmaking at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

YOUNG MAINERS SPEAK OUT

This video is from the January 9 rally in Augusta inside the state capital. There was a special effort to get young people to speak.  The rally was multi-issue that connected all the dots.  This particular video segment from the rally shows the public divestment movement on campuses across Maine.

Video/audio Peter Woodruff.  Edit/video Martha Spiess.

DANGER ZONE

This graphic tells the story.  The US military "pivot" into the Asia-Pacific is provocative.  Imagine if another nation was moving 60% of its military might right off the shores of the US's east and west coasts.  Washington would take it as a declaration of war.  When the US does it no one is supposed to bat an eye.

China is the target.  North Korea, that pip-squeak with mostly outdated military technology (according to the Pentagon), is just the excuse.   When I was in the Air Force I had a friend that had once been stationed in Korea near the DMZ during the late 60's.  Cold War fever was burning strong.  In those days he was a security guard and was put on the runway in the middle of a freezing Korean winter.  His job?  'Watch out for the communist hordes coming over that hill.  You are the first line of defense.'  He froze in fear with his gun until one cold night it dawned on him that the Chinese Communists were not coming over the hill.  He eventually got out of the security guard job and moved into base administration where I worked.  But in the end we were all complicit on some level - we helped the war wheels turn - in our time it was the Vietnam War.

The corporate masters who invest heavily in China want to control the whole ball of wax.  They are greedy and want everything.  So they use the big military stick that has time and again brought chaos but has always helped give the capitalist class control.  (Look at Vietnam today.) Mr. Big benefits from the chaos and the times of stability.

Back here at home we have lots of parades to honor the vets.  We should remember the post-WW I "bonus Army" who dared set up camp in Washington to demand their actual "war bonus" during the depression and were met with the back-hand of the US military led by future Generals MacArthur and Eisenhower.  In order to climb the Army ladder of success these two ambitious "leaders" knew they had to take charge of the repression of the bonus Army protesters, their own citizens, and they willingly did.  (Congress ran out the back door - they've always been pawns.)  We’ve had a military dictatorship in America for a long time.

Today we have more homeless veterans than ever but there is one big difference from the bonus days.  The people now have become more beaten down, broken, war weary both from battles abroad and the struggles at home.  The people increasingly are taking anti-depressant medications that often are addictive and dangerous to our health.  Money is made selling legal drugs to a public who just wants to know how to survive. (Probably a huge reason for the excitement over the sporadic legalization of marijuana across the country. People are looking for another way, it is the longing we all have to be more connected to the spirit.  Maybe a joint will help.)

But sadly all the TV ads selling drugs and promises of “nice quiet Sunday's on the porch sipping tea" are nothing but Hollywood creations.  Those images help to keep us taking the bait.  We've swallowed them easily in the past but they are getting harder to take.

The ads on TV also remind us that we have to keep our mouths shut about peace issues because we have to 'always' support the troops.  That is another illusion created to keep us docile.  The oligarchy doesn't give a shit about the troops.  The troops are disposable.  Displays of "patriotism" trotted out a few times a year are intended to keep the illusion (and our fear of Mr. Big) fresh in our minds. They have the mind control system down to a tee. 

Just where do you want me to stand sir?  'Don't cross that line...salute me...do my bidding even though you think it is wrong.....'

......you get nice stuff in return for your silence.

CLOSER LOOK AT AIPAC

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

US Senators from both parties imperil the prospect of peace with Iran.

NEWSLETTER DONE

We wrapped up the Global Network newsletter today and it is off to the print shop.  You can see it online here.  Our wonderful web master Dave Webb in England got it up on the web site in record time.  Dave also chairs the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and serves as board convener of the Global Network.  He is one busy guy but now that he has retired from teaching he somehow finds the time to fit it all together. I can't imagine how he did it all before he retired.

There is extensive reporting in this issue about the US "pivot" into the Asia-Pacific and anti-drone campaigning.  We also have some great articles about Jeju Island, the rush to drill for oil in the Arctic, Boeing the war corporation and more. 

Nancy Randolph in nearby Topsham, Maine does the layout work after I pull the copy and graphics together.  She has a creative eye and we work well together.  She's been doing posters, leaflets, and newsletters for the GN since we moved to Maine in 2003.

We are looking for folks who will help us distribute copies of the printed newsletter in their local community.  We will provide newsletters to you for free and only ask reimbursement for the cost of postage to you.  So if you can help pass them around please let us know how many copies we should send you.  Distribution is key - our last edition had the widest distribution ever.  You can place an order for bulk copies by sending me a message at globalnet@mindspring.com

Thanks for the help.

REACTIONS TO AIPAC'S ATTEMPT TO KILL IRAN DEAL

There has been alot of buzz across the Internet the last couple of days about the swelling opposition in Congress to the Iran nuclear deal.  Right-wing Republicans and Democrats have joined up for a strong effort to kill any deal with Iran by unilaterally increasing already painful sanctions.  Israel wants Iran taken down.  Below is an excellent take on the issue by Kevin Zeese who helps run PopularResistance.org

It seems like right now there is not a lot of likelihood [Senate leader] Harry Reid will let any vote come to the floor.  It is definitely a destructive bill that pushes the US in the wrong direction and we should keep a list of those who have supported Iran sanctions at this key moment.  So, it is good to have the list.

Is it the right time for protest?  Depends where and what purposes.  It would be good to draw attention to the 58 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) senators and protest them, perhaps in their home states as war mongers when the rest of the US doesn't want war.  They should receive some bad politics for their actions.  People should know their senator puts Israel before US interests.
 
As to DC, not sure -- Reid is seeming pretty strongly opposed to moving forward and a bunch of Dem senators who are chairs of key committees have told him do not bring this to a vote.  Robert Naiman tells Real News: "Ten Senate Democratic committee chairs, led by Dianne Feinstein, who's head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Carl Levin, who's head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, ten Senate Democrats sent a letter to majority leader Reid saying, do not bring this bill to a vote, we oppose this bill, please let us know of any plans to bring this bill to a vote, 'cause we oppose bringing this bill to a vote."
 
This may be where it ends.  AIPAC gets its symbolic show of strength without pushing to far into what would have become a crisis for them if they actually succeeded.
 
There is more of an update, just posted here
 
By the way, the fact that people like Feinstein and Levin, loyal AIPACers, are playing the role of blocking the vote, makes this all look very orchestrated to me. A show of force by AIPAC but if they blocked Obama on Iran AIPAC/Israel would lose major support in the US.  They can't carry out their threat without a lot of political cost.
 
Kevin Zeese
Baltimore, MD

Then, just to make this a bit more interesting, I'd like to add some words on this by Tarak Kauff from Woodstock, NY.  Tarak is a leader of Veterans for Peace and often in the street.

Kevin's analysis is always astute. Thanks Kevin. However, I am still thinking that a demonstration (banner drops, office occupation, outside demo) in DC at the Hart, where the 3 Senators who proposed the bill offices are would be appropriate.

Even if this is a symbolic show of strength for AIPAC and the bill would not come to the floor, orchestrated, as Kevin suspects, or not, it presents an opportunity to publicly denounce and expose AIPAC, Shumer, Menendez, and the rest who play AIPACs deadly game. And their intentions are always deadly. Since they brought this up, my feeling, if we can get enough support for the action, is to proceed as if this is a real move towards war - which in any respect, long term or short term, it is.

AIPAC and their congressional lackeys should be slammed every time they open their mouth - and this time they have put their foot in it but good. What with some key Dems opposing this, it is, I think, perhaps a great opportunity for us to further weaken and divide the pillars.

Tarak Kauff
Board of Directors
Veterans for Peace

THE RISE OF FASCISM

• This is a very good video and fills many gaps in our US history.  Our organizing needs to point out and name this corporate fascism or else it's maniacal ego will grow and become even more repressive.  We are right on the edge of the wall now.  Time to protect the kids and push back.

• I once saw George W. Bush's Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld briefly quoted on video.  He was walking out of the Pentagon and spoke this one powerful line:  "We plan everything."  Rumsfeld was answering the question about the quagmire that Iraq had become and the press was wondering if the Bush team was just plain incompetent.  Rumsfeld's answer has lodged deeply into my brain and I think of it often.  The oligarchy has all the resources it needs to control the political and economic system.  If they make mistakes they cover them and move on.  But clearly the Bush team knew that their plan for Iraq, to destroy and permanently destabilize the country, would cause many in the public to question their "ability" to run a war.  They actually wanted people to question Bush's competence.  That way folks might not spend much time asking a different question: "Mr. Rumsfeld, now that we all see the mess you've made in Iraq, are you willing to confess that you did this on purpose because your wider plan is to create permanent instability in many countries around the world that stand in the way of complete corporate control of declining resources on our planet?"  
• They plan everything....but now and then the boiling public outrage gets beyond even the control of the NSA and CIA.  Occupy was a real challenge but was then crushed under orders from the White House. The oligarchy knows and fears the growing public anger about massive disparity between the rich and the poor. Now is the time when the elites get dangerous - they get scared and mean.  But we are like Wack-a-mole at the county fair - we keep popping up and they can't hit all of us.

• I taped the next edition of my public access TV show today.  My guest was Pastor Bill Bliss from a church (UCC) in Bath who is doing good work in our community on behalf of those who are struggling with our collapsing economy.  He was actually my first guest when I started doing the TV show in December 2003.

RODMAN ON HIS KOREA VISIT

Actually he is right....he is just a person trying to make peace in his own way.  Someone has to the break the ice at last - instead of a hot shooting war - and it turned out to be Dennis Rodman.  Sometimes history comes calling and you have to go with it.....

WHO STILL BE THE DEVIL?

"Somebody Blew Up America" by Amiri Baraka with Rob Brown-saxophone, recorded live on February 21, 2009 at The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY.

This production is part of "Free Jazz at the Sanctuary," a 13-part series of performance videos featuring some of the world's most talented improvisers. Each hour-long show is available on DVD directly from Downtown Music Gallery (www.downtownmusicgallery.com). For more information on this series, visit www.JazzSanctuary.org

WE ARE BEING SCHOOLED......

Frack U. Mexico. Directed by Greg "Gringoyo" Berger. Screenplay by Al Giordano.

Good news! Mexico has the fourth largest shale gas reserves in the world, and the Mexican Congress is about to change the constitution so that private companies can drill for it. That means that U.S. companies will soon be there, fracking for gas. Sure, there may be some complications from the more than 500 chemicals that will be pumped into Mexico's aquifers, but never fear: Joe T. Hodo, President of "Frack U. Mexico!" is here to show you why Mexicans should stop worrying and learn to love fracking...or else.

NO MORE EXCUSES

On the 12th anniversary of the arrival of prisoners at the U.S. detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, activists occupy the National Museum of American History to create their own exhibit.

THE FUNNIES....

Maine - the way life should be......

THE BEAUTIFUL WORDS

SUNDAY SONG

THIS ISSUE ON CORPORATE WELFARE

My latest public access TV show with guest Orlando Delogu who is a retired law professor at the University of Southern Maine.  He specializes on corporate welfare issues and helped us tremendously in our recent campaign here in Bath to try to block the requested tax break by General Dynamics that owns Bath Iron Works.  We were able to trim about one million dollars from this proposed corporate tax break.  A bit more money for the local people and less for those at the top of the war machine. 

COOKING DAY

I got an early start this morning with my day of cooking.  I got my pasta sauce (from scratch) going that will cook for several hours.  We are hosting the birthday party sleep-over at the Addams-Melman House tonight for one of our local friends who is turning 15.  She's having a bunch of friends over for dinner and slumber party.  She requested my spaghetti so I decided to make enough sauce that I can freeze.  It's always good to have some sauce in the freezer.

While cooking I've been listening to a CD of Italian music that a friend made for my 60th birthday party.  I listen to it often when I cook.  It reminds me of the early years when my Italian mother used to sing all the time when she was cooking - particularly to Mario Lanza records.  As the years rolled by she sang less and less until she pretty much stopped.  I'm trying to reverse that trend in my life.

My grandmother was born with polio and lived in a nunnery in Italy for many of her young years.  She was a bit of a religious zealot who used to throw shoes at us from her wheelchair.  It felt like she got more bitter as she got older.  When I was around 14 my grandfather gave me a bag of hand sewn Yarmulkes and told me "these have been in the family for generations.  I want you to have them."  No other word was said.....no one wanted to talk about how my grandfather Vincent's family had dropped their Jewish identify and culture to become Northern Baptists.  He was an ambitious immigrant.

My grandfather would cook on Sundays, rigatoni with meatballs or sausage or chicken or beef ... and always a wonderful small soup to start.....and the kids all drank wine (mixed half-and-half with water) that Vincent made from the grapes in his garden in Shelton, Connecticut.  We'd visit this big house on the hill between our military moves. Angela was the Italian immigrant maid that worked at the house for years.  I loved her the most because she was kind and the most authentic.

My mother and her sister and two brothers were taught at school the American dream - make money, leave home, become a city slicker, cut loose and fancy free...and consume.  Then at home they were taught the culture of La Famiglia, deep sense of responsibility and reverence for the elders, frugality, the old ways.  Conflict arose between the immigrant parents and the young first-generation Italian-Americans that was my mother's group.  They questioned but had no clue where they were going.  They had a hard time deciding which was their true identity, their "new American" identity, so they become extremely neurotic.  Then as parents these 1st generation folks had a hard time telling their own kids (my generation) what was real and what was not.

While taking a sociology class in college I ran into a book called "Blood of My Blood: The Dilemma of the Italian Americans," by Richard Gambino.  He taught college and was astounded at how many of his Italian-American students had no sense of grounding - they were at times adrift in this culture because of the disconnection from their traditions.  This book helped liberate me in many ways as I stumbled through my own neurosis that has often engulfed me but the story helped me see the bigger picture so I could fit the pieces of my family puzzle together.  I had to find my own mind and place in the world.  In our family time no one talked about anything real - the real world was not either known or allowed to be discussed.

I always think of the immigrants today....they bring the good from the old world with them and the dominant American culture either rejects or absorbs some of these new gifts - but those who immediately suffer from the great loss of the goodness from the old ways are stunned by the experience.  I feel for them all the time.

TOP 10 REASONS TO ABOLISH LISTS

I spend a good amount of time on Facebook.  As an organizer I can spread information quickly and a great distance. I find many good articles and videos.  It's useful to me although I don't like their sellout to the NSA.

Lists seem to be the current fashion on FB and I am one who has all my life tried to walk away from trends, fashion, the popular thing because I didn't want to be like everyone else.  Sometimes one succumbs to the prevailing waves but in general I've tried to stay loyal to that attitude.

So here is my list about why lists are worn out:

10.  Lists are linear thinking and the native people tell us that our entire mindset must move away from industrial brain patterns if we are to live on Mother Earth in a good way.  (linear means straight line thinking...uniform...no diversity...no pictorial representations...obedience to the line, to authority)

9.  Lists keep us from telling stories which are the traditional way to pass on information to each other

8.  Lists simplify the complicated            

7.  Lists make little noise

6.  The list makers, and list keepers, hold much of the power             

5.  The master(s) of the list makers and list keepers also have lists

4.  Lists reenforce the class division - corporations are at the top of the list of annual profits, donations to politicians, polluters of the environment, makers of weapons, and the fewest members of their class ever going to jail

3.  Key activists get their names on lists used by Mr. Big to spy on the people

2.  Lists create separation - X is the most popular person in the public eye and Z is not.  Z feels slighted and is angry with X (and the public).  X fears Z might become most popular on next year's list.  So X undermines Z

1. Lists are anti-life in that they help keep us disconnected from the web of creation...lists keep us away from the circle which is a revolutionary concept

Here is an example of the linear and the circle in direct conflict. The linear is very efficient.

A GREAT ONE PASSES.....

Amiri Baraka, the poet, playwright and political organizer died Thursday at the age of 79. Baraka was a leading force in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1963 he published "Blues People: Negro Music in White America," known as the first major history of black music to be written by an African American. A year later he published a collection of poetry titled "The Dead Lecturer" and won an Obie Award for his play, “Dutchman." After the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, he moved to Harlem and founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre.

In the late 1960s, Baraka moved back to his hometown of Newark and began focusing more on political organizing, prompting the FBI to identify him as "the person who will probably emerge as the leader of the pan-African movement in the United States." Baraka continued writing and performing poetry up until his hospitalization late last year, leaving behind a body of work that greatly influenced a younger generation of hip-hop artists and slam poets.

Democracy Now interviews four of Baraka’s longtime comrades and friends: Sonia Sanchez, a renowned writer, poet, playwright and activist; Felipe Luciano, a poet, activist, journalist and writer who was an original member of the poetry and musical group The Last Poets; Komozi Woodard, a professor of history at Sarah Lawrence College and author of "A Nation Within a Nation: Amiri Baraka and Black Power Politics"; and Larry Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress in Newark, New Jersey.

JEJU JOY

Mass in snowy morning at Navy base destruction gate .... Release of Kim Eun-Hye from prison... video by Dunguree

CRACKING DOWN IN THE UK

In the UK, the government is introducing new laws to protect US military bases in Britain - a person could be punished just for walking a dog nearby. The government's using legislation enacted over a century ago, to move ahead without Parliament's approval.

IF YOU HAD DOUBTS....

• It's been a good day.  I went to our state capital in Augusta today to the rally of the Maine Alliance for the Common Good.  It's a statewide multi-issue group that some of us created last year.  We had a big rally during the legislative session in 2013 and today we held a rally on just the second day of the new session at the capital. About 150 folks turned out and the event featured mostly young speakers, including a ten-year old boy speaking about Nestle that controls alot of the water in Maine.  Other speakers talked about climate change, student debt, environmental devastation across the state, the need for a single-payer health care system, the need to bring our war $$ home, recognizing indigenous culture, and corporate domination of our politics.  Many of the young people said how empowering it was to have an audience to hear their message.  One young man said that none of his peers believe in the system anymore - it does not work for them.  It chains them with massive student debt and then spits them out onto a dead job market with a declining environmental condition.  He said he too felt lifted by the experience.

This alliance, unlike some others in the state that are more closely allied to a particular political party, is a group of more independent people.  The big difference is that the people at today's rally are talking about the corporate domination of politics in Maine and across the nation.  They are willing to connect the issue dots and hold Democrats in power accountable as well as the Republicans.  Some progressive organizations are under the protective wing (they get funding from Democratic party funders) so they have less ability to freely fly in the political world.  Sad but true.

• Another great thing that happened today was an email from Joseph Gerson who works for the AFSC in Boston.  He helped put together the Okinawa statement (see below) that was then sent to the media on Okinawa and across Japan.  I was told there was a great response yesterday with many papers covering the statement (including the Stars & Stripes military overseas paper).  Here is more from Joseph along with a report from Okinawa: 

Friends,

This note is addressed to those whose names I solicited for the Okinawa statement, and others of you whose e-mail addresses I have readily at hand.

If you had doubts about what impact your signature on the Okinawa statement might have, please take a look at the second paragraph of  our key partner Satoko Norimatsu's note below.  You may also be interested to see the five pages of today's Ryukyu Shimpo. Okinawa's leading newspaper, which are attached.

Also to add that we are preparing a second round of signatures to reinforce the impact that we've already had and to take it further. If you have colleagues/peers who you think would be interested in signing, please share the statement with them and ask them to send their names and identification to me.

Thank you  so much,
Joseph

-----Original Message-----
From: Satoko Norimatsu
Subject: Ryukyu shimpo pages from January 9

Joseph, Peter, Kevin,

Here are pages from the January 9 edition of Ryukyu Shimpo (one of the two Okinawan newspapers) with special articles on our action. Front page top news again following the previous day, a double-length editorial, comments from experts, voices of praise and excitement from within Okinawa, and the highlight is the full list of us with photos and profiles. Full text of our statement and release too.

Mayor Inamine had a rally marking the launch of the start of the campaign yesterday, and he had a copy of Ryukyu Shimpo in his hands, put it up and said something like "We are not alone! We have international support like this!" followed by a big applause by a crowd of 3,000 people. Many colleagues in Okinawa tell me everybody is talking about it in Okinawa now, even those who are normally not interested in base issues. After their sense of abandonment and despair at Nakaima's betrayal, our action seems to have re-invigorated the Okinawans. The extent of the effect of our action seems to know no limits.

Thanks again,
Satoko Oka Norimatsu
Peace Philosophy Centre http://peacephilosophy.com

IT'S JUST SMALL CHANGE

WEDNESDAY DOUBLE FEATURE.....

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THE BATTLE IN ATHENS

A VIEW FROM THE OTHER SIDE

NO US BASES ON OKINAWA

 

STATEMENT

We oppose construction of a new US military base within Okinawa, and support the people of Okinawa in their struggle for peace, dignity, human rights and protection of the environment

We the undersigned oppose the deal made at the end of 2013 between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Governor of Okinawa Hirokazu Nakaima to deepen and extend the military colonization of Okinawa at the expense of the people and the environment. Using the lure of economic development, Mr. Abe has extracted approval from Governor Nakaima to reclaim the water off Henoko, on the northeastern shore of Okinawa, to build a massive new U.S. Marine air base with a military port.

Plans to build the base at Henoko have been on the drawing board since the 1960s.  They were revitalized in 1996, when the sentiments against US military bases peaked following the rape of a twelve year-old Okinawan child by three U.S. servicemen. In order to pacify such sentiments, the US and Japanese governments planned to close Futenma Marine Air Base in the middle of Ginowan City and  move its functions to a new base to be constructed at Henoko, a site of extraordinary bio-diversity and home to the endangered marine mammal dugong.

 Governor Nakaima’s reclamation approval does not reflect the popular will of the people of Okinawa.  Immediately before the gubernatorial election of 2010, Mr. Nakaima, who had previously accepted the new base construction plan, changed his position and called for relocation of the Futenma base outside the prefecture. He won the election by defeating a candidate who had consistently opposed the new base. Polls in recent years have shown that 70 to 90 percent of the people of Okinawa opposed the Henoko base plan. The poll conducted immediately after Nakaima’s recent reclamation approval showed that 72.4 percent of the people of Okinawa saw the governor’s decision as a “breach of his election pledge.” The reclamation approval was a betrayal of the people of Okinawa.

 73.8 percent of the US military bases (those for exclusive US use) in Japan are concentrated in Okinawa, which is only .6 percent of the total land mass of Japan. 18.3 percent of the Okinawa Island is occupied by the US military. Futenma Air Base originally was built during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa by US forces in order to prepare for battles on the mainland of Japan. They simply usurped the land from local residents. The base should have been returned to its owners after the war, but the US military has retained it even though now almost seven decades have passed. Therefore, any conditional return of the base is fundamentally unjustifiable.

 The new agreement would also perpetuate the long suffering of the people of Okinawa. Invaded in the beginning of the 17^th century by Japan and annexed forcefully into the Japanese nation at the end of 19^th century, Okinawa was in 1944 transformed into a fortress to resist advancing US forces and thus to buy time to protect the Emperor System.  The Battle of Okinawa killed more than 100,000 local residents, about a quarter of the island’s population. After the war, more bases were built under the US military occupation. Okinawa “reverted” to Japan in 1972, but the Okinawans’ hope for the removal of the military bases was shattered. Today, people of Okinawa continue to suffer from crimes and accidents, high decibel aircraft noise and environmental pollution caused by the bases. Throughout these decades, they have suffered what the U.S. Declaration of Independence denounces as “abuses and usurpations,” including the presence of foreign “standing armies without the consent of our legislatures.”

 Not unlike the 20^th century U.S. Civil Rights struggle, Okinawans have non-violently pressed for the end to their military colonization. They tried to stop live-fire military drills that threatened their lives by entering the exercise zone in protest; they formed human chains around military bases to express their opposition; and about a hundred thousand people, one tenth of the population have turned out periodically for massive demonstrations. Octogenarians initiated the campaign to prevent the construction of the Henoko base with a sit-in that has been continuing for years. The prefectural assembly passed resolutions to oppose the Henoko base plan. In January 2013, leaders of all the 41 municipalities of Okinawa signed the petition to the government to remove the newly deployed MV-22 Osprey from Futenma base and to give up the plan to build a replacement base in Okinawa.

We support the people of Okinawa in their non-violent struggle for peace, dignity, human rights and protection of the environment. The Henoko marine base project must be canceled and Futenma returned forthwith to the people of Okinawa.

 January 2014

Norman Birnbaum, Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University

Herbert Bix, Emeritus Professor of History and Sociology, State University of New York at Binghamton

Reiner Braun, Co-president International Peace Bureau and Executive Director of International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms

Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

John W. Dower, Professor Emeritus of History, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Alexis Dudden, Professor of History, University of Connecticut

Daniel Ellsberg, Senior Fellow at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, former Defense and State Department official

John Feffer, Co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org) at the Institute for Policy Studies

Bruce Gagnon, Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space

Joseph Gerson (PhD), Director, Peace & Economic Security Program, American Friends Service Committee

Richard Falk, Milbank Professor of International law Emeritus, Princeton University

Norma Field, Professor Emerita, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago

Kate Hudson (PhD), General Secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Catherine Lutz, Professor of Anthropology and International Studies, Brown University

Naomi Klein, Author and journalist

Joy Kogawa, Author of Obasan

Peter Kuznick, Professor of History, American University

Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace laureate

Kevin Martin, Executive Director, Peace Action

Gavan McCormack, Professor Emeritus, Australian National University

Kyo Maclear, Writer and Children’s author

Michael Moore, Filmmaker

Steve Rabson, Professor Emeritus, Brown University/ Veteran, United States Army, Henoko, Okinawa, 1967-68

Mark Selden, a Senior Research Associate in the East Asia Program at Cornell University

Oliver Stone, Filmmaker

David Vine, Associate Professor of Anthropology, American University

The Very Rev. the Hon. Lois Wilson, Former President, World Council of Churches

Lawrence Wittner, Professor Emeritus of History, State University of New York/Albany

Ann Wright, Retired US Army Colonel and former US diplomat 

THE BONUS REBELLION

A largely forgotten event in US history - the post-WW I bonus Army occupation of Washington.  The government crushing of this veterans rebellion was brutal and unforgiving.This is a perfect historical illustration of just how this country chews up and spits out its war veterans who fought and died to the benefit of the capitalist oligarchy.

I just finished reading a book about this WW I period called "Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, The Great War, and The Right to Dissent".  It's the moving story about the US government's repression of the Socialist Party candidate for president in 1920 - Eugene V. Debs. Author Ernest Freeberg quotes Debs from his famous 1918 Canton, Ohio anti-war speech that landed him in jail after being charged with ten counts of sedition. He was convicted and given a 10-year sentence (he served nearly three years before being released):

"They have always taught you that it is your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at command.  But in all of the history of the world you, the people, never had a voice in declaring war.... And here let me state a fact - and it cannot be repeated too often: the working class who fight the battles, the working class who make the sacrifices, the working class who shed the blood, the working class who furnish the corpses, the working class have never yet had a voice in declaring war.... If war is right, let it be declared by the people - you, who have your lives to lose; you certainly ought to declare war, if you consider war a necessary."

CALL TO ACTION IN SPRING

Call for Local Spring Asia-Pacific Events

Around the World

   

After twelve years of war in the Middle East and Central Asia, the Obama Administration is “pivoting” to the Asia-Pacific.  Sixty percent of the U.S. military forces are being deployed in the region to “contain” China.  The popular phrase in Washington to describe this process is a “re-balancing” of US forces.

The increased militarization of the US’s Asia-Pacific policies is anything but benign. It is fueling region-wide arms races, increasing the dangers of war, as we have seen in the territorial dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, reinforces Japan’s transformation into a national security state, and has devastating impacts on the people of Jeju Island, Okinawa, Guam and Hawaii where new bases are being built.

The House Armed Services Committee will begin a series of hearings in February to further demonize China and to create the support for additional Congressional funding for the military “pivot”.  

The Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization invites peace groups, faith communities, and API solidarity groups to join us to counter-organize around those hearings this coming spring. We invite you to organize local or regional educational forums or other public events to create greater public awareness about the pivot.  

Our plan is to follow up after the spring events by organizing a national conference on the Asia-Pacific in the fall of 2014. 

We will soon provide a list of Asia-Pacific resources including speakers, films, books, websites, and articles that could help further grow the issue in our communities.

The pivot is an issue that will touch every community.  The military industrial complex fully knows that in order to pay for the massively expensive “re-balancing” the remaining slim thread of social spending must be cut to cover corporate imperial ambitions. The military also creates a large carbon footprint that will only exacerbate climate change.

We hope that with your collaboration, we can connect the dots between cancerous militarism, environmental degradation, a new costly arms race, and human rights abuses.

Please let us know if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions or would like to offer to become a local or regional spark plug for these events.

Contact us at: JGerson@afsc.org or globalnet@mindspring.com

In peace, 

Christine Ahn – Women De-Militarize the Zone (DMZ)

Liberato Bautista - United Nations Ministry of the General Board of Church and Society

Jackie Cabasso – Western States Legal Foundation

John Feffer – Foreign Policy in Focus

Bruce K. Gagnon – Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space

Joseph Gerson – American Friends Service Committee

Subrata Ghoshroy – Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mark Harrison – United Methodist General Board of Church and Society

Christine Hong – Korea Policy Institute

Kyle Kajihiro - Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice

Peter Kuznick - American University

Judith LeBlanc – Peace Action

Hyun Lee – Nodutdol

Andrew Lichterman – Western States Legal Foundation

Ramsay Liem – Boston College

Kevin Martin – Peace Action

Stephen McNeil – American Friends Service Committee

Satoko Norimatsu - Peace Philosophy Centre (Vancouver)

Mike Prokosch – Working Group for Peace & Demilitarization in Asia & the Pacific

Arnie Saiki – Moana Nui Action Network

Chloe Schwabe - Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach

Tim Shorrock - Journalist 

HANCOCK DRONE TRIAL

There have been a series of protests at Hancock Air National Guard base outside of Syracuse, New York.  As a result several trials have taken place during the past couple of years.

 

The base switched four years ago from flying F-16 fighter jets to operating drones from Hancock Field.  The drones operated from the Syracuse base support military operations in Afghanistan.

 

This video includes openings by James Ricks, Ed Kinane, Clare Grady, and a short one by the prosecutor  in the Dewitt town court January 3. The trial went until shortly after midnight, but the prosecution had yet to finish its presentation. The next session will begin at 5:00 pm Monday.

 

Last April I took part in a protest and was arrested at Hancock.  Due to the backlog of protest trials my case has yet to come before the court for final hearing.  Not sure when that will happen.

 

SUNDAY SONG

SPACE ALERT

• I am beginning work on our next Global Network Space Alert! newsletter.  Articles are coming in from around the globe - it's always a great learning experience for me as I pull these various strands together and make some sense of the greater Pentagon and Space Command strategy of global dominance through space control.  Hope to have it printed and mailed by the third week of January. Let us know if you'd like bulk copies for local distribution.  We just ask you to pay for the postage.

• Sung-Hee Choi has posted the current Jeju prisoner information this morning on the No Naval Base on Jeju Facebook page.  It reads:

Mr. Yang Yoon-Mo (Prison #301) hits 339 days in prison 
Br. Park Do-Hyun (#535) hits 189 days
Ms. Kim Eun-Hye (#12) hits 91 days

Address of Jeju Prison, 161 Ora-2dong, Jeju City, Jeju, the Peace Island, Korea.

Dr. Song Kang-Ho was released on bail as of Nov. 29, after 151 days in jail. Mr. Kang Bu-Eon was released on Dec. 5, after 59 days in jail. The appeal court made a decision on Kang with 10 month imprisonment suspended 1 year.

All the peace prisoners are not-guilty. Free all the prisoners immediately! Stop the illegal building of war base that infringes and destroys life!

• After a 10-month selection process involving 25 proposals from 24 states, the Federal Aviation Administration has chosen six unmanned aircraft systems - UAS (drone) research and test site operators across the country. 

In selecting the six test site operators, the FAA considered geography, climate, location of ground infrastructure, research needs, airspace use, safety, aviation experience and risk.

A brief description of the six test site operators and the research they will conduct into future drone use are below:

• University of Alaska.  The University of Alaska proposal contained a diverse set of test site range locations in seven climatic zones as well as geographic diversity with test site range locations in Hawaii and Oregon. The research plan includes the development of a set of standards for unmanned aircraft categories, state monitoring and navigation.  Alaska also plans to work on safety standards for UAS operations. 
• State of Nevada. Nevada’s project objectives concentrate on UAS standards and operations as well as operator standards and certification requirements. The applicant’s research will also include a concentrated look at how air traffic control procedures will evolve with the introduction of UAS into the civil environment and how these aircraft will be integrated with NextGen.  Nevada’s selection contributes to geographic and climatic diversity.
• New York’s Griffiss International Airport.  Griffiss International plans to work on developing test and evaluation as well as verification and validation processes under FAA safety oversight. The applicant also plans to focus its research on sense and avoid capabilities for UAS and its sites will aid in researching the complexities of integrating UAS into the congested, northeast airspace.
• North Dakota Department of Commerce.  North Dakota plans to develop UAS airworthiness essential data and validate high reliability link technology. This applicant will also conduct human factors research. North Dakota’s application was the only one to offer a test range in the Temperate (continental) climate zone and included a variety of different airspace which will benefit multiple users.
• Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi.  Texas A&M plans to develop system safety requirements for UAS vehicles and operations with a goal of protocols and procedures for airworthiness testing. The selection of Texas A&M contributes to geographic and climactic diversity.
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).  Virginia Tech plans to conduct UAS failure mode testing and identify and evaluate operational and technical risks areas. This proposal includes test site range locations in both Virginia and New Jersey.

TRACKING DRONE KILLS

Since 2002, the US has launched 461 drone strikes, killing over 3,500 people - 457 of whom were civilians, according to recent research. The strikes occurred in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. The Pentagon recently released its annual report on the use of unmanned systems, which laid out a roadmap - through 2038 - of how the unmanned aerial vehicle program will continue to develop.

RT's Meghan Lopez talks about the UAV program's past and future with Mary Ellen O'Connell, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, and Abraham Wagner, an adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University.

THE HUNGER GAMES

• Our Gov. LePage (right-wing Republican corporate hack) is running for reelection on the backs of the poor.  He wants to drain "welfare" in order to kill it.  In Maine's largest city of Portland the governor has decided to move the state welfare office from the downtown area out near the airport which means folks, already without transportation, will have even more difficulty getting there.  Very slimy politics.

• It reminds me of when I was attending the University of Florida after getting out of the Air Force.  I was using the GI Bill to pay for school but needed to work part-time to supplement my living expenses.  (I ate alot of peanut butter during those days.)  I answered an advert in the paper from an older woman who was disabled and writing a book about the many forms of genocide during Hitler's reign of terror.  I'd go to the library and do research and make copies for her - as well as rake her leaves and such.  In one book I found a chart called the "Caloric Reduction In-Take Schedule" that the Nazi's had created for the Warsaw, Poland Jewish ghetto.  They had a systemic plan to reduce calories and bring on earlier death for people that they wanted to kill.  A more subtle way of exterminating people.

• So today when we see this hard-driving "austerity budget" campaign by the corporate oligarchy to cut social welfare programs (and retirement programs) I can't help but see that Nazi chart in my mind.  We now have millions of superfluous populations in the US (and beyond) and the ruling elite doesn’t need them or want them around.  There are many ways to get rid of people - killing them with misbeguided wars - make health care hard to obtain by the poor and working class - and reduce the amount of food people have access to.

• According to recent statistics, some 14 percent (likely much higher in the real world) of US households are currently dependent on food assistance.  One food pantry worker recently commented to the media about the public's growing fear because of food stamp cutbacks, "They’re just worried to death that they’re not going to be able to feed their families."

• With a trillion dollar a year military budget you'd think that we could cut there and use those funds to help create jobs and to feed and house the growing numbers of destitute people.  But as I've often said, the oligarchy is going to bring us all onto the reservation now.  The politicians in Washington get to decide whether we get shot or just die from starvation. 

• Activist David Swanson sums up the story well in a recent piece he emailed around entitled: Top 10 Proofs People Can Be Completely Manipulated Without Hypnosis.  David has a great subtle sense of humor and is one smart reporter.  He wrote:

In poll after poll after poll, 75% to 85% in the United States say their system of government is broken. Yet, what remains the top piece of advice to agitators for change? That's right: "Work within the system." And what remains the fallback ultimate reliable justification for launching or escalating or continuing a war: That's right: "We need to bring our system of government to others."

Newark, New Jersey on Wednesday, November 30, 1932: A delegation of women joins forces with 700 hunger marchers from New York as they head to Washington, D.C. to participate in the Hunger March protesting conditions during the Great Depression. The women are singing "Solidarity Forever".

MAKE A MOVE

An activist stands at the entrance to the CIA headquarters protesting the US drone attack in Yemen that recently killed a total of 17 innocent people

"People are practical. They want change but feel powerless, alone, do not want to be the blade of grass that sticks up above the others and is cut down. They wait for a sign from someone else who will make the first move, or the second. And at certain times in history, there are intrepid people who take the risk that if they make that first move others will follow quickly enough to prevent their being cut down. And if we understand this, we might make that first move."


- Words by Howard Zinn

CONFRONTING ISRAELI APARTHEID

• The Israeli government is torturing Palestinian children, including keeping them in outdoor cages during winter, according to a new human rights report. A report by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel claims children suspected of minor crimes have been subjected to “public caging,” threats and acts of sexual violence and military trials without representation.

• Ilan Pappé is foremost among the Israeli "new historians" who have challenged the traditional view of Israeli history, especially the Israeli role in the 1948 ethic cleansing of Palestinians.  He teaches history at Exeter University in England.  I share some of what Pappé said in a recent extensive interview:

If I had to choose a formative event that really changed my point of view in dramatic way, it would be the attack of the Israelis on Lebanon in 1982. For us who grew up in Israel, it was the first non-consensus war, the first war that obviously was a war of choice: Israel was not attacked, Israel attacked. Then the first Intifada happened. These events were eye openers in many ways for people like myself who already had some doubts about Zionism, about the historical version we learned at school.

It [Israel] is a very indoctrinated society probably more than most of Western societies and more than the non-Western societies. It is not because of coercion that people are indoctrinated, it is a powerful indoctrination from the moment you are born to the moment you die. 

Even the first Zionist settlers when they came and realised that what they thought was an empty land or at least their own land, was full of Arab people, they regarded these people as aliens, as violent aliens who took over their land. It is this infrastructure they have built about the other side that feeds all the Israelis’ perception and visions. It is a dehumanisation of the Palestinians that begins in the late nineteen century. 

The Palestinian political elite lived in the cities of Palestine but the main victims of Zionism up to the 1930s were in the countryside. That’s why the revolt started there but there were sections of the urban elite that joined them..... I pointed out in one of my books that the British killed or imprisoned most of those who belonged to the Palestinian political elite and military or potentially military elite. They created a Palestinian society that was quite defenceless in 1947 when the first Zionist actions, with the knowledge that the British mandate was coming to an end, commenced. I think it had an impact on the inability of the Palestinians to resist a year later in 1948, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

The task of changing Jewish society from within is formidable. This society seems to be more and more entrenched in its positions. The more I think about it the more desperate I am about succeeding in changing it from within.

• The American Studies Association (ASA) is facing down the predictable backlash against its historic mid-December resolution in support of the academic boycott of Israel. "With the vote to boycott Israeli universities, the ASA has embraced a legitimate means of addressing Israel's human rights violations and challenging the U.S. government's unconditional support for Israel," reads the ASA press release. "As we move forward, threats and insults will not silence our voices or undermine the growing support for the academic boycott." 
• Almost immediately after the overwhelming 2-to-1 passage of the resolution, the ASA faced a backlash organized by defenders of Israeli apartheid. In response, the ASA has issued a press release reiterating the social-justice motivations behind its resolution, while noting that its own members have been subjected to a campaign of harassment and intimidation for daring to break the wall of silence that for so long has muted any criticism within the U.S. academy of Israel's denial of Palestinian rights. Both the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, for example, published editorials condemning the ASA, while imposing a near-total "apartheid wall" against ASA members seeking to provide a counterpoint. The most virulent attacks, however, have come from university presidents. Kenyon College President Sean Decatur and Indiana University President Michael McRobbie not only condemned the ASA vote, but they also unilaterally and without consultation with faculty suspended the ASA membership of their American Studies programs. Presidents at Harvard, Purdue, Northwestern and University of Texas-Austin have likewise condemned the ASA vote. 

RIGHT-WING RISE IN EUROPE

Nothing seems to be able to stop Europe's lurch to the political right. With only tentative signs of economic growth and precious little good news for deeply indebted countries like Greece and France, it's a movement that seems difficult to reverse. RT's Peter Oliver takes a closer look at a continent in search of new answers to hard problems.

BEST WISHES IN THE NEW YEAR

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