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Jun 4, 2011

new essay by petras - Empire or Republic: from Joplin, Missouri to Kabul, Afghanistan - please confirm receipt

 

Empire or Republic:  from Joplin, Missouri to Kabul, Afghanistan

James Petras

Introduction

            On May 29, 2011, President Obama visited Joplin, Missouri, the site of a devastating tornado that killed 140 and pronounced it a terrible “tragedy”.  But were the deaths the inevitable result of ‘natural events’ beyond the human intervention?

            Coincidentally the same week Afghan President Karzai condemned the killing of a family of 14 by a NATO fighter bomber, running the total to several hundred civilians killed so far this year and thousands over the decade.

            The relation between the civilian deaths in Joplin and Afghanistan raises fundamental questions about the priorities, character and direction of the US Empire and the future of the American republic.

Geography of Tornados

            Every year at least 20 major violent tornadoes – with winds exceeding 200 mph – hit “tornado alley” and beyond, including central Texas, northern Iowa, central Kansas, Nebraska, western Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.  Each and every year at least sixty are killed and several hundred are maimed and injured.  This year, through May 2011, over 519 have been killed, 25% of whom were in mobile homes, almost three times as many as those in standard houses.

            In other words, these tornado-related deaths are predictable, annual, and region-specific and have a higher incidence among low income households.  Government agencies and academics have compiled data banks and time series information mapping the route, frequency and impact of tornadoes.

            Information about the nature of killer tornadoes is plentiful. Nevertheless deaths mount from year to year. Fear and insecurity stalks the region’s most susceptible to the violent whirlwinds, even as the Congress and White House have increased personnel and funding for ‘Homeland Security’ twenty fold over the decade .The current budget is over $180 billion.  If we add the deaths caused by other ‘natural’ disasters like the flooding of New Orleans, the numbers of deaths are staggering.  What explains this perverse relation between huge public funding for ‘homeland security’ and the increased insecurity of vulnerable Americans in clearly identified danger zones?

            The reason is clear: ‘Homeland Security’ (HS) is an Orwellian misnomer.  The agency is not concerned with domestic, civilian, American security. HS is part of a military-police response to imagined overseas threats, which have not materialized or at least have not produced deaths comparable to tornadoes and floods in the last 11 years.

            HS spends billions and employs thousands to investigate, spy and harass citizens engaged in legal-constitutional activities.  HS and the Pentagon spend tens of billions on overseas infrastructures – buildings, bases, camps -and over 900 billion in arms.  HS and the Defense Department forcefully intervene militarily throughout the world via overt and clandestine operations.

            To be precise HS intervenes offensively overseas, attacking civilian targets, while it fails to engage domestically to protect American civilians who are left defenseless in the face of predictable natural disasters.

            HS and the Pentagon’s sustained violent overseas operations are rejected and regarded as a hostile imperial intervention by the civilians in those countries adversely affected.  In contrast, defenseless citizens in the US would welcome large-scale intervention in the form of community shelters, which would provide survival, security, life-saving protection and financial aid for rebuilding their lives.  Moreover, Pentagon and HS spending on overseas infrastructure, bases and bombs results in deficits, whereas investments in tornado and flood shelters would stimulate jobs, growth and investment in the US.

            The current activity of HS destroys lives abroad and neglects survival at home:  It has nothing to do with our “homeland” and even less with our “security”.  Five percent of HS budget would have prevented many of Joplin’s ‘tragedy’ (and saved us from Obama’s gaseous oratory!) and the other 400 deaths from this year’s crop of tornadoes.

Systemic Bases of Perpetual Domestic Neglect

            Death from ‘natural’ events raises a fundamental POLITICAL question:  Why is the budget of Homeland Security and the Pentagon directed overseas, toward destructive, offensive, military activity rather than to domestic, constructive, defensive activity to protect American lives and productive economic activity?

            The problem is systemic not due to some personal flaw or political idiosyncrasy of the moment. The structures of the US economy and military institutions are oriented ‘outwardly’ to conquering foreign financial markets and building a military empire.  The ideology which informs strategic policymakers is imperial-centered not republican:  They do not speak of developing and deepening the economy and security of ‘middle America’. Every member of the political and corporate elite talks of ‘world’ or ‘global’ leadership – a thinly veiled euphemism for the drive to sustain world dominance.  Within the imperial framework the entire ‘security’ budget is directed toward maintaining offensive military supremacy. No wonder there is a steep decline in all spheres of domestic security – natural, social, personal, health and employment –a phenomenon that proceeds with little public debate. The only exception is when threats to security impinge most directly and forcefully on a significant sector of the population.  For example, witness the storm of protest from those directly affected when the politicians moved to privatize social security and Medicare.

Nevertheless, the entire political spectrum, the two parties, the Congress and the White House over the past 30 years, have created an artificial consensus in which overseas wars, foreign aid to patrons (Israel) and clients (Pakistan and Egypt) absorbs the greatest percentage of budgetary spending.  No political or economic leadership has stepped forward to articulate the obvious connection between global expansion and domestic decay; to forcefully state that the deterioration of the republic is a direct product of the vast resources channeled into military and economic empire building.  Who on New York City’s Wall Street or Washington’s Pentagon  is going to even look at or consider a ‘security plan’ with regard to the geography of catastrophes – tornado alley covering a dozen states and the floods and deaths that overwhelm the lowlands from Montana to Louisiana?

Listen America

 Their message is loud and clear:

            Small towns and trailer parks do not count!  You have your 2nd amendment (the ‘right to bear arms’), you have your ‘small government’, and you have your flags:  ‘Wav ‘em and weep’ as tornadoes blow down your houses and your sons and daughters return wrapped in flags to the Battle Hymn of the Empire!

Conclusion

            One might argue that community storm shelters won’t break the Treasury or reverse the empire. More to the point, their absence, from the federal, state and local political agenda, is emblematic of the total subordination of domestic America to imperial Washington. The ‘cost’ of building community shelters at the strip malls and trailer parks in Joplin, Missouri is less than a regional training outpost in Kandahar, Afghanistan. It is not a question of money.

Conquering Afghanistan villages enhances the prestige of the Generals, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and NATO officials. Can saving 145 lives in Joplin, Missouri match that in terms of world politics or the politics of imperial leadership? For Afghanistan, Washington builds a thousand military shelters and bomb proof bunkers .For the Americans living in tornado alley and the flood plains of the Mississippi people must make do. 

When you hear the tornado warning, it’s up to you. As a proud, free American you can find a rock to crawl under and say your prayer: the Federal government and Homeland Security have the Endless, World-wide War against Terror to fight and cannot be bothered by a Joplin, Missouri nursing home in the path of a tornado. 

We exaggerate: Obama will jet in and speak before the cameras in solemn terms of the ‘tragedy’ and ‘courage’ of the people of Joplin...  But will any local politician stand up and speak truth to power? Most of these deaths and (many more to come) are avoidable; under a democratic American republic, the government ‘intervenes’ to provide protection, health and employment for its people. 

In the meantime, as the empire continues to grow it destroys its own people, just like the sow that devours its offspring.

 

           

 

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rule Brittania

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/8556054/We-should-share-aircraft-carrier-say-French.html


We should share aircraft carrier, say French
Britain and France are set to share an aircraft carrier as part of plans for far closer integration between the two navies, the head of France's fleet has said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph.
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With no Royal Navy carriers available for at least the next decade, the French navy will be a significant partner in helping train British sailors Photo: AP Photo/Christophe Ena

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10:00PM BST 06 Jun 2011
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Admiral Pierre-Francois Forissier also disclosed that the French navy was amazed by the swath of cuts last year that severely reduced the Royal Navy with the axing of aircraft carriers and Harrier jump jets alongside warships.
"From a French standpoint, I have to say that we were really stunned because the Royal Navy has always been a model for us and it is now faced with a very difficult situation," he said.

He also highlighted the shortcomings of the weakened British fleet, suggesting that the Libya campaign could have been "more efficient" if there had been a second aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. At present there is only the Charles de Gaulle. Its aircraft are responsible for more than a quarter of all attacks but soon it will need to dock for maintenance.
"If the UK did have another aircraft carrier in the Libyan theatre that would have been a support for the RAF because they would need less hours of travel and they would have been more efficient," said the admiral.

"When you only have one carrier that means you don't have permanent availability because of maintenance issues and, of course, it would be better to have two carriers."
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While France only has one carrier, it is possible that the second of two 60,000-ton British carriers being built could be shared by the two countries to be used only for training in a move that would save millions for both nations. Speaking at the French navy's headquarters in Paris, Adml Forissier said: "If we have the necessary budget it would be useful to each have a national carrier then have an extra carrier — not as expensive and for training uses — for UK and French use.
"It would be useful to have a carrier in Europe for training pilots, otherwise we would need two carriers on both sides and I do not think this is economically feasible."

British aircraft could fly missions off French carriers in the future, the admiral said. "When you carry out an attack it is the nationality of the aircraft [that is important], so potentially in the future you could have UK aircraft operating for a UK mission from a French base."

With no Royal Navy carriers available for at least the next decade, the French navy will be a significant partner in helping train British sailors.

Adml Forissier said: "The Royal Navy has lost its know-how for 'catapult carriers'.

"To run a carrier to its full capacity you need 10 years [of training]. The challenge is to prepare ourselves during this 10 years so that when the Queen Elizabeth [the first 60,000-ton carrier] is ready it can be operable in a very short time."
He also suggested French and British troops would eventually be needed in Libya for "humanitarian duties".
The admiral added that more French sailors were learning English as a result of the agreement made last November between David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.

"We need to represent European civilisation and values in a globalised world in which there are not as many Europeans," he said. "We have no choice but to start working together."




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Peace.
Michael Santomauro
253 West 72nd St
New York, NY 10023
Call anytime: 917-974-6367

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Foxman's ADL: Circumcision comic book shows 'grotesque anti-Semitic imagery'

 


Circumcision ban comic book shows 'grotesque anti-Semitic imagery,' ADL says

crescentandcross | June 4, 2011 at 2:29 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/p2dGk-42W

 

'Monster Mohel' comic book is one of two titles in the 'Foreskin Man' comic book series created by the Male Genital Mutilation Bill group pushing to make male circumcision illegal in San Francisco.

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...an Israeli lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter, seeking $5 million in damages because his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" allegedly defamed Israel.

"...when you have laws against questioning the Holocaust narrative, you are screaming at the other person to stop thinking!!!" ---Michael Santomauro, March 23, 2011

An anti-Semite condemns people for being Jews, I am not an anti-Semite.--Michael Santomauro

Peace.
Michael Santomauro
253 West 72nd St
New York, NY 10023
Call anytime: 917-974-6367

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I Have Zero Respect For The Mainstream Media!!!

 

1. I Have Zero Respect For The Mainstream Media: Gilad Atzmon Interview By Silvia Cattori

Saturday, June 4, 2011

 Jazz saxophonist Gilad Atzmon has a blog where he denounces the policy of his country of origin, Israel. He is not afraid to bluntly express what he regards to be the truth. He is impervious to the concept of self-censorship. He speaks here about how little respect he has for the Western press. (*)

Silvia Cattori: Your political analysis, translated into dozens of languages [1], reaches a wide readership on the web. For whom exactly do you write?
 
Gilad Atzmon: I write mainly for myself. I try to understand the world around me. A few years ago, I began to understand that a lot of people out there were also interested in the thoughts I indulge myself with, so I started to let other people have access into my boiling destructive mind.
 
Silvia Cattori: At a time when the press has reached its lowest point ever, are you among those who still continue to read newspapers?
 
Gilad Atzmon: No. For many years I have not bought newspapers. I am interested in the Middle East, and the mainstream media has very little to offer on that front. Probably the only expert within the British or even English-speaking media press is Robert Fisk. If I want to know what is happening in the Middle East I go to "Counterpunch", "Information Clearing House", "Veterans Today", "Rense.com", "Uprooted Palestinian", "PalestineTelegraph", "Palestine Chronicle", "Dissident Voice", "Uruknet", and other reliable websites.
 
Our independent websites and blogs are far more informative than the mainstream media. Collectively, we provide a source of information that people can trust, and we are rapidly becoming the main source of information. I see how many people are coming to visit my site. If there is a crisis in Gaza for instance, the public want to see what Gordon Duff, Ramzy Baroud, Alan Hart, Israel Shamir, Alex Cockburn, and Ali Abunimah have to say about it. I have zero respect for the mainstream media. And if the mainstream media wishes to survive, it had better move on quickly, otherwise it is finished.
 

Click to read more ...

 

2. A Talk: The War Against Terror Within

Friday, June 3, 2011 at 10:55PM Gilad Atzmon
York Against the War
a talk and discussion

7:30 to 9:00pm Monday 6th June
Priory Street Centre, 15 Priory Street, York
The War Against Terror Within

admission free, all welcome

Gilad Atzmon, an internationally known jazz musician, is also a radical freethinker. Israeli born, he has written extensively about Middle East issues from an anti-Zionist viewpoint.

The more ruthless we are, the more frightened we become, says Gilad Atzmon, because we fear retaliation in kind.

Ten years on, the US led 'War Against Terror' is neither over, nor bringing sense of security to Western countries. Likewise, 60 years on, Israels's wars against Palestinians still bring no security and no end is in sight.

How can we transcend the cycle of ruthless vengeance, retaliation and quest for supremacy which may keep these conflicts running forever?

Click to read more ...

6. Going Back to Lifta - A Palestinian Exile Returns (video)

Yacoub Odeh, a Palestinian who fled from Lifta, west Jerusalem in 1948,





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...an Israeli lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter, seeking $5 million in damages because his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" allegedly defamed Israel.

"...when you have laws against questioning the Holocaust narrative, you are screaming at the other person to stop thinking!!!" ---Michael Santomauro, March 23, 2011

An anti-Semite condemns people for being Jews, I am not an anti-Semite.--Michael Santomauro

Peace.
Michael Santomauro
253 West 72nd St
New York, NY 10023
Call anytime: 917-974-6367

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Seymour Hersh's 'Iran and the Bomb'

 

Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place
June 4, 2011 12:18 AM

Seymour Hersh's 'Iran and the Bomb'

Seymour Hersh's article in the New Yorker, Iran and the Bomb, is stirring up great interest, because he argues that the latest National Intelligence Estimate, released last February, says that essentially nothing has changed since the last (2007) NIE.  In other words, just as the earlier report said it appeared Iran had ended its nuclear weapons 





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Fun stuff to read, tell and watch:

Now FREE to watch all 91 minutes: "Defamation," from Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir. LINK: http://tinyurl.com/3rvhdvc

Some of His Best Friends Are Jewish: The Saga of a Holocaust Revisionist By Nathaniel Popper. Link: http://tinyurl.com/3v6m88c

...an Israeli lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter, seeking $5 million in damages because his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" allegedly defamed Israel. Link: http://tinyurl.com/3pltqg2

"...when you have laws against questioning the Holocaust narrative, you are screaming at the other person to stop thinking!!!" ---Mike Santomauro. *Anthony Lawson's Holocaust Video "were the Germans so stupid"... Link: http://tinyurl.com/44nsrco

An anti-Semite condemns people for being Jews, I am not an anti-Semite.--Mike Santomauro. Link: http://tinyurl.com/42z9p8o

Peace.

Mike Santomauro
253 West 72nd St
New York, NY 10023
Call anytime: 917-974-6367




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Why It’s Important to Organize Politically

 

American Third Position 


Why It's Important to Organize Politically

Posted: 03 Jun 2011 01:38 AM PDT

William D. Johnson, J.D.by JK | Change in a society is not measured in years but in scores of years. The 1960s constituted the last noteworthy change in our country. Today, we are on the cusp of change again, dramatic, epochal change—change that hopefully will reverse the downward slide we have faced of late. This pending change is born from the discontent of the dispossessed majority and from the erosion of prospects for the rising generation. Unease is felt all over America, among every group, in every geographical setting — in all walks of life. It is not slaked by establishment ideals: diversity, multiculturalism, tolerance, egalitarianism. Indeed, these ideals, and their misguided application by our leaders, fan the flames of our discontent and will drive the tumultuous change of the 2010s.

Those among us who decry our current state of affairs, who reject the status quo, and who pine for a change that will renew and revive our nation, must ban together to, at the very least, help shepherd this change, and, at the very most, cause it to happen in a manner and form that generations to come will marvel and praise.

We have formed the American Third Position so that all men of foresight and good will can join together to lead and direct our nation for the benefit of ourselves and our posterity. We embrace all that is good and moral—from whatever source. At the same time, in the ideologies that have gained currency today , we reject all that is improper and misguided. Accordingly, in large part we reject the policies of the left and of the right, the liberals and the conservatives, the Republican and the Democrats, the capitalist and the socialists. We are, indeed, the Third Position.

The best way to effect the change that our nation so dearly needs (and that so many of our people fervently hope for) is to organize politically. Never before in the history of mankind has technology been so available to facilitate the organization of people into effective political operatives. This electronic age, this information era, will be known as the age of renewal for America and her people. It will be our renaissance , but only if we join and lead the charge for change.

I welcome you into our party, and I encourage you get even further involved in the struggle to save our nation.

William D. Johnson, Chairman

[NOTE: William D. Johnson wrote this article in June, 2010. One year later it is still important to organize politically as a group and as an ethnopolitical majority. --Editor]





+++



Fun stuff to read, tell and watch:

Now FREE to watch all 91 minutes: "Defamation," from Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir. LINK: http://tinyurl.com/3rvhdvc

Some of His Best Friends Are Jewish: The Saga of a Holocaust Revisionist By Nathaniel Popper. Link: http://tinyurl.com/3v6m88c

...an Israeli lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against former President Jimmy Carter, seeking $5 million in damages because his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" allegedly defamed Israel. Link: http://tinyurl.com/3pltqg2

"...when you have laws against questioning the Holocaust narrative, you are screaming at the other person to stop thinking!!!" ---Mike Santomauro. *Anthony Lawson's Holocaust Video "were the Germans so stupid"... Link: http://tinyurl.com/44nsrco

An anti-Semite condemns people for being Jews, I am not an anti-Semite.--Mike Santomauro. Link: http://tinyurl.com/42z9p8o

Peace.

Mike Santomauro
253 West 72nd St
New York, NY 10023
Call anytime: 917-974-6367




__._,_.___
Recent Activity:
MARKETPLACE

Stay on top of your group activity without leaving the page you're on - Get the Yahoo! Toolbar now.


Get great advice about dogs and cats. Visit the Dog & Cat Answers Center.

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