Pietà for Bradley Manning

The day we said good-bye, I imagined my arms pressed around his body one last time—because we knew none of us would be allowed to touch or to see him again.  We knew years of his young life had been surgically removed.

We Are a Nation of Yaws*

Now that the City of Detroit is on its receivership knees, now that Interstate highways and bridges are showing signs of metal fatigue, embrittlement, and decay, now that post offices are being shut down all over rural US, now that schools are being privatized, and students forced into life-time indentured servitude, graduating from supposedly “public” universities $150,000 in debt, the nation has come clean with its budgetary priorities: all you groveling folks asking for handouts, listen up. Moving forward, in the interests of preserving US national security, the national budget is gonna prioritize TORTURE. Members of Congress voted 315 to 109 in favor of preserving the torture program, and research has revealed that the winners received twice as much money from “Defense” (Ambrose Bierce “War”) Industries as the losers. But all received their routine Wassermans, which they do every time they vote, keeping them in the streets, plying their trade without transmitting STDs.  Wassermans are how you keep whores healthy.

The National Security Agency Expects to Replace God by Independence Day, 2013

In a communiqué issued today, the Department of Homeland security announced it intends to replace God.  Citing God’s recent cataract operation, the Department of Homeland Security will replace God’s all-seeing eye with a global oversight system capable of scooping up information about every living thing on Earth. “From now on, our eye is on the Turtle,” declared James R. Clapper, head of the NSA, “and on the Lizard, the Snake, and on the President of the European Union. When a reporter pointed out to Mr. Clapper that as such, no President of the European Union actually exists, Mr. Clapper brushed aside his objection, saying he told the truth, “as close as he could get it.”

“Pandora’s Promise:” an Infomercial

The recent release of the film, “Pandora’s Promise,” provides a forum for a small group of formerly anti-nuclear environmentalists to affirm their renewed faith in nuclear energy, notwithstanding the opening images of the wreckage of the Fukushima-Daiichi plant which still now continues to spew radioactive contamination into the planet’s air, water, soils, and ultimately into the food chain of all living beings on Earth.

OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR DIANE FEINSTEIN

June 10, 2013

Senator Feinstein:

Am I mistaken?  Didn't you sign an oath upon taking office that you would uphold the Constitution of the United States? How then is it possible that you support the NSA spying on all American citizens (including you, I presume?) Would knowingly voting in the next election for someone who has committed a crime constitute a crime against the Constitution?

TWELVE EASY STEPS TO END A CIVILIZATION: TAKE THE SURVEY

I’ve been coming up for air between dives into Joseph Tainter’s “The Collapse of Complex Societies.” There’s no doubt the man does a thorough job. Civilization by civilization, cause by cause, history by history (Rome, Western Chou Empire, Indus Valley, Mesopotamia—that’s Iraq to you—Old Kingdom Egypt, Hittite Empire, Minoan civilization, Mycene, Olmec,  Lowland Classic Maya, Mesoamerican Highlands,  Teotihuacan, Monte Alban, Tula, Casa Grandes, Chacoan, Hohokam, Hopewell, Mississippian Woodlands, Huari, Tiahuanacao, Kachin, and Ik) he leaves no upturned stone unturned.

IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH OUR DAILY REVOLUTION?

Today Common Dreams runs feature article Andrea Germanos’ banner head:

German Official Warns of Immediate ‘Revolution” if EU Adopts US Model.

Wolfgang Schauble, Germany’s finance minister, opined that a US style economic model will spark a revolution “not tomorrow, but the same day.”