ZUPP'S FACEBOOK POSTS #1

As I mentioned last time, I'm using Zuckerberg's billion dollar baby for activist purposes -- like millions of other activists.

I decided some of my recent posts would make a decent blog. Snippet-truisms and observations.


1/ No offense meant to decent Americans, whom I love, but honestly, just how long has it been okay for politicians to feed us the line "This is the greatest country in the world" without anybody standing up and saying flat out: "Hey, that's really arrogant and, well, quite wrong, d***head!"?

2/ COMMON CONVERSATION IN D.C. THESE DAYS: "U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Amendments, Pledge of Allegiance, Patriot Act... Listen you guys, people are starting to wake up to the old crap. We need some NEW crap that we can twist around and confuse em with and get em saluting our bull***t."

3/ To those people who are too frightened or apathetic to speak up to power, how about doing it for the next generation? If we don't stand up to power, it might be the LAST generation.

4/ Final thought for the day: If you can't say something nice about someone, you're probably talking about a politician.

5/ I live in the States because I have a son here and there's much about it I love. I have a green card/permanent residency and have paid a truckload of taxes but I'm not allowed to vote. Should I stage a revolution over that? Wouldn't be the first time it happened.

6/ QUESTION: Why is it when the American government announces the occasional worthwhile reform, troop withdrawal, cessation of hostilities, repeal of an odious law etc, it will take effect in 30 days, 90 days, a year, two years...? I'm not saying outright that there might not, in certain instances, be a good reason for the delay, I'm just saying that we have a right to know what the hell that reason is. A lot of people can be slaughtered or starved in 30 days.

7/ "The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens, the more you control all the people."
- Noam Chomsky

8/ Did anyone see the story about the huge racial divide in wages/salaries in America reported this past week? Not to mention the still-present gender divide. Meanwhile, the WASPs on Wall Street, who are just robber barons, are still cleaning up like champs.

9/ Whenever we need leadership in America, our "leaders" seem to go missing. Meanwhile, crop circles continue to mysteriously appear. Coincidence or connection? You be the judge. :-) (You have to admit, it would be much more fitting to call Congress, "those crop circle dudes.")

10/ We must not allow the elites to set the language of public discourse. For example, we do not have "defense spending." We have military spending, war spending, invasion spending, OFFense spending.

11/ [On the recent debt debacle] The answer to this is simple and obvious and many people know it: Cut military spending and take health "care" out of the hands of corporatio­ns. Those two things alone would cure the debt.

12/ Washington finally signs off on a debt deal: "Screw the people!"   

13/ CHEVY CHASE'S IMPERSONATION OF AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN: "It takes a big man to admit when he's wrong, and I am NOT a big man!" 

14/The way "our" [the U.S.] government is going, they'll have to build border walls to keep us IN before long.

Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at WE'RE WINNING!

OBAMA IS NOT YOUR FRIEND

Noam Chomsky isn't afraid to remind us that Obama knows which side his bread is buttered on

I've been surprised -- and then again, maybe not -- at the hero worship going on among some liberals at present.

Message threads for any stories about Obama on The Huffington Post -- a Dem/liberal news site -- have been praising the president's courage and candor, vision and integrity, because "he" got bin Laden.


He's Not One of Us

This is my take: Obama's a politician and a member of the elite. The whole bin Laden thing was conducted in such a way that if another nation had taken similar action on U.S. soil, a great many people in this country would be howling. But since "we" did it, it's okay with a lot of people (and NOT okay with a lot of people as well, I should add), and therefore Obama is the great architect and moral force behind this "necessary" murder.

Now, don't fly off the rails and tell me that bin Laden was a terrorist and murderer. Even though he never went to trial, most of us accept this to be true. But how is Obama not a terrorist and murderer when children in Afghanistan, to name one instance, are being killed by our armed forces/government? Remember: Obama is the Commander in Chief.


Laws are for Everyone

My point is that there are international laws and international bodies and correct ways of doing things. And if the U.S. government truly wants international respect, then the U.S. must treat all other nations, suspected criminals, and citizens everywhere according to international laws and conventions. It's a two-way street.

I say again: Obama's a politician and a member of the elite. I don't know what he came up with and what he didn't in terms of this whole "covert operation." But he certainly rubber stamped it. And now he's on "60 Minutes" and any podium that will hold him, squeezing all that strong-wise-leader juice out of the story and campaigning like a champion. Yes, that's all he's doing. Campaigning. If our politicians actually worked a fifth of the time they spent posturing for us, we'd be in a lot better shape. No, strike that. The corporations would have even sweeter deals. We'd probably still be in trouble.

I don't trust either party or any president I've seen. Why the hell would anybody? These people aren't our friends. Their motives aren't the same as ours. Personally, my allegiance is to the global common good. That's it.


Chomsky Tells it How it Is

Let me quote an extract from an interview with Noam Chomsky that was published in "The New Statesman" in September, 2010. Chomsky is a very astute critic of Obama, and is ever ready to give some factual perspective on the guy so we don't all fall into the trap of thinking that Bush was a demon (for the record, he was) and this guy is our savior (for the record, he's not):

"What are your thoughts on President Obama?

He’s involved in war crimes right now. For example, targeted assassinations are war crimes. That’s escalated quite sharply under Obama. If you look at WikiLeaks, there are a lot of examples of attacks on civilians.

What did you think when he was given the Nobel Peace Prize?

Considering the history of the Nobel Peace Prize, it’s not the worst example. It was given to him before he had the time to commit many war crimes.

Is there any point in us being in Afghanistan?

We wouldn’t have asked in 1985: 'Is there any point in the Russians being in Afghanistan?' The fact is that the invasion was a crime. Then comes the question: 'Is there any point in continuing?' But that presupposes legitimacy. Putting aside questions of morality and legality and simply asking about the goals of the US government is a very narrow consideration."

In another interview with The European Courier in March, Chomsky began his answer to the question "How would you summarize the presidency of Barack Obama as of now?" this way:

"Obama is a man of absolutely no principles. He has two constituencies. One of them is the popular constituency, the people who voted for him. For them he is doing essentially nothing. He has another constituency: the people who financed his campaign, the financial institutions. And they are getting rewarded."

Some food for thought. Bon appetit!

Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at THE MASS MURDERERS OF WASHINGTON D.C.

WISCONSIN, JAPAN, LIBYA & EVERYTHING ELSE

I urge everyone who visits this post to watch this
short interview with Noam Chomsky.

The incredibly gutsy Amy Goodman, the driving force behind DemocracyNow.org. Why no Nobel Peace Prize for her?

There is always joy and grief happening.

There's always prosperity and suffering. But the media decides which stories we get to hear about -- as if there are only ever three or four major things worthy of our attention. Our information is selected for us, scripted for us, piped into us. If we really want to know what's going on, we have to work a little harder and find sources that aren't owned and sponsored by corporations. (I HIGHLY recommend democracynow.org as a starting point. Just watching their headlines each day will put you ahead of the game. And broadcasts are archived!)

Wisconsin, Japan and Libya are CRUCIAL recent stories and I hope to comment further on each this week if I possibly can. But stories fade so fast from our entertainment-gorged media.

The very telling labor issues in Wisconsin are now on the back burner. CIA bombings of civilians in Pakistan barely warrant a mention.

The "news" on the commercial stations lacks objective analysis. To wit: How was the U.N. resolution about attacking Libya arrived at (I mean, really arrived at) and precisely what does it mean?; Is every president just going to pee on the War Powers Act?; What does the recent turmoil in Egypt -- now also on the backburner -- mean?; Tell us about how oil and geo-political power factors into these things -- there is injustice and tyrants everywhere -- (including the U.S.!), how do we select the pin-up boys for our "Most Targeted" list at any given time?

And why does extreme force always seem to be the first "solution" to regional conflicts and international power relations that don't fit the money men's view of how the world should be?

We could also talk about Bahrain, Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, troubles throughout Africa, protests in Europe, radicalism in Latin America, Aristide's return to Haiti and on and on. But the networks are selective in what they discuss, for how long, and from what angle. And they have to squeeze in plenty of Charlie Sheen, biased backslapping, cute pet stories, and other fluff and celebrity soap nonsense to keep our eyes off the ball. And all in seven minutes between commercials for crap we don't need.

The point? Question everything! Select news sources that aren't owned and backed by corporations with financial, political and power interests in having certain stories aired, in certain ways. And always, ALWAYS, follow the freakin' money.

The BS is constantly rising, folks. But the good news is there are millions of activists, independent media people, leading lights like Noam Chomsky/Amy Goodman/Ralph Nader/Naomi Klein, and everyday people who've woken up and got a whiff of the coffee. The game is turning, make no mistake. You can see it in Obama's face every time he tries to sell us on a troop escalation or the safety of U.S. nuke plants. The pressure is on the bastards in charge, and we're gonna ratchet it up.

The fun is underway. Make your voice heard and be part of the humanitarian revolution.

Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING, you might like to take a look at THE MASS MURDERERS OF WASHINGTON D.C.

TV -- PT. 2: WHY TV MATTERS

In his classic book "1984", George Orwell wrote: He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.

There is, today, a larger truth that Orwell could not have guessed at in the pre-TV days in which he was writing: Those who control the electronic media, control everything.


OWNERS AND LIARS

And that's why I'm blogging about TV. That's where, sadly, most people get their information from: commercial (and even public) stations with owners/advertisers/donors/CEOs determining their agendas.

Information of any real import, that comes from your TV (or newspaper or radio or commercial Internet site), is very rarely pure and objective. There are too many important people with a lot of money at stake who have an interest in what we-the-people do and don't know.

And these people own the media. Or they are in the same class of power elites. And the last thing they need is the truth about corporate welfare or Afghan babies being blown to pieces or how they (i.e. the elites) craft the news stirring up the masses and upsetting the gravy train.

When you think about it, you don't have to be an atom-splitter to see that this all makes perfect sense.


OPTIONS? WHAT OPTIONS?

And ask yourself this: Why, with so many news "options" (CNN, NBC, CBS, Fox, New York Times, Washington Post etc. etc. etc.), do all these outlets run pretty much the same stories in pretty much the same way?

There are a few answers:

1/ The mass media is owned by a relatively small number of corporations.

2/ Many news services feed off the same sources.

3/ All of these outlets make their big money by selling advertising space (profit motive = self-censorship).

4/ And above all, the status quo, the way things ARE, is what makes the elites the elites. So they aren't going to change anything about what kind of stuff they report or how they report it. Apart from the odd story here and there to give them the look of legitimacy or "balance."

So, really, you don't have much in the way of options -- or alternative points of view -- at all.


CHECK OUT CHOMSKY    

The expert in this field is Noam Chomsky. Take a look at his books on the media. And a classic resource is the documentary about Chomsky and his life of analyzing the media "Manufacturing Consent". (You can watch it online here.

Your TV delivers propaganda. Through news, commercials, and subtle messages and stereotypes in virtually every show you watch. And when it isn't doing that, it is dumbing us down and encouraging us to "veg out" and just not think. Again, that's what the folks in control want: If we think, we might start trying to change things.

Technically speaking, the airwaves belong to us -- public property! -- but they have been stolen by corporations. That's a fact. We should send the bastards a bill.

The Internet is an alternative means of mass communication that has great potential: but the corporations are trying to narrow our access there too. I will be writing on that another time.


WHAT CAN WE DO?

The "big idea" behind "House On Fire" is that if we are to make the world a truly better place for everyone, we need to change the structure of society: how things are owned and run, and by whom. We need to change the institutions, including the mass media. Yes, it's a very big notion, but not impossible. First, we all need to get better educated and better motivated.

-- Watch less TV. You'll feel better for it.

-- Make your voice heard about the censorship of the news and the garbage that you are being served up. (Write to the stations, newspaper editors, politicians.)

-- Don't let your kids get indoctrinated by Ronald McDonald or Coca Cola or the idea that "sex sells," or that cute-n-innocent Katie Courac or, for that matter, Rupert bloody Murdoch. Limit their TV time and monitor what they watch and TEACH THEM what you learn about TV.

-- Look for genuine, objective, non-profit sources of news like the excellent DemocracyNow.org (recorded daily in New York City).

-- Comment on Internet message boards.

-- Surf the Net for sites and organizations such as FAIR that are critical of the mass media .

CONCLUSION

Think of it this way: You wouldn't let a stranger -- someone with a sketchy background and questionable motives -- into your house. Well, every time you turn on your TV, that's exactly what you're doing.

And the TV execs know how to get you to smile while they make themselves at home.

If that's not adding insult to injury I don't know what is.

Take care and kill your TV,
Adrian Zupp

IF YOU LIKED THIS POST you might like to read TV -- PT.1: GETTING A GRIP ON REALITY or THE IDIOT CULTURE.

KNOWLEDGE AND EFFORT: THE WORLD'S TWO BEST FRIENDS -- PART 3

My life's ambition is to put myself out of work.

It's true. This is actually something that came up in the lunchroom one day when I was working at the nonprofit Corporate Accountability International in Boston several years ago.

We were a gregarious bunch and lunches and birthday celebrations often turned into fun Q&A sessions. One of our senior people said that her dream was to lie on the beach every day and read.

"C'mon, you'd get bored," said one of the others. "You love gunning for crooked corporations."

"No," responded the beach dreamer. "I want to win this thing. I want to put myself out of work."

Any true activist feels the same way. Sure, the work can be interesting and there's lots of peripheral knowledge and experiences that accrue along the way. But for those of us who really have our hearts in it, it's about the fox, not the hunt.

But for us to put ourselves out of work, we need numbers. We need YOU. And no, that doesn't mean activism has to be your profession. Allow me share two more anecdotes.

During one of my meetings with Noam Chomsky in his office at MIT I asked him, completely off the cuff: "Shouldn't I be going through government documents and primary sources the way you do?" (This is particularly meticulous, painstaking work.)

His answer surprised me. [I'm paraphrasing, slightly.] "No. It wouldn't be worth your time. It's what I'm good at. Why bog yourself down? You can read my findings in my books. Then you do what you do."

Another time I was watching one of the many documentaries featuring Chomsky and the film crew interviewed his late wife, Carol [pictured above], herself a former Harvard professor. Carol Chomsky was, at this point, working as her husband's de facto handler/gatekeeper/tour manager. She was asked a question that Noam himself has been asked countless times.

"What can the average person do to right the wrongs in the world?"

Her answer was simple: "They should lead an activist's life."

The aggregate message of these anecdotes is that we all have certain talents, varying amounts of available time, peculiar strengths and weaknesses. We can't all be 24/7 activists in a career sense. But there is NO EXCUSE for not doing WHAT YOU CAN to make the world a better place for those less fortunate and the generations that will follow us. When Carol Chomsky said we should "lead an activist's life," she meant that doing the right thing should be our mindset -- not something we tack onto our ourselves -- and we should live our lives accordingly.

We don't have to work in the nonprofit sector or become great dissidents or write mighty books. But our words and deeds and attitudes, what we consume, how we live, what we learn, what we teach our children, the opinions we espouse, should all, to some extent, feed into the positive "life stream" of the world.

We should be less selfish, more attuned to what's really happening around us, and have the courage to speak, and stand up for, the truth.

OUR SMALL SACRIFICES COMBINED WILL TURN THE WHEEL OF HISTORY IN HUMANITY'S FAVOR.

You can be a hero with the small decisions you make every day. And, perhaps, with larger actions from time to time.

"HOUSE ON FIRE" is not intended to recruit a generation of Chomskys. It is intended to encourage the "average" person to have the level of awareness that they most certainly should, to seek truth, and to live and die by their conscience. That is what Noam and Carol were talking about.

And, as I and many others see it, that's pretty much what we all owe our fragile planet and our fellow human beings.

And that is what will put us all "out of work."

Take care, keep smiling, and never give up on the future,
Adrian Zupp
LINKS
Noam Chomsky's website: http://www.chomsky.info/
Carol Chomsky's obituary, Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2008/12/20/carol_chomsky_at_78_harvard_language_professor_was_wife_of_mit_linguist/
Corporate Accountability International: http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at KNOWLEDGE AND EFFORT: THE WORLD'S TWO BEST FRIENDS -- PART 1 and PART 2.

WHERE IS HENRY DAVID THOREAU WHEN YOU NEED HIM?

The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation.
-- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)


This blog entry kind of follows on from my last and, yes, I still have some Part 2s to write. Yikes!

Also, I do admit this current topic is more than a pet peeve of mine and I've been arguing it with people for years. Onward!

Here's a radical concept for you: Not all rules are good rules; not all laws are good laws. Disobedience and deviance from the norm are often essential to human progress. And humane progress.

Making the world a better place -- which is what this humble blog is devoted to -- often involves enduring inconvenience, sacrifice, insults, threats, misunderstanding, incarceration, being seen as a nut/troublemaker/malcontent, a sense of isolation, despair, self deprivation, self criticism, being ostracized and... well, you get the picture.

But there is also nothing more fulfilling than having the courage of your convictions, especially if it will benefit others now or in the future. It brings a certain inner peace with it amidst any turmoil that may have resulted.

Here is a point that is very close to my own heart and experience and, to be honest, I need to get it off my freakin' underdeveloped chest: The world would perish without rebels and "troublemakers."

There is a fairly simple way to prove this.

I have known some people who were VERY conservative in how they lived their lives. I mean the types who would put getting a fat 401K ahead of any risk taking or real self-actualization -- ahead of, in essence, really living. (It's that fear thing again.) Now, I know the arguments and what I say may not apply equally to all people.

But these play-it-safe folks always have the same dull drumbeat: You need a secure job to live. Well, there is some commonsense to that -- especially if you leave it in that narrow context. And to "normal society," it doesn't matter if you are, say, a crooked lawyer or bomb designer: If you have a nice suit and decent bank balance, you're a "respectable citizen." Now, even if you take much more harmless jobs, decent jobs, POSITIVE jobs -- nurse, fireman, charity worker -- they ALL have one thing in common: Today's jobs (and everything else) exist because people who lived before us took risks.

You know, crazy, unorthodox, nutty people like artists and writers; scientists and astronomers; inventors and "insane" theorists. People who were often total outsiders in their time.

Let's break it right down. Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the great geniuses of history. A brilliant mind. An extraordinary artist, anatomist, designer, botanist, cartographer, engineer ... the list goes on and on. There weren't many guys in his day who were designing helicopters [see above illustration]. Think about the awesome creativity of that!

Still, if they'd had 401Ks in the 15th century, I'm sure there would have been friends and neighbors tsk tsking Leonardo and telling him to give up the airy-fairy nonsense and plan for his future.

But Da Vinci WAS the future. Without his "crazy ideas" and solitary courage, progress in the arts and sciences would not have moved nearly as quickly as it did.

My point? It is the creative minds and the courageous outsiders who are responsible for all the choices we have today. Without those minds, modern history would have ground to a hideous halt and you'd probably have a choice between plowing a field behind a team of oxen, or staying home in the cabin to bake bread in a stone oven.

And black Americans would still be lynched as a matter of course, and women would not have the vote, and we'd probably still be in Vietnam.

Our options and our true human rights were bought and paid for by the rule breakers and law breakers who went before us. And they're still out there doing our dirty work. The renowned ones and the anonymous ones. Maybe we should, at the very least, welcome them in from the cold.

Some of the finest people I have ever encountered have been arrested numerous times. There are many of them. Here are four: Noam Chomsky, the late Howard Zinn, the Reverend Dan Berrigan, and Norman Solomon. And you'd be crazy if you called any of them less than respectable, peace-loving, selfless members of our society.

Look these people up. You'll see for yourself. They are all pacifists. They are all the kindest of the kind, and the smartest of the smart. And, yes, they have all been locked up for "breaking the law."

Here's another radical idea: "Making a living" involves many dimensions. In the 21st century the phrase immediately brings to mind the idea of going to your job every day and feeding your family. Fair enough. In my mind, making a living is also about enriching oneself. Looking at the interesting ideas of others. Developing my soul and my mind. And being resourceful enough that I don't have to cling to one job like it's my only lifeline. To me, making a living is not just about income or accruing tangible assets.

That gives me a real security that money can't buy. And it has carried me through some very hard times. It has worked!

Many of us live pretty well and we have good times. But we are creatures of infinite potential and we should not let that be overly restricted by convention. Now, here is another key point: You can make a living for your soul without sacrificing a decent income. These things are not (necessarily) mutually exclusive! You don't have to go broke to stage your own little rebellions of the mind and soul. Free yourself up!

Don't just "think outside the box" (if I ever find the dude who authored that phrase I'm going to smear him with honey and tie him to an ant bed). Why? Because we shouldn't have boxes in the first place. We are over regimented. Over directed. Over conventionalized. Our creativity and our sense of conscientious objection have been muted by mundanity, fear and habit. Suppressed. By people who don't want us to think too creatively and maybe start coming up with alternative ways to behave rather than sticking to the behaviors that make them rich.

Idea: Bunjy jumping isn't risk taking unless you try putting some little cuts in the cable first. Risk taking is FREEING YOUR POTENTIAL. And not in some dumb-ass self-help book kind of way. For goodness sake, you can invent your own life!

Next time you take a "safe" career path or settle into a job that's limited to 40 hours per week, or assert your rights as a minority or take a dissenting view at a political rally, just remember that it was people who didn't take the comfortable route who gave you that option -- or the option to go in another direction. And it is this same kind of people who will lead our real economic, altruistic and environmental progress to a better world.

All of my life I've been considered a "rebel" to some extent, which I feel is rather silly. I haven't even been arrested yet! It doesn't take much to get the label. I mean, I'm hardly building a fortified compound. I just don't choose to live a life of quiet desperation, as Thoreau so eloquently put it. I prefer the road less traveled. It's more rewarding. More interesting. Hard at times, but life's like that sometimes anyway. Right?

And being a "rebel" got me from a lousy high school education in the tough western suburbs of Sydney, to conversations and interviews with some of the most brilliant and creative minds around. And you can do it to. In your own way. What's your "crazy" dream?

Remember: Jesus Christ was a law breaker. Crucified. Gandhi was a resister. Assassinated. Martin Luther King Jr. rejected the laws of segregation. Assassinated. John Brown was an abolitionist without peer. Hanged, 1859. And Emily Davison, became the most famous suffragette of them all. Accidentally killed during protest action, 1913.

They didn't take the easy road. They followed their conscience. They all had plenty of enemies and rebuked the laws of their day. But really their only "crime" was that they blazed trails. Today we see them as they really were. And we accept them. We even canonize them. We understand their actions as legitimate and right, and their "lawful" persecutors as wrong.

So blaze your own trail. And make it a good one. Take others into account. Help them see what it is you're doing.

Even if you have to put up with being called crazy and advised to get a job with a good 401K. Leonardo would be proud of ya!

Take care, and take care of someone else,
Adrian Zupp
PS: Don't worry: I will definitely be talking about Thoreau at some point soon. How could I not?

THE MASS MURDERERS OF WASHINGTON D.C.

Pennsylvania Avenue is the bloodiest street in the world. Hands down.

That famous strip of roadway running between the White House and the Capitol in Washington D.C. has seen more than its fair share of war mongers, global pirates and international terrorists. Yes, terrorists.

Of course, we don’t tend to think of our president or members of congress as terrorists or war criminals. But we should.

So to return to the point I made in my last blog entry: If the Nuremberg laws were applied to our presidents, every one of them since WWII would be indicted as war criminals and probably end up dangling at the end of a rope.

Think about that.

By merely applying those laws to "us" as we did to the Nazis, every commander in chief would get dusted.

We like to think that we live in a righteous land, symbolized by the stars and stripes, bald eagles and a bunch of infallible old slave owners called the Founding Fathers. And that "we’re" right and "they’re" wrong. That this is God’s country and the president is His man at the wheel.

We've been blinkered and brainwashed so well that we've bought into a whopper of a lie: If "we" do it to "them," it's justified; if "they" do it to "us," it's an outrage. Hypocrisy at its finest courtesy of the world's bully.

Well we have to get away from that line of thinking. Now and forever. If we don’t, the cycle will continue and we will be partly to blame. And, sooner or later, we will all pay the price.

If you’d like a rundown of presidential war crimes, check out this audio of Professor Noam Chomsky doing just that.
*For video, go to the 27:40 mark of this clip.


The United States, more and more, has taken to acting unilaterally around the world – inventing reasons for invasions and government overthrows and whatever else it needs to do to increase its power. And these days presidents don’t bother getting the rubber stamp for their wars from congress -- even though the constitution itself states that war is strictly the business of congress:

"ARTICLE 1, SECTION 8

The Congress shall have Power:

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;..."

Of course, the way all of this should really work is through an international body. Nations working together to resolve crises and using military action only when absolutely necessary.

But the U.S. (and others, at times) isn't interested in doing things the right way, it does things its way. And anybody who has listened to any president on the issue of military initiatives knows this is an absolute truism. Bush II sounded like something out of a bad Western most of the time -- Reagan, of course, with his "make my day" faux heroics (he never saw a day of combat himself) went the Dirty Harry route. Pretty pathetic.

The leaders of the United States -- the elites in government, corporations and so forth -- are interested in power. That is their drug of choice. And all the speeches and one-liners and false explanations (e.g. Colin Powell lying his butt off at the U.N. with those ridiculous graphics) are just window dressing for the masses.

And next time a president or a congressman or such starts reeling off a feelgood speech that includes the word "we" a whole bunch, remember that you have next to nothing in common with that person. They are elites with money and power and their own agenda. You are a vote or, looking at it the other way, part of the potential roadblock to their filthy plans. "We" equals the people, you and me, not that thin layer of privileged types with their hands on the levers.

There's so much to say about this I will dip back into it in future entries. I just wanted to established the primary thesis here: The U.S. (we're talking about its leadership) is a terrorist nation presided over by war criminals. Fact! If you don't believe it, study the Nuremberg conventions, then look at the dirty work done by all the presidents since WWII -- yes, even sweet old Jimmy Carter.

And Obama? Well, he's sending another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan by summer to prop up that invasion, and he's calling for another $30 BILLION to pour into the same big crime. And that would be YOUR money. Money that ISN'T going to hospitals/health care, roads, alternative energy, environmental health, education and all those other things that are in a sorry state because, apparently, we don't have the money to pay for them. Thirty billion that might achieve, as foreign aid, what all the precision military hardware never will. How long will we suck on this?

We'll come back to this another time. I want to end on a different note.

Noam Chomsky, the MIT professor, linguistics genius and tireless political activist, was this week refused entry into the West Bank by the Israeli government.

Chomsky, a pacifist, gives talks and lectures all around the world on the important issues that are vitally important if the planet is to 1/ survive; 2/ become a better place for all. He was planning to give a lecture at a university in the West Bank.

I once interviewed Chomsky (who is of Jewish descent) for the Boston Phoenix and I know him casually. I have also studied his writings carefully. I am convinced he is one of the most moral people I have ever met and easily the most intelligent.

This makes him very dangerous to the people in the greed-and-oppression business. Anyone familiar with the Israeli government's record of violence over the decades -- or its appalling veto record at the U.N. -- will understand why they don't want to see too much of Chomsky. Same reason Fox, CNN, NBC and all the rest don't want him beamed into our homes too often: The truth works like an acid on the iron fist of control.

But what struck me about all this was a simple irony: The West Bank is a Palestinian territory illegally occupied by Israel. That's kind of like a burglar telling a plumber he can't come into somebody else's house and work on the pipes.

Or like Israel grabbing California and telling us when we can and cannot visit the Golden State. You see, if it happened to us, it would be very different!

Keep your thinking caps on, folks. Like the man said: I may be paranoid, but that don't mean they ain't out to get us!

Take care,
Adrian Zupp

FOOTNOTE:
Send an email to your Congressperson and tell them you don't want to foot the bill for an escalation of the debacle in Afghanistan.

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might like to take a look at "THEY'RE BEING EXECUTED ON THE BATTLEFIELD."

LEST WE FORGET -- PART 2

This blog entry will be a bit of a hodge podge of random thoughts on the subject of war; but that's okay. It's what's in me today.

As far as I can determine, there is no animosity between Australians and Turks over Gallipoli. It was nothing personal, after all.

And yet thousands died -- the ultimate sacrifice. What should we make of it all?

I am proud that Australians in wars past are noted for their courage, for being monumental volunteers, for often doing the dirty work and taking the highest casualties. But it is a pride that I'd just soon derive from watching them play on the football field against other nations, not the battlefield.

The preeminent intellectual Noam Chomsky once told me that he is not a fan of emotional speeches. He believes emotion clouds rational thinking. (He even confessed he never liked listening to Martin Luther King.) War and patriotism are often the triggers of high emotions. At the beginning, when the blood is up but not yet spilled, they can seem pretty grand. But the costs can be high. I agree with Chomsky: It is better to weigh up right and wrong to make a decision about heading off to fight rather than saluting any flag that's run up a flagpole by politicians or captains of industry and profiteering.

An 18 year old might see war as adventure but governments repackage it to the masses as patriotism. Patriotism and nationalism can be very dangerous things -- although patriotically cheering on your team at the Olympics is obviously fine. But more on this another time.

I think my Dad probably qualified as what is called a "war hero." Not that he would ever have thought of himself that way. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of him many times and I often wonder what he would say about war if he were still alive. My guess is that he would be much more critical of the why's and wherefor's of it all. But I am enjoying the notion that he now has a cosmic advantage over us all.

War gives perspective to our selfishness and our petty concerns. War is Big World. We must learn from it.

I have little time for war movies, although some have their merit. Most are rather unrealistic, as far as I can tell. Others are blatant propaganda and flag waving. Remember the spate of Hollywood war movies after 9/11? That was no accident. As the comedian Bill Hicks used to say: "Your government is in control."

Which raises the issue of the difference between "wars" and "invasions." Let's mark that one down for future discussion as well.

ANZAC Day numbers were up this year. The original ANZACS themselves are all gone but the mixture of reverence and myth is as ingrained in the psyches of the two countries as ever. I reiterate: That isn't necessarily a bad thing. As long as we revere the right things.

Several years ago I interviewed an American veteran of the Battle of the Bulge for a newspaper article. He was a great bloke. Friendly, self-effacing, quietly spoken. We talked about the war he experienced and he had very little good to say about it at all. And towards the end of the interview, out of the blue, he asked rhetorically: "Why are we so warlike?" It is something that has stayed with me over the years.

The final lesson is surely that we must teach peace. Not just preach it, but teach it. To every child. And we must explain it. Teaching the history of wars and their jumble of dates and battles is just so much memory testing and storytelling. We owe it to those who have died in wars to teach peace. We have seen again and again -- and we still do -- the price of not doing this.

ANZAC Day is gone for another year. But in my Aussie heart every day is ANZAC Day, in a sense. And I am grateful for the examples set and the lessons offered. We must remember history as it really happened. That is our duty.

Lest we forget.

Adrian Zupp

LET'S TALK ABOUT STRESS, BAY-BEE

I didn't go to work today.

I didn't go to work because I am so stressed out by the place and the continuing soap opera that plays out there that I just ran the white flag up the pole. The details pertaining to my particular situation aren't all that relevant. At the end of the day, I'm just one more person in the pandemic of work-related stress.

I don't consider myself to be a weak person. I started out in blue collar jobs at a relatively young age and got my hands dirty for many years before seeing the inside of a college. I know the value of a dollar and the meaning of hard work. I pride myself on my resilience.

But have you noticed how the working life has gotten harder and harder, as a general trend, over the past years and decades?

Why is that?

I think there are many interwoven reasons and one overarching one: The beast that is corporate-driven capitalism. I will lay my cards on the table and say up front that I am not a fan of capitalism. But even if I were -- or if you are -- anyone who has studied any economics at all knows that we do not have pure capitalism anywhere on the planet.

Is our capitalism driven by fair and open competition? No way. In the United States, the corporations with the most lobbyists in Washington DC win at will. Just think of it as another form of insider trading.

And all this guff about welfare to the poor being a waste of taxes and harmful to the economy and blah blah blah. Guess who are, BY FAR, the greatest recipients of taxes-funded welfare in the United States. Yep, corporations. The recent bailout of banks and various other crooks was only one of the more transparent examples of this. It's been going on a long time and the guys at the top know how to take care of each other. So if you're wondering where your hard-earned tax dollars go, better to look up than down.

The point about capitalism goes on and on but I promised myself I'd keep these blogs somewhat bite sized. So we'll come back to that another time.

So, "stress." If you work in the private sector, capitalism and the corporate culture have a lot to say about your stress level. (And even if you aren't in the private sector, you're still going to be heavily impacted.) This culture will determine your pay level, how much time you get off, your sick days, what you do for eight or 10 or more hours for five or more days per week. It will impact your self image, your self esteem, your family, your friends, your sleep, your entire private life. That's pretty significant, right?

No wonder we're stressed to hell. And hey, most of you reading this aren't living in the Third World: a chorus of countries that gets kicked in the groin by capitalism whether they like it or not.

If we are to feel fulfilled and happier and healthier, this all has to change. Simple logic. We need to talk to colleagues about how we feel (you'll find most of them feel the same way). We need to voice our complaints where and when we can: factoring in the risk of being fired, of course. We need to join unions if they are available to us. We need to read and educate ourselves on work, on our economy, on stress, on the institutions that dictate the shape of our lives (corporations, the body politic, the public relations industry and the media). We need to voice our concerns to these institutions and join public action/social change groups (even if only via the Internet). We need to take every opportunity we can to reach out and reach up.

This is not impossible stuff. Big things are changed by many voices and united actions. And if you share any of the concerns here you are NOT in a minority. You are the majority! It's just that the fat cats own most of the media so you aren't going to get any smoke signals about your partners-in-change from them. They like things just the way they are. And keeping the masses divided is the age old way to subdue them.

I have to end this here and promise to keep circling back to, and elaborating on, the various issues I've raised.

For now, here are three resources (of the many available) that might help you get started on joining the fight for a better world and feeling more optimistic:

1/ www.democracynow.org -- if you want the real news, you will get it here.

2/ "The Overworked American" by Juliet B. Shor -- a landmark book on, well, how we're overworked in the U.S.

3/ www.care2.com -- you can sign up here to get email bulletins about online petitions on important issues. So for 60 seconds of your time each day, you could add your voice to thousands of others on a critical issue and, yes, politicians do pay attention to these things. They love lobbyists but they also have to heed their constituents. Don't give up this power!

4/ Just about any book by (or DVD featuring) Noam Chomsky (pictured). Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest minds on the planet, his books are quite easy to read and devastatingly revealing. And many of them are quite short and in Q&A interview form.

I'll share more such sources with you in coming weeks. Perhaps you'd like to share some too by writing a comment with your thoughts on how to fight the good fight.

To end on a light note, the great radical comedian Bill Hicks once said: "Bosses. They're like gnats on a fishing trip." Doesn't go to the heart of the whole problem, perhaps, but it's a fun thought to roll around in your head on those days when work is getting you down and levering your stress up. (More on Hicks another time.)

Thanks for reading and I will try to pick up the thread started in my first post when I return here tomorrow.

Take care and onward!
Adrian Zupp