Video Postcards from Standing Rock, ND #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife

#NoDAPL  #WaterIsLife  #HonorTheEarth

A few news items you may have missed on the evening news. Actually unless you’re following independent alternate news media you would have missed all of this entirely.

When Water Protects try to unblock Hwy 1806 the Dakota Access Pipeline POLICE get nasty.

R.W. James

 

TYT‘s Jordan interviews Red Dawn–sister of Red Fawn

FreeRedFawn.com

Chris Turley’s update Dec. 3.

Uprising TV

I think these postcards all pretty much speak for themselves. No ranting from me at the moment.

(aside: any ads appearing here do so via wordpress and have no connection whatsoever to moi. thank you for visiting my blogcasa.)

Guilty, Guilty Pleasures —>>> Major Crimes with Mary McDonnell and company

The last time I posted about a television show was in regard to the American remake of the Swedish crime drama The Bridge.  Today it’s to do a little promotional hype for Major Crimes starring the incredible Mary McDonnell. Season 3 of Major Crimes starts Monday, June 9 on TNT and I am so looking forward to it. This spin-off from The Closer featuring Kyra Sedgwick would be well worth watching simply because of Mary McDonnell’s great portrayal of Captain Sharon Raydor as a very strong, independent, and very, very smart woman who has the rules down pat–and a lot more. McDonnell’s interview with Travis Smiley explains a great deal for anyone who has not yet discovered Major Crimes. Even if you don’t enjoy crime drama I think it’s worth listening to McDonnell discuss the Raydor character, power, acting and the needs of human beings–and selling brushes.

Another plus for Major Crimes in its first two seasons was the story line involving Captain Sharon Raydor and material witness Rusty Beck. Watching their relationship with each other and the rest of the characters grow and evolve brought unexpected considerable depth and substance to this drama. The concept of family is redefined by example in a much-needed manner for the discussions it has the potential to provoke. Unlike The Closer which had a certain formulaic feeling to the episodes featuring Brenda Johnson’s considerable talent for lying and manipulating people into confessions even when raising all sorts of issues including ethical issues about the ends justifying the means, Major Crimes is making its own way into the future. If you want predictable resolutions of plot-lines there’s always Law and Order to fall back into the comfort zone of neat little black and white packages. This isn’t to say that the criminal cases aren’t closed and resolved in Major Crimes–they are–but there’s a lot more going on than stereotypical criminal behavior.

There’s a great deal more attention paid to serious issues like sexually abused children. “These boys aren’t runaways. They’re throw-aways.” So says a man running a shelter for teenage boys living on the streets of LA.  Now for a society in which the mainstream jabbers constantly about family values and loving children so much this is a brutally honest statement of factual reality.  Its consequences for boys like the Rusty Beck–and other characters–holds up a mirror that reflects our society as all truly great dramas of the stage and screen do.  Clearly there are not enough Sharon Raydors willing to step up and care in our real world.  In most drama storylines children are summarily deposited with the Department of Family Services  and conveniently disappear from the script. In the first two seasons of Major Crimes, Rusty Beck didn’t disappear–and the writers used his character to full advantage.  I can’t tell from the promos or website if the very talented Graham Patrick Martin will continue in this role–but for the sake of abandoned children trying to survive in a hostile world I hope so. Being saved  is not the end of anyone’s story.

Oh and by the way, Rusty Beck loves playing chess.

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Personally I think the fans on YouTube have made better promos for Major Crimes than TNT has dreamed up so far. Here’s a fun meet and greet video to get acquainted.

scorey5001

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A short and to the point promo. ) I get it, this is probably for short promo time slots.

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Mary McDonnell interview on The Travis Smiley Show. Yeah you want to watch. I think Smiley was very smitten. Oh yeah, he likes her shoes. Ah ha.

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This particular choice of song and images conveys a great deal about the relationship between Rusty and Sharon.  Clearly this matters to viewers as there are many music videos on the tubes regarding this relationship.

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Major Crimes Cookbook for the Sunshine Kids

Major CrimesTV

For more information or to order the Major Crimes Cookbook, click here: http://majorcrimestv.net/support-the-…

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For cast profiles and more information visit  Major Crimes online: http://majorcrimestv.net/

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I think I’m going to post more fan videos for Major Crimes on the sidebar. Yeah, I think I will. It’ll be fun–for me anyway.  I’ll make sure to find one with the scene where Sharon Raydor shoots a guy between the eyes with a red bean bag. Hey, he asks for it–literally.

UPDATE–the Beanbag scene is the headliner on the sidebar. Several of my favorite scenes follow along with some fan made videos featuring music. Charlie’s Angels is a hoot.

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As for The Bridge–it’s all dark and dreadful in America and Mexico.  In Sweden there’s darkness and light–plus resolution. I recommend watching both versions.

Pulling The Rug Out From Under Big Brother– The Burglary, The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI by Betty Medsger

The New York Times

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“There are certain points in history where a society goes so wrong, and there are certain people who will say, ‘I won’t stand for that . . . I will risk career, life, limb, family  freedom . . . And I will take this risk, and I will go and do it.”

                                                                                                                                                                                          David Kairys

Betty Medsger’s book about the 1971 burglary of the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania isn’t about a cheap thrill ride of robbery for adrenaline kicks and profit, though it was a crime with a huge payout–the truth.  The burglary committed by a crew of non-violent peace activists assembled by a physics professor, William Davidon, confirmed the suspicions of anti-war activists that they were being unlawfully spied upon by their own government because they were exercising their right to dissent — and that thousands of other people were being illegally spied upon because they were considered subversives according to one man, J. Edgar Hoover.  People didn’t have to commit any crime or even speak about committing treason to get their names put on a list of folks to be rounded up and jailed in the event of some national emergency. If they were liberal, if they were black, if they espoused anti-war sentiments, if they were writers, artists, then they were candidates for warrantless, indefinite detention without due process under the law–as far as Hoover was concerned. The Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI’s theft of FBI records brought into the light of day the term COINTELPRO–and a lot of very very illegal activity by the FBI as it committed crimes against the American people with impunity. Such crimes included destroying the lives of innocent people by deliberately framing them for crimes they didn’t commit, celebrating such wrongdoing and refusing to turn over evidence that proved their innocence in any wrongdoing. Hoover’s secret FBI didn’t give a damn about truth, integrity, civil liberties, or the law. It existed to create paranoia and fear in the population at large in order  to control everyone. It refused to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States and the law. It was a criminal entity from the top on down with a few exceptions.

If this is striking a contemporary current events cord with you, that’s not an accident.

If you’re expecting an anti-war tale rife with hippies, drugs, sex and rock and roll music, look elsewhere. The people who broke into the FBI office in Media were not a bunch of hooligans. They weren’t looking for money. They were searching for evidence.  These were people who raided draft offices in order to destroy the effort to conscript young men for the war machine then stayed to be arrested by the police in order to take responsibility for their actions. These were people deeply invested in ethical behavior and education who wanted the death and destruction in Vietnam to stop. They were people committed to the civil rights movement.  Betty Medsger’s book provides varied personal portraits of the burglars, each dependent upon how much personal information they were willing to share, of the Media burglars.  There’s a range of backgrounds and experience among them which provides some sense of the breadth of the range of people involved in the anti-war movement and what inspired them to become activists.

If you have no clue about the short and long-term importance of this burglary and the context in which it occurred, don’t fret, Medsger will fill you in. She provides notes and a very useful bibliography for further reading. While this is a very serious book about very serious issues which are very relevant to the here and now, it’s also very very accessible and readable. It gives life and breath to events by creating connections with real humans thinking hard about the world we live in–and how we live in it. What are the responsibilities of those who are free? What does it mean to have the right to dissent without fear of retaliation in a society that claims to be free? What are you willing to do to protect your civil liberties? Who wants to live their lives in fear of being arrested because of their ideas?

Betty Medsger’s book raises all sorts of interesting issues for serious conversation while stressing the important role ‘ordinary’ people play in creating the world in which we live our daily lives. If you think one person doesn’t have a lot of influence in the power plays then consider J. Edgar Hoover the Head of the FBI versus William Davidon, a physics professor with an idea.

Who is reading everyone’s mail? Who is collecting phone conversations? Who is creating files on everyone? Why?

Who has the Hoover virus? What is to be done about it?

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The Burglary site –>> http://www.theburglary.com/

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Betty Medsger ~ The Burglary (note, her part does not run the full hour of the video)

Published on Mar 21, 2014

http://www.politics-prose.com/book/97… Betty Medsger talks about her book about the previously unsolved burglary of an FBI building in Media, Pennsylvania. Recorded on March 16, 2014.
Founded by Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade in 1984, Politics & Prose Bookstore is Washington, D.C.’s premier independent bookstore and cultural hub, a gathering place for people interested in reading and discussing books. Politics & Prose offers superior service, unusual book choices, and a haven for book lovers in the store and online. Visit them on the web at http://www.politics-prose.com/

BookTV

 

What’s in Betty Medsger’s ‘ The Burglary’? Crow-bars, COINTERLPRO and Naughty FBI Spy Games.

what lives in a book

inked leaves unfurling words

secrets detecting

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 Hmm, how’s that poem working for you? May not make the publishing book grade, but it does the introduction rites job today. Sort of. Books are strange things. Never know just what you’ll find between their covers–hard copy or electronic, it makes no difference when the words are what make the mental meat of the matter. I have no clue how good or bad Medsger’s brand spanking new book reads. Yet. It’s literally a NEW release by Random House-as in publication dated yesterday.  Ironically the historical story it features is decades old. New book for an old untold story about American citizens taking things into their own hands in order to get to the truth of what matters.  According to the interview on Democracy Now! this morning, the newspaper media nearly failed them. The truth was very HOT to handle. Some political folks so feared the FBI that they turned their backs on the right to information regarding illegal activities by the FBI. One mailing of copied documents never reached its destination. Can we say “intercepted”? Or maybe just an honest mistake on the part of the postal service. I wouldn’t bet a penny on that.

Clearly history is repeating itself in current events. The stakes are just as high regarding freedom and civil liberties. A portion of the public is very paranoid. J. Edgar Hoover would be proud of the media spin on all things of politics regarding the military industrial complex and corporate personhood for inducing much paranoia–according the old documents stolen and “released.” Some times it’s just no fun having a theory proven. My next observation might seem like a side issue, but it’s not. How many ‘cop’ shows are on television? How many feature all sorts of fancy surveillance techno toys? How many feature terrorist threats week after week? How many evoke sympathy for the hardworking agents no matter what their flaws? Have you gotten used to the sound of gunfire from watching crime shows on television? Ever notice the lack of emotion from the people doing the shooting and the characters giving and recieving the news that someone has been killed?

Side note: At the opposite end are the medical heroes who do everything they can to save lives and then seem to suffer a sense of loss when their patients die. Hmm. I’ve yet to encounter any such doctor in my life experience. I’ve managed to send a couple running in a panic. I guess that proved those well educated individuals were human after all.

“Excuse me, doctor, but that’s not his sense of humor.  At the moment, he really thinks you’re all aliens out to kill him. He’s a lot stronger than he looks. I advise exercising caution when handling.” Watch doctor run back to ER room.

Back to the regular word flow:

I wonder if there’s a television program in the works about TSA folks in order to show us just how good all their intentions are as they intimidate, strip search, x-ray, hassle and belittle people everywhere with impunity in order to keep people safe.  The irony of TSA is a steak so thick an axe is needed to cut the meat.

What’s your paranoia meter reading? I know people who freak out every time there’s a plane crash and others who fear the sight of police people wearing gun holsters. I also know a fair number of folks who don’t give a flying f&*^ about anything except their daily routine and money-making. As long at those boats are not rocked, all is well in their universe.

Is there a safety lock somewhere?

Is this piece fully loaded?

Careful with the drones~

Make sure they fly right~

Status quo depends on the system flowing, flowing, flowing…..

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The Context:

Stealing J. Edgar Hoover’s Secrets

The New York Times

The Book:

The Burglary by Betty Medsger

click cover for Random House

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The Motive:

“It Was Time To Do More Than Protest”

democracynow·

Published on Jan  8, 2014

http://www.democracynow.org – One of the great mysteries of the Vietnam War era has been solved. On March 8, 1971, a group of activists — including a cabdriver, a day care director and two professors — broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania. They stole every document they found and then leaked many to the press, including details about FBI abuses and the then-secret counter-intelligence program to infiltrate, monitor and disrupt social, political movements, nicknamed COINTELPRO. Calling themselves, the Citizen’s Commission to Investigate the FBI, no one was ever caught for the break-in. The burglars’ identities remained a secret until this week when they finally came forward to take credit for the caper that changed history. Today we are joined by three of them — John Raines, Bonnie Raines and Keith Forsyth; their attorney, David Kairys; and Betty Medsger, the former Washington Post reporter who first broke the story of the stolen FBI documents in 1971 and has now revealed the burglars’ identities in her new book, “The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI.”
Watch part 1 of this interview: http://youtu.be/GMWuJipChs0

For more of the interview and links to related items –> http://www.democracynow.org/2014/1/8/it_was_time_to_do_more

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Radio:

NPR  coverage –> http://www.npr.org/2014/01/07/260302289/the-secret-burglary-that-exposed-j-edgar-hoovers-fbi

How’s your day? What’s in your mailbox? Have you fumigated lately?

Yes, I am looking forward to reading Medsger’s book.

Bread and Puppet Theater + “crisis bread” & “crying cream dreams” = Nourishment

In part to prove I still have a sense of humor, such as it may be, I offer some theatre and refreshments for your enjoyment.  Perhaps some of you will find Amy Goodman’s interview with Peter Schumann, founder of the Bread and Puppet Theater, as delightful as I did. Or not.  Schumann’s references to his own bread baking reminded me of poems I wrote for brulionmann as a result of his complaints about the state of bread–and cream– so it seemed like a great combo read meal deal.

menu:

bread poem

Band music for The Shatter

interview in three parts

short puppet clip

long variety show

cream poem

bon appetit!

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i——i

“crisis bread” 

“no money for a bread, we call that  ”crisis” ~ brulionman

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world wide tragedy

is bread

state of bread = bitch fest

gimme some goddamn real pita,

hell, some hemp too

a boatload of naan and a frying pan, please!

 a plate of roti

crisp, crunchy Italian

I’ll even take a loaf of stinky sourdough

anything but this damn white mish mash hash gumshoe shit

cornbread? really? wtf are you trying to pull on me?

bring on the challah,brioche, lavash

toss some tortillas and frybread drill team style

I’ll sell my soul for a true French baguette

a full-bodied Polish rye with some style

German pumpernickel with pump not pap

throw a roll at the wall and watch the plaster fall

a crust you peel

soak soup

bathe in butter love

plate scour

gimme some goddamned real bread

Another corporate crime against humanity

wonder

hostess

sara Lee

nature’s pride

pepperidge farm

sunbeam

holsom and all the rest of the plastic bag labels

guilty as charged

baking loaves with out heart

soul-less seeds

bakery murder in the first degree

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http://brulionman.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/sobotniej-cyklozy-napad-saturday-attack-of-cycling/#comments

Some bread and butter from Yi-Ching

http://yichinglin.com/2013/10/09/buttered/

 http://yichinglin.com/tag/bread/

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DeeDee Halleck

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Bread and Puppet Theatre ~ Blue Sky Puppet + Mask Dance ~ July 2012

theRedCatRed

First two acts of a Bread and Puppet Friday night show. Recorded July 2012.

First act is the blue sky puppet with clouds.
Second is the elegant masked dance.

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Bread and Puppet Circus and Pageant on Sunday, July 14. 2013

videosphere

“crying cream dreams”

cream? get real, brulionman

  brulionman get a cow.

 tie it to your bicycle

  hand school teats

seriously, get some finger action going

community uprising cream dream

cow eats sun

din din until day done

treat those teats right

milk, cream, butter, cheese

comes one happy cow

squeeze, squirt, squish

 get a Guernsey with a babe

fill a bucket

set set set

cream rises, oh hell, yeah

no, no, no to piggy fat!

real cream needs none of that!

flour? does not compute

send that shit down the garbage chute

just the cream if you please

sweet talk some butter

tease the thick from the top

sip sip sip, can’t resist

drop it in a jar

get some bike dance mojo goin’

thirty tic tocs butter glowin’

pushing creamy envelopes

cheesecloth action play

guess what you got coming days

 cheese, glorious cheese

get a cow, brulionman, no bull

you want real cream

fingers gonna need some teat pull school

No, I don’t know how to get a cow to ride a bike!

You’re on your own with that, brulionman!

8

http://brulionman.wordpress.com/

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Thanks for visiting! Please come again. 🙂

The People of Pungesti Say “NO! Fracking!” ~ Chevron says, “F*&%! U! Fracking Is US!”

Lost?

Think Chevron + Ecuador= $19 Billion in Damages that Chevron refuses to pay.

For more interesting information about Chevron’s dealings with Indigenous people visit Amazon Watch http://amazonwatch.org/

Gee, I’m not wondering why the people of Pungesti are riled up about Chevron coming to frack in their farmlands.  Democracy Now! reported that Chevron had ceased operations as a result of Saturday’s protest–a protest that has been ongoing since October.  http://www.democracynow.org/2013/12/9/headlines#12911

 But apparently Chevron, being Chevron, has started right back up–again.

According to IW, Industry Week, Chevron has resumed its fracking operation in Pungesti in spite of six weeks protest by hundreds of local people. Chevron has even managed to get policeman posted outside the homes of the villagers. I suppose that’s part of an effort to attempt prevent them from returning to their protest camp field. The usual things are being done to discourage the people from further protest–destruction of the on site protest camp, arrests and the tried and true ploy of, “Oh, look what we found. You are bad people.” Pick the illegal whatever object of your choice.

Information Source: http://www.industryweek.com/global-economy/chevron-resumes-shale-work-romania-despite-protest?page=1

According to Investment Watch the people of Pungesti are now basically under house arrest.  http://investmentwatchblog.com/s-o-s-pungesti-romania-people-under-terror/

 

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Images page source from Google https://www.google.com/search?q=pungesti+romania+protest&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=6eemUs3kMILV2AX9r4CwBA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1600&bih=798

Yes, it is worth the effort to search the web for images in order to get a look at who is protesting in Pungesti—no, it’s not those crazy guys in black, it’s everyone from the grandmothers to the grandchildren.

Photographs http://www.nasul.tv/2013/12/08/fotografii-zguduitoare-pungesti-romania-7-decembrie-2013/

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Battle In Pungesti, Romania and Fight to save the Earth http://www.popularresistance.org/battle-in-pungesti-romania-and-fight-to-save-earth/

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More coverage from RT  http://rt.com/news/chevron-fracking-protest-clashes-884/

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Nasul TV coverage  http://www.nasul.tv/

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If anyone else following this protest has any new  information sources with English subtitles or coverage in English, please share. Thank you.

Low Roar

Something unexpectedly discovered while aimlessly wandering among the tubes of you, Low Roar.

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Help Me by Low Roar

LOWROARMUSIC LOWROARMUSIC

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Just a Habit by Low Roar

HI Iceland

 BreakThruRadioTV

Low Roar is Ryan Karazija, former singer of West Coast band Audrye Sessions. Originally from San Francisco, he moved to Reykjavik, Iceland, and recorded his first full-length under the new moniker. The album?s beautiful and ambient indie-folk has a haunting chilliness that seems borrowed from the frigid, isolated surroundings, while Karazija?s voice, eerily similar to Thom Yorke?s, is yearning and vulnerable. The songs are simple ? adorned only with bells, accordions and occasional electronic bits ? yet filled with emotional depth. /// Low Roar?s self-titled EP is out on Tonequake Records. /// Complete radio broadcast and playlist:http://bit.ly/yOKYve /// Low Roar on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/lowroar.music

 

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leFeistyUnicorn

Friends Make Garbage by Low Roar Lyric Video
Video made and editted by yours truly, I do not own anything else.

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Nobody Else by Low Roar

TheInfinal

Low Roar http://www.facebook.com/lowroar.music

rain effects from the following video without permission:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYw7eJ…

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Dreamer by Low Roar

LOWROARMUSIC LOWROARMUSIC

 

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Interview

 Loftasvilnius

Published on Jun 24, 2012

LOW ROAR on LOFTAS FEST mainstage June 24th, 2012. By Inga Norke & Mixmagas & Linge

 

 

 

 

“Capital” — new film by Costa-Gavras opens Oct. 25, 2013 in NYC and Nov. 1 in LA et al.

What’s in your wallet?

Film Is Now – WORLD CINEMA upload

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A film, Capital,  is coming to the USA Oct. 25 in NYC and I wonder what the fat cats will make of it.  It will be interesting to see just what Costa-Gavras presents about the matters of money and economy which continue to influence daily life. In America corporations are ‘persons’– which allows big money to play at will and do as it pleases legally.  Keep in mind that the law has nothing to do with ethics, moral authority, or truth.

*As for the bigger picture of film-making and what will be tolerated in American movie theaters:

Consider this:  The Only Good Indian could not get booked into mainstream movie theaters stateside.  It’s a film about genocide in America.

http://www.theonlygoodindian.com/

TheOnlyGoodIndian upload

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Consider this:  Capital is a film about the destruction of the economy.  Hmm. what makes people more uncomfortable?

Fresh Movie Trailer  upload

Published on Sep 30, 2013

Directed by Academy Award winner Costa-Gavras
Join us on Facebook http://facebook.com/FreshMovieTrailers
A mid-level banker is installed as CEO in this edge-of-your-seat, darkly comic thriller about the murky side of capitalism. From Academy-Award winning political filmmaker Costa-Gavras.

CAPITAL Trailer
Starring Gad Elmaleh and Gabriel Byrne.
In theaters October 25th 2013
“Money is the Master”

CAPITAL Official US Trailer
© Cohen Media Group

democracynow upload

Democracy Now!  News :   http://www.democracynow.org/

Transcript of video –>> http://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/9/taking_on_capitalism_us_torture_dictatorships

Some ‘My Lai’ every day in Vietnam–So went the War Game according to Nick Turse in “Kill Anything That Moves, The Real American War in Vietnam”

 Recently I shared with some friendlies that I was reading Nick Turse’s Kill Anything That Moves, The Real American War in Vietnam. So far only one friendly has responded to my friendly email and that was basically to share the information that they had already read some of the many books on the Vietnam War–hence, implying that they weren’t interested in reading another tome.  So I thought, yes, why indeed would anyone whose has attempted to make some sense out of a seemingly senseless waste of lives want to read Turse’s latest book?  Why? I believe the answer involves the Vietnamese Civilians all too often callously dismissed as Casualties of War.  Damn this sounds familiar. Care to insert Afghanistan Casualties of War? Iraqi Casualties of War? Pick any war and couple it with casualties.  Civilians as totally expendable human resources is not a new concept. It’s been around a very long time. By the way, if you think this doesn’t pertain to you in any way, shape or form, please do think again. Why? Because unless you are part of the military forces you are indeed a civilian to be treated with absolute contempt by those with no regard for the tenets of the Geneva Convention–that nice little old-fashioned little agreement about how to treat people during any modern war.  Somehow I doubt the Geneva Convention agreement is part of either a  drone’s programming or of the human charting its course. It certainly has no value to those who send soldiers to wars. Hmm.  Might it be helpful to consider the military forces at work in Vietnam as precursors to current drones? Perhaps. But there are serious limitations to drones conducting military strikes as drones are incapable of rape and torture. At least I think they are –so far.  Have no doubt that some computer programmer somewhere is hard at work solving these drone limitations. Too bad that creative brainpower isn’t invested in something like combating pollution.

Now back to Turse’s tome which is all about the standard operating procedure of murder, rape and torture  of Vietnamese civilians whose “hearts and minds” were supposedly being saved from the communist menace.   Why read this book?

   In Vietnam, where the “lives” of the deceased are believed to be inextricably intertwined with those of the living, it is thought that those who die a “bad death” may be forced to suffer as “wandering ghosts,” trapped in a limbo between our world  and the land of the dead. In this shadow land, they forever reexperience the violence that ended their lives, unable to attain peace until the living truly acknowledge them and the fate they suffered.3 The idea of such wandering ghosts is an unfamiliar one for most Americans, but we should not be too quick to dismiss it. The crimes committed in American’s name in Vietnam were our “bad death,” and they have never been adequately faced. As a result, they continue to haunt our society in profound and complex ways. (p. 261)

Turse makes the case that it’s high time Americans quit turning a blind eye to the dark side of our history in war, politics and business.  It’s time we all took a long hard straight on look at the military industrial complex that strives to rule the world with an iron fist. With knowledge, however nasty and unpleasant it may be, comes power.  There’s a very important war emerging in the world involving everyone on the Earth. It helps to know one’s enemy.  The enemy has left quite a few revealing footprints. Some of them lay in the history of the war waged on the children, women and men of Vietnam.  There are older footprints, newer ones and ones currently underway.  What will it take for “us” to change how we view casualties of war–and war itself? What will it take for “us” to refuse to play the game of murder, rape, torture of our fellow human beings just because some power-hungry egomaniacs demand we play? Don’t forget “we” are all totally expendable–our sons, husbands, wives, daughters, mothers, fathers, all our relations are absolutely of no account in the war games.

So yes, read Nick Turse’s book — and learn why the Winter Soldiers threw their medals at Congress.   It’s not a fun read. It’s not enjoyable. It’s not a “feel good” book.  It is an important book.

http://www.nickturse.com/books.html

Democracy Now!  www.democracynow.org

Written transcript of interview http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/15/kill_anything_that_moves_new_book

Geneva Convention http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Conventions

 

New Book Alert–“Kill Anything That Moves” by Nick Turse

new_book

   I confess I’m not really wanting to read Kill Anything That Moves, The Real American War in Vietnam, because it sounds like a truly horrific book, yet I feel a sense of obligation to read Nick Turse’s work.  Truth needs telling.  Just from watching Democracy Now!’s interview of Nick Turse it’s pretty clear this is about the dark side of human nature and that’s not pleasant ever to encounter.  Too often we think of war being an arena in which everything is allowed. Why is that? Why is it permissible for people to commit horrible transgressions against other human beings–women, men, children–during a state of war? Suicide is condemned in many cultures. To take control of one’s fate and decide whether or not one wishes to continue living is generally frowned upon.  Yet–it is acceptable to kill OTHERS–just not yourself.  Why is it “Okay” to kill other people during war or at other times? Why is it okay to rape and torture other people during war? Turse’s book delves into the atrocity as norm character of the Vietnam War.  I fear it reveals a great deal about human nature that we’d rather turn a blind eye to.  Yes, it’s been a long time since Vietnam. But there are ongoing wars. Has the conduct of war changed? Somehow I doubt it. I’m waiting for the time when some politicans declare war and everyone refuses to fight,  thereby putting an end to the insanity.

Nick Turse site http://www.nickturse.com/books.html

Democracy Now!  www.democracynow.org

Review forthcoming after I get my not so eager hands on Turse’s tome.  If anyone out there has already read the book–no fear of spoilers–feel free to hold forth on it via the comments.

namaste

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