I won’t attempt a review since I haven’t seen the film (and probably won’t, at least in the short term), but I think I can venture some coherent commentary.

The movie is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Max Brooks.

No doubt the movie is/will be entertaining. I have no idea what the multi-scripts will do to the book, but generally one can expect some version of the original story turned into 116 minutes of ultra-packed action.

In the best of all worlds (or at least a conscientious one), people should be spending their wage-slavery earnings on a film like “Dirty Wars” by Jeremy Scahill. They’d actually learn something about what the multi-national corporate elite and their gov’t is doing to them—and the rest of the planet—and maybe even get inspired to do something about it.

But the general public being what it is—self-fixated and living thru the vicarious virtuality of the ultra-rich few whom they will never personally realize—prefers the fictional world of entertainment. And for sure, it’s a lot easier…just let profiteers, bureaucrats and script-writers do all the serious thinking and action.

After Brad Pitt’s production company beat out Leonardo DiCaprio’s for the “World War Z” movie rights, $125 million was budgeted for the film. But given two major re-writes and filming for new endings, the cost is now over $200 million.

One can certainly bet that many scenes in the book have found significant re-writes, if not altogether eliminated. In the book, for instance, China is blamed for the initial zombie virus outbreak, which they try to hide thru fomenting a conflict with Taiwan. After a civil war in which a Chinese Navy sub kills off the Politburo with a ballistic missile, China becomes a democracy.

Following a religious revolution, Russia becomes the world’s largest expansionist theocracy. A democratic Cuba becomes the world’s most thriving economy and the international banking capital. But that’s all in the book. Too much cognitive and political dissonance for a movie.

The book continues with the disease being spread from China thru black-market organ selling and fleeing refugees. Meanwhile, the US does its usual ignoring of the situation until they too are overrun by these flesh-eating, ultra-conservative, single-minded predators.

The virus kills those infected (I imagine like AIDS, thru blood-tissue contact?), but animates the dead bodies into flesh-eating zombies, which in turn can only be “killed” by destroying their brains.

These are not your slow-moving, moaning variety of the undead. They’d probably blend in with Wall Street if they could just tone down a bit their vulture-like appetites.

After Iran faces being overrun by Paki refugees fleeing the zombies, Iran and Pakistan exchange nukes in mutual destruction.  Hardly a surprise by the writer there.

Israel cuts itself off entirely from the rest of the Middle East (I thought that’s what their Apartheid Wall was for) and finds itself allied with Palestinians against an internal ultra-Orthodox revolt. What, they got tired of blaming Hamas and the people of Gaza?  Since three females are cast in the movie as Israelis and a Palestinian, we can expect some version of Zionist-lite drama palatable to AIPAC.

In the book, the Israelis and Palestinians also make peace and rename the area as Unified Palestine. Fat chance. If that’s scripted into the movie, I’ll give Brad Pitt a blowjob on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And no, don’t bother looking for Mel Gibson in this movie either.

The script will no doubt be threaded by politically correct overtures to gov’t incompetence and corporate peddling of faux vaccines somewhat disguised as independent privateering by renegade profiteers (as if there’s any shortage of such on Wall Street). For sure, you won’t find the Big Pharmas being blamed for what they already routinely do.

In the book, the US gov’t creates a “Re-Education Act” to indoctrinate the surviving population to fight this war—which they’re grossly losing all over the world—but I doubt that it plays a significant role in the film. The public is already well-trained at turning a blind eye to corporatist-profiteering wars.

In the book, Pitt would be a retired United Nations commissioner traveling the world trying to find a cure while also fighting this pandemic. In the movie I suspect any UN role would be downplayed (let’s not get the conspiratorial-minded Tea Party née Klan so upset that they boycott the film).

Naturally, movies moreso than books, rely on characters to cycle and advance the story action. In Brad’s case, his “UN” will probably be his family–a wife and two daughters.  About as “United Nations” as the producers would want to get.

Oh yeah, Warner Bros. Records is also set to release the soundtrack album for the movie, so maybe they’ll be one or two hits out of that as well, along with a video game, sequels, ad nauseam. Maybe the British rock group Muse will get a piece of the payola.

The film was shot in a number of locations around the world.  I found some of the Internet info of especial interest. The producers declined Philadelphia as a film location due to the lack of enough state tax credits (profit flows up, not down).

There was also a surreal incident that involved Budapest, Hungary.  A stash of assault and sniper rifles and hand guns were delivered by private plane to a Budapest warehouse as de-commissioned film props. In fact, after a raid by a Hungarian Counter-Terrorism unit, they were found to be fully-operational. Opps…

Now, given my own experiences with arms traders when I was a working journalist over toward that area of the world, I might just think that some entrepreneurial fellow-or-two set up a dual-op to make a few extra bucks. Might have done it myself…

Fortunately for Brad & Company, the Hunkies couldn’t figure out who owned what (or more likely, a little grease goes a long way).

“World War Z” as metaphor?  Not to worry. Reality won’t intrude. And if it does, they’ll always be a heroic action-figure to save the day.

Just go and enjoy yourself. And leave the driving to US (or the corporate sponsors)…

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Given the technology it would take for them to reach this far, one could would assume that they’ve achieved a highly advanced social evolution.

Should they be observing, I have a few items I’d like them to consider…

Societies here on Earth are relatively simple to analyze. Modern organized history of the human species is not much older than 10,000-yrs-or-so (about 700 generations) and has socialized itself so far along haves and have-nots, or rulers and ruled. We call it class society.

I imagine that y’all will find that Earth is quite an exceptional and beautiful planet. Probably a wonderful place for a galactic vacation. Except for the crude exploitation of the vast majority of its main sentient species, alien visitors no doubt would have a wonderful time.

The central problem is the primitive alpha-male competitive predation. But it wasn’t always this way…

Previously for many generations, anthropological research reveals that the females of our specie’s ruled the roost, birthed and nurtured the young, provided for some 90+% of home and sustenance, and even cared for the males, especially the old and infirm.

If their socio-political expression of nurturance-cooperation had come to dominate the planet, male predatory privateering would not rule today.

The best that the ruling elite have to offer humanity…

Males had established an independent lifestyle ”hunting big game” and each other, and generally avoiding the tedious chores of food-gathering and child-rearing. (Mostly, they still do…)

Disclosure: While I’m a male, I was raised without the dominance of a male authority figure to channel me into an ultra-conservative fixation of individual development. I was able to morally mature into social consciousness.

Family fare of big game played  a very minor role in early human nutrition. Archaeological strata and ancient middens substantiate this reality. Ancient cave art and hand-flutings amply demonstrate the role of women in the early development of empathic projection.

Women created the earth-mother, fertility-role of spirituality (and goddesses) and males developed sky-gods that naturally projected their own image of vengeful, jealous, demanding-personal-worship and solo-authoritative lord-figures.  The latter remains in partnership with male-dominant Earth states to this day.

Male authority rules thru the ideological and systemic quest for personal profit, privilege, property and power. This is a primitive extension of their earlier periods when survival and scarcity ruled their environment. While that’s long past, old habits and beliefs persist and is supported thru the exercise of power.

In this extended class analysis, the masses increasingly become labor fodder and otherwise disposable.  Since the ruling elite produce nothing of value themselves, any and all attempts to establish equitable distribution is perceived as a direct threat, criminalized and destroyed. I mean, when you come down to it…who needs them?

Further disclosure: While I speak from a very short and limited 71 solar cycles of struggle on this planet, it does include a female, working-class family upbringing, military service, careers in journalism and criminal investigations, progressive and revolutionary political actions, over 22 years in jails and prisons and a doctorate in forensic psychology (PsyD).

The Earth remains divided along a number of lines, including national/geographic and ethnic/political constructions. These all serve the basic class division. My own, America, was founded fairly recently (merely some 500 years now) on the labor and production of colonial prisoners, the indentured poor, the theft of land and genocide of the native population, and black slavery.

This is fully in keeping with the dominant male/systemic form of capital-corporatism, which is driven by the private quest for personal wealth and power. Nothing’s changed….

It takes no Sun Tzu or Clausewitz to foresee the results. Since capital-corporatism has essentially colonized the planet, it’s today turning to internally impoverishing its home populations in order to maintain personal wealth and power for those very few.

America is fundamentally the home capital and military base of world corporatism. National competitions only serves to further strengthen this overall systemic reality and is limited to serving and/or emulating it.

There are two major political parties in America. Republicans are the direct cadre of corporatism, and Democrats operate as a neo-liberal chorus to that power. Today, corporatists have direct political power in 30 US states, the US House of Representatives and the courts, including the US Supreme Court.

One People–One World…

By 2016 one can reasonable assume that the U.S. Senate and the White House will succumb to their overall political strategy and they will then have total power directly.

The occasional participation of the masses in the political processes is becoming more problematic for them as their rule and exploitation becomes more critical.

Given that this predatory power will sooner or later enter the galactic trading lanes, y’all might wish to extend a hand in our social evolution (and a potential for avoiding future grief). I can supply you with a short list of targets. I assure you that they’re not all that numerous, certainly no more than one-tenth of 1% of Earth’s population.

While I can understand your reluctance to interfere…to be frank, we could use the help. I suppose their demise might only create the conditions for other sociopathic predators to emerge. If so, then that would be on us.

I can only hope that perhaps we’re advanced enough to initiate a more mature social development. If not, the planet is quickly becoming pretty much shot anyways…

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Detroit 1967

It involves submission, subscription and admin fees, ad varia. Eventually you “win” a spot in their publication, a copy of which you must purchase. Once paying the fees of course, everyone “wins.”

Since I already took the time to select the photos and write a commentary, I decided to present them here….

I took Photo #1 in July ’67 during the Detroit Rebellion. It was in front of the old Addison Hotel (1905), now a renovated apartment building where I currently live.

With a police/fire press pass as a writer for the Fifth Estate newspaper, I covered the event throughout some 10 days. I recall the governor and mayor (Romney & Cavanaugh) going on TV on the 3^rd day to appeal to the people of Detroit that the “riot is not a carnival,” to “please stop the wholesale looting and go home.”

Soldier’s & Sailor’s Monument, 1968…

Up to that time both blacks and whites were more united in a common activity than ever before in Detroit’s history…at least as far as the “fire-sale” was concerned.

That passed as the police and National Guard soon went wild, shooting at everything in sight. My old unit, the 101^st Airborne Division, was finally called in to put them back under control.

Photo #2 was shot at Campus Martius in downtown Detroit at one of our antiwar demos, 1968.

At the time I was a co-founder of the Veterans Against the War (VAW) and Chairman of the Detroit Committee to End the War in Vietnam.

Photo #3 is a picture of the Detroit Renaissance Center with a tourist trolley at Hart Plaza, circa 1983. The site is down on the Detroit Riverfront.

Detroit RenCen, 1983…

Detroit never had the problem during Prohibition like Chicago had (w/the mob in violent competition w/gov’t police).

All the alcohol one could wish for was less than a mile away across the Detroit River. The river is a 24-mile long border with Canada. Try covering that, Eliot Ness!

In the winter the river sometimes froze over. I’ve spoken to witnesses who described seeing (and participating in) dozens of long lines up and down the riverfront snaking across the ice bringing back booze. Radio Flyer had a unique niche in the Detroit market in those days.

Sixto Rodriguez, AKA “Sugarman”…

Photo #4 is one I took of Sixto Rodriguez at Hart Plaza in the summer of ’87, I believe.

It was the only time in a total of more than 45-yrs that I’ve ever seen Sixto wearing a suit.

A documentary on his life, “Searching for Sugarman,” won an Academy Award this year.

At home in Detroit, Sixto could be somewhat eccentric. He was quite the rage in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as an urban folk singer, but in Detroit he affected the role of an itinerant, grown-up street urchin. The documentary? Well, it’s a movie…

One of Detroit’s well-known performers (I’ll omit his name) tells me that he booked Rodriguez into several gigs. “He soon would turn his back to the audience facing the back wall and mumble thru his songs. Strange guy.”

When I took this photo, Sixto got mad, telling me to destroy it, that I had not asked his permission. I assured him the I would slice the negative and never use his image for commercial purposes. Carrying a guitar case, I assume he was on his way to gig somewhere…

Street Justice, 1987…

In Photo #5 I was at Detroit’s Recorders Court where I was working on a case as a Criminal Defense Investigator, circa 1987. There was a huge boom that shook the building.

Exiting the building, I realized that a construction crane had crashed from the wind directly in front of the court, destroying all of the cars parked there. Fortunately, no one was sitting in them.

One of the usual comments one heard in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice is that there is more justice in the halls than in the courts. Perhaps one can find some out on the street as well.

Urban Garden, Detroit, 2010…

Photo #6 was shot out on East Jefferson in 2010 when I got out of federal prison after 20-yrs.

I soon learned that about half of Detroit had been abandoned and returned to prairie land replete with pheasant, rabbits and coyotes. (Today, ferrets and weasels are running the City.)

Many people have turned to urban gardening. This one is grown by ex-prisoner’s in a local halfway house. A sign erected out front informed drivers that they could have the produce…free. We’d even pick it for them.

US-Canada Freedom Celebration, June 2011…

Photo #7 is one I took off of  the TV during Detroit’s annual US-Canada firework’s celebration, June 2011.

This was the next to last such “freedom celebration” before the Republican governor appointed a corporatist dictator to loot Detroit’s people of the last of their public control and resources for the banks and other financial vultures (“creditors”).

I recall one year some 25-yrs ago when the event–typically bringing a million people downtown on both sides of the riverfront–included a laser light show.

A Moog synthesizer was set up on a local auditorium roof playing in sync to the fireworks, lasers and a combination of the William Tell Overture and Star Wars. Reflectors were also set on the Ambassador Bridge and buildings in downtown Windsor and Detroit.

A War of the World’s scenario advertised and simulcast on several radio stations astonished the crowds.  It was like being on LSD…better!

Scott Mansion, April 2013…

In conclusion, Photo #8 is a picture of the old James Scott Mansion that I took last month around the corner from where I live.

Scott built this Romanesque marvel in 1887. Despite being an Historic Site it was abandoned in the 1970s. Today it’s owned by developer, Joel Landy in the Cass Corridor (Midtown) Detroit.

Unfortunately, given its condition, Joel can’t obtain a loan for its restoration…not for lack of trying.

Scott was an eccentric drinker and gambler. In part he could have inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby. Much of Detroit’s Campus Martius area was developed by his real estate father.

Upon his death Scott bequeathed to the City enough funds to build the Scott Fountain on Belle Isle.

I conclude this article with the Scott Mansion as it’s an unfortunate but representative metaphor for Detroit.

A brilliant history as a temperate hunting ground for Algonquians; a thriving French fort-village (1701, Sieur Antoine la Mothe Cadillac) that controlled the upper-lakes’ beaver trade (plush hats for European aristocracy and landed gentry); a major destination on history’s underground railroad for slaves fleeing Southern terror; the center of the auto trade; World War-II’s Arsenal of Democracy; and the current front line in the class war being waged by the corporatist elite.

As they lay waste to everything in their path in their quest for personal profit, privilege, property and power, they’re only creating the means of their own destruction…and quite possibly ours…

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

President John Adams (emphasis added).

   I recall my counsel telling me back in ’89, when I was facing a drug conspiracy charge, that my only actual hope at trial would be “jury nullification.” Of course, the reality is that the courts forbid informing the jury of their power to decide the law for themselves.

Tim DeChristopher (33)…

(Interested readers can find a concise article on that conviction HERE.)

Despite the fact that the Founding Fathers unanimously declared that the sovereign power of the State was “We, the People,” corporatist rulers have since made clear who actually runs the nation…and it ain’t the people.

When was the last time you saw the police rally on the side of striking workers or political protesters? The corporatist Supreme Court has already ruled that the police have no duty to serve or protect the public. Really? Then who DO they serve?

The question of jury nullification was again brought to my mind in a recent 73-minute film, Bidder 70, at Detroit’s Cass City Cinema. (I was pleasant surprised; while usually informative, documentaries are rarely enjoyable.) It won 20 major film festival awards (but of course, none owned or sponsored by major corporations).

Bidder 70 chronicles the journey of eco-activist Tim DeChristopher and his clever intervention into an illicit auction of Utah wilderness land for oil and gas exploitation. Tim’s bids of $1.8 million for 22,500 acres eventually earned him 21 months in prison despite the fact that the auction itself was later declared illicit by the Interior Department.

While I was impressed with Tim in the film—who is an economic graduate of the University of Utah and a co-founder of the group Peaceful Uprising—I was especially impressed when I saw him more recently on a Bill Moyer’s video interview. For 34 minutes he held forth on a variety of issues and actions with a rather extraordinary performance.

Alice Stokes Paul (1901)

I was impressed with Tim’s commitment to his cause, which included imprisonment without compromise. One of his heroes cited was Alice Paul, the famed suffragist.

Virtually all graduates of accredited universities in the US are required to complete PolySci 101 (American Gov’t). Sometimes I wonder if many were awake in class…

When William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was 26 and arrested in London, England (1670) he was acquitted in a jury trial.

The court had instructed the jury that the illegal act (participating in a Quaker meeting) had occurred, thus “the charge has been proved as a matter law” and so instructed the jury to find him guilty. They ruled otherwise.

Edward Bushell, the jury foreman, was found in contempt, fined and imprisoned. The Chief Judge of England later released Bushell:

Allowing a court to imprison a juror for contempt on the ground that he had voted for an acquittal against the court’s instructions on the law of the case subverted the functions of the jury.

The jury could discharge its functions . . . only if it was exempt from the judge’s power to fine and jail its members…allowing them ever after to return verdicts based on their grasp of the law as well as of the facts. (Levy, The Palladium of Justice.)

In the American colonies John Peter Zenger, a newspaper publisher, was critical of the Colonial Governor. He was arrested, imprisoned for eight months and finally placed on trial in 1735 for criminal libel and defamation.

The court ruled that he did indeed libel the governor in his press and that the truth of the assertions were not a defense under the law. He so instructed the jury.  Defense counsel Andrew Hamilton, however, urged the jury to reach their own conclusions about this legal issue. They acquitted Zenger and thus freedom of the press was born, which greatly aided the subsequent American Revolution.

In 1794, the first Chief Justice of the United States, John Jay, instructed a jury as follows:

[O]n questions of fact, it is the province of the jury, on questions of law, it is the province of the court. But it must be recognized that by the same law, which recognizes this reasonable distribution of jurisdiction, you have nevertheless a right to take upon yourselves to judge of both, and to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy.

As private property and corporatist forces gained and asserted more political power, they began to wage a class war for the control of gov’t and the criminal justice system.

Lysander Spooner (1808-1887)

Lysander Spooner (1852) understood this reality; gov’t is not synonymous with ”the people”:

How is it possible that juries can do anything to protect the liberties of the people against the government if they are not allowed to determine what those liberties are? Any government, that is its own judge of, and determines authoritatively for the people, what are its own powers over the people, is an absolute government.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court ruled in 1895, in Sparf v. US, that juries do not have the right to determine the law! It took quite awhile for the propertied elite to assert control, but bear in mind that power in the general area of civil and criminal justice is a predicate for total power.

In the case of Tim DeChristopher, the court ruled that the subsequent decision by the Interior Department that the auction itself was illicit was not relevant to his own “breaking of the law” and other factors.

Given the publicity on the case, the judge brought all of the jury panel one-by-one into his chambers and either elicited their promise to accept his ruling of the law or they were dismissed.

The great irony is that while the courts continue to rule that the jury has no right of the law, all juries that DO DECIDE on a matter of law in opposition to the judge’s instructions have been found by the same courts (on prosecutorial appeals) to be perfectly WITHIN THEIR RIGHTS! and the jury judgment stands.

The State gets to bake the cake and eat it too. But try to snatch one of those crumbs off their table and see what happens…

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Til Schweiger…

When I was first locked up, the federal prison population had some 56,000 souls. Be the end of that enforced sabbatical the number had quadrupled to over 200,000.

If one counts the entire gulag in the US homeland, the mass is currently over 2.4 million; a total of 7.5+ million under control of the criminal justice system.

When people examine the lifetime incarceration rate in America, they find that it’s 6% for white males and a staggering 32% for blacks, and still growing.

Another significant aspect of this sociological reality is that the American Gulag is a vast international melting pot. The BOP contains a non-US citizen population at 27%.

The US federal prison system is one of the most effective means that America uses—other than the military, middle-class tourism and business contractors–in teaching the rest of the world who and what we are. Is that what we really want to do?

And I’m not referring to the classic image of lumpen low-lifes. Most of the international “criminals” I met in federal prison were relatively respected members of their communities: Ship’s captains, airline pilots, political figures, military officers, businessmen (w/out official US portfolio), doctors, lawyers, students and others.

I was impressed with a list so significant and extensive that I foresee a growing international caste of figures that have been well-schooled in the real America. I suspect that the corporate empire will come to regret that factor.

F*** all their “ideal” propaganda bullshit. Personally, I doubt there’s a nation left on Earth that doesn’t have an exclusive club of American gulag graduates. Who do you think is going to rule those societies tomorrow, or at least be significant players?

Among many things I learned included the fact that the BOP brags to communities (where they wish to build new prisons) that its incarcerated population is comprised of only 3% violent offenders. Of course, that means that 97% of the prison populations are NOT violent offenders.

The reality is that the vast majority of inmates are consensual, moral and public order offenders, mostly violators of various drug prohibitions.  Another time, another place, they would not even be considered “criminals” at all.

Naturally, when TV and Hollywood depicts prisoners, it suits their dramatic incentive to portray that group as violent predators (and that’s about all the public ever sees thru the corporate media…”if it bleeds, it leads“).

Unfortunately, even many former prisoners popularize that notion for their own “anti-heroic” self-serving purposes. “Look how f***ing bad I am!”

So long as the public has this view, prisoners will remain both as criminals and social victims, and the conservative corporatist elite will be able to use that criminalization as their central means to control the mass population by warehousing and employing surplus labor at low-wage slavery. This also serves to undermine municipal and union employment.

For the corporatist ruling class, it’s simply all about business and profit (“Hey, nothin’ personal!”).  Of course the irony is that most of their wealth and the system that provides it is itself a criminal enterprise.

As of 2012 there were 1,226 $billionaires in the world with a total wealth of $4.6 trillion. It’s estimated that another $32 trillion sits in offshore banks creating and circulating nothing. This further undermines production.

No more than 5% of the world monetary system is employed in the creation of goods and services. The rest is basically debt that drives disparity. Over 1.4 billion people as a result live in extreme poverty on less than $1.25/day.

It takes a massive police, military and gulag system to maintain enforcement of this criminal distribution of the world’s wealth. I estimate that 97% of the systemic conflict in the world directly serves corporatist interests at creating and sustaining this reality.

Bringing it down to a more intimate level… Among the variety of cellmates I was honored to know (and a few who definitely should remain incapacitated from the public), included a German native whom I’ll call Hans. I knew a good number of bank robbers, but none as unique as Hans.

As an officer at an American branch of Deutsche Bank, Hans had been in a position to rip off more than $200 million from several major US banks. His failure to “cooperate” (snitch-out others and pay restitution) led to an unprecedented sentence of some 14 years in prison at the time.

(The banks were especially pissed that Hans wouldn’t simply cut a deal. I decline to use his real name because, I’m convinced, he still has most of the toys…and money.  Hell, maybe one of these days, I might even take him up on that Caribbean vacation…)

Several of us were sunning at a table in the prison rec field one holiday weekend, including Old Joe, an ancient bank robber with some 30+ known robberies to his credit (privately, many more). As with other famoso figures, talk soon turned to various escapades.

A couple of guys were ribbing Old Joe for getting, at best, a few $thousand on any of his bank heists. (He looks like an ancient Willie Nelson and stands maybe 5’. He might as well notify the FBI when he’s in town to save everyone the trouble of picking him up.)

Joe intimated that his money came from the banks, not retirees and pensioners. Hans, who bears a striking resemblance to the German actor/director Til Schweiger, assured him that the $200 million he looted from Citicorp et al. definitely came from the banks, not persons, and he didn’t have to stick a gun in any poor teller’s face.

In fact, Hans added, that if those banks were honest trustees of public moneys, he would never have been able to loot them in the first place. Like street swindlers and carny cons, there is always the presence of larceny in the heart of the victims to make the scam work…they just didn’t expect it to work against them.

Great cons work in part because the victims believe they’re profiting from some theft. I came to define Hans as a class-conscious corporate hustler.

The American banks believed that they were going to profit significantly from the scam Hans was running. Instead, they got scammed. Of course, ultimately it ALL comes from labor…the actual producers of all wealth.

At one point, Hans showed me a letter he had received from his home bank in Germany advising him that, although negotiations for a routine treaty-transfer to German jurisdiction had broken down (on the American end), he was assured that his position at Deutsche Bank was still available upon release.  No doubt…

After all, it’s only business, eh?

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Given the overt success of class war by the corporatist elite, only the willfully ignorant and conservative cadre ignore and/or gleefully support the looting of the economy, the impoverishment and de-democratization of the masses, and the destruction of public gov’t.

If you’re the studious type, you can read an inside analysis by a former player and predictor of the current condition (Chase, Wall St., gov’t+) in Michael Hudson’s The Fictitious Economy (replacing former industrial capitalism with debt-financed, asset-price inflation) or watch a video on the subject. Professor Hudson’s explanation is surprisingly understandable.

If you want a master’s level foundation in clear economics in about an hour and 21 minutes, watch David Graeber’s video, Debt: The first 5,000 yrs…or better yet, read the book.

Of course, what’s new about class war is that their order-of-battle is more advanced than ever before in history. They’ve pretty much won the economic war…accumulating over 90% of the world’s wealth and the forces to keep it.

As for the political side of that war, the destruction of organized labor, the impoverishment of gov’t and the private profiteering of public services is serving the elimination of what remains of capital democracy itself.  I see no pause in their quest short of corporatist fascism.

Today, these forces directly control the governorships and/or legislatures of 30 US states, the US House of Representatives and the US Supreme Court.

They take no prisoners and they never compromise. They have no intention of surrendering one inch on the political field of battle to what they perceive as “mob rule” (democracy).

In fact, they’re well on their way to assuming direct dictatorial control of the remaining bastions of such “mob rule,” the urban cities.

One of the foremost journalists in America today is Christopher Lynn Hedges (56).  Hedges is the son of a Presbyterian minister and graduated from Harvard with a Master of Divinity…not your usual radical background.

As synchronicity would have it, Hedges chose to build a career in journalism. He worked as a foreign correspondent for some 20 years in 50 nations throughout Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He reported for a variety of mass media, including 15 years on the New York Times.

Coming by his critical analyses thru direct experience, Hedges understands war and conflict intimately. Unlike many main-street journalists, he’s not shy about revealing that knowledge publicly, nor, like many of his professional brethren, does he engage in conservative cowardice or self-serving career-seeking by towing the corporate-media line.

It was inevitable that the NY Times would censure him for his political and antiwar views, especially those related to Israel/Palestine. Today Chris is a celebrated author of 10 books, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute, and a prolific writer for TruthDig.com.

Hedges’ most recent article is entitled, “We, the Vast Underclass, Must Rise Up Against Global Mafia—or Die.”  No shrinking violet; Hedges doesn’t mince his words.

This also speaks to my own analysis. International corporatism (monopolistic capitalism) is not simply a conservative ideology; it’s a thoroughly evil, criminal enterprise. Given my academic discipline [PsyD], I would add: A sociopathic pathology.

Hedges’ latest book written with Joe Sacco is Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. It speaks to the reality of the class war in that “formal liberal and governmental institutions that once made reform possible are no longer equipped with enough authority to check the assault of corporate power.”

Thru ALEC and lobbying combines, “corporations write our legislation.” They own and operate over 90% of the information systems and media. They’ve now privatized most of the educational system, which perpetuates their rule, profit and propaganda.

Click on image to enlarge…

The police and judiciary are corporate subsidiaries. The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations are people for the purpose of political power (558 US 310 [2010]), the freedom for corporations to purchase all electoral systems and candidates, and that there is no duty for the police to serve or protect the public (545 US 794 [2005]).

Conservative flunkies are (s)elected to office to act as corporate cadre for the destruction of democracy, and neo-liberals in gov’t carry out the impoverishment of the public treasury to further enrich banks and financial institutions.

All labor unions and independent mass organizations have been decimated. All protest, whistle-blowing news sources, resistance and the regulation of gov’t or corporations has been criminalized. “The greater the destruction, the greater the apparatus crushes dissent.”

Hedges continues, “A handful of corporate oligarchs around the globe have everything—wealth, power and privilege—and the rest of us struggle as part of a vast underclass, increasingly impoverished and ruthlessly repressed. There is one set of laws and regulations for us; there is another set for a power elite that functions as a global mafia.”

Hedges recognizes that cynicism is only self-serving nihilism that excuses the believer from resisting. “Even if you fail, even if we all fail, we will have asserted against the corporate forces of exploitation and death our ultimate dignity as human beings.

“We will have defended what is sacred. Rebellion means steadfast defiance. It means refusing to succumb to fear. It means refusing to surrender, even if you find yourself caged like an animal. It means saying no.

“To remain safe, to remain ‘innocent’ in the eyes of the law in this moment in history is to be complicit in a monstrous evil.

“It is time to build radical mass movements that defy all formal centers of power and make concessions to none. It is time to employ the harsh language of open rebellion and class warfare. It is time to march to the beat of our own drum.

“The law historically has been a very imperfect tool for justice, but now it is exclusively the handmaiden of our corporate oppressors; now it is a mechanism of injustice.

“It is our corporate overlords who launched this war. Not us. Revolt will see us branded as criminals. Revolt will push us into the shadows. And yet, if we do not revolt we can no longer use the word ‘hope.’”

Ahh…what more can one say?

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

I mean, think about it! Corporatist klanners (the Tea Party) are shocked that their “non-profit” fronts have been targeted for investigation by the IRS for illicit political activity?

Their corporate-owned and operated “news” media lead the mob in witch-hunting this dastardly deed. Meanwhile, neo-liberals stifle their mirth behind a façade of investigating “the usual suspects.”

Now com’n, let’s get real… I got a sense of humor at least as good as the next gullible fool, but what’s with this spring silliness? No Monica Lewinsky available?

Staying on point, one of my investigative comrades has discovered a rabbit hole into the Vatican Archives (at least as relevant as the flim-flam news these days that passes for second-term diversions from real politics: Corporate class war).

(Disclosure: I was a Criminal Defense Investigator [CDI] in Detroit for 17-yrs. As such, I lay claim to knowing at least as much as those manipulating the “news.”)

Of course, if one reads ALL of the available archives extant throughout the world’s Christian sects, such as the Copts of Egypt, some 12-to-16 million, they would find a variety of information not available in any one source…and certainly not the King James version of the “Bible.”

Anything that conflicted with the official Christian convention called for by the Roman Emperor Constantine, 325 years after Jesus, became heretical; unendorsed writings and subjects were stamped out…literally. Of course, some survived.

I can see why the Emperor Constantine wanted to “reform” the Church . There were many writings in conflict with the official state version. The real story is somewhat less…shall we say, dramatic.

One very real problem that Ol’ Conny had was that most of his troops holding together the empire (like today) were volunteer mercs who had to be paid. There just wasn’t enough rip, rape and plunder to go around.

So, with his state-religion partners, they devised this hustle of awarding chits for a certain percentage of service “to Jesus” (in lieu of coin). These were redeemable in heaven after death. Neat scam, eh?

An earlier Canaanite version…

Mary (her name in Hebrew is Miryam) was raised by the Temple. Unwanted or unaffordable infants were abandoned at the Temple doorstep (usually with a donation included). They raised her.

Story tells that she a precocious child, well-developed and cute as all get-out.  Per usual practice, the Temple auctioned these kids off around puberty to member families for eventual marriage.

Yosef, an aged widowed contractor about 70, was both a devout member and relatively rich. Think of an early Donald Trump, only Joe actually worked…not simply manipulated people, finances and pimped out his kids.

Given Old Joe’s situation, he had no interest in a young bride. While required to attend the “auction,” he made no bids.

The priests chose an interesting gambit to get Joe and his $$ involved. They ruled to “let the Lord decide.” As all the eligible bachelors (including those widowed) were gathered in the Temple court awaiting the early Judaic version of “America’s Got Talent,” the priests handed out sheppard’s staffs to them and released a group of doves over the crowd.

The deal was, if a dove landed on a member’s staff he was then obliged to take home the prize (Mary) and not-so-incidentally pay the Temple 10% of his wealth. The early writers neglect to explain how the game was rigged.

When Old Joe took Mary home she was reported to be 12-yrs-old. While she was technically “betrothed,” he installed her in his household as a maid-trainee.

Soon, Joe and his boys went off to Lebanon on a contract to help build a winter retreat for some rich Roman dude…whatever. The only son he left behind was James, then about 15.

Now here the story gets a bit dicey. Certain early writers alleged that one of the younger maids, being jealous of Mary, went off and snitched her out to the Temple. It seems that Mary had got preggers and it was starting to show.

This being an offense (to both lovers) punishable by stoning to death, she was arrested. However, she stuck by her story that it was an immaculate conception (ain’t they all?) and that no earthly male was involved. Maybe Joe had a good lawyer.

And the future?

Old Joe of course had rushed home (an easy boat ride down the coast) to deal with the problem. At first he was inclined to let the chips fall where they may, but he soon realized that James was the potential target of the investigation.

Joe had a dream “confirming” Mary’s version and, coughing up another 10% of his wealth (this girl was getting expensive) the Temple priests decided to “let the Lord sort it out.” The investigation was dropped. You see? American criminal justice isn’t all that unique.

Now maybe the official Church, a few hundred years later when they decided these things, kind of left that part out because—let’s face it–the story is just a wee bit too common and lends itself to secular interpretations.

And the point?  Maybe if you get people used to supernatural fantasies and believing routinely in miracles, etc., then they’ll accept the evil and chaos around them.

Maybe the corporate-klan Tea Party is the new Jerusalem? Maybe climate change is the result of divine providence? Maybe the accumulation of 99% of the wealth in the world by less than 1% of the population is “god given,” or worse, the natural order of things?

Maybe education, medical care, clothing, housing, food, clean air and water, democratic principles and social consciousness for others is all a mirage and actually the proper result of profit, privilege and power by money changers who rule the temples of life?

I mean…I don’t know everything….

Dr. Publico

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Associate Justice Antonin Scalia…

The trial itself was a 2-wk affair before a jury in Detroit federal court, Aug-Sept of 1990 before Judge Bernard A. Friedman.

A former Wayne County prosecutor, he was appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan in 1988. I was his first major trial.

Friedman was never shy about his ultra-conservative politics and his Revisionist-Zionist fund-raising and advocacy of the settler-colonial state of Israel (I was identified as pro-Palestinian). His open adversarial rulings came as a self-described “American patriot.” Today he is a Senior Judge on the US District Court in Detroit.

The trial is a matter of public record (Case #89-CR-80041-02-DT). Absent any evidence, I was charged with a drug conspiracy, which uniquely under American “justice” does not require a predicate crime.

The conviction was based on the fraudulent testimony of Arthur Abrams and others who opted to “cooperate” in various prosecutions in lieu of terms up to life in prison. Abrams was allowed to continue his cocaine dealing with impunity.

Every so often he would give up a dope client, usually competitors, and/or testify against targets such as myself, in which he was fed his script by the police and prosecutor. This special use of snitches is a fairly routine practice in the American criminal justice system today.

In a later sworn affidavit to a number of attorneys and media sites–including 60 Minutes–Abrams admitted his and the gov’ts perjurious role, but recanted when again threatened with prison.

Make Love–Not War…

Growing out of the cultural revolution of the 1960s was the social use of certain drugs by youth, especially the counter-culture, Vietnam military and college students.

Those drugs that survived the initial years of this recreational experimentation included marijuana, peyote, LSD and cocaine.

Some turned to dealing these products among their own milieu (either that, or turn to established criminal communities).

Nevertheless, given the ever-growing drug prohibitions, criminalization followed. Ronald Reagan upped the ante with a major escalation in Nixon’s war on drugs, including draconian sentencing and mass incarceration.

Circa 1983, Colonel Oliver North, the CIA and their contractors (supplying illicit arms to the Contra War) financed their ops with the mass distribution of cocaine in the black urban areas of Southern California (one financial aspect of the Iran-Contra conspiracy).  By converting powder coke to “crack,” they discovered a major marketing development.

Volume-based smokable coke ($5, $10 and $20 rocks) is both affordable and more psychologically addictive.  White-cultured, weight-based powder coke is usually snorted, less addictive and more expensive.

The devastating effect on black and poor communities across the nation was soon clear. By 1984, anyone having a socio-political-consciousness had abandoned dealing in cocaine at all. No more rationalizing excuses….

The attraction for law enforcement and the gov’t was obvious: Forfeiture and seizure of cash, property and effort-free investigation work (they let the snitches do all the work…and still do).

From 1973-thru-1989 I was primarily a Criminal Defense Investigator (CDI) for Attorney Sheldon Halpern and other Detroit-area law firms. I worked mostly homicide, rape and drug cases.

In 1988 I was working a state case where my good friend, Larry Genoa, was charged with again dealing cocaine.  If he was, I would have known. In fact, it was an entrapment attempt by SEMCO (one of the many quasi-vigilante groups financed between local police and federal drug laws and money).  Halpern argued brilliantly and the judge eventually dismissed the case.

Another relevant case at the time was the retrial of Norman Richardson after 11-yrs in state prison on a murder-for-hire conviction.  My investigation of the original police/prosecution led to his retrial and an acquittal by the second jury. I could have saved myself a lot of grief…

Richardson soon went to work for his sister’s Detroit crack organization and attempted to pressure me to give him the names of my “dope clients,” whom he claimed he would “rob, kill and share the proceeds” with me.

Norman’s insistence grew into threats and convinced he was a serious psychopath I reported the situation to Detroit’s Homicide Bureau.  There was nothing they could/would do short of an overt act by Richardson.

One evening matters came to a head. Norman came to my apartment and threatened me “for the final time,” he said.  I answered “for the final time, NO!” Again, the case is a matter of public record; Richardson brought a knife to a gun fight and I successfully defended myself.

The state prosecutor ruled self-defense, but I soon got a visit from two homicide detectives informing me, “Nick, you better watch your back. We’ve learned that Richardson was a Confidential Informant (CI) working for the FBI. They were using him to entrap you in a crime.”

I can only presume that one or more of my numerous political peccadillos had sparked their interest. It later turned out that the leader of the joint local-federal SEMCO unit was a former lieutenant in the Michigan State Police Intelligence Division (Red Squad) that I was party to having abolished in a suit in state court in Lansing.  Small world.

Other potential factors included an undercover role I was assigned to by a federal judge to investigate the US Attorney’s office and the FBI in a particular drug/kidnap case. The judge had me paid thru the US Marshal’s Service. This probably did not endear me to those personnel who received censorious letters in their files from the court.

On December 21^st, 1988, Pan Am 103 was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 souls. The final destination of that flight was Detroit, MI. I assumed that Detroit-area law firms would be handling some of the future litigation and I intended to be their chief investigator.

Given my own investigative and flight experience (Private Pilot, SEL, SES) and personal knowledge of the PFLP-GC and its leadership (then being the chief suspects), I made a number of contacts in the Middle East, including the former Bureau Chief for NBC Abdallah Schleifer and others, to connect with the PFLP-GC for an interview.

All of these elements came together at 7am, February 11th, 1989, seven weeks after Pan Am 103. My daughter and grand-daughter were taking me to Detroit’s Metro Airport to catch a flight to Nicaragua (and Havana) for the purpose of arranging that interview.

A cohort of super-armed, Ninja-clad and masked SEMCO cops descended on us at the elevator bank. Terrorizing my family, I “consented” to let them into my apartment.

The search warrant, arriving two hours later, revealed that it was based upon the previous June’s secret federal Grand Jury indictment. True to the warning given me by detectives from the DPD Homicide Bureau, I had been added to the “Abram Conspiracy” within a month of Richardson’s demise.

Whatever the genesis and associated factors of that prosecution, the feds succeeded in eliminating me from the scene.  I was sentenced to 25-yrs in federal prison plus a 3-yr term of Supervised Release.

I served 16-yrs in High and Medium Security prisons, 4-yrs in Minimum Security prison camps, 2-yrs under home arrest on an Elderly Offender Congressional Program and 3-yrs of Supervised Release (at this writing I have 1-yr remaining).

Post Script:  Being essentially a he-said, she-said testi-fest without any viable evidence, my only defense before the jury (aside from denial) was a political one…why were they really prosecuting me? Among others, we subpoenaed the FBI, DEA and the CIA.

The FBI, admitting to some 16-yrs of files on me, testified that they never had any information that I was ever involved in dealing drugs. I made the assumption that they–at least the political division–”did not wish to be involved” in my prosecution (which would have also involved further “discovery” by my defense).

The DEA refused to disclose their files at all, which they claimed was based upon an “Executive Order by the president (Bush Sr.)”. When one of their agents revealed in court (outside of the jury) that they had already given the files to the US Attorney, the AUSA jumped up and said that there was nothing in the files that they didn’t already have and that they had “returned the files to the DEA.”

Nevertheless, this mandated that they disclose the files to the defense.  Upon my attorney’s argument, Judge Friedman abruptly closed the matter with a patriotic speech and quashed the subpoena.

The CIA claimed to the court to have no files on me at all. When my attorney supplied the court with CIA-FOIA files already obtained, the judge gave another patriotic speech, questioned the loyalty of the attorney himself, and quashed that subpoena as well.

Again, these matters were all outside of the jury’s presence and knowledge.

PPS: After my first year in prison, still appealing the case and the relevant files, the CIA informed me that pursuant to another Executive Order all of the files had been destroyed.

That about sums up the case…and justice…

Dr. Publico (Nick Medvecky, PsyD)

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Texas was a conservative opportunity in the diversion of blame regarding their continuing destruction of “big gov’t,” to wit: all corporatist responsibility in addition to any regulations regarding public safety and service.

Perhaps the former is simply serendipity, but the latter? Direct causality. In both cases, adding ethnic and class alienation, we can expect a whole more…

*     *     *

In 1994, while serving a 25-yr prison sentence on a drug conviction (an archival conspiracy), I found myself with a new cellmate at FCI McKean, PA…the former Chairman (Chief) of the Navajo Nation, Peter MacDonald.

Peter MacDonald (85)…

From day one I used my time to pursue studies in historical knowledge and a Doctorate in Forensic Psychology (PsyD).

My attitude was to thoroughly study the American gulag from inside the beast, as it were, and to avail myself of all the knowledge and experience possible from those around me…prisoners, staff and contractors.

My cellmates included Mafia figures, a bankster ($200 million rip), an airline pilot, a Cuban gusano commandant, an IRA officer, an Air Force general, a Medellín Cartel pilot, a Grateful Dead-Head, a Nigerian gov’t official, a PA state rep, a US Congressman  and a variety of other interesting characters.

The U.S. federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a unique living laboratory. With more than 118 facilities, it now holds almost 220,000 prisoners. Some 27% are designated as “aliens,” mostly Hispanic, but quite representative of an international population. Imperial Rome was not built in a day….

If one adds the populations of state jails and prisons, juvenile, military, Native American, immigrant, possessions et cetera, we’re looking at a total of some 2.5 million world citizens.

If you add all those who are under criminal justice control (parole, probation, etc.) the number reaches over 7.5 million. Add former felons, well, you get the idea….

America is the largest “criminal” gulag empire in human history.  Ironically, only 3-to-8% of these populations are considered violent predators. The incapacitation of criminal predators in the general population is the least of its tasks.

One might reasonably argue that the capitalist enterprise fosters–if not requires–the warehousing of a large surplus labor force.

Peyote Art…

Just over 50% are drug prisoners, mostly for reefer. (During alcohol Prohibition, that percentage rose to 75%.) The percentage convicted of moral, consensual and public order “crimes” designated as victimless is 86% of the total prison population.

Contrary to the conservative algebra of the corporate media, if one were to release 1% of the predators, the impact on society would be significant; on the other hand, if over half the consensual prisoners were to be released one would hardly score a blip on the reported-crime graphs. Well, that’s my experiential opinion….

But for these “criminal” designations (overwhelmingly weighted toward racial, ethnic and class factors), the federal prison population is in fact a reasonable microcosm of the general US population. (Give ‘em time, they’ll get around to the rest of y’all…)

In all-too-many respects, the police, prosecution and court systems are themselves predatory, parasitic agencies imposing racial and class rule for the direct benefit of a corporatist/political elite.

Author w/Peter MacDonald
FCI McKean, PA ’95

Back to Peter MacDonald. Pete was born to the Navajo in 1928.  He was among young native children wrenched from their parents by Congressional decree and installed in Christian Missionary facilities to be whitewashed (forbidden their dress, language, religion, long hair, even their original names).

In 1944 Pete was laboring on the railroad. Being only 15, he falsified his birth status and joined the U.S. Marine Corp. After boot camp he trained as a Navajo Code Talker and was sent to the Pacific. When the US nuked Japan and ended the war, Pete was sent to China to help repatriate Japanese troops.

After military service, he completed high school and used his GI Bill to attend Oklahoma University, acquiring a degree in electrical engineering. Working for Hughes Aircraft, he became a Project Manager of the Polaris (Submarine) Missile Program. Pete eventually returned to the Navajo Reservation and served as the elected Chairman (Chief) of the Navajo Nation for a total of 20-yrs.

In 1989 in a tribal election dispute, two local sheriff officers were “kidnapped” and two of Pete’s followers were killed. While Pete was not present, he was convicted (like Leonard Peltier, another Indian leader) of conspiracy to riot along with fraud and racketeering and sentenced to 14-yrs. After serving most of his sentence the remainder was commuted by Clinton in 2001.

In our cell, Pete was one busy beaver. In addition to his full-time prison clerk’s job, he was constantly writing letters to correspondents, working on another book following up on his autobiography, working on a Navajo dictionary and other projects.

The Navajo are the largest Native American tribe in the United States. Their tribal lands of over 27,000 square miles occupy significant parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Navajo land is comparable to the size of Ireland.

True to other historical aspects of Euro-American racism and nativism, the Navajo were treated as sub-humans by many colonial settlers. As with other tribes, the Navajo suffered a variety of massacres by colonists and the Army, one of them was the Long Walk in 1863. Even birthing mothers who “straggled” were shot.

Like other Native Americans they would no doubt have been dispossessed and mostly wiped-out had their lands been more fertile. Given their often cruel wardship by the US, the Navajo remain among the poorest of populations in America.

Navajo Code Talkers
Eventual Recognition…

Nevertheless, the Navajo saw their military service as a source of great pride. One might be able to imagine young men coming from such a victimized culture becoming Marines, given such critical jobs as Code Talkers and being respected for the first time in their lives by the ruling culture.

The Navajo Code Talkers participated in all 14 of the Pacific Island campaigns, from Guadalcanal to Okinawa during World War-II.  They were credited with saving many thousands of American lives.

After the war, they were considered so secret (to be used in future conflicts) that for 24 years (1969) they were prohibited from divulging what they had done, even to their families.

Pete is a curious blend of Navajo and Christianity (as are most colonized peoples).  He explained to me that the actual name of the Navajo were the Diné, the original people, and that they were the first people in the world and were bounded by the four sacred mountains.

One Planet…One Human Family…

To me–a secular humanist–his belief is perfectly in line with the other world religions.  They all believe that they alone were “chosen” by their respective god(s).

On the other hand, scientists have found that the genesis for modern humans was Africa some 200,000 years ago.

Eventually humans spread throughout the planet.  Asians traveled into the Western Hemisphere thru the Bering Bridge. DNA studies today confirm these hypotheses.

For me, other confirmation came from Sally McClain’s 1994 book on the Code Talkers, Navajo Weapon.  The Japanese themselves–a highly ethnic-conscious race–supplied an interesting form of confirmation.

During the War in the Pacific, the Japanese were very keen on cracking the Navajo code. One of their highest priorities was to capture one of these elusive “Navajo.”

What they never realized until December of 1944, was that they already had a Navajo that they had captured in 1942 in the Philippines at Corregidor. He was Joe Kieyoomia who had joined the Army in 1941 and had survived the Bataan Death March not long after Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese were convinced that Joe was hiding his true Asian ancestry (even his name to them was Japanese-sounding: “Key-oh-me”). All of his protestations that he was an American Indian only further pissed-off his interrogators.

They transferred him to Nagasaki, Japan and tortured him repeatedly, breaking a number of bones over time to get him to admit he was Japanese. At one point, they made him stand over night in the cold, freezing his feet to the ground.

When they finally figured it out and had him listen to some recordings of the battle-field code, Joe was amazed to hear his own language. While he could easily understand the words, they were in a code that made no sense to him. This led to even greater torture.

In August of 1945 the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Joe survived. (One of the war secrets is the number of POWs killed at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.)

After the war, it took another four years of hospitalization for Joe to recover. He was grateful to the code-talkers…having a remote chance of breaking the code is the only reason the Japs even kept him alive.

Today Peter MacDonald is the president of the Navajo Code Talkers Association. I believe there are 39 (out of some 385) still living. They’re trying to raise funds for a Navajo Code Talker Memorial in New Mexico.

As stated…I cherished my time with Pete…  Even great empires create the conditions for their own eventual fall…

P.S.: A response I’ve since rec’d from Peter MacDonald: There were a total of over 400 Navajo Code Talkers in WW-II; 13 were KIA and more the a dozen WIA; and only 38 remain alive, Pete being the youngest at 85.

Dr. Publico  (Nick Medvecky, PsyD)

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune

Puppets & Jackals…

In 1990, Secretary of State James Baker had basically had it up to here with the Israeli government. The Bush administration [George the Elder] had been trying to entice Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir into negotiations with the Palestinians, but he kept adding new conditions to get the US off his back.

To be acceptable to Shamir, any Palestinian [negotiator] had to have no connections with the PLO, none with any associates of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and could not be from Jerusalem. The Israelis would decide which Palestinians were acceptable as negotiating partners.

Baker was fuming but held his tongue until he went before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to discuss Middle East prospects. But then something happened and, for perhaps the last time ever, a top U.S. government official told the Israelis what he really thought.

First Baker said that he had intended to say that he was ready for a new start with the Shamir government but he changed his mind on the way to the hearing. ”I have to tell you, that before I came to this hearing this morning, I was given a copy of some wire reports, one of which quotes one of the ministers in the newly formed government,” he said.

Those “wire reports” cited top Israeli officials announcing new conditions for negotiations, according to Thomas Friedman of the NY Times.

“Earlier today, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir added an additional condition: that Palestinian negotiators must formally embrace Israel’s idea that negotiations would be about autonomy for the occupied territories and nothing more before talks could begin. The American position is that the talks should open with a discussion about autonomy, but then eventually move on to issues of final status.”

In other words, [Shamir’s position of] “autonomy” would have meant that Israel could keep all the land, but Palestinians would have the responsibility for municipal services like schools, sanitation and health. It was the perfect solution…for Israel.

Baker blew up. He told the committee, “If that is going to be the Israeli approach, there won’t be any dialogue and there won’t be any peace, and the United States of America can’t make it happen.  You can’t. I can’t. The President can’t.”

He then said that until the Israelis changed their attitude, the Bush administration was going to disengage from the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

He told the Israelis, “When you’re serious about peace, call us. The telephone number is 1-202-456-1414.” And that was that. The first Bush administration never reconciled with Shamir.

Shamir later admitted that he had no intention of ever accommodating the Palestinians in any way.  In an interview after leaving office, he said: I would have carried out autonomy talks for 10 years, and meanwhile we would have [settled] half a million people in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank]. Baker’s approach was totally vindicated.

Yesterday, Shamir’s protégé Binyamin [Bibi] Netanyahu, openly adopted Shamir’s strategy. We need not wait for his retirement to realize that, like Shamir’s, it is designed to prevent negotiations not advance them.

Ha’aretz [Israel's afternoon newspaper] reported that the Netanyahu government has informed Secretary of State John Kerry that Israel is not interested in discussing land and borders.

A senior Israeli official, who asked to remain anonymous, expressed…“Kerry believes that he can bring about the solution, the treaty and the salvation,” he said. “He thinks that the conflict is primarily over territory…and that is wrong.”

Wrong? No, that is what the conflict has been about since the occupation began in 1967 and certainly since Israel and the PLO agreed that both sides have the right to peace and security. So we are back to Shamir and the bad old days before Itshak Rabin [who was assassinated for his “pro-Palestinian” negotiations by an ultra-Zionist, 04Nov’95].

The good news is that Netanyahu has made everything so clear. He has no interest in peace, negotiations, any kind of territorial withdrawal or even freezing settlements. Like Shamir, he just wants to buy time until it will be absolutely impossible to create a Palestinian state, if it isn’t already. Netanyahu is not interested in what the US wants.

Apartheid Settlement Construction…

The only question left is what the Obama administration will do in response. It could follow Baker’s example and take a walk. Even better, it could tell Netanyahu that future aid from the U.S. will be linked to its occasional compliance with U.S. wishes regarding the occupation.

Or it could say it won’t keep following Israel’s dictates on sanctions or Palestine’s right to recognition by the United Nations. Or it could, as Bush Senior and Baker did, squeeze the Israeli prime minister until the Israeli public dumps him.

It could do any of those. Will it? I’m taking bets.

But here is a sure one. There is no possibility of serious negotiation so long as Binyamin Netanyahu is prime minister of Israel.

None.

MJ Rosenberg, Tikkun Daily, April 11th, 2013.

American Tribune - The Prison Experience Connection is a post from: American Tribune