A Pause For Station-Identification….

(Here’s some weekend-viewing, along with a little commentary – I ran this around a year ago — and if anything, it’s more cogent now. Enjoy….)

Sorry, folks, but I’m going to rant a bit here.

Y’see, I’m a bit irritated — more than a bit, actually – with the fact that (according to those Gallup polls I posted a day or so ago), most of the American population could care less about the way the country is run, and would actually sacrifice some or all of their civil-liberties in order to fight this amorphous-blob the government calls ‘terrorism’.

Guess what. They have.

And, they’re dragging the rest of us along – to the point where if we want to live in a truly free country from now on, we have the option of leaving – or staying put and trying to fix what a majority of us no longer seem to want – the right to speak our minds.

Office-worker and mill-worker; educated professional and tradesman – it’s all the same. Speak out = Run the risk of a labor camp. It’s all there — the military has the plans; our President just issued the directive and executive-order over the past two months.

Everything’s in place.

Further, we now have a shadow-military, beholden to no one, operating all over the world (but with concentration in Afghanistan and Iraq). They’re exempt from prosecution for any crime committed on their watch:

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(Blackwater Corporation – documentary video)

“We have become a monster in the eyes of the whole world – a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we’ll kill you.”

— Hunter S. Thompson, writer

I write and post this rather fearfully, because the functionality of government has led us to a sorry pass. Today, we’re in a position where speaking out could quite literally land us in a new American Gulag – and the only difference is that when our sentence is done, we won’t land in the tender embrace of friends and family who see that the government is wrong – we’ll likely land back in an environment where the hostility of that 52% of Americans who believe that the government is right holds sway over everything. No job. No housing. Non-persons.

If that doesn’t sound like Stalinism, I don’t know what does.

This next piece of film might change your mind about elections, also. While I’m still going to vote, and while I still believe that if enough of us get busy and work, our votes will still count – the time may be fast approaching (if it isn’t already here) where we’re powerless to do anything about the powers-that-be:

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(Electronic Voting – documentary video)

We live in a nation where the government can create the news.

Case in point. David Broncaccio of NPR, one of the last true reporters in America, did a piece on the election in Florida, where he brought up several of the points in the last video.

He’s a reliable, non-fringe source of news — and his piece has only aired once, with little or no commentary from other sources.

Let’s look at why.

Most of the board-members of NPR are either corporate sponsors with close ties to the government, or government appointees. Tell the truth = Lose your funding.

Fox? O’Reilly is a government shill, telling people what the powers-that-be want them to hear. Spend five minutes listening to an overseas news broadcast on the same topics, and you’ll come away with the same inevitable conclusion.

Folks, we’re being spoon-fed the same Kool-Aid, over and over. Fortunately, it’s our choice to accept it, or no.

“We are watching a poorly-staged rendition of Wag The Dog, interpreted for the morbily stupid and performed by the criminally insane.”

— Jules Carlysle; author/writer/commentator

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(“Be Careful What You Say” – Documentary Video)

“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”

— Hermann Goering; Reichsmarshall [1933-1945]; at Nuremberg

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It’s true, folks.

Be careful of what you say.

So, what’s to do?

Admittedly, the situation looks pretty bleak. We have little or no control over what the powers-that-be are doing right now – and it appears as if the new Congress has pulled impeachment off the table like a plate of bad hors d’oeuvres.

I’m going to suggest something simple, yet impolite: Start talking about it.

Yep. Those of you who grew up with the mistaken idea that ‘talking about politics isn’t polite’ – bring it up as table-conversation at the next neighborhood event or friends-gathering. Chew the fat. Doesn’t matter if you know everything, or not — between you, you’ll find that the free exchange of ideas is the most powerful tool you have.

Remember Margaret Mead, the world-reknowned anthropologist: ” A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” You have a chance here, and it’s yours to lose.

Make it count.