Demographic Warfare: Weaponizing Immigration

At the end of 2014, the number of people, worldwide, forced to flee their homes rose to a staggering 59.5 million compared to 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million a decade ago. displaced from their homes.

“The increase represents the biggest leap ever seen in a single year. Moreover, the report said the situation was likely to worsen still further.

Globally, one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum. If this were the population of a country, it would be the world's 24th biggest.

Refugees boat sinking at Christmas Island

Most of us believe that immigration occurs naturally, that the hordes of immigrants we see today, fleeing unbearable circumstances is the direct result of unfortunate circumstances that haphazardly plague nations around the world.  We conveniently forget the centuries of ravishing and plundering of  these unfortunate nations--rich in natural resources and brimming with economic potential--by colonizing and neo-colonizing powers. 

Australian treatment of refugees

No, not too many of us consider the possibility that the natural flow of immigration has been co-opted by global elites who deliberately create the abominable conditions that force desperate millions (pawns) to cut and run.  Yet despite our nation's wealth created through the plundering of these war-torn nations,  we allow the corporate owned mass media foster and fan the flames of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment without question. 

Refugees on journey to Australia

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When Drone Strikes Become the "New Normal" for the Shining City on a Hill.

Can you imagine if one American citizen was killed by a foreign drone strike in the United States? Let alone, 2...3...103 Americans? The foreign country responsible would be labeled a terrorist state faster than the Department of Homeland Security scream "Red Alert!" Yet, when the U.S. is behind foreign drone strikes that strike civilians or even American citizens, it's called collateral damage.  Why?  Because we're supposedly locked in a struggle with primitive, barbaric terrorists determined to destroy the “American way of life,” which is, of course, exceptional.  This state of exception and/or exceptional state mythology is used to defend and justify this "shining city on a hill's" legal transgressions by appealing to what is believed to be a higher standard of justice.

Since 9/11, the U.S. has been/is allegedly waging battle in this epic "War on Terror" with "no discernible end," against this nameless, faceless, and all encompassing enemy. Never mind that most "Al Qaeda" operatives have been recruited, trained, and funded by US and NATO intelligence agencies from the very beginning almost 30 years ago. Pre-emptive wars directed against “Islamic terrorists” everywhere is required to defend the Homeland. That's what we've been told, not only from the never-ending "news" stories that litter the 24-hours news networks, but also from the constantly reinforced narratives of countless TV shows and movies as "television [and I would add  movies] is the ideal medium for disseminating and encouraging a perspective on the “war on terror”. However, almost twelve years after 9/11, it appears that this nameless, faceless, all encompassing "enemy" could very well include we-the-American-terrorists.

In the "terrorist," as opposed to the communist, or foreign state, we have a nearly perfect, ubiquitous and enduring enemy. A terrorist can conveniently be anyone, anywhere at any time for the greedy, heartless self-serving imperialists, who create and control the vague definition, which can be changed or modified as needed. It includes an extraordinarily broad spectrum of people from the evil warlord to anyone who expresses discontent with the current state of the union.

On Sept. 30, 2011, missiles fired from an unmanned drone killed U.S. citizens Anwar al Awlaki and Samir Khan, along with at least two other people in Yemen. Two weeks later, another drone strike at an open-air restaurant in Yemen killed seven people including Abdul Rahman Anwar Awlaki, the 16-year-old son of al Awlaki.

In the case of Al Awlaki’s son, nothing has been published to suggest that he had been involved in any acts against the US, yet the Executive Branch’s rules for authorizing the murder of US Citizens using drones in non-combat areas and defining them as collateral damage supposedly gives the state, our state, total immunity from the law, from the Constitution. In other words, American courts cannot second-guess drone strikes that kill American citizens overseas.

What about killing American citizens here? So far, aside from the all out attack on the non-violent Occupy Wall Street movement, the massive surveillance of American citizens, and what appears to be random cases government sanctioned murder of American citizens, the ever-growing national security apparatus has focused on foreign as opposed to domestic "threats"...domestic threats to the plutocracy, that is. The scary part is that the oligarchy is becoming so confident of success that they're allowing the illusion of civil society to disappear, revealing the plutocrat's contempt for the "We the People".  It is becoming more evident every day and their true intent more clear. Don't for one second think anything the ruling class does is about keeping us safe. It's about keeping them "safe" from us.

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." - Albert Einstein

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News Inc

Today, American journalism is replete with incestuous relationships between government, industry, and academia, thanks to a few of the largest Fortune 500 corporations that own and operate news organizations. What we call mainstream "news" is now a bottom-line serving propaganda machine, riddled with conflicts of interest. Moreover, mainstream "journalists" have morphed into strategic communication professionals.And authentic investigative journalism does not exist, if it ever really existed in the mainstream media when you take into account all that the Internet has unearthed from as far back as the 1930s. However, it seems, whatever the situation was, it may be far worse now.

Because of the incestuous "working relationship" government and corporate media enjoy, average Americans receive not only a censored version of reality, but also many times, a fabricated version of reality. The fourth estate, the press, rather than acting as watchdog of American democracy, is now an instrument of the growing corpocracy that is in the process of transforming America from a Constitutional Republic to an oligarchy.

Glenn Greenwald, a former constitutional law and civil rights litigator and author of two New York Times Bestselling books: "How Would a Patriot Act?", "A Tragic Legacy" and most recently, "Great American Hypocrites", eloquently depicts the corporatized mainstream media as he analyzes and describes his own experience in his recent article: The merger of journalists and government officials

"...Over the last month, I've done many television and radio segments about WikiLeaks and what always strikes me is how indistinguishable -- identical -- are the political figures and the journalists. There's just no difference in how they think, what their values and priorities are, how completely they've ingested and how eagerly they recite the same anti-WikiLeaks, "Assange = Saddam" script. So absolute is the WikiLeaks-is-Evil bipartisan orthodoxy among the Beltway political and media class (forever cemented by the joint Biden/McConnell decree that Assange is a "high-tech Terrorist,") that you're viewed as being from another planet if you don't spout it. It's the equivalent of questioning Saddam's WMD stockpile in early 2003.

It's not news that establishment journalists identify with, are merged into, serve as spokespeople for, the political class: that's what makes them establishment journalists. But even knowing that, it's just amazing, to me at least, how so many of these "debates" I've done involving one anti-WikiLeaks political figure and one ostensibly "neutral" journalist -- on MSNBC with The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart and former GOP Congresswoman Susan Molinari, on NPR with The New York Times' John Burns and former Clinton State Department official James Rubin, and last night on CNN with Yellin and Townsend -- entail no daylight at all between the "journalists" and the political figures. They don't even bother any longer with the pretense that they're distinct or play different assigned roles. I'm not complaining here -- Yellin was perfectly fair and gave me ample time -- but merely observing how inseparable are most American journalists from the political officials they "cover."

(2) From the start of the WikiLeaks controversy, the most striking aspect for me has been that the ones who are leading the crusade against the transparency brought about by WikiLeaks -- the ones most enraged about the leaks and the subversion of government secrecy -- have been . . . America's intrepid Watchdog journalists. What illustrates how warped our political and media culture is as potently as that? It just never seems to dawn on them -- even when you explain it -- that the transparency and undermining of the secrecy regime against which they are angrily railing is supposed to be . . . what they do.

What an astounding feat to train a nation's journalist class to despise above all else those who shine a light on what the most powerful factions do in the dark and who expose their corruption and deceit, and to have journalists -- of all people -- lead the way in calling for the head of anyone who exposes the secrets of the powerful. Most ruling classes -- from all eras and all cultures -- could only fantasize about having a journalist class that thinks that way, but most political leaders would have to dismiss that fantasy as too extreme, too implausible, to pursue. After all, how could you ever get journalists -- of all people -- to loathe those who bring about transparency and disclosure of secrets? But, with a few noble exceptions, that's exactly the journalist class we have.

There will always be a soft spot in my heart for Jessica Yellin because of that time when she unwittingly (though still bravely) admitted on air that -- when she worked at MSNBC -- NBC's corporate executives constantly pressured the network's journalists to make their reporting favorable to George Bush and the Iraq War (I say "unwittingly" because she quickly walked back that confession after I and others wrote about it and a controversy ensued). But, as Yellin herself revealed in that moment of rare TV self-exposure, that's the government-subservient corporate culture in which these journalists are trained and molded...."

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Privatizing Life and Death Matters Commodifies Human Life.

Marcus Crassus, of the late Roman Republic, profited handsomely as a real estate developer and entrepreneur, only his tactics were a bit questionable. You see, Crassus' private fire brigade would rush to burning homes and places of business, however refuse to refused to douse the flames until the  the building's owner and threatened neighbors sold the property to him for less than one-fifth the market value.  It worked like a dream...that is, until several years later when Rome crashed and burned.

Fast forward 2,010 years and  firefighters watch a home burn to the ground in Tennessee over a $75 fee. Either not much has changed, or we've come full circle, and like Ancient Rome, we've lost the moral foundation upon which our society relies:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

So how is watching a house burn down over a $75 fee, or letting people suffer and/or die due to lack of health insurance, or allowing children (America's future) to go hungry or suffer the consequences of neglect and a system that puts their needs dead last, synchronize with the belief, that all men are endowed with "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" that is interwoven throughout our Constitution and Bill of Rights?

The Republican agenda to privatize everything under the sun, including essential matters of life and death, while at the same time, supporting corporate welfare and the military industrial complex, contributes greatly to the greed and arrogance that corrupt  the atmosphere and culture of  today's society.  This "atmosphere" is eerily similar to the greedy and power hungry faction of wealthy capitalists and nobles that began to use the Roman mob to promote their own selfish interests and expand the Roman Republic for gain and the acquisition of even more power.

If we can't trust firefighters to put out fires, then the breakdown of all trust - essential to a capitalist society - is sure to follow, hence, the collapse of the American empire.

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Break the Power of the Wealth Sucking Financial Oligarchy Now.

There is nothing like hearing or reading reports of top executives - the very same ones who contributed to the current financial crisis - planning to pay themselves the biggest bonuses ever in their 140 year history, to wake Americans up from the cultural trance we've allowed ourselves to succumb, to smell the corruption and hubris that underpins our current financial and political system. Goldman Sachs, according to The Guardian, is having its most profitable year ever, citing lack of competition as the chief reason.

Why is this a problem?

Well, a few months ago, Goldman Sachs, frustrated by federally mandated pay caps imposed on TARP recipients, started plotting and planning to get out from under those restraints. The Obama administration was against Goldman Sachs paying the $10 billion in TARP money back early because they were afraid it would send the wrong signal by encouraging the very thing - "too big to fail" -that contributed to the collapse of our economy in the first place. They feared Goldman Sachs would receive an unfair advantage over all the rest of the banks, because it will appear stronger in the market, while at the same time, continuing to receive government subsidies, including guarantees on debt they already issued, and discounted credit lines from the Federal Reserve, therefore, eliminating the healthy competition our financial system needs to thrive in what is supposed to be a "free market" economy.

Here's the thing. The government (American taxpayers) saved their day, and now that Goldman Sachs and the rest of the banks are back on their feet, at tremendous cost to us, they are deliberately undermining the TARP program, despite the fact that it saved their derriere, and despite the fact that they still rely on government assistance, and despite the fact that they will not have to pay back a good portion of bailout assistance ($13 billion from AIG as a counter party thru AIG bailout and the ability to change their legal forms to access more credit) they received that enabled them to become profitable once again.

We the people must become aware that many of the underlying assumptions we once believed in are no longer valid. For example, the belief that what is good for Wall Street is good for Washington, therefore good for our country must be abolished. The financial sector that started to become more powerful under Reagan, that produces nothing of real value, yet accounts for well over 40% of corporate profits, if allowed to continue, or even worse, grow, will make

The only way to achieve real reform is to break the power and hubris of the financial oligarchy that is currently sucking real wealth from our system and reconstitute the structure of the financial system going forward.

Chart 1: Share of Total U.S. Income Accruing to the Top 10%, 1917-2006











Chart 2: Decomposing the Top 10% of U.S. Income Share into Three Groups, 1913-2006

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Government of the Antichrist, By the Antichrist, For the Antichrist.

Artist: Mr. Fish
No, I haven't lost my mind, however, this thought of the Antichrist, right here, right now, has emerged, so, instead of letting this insanity fester, I'd rather blog it out of my system. In other words, I want to broadcast my insanity, in hopes that the shame (Yes, even though I'm anonymous ...I've told a few people about this blog so that I may very well be standing naked only thinking I'm fully clothed) will allow me to exercise the power of reason once more. I'm just going to throw this line of "reasoning" out there and see if it sticks to something that prohibits this ghastly thought from returning. Here it goes:

Some, including Pope John Paul II say President George W. Bush is the Antichrist.

"...people close to the pope claim that amid these concerns, the pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in Revelations. John Paul II has always believed the world was on the precipice of the final confrontation between Good and Evil as foretold in the New Testament."

Granted, the Pope did not utter the word, Antichrist, nevertheless, he came as close as he could without actually saying the word. Now, why would a smart, educated man like Pope John Paul II call Bush the "Antichrist", when men who appear to be far more evil - Joseph Kony, Saddam Hussein, Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, etc. - exist and have existed for as long as man has walked the earth?

Sounds a little harsh. After all, President Bush doesn't threaten to put "we the people" through shredders, throw us in torture chambers, cut off the limbs of our children, brothers and sisters. He doesn't force us to bow down in his presence, forbid us to say nasty things about him, starve us to death or anything like that. So, how could the Pope, of all people, even consider President Bush to be the Antichrist?

While there is no question that the aforementioned men and countless others have etched the essence of their evil into existence for all eternity to gasp in horror, two questions come to mind. The first question, what is the extent of this person's power and influence? The potential magnitude of his evil doings? The second question, how conspicuous is the evil doing?

Pervasive evil is never apparent right away. In fact, many of these men charmed themselves into power, but it didn't take long for the people governed by these egregiously evil men to realize how egregiously evil they were. With the exception of Adolf Hitler, in modern history, the command these men had over others was limited to the country or nation they ruled. Their ability or capacity to perform or act effectively did not extend past their own borders for the most part.

In contrast, President Bush's power far exceeds the fifty states he was elected to lead. In addition to spreading his idea of "freedom" and "democracy" across the oil-enriched part of the globe, the President has taken it upon himself to increase the authority of the Executive Branch as much as possible. Although, the President has made some bold statements regarding his authority, he mostly operates under the radar, circumventing laws and expanding presidential power subversively, using signing statements, instead of the veto, for example.

President Bush, unlike other evildoers, wants "we the people", at least "we the people" who matter - those with any type of political clout - to live it up, have a good time, and shop until we drop. Suffering is the last thing he wants "his" people, the ones who matter, to associate with him.

And, that's the way it "appears" to most of us. If anything, President Bush may have made some mistakes, however, he was only doing his best to keep us safe and out of trouble. Maybe Bush is not the bulb with the highest wattage readily perceived by the eye, but the man's heart is in the right place. Right? Well, how about, does it exist in the first place? None of the evidence thus far suggests that President Bush has a heart.

Keep in mind, the worst kind of enemy is the deceitful kind who operates in an inconspicuous or seemingly harmless way, but in actuality, is committing atrocities that appear to be the fault of someone or something else, and all the while, laying the groundwork for that which causes harm, misfortune, and destruction to become infectious and spread sort of like a cancer or disease, without marked symptoms, but ready to become active upon the slightest unavoidable change.

The seeds have been sown, and the harm, misfortune, and destruction have more than started to spread; it's just that it hasn't spread to the people who matter, us. An infinitesimally small part of our population, our soldiers, and their families, have box seats to witness and feel the horror that is taking place under this administration. Fortunately, for President Bush, most of the horror takes place in another world as far as we're concerned...another galaxy.

A much larger part of our population also suffers the effects of this Administration's actions directly, but have no voice...the poor, the "near poor", the uninsured...the segment of the population that "doesn't matter". This part of our population is growing at an alarming rate, however, and those of us who sit back in judgment, saying they brought it upon themselves may have to think twice as they find themselves joining the ranks of the marginalized.

Combine insidious with "all powerful" and the Pope's thinking starts to make a little bit of sense. Going to war with Iraq; overturning habeas corpus; authorizing and encouraging torture; domestic spying; imprisoning over 2500 children, held since 2001 as “enemy combatants”; Katrina; denying American children health care; expanding the gap ever wider between the haves and the have not’s; simultaneously cutting funding for veterans while cutting taxes on our wealthiest citizens; his callous attitude toward capital punishment...even his AIDS plan, President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is duplicitous.

Consider this quote from President Bush's speech in November of 2001:

"This new enemy seeks to destroy our freedom and impose its views.

What are we doing over in Iraq? Our idea of freedom may not be the same as another nation...what right do we have to destroy their way of life to impose our views of freedom, democracy?

We value life; the terrorists ruthlessly destroy it.

Is sending young "men" and "women", barely out of school, over to fight a war, based on lies and greed, that is certain to either kill them, injure them beyond repair or psychologically damage them, valuing life? Is killing and injuring thousands upon thousands of innocent civilians, including children, valuing life? Is holding the record for executing the most people as Governor valuing life? Is smirking while commenting on ordering a person to death valuing life? Is letting a bunch of people drown just because they don't happen to have the right color skin, and the status and wealth of white suburban America valuing life?

We value education; the terrorists do not believe women should be educated or should have health care, or should leave their homes. We value the right to speak our minds; for the terrorists, free expression can be grounds for execution. We respect people of all faiths and welcome the free practice of religion; our enemy wants to dictate how to think and how to worship even to their fellow Muslims.

I guess No Child Left Behind is an example of the way we value education, education for the sons and daughters of the people who can afford affluent surroundings, that is. Our system of school finance is one of the most unequal among industrialized nations, having major consequences for the educational achievement of students from low-income families and "No Child Left Behind" reinforces that 100%.

This enemy tries to hide behind a peaceful faith. But those who celebrate the murder of innocent men, women, and children have no religion, have no conscience, and have no mercy.We wage a war to save civilization, itself. We did not seek it, but we must fight it -- and we will prevail."

Aha! "Celebrate" is the key word here. President Bush doesn't celebrate the murder of innocence, in public. President Bush just doesn't give a damn. He's completely indifferent.

"Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.
[...]
The end of evil and the notion of redemption begins when indifference ends."-- Elie Wiesel

Well, I'm not convinced President Bush is or isn't the Antichrist because I wouldn't know the Antichrist if I tripped over him, however, I understand why Pope John Paul II wondered whether President Bush may indeed be the Antichrist. He may not be the devil or Lucifer or born of a jackel, but he stands for everything Christ condemned and brutally destroys everything Christ epitomized. I'd call that Anti-Christ, wouldn't you?

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