Left out is also is the disaster in our relations with the American Indians with who we broke treaties with, stole their land and subjected them to live in impoverished conditions within a concentration camp without locks.
~Russell Means, Chief Facilitator, Republic of Lakotah
19 March 2010
On March 13, China’s Information Office of the State Council published a report titled, “The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009.”
This document was clearly intended as a rebuttal to the annual US State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2009, released two days earlier.
The Chinese report quite legitimately notes that the US government “releases Country Reports on Human Rights Practices year after year to accuse other countries, and takes human rights as a political instrument to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs, defame other nations’ image and seek its own strategic interests. This fully exposes its double standards on the human rights issue…”
Delivering the US government a well-deserved dose of its own medicine does not, of course, absolve the Chinese regime of its own gross violations of human rights. It rules autocratically over 1.3 billion people, most of them desperately poor peasants and super-exploited workers.
That being said, the Chinese report is an eye-opening document—factual, sober, even understated, drawn entirely from public government and media sources in the United States, with each item carefully documented. It presents a picture of 21st century America as much of the world sees it, one which is in sharp contrast to the official mythology and American media propaganda.
Not surprisingly, the report went unmentioned in the US mass media.
The 14-page report is divided into six major sections: Life, Property and Personal Security; Civil and Political Rights; Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Racial Discrimination; Rights of Women and Children; US Violations of Human Rights Against Other Nations. The cumulative picture is one of a society in deep and worsening social crisis.
A few of the facts and figures cited on violence and police repression in the United States:
• Each year, 30,000 people die in gun-related incidents.
• There were 14,180 murders last year.
• In the first ten months of 2009, 45 people were killed by police use of tasers, bringing the total for the decade to 389.
• Last year, 315 police officers in New York City were subject to internal supervision due to “unrestrained use of violence.”
• 7.3 million Americans were under the authority of the correctional system, more than in any other country.
• An estimated 60,000 prisoners were raped while in custody last year.
On democratic rights, the report notes the pervasive government spying on citizens, authorized under the 2001 Patriot Act, extensive surveillance of the Internet by the National Security Agency, and police harassment of anti-globalization demonstrators in Pittsburgh during last year’s G-20 summit. Pointing to the hypocrisy of US government “human rights” rhetoric, the authors observe, “the same conduct in other countries would be called human rights violations, whereas in the United States it was called necessary crime control.”
The report only skims the surface on the socioeconomic crisis in the United States, noting record levels of unemployment, poverty, hunger and homelessness, as well as 46.3 million people without health insurance. It does offer a few facts rarely discussed in the US media:
• 712 bodies were cremated at public expense in the city of Los Angeles last year, because the families were too poor to pay for a burial.
• There were 5,657 workplace deaths recorded in 2007, the last year for which a tally is available, a rate of 17 deaths per day (not a single employer was criminally charged for any of these deaths).
• Some 2,266 veterans died as a consequence of lack of health insurance in 2008, 14 times the military death toll in Afghanistan that year.
The report presents evidence of pervasive racial discrimination against blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, the most oppressed sections of the US working class, including a record number of racial discrimination claims over hiring practices, more than 32,000. It also notes the rising number of incidents of discrimination or violence against Muslims, and the detention of 300,000 “illegal” immigrants each year, with more than 30,000 immigrants in US detention facilities every day of the year.
It notes that the state of California imposed life sentences on 18 times more black defendants than white, and that in 2008, when New York City police fired their weapons, 75 percent of the targets were black, 22 percent Hispanic and only 3 percent white.
The report refers to the well-known reality of unequal pay for women, with median female income only 77 percent that of male income in 2008, down from 78 percent in 2007. According to the report, 70 percent of working-age women have no health insurance, or inadequate coverage, high medical bills or high health-related debt.
Children bear a disproportionate burden of economic hardship, with 16.7 million children not having enough food at some time during 2008, and 3.5 million children under five facing hunger or malnutrition, 17 percent of the total. Child hunger is combined with the malignant phenomenon of rampant child labor in agriculture: some 400,000 child farm workers pick America’s crops. The US also leads the world in imprisoning children and juveniles, and is the only country that does not offer parole to juvenile offenders.
US foreign policy comes in for justifiable criticism as well. A country with so many poor and hungry people accounts for 42 percent of the world’s total military spending, a colossal $607 billion, as well as the world’s largest foreign arms sales, $37.8 billion in 2008, up nearly 50 percent from the previous year.
The Chinese report notes the documented torture of prisoners in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, the worldwide US network of military bases, the US blockade of Cuba (opposed by the UN General Assembly by a vote of 187 to 3), and the systematic US spying around the world, utilizing the NSA’s “ECHELON” interception system, as well as the US monopoly control over Internet route servers.
The report also points out the deliberate US flouting of international human rights covenants. Washington has either signed but not ratified or refused to sign four major UN covenants: on economic, social and cultural rights; on the rights of women; on the rights of people with disabilities; and on the rights of indigenous peoples.
The report does not discuss the source of the malignant social conditions in the United States—nor should that be expected, since that would require an explanation of the causal connection between poverty, repression and discrimination and the operations of the capitalist profit system, something that Beijing is hardly likely to undertake.
The preceding was first published on Indybay
Russell Means discusses how the lens through which America views its Indigenous people, shows how America views the world. From English-only laws and Christian righteousness to the perpetual state of war since its creation, the United States citizens continue to show a lack of respect for their relatives visions. Russell Means offers advice to the people of America in this edition of Weekend Update.
The following first appeared in the Rock Creek Free Press, June 2009
What do you suppose it is like to be elected President of the United States only to find that your power is restricted to the service of powerful interest groups?
A president who does a good job for the ruling interest groups is paid off with remunerative corporate directorships, outrageous speaking fees, and a lucrative book contract. If he is young when he assumes office, like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, it means a long life of luxurious leisure.
Fighting the special interests doesn’t pay and doesn’t succeed. On April 30 the primacy of special, over public, interests was demonstrated yet again. The Democrats’ bill to prevent 1.7 million mortgage foreclosures and, thus, preserve $300 billion in home equity by permitting homeowners to renegotiate their mortgages, was defeated in the Senate, despite the 60-vote majority of the Democrats. The banksters were able to defeat the bill 51 to 45.
These are the same financial gangsters whose unbridled greed and utter irresponsibility have wiped out half of Americans’ retirement savings, sent the economy into a deep hole, and threatened the US dollar’s reserve currency role. It is difficult to imagine an interest group with a more damaged reputation. Yet, a majority of “the people’s representatives” voted as the discredited banksters instructed.
Hundreds of billions of public dollars have gone to bail out the banksters, but when some Democrats tried to get the Senate to do a mite for homeowners, the US Senate stuck with the banks. The Senate’s motto is: “Hundreds of billions for the banksters, not a dime for homeowners.”
If Obama was naive about well-intentioned change before the vote, he no longer has this political handicap.
Democratic Majority Whip Dick Durbin acknowledged the voters’ defeat by the discredited banksters. The banks, Durbin said, “frankly own the place.”
It is not difficult to understand why. Among those who defeated the homeowners bill are senators Jon Tester (MT), Max Baucus (MT), Blanche Lincoln (AK), Ben Nelson (NE), Mary Landrieu (LA), Tim Johnson (SD), and Arlen Specter (PA). According to reports, the banksters have poured a half million dollars into Tester’s campaign funds. Baucus has received $3.5 million; Lincoln $1.3 million; Nelson $1.4 million; Landrieu $2 million; Johnson $2.5 million; Specter $4.5 million.
The same Congress that can’t find a dime for homeowners or health care appropriates hundreds of billions of dollars for the military/security complex. The week after the Senate foreclosed on American homeowners, the Obama “change” administration asked Congress for an additional $61 billion dollars for the neoconservatives’ war in Iraq and $65 billion more for the neoconservatives’ war in Afghanistan. Congress greeted this request with a rousing “Yes we can!”
The additional $126 billion comes on top of the $533.7 billion “defense” budget for this year. The $660 billion — probably a low-ball number — is ten times the military spending of China, the second most powerful country in the world.
How is it possible that “the world’s only superpower” is threatened by the likes of Iraq and Afghanistan? How can the US be a superpower if it is threatened by countries that have no military capability other than a guerrilla capability to resist invaders?
These “wars” are a hoax designed to enrich the US armaments industry and to infuse the “security forces” with police powers over the American citizenry.
Not a dime to prevent millions of Americans from losing their homes, but hundreds of billions of dollars to murder Muslim women and children and to create millions of refugees, many of whom will either sign up with insurgents or end up as the next wave of immigrants into America.
This is the way the American government works. And it thinks it is a “city on the hill, a light unto the world.”
Americans elected Obama because he said he would end the gratuitous criminal wars of the Bush brownshirts, wars that have destroyed America’s reputation and financial solvency and serve no public interest. But once in office Obama found that he was ruled by the military/security complex. War is not being ended, merely transferred from the unpopular war in Iraq to the more popular war in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Obama, in violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, continues to attack “targets” in Pakistan. In place of a war in Iraq, the military/security complex now has two wars going in much more difficult circumstances.
Viewing the promotion gravy train that results from decades of warfare, the US officer corps has responded to the “challenge to American security” from the Taliban. “We have to kill them over there before they come over here.” No member of the US government or its numerous well-paid agents has ever explained how the Taliban, which is focused on Afghanistan, could ever get to America. Yet this hyped fear is sufficient for the public to support the continuing enrichment of the military/security complex, while American homes are foreclosed by the banksters who have destroyed the retirement prospects of the US population.
According to Pentagon budget documents, by next year the cost of the war against Afghanistan will exceed the cost of the war against Iraq. According to a Nobel prize-winning economist and a budget expert at Harvard University, the war against Iraq has cost the American taxpayers $3 trillion, that is, $3,000 billion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs, such as caring for veterans.
If the Pentagon is correct, then by next year the US government will have squandered $6 trillion dollars on two wars, the only purpose of which is to enrich the munitions manufacturers and the “security” bureaucracy.
The human and social costs are dramatic as well and not only for the Iraqi, Afghan, and Pakistani populations ravaged by American bombs. Dahr Jamail reports that US Army psychiatrists have concluded that by their third deployment, 30 percent of American troops are mental wrecks. Among the costs that reverberate across generations of Americans are elevated rates of suicide, unemployment, divorce, child and spousal abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness and incarceration.
In the Afghan “desert of death” the Obama administration is constructing a giant military base. Why? What does the internal politics of Afghanistan have to do with the US?
What is this enormous waste of resources that America does not have accomplishing besides enriching the American munitions industry?
China and to some extent India are the rising powers in the world. Russia, the largest country on earth, is armed with a nuclear arsenal as terrifying as the American one. The US dollar’s role as reserve currency, the most important source of American power, is undermined by the budget deficits that result from the munition corporations’ wars and the bankster bailouts.
Why is the US making itself impotent by fighting wars that have nothing whatsoever to do with its security, wars that are, in fact, threatening its security?
The answer is that the military/security lobby, the financial gangsters, and AIPAC rule. The American people be damned.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
The Imaginary War
“Will the United States bomb itself?” ~Eduardo Galeano
With three months and change in office, its a fair time to take a look at the record of the 44th president of the United States. The leading deceptions of Barack Obama to date has been made capable by his understanding of the American psyche, and his misuse of the public’s desire for genuine change.
The best example of the psychological malfeasance of Obama is the Iraq war. In June of 2008, while campaigning, he stated that on day one of his presidency he would immediately begin the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, and ship them instead to the good war in Afghanistan. Somehow, it is more acceptable to capture civilians and torture them for bad intelligence that then leads to more arrests and more torture in Afghanistan, than to perform the same practices in Iraq. But the goal of beginning the removal of troops was, after the election, immediately subverted by Barack Obama. The immediate withdrawl of troops became an 18-month drawdown, with now no end in sight.
If this is the case, what was the net effect of taking a position and then changing it? With this practice, the public gets the false impression that things are changing, that their opinion is valued and that their trust is sacred. In the current age, it is of central importance for most Americans to not feel offended. Perceived offense is taken as seriously as physical harm. With this mindset, all persons who lead guarded lives of safety feel just as at risk as those who are living from day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year, in an economy that keeps people permanently displaced, on the move from job to job. An economy that sees 22% of American children grow up in poverty. An economy that is seeing record foreclosures, massive unemployment, evaporating wages for the poor and coming epic inflation. In such an environment, ownership becomes rentership, and interpersonal trust becomes a matter of commerce.
The nation wanted universal, single-payer healthcare, and at first Barack Obama claimed he would provide it. But demanding a new plan was not a priority for him. The goal of universal coverage is now being kicked further down the road to a place where no one actually believes it will be picked up. There is a word for all of this, deceit.
Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency as well took the applauded position of halting mountaintop coal-removal, that process that blasts entire tops of the oldest mountains of the Eastern Americas for a finite, polluting resource. This after 400 acres of Tennessee was covered in up to 6 feet of coal sludge in December 2008. However, after the permits were delayed for one month, Obama’s EPA stated that 42 of 48 sites, including two dozen mountaintop sites, were A-OK, and that business could proceed as planned, by business, for business, for profit.
In addition, Obama promised and immediately acted to close the torture facility known as Guantanamo Bay. There were no words spoken as to whether Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan or other sites further afield known for torture as well would be closed, and it mattered little as the immediate order was allowed to air for a few weeks, then was quietly shelved. A public debate then ensues about whether the prisoners are allowed the rights of human beings, with no one seeming to notice that to date there are over two hundred people who have been held without due process, in massive isolation, for almost a decade now, in order to prove that the United States is a country of laws. To date, the only persons to be tried are Osama Bin Laden’s driver, and his cook. The gravest crime between the two is the forging of a passport. The matter of closing Guantanamo now proceeds toward the ever less likely for a public that is having its will publicly eroded.
To speak for a moment of the importance of location; in Afghanistan, in Palestine, in Iraq, to be a young man between the ages of 18 and 35 is to be a target. US reports of deaths of men between the ages of 18 to 35 proceed with the presumption that all men of this age group are presumed to be ‘terrorists’. For the United States, a country which has never had active on-going military bombardment, the use of robotic planes to eliminate the risk to the precious flesh of our soldiers while bombs are dropped on villagers and random mud huts in Pakistan and Afghanistan, surely indicates that our country has crossed a line into the realm of pure fantasy.
A young man, born into the country of Iraq, sees his neighborhood destroyed and his neighbors killed, tortured or forced to flee the country, and he has a choice. Leave, become a passive target for an unaccountable U.S. Military or Iraqi militia, or join the resistance. An entire population of people is considered, in the eyes of the American Media, guilty by age and location of birth and is pushed toward desparation. War does not even exist on television screens, apart from the sterile discussion of tactics. More time of televised discussion is focused on one sporting game than the active US military bombardment of three nations. We are at a sad point of dislocation from reality. The estimated 1 million people killed in Iraq are proportionally equal to the country of Iraq invading the U.S. and killing the entire population of the state of Michigan. The US has displaced a populace equivalent to the state of California.
All of this though isn’t altering the public’s ability to believe Barack Obama. The reason is a very straightforward trick of mnemonics. If the brain remembers something, anything, and if the brain then tries to remember that same thing later, the brain can literally not tell the difference between whether something occurred in reality, or if it is a memory of a memory. So when Barack Obama says the right thing, the moral thing, the thing the public believes in, he is able to give people the illusion of having made a difference, while deferring to their sloth and refusal to check-up on stories greater than 2 weeks old. All of this in order to have business continue unabated, unbridled, slightly reorganized, but funded, as the military is, at the same or greater levels, funding the same entities, with the same lack of oversight, for the same duration, forever.
In a world that is moving exponentially closer to economic, agricultural, environmental and inter-national collapse, one thing has been made very clear. The saving of the financial institutions, including Wall Street primarily, but secondarily the finance arms of GM and Chrysler, have shown that Obama is not interested in reviving the sections of the economy that produce a single thing. Bold change, bold leadership, would have seen Obama ban the sale of domestic automobiles for a year, two years, in order to have the plants retool for wind turbines and massively decrease the number of automobiles available while increasing the number of hybrids and electric autos on the road. Bold leadership would have followed through on what Obama said when he stated, “If I were designing a system from scratch, then I’d probably set up a single-payer (healthcare) system.” There will never be a better time to confront the insurance giants, the megalithic healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical corporations than right now. Bold leadership would have followed the advice of Major General Paul Eaton’s son, currently in Afghanistan, “I don’t need any more combat power. I need agriculture experts, I need water engineers, I need doctors, nurses, dentists .”
And so it is with Barack Obama. He has made it clear that the production economy is not his priority. The non-producing economies, the banking system, and the destructive economies, the war machines, are the priority. These are the areas that are being supported by the administration. These are the areas for which priority speed has been granted. Torture will continue under a different name. The American Public will continue to pay its tax money to be spied on by its own government, to risk random arrest, to be fed to another non-productive system, the prison system. At what point will the American Population begin to realize that a few more plastic baubles from Wal-Mart, a few more cheap poisoned tangerines, are not worth the amount of destruction we are leaving our children, are not worth the wreckage we are visiting upon our fellow human beings, do not amount to more than a hollow, ransacked way of doing things that we shouldn’t be saving in the first place?
On the day the American Populace figures that out, there will be revolution in this country, and it will be needed.
Why is the USA the way it is? Colonialism! Why are American Indian Reservations in the deplorable state they are? Colonialism! Where are the Global Banking Powers leading the World to?
The Beauty, Power & Brilliance of Matriarchy – A call for a paradigm shift!
As we all sit awestruck in front of the T.V., the computer or the newspaper, Russell offers us a solution to the current Global calamity. In this beautiful forty-five minute FREE video, Russell explains both how the World got into this mess and how we can move towards sanity and wholeness. We must, he says, return to Matriarchy, a balance, respectful way of life where we celebrate our difference More..s, rather than stifle, or even, destroy them. CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO
Letter from Reader – too good NOT to share
All the credit for this post goes to John B., a local reader and active Republican. When we say it like this, it seems blatantly clear – so obvious that it enrages those of us who actually see the problem. Please Enjoy.
Thanks for your email. They are always informative, although not always uplifting.
As I look back over the time frame from 1929 to 1945 I try to analyze the downward spiral and the recovery that followed.
Herbert Hoover did nothing and FDR did not have a plan.
The rise of the military state (the Axis) was fueled by the economic conditions imposed on it after WWI and the depression that followed. Hitler offered hope, as misguide as it was, to the German people.
Our recovery was result of the demand created by WWII. At the end of the war America had the greatest means of production in the world. We took that production to produce both capital and consumer goods, and used our labor to build the infrastructure to support it. Then we not only sold but also gave our industrial production to nations world wide. (the Marshal Plan)
As we sold goods and services we accumulated both power and cash, with this we became a super power! Over time we have allowed our industrial base to move offshore and with it the profit it made.
If America wants to maintain a position of power, we must rebuild that industrial base.
The problem being, whenever you produce a product there is an environmental and social impact that a very vocal well organized minority will not accept. Not only that, but they scream it at you at the top of their lungs every chance they get.
The secret to the solution of the current economic mess is this:
Before you can CONSUME something you have to PRODUCE something!
To do this you have to build.
National wealth and power are the result of one of four activities:
Fishing, Farming, Mining and Manufacturing.
And the collateral activities that are associated with them…
Government needs to get out of the way! It also needs to foster an
environment that both encourages production and maximizes the output of the individual.
What’s it going to take to get our elected representatives to realize this or more so the American People?
The answer is simple – the elected officials do not care. They are all preoccupied with their pet projects and favors to friends – as is evidenced by their $800 Billion “payback” to left wing organizations – those who supported their campaigns this election cycle… There is nothing “stimulating” about this bill… and I say it again, it is evidence that the elected officials simply do not care anymore.
The American people care – if they are educated on the issues… unfortunately, in today’s society, that is like herding cats, or pushing a wet noodle… As an officer of the County GOP, I can tell you that I was ANGRY over the sheer number of calls I received ON NOVEMBER 5TH from angry voters asking what they could do to help… my initial thought was “hop in a time machine and do the work before the elections”… but I simply smiled, and directed them to our website – or took their information for future volunteerism – or informed them of small groups that meet regularly that may welcome the added support. In a world of distractions and 7 minute attention spans, it is a wonder how anyone can pull themselves out of muck and become an active and informed citizen.
Thank you John for your input and feedback. The thoughtful insight is worthy of recognition by me and the readers of the blog.
That is that… America has a New President – but, what did he say about tribes?
Posted: 20 Jan 2009 12:18 PM CST
Listening to the Obama speech after his (late) inauguration, it is clear that he is a smooth talker – though evident that he heavily relies on the teleprompter… I listened very carefully to each and every word – and though I agreed with some and not with others – there was one comment in particular which should stand out as a warning to states, Indian tribes, and territories of America who pride themselves on their individual differences… Obama said:
“The lines of Tribe shall dissolve”
This is the fundamental problem with Obama and the Democrats – they believe that Central Government trumps State, Local, and Tribal governments… there is no lower level sovereignty – only cogs in the machine that make the federal government work.
Let me tell you why it is important that the line of tribe NOT dissolve.
* We are a nation of free individuals who CHOOSE to support a common goal – freedom, peace and prosperity.
* We are a nation who has a government – NOT a government who has a nation.
* We are a collective of individuals representing local differences – regional defining factors – specific needs and wants as a resident of our region and community – not a collective of drones.
The “melting pot” signifies the importance of commonalities as a nation, but it does not indicate the need to dissolve ties to regional needs, regional norms, regional values. To expect rural Kansas to accept the norms of San Francisco is absurd – though we should be able to come together in peace and debate our differences… THAT is the real intent of the government.
I would assume that Obama picked his words very carefully – so why would he specifically mention “tribes” if not for a warning to the Indian Nations that their differences will not be resolved under his administration – and almost as a threat that their nations will be dissolved, and the reservations – the last of the lands promised to their sovereign governments – will vanish like the rest of the once great nations that inhabited these lands.
Let us hope that his words are not “just words” – and that this is not an affront to the Indian Tribes of this land.
The Future Is Now
Posted: 20 Jan 2009 09:31 AM CST
Hollywood has consistently used the election of a Black President (or a woman) to indicate a future scenario…
* Morgan Freeman is President when the world is threatened by an Extinction Sized Asteroid in the near future of Earth in Deep Impact.
* Dennis Haysbert is the President in the near future terrorist fighting storyline of 24.
* Tom Lister is President in the sci-fi comedy (?) set in a time of flying cars and interstellar conflict – the Fifth Element.
* Terry Crews is President in the horribly idiotic futuristic Idiocracy.
* James Earl Jones is President in The Man, after a series of deaths leaves him as the next in line for the seat.
There is no doubt that Hollywood has been a major player in bringing about the social change in the idea of a Black President, and their efforts are applauded. In a country whose founding documents included a 3/5 clause, it is a milestone for skin color relations to have a President who, at one time, could not live freely in certain parts of this nation.
That being said, according to Hollywood standards, we are now in the Future – and in the future there is nothing but catastrophe, despair, and end-times scenarios… Keep your eyes on the skies in search of asteroids, flying cars, and alien creatures bent on interstellar dominance.
Otherwise – for us non-Hollywood types… just keep your eyes on your wallets! Obama will need to pay for his social programs somehow… and the only drilling he supports is in the pocketbooks of Americans…
Obama to Republicans: Get on Board, or Get Out of the Way
Obama’s continual call to “Keep Politics to a Minimum” is already getting under my skin in a bad way! It is the battle cry of the left – when they are the minority party, there is a continual “kumbaya” for bi-partisanship and inclusion of their liberal ideals… Now that they hold a solid majority, there is a deafening roar of “GET ON BOARD!”
Obama’s words are intended to slander the conservative values, an attempt to drive home the propaganda that “conservatism has failed – and those ideals are outdated and unwanted in the New America”…
It is the new truth – “Capitalism has failed” and “Conservatism has failed”… lefties are shouting this message from the rooftops… but what they do not understand is that they are cheering in the end of actual liberties… The pendulum in America is farther left than ever before – so much to the point that the structure of America is going to come under undue strain… and it WILL begin to crumble as we gain momentum leftward…
Capitalism, true capitalism, is little more than the freedom to create a good or service and to trade that good or service for a price that a consumer is freely willing to pay. The key word is freedom – the freedom to create and the freedom to equally trade for someone else’s creation (or fruits of their creation)
Socialism, true socialism, is little more than labor for the sake of service – labor to normalize (as in to stabilize the economy for nothing more than “the greater good”)… labor, not from our wants, but from our abilities – merely to provide for the needs of the many…
Under socialism, there is little room for innovative growth… it is better to keep the bloated car companies producing inferior products and to keep 2 million laborers working than to allow the market to correct itself and follow the innovation and NEW goods or services which may make the quality of life of everyone better… Socialism is the Government Regulation of which industries live, and which industries die.
Capitalism is dead – but not a failed policy… it was strangled by the slow regulation by increased socialist ideology, who eventually claimed that it is the solution to the failed capitalist experiment… using increased propaganda and lies to fool the proletarians into believing that regulations were part of Capitalism… in fact, they were the plaque on the arteries of capitalism…
Capitalism: I created an automotive vehicle – able to transport you from point A to B.
Socialism: You must make you vehicle conform to impossible standards regulated by the govt… and your labor force may have the right to force you to overpay – making your product unmarketable and inferior over time.
Now to tackle the question about Conservatism… Conservatism is not entirely dead – but it is clearly shadowed by the neo-con movement’s constant “shadowing” of liberal ideals, with the eventual buckling to the leftward movement in America… true conservatism – paleo conservatism – is the steadfast adherence to the ideals of personal responsibility and personal liberty…
True conservatives believe that not only does a mother have rights over her body, but that an unborn and viable child has rights over it’s own life!
True conservatives believe the words and teachings of the founding fathers – that true liberty cannot be achieved under intrusive government.
True conservatives believe that personal responsibility should never be replaced by government social regulation – that morality and faith trump fear from government.
True conservatives believe that a nation is healthy ONLY WHEN the government fears it’s people – NOT the other way around…
For Obama to ask Republicans and Conservatives to abandon our principles for little more than what is being described as “a line after line after line of favorite liberal spending programs and it amounts to a big government bill, not a job creation” – well, that is pompous ignorance in the founding principles of this country, ignorance in the importance of debate, and ignorance in leadership. Ultimately, it is a shrill warning that anyone who opposes the New America is in for a battle – in for a struggle – a fight… The left are working tirelessly, led by the words of Obama, to convince Americans that freedom and liberty are only found in big government…
War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength…
Bush sold the world on “War is Peace” – the farthest left, Big Government President until Obama…
Obama is selling the world on “Freedom is Slavery” – that the free market, free choice, free ideals are nothing more than creations of the “wealthy” or the Capitalist Pigs forcing your labors to make them more wealthy… (unfortunately, we are becoming slaves to the bondage of the government)
Ignorance is Strength… reality TV has solidified the mindless zombie in America… the distraction which makes you FEEL like you are involved in a greater something else – but what is actually happening behind the scenes is that those in control are working to disarm and dominate the peoples of this land…
Resistance is not futile, Mr Obama. I applaud any lawmaker who questions your “bailout” of billions for ACORN, billions for condoms, and billions for other liberal pet projects… Show me where you have that right… and I will show you what rights I have!
January 31, 2009
Note from Russell: The following article is one of the important reasons the Republic of Lakotah was re-born. It is also one of the main reasons why we welcome all freedom workers to Lakotah. Lakotah is a base from which we can spread the Truth and work towards reclaiming our Freedoms in our Country, and yours! I have heart-felt thanks to Lisa Guliani and her allies (lakotah in Lakotah language) for this very succinct article.
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” –Preamble of the original “organic” Constitution.
“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; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” –Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence of the original thirteen united states of America, July 4, 1776.
Fourth of July 2002 has come and gone, and Americans honored the holiday with a renewed patriotic fervor that reminded me of the Bicentennial celebrations of 1976. As is customary, traditional fireworks displays took center stage and scores of people turned out to witness the dazzling show in the summer sky. With mixed feelings, I sat with friends on a crowded Pennsylvania sidewalk beneath a glittering, mesmerizing explosion of color, pondering the keen sense of sadness and betrayal that overwhelmed my spirit. Looking around at the huge crowds gathered for the annual events, I thought silently, “We are not free.” In truth, we have not been a free people for a very long time.
We celebrate this day in honor of our “independence”. We call ourselves a free people in a land of liberty. Our anthems proudly sing the praises of this nation, and we raise our voices, wave our flags and join in song –but how many Americans realize they are not free? This is a myth perpetuated by the powers-that-be in order to avoid any major civil unrest, and to keep us all living under the thumb of a militaristic corporate Big Brother within the illusions that have been created for us. The truth of the matter is this: what freedom has not been stolen from us, we have surrendered willingly through our silence and ignorance. As Americans, most of us have no idea how our freedoms are maintained –or lost. Apparently, our ancestors didn’t have a good grasp of this either. It is sad, but it is also very true.
Don’t point to that beloved parchment, the Constitution, as a symbol of your enduring freedom. It is representative of a form of government which seemingly no longer exists in this country today. The Constitution has been thrown out the window, the Republic shoved aside and replaced with a democracy. The thing is; most people in this country remain unaware that this is so because they simply do not know the truth –what lies beyond the myths. Your so-called government is not going to tell you, either.
To even begin to understand what has happened to the Republic, we must look backward in time to the period following the Civil War. We must go back to the year 1871, which was the beginning of the decline of the Republic. When we examine what happened during that time in our history, we begin to piece together this troubling, perplexing puzzle that is “America” –only then should we answer as to whether we are indeed a “free” people or not.
So, let’s roll backward into the past for a moment. It is time we learned what they didn’t teach us in school. It is far more interesting than what they DID tell us. I think you’ll stay awake for this lesson.
The date is February 21, 1871 and the Forty-First Congress is in session. I refer you to the “Acts of the Forty-First Congress,” Section 34, Session III, chapters 61 and 62. On this date in the history of our nation, Congress passed an Act titled: “An Act To Provide A Government for the District of Columbia.” This is also known as the “Act of 1871.” What does this mean? Well, it means that Congress, under no constitutional authority to do so, created a separate form of government for the District of Columbia, which is a ten mile square parcel of land.
What??? How could they do that? Moreover, WHY would they do that? To explain, let’s look at the circumstances of those days. The Act of 1871 was passed at a vulnerable time in America. Our nation was essentially bankrupt –weakened and financially depleted in the aftermath of the Civil War. The Civil War itself was nothing more than a calculated “front” for some pretty fancy footwork by corporate back room players. It was a strategic maneuver by European interests (the international bankers) who were intent upon gaining a stranglehold on the neck (and the coffers) of America.
The Congress realized our country was in dire financial straits, so they cut a deal with the international bankers –(in those days, the Rothschild’s of London were dipping their fingers into everyone’s pie) thereby incurring a DEBT to said bankers. If we think about banks, we know they do not just lend us money out of the goodness of their hearts. A bank will not do anything for you unless it is entirely in their best interest to do so. There has to be some sort of collateral or some string attached which puts you and me (the borrower) into a subservient position. This was true back in 1871 as well. The conniving international bankers were not about to lend our floundering nation any money without some serious stipulations. So, they devised a brilliant way of getting their foot in the door of the United States (a prize they had coveted for some time, but had been unable to grasp thanks to our Founding Fathers, who despised them and held them in check), and thus, the Act of 1871 was passed.
In essence, this Act formed the corporation known as THE UNITED STATES. Note the capitalization, because it is important. This corporation, owned by foreign interests, moved right in and shoved the original “organic” version of the Constitution into a dusty corner. With the “Act of 1871,” our Constitution was defaced in the sense that the title was block-capitalized and the word “for” was changed to the word “of” in the title. The original Constitution drafted by the Founding Fathers, was written in this manner:
“The Constitution for the united states of America.”
The altered version reads: “THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”. It is the corporate constitution. It is NOT the same document you might think it is. The corporate constitution operates in an economic capacity and has been used to fool the People into thinking it is the same parchment that governs the Republic. It absolutely is not.
Capitalization –an insignificant change? Not when one is referring to the context of a legal document, it isn’t. Such minor alterations have had major impacts on each subsequent generation born in this country. What the Congress did with the passage of the Act of 1871 was create an entirely new document, a constitution for the government of the District of Columbia. The kind of government THEY created was a corporation. The new, altered Constitution serves as the constitution of the corporation, and not that of America. Think about that for a moment.
Incidentally, this corporate constitution does not benefit the Republic. It serves only to benefit the corporation. It does nothing good for you or me –and it operates outside of the original Constitution. Instead of absolute rights guaranteed under the “organic” Constitution, we now have “relative” rights or privileges. One example of this is the Sovereign’s right to travel, which has been transformed under corporate government policy into a “privilege” which we must be licensed to engage in. This operates outside of the original Constitution.
So, Congress committed TREASON against the People, who were considered Sovereign under the Declaration of Independence and the organic Constitution. When we consider the word “Sovereign,” we must think about what the word means.
According to Webster’s Dictionary, “sovereign” is defined as:
1. chief or highest; supreme.
2. Supreme in power, superior in position to all others.
3. Independent of, and unlimited by, any other, possessing or entitled to, original and independent authority or jurisdiction.
In other words, our government was created by and for “sovereigns” –the free citizens who were deemed the highest authority. Only the People can be sovereign –remember that. Government cannot be sovereign. We can also look to the Declaration of Independence, where we read: “government is subject to the consent of the governed” –that’s supposed to be us, the sovereigns. Do you feel like a sovereign nowadays? I don’t.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a constitutional historian to figure out that this is not what is happening in our country today. Government in these times is NOT subject to the consent of the governed. Rather, the governed are subject to the whim and greed of the corporation, which has stretched its tentacles beyond the ten-mile-square parcel of land known as the District of Columbia –encroaching into every state of the Republic. Mind you, the corporation has NO jurisdiction outside of the District of Columbia. THEY just want you to think it does.
You see, you are presumed to know the law. This is ironic because as a people, we are taught basically nothing about the law in school. We are made to memorize obscure factoids and paragraphs here and there, such as the Preamble, and they gloss over the Bill of Rights. But we are not told about the law. Nor do our corporate government schools delve into the Constitution in any great depth. After all, they were put into place to indoctrinate and dumb down the masses –not to teach us anything. We were not told that we were sold-out to foreign interests and made beneficiaries of the debt incurred by Congress to the international bankers. For generations, American citizens have had the bulk of their earnings confiscated to pay on a massive debt that they, as a People, did not incur. There are many, many things the People have not been told. How do you feel about being made a beneficiary of somebody else’s massive debt without your knowledge or consent? Are we gonna keep going along with this??
When you hear some individuals say that the Constitution is null and void, think about how our government has transformed over time from a municipal or service-oriented entity to a corporate or profit-oriented entity. We are living under the myth that this is lawful, but it is not. We are being ruled by a “de facto,” or unlawful, form of government –the corporate body of the death-mongers –The Controllers.
With the passage of the Act of 1871, a series of subtle and overt deceptions were set in motion –all in conjunction and collusion with the Congress, who knowingly and deliberately sold the People down the river. Did they tell you this in government school? I doubt it. They were too busy drumming the fictional version of history into your brain –and mine. By failing to disclose what THEY did to the American People, the people became ignorant of what was happening. Over time, the Republic took it on the chin to the point of a knockdown. With the surrender of their gold in 1933, the People essentially surrendered their law. I don’t suppose you were taught THAT in school either. That’s because our REAL history is hidden from us. This is the way Roman Civil Law works –and our form of governance today is based upon Roman Civil Law and Admiralty/Maritime Law –better known as the “Divine Right of Kings” and “Law of the Seas”, respectively. This explains a lot. Roman Civil Law was fully established in the original colonies even before our nation began and is also known as private international law.
The government which was created for the District of Columbia via the Act of 1871 operates under Private International Law, and not Common Law, which was the law of the Constitutional Republic. This is very important to note since it impacts all Americans in concrete ways. You must recognize that private international law is only applicable within the District of Columbia and NOT in the other states of the Union. The various arms of the corporation are known as “departments” such as the Judiciary, Justice and Treasury. You recognize those names? Yes, you do! But they are not what you assume them to be. These “departments” all belong to the corporation known as THE UNITED STATES. They do NOT belong to you and me under the corporate constitution and its various amendments that operate outside of the Constitutional Republic.
I refer you to the UNITED STATES CODE (note the capitalization, indicating the corporation, not the Republic) Title 28 3002 (15) (A) (B) (C). It is stated unequivocally that the UNITED STATES is a corporation. Realize, too, that the corporation is not a separate and distinct entity from the government. It IS the government. YOUR government. This is extremely important. I refer to this as the “corporate empire of the UNITED STATES,” which operates under Roman Civil Law outside of the Constitution. How do you like being ruled by a cheesy, sleazy corporation? You’ll ask your Congressperson about this, you say? HA!!
Congress is fully aware of this deception. You must be made aware that the members of Congress do NOT work for you and me. Rather, they work for the Corporation known as THE UNITED STATES. Is this really any surprise to you? This is why we can’t get them to do anything on our behalf or to answer to us –as in the case with the illegal income tax –among many other things. Contrary to popular belief, they are NOT our civil servants. They do NOT work for us. They are the servants of the corporate government and carry out its bidding. Period.
The great number of committees and sub-committees that the Congress has created all work together like a multi-headed monster to oversee the various corporate “departments.” And, you should know that every single one of these that operates outside the District of Columbia is in violation of the law. The corporate government of the UNITED STATES has no jurisdiction or authority in ANY state of the Republic beyond the District of Columbia. Let this sink into your brain for a minute. Ask yourself, “Could this deception REALLY have occurred without the full knowledge and complicity of the Congress?” Do you think it happened by accident? You are deceiving yourself if you do. There are no accidents or coincidences. It is time to confront the truth and awaken from ignorance.
Your legislators will not apprise you of this information. You are presumed to know the law. THEY know you don’t know the law, or your history for that matter, because this information has not been taught to you. No concerted effort has been made to inform you. As a Sovereign, you are entitled to full disclosure of the facts. As a slave, you are entitled to nothing other than what the corporation decides to “give” you –at a price. Be wary of accepting so-called “benefits” of the corporation of the UNITED STATES. Aren’t you enslaved enough already?
I said (above) that you are presumed to know the law. Still, it matters not if you don’t in the eyes of the corporation. Ignorance of the law is not considered an excuse. It is your responsibility and your obligation as an American to learn about the law and how it applies to you. THEY count on the fact that most people are too uninterested or distracted or lazy to do so. The People have been mentally conditioned to allow the alleged government to do their thinking for them. We need to turn that around if we are to save our Republic before it is too late.
The UNITED STATES government is basically a corporate instrument of the international bankers. This means YOU are owned by the corporation from birth to death. The corporate UNITED STATES also holds ownership of all your assets, your property, and even your children. Does this sound untrue? Think long and hard about all those bills you pay, all those various taxes and fines and licenses you must pay for. Yes, they’ve got you by the pockets. Actually, they’ve had you by the ass for as long as you’ve been alive. In your heart, you know it’s true. Don’t believe any of this? Read up on the 14th Amendment. Check out how “free” you really are.
With the Act of 1871 and subsequent legislation such as the purportedly ratified 14th Amendment, our once-great nation of Sovereigns has been subverted from a Republic to a democracy. As is the case under Roman Civil Law, our ignorance of the facts has led to our silence. Our silence has been construed as our consent to become beneficiaries of a debt we did not incur. The Sovereign People have been deceived for hundreds of years into thinking they remain free and independent, when in actuality we continue to be slaves and servants of the corporation.
Treason was committed against the People in 1871 by the Congress. This could have been corrected through the decades by some honest men (assuming there were some), but it was not, mainly due to lust for money and power. Nothing new there. Are we to forgive and justify this crime against the People? You have lost more freedom than you may realize due to corporate infiltration of the so-called government. We will lose more unless we turn away from a democracy that is the direct road to disaster –and restore our Constitutional Republic.
In an upcoming article, we’ll take a closer look at the purportedly ratified 14th Amendment and how we became “property” of the corporation and enslaved by our silence.
I am saddened to think about the brave men and women who were killed in all the wars and conflicts instigated by the Controllers. These courageous souls fought for the preservation of ideals they believed to be true –not for the likes of a corporation. Do you believe that any one of the individuals who have been killed as a result of war would have willingly fought if they knew the full truth? Do you think one person would have laid down his life for a corporation? I think not. If the People had known long ago to what extent their trust had been betrayed, I wonder how long it would have taken for another Revolution. What we need is a Revolution in THOUGHT. We change our thinking and we change our world.
Will we ever restore the Republic? That is a question I cannot answer yet. I hope, and most of all –pray –that WE, the Sovereign People, will work together in a spirit of cooperation to make it happen in this lifetime. I know I will give it my best shot –come what may. Our children deserve their rightful legacy –the liberty our ancestors fought so hard to give to us. Will we remain silent telling ourselves we are free, and perpetuate the MYTH? Or, do we stand as One Sovereign People, and take back what has been stolen from the house of our Republic?
Something to think about –it’s called freedom.
My heartfelt thanks goes out to the following people for their gracious and generous assistance in researching this subject: Ken S. of American Revolution II Online News, Paul Walker of RMN News, Bob Taft, Stanooch, and Willy Whitten –true Patriots, one and all.