If peace and justice is in your blood and you need to find and be with people who have similar humane compassionate loving attributes; here is an up to date weekly Calendar of Events in Wisconsin and Northern Minnesota. Provided by Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice. Just click on the following link:
Dear Peace North Members:I, Ken Driessen, de facto Peace North Web Site Administrator, received the following email:I, Mike McKee on behalf of http://www.couragetoresist.org/am contacting you because I am organizing a speaking tour for Courage to Resist, the Bradley Manning campaign, and their new book on military resisters and soldiers who have refused to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Called About Face: Military Resisters Turn Against War, the book collects stories from and interviews with resisters, as well as two new interviews with Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg. The book was published September 1st 2011, by PM Press , and covers GI resistance from the Vietnam War to Bradley Manning and the current WikiLeaks revelations. Bradley Manning is currently set to be court marshaled later this spring. We're looking for groups to host a talk with Courage to Resist director Jeff Paterson. These talks could be at a church, a bookstore, a community center, or someone's home. While we'll ask for donations at the event, we're not looking for payment, we just want to talk to people interested in the Bradley Manning/Wikileaks campaign and in war resisters. We intend to promote each appearance through our extensive network of anti-war and veterans groups, as well as with outreach to local media.Through further correspondence they will have a closer approximation to when they will be traveling through the area within the week.I motion that we accept Jeff Paterson's offer to speak to us and decide on a location which to host this talk and presentation together as an organization.We have not met as Peace North for quite some time.If someone else would like to motion that we use the date we schedule for the talk gathering also as a short Peace North organizational meeting, I would second that.Please respond to this email to express interest in attending andsuggestions as to a location for this event.
Occupy Haywardin SOLIDARITY with Occupy Wall St. and Freedom Plaza:
I know this is a rather late notice but a Peace North member, called for a gathering on the corner of Highways 63 and 27 South this Saturday October 15th at 12 noon. I think their idea to stand on and occupy our corner, from at least 12:00 to 1:00, this Saturday is a good idea, we should express SOLIDARITY with those who are occupying Wall Street http://occupywallst.org/ and the Freedom Plaza "Human Needs not Corporate Greed", occupation in Washington DC http://october2011.org/
Thank you all for standing in solidarity with the cause of peace and justice.
Occupy Wall Street
Thank you, people of occupywallstreet.org; for peacefully bringing the war to where the headquarters of war profiteering are. The elite that bought our government do not want to pay taxes, but they are happy to take our tax dollars through no bid government contracts. We need an agenda and real demands. 1.) Sever the agreement the government made with the international banksters called the Federal Reserve; print United States dollars based on the collective wealth and assets of the nation. 2.) Investigate 9/11/01 and bring the war profiteers, so obviously guilty of crimes against nation and humanity to justice. 3.) Force all officials who so obviously violate the constitution on a routine daily business as usual basis out of office including, Obama and a majority of the administration, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, war profiteer Daine Feinstein, the majority of the house and Senate, most of the Supreme Court. They so obvoisly bow to the bull of the Wall Street Mammon god and are treasonous to nation and humanity. 4.) After the treasonous criminals are out we must organize a constitutional convention so war profiteering and manipulation of our monetary system to enslave us rather than money being a legitimate means of exchange of goods and services can never occur again. 5.) 2012 vote in people that believe in Direct Participatory Democracy so the people can vote directly on law and appropriations, see http://whatisdemocracy.org and http://wis7thdpd.org No matter what their religious views are, we need leaders that believe that treating others as you wish to be treated, the least among us are our masters and love your enemies is a way of life. 6.) National Universal Health Care like all civilized nations have only better. 7.) Devolop a responsible educated policy to curb unsustainable unhealthy population growth including the right of each individual woman to birth control methods. 8.) Several CEOs of several colleges and universities apporved by the US Department of Education rake in $40 million a year; set a salary limit of, let say 25 times minimum wage, for higher education executives, in fact all executives of firms that do 20% or more of their annual business being paid monies that originated as government funds should be limited by law backed with criminal sanctions in cluding prison time for offenders.
There is a class of people who believe
they deserve to own and rule over the rest of us and the natural
world. They are sadistic, psychopaths, with mental disorders probably
caused by both inbreeding, natural and nurturing factors leading them
to believe they are somehow deserving and superior homo sapiens. In a supposedly
Christian nation believing in the teaching of Jesus including
treating others as you wish to be treated, the least among us are our
masters and love your enemies, Walker is a hypocrite impostor. To
think they deserve to be far wealthier and powerful than what can be
explained by natural selection or actual goods and services provided
for the betterment of the people of the state, the nation and the
Planet is ZioNazi. I adopted the term ZioNazi from studying the
rise of Hitler and found that the Bank of International Settlements,
Chase Bank and many Zionists financed Hitler. They did nothing
to help the common working Jews, Polish Christians and the many
others who died as a result of the holocaust and war they profited
from. Scott Walker has proven beyond all doubt that he is
aligned with this mafia like crime syndicate that is taking over our
government to sell all our publicly owned property off to his private
corporate buddies. Since being selected to office by Koch, Scott
Walker has given an additional 2.3 billion in tax breaks to
corporations and the wealthy, at the same time taken $1.6 billion
from public education, slashed $330 million from the University of
Wisconsin System and is taking health care access away from 53,000 of
the states most vulnerable people. Scott Walker is allied with a
group of individuals that are making war against the people of
Wisconsin. I don't have a lot of sympathy for government workers who
sided with the corporate elite for decades. I have stated above to
the best of my ability why I believe Walker should be recalled.
It is too bad he could not be impeached and criminally charged but
the same group of people who own Walker also own the Supreme Courts
of Wisconsin and the USA. I call them ZioNazis because they are
part of the cabal that own the monopoly on our monetary system and
profit as war lords from the use of military and police power enforce
their tyrannical, fascist rule. Recalling Walker is just one small
step in the process of returning the United States from a plutocratic
kleptocracy and into a constitutional republic with democratic
principles. RECALL WALKER. RECALL WALKER
Psychologist
and social scientist Dacher Kellner says the rich really are different,
and not in a good way. Their life experience makes them less
empathetic, less altruistic and general more selfish. It seems that
many people who become very rich tend to be less willing to share their
wealth. Maybe that is why Christ told the rich young man to get rid of
his possessions if he was to be His follower. He said, “it is easier for
a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to
enter the Kingdom.” Christ as telling the rich man that if he really
wanted happiness he needed to give his wealth to the poor. When people
have too much wealth they tend to be more concerned about protecting
their wealth than
helping those in need. They feel that they must arm themselves from
those who may try and take away what they have. They feel justified in
harming those who are believed to be trying to take away their wealth.
Thus they become fearful, and a fearful person is not a happy person.
Conversely, those who give of their wealth are less fearful, more secure
and quite happy. Part of being happy is the ability to give to others.
This, however, is the opposite of what society teaches people. It
teaches that more wealth leads to more happiness. For this reason most
corporations are only interested in making profits. They see workers
only as tools in becoming more wealthy. This is one of the reasons they
are opposed to unions. If workers cost them money they become their
enemy. Rather than looking at what is good for them as well as their
workers they see what is good only for them. To take any opportunity
to make more money, even if it hurts others, is considered a virtue.
They think nothing of asking the government for subsidies and will get
the U.S. military to protect their financial ventures abroad. The
biggest U.S. corporations have now become even wealthier at the expense
of the rest of the American people. They are given tax breaks by the
government so that they hire more people. However, as you know, many
corporations choose not to hire more people but invest their money saved
in taxes in other avenues or move their operations to other countries
where labor is cheaper and environmental standards are almost
non-existent. They enrich themselves. They enrich themselves with the
help of the American public which makes them even more fearful and
insecure. They become a very unhappy and make so many others unhappy in
the process. ---Don Timmerman
“Christians
no longer take up the sword against nations, nor do we learn war any
more, having become children of peace, for the sake of Jesus, who is our
leader.” ----Origen, major early African theologian (c.185-254)
“We
make a bargain with our governments. We pay taxes and expect a set off
government services in return. And in return for a guarantee of some
measure of security, we grant the government a monopoly on legitimate
violence. In theory. Then, we forswear mob rule and paramilitary
organizations, we occasionally accept death penalty as an appropriate
punishment, we delegate the responsibility to declare and prosecute war
to our legislative and executive branches, and we put guns into the
hands of the army and the police…..Governments, in other words, kill on
our behalf.” -----John Feffer, Foreign Power in Focus, Aug. 24, 2011
JOKES
Why did the football coach go to the bank? To get his quarterback!
Two
miners were arguing over who should get what part of their latest
claim. “Do you want the gold or the silver?” the first miner finally
asked. Shrugging his shoulders, his partner replied, “Either ore.”
Wife:
Do you want to renew our vows? Husband: I didn’t know they expired.
Why are coins made out of metal? Because change is hard.
After
an old man reached his 100th birthday, a local radio station
interviewed him. “What’s your secret to longevity?” the reporter asked.
“I never argue with anyone,” the man replied. “Surely that can’t be
it,” said the reporter. The man shrugged. “I suppose you’re right.”
A
farmer offers to help a driver get his car out of a mud hole for $20.
“Yours is the 10th car I’ve rescued today,” he says. “Wow,” says the
driver, “When do you work your land? At night?” “No, night is when I
fill the hole with water.”
What do you call a formal dance full of chickens? A fowl ball.
A paper bag in pain goes to see a doctor. “I’m afraid your condition
is incurable,” says the doctor. “Oh no!” the bag yelled. “How did I
catch this?” “It’s genetic,” the doctor said. “Your grandfather was a
carrier.”
How many sheep do you have? I don’t know. Every time I start to count them I fall asleep.
A man bought a new car and was so excited he called a priest, a
minister and a rabbi to bless it. The priest said some prayers over it.
The minister also said some prayers. The rabbi sang a psalm and cut
off the tip of the tailpipe. What’s the difference between a Jew and a
Christian? Jews get really angry. Christians just get a little cross.
A
couple came to the priest to ask to be married. The priest told them
that they have to abstain from sex until they get married. The couple
agreed. Two weeks later, the couple was called by the priest who wanted
to know if they were following the agreement on pre-marital sex. The
man sadly replied, “Well we were doing alright until my fiancé dropped a
light bulb and when she bent over to pick it up I just could not help
myself.” The priest told him that then he could not welcome them into
the church for the marriage. The man said, “Well, that’s alright. We
are not welcome at the grocery store anymore either.”
Why did the Amish wife divorce her husband. Because he was driving her buggy.
INTERESTING FACTS
In
2010 a dozen major companies, including G.E., Verizon, Boeing, Wells
Fargo and Fed Ex paid U.S. tax rates between -0.7% and -9.2%.
Production, employment, profits and taxes have all been outsourced.
None of these companies have hired more workers. Some have decreased
their workforce. The richest 400 Americans paid 30% of their income in
taxes in 1995. Now they pay only 18%. U.S. millionaire household have
at least $45.9 trillion in wealth (an estimated $6.3 trillion hidden in
offshore accounts), the majority of this wealth is held within the upper
one-tenth of one percent of the population. In fact, 1,470 Americans
earned over $1 million in 2009 and paid no taxes. The average
millionaire saves $135,000 a year
due to reduced tax rates. Corporate taxes accounted for 4.3% of
overall G.D.P. in 1955. In 2010 they accounted for only 1.3%.
-------Deloitte, financial advisory firm, United for a Fair Economy,
and Who Rules America? by William Domhoff
Hundreds
arrived in Washington D.C. to protest the proposed Keystone XF project a
1,661-mile pipeline that would carry oil form Canada’s tar sands to
refineries in Texas. If TransCanada gets permission from President
Obama the pipeline would carry as much as 900,000 barrels of oil each
day. The pipeline would disrupt rivers, lakes, woodlands; and if
ruptured, it would cause great environmental damage. There have been
about 500 arrests of those doing nonviolent civil disobedience in trying
to stop this pipeline.-----Mother Jones, Aug. 24
Scientists now believe that they are aware of less than 15% of the world’s species. ----Care2news, 8/24/11
Some 4.3% of the $46 billion allocated by TARP to help homeowners refinance has been used for another purpose.
Some 66% of Americans believe pornography is wrong while only 28% believe the death penalty is wrong.
Only 1 in 10 of Pakistanis approved of the raid on Osama bin Laden. -----Harper’s Index, Aug., 2011
There
are still 600,000 people in Haiti who are homeless and living in tents
in Haiti since the earthquake of January, 2010. Candles are used for
light. There is no running water and no substantial sanitation
facility. ----The International Organization for Migration
Since
9/11, the annual U.S. military budget has more than doubled to $700
billion, and annual military industry profits have nearly quadrupled
approaching $25 billion last year. The U.S. spent $1.3 trillion in the
10 years after 9/11. That was on top of baseline military spending in
excess of $4 trillion. ----Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8/26/11
Since
the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; veterans benefits, future
costs for treating the war-wounded and interest payments on war-related
borrowing cost $3.2 trillion to $4 trillion in war costs. ----The
National Priorities Project
Ten
different military contractors are now building robot drones. In the
U.S., drones are being tested and flown from the following bases:
Creech AFB, NV; Beale AFB, CA; Cannon AFB, NM; Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ;
Ellington Field TX, Ellsworth AFB, SD; Grand forks AFB, ND; Hancock
Airfield NY; Hector Int’l Airport, ND; Holloman AFB, NM; Langley AFB,
VA; March Joint Air Reserve Base, CA; Springfield ANG Base, OH; and
Whiteman AFB, MO. ----Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power
in Space
On
any given day, American commandos are carrying out secret missions in
70 countries. By the end of the year that number is likely to reach
120. -----U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Colonel Tim Nye
The
U.S. C.I.A. is using a secret facility in Somalia for counterterrorism
as well as an underground prison (rendition) in Mogadishu. The C.I.A.
is training a Somali force to counter the military group, Shabab. The
C.I.A. does not run the prison, but it pays Somali agents $200 in cash
to run the secret prison. ----Jeremy Scahill in The Nation, 7/7/11
Area
51 is a secret U.S. military base located some 80 miles north of Las
Vegas built in the 1050’s to test hi-tech spy and war planes, including
the U-2, the stealth bomber and surveillance drones. It covers a vast
area of over 4,500 square miles. ----Area 51: An Uncensored History of
America’s Top Secret Military Base
Only
62% of Americans believe there is global warming, and 44% Republicans
believe in global warming. Some 93 corporations spent $282.7 million
lobbying for the American Jobs Creation Act off 2004, a year-long ”tax
holiday.” With this legislation, the corporations saved $62.5 billion in
taxes. ----Yes Magazine, Fall, 2011
Among all the countries in the world, the U.S. ranks 45th in equality of income. -----The Daily Show, 8/19/11
The
most socialistic states are: 1) West Virginia 2) Alaska 3) Alabama and
4) Vermont. The least is Nevada. ----Mainstreet.com
Last year alone the U.S. military spent $13 billion on fuel. ------N.P.R., 8/29/11
Spending
on weapons programs has long been dominated by contractors. They
receive a majority of all dollars spent on the military. The Commission
on Wartime Contracting recently found that $34 billion has been wasted
or misspent on service contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
------Project on Government Oversight
Citizens
of Iceland, frustrated with corporate autocracy, have chosen not to
cooperate with it. They have refused to acquiesce to the demands of
global financial institutions by simply refusing to be taxed for the
mistakes of the financial elite that caused their nation’s recent
financial meltdown. In a March 2010 referendum in Iceland, 93% voted
against repayment of the debt, and Icelandic citizens have been drafting
a new constitution that would free their country from the power of
international finance. This constitution will be submitted to
parliament for approval after the next elections. Many acts of
cooperation have led to revolutions. -----“Iceland’s Ongoing
Revolution” in Daily Kos Community Site,
8/1/11
It
was recently found out that the U.S. Federal Reserve Board secretly
handed out $1.2 Trillion in virtually free loans to major American and
European banks at the height of the financial crisis between 2007 and
2010. This amount of money equals the $1.7 Trillion in unpaid principal
on 4.38 million U.S. homes whose owners are delinquent on mortgages
payments and the 2.16 properties that are already in foreclosure.
---Bloomberg and WSWS.org., 8/23/11
There
are about 46 million Americans on food stamps, roughly 15% of the
population, and 6% of the 72.9 million Americans paid by the hour
received wages at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in
2010. -----Reuters, 8/23/11
As
many as 168 children were killed in drone strikes in Pakistan in the
past 7 years. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that 2,292
people have been killed by U.S. missiles, including as many as 775
civilians. ------The Telegraph UK, 8/23/11
In
the last 90 days as many as 28,000 children under the age of 5 have
died of starvation in Somalia. Out of a population of 3.2 million
Somalis the U.N. says 3.2 million need immediate lifesaving assistance.
----U.N.I.C.E.F., 8/3/11
NOTE:
Presente! Jackie Hudson (76), O.P. from Grand Rapids MI, spent
decades demonstrating in support of nuclear disarmament. She died after
having health problems while in prison for a nonviolent civil
disobedience action at the Oak Ridge TN nuclear plant in July. She,
along with 13 others, were charged with trespassing and were given
prison time. She was a faithful peacemaker, organizer, strong preacher
of truth, gentle and nonviolent woman, teacher, musician and plowshare
activist. ----The Nuclear Resister May she now have eternal peace.
WEDS.,
SEPT. 7 ----ANTI-GUN VIGIL FROM NOON TO 1 P.M. AT BADGER GUNS, 43RD
& LINCOLN AVE., MILWAUKEE. People who work where guns are allowed
are 5 to 7 times more likely to be murdered. ---WAVE
WEDS.,
SEPT 14 -------ANTI-ROTC VIGIL FROM NOON TO 1 P.M. ON 16TH &
WISCONSIN AVE., MILWAUKEE. We believe a Christian university like
Marquette U. should be teaching what Christ taught, love of one’s
enemies, continual forgiveness and nonviolence. Marquette continues to
host military training on campus. No more wars for oil AND No more oil
for wars! We cannot feed the people, but we can fund an armed invasion?
NOTES
FROM 21ST STREET: This August we were blessed with the gift of a
week on Butternut Lake from Gene and Nancy Nedilsky. The first morning
after arriving, while sitting on the deck, I heard much singing from the
Loons. I watched as six Loons gathered in a group on the lake. One
would perform a dance, by flapping its wings and rearing back on its
feet. Back and forth they sang and danced. It was hauntingly
beautiful. Adult parent Loons leave the lake they raised their young on
a month or so before they fly south. They do this to ensure that their
young, who remain on the lake, will have enough food to give them
strength for their migration. I wondered if what I witnessed was their
parting dance. I also wondered whether we, the people of the U.S.,
could restrain ourselves from over consumption so that all peoples of
the earth may have enough for their journey. I pray that it may be so.
I will close with a prayer from John Robbins from the book “Diet for a
New World”. “Let us bless the source of life that brings forth bread
from the earth. Let our lives be a blessing to the earth that sustains
us, and to all the creatures that, like us, call the planet home”.
Peace, Roberta
THE SPARROW SINGS
Don and Roberta
1120 N 21st St.
Milwaukee WI 53233
(414)342-0158
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
I don’t take people seriously
anymore if I find out they believe the official 9/11 conspiracy theory.”--
Gadfly Bites
Duty to
Warn
See Something, Say
Something
By Gary G. Kohls, MD
“See Something, Say Something” was
last year’s fear-based media campaign to popularize an initiative of the
Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) called the Nationwide Suspicious
Activities Reporting (SAR) Initiative (aka NSI). The NSI codified the actions of
our nation’s spooks (FBI, local police, the CIA) who had, ever since 9/11/01,
already been aggressively targeting and infiltrating nonviolent antiwar, peace
and justice activist groups with spies, even stooping so low as to provoke
violence by their agents provocateur in order to discredit them.
The Nationwide Suspicious Activities
Reporting Initiative was DHS’s intent to “gather information regarding behaviors
and incidents associated with criminal activity — but without the customary
restrictions on collecting data on individuals in the absence of reasonable
suspicion or probable cause”. In other words, if you “See Something, Say
Something”.
The mandate of the NSI was to
encourage average US citizens to “observe behavior that could reasonably be
indicative of pre-operational planning related to terrorism or other criminal
activity.” In other words, DHS approves of every patriot and pseudo-patriot
becoming snitches, both on our enemies, on our neighbors or on those we may be
bigoted against (or someone of another race, skin color, nationality, political
party, creed, sexual preference, economic class or gender). And we are urged to
report our suspicions to the NSI authorities.
<<<Snitching has
long been historically regarded as the patriotic thing to do but which has been
eminently abusable>>>
The reality of snitching on others
has been around for a long time. Just think Adolf Hitler’s or Joseph Stalin’s
totalitarian police states where free thought was a crime against the state.
And we can go back further in
history. I would guess that the various Roman Caesar’s Praetorian Guards had spy
outfits.
In American history we can go back
at least to the adoption of the US Constitution, where the only provision for
the death penalty was for treason, the giving of “aid and comfort to the enemy”.
The war fevers of the Revolutionary
War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War and the Spanish-American
(more accurately known as the Philippine-American) War all had their legal ways
to ferret out dissenters.
The US Congress, immediately after
entering World War I, passed the Espionage Act of 1917 followed by the Sedition
Act of 1918 which prohibited many forms of speech, including "any disloyal,
profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the
United States...or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or
Navy”.
Those acts criminalized anyone who
seemed to be insufficiently patriotic or opposed to the war effort.
Specifically, the Espionage Act of 1917 criminalized anybody who caused or
attempted to cause “insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty in the
military or naval forces of the United States, or to willfully obstruct the
recruiting or enlistment service of the United States”.
Objectors to war and killing on the
basis of their consciences were accused of being traitors and were spied upon,
harassed and imprisoned during the Red Scare of 1918 – 1919 and the infamous
Palmer Raids. Many conscientious objectors were deported and even given the
death penalty. Even Eugene V. Debs, a Socialist Party candidate for president in
1904, 1908 and 1912, was arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for making
a speech that "obstructed recruiting”. He ran for president again while in
prison and was so popular with the working class that he got almost 1 million
write-in votes.
<<<Fulfilling one’s
patriotic, whistle-blowing duty to speak out when seeing something (say Treason
in High Places)>>>
Well, I recently started thinking
about my obligation to say something if I see something that is detrimental to
my nation. I guess that I have long regarded it as my duty to warn others of
potentially serious issues that I may have seen more clearly than others.
Speaking up about things that may be unethical or immoral or illegal is what
whistle-blowers do, so I have decided to accept the invitation to be a snitch,
particularly my study of the true events of 9/11/01 that disproves the official
White House Conspiracy Theory.
I have chosen to trust my eyes and
ears and intuition when confronted by the overwhelming evidence that disproves
and debunks what pathological liars like those in the infamous
Cheney/Bush/Rove/Rumsfeld administrations have had to say and to keep Saying
Something.
On 9/11/01 and many times since then
in the 10 years and hundreds of hours of research that I have done, I saw and
heard the testimonial evidence about the multiple explosions in the buildings. I
saw the free-fall collapse of the two 110-story World Trade Center Towers 1
& 2 (whose fires went out rapidly soon after they were hit), and I and every
architect and engineer that knows anything about controlled demolitions) knew
that the buildings had been demolished in classical pre-planned demolition
fashion. Seeing the collapse of WTC # 7 confirmed my impressions.
I saw the three pyroclastic flows
coming from ground zero. Understanding that pyroclastic flows only occur with
volcanoes and controlled demolitions of skyscrapers, I understood that the
millions of tons of pulverized and very toxic fine powder had been scattered
widely over New York City and not at the base of the Twin Towers, where
not one of the 110 steel-reinforced concrete floors, each one acre in size,
could be found.
I saw and heard the uncensored
eyewitness testimony of dozens of unbiased observers, including NYPD
firefighters, who heard the explosions and knew the buildings had had bombs
pre-planted in them.
I saw and heard, with considerable
chagrin, that the truthful eyewitness accounts from each mainstream journalist
(about bombs going off in the WTC towers) were never allowed to be repeated in
their broadcasts after day 1. And I knew the fix was in.
I saw the many “squibs” of smoke
that were shown so dramatically on slow-motion replay of the collapses. The
squibs represented high-velocity explosions blowing out the side of the Twin
Towers just ahead of the leading edge of the collapses and I recognized that the
timing for the computer-controlled demolition job had gone slightly awry.
I saw and heard Larry Silverstein,
the brand new owner of the World Trade Center complex, who had insured the
buildings against terrorist attacks, admit that he had approved of the plan to
implode WTC 7 later that afternoon (at 5:20 pm) “because there had been so much
death and destruction”.
I saw and heard the BBC journalist,
with tower # 7 clearly still standing behind her announce that WTC tower # 7 had
collapsed. The tower was not to collapse until 20 minutes later.
I saw and heard and
read about hundreds of other irrefutable items that proved beyond a shadow of a
doubt that the official White House Conspiracy Theory, shamefully endorsed by
the Mainstream Media, BigBusiness, Wall Street, 98% of the US Congress, the
Banksters and the Billionaires, was a fraud. Anybody interested in uncovering
the truth about 9/11 can find ample evidence online by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n-nT-luFIw&NR=1;http://www.ae911truth.org; http://www.911scholars.org; or http://loosechange911.com/
The
following short essay (from http://www.currentinvective.com/wp/?p=147)
summarizes
the feelings of the many truth-seekers who have seen and heard the truth and who
have been patriotically saying something that needs to be said about what really
happened on 9/11/01. I excerpt it portions below. It is entitled
Believe Your Eyes.
We’re
eight weeks from the ten-year mark, and the unsolved mystery of the century
remains censored out of your local newsrag. It’s taboo to talk about unanswered
questions surrounding the events of 9/11/2001, and this means we have to forget
the dead, too.
“Unsatisfactory as the news blackout is for the victims and their
survivors, it works out nicely for the deluded masses. This is because they’re
not really deluded: they know the truth but it hurts too much to acknowledge.
Their faith, like most faith, probably, is pretense, even transparent pretense.
Their suspension of disbelief is delicate, creating a problem for culpable
government and media. People might eventually believe their eyes, and the
evidence that will ultimately bring them to consciousness must be suppressed,
anniversary or no anniversary. That’s why you won’t see much video of the
buildings coming down. The video itself is an indictment, and reasoned discourse
about it, which would naturally accompany any airing, must be avoided at all
costs.
“Modern
technology makes it possible for us to confirm the breadth and depth of the
censorship. Search the Internet for references to 9/11 in newspapers, on
television or radio, or even in the left-leaning blogs that dot the Web. You
will find almost nothing about the events of that day. Plenty on peripheral
matters like the shape and size of the memorial and the Islamic center going up
in the neighborhood, but nothing in the mass media on what actually
happened.
“No
questions are raised about any of it. Looking for an update or reconsideration
of the 9/11 commission report? Forget about it. Interviews with those present in
the bunker with Richard Cheney a few minutes before the Pentagon was struck,
confirming (or not) that he had advance knowledge of the event? Not going to
happen. Analysis of the video, which shows buildings coming down in free-fall,
violating the laws of physics? Don’t hold your breath waiting for that
conversation. Discussion of what happened to the third building that collapsed
that day and maybe a public airing of the landlord’s on-camera admission that he
had the building demolished? Not yet, and not ever. Discussion of the mayor’s
culpability for death and disability among rescue and cleanup workers? Not to be
talked about. Scientists last year found tiny chips of undetonated explosives–
manufactured, demolition-grade material–in dust collected by near neighbors of
the World Trade Center on that day. You won’t find any mention of that finding
in any paper.
“What
accounts for the absence of even a single report reviewing the actual events of
that day in the New York Times, Washington Post, New York News, CBS, Wall St.
Journal, NPR, Democracy Now, Huffington Post, Common Dreams? …
“I don’t
take people seriously anymore if I find out they believe the official conspiracy
theory. All of their opinions are suspect. Want to tell me how to fix the
economy? First tell me what you believe happened on 9/11. Want to recommend a
book or advise me why bombing Libya was a good idea (or a bad one)? Tell me
first whether you believed your eyes when you saw the World Trade Center
demolished by explosives.
“9/11 denial is a mental illness that ought to be assigned its
own diagnostic code. I suspect most of the excess armchair violence, Prozac
popping, and compulsive eating and drinking we see in the new millennium has its
origin in this disorder. PTD: post-traumatic denial. Seeing ain’t
believing.”
I read in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of July 1, 2011 that Lockheed Martin Corp. plans to cut 1,500 jobs because there is a possible cut in military spending. People complaining about government spending fail to look at the military corporations who exist primarily on the generosity of the taxpayers. Some 70% of Lockheed Martin’s business is military contracts. It receives 1 out of every 14 dollars given to the military by taxpayers. From 1993 to 2010, Lockheed Martin spent $17,837,780 lobbying Congress for more military contracts. In other words, it spent that amount of taxpayer money in order to get more taxpayer money. Last year, Lockheed Martin’s profits were estimated to be around $47 billion (Reuters), but it feels it cannot afford to keep 1,500 workers. People forget that bulk of tax money goes to the military and its partner corporations (War Resisters League). If you include spending for the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, etc. in 2011 military spending accounted for more than 58% of all federal discretionary spending and even more if the interest on the federal debt that is related to military spending were added. In the last 10 years the government has spent more than $7.6 TRILLION on military and homeland security. (National Priorities Project) In 2009 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found cost overruns of almost $300 billion in nearly 70% of the Pentagon’s 96 major weapons. The Pentagon does not really know the full extent of the waste of tax money since there has not been a complete audit of the Pentagon in more than 15 years. All the jobs in the military and most of the jobs provided for by the military corporations are provided with government funds. A great bulk of entitlements paid for by taxpayers are given to retired and disabled military personnel and their families. According to the research project, “Costs of War”, by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies, the final bill for the recent U.S..wars will cost taxpayers at least $3.7 TRILLION and could reach as high as $4.4 TRILLION. The U.S. military cannot account for as much as $2.3 TRILLION received in the past (Donald Rumsfeld). Now we find that over $6 billion sent by plane into Afghanistan is now missing, $2.6 billion was given to the Taliban for transportation and $34 billion was wasted on service contracts to 200,000 private companies in Afghanistan. Recently, the House easily passed a $649 billion defense (“offense”) bill, boosting the Pentagon budget by $17 billion If Congress is serious about balancing the budget it might look at government wasteful and destructive funding of the military industrial complex and not depriving those in the greatest need of the basics of life. ------Don Timmerman
“It is the diabolical quality of the state that it wishes to be God.” ----Rev. John L. McKenzie
“God invented war so that Americans would learn geography.” ---- Mark Twain “I am guilty of knowing the difference between what is legal and what is right. Jesus tells us that the law is meant to serve humanity; humanity is not made to serve the law. Laws are just when they serve humanity and not when they protect those who create a mortal threat to its existence. Trespass laws which protect the makers of weapons of mass destruction against nonviolent resisters have no authority over my conscience and act of resistance….I am guilty of loving my planet more than I fear your jail.” -----Steve Jacobs, 1 of 52 arrested in May at the new Kansas City nuclear weapons plant costing an estimated $5 billion
“I didn’t fight for your freedoms. In the 6 years I was in, I never once defended your right to vote, or to carry a gun, or to be secure against unreasonable search and seizure (that one doesn’t really apply anymore, anyway), or any of the other things you enjoy as a citizen of this country. I just didn’t. Neither did anyone who went to Iraq or Afghanistan or Vietnam. It’s all bullshit. It’s a …….lie for old men’s vainglorious ideas and profit margins.” ------an Iraq Veteran
“The military budget is not on the table. The military is at the table, and it is eating everybody else’s lunch.” -----Barney Frank
“How hard it is for a Christian – whether he or she be a bishop, butcher, banker or baker, who from the cradle to the casket has been incessantly and subtly, explicitly and subliminally, cunningly and relentlessly bombarded, through every instrument of communication that a Church possesses, with the deception that acts which comprise the mass slaughter of war are acts that are somehow in moral, spiritual and theological conformity with the Way and the Truth taught and lived by Jesus ---to find the clarity of mind and the courage of spirit to break through such communal hardwiring in untruth?” ----Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
“To change the world by bullets was a useless procedure. Therefore, the only revolution worthwhile was the one-man(woman) revolution within the heart. Each one would make this by himself(herself) and not need to wait on a majority. ----Ammon Hennacy
JOKES
A man is drinking with his wife when out of the blue he says, “I love you.” “Is that you or the beer talking?” She asks. “It’s me.” He says, “talking to the beer.”
Moved by a church service, the richest man in town stood up and addressed the congregation. “I remember the day I earned my first dollar,” he said. “That night, I went to the church meeting, and the speaker told us about his missionary work. I had only a single dollar bill, and I had to make a decision; give it to his worthy cause or keep it. So I gave him all the money I had. I believe that God blessed that decision, and that is why I am a millionaire today.” As he sat down, a woman shouted, “I dare you to do it again.”
“Great news!” the psychiatrist tells her patient. “You’re cured!” “Cured?” shouts the patient. “I used to be Julius Caesar. Now I’m nobody!”
A completely naked man flagged down a taxi. The taxi driver stopped and was staring at the man. The man asked, “Why are you staring at me? Haven’t you seen a naked man before?” The taxi driver responded, “That is not why I am staring at you. I am just wondering where you are keeping your money to pay me.”
Some of the proposed names of the new McDonald’s Happy Meal are: Tantrum in a Box, No Child left with a behind, McGoody Two Chews and Mean Cuisine.
INTERESTING FACTS
Each U.S. soldier in Afghanistan costs taxpayers $1.2 million a year. Bringing just 150 Wisconsin soldiers home would wipe out Wisconsin’s budget deficit this year.----Peace Action-Wisconsin
The U.S. military has essentially the same size, force structure and capabilities as it did a decade ago but costs 35% more. The U.S. spent some $46 billion over the past decade developing weapons systems that are never used due to cost overruns or technical challenges. -----The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
Here are just a few examples of wasteful nuclear weapons-related projects. a) 100 new bombers at $55 billion each. B) 12 new ballistic missile launching submarines costing an estimated $8.3 billion each. C) A chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement facility at Los Alamos National Laboratories that would produce plutonium “pits” or triggers, an essential component for building nuclear weapons, at an estimated price of up to $6 billion. d) A uranium processing facility at MNSA’s Oak Ridge TN site at an estimated cost of $7.5 billion. ----TalkingPointsMemo, July 15, 2011
The oil spills continue in the U.S. as well as other countries. A huge oil spill off the Chinese coast has now contaminated an area around 6 times the size of Singapore. ConocoPhillips Co. of the U.S.A. operates the Chinese oil giant CNOOC. Some 1,650 square miles are covered with oil. -----AgenceFrance-Presse, 7/16/11
Corporate welfare continues as usual. Hundreds of billions of dollars each year are doled out to corporations. Twelve major corporations, like Honeywell, Verizon, General Electric made $167 billion in profit, paid zero tax and got $2.5 billion back from the Treasury. -------The Citizens for Tax Justice
Michael Walli, who is presently serving prison time in a 1,000+ inmate Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla GA awaiting sentencing for protesting against “the antichrist U.S. military government nuclear weapons of mass destruction policies” at the Y12 Oak Ridge TN facility over a year ago, suggested I look into a person named Adnan Khashoggi. This person from Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest arms merchants in the world, had involvement with Barrick Gold, the Iran-Contra crime, was affiliated with those involved in 9/11 and was a $500 million supporter of former President G.W. Bush. You may wish to read about him online. Michael was involved in a nonviolent civil disobedience action at the Y12 facility along with Steve Baggarly, Sr. Carol Gilbert, Jean Gump, Sr. Jackie Hudson, Sr. Ardeth Platte and Bonnie Urfer.
According to The Nuclear Resister, there have been 2,600 arrests nationwide at various protests on progressive issues from 2009 until May 2011 with some 1,400 of them coming in antiwar-related actions, most completely ignored by the major media networks.
Contrary to what most people think, Sweden is the world’s largest arms exporter per capita. Sweden participates in NATO’s war in Afghanistan and has the largest practice area for war within its borders. A total of 201 people did an action near Neat on July 26, which aimed to expose the hidden role of the massive test range in the preparation for wars, including the testing of new military equipment such as drones, missiles and fighter planes --------War Resisters International
Two men, Albert Woodfox (64) and Herman Wallace (69), have been in solitary confinement for the last 40 years in a Louisiana prison, ever since they were convicted of murdering a prison guard in 1972. Amnesty International believes this to be in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that everyone has the right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
Helen Woodson, who has been imprisoned since she was sent to prison the week after Ronald Reagan’s 1984 re-election, will be released on September 9th. She was arrested for her part in the pneumatic jackhammer and sledgehammer disarmament of a nuclear missile silo in Missouri, the Silo Pruning Hooks Action. She has been imprisoned for 27 years total.
More than 11 million people in the Horn of Africa are desperately in need of food, clean water and basic sanitation. Although there are many people on the ground working to make sure that immediate aid gets to the people who need it most, we cannot forget about the big picture. There is plenty of money for war and weapons, but no helicopters to take needed food to the dying. Contact ONE online to act on this. The U.S. spends less than 1% of its GNP on helping desperately poor nations with food and water. The U.S. public throws out 4.7 million tons of edible food each year. That is $42 billion worth of food. ----Food Production Daily.com A 2004 study showed that 40-50% of all harvested food in the U.S. never gets eaten, and the U.S. spends about $1 billion a year just to dispose of the wasted food. ------U.S.D.A.
Those working for the government, including those in Congress and the military, all have socialized medicine and free medical care.
Between 2000 and 2010 the number of unmarried cohabitating couples in the U.S. increased by 97%.
One out of every four Americans has a criminal record. Each week NATO spends $1,930,000 each week enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya.
Quaddafi held a minimum of $29,700,000,000 in U.S. banks at the time his assets were frozen. Between 2004 and 2010, as many as 14 journalists were imprisoned without charges by the U.S. military.
In January $2,340,000 of “blood money” was reportedly paid to the families of 2 Pakistanis killed by a CIA contractor. Only 3 members of Congress gave up some portion of their 2010 salary for federal debt reduction. The amount of these gifts totaled $15,223.56.
National Public Radio received $2,700,000 from the federal government while $446,000,000 was given to Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. ----Harper’s Index
Israel has passed a new law outlawing citizens and organizations from advocating or boycotts against any Israeli person or entity. ----Democracy Now, July 21, 2011 Mental illness is now the leading cause of disability in children. However, psychiatric diagnoses have expanded to include many perfectly normal people. ----New England Journal of Medicine
“Bunny” Greenhouse, the former chief oversight official of contracts at the Army Corps of Engineers, has reached a $970,000 settlement 6 years after she was demoted for publicly criticizing a multi-billion-dollar, no-bid contract to Halliburton, the company formerly headed by then-Vice-President Dick Cheney. ----Democracy Now, July 26, 2011
We say farewell to FRANK BLAIR who recently passed over. We thank him for his life as he tried to show us the way toward happiness and nonviolence. We thank him for his help to Casa Maria and our homeless friends and his actions for civil rights. May he now rest in peace and joy. “We need, in love, to practice only this: letting each other go. For holding on comes easily; we do not need to learn it.” ----Rainer Maria Rilke
NOTE: Sat., JULY 30 ----- DRONES AND CLOWNS action at Brady St. Festival in Milwaukee starting at 1:45 at the Cassablanca on Van Buren and Brady Sts. We will be protesting the use of drones to kill our sisters and brothers.
WEDS., AUGUST 3 -----ANTI-GUN VIGIL from Noon to 1 p.m. at Badger Guns, 43rd and Lincoln Ave., Milwaukee. In Wisconsin, 2 out o every 3 favor no legalization of concealed carry. ----WAVE Each year in the U.S. 97,820 are victims of gun violence. Each day on average in the U.S. 80 people are shot, more than were shot in Norway. ------Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence
NOTES FROM 21ST STREET: It is a warm July morning. The cicadas are buzzing the news of a hot afternoon to come. We have had rain, glorious, glorious rain for the last few days. The earth has turned a richer green. I feel blessed by the gift of rain. There is a wonderful earthy, moistness in the air. I also feel a sense of guilt because Texas, Oklahoma and other states are suffering a severe drought. Somalia has suffered such a long drought that there is a terrible famine in the country. Thousands of people are dying, mostly children. I ponder on what can be done. I can live more simply. I can eat food that is gentle on the earth and does not deprive others. I can ask our government to use our military planes to deliver food to those in need instead of bombs to Afghanistan and other countries. Since we live below the poverty line, we do not have money, but I can ask those that do have resources to send money to Oxfam or other organizations that help people in need. These are a few things I can do. I know it is not enough to alleviate all the suffering. I will pray also, and ask our Creator to do what we are not able to do. I will try to take time each day to appreciate the beauty and blessings that surround me. The rich green of the trees, grass, the vegetables and the flowers are not to be taken for granted. May we all do what we can so that all people of the world will be able to experience the richness of our mother earth. Peace, Roberta
