Jack Burns Lives!

One of my favorite fictional characters, Gus McCrae from Lonesome Dove, talked about appreciating the little things in life, like “a warm bed or a glass of buttermilk.” I ain’t so fond of buttermilk, but I fully appreciate the point of being thankful for the little things. For the necessities and what some call “blessings.” Things you shouldn’t take for granted, like good health.

And on this Thanksgiving Day, I’m thankful for those things. A roof over my head, a pantry full of food, a loving family and loyal friends. For good books, music and art. For the wren in my garden and for the keen eye of the hawk that soars overhead. For meaningful work, a healthy body and a reasonably sound mind to ponder the large things and enjoy the small ones.

I’m thankful for the reasonably unspoiled places that remain, since no spot on this planet is unaffected by human endeavor.

And to that point, there’s a lot I’m not thankful for, things my compadre Hayduke points out in his Thanksgiving missive. Our permanent war economy and for the politicos and corporations that fuel its existence. For the greedy bastards that take whatever they want and with no regard for anything but themselves.

There’s certainly a part of me that wants revolution. That wants to see them up against the wall so they can face the music. But I’ve learned much from my Left Coast friends, not the least of which is violence never solves anything, and that it only brings more violence.

I hope that I can one day say I’m thankful for lasting peace, but I’m not holding my breath. All I can do is remain committed to peace and to exposing the lies and lank language of the propagators of violence and terror. Terrorists like Joe Lieberman, Glenn Beck and Dick Cheney, and terrorist organizations like Exxon, Dow Chemical, Bank of America and Monsanto.

I’ll be really thankful when they’re gone, but there will be others to replace them. Human societies have a seemingly infinite capacity for creating morons. We’re prolific reproducers, putting rabbits to shame, producing thousands upon thousands of wankers every year.

The rest of us, the less than one percent or perhaps even a half a percent of the total, hunker down in our communities and just do the best we can to protect what’s left. And I’m thankful for all those folks. The good people that speak for the voiceless and for those kicked to the curb by capitalist overlords.

Stand up for these. Be heard. And as Edward Abbey would say “stand for what you stand on.”

Looks like the guvment has decided to try its hand at theatre with the New York based “trial” of alleged 9/11 terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. With the economy in the tank, the military bogged down in what everyone knows is an “unwinnable” war and the healthcare fiasco, the guvment needs something to derail attention from those matters and make it look like it’s actually doing something.

Bring terrorism back to our doorstep so we’ll get all lathered up about fighting again.

It’s important to note that the United States government and its private contractors can go anywhere in the world it desires, pluck people from their homes (or caves), take them into custody, torture them, bring them to the U.S. and them make them appear in a mock trial where even our so-called liberal President has predicted their guilt and ultimate demise.

It’s shocking but not surprising from a nation that’s been having its way with whomever since day one. That’s not “un-American,” either. It’s just the facts.

Is the guy a terrorist? Most likely. Was he involved in 9-11? Maybe. Who really knows. I suppose we’ll see the evidence in court, but something tells me there were far more players in 9-11 than we’re being told.

And if he’s guilty, I say let him swing from a tree along with child rapists and murderers. I’m not “soft” on terrorism, as evidenced by my constant complaining about the activities of our own government. I think we need to get tough on terrorism and start by putting our home grown ones in jail. But shouldn’t this person have been charged in an international court with the tracking and apprehension handled by Interpol and local police? He is, after all, a civilian. He’s not even a guerilla fighter.

I think we need some rules of engagement here, because the ability for a government to go into a foreign nation and pluck up the citizens of the invaded nation is pretty scary. And yeah, I know, we’ve done this sort of thing before. Black Jack Pershing and 12,000 men went into Mexico to get Pancho Villa for his attack on Columbus, New Mexico. But this takes things to a whole new level.

I’ll even admit the policy of seek, find and destroy has a certain appeal to me. Like Little Bill in Unforgiven, I don’t like killers and assassins. I loathe terrorists. I want to personally hunt down people that hurt unarmed people, especially women and children. It’s cowardly and uncalled for. Yet, all this international cowboyin’ concerns me, because eventually, the guns get pointed at the folks at home. A government this powerful is dangerous, and considering it, I’m reminded of what Ed Abbey had to say about it:

“Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.”

Khalid Sheik Mohammed is allegedly a terrorist, and that’s a word that should carry an enormous amount of respect for everyone. Because once you’re labeled a “terrorist” (and the meaning is vague enough to include all sorts of folks), the guvment can do what it wants.

Terrorism is defined in the Federal criminal code 18 U.S.C. §2331 as “…activities that involve violent… or life-threatening acts… that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State and… appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping….”

Any civilian rebellion or monkeywrenching potentially becomes an act of terrorism. And under the PATRIOT Act, there are essentially no restrictions on the government’s ability to surveil, search, interrogate, detain and restrict Americans.

That means an organization that supposedly is “of the people, by the people and for the people” can do whatever it wants to people anywhere on the planet. What’s to stop ‘em?

“Be of good cheer, the military-industrial state will soon collapse. Meanwhile, we must do all in our power to oppose, resist, and subvert its desperate aggrandizements. As a matter of course. As a matter of honor.”-Edward Abbey

It’s time to get busy with the real work of bringing the beast to its knees. No more support for big corporations that are actively engaged in destroying the earth or for any capitalist enterprises that treat people unfairly like Blue Cross Blue Shield. Monsanto, Exxon, Haliburton, Lockheed, Goldman’s, Bank of America, TVA, even AT&T. The goal has to be zero purchases. No support or donations to professional politicians in Washington that enable their destructive behaviors. Active, but legal, daily effort to insure they fail and collapse.

Make the people that work for such places feel the heat. Let them feel ostracism and disapproval. I don’t care if they like me, and I don’t buy the explanation they “just need a job.” Fuck that. They’re actively working everyday at the behest of destructive corporations to pocket ill gotten gains. Ignorance is no excuse.

No more airline travel. I’ll run out of gas and walk home before I spend a penny at Exxon. No stocks. No mortgages. Keep the pressure on Obama to be a man of his word, not a puppet of monied interests.

No more paper pushing behind the desk for me. It’s to the front!

Hayduke, I think it’s time. Time for us to get busy and do the messy work these young pups apparently ain’t willing or don’t know how to do.

I’m takin’ Whiskey to the livery for some shoes, picking up a good mule and some supplies and will be headed toward the old rendezvous spot. She’s old and may not be trail fit, so I could be hopping on a train, but either way, I’ll be there.

We’ll use the “old ways” to communicate once I hit the trail.

You contact the others.

Bathed in sunlight, I start to slip away.
Into that realm just before sleep, a sort
of semi-consciousness, a restful place
between here and there where strange, random
images and thoughts seemingly appear out of
nowhere. You’re not thinking; they’re just
there, like clouds floating in the October wind.

As I drift away in the warm sun, I find myself
within a shower of resplendent death. Set in
motion by gentle winds, death reveals itself
cloaked in yellow, red and brown, drifting slowly
to the ground from whence life came.

This is beauty. The beauty of Keats, Wordsworth
and Clare. It’s beyond my ability to fully
comprehend. I try to grasp it but cannot. It’s
beyond me yet totally within me. It envelops me;
I humbly rejoice in its magnificent presence.

It’s my honor and pleasure to defend it, to speak
for it. The mighty oak towering above me, the
solitary jumping spider sailing in the wind, the
soil beneath my feet. I am one with all.

Into deep sleep, now I pass, safe and sound with beauty
all around.

From Democracy Now:

CBS: Obama to Send Up to 40,000 Troops to Afghanistan

More reports are emerging that President Obama has decided to send as many as 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. CBS News reported last night that Obama plans to send four combat brigades plus thousands of additional troops beginning in early 2010. Over the weekend, the McClatchy Newspapers reported Obama would send 34,000 more troops. The White House is denying these reports, claiming that the President has not yet made a final decision.

So, on this Veterans Day, the beat goes on. We should recall Smedley Butler, the most decorated Marine in history, a retired Major General. Some may remember his 1935 book, War Is a Racket, where he “presented an exposé and trenchant condemnation of the profit motive behind warfare.”

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

As it’s often said on the streets of Memphis, true dat shit, Smedley. True dat.

How do we stop it? Will protests work? Doubtful. Obama seems to be cut of the same cloth as previous puppets, committed to the war machine. Pray that oil hits $200PB sooner than later? Perhaps, but the U.S. juggernaut is poised to control vast supplies and keep things rolling along for years to come.

‘Bout all we can do is stop buying the oil and other things in an attempt to bring the locomotive to a screeching halt. After all, the beast is fed by our purchases.

That, and stop supporting the Democratic party members that continually lie and willfully ignore the desires of their electorate. Quit sending money to them, and let Goldman and the Wall Street Mafia pick up the bill.

Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure, says whistleblower
The Guardian UK

“The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.”

No shit. Shell has already admitted its statements about reserves were “illusory.”

I reckon we’re going to see $150 to $200 PB prices soon, perhaps as early as next year. Think the economy is bad now? Just wait.

Want to make some money? Open a bike repair shop or a livery. Start a organic farm. People will need food and transportation. Maybe not next year, but by 2020, things are gonna look a lot different.

Audio is here.

“If we’re going to fight wars as a nation, then we need to draw our warriors from a wider swath of the population and give them the full and complete support that they need and deserve. We’ll no doubt be analyzing the twisted psychological state of Nidal Malik Hasan every which way from sundown. But we’ll continue to give short shrift to the daily struggles and frequent horrors of the honorable men and women who have taken on the thankless task of fighting our wars.

This is not just shameful, it’s unsustainable.”-Bob Herbert, The New York Times, Nov. 8, 2009

Herbert is absolutely correct on several points in his op-ed piece. He’s correct about the war being unsustainable. He’s also correct that we can’t keep sending our young people to fight without paying a heavy price, and he’s correct in stating we’re already seeing systematic breakdowns. But he ends his piece with what is essentially a call for reinstatement of the draft, and I believe that’s a mistake.

What’s really shameful in this nation is our culture of violence and how we consistently use violence to reach our economic goals. Colonial wars are often most successful when fought with trained, professional killers, not conscripted forces; however, the government (and their bosses on Wall Street) will, if necessary, use any means to fight their wars. It’s not the optimum choice, but if push comes to shove, they will do it.

Nixon was in favor of getting rid of the draft, because he felt it would quieten the protest movement. Maybe he was right. Maybe that’s why we haven’t established an unbearable obloquy against the continued wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Are the majority of young people under age 25 too insulated from the horrors of war? Perhaps a draft would inspire 1,000,000 people to march on War$hington and say “ENOUGH!”

But for those of us over 25, what’s our excuse? Although we’re too old to “serve” (the masters), why are we sitting on our derrieres and not doing something? We should be marching right along and demanding something be done.

In January, I’m leaving for War$shington with bus load of people half my age to do just that. Whiskey is too old for the trip and livery service is unreliable, but if you see a hawk nosed pard with a cowboy hat and patch over his eye on the teevee, it’s yours truly.

Howard Zinn has long maintained that the one of the reasons the Vietnam War finally ended was an unfavorable swing in public opinion, a swing large enough to seriously endanger reelections. During that era, I can see where that might be the case. But today’s ruling junta seems much more brazen. It’s as if they believe they can do whatever they want and the public has little recourse. Just look at the recent record. Look at the heathcare mess. Compare what people want and need to what they’re going to get: forced purchases from a private capitalist enterprise.

A draft would give the government and Wall Street nearly limitless reserves and allow them to fight ad infinitum, whereas the current system just might grind the whole sordid mess to a merciful halt.

The war is not sustainable, and the economic system driving it is not sustainable. The energy base that fueling the war machine and the economy is not sustainable. Why institute a draft and make things even more miserable until the unavoidable and ugly end?