[mpen-dayton] FW: "SPAN ACTION ALERT!" & "Tim Kaine to Campaign in Ohio" & "TELL OBAMA: No more drilling on public lands" and more
FYI. Best, Munsup
P.S. Please reply back to me with 'unsubscribe' on the subject line if you no longer want to receive my e-Newsletters. The convenient link to unsubscribe is no longer available due to security reasons to protect my email servers.
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· FW: SPAN ACTION ALERT!
· FW: Tim Kaine to Campaign in Ohio
· FW: YouTube: Examining 911 on August 25, 2016, Colorado Public Television
· FW: DOJ Failure To Address The Proven Voting Rights Problems In The State Of Georgia Since 2010
· FW: Sign if you agree: No Dakota Access pipeline
· FW: I spent a long time writing this report about Daily Kos. I hope you'll take the time to read it.
· FW: Peace & US Bombings of Other Countries
· FW: Investigation needed: 16 year old U.S. citizen killed in Palestine
· FW: It's unconscionable how Obama is helping the fossil fuel industry
· FW: TELL OBAMA: No more drilling on public lands
· FW: Tired of aggressive junk food marketing to kids?
· FW: THE EXCEPTIONAL USA WAS FOUNDED AS AND REMAINS A VIOLENT NATION
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From: SPAN Ohio
Subject: SPAN ACTION ALERT!
Action Alert
On Moral Monday, Rev. William Barber's call for a National Day of Action will be answered in Columbus, Ohio by workers and faith leaders from SEIU, Crazy Faith Ministries, Faith in Public Life, Nuns on the Bus, Ohio AFL-CIO, Common Cause Ohio, Democratic Voices of Ohio, ProgressOhio, Ohio Unity Coalition, SPAN Ohio and more. We will march silently from First Congregational Church UCC to the Ohio Statehouse, to rally on the north side of the Capitol building to demand a moral revival to end systemic injustice, racism, poverty, and oppression.
This Silent March and rally will call on elected officials and candidates for office to advance a moral public policy agenda that responds to the urgent needs of the poor, people who are ill, children, immigrants, communities of color, and religious minorities. We will deliver the "Higher Ground Moral Declaration" to Governor Kasich, as well as to all state leaders through our words, actions, and the spirit of the Silent March on Moral Monday. We see our voices being silenced when our votes are suppressed, livelihoods are diminished, poor are neglected, and families are unsupported. In silence, we reclaim our power.
SPAN Ohio will be represented at this event. Rev. Barber is a strong supporter of universal health care and that needs to be a part of this event agenda. SPAN t-shirts will be available before the march for those who want one.
Please join us!
WHEN? Monday, September 12, 2016; 1:45-3:30pm
WHERE? Downtown Columbus
· 1:45pm: Meet at 444 E. Broad St.
· 2-2:30pm: Silent March down Broad St. (heading west)
· 2:30pm-3:30pm: Moral Monday speakers at 1 Capitol Square (North side of State Capitol Building)
· 3:30pm: Gatherers disperse after a final Moment of Silence; buses pick up on South side of the Statehouse, others return back to First Congregational Church
WHY? It's time for a moral revolution of thought, spirit, and action. Our state leaders must recognize and champion all of our rights.
Save the Date: On November 16th we will present a special screening of a new documentary from the producers of The Healthcare Movie. Laurie Simons and Terry Sterrenberg have been busy at work making Now is the Time: Healthcare for All (Beyond Obamacare). This event is sponsored by SPAN Ohio, the OSU medical school chapter of SNaHP and Demand for Universal Healthcare (DUH).
What: A free movie with food being served
When: Wednesday, November 16, 2016, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Where: Ohio State University College of Medicine, Room 112 Meiling Hall, 370 W. 9th Avenue, Columbus, OH
From: Michael Byun
Subject: FW: Tim Kaine to Campaign in Ohio
Tim Kaine to Campaign in Ohio
Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia will campaign across Ohio on Monday, September 12, and Tuesday, September 13. At public events in Southwest and Northeast Ohio, Kaine will lay out the stakes of November's election and urge Ohioans to register ahead of October 11 deadline and to support his and Hillary Clinton's vision of an America that is stronger together, with an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.
Additional details about these events will be released soon. The Southwest Ohio event will be on Monday, and the Northeast Ohio event will be on Tuesday.
Members of the public interested in attending the Southwest Ohio event can RSVP here.
Members of the public interested in attending the Northeast Ohio event can RSVP here.
Members of the media who want to cover any of these events should RSVP here.
###
For Immediate Release, September 7, 2016
Contact: press@hillaryclinton.com
PAID FOR BY HILLARY FOR AMERICA
Contributions or gifts to Hillary for America are not tax deductible.
Hillary for America, PO Box 5256, New York
From: Judy Burnette
Subject: YouTube: Examining 911 on August 25, 2016, Colorado Public Television
Examining 9/11: Broadcast live on Aug 25, 2016, Colorado Public Television
September 11, 2001 marked one of the most tragic days in American history. Fifteen years later, the events of that day still have a visceral and even traumatic impact on many Americans. In addition, millions of Americans and citizens around the world doubt the official version of that day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXH-TaZEPq0
From: George Boston Rhynes
Subject: DOJ Failure To Address The Proven Voting Rights Problems In The State Of Georgia Since 2010
September 4, 2016
The Getto Free Press (912) 229-251-8645
GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES, P.O. Box 3674, Valdosta, Georgia 31704
TO: Attorney General Loretta Lynch; U.S. Department Of Justice (Civil Rights Division)
As you are already aware that major voting rights violations/problems exist in the State Of Georgia. These problems have been highlighted to Former Attorney General Eric Holder but nothing has been done to resolve these ill conditions. Yes, I could recreate the wheel and explain our problems. However, years of complaints and video production can best define citizens ignored problems already SENT to DOJ. (See You Tube Channel "bostongbr")
In closing, as this election approaches the suffering and mistreated citizens in Georgia CANNOT continue to be ignored by DOJ Civil Rights Division without Blacks staying at home on election day. This is the outcry I get from investigating the BLACK communities that are frustrated over YOUR lack of action of GEORGIA troubled Black Communities here in GEORGIA. (And It Saddens Me To Hear Americans They Will Not Vote Because Of Being Ignored)
Please! No personal response is necessary on my behalf.
However, these troubled communities DEMANDS Action now if our democracy is to be seen by Black And White Americans as equal for all. Many Blacks once believed that ALL Americans including our Active Duty; Disabled; Retired Military Veterans And Ordinary American Citizens Of Our REPUBLIC had a right to VOTE; HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE and obtain a RESPONSE from the U.S. Federal Government Agencies. Thanks For Your Immediate Attention To The Voice Of The Voiceless And We Will AWAIT YOUR RESPONSE. Saint John 8:32 - Saint Luke 4:18. (Joel 2:1)
INFORMATION SENT TO ATTORNEY ERIC HOLDER YEARS AGO AND THEY REMAIN:
Commissioner Olivier Coley Pearson (BLACK) Links And Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU2SflJmHnM&list=PL8hJJKKtdDz4W4FIyqF4uqNn6mzCkAzOm
==============================
Videos Concerning The Douglas Four And Commissioner Olivier Coley Pearson: (Part 1, 2, 3, 4).
The "Discipline Of America" And In DOUGLAS GEORGIA Four With "THE" Original Black Truth!
1. PART 1. OF 4. VIDEO: Pending Production As Of This E-Mail.
2. PART 2. OF 4. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1DBfHq8Ua8
3. PART 3 OF 4. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjfy1een18k
4. PAART 4. OF 4. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k5aCPipfmk
==========================================
5. G.B.R. Speaks At DR. King Monument In Valdosta Georgia And Truth Moves Into The Minds Of "THE" Righteous!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACdDjz5VtdQ
Special Note: Joel 2:1 - Saint John 8:32
From: Josh Nelson; Deputy Political Director, CREDO Action from Working Assets
Subject: Sign if you agree: No Dakota Access pipeline
Tell President Obama: Stop the Dakota Access oil pipeline. #NoDAPL
The petition to President Obama reads:
"The Dakota Access pipeline would fuel climate change, cause untold damage to the environment, and significantly disturb sacred lands and the way of life for Native Americans in the upper Midwest. Direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the permits under 'Nationwide Permit 12' and stop the Dakota Access pipeline once and for all."
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From: Chris Bowers; Daily Ko
Subject: I spent a long time writing this report about Daily Kos. I hope you'll take the time to read it.
I oversee Daily Kos's email and activism program. Now that we're just 66 days out from Election Day, I want to share with you some details about our Get Out The Vote program and how Daily Kos is uniquely situated to put Democrats running for House and Senate over the top this fall:
- Traffic to the website broke records during our coverage of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions this summer, with 13.6 million and 10.4 million unique readers in July and August, respectively. We expect site traffic to surge again after Labor Day, as Daily Kos is the go-to place for progressives to get their news on the internet.
- Our email list has hit an all-time high of 2.05 million active subscribers.
- Our Facebook audience is one of the largest and most active on the internet, with 1.14 million fans.
- Combined, this gives Daily Kos a deeper reach into the progressive base of the Democratic Party than almost any other organization in the country, and an astonishing 181,278 Daily Kos readers have signed up to help Get Out The Vote for Democrats.
Our Campaigns Team will be working all day, every day for the next 66 days to plug these volunteers into must-win Democratic campaigns for House and Senate to win back Congress this fall. But we need your help to fully-fund this program.
Can you chip in $5 right now to help Daily Kos Get Out The Vote for Democrats?
Engaging the base is the key to winning this fall. Polls show that Donald Trump is hurting Republican enthusiasm, meaning that many traditional GOP voters may stay home. That means getting Democrats to the polls might not just give us a win—it could give us a landslide.
Daily Kos' top priority in this election is build the Democratic wave forming behind Hillary Clinton to take back the House and Senate. With more than 180,000 volunteers identified so far, we have the people power to make a huge difference this fall.
We will be plugging these Daily Kos volunteers into canvasses of swing states and districts, knocking on doors to talk to voters face to face. For volunteers outside of swing states, we'll have ways for them to make calls and texts from their homes to contact voters in areas that could decide which party controls Congress next year.
Please chip in $5 now to help Get Out The Vote.
From: James Lucas
Subject: Peace & US Bombings of Other Countries
At Home and Abroad, Most People Agree That Americans Are Greedy and Arrogant Jerks
www.commondreams.org/news/2016/06/30/home-and-abroad-most-people-agree-americans-are-greedy-and-arrogant-jerks
New Pew poll shows that in the 16 countries surveyed, a median of 54 percent associated arrogance with Americans.
UNITED STATES BOMBINGS OF OTHER COUNTRIES
https://williamblum.org/chapters/rogue-state/united-states-bombings-of-other-countries
William Blum
It is a scandal in contemporary international law, don't forget, that while "
wanton destruction of towns, cities and villages" is a war crime of long standing,
the bombing of cities from airplanes goes not only unpunished but virtually unaccused.
From: Jewish Voice for Peace On Behalf Of Rabbi Joseph Berman; Government Affairs Liaison
Subject: Investigation needed: 16 year old U.S. citizen killed in Palestine
Mahmoud Shaalan was only 16 years old when he was killed by Israeli soldiers.
We deserve answers -- tell President Obama to call for an investigation into his death.
TAKE ACTION
In 1999, Mahmoud Shaalan, a Palestinian-American, was born in Tampa, Florida. In 2006, he moved with his family back to their ancestral village, just north of Ramallah.
Six months ago, he was shot dead by Israeli soldiers.
After he was shot, eyewitnesses said that soldiers stripped Mahmoud's body, and left him to bleed to death on the road for more than two hours, preventing an ambulance from providing medical attention.1
We don't know the circumstances relating to Mahmoud's death. But we can, and we should. Mahmoud was a U.S. citizen, yet not one public official at the White House or State Department has publicly called for an investigation into his death.
So we need to raise our voices. We're coming together with our allies at the American Friends Service Committee, the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, American Muslims for Palestine and many others and calling on President Obama to launch an investigation into the death of Mahmoud Shaalan.
Mahmoud was only 16 years old. He was a kind and gentle teenager, with big dreams of becoming a doctor. But those dreams were cut short at the hands of the IDF, in yet another apparent extrajudicial killing.
Extrajudicial killings -- when people are summarily killed without being put on trial -- are not a rarity. According to Amnesty International, "There is mounting evidence that, as tensions have risen dramatically, in some cases Israeli forces appear to have ripped up the rulebook and resorted to extreme and unlawful measures."2
And slowly but surely, politicians are starting to pay attention. In February, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ten other members of Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, urging him to investigate a "disturbing number of reports of possible gross violations of human rights" in Israel/Palestine. That letter made a splash -- it isn't often that elected officials speak up for Palestine -- but no investigation has been forthcoming.
So we need to keep up the pressure. In fact, we need to double it.
Not just because Mahmoud was a U.S. citizen -- though he was. Not just because extrajudicial killings are in strict violation of U.S. law -- though they are. And not just because this killing, and so many others, were potentially paid for with U.S. taxpayer dollars -- though they may well have been.
But because Mahmoud was a 16 year old boy, and he deserved better.
1. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.708155
Jewish Voice for Peace is a national membership organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for the freedom, equality, and dignity of all the people of Israel and Palestine. Become a JVP Member today.
From: Mara Schechter, Daily Kos
Subject: It's unconscionable how Obama is helping the fossil fuel industry (please read)
People are still reeling from last month's historic flooding in Louisiana. It may be the worst U.S. climate disaster since Superstorm Sandy.
But instead of addressing the problem, the Obama administration came to New Orleans and auctioned off a huge area for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sign to tell President Obama: Keep the fossil fuels from our public lands and waters in the ground.
At this point, helping the fossil fuel industry worsen climate change is unconscionable.
Thousands of people's homes and lives have been devastated by climate change along the Gulf coast, and across the country. And Obama has plans to continue auctioning off our public lands and waters for fossil fuel development.
On September 20, the administration is planning another oil and gas lease sale -- this time, holding it online. This will make it harder for people to voice their concerns, and easier for oil and gas corporations to take our public resources for their profit.
We must stand with the the frontline communities that have been resisting the fossil fuel industry for years, and who are facing climate injustice. It's time Obama stands with them, too, and cancels future lease sales. This needs to stop now.
Sign the petition to Obama: "Stop auctioning off our public lands and waters for corporate profit!"
From: Caitlin, along with Annie, Eddie, Emma, Katie, Kelsey, Lindsay, Moonyoung, Scottie, Tim, and William (the Courage team), Courage Campaign
Subject: TELL OBAMA: No more drilling on public lands
Planet Earth is under siege. August brought historic flooding in Louisiana, record temperatures across the country, and, even though wildfire season just began, over 350 square miles of California have already been
charred this year alone.(1)
As communities across America grapple with natural disasters caused by climate change, the Obama administration auctioned off an area the size of Virginia for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. From the risk of oil spills that cause irreversible damage to the release of carbon emissions when the fossil fuels are burnt, the toll of offshore drilling on the environment is catastrophic.(2)
Despite the apocalyptic climate, the Obama administration continues with business as usual. This is absurd. Something needs to be done.
Tell President Obama: Keep the fossil fuels in our public lands and waters in the ground.
So far, more than 60,000 homes have been damaged by the flooding in Louisiana, 13 people were killed, and the damage and destruction to Gulf communities is ongoing. Yet, the Obama administration continues to help the fossil fuel industry contribute more to the causes of climate change by auctioning off our public lands and waters for drilling, fracking, and mining, sometimes for as little as $2 per acre.(3)
Next month is no different. On September 20, another lease sale is scheduled to auction off more of our public lands and waters. This will create more climate injustice for the frontline communities who've been resisting the fossil fuel industry for years. This needs to stop now.
Tell President Obama: "Stop auctioning off our public lands and waters for corporate profit!"
This past year, activists across the country took action to oppose the auctions of public lands and waters to the oil and gas industry. Our grassroots voices were so loud that we forced oil and gas lobbyists to move auctions online. They hoped it would stop us from protesting. But they've got another think coming. We'll stop at nothing to put an end to oil and gas companies using public resources for profit. But, Munsup, we can't do it alone. We need you.
Sign the petition now and tell President Obama it's time he stood with us against the climate crisis.
1. http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/3876?t=6&akid=3267.790590.UhCVSJ
2. http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/3877?t=8&akid=3267.790590.UhCVSJ
3. http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/3878?t=10&akid=3267.790590.UhCVSJ
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Courage Campaign fights for a more progressive California and country. We are an online community powered by more than 1.3 million members. |
From: Karen, Monifa, Dream, Migdalia, Felicia, Diarra and the rest of the MomsRising.org team
Subject: Tired of aggressive junk food marketing to kids?
Tell companies to adopt new expert recommendations limiting junk food marketing to kids. |
Wow - what a year it's been for healthy kids and families. We've called for —and won!—new healthy food guidelines for our littlest learners, calorie counts on restaurant menus, healthier drinks in restaurant kid meals, and much more. Well done! Never doubt that the voices of parents and community members like us can have a *huge* impact.
But there's more to do. Stopping the marketing of junk food to kids is high on our priority list for the coming year, and we need your help.
Right now we have the opportunity to change the marketing practices of many of the biggest companies that are marketing food to our kids.
* Join us to tell companies it's time to follow expert recommendations around responsible food marketing to kids.
What's happening? Many big food and beverage companies participate in the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI) and pledge to have healthier marketing practices. The CFBAI has made lots of progress in recent years, adding more member companies and adopting universal nutrition criteria for its members, including General Mills, Hershey, McDonalds, Coca Cola and more.
This fall the CFBAI is updating its nutrition standards for food marketing to children. This is an important opening to ensure that these very big brands, which have extensive reach in our communities, are following the latest recommendations regarding what's healthy for our kids. We're asking the CFBAI to make sure only healthier foods and beverages are marketed to kids.
* Will you join us? Add your voice now.
We're asking the CFBAI to:
- Require that brands marketed to children only contain products that meet nutrition criteria.
- Reduce added sugars and salt, to be consistent with new Dietary Guidelines for Americans. [1]
- Encourage nutrient-rich foods, rather than fortification of otherwise unhealthy products.
- Remove sugary drinks from kids' meals.
These standards should protect all kids including older kids (ages 12-14) not currently covered by CFBAI's protections [2]. They should also cover all the ways that companies market to young people—including food packages and family TV shows where children constitute 25% or more of the audience, or when ads are designed to get kids' attention. [2]
These updates are backed up by experts and the new Recommendations for Responsible Food Marketing to Children report. [2] If adopted by these major food and drink companies, they would be a great step forward in promoting the health of our kids.
*Can you tell companies to do more to protect the health of our kids? It just takes a minute.
Companies spend almost $2 billion per year marketing food and drinks to kids, and the majority of that marketing is for junk food. [3] But companies can also be a part of what makes a healthy community, playing a role alongside schools, families, and public spaces. And we know they listen to parents. In fact, women make three-quarters of purchasing decisions so when we speak out, companies listen.
*Click here now to join us!
After you sign on, please take a moment to post the above action link on Facebook, Tweet it out, and share via email. The more of us who take action, the bigger the impact we'll have together. After all, our consumer power is nothing to sneeze at!
[1] Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015-2020.
[2] Recommendations for Responsible Food Marketing to Children, Healthy Eating Research. January 2015.
[3] Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation: A Report To Congress, Federal Trade Commission. July 2008.
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Like what we're doing? Donate: We're a bootstrap, low overhead, mom run organization. Your donations make the work of MomsRising.org possible--and we deeply appreciate your support. Every little bit counts. Donate today on our new, secure website. On Facebook? Become a Fan. Follow us on Twitter. What should MomsRising tackle next? Tell us what's on your mind.
From: albert baca
Subject: Fw: THE EXCEPTIONAL USA WAS FOUNDED AS AND REMAINS A VIOLENT NATION
Talk about an interesting read. It will open your eyes about a lot of things. This is required reading for people that giggle when I argue that American exceptionalism is pure BULL SHIT.
PS Again take a look at the title of the message.
PPS If you subscribe to DelanceyPlace, be sure to read today's entry.
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http://www.brianwillson.com/americn-exceptionalism-the-rhetoric-and-the-reality/
American Exceptionalism: The Rhetoric and the Reality
December 19, 2013
"Our business is killing, and business is good." – Slogan painted on a US 9th Infantry Division helicopter in Viet Nam's Mekong Delta, 1969
The Conditioning
Virtually all of us born and raised in US America have been, or were, inculcated in the myth that the United States is the greatest country in the history of the world endowed by our creator to bring prosperity to the impoverished and Christianity to the heathen. Indeed, we are exceptional – unusual, extraordinary – but not in the ways we were led to believe.
Cognitive Dissonance
In 1969 Viet Nam, dramatic, seemingly incomprehensible differences between what I had been taught and firmly believed about the nobility of "America," and the unspeakable transgressions I experienced with my own senses, required me to either ignore these troubling differences as invalid, thereby preserving my beliefs, or recognize that what I had been taught was extremely flawed and seriously challenge my comfortable paradigm, setting me on a path of scary truth-seeking.
The Wool IS our Eyes (Not pulled over them)
What are the origins of a cultural ethos that manifests in such unconscionable behavior? My war experiences led me to re-examine US and world history, cultural cliches, and unquestioned assumptions. Reading my grandfather's 1906 U.S. history book, "The History of the United States" by James W Garner and Henry Cabot Lodge, made me realize our white cultural sense of superiority was explicitly taught to generations of US Americans. For example, the first chapter proudly explained that the "destruction" of the American Indians was due to the fact "that inferior people must yield to a superior civilization in one way or another. They must take on civilization or pass out." Some would claim the wool has been pulled over our eyes. However, a careful reading of history reveals that the wool has been IN our eyes from our origins.
It's no accident that the US American culture has proven to become an extraordinarily dangerous imperial threat in the world. And our behavior is consistently and exceptionally brutal and pathologically violent at home as well as abroad, since our oligarchic ruling structure is exceptionally fearful of genuine people power wherever it manifests. (Does anybody but me see a link between this statement and what the DNC did to Bernie Sanders?)
Eurocentric values of systematic violence and arrogance were introduced into the New World in 1492 when Italian Cristoforo Columbo, sailing under the Spanish flag, invaded the West Indies. Columbus' log stated, "with fifty men we could subjugate them and make them do whatever we want." Eyewitness Bartolome de las Casas described unspeakable behavior that "no age can parallel….cruelty never before seen, nor heard of, nor read of." The Indigenous possessed no vocabulary to describe the bestiality inflicted upon them. The Arawak Indians were virtually wiped out in 40 years.
Our original English Puritan settlers established the tone of sacred superiority. "We shall find that the God of Israel is among us….For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us." Since the early 1600s, prior to creation in 1789 of the formal US government, groups of armed adventurers and frontiersmen (operating as paramilitary death squads) alongside various European militaries, engaged in almost constant bloodshed with the "beastly" Indians, carrying out one of the greatest genocides in human history.
The Colonies Began As Private Commercial Enterprises
The corporate control of our government that we decry today has been with us more or less since our nation's founding. The early "settlers" did not come seeking business or trade with "savages", but were in effect employees or indentured servants of private commercial, corporate enterprises of stock-holding London investor-based companies who magically received grants from the Crown to develop lands inhabited by Indigenous in what are today Virginia and Massachusetts. The settlers were charged with the grunt work of planting and harvesting crops which were then sent to England to satisfy investor needs for quick profits in the New World. Many of the men we call our "Founding Fathers" – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Morris, Patrick Henry, and Benjamin Franklin – were early speculators who claimed hundreds of thousands of acres of Indian land. The Founding Fathers vision was an "empire of liberty" [Jefferson], "imperial republicanism" [Madison] and a mercantile, imperially expansive nation – a new "American system." Theirs was not a vision of democracy. In George Washington's second term as President he declared that emergence of "democratic societies" threatened the new republic.
New World Holocaust
It is estimated as many as 18,000,000 Indigenous north of the Rio Grande inhabited more than 600 autonomous societies in 1492, speaking an estimated 500-plus languages. Remarkably free of serious diseases before the Europeans and African slaves arrived, terrible epidemics introduced by the newcomers killed hundreds of thousands. Many Indians were forced into starvation and thousands of others were systematically murdered and massacred as settlers moved westward from the Atlantic coast colonies. Over the next four centuries a massive die-off reduced the original native population by more than 95 percent. Speaking with forked tongue, the US Government broke all of its 600 plus treaties and agreements with various Indigenous nations. This holocaust of immense proportion has yet to be sufficiently recognized for its significance to us today. This forceful dispossession of other peoples is our original cultural sin and the wool in our eyes keeps us from seeing it.
US Military Precedents
Our exceptional US military precedents were established in 1779 during the Revolutionary War, when Continental Army Supreme General George Washington ordered General Sullivan to completely eliminate the Iroquois who were mostly siding with the British against the settlers invading their lands:
"The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements… It will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more…. to lay waste all the settlements around…that the country may not be merely overrun, but destroyed. [Y]ou will not by any means listen to any overture of peace before the total ruinment of their settlements… Our future security will be in their inability to injure us and in the terror with which the severity of the chastisement they receive will inspire them."
This order, explicitly or implicitly, established imperial US military principles operating to this day: (1) Total war/genocide targeting all inhabitants for elimination; (2) preventing peace; (3) pre-emptive war; (4) terror; (5) crime of self-defense; (6) revenge. Learning that our nation's "Founding Fathers" resorted to both terror and pre-emptive war was jolting.
General Sullivan's dutiful execution in 1779 of Washington's orders 1779 has been graphically described by historians as "the most ruthless application of a scorched-earth policy" in US American history comparable to Sherman's Civil War march to the sea, General LeMay's incendiary wasteland bombings of North Korea in 1950-53, and search-and-destroy missions carried out by US soldiers in Vietnam. All the Iroquois settlements were wasted despite being considered one of the most advanced Indigenous federations in the New World.
Manifest Destiny – Continental Expansion
Early "manifest destiny" behavior was psychically facilitated by combination of ethnocentrism (ethnic superiority) and a deep racism – fear manifested as hatred directed toward people of "color," or those who otherwise looked "different" from white Europeans. Policies were aimed to eliminate certain human beings so they would have an "inability to injure us." Today's war OF terror continues this pattern.
Thomas Jefferson's interest in an empire of liberty was summarized in his 1809 letter to James Madison: "I am persuaded no Constitution was ever before so well calculated as ours for extensive empire and self-government." Beginning with the Louisiana Purchase exercised by President Jefferson in 1803 despite possessing no constitutional authority whatsoever, the new republic began grandiose expansion with nine territorial additions to the original states, along with fifteen islands and the Panama Canal Zone. Continental and hemispheric manifest destiny was completed by 1890 with the US Army massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee. An earlier subsidy of economic development was slave labor of Black Africans and wage slavery of poor Asian and European immigrants.
Early Congressional militants such as Henry Clay and others interested in promoting the "American System" urged expansion into Canada and Cuba, claiming that the "virtuous and patriotic" framers possessed "too much wisdom to restrict Congress to defensive war."
US hegemony in the Western Hemisphere was "authorized" by the 1823 Monroe Doctrine that declared the American continents "are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers" and that "any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere" would be considered "dangerous to our peace and safety." Early westward expansion was first justified under the slogan "Manifest Destiny" in 1845 when "The Democratic Review" declared that it was "Our manifest destiny to over spread the continent allotted by Providence for the development of our yearly multiplying millions." John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts described the US as a "nation, coextensive with the North American Continent, destined by God and nature to be the most populous and powerful people ever combined under one social compact."
Examining the historical records of the Continental army, and the formal army of the Republic, reveals that army units were involved between 1775 and 1902 in more than 9,000 distinct skirmishes, of which nearly 3,200 involved serious casualties. More than 1,200 of these were battles against Indian nations. In the same period of time, US naval units, which by 1900 had surpassed the strength of the British Navy, had been militarily engaged on more than 1,500 occasions while capturing some 4,000 merchant vessels in foreign seas. Additionally the US Navy made thousands of military port calls in Latin America, Asia, Russia, and Africa. Few found fault with this imperial behavior. With God on our side, then as now, we could do no wrong.
Manifest Destiny Goes Global
In addition to the thousands of paramilitary and military operations waged against Indigenous from the 1600s to 1900, US Presidents have ordered at least 560 overt military interventions, funded by Congress and the people, into more than 100 countries from 1798 to the present, justified to protect "American interests." In addition, thousands of covert operations, all illegal, have been conducted since the CIA's creation in 1947. Today, US "Full Spectrum Dominance" is assured with over 1,000 military installations around the world, Special Forces death squads operating in 150 countries, military ships sailing in every seaspace, military planes flying in every airspace, and satellites and weapons launched in outerspace. On the home front, an exceptional spying apparatus tracks our every move while insidious myopic propaganda daily bombards our brains, all justified under the paternalistic "we know best" tone of superiority and exceptionalism in which information is presented.
"American interests" (free marketeers) have long ruled our policies. In 1859, US Senator Thomas Hart Benton (D-MO) urged trade and lucrative commerce with Asia to "realize the grand idea of Columbus carrying wealth and dominion with it." In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt bragged that he had forcefully taken Panama from Colombia due to the latter's incapacity "of keeping order on the Isthmus" claiming that in "flagrant cases of wrongdoing" by Latin American republics, the US had the right to exercise a "Big Stick police power" justifying increased intervention in the internal affairs of Latin America – the Roosevelt Corollary.
In 1907, while lecturing at Columbia University, future president Woodrow Wilson described the theme of the new American century:
"Since trade ignores national boundaries and the manufacturer insists on having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed must be battered down….Colonies must be obtained or planted, in order that no useful corner of the world may be overlooked or left unused."
The US gained more prominence as an aggressive world imperial power after arrogantly and criminally dropping atomic bombs on Japan. Since WWII, it has increasingly ruled by terror, ordering over 390 military interventions in more than 100 countries, while bombing 28 of them, and threatening nuclear bombs on 20 different occasions.
Today's "globalization," enforced by terror and war, is product of the continuous theme of Eurocentric exploitation first established some 500 years ago. In a short historical time period, original inhabitants of North America were forced to accept an Eurocentric standard of intolerant religion (Christianity), a politics of arrogance and doublespeak (gruesome exploitation described as "democratizing"), and an economics of private greed (capitalism), while being permanently dispossessed of their land and rich cultures. How do we explain this genocide? I argue that this cultural ethos remains etched into our souls, residing as repressed memory and hidden feelings of terrifying shame. But we can't see it because of the wool in our eyes.
Historical Precedents of Imperial Behavior
This kind of diabolical imperial pattern is not unique in world history. Intentional inducement of fear (terror) has always been and continues to be a significant policy for control of one nation, or one group, by another. It is not restricted in its application to the United States civilization. It has been used since the advent of "civilization" some 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.
In seeking a peoples-oriented history, new facts and circumstances often contradict the prevailing and "sacrosanct" story. Unfortunately, many of the attitudes uttered by white, Puritanical Pilgrims, founding fathers, and greedy civilian and military "leaders," remain insidiously and structurally operative. Overtly expressed as well as suppressed sentiments of racism and classism continue to dominate much of our personal and political lives. A question I often ask is, how can one nation of human beings so callously and thoughtlessly drop bombs on another nation of human beings, knowing that thousands will be murdered? Exceptional pathology, indeed! I believe such barbarism can only be explained by a deep cruel racism and/or ugly ethnocentrism operating as defense mechanisms that distract us from long-festering insecurities.
The American Way Of Life Is Not Negotiable
Behavior continually couched in terms of divinely blessed American exceptionalism is above reproach. When President George H.W. Bush attended the June 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (UN Conference on Sustainable Development), he resisted pleas of 152 leaders of other countries to make lasting changes that could ensure protection of the world on which all nations depend, boldly proclaiming "The American way of life is not negotiable."
George Kennan, director of US State Department's Policy Planning Staff, published a top-secret document in 1948 in which he shared an honest prescription for successful US imperial policy:
"…we have about 50 percent of the world's wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population… Our real task…is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity …. We should cease to talk about … unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization… [W]e are going to have to deal in straight power concepts."
Post-World War II US plans for global dominance (as opposed to what we were taught was a Soviet plan) are spelled out in National Security Council Report #68 (NSC-68), April 14, 1950, "United States Objectives for National Security." An ultimate declaration of US global "Manifest Destiny," NSC-68 formulated a worldview where leaders of the United States asserted their unique right and responsibility to impose their chosen "order among nations" so that "our free society can flourish," that US policy must "foster a fundamental change in the nature of the Soviet system." A global imperial policy was indispensable to "protect our belief in ourselves and our way of life." NSC-68 "imposes on us, in our own interests, the responsibility of world leadership" such that we must seek to "foster a world environment in which the American system can survive and flourish."
Following World War II, the US considered all political and economic sectors or regions of influence that it did not control as being a threat to its global objectives of an integrated political-economic capitalism, i.e., promotion and global spread of a grotesquely consumptive American Way Of Life (AWOL)
US Civilization Built Upon Three Exceptionally Diabolical Holocausts
Conveniently left out of the discussion is the fact that our civilization is founded on three holocausts (subsidies): (1) stealing land at gunpoint while murdering millions of Indigenous with impunity; (2) stealing "free" labor at gunpoint while murdering millions of Africans with impunity; (3) stealing global raw materials at gunpoint while murdering millions of people around the world with impunity during the "The American Century" (20th). Our systematic theft of land, labor and resources with no accountability has terribly spoiled us.
Exceptionally Unjust, Repressive and Narcissistic
We are exceptional – exceptionally violent, narcissistic and pathological. We are exceptionally consumptive and therefore exceptionally polluting, exceptionally deceitful and exceptionally imperial in order to preserve our sense of superiority at any cost.
The US is an exceptionally class-based society ruled by the 1 percent, ranking as the 42nd most unequal country in the world, per the CIA. Astonishingly, .1% (one-tenth of 1%, or 310,000 persons), have more combined pre-tax income than the poorest 120 million people combined. Social epidemiologists tell us that social health directly relates to scale of income inequality – how large the gap is between rich and poor. Inequitable societies such as the US tend to have exceptionally high rates of violent crime and homicide as residents experience increased hostility, and are less likely to trust one another in community.
Consequently, the US possesses an exceptional dependence upon incarceration, especially of its poor and ethnic minorities, such that more than 2.5 million citizens are imprisoned in more than 9,000 jails and prisons. The US holds 25 percent of the world's prisoners – boasting the world's highest per capita detention rate with 800 prisoners for every 100,000 people. Torture has also long been US policy. A 1931 government report concluded that use of torture was "widespread" throughout the entire U.S. criminal justice system and it remains an unspoken policy to this day.
Within our own borders, US military units, augmented by private vigilante groups, have violently intervened over 160 times on behalf of corporations putting down worker's demands for fair labor policies, despite laws prohibiting their use. Historians conclude the US has the "bloodiest and most violent labor history of any industrial nation in the world," with over 700 deaths and thousands of injuries before the 1930s.
Whites' fear of losing their indispensable subsidy provided by slavery and low-wage servitude, led to exceptionally grotesque violence against African Americans with thousands of lynching's, mutilations, and official executions in the 1800s and 1900s. Virtually every Black person living during that period experienced terror on a regular basis, and these scars remain searing to this day.
We Are the Savages – RX: Cleanse the Wool From Our Eyes
Thomas Jefferson's words in our Declaration of Independence – that [King George III] "has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an indistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions," describe precisely our behavior in Viet Nam, and in virtually all of our historical imperial crimes. Who are the real merciless savages? I submit that Jefferson had it backward, an example of psychologist Carl Jung's shadow concept describing performance of a kind of dishonest jujitsu projecting shameful inner demons onto others (demonizing) in efforts to avoid the pain of emotional honesty and personal intellectual accountability. In Viet Nam I discovered that I was one of the merciless savages.
Our exceptionally insatiable, addictive consumption is the domestic political energy driving our exceptionally imperial foreign policy, the latter being necessary to preserve our exceptional orgy of materialism. Our insistence on being "Number One" hides our exceptional national shame and fear of facing our genocidal origins, thus making us an exceptionally dangerous threat to the Planet. Our business remains killing, and business remains lucrative.
We can choose to become a humble and empathic society. Indeed, our survival as a world requires becoming exceptionally noble in caring and sharing. Or, we can stubbornly cling to our delusions of grandeur using dangerous defense mechanisms necessary to sustain them. My prescription for earnest truth seekers is to live more simply apprenticing in the art of becoming a revolutionary, while pursuing passionate justice and practicing brutal honesty. Such path would cleanse the wool from our eyes enabling a painful but refreshing recovery of our humanity.
This entry was written by brian, posted on at 6:23 pm, filed under Brian's Blog, Challenging Traditional Patriotism, The Most Dangerous of Rogue Nations: The United States. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
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