Am I alone in realizing that America is...well...over?
Take a good look around you. I know, I know, it will stop you from fist pumping like The Jersey Shore guys, and it will definitely distract you from figuring out whether it's really Miley Cyrus in those naked bathroom shots.
Oh, and it will probably interrupt your slacktivism when you're posting Sherman and Mr. Peabody as your profile picture on Facebook, to "stop child abuse". But when you stop....when you actually take a look around, you'll see that there's something very wrong going on here.
You know what? I'm glad I thought of that silly Facebook Slacktivist thing in my opener, because isn't that what all this complacency is about? Americans want to feel like they're doing something....without actually DOING SOMETHING!
I mean, that's what that whole thing about posting your favorite cartoon character to stop child abuse was, right?
It was much ado about nothing. It accomplished absolutely NOTHING in the way of stopping or protesting child abuse, because who was it for? Who was watching and counting? It was ridiculousness at it's very foundation.
Yet still, everyone jumped on the bandwagon.
And why?
Because they were told it was the right thing to do.
TSA screenings are also the right thing to do. At least in the name of "Security Theater". That's the term given to all of these new screenings and procedures, as coined by Bruce Schneier in his book Beyond Fear.
It's meaning is simple.....
NONE of what you're seeing is actually making us safer.
It's all "theater". It's all an illusion that we are being treated to, because all of these measures were put in place after a near catastrophe. These catastrophes were averted only because of terrorist failure, or passengers on planes attacking the perpetrator, but none ever stopped an attempt in it's tracks.
The terrorists, you see, are always a step ahead.
They were ahead on 9/11.
They were ahead with Richard Reed.
They were ahead with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
So this is a sort of closing of the barn door after the cow got out.
The "bad guys" are already planning around the security measures that do nothing but annoying the piss out of you, while violating your civil rights.
The only people affected by all of this....the only ones being interrogated, are the American air travelers who are simply trying to get to the new Wizarding World Of Harry Potter attractions at Universal Studios, FL. And you're picking THEM out as the problems, because as every stand up comic will tell you, in their hackiest of material, they only search the little old grandmothers and white people at the checkpoints, not the people who fit the "profile".
Profile!
Profile!
Profile!
Sorry, I just did that to make the easily offended go away. They HATE profiling, because... "it's like wrong to target people just because they have all the attributes of people who want to attack us, and well, who already DID attack us....and also keep telling us they are GOING to attack us again. I mean, that's just wrong! I mean, think how bad it makes them feel"
Probably not half as bad as I feel knowing that everyone is gonna get to see my hog, the next time I want to go on Splash Mountain.
Sorry, Muslim people. Sorry you have to own something because some of you are fucked up....but that's just the way it goes.
As a white man, I have to own the whole slavery thing from over a century ago, even though I come from a long line of derelicts who probably wanted to own slaves, but kept blowing all their cash on booze and whores.
I'm Irish...you know how it is.
But regardless of that very real reality....most black people who see me, probably assume that my ancestors owned slaves. Just like people today will now look at you, and assume you are part of a sleeper cell.
No one said life was fair.
But no one cares about all this. Family Guy reruns are on.
Let's see if you can pull away from that for a second.
Julian Assange of Wikileaks attempted to show everyone what was really going on behind the scenes. He showed us that all those politicians who claim to have "Main Street's best interest at heart", really have anything but. It showed us that the "they're all corrupt" whispers that we've heard all of our lives, are wholeheartedly true.
He showed us that we are aware of who attacked us on 9/11, and that those same people continue to fund the insurgency in Iraq, and these very same people, Saudi Arabia in case you didn't know, have ASKED us to invade Iran!
But Fox News told us Assange is a terrorist.
That he is putting the men and women of our military "in harm's way".
So, it MUST be true!
5,817
That number up there, is the number of American military lives lost in the Afghan and Iraqi theaters as of the time that I submitted this blog entry.
While, according to the Wikileaks cables, the American government knows that Saudi Arabian donators were behind the attacks that kicked this whole party off, 5,817 men and women have died elsewhere.
Why?
I don't know.....do you?
I just know there's no plan to bring them home, and they're still over there dying...as recently as December 5th.
So I ask you.....who put our men and women in harms way more?
1.) A Government that sent them into two wars with people that had no hand in the 9/11 terror attacks? A Government by the way, that was co-piloted by Dick Cheney, a man who's currently at the center of a $180 million dollar bribery scandal, circling around Halliburton, a company that has made billions off of said wars.
or
2.) A man who released "in house" documents that showed everyone the reality of those wars.
The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.
~Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson, in case you didn't know, was one of the Founding Fathers.
He was one of the framers of The Constitution that this Country was built upon.
5,817.
Since Wikileaks released their cables, 12 soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I haven't seen any evidence that Julian Assange was responsible for that....but he's still a wanted man for it.
Members of Dynacorp International, a U.S. Security contractor who are training Afghan police, and that draws almost all of it's 2 billion dollar annual contract from taxpayer money, aren't wanted though. Which is strange, considering that according to Wikileaks cables, they are known to be hosting Bacha Bazi parties in Afghanistan.
What's Bacha Bazi, you ask?
It's parties where young boys are bid on by wealthy businessmen for anal sex.
That doesn't seem right, does it?
I know, maybe telling what they did, is actually worse than what they've done!
That must be it, right?
Let's check on that......
Sec. 1.7. Classification Prohibitions and Limitations.
In no case shall information be classified, continue to be maintained as classified, or fail to be declassified in order to:
conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error;
prevent embarrassment to a person, organization, or agency; restrain competition; or
prevent or delay the release of information that does not require protection in the interest of the national security.
That's from Executive Order 13932, put in place by George W. Bush, on March 25, 2003.
Julian Assange is wanted for releasing information that show violations of law, inefficiency, and administrative error. Information that was embarrassing to people....especially Hillary Clinton....organizations and agencies.
But nevermind all that....Kim Kardashian and Gabriel Aubrey have called it quits!!!! OMG!!!!
No, like I'm TOTALLY serious! It's on the frontpage of Yahoo! right now!
(How else did you think I knew who Gabriel Aubrey was?....Kardashian you can't escape, if you live in America)
Do you think if we all change our Facebook profiles to pics of our favorite things to eat as a kid, Kim and Gabriel will get back together?
I hope so.
In the coming weeks, monitors will be placed in Walmarts, Hotels, and Shopping Malls, that feature messages from Homeland Security. These messages will remind you that "If you see something, say something", and then ask you to report others that you find suspicious to law enforcement.
The question is, what does Homeland Security now deem "suspicious"
Homeland Security recently seized over 70 web domains, without due process, and then recently placed actor Mark Ruffalo on a terror advisory list, for his participation in a documentary about natural gas drilling entitled "Gasland". In fairness, I could completely understand doing this to him for his participation in "Rumor Has It" with Jennifer Aniston, but not for a documentary.
In the 50's, Senator Joe McCarthy went after everyone that he believed to be "Communists". That was the word then...they didn't invent "Terrorists" yet, or something. "McCarthyism" is widely regarded as one of the most embarrassing ideologies in American history....yet here we are....again.
Just replace "Communist" with "Terrorist".
The placement of Mark Ruffalo on a terror advisory list simply because of his participation in a documentary, reminded me of all of The Hollywood Blacklist.
Rather than me explain it to you....just go here.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist
See how eerily similar it all is?
Eh, what can I say, people....the great America seems to be crumbling down around us, and no one seems to either care or notice, because Snooki has a new boyfriend.
You know, after all the Wikileaks stuff broke, I was reading the comments under an article on a U.K. based website regarding a poll that day that said MSNBC found that 70% of the American people felt that Julian Assange was a terrorist.
One of the posters said something to the effect of....
"Look at them! They now can SEE how corrupt their Government is, and they want the head of the man who showed them, instead of those responsible!!"
SHOOT THE MESSENGER!!!!
Fear is a motherfucker, isn't it?
Not as much as complacency though.
I'm gonna leave you with a quote from one of Senator Joe McCarthy's strongest critics, Edward R. Murrow.
Just change out certain words to make it more applicable to current day terminologies and watch how creepy it gets....you'll know the ones, I'm too tired to explain it to you.....besides, Man Vs. Food is on, and I've just completed my Slacktivism for the day!
"His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men.
We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it—and rather successfully"
~Edward R. Murrow
