Film: 'The End of America'

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule)... a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate most all aspects of public and private life wherever feasible. 

Totalitarian regimes stay in political power through an all-encompassing propaganda disseminated through controlled mass media, a political party marked by personality cultism, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of speech, and surveillance.

Can totalitarian rule really happen in America? Even worse, has the country already begun a shift towards Totalitarianism, not unlike Nazi Germany or Chile under Pinochet? If so, how can we know these dangers have arrived, and what can we do to combat hem? These are the questions Naomi Wolf proposes to answer in, The End of America. She presents a disturbing look at recent events in America's history and predictions for a possible future in which the democracy of America is slowly eroded away and replaced with a rising Totalitarianism.

Wolf explains her motivation was the fact she could no longer ignore the anti-democratic trends occurring in numerous segments of a formerly free America. Noticing these trends caused her to research the methods dictators used in the past to close down a society, and search for similarities between various regimes. She states, "I had to reread the stories of the making and the unmaking of freedom. The more I read these histories, the more disturbed I became." The product of her research is presented a set of ten steps all dictators take when attempting to shut an open society, and the bulk of the film is spent discussing these steps and how they have been taken in the past and how they are being taken now in America.

One only has to look around at books and newspaper articles being published in America on a weekly basis for examples of the profound fear this country has moved decisively in a direction that has as its conclusion a society completely closed down to the ideas of democracy.
The one most glaring difference between past dictatorial regimes and America is the fact, according to Wolf, we will not experience a dramatic event to herald the closing of democracy. "There will not be a coup in America like Mussolini's March on Rome or a dramatic massacre like Hitler's Night of the Long Knives," that will shock the society into submission and declare martial law.
This means that the shift to fascism would necessarily take much longer, as it is enacted out in a series of progressive steps and, presumably, could be slowed, stopped, or reversed.

The 10 steps dictators (or aspiring dictators) take in order to shut down an open society.

"Each of these steps is under way in the U.S. today."

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external threat...
People who are afraid are willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do.

2. Establish secret (unaccountable) prisons where torture takes place...
In a secret system, the government does not have to provide any proof of wrongdoing by those it holds, so it can incarcerate anyone it wants.

3. Develop a thug caste... a paramilitary force...
A private military force, under the exclusive direction of the “commander in chief” with no accountability to Congress, the courts, or the public, blurs the line between a civilian police force and a militarized police state.

4. Set up an internal surveillance system... surveil ordinary citizens...
People who believe they are being watched are less likely to voice opposition. To scare a population into silence, the government need only monitor the activities of a few to make everyone fear that they are being surveilled. Every closed society keeps a “list” of so-called opponents it tracks.

5. Harass and infiltrate citizen’s groups...
Spies in activist groups put psychological pressure on genuine activists by undermining their trust in one another. They may also disrupt legal activities, undermining the effectiveness of group efforts.

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release of ordinary citizens...
Detention intimidates or psychologically damages those arrested and also lets everyone know that anyone could be labeled an “enemy combatant” and “disappeared.”

7. Target key individuals...
People are less likely to speak out when those who are highly visible, like journalists, scholars, artists, or celebrities, are intimidated or have the livelihoods threatened. Targeting those who are especially visible makes it less likely that people will speak out and robs society of leaders and others who might inspire opposition.

8. Control and restrict the press...
The public is less likely to find out about government wrongdoing if the government can someway threaten anyone who publishes or broadcasts reports critical of the government.

9. Recast criticism as espionage and dissent as treason...
People who protest can be charged with terrorism or treason when laws criminalize or limit free speech rather than protect it.

10. Subvert and suspend the rule of law...
The disappearance of checks and balances makes it easier to declare martial law, especially if the judiciary branch continues to exercise authority over individuals but has no authority over the Executive branch.

As noted above, the vast majority of the film deals with the similarities between the current state of America in relation to these steps and various dictatorial regimes in the past. Many of the comparisons Wolf draws are timely and disturbing, especially as some of the very same tactics used by dictators in the past were described with the very same terms as are now being used ("war footing," the use of embedded journalists in the Iraq War). Also disturbing is the brazen way that the Bush administration took these steps in the open. Although the government has been involved in surveilling citizens (wiretapping during Watergate ), infiltrating citizen's groups (the FBI's COINTELPRO ), and developing a paramilitary force outside the control of Congress (the CIA), these were often secretive acts that were not meant to have light shed on them and were claimed to be stopped after being discovered.

Now, however, the government has either admitted openly to these acts, or simply lied about them in the face of evidence to the contrary; no efforts are made to discover the truth or protect citizens' rights. In fact, more of then ten steps are taken in response to the uncovering of other steps being taken, including suing and imprisoning journalists, labeling dissent as anti-American, and invoking the threat of terrorist strikes against the nation.
This is the difference that Wolf is concerned with in regards to the open shift in America towards the complete subversion of the rule of law. Formerly secret activities citizens would have voiced strident objections to are now committed in the open, with no regard to public opinion.

Another disturbing similarity Wolf points to is the progressive desensitization that occurs when a shift to Totalitarianism happens over time, instead of through sudden violence. The secret prisons and use of torture may originally be used only on suspected terrorists or "enemy combatants," who are plotting attacks against the nation. However, as the public gets over its aversion to torture, the definition of who is an "enemy combatant" or similarly hurting the nation becomes broader. In short order, those who expose government lies and corruption in the press are decided to be undermining the government and need to be imprisoned and tortured. Then, ordinary citizens who speak out against government policies may become subject to arbitrary detention or prolonged imprisonment.

It is in the end talking about "The Patriot's Task," that Wolf provides some final messages of hope that the country's moves towards the closing down of democracy can be reversed. Solutions are also presented, including the need to "hold house parties, set up town halls, convene our neighbors, pass out users' guides to the Constitution, overwhelm our representatives and the Presidential candidates with demands for them to restore the rule of law," as well as "stand up directly to confront those who have committed crimes against the Constitution, and hold them accountable."
As the crimes against the Constitution have been numerous, and accountability has been lacking, it is uncertain how practical these suggestions may be, but neighbors and communities can come together over their disillusionment with the current state of American politics.

In this way, community solutions can be established, including ways to take power back from the government, such as establishing local currencies, making investments in local businesses instead of large corporations that receive huge government contracts and tax breaks, and sustainable methods of keeping small localities open and democratic. Even as citizens work towards reopening the government (a goal whose achievement is doubtful), they can disengage from these same establishments until they are reopened or recreated, and engage in the more productive work of creating sustainable solutions.

It's an important little film.. all Americans should watch it and be made aware of the potential for the worst that could happen.

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"... nothing frightens a militaristic state more than the power of nonviolent action."

Netflix: The End of America

Climate Change... Bad and Getting MUCH Worse...

Central China recently experienced its' worst drought in more than 50 years. Regional authorities have declared more than 1,300 lakes 'dead', meaning they are out of use for both irrigation and drinking water supply. The rate of ice loss in two of Greenland's largest glaciers has increased so much in the last 10 years the amount of melted water would be enough to completely fill Lake Erie. West Texas is currently undergoing its worst drought since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Floods have struck Eastern and Southern China, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands, followed by severe flooding that again hit Eastern China, displacing or otherwise affecting five million people.

Ten million people in the Horn of Africa have been hit by the worst drought in 60 years, with some areas on the verge of famine and thousands on the march in search of food and water. A poor rainy season coupled with rising food prices have led to severe food shortages in countries including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda. Cattle and sheep are dying at higher rates than usual, reaching up to 60 percent of mortality in some areas.  Food prices are soaring with grain prices in some parts of Kenya up to 80% higher than the five year average, while in Ethiopia, the consumer price index jumped about 41 percent.  As a result, malnutrition rates are also rising.

Pollution and global warming are pushing the world's oceans to the brink of a mass extinction of marine life unseen for tens of millions of years.  All five mass extinctions of life on the planet, reaching back more than 500 million years, were preceded by many of the same conditions now afflicted the ocean environment. Three main drivers are sickening the global marine environment, and all are a direct consequence of humans activity: global warming, acidification and a dwindling level oxygen, a condition known as hypoxia.  "We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime."
The ocean is a living system that makes our lives possible... our lives depends on its' existence. With every breath we take, every drop of water we drink, we are connected to the sea. 
If the oceans are in trouble... and no doubt they are... we are all in trouble.

Atmospheric levels of CO2 are now *394.35ppm (in 1955 they were less than *320ppm)....in the past decade, 47% of CO2 emissions accumulated in the atmosphere, 27% were absorbed by land and 26% were absorbed by the ocean. Upper safety limits for atmospheric CO2 is *350ppm (levels have continued rising and stayed higher than *350 ppm since early 1988). Transport is the second leading source of CO2 emissions, yet the number of cars and light trucks globally is projected to triple by 2050. *When we reach 450ppm, we will arrive at a critical threshold beyond which catastrophic and  irreversible change will occur.

Scientific research confirms that, so far, humankind has raised the Earth's temperature one degree Celsius, and a much greater rise is to come.  If you had a satellite view of the planet in summer, there is about 40% less ice in the Arctic than when Apollo 8 in 1968 first sent back those photos of Earth. Oceans are 30% more acidic than just 40 years ago.
Climatologists tell us unless we get off gas, coal, and oil, that number will be four to five degrees before the end of this century. If one degree is enough to melt the Arctic, we'd be best not to hit four degrees!

There will be more common events like the 30,000 - 50,000 people who died in Europe in 2003 due to the heat wave there. Increasing temperatures also cause more air pollution, due to photochemical reactions that increase with higher temperatures. This will cause more morbidity and mortality from pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases.

Populations will be much more 'on the move' as food and water production is threatened.. these so-called 'environmental refugees' will be in increasingly greater numbers than the world has already seen. Diseases that have yet to arise will begin to develop as the planet continues warming. The biggest threat is the disease we're not yet expecting, but that will develop and we'll be ill equipped to handle.

As fancy as our technology is, we still cannot live without clean water, air, and food, and we rely on our environment for these. Climate change is the most health-damaging problem humanity has ever faced. With extreme weather events increasing in intensity and continuing around the world, there are huge health effects which will persist.
Every degree increase in temperature decreases the wheat harvest by 10%. Food cost has increased between 70 and 80% in the last year for basic grains. For millions around the world, they are already affected by not having enough.

Another important factor contributing to climate change is global overpopulation. The UN has set October 31 of this year as the date the Earth's population is expected to surpass seven billion people... and the world's population is growing by roughly 80 million people per year. At current rates, the world's population is on a trajectory to double in 49 years.
We have 225,000 people at the dinner table tonight who weren't there last night, so to maintain our current population we're already over-pumping underground aquifers. India is over-pumping, and we have over 100 million people in India dependent on over-pumping, so this can't be sustained. And climate change is making this all even more untenable, as the glaciers in the Himalayas that provide water for India and China are melting rapidly.

Unpublished estimates from the International Energy Agency (IEA) recently revealed that greenhouse gas emissions increased by a record amount last year to the highest carbon output in history, despite the most serious economic recession in 80 years. This means the aim of holding global temperatures to safe levels are now all but out of reach. The goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than two degrees Celsius, which scientists say is the threshold for potentially 'dangerous climate change' is now most likely just 'a nice Utopia.'

Population is the multiplier of everything else... climate change cannot adequately be addressed until the overpopulation problem is solved.

There is also the problem of extreme biodiversity loss. The key issue is the large populations of plants and animals that make the planet inhabitable. We need oxygen to breathe and water to drink. A three billion year evolution of plants and animals have made the planet habitable, and we are systematically destroying this biodiversity by plowing, cutting, and burning areas.

All of this together means the future of humanity, even with assumed innovation, has some very serious concerns. None of these problems are made easier by adding more people. The only way to achieve sustainability is to hold population growth, and have it decline. Everybody should be adopting an emergency response geared towards ending our reliance on fossil fuels.

We're not hearing this as dramatically in our 'controlled' MSM (main stream media). We SHOULD because it is as dangerous as hell... and I'll bet LOTS that it ain't going to take till the end of the century to get there.. (we'd be lucky if it isn't by the end of the next decade!!).

We should all be increasingly concerned about what the future has in store for us if climate change continues unabated, as it currently appears to be doing, given that most governments continue to fail to implement an actionable plan to avert it, as corporate interests restrict action.
People think technology is going to save us from climate change, but there is no technology on the horizon that will allow us to adapt ourselves out of this terrible mess. We can physiologically adapt to higher temperatures, but all that adaptation is not going to save us unless we also get the climate stabilized.

As long as our governments won't stand up to all the corporate powers in the fossil fuel industry, we must all fear the long road ahead of us.  As climate change continues unabated, this planet will not be habitable by most all the species that are on it, including humans. It will be a very different planet... one that is not very conducive to human life.

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... of all huge issues today... this one terrifies MOST... (none other come close)...
given some time, we could handle each of them ...this one is the real deal for all the marbles...  
...we gotta stop f-n around with this!!

Climate Change: It's Bad and Getting Worse | Common Dreams

Drug cartels tighten grip; Mexico... 'narco-state'

"There are pockets of ungovernability... and they will expand."

Mexico updates four years of drug war deaths to more than 42,000

The government indicates the new figures shows the vast majority of those killed are suspected gang members, killed in turf wars between rival gangs. Detailed reports of interviews with those who have lost loved ones.. shows this is far from the truth.

It is extremely dangerous for the U.S. to have such an important neighbor in such a state of chaos... they are on the brink of losing an entire nation to continued and escalating violence...

AJ's FaultLines... Mexico's Hidden War

Drug cartels tighten grip; Mexico becoming 'narco-state'

Distressed oceans foreshadow mass extinction...

Absolutely incredible to think we will have made this all happen in such a relatively short period of time... the span of really less than a hundred years.  We've known this day would be coming...  yet we've brought ourselves to a point that we are powerless to be able to act to prevent it.

It's becoming more evident that even should we have a remarkable change of heart, we're not going to have enough time to be able to do very much about changing direction.  And eventually nature is going to take over, as its' starting to do now, and will bring 'balance' back to the system... but our lives and our role on the planet will be altered beyond belief.

"When we stopped noticing Earth, we began to destroy it." 
It's a hard sell... people just don't want to contemplate it... they don't want to deal with it.. to listen.
We now continue to make planet altering mistakes... leaving us heading into oblivion... 

Distressed oceans foreshadow mass extinction...

"Much worse than you think."

Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind.... the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively.

Fuels are now a molten blob at the bottom of the reactor... that blob is incredibly radioactive, and now you have water on top of it. The water picks up enormous amounts of radiation, so you add more water and you are generating hundreds of thousands of tons of highly radioactive water.

... 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl... data shows hot spots further away than from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl.

... an area roughly 17 times the size of Manhattan - is now likely uninhabitable.

In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant. The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster.

Far more radiation has been released than has been reported. They recalculated the amount of radiation released, but the news is really not talking about this. The new calculations show within the first week of the accident, they released 2.3 times as much radiation as they thought they released in the first 80 days, and the exposed reactors and fuel cores are continuing to release microns of caesium, strontium, and plutonium isotopes... referred to as "hot particles."

Hot particles are being discovered by scientists everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo... over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters. Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and radioactive air filters are being discovered in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.

The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer... these get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant... these [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can't measure them with a Geiger counter. Clearly people in Fukushima prefecture have breathed in a large amount of these particles. Clearly the upper West Coast of the US has people being affected. That area got hit pretty heavy in April.
Why have alarms not been sounded about radiation exposure in the US? Nuclear operator Exelon Corporation has been among Barack Obama's biggest campaign donors, and is one of the largest employers in Illinois where Obama was senator. Exelon has donated more than $269,000 to his political campaigns, thus far. Obama also appointed Exelon CEO John Rowe to his Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.
Assessment of solving this crisis is grim... units one through three have nuclear waste on the floor, the melted core, has plutonium in it, and that has to be removed from the environment for hundreds of thousands of years. Somehow, robotically, they will have to go in there and manage to put it in a container and store it for infinity, and that technology doesn't exist. Nobody knows how to pick up the molten core from the floor, there is no solution available now for picking that up from the floor.
The creation of nuclear fission generates radioactive materials for which there is simply no knowledge informing us how to dispose of the radioactive waste safely. Until we know how to safely dispose of the radioactive materials generated by nuclear plants, we should postpone these activities so as not to cause further harm to future generations... to do otherwise is simply an immoral act.
It will take experts at least ten years to design and implement a plan... so ten to 15 years from now maybe we can say the reactors have been dismantled, and in the meantime you wind up contaminating the water... we are already seeing Strontium [at] 250 times the allowable limits in the water table at Fukushima. Contaminated water tables are incredibly difficult to clean. So we will have a contaminated aquifer in the area of the Fukushima site for a long, long time to come.
Unfortunately, the history of nuclear disasters appears to back the assessment... with Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, and now with Fukushima, you can pinpoint the exact day and time they started... but they never end.


Fukushima: It's much worse than you think - Features - Al Jazeera English

... take 5: Moab, UT

The Moab, UT area is a place we had been wanting to visit for some time...

... this here was just a slideshow preview... the actual trip pix link is further down...

click-on to view 1 min slideshow

We spent the most time visiting Arches National Park... and Canyonlands National Park... and Dead Horse Point State Park... but we did stop by Canyon Reef National Park and Grand Staircase/ Escalate... and Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks... quite a journey in just a few days.

Will stayed several nights at the Red Cliffs Lodge just outside of Moab on Highway 128... and at Cable Mountain Lodge in Springdale, UT.

Here's the Photo-Show link to see pix from this trip...

...be sure and click on the full screen tab for best viewing... 
...and have sound on (using ear-buds or a head-set is best)...

National & State Parks - Utah - June 2011

These parks are some of the most spectacular anywhere in the world... hope you enjoy some of the pix... thought a few came out pretty neat.. (nature doesn't let ya down).

In a heartbeat, ready to go again... anyone interested?
AOL... TTYAS... BJ & Bern

If Americans Don't Want Services Cut, Then Raise Taxes on the Rich and End the Wars

No services need to be cut...
...if the exceptionally wealthy and corporations were made to pay their fair share in taxes...
...if all tax loopholes were eliminated...
...if we were to end all these 'for profit' wars...
...and the huge MIC was brought under control by eliminating a majority of our overseas 'empire' bases that are now in most ever country in the world.

But the fight to do any of these things will be extremely difficult, as those powerful individuals that would be affected will be putting up one hell of a fight to keep what they've got, and they have all the money necessary to buy the influence they need to keep the status quo.

It does not look promising, but that's not to say you shouldn't be continually contacting the President, Congress, and Senators letting your thoughts be known.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

• Contact the White House

• Contact Your Local Politicians

Dear Mr. President.. Congressman.. Senator,
When is it that the very rich and corporations are going to have all their special tax loopholes eliminated so they can start paying their fare share in taxes.
And when are we going to stop trying to be an empire... lets end these wars are close down the majority of all the thousands of military bases we now have overseas.

We have precious little time left before it will be too late. Your support and actions in these matters are critical to the future of our country.

Respectfully,




If Americans Don't Want Services Cut, Then Raise Taxes on the Rich and End the Wars | BuzzFlash.org

Gmail Response - Re: Tinian Island email

War should never be glorified in any way...
...and in war the innocent are always the most victimized.

We now make war a global business... and from all appearances will continue non-stop to chase the obscene profits being generated until something comes out of nowhere to prevent it.


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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: BJ Arias
Date: Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Tinian Island
To: Unnamed recipient


Once you go and visit the museums in both cities, standing right alongside the people of Japan, evidencing what in actuality took place there... it fully strikes home that this was (as described in the email below) as far from an act of 'humanitarianism' as could be in any way possible.

Massacring hundreds of thousands of civilians - women, children, the sick and the aged.. (all that remained in these cities, after all the men were off fighting the war)... many believed was completely morally reprehensible... and in fact truly unnecessary.

• Dwight Eisenhower writing in his memoir 'The White House Years' states:

"In 1945 Secretary of War Stimson, visiting my headquarters in Germany, informed me that our government was preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. I was one who felt there were a number of cogent reasons to question the wisdom of such an act. During his recitation of the relevant facts, I had been conscious of a feeling of depression, and so I voiced to him my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives."

And in an interview for Newsweek Eisenhower states;
"...the Japanese were ready to surrender... it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing."


There were many other high level U.S. military officers and officials who disagreed with the necessity of the bombings, they included:

• -General of the Army Douglas MacArthur,

MacArthur's views about the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were starkly different from what the general public supposed. When asked about the decision to drop the bomb, all were surprised to learn he had not even been consulted. When asked what would his advice have been? He replied he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The war might have ended weeks earlier, he said, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the institution of the emperor."

• -Brigadier General Carter Clarke (the military intelligence officer who prepared intercepted Japanese cables for U.S. officials)

"...when we didn't need to do it, and we knew we didn't need to do it, and they knew that we knew we didn't need to do it... we used them as an experiment for two atomic bombs."

• -Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet.

"The Japanese had, in fact, already sued for peace. The atomic bomb played no decisive part, from a purely military point of view, in the defeat of Japan."

• -Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to President Truman....

"It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons... The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."

• -Herbert Hoover

"...the Japanese were prepared to negotiate all the way from February 1945...up to and before the time the atomic bombs were dropped; ...if such leads had been followed up, there would have been no occasion to drop the [atomic] bombs."
"Use of the bomb had besmirched America's reputation, he [Hoover] told friends. It ought to have been described in graphic terms before being flung out into the sky over Japan."


And there are numerous others that had made similar statements, indicating it was totally unnecessry to drop the bombs to end the war.


Historical accounts indicate that the decision to use the atomic bombs was made in order to provoke an early surrender of Japan by use of an awe-inspiring power. These observations have caused some commentators to state that the incident was an act of "war terrorism".
Michael Walzer wrote,
"... And, finally, there is war terrorism: the effort to kill civilians in such large numbers that their government is forced to surrender. Hiroshima seems to me the classic case."

The second atomic bombing, on Nagasaki, coming only three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, when the devastation at Hiroshima had yet to be fully comprehended by the Japanese... the lack of time between the bombings has led some historians to state that the second bombing was...
"certainly totally unnecessary"... "gratuitous at best and genocidal at worst."


And many believe it was an act of supreme racism and dehumanization:

Historian James J. Weingartner sees a connection between the American mutilation of Japanese war dead and the bombings. According to Weingartner both were partially the result of a dehumanization of the enemy.
"The widespread image of the Japanese as sub-human constituted an emotional context which provided another justification for decisions which resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands."
On the second day after the Nagasaki bomb, Truman stated:
"The only language they seem to understand is the one we have been using to bombard them. When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him like a beast."


Developing and using these weapons of mass destruction set us off on a very undesirable path. Now there are tens of thousands of them (of even greater destructive power) spread around the world, and the list of nations in control of them is constantly growing.
(Forget about Iran... Pakistan should be scaring us all to wits end.)

There's a real moral delima with a 'whatever it takes' attitude when it comes to war... we've been fortunate that so far the US has had limited 'direct' involvement when it comes to acts of devastation of the magnitude inflicted on these two cities.

That might well change very quickly, and our cities and populations will be on the receiving end of the tragedy... making 9/11 look inconsequential in comparison.






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On Wed, Jun 1, 2011 at 11:55 AM, > wrote:

I found this very interesting. After reading this I looked at these islands on bing maps to see what they both look like now.

WW II Pacific theater history follows.

Tinian Island, Pacific Ocean.

It's a small island, less than 40 square miles, a flat green Dot in the vastness of Pacific blue.

Fly over it and you notice a slash across its north end of uninhabited bush, a long thin linethat looks like an overgrown dirt runway. If you didn't know what it was, you wouldn't give it a second glance out your airplane window.





On the ground, you see the runway isn't dirt but tarmac and crushed limestone, abandoned with weeds sticking out of it. Yet this is arguably the most historical airstrip on earth. This is where World War II was won. This is Runway Able:


On July 24, 1944, 30,000 US Marines landed on the beaches of Tinian .... Eight days later, over 8,000 of the 8,800 Japanese soldiers on the island were dead (vs. 328 Marines), and four months later the Seabees had built the busiest airfield of WWII - dubbed North Field - enabling B-29 Superfortresses to launch air attacks on the Philippines, Okinawa, and mainland Japan.

Late in the afternoon of August 5, 1945, a B-29 was maneuvered over a bomb loading pit, then after lengthy preparations, taxied to the east end of North Field's main runway, Runway Able, and at 2:45am in the early morning darkness of August 6, took off.

The B-29 was piloted by Col. Paul Tibbets of the US Army Air Force, who had named the plane after his mother, Enola Gay. The crew named the bomb they were carrying Little Boy. 6 hours later at 8:15am Japan time, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima .

Three days later, in the pre-dawn hours of August 9, a B-29 named Bockscar (a pun on "boxcar" after its flight commander Capt. Fred Bock), piloted by Major Charles Sweeney took off from Runway Able. Finding its primary target of Kokura obscured by clouds, Sweeney proceeded to the secondary target of Nagasaki, over which, at 11:01am, bombardier Kermit Beahan released the atomic bomb dubbed Fat Man.

Here is "Atomic Bomb Pit #1" where Little Boy was loaded onto Enola Gay:



There are pictures displayed in the pit, now glass-enclosed. This one shows Little Boy being hoisted into Enola Gay's bomb bay.



And here on the other side of ramp is "Atomic Bomb Pit #2" where Fat Man was loaded onto Bockscar.








The commemorative plaque records that 16 hours after the nuking of Nagasaki , "On August 10, 1945 at 0300, the Japanese Emperor without his cabinet's consent decided to end the Pacific War."

Take a good look at these pictures, folks. This is where World War II ended with total victory of America over Japan . I was there all alone. There were no other visitors and no one lives anywhere near for miles. Visiting the Bomb Pits, walking along deserted Runway Able in solitude, was a moment of extraordinarily powerful solemnity.

It was a moment of deep reflection. Most people, when they think of Hiroshima andNagasaki , reflect on the numbers of lives killed in the nuclear blasts - at least 70,000 and 50,000 respectively. Being here caused me to reflect on the number of lives saved - how many more Japanese and Americans would have died in a continuation of the war had the nukes not been dropped.

Yet that was not all. It's not just that the nukes obviated the US invasion of Japan , Operation Downfall, that would have caused upwards of a million American and Japanese deaths or more. It's that nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki were of extraordinary humanitarian benefit to the nation and people of Japan .

Let's go to this cliff on the nearby island of Saipan to learn why:


Saipan is less than a mile north of Tinian .... The month before the Marines took Tinian, on June 15, 1944, 71,000 Marines landed on Saipan .... They faced 31,000 Japanese soldiers determined not to surrender.

Japan had colonized Saipan after World War I and turned the island into a giant sugar cane plantation. By the time of the Marine invasion, in addition to the 31,000 entrenched soldiers, some 25,000 Japanese settlers were living on Saipan, plus thousands more Okinawans, Koreans, and native islanders brutalized as slaves to cut the sugar cane.

There were also one or two thousand Korean "comfort women" (kanji in Japanese), abducted young women from Japan 'S colony of Korea to service the Japanese soldiers as sex slaves. (See The Comfort Women: Japan 'S Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War, by George Hicks.)

Within a week of their landing, the Marines set up a civilian prisoner encampment that quickly attracted a couple thousand Japanese and others wanting US food and protection. When word of this reached Emperor Hirohito - who contrary to the myth was in full charge of the war - he became alarmed that radio interviews of the well-treated prisoners broadcast to Japan would subvert his people's will to fight.

As meticulously documented by historian Herbert Bix in Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, the Emperor issued an order for all Japanese civilians on Saipan to commit suicide. The order included the promise that, although the civilians were of low caste, their suicide would grant them a status in heaven equal to those honored soldiers who died in combat for their Emperor.

And that is why the precipice in the picture above is known as Suicide Cliff, off which over 20,000 Japanese civilians jumped to their deaths to comply with their fascist emperor's desire - mothers flinging their babies off the cliff first or in their arms as they jumped.

Anyone reluctant or refused, such as the Okinawan or Korean slaves, were shoved off at gunpoint by the Jap soldiers. Then the soldiers themselves proceeded to hurl themselves into the ocean to drown off a sea cliff afterwards called Banzai Cliff. Of the 31,000 Japanese soldiers on Saipan , the Marines killed 25,000, 5,000 jumped off Banzai Cliff, and only the remaining thousand were taken prisoner.

The extent of this demented fanaticism is very hard for any civilized mind to fathom - especially when it is devoted not to anything noble but barbarian evil instead. The vast brutalities inflicted by the Japanese on their conquered and colonized peoples of China ,Korea , the Philippines , and throughout their "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" was a hideously depraved horror.

And they were willing to fight to the death to defend it. So they had to be nuked. The only way to put an end to the Japanese barbarian horror was unimaginably colossal destruction against which they had no defense whatever. Nuking Japan was not a matter of justice, revenge, or it getting what it deserved. It was the only way to end the Japanese dementia.

And it worked - for the Japanese. They stopped being barbarians and started being civilized. They achieved more prosperity - and peace - than they ever knew, or could have achieved had they continued fighting and not been nuked. The shock of getting nuked is responsible.

We achieved this because we were determined to achieve victory. Victory without apologies. Despite perennial demands we do so, America and its government has never apologized for nuking Japan ... Hopefully, America never will.




Oh, yes... Guinness lists Saipan as having the best, most equitable, weather in the world. And the beaches? Well, take a look:



I find e-mails such as this one just plain fascinating. Although we do not forget, history fades into the shadows of our mind and we seldom think about it. But, we should remember and we should be constantly reminded of our history, where we came from and how we got here. Kind of interesting.

--
_____________________________________________________

Gmail - Fw: Tinian Island - bjarias@gmail.com

Situation In Pakistan Exceedingly Dangerous

The very dangerous situation in Pakistan grows worse by the day. There are currently nine nations with nuclear weapons, but this one is on the verge of collapse... anything can happen.

Working in the journalism field has become one of the most dangerous of occupations. Many journalists put their life on the line every day when reporting stories that those powerful do not want known... CPJ - Reported Deaths

In Iran alone, according to the international media group Reporters Without Borders, between 2009-2010 at least 170 journalists and bloggers were arrested in Iran with sentences totaling more than 135 years. The group has ranked Iran alongside China as the worlds biggest prison for journalists. Other Iranian writers and journalists living in exile have received death threats from intelligence agencies. The government has even sentenced those who have sent text messages to their friends.

In Pakistan, Asia Times Pakistan Bureau Chief and The Real News Network contributor Syed Saleem Shahzad was found murdered in Islamabad on Tuesday. Shahzad just recently reporting on splits in the Pakistan military over support for al Qaeda. This last report from just a few days ago in all probability was the reason for his murder. 

Despite the prevention of free press by governments, journalists throughout the world are still striving to report objective news. But it is becoming exceedingly more difficult and dangerous for them, and the use of traditional media has resultingly begun to take a back seat to alternative methods of journalism such as blogging. 

This is an important and huge loss for the world, as voices like Shahzad's are increasingly and desperately needed in the world today, and every time one is silenced, the world takes another  step closer towards darkness.

-Follow up TRNN report on Shahazd's murder.

Splits in Pakistan's Military Over New Agreement to Cooperate with US

New 3-D Map of the Universe

Currently the most exact map of our universe up to a distance of 380 million light-years away from Earth. At Space.com, the map shows all visible structures out to about 380 million light-years, which includes about 45,000 of our neighboring galaxies.
The diameter of the observable universe is at least 93 billion light years or 8.80×1026.  The diameter of the Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across.

The universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all physical matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space.
According to general relativity, space can expand faster than the speed of light, although we can view only a small portion of the universe due to the limitation imposed by light speed. Since we cannot observe space beyond the limitations of light (or any electromagnetic radiation), it is uncertain whether the size of the universe is finite or infinite.

The 3-D map, constructed with the help of U.S. and Chilean telescopes, 

represents 10 years of research by the scientists.

click to enlarge

There are more than 170 billion (1.7 × 10¹¹) galaxies in the observable universe. Most galaxies are 1,000 to 100,000 parsecs (a parsec is 3.26 light years) in diameter and are usually separated by distances on the order of millions of parsecs (or megaparsecs).
Although it is not yet well understood, dark matter appears to account for around 90% of the mass of most galaxies.

Typical galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million (10⁷) stars, up to giants with a hundred trillion (10¹⁴) stars, all orbiting the galaxy's center of mass. Galaxies may contain many star systems, star clusters, and various interstellar clouds.
The Sun is one of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy; the Solar System includes the Earth and all the other objects that orbit the Sun.

Puts it in perspective doesn't it... kinda lets us know how really inconsequential in the scheme of things we are.



New 3-D map of the universe revealed | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Year Five...

"The largest corporations and richest citizens long ago learned if you want to sustain an extremely unequal distribution of wealth and income, you need an equally unequal distribution of political power. Those corporations use their profits to pay huge salaries and bonuses to executives, to pay big dividends to major shareholders, and to “contribute” to politics. The corporations, top executives, and the major shareholders whom they enrich all regularly finance the political campaigns and politicians who perform that sustaining function. An increasingly unequal capitalist economy pays for the increasingly undemocratic politics it needs.

Any serious effort to change the basic situation, functions and direction of government policy must change the answer our society now gives to this basic question: who gets and disposes of the profits of producing goods and services in the US economy?
So long as the answer remains corporations’ boards of directors and major shareholders (the status quo), current trends will continue until bigger economic collapses bring the system to self-destruction. Then we will have graduated from a crisis with banks “too big to fail” to a crisis that is itself “too big to overcome.”

Does our economic system, capitalism, serve our needs sufficiently; does it need basic changes; or might a change to another economic system be best? Instead of a debate over alternative answers to such questions, we permitted little beyond self-congratulatory cheer-leading for capitalism. Seriously questioning capitalism (let alone challenging it) remain taboo, an activity to keep repressed. That repression encourages an unquestioned and unchecked US capitalism to become ever more unequal, delivering more “bads” than “goods” to ever larger majorities of people.
This unsustainable situation is being strained toward the breaking point by the crisis that now enters Year Five."


The Crisis Enters Year Five

99ers and Long-term Unemployed... Elephants in the Economic Recovery Room

Irrespective of what we presently hear from mainstream media and most politicians... we really don't turn the corner until meaningful reductions take place in the ranks of the long term unemployed.

• Only 66.8% of American men had a job last year.  That was the lowest level that has ever been recorded in all of U.S. history.

• According to the Wall Street Journal, there are 5.5 million Americans that are currently unemployed and yet are not receiving unemployment benefits.

• The number of "low income jobs" in the U.S. has risen steadily over the past 30 years and they now account for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States.

• According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of about 5 million Americans were being hired every single month during 2006.  Today, an average of about 3.5 million Americans are being hired every single month.

• When 2007 began, there were about 26 million Americans on food stamps.  Today, there are over 44 million on food stamps, and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

• 59 percent of all Americans now receive money from the federal government in one form or another.

I just recently came across 'The Layoff List' blog-site. Started to highlight the employment picture and to list layoff announcements, but evolved to include personal stories of the unemployed, government employment data and economic commentary.

It's designed to be informative about the plight of the unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed... and for 2.5 years it has been dedicated to those who have suffered the most during this Great Recession.

You can subscribe and receive updates, and all support will help it continue its work for the jobless and disadvantaged.

99ers and the Long-term Unemployed - Elephants in the Economic Recovery Room

Reality Show Sponsored by Wall Street - GS Lies to Customers & Congress

There are three videos posted here. What they present reflects a very daunting challenge for our country and the world.

Take the time to watch them, altogether less than an hour in length.

- Reality Show Sponsored by Wall Street

 

- Roundtable on Sustainable Development

 

- The World As It Is

We have in this country the ability to get back on the right track, but do we have the popular will & support essential to do so.

Maybe it will happen as more people respond and take to the streets, but we now live with a different opposition than in times past, and there are many more formidable obstacles to overcome.

All we must know is that it will not happen until a much larger percentage of the population awakens and begins to realize what is truly happening... and what will be needed to enact meaningful change.



Reality Show Sponsored by Wall Street - GS Lies to Customers & Congress

DU Deformed Babies in Fallujah

"2 1/2 million pounds of depleted uranium weaponry was used to bomb Fallujah, causing beyond alarming numbers of deformed babies, miscarriages, and cancer, in a place where there are scant medical supplies and no new hospitals since 1986. Some U.S. soldiers who served in Fallujah also reported having deformed infants...  AN UNDER-REPORTED TERRIBLE CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY."

How is it possible any government can ignore, rationalize, and justify this... 
... dropping 'WMM's"** on innocent people... uranium dust which emits alpha radiation and has a half life of over four billion years!
Especially one claiming moral high ground, and extolling democratic superiority... 

... once again... it's ALL ABOUT THE MONEY...  "...price of DU increased 10-fold, creating a huge multi-billion dollar industry."

The US is the largest single user of depleted uranium (DU) weaponry... and it is also the largest seller and exporter of DU weapon technology in the world.

And it begins once again... in the name of 'protecting civilians' in Libya. 

How are civilians being 'protected' by dusting them with DU? 


How can we continue to accept this being done to any population, by the government's declaration it is someway justifiable.. 
...and exculpating those in charge, who so readily acquiesce to these extreme injustices, possibly by believing them somehow reformable?

...  we must honestly ask ourselves... 

...how would we feel about America, if this were our country...

**WMM - Weapons of Mass Mutilation... depleted uranium (DU*), and white phosphorous munitions.

* The DU name is conveniently misleading. According to the military, DU is a “mild health risk” outside of the human body... this is what soldiers and pilots are told. What is generally ignored, however, is what happens when the dust enters the body. By drinking, eating or breathing it in, DU radiation severely damages bone marrow and cellular chromosomes by internally emitting sub-atomic “bullets” known as alpha particles. This causes lung, lymph and brain cancers as well as mutagenic effects such as unusually high rates of leukemia and fetal radiation damage that cause grotesque birth defects. Uranium contamination also permanently impairs kidney, heart and liver function.

Deformed babies in Fallujah Iraq - Fighting for Liberty

Fukushima's Apocalyptic Threat

After two months of all-out effort, four reactors and at least that many spent fuel pools remain at risk. Levels of radiation in Tokyo, nearly 200 miles away, have risen... fallout has been detected in North America and throughout Europe.

Radiation continues pouring into the sea and is spreading worldwide.
Yet the Obama Administration has announced it will NOT be radiation monitoring of seafood in the Pacific... and is not providing reliable, systematic radiological or medical data on fallout coming to the United States.

We may all be in unprecedented danger.
But true to corporate loyalties, our media blackout is virtually complete... out of sight, out of mind appears to be the strategy for an industry desperate for federal loan guarantees and continued operation of a rickety fleet of decaying old reactors. Critical valve failures that contributed to the Fukushima disaster are likely at numerous US reactors.

For a brief but terrifying overview, consult Dr. Chris Busby as interviewed by RT/TV.

Our survival depends on stopping Fukushima from further irradiating us all.
ALL the world's governments must now go beyond denial, to focus on somehow bringing Fukushima under control.
With all needed resources, it's time for the world's best scientists and engineers to take charge...

... even then the outcome is most disturbingly unclear.

Fukushima's Apocalyptic Threat Demands Immediate Global Action | Common Dreams

Extreme Inequality A Clear And Present Danger To Middle Class And Country

America and the World's biggest cancer... and getting worse.

We're Not Broke, Just Twisted: Extreme Wealth Inequality 

Inequality In America Is Worse Than In Egypt, Tunisia Or Yemen

Egyptian, Tunisian and Yemeni protesters all say that inequality is one of the main reasons they're protesting.
However, the U.S. actually has much greater inequality than in any of those countries.
Specifically, the "Gini Coefficient" - the figure economists use to measure inequality - is higher in the U.S.

'Americans vastly underestimate the degree of wealth inequality 
in America, and believe distribution should be 
far more equitable than it actually is.'


inequality.org
(subscribe) 

Political Truths: America’s Extreme Inequality A Clear And Present Danger To Middle Class And Country

Double-Digit Trillions and Counting

 A PBS Frontline special from 2009.. still worth watching.

Ten Trillion two years ago... now over 14 Trillion...

...(just shy of the entire US GDP!!... $130k per taxpayer!!)

A program that everyone needs to see if the search for solutions is ever going to get beyond simplistic, accusatory catchphrases at times passing for economic policy debate in government.

Yea, Obama inherited lots of it... the federal government had already been borrowing huge numbers, and now, as the only entity big enough to revive the gasping economy, it has had to borrow much more.
The “starve the beast” economic philosophy, keep taxes low so government spending will automatically be kept low for lack of money, was a disaster, and ran off the rails.
And Bush took things an unprecedented step further by cutting taxes while simultaneously going to war...
... borrowing money from China while giving tax cuts to the most well-off people in the country... leaving the kids & gk's an outrageous bill for a war he and his cabal chose to fight.

The program just starts to scratch the surface on how we now have Obama following along this exact same path (led by most of the same group a guys got us there to begin with), and adding to the numbers... big time.

We have lived way beyond our means and we’re going to have to pay for it by spending much less on benefits, and we're going to have to collect more taxes.
A hard message to sell when unemployment is low and everybody’s feeling good... it’s impossible when people are frightened they’re going to lose their houses, their jobs, and their kids are going to be out of work.

And while we're still debating... the...

'Debt Clock' Keeps Ticking

(check out these staggering numbers)

“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. 
No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and vote of majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” 
– President Woodrow Wilson


Netflix: Frontline: Ten Trillion and Counting