Category: American Empire

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing

While a tide of new political activists is frothing across the nation, one seasoned revolutionary is quietly practicing his decades-long resistance in Mission Hills. Harold Jaffe, author and SDSU professor, continues his quest to challenge popular perception in his 24th book, Goosestep: Fictions and Docufictions (Journal of Experimental Fiction Books, November 2016).

Jaffe has taught at SDSU for about 30 years, and traveled the world longer. He lives and writes in “what remains of nature” along a Mission Hills canyon.

“There are fewer birds now,” he said. “I think global warming is the prime suspect there. Wilderness being real-estated; land being contaminated; the weather being completely out of sorts; birds, when they migrate here in the winter, find the weather too warm. Without wildness, we’re damned. We must integrate with wild creatures, otherwise this earth is going to be quickly damned.”

Warning: Censorship-worthy, non-funny cartoon of Donald Trump coming up inside.

Here inside is the cartoon that got a Canadian cartoonist fired. It depicts Trump playing golf over the bodies of two drowned migrants – a horrible photographic image that went viral itself. Now the cartoon by Michael de Adder has gone viral itself.

The cartoon includes a hand-drawn image of Oscar Alberto Martínez and his 23-month-old daughter, Angie Valeria, lying face down in the waters of Rio Grande River, having drowned while attempting to cross to get into the United States.

The cartoon went up and viral last Wednesday, June 26. Two days later, de Adder went on Twitter and told the world he had been let go.

The Widder Curry Asks – “What has happened to my fellow American?”

For weeks I have sat back and not voiced on this site my horrific feelings about the migrant children that are being housed in sub-standard facilities.

For weeks I have watched supporters of the man in the White House cry because “they are treating the President so badly.” For weeks I have been waiting for the public outcry deploring this concentration camp atmosphere. For weeks I have been waiting for the Republican party to say “enough is enough.”

For weeks I have been listening to Republicans in office indirectly support the separation of children from their parents. For weeks I have been shaking my head when I hear things from representatives say, “There’s not a lock on the door. Any child is free to leave at any time. But they don’t and you know why? Because they’re well taken care of.” (Rep. Michael Burgess, Texas) I do not think that I have to elaborate on Burgess’ comment. If you believe him, shame on you.

Devouring the Apple

By Joni Halpern

Dear Ohio,

I’ve been thinking lately about our dear country, and about you as the bellwether election state. I was wondering if you see what I see – namely, that everyday Americans do not think they are important in themselves. Instead, they seek the notice of others, as if blind to their own image, as if they cannot feel their existence unless someone else casts an approving eye upon them and says, “Yes, you are one of us. You are real.”

Every day, some man or woman in Ohio or California or elsewhere in the country wakes up in the morning, tired from a sleepless night, and puts food on the table for themselves and their loved ones, dresses for work, gives up hours to the job, comes home, deals with dinner, and sits in front of a screen waiting to see if anything more interesting than their own life is happening in fiction or in fact.

By Juan Cole / Reader Supported News / May 16, 2019

he Trump administration is now in full disinformation mode, using all the classical techniques of propaganda to put the gullible US public on a war footing with Iran. Here is how it is done.

1. Iran warmongers like National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pretend to speak for US interests instead of for the narrow and sectarian interests that want a war. Bolton has taken big bucks from the Iranian expatriate People’s Jihadis (MEK), which the State Department for long listed as a terrorist organization. NBC news at one point linked it to Israeli intelligence, and others have suggested a Saudi link. Pompeo is a Kansas oil man and we all know what oil men do to the Middle East (think Bush and Cheney).

2. Having hidden behind the flag, the latter-day Goebbelses then invent an emergency. The favored propaganda talking point at the moment is that US troops and diplomats are in danger. US troops and diplomats are always in danger. It is their job to be in danger. If we don’t want them in danger we should bring them home from dangerous places like Iraq.

The US of A is now officially in a Constitutional Crisis. That’s not the rant of a Southern California beachtown raq, that’s what the top Democrats in Congress are saying.

On Wednesday, Representative Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that the nation was in a constitutional crisis after his committee recommended the House hold Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over an unredacted version of the special counsel’s report, along with the report’s underlying evidence.

And today, Thursday, Speaker of the House Pelosi said she agreed with Nadler.

9 Prosecutors From San Diego Sign Letter

A bipartisan group called Protect Democracy has organized a letter that is now signed by nearly 800 former federal prosecutors, prosecutors who have served in both Republican and/ or Democratic administrations, which states the Mueller Report findings would produced obstruction charges against President Trump — if he wasn’t currently President.

The Mueller report describes several acts that satisfy all of the elements for an obstruction charge: conduct that obstructed or attempted to obstruct the truth-finding process, as to which the evidence of corrupt intent and connection to pending proceedings is overwhelming. These include:

News outlets, dutifully supporting Trump administration calls for regime change, reported that a widespread uprising was underway, even though Juan Guaidó’s coup attempt had little support.

By Michael Fox / Nation Magazine / May 2, 2019

Caracas—It began with a tweet.

In it, Venezuela’s self-declared president, Juan Guaidó, stands in front of a line of military vehicles and rows of Venezuelan soldiers in green uniforms. Beside them is opposition leader Leopoldo López, whom they have freed from house arrest, which stemmed from his role in the 2014 guarimba street protests in which dozens of people were killed.

Guaidó, dressed in a black suit and a white shirt, talks to the camera. “Today, the armed forces are clearly with the people,” he says. “The time is now.” He calls on the military to rise up and says they are in the streets. He insinuates that they have taken the Carlota military base in eastern Caracas.

Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller was pretty pissed-off when Attorney General Barr released Barr’s 4-page “summary” of the Mueller Report back in March.

He was so pissed-off, Mueller “put it to paper” and wrote Barr a letter accusing Barr of not giving the report context or substance. Mueller did this not only to convey his views but also to make a record. There was also a follow-up phone call from Mueller to Barr.

Here below is Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller’s letter to Attorney General Barr, dated March 27, 2019.

The president is treating Congress with contempt. This cannot stand – and Congress must fight back

By Robert Reich / RSN – Guardian UK / April 30, 2019

“We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” says the person who is supposed to be chief executive of the United States government.

In other words, there is to be no congressional oversight of this administration: no questioning officials who played a role in putting a citizenship question on the 2020 census. No questioning a former White House counsel about the Mueller report.

By Dylan Stableford / Yahoo News / April 29, 2019

President Trump passed a historic milestone in his presidency over the weekend.

The Washington Post, which has been tracking the truthfulness of the president’s public assertions in tweets, speeches, interviews and press conferences, reports that Trump surpassed 10,000 false and misleading statements since his inauguration.

On Friday, the president passed the 10,000 mark by making 49 false or misleading claims — including 24 in a speech at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Indianapolis. At his rally in Green Bay, Wis., Saturday, Trump made 61 false or misleading claims, for a total of 10,111 claims in 828 days, or an average of more than 12 per day.

Have you ever wondered about our fine-feathered parrot friends living here in OB?
Why are they here?
Do they migrate?
Are they endangered?
What do they eat?
Why are they so *ahem* talkative?

Bring ALL your questions to the Ocean Beach Town Council public meeting on Wed., April 24 because our featured speaker is Brooke Durham, founder and director of SoCal Parrot! She will have some of these beautiful creatures with her and answer all your questions!