Miscellany

I had a bit of time on our trip home to listen to podcasts and review Thoreau’s thoughts on civil disobedience. People are calling for Edward Snowden’s head due to “treason,” but I don’t see it. What he disclosed is already known. It’s “legal” in the sense that a congress with a gun at its head passed it in a mindless time. That was part of the intent of the 9/11 attack. We need, at this time, not some spook coming out from the shadows to tell us what vigilant citizens already know, but rather a popular movement to remove the people from office who gave us USAPATRIOT and the people behind them who gave us 9/11, and that is not going to happen. Rather, we move forward.

Thoreau was all about not paying a poll tax, and also about the horrors on Manifest Destiny. Civil disobedience was a man’s duty, but he also wondered why most people submit to tyranny, as Americans currently do. He gave two good reasons – one, it’s better to have a defective government than none at all, and two, that a tyrannical government will disrupt their lives and take their possessions and liberty if they challenge it. That’s the keep-head-down and look at our shoes kind of submission to power that kept the Soviet Union going all those years. So essentially, Thoreau’s thoughts on civil disobedience are not of any particular value as regards our current situation.

The ones in the line of fire, soldiers (most conscripted by lack of employment opportunity), have the most to lose by disobedience, and yet out of Nuremberg came the mandate that they are not obligated to obey illegal orders. Try that one out in real life. So Nuremberg, like Thoreau, is not of much use.
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Webster Tarpley had interesting thoughts on Snowden, saying his activities have all the earmarks of “limited hangout,” or an event staged for other purposes. In this case, he thinks it is CIA forcing Obama’s hand in Syria by weakening his presidency. Since Obama is a weak man anyway, or at least a charlatan, it’s not hard to do. Tarpley said the signs of limited hangout, or disclosure of information for manipulative purposes are 1) the information is not new, and 2) our media is all over it. Were it a true leak, CNN would be doing its Kardashian best to ignore it.

The impetus behind the timing of the Snowden affair, he claims, is a June 5th collapse of rebel resistance in Qusayr near the Lebanese border. That, he said, could be their Stalingrad. It created an urgency for injection of new lethal aid. The response by Iran and Hezbollah, to put new troops at the ready, happened after the Tarpley broadcast. Those moves indicate a march towards regional war that can only be stopped by calling off the terrorist death squads, and leaving Syria in peace.

Keep in mind that these “rebels” have engaged in cannibalism and mass execution of prisoners. These are our guys. It’s time Americans learned that this is not unusual behavior for our own leaders, to support the worst elements of humankind and call it noble.

Tarpley is a voice I listen to even as he has roots in the old LaRouche business, no more. His background is in Italy and he has first-hand experience in domestic terrorism being used as a device to create tension to gain public support for international aggression. If you think I should not listen to him, then I ask … who? Thom Hartmann? Amy Goodman? Give me a break.
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The principle crime of Nuremberg was international conspiracy to commit aggressive war. The US and its leaders, Israel, NATO, Saudi Arabia are guilty, and in a perfect world all the leaders of those countries would be twitching at the end of a rope. But these are lawless times. Criminals prosper. Ben Rhodes, who has a long shopping list of Nuremberg offenses on his resume, announced the new aid to Syria. This is perhaps Obama “playing chess,” as Democrats like to say. He wants to be able to travel abroad after leaving office without threat of arrest.
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Oh yeah, almost forgot – the Boston Marathon bomb, which I thought was just a noisy smoke bomb, turned out to be a kid with a 64 ounce Coke bottle and a packet of Mentos.
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Oregon and British Columbia are beautiful this time of year, and we come back to Colorado facing what is predicted to be a bad fire season. Colorado Springs is getting it again, and here we are up in the foothills. We fear being away during this time of year even as, if fire strikes, all we can do is grab our documents and photos and skedaddle.