Angela Davis is on the central committee of the Communist Party USA.
___
Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind
and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says
everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the
fallibility of all the human beings involved?”
― Carl Sagan
On 12/22/2019 10:04 AM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
Roger,
Angela Davis still sits on the Central Committee? The central committee of
what, precisely? She's often been on Democracy Now and I've heard her on panels
and stuff on the internet, but I never heard her current political affiliation
mentioned.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey (Redacted
sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Saturday, December 21, 2019 10:51 PM
To: Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: JOHN KIRIAKOU: James Comey's Interview on Fox
News Screams Out for Correction
I remembered some more about what I heard about CP membership cards. It was not
an article. It was some kind of television documentary. It was perhaps
something like a sixty minutes or some other news magazine show.
The topic was about the youth radicalization in the sixties. I don't think the
show actually aired in the sixties, but it couldn't have been much later than
the early seventies. That is why my memory of it is so vague. It was a long
time ago. The interviewer was interviewing some official of the Communist
Party. It might have been Gus Hall. He was asked why he thought young people
had not turned to his party during that radicalization. He tried to make out
that they had and somewhere in his answer he said something about membership
cards being issued because all the young people joining the party wanted them.
I think the phrase card carrying communist predated the sixties. If that is the
case he was not just talking about youth who had joined then. I can't say that
youth, per se, turned to the CP, but he was not entirely wrong. One of the most
prominent young people who joined in that period was Angela Davis. She still
sits on the central committee.
___
Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind
and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says
everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the
fallibility of all the human beings involved?”
― Carl Sagan
On 12/21/2019 10:11 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Anything is possible. My folks were members somewhere between 1938
and 1945. Since I turned 10 in 1945, the Party could very well have
issued cards. My folks probably would not have thought to tell my
sisters and me.
Also, it might have been something the CP did in part of the country
but not in Washington State. I think the phrase was repeated over and
over because it gave the impression that being a card carrying
communist put you in a different place, different than that of the
loyal, patriotic American Citizen.
By the way, when we talk about the strange views and habits of Donald
Trump, just take a look at J. Edgar Hoover. If we go back through
our history, we will find many mentally sick men in positions of
power. It doesn't make a very positive statement for our form of
democracy.
Carl Jarvis, no cards and no party loyalty
On 12/21/19, Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx> wrote:
I have never been a member of the Communist Party myself and I never
thought to ask people whom I have known who were members, but I seem
to remember reading some article in which it was stated that CP
members did get membership cards. I don't remember where or when I
read that, but it was a long time ago and it was not in some
anti-communist source. I recall that an old time member was quoted
saying that the practice was started because their younger recruits
wanted them. I also don't remember when the practice started either.
___
Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an
open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or
somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the
literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?”
― Carl Sagan
On 12/21/2019 10:59 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
"Figures don't lie..." but Liars sure do Lie.
Back in the 1940's we heard a phrase that seems not to be popular
today. "Card Carrying Communist".
If there ever were such a card, my parents were members of the
American Communist Party, during the late 30's and early 40's, and
neither of them ever had a membership card to prove it. But of
course the FBI "knew" that they were members. Even though the
American Communist Party was an active political party. By the time
we were gearing up for our Non War in Korea, my folks had not been
members for some years. But dad's name was swept up along with many
other former members, and those called "Pinko", meaning anyone
accused of being seen in the company of "known" communist members.
It was an all out Witch Hunt, just like the one going on today.
Same wild, unproven accusations and undocumented charges.
Funny that during the World War, dad was "Loyal" enough to be
cleared to work at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard, but later, working
as a structural Detailer for a small manufacturer in Seattle, he was
suddenly a threat to our Freedom.
Remember the old chant, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but
names can never hurt me"?
Joe McCarthy's name calling hurt some very decent Americans. I was
young at the time, but not so young that I didn't see a number of my
parents friends broken and kicked to the curb. All in the name of
defending Freedom. Memories of those broken lives flash before my
eyes when I listen to the likes of Donald Trump and Senator Mitch,
as they spin their hurtful lies...all in the name of defending our
Freedom!
On 12/20/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
JOHN KIRIAKOU: James Comey's Interview on Fox News Screams Out for
Correction
December 19, 2019
The former FBI director knew exactly what his agency had on Carter
Page and, contrary his assertion, it's incredibly easy to get a
FISA warrant.
James Comey, left, on Dec. 15, 2019. (Screenshot)
By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News
Former FBI Director James Comey gave an interview this week to
journalist Chris Wallace on Fox News in which he made one of the
most disingenuous and dissembling statements I've heard in years,
one that screams out for correction and real Congressional
oversight.
When asked about Justice Department Inspector General (IG) Michael
Horowitz's report, which found "17 significant errors and
omissions" by the FBI when it began investigating alleged Russian
involvement with the
2016
Trump campaign and it applied for a Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act
(FISA) warrant against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page,
Comey said that he had been "overconfident" when he defended the
FBI's use of FISA.
Overconfident! Comey ignored the fact that the FBI repeatedly
renewed the warrant against Page, whom the FBI suspected was
working for Russian intelligence, even if it had no evidence to
indicate that was the case.
He
downplayed the fact that an FBI attorney illegally changed an FBI
report to indicate that Page was not working for the CIA, when the
FBI knew for a fact that he was.
Perhaps most disingenuously, Comey told Wallace that, "I thought
the FBI had gone about this in a thoughtful and appropriate way.
He's (Horowitz) right.
I was wrong. I was overconfident as director in our
procedures.It's incredibly hard to get a FISA."
Please Make Your End-of-Year Donation Today.
Comey downplayed the fact that this all happened on his watch. The
buck was supposed to stop with him. He was the boss, the
commander, the one giving the orders. He knew exactly what the FBI
had on Page and what it did not.
And the truth was that it had nothing.
Comey's Lie About a FISA Warrant
Even more importantly, at least for the American people as a whole,
is Comey's lie that "it's incredibly hard to get a FISA." It's
actually incredibly easy to get a FISA. Over its 33-year lifespan,
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has issued 33,942
warrants. It has denied 12. In fact, between the court's creation
in 1986 and 2003, it didn't deny a single request for a warrant.
Those numbers simply don't support Comey's odd contention that it's
"incredibly hard" to get a FISA. He's lying to us.
(Flickr/Mike Licht)
And the truth of the matter is that the FISA court isn't really a
court at all. It meets in secret. A "defendant" has no idea that
the government is asking for a warrant against him. The defendant
has no attorney to represent his interests before the court.
All that happens - literally - is that the FBI, usually with CIA or
NSA information, goes before a FISA judge and says, "We think
person X is dangerous or working for the Russians or is a terrorist
or finances terrorists or is a spy and we want a secret warrant to
tap his phones, intercept his emails, collect his metadata, and put
physical surveillance teams on him." Out of 33, 960 requests, the
court has approved 33,942 of them. "Incredibly hard" indeed.
There is talk of reform, however. In a rare public order this
week, the FISA court condemned the FBI for the errors and omissions
that led to the warrant being issued (and reissued) against Page,
and the court gave the FBI until Jan. 10 to come up with a list of
reforms to prevent such an event from happening again.
The senior judge wrote:
"The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel
turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in
their possession, and with which they withheld information
detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information
contained in other FBI applications is reliable. Therefore, the
Court orders that the government shall, no later than January 10,
2020, inform the Court in a sworn written submission of what it has
done, and plans to do, to ensure that the statement of facts in
each FBI application accurately and completely reflects information
possessed by the FBI that is material to any issue presented by the
application."
That's a start. But real reform has to be more than just a list by Jan.
10.
The American people must see real reform. We need to see that more
than
0.03 percent of warrant requests are denied. We need to see fewer
overall requests. And most importantly, we need to see that the
congressional oversight committees are doing their jobs. The
statistics on warrants requested and warrants granted are
unacceptable.
It's Congress's job to protect our civil rights and civil
liberties. We need to see proof it's happening.
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former
senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama
administration under the Espionage Act-a law designed to punish
spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to
oppose the Bush administration's torture program.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may
not reflect those of Consortium News.
