Well, Miriam, if it is human nature to not be able to be organized then
just how do you think the union movement ever came about. Just how do
you think oppressive governments have ever been overthrown. Just how do
you think .... I could go on with this for hours. Let me just advise
that you don't just look at an individual or individuals in your own
immediate environs and assume that applies to everyone throughout
history. That is called political myopia. There is a lot of universe out
there other than just what you personally encounter.
---
Albert Einstein
“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
― Albert Einstein
On 10/9/2019 3:13 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
My opinion? We can't do a damn thing. You know about the home health aide I've had, the
young Jamaican American woman whom I've described as very bright? She has a high school
diploma. Most of her education took place in Jamaica. She came to the US at 15. She's now
about 29 years old, married, with a 7 year old son from a previous relationship. She's an
expert on her I phone, but when she reads print on paper, she tends to miss stuff, or at
least stuff that I think is important. Anyway, she's leaving. She's joined the army.
First of all, I'm devastated for myself because finding someone who will actually be
helpful to me, is close to impossible. I know from previous experience. But leaving that
aside, I tried to talk with her about the repercussions for her and for her son, of what
she's doing. She's very independent and she thinks she's researched the issue. What that
means is that she's talked to family members who've done it, and she's read the army
propaganda. Her belief is that after basic training, and she's already misinformed about
that because she believed the words the army uses to describe it, she will have a job
which will not be in a war zone; her husband and son can live near her or she can live
with them off base. She doesn't want to live on base because, she says, she's a
"private person". Her husband works for the US postal service so he can be
transferred to wherever in the States she is stationed. She wants to be where it's warm,
and she has the fantasy that she can choose where they send her. Her reward is that the
army will pay for the education she wants. I won't go into all of what I said to try to
get her to slow down and consider, to listen to some things that I know, and to get
someone not part of the US armed services, to look at the contract and explain it to her
before she signed it. But she had made up her mind. She was committed to believing what
she chose to believe. I am telling you this story to illustrate my point. People do what
they believe is in their self interest. They are not open to information from a variety
of sources. They focus on what fills their emotional needs at the present moment. People
on the left can fantasize about organizing the masses and Chris Hedges can talk about the
necessity for a peaceful revolution. But human nature doesn't work that way. It's naïve
to blame capitalism for the faults of human beings. It makes more sense to blame human
fallability for capitalism.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2019 1:36 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal
Well, I can't say that I feel sympathy for self serving people either.
It's simply a waste of time and energy. But I do see how they have become
misguided by a never ending barrage of BS from the American Industrial/Military
Complex.
Each time we travel from home, across several states, I am confronted by the
lack of balance in the news and in the listening and viewing offerings. Still,
while feeling sympathy for them is out of the question, how do we go about
showing them the foolishness of their current actions?
Our hopes seem to be at the mercy of an inept Democratic Party. Or a congress
that is so divided that it can't even understand that it is divided against
itself. In my current situation, along with my age and related issues, about
all I can do to resist is to continue speaking my opinions, and staying
involved in exploring the news.
Carl Jarvis: Resting up from a relaxing vacation.
On 10/9/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm having a difficult time, having sympathy with the people whom
you're defining as the working class. Whatever we call them, they are
40% or more of the population. They support empire. They watch reality
TV. They are committed to conspicuous consumption. They did not
spontaneously protest in the streets when Muslims were banned from
entering the US or when Immigrant children were separated from their
parents or when Immigrants were told that they could no longer enter
our country for asylum or when our president suggested in rallies and in
tweets, that certain of our people be attacked.
They don't care that he's financially benefiting from the presidency
or that he's undoing every social advance that this country has made
since the 1930's. They don't even know that their parents did as well
as they did and that they benefited from that, as a result of the
social welfare state that was created during the Roosevelt
administration. They believe that they're all self made men and that
what they've made is being taken away from them by people of color, immigrants,
Muslims, uppity women, and probably, Jews.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2019 12:03 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria
Withdrawal
The real heading should read, "The Domino Effect of Trump's 2016 Election"
While American History relates many low points in our struggle to
maintain a "People's Government", I believe we are looking at the lowest one to
date.
With our attention distracted by the tweets and foolish remarks tossed
out daily by Donald Trump, any input by the Working Class Americans is
being dismantled by the "Trumpeteers".
Our founding fathers were concerned that there be separation of Church
and State, and that there be safeguards protecting the Landholders and
wealthy citizens.
But they had no idea that times would change, and the serious threat
would come from the Corporate/Military takeover.
It will be interesting to see just how long it takes Working Class
Americans to realize that their freedom has been taken from them, and
that it was not the doing of Marxists, Illegals, the Media, or the
Colored and the Jews and Muslims. Sadly, by the time any suggestion
of a Working Class Slave System becomes apparent, this Internet will
be totally controlled, and any protest will be met with force.
Our great grandchildren will know the outcome of the current efforts
to control "the people", merely by reading their history books.
Remember, history is written by the winners.
Carl Jarvis: still looking for the ghost of Howard Zinn.
On 10/8/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal
The Domino Effect of Trump's Syria Withdrawal Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan (Brookings Institution / Flickr)
U.S. President Donald Trump told Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan on Sunday, October 6, that the United States troops inside
Syria would not defend the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have built
an enclave inside Syria along a section of the Turkish border. The
Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF) are made up largely of Kurdish factions, who set up this armed
force to defend the mainly Kurdish enclave in northern Syria. When
the U.S. began its attack on the Islamic State (ISIS), the SDF became
the ground forces beneath the U.S. bombers. Now, the U.S. has decided
to betray the sacrifice of the SDF.
Turkey has previously threatened to attack the SDF and other Kurdish
groups inside Syria east of the River Euphrates. In 2014 and 2015,
Turkey signaled that it would invade Syria. In August 2016, the
Turkish military crossed the border with U.S. air cover. Erdogan
said—at that time—that Turkey was going to attack both ISIS and the
Kurdish militia group, People’s Protection Units (YPG). This
operation, which was largely around the Syrian town of Jarabulus
along the Syria-Turkey border, was known as Operation Euphrates
Shield. The
2016 intervention opened the door to two further interventions in
northern Idlib (2017) and in Afrin (2018), the last operation with an
Orwellian name—Operation Olive Branch. These were targeted attacks
and not an all-out war on the SDF and other Syrian forces.
Now, Erdogan’s government is preparing to enter Syria for a major
military operation against the SDF. The U.S. forces have already left
the observation posts at Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ain—both key places
where the U.S. monitored Turkish troops and shielded the SDF from
Turkish attacks. That shield has now been removed. U.S. forces remain
in the region, but there is every indication that they will remove
themselves from the main hubs of the SDF.
The SDF is now vulnerable to the full might of the Turkish army. The
political leaders of the SDF say that they would defend their
enclave—known as Rojava—“at all costs.” Over the past year, Ilham
Ehmed, the co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council, has warned that
Turkey is determined to enter this “safe zone” (or what the U.S.
calls a “security mechanism”). Ehmed said—before this recent
announcement—that Turkey will invade Rojava, harshly attack the SDF,
and re-settle the three million Syrian refugees who are now in Turkey.
These refugees are not from the area east of the River Euphrates.
Not only will the Turkish government wreck Rojava, but it will
ethnically cleanse the area by bringing in large numbers of
non-Kurdish Syrians. It is important to recall that the population of
Syrian Kurds is around two million. Ehmed has expressed her worry
about this attempt to render the Syrian Kurds of Rojava extinct.
What will a Turkish invasion mean for the area?
1.It will destroy the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Rojava. For all its
great limitations, the government of Rojava has experimented with
various forms of democracy, including economic and cultural democracy.
2.It will destroy the social integrity of the cultural world east of
the River Euphrates. The transport of three million Syrians—largely
from the western part of Syria—will change the character of this
region, which is the homeland of the Syrian Kurds. In the long run,
this population transfer could annihilate Syrian Kurdish society.
Besides, if Turkey does this, it would have violated Article 49 of
the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949).
3.It might force the Syrian armed forces to march on the region, to
defend its borders. In the Iranian parliament, Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Turkey should respect Syria’s borders,
and that Turkey must allow the Syrian armed forces to establish their
presence at the border. If the Syrian army moves on the border, it
will open up the possibility of a clash between Syria and Turkey,
which might lead to tensions between the armed forces of Iran,
Russia, and the United States.
4.Since 2017, Iran, Russia, Syria, and Turkey have been part of the
Astana Group, whose purpose was to find a way to dial-down the bloody
war in Syria.
Turkish intervention into Syria will raise the possibility of the
revival of war inside Syria. Turkey’s proxy groups that were part of
the attack on the Syrian government will be emboldened to try once
more to overthrow the government in Damascus.
5.If Iranian and U.S. forces clash in Syria, will this give the U.S.
another
reason to open up a fuller war against Iran, including the
bombardment of Iran itself?
6.It will strengthen a greatly weakened Erdogan government.
It is worthwhile to be alarmed by these developments. The United
Nations has taken the correct assessment of the situation. The UN’s
Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria—Panos Moumtzis—said, “We don’t
know what is going to happen. … We are preparing for the worst.” So
should the rest of us.
This article was produced by Globetrotter, a project of the
Independent Media Institute.
Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a
writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter, a project of
the Independent Media Institute. He is the chief editor of LeftWord
Books and the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social
Research. He has written more than twenty books, including The Darker
Nations: A People’s History of the Third World (The New Press, 2007),
The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso,
2013), The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution
(University of California Press, 2016) and Red Star Over the Third
World (LeftWord, 2017). He writes regularly for Frontline, the Hindu,
Newsclick, AlterNet and BirGün.
