No doubt about it, Miriam. The Empire as done a good job of
"educating" its People. Myths, fables, misinformation and
misdirection are all part of keeping the People in line.
I know that I spent much of my life unlearning what the Empire taught
me, and the Church, and my Peers. Much of what I currently believe is
most likely gibberish, too. But as for the Right Wing stuff, I seldom
even glance at it. I almost never watch Fox or even network
channels...other than Jeopardy, and the history channel and PBS.
If all we do is to keep going to the same well to draw our bucket of
information from, we will continue to be confused and immobilized.
Our brains are built to absorb, but they are also built to question.
Especially question those who respond to your questions by attacking
you, calling you misinformed or brainwashed or just plain stupid.
Question them as to why they defend their beliefs by calling yours as
ignorant. Then turn back to watching and listening to what is going
on in your real world, and go back to questioning it. Change will not
come with a bang, but if we continue questioning, we will begin taking
action. And when enough of us take action, change will come. And it
will not take a landslide to make that change. Just action.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/6/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Perhaps some of the 20 or so folks on the list do read some of the articles,
some of the time. That's been my assumption. That some people may actually
be interested enough to read them. I've mentioned the list in passing, when
writing posts to other lists. I've said that I post articles to it. But no
one has ever asked how to subscribe to the list. Probably, most people
aren't as interested in politics and what is happening in the world to take
time to read articles. Or perhaps they believe that they know what's
happening because they watch TV or listen to the news on their local radio
station. One person on the VR Stream list said she listened to both right
wing and left wing podcasts so she would get a balanced view. Probably, what
she's getting that way, is confused. Besides, people think that The New
Yorker and the New York Times are left wing and that CNN is centerist.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2018 2:38 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: keep them articles coming!
There are 23 subscribers to the list. One is on vacation and has been for a
very long time. That means that 22 are receiving the emails. If an address
bounces several times it is automatically removed. That doesn't mean that
all 22 subscribers are reading the posts, but someone has to be at least
deleting them or else their boxes would fill up and they would be
automatically removed. You all should consider inviting people to subscribe
if you want more here.
On 5/6/2018 11:53 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Miriam,
It is seldom that I do not open your posts, and read them, even if
only to scan. I really thank you for going to the effort. I have no
idea how many folks are still on the list, and active. I did receive
a sweet note from Penny Reader.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/5/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
When I post these articles, I have no idea who reads them or if
anyone reads them. I'm not posting as many as I did, just the ones
that seem to be about especially important issues or the ones that I
really like, like the one about Israel as one state that I posted
today. But it's like putting a note into a bottle and dropping the
bottle into the ocean and wondering if anyone will find it.
Carl, I hope life becomes less stressful for you.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2018 6:07 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Coming US War Against Iran
Another grim article. Frankly, I am needing to cut back on the piles
of articles that flash across my computer, all crying out the same
"Doom and Gloom". I know that these are harsh times, and critical to
the dreams of Working Class Americans, but I can only absorb so much
before I begin to physically react.
My disposition was impacted by the deaths of three very close people,
in a period of three weeks. At the same time my trusty Braille 'N'
Speak dumped all of my client, personal address', and assorted files,
forcing me to spend much extra time in rebuilding as much as I am able.
Topping the pile of personal complaints is the fact that Cathy and I
both came down with the Father of all Flu Bugs. We've been up and
down for several weeks, getting better and then regressing. We are
back to seeing clients again, but every day is a gamble. Just to
make certain that stuff was not messed up enough, last evening my
Mother-In-Law called in great distress. Cathy and Marlene rushed to
her apartment, an hour away, and found their mother in a bad way.
They called 911 and spent several hours at emergency, while tests
were being conducted. They returned just about 12:30 A.M. with mother in
tow.
Hopefully that sums it all up for the moment. But my point is that I
will not be too active on the list for a bit of time.
Carl Jarvis
(but I'll still be lurking!)
On 5/4/18, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Coming US War Against Iran
By John Kiriakou, Reader Supported News
04 May 18
I
spent nearly 15 years in the CIA. I like to think that I learned
something there. I learned how the federal bureaucracy works. I
learned that cowboys in government - in the CIA and elsewhere around
government - can have incredible power over the creation of policy.
I learned that the CIA will push the envelope of legality until
somebody in a position of authority pushes back. I learned that the
CIA can wage war without any thought whatsoever as to how things
will work out in the end. There's never an exit strategy.
I learned all of that firsthand in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
In the spring of 2002, I was in Pakistan working against al-Qaeda. I
returned to CIA headquarters in May of that year and was told that
several months earlier a decision had been made at the White House
to invade Iraq. I was dumbfounded, and when told of the war plans
could only muster, "But we haven't caught bin Laden yet." "The
decision has already been made," my supervisor told me. He
continued, "Next year, in February, we're going to invade Iraq,
overthrow Saddam Hussein, and open the world's largest air force
base in southern Iraq." He went on, "We're going to go to the United
Nations and pretend that we want a Security Council Resolution. But
the truth is that the decision has already been made."
Soon after, Secretary of State Colin Powell began traveling around
Europe and the Middle East to cultivate support for the invasion.
Sure enough, he also went to the United Nations and argued that Iraq
had weapons of mass destruction, necessitating an invasion and
overthrow because that country posed an imminent threat to the United
States.
But the whole case was built on a lie. A decision was made and then
the "facts" were created around the decision to support it. I think
the same thing is happening now.
First, Donald Trump said repeatedly during the 2016 campaign that he
would pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),
also known as the Iran sanctions deal. The JCPOA allows for
international inspectors to examine all of Iran's nuclear sites to
ensure that the country is not enriching uranium and is not building
a weapons program. In exchange, Western countries have lifted
sanctions on Iran, allowing them to buy spare parts, medicines, and
other things that they had been unable to acquire.
Despite the protestations of conservatives in Congress and
elsewhere, the JCPOA works. Indeed, the inspection regime is exactly
the same one that the United Nations imposed on Iraq in the last two
decades.
Trump has kept up his anti-Iran rhetoric since becoming president.
More importantly, he has appointed Iran hawks to the two most
important positions in foreign policy: former CIA Director Mike
Pompeo as Secretary of State and former US ambassador to the UN John
Bolton as National Security Advisor.
The
two have made clear that their preferred policy toward Iran is
"regime change," a policy that is actually prohibited by international
law.
Perhaps the most troubling development, however, is the apparent de
facto alliance against Iran by Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, and Bahrain. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
recent "presentation"
on what he called a clandestine Iranian nuclear weapons program was
embarrassingly similar to Powell's heavily scripted speech before
the UN Security Council 15 years earlier telling the world that Iraq
had a program.
That, too, was a lie.
Saudi crown prince Muhammad bin Salman, the godfather of the Saudi
war in Yemen, which in turn is a proxy war against Iran, recently
made a grand tour of the United States and France talking about "the
Iranian threat" at every turn. The rhetoric coming out of the UAE
and Bahrain is at least as hostile as what has been spewed by the
Saudis.
Meanwhile, there's silence on Capitol Hill. Just like there was in
2002.
I can tell you from firsthand experience that I've seen this before.
Our government is laying the groundwork for yet another war. Be on
the lookout for several things. First, Trump is going to begin
shouting about the "threat" from Iran. It will become a daily
mantra. He'll argue that Iran is actively hostile and poses an
immediate danger to the United States. Next Pompeo will head back to
the Middle East and Europe to garner support for a military action.
Then US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley will scream in front of the
UN Security Council that the US has no choice but to protect itself
and its allies from Iran. The final shoe to drop - a clear
indication of war - will be if naval carrier battle groups are
deployed to the eastern Mediterranean, the Arabian Sea, or the
Persian Gulf. Sure, there's always one in the region anyway. But more
than one is a provocation.
We have to be diligent in opposing this run into another war of
choice. We can't be tricked or taken by surprise. Not again.
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.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work.
Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader
Supported News.
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