Soul Snatcher, Productions ™ Democracy Wall

Ganesh: God of Mischief

Olympia, WA (Heritage Park, 7-27-14) — The annual Hemp Fest in Heritage Park may have angered the gods, judging from the whirlwind that upturned vendor tents, destroyed exquisite glass bongs and assorted marijuana paraphernalia, but the event drew crowds of all ages, lifestyles, speakers, political affiliation, and musical persuasion. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon by the lake while children frolicked in the geyser fountain across the street.

Reaping the Whirlwind

Uprooted Tents Scattered Like Autumn Leaves

Salvage Operation

Broken Merchandise from Whirlwind

Fair Weather, Foul Wind

Expect the Unexpected

Selective Wind of Misfortune

Whirlwind’s Aftermath

Whirlwind Marches Across Oly’s Hemp Fest

Whirlwind Blows Away Petitions, Tents, Fragile Glassware

Whirlwind Dances Across Oly’s Hemp Fest

Unlike the panic struck citizens of Mason County who recently literally wept before their Commissioners at a public hearing in protest after finding a marijuana processing business had been issued a license pursuant to Washington State law in their small rural residential zoned neighborhood, the State had granted a 2-day permit for the festival which became a historical event this year given the law now allowed recreational adult use of marijuana in private venues. Accordingly, fans were warned not to get caught smoking the herb in the park. This included the consumption of marijuana laced comestibles.  (Marijuana butter/cookies/drinks, etc.)

Upbeat Countenance In the Face of Temporary Adversity

Great Thighs Draw Bright Smiles

Hemp Fest Attractions

A quarantined medical marijuana tent was on hand for those with a doctor’s prescription and ID. Petitions were circulated seeking to preserve Washington’s existing medical marijuana law/protocol which includes the legal right of those who can procure a prescription to grow their own weed in their own yard. A separate petition sought to legalize the growing of the plant by any/all adult Washington residents.

Impromptu Singer Rallying Attendees

Sultry Singer

The festival went off, as expected, without a hitch except for one isolated incident where a man was cited after being warned repeatedly by the event’s security staff, campus police officers, and well wishers his act was still a criminal offense under the currently existing law. Marijuana still may not be legally consumed/smoked in public. Many, of course, violate this prohibition, but do so discreetly or in venues (e.g. Seattle Center) where the local cops have chosen to focus on more serious offenses. You have been warned–don’t blow smoke in the local gendarme’s face…at least until the petition to further relax the law about marijuana’s use is passed.

Rock ‘n Roll Is Here To Stay

Medical Marijuana Was On Hand

Beautiful Woman Letting Her Hair Down

A faction of the Libertarian Party was present, promoting the further expansion of individual liberties and bridling under the thumb of a nanny state. The image of the State Capitol building across the lake was in stark contrast to the reality of how it was the people through the initiative process who changed the law, not our elected public representatives. The gathering was full of good vibes, smiles, and an assorted collection of true Americans who love freedom, who hunger for individual liberty, who loathe being told as adults what they can do in the privacy of their own homes by a government out of control. There were many speakers who repeatedly drove this point home from the stage in between musical sets.

Reasons To Come To Hemp Fest

Urine Sample Jammer

Nanny State–Keep Out!

On a sadder note, Gideon Israel appeared to address the crowd which honored him with warm applause in recognition of his support for marijuana reform over the years. He was barely recognizable from his salad days in the early 1980’s when he resided in the Queen Anne Hill district of Seattle with the Love Israel family. Gideon was morbidly obese and confined to a wheelchair now. He had lost his property, he said, to the State after being prosecuted for gatherings he once hosted in Rainbow Valley which included marijuana at the annual event, sometimes with harder drugs also present.

Glass Menagerie

Medical Marijuana Advocates Roar

Artisans Display Their Work

Gideon started out as an idealist openly exploring different non-mainstream lifestyles and family structures. He was brought low and dispossessed not only by a State/society hostile to those ideas, but by his own lack of judgment under the circumstances. It’s said a man must be very honest to live outside the law. Gideon failed to live according to that dictate. He grilled attendees at the entrance to his Rainbow Gathering festivals, asking if they were police officers or affiliated with law enforcement. Those who were, of course, lied in response about the matter and the court later found no basis in law to support the argument they were ‘trespassing’ after Gideon got busted.

Gideon Israel

Gideon was busted because there were some resentful ‘snitches’ who turned him in, prompting the undercover cops to start investigating his activities while showing up at the Rainbow Gatherings. Rumor has it that on at least one (or more) occasion, some attendees arrived with drugs for sale. When Gideon discovered this, he seized the drugs upon the pretext they were illegal, but then proceeded to market them himself. The would-be drug pushers felt ripped off and went to the police in retaliation. During the time leading up to this crisis, many Thurston County residents felt apoplectic about Gideon and his festivals, so much so there was actually talk among them at at least one public County Commissioners Hearing about lynching Gideon! These were parents panicking in the belief Gideon was corrupting their children and perhaps turning them into drug addicts.

Oly’s Hometown Head Shop

Reflections

Glass Abstractions

Do (A)narchists Get High?

High Times contributed handsomely to Gideon’s legal defense and he avoided going to prison in a plea bargain that wouldn’t have been possible without his stout, though expensive, defense team. The lawyers were among the best there was in providing a defense against marijuana related charges. Gideon has been very public, including his pronouncements on the internet, in announcing his contempt for the criminalizing of marijuana. He became a marked man. In the end, the State settled for seizing his property instead of condemning him to a long term in prison.

e-marijuana

Not Your Grandma’s Hope Chest

Gideon wistfully and sadly mentioned the dispossession of his land in passing when greeted and reminded of the day when the reporter and he shared a romantic interest in the same woman. She was a member of the Love Israel family living in the Queen Anne Hill district of Seattle at the time. It was said by locals, attempting to discourage the interloper, the Love Israel family women would not sleep with any men outside the family. This advice proved to be inaccurate…at least in this one instance. But, therein lies a tale.

Mr. Natural

Arm Candy

A table full of home grown ripe tomatoes greeted passersby outside one of the homes owned by the Love Israel family in 1980 (who have since largely migrated to the Everett countryside for communal living). Anyone with a taste for home grown tomatoes was certainly impressed with this free offering–especially someone who had suffered a recent divorce and morbid bout of depression. The produce was delectable except there was SO much more to the story of the Love Israel family.

Secret Herbal Ingredients

No Tweeking

Another Oly Head Shop

Love Israel was not only the head of the family in the most patriarchal sense imaginable, but also the son of a famous entertainer, Steve Allen.  Somewhat like the Bagwan Rajneeshis, the Love Israel family had acquired a number of expensive homes/property in Seattle’s Queen Anne district by requiring all members who were sufficiently infatuated with their lifestyle to join and voluntarily give up all their worldly possessions/wealth/estate to the group. The group claimed it didn’t believe in capitalism or private property and they certainly behaved consistently with this theory, at least in part. Yours truly was a guest of the family on a number of occasions including a room, bed, shower, and much needed camaraderie. Were these the offspring of the 1960’s flower children?

One devotee had turned over an estate worth 3.5 million$ to the Love Israel family. Others, much less. Yet there were tensions/schisms in the family. Moreover, the interloper was warned by locals in the neighborhood to keep a firm grip on his wallet and possessions, that family members were no respecters of the notion favoring private property. In addition, Love Israel himself viewed the love bereft interloper with suspicion, publicly implying as much during his weekly quasi-religions services/pep talks the family attended. It turned out the donor of the 3.5 million$ wanted it back after discovering Love Israel was involved in drug transactions that extended far beyond smoking marijuana. There was a bitter court battle underway with the plaintiff’s attorneys involving the police whenever possible. The police, in turn, were only too eager to investigate Love Israel and his love children–another critical part of this tale. Thus, Love Israel was very paranoid, but with just cause. He needed information on who this stranger was and whether he was working for the Man. Gideon’s love interest would serve as a conduit for this counter-intelligence.

Don’t Monkey w/Medical Marijuana

Steady Now, Steady!

Hand Me That

Peace Pipes

Bicycling over 8-hrs/day spanned the width and breadth of Washington State in a desperate bid to fight off the morbid depression through intense exercise, diet, healthy sleep patterns–and, yes, counseling. Two women campers were met while biking on Orcas Island–the ice breaker being having forgotten to bring something as fundamental as toilet paper. They were generous enough to provide some. Conversation gave way to the revelation they lived in the Queen Anne Hill district of Seattle and they offered their hospitality if the clueless bicyclist was in their area while traveling. Some weeks later, it was in the  room they’d provided the bicyclist where he consummated his romantic interest in Gideon’s girlfriend. The intimate details and memory has not faded over the years, nor the suspicion the woman was on a mission, if not from God, then His representative, Love Israel. It’s said it’s an ill wind that blows no blessings, And so it was. Love’s paranoia was baseless, but it ended up providing respite for a wounded soul trying to recover from a failed marriage. Her mom encouraged the daughter, but she wouldn’t leave the family. Love’s grip along with his paranoia were firm.

Abandoned Capitol Center Building

The undoing of the family didn’t just come from the State’s law enforcement apparatus investigating Love Israel, but the many children the family had in their polyamorous relations where paternity could be in doubt given 1980 had yet to see refined DNA analysis. Love was not shy about enjoying the fruits of his ministry, the most palatial house, the finest garden, the most opulent surroundings. He was considerably less interested in providing for the education, food, health care, clothing, and other necessities for the family’s young children. This became a source of great tension among the more responsible males and mothers who lobbied for resources from the family’s pooled funds. Love obstinately resisted these overtures which began to take their toll on the family’s unity. Yet remnants of the family continue to exist, dwelling in the Everett area as loyal to one another as ever if somewhat longer in the tooth. They’ve run into resistance from officials in that county who claimed the land the family occupies is not zoned for multi-family residential use while the Love Israel family argued they are but one, though large, family.

And so the 21st century has seen this saga come almost full circle with the State dispossessing both Gideon Israel, harrying Love Israel, and having dispossessed yours truly circa 1991. Gideon’s health has suffered more and he seems sadder. Oly’s 2014 Hemp Fest was, thus, bittersweet–seeing a battle scarred diminished champion of an alternative lifestyle hungering for the individual liberty we all do. It is well those who attended honored Gideon and his contributions over the years despite his human failings.

Clean Cut Hemp Devotees

Get Down!

Life moves on, especially for the young. There were stunning bodies, beautiful personalities, radiant smiles, and free spiritual readings. Mason County could use some of that. It’s high time to clean out the dead wood, the patriarchs who would deny our birthright to compassion, individual liberty, the freedom to groove on one another, and the right to a clean sustainable environment–something only a sustainable economy can provide. It’s time to get our priorities straight and grow up as a society/nation. We cannot extricate ourselves from the hole we’ve dug by eating our children.

Marijuana Butter

Dabmobile

Today’s Palestinians have become targets in Gaza of a powerful Israeli state. Yet Jews historically suffered similar oppression and reacted as desperately.

On this date (July 28) the following notable events occurred:

1764:  Birthdate of Solomon Etting, the Baltimore businessman and politician who led the successful fight to end Maryland’s laws that banned non-Christians from holding public office and practicing law.

1776: Jonas Phillips “sent a letter to a relative and business correspondent of his in Holland, Gumpel Samson by way of the Dutch Island of St. Eustatius. The letter begins by discussing his last letter and other business matters. He moves on to discuss the conflict with England and laconically mentions that the Americans have 100,000 soldiers to the British 25,000. He finishes the letter with an appendix of items he want sent to America so he may sell them.  There are two important things about this letter. First, Jonas enclosed within the letter a newly-minted copy of the Declaration of Independence. And secondly, Jonas wrote the letter in Yiddish. Since at war with Britain Jonas would have expected the letter to be intercepted, but by writing in Yiddish they would not be able to read it. The British did intercept the letter and not knowing in language it was written concluded it was in code.” Phillips was born in Germany in 1736 and came to America in 1756. After working as an indentured servant in Charleston SC, he moved North, eventually settling in New York City where he became a successful merchant who was active in the Jewish community of both NYC and Philadelphia and supporter of the American Revolution.  He was the grandfather of Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish Commodore in the United States Navy.

1789(5th of Av, 5549): Meir ben Saul Barby the scholar who escaped poverty and served as rabbi at congregations at Halberstadt and Halle-on-the-Salle.

1794:  French political leader and revolutionary, Maximilien Robespierre meets his fate with the guillotine.  Whatever his other shortcomings, Robespierre took the unpopular stance of advocating full rights for the Jews of France when the subject first was debated in 1789. In part he stated, “How can you blame the Jews for the persecution they have suffered in certain countries?  These are, on the contrary, national crimes that we must expiate by restoring to them the imprescribable rights of man of which no human authority can deprive them…Let us give them back their happiness, their country and their virtue by restoring them their dignity as men and citizens…The vices of the Jews are born of the abasement in which you [Christians] have plunged them.  Raise their condition and they will speedily rise to it!”

Ironically, the same can be said of today’s homeless, poor, dispossessed, and disenfranchised–the sat upon, spat upon, ratted on. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. We now witness the truth of that prophecy.

The notorious Chuck Colson, a Watergate conspirator, once famously said (as did Franklin D. Roosevelt), “If you’ve got them by the balls, their hearts and mind will follow!”

Palestinian militants of Iz al-Din al-Qassam, Hamas’ armed wing, Gaza Strip, June 30, 2014

Shelton, WA (7-16-14) — The greatest challenge of our times is holding corporations and governments to the same moral standards required of individuals. Our failure to have achieved this dream threatens the nation, humankind, the environment, and, indeed, civilization itself. Even a casual observer can’t help but notice how the contradiction of this failure is playing itself out before the eyes of the world in Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Israel. Ah, but that last in a maelstrom of words and blizzard of invective vainly attempting to gain the upper hand for public opinion over the ‘enemy’ along with whatever military/financial support comes with a successful media campaign.

Israel and the Palestinians have taken each other’s measure in this regard. They know each other only too well. Who cannot sympathize with a people victimized by the Holocaust and entire generations lost to Nazi death camps? And yet, what was the point of triumphing over the Nazis to become just like them when Israel seeks to exterminate an entire generation of Palestinians who call upon the right to self defense and self determination as devoutly as any Jew?

While Germany continues to pay reparations to Israelis for its war crimes even today, Palestinians were not the oppressors of Jews during WWII. Some have asked why western powers chose to carve a Jewish homeland out of Palestine for the survivors rather than the land of their persecutors after WWII which the Allies also controlled? Zionism had, of course, been around prior to WWII, but it reached its fruition in the partition of Palestine for a Jewish state.

Today, the Old Testament edict of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth passes for statecraft in the ongoing war against Palestinians and Israelis alike. Israel supposes it can prevail so long as it can prove it is more ruthless, more powerful, more ferocious, more murderous, more atrocious than its rival. What once was condemned as Nazi excess now is labeled collateral damage as innocent women, children, babies, and even hospital patients are blown to bits in a race to the bottom of immorality, atrocities. 80% of the victims of today’s bombing runs conducted by the Israeli Defense Force are civilians. This is a war crime by anyone’s standards except Israel’s and its primary patron, the U.S. At the same time, the storm of rocket attacks launched against Israel by Palestinians target cities and densely populated civilian neighborhoods. There is infamy enough for all.

Ambassador Ron Dermer is Israel’s chief diplomatic representative in the U.S. He asked some 700 American Jews on a conference call this week for their help in shifting the [media] messaging on Israel. Israel is being routinely portrayed in both conventional and social media as an angry, well-armed giant leaving many innocent victims in its wake during the current crisis with Hamas, Dermer said. Dermer is far from the only Israeli to believe his homeland is unfairly getting bad press–for a host of reasons including some of the following arguments.

Dermer told his audience Hamas may be winning the war over public opinion, as Israel is vilified for the civilian casualties [80%] its bombs cause in Gaza, while Hamas is not being blamed for instructing Palestinians to stay in their homes – even when they have been warned by the IDF the locations will be bombed imminently. Apparently those at the highest levels of government in the Jewish State believe Palestinians should evacuate their homes en mass to avoid massive retaliation. It is not known whether Hamas leaders have considered issuing similar warnings to Israelis or whether those targeted would comply or if the Israeli government would urge them to do so. If this were the case, Hamas would no doubt count it as a PR victory. That Israel’s leaders do not seem to see the parallel raises some interesting questions.

“Hamas is putting its missile batteries and command centers next to schools and hospitals. That is a major war crime. While we are doing everything possible to keep civilians out of harms way, Hamas is trying to put their people into harms way. Gaza’s interior minister said people should ignore warnings and go back into their homes. We are taking action to minimize, to the greatest extent possible, the number of civilian casualties; they are doing everything to maximize it,” Dermer said. Dermer didn’t explain how an 80% civilian casualty rate appeared to belie his argument Israel was attempting to minimize the number of civilian deaths, nor how bombing schools, hospitals, and other non-military targets could be expected to result in a reduction of civilian deaths. If war is diplomacy by other means and a violently brutal method of bending others to your will, targeting civilian populations is still considered a war crime. Much of the Cold War, of course, accomplished precisely that. Despite having the nuclear capability to trigger such terror and complete destruction, Israel prides itself for also having the conventional capability to accomplish the same ends. Gaza, after all, is a relatively small territory and lightly armed in the conventional sense. It is an asymmetric battle which Israel counts on winning, though hopeful it can do so without paying the price in public opinion. It’s not at all clear Israel can win this more total warfare or go the distance. After all, when you’ve got all those knives and forks, you’ve just GOTTA cut something! Born out of the Holocaust, is Israel doomed to forever revisit that nightmare by recreating it?

Yes, terrorists are vile and must be defended against. Yes, Christ may have been the Prince of Peace, but until all men are like him, it is well for us to keep our swords sharp. Still, can an unending escalation of violence bring peace without destroying the world? Jesus tells us no. Ghandi tells us no. Dr. Martin Luther King tells us no. Mandela tells us no. Israelis tells us yes. In fact, it is their national foreign policy. The U.S. appears to support this proposition. Is a continual compulsive ratcheting up of a cycle of violence and war crimes actually a legitimate exercise of the right to national self defense?–even for the descendants of Holocaust victims? Will an eye for an eye not lead to the whole world becoming blind? “War! Huh. Yeah. Good God, Y’all. What is it good for? Absolutely NOTHING!” -Edwin Starr- 

Dermer claims three quarters of Israel’s population has had to rush to bomb shelters in the past week and asked the Jewish Federation leaders on the phone call to advocate on Israel’s behalf with elected officials and local media. Dermer didn’t say what percentage of Palestinians had to rush to bomb shelters or if they even had bomb shelters they could access. His argument seemed centered around the notion leaflets warning Palestinians to clear out were a sufficient shield against allegations of war crimes…as though a note from one’s mother was enough. It sounded like an echo of the U.S. helicopter gunners who machine gunned civilians and children according to Bradley Manning’s expose of U.S. atrocities in Baghdad. When informed of the children they’d just machine gunned, U.S. soldiers were overheard sneering in the recording, “Well, they shouldn’t have brought their kids to a war zone.”

After the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Germany, and France expressed support for Israel’s right to ‘self defense, Dermer said there hasn’t been enough focus on the fact Hamas’ approach is to use Gaza’s citizens as human shields. During one infamous incident during the Korean war, U.S. forces opened up with machine guns on a huge crowd of Korean refugees fleeing toward American lines from the retreating Red Chinese and North Koreans. U.S. officials later attempted to deflect criticism for this atrocity by claiming it was feared there were North Korean infiltrators among the refugees. The massacre remains a controversial sore point with many Koreans even today. Israel’s approach? Tried and true, like their U.S. allies, kill them all! God will sort them out.

“We haven’t seen the world come out strongly against the use of human shields,” Dermer admonished. “Hamas thinks they will succeed because we can’t be perfect. The IDF has hit 1,200 targets in a very densely populated area. Even if just one percent of those actions goes wrong it can claim civilian lives. [80% of the casualties have, in fact, been civilians, not 1%.] It is important for the international community to send the message that Hamas is responsible for sending these non-combatants into harms way. [Blaming the victims is a neat trick and a defense Nuremberg judges rejected in the trials against accused and convicted Nazis war criminals.] If they think it works and it leads to greater pressure on Israel, you will see it more and more. Putting blame on Israel is actually giving Hamas a great victory,” he added. Dermer failed to explain how holding Israel accountable for the huge number of Palestinian civilian deaths it inflicted was a ‘great victory’ for Hamas. Could Israel be shifting its strategy to allow for more civilian deaths among its own population to achieve a competing ‘great victory’? In order to ‘save’ the village, it was necessary to destroy it. In order to ‘save’ the country, it had to be destroyed. In order to win the war, the population had to be killed. Israel has crafted its own final solution.

“Anyone making Israel’s case should make the case of how other countries facing similar threats would act,” Dermer advised. “That makes it clear that Israel’s actions are astounding. Everyone here knows if America were facing this threat, it would take at least as strong action. Everybody knows that’s true and that’s how Israel has to be defended. We are not perfect and we should try to do our best, but we are imperfect. That should not be a reason for maligning Israel. We should be very proud Israel is upholding the values we’re upholding in the face of a direct threat.” It wasn’t clear just what the values were Dermer was eulogizing–a sharper sword and greater death toll inflicted? A reluctance to kill all the Palestinians in the Gaza strip in one fell swoop? A reticence to go nuclear against a militarily weak opponent? It’s a measure of how far we’ve lost our way when virtue is measured by damning with faint praise. 

“Never lose sight of the difference between Israel and Hamas. Hamas is deliberately targeting civilians. That is a war crime. Israel is actually trying to target the terrorists. Every time an innocent is killed that’s a failure…It’s important to remember that we are not perfect. We can’t get it 100 percent of the time right. We’re pretty close. When you look at how densely populated this area is, but we are not perfect…We go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties,” Dermer insisted. An 80% civilian casualty rate is ‘pretty close’, in his mind, to ‘getting it right’. Setting its priorities on winning this battle, Israel has effectively conceded it cannot win the peace. Dermer did not allow for the possibility the Palestinian hawks were ‘imperfect’ too in light of the actual hugely disproportionate number of Palestinian civilian deaths Israel had inflicted. Not only is targeting civilian populations a war crime, but hugely disproportionate responses are considered war crimes as well–allegations Israel would have a difficult time defending against. The travesty here is a people so completely persecuted have become the persecutors, abandoning their claim to the moral high ground along the way by becoming more obsessed with the nature of Palestinian terrorists than their own.

“It’s hard for me to accept responsibility for Israel’s actions when I see how hard we try to put their civilians out of harms way, and risk the security of ourselves…What would America do, or Canada do, if three-quarters of its population were in bomb shelters?” he said. The answer, of course, was America and the Soviets prepared to destroy all mankind along with civilization itself. Mutually Assured Destruction was the background for brinkmanship such as the Cuban missile crisis when the world held its breath on the precipice of Armageddon.

Israel has not suffered more casualties because of “a very disciplined Israeli population paying attention to the home front command,” and the Iron Dome missile interception system, Dermer contended. It might also be related to the fact Palestinians have no air force or air defense system.

Iron Dome, which was partly funded by the U.S., has intercepted about 700 of the 1,000 rockets fired at Israel, Dermer said. “It won’t engage every one of them…only when it is heading toward a built-up area does it fire a missile.”

The system has completely changed the way Israel responds, he said. “Iron Dome has allowed Israel to control events rather than be controlled by them. It protects Palestinian civilians as well. It gives the prime minister and cabinet the option to approach the war in a calibrated way. Without Iron Dome we would have to act much faster and take stronger military action, which could lead to casualties on our side and the other side. Iron Dome has uniquely changed the battlefield for Israel,” he said.

He also sounded a defiant note. “I’m not going to apologize for the fact we’re able to defend ourselves,” Dermer said during the hour-long phone call. “More [people] have not been killed because we have a very strong IDF and have invested a lot in protecting our civilians. Those of you who doubt Israel is holding these standards, remember: Only one other country has faced this amount of rocket fire–Great Britain during World War II. It is always important to judge Israel by the way other countries would respond.”  Despite its technological and military advantages, one thing is clear: Israel cannot win the war by attempting to be the more ruthless or inflicting 80% civilian casualties in numbers that dwarf the damage inflicted by Palestinian terrorists. The death of Rachael Corrie is a testament to the resilience of a people and their dream. While Israel may easily inflict more suffering upon its militarily weak neighbors, it cannot win the peace by doing so. Like the Jewish people after WWII, history will prove to be on the side of the Palestinians.

Skokomish Valley, WA (7-11-14) — The heat was hot, the humidity high, I could feel the nectar on my thigh. The sunlight poured like liquid gold into our garden of dreams on hold. And though you wonder out loud, it’s true, please don’t forget because I love you!

There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate, they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.

—“1984,” George Orwell-

by Sonali Kolhatkar

Investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, best known for his reporting on the U.S. surveillance state, told me that in the year since he first met whistle-blower Edward Snowden, he went back and re-read Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984.”

In an interview on Uprising, Greenwald said that what surprised him the most about re-reading the ominous story was that “I had always remembered the ubiquity of the surveillance [in ‘1984’], which was we had a monitor in every single room of every home constantly watching every single person. So, a lot of people said, [our world is] not like ‘1984’ because not every single one of our emails is being read and or every one of our calls are being listened to because nobody could possibly be doing all that.” But, as Greenwald rightly pointed out, in Orwell’s world, “nobody actually knew whether they were being watched at all times. In fact they didn’t know if they were ever being watched.”

In essence said Greenwald, “The key to the social control was the possibility that they could be watched at any time.” Although we have no evidence that the Obama administration is engaging in any organized form of social control in our real world, the most dangerous possible outcome of the U.S. surveillance state is a dampening of dissent because of the mere possibility that the government is watching our every move.

In fact, Fourth of July celebrations in Boston this year will be the focus of intense high-tech surveillance, according to media reports. There is, of course, great irony in imposing “Big Brother” tactics on a day that is theoretically meant to symbolize freedom from colonialism and the hard won rights of personal freedoms. Meanwhile, President Obama’s own appointed watchdog panel has given a mostly unreserved thumbs up to the NSA’s programs. Can it get more Orwellian?

Greenwald knows personally how seriously governments take their right to spy on everyone and keep those programs secret. His own partner, David Miranda, was subjected to a detention and search at Heathrow Airport last year, on the premise of Britain’s “national security” interests, and by extension, the U.S.’ Greenwald’s source, Edward Snowden, faces a lifetime of exile and a possible life sentence for charges relating to the Espionage Act. That the intrepid, award-winning journalist is able to tour the nation freely to promote his book “No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State” is likely due to his deft handling of the news reports he has parceled out, garnering the maximum possible public exposure, and his vociferous defense of his and others’ constitutional rights.

In fact, Greenwald is a former constitutional law and civil rights litigator. During the interview, he rattled off to me the difference between a source and a journalist like it was second nature: “Sources are people in the government who have a specific legal obligation not to disclose things, whereas journalists have been recognized as having a First Amendment privilege.”

But the exercise of that privilege has brought with it criticism from both right-wing and mainstream analysts, including fellow journalists, who see Greenwald’s craft as tainted by too strong a bias. A lengthy exchange between Greenwald and former New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller in the paper’s op-ed section last year revealed the establishment conviction that good journalism can remain objective. Keller’s position that journalists should “keep their opinions to themselves unless they relocate (as I have done) to the pages clearly identified as the home of opinion” is reflective of a status quo that tends to identify anti-government opinions as bias while blindly accepting nationalistic tendencies as objective. Greenwald’s answer: “Ultimately, the only real metric of journalism that should matter is accuracy and reliability.”

Citing the history of what journalism used to mean, Greenwald told me, “For centuries … [we have had] crusading journalism with highly opinionated people using journalism as a tool to achieve certain social ends.” In fact, said Greenwald, it was “a way that citizens could hold people in power accountable through writing about them … and journalism has always been this kind of opinion-based, passion-driven activity.” After all, Upton Sinclair’s turn-of-the-century muckraking exposés of the seamy side of industries are among the best examples of American journalism.

Not surprisingly, many mainstream journalists who cover Greenwald, Snowden and the stories of NSA surveillance have betrayed their stated objectivity in embarrassingly obvious ways. The New York Times’ review of Greenwald’s new book referred to the author as a “self-righteous sourpuss,” and Snowden as someone with a “sweet, innocently conspiratorial worldview of a precocious teenager” who “appears to yearn for martyrdom.”

Psychological hit pieces against Greenwald and Snowden are common in the mainstream press, while members of Congress and Wall Street executives are rarely treated to the same level of psychoanalysis. For example, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who was caught telling a lie to Congress over the NSA’s surveillance program, has not received nearly the same level of widespread vitriol as Greenwald and Snowden have. To its credit, the New York Times editorial board did cite Clapper’s lie and referred to Snowden as a “whistle-blower” who “deserves better than a life of permanent exile, fear and flight.” But, that stood out as an exception to the widespread denunciations of Greenwald and Snowden (see here, here and here for examples).

In Orwell’s “1984,” traitors to the regime were “thought criminals” who were disgraced by their betrayal of Big Brother. After being singled out as such a criminal, Orwell’s protagonist, Winston, is instructed by his interrogator to believe he is “mentally deranged.” Although the novel is an extreme depiction of a fascist future, many of the tactics adopted by today’s so-called objective journalists to keep dissenters such as Greenwald and Snowden in line are consistent with Orwell’s dark fantasy. By discrediting those who speak out, it is possible to dismiss the substance of their criticisms. But, as Orwell famously wrote, “in a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Los Angeles, CA (7-4-14) — A California Highway Patrol trooper tackled a mentally ill homeless woman and proceeded to repeatedly beat her to the point she was hospitalized.

The California Highway Patrol said Friday it is investigating the video of one of its officers straddling a woman and punching her in the head as she lay on the shoulder of a Los Angeles freeway.

Olympia, WA (7-4-14) — Heather Wood from the Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary (Olympia) wants a bee hive in every garden. She builds hives and distributes them to those who want one. She started with a small grant and uses sustainable wood for basic materials, which cost about $70. There is no charge for a hive, but she asks for donations.

The hives are not designed like standard commercial supers, but are called top bar hives–requiring less maintenance and disturbing of the bees in a more natural configuration. Come to one of her workshops and you may decide you, too, want a home for our endangered bees.

Heather Wood (360)551-0674 urbanevergreenbeesanctuary@gmail.com
http://urbanevergreenbeesanctuary.com
927 Lybarger St, Olympia, WA

by Matt Agorist

Campbell, Iowa (6-8-2014) — Greg Luce is an activist who was exercising his 1^st Amendment right in Iowa, back in October of 2013.

A town ordinance in Campbell, Iowa, where Luce was protesting, prohibits the use or display of “signs, flags, banners, pennants, streamers, balloons” within 100 feet of an interstate overpass.

Luce and some friends decided to try a different approach to the law by wearing t-shirts that together spelled “IMPEACH” on one side and “OBAMA” on the other while standing on the interstate overpass.

On October 24, 2013, Campbell police threatened Luce with a ticket for this demonstration. Luce filed a federal suit in February, stating that the law violates his rights to free speech and assembly.

The lawsuit rubbed police chief Tim Kelemen the wrong way.

The department also began receiving threats via email from others who were upset with the alleged civil rights violation against Luce.

None of these threats have been linked back to Luce.

In January of this year Luce discovered someone had used his name and email address to register him on pornography and dating websites and on healthcare.gov.

The town of La Crosse police launched an investigation into the incident.

Through the investigation La Crosse police found that the internet addresses used to register Luce on these sites were from the town of Campbell and chief Kelemen’s home computer.

When La Crosse police realized the potential conflict of interest they sent the investigation to Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.

During a May 27^th interview between Kelemen and investigators, Kelemen initially lied and said he had no idea about the solicitations made on Luce’s behalf.

Once he was told that police already new that he was involved he recanted his denial and confessed to the activity.

Below is the video of the investigation which shows chief Keleman lie to investigators and then confess.

[Campbell Police Chief Kelemen lying to investigators and then confessing to internet harassment, intimidating a witness in a federal case or possibly many other offenses. This is a short 4 minute highlight clip of the interview. The entire interview can be viewed here:
Part 1: http://youtu.be/DzbiNGn6WW0
Part 2: http://youtu.be/RynPVATXAJQ

Last fall members of the La Crosse Tea Party conducted a rally on the pedestrian overpass in the Town of Campbell Wisconsin as part of the national Overpasses for Obama’s Impeachment movement. The town enacted an ordinance shortly afterward to prohibit any signs, flags, balloons etc. from within 100 feet of an overpass. 

The unconstitutional ordinance was presented and pushed by Police Chief Tim Kelemen. Activists from around the state and the country came for a rally on December 7 in defiance of the ordinance and video taped the police chief’s inept attempt at enforcing the ordinance. (He issued 4 citations, but never even asked anyone to stop displaying their sign or to leave the bridge). If the ordinance was really in the name of safety, he was endangering motorists by not removing the flags, signs and even an 8 foot wooden cross.

A federal complaint was filed by the Thomas More Law Center for plaintiffs Greg Luce and Nick Newman. The pressure appears to be too much for Chief Kelemen, as you can plainly see in these videos.

Scott Johnson Town Chairman 781-6840
Bob Wolfert Utility District Supervisor 783-7747
Pat Post Health, Education, and Welfare Supervisor 781-2197
David LaFond Streets and Road Supervisor 783-5107
David Wilder Park and Rec Supervisor 781-1676]

When watching the above video, the nonchalant attitude of the investigating officer in response to the chief lying tends to confirm the ‘protect your own’ mentality of police and the subsequent special treatment that goes along with it.

Had Kelemen been your average Joe, he’d likely be facing charges for impeding an official investigation or obstruction of justice.

Instead, the lying is dismissed and the discussion immediately changes to how they will be able to beat these charges.

It is disheartening, to say the least, to witness such brazen special privilege.

Ironically Kelemen uses an excuse that he would have likely laughed at if it were given to him, by stating that he “didn’t know (his actions) were illegal.”

The investigation is currently underway and judging from this video, we can predict that Kelemen will receive little more than a slap on the wrist.

“I have never experienced when a police chief or a police department, even though they were being harassed, turned around and violated the law themselves,” Luce’s attorney, Richard Thompson said. “This impacts our federal suit. It is intimidating to Luce that the chief of police is taking these kinds of bizarre actions because he doesn’t like the fact that Luce filed a lawsuit.”

In the above video, a cop w/severe testosterone poisoning is indistinguishable from the violent @narchists who also attempt to bully, threaten, and intimidate street photojournalists/photographers.

The cop in the above video dissembles after being busted by a trucker when told he’s being recorded.

Must have ability to make up fake laws or misinterpret existing ones spontaneously.

Resisting Arrest?

Once again, the incompetent cops in the above video are indistinguishable from Oly’s violent r@dicals. Photography is NOT a crime–nor is ‘permission’ required in public venues. The state sponsored thugs and the self appointed private thugs are cut from the same w@rp and weave!

Poet prays for Divine Intervention against police brutality/arrest and…IT’S GRANTED!