blank

冷たい風と雪、地図上の空白スペース







cold wind
and blowing snow --
a blank space on the map


` * * * * * `

Two Years Gone - How Much Longer?

Demarcating the Armistice and end of the Great War, and as a challenge to a Global Policy set forth simultaneously, one proven over a century more destructive than any intended peace, a small but determined group of US House Representatives abandoned the Lock Step anonymity of Cold War dominance to confront the House's doe-eyed Speaker with their, and Yours, mandate for Constitutional restraint at the edge of economic and territorial chaos - they proposed to end the thirst for an American Empire, one afforded merely by its geography and opportunism at the expense of the demise of Colonial Europe, resultant over the course of two World Wars while threatening another in lieu of actual adversaries and spurring an Orwellian future with the spectre of Totalitarian control as its inevitable conclusion. This Congress, and those to follow, are the handmaidens of those who adhere to this insanity of World Domination; one can see the foundations crumbling as we read this. This letter, and subsequent action, is the key to return to the acknowledgement of Humanity.

For it to succeed and a return to sanctity requires only your voices, and those with the understanding and determination are among us at this very moment. Why, when a single sentence is all that is required in place of your Enchantment with Apathy, are you still silent? What distraction could be so powerful to cause the denial of a will to live, and for your children's lives, and theirs to follow? So many are willing to declare their approval of peaceful coexistence in ways as diverse as there are stars in the sky, some even loud and provocative, others divisive just for their personal attachments, but always at the expense of real freedom from suffering. After ten years of commitment to this mission, I can barely contain my emotion at the thought of it. That's what propels me onward and little else, but for my word.







http://thesaker.is/do-you-think-his-assessment-is-accurate/

` Hell, No, It's Not For The Glory!

Last Man

My best friend Steve is a Vietnam vet. Bless his heart, he never broached the subject, nor did I until I’d known him for a few years. He did share some odd tales about the war with me then.

A natural story teller, he was witty, sardonic, with some hilarious punchlines thrown in. And, quite often, disturbingly surreal. He’d won a medal for stealing a jeep once … it’s a long story, I couldn’t tell it like he could.

We have a last man's club of sorts; one bottle Johnny Walker Black, one pair clean socks, a pack of Winstons – everything a guy needs, stuffed into a re-gifted wine box.

Someday, one of us will get to piss on the other's grave.



Dragon's Breath
the forest alight in flame,
red, green, orange, black!
laughing, a ghost beckons,
beautiful and serene








Two Years Gone By

500,000 Iraqi Children Die

Veteran's Day Should Be #AUMF

JUST ASK YOURSELF WHAT THE REASON IS

WE DON'T HAND CONGRESS AN ULTIMATUM TO OBEY THE SOVEREIGN NATION (THAT'S YOU, THE CITIZENS, AMERICAN INDIANS, TOO)

TO REPEAL THE AUMF OR WE WILL FIRE THEM AND FIND SOMEONE WHO WILL?

WHEN YOU ARE THROUGH MAKING EXCUSES AND POINTING FINGERS, ADMIT THE TRUTH AND GET TO WORK -

SEND A FAX OR MAKE A CALL - YOU CAN GO IN AND BE CLOSE AND PERSONAL, TOO,

BE FIRM AND TAKE NO OFFERS. FIRE THEM ON THE SPOT -

HIRE THEM BACK WHEN THEY DO WHAT THEY'RE TOLD - REPEAL THE AUMF OR ELSE THEY ARE FIRED FOR GOOD!! THIS IS NOT ABOUT POLITICS

THIS IS ABOUT LIFE!!

All the words that begin with "re"

So I was cleaning out an Email account of mine, glancing at the subjects and recalling the text (I tend to remember written words and images better than hearing them spoken or recorded) and once I got so far I just said, "to Hell with it, there's nothing here", and just clicked next to the section header and BANG, I hit delete and they were gone. Kind of like starting anew, a new life and new situations to go along with it.

Down the memory hole went the old, as many are want to say, more so our media and the attention span of our general public ... and those bits and pieces of stories and anecdotes that slip through the sieve of deceit and linger, embarrassingly, on the mind and public conscious. If you ever want to talk about self-denial, this is a well of inspiration, or self-inflicted amnesia, more appropriately said.

But I didn't get them all. A handful of correspondences remained. And right there at the top was a copy of a letter I had sent to myself. I looked at the date and thought awhile on all that had come to pass since.

The original addressee was an outfit that tends to lobby for Constitutional practices in our government. One of those you might lump together with proponents of right wing extremism. That's assuming you're not very well read or easily manipulated or prone to hysteria; or maybe you just want to be part of a crowd that looks cool in your mind's eye. That's Ok. I was giving them a hard time, too. One of my little quirks, I tend to do that when people are getting killed and nations are being destroyed. I'm an odd fellow that way. I don't tend to quit, either. Just for grins, here's the letter (I try to come off like a real badass, don't I? Appearances matter so much ...).

***

Subject: Re: ACTION: Vote on Congressional War Power


Quote: "This authorization 15 years ago was a total abandonment of Congress’s duty to declare war that was justified by the myths that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction"... Unquote. (referring to this: Authorization For Use Of Military Force in Response to the 9/11 Attacks (P.L. 107-40): Legislative History)

What is your most important piece of legislation you're trying to drive home? Which one involves the greatest misappropriation of funds in your reckoning?

What action would relieve the most suffering, and potential for future harm, to innocent people across the globe?

Which of your assertions do you deem most winnable, in the shortest time span? Which is the most heinous act of clandestine gov't that you can imagine or point to?

Well, I thought I was getting my ass kicked , personally. I've been laughed at, screamed at, ignored, phished, spied on, stifled and been made the butt of jokes and derision.

A pretty good start if I do say so myself. I noticed something though. People are repeating my complaints, taking heed of my grievances, adding emphasis to insults hurled at the quitters and naysayers.

They're gettin' mad - and that was my goal in the first place. Grab somebody by the collar and shake 'em, jumble their senses, like a drunken lout who pissed on my floor.

That's right. My floor. It's mine, and I challenge anyone to step up and try to take it. Take it back, i.e., from the deceivers who stole it in the first place. Procedure implores you, it demands!

. . . and I don't even get paid a salary.

***

Well, there it is. A call to Repeal the 2001 AUMF and force Congress to publicly debate the continuation of the destruction of the Middle East and further the goals of American Empire and Hegemony. Did you ever consider what would happen if only a few thousand people would threaten to unseat their various Congressional Representatives for their dereliction of duty to you and the Nation? I know the answer, because I've done it before - they would follow your command. Insurmountable, you say? That's how the Constitution works, in part, at least. You do not need banners or signs, lawyers or slogans; you don't need to leave your house even. Give it a try. You'll look really cool - observing your right to do so.


. . . ::::::::

"To bring the AUMF to an end, "the public has got to speak out, organize, and mobilize," Lee

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/09/13/endless-war-continues-senate-kills-effort-repeal-2001-authorization

Statement On Passage of AUMF Amendment - July 2, 2017

(click image to enlarge)



Simply amazing! What a month, a week ... ! I read this news and nearly couldn't believe it - I am still stunned by this move. Maybe because there were no notices given about it. Not in my back yard, it wasn't. Not in the news. Why not? Always, consider the source.

I returned to Facebook last week, too, you know. I'd been away a long time, a real gone cat. Throughout the past election I'd tired of the drone - the righteous vicissitude and malleability of opinion changing with each catchphrase the narrators of thought externalized, straight from the script, some of it so shrill you'd almost beg for the promise of reprieve and embrace the lockstep of Newspeak and its ascension. I was a hairsbreadth from just chucking it all in. I can see why some retreat to the taciturn safety of ignorance - I was even screamed at for agreeing with a person's position - did I detect a lack of concentration? Seemed Pavlovian to me. There was one person who I could actually debate these questions with, but even he seemed under the spell of some strange enchantment. Or, he was being paid. I didn't realize that many professors moonlighted.

Now's a good time to read up on subjects (or expand your list) and come up with some real answers - not meandering in and out of the page when it suits you or when argument demands clarification and inspection. Science is not achieved by projecting a sense of authority or indignation. At least, test your theories first. You don't know where I've been or what others have suffered - suffering, perhaps, the best teacher of all.

I returned, not to "cavort", mind you - after familiarizing myself with it, in short order I'd considered my Facebook account to be nothing more than a tool for promotion - I went back to infiltrate. How so? I would create a trend. A new meme; one with a hashmark, #, applicable to twitter, no strain on the nervous system or its ability to be comprehended, just a comforting conformity - pronounce "meme" out loud and tell me I'm wrong - with a gentle premise: #PostForPeace I would become an agent among provocateurs. You see, I'd gotten my hands dirty before.

Yes - my scheme - to manipulate public opinion. I'd tried it before, but in a direct manner. After awhile of that, no one wished to engage me. Seems they didn't care much for factual statement, or didactic prose for that matter. Too dry. Most don't have general knowledge beyond a gloss or headline anyway. What they did respond to was emotion, and, being part of a "concern" - a sort of like minded righteousness - at that. Ample opportunity to study the phenomenon - popular posts receive the most replies and encouragement, political posts ranked equally for being contentious, if you chose a "side", off the chart, others mining friends by the thousands - I decided to mimic it, shamelessly, with similar zeal.

Nothing better to do - the group of writers I came to join didn't write - I settled on using guile to skew the message, to interject subtle, repetitive information and claim it was knowledge, add some misdirection if necessary, gathering mindless followers (five in the first five minutes) along the way to display my propaganda until I had a million hits - advancing, in my opinion, my ultimate goal for an anarchic vision . . #AUMF . Authorization for the Use Military Force.

Well, some people think it anarchic. It simply doesn't follow the Narrative currently in play. I think it a means to gain citizen involvement in decision making, actually, if you're smart enough to take what's rightfully yours. A means to find peace, if we were ever so lucky to pass it. What is it, exactly?

A return to Congress' original constitutional duty; to debate and determine who is our enemy, threatening our lives and existence here at home, or, as has been for 16 years ongoing without, "who is the ghost out in the hall?" The boogieman. The false flag, good guy/bad guy vilification, the means to bully, seize and/or co-opt any opposition to our Military/Security complex, raking in your tax dollars, hand over fist, while robbing weaker nations for the stuff that they think they "Need" - with the aid of some past colonial masters at times, a malcontent agenda, and some arm twisting to drive them. The Coalition - old King Leopold would be proud. What's to stop them? The Commission, you'd reply - isn't the Commission just a buffer between the people and the the King? It isn't, or never has been, a tribunal, it's decisions only ceremonial in nature. When was the last time it supported restraint in things of a military nature? His Majesty or Uncle Sam, those are your current choices. Assuming anybody's actually taken notice.

You might argue "But there's still the movement", There is no Peace Movement - not here anyway. No. Don't kid yourself. 1970, maybe. Don't try to argue. You'll lose.

An unadulterated Peace Movement doesn't exist in the USA. Oh, you could go stand on a bridge somewhere, chatting and signaling your virtue on a cardboard sign. I know this, mulled it over and chewed on it for awhile - considered the viability of the energy behind it, and the capacity to escalate it, get beyond the noise of the "thinkers" with elaborate theories all too willing to espouse them, and combine with other organizations, the disabled vets, the nurse's organizations (noted for their solidarity in advancing medical insurance causes), preferably with track records of "action" - until I spit it back out. Time was wasted. Time was lost trying to find one organization not bent on advancing its tenuous connections to social issues or an underlying political agenda.

Barring that agony, there was direct activism. I've tried to coax, threaten, cajole or instill a following over the course of the last decade or more. Not a following, to be precise. Just attention and involvement, cause and effect, the latter, hopefully, for the better. But the dark side was strong in this one. I've lost friends on account of it. Most on Facebook, come to think of it; a telling sign.

And those lost, over disagreements attributable to the election, the most purposefully divisive circus presented ever, in my estimation. My activism rejected logical fallacy - it involved thinking contrary to accepted norms. Not a great venue to win friends and influence people, either. It hurt me, too, stoked my insecurities and threatened my self image. It probably even left a mark. I'd gone against the grain but hadn't time to check for blisters. It changed me. More people say I'm an asshole now than before.

Acting on a cause like this was like asking someone to be food taster for a tyrant. After all, this is a $trillion dollar industry$ - year after year after year ... but you say there is still? All right, here I am, you're looking at it. Think that preposterous? I may be all you got. What do you care - Well, what did you do in the war, Daddy? "I was scared" would be an appropriate response.

If you'd answered, with some care, you'd have acknowledged one and a half million dead non-combatants due our military adventurism, an amount our Secretary of Defense "Mad Dog" Mattis recently disavowed, Albright only partially conceded and Hillary cackled on about thinking no one would ever learn of her culpability - not one of them taking any responsibility, of course - that would be a start.

There was one little hitch in my nefarious plan though. Zuckerberg, the owner of FB, had just changed Facebook's mission. Oh - haven't you heard? Oh - did he ever. Not without a little help and guidance from his friends, I'd wager.

A few "shares" of my innocent meme and the omnipotent algorithms kicked in, cutting off any thing I attempted right at the knees. And that's how it stayed, locked tighter than a drum, forbidden to "share" or post for two days running until I gave up in disgust. I tried to end run it, even sending some brave volunteers to certain erasure - my account, which I'd abandoned for so long, had never really let me walk away. But for some recurring cookies, I've since continued our separation, opting for some remorse.

It's not a "dating service", by the way. It's a stockade for the lonely and for the willing - and those few stalwarts who don't quite fit in? Regardless, every user there is herded to one end; no squawk, no fuss, you will be only with people who totally agree, "we" will direct you, to disobey is to be ostracized - you can even block out voices that don't agree with yours ... Read the happy clip here. Then throw it up to a mirror to reveal what it really means. Cross yourself first. I was spooked for an entire week afterward. Pun intended.

As for Representative Lee, above? She was the only Congress Person in 2001 to not vote for military intervention. Who would have thought that? Nobody at the time. Someone, or some entity, had attacked, and nobody was asking questions. Certainly not the populace, stirred to a frenzy as they were. Even if someone had petitioned their legally elected representative - The President boldly stated he would proceed with or without the public's consensus. Do you get the point now?

No voice. No decision making or debate. Patronizing words, a bait and switch, do what you're told, with some willing already, whether or not they are able. None for The Others. Others just standing by while Others are dead. But how do you think your Representative or Senator, will choose to vote for an #AUMF, Amerikan? Who's whispering in his/her ear? To whom is he beholding? The biggest contributor to maintain his office? A string of promises on a golden thread dangled like a carrot from a pearl-handled stick ... doesn't anyone do anything for their own integrity? But wait.

Pardon my hashtag, but doesn't he owe his position to your informed decision? Alright, disregarding relative knowledge of the subject, or what sources provide it, a choice abandoned to convenience, at that; I'm referring to a vote cast to return to Constitutional authority, your vote, one that outweighs private entanglements ... wait, that's almost a dirty word now, isn't it? Only "liberty" freaks and knuckle dragging goons adhere to that. What is the actual purpose? The Constitution is the law of the land, its actors, essentially, the authority, yet its contents are severely self limiting in nature to prevent any oppressive rule. It offers only negative reinforcements further restricting Government's intrusions - all allowances, changes, state efforts, interpretations, misrepresentation and disrespect in general - we screwed those up ourselves. Isn't that our nature ... but to put aside the philosophical and directly promoting action; Didn't they take an Oath, and how did that image of citizen representation emerge? The usual methods, the usual suspects ... fuck 'em.

Direct enough? But, it's yours, if only you would accept it. Do with it what you will. I might even go along. Not for some overseer behind a curtain - Look, I don't even want to hear what you think. I barely found the time to write this. I'd rather you contact your Representative/Senator now, before they vote. Now go and tell them personally; visit, call, text, email, fax, harass if you must ... if you care about the consequences of not doing so. Be persistent. What was it ... oh, yeah, just type this . . #AUMF



(... do it. I was wrong. It's not too late.)