Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown - the Torture Guy

Voters in Massachusetts just made a very big mistake. Scott Brown, the come-from-behind faux truck-driving "regular guy" who apparently won Ted Kennedy's Senate seat is no populist. This Repugnican is just another Bush era corporado. Worse, Brown is an advocate of torture.

Endless shame on any Dems or Independents who voted for Brown as a protest of Obama's drift to the right or any populists who labor under the mistaken notion that Scott Brown is a man of the people. He is decidedly none of that. Brown, in his own words, is all about supporting and strengthening "the existing private market system". Translation: let the insurance corporados continue robbing you blind and then denying you coverage when you're ill. Scott Brown states: "I am a free enterprise advocate who believes that lower taxes can encourage economic growth." Translation: Same-old/same-old failed Bush era economics. Corporate globalization out-sourcing your jobs and endless cutbacks - the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. It's just another replay of the stupidity of middle class citizens in the U.S. voting against their own interests. Meanwhile, the wealthy who engineered their delusion laugh all the way to the bank that's "too big to fail".

All that is bad enough. The promotion of torture worse by far. But the fact that this happened in the so-called Commonwealth of Massachusetts and in the seat of the late Senator Edward Kennedy is a complete fucking outrage. The combination of a confused populist movement with an elitist oligarchy at the helm and desperate neocons clinging to the rails is a dangerous one. The present bitterness and obstruction orchestrated by Repugnicans in Washington and the breakdown of civility in the U.S. ,encouraged and facilitated by the media, only exacerbates the situation. Who knows where this will lead. One thing is for sure: liberals and progressives must redouble their efforts at exposing the machinations of the far-right and the corporados. At the same time, it must be made clear to the Obama Administration that anymore appeasement to Repugnicans and corporate Dems will be the ruin of any semblance of "hope and change".

TODAY’S FORECAST

TODAY’S FORECAST


THE NATIONAL FORECAST HAS ISSUED A POETRY WARNING FOR HAMPSHIRE COUNTY IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS UNTIL 9:30 PM EST.

AT 8:35 PM EST NATIONAL FORECAST RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE POETRYSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING STRONG, RADICALLY CHANGING WINDS. THIS DANGEROUS STORM WAS LOCATED 10 MILES SOUTHWEST OF NORTHAMPTON OR 11 MILES WEST OF SOUTH HADLEY MOVING NORTH AT 45 MPH.

LOCATIONS WITHIN THE WARNING INCLUDE ALL AREAS NORTH OF I-90.

THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM. MOVE INTO YOUR SHELTERS NOW! IF NO UNDERGROUND SHELTER IS AVAILABLE...MOVE INTO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF A STURDY STRUCTURE.

SLIPPERY SLOPES AND DAMAGING SHIFTING WINDS ARE ALSO EXPECTED WITH THIS STORM.

HEAVY PRECIPITATION FROM THE STORM MAY PRODUCE LOCALIZED FLOODING. DO NOT DRIVE INTO AREAS WHERE POETRY COVERS THE ROAD.

REPORT SEVERE POETRY TO THE NEAREST LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY. THEY WILL RELAY YOUR REPORT TO THE NATIONAL SERVICE.

A letter to my grandchildren

To my Grandchildren,

I've been meaning to write to you for quite sometime regarding the ecological disaster my generation and past generations have bestowed upon you. I want to say I have done everything possible to prevent the climate crisis and a seemingly endless list of environmental emergencies, but the truth is that I have not done everything possible. I have not for instance, burned down the New York Stock Exchange or the headquarters of any number of corporations that are complicit in the destruction of our planet. I have not ventured to the Amazon to sabotage the rapacious, illegal logging operations. Nor have I fasted to the death as a protest to the machinations of those corporations that are leaving such a poisonous legacy for your generation. And I have not abducted any of the highly flawed leaders of those corporations or their henchmen in Congress and tried to exchange them for real commitments to stop destroying the biosphere. These things, and other acts, are possible but not necessarily probable for your grandfather. Also, they might not be really very effective in creating the kind of change needed to save the planet from the human race. History, for the most part, tells us that such acts usually just reinforce the dominant paradigm of self-interest: opposing values and behaviors become even defensive, more entrenched; the growing "security state" (real security requires a healthy planet, of course) grows even more, or such acts merely fade from our increasingly short memories having little if any effect.

What I have done, and will continue to do until my dying day, is constantly sound the alarm and do all I can to raise awareness of the critical issues that face your generation and the future of life on Earth. Granted, I have been doing that for the past forty years or so, seemingly without much in the way of results. I have created and been part of organizations that prevented the construction or implementation of various ill-conceived facilities or policies, but for every victory there seems to have been as many defeats. The Machine, that all-consuming suicidal mindset humans have manufactured to conquer Nature, is vast and pervasive. Those of us standing in its path trying to prevent its awful advance are far too few and way too weak. It is for that reason that I keep trying to raise the alarm and increase our ranks. Some believe such efforts are hopeless. Perhaps these are people without children or grandchildren.

As I write this, countless civic and environmental groups, as well as so-called world leaders, are ending the largest climate summit ever held on the plant, the United Nation's COP-15 meeting held in Copenhagen, Denmark this December, 2009. The event was a failure. It was mired in the very paradigm of self-interest I mentioned earlier. It was fraught with elitism, deception and manipulation, the sad indicators of our highly flawed species. One wonders if any hope is left with this kind of political and social chaos taking place, even as time runs out for the very planet that is home to all of us.

And yet, all I have is hope and what little strength is left to me to continue the struggle. I hope that those who have chosen the wrong path, the path of selfishness or crazed materialism, will realize the error of their ways. I hope that the planet has a greater capacity than we are aware of to absorb or turn-back humanity's suicidal assaults. I hope that some sort of deus ex machina will make itself known and save the world. I hope that hopelessness will not overcome us. In the face of all this, regardless of failures like the COP-15 climate summit, I will continue to stand before The Machine with all of you in mind.

Love,

Grampa

It's no Tea Party in the USA

Never let it be said that the far-right in the USA can't make fools of themselves when given half a chance. The formation of an official political Tea Party by right-wing nut-job extremists may be the latest in self-parody. Most of these guys seem totally tone-deaf to how they're coming across in the media. Mad as hatters? You betcha'! Maybe it's all the lead shot they've got stored up in their survival shelters. Even their choice of the term teabager seems ill-advised for folks who view themselves as bastions of morality and opponents of "the homosexual lifestyle".

Whatever the source of their off-the-cliff craziness, it's not all entertainment for those of us trying to sort out the garbage. The fact is, outfits like Faux "News" who have a national platform to misinform the public (and who are the driving force behind the teabaggers) also pollute the political arena with outright lies and distortions. This creates confusion and misunderstanding, an atmosphere ripe for recruitment of those who are less inclined to think for themselves or do their own research into the issues of the day.

But, worse than manipulation and disinformation campaigns, this so-called Tea Party also has the potential for violence. Far-right extremists from last summers health care town hall meetings chose disruption over dialogue, screaming and shouting down those they disagree with and behaving like thugs. Think Brownshirts in pre-war Germany and you've about come upon the profile.

So, crazy? Sure enough, but crazy with an edge, like foaming-at-the-mouth crazy, like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party meets Kristallnacht. Beware and be very aware.

Biomass my ass!

What have we done to this land? In the never-ending quest for riches and material gain , humanity seems set on destroying the natural world and replacing it with a life-sized diorama of stage props, visually sanitized, always regimented and totally lacking in soul. Of course, all these theme-park worlds need energy to keep them functioning and the monstrous appetite for that energy has resulted in countless miles of deserts and lifeless moonscapes where once there were mountains, streams and forests alive with nature.

Now, to add to our apocryphal vision of the future, along side of gutted hills, dammed and polluted rivers, and horizons shrouded in a chemical haze, we have the latest "answer" to our energy crisis raising the specter of horizons filled with vast clear-cuts. Industrial-scale biomass, in which either garbage, construction and demolition debris, or whole forests are incinerated to produce electricity, is the new panacea. It can also be described as the new "coal" or the new "nukes, in terms of both its associated problems and the growing resistance to them. Classified as "renewable energy" by pliant politicians serving corporate interests, large-scale biomass is about as renewable as my misspent youth. Given the amounts of CO2 these biomass facilities will pump into the atmosphere, it's ludicrous to classify them as "carbon-neutral", but that's exactly what developers and their hirelings in government are advertising.

With respect to clear-cut forests being tossed into the biomass furnace, perhaps less healthy and ecologically sound new growth will return in 50, 80 or 100 years, but during that prolonged period the critically needed carbon sequestration of the full-grown forest will not be available. Are we not PLANTING trees to deal with the climate crisis??

As for the incineration of trash and construction or demolition debris being "renewable", define your terms! We can always make new trash and trashy new structures, that's for sure, but if recent history is any guide, most all those things are made with dangerous toxins that will be passed on to your neighborhood in the incineration process. You have more than enough reason to be concerned.

So, industrial-scale biomass does address the energy crisis in the sense that the energy crisis represents the destruction of the planet upon which you live. Or, to put it more bluntly: biomass my ass!

24 - Reprehension

Some of the Bush regime's chickens may be coming home to roost, but Hollywood could well be providing the fox that guards the hen house of public opinion. Of course, I'm referring to the new season of Torture is Us: "24 - Redemption", the television series that made torture acceptable to so many minds in the U.S. I'm not sure how many times it needs to be said in order for the obvious to sink in, but the ancient and despicable practice of waterboarding really IS torture (as opposed to "enhanced interrogation") and it really IS illegal. Ramming prisoner's heads into walls and a long list of similar atrocities are classified as torture as well. These are things "24"'s Jack Bauer has been "entertaining" audiences with for years now. What's wrong in this picture? Need you ask??

Now, in its' eternal wisdom, Hollywood is once again trying to cash-in on the next new thing; in this case collective guilt and shame for allowing this nation to slip quite a few notches below what's believed to be civilization. Truth be known, the lesser elements in the USA have always tortured. Cops, prison guards, criminals, abusive parents. But in terms of the military and federal law enforcement, the nation has always prided itself on a sort of righteous image of being above such vile practices.....until the likes of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush took the reins of power. With the onset of the post-9/11 security hysteria that swept the nation, Hollywood gave us "24" nearly 24/7 (recall that most mainstream TV news organizations are now arms of the entertainment industry). The corporate news media has been dancing around the terminology of torture for years now, perhaps hoping the whole thing would go away. This is merely justification or obfuscation dressed-up as news reporting. "24 - Redemption" apparently is more of the same.

It seems Jack Bauer will remain the true grit all-American hero trying to do the "right thing" with all his right stuff. In the series Bauer will be called before congress to explain his illegal tactics (that, in truth, are also immoral and that do not work in the real world) and it appears he will be given the Ollie North mantle of the beleaguered warrior going over the line to "defend America" against (your villain here). Least we forget: Ollie North was not only a far-right ideologue posing as righteous patriot, but also a crook. Television viewers watched Jack Bauer torture bad guys for years. Probably the vast majority of them thought that was OK. It wasn't. Jack Bauer represents a truly bad precedent: illegal, immoral and ineffective action dressed-up as patriotism. Bauer is so Bush era. It's time for change.

brother

the wheel in your hand
across this fertile land
so many songs you've sung
so many hours ground down
lenses scoping out the action
the reactions, surprised
parties averted gazes and
the twelve steps to nowhere.
vice grip pliers held that
wheel in place, a two-tone
bus with us half grown
steering our way, off to
the highway, the long, long
winding road home, the stolen flag
a bartender's gift, like a
splash in the plaza fountain
without all that fame to
distract us, to grab the wheel
coming loose in our hands.