Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC

MoveOn.org

May 26, 2013
KNOW YOUR HISTORY: Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May, 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for 2 weeks to give them a proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 Black children where they marched, sang and celebrated.Thanks to Abstrakt Goldsmith for this nugget of history that most of us never learned in school.

To this, I say, why do we fight?? What is it about human nature that makes them believe that they must kill other human beings for their freedom?

The Glory of war is not glorious. Ask those who do fight. The first casualty of war is "Truth". People are trained, brainwashed and distorted to believe that their leaders who do this to them would not lie to them, would not line their pockets with blood money and would care for them upon their return from the Battlefield.

All to often we see our fellow human beings become inhuman in their acts of warring against other human beings. And then they return home and are given ribbons, ribbons that honor how heroically they "killed" another human being for our "freedom"? The depth of the absurdity and cognitive dissonance is overwhelming. How does creating a war culture, a militarized environment, a police state, a surveillance state a cult of oppression of other human beings, give us freedom?

Our troops have their humanity removed from them as they are trained to believe that killing for freedom is tantamount to Patriotism. Patriotism is tantamount to all previously perceived values and standards. To be Patriotic means to stand by your government, even if it is found to be lying and creating scenarios in which you must risk your life and kill others, conquer others and invade others to maintain your freedom at home. The stalk reality that this aggression breeds more aggression and diminishes humanity to a banal state to me is the result of mass graves and disregard of the humanity of others.

This is not a political, racial, ethnic, national problem, it is a human problem, and it is the human being who continually takes the freedom and sovereignty of other humans in their so-called quest for "freedom" at home. An aerial view of this idiocy could cause humanity to stop and think, what is the purpose of this? Who profits? And more importantly, what is this doing to our basic humanity?  Is it really about defense or is it really about DOMINANCE?

Links and Commentary:There appears to be many variations on this theme and a bit of a debate as to who started what and when. The links below will show the differences in the history and opinions on this.  I think that this story shows the true horrors of war, something that would have been denied or ignored not because the Freedmen acknowledged the fallen soldiers but because of the way those fallen soldiers were treated on American soil.

From Dalp Pearson
Here is a tid-bit of back story on this photograph -- Union Cemetery

During the closing days of the Civil War, the area was used as a prisoner-of-war camp. More than two hundred Union soldiers died in the camp and were buried in a mass grave at the site.

Union soldiers were buried behind the old racetrack's stands near the present intersection of Tenth Ave. and Mary Murray Drive.
In an article titled "The First Decoration Day", David W. Blight of Yale has written:[3]

"The city was largely abandoned by white residents by late February. Among the first troops to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the 21st U. S. Colored Infantry; their commander accepted the formal surrender of the city.

"Thousands of black Charlestonians, most former slaves, remained in the city and conducted a series of commemorations to declare their sense of the meaning of the war. The largest of these events, and unknown until some extraordinary luck in my recent research, took place on May 1, 1865. During the final year of the war, the Confederates had converted the planters' horse track, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, into an outdoor prison. Union soldiers were kept in horrible conditions in the interior of the track; at least 257 died of exposure and disease and were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand. Some twenty-eight black workmen went to the site, re-buried the Union dead properly, and built a high fence around the cemetery. They whitewashed the fence and built an archway over an entrance on which they inscribed the words, 'Martyrs of the Race Course'.

"Then, black Charlestonians in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people on the slaveholders' race course. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy's horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freedpeople. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing 'a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.'

"At 9 am on May 1, the procession stepped off led by three thousand black schoolchildren carrying arm loads of roses and singing 'John Brown's Body.' The children were followed by several hundred black women with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses. Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantry and other black and white citizens. As many as possible gathering in the cemetery enclosure; a childrens' choir sang 'We'll Rally around the Flag,' the 'Star-Spangled Banner,' and several spirituals before several black ministers read from scripture. No record survives of which biblical passages rung out in the warm spring air, but the spirit of Leviticus 25 was surely present at those burial rites: 'for it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you … in the year of this jubilee he shall return every man unto his own possession.'

"Following the solemn dedication the crowd dispersed into the infield and did what many of us do on Memorial Day: they enjoyed picnics, listened to speeches, and watched soldiers drill. Among the full brigade of Union infantry participating was the famous 54th Massachusetts and the 34th and 104th U.S. Colored Troops, who performed a special double-columned march around the gravesite. The war was over, and Decoration Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration. The war, they had boldly announced, had been all about the triumph of their emancipation over a slaveholders' republic, and not about state rights, defense of home, nor merely soldiers' valor and sacrifice."

By late April 1865, a white picket fence on which was written "The Martyrs of the Race Course" had been erected.[4] On May 1, 1865, thousands of people, mainly newly freed blacks, processed to the site, and members of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry marched around the site. The graves were decorated, speeches were offered, and celebrants enjoyed picnics in the area.[5] This has been cited as the first Memorial Day celebration. By 1871, the cemetery was suffering neglect, and the soldiers were reinterred at the Beaufort[3] and Florence National Cemeteries.

http://m.video.pbs.org/video/2318014363/

Watch Memorial Day on PBS. See more from American Experience.

   
" In the May 1865, the newspaper covered what Blight argues should be credited as the nation’s first memorial day observance, held on May 1, 1865. At that time, Charleston was largely in ruins and families were eager to rebuild their lives and their city. The photos on this page are Library of Congress images from the era. Two simply show scenes of wartime devastation in the city. But the photo at right here appears to show the land where the former Confederate prison camp stood (also the site of a pre-Civil War Race Course). The photo appears to show work beginning on raising the remains in April 1865 in preparation for the new cemetery that eventually would include a wall, an archway entrance and properly buried remains.
    The Daily Courier coverage of that first memorial day, May 1, 1865, was headlined …

The Martyrs of the Race Course"

http://www.readthespirit.com/explore/the-first-memorial-day-may-1-1865-reported-in-the-charleston/ 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/jim-downs/who-invented-memorial-day_b_3340146.html
http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20090524/PC1602/305249938
http://www.waterloony.com/mdayhistory.html
http://video.pbs.org/video/2318014363/
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/opinion/28mon4.html?_r=1&
http://jobs.blacknews.com/content/232372/blog.cgi?cid&reading=1

http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html
http://www.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/history.asp
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1900454,00.html
http://www.blackbluedog.com/2013/05/news/did-you-know-memorial-day-was-started-by-ex-slaves/
http://blackhistory.com/content/232359/the-first-memorial-day-10-000-march-in-charleston-many-former-slaves-to-celebrate-freedom

From: Navneet Gupta
“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world is my own government, I cannot be silent”

“A nation that year after year continues to spend more money on military defense than on social uplift is approaching spiritual death”

“We have guided missiles, yet misguided men.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.(1929 – 1968)

Militarism is glorified in the west. We are asked to “remember” the fallen, yet keep fighting in these same unjust conflicts at the same time (many of which we are responsible for starting). It makes no sense?

The U.S. is one of only two countries which has not ratified the convention regarding the use of child soldiers. They are also the largest arms dealers in the world (here is our WMD).

War is all about greed, power, and exploiting the powerless. War has nothing to do with freedom, loving your country, or being a hero. War is about killing innocent people, stealing what they have and keeping power over them through violence & propaganda.

A FRACTION of the money spent on the military industrial complex could eradicate hunger (Food, Not Bombs!), and all other social and ecological problems humanity faces (saving lives instead of taking them).

'Developed' nations along with their corporate raiders prop up a corrupt elite at the top of poor nations through the selling of arms, funding, ‘development’, loans, etc. This has allowed for the extraction of indigenous wealth from the southern hemisphere to the northern hemisphere (Often referred to as ‘Neocolonialism’)

Was gonna share this video on Facebook, but I think not. How is it that "Sept. 11, 2001 Osama bin Laden used expert CIA training to murder 3000 people?" Has this been proven? Last on this, those so-called terrorist couldn't fly a plane straight, much less maneuver 1 into the towers 2x's& avoid detection as it careened into the Pentagon. Michael Moore at best gives facts & at worst, throws a dis-info tidbit just to see if you are paying attention. Not cool, so what part do you believe? Dis-info discredits.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbjr_cPS9_A

U.N. Report Advocates Teaching Masturbation to 5-Year-Olds

 
But I feel that the training should be done with the parents first, not the children. What happens in a lot of cases is that children are exposed to things that their parents are not aware of or would not expose them to or in some other cases do not want the children to even talk about.
This issue is two-pronged.
1. While they claim to empower the children they are dis-empowering the parents and placing themselves in the position of authority over the children beyond their parents.
2. If there is sexual impropriety on any level, be it parents, teachers, staff or others, who will come forth and expose this? If the children are given the proper training it must include the whole family to be most healthy and forthright for all involved.
I had an interesting dream, and I think it came from this topic.
I was an educator, somewhere, and it was not my present self but a teacher nevertheless attempting to handle this situation in my small school with my children. Their ages were in this range, and the demographics were across the board. The children responded all quite differently to "Sex Education" and it varied according to their home environment. One young man, about 9-10 years of age, he was African American, a little heavy and a little tall for his age. He became hysterical, and began to scream and ran out of the room. We had to calm him down and every time we attempted to bring him back into the room, he would yell and scream hysterically.(Clearly, he was not comfortable at all with the idea of discussing this in his classroom. He may have felt that school was his sage environment and now that safety was threatened because this was being discussed in the classroom. Apparently, he had been treated inappropriately and he was having a severe reaction.)
There were other students who considered it playful, they began to play around laughing and giggling. (Clearly, there was something missed in the instructions as they were not taking this as seriously as we had envisioned.)
Then there was another young lady and young man who were a bit older, maybe late teens. It seems there was an attraction already there between them, and they began to mimic having sew, right there in the classroom. When they were told that the lesson was over, the young man, having become fully aroused refused to stop and quickly turned the young girl over and penetrated her anus. She screamed and we had to pull him off her. It was unbelievable but he said, you can't bring me this far and then tell me now it's time to stop.
Okay, this was a dream, and I think that it is showing me the dangers of this approach if not properly handled. If you have people with nefarious motives doing this, well, they are not going to think of all the angles that can cause this to be a hurtful experience for some, traumatic for others and the usurpation of the parents' authority and/or responsibility to be the first educators of this and so many other topics for their children. If parents allows the PTB to determine hand over fist, what is best for their children, then the society is controlled by those who are less interested in the genuine welfare of the children and more interested in their own agendas.
We simply must take control of our lives back and bring it home into our family situations and only if there is no other recourse,, rely on outside institutions to determine what is best for us.
In this day and age, we have become so dependent on the society and its programs to take care of us and our needs, we have forgotten or have gotten lazy about doing this ourselves. We have in essence become slaves to the MACHINE/MATRIX/POWERS THAT BE.

_____________________________________________________________________________

U.N. Report Advocates Teaching Masturbation to 5-Year-Olds
Like us? www.facebook.com/Citizens.Action.Network

The United Nations is recommending that children as young as five receive mandatory sexual education that would teach even pre-kindergarteners about masturbation and topics like gender violence.

The U.N.'s Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released a 98-page report in June offering a universal lesson plan for kids ranging in age from 5-18, an
"informed approach to effective sex, relationships" and HIV education that they say is essential for "all young people."

The U.N. insists the program is "age appropriate," but critics say it's exposing kids to sex far too early, and offers up abstract ideas — like "transphobia" — they might not even understand.

"At that age they should be learning about ... the proper name of certain parts of their bodies," said Michelle Turner, president of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, "certainly not about masturbation."

Turner was disturbed by UNESCO's plans to explain to children as young as nine about the safety of legal abortions, and to advocate and "promote the right to and access to safe abortion" for everyone over the age of 15.

"This is absurd," she told FOXNews.com.

The UNESCO report, called "International Guidelines for Sexuality Education," separates children into four age groups: 5-to-8-year-olds, 9-to-12-year-olds, 12-to-15-year-olds and 15-to-18-year-olds.

Under the U.N.'s voluntary sex-ed regime, kids just 5-8 years old will be told that "touching and rubbing one's genitals is called masturbation" and that private parts "can feel pleasurable when touched by oneself."

• Click here to see the report.
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/082509_unesco.pdf

By the time they're 9 years old, they'll learn about "positive and negative effects of 'aphrodisiacs," and wrestle with the ideas of "homophobia, transphobia and abuse of power."

At 12, they'll learn the "reasons for" abortions — but they'll already have known about their safety for three years. When they're 15, they'll be exposed to direct "advocacy to promote the right to and access to safe abortion."

Child health experts say they are wary of teaching about the sticky topic of abortion, but stress that as long as messages stay age-appropriate, educating kids at a younger age helps better steer them into adulthood.

"The adults are more leery of [early sex-ed] than the kids are," said Dr. Jennifer Hartstein, a child psychiatrist in New York. "Our own fears sometimes prevent us from being as open and honest with our kids as possible."

Hartstein, however, who didn't see much harm in explaining basic concepts that kids of all ages will have questions about, was baffled by some of the ideas the U.N. hoped to introduce to kids as young as 5 years old, who will be taught about "gender roles, stereotypes and gender-based violence."

"I want to know how you teach that to a 5-year-old," Hartstein told FOXNews.com.

Despite those challenges, the U.N. insists that "in a world affected by HIV and AIDS ... there is an imperative to give children and young people the knowledge, skills and values to understand and make informed decisions."

UNESCO officials said the guidelines were "co-authored by two leading experts in the field of sexuality education" — Dr. Doug Kirby, an adolescent sexuality expert, and Nanette Ecker, the former director of international education and training at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

Their report was based on a "rigorous review" of sex-ed literature, "drawing upon 87 studies from around the world," said Mark Richmond, director of UNESCO's Division for the Coordination of U.N. Priorities in Education, in an e-mailed statement.

Richmond defended teaching about masturbation as "age-appropriate" because even in early childhood, "children are known to be curious about their bodies." Their lessons, he added, would hopefully help kids "develop a more complex understanding of sexual behaviour" as they grow into adults.

But Michelle Turner, of Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, said that such roles should be left up to parents, and worried that children were being exposed to too much information too soon.

"Why can't kids be kids anymore?" she said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,543203,00.html#ixzz2Pr0y5WQw

Watch Out...We're Surrounded! by Frank Scott

Watch Out...We're Surrounded!

legalienate.blogspot.com/2013/03/watch-outwere-surrounded.html

After the tenth anniversary of the destruction of Iraq passed with the usual historic distortion and pieties from established power about the waste and rationalizations about why we had to do it, America’s bipartisan war party has even more loudly revived the same lies and logic perversion used to get support for that slaughter. Without even a hint of embarrassment, political puppets of wealth from congress to the state department to the white house are again talking about gas and chemical weapons of mass destruction, substituting Assad of Syria for Hussein of Iraq as this season’s demonic Hitler-figure to lull Americans into accepting further military crimes to perpetuate finance capital’s empire and keep our minds off the fact that it threatens to collapse on our heads.

Media fulfills its responsibility as corporate stenographer to power by reporting these charges, without a blushing reminder that this is the same puppet-speak that was only called by its rightful name after hundreds of thousands were dead, an educated class had become refugees and a materially developed secular nation had been broken up into a scattering of underdeveloped sectarian neighborhoods. This process was repeated in Libya but without invasion and simply by using NATO servants to front for our mass bombings. That assault on morality and reason included the usual charges of genocide – when anyone dies in a foreign country our rulers don’t like, it’s called genocide - and new descent into the sewers of western consciousness with tales of mass rapes committed by monsters given Viagra by the evil dictator. Though not accepted by any but the most tortured minds - our leaders - these tales from the toilets of degeneracy helped reduce another nation developed along lines not totally in keeping with the desires of the Master-Race-Chosen-People deities of the west. Libya was transformed into a shattered place with freedom for high finance and oil companies and near chaos for almost everyone else. The latest atrocities in Syria seem to indicate that while the imperial cabal dominated by the MRCP minority of multi-billionaires and their servants flounders in deadly crisis, it’s intention is not only to maintain the diseased system but spread its affliction until the entire global population joins the terminal patients in the universal intensive care ward that is being created by global capitalism.

The banking crisis that began in the USA and spread to Europe has brought near total destruction of the social democratic policies that had previously saved capitalism. The economic cancer that gripped the world in the 1930s was placed in remission for more than a generation by the relatively enlightened – for capital - policies called Keynesianism. These created government spending to prop up anarchic markets that were collapsing under exclusive minority control. It wisely – for capital - used tax money to create jobs, food, clothing and shelter for great masses of people, so that they might not only refrain from revolting against minority power, but also consume all the goods and services they created in order to profit that minority.

The material improvement in the lives of many – though far from most – enabled a generation of relative peaceful control for great wealth in the west, even while the world was consumed by more wars that killed more millions, forgotten because unlike the Euros who perished in wars one and two, these were mostly from the darker skinned members of our race, the third world majority. They were and remain either colonized, neo-colonized or otherwise economically subjugated and thus remaining invisible to newly created middle classes subjected to mind numbing consciousness control and mind managing entertainment that often passes for news on TV. This newly affluent class – by peasant standards - consumed billions of dollars of mostly needless garbage advertised into being absolutely necessary-for-survival drugs, cosmetics, therapies, toys, pets, gadgets and processed foods, while financing with its tax dollars and plastic debt a massive version of fake democracy and a far more massive supply of real weapons of mass destruction.

Already badly overstretched and financed only by imaginary electronic funds backed by very real military power, imperial dictatorship is creating new problems to bolster its war state while simultaneously destroying a civil society hardly conceived by moral values but nonetheless preventing complete physical breakdown. While so-called “austerity” is employed to cut government spending – the only thing that has maintained MRCP capitalism for a generation – while at the same time attempting to militarily protect finance from any and all national models daring to attempt going a different way finds more warfare threatened, with these idiotic fantasy charges to make the public accepting of the need to cut back on their meals in order to buy more guns.

As this is written and the arms shipments to Syria increase along with the death toll and lies, the hallucinatory threat from North Korea gets headlines. This tiny nation once invaded and bombed by the USA and suffering death and destruction unknown to intellectually impoverished Americans, is said to be threatening the USA with bellicose statements. The fact that the USA has troops on its borders and regularly conducts what criminally infantile elements here call “war games” on Korean seas play no role at all in North Korea’s posture, of course. The only thing that may help them, and it is a big maybe, is that North Korea does possess nuclear weapons and could wreak terrible retaliatory havoc if the warhead in our half white house decides to go totally over the edge and attack them.

Meanwhile, the financial crisis has reached new lows in Europe, especially Cyprus where the bailout not only involves robbing taxpayers but stealing money from their bank accounts. Those in America who think this is a laughable situation might start removing their money from these corporate casinos and placing then under the mattress the way their grandparents did. Of course, authority may ultimately attempt confiscation of those mattresses so maybe the second amendment gun lobby fundamentalists have an argument approaching reason? No, but given present conditions, any crackpot theory will get some hearing. Unfortunately, the most crackpot of all, from capital central in the USA, is getting far too much.

Posted by Frank Scott at 12:22 PM

NANA'S COMMENTARY "Why Do they Sag?"

Teen Stabs His Father For Asking Him to Pull Up His Sagging Pants

Most of us hate the sagging pants fad that has taken over in black teen America.   But we can’t always assume that black kids are the only ones who are sagging.  Cody Burns, an 18-year old teen in Indiana, apparently had enough of his father when his dad came and asked him to pull up his sagging pants.
The teen was so angry that he went into the kitchen, got a knife, came back out, and stabbed his own father in the chest.   Cody’s dad didn’t die from his injuries, but he is going to have to spend some time in the hospital.
Burns is now sagging his pants in the Floyd County Jail on $75,000 bond.  He is facing charges of battery by means of a deadly weapon after the incident took place.
There are some cities where it’s against the law for teens to sag their pants.  The trend has been in existence for years, and is often criticized as a spillover of prison culture.  Will the fad ever come to an end?

http://www.yourblackworld.net/2013/03/black-news/teen-stabs-his-father-for-asking-him-to-pull-up-his-sagging-pants/

NANA'S COMMENTARY

I really think the point of sagging has moved from the whole prison vibe at t his point. Specially now that most of the time these inmates are in orange jumpsuits. I think that is beyond style or fashion or any of that. I really feel, it is about rebelling, just plain and simple rebelling.

This style has been around so long, that even little white boys are sagging. It's about the energy they get when they do it. They are stuck in the cult of doing it and deriving the energy of disgust, etc, They are energy vampires, probably didn't get enough hugs when they were young. they know they can get energy from our response, or maybe at this point it is so not in their conscious awareness, but they feel it.

It's almost like they need to do it, like they are addicted to drugs or something. It's a subtle form of crowd control, its manipulation in how folks react. It may even go so far as to make them feel powerful in a round about way. What other way to get folks railed up than to sag your pants and get everybody around you going nuts. People are making laws to stop it, others are kicking people out of the house, others are making comics and everyone is trying to find a solution.

When it first came out, I would tell the boys to "Pull your pants -down-" and instinctively they would pull them up. Now if they wear them down so low, they may pull them up but not enough to stay up. They will even wear a belt and walk like a cowboy who just got off his horse, just to sag. They will risk ridicule, denial, risk being ostracized, imprisonment, you name it just for the "style"?

No, I think it's deeper than that. I think it is something going off in them, and they are in such a need for the energy they get from this it has become an addiction for them. It's a religion. It's a way of life. Not a fashion, or style, it is their very existence.

As far as the upper level of folks who created this style, it is a method of division to keep us "hating" on each other. If they can create situations in which we hate each other, or deplore each other we will never unite. We will judge the person who is sagging as an "idiot" and will resist joining in any cause with them because of it, instead of giving them a hug and some love and light and positive re-enforcement.

It reminds me of how they demonized locks, now every body is wearing them.

So my solution is, catch ourselves, before we hate them, send them love and gentle encouragement. They will feel that, I have seen it happen, and they will inadvertently pull up their pants, cause really, when you have folks doing stuff to seek attention, they are missing something in their lives, and that something is just plain ole, unconditional LOVE.

8 Must See Documentaries

Watch. Listen. Learn. Teach.

Why We Fight:

This film moves beyond the headlines of various American military operations to the deeper questions of why, why does America fight? What are the forces; political, economic, and ideological, that drive them to fight against an ever-changing enemy? Published on Mar 31, 2012 http://www.whywefight.com/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBH3W2 "...WHY WE FIGHT, the new film by Eugene Jarecki which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, is an unflinching look at the anatomy of the American war machine, weaving unforgettable personal stories with commentary by a "who's who" of military and beltway insiders. Featuring John McCain, William Kristol, Chalmers Johnson, Gore Vidal, Richard Perle and others,
WHY WE FIGHT launches a bipartisan inquiry into the workings of the military industrial complex and the rise of the American Empire. Inspired by Dwight Eisenhower's legendary farewell speech (in which he coined the phrase "military industrial complex"), filmmaker Jarecki (THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER) surveys the scorched landscape of a half-century's military adventures, asking how -- and telling why -- a nation of, by, and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a system whose survival depends on a state of constant war. The film moves beyond the headlines of various American military operations to the deeper questions of why -- why does America fight? What are the forces -- political, economic, ideological -- that drive us to fight against an ever-changing enemy?
"Frank Capra made a series of films during World War II called WHY WE FIGHT that explored America's reasons for entering the war," Jarecki notes. "Today, with our troops engaged in Iraq and elsewhere for reasons far less clear, I think it's crucial to ask the questions: 'Why are we doing what we are doing? What is it doing to others? And what is it doing to us?'"..." "...Main Characters Wilton Sekzer -- Officer, NYPD Fuji & Tooms -- Stealth Fighter Pilots, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski -- Officer, Pentagon Middle East Desk William Solomon -- New Recruit, U.S. Army Anh Duong -- Explosives Expert, Indianhead Naval Center Others (in order of appearance) Sen. John McCain (R/AZ) Chalmers Johnson, CIA 1967-1973 Joseph Cirincione, Carnegie Endowment for Peace Gore Vidal, Author Charles Lewis,Center for Public Integrity Richard Perle, Pentagon Advisor William Kristol, Editor, The Weekly Standard Col. Richard Treadway, Commander Stealth Fighter Squadron James Roche, Secretary of the Air Force John S.D. Eisenhower, Son of Dwight Eisenhower Susan Eisenhower, Granddaughter of Dwight Eisenhower Gwynne Dyer, Military Historian Donna Ellington, President, Raytheon Missile Systems Col. Wally Saeger, U.S. Air Force Munitions Directorate Franklin Spinney, Pentagon Systems Analyst (ret.) Dan Rather, CBS News..."

The End of America:

This film details the ten steps a country takes when it slides toward Fascism. It takes a historical look at trends in once-functioning democracies that are being repeated in our country today. Published on May 12, 2012 The End of America details the ten steps a country takes when it slides toward fascism. It's not a "lefty"tot tome, rather a historical look at trends in once-functioning democracies from modern history.

WAR MADE EASY

This documentary reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq. Published on Jun 16, 2012 Support these moviemakers: https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=700255 Documentary Canada, 2007 Directed by: Loretta Alper, Jeremy Earp

War Made Easy cuts through the dense web of spin to probe and scrutinize the key "perception management" techniques that have played huge roles in the promotion of American wars in recent decades. This guide to disinformation analyzes American military adventures past and present to reveal striking similarities in the efforts of various administrations to justify, and retain, public support for war. War Made Easy is essential reading. It documents a long series of deliberate misdeeds at the highest levels of power and lays out important guidelines to help readers distinguish a propaganda campaign from actual news reporting. With War Made Easy, every reader can become a savvy media critic and, perhaps, help the nation avoid costly and unnecessary wars. Source: http://www.warmadeeasythemovie.org/

TerrorStorm:

Learn about historical examples of western governments covertly attacking their own civilians for political motives. Do the bombings of New York and London have any similarities to these events and why would leaders have a motive to terrorize their own civilians? TerrorStorm delivers a powerful sucker punch to the architects of global terrorism and how they stage false-flag events to achieve political and sociological ends. Alex journeys from the depths of history from the Gulf of Tonkin, the USS Liberty and Gladio through to the Madrid and 7/7 London bombings and robustly catalogues the real story behind the government induced fable. This film contains viable solutions on how we can reclaim human dignity and freedom and prevent the global population from becoming the slaves of a prison planet. "A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny." http://drey.orgfree.com/Political - Visit the Ocular Stream's political section, for dozens of hard-hitting documentaries and films, all packed with physical evidence and sworn testimony.

America: Freedom to Fascism:

This film exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America. Through interviews Russo connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, and the national identity card which becomes law in May 2008. Uploaded on Nov 15, 2011 Purchase full quality Director's cut DVD here:
http://freedomtofascism.com Rate film here -

The true enemies of liberty and all modern societies and people are the central bank counterfeiters. The largest counterfeiter in the history of the world consists of the Federal Reserve banking scheme, which counterfeits American dollars through fiat currency and fractional reserve banking.

America Freedom to Fascism exposes the fraud and deceit of the Federal Reserve Banks (Fed), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the 16th Amendment, the income tax, the Federal Reserve System, national ID cards (REAL ID Act), human-implanted RFID tags (Spychips), Diebold electronic voting machines, New World Order (globalization), Big Brother, taser weapons abuse, and the use of terrorism by government as a means to diminish the citizens' rights.

The Federal Reserve System is a privately held, for profit corporation, and not a government agency. It was created by bankers for bankers as a lender of last resort, so that whenever a banker ran his businesses poorly he could be bailed out at the expense of the public. The Fed does not have any reserves, it simply creates fiat money out of nothing and lends it out at interest to businesses and the federal government. The American people are then forced to pay for the bailouts to government and businesses through inflation and personal income taxes on their labor. The currency the Fed creates out of thin air and loans out to the government at interest is called Federal Reserve Notes - look at the top of what you may think are your Dollars and you will see they are actually Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs). FRNs are backed by nothing. US Dollars are required by law to be backed by gold and silver, but US Dollars are no longer in circulation. The only real US Dollars still somewhat in circulation are US Silver Eagles and Gold Eagle coins, but they have become so valuable due to the Fed's inflation and destruction of the FRN currency, that it takes thousands of FRNs just to buy a single US $50 gold coin, and dozens of FRNs to buy a single US $1 Dollar silver coin.

The Federal Reserve System operates through manipulation of interest rates, which results in expanding and retracting bubbles of inflation, referred to as business cycles. When the Fed inflates the currency, it is effectively a hidden tax on existing currency, because the value of the newly created currency is stolen from the value of existing currency. This is reflected in continually rising prices, even though advances in technology and manufacturing processes should result in lower prices and a higher standard of living for everyone. Since the creation of the Fed in 1913, it has debased 99% of the value of the Dollar. In other words, it now takes $100 FRNs to buy what just $1 US Dollar would buy in 1913, as a result of inflation due to the Fed counterfeiting so much currency. If you had saved $100 in 1913, it would now only buy as much as a single 1913 Dollar would have bought at that time. The other $99 of value would have been stolen through counterfeiting (cheaply duplicating money out of nothing) over the years, resulting in the vale of the $100 being taxed through inflation, behind your back.

The film explains how monetary policy is the most powerful form of control over people that has ever existed, and is central to the unconstitutional, global New World Order ambitions of those that own and benefit from the Fed. The founder of the Rothschild family international banking dynasty, which became the most successful business family in history, Mayer Amschel Rothschild once declared, "Give me control of a nation's money, and I care not who makes the laws."

 Most Americans are kept ignorant of how the Federal Reserve operates through actions of corrupt politicians and an increasingly centralized media. Using terms like, 'quantitative easing,' 'monetizing the debt,' or 'adjusting monetary policy for increased fluidity of credit,' the Fed conceals it's true actions behind veils of legitimacy.

The U.S. Congress has the duty and responsibility of coining and maintaining the value of our dollar and money, yet Congress is being negligent in overseeing the Fed, as many politicians depend upon large campaign contributions from the Federal Reserve system bankers. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama's #1 campaign contributor was Goldman Sachs, among many other banks involved in the fraudulent Federal Reserve counterfeiting system. What is particularly important to note is that Republican John McCain's top contributors were the same as Barack Obama's.

The Future of Food:
 The Future of Food from picklock on Vimeo.
This film draws questions to critical attention about food production that need more public debate. Monsanto, Roundup and Roundup-resistant seeds, collectively wreaking havoc on American farmers and our agricultural neighbors around the world. There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America — a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat. The Future of Food offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade. From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply. Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, The Future of Food examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world’s food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.

Century of the Self:  

This film tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests? Published on Nov 29, 2012

The Century of the Self is an award-winning British television documentary series by Adam Curtis. It focuses on how the work of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, and Edward Bernays influenced the way corporations and governments have analyzed,‭ dealt with, and controlled ‬people. "This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy." —Adam Curtis' introduction to the first episode.

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings. His influence on the twentieth century is generally considered profound. The series describes the propaganda that Western governments and corporations have utilized stemming from Freud's theories.

Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in public relations, are discussed. Freud's daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as is one of the main opponents of Freud's theories, Wilhelm Reich, in the third part. Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy, commodification and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitudes to fashion and superficiality.

The business and political world uses psychological techniques to read, create and fulfill our desires, to make their products or speeches as pleasing as possible to us. Curtis raises the question of the intentions and roots of this fact. Where once the political process was about engaging people's rational, conscious minds, as well as facilitating their needs as a society, the documentary shows how by employing the tactics of psychoanalysis, politicians appeal to irrational, primitive impulses that have little apparent bearing on issues outside of the narrow self-interest of a consumer population.

Paul Mazur, a Wall Street banker working for Lehman Brothers in the 1930s, is cited as declaring "We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs".
Episodes:
1. Happiness Machines (17 March 2002)
2. The Engineering of Consent (24 March 2002)
3. There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads: He Must Be Destroyed (31 March 2002)
4. Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering (7 April 2002)

In Episode 4 the main subjects are Philip Gould and Matthew Freud, the great grandson of Sigmund, a PR consultant. They were part of the efforts during the nineties to bring the Democrats in the US and New Labour in the United Kingdom back into power. Adam Curtis explores the psychological methods they have now massively introduced into politics. He also argues that the eventual outcome strongly resembles Edward Bernays vision for the "Democracity" during the 1939 New York World's Fair. It is widely believed that the series was inspired and informed by a book written by the American historian, Stuart Ewen, "PR! A Social History of Spin".

The Corporation:  

The documentary attempts to assess the "personality" of the corporate "person" by using diagnostic criteria from FBI consultants, compares the modern, profit-driven corporation to that of a clinically diagnosed psychopath. Published on Jul 21, 2012

THE CORPORATION is a Canadian documentary film written by Joel Bakan, and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. The documentary examines the modern-day corporation, considering its legal status as a class of person and evaluating its behavior towards society and the world at large as a psychiatrist might evaluate an ordinary person. This is explored through specific examples. Bakan wrote the book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, during the filming of the documentary.

If you like this film, please share it with your friends and support the makers by purchasing a full quality DVD at either of the two links below: http://www.hellocoolworldstore.com/home.php?cat=281. http://www.amazon.com/The-Corporation-Milton-Friedman/dp/B0007DBJM8.
Official Website: http://www.thecorporation.com

Celebrities, the Modern Day Gods

Humanity in the modern age, treat celebrities like their predecessors of the old days treated their gods. It seems that human beings have to have something to idolize, look up to, admire, wish to be like or live their lives for.

 Celebrities are the new age obsession of modern man, who once built altars and brought offerings to their gods, the modern day devotee (fan) now does the same, purchasing their pictures, videos, music in a frenzied state of wanting to be next to them, if only through a conduit.

The Modern day Priest is the peddler of these New Age Celebrities Gods. They pose as media moguls, press agents, producers and distributors of the mania that consumes the fans. These modern day idolaters scream, dance, sweat and cry over the "gods" they chose and keep their gods amply supplied with all the modern conveniences, and sometimes so modern, their "gods" can live in full furnished multimillion dollar homes.

Like any religion, the worshippers keep the Gods and their Mediators in power as the devotee depletes his resources just for one more favor or act of kindness towards them. These acts of kindness maybe inclusive of but not exclusive of, autographs, pictures, handshakes, special tokens and VIP seating at a gala affair.

When the devotee sees, reads or experiences the lives of their gods, they are energized living through their imagine world, or lack there of. They are excited by the challenges, the scandals, the lies, the deceit that shrouds their gods, because in order for their god to exist in the world of Celebrities they must face these and many other obstacles of success and/or failure. The Modern day devotee(fan) takes the life of the Celebrity in full scale of it's own life, moving and progressing along as the God would demand of them. Dare they fall in the disfavor of their Gods or other devotees find them trifling.

Some devotees become so obsessed they will kill for their god, or kill their god itself, destroying its life, history and perchance its effect on any other devotee other than they.

Perhaps this is a displace madness, an obsession generated by the total lack of self ownership and self power. Perhaps the Celebrities while only temporary give the devotee the moment in time where they can feel overwhelmingly powerful and completely divorced from their miserable lives or completely disconnected from the miserable lives their very Gods live.

It is part of the social construct. Children see parents as gods, infallible and invincible, and as adults this lifelike onus is given to the Celebrity of their own choosing. In the realm of Celebrity worship, there are no boundaries as anything that would prove disconcerting to another can be hidden in the privacy of the devotees home, away from the scrutiny of any onlooker.

Devotees can get into fierce verbal battles with other devotees of other Gods, and like the Gladiators of old, can fight to the teeth about their particular god and its "well deserved" greatness and power.

Like any usurpation of power handed over freely or forcefully taken, the taker is as much a victim as the giver. The co-dependency of this relationship between the Devotee and the God, keep them inexorably bound to each other creating a life long dance of fierce passion and need to give the each other validation. The concert hall, theater, stadium or fan club is the Church of the Celebrities. The devotees attend these churches religiously and participate in the ritual celebration of their Gods.

The question to me becomes, what is missing from the human psyche that such props are needed? How has humanity come to this? And what is missing inside of the human being that this type of attribution of power is needed to be given to an "Idol" or object of their devotion. How is it that the social construct supports and promotes this type of mania?

Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith divorce: Lawyer Laura Wasser reportedly retained by Jada

by theGrio | January 9, 2012 at 6:06 PM

From Huffington Post: Despite denying divorce rumors back in August, it appears that Will and Jada Pinkett Smith may be finally going their separate ways — at least according to In Touch Weekly.
The magazine is reporting that Jada Smith recently met with celebrity divorce lawyer Laura Wasser, who has represented the likes of Britney Spears, Maria Shriver, and Kim Kardashian.
A source tells In Touch that Smith has “finally begun to take steps to dissolve their marriage,” even reportedly turning down a role in Keanu Reeves directorial debut to spend time with her kids during this “difficult time.”

Read More Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/04/will-smith-jada-pinkett-s_n_1183990.html?ref=black-voices&ir=Black%20Voices

Newtown school shooting story already being changed

Newtown school shooting story already being changed by the media to eliminate eyewitness reports of a second shooter

 

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) The national media is ablaze today with coverage of the tragic elementary school shooting in Newtown, CT, where 27 people have reportedly been killed, including 18 children.

As always, when violent shootings take place, honest journalists are forced to ask the question: "Does this fit the pattern of other staged shootings?"

One of the most important red flags of a staged shooting is a second gunman, indicating the shooting was coordinated and planned. There are often mind control elements at work in many of these shootings. The Aurora "Batman" shooter James Holmes, for example, was a graduate student actually working on mind control technologies funded by the U.S. government. There were also chemical mind control elements linked to Jared Lee Loughner, the shooter of Congresswomen Giffords in Arizona in 2011.

According to multiple eyewitness reports from Aurora, Colorado, including at least one caught on camera by mainstream media news reports in Colorado, James Holmes did not operate alone. There was a second shooter involved. But the media quickly eliminated any mention of a second shooter from its coverage, resorting to the typical cover story of a "lone gunman."

Today, the exact same thing is happening with the Newton, CT school shooting.

Eyewitness reports of a second shooter now being "scrubbed" from the news

As the story of this shooting was first breaking, the news was reporting a second gunman.

FoxNews reported that this second gunman was "led out of the woods by officers" and then questioned. The original source of this report was the Connecticut Post.

A local CBS affiliate was also reporting the existence of a second gunman and said "Police believe there may be a second gunman and are looking for a red or maroon van with its back window blown out..."

ABC News also originally reported, "A second gunman is apparently at large. Car-to-car searches are underway."

A local CT CBS affiliate was also reporting, "CBS News reports that a potential second shooter is in custody and that SWAT is now investigating the home of the suspect. A witness tells WFSB-TV that a second man was taken out of the woods in handcuffs wearing a black jacket and camouflage pants and telling parents on the scene, 'I did not do it.'"

But the more recent stories being put out by the media are scrubbing any mention of a second gunman and going with the "lone gunman" explanation, which holds about as much water as the "lone gunman" explanation of the JFK assassination.

"A lone gunman killed 27 people at an elementary school here, including 18 children, in a terrifying early Friday morning shooting spree," reports USA Today. It makes no mention whatsoever of a second gunman.

NBC News is also now chiming in with the "lone gunman" version of the story, eliminating any mention of a second gunman from its coverage of the tragic event.

Another story authored by NBC News carries the title, "26 dead after lone gunman assaults Connecticut elementary school." Once again, no mention of a second gunman as reported by eyewitnesses.

When key elements of the story keeps changing, something is fishy

Journalists are trained to ask questions, and one of the questions I have right now is: Why was the second gunman suddenly dropped from media coverage after the first few hours of this story developing?

And why is there always a second gunman in these recent mass shootings that seem to be engineered to maximize emotional shock value due to the sheer horror of all the innocent deaths?

This story is continuing to develop, and we'll keep asking questions here on Natural News. Our hearts and prayers go out to the children and families impacted by this violent tragedy. Given the terrible loss of life that has taken place here, shouldn't we all seek to get to the bottom of WHY these shootings all seem to fit a common pattern of multiple mind-controlled shooters followed by an almost immediate media cover-up of the facts?

For the sake of those children who were killed today, I want to get to the bottom of this and expose the REAL story, for the purpose of stopping this violence from targeting yet more innocents in the future.

naturalnews.com

Original Article here:

 http://www.naturalnews.com/038352_school_shooting_lone_gunman_media_cover-up.html 

Originally published December 14 2012